April 2007

Sunday 1- welcome to the month of April- did my stretches and ran 3 miles- my Brother called from the Renaissance Fair he went to. I could hear lots of people laughing and carrying on in the background and a baby that sounded like a squealing pig (must have been his cell phone reception)- I played around with my Brother's website for about an hour to see if I could change it into something more presentable instead of "Under Construction", still needs work- Dale from Landers called and we jawed for a while- called Tom and Aki to say hi- went for my evening walk- watched "60 Minutes on CBS and then "Nature" on PBS- read some more of the Ant book I've been reading for a while now- worked on the computer the rest of the night.
Monday 2- did my stretches and lifted weights- Stoney picked me up and we went over to Sue's trailer to try to fix the leaks again. Well to make a long story short: After 4 hours of of me squeezing onto tight spaces that would make a Yoga Master envious, the hose we used and I so painfully installed was not made for high pressure and it swelled up like a balloon and popped! Then Stoney tripped and fell flat on his face. So we called it a day. We went over to his house where I took off the clothes I was wearing and threw them in the washer and took a shower. We had leftover chili beans and a piece of pecan pie that Joel left in my mailbox that morning. I took my evening walk from Stoney's to my home- did my studies- watched "24" on FOX- play around with the computer, but I was really tired.
Tuesday 02- did my stretches, lifted weights, ran a mile, and rode my bike- Stoney dropped by to make sure we have the right hoses for Sue's trailer which we will replace tomorrow- worked on lessons 2 and 3 of my online course on forms- Seimi came by with a video called "Inconvenient Truth" by Al Gore, good movie! Took it back to him later in the day- a friend called and asked if I'd check on his dog, I did and the dog was fine- went for my evening walk- watched "NCIS" on CBS and then "Criminal Intent" on NBC- wrote column and sent it to the newspaper- worked on the computer the rest of the night.
Wednesday 04- did my stretches- I am ready to go over to Sue's trailer to fix her pipes and called Stoney but left a message. Called again at 12:15 and he answered saying that he changed his mind. I drove over to his house to say hi and to pickup some cookies I left there- Andrew called for my help moving a rug from inside his house- did my studies and finished the HP Forms online class- went for my evening walk- Joel came by with a Hawaiian dish- Andrew came over to download and print some forms- Jimmy dropped by for a jaw- watched "Bones" on FOX- messed around with computer the rest of the night downloading manuals for some old computers and calculators I have.
Thursday 05- did my stretches and ran a mile- visited Jimmy and his family over at Stoney's. They had brought their rabbit and hamsters for a few days stay while their home is fumigated. Jawed with them for a while then they left to go to Lee and Marcie's for Stoney's birthday; it was Jimmy's birthday too but he kept it to himself- did my studies- went for my evening walk- watched "CSI" and then "Shark" on CBS- surfed the web the rest of the night.
Friday 06- did my stretches and lifted weights- went on a walk through a hidden canyon with Ron D. and found some old Indian Petroglyphs. Dang if I forgotten to bring my camera- did the weekend update for the website and sent out the newsletter- went for my evening walk- did my studies- watched "Numbers" on CBS- fooled around on the computer.
Saturday 07- did my stretches and rode my bike- worked on the Toyota truck trying to put the back window in. After a while and after a few screwdriver slips into my hand causing bleeding, I gave up and will try another day. Called and made an appointment for Monday to have my windshield installed- my Brother Kevin called on his way to my Niece Cara's home where the family is having a birthday party for her. I got to yap with my Sister Paula and even got to speak with Cara for the first time ever! I wished her a happy 30th birthday! She is in IT doing database programming in the health care industry and learning Visual Basic- called and jawed with Mom and Dad. Dad had to take the phone over to the neighbors where Mom was visiting, but the static on the phone was really bad so I just did a short hello, how are you doing, and I love you- went for my evening walk- watched "Rosemary and Thyme" on PBS- did computer work and then some reading.
