Ash Wednesday.  I can't believe lent has begun already.  I'm not ready mentally.  It is a great time of reflection and to find discipline in my faith.  A time to contemplate God and my relationship to him.  It is also when we eat more fish.  I love going to White Castle for fish sliders on Ash Wed.  As Mass was beginning I asked my friends if they would go with me.  By the end of mass they agreed and we went.  I think it might have been colder in there than it was outside.  Outside it's 45 degrees.  The wind is very strong and overcast skies.  Anyway, I saw a sign for the "NEW" Crab Cake Sliders or as we called them Crabby Patties.  We all loved them!  

I got home about 8:30 and got the shack warming up and also the SW40+.  Somehow with the storms last night and who knows what else going on outside, a skunk seems to have sprayed the house.  It is BAD!!!  Tonight the smell has fallen into the basement and into the shack. It STINKS down there.  It stinks everywhere it seems.  I guess it will have to wear off but boy it is challenging to sit in the shack being permeated by skunk stink.
The bands stink is as bad as the smell!!  I saw KB9BVN kept his daily streak alive and I sure hoped I would as well.  AND.... of course I did.  It didn't take too long to catch a SKCC guy.  K4KBL, Jerry in GA.  SKCC number 11722T and my RST 559.  Not only a QSO but a new state.  That makes 13.  I didn't want to quit just yet so I tuned up and down the band.  Up and down.... up and.... finally on 7.059 I heard a weak station calling CQ.  Now, I don't always think a weak station is going to hear me.  At 1.5 watts if I can barely hear them how on earth will they hear me?  I am discovering now that these weak stations are fellow QRPers at times and they appreciate a call.  So... I called.  AD4XX de W9ILF.  Jim from Red Springs, NC was running 5 watts.  I gave a 559 and received 329!  329 and Jim dug me out of the dirt.  He asked me to repeat his RST and then I hear "R" so I repeated my name.  I got QSL but QRM and QRN just obliterated him and I am sure me but then I heard "72" and we both signed.  What a QSO!  They don't all have to be 599 arm chair QSO's to be meaningful.