Saturday, April 04, 2015

March 2015




Saturday 07- 80/49 degrees Tucson.
I arrived back to Tucson around 8:30am and Kevin my brother was waiting there in the parking lot to take me back to the trailer park, but first I had him take me to Carl’s Jr. for a big burger because I’ve only been eating those power bars except when I bought some crackers on the trip back from Tampa. We got back and I sat in the Jacuzzi for a long spell to soak off them buses off of me.


Sunday 08- 81/50
My day of rest after my ordeal on the buses.


Monday 09- 79/55 degrees
I did my stretches and Kevin and I took Cassie out for a mile walk.
We went shopping to get some supplies.
Took Cassie for her evening walk.


Tuesday 10- 80/52 degrees
I did my stretches, yoga, walked a mile with Cassie and my brother, lifted weights, swam five laps in the pool and rode my bike around the trailer park two times; I could have rode farther except my butt still hurt from being on a bus for four days straight.


Wednesday 11- 81/58
I did my stretches, yoga, Kevin and I walked Cassie 2 miles down to the bridge and back.
We went in my car and filled it up with gas for my trip home and then stopped off at WalMart to pick up a few things.
Me and my Brother took Cassie for a mile evening walk.


Thursday 12- cloudy all day, 79/59 degrees
I did my stretches and me and my brother Kevin took Cassie for a mile walk.
I did some driver updates on my Sony laptop.
We took Cassie for a walk down in the wash and saw a few little cottontails rabbits hopping around that Cassie wanted to chase, but I held her back. Paula said that Cassie caught and ate a lizard while she was staying with her while I went to Florida.


Friday 13- 81/57 degrees Tucson.
I did my stretches and we took Cassie for a mile walk before we went to soak in the Jacuzzi.


Saturday 14- 83/59 degrees Joshua Tree.
I got up at 3:30am and put the rest of what I was takin back to home into the car. I walked Cassie over to my brother Kevin’s trailer to tell him goodbye and had an uneventful 7 hour trip back to Joshua Tree.
Spent a few hours putting stuff away and watering my plants in the patio and laid down for a spell.
Found a dove’s nest with two babies in it on a shelf right by my front door. I have to be careful now not to upset them and keep a curious Cassie away from them.
I got back up to do a few more chores before I went to bed for an early sleep.


Sunday 15- 85/59 degrees with some clouds.
Cassie woke me at 3am; she had wet the bed... Bummer! I let her outside and replaced the bedding and put the wet ones outside. I was still too tired to deal with doing anything more. I didn’t get mad at her but will have her sleep on the floor or in her kennel for a few days until she cons her way back on my bed. Besides it’s only the third time this has happened and it was a long trip back home.
The parents of the baby doves were gone so I did my stretches, core trainer, lifted weights, punched at the heavy bag, and took Cassie for a mile run.
I was going to spray down the wet blankets and let them dry out but decided that I may as well just put them in the swimming pool and let them soak in there while I replace the water that has already evaporated away. I will fish them out tomorrow to dry.
I called Family and Friends to let them know I am back home. Then I went to work on a Dell desktop running Windows XP that Kula gave me and another Dell Laptop I recently bought that I am experimenting with Windows 10 on.
I took Cassie for her evening walk.


Monday16- 86/58 degrees with light scattering of clouds.
Baby dove parents were on the nest so I just did my stretches and took Cassie for a walk.
Fished all the blankets out of the pool and set them out to dry. Then I started using the vacuum apparatus hooked up to the pool pump to clean out the residue that had gathered on the pool’s bottom; dirt from high winds, bug parts... stuff like that. Had to clean out the filter many times and I still have some more cleaning to do once all the suspended filth from my vacuuming settles to the bottom again.  


Tuesday 17- 80/66
I did my stretches.
Cassie and I went to get my mail that Sherry has been picking up for me while I’ve been gone for a month. Cassie got to play with Sherry’s dogs Abby and Barney and I know she would be tired when we got back home, hence the no walk for her in the morning today.


Wednesday 18- 77/68 degrees.
Baby dove parents were on the nest so I just did my stretches and took Cassie for a walk.
I dropped by at Kelly’s to say hi and we bought some fried chicken at Staters and then went to Burger King for fries and cokes and ate the chicken there.


Thursday 19- 80/57-
Baby dove parents were on the nest so I just did my stretches and took Cassie for a mile run.
I worked cleaning the swimming pool vacuuming it out what had settled from the last vacuuming I did. Now I’ll have to wait until debris settles again to see if it needs cleaning again.
Took my scooter to bring Kelly some bird seeds for her dove that has a nest built but no eggs yet.
Cassie and I went for our evening walk.