Sunday 08- did my stretches and lifted weights- Ron D. came by and we went for a walk- did some work on the truck until I hit and smashed my little finger with a hammer trying to pound out some dents- did my studies- did some system work on my old Dell 733 desktop computer- dropped over to Stoney's and jawed for a while- went for my evening walk- Harry, who I haven't heard from for years, called and said he and Moraine split up. He was telling me about an old 1996 Apple Powerbook that his son gave him when my phone went dead. I tried to call back but the number I had was out of service, and now I have no way of calling him back- watched "60 Minutes" on CBS- Mike from Hermosa called and we yapped for a time- Joel called and told me he wasn't feeling well and may need my help if it gets worse; I told him to just let me know if I'm needed- messed around with the computer the rest of the night.
Monday 09- did my stretches, lifted weights, ran a mile and rode my bike- Joel called to say he is feeling better- Ron D. called, we are going for a hike in the park tomorrow- did my studies- Jim from the mobile glass company arrives and replaces the broken windshield on the Toyota truck, I think it took him less than a half hour to take the old on out and glue the new one in- went for my evening walk- Stoney called to say he made it safe and sound- Andrew called but the phone kept dieing- watched "24" on FOX and then "Thank God You're Here" on NBC, I enjoyed it, very funny- did some reading and worked on the computer.
Tuesday 10- did my stretches, lifted weights, and ran a mile. I developed a stiff neck during the night and will try to just work it out- there is an RV sitting off to the lefthand side of Winters Road just down from my house and I haven't see anyone around it- Ron D. came by and didn't feel up to going to the park so we just went for a walk around here- John M. came by with a spare tire and the front grill to the Toyota- did my studies- watched "NCIS" on CBS- wrote my column and sent it to the newspaper.
Wednesday 11- did my stretches and ran three miles- Ron called and wanted to go to that secret hidden canyon and I remembered to bring my camera this time and took some nice pics. We must have spent about two hours roaming around checking out other different canyons that feed into it. Much fun!- did my studies. Started learning to program in Virtual Basic. The Quick Guide said it would only take a beginner like me thirty minutes to learn the basics; it took me two hours, I maybe over my head in this, I will just have to plod on through it- that RV is still on the road down from my house. Late last night there were two cars parked my it and it seemed that they were working on it, who knows?
Thursday 12- Andrew called to say it is really windy and a dust cloud has reduced visibility to about 100 feet. I just got up and didn't realize it was so bad until I looked outside and saw that my outhouse was no longer there! It had broken apart and was scattered all over my yard by the high wind. No running for me today, just did my stretches- worked on an old divers watch that I've had since the 70s and hasn't run for a couple of decades. Sprayed some WD40 into it and got it ticking but it runs fast, spent most of my time trying to slow it down, but I wasn't successful. I will have to look up watch repair on the web later on. I used to take this watch everywhere when I used to scuba dive- did my studies- the folks with the RV that is on the road by my house came by to say hi and that they were going to try to tow it up the hill. Three hours later I saw them chugging pass my house and it looked like they may make it but they petered out just shy of the top. And that's where it sits right now- watched "CSI" on CBS- did the weekend update on the website and sent out the newsletter- phone was working today and didn't die once!
Friday 13did my stretches, lifted weights, and ran a mile- messed around with my very old Compaq Contura 4/25 that I bought around 1995. It runs Windows 3.1 and some astronomy programs I installed- went for my evening walk- Joel brought over some really good pasta with spicy chicken in it- did my studies- Seime called and we talked about electric cars- surfed the web the rest of the night.
Saturday 14 did my stretches and ran a mile- messed around the house cleaning and stuff like that- Dale from Landers called and we jawed for a while about my column I wrote ( he actually buys the paper to read my column!)- called Mom and Dad- called my sister Shiela and had a short chat with her- went for my evening walk- watched "rosemary and Thyme" on PBS and then "Numbers" on CBS, it was a rerun and I broke my rule to not watch reruns, but I like the show- played around with some computer stuff and read some more of that Ant book that I need to get back to Ron D. so he can sell it on Ebay.
Sunday 15 did my stretches and that was about all I could do because the wind came up again and there were clouds and it got pretty cold, so I just messed around in the house with my old Compaq computer. I found a website where I could download IE 3.03 on 4 floppy disks, the Compaq doesn't have a CD ROM drive. I loaded it up and got connected to the Internet but it was so slow, it only has 4Meg of RAM memory, it was like watching grass grow- Jimmy called and he needed help getting a virus off his computer, spent an hour walking him through it, and we yapped about other stuff too- Stoney called to say hi- my Brother called for a quick hello- I watched "America at a Crossroads" on PBS- found Windows 95 on disks at Ebay, I've been looking for this a longtime for my older Dell laptop, and for $12 it was a good deal. I guess I may be crazy but I like working on those old computers- my German friend called and we chatted for a while. He is in Europe working and drinking beer and getting his life together.
