Monday 01- Welcome to the month of October!
Did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights. Really windy today!
The Weather: Temps of around 65-80 with 15mph winds blowing out of the S then 7mph from the S later on in the evening. Humidity was around 34 percent, with a few Cirrus clouds off in the distance skies.
Went over to Joan’s and finished up her laptop by putting my dialup service on it, and getting her an email account. Showed her a little bit on how to navigate around on the browser. Then over to Lee’s to update his Windows XP to Service Pack 2, and install his software for his camera. I also created a separate account other than Owner that he can use to go online with. And if he screws that up all I need to do is delete his account and create another one for him. Set up my dialup service for him.
Went over to Stoney’s to jaw with him and instead we watched some war movie he had on about WWII and a rescue mission to free American POWs from a camp held by the Japanese military. I think they freed around 511 survivors from that camp. It was a true story.
Got home an went for my evening walk. I decided to chill out with a movie that Roger T gave me called “Fracture” staring Anthony Hopkins, and Ryan Gosling. About a cunning rich man who kills his wife, and the young attorney who must find a way to win the botched case or loose his career. It was a battle of intelligence between the two, and also the concept of winning a case for the truth, or winning it by manipulation. Very good flick!
Then I went on my nightly bike ride, wrote my blog, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Tuesday 02- did my stretches and ran a mile. Got to get ready to go to Beth’s services today at 3pm. Stoney’s going to pick me up early so I can go to the health food store to pick up some protean they just had shipped in, and to the post office to mail a letter.
The Weather: Temps of around 66-87 with a light breeze blowing out of the NW most of the day. Humidity was around 34 percent, no clouds.
Stoney picked me up at 2pm and we arrived at Beth’s Services at 2:30pm and talked to some of the folks that showed. I met a nice gal; her name was Twila, who was the stepdaughter of Beth and Harold Bate’s daughter. She told me of when she was young and she ran off with Beth to Vegas. When Beth left Vegas Twila joined a traveling carnival and traveled all around with them for a while until she decided to go back to high school and graduate. I was fascinated with her stories, and her! Stoney and I left early and we had some time to kill before the memorial potluck at 5pm so we stopped off at Stater’s so I could get some groceries.
Got to the potluck at 5pm; Stoney brought his chili beans. Marcie was running around afraid that we wouldn’t have enough food for the seventy-five or more folks who were to show up later. But folks started bringing lots of food, some much that Steve T and me had to bring out another table to hold it all! Everything went very well and everyone had enough to eat. I got totally stuffed! I got to talk to Twila some more about her adventures, but as the evening wore on I had lost her in the crowd. Stoney wanted to go home so I gathered all our stuff to put it in his truck. The last time I saw her she was talking to family members and I decided not to disturb her in her sorrow of loosing her stepmother, but I did say goodbye as we drove on by her and out of the parking lot on our way back home. I never got a chance to give Twila a note I had written earlier for her.Got home and was just changing clothes when Patty drove up with her computer for me to fix. Then I watched “Bones” on Fox about: a soccer mom who got blown up in her minivan.
Wrote my column for the newspaper and sent it in. Kath called and wants me to find her a new laptop online. Then I wrote my blog, posted it to the web, and called it a night!
Wednesday 03- Last night a lady called very late to tell me that I take tragedy lightly and I should be ashamed that I don’t take it more seriously. She was referring to what I wrote in my newspaper column: “Between shootings, plane crashes, and burning vehicles, it seems to be getting more and more like the old Wild West out here.” She said that she had lost a loved one in that plane crash. I told her that I was sorry for her loss, but that I do take it seriously or I wouldn’t have written it. I take it seriously where two folks drive all the way out here and commit a murder suicide and burn themselves up in a car. I take it seriously when a man gets shot three times in the chest and dies. I take it seriously when a police officer gets ambushed and shot in the hand. I take it seriously when a man goes after another with an ax. And I also take it seriously when a plane crashes in a mountain where we live. I also told her that I went to a friend’s funeral that day; a very good person who never did anyone wrong and who loved animals. I told her I was sorry if I sounded angry and defensive and that she misunderstood what I had written, but that I stand by my story. And again I told her that I was sorry for her loss.
Did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights. Ron called to cancel the baseball game tonight because he wasn’t feeling well, but to come on over and get some of the food he prepared for the game.
The Weather: Temps of around 66-91 with a light breeze blowing out of the NW during the early afternoon changing to the SW later in the day and building up to 15mph in the evening hours. Humidity was around 30 percent, no clouds but a lot of haze.
Checked my email and had one from Dana that said to bring the “Gross Polluter” over and he would install the lights for me. I drove on over to Ron’s and collected the food he had for me, then on over to Dana’s and left the truck over at his house for him to work on. He was kind enough to give me a ride home.
Worked on Patty’s computer. Did an fdisk on it and found that it had a hidden partition and instead of having only a 2Gig drive, she had a 10Gig drive. I deleted the partition and ran a format on the whole hard drive. Then I installed Win98 and the Win98SE update.
After I completed the install, Andrew called needing some help towing a truck out of his front gate and came to pick me up. We had to unload a bunch of wood that filled the bed before we could tow it. The left front tire was flat and we tried to pump it up because it had rotted from sitting for a long time. So we towed it just as it was. Then Andrew offered me Chips Ahoy cookies and I stayed there for a while watching a science channel program about chip implants for humans.
went for my evening walk, then watched “Wired Science” on PBS. About: an internet attack on the small country of Estonia by cyber bots, why chemistry sets for kids aren’t around anymore, and heart surgery done by robots. It all seemed pretty strange to me.
Kath called and is coming over with her old HP laptop she wants me to sell, and she also wants my help in purchasing a new one tonight. I just had time to go for my nightly bike ride before she arrived. We were in the process of buying her a new Dell laptop online when a dog came scratching at my front door: at first I thought it was my Fat Cat trying to get in. It was one of them pug dogs, the kind with a flat face. Kath said she would take it home and I will check around the neighborhood tomorrow to see if someone is missing one. We got the order for her Dell Laptop completed and she was on her way home. That gave me just enough time to write my blog, post it to the web, and call it a night.
Thursday 04- did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights. Riding that bike at night has really helped my legs because I don’t get them hamstring pains like I use to.
The Weather: Temps of around 65-85 with 7-15mph winds blowing out of the NW-S during the day changing to the SW later in evening hours with gusts of 20mph or more. Humidity was still hanging around at 30 percent, no clouds but some light haze.
I decided to scrap the Win98SE install I did yesterday on Patty’s computer and go with a copy of Windows ME I had sitting around that I’m not using. Installed all the critical updates to it, loaded all the security programs, Firefox browser, and all I need to do now is call her to come get it.
Stoney called and we yapped some as I was finishing up Patty’s computer.
Walked over to leave a note on my neighbor’s gate asking him if he is missing a dog. I remembered that he had a flat-faced dog of some kind when I visited him once: it might be the pug dog that Kath and I found at my door last night Got back home and was looking for a phone number of another friend when I found my neighbor’s number (would have saved me the walk) and called him. He told me that he isn’t missing a dog, and that his dog is a Bulldog. Well I was close! I’ll have to go get that note that I left on his gate when I go for my evening walk.