Friday 20- 82/57 degrees.
I did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, lifted weights, punched the heavy bag, and went with Cassie for a mile run.
Collected all my tax info and made an appointment to see an tax accountant next Tuesday at 2pm.
I took Cassie for her evening and night walks.


Saturday 21- 86/57 nice sunny day.
I did my stretches and took Cassie for a walk.
There were three places I was supposed to be or was asked to attend today; all conflicting in time relative to each other that I could only go to one event. These weighed so heavily on my mind that I went into brain overload and attended none of them. I think I still need some downtime after my month of travels to Tucson and Florida.


Sunday 22-  79/56 cloudy and the wind has picked up mid-afternoon.
I did my stretches and took Cassie for a walk.


Monday 23- 79/57 degrees with lots of wind throughout the day.
I did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, lifted weights, and took Cassie for a mile walk.
I called the doctor’s office and was told he signed the jury summons. While I was there I went next door and made an appointment to see the dentist next week on Thursday. I mailed the summons at the post office, stopped to fill my car, picked up a few supplies at Stater Bros and two Big Fish sandwiches at Burger King to share with Kelly if she’s home. She was outside fixing her swamp cooler getting it ready for summer; she needed the break and was happy for the surprise lunch I brought.


Tuesday 24- 80/57
I did my stretches.
I went to Yucca Valley to get my taxes done and dropped Cassie off at Sherry’s house to play with Barney and Abby. It took about an hour for H&R Block to do my taxes; I usually do them myself but this time it was more complicated than I could handle. Afterwards I took Sherry out to dinner at Carl’s Jr. and then picked up Cassie and headed home.
On the dirt road to my house a couple were stranded in their car on the side of the road. I gave the guy a ride to their house down by Aberdeen and Border to get his truck and tow their car back home.
I noticed when I came home at night one of the baby birds had left the nest. It was very windy and cold so I decided to take the one baby left by itself into my house nest and all where it could be warm. I went looking for the other baby and heard it tweeting and looked all around on the ground but finally found it with one of its parents perched high overhead on a beam of the patio keeping it warm. In the morning I took the nest back outside, the baby climbed onto my offered finger and I put it back in the nest. Then I heard the other one tweeting at me from a railing of the patio and it also climbed on my finger and I placed it back onto the nest with its sibling.


Wednesday 25- 83/59
I did my stretches and took Cassie for all her walks today and then mostly kicked back for some much needed downtime.
I did vacuum the pool’s bottom again and it was still dirty after it all settled. I will get some shock treatment for the water next time I visit WalMart.


Thursday 26- 89/60
I got up early to go to a doctor’s appointment in Twentynine Palms. I then went to Star Pharmacy to get my pills. I went to WalMart to get supplies and have my hair cut.
I took Cassie for a nice walk when I got back home.


Friday 27- 91/62
I noticed that the baby doves have left the nest so that makes me an empty-nester now.
I did my stretches, yoga, lifted weights, and went for a mile walk with Cassie.
I had to fast during for twelve hours and went down again to Yucca Valley to get lab tests my doctor ordered. I went to the bank there to deposit some checks I received.

Our little community's Saturday Potluck...
'Our little community's Saturday Potluck <3'




Saturday 28- 92/61 degrees.
I did my stretches, yoga, lifted weights, and went for a mile run with Cassie.
Cooked up my special chili surprise casserole supremo for potluck today.
I overfilled the pool with water while I talked to my brother. I then used the excess water by the buckets full to water the plants.
I then went to potluck where there was some mighty good food and mighty fine folks to yammer with.


Sunday 29- 92/63 degrees.
I did my stretches and took Cassie for a mile walk.
I finally got the “Gross Polluter” (my truck) working and moved it out of the garage and parked it outside. Now I can park the Cougar underneath where it is nice and shady. I also moved the Harley there too so I’ll have more room to start working on it.
I put the pack of shock treatment into the pool and tomorrow I’ll clean the bottom again and take some PH samples of the water.


Monday 30- 90/63
I did my stretches, yoga, lifted weights, and went for a mile run with Cassie.
I did my laundry in the little washer and hung them out to dry. I cleaned the pool’s bottom again with the vacuum thingy.


Tuesday 31-
I did my stretches, yoga, lifted weights, and went for a mile run with Cassie.
I worked in the yard cleaning and also cleaning inside too.



