Mattes's Musings by KC2GIK

          The drones flying over Northern NJ reminds everyone about the Chinese spy balloons that flew over the country during the Trump and Biden administrations. Americans already had enough of the Chinese government after the entire Corona virus debacle. We're still waiting for the WHO to stop covering for China and admit the virus started in a C hinese lab. Then the spy ballons started. It was later revealed the Chinese were flying spy ballons sooner than the government admitted. Of course the Democrats were quick to point out that the spy ballons started under President Trump. Given the relationship between the federal government and the former president I wouldn't be surprised if President Trump wasn't given the complete picture on purpose. The conspiracy theories spread and soon after came the finger pointing. Everybody under the sun promised investigations into the ballons, but like most government investigations it disappeared from the news cycle...

This is a teaser entry for a few feature enteries upcoming for my 25th year as a amateur radio operator. Starting the first week in January I will look back on a quarter century on the air!!!!!   Made it into the final County RACES net of the year(They never do a net i n December)..........I love my position. Notice I didn't say ":authority", I said "position". Meaning I know where I stand in the City of Cape May. I was a radio officer in my old town of Woodcliff Lake, I was at the time the only active ham in town. When I moved to Cape May I joined the local ham radio club and when I mentioned I was a member of RACES in Woodcliff Lake. The head of the County RACES said "Thank you now we don't need to send a member down to Cape May every month". I sheepishly said, "I'm it?" In which he replied "You're it and if anyone give you trouble tell them to come to me." I have been the City of Cape May's RACES Officer every...

The day after  the 2008 election I wrote an entry entitled " The White House Meeting " where I imagined the contrast between the meeting between outgoing President Bush and incoming President  Obama and the meeting between the outgoing Vice President  Dick Cheney and the incoming President Joe Biden. Frankly it was a tounge and cheek  piece where while Bush and Obama seemed to be at peace, Cheneyy and Biden seemed to be on the verge of coming to blows. Then after Obama'a two terms as  president, he reluctantly welcomed Donald Trump. Then we all what happened over the course of those four years, fake investigations, the trials and all kinds of othe  r

I first want to congratulate President-elect Trump for recapturing the Oval Office. From announcing his campaign again to almost getting assassinated on July 13th to his victory last n ight, it's sure been a wild ride! It has been said he hasn't stopped running since losing to Joe Biden in 2020. I would also likle  to congratulate VP Harris for running a good campaign however it fell short. A few observations \ the day after the election.  I find the most interesting, the race in a little county in Texas called Starr County, a county that has a heavy Hispanic population, and hasn't voted for a Republican since 1896, that's 132 years!! It's remarkable because all the Democrats ever talk about is Trump's racism . However Starr County is right on the Mexican border and has definitely seen its share of crime coming across the southern border. T he Democrats again said Trump's border policies were racist and by endorsing Trump you're endorsing racism. That th...

I'm slowly putting more of my book on  m y blog. Some of this stuff  is over twenty years old  but I need to preserve stuff on myt blog since my old website went down. Th ese are original  without any editing, which might not win me a Pulitzer, but it  is a good way to back up my book while expanding the blog! March 27, 1997 River of Dreams (B. Joel) This reminds me of the days at the Woodcliff School, the worst school on earth. My “river” was widest during seventh grade because I was in a class  with guys who didn't treat me as an equal. They pretended to walk and talk the way I did and said I was some kind of an experiment that went wrong. Then outside the room there was this one kid who waqs worse than anyone in tha room!! One day we were in the library amd he wrote a note saying “Jay will never have sex”> He knew I liked a gi rl very much and he used my disability to scare her away. One time Andrew told her if she and I were to ever make lo...

Trying to start to   writing regularly on the blog  again. I have been working on other stuff like adding links and uploading more poetry, but no real enteries so I decide to put up this license pla ete meet report. Really interesting story  on how  I go t to the meet itself. Dad was planning on helping Pete work on his house. He said he wasn't going to drive back to New Jersey  all weekend. Luckily my friend John Willard lived near Pete's house and I got him to pick me up. Below is  the meet report I submitted to the ALPCA Magazine On a crisp October day 50 ALPCA members and 16 guests assembled at the Pennington Fire Company in Pennington, NJ for the 15th Annual Garden State Region Meet. People arrived before the 8 AM and were greeted with coffee bagels and doughnuts. Trading was very active as members showed off their latest finds from the car show and flea market out in Hershey, PA just a few days prior. This was the first year we gave awards out fo...

 Another couple of posts from the Billy Joel:Completely Retold  Facebook Page that made it onto this blolg./ Billy Joel  has been a majoor influence on my writing since  high schoo.   I have been on this page for years and have held my tongue, but now that I know I will never Billy Joel at the Garden, I feel I need to vent/II have a physical disability and been a fan for most of my life. I COULDN'T GO TO SHOWS Billy Joel is a New York Guy so I'm going to use NY LANGAUGE AYONE who complains about the last show isn't a "fan", they're are an asshole. The more shows you seen the bigger ASSHOLE.. This ISN'T ABLE "BEING A FAN BUT COMPLAINING ABOUT THE LAST SAHOW IS TASTLESS. He done this for ten years. He's put on 150 shows., So good, some just OK. It's definitely not what fans like ME WANT TO READ. Ok he's been off a few times and people have given honest concert going experiences but people people TRULY should have held their tongues this ti...