Monday 16- it's raining!!! can't go on my run so I just did my stretches- Chuck came by with some groceries from the USDA- spent most of the afternoon getting insurance for the truck. Had to print, sign, scan, and then email the forms AAA emailed to me- Mike M. who bought property by me, needed to store some wood he had brought up here to build a cabin, I let him store it on my front lot- went for my evening walk- so sad to hear about the students who lost their lives at Virginia Tech by some crazed gunman. All that potential talent, their dreams and ambitions lost forever! And what this has done to their families. Such sorrow! Sad news like this makes me really sad and I seem to want to reach out and call close friends: called my friend Billie to say hi- called Audrey but she wasn't home- called Kula and left a message- called Stoney and jawed for a bit- called Terry W. and left a message- watched "America at a Crossroads" on PBS- messed around with the computer the rest of the night.
Tuesday 17- did my stretches, lifted weights and ran a mile- called up to make an appointment to get the Truck smogged and they told me to be there a 4pm- went over to Stoney's and took a shower while I was there so I'd be smelling nice for the party tonight at the Hi Desert star- went to the smog place and my truck didn't pass, dang now I'll have to do something about that- went to Walmart and got a few things- arrived at the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Hi Desert Star last Tuesday and met the nice folks who let me write my column for their newspaper. There was a really big crowd of interesting people that I got to jaw with. I took a number of pictures of the whole celebration and will post a few on my website. Plenty of food and drink, with my friend Rickey Tagle dishing it out- watched "Nova" and then "America at a Crossroads" on PBS- wrote my column and sent it to the newspaper- did my studies and worked on the computer the rest of the night, What a wonderful day! (except for my truck not passing smog)
Wednesday 18- it was really windy today so I just did my stretches and updated some software on my Dell 2350 desktop- called Verizon to straiten out a billing error on their part- watched "Secrets of the Dead" and then "America at a Crossroads" on PBS- did my studies.
Thursday 19- did my stretches, lifted weights, and ran a mile- Dana dropped over for a short chat- Ron D. came by with some homemade spaghetti sauce and he went with me on my evening walk, a little earlier than usual- drove the truck down to the post office to pickup the Windows 95 I ordered last week, on the way back saw two fire trucks putting out a fire that was in a trash truck on the corner of Border and Winters- messed around with my very old Compaq Contura 4/25 and tried to install the Windows 95, but there just ain't enough RAM I believe and it wouldn't install. So I ended up reinstalling Windows 3.1 again- watched "The Dead Sea" and then "America at a Crossroads" on PBS. but had gotten tired of watching it and turned off the TV for the night- did my studies.
Friday 20- did my stretches, lifted weights, and ran a mile- cloudy day with some drizzle- did my studies- updated website and sent out the newsletter- Joel came by with some pizza- Stoney drove up to say hi after driving 7 hours from San Francisco where he was visiting his family- went for my evening walk- watched "Earthday 2007" on ABC, it wasn't very good but they tried- visited the Apple Store online to checkout a MacBook- Joel called and asked me to take him to the PS airport sometime in May and then pick him up, I told him I would if it was after 10am, he said it would be later in the day, so I said ok.
Saturday 21- my Brother called and we jawed for over an hour (without my phone dieing)- did my stretches and ran a mile- went over to Stoney's to adjust his satellite dish that was out of whack because of the high winds lately- called Mom and Dad but they weren't home- called Tom and Aki and had a nice chat- called Dan A. and jawed with him till my phone died- found out that a part was bent that made my truck idle fast so now I can try to get it smogged again- talked to Mike from Hermosa about AppleCare.
