January 2006

Sunday Jan. 01, 2006- at 00:00 I went outside as folks started firing off their weapons, setting off explosives, and honking horns. I took the horn path and honked it a few. That morning went over to help the buffalo folk move their old red fire truck. Jeff had a flat tire and gave him a can of fix-a-flat. Hoss and Sandy came by and brought me a gift and card. I showed them the pics and video I took of their wedding. That night started reading “365 Starry Nights” by Chet Raymo; I anticipate it will take a whole year to complete. Completed chapter in Biology.
Monday 02- it is a very windy and rainy day. One of my L16 batteries went and died on me and replaced it with an extra one I had. Cleaned all the terminals and filled them with water, now their good to go. Jeff dropped a replacement can of fix-a-flat for the one he borrowed.
Tuesday 03- wrote my column for the newspaper; just wrote about Kaye’s passing, nothing more.
Wednesday 04- went to town and picked up supplies and mail. Seimi called to tell me that one of Linda S. dogs escaped; the one that looks like a red fox dog. Watched USC game (
Thursday 05- Sam brought cookies to me for fixing his sister-in-law’s computer, yumm- Buffalo folk’s truck stuck and need help getting it out of sand. In the process of helping them my truck gits a flat and I drove it to far (hard to tell on these washboard roads of ours) before I knew it was really flat and it began to shred. Put spare on and ready to go again- Completed chapter 2 of Biology.
Friday 06- helped Buffalo folk get telephone pole off van- went to the community center and came up with two tires (195 R14) that will replace the flat one from yesterday- updated website and pictures, sent newsletter- watered plants.
Saturday 07- still feeling kind of sick but I now think it is only an allergy, saw Judith yesterday at the center, she looked sick but said she had an allergy too- dropped by Semi’s home for a visit- went to store that evening with Buffalo folk- Lately at night I go outside trying to learn the names of stars in the Orion constellation. I wonder what my neighbors think when they see me pointing at the night sky and calling out names in a foreign language.
Sunday 08- went to Stoney’s house and tried to get flat fixed but couldn’t get it off the rim so I’ll cut it off at home. I sat for a while and watched Stoney repair a clock. Maybe I’ll get me an old clock to repair, looks interesting- Dan Woodman who lives in Landers called to ask for my help, says he is going to get a group together for a Giant Rock cleanup in March. Told him to email me the info and I’d put it up on the website.
Monday 09- cut off bead of tire so I could remove it from rim- setup feeding of the buffalo with the buffalo folks- Lee dropped by to jaw some- Dinner at Stoney’s; had beef and noodles- Got my telescope out to observe Orion, the Great Nebula and the Trapezium.
Tuesday 10- fed the buffalo breakfast- while I was biking; met Bob from Milwaukee driving a blue truck, he now lives on Applegate off of Poleline road and loves it out here, afterwards I found old cast iron sink that somebody abandoned on the side of the road -On the way back from picking up my mail saw Stoney’s SUV parked at the center with something hanging underneath, turned out to be metal connector to the shock and the axel was sheared off. Went to his house to remove it and tie shock up so it won’t drag on the ground till he gets it welded. We finished the noodles from yesterday- Saw Sam and told him we were even on the fix I did for his sister-in-law’s computer- picked up cast iron sink with truck- Fed buffalo dinner- Sent in my column.
Wednesday 11- went to Stoney’s and put on tire that I found at the center for the spare- Lost folks asking for directions to Cady road and Mars; easier to just jump in the truck and show them. Fed buffalo dinner.
Thursday 12- fed buffalo breakfast- burned two CDs for Hoss and Sandy of their wedding and took them over to their place- fire trucks and ambulances out at Joan’s house and took Joan’s mother to hospital. I notified Semi- fed buffalo dinner- had dinner at my house with Stu and argued about Microsoft- dropped by Stoney’s and watch him repair some clocks till 10:30.
Friday 13- fed buffalo- went to town for supplies and stopped by the health food place in JT to get a “Welcome Home” gift for Ron and Linda and to talked to the pretty gals there. Linda Sibio was outside putting up flyers of her lost dog. I told her that I had put her lost dog story in my column- last night to feed the buffalo.
Saturday 14- went over to Ron and Linda D’s home to welcome them back from their vacation.
Sunday 15- worked on getting my “Computer Room” organized- Linda S. came by with more fliers for her lost dog and I put the dog’s pic on the website- had dinner at Stoney’s; salmon paddies and mash potatoes and bacon gravy- John M. came by with info on squatting.
Monday 16- visited with Ron and Linda and setup antenna on their TV.
Tuesday 17- while riding my bike, met my new neighbor Ron who is fixing up the place across from Kern’s old house, he plans to move in soon- wrote and sent in column about Richard DuBoise passing.