When Kath came by last night she also left an HP notebook for me to fix to sell for her (I’ll get a commission on it) and started looking into what I need to do to it. Found some restore disks for it and will load them tonight.
Called Dana and he said that the “Gross Polluter” would be done tomorrow afternoon. I told him that there ain’t no rush as long as I had it in a week or so.
Went for my evening walk and took that note about the missing dog off my neighbor’s gate. I went the long way around going over by the Marine Base. As I was cutting through my neighbor Joyce’s property I heard a honk from a car. Joyce was sitting in her car on the driveway by her house. I moseyed on over and sat on the ground and yakked with her, catching up on some lost time. Her car was full of groceries. Joyce is in her late seventies and has a hard time walking; she uses a walker now, so I helped her carry them into her home. We haven’t called each other in a long while so when I left I told her to call me if she ever needs anything. I told her that I remembered her number and recited it to her. She came right back and recited mine to me. She still has her wits!Got back home late and started the install on the HP laptop while I was watching “CSI” on CBS. About a severed head in a football helmet found on the road, and a girly magazine publisher who brain was poked with an ink pen in a dark restaurant.
Finished up on the install of the HP laptop, and then went for my nightly bike ride. When I got back I updated the CopperMountainMesa.com website, sent out the newsletter, wrote my blog, posted it to the web, and called it a night!
Friday 05- did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights. Received a call from Phyllis Lyte who reads my column in the newspaper. She said that she loves reading my column. She especially likes when I write about astronomy because she doesn’t get out at night much. Now this call made my day! Better than the one I got early Wednesday morning when a lady berated me.
The Weather: Temps of around 61-69 with 13-24mph winds blowing out of the W all day with gusts of 45mph or more. Humidity was still hanging at around 30 percent, Altocumulus clouds and haze.
Dana called to say he had the “Gross Polluter” ready and that he come right over to pick me up. He had built a bracket to repair the right headlight that was damaged when the truck rolled over. Now I got lights and can drive it at night! I just need to pound out and straighten the bumper so I can connect the turn signals.
Went for my evening walk. It was dang windy so I took out this pullover hooded sweater that I have never worn before and had a very hard time getting my fat head through the tiny hole; and it’s a XL sweater too! I guess it was made for folks with big bodies and little heads, maybe football players?
Patty came over to pick up her computer. I told her I was very happy with the install and that it is running very nice. Now she can go online and play her Pogo and what other game sites she wants. I don’t play games on computers, but sometimes I do play FreeCell, which I’m very good at: won 36 consecutive games in a row (not in one sitting).
Watched “Numbers” on CBS. About: a hooker’s body was found in a bathtub at an Actor’s party home. Then I went on my nightly bike ride. It was so windy that when I was riding down the steep hill by my house I had to peddle my bike! Never had that happen before. It is a shame that it’s so windy because the night sky is so crisp and full of brilliant shining stars, and I can’t take my new telescope out with this high wind blowing.
Worked on the website finally getting October’s calendar on it. Also put on a webpage for Karen’s Corner, who just started writing a column, mostly about critters, for the CopperMountainMesa.com website. Wrote my blog, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Saturday 06- did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights. It is another cold windy day but not as bad as yesterday.
The Weather: Temps of around 52-70 with 9-14mph winds blowing out of the NW with gusts of 20mph or more. Humidity was 34 percent, no clouds but a little haze.
Went online to check my email and got a few saying that my website was down. I checked it out and yes in deed it wasn’t there! Uploaded the index file, tried it again and it worked. I guess something went wrong last night when I did and update on the site’s calendar.
Started pounding out the “Gross Polluter’s” bumper. It is so flimsy that I was able to straighten most of it by hand. There was one bracket that was so twisted and made of sturdier metal that I decided to call Stoney to see if we could apply some heat to it with his welding torch. Threw everything in the back of the truck and headed over to his house. Stoney has been working on cars for some seventy or so years and applied his skills to that bracket. He would heat it up and pound at it, then heat it up again and pound it some more. After some time he had it straighten out like it just came out of the foundry. We then welded the bracket onto the bumper and tried to mount it onto the truck, but the truck is so skewed to one side from the rollover that we had to improvise as best we could. We ended up welding one end of the bumper to the truck and welded a support bracket to the frame of the truck to make double sure it wouldn’t work free and fall off. When we were all done he let me use his phone to call my Mom and Dad. Then we sat around and jawed for sometime.
Got home after dark and went for my evening walk. Instead of walking the trails, like I normally do, I just walked on the dirt roads around the block and got back forty minutes later. Watched “Rosemary and Thyme” on PBS, it was a rerun that I saw before, but I was so dang tired that I didn’t care.
Brenda called to tell me that Patty’s computer doesn’t work! Says it won’t boot up after they tried to load Adobe Flash Player on it. I told them that I had already had that program installed before I gave it back to them yesterday. I think somebody tried to do something that they shouldn’t and screwed it up, but we shall see. I told them to bring it over and I’ll fix it again. They dropped it off twenty minutes later. I’ll have a look see tomorrow.
Went for my nightly bike ride. The winds had died down to zero, so when I got back I took out the telescope for about an hour and a half. I’m still getting use to sighting in objects with the finder scope; it seems to be almost useless finding anything until you have the telescope aligned by sighting down the tube like a rifle. Also where the telescope is mounted on both sides of the wooden mount, wobbles. I need to correct these problems before the scope is useful.
Wrote my blog, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Sunday 07- only did my stretches because I decided to take Sunday off from exercising.
The Weather: Temps of around 54-78 with 4-6mph winds mostly out of the NW. Humidity was 23 percent, no clouds.
Started working again on the “Gross Polluter”. I was going to fix the turn signals but couldn’t find them. I looked everywhere. I had taken them off the bumper when I first got the truck so that I could work on it, and placed them in a safe place: hopefully not in the back of the VW bus I had towed a few weeks ago. So I decided to put the camper shell on. A simple job I thought, that turned into four hours of work. I took it over to Stoney’s because he has all the tools and lots of nuts and bolts. Because the truck was rolled we had some trouble aligning it up with the boltholes and had to drill new ones. When we got done we were plum tuckered out and had dinner with ice cream for dessert as we watched the Science Channel about stealth Navy ships, and how they make erasers.
I got home mighty late and mighty tired, so I just chilled out for a while doing nothing, I haven’t done just nothing in a while and it felt good, until my favorite show came on “Mystery: The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: Chinese Walls” on PBS. About a young gal of twenty-four who was found stabbed in a park. Like I said before: I like Sharon Small who plays Investigator Havers.
Mike from Hermosa Beach called to tell me that he got a new cell phone service and we jawed for a while. Then I wrote my blog, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Monday 08- did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights. Very nice day outside, the air was fresh and crisp.
The Weather: Temps of around 55-81 with NW to E winds at 4-7mph. Humidity was 20 percent, no clouds.
Kept up my search for them dang turn signals but couldn’t find them. I guess I did leave them in the VW bus that I had towed away a few weeks ago. So I will have to go to plan “B” and figure out something. I might take the signals off my “Faithful truck” (that has a bad transmission) and put them on the “Gross Polluter”; they kind of look the same.