Sunday 22 EARTHDAY!- did my stretches, lifted weights, and ran a mile- rode my bike over for a visit with Mike and Stevie V. and to take some pictures of their new baby goats. I spent around 2 hours there jawing and received the grand tour of their home. They have done a fantastic job landscaping the yard with fountains, bird feeders and ponds. They added a nice bay-view window made out of stone and old windows that is centered on a wood stove; looks like the entrance to an old mine shaft- Stoney called to say he made cookies but I already had pancakes and eggs and told him I'd be by tomorrow- called Mom and Dad and had a nice chat- went for my evening walk- watched "60 Minutes" on CBS and then "Nature" on PBS- did my studies and played online the rest of the night.
Monday 23- Andrew called and asked if I wanted to go down to the Water Canyon Coffee Shop today and checkout their WIFI network on our computers, I said yes, and he said he'd be here in an hour. I had to do my stretches, feed the cat, make and eat my breakfast, shave, and took a call from Ron D. and yapped at him, all in an hours time and got it done. while waiting for Andrew, Stoney dropped by for a chat; he's mad at BofA and just got back from there after giving them hell. Andrew shows up and I grab all my computer gear that I packed in my backpack and off we go. I brought my Nokia N800 Internet tablet to update it and show it off too! we arrived, got two coffees, mine decaf, and setup our computers on a table upstairs. Connecting to the WIFI was a snap and lots of bandwidth at a good speed. The N800 performed like a champ, but I am still getting used to its GUI and did a lot of fumbling around on the touch screen keyboard. I did get a few inquiring looks from some of the patrons who had their laptops at the table next to us. The N800 has a 4.5 inch screen, runs Linux, and uses Opera as its browser. YouTube was still a little shaky even with the new system update, but better than before. We spent a few hours there (easy to do when you're online). The cafe is a nice place, with good music, good folks, and an 80's atmosphere. I felt comfortable and will come here again!- when we got back to my house we jawed for a while and ate some KFC sandwich snacks that we picked up on our way home, and then Andrew joined me on my evening walk- did my studies- Mac called to tell me that Chuck doesn't want the VW van- Roger T. called and needed me to download a program for him- spent the rest of the night updating MySpace page that I've neglected for the past year.
Tuesday 24- did my stretches, lifted weights and ran a mile- was doing yard work when Stoney drove up after visiting Lee and Marcie. Lee is putting in another bathroom (their home already has 2). We yapped for a while about a neighbor who shot himself in the head 3 times and died a few days later just before someone found the body. Yikes! I didn't know him, but Stoney knew him some 30 years- FedEx came with the first half of my order- Ron D. came by and we went for an evening walk- Chris dropped by and jawed with me and Ron on his way to bingo- Stoney dropped me off some cookies he baked- did my studies- Roger T. came by to pickup a program I downloaded for him and he brought some sloppyjoe sandwiches he had leftover from the weekend- watched "Nova" and then "Frontline" on PBS- wrote my column and sent it to the newspaper.
Wednesday 25- did my stretches and ran a mile- had to wait around the house for the FedEx guy to deliver my new MacBook, so I worked in the yard and messed around with the truck- Finished my Geology book, that took a few months to do and I learned a thing or two about it too- FedEx finally arrives at 5PM, I really didn't think he'd make it today- the MacBook looks nice, white, Intel Core 2 Duo processor 2.0GHz. 60 Gig harddrive, leaving a small footprint on my desk, and everything boots up ok. First thing I do is go for the updates 677.7Megs of them (never had that big of an update with Windows). Everything is going fine so I left for a half hour to watch the news, but when I come back the Mac was in sleep mode, when I tried to wake it up it locked up and had to reboot loosing all that it had downloaded. I changed the power settings so it wouldn't do that again. After the updates were done I loaded up Firefox, Safari suck as a browser, got Foxmarks and synchronizes my bookmarks, and then added Adblocker Plus, now I am cooking! The WIFI works really good, better than my Toshiba laptop I think, the keyboard is white but I can hardly read the keys in low light, and the finger pad is not up to par with anything I am used to; no right click (you have to hit a key on the keyboard and click at the same time), no double taping (you have to click the clicker) it is, to me, like working with something out of the early 90s, but the system is dang fast and has a clean GUI. These are my first impressions of the MacBook. I am used to XP and navigate around that without thinking, but I will just have to get used to the Mac OSX to give it a fair evaluation. Now I have to switch over to my PC that I'm used to so I can get some work done tonight. Maybe tomorrow I'll try using the Mac to update all my blogs and other work.
