Negative!

Covid Saliva Test

 As stated last week having 2 close friends pass from Covid is unnerving.  Certainly one needs to take a deep breathe and understand that this is not normal but it is real.  With last weeks revelation that 2 of the 6 people fishing on Red last week testing positive, it starts screwing with your head.  You begin searching for any clues that might indicate any issues.  Yep, I was real fatigued, I had a scratchy throat,  and started to get worried.  Using MyChart a quick message to my doctor was not very conclusive.  My primary care doctor is fabulous yet they are under a number restrictions and only like to deal with real issues, not fears.  Plan B was to get a free test available to anyone in Minnesota, unfortunately administrated by a company called Vault Health, I won't go into that but was unsuccessful in securing a free test.  Plan C was to go to Anoka and get a free test that was set up at the Anoka Amory.  Actually that went pretty well as they use the test pictured above.  After having to set up an account with Vault, which was already done, the log in process didn't go well but the National Guard soldier that helped me was incredible.  Whatever was done in the past probably screwed up my Plan B, this guy basically bypassed all of the BS and got me registered.  You scan the bar code on the small container then fill it with spit up to the line.  It felt like it was a quart but eventually it got to the line.  You take off the funnel and screw on the blue liquid top, it punctures the seal and deposits the liquid in the container then seals it.  The whole process took 15 minutes including any wait.  The last process was to give the sample to a Vault nurse.......she got my opinion of Vault only after I dropped the sample into the large bin.  It is obvious that there is a lot of money involved in this process.  Either way about 24 hours later the email informing that the test proved negative arrived.  I am fully vaccinated with a booster however not sure that is enough anymore.  Thankfully whatever my makeup is I seldom get sick enough to put me down so maybe we'll get through this.  On Saturday it was Matt's funeral, it was nice that they had a live feed from his church.  It really felt like I was there as listening to Matt's uncle explaining the Davis family, it did bring an acceptable closure to the loss of my friend.

New Minnkota MK460PCL (L for Lithium)

During our Leech Lake trip in October there was something weird going on with the new Ionic trolling motor batteries in the Ranger.  The batteries have a Bluetooth interface and although they were plugged in and charged each night, one battery did not seem to charge.  After getting home and looking at the charger, the bank associated with the uncharged battery was blinking intermittently.   Switching banks with another one, it charged normally overnight.  The bad bank still blinked funny.  Trying to find the blink codes the manual really didn't explain it however it state that in the event of an electrical storm it is advised to tilt the motor out of the water and unplug the charger.   On Friday night we had quite a thunderstorm with lightning very close to the cabin.  Well, lesson learned!  The now one bank down charger was not set up for Lithium however if you use the AGM charge setting, it will work just fine for charging these new batteries.  Having to replace it searching online brought some interesting results.  First no one had the new model in stock.  Second the pricing was confusing as on the Minnkota site the price was $549 yet on the mk.factoryoutletstore.com site it was only $419.  Doing some research didn't indicate any issues so it was ordered knowing it would take a couple of months to get it.  The charger arrived this week and after careful inspection, it is a genuine Minnkota product.  It's too cold out to install and as well the lithium's are discharged to their ideal storage state of charge, between 60 and 80% state of charge.  Oh well, just another thing on the list.  In the meantime if anyone needs a 3 bank, 15A onboard charger, I have one to donate.