Got to work on Patty’s computer. Tried to boot it up but it came back at me with “unable to find Windows files” and just sat there with a blinking cursor. So I stuck in the recovery floppy, rebooted, and ran the Windows ME CD to do a system restore. Had to reload the drivers for the modem and video. Patty told me that Slingo (some game site she goes to) needs Java Runtime, so I downloaded and installed that too.
Went over to Stoney’s for dinner. Sue, his friend was there and we all ate leftovers from yesterday, plus a pea salad that was mighty good. Sue and I had some ice cream. That’s twice in two days I had ice cream: I better knock off that stuff!!
Went for my evening walk. Patty called to see if the computer was ready and that Brenda would drive her over to pick it up. I had it waiting outside for them when they drove up and the actually stayed to talk for fifteen minutes: usually they’re gone almost before I can get the computer in the car!
Watched “Magnificent Voyage of Christopher Columbus” on PBS. About the voyage of the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria: they used replicas to recreate the journey. It was very well done and gave some information on two of the other captains that made the voyage possible.
Andrew called and we yapped about Black Holes, Physics, and computers.
Went for my nightly bike ride. The stars were so brilliant tonight that if it wasn’t so late I would have took out the telescope! Talking about the telescope, I was throwing away some of the packing material when I noticed a small box that was stuck inside the foam used to ship the scope: it was a 2” eyepiece! Almost let that one get by me! Wrote my blog, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Tuesday 09- did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights. I’ve decided to do the weights a little later in the day to kind of space my exercises out a bit.The Weather: Temps of around 57-83 with N to SE winds at 2-11mph. Humidity was around 24 percent, no clouds.
I started writing my column for the newspaper and will finish it off tonight. Worked on the HP laptop getting it all updated and ready to sell.
Ron D came by to go on my evening walk with me. He came early at 2pm and we didn’t get back from the walk till 3:30. We jawed about all kinds of things: neighbors, dirtbike riders, and a book he got from the library about what it would be like if humans and all our pollution weren’t on this planet. Sounds kind of interesting, but my question is: since we are already on this planet, what can we personally do to eliminate the pollution and destruction to our world that we have caused.
I kind of gave up looking for them turn signals and procured the ones off my broken down “Faithful Truck” and put them on the “Gross Polluter”. They fit but I need to get some longer skinny bolts to secure it to the bumper. I also cannibalized a windshield wiper bar from that truck too.
Watched “Bones on Fox. About: a man who was found dead with his feet chopped off. He belonged to some fetish resort that catered to folks who want to pretend that they are horses and be dominated by female riders. Far fetched if you ask me.
Got a call from Ron D’s neighbor John asking me about computers and if I would help him put something together for him. He also needs help putting together a website. I told him I’d call tomorrow and get together with him around 2pm.
Went for my evening bike ride. It was a little bit too windy for the telescope tonight. I will have to think about building some kind of shelter for the scope where I can store all my astronomy books and equipment. Maybe even setup a computer in it with some astronomy software. Sounds cool!
Finished writing my column and sent it off to the newspaper. Wrote my blog, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Wednesday 10- Stoney called to ask me to come over later to move some old tool boxes from a shed to his work bench, he also said he wasn’t feeling well. I told him I’d be right over after I finished my exercises and ate breakfast. Did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights.
The Weather: Temps of around 58-81 with NW to S winds at 7-8mph. Humidity was around 25 percent, no clouds.
Went to Stoney’s to move them tool boxes and check on him. He seems to be ok now he says and will go to the Doctor tomorrow, but I’ll drop on over later on in the day.
Went to get my mail and then stopped off at Roger T’s home to pick up George’s payment for my dialup service he left with Roger. He showed me his old BMW motorbike he is restoring; it is mostly in pieces.
Then I stopped over at John’s to talk to him about a computer he wants to buy off of me. He is a contractor and designs and builds environmentally friendly houses, and he took me on a tour through his home: I was totally impressed! We talked about me creating a website for his company.
Ron D lives next door so I dropped in to say hi. He came out of the house talking on the phone when I drove up. Turns out he was calling me and was leaving a message on my answering machine! We split a salami sandwich that he got at Vons that was very good. We were sitting on his front porch jawing when Joan came by asking if I was there. She is having problems with the word processing program saying there is a red line on it deleting all her writings. So I moseyed on over to her house with her and showed her what had happened. She had pressed the insert key by mistake and it was over writing everything. I told her to press it again and the red line would go away. Helped her send an email because she was having problems doing that too.
Before I went home I stopped by Stoney’s and Roger S was there. Stoney was doing ok, so I sat and jawed with them for a while. We were swapping car stories. I told them about the one where I had a Porsche 914 and it seemed that everyone wanted to race me. Every day on my way to work I would go down this long hill and there would always be this motorcycle cop hidden off to one side waiting for his next victim to come speeding by, so I knew to go slow down that hill. So one day this lady cuts me off in this fancy sports car and waves as she goes by. We both stop at the stop sign at the top of that hill. So I revved up my engine making like I wanted to race her down the hill. She took off like a bolt of lightning and left me in a cloud of tire smoke and down the hill she went. I waved at her as I drove by slowly while the cop was writing her a ticket. I can be evil sometimes!
Went for my evening walk. Then watched “Wired” on PBS. About: trash found in the ocean and where it ends up; fighting fires with new technology; global warming and plant growth; and detecting lies with MRI.
Kath came by to drop off her new Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop that has a Mobile AMD Sempron 3600 processor, 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display, 512MB DDR2 SDRAM, 60GB SATA Hard Drive, and Windows Vista Home Basic. She wants me to set it all up for her to go online and clean out the crap that usually comes on a new computer. So I spent most of the night going through it. I never worked on Windows Vista but I did take an online class that went through the fundamentals of it. Kath never even opened it up because it was still sealed up in plastic. My first impression of the laptop was that it was made very well and sturdy. I lifted the lid and the machine came right on and I went through the process of setting up the users and connections. Vista is a real hog on memory and very slow with only 512Megs of RAM. When we ordered it I told Kath to get only 512Meg of RAM because we can purchase another 512Meg cheaper at Crucial.com, which would give her 1Gig. First thing I did was uninstall Norton and installed Avast antivirus. Then loaded up Firefox and a few of its add-on programs: Adblock Plus, Flashblock, and the Google Toolbar. Then I changed the system’s priorities to programs instead of graphics. Now it runs much better and we’ll keep it this way until we purchase more Ram.
Went for my nightly bike ride, wrote my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night!
Thursday 11- did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights.
The Weather: Temps of around 59-82 with NW to SE winds at 4-7mph. Humidity was around 29 percent, with Cirrus clouds.
Messed around with Kath’s laptop getting to know Vista better. I found that you could type msconfig into the search bar in “Start” and then click on the icon that appears. I found a few programs that didn’t need to be running and unchecked them. Went into services and disabled “Tablet” that was set on auto! Why they would have it running on a laptop that doesn’t use pen input escapes me.