***** Stuff I Wrote this Month******

There are no limits or boundaries to the creative mind... there are only boundless possibilities.
~RD


I for one didn't give the government, or anyone else for that matter, the right to make moral judgements on my behalf of what I can or can't do as long as I don't hurt anyone in doing so.
~RD

I like where I am living now hidden from brewing storms of societies' harm, but my roots extend everywhere, my branches are lofty thrusting out high above feeding off the brilliant sun to bear the weight of leaves and fruit which provides a blanket of warmth and a bit of shade for the Earth below.
~RD

You and only you create the person you are by the choices you make and the paths you follow.
~RD

Isn’t it all a wonder we as humans have evolved to stand in awe of the universe and have ventured out to visit and explore our own little part of it.
~RD
*******************

Remembering the baby Doves

I like where I am living now hidden from brewing storms of societies' harm, but my roots extend everywhere, my branches are lofty thrusting out high above feeding off the brilliant sun to bear the weight of leaves and fruit which provides a blanket of warmth and a bit of shade for the Earth below.
~RD


We just got back Home after being away for about a month. Cassie stayed in Tucson with Mark and Paula while I took Greyhound buses to Tampa Florida to see Friends there. It feels mighty good to be back home in good old Joshua Tree California!
'We just got back Home after being away for about a month. Cassie stayed in Tucson with   Mark and Paula while I took Greyhound buses to Tampa Florida to see Family there. It feels mighty good to be back home in good old Joshua Tree California!'



Seems when I am gone the Doves take over..
'Seems when I am gone the Doves take over <3'




The two baby doves are growing up fast.
'The two baby doves are growing up fast :)'




And getting bigger :)
'And getting bigger :)'




I saw them flapping their wings this morning. I will have Cassie in the kennel when outside and have her on a leash and supervised until baby doves gain their strength to fly away....
'I saw them flapping their wings this morning. I will have Cassie in the kennel when outside and have her on a leash and supervised until baby doves gain their strength to fly away....'




I noticed when I came home last night that one of the baby birds had left the nest. It was very windy and cold so I decided to take the one baby left by itself into my house, nest and all, where it could be warm. I went looking for the other baby and heard it tweeting and looked all around on the ground but finally found it with one of its parents perched high overhead on a beam of the patio keeping it warm. In the morning I took the nest back outside, the baby climbed onto my offered finger and I put it back in the nest. Then I heard the other one tweeting at me from a railing of the patio and it also climbed on my finger and I placed it back onto the nest with its sibling.
'I noticed when I came home last night that one of the baby birds had left the nest. It was very windy and cold so I decided to take the one baby left by itself into my house, nest and all, where it could be warm. I went looking for the other baby and heard it tweeting and looked all around on the ground but finally found it with one of its parents perched high overhead on a beam of the patio keeping it warm. In the morning I took the nest back outside, the baby climbed onto my offered finger and I put it back in the nest. Then I heard the other one tweeting at me from a railing of the patio and it also climbed on my finger and I placed it back onto the nest with its sibling.'



I am an empty-nester now...

'I am an empty-nester now :'('

The Bus ride to and from Tucson, Tampa Florida and then back to Tucson




The Bus ride to and from Tucson, Tampa Florida and then back to Tucson was an experience because of all the delays caused by the winter storm Thor and I was only able to catch catnaps here and there along the way. we were woken up in the middle of the night by some kinda federal police who came aboard carrying weapons and asking us what country we came from; everyone (even the folks who didn’t speak English) answered “The United Stats of America”. Interstate 10 was closed down on our way to Dallas and we were awoken again and put up at a hotel somewhere between here and there. After trampling through a quarter mile of snow and slush we arrived at the hotel; I don't know why the bus driver didn't park closer. It was two people to a room and that’s when I met “The Supreme Leader” who was to be my room mate. In our room he told me about how he was going to build his empire in Tucson and spread his kingdom throughout the world. He wanted me to be his political adviser and ambassador to the USA and probably the whole world for that matter, but all I wanted to do was go to sleep at the time. He kept persisting and asked me if I was married and had any kids- I said no. So now he wants to send me to Malaysia to get married to a couple of women and have lots of children; like I can see this really happening. Somehow I loss track of this empire builder when we got a call on our room phone saying our bus was leaving.
There were two buses now and we were told that the other bus would be leaving sooner than the one we were on and if anyone wanted they could switch and arrive at Dallas sooner. I decided to take advantage of this and was first in line to board the other bus, but then I noticed the driver having problems started the motor, so I left and boarded my original bus. The driver never did get that bus started and all the people on that bus had to board our bus now. There were too many and we were asked if there would be volunteers to stay behind; I wasn’t one of the eight who stayed behind.
We finally made it to Dallas or was it Huston, and stayed there for about ten hours or so. This is where I met “The Stranded Young Woman” who started out from some northern state, I think it was Nebraska, and gotten stranded in Utah because of the winter storm for a few weeks in a hotel paid by Greyhound. She was supposed to be home on January 27 and here it is already late into February, so I didn’t feel so bad about the delays and having to change my hotel reservations several times.
The rest of the trip to Tampa Florida was okay getting catnaps and listening to lectures on my iPod until we arrived at Tallahassee where we were treated very unkindly by the so called “Home Security” who made us empty all our luggage and then lineup on a yellow line which was in the way of the workers trying to load and service the bus we were to board; I and others got bummed several times by the workers.
Finally I arrived at Tampa for a visit with my sister Donna and her Family there:  her husband Roger (who was away on business), her son Mitch, Mitch's wife
Frances, their oldest daughter Sarah - she's 10, youngest daughter Laura - she's 7, and Frances' Mom Louise. I had a wonderful stay there and was fed some mighty fine Cuban cuisine for dinner cooked up by Louise.  