Thursday 26- soon as I woke up I phoned the smog guy to set up an appointment, he said 10:30, I said fine- did my stretches and lifted weights- arrived early and they ran the test but it failed, but he did said that it was idling just fine (that was the reason it failed last time)- dropped by Stoney's and chatted with him and then I drove to the DMV and they gave me an extension of 60 days to get it smogged- last night after my post to this blog, I messed around with the touchpad settings on the MacBook and got it doing what I needed it to do: single and double tapping, right click tapping using two fingers, so now I am happy with that- the MacBook needed some more updates! 194.4 Megs more! Including a security update! I pity the poor fool who bought one of these if their only means of getting online is on dialup! Trying to setup the firewall but it blocked Firefox, my friend Mike from Hermosa said to allow networks, and I did and Firefox works but iChat don't, so I need to figure that out. When I did a hardware update on the MacBook it sounded like it was going to blow up. The fan really sounded like a jet aircraft going into overdrive! I even stepped away from it!- went for my evening walk- watched "CSI" on CBS- got iChat setup and talked to Mike on it for a while- went back to my PC to get my work done because I still need to iron out some kinks and setup the firewall on the MacBook correctly- did my studies.
Friday 27- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike- did update on the website and sent out the newsletter- went over to Ron D's home for a visit, he had some apples and oranges for me, and gave me 6 bags of cement he didn't need- went over to Stoney's for a taco lunch and jawed for some time- went for my evening walk- did my studies- watched "Bones" on FOX, and then "Numbers" on CBS (two of my favorite shows on the same night!- got Mike from Hermosa on iChat and he helped walk me through a few Apple navigational commands on the MacBook. Still had 100 Megs to download to update the system.
Saturday 28- did my stretches and ran a mile. On my run I stopped by a house on Borlin Pass and south of Presswood where they are remodeling an old rundown shack. They have 3 roll-offs sitting out front to store all the garbage that they're collecting on the property. I talked to the owner whose name is Al, and he told me that the house is going to be a rental. He has about 8 workers doing a new roof, stucco, and other odd jobs. I was hoping that he was going to move into it- did a bunch of cleaning inside my house because it was around 100 degrees outside and I ain't used to that yet- Dale called from Landers to critique my column like he does every week- did my studies- Joel stopped over for lunch- Stoney dropped off some of his famous chili on his way to potluck- Dan A. called to say hi and to ask my help in finding someone who could paint his home. I told him I'd call Seimi to see if he'd like to do it- called Mom and Dad- nothing on TV but reruns of the shows I like so I just messed around with the computers the rest of the night.
Sunday 29- did my stretches, lifted weights, and ran a mile- spent most of the day reviewing the songs that I wrote, listening to them and trying to see where I can improve. The MacBook has GarageBand that I can use to edit tracks (one of the excuses, I mean reasons I got it in the first place). I will have to learn how to use the program first!- had lunch over at Stoney's, finished off them tacos from last Friday. Stoney told me that he saw on TV that someone was saying that they had a good reason to carry a film camera with them along with a digital one, but he couldn't remember what that reason they gave was, and I couldn't think of one. If anyone knows, let me know- went for my evening walk- did my studies- watched "60 Minutes" an interview with former CIA Director George Tenant on CBS, then "Nature" that was about dogs on PBS- started to watch "Das Boot" that I have on DVD (seen it before when it was first released) when Andrew called and we chatted for a while about all kinds of things like we normally do late at night- decided to skip the movie tonight and work on my songs and the computer.
Monday 30- did my stretches, ran a mile, and rode my bike- Andrew came by on his run to chat and have a look see at my MacBook. We messed around with it for over an hour going to different websites like YouTube. He seemed to like it, but like me he is use to the Windows OS. I told him that I am learning the Mac OS without any bias towards which one is better: Mac or Microsoft, and he agreed- I did a little cleaning around the house and then sat down and started messing with GarageBand by putting one of my songs on it and trying to add my singing to it: didn't sound pretty. But I got to learn where most of the controls are- updated the calendar on the website for May- went for my evening walk- watch "Das Boot" on the Mac, I tried it first on my PC but it played in German, so I switched over to the Mac because it played in English last night when I watched it. One of the best movies of all time but it must be around 3 hours long. Goodbye to April, you been a productive but windy month!