Got the turn signals installed and working on the “Gross Polluter”. Found out the license plate light don’t work, so I’ll fix that tomorrow. Need to hunt around for a piece of plastic that I can cut out a window for the driver’s side that is missing. Almost got it ready for the road!
Checked up on my friend’s dogs while he is out of town, and then I stopped by Stoney’s to say hi and eat some of his Cheese-its.
Kath called asking about her laptop. I told her we need more memory for it, and she said to go ahead and order it. I went online and purchased 512Meg from Crucial.com. It should be here in five days or less.
Went for my evening walk. Watched “Nova” on PBS. About Samurai Swords and how they are crafted. Then I watched “CSI” on CBS. About a man and a woman were murdered in a sleazy hotel room and their daughters were missing.
Worked updating the website for a few hours. I designed a better webpage for Karen’s Corner, and put a counter on it too. Then I sent out the newsletter.
Went for my nightly bike ride, wrote in my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Friday 12- did my stretches and ran a mile.
The Weather: Temps of around 57-78 with NW to SW winds at 7-15mph. Humidity was around 35 percent, with Cirrus clouds and lots of dust.
Worked some more on the truck. Got the license plate light working: both were burnt out but I happened to have some that fit. Went over to Mac’s to get some plastic for the driver’s side window. We could find one sheet that would fit but it wasn’t big enough, so we scrounged around and found another that would fill the gap that was left. We sat around and jawed about Harleys for a while until he had to go pick up his son Dennis from school. I left there and checked on my friend’s dogs.
John the contractor came by and I returned the favor to him of last Wednesday and gave him a tour of my home and as he was leaving Joel showed up with my mail.
Went over to Stoney’s for dinner: we had Chicken Alfredo and watched “The Rifleman” on the Western Channel. Stoney likes his Westerns!
The wind was blowing lots of dust in the air, so I didn’t go for my evening walk. Worked on some computer stuff; odds and ends until “Numbers” on CBS came on. About a street racer who crashed his car into a shop full of people, killing one man.
I didn’t go for my nightly bike ride because I was asked by my friend who’s dogs I am watching to wait around to let some folks, who are from out of town, onto his property when they arrive. They came in around 1am and called me. I drove over to unlocked the gate and show them around. Nice folks who were amazed by all the stars and the Milky Way.
Got back home, wrote in my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Saturday 13- did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights. Feeling great today!The Weather: Temps of around 61-79 with NW to S winds at 7-9mph. Humidity was around 37 percent, with a few Cirrus clouds.
Took the plastic sheets that I got from Mac and started to work on the driver’s side window on the “Gross Polluter”. I was told that I need to cut it with a fine-tooth saw and that it would also fuse back together behind your cut: which it did. I decided after a few trial cuts to cut it at an angle so when it did fuse back it would be easier to break off: that worked. So I traced a rough outline of the window onto the plastic, cut it, sanded it, and stuck it in: it fit! Then I had to do the process on a smaller piece because the first sheet wasn’t big enough to cover the whole window. I was going to glue it together, but decided to drill three holes and use small bolts and nuts to hold it together. Came out looking mighty good and secure.
Went over to Stoney’s to show him my work on the plastic window: he was mighty impressed! Then we watched the last half hour of “Quigley Down Under” staring Tom Selleck and Laura San Giacomo. One of my favorite Westerns that I have never seen all of, just parts. I am going to buy the movie at Christmas time as a gift to myself.
Got home and called Mom and Dad. Dad was cooking dinner or shall we say microwaving frozen dinners for him and Mom. He’s like me: if it doesn’t come out of a can or box, we’re lost.
Went for my evening walk. Did some repair work on a computer I am getting ready to sell. Then went out side with the telescope the rest of the evening. Took a break to go for my nightly bike ride, and then went back to the telescope. I got to try out that 2” eyepiece that I almost mistakenly threw away. What a big difference it makes! I was able to view the whole Andromeda Galaxy and one of its neighbors all at once. Too cool! Also saw Mars but it was still to low on the horizon and the atmosphere was too unstable to get a good look at it. I stayed out late waiting for Orion to rise from the east so I could check out the Sword, which holds the Trapezium and the Orion Nebula that I am very familiar with to test out the telescope, but the winds started blowing before it got to where I could site it in. So I gathered everything up and went back inside where it was warm.
Wrote in my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Sunday 14- my day to chill out so I only did my stretches.
Jimmy called to yap about an ad he saw in the paper for gold coins at an unbelievable low price. I told him not to believe it then.
The Weather: Temps of around 61-80 with NW to E winds at 4-11mph. Humidity was around 35 percent, and clear.
Here’s my column I wrote for the newspaper:
By Bob DeLoyd
10/13/07
Our little Community always has stray critters roaming around, and
late on Wednesday 03 a dog came pawing at my front door: at first I
thought it was my Fat Cat trying to get in. It was one of them Pug
dogs, the kind with a flat face. My friend who was there with me said
she would take the dog home with her until I could check around the
neighborhood to see if someone is missing one.
The next day I left a note on my neighbor's gate asking him if he
is missing a dog. I remembered that he had a flat-faced dog of some
kind when I visited him once. Later I found my neighbor's number
(would have saved me the walk) and called him. He told me that he
isn't missing a dog, and that his dog is a Bulldog. Well I was close!
So if anyone is missing a young Pug dog please give me a call and
we'll get your pooch back to you.
Later I went for my evening walk and took that note off my
neighbor's gate. I went the long way around going over by the Marine
Base. As I was cutting through my neighbor Joyce Ware's property I
heard a honk from a car. Joyce was sitting in her car on the driveway
by her house. I moseyed on over and sat on the ground and yakked with
her, catching up on some lost time. Her car was full of groceries.
Joyce is in her late seventies and has a hard time walking; she uses a
walker now, so I helped her carry them into her home. We haven't
called each other in a long while so when I left I told her to call me
if she ever needs anything. I told her that I remembered her number
and recited it to her. She came right back and recited mine to me.
Joyce is a mighty fine lady and still has her wit!
Thought for the week: Sometimes it feels that we are traveling in
all directions going nowhere.
worked on Kath’s laptop transferring all her files over from her old computer to her new laptop. Tried to install a few programs that ran on XP over to Vista but they didn’t work right. So I’ll have to see if there are any updates for them online.
Did some more work on the truck. The spare tire is flat and I thought the spare tire for the other truck would fit: it didn’t. Now I’ll have to take it down town and have it repaired.
Checked up on my friend’s dogs to make sure they had enough food and water, then drove over to Stoney’s to recharge a battery and ate up all the rest of his Cheese-Its.
Didn’t go on my evening walk because this is my chill out day. Messed around in the yard watering plants and cleaning it up some.
Watched “Mystery: The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: In the blink of an eye” on PBS. About: a photographer who got shot in the head walking down a dark alley while on his way to a rendezvous with his killer. Sad ending on this one!
Mike from Hermosa called to jaw about computers and the job situation down in Los Angeles. Wrote in my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Monday 15- did my stretches and ran a mile. I have lots of work to do today!
The Weather: Temps of around 51-80 with NW to S winds at 2-14mph. Humidity was around 40 percent, and no clouds that I could see.