The Hotel:
My first room was near a stairwell where there was traffic all night. The room also smelled and I was looking for body chalk outlines on the rug. I asked and was moved to another room; the heater didn't work, the faucet handle came off in my hand, hardly any WIFI which kept going out anyways, TV had only 4 or 5 local stations, the door latch was just hanging by one screw..... it felt like this was a sinking ship and the crew was doing all they could to keep it afloat.
One of the hotel workers there told me the hotel was in the hood, but the new owner is trying to change it into a family hotel.
I had borrowed my sister’s expensive car and I felt nervous having it park there in the lot and would move it in front of my room when that spot became available. One night there was a lot of noise outside my room so I opened the door a bit to take a peek outside to see what the commotion was all about, only to see a "crack whore" who was out there soliciting looking back at me. I quickly shut the door and stayed inside my room and only looked out the curtains to check on my sister’s car the rest of the night.
I stayed there for five nights and because of the delays caused by the winter storm Thor, I was charged almost five-hundred dollars for the room caused I didn’t book it seven days in advance.
On Thursday my sister had a doctor’s appointment and I would have the day free, so my FaceBook buddy Bonnie Tilley-Khan came all the way over from where she lives Lithia, Florida to take me out to lunch at a steakhouse down the street. We chatted for a long spell and I signed her book I wrote for her. She gave me a care package that was most appreciated.
I continued to visit my Sister and her family until the finale day came when Mitch dropped me off at the Greyhound bus terminal and I was off again on another four days adventure because of the storm. When you have very long waits at bus station you usually find people you can trust to watch your stuff and you watch theirs while you use the restroom and such. I met some very nice people along the way back to Tucson; there was Connie a grandmother from somewheres in Texas; Chris, Dalton and a couple of host of others whom I trusted. There was the Clown Faced Man: looked like he gotten mighty drunk one time in his younger life and was taken advantage of by some evil tattoo artist, but then again maybe he had it done to himself; I kinda avoided him anyways.
We got all the way to Birmingham and the storm was so bad they wanted all to go back to their origin of departure; mine being Tampa to wait out the storm. I wanted to stay in Birmingham just in case the roads opened, but my two traveling companions convinced me to just make it back to Montgomery Alabama where there is plenty of fast food places and maybe a hotel we could chip in to stay at. Well it was better than staying in Birmingham where we weren’t wanted anyways. So about forty or so folks got back on the bus headed back to where they first came and we, my traveling companions and I, to wait out the storm in Montgomery; a two hour ride. We got to Montgomery and each of us took turns going to get food at a gas station convenience store next door. I asked if anyone wanted hamburgers from the McDonalds, my treat. Chris said that he was told Greyhound would be feeding us here so I didn’t go; if I had I would have missed the bus (Connie, bless her heart, said she would make them hold it until I had gotten back with the burgers) because not more than an hour after our arrival at Montgomery we were told that the roads had cleared to Houston and there was a bus leaving in ten minutes to Birmingham. There were only about ten of us out of the original forty or more on that bus and it made me and my traveling companions wonder how many people went all the way back to all parts of Florida.
After the bus left Birmingham it took another route than the one I originally took (Interstate 10) to get to Tampa and stopped at a bus station somewheres I don’t remember where. That’s when I met “The Station Fairy”. I was kinda giddy from all the traveling and loss of sleep and when I enter the station there was a security guard checking people with a wand. I tried to go around him remembering my bad experiences at Tallahassee, but he stopped and turned to me and said, “Stop I have to wand you,” to this I replied, “Warn me about what?” which in turn he replied, “No I have to wave this wand over you,” and I came up to him and asked, “Are you the station fairy?” Then I told him it was a long bus ride and I was just having a little traveling delirium. He laughed and waved his wand over me and said, “You may pass into the magic kingdom now.”
Somehow we finally made it to Houston and then Dallas and said our goodbyes to each as we went our separate ways. I was dishearten to leave Connie at the station, she had to wait another 10 hours for her bus, and mine was leaving. As I stood in line to board I saw her sitting by all herself and I almost decided to stay with her and wait for another bus, but it has already been a long journey for me and she would be home before I would anyways.