Wednesday 18- went to Yucca and purchased a futon bed that makes into a couch from Big Lots and spent the rest of the day trying to figure out the instructions on how to put the damn thing together.
Thursday 19- spent day cleaning house- Joel came by for dinner and brought spaghetti and some kind of Chinese dish he made up and we watched the movie “Unfortunate Events” which I enjoyed.
Friday 20- visited the Buffalo Gal for a while and Stoney saw me there and dropped off some “Ranger Cookies” he baked- Lee, Stu, and Marcie came by my house after going to Lowes hardware down the hill. Stu wants my old mattress for his ma when she comes visiting, so I loaded it up in my truck and took it over to his house- then went to Stoney’s that night and just jawed for a while.
Saturday 21- started work on the Memorials page for the website. I’ve been thinking of doing this for a few years now, but been putting it off. Since Kern’s passing (he was one month younger than me) I thought that I better get going on it, and a lot of other stuff too! So I spent all Saturday writing HTML and going through pictures and writings of people in our area who passed on. I have gotten all of 2005 done and will continue with 2004 and so forth. I was trying to word a paragraph saying “more to come” or “more to be added” and “If you want someone added let me know” but none of these seemed appropriate, so I am going to leave that alone for now. May add a guest book after awhile.
Sunday 22- built a door for my bedroom to keep Cat out of there. Cat had jumped up on my laptop table and it all came falling to the floor. Well that ain’t going to happen again, that dang cat is going to stay out of my bedroom for now on! Laptop is ok and so is Cat. Gave Cat a slap on the butt and he got really indignant about it and I had to offer him tuna to get him off the roof and be my friend again.
Monday 23- was supposed to go over to Stoney’s after I did my exercises and fix his roof. I called him and left a message that I was coming over, and after I hung up he came speeding pass my house and honked on his way to who knows where. Talked to him later and he said he had forgotten all about it- spent my day reloading an OS upgrade on an old laptop computer and reading.
Tuesday 24- that morning while I was riding my bike I met a wonderful gal called Dominie and her brother on the road. Had a nice chat with them. They were on their way to take photos of some pups up for adoption. We traded email address- Ron D. came by at noon with his dog and we all went for a 2mile walk down Borland Pass. Ron even brought over some chicken soup, a movie “Million Dollar Baby” (great flick, but will haunt me for a few days) and an old pair of sneakers for me- later I got a hold of Stoney and went over and did a patch job on his roof- wrote column and sent it in.
Wednesday 25- that morning while jogging saw a police car in front of Peggy’s home, I went over to ask if everything was all right, they were just leaving some kind of notice on her gate- went to town and ran into Ron D. at the health food place. We went next door to the thrift store and had a look around. I bought an old Basic Language programming book for 25 cents.
Thursday 26- Linda S. called to ask if I’d like to go with her to look for Shati and put up some flyers, we spend a little over an hour doing this- Buffalo gal has made me a plate of chili-fries which I will eat tomorrow because I am on my way over to Stoney’s for dinner and we are having hamburger steaks- that night ordered a Fostex MR8 Digital Multitracker for recording some songs I’ve written.
Friday 27- went to Raven Books with Ron D. and purchased a Sue Grafton book “ Q is for Quarry” and another Patrick Moore astronomy book- Linda S. came by and we went out looking for her lost dog again and while we were looking we helped a feisty little old lady in a truck get unstuck from the sand; met Dennis on Lear Ave. and he gave us some eggs (he sells them) and said he keep an eye out (he only has one) for the dog, afterwards we went to her house and I met her boyfriend Blake who does movie editing and looked at some of Linda’s paintings (very talented couple)- that night finished reading “Beyond The Blue Event Horizon” by Frederik Pohl.
Saturday 28- went over to Lee and Marcie’s house and jawed with them and their son and wife- my friend Mike L. from Manhattan Beach called and we had a long chat about computers and caught up on things- that night I saw a truck stopped at the gate of the Buffalo folks and drove down there to check it out, on my way there found a little rabbit laying in the middle of the road so I stopped and picked the poor thing up and took it home and sat up half the night caring for it.
Sunday 29- when I got up I went and checked on the rabbit and it seemed ok so I took it outside beyond my fence and let it go; rabbit hopped away- spent the rest of the afternoon working on my old Toshiba 166mz laptop- Stoney called and said his smoke alarm is beeping and asked if I would come by and replace the battery, he also gave me a really old but very nice mantel clock.
Monday 30- very nice day cleaned up yard and worked around the house.
Tuesday 31- cleaned up trailer and threw away about six old computers that the rats chewed up when I kept them in the van- UPS here with my Fostex MR8 Digital Multitracker- wrote and sent in column- spent the rest of the night reading instructions for the Fostex and found out I had a bad set of headphones that I will try to fix.