Went over to Joel’s to borrow his big truck to move my camper: I should have moved it before I put the camper shell on the “Gross Polluter”, but I wasn’t thinking. Moved the camper where the VW bus used to be. I also wanted to move my other truck with the blown transmission from the back of the house to the front. I had to pump up two flat tires with a bicycle pump; boy that tired me out. Had a problem trying to get it out of park: something had broken in the shifter, but I was able to dismantle it to where I could release it with a screwdriver. I then tied a rope to that truck and onto the big truck and started to pull it out. I went too far almost running into the house. I then had to put a tire between the two trucks and push it back and tied down the steering wheel. Back and forth, back and forth, for the better part of an hour, until I maneuvered it to where I wanted it. Now I am really tired!
Joan wanted a faster computer than the one I sold her. I got one the other day and took it over to her house, but stopped off at Ron D’s to see if he was interested in it first. We sat outside and jawed for a few: I needed the rest. And then went to Joan’s where I spent over an hour showing her how the new one works, and transferring her files over to it. I gave her credit for the other laptop I sold to her.
Was driving over to my neighbor’s to check on his dogs when I saw him on the road walking them. He is back from his vacation and thanked me for watching them. I told him I found his stash of Chips Ahoy cookies and that a few were missing.
I was mighty tired and hungry when I got back home. I made myself some pancakes and eggs, with lots of butter and syrup: comfort food. I laid down for a while, just resting; you know, that kind of rest where you’re half asleep with your mind wandering from here and there, time slips by, and the next thing you know it is late into the night.
My Brother called me up to chat. He is in the vending machine business and told me about some machines he had recently placed in good locations. Entrepreneurs like my Brother Kevin fascinate me. I myself just don’t have what it takes to be one. It is not my calling.
Wrote my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a day; an arduous one at that.
Here is my contribution to today's mass blogging event, Blog Action Day, where we write about how to make this a "Greener World":
Our little Community, with its cloudless skies most days of the year, is really a nice place to collect and use solar energy. I get a lot of calls and emails from folks asking me about my solar system every time I have mentioned my home is solar powered. It may not be for everyone, but I decided to put this together for those folks who are interested.
My system consists of :
1) Four 64 Watt, one 55 Watt, and two 40 Watt solar panels.
2) Two controllers that regulates the amps to the batteries so that they don't over charge.
3) Two 6 volt golf cart, and one 12 volt deep cycle batteries.
5) 1250-Watts dc to ac Power Inverter. 6) One 2500 watt Honda generator (for those real cloudy days and washing clothes)
It powers all my lights, which are LED 12 vdc and draw about an amp, I run Compact Fluorescents when needed. The LED's give me enough light to navigate around the house and for reading. I also use them outside on a timer. I don't really have to turn off the LED lights but I do so by habit.
I have a small freezer that opens from the top to keep the cold air from flowing out. I put "blue ice" in the freezer, and a 12 computer volt fan inside to circulate the cold air. I run it 1.5 hours a day during winter and 3 to 4 hours during summer.
I use a laptop computer because it is more energy efficient. I also have a printer, scanner, and other computer stuff.
I replaced my old 19-inch tube type TV with an energy efficient 17-inch LCD TV.
My system works well for me and I can always add to it if my power requirements alter.
Thought for the week: Out of necessity comes change.
Tuesday 16- did my stretches and lifted weights. The wind is really blowing strong, rising all kinds of dust and particulates into the air, not a good day for a run.
The Weather: Temps of around 59-74 with NW to W winds at 9-35mph and gusts up to 50mph. Humidity was around 36 percent, with a heavy fog like haze.
Tried to do some work on the camper shell of the “Gross Polluter”: It needs a hatch door for the back that I’ll cut from plywood. I spent a few hours trying to trace an outline on the plywood and cut it to fit, but the winds were making it very hard to work. I did finally have it cut to size when my font gate blew down landing on the truck. Luckily I wasn’t there when it happened! No damage but I then had to fix the gate. So I will continue to work on the hatch tomorrow.
Went over to Joan’s to help her with her computer. She called Ron at 7am in the morning waking him and asking for help with the laptop. I had talked to Ron earlier and said I’d look into it. She had just forgotten how to go online and also wanted me to change the cursor back to what it had been that she told me before was too small and I made it bigger, but now she was use to it being small. Got done with that and moseyed on over to Ron’s to jaw with him. He was cooking dinner and invited me to have some: it was mighty good!
Went on my evening walk despite the blowing wind. Had my camera but the sky was so muddied with a dust haze that I took no pictures. Then I watched “NOVA: The Ghost in Your Genes” on PBS. About epigenome and how they change genes by turning them on and off creating some genetic diseases in people. A very fascinating show I thought.
Wrote my column for the newspaper and sent it in, wrote in my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Wednesday 17- did my stretches and ran a mile. The wind is making it hard to complete all my exercises: lots of dust in the air, it gets into my eyes and lungs.
The Weather: Temps of around 56-74 with NW to W winds at 9-20mph and gusts up to 35mph. Humidity was around 36 percent, with a heavy fog like haze, again.
Had to wait around for UPS to deliver the memory for Kath’s laptop, so I went to work getting it ready for her to pick up later today. I made sure that the dialup was all configured and tested it, did some housecleaning of her files. UPS arrived a few hours later with the memory and I was just putting it into the laptop when Kath called to ask when she could pick it up. I said anytime she wants. I got the memory in and what a difference it makes! The system responds really well now than before when it had only 512RAM. So if you want to run Vista Home Basic you need at least 1Gig of RAM. The other versions of Vista probably require much more RAM.
Kath arrived to pick up her laptop and then I went over to Stoney’s for dinner: he made a chefs salad. Then I spent the rest of the day getting the “Gross Polluter” ready for the trip I will take later in the month sometime. I got the hatch bolted onto the shell, replaced the wiper blades, put the front license plate on, and did some other odds and ends that needed to be done.
The wind was still blowing into the night so I decided not to go for my nightly bike ride and stayed inside working on the computer, surfing the web, and just basically messing around. I was going to watch “Wired Science” on PBS, but the first one last week was kind of a letdown, for me anyways. Wrote in my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Seems like I’ve been way too busy to do any reading or my studies lately and I’ll have to correct that!
Thursday 18- did my stretches. Joan called to ask me if she could have the laptop back that she had just traded in for the faster one. I told her it was fine and drove on over to her house to give it to her. I also showed her how to transfer files from one computer to another.
The Weather: Temps of around 58-78 with NW to S winds at 4-7mph. Humidity was around 30 percent, and no clouds. Such a very nice day after all that wind we have had the last two days.
Took spare tire off the “Faithful Truck” that has a broken transmission to see if it would fit on the “Gross Polluter”: it didn’t. I tried it before but I just wanted to make sure.
Went over to Stoney’s for dinner. We had leftover salad; he also baked some peanut butter cookies for me to take home!
Updated the CopperMountainMesa.com website and sent out the newsletter. Here’s my column I sent to the newspaper:
By Bob DeLoyd
10/20/07
Our little Community has been really windy lately; when I was on my nightly bike ride going down the steep hill by my house I had to peddle my bike! Never had that happen before. It is a shame that it’s blowing so hard because the night sky was so crisp and full of brilliant shining stars and I couldn’t take my telescope out. It even blew down my front gate! I’ve heard my neighbors complain of having slight damage done to their property. And one neighbor couldn’t hang his clothes out to dry because they’d all end up in Arizona!