  I usually don't write about 9/11 but let me explain why I honor Robert D. Cirri SR every year. His callsign was KA2OTD and was a Port Authority Police Officer and Paramedic. We only knew each other only over the radio, never met in person, but I knew his voice. I would listen to him talk for his job and for enjoyment. I talked to him and like everyone else I talk to he was extre,mely patient with me. 9/11 disrupted a lot of communications, not ham radio. I remember being told to just listen, that's what I did for days, never picked up the microphone. Four days later I heard a ham radio operator driving all night from North Carolina looking to assist in New York. He was on the wrong repeater and I decide to get on the right repeater to get him some help. Well I was scolded. So I gave the ham from North Carolina the frequency, he programmed it in. When he got on the repeater HE said I HELPED HIM WHEN NO ELSE WOULD. I heard the entire thing and just went on listening. This...

 Well  the Middle Thorofare Bridge connecting Wildwood and Lower  Township malfunctioned and  is stuck in the open position...  . It's one of a bout  a half a dozen bridges throughout lower Cape May County that people  I  never knew the name bridge but like thousands of other people I have travelled the bridge on my way to Wildwood, especially during the Firefighters convention in September. Now looks like I'm taking the long way home!!    According to reports there's a part hat  needs  to be replaced but since the bridge is so old, the part is very  hard to come by. There is even talk about having to manufacture the part from scratch or even taking i t for a bridge that isn't in use any more. I have my doubts about the last option because thar will leave another bridge disabled. However what ev The bridge closure isn't just a hassle for people commuting between Wildwood and Lower Township, it poses  a public saf...

Over nine hours, 634 miles and  twenty five counties between Pete and Sue's house in Chadds Ford, PA and Lansing, MI! I got to the hotel. We did an overnight in Detroit on the way out and saw a Tigers game Delaware  CO, PA Chester CO,PA  Bucks CO,PA Dauphin CO,PA Bradford CO,PA  Fulton CO,PA Somerset Co.,PA Fayette CO,,PA Westmoreland CO PA Lawrence CO PA Mahoney CO, OH at 14:56  Manhong CO OH Portage CO OH  Trumbull CO OH Summit CO OH Cuyanuga CO OH Loraine CO OH Erie CO OH Sadusky CO OH Wood CO OH Lucas CO OH Wayne CO MI around 4PM 6/25/24 Oakland CO MI Livingston CO MI Igham CO,MI

 Well the beaches of Cape May have a welcomed addition, accessible beach mats! These make it easier for people in wheelchairs and other mobile devices to navigate down to the beaach and enjoy the ocean air. I had to try it myself before the official grand opening the Friday before Memorial Day Weekend.  At first I was a bit nervous but I soon got over the doubt and have made a few laps. The best thing is going on the beach mats provides a differemt perspective of Beach Avenue when I'm on the scooter.l Mayor Zack Mullock pushed the  beach mats on Facebook and a woman, Barbara Maurer ressponded saying her son Sean, who has Cerebral Palsy like me would be able to to enjoy bn eing closer to the water.  It's a new sense of freedom of people with mobility problems like Sean and myself. The four of us were interview by the Philadelphia CBS  news station. While I understood that due to my speech  giving long answers would be difficult I was impressed that  CBS...

       For a few months there has buzz around Cape May NJ that Bob Dylan was coming to America's Oldest Seaside Resort. No he wasn't playing a concert at Convention Hall. For most of this weeks parts of 2024 Cape May,NJ was transformed into 1965 Newport, RI. A Complete Unknown is a new film about Dylan's conversion from acoustic  to electric guitar starring Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan is in production and the location scouting team decided that  Cape May today looked like Newport back in '65. Bob Dylan debuted  his hit song Like a Rolling Stone   at t he Newport Folk Festival. They even transformed Perry Street  into Belevedere Avenue. Shops along the Washington Mall were temporarily renamed to match shops up in Newport.  The Victorian Motel was baptized then Viking Motel for the film  Days prior I started seeing filming equipment  being transported into town.       Like most o f the town I was hopi...

In honor of Billy Joel's 75th  Birthday I decided top do a Facebook tribit   This will only make sense to a couple of my friends. I don't care. Picture this a scene certain young musical writer from NYC who is riding high on a recent success feels he needs to escape for the weekend. He has never been to the Jersey Shore and decides to take a drive to for the weekend. He arrives at his hotel in Cape May County , checks in for the evening, picks up the local rag and sees a Billy Joel Cover Band is playing in North Wildwood, the writer scoffs but his girlfriend reminds him he was once a struggling writer and he needs to "pay it forward". They go to the bar and he is so blown away by the performance he goes "Back stage" to meet the singer. The writer and the singer hit it off and go to the bar to continue the conversation. After a few drinks and covering all topics possible the singer decides the time is right to get serious and mentions he knows a local wr...