All this weekend will be a good time to watch for the Orionid Meteor Shower which will peak before Sunday morning when the earth passes through tiny grains of debris left over from Halley’s Comet. You should see around twenty to sixty meteors an hour as the night grows older coming from the radiant situated in the constellation of Orion, “The Hunter” from Greek mythology, on the eastern horizon.
Don’t forget that potluck will be next Saturday at 4pm. Our theme for this potluck is scary costumes, or just come as yourself; that may be scary enough. So come on down, bring some grub to share with the desert folk, and put the scare on some of your neighbors!
Thought for the week: When everything goes wrong. When good intentions go bad. When it seems that the earth will end in the next hour or so. It’s time to gather your thoughts, adjust your attitude to the positive, and eat some cookies!
Watched “CSI” on CBS about a young man found hanging by a lake; a skeleton found at a construction site; Grissom proposes to Sara Sidle!
Wrote in my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Friday 19- did my stretches, fed the Fat Cat, threw everything into the “Gross Polluter”, and hit the road for Tucson Arizona. Got gas in Twenty-nine Palms and left there at 12:20pm. Took hwy 62 to hwy 177 that ends at Desert Center; about a 100 miles drive. Decided to top off the gas tank and pulled into an old wreck of a filling station. Some old guy with a cowboy hat sitting in a chair in the shade of the station’s overhang, listening to some country radio show says, “Get yer gas then pay”. I saw the price and almost drove away: $3.99 a gallon, about a buck more then anywhere else! I only put $10 in, and then asked him where the restroom was. “Ours is broke. You’ll have to use the one down the street at the café”. Well I didn’t have to go that bad and if the gas station was what the rest of the town was like I didn’t want to go to no café there. Next time I will bypass Desert Center altogether. Got on Interstate 10 and hit the border of Arizona at 2:20pm.
Most of the trip was uneventful except for a few things. I was going down hwy 85 where there were just two lanes of traffic going opposite directions. One fool in a big white truck was passing a bunch of cars and was in my lane coming right at me and I had to pull over to the far right as I could to miss him. I gestured him with my finger as he sped by me. Another event was when I passed a car accident that was off to the side of the road with emergency vehicles at the scene. I saw a little girl of about eight in a soiled dress standing by one of the wrecked cars holding a doll in one hand and a Fireman’s hand in another as I drove by. I wondered if her parents were ok.
Arrived in Tucson around 6:30, but it took me another 40 minutes to get to my Parent’s home because of all the construction going on and the traffic. When I got to my Parent’s street I called my brother Kevin to come on over. This was our rendezvous point (it’s the only place I know in Tucson) where I’d follow him to his house where I’d be staying. Once I get my truck all situated at his house we went out and had hamburgers at Carl’s Jr. I had a Super Star and it was mighty good: I burped for a few hours afterwards. Then we went for an evening walk around his home. He showed me a lake where folks were fishing, and also a Jr. High School he went to. When we got back he fixed me up with wifi for my laptop so I could go online and ran a power cord to my camper shell. This is where I am writing this right now. What an interesting adventure! Now I think I’ll just rest my weary old body and go to sleep.
Saturday 20- woke up in my camper shell. I had a real nice sleep after all that driving I did yesterday. Did my stretches and went inside Kevin’s house to take a shower and wash off that road grime from my long trip.
Then Kevin and I went out for breakfast; I had biscuits and gravy, he had two orders of bacon. I wanted to meet his friend Ted because he sounded like a very interesting person to me. Ted had left two books over at my Brother’s house for him to read: “Stranger in a Strange Land” by Robert Heinlein, and “Childhood’s End” by Arthur C. Clark, that are two of my favorite Sci-Fi books. So we drove to Ted’s house for a couple of hours to talk about all kinds of wonderful scientific things. Ted is really a nice guy, highly intelligent, and full of interesting facts, he also has a white cat that befriended me. Ted’s house is full of cool gadgets that spin from the ceiling, bubble up fog, and rock back and forth. His walls are made of shelves that contain books on many kinds of subjects: my kind of person!
We stopped to get Crystal, Kevin’s daughter, and then went over to see Mom, Dad, and my sister Donna who I have never seen before. Donna was there with her Family all the way from Florida and hasn’t seen the folks for the past ten years or so. Donna and I are the only one’s who have blue eyes and blond hair: when I saw her eyes they looked just like mine, really cool! Then Shiela and Paula showed up and were surprised to see me: Shiela let out a big scream.
I wanted a Family portrait and to do this we needed Audrey, so Paula, Crystal, and I walked over to Audrey’s house and collected her. Then we all got in the living room, Mom and Dad, Shiela, Paula, Kevin, Donna, Audrey, and me, for the first time full Family picture ever! A lot of hugs and kisses today!
Kevin, Crystal, and I left for Carl’s Jr. where I had another Super Star hamburger; hey I’m on vacation and need to treat myself! We dropped Crystal off and watched some TV for a while. Then I crawled into the camper shell, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web and called it a night. Sorry if I didn’t go into to much detail of the Family get-together but I was kind of completely overwhelmed with joy at the time to really collect my thoughts, and I still am.
Sunday 21- woke up and did my stretches. Today our Family is having a barbecue at Kevin’s home and a bunch of folks related to me in one way or another are going to be there.
Again I am overwhelmed with joy and again I find it hard to collect my thoughts! So I will just post a few pictures of the event now and may add to this post later on when my brain has cooled off from all the excitement: I am a desert tech hermit with a fear of crowds and not use to these kinds of things.
I still have to remember some of their names too, because there are so many. I can truly say that there was a lot of love going around and a lot of my Kin who haven’t seen each other in many years were there, and some I have never seen before! I love them all!!!
Monday 22- woke up to a cold morning. Did my stretches, took a shower but the water wouldn’t get any hotter than body temperature, and ate some leftover steak while Kevin and I watched “Myth Busters” about a Chinaman astronomer of the fourteenth century who tied rockets to his chair and supposedly went into space. We went over to Mom and Dad’s for a visit and for me to say good-bye: Donna was also there and I gave her a big hug. I had decided last night that it was time for me to come home because it felt like the city was closing in on me and I am use to open spaces.
Kevin my wonderful brother helped me throw all my stuff into the camper shell and prepare the “Gross Polluter” for its journey back to Copper Mountain Mesa, the place I call my home. I followed him from his house to the main road out of Tucson or I would have gotten lost. Then it was around seven hours of sitting behind the wheel, dodging big rigs, and eating Stoney’s cookies that I had leftover from when I arrived in Tucson. The ride was uneventful and when I finally got to my front gate my Fat Cat was waiting for me and making quite a fuss.
I called a few folks to let them know that I arrived safely, cooked me up some oatmeal, wrote in my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night. I am mighty tired!
Tuesday 23- did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights. It’s nice to be back home and getting back into my routine!
The Weather: Temps of around 56-83 with winds mostly out of the NW at 4-7mph. Humidity was around 20 percent, with clear skies, but you could see smoke clouds billowing up on the other side of the mountains to the west from the fires at Arrowhead.
Spent most of the morning getting the house back to normal, well as normal as I’m use to, after my trip to Tucson, and watered all the plants.
Stoney dropped by on his way back from a visit with Mary to yak some about my trip and invited me over for dinner tomorrow. He said it was about time we had hamburger steaks with mashed potatoes and gravy: sounds good to me!
Started working on my class from HP that I’m really behind on, because of my trip to Tucson, called "Jump-start your creativity: exploring Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks". The class ends on Nov. 8th so I should have plenty of time to finish it, I hope. The class is suppose to help your take better notes and get you thoughts down on paper.
Called My brother Kevin to tell him what a wonderful guy he was and to thank him for putting me up when I was in Tucson.
Went for my evening walk. I turned on the news to see what was up with the fires in Southern California. I haven’t watched the news in a longtime and was only told about the fires yesterday night when I got home. It is a sad thing that all those folks had lost their homes and businesses. I only hope that the winds die down so that the firefighters can get a handle on it. I got an email from my dear friend Kula about the fires that kind of says it all and I’ll post it here:
” Just a quick note to let you know we are safe. We are about 20 miles from the nearest fire &, although we do live on a small canyon, we feel relatively safe. Our area is not that rural & the fire dept. made everybody clear their brush close to the houses.
What a sad situation here! So many fires. So much tragic loss. Our TV coverage is 24/7 & I'm sure you are getting a lot of news.
It is very, very dry now. Although L.A. is considered desert, I have never felt air so dry. My face feels like it is cracking (oh... maybe that's old age). The Santa Ana winds are a very high velocity wind that just makes fighting fires impossible, even with all this advanced equipment. And we had only 3 inches of rain in the last year! I forget what "normal" is here but everybody waters their lawns/plants/trees outside all year round. We never have enough rain to keep everything green during the dry season. So, long story short...dry vegetation, dry air, bad winds, arson...adds up to this disaster.
It's very creepy here. The sky is not blue, but a very strange color from the smoke. Many people are wearing protective masks outside. Many people are staying inside with A/C. My eyes are burning & my lungs feel heavy. My car is covered with thick dirt/dust/ash. The dust covers everything.
Flammable roofs are illegal in new construction. After every fire, stories come out about people that did not prepare, had lots of dry materials near their house, etc. But you hear stories also of those that were doing everything right & they were just unlucky. I feel so sad for the people losing homes.
It's depressing & sad. I pray the weather gets better to help the firefighters.
That's the update.
Pray for the homeless. “
I watched “Bones” on Fox about a decomposed body of the founder of a natural food store franchise found in a field where young couples go to make out.
Wrote my column. This took most of the night because I had nothing to write about: writers block I guess. I did eventually come up with something that was passable and sent it to the newspaper.
Mike from Hermosa called and we jawed for a while about him collecting and recycling bottles at a health club that he belongs to. Seems like the management gave him the ok to do it but the night supervisor told him not to do it. There is a lot of conflict between Mike and the night supervisor, and very confusing for Mike. Then I wrote my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Wednesday 24- did my stretches and lifted weights. I was going to ride my bike but the rear wheel was flat. It had a long rip on the side from rot I guess from some fifteen years of abuse. I will have to get a new one to replace it soon.
The Weather: Temps of around 59-89 with NW to NE winds at 3-4mph. Humidity was around 25 percent, with clear skies, and you could still see smoke clouds from all the fires west of the mountains.
I did some catching up on some emails, and called a few folks to let them know I was back in town and didn’t fall off the face of the earth. Going to Tucson is a strange experience for me and I still have to get use to the concept of having a Family that is kinfolk. I had only met my Family last December after being stolen from my Mother and put up for adoption fifty-six years ago by unscrupulous doctors and lawyers who did this horrible deed for profit, never minding what this does to the families involved, just get their money: Greed sucks! I didn’t even know that they were alive because I was told that they had died in a car crash. So I never looked for them, but they were looking and found me. Some day I may write a book on my experiences!
Dropped by Andrew’s and jawed for a bit. We decided to go for a walk with the dogs when I got back from Stoney’s. Then over to Stoney’s I went for dinner and to help him with his satellite TV programming. He wasn’t getting all the channels that he thought he should get. I call Direct TV to get him all setup with the channels he wanted. Then we ate hamburger steaks, mashed potatoes and gravy that were mighty filling. I did my laundry while I was there.
Andrew, me, and his dogs all went for an evening walk across the desert to the east towards the dry lake. We had to leave Snowball behind because he is too old for a long walk, he yelped as we went away from the house and seemed mighty sad that we left him. Andrew said he would take him on a short walk tomorrow evening. The dogs were really happy: sniffing this and peeing on that, and running free without the confines of a fence. We almost made it down to the dry lake but the sun was setting and we made our way back over the hills to Andrew’s where Snowball was waiting impatiently for us. We watched “Wired Science” on PBS where they used an HP printer to print up a heart using heart cells instead of ink, and it started beating after four hours when the process was complete! They should have called the show “Weird Science” instead!!! Then we watched the news about the fires in California. Seems like authorities had captured one arsonist, and had shot another suspect when he tried to ram a police vehicle. The wild fires are coming under control now that the winds are subsiding.
Got home late and fed the Fat Cat who was waiting at the gate for me; probably thinking that I had gone away again on a trip. Wrote in my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Thursday 25- did my stretches only because there were to many particulates in the air from the fire.
The Weather: Temps of around 57-86 with NW to S winds at 2-7mph. Humidity was around 25 percent, the wind had changed to an on shore direction bringing the smoke that drifted over the ocean our way.
Decided to go to town, so I jumped in the “Gross Polluter” and off I went. My first stop was at WalMart to get a tire for my bike but they didn’t have the kind I needed; the sales person said that it would be in next week. I almost bought a new bike, they are so cheep: $60, and the tire I needed was $13 plus the inner tube and the other tire on my bike will have to be replaced soon, but I decided to hold off and wait. So I just shopped around for the other stuff I needed. I was going down an aisle in electronics and a teenager was blocking my way playing air guitar with a headset on. His mom and I tried to tell him to move out of the way but he was oblivious to his surroundings, so I gave him a little nudge with my shopping cart and his mother went all ballistic saying how rude I was; I just ignored her and went on my way. Well his older brother, with shaved head and tattoos, came up to me and said I should apologize, I told him no I wouldn’t and that his mom blew it way out of proportion, and I continued my shopping. When I was leaving the store I saw this guy standing outside possibly waiting for me, so I motioned him to come over. He looked surprised but came over and apologized to me for acting like he did inside. I accepted his apology and said that I should have handled it better than I did, but no apology was coming from me for his unmindful brother. He really seemed like a nice guy afterwards. Went to Stater Brothers to pick up more supplies and headed home.
Went for my evening walk and rendezvous with Andrew and his dogs down the trail at the overturned car. He had brought Gina his girlfriend along. She works as a scheduler for the Space Shuttle engines at Pratt and Whitney, most be a fascinating job. Snowball was there too, limping along trying to keep up with the younger dogs; as you know from yesterdays post, we had to leave him behind because of the longer walk we went on and he was none too happy about that.
Watched “CSI” on CBS about a murder of a boxer whose career was at an end and was working at a whore house/bar/hotel putting on fights and having his way with the girls there. This was a rerun but it was one of the better ones.
Updated the CopperMountainMesa.com website, sent out the newsletter, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Friday 26- only did my stretches because of the fire pollutants in the air and it is worst than yesterday. I can only imagine that folks with respiratory problems are going through today. I’m going to keep my windows closed and stay inside.The Weather: Temps of around 57-82 with NW to SE winds at 2-8mph. Humidity was around 24 percent. The thick cloud of particulates from the fires that formed over our area yesterday had descended overnight, causing smog like haze all through the day. Our little community looks like Los Angeles did in the late sixties! The air was so heavy in particulates that I had to clean off my solar panels because of the layer of ash and crud on them were blocking any sunlight that came through the “smoke” cloud.
Decided to work on my online class from HP that I need to complete before November 8 called "Jump-start your creativity: exploring Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks" and spent all day on it until I had completed it all.
Here is my newspaper column:
By Bob DeLoyd
10/27/07
Our little Community doesn't want you to miss our Famously Fine
First Saturday Breakfast next Saturday! We got pancakes, eggs, sausage
and bacon, biscuits and gravy, hash browns, toast, and coffee to drink
till its coming out yer ears! So come on down, the eating starts at
8:30am.
Jerry Turnbough came by one day with some pictures he had taken
with a Polaroid camera: one of a ghost and one of Jerry with a halo
over his head. The ghost picture looks to me like an old lady with a
hunched back holding a cane in her right hand and I found it more
believable than Jerry having a halo! Then we got to jawing about hot
sauce. Jerry said that the hottest hot sauce is Dave's Insanity Sauce.
It was "band from the National Fiery Foods Show for being too hot"! We
went online to YouTube.com and watched folks (mostly college kids) as
they stuck a spoonful of the stuff into their mouths. At first they
seem fine but just a little flustered, then it really starts to take a
hold of them, their eyes watered up and then a few moments later they
are running around waving their hands and pouring water down their
mouths. They usually end up puking their guts out. One kid in a
college dorm did at least four spoonfuls and we both wondered if he
survived! Jerry and I had some great laughs watching them poor
unfortunate kids suffer! On the bottle there is this warning: "Use
this product one drop at a time. Keep away from eyes, children and
pets. Not for people with heart or respiratory problems." Now that's
scary!
Birthdays for the month of November: Bill Stonebraker, Joel Levy,
and Jan Bonner.
Thought for the week: When in doubt always be nice.
Went for my evening walk. Then watched “Numbers” on CBS about a Robin Hood who broke into a vault that stores private lock boxes, of which he only broke into certain ones. Wrote in my journal, posted it to the web and called it a night. Right now I have a slight headache, my eyes are watering, and inside my home I can smell smoke from the fires.
Saturday 27- did my stretches and lifted weights; still to much smoke in the air for me to do any running.The Weather: Temps of around 56-77 with N to SW winds at 1-3mph. Humidity was around 35 percent. The “smoke” cloud haze was still hanging around all day but seemed to dissipate a little by the early evening when some altocumulus mackerel clouds came over.
I got a call from some folks who were down at the community center wanting to know where to put items that they want to donate. I drove down to collect their donations and met them in the parking lot. They were a nice older couple; their names were Buster and Peggy. Buster is a photographer who makes postcards of pictures he takes of the desert: you have probably seen them in stores and at the Joshua Tree visitors center. We stood around and jawed about photography for a while after I filled my truck with their donations. They told me of their son who lives in the mountains by Bishop Ca. who is also into photography.
My Brother called with some disturbing information about one of my sisters who took ill during the night but is ok now. I called her house and talked to her husband just to make sure. I’ve only known them less than a year and would be mighty upset if something happens to any one of them because I love them all dearly!
Went over to Joan’s to install Advast anti-virus on her laptop, and dropped by my friend’s house to water his garden while he is away on vacation. I will let it soak for an hour till I come back from potluck.
Went to potluck where there was around 20 desert folks who showed up to feast on the vittles that they all brought. I think I ate to many sweets because I had a sugar rush the rest of the evening. Took all of Buster and Peg’s donations into the Thrift Room where Marcie started selling them right then and there. I stopped off at my friend’s house to turn off the water and called Mom and Dad to make sure everything was fine with my Sister.
Went for my evening walk. Did some work on a desktop that Judith had brought by yesterday at 8am in the morning! I don’t get up till 10am and was half asleep when she came by, so I didn’t write about it that day because I had done forgot about it.
There was nothing worth watching on the tube so I just played around with the computers doing updates and surfing the web. I wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Sunday 28- did y stretches and ran a mile finally! The air quality was so much better today then the last few days when the smoke from the fires made it unhealthy to do any kind of strenuous exercises.
The Weather: Temps of around 59-84 with NW to S winds at 3-6mph. Humidity was around 27 percent. There were Cirrus uncinus that are at a high altitude and look like mare’s tails.
Lazy day today. I did some watering and yard work and then worked on Judith’s computer for a spell. Called Stoney to yap with him, and called my brother Kevin too.
Went for my evening walk and listened to some physics lectures that I had downloaded from UC Berkley, not that I understand any of it but I’m hoping that some of it might rub off on me; must always keep trying. Then I watched “Nature: Silence of the Bees” on PBS about why are bees disappearing and what is being done about it.
Messed around on the computer surfing, wrote my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Monday 29- did my stretches, lifted weights, and ran a mile.
The Weather: Temps of around 59-84 with N to SE winds at 2-9mph. Humidity was around 31 percent. There were altocumulus clouds throughout the day.
Did some computer work and then got to rereading the chapters on Quantum Physics in “Coming of Age in the Milky Way”. About time I got back to my studies that I’ve been away from for a few months.
Went over to Stoney’s for dinner and helped him clean his stove. We had rice with chili leftover from potluck mixed in it.
Went for my evening walk and listened to more of the physics lectures. When I got home I continued reading for a while. Then went online to catch up on some emails I been meaning to answer.
Decided to go for a night run up the hill because I still haven’t fixed the flat on the bike and I needed to expend some built up energy. I also wanted to see the new comet 17P/Holmes that literally exploded onto the scene at 2nd-magnitude in the constellation Perseus. The far-off comet expanded to the size of Jupiter by unknown reasons and is visible to the unaided eye. But no joy because the clouds were blocking the skies in that direction and the moon was just coming up and would bleach out the night sky. It was a really nice run and I felt mighty good afterwards.
Wrote in my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Tuesday 30- did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights.
The Weather: Temps of around 59-77 with NW winds at 7-9mph. Humidity was around 40 percent. There was a scattering of altocumulus clouds throughout the day.
Started writing my column for the newspaper collecting items for it online. Then continued rereading the chapters on Quantum Physics in “Coming of Age in the Milky Way”. I feel like I’m getting back into my study routine and it feels agreeable, as if I’m accomplishing something.
Went for my evening walk and listened to more of the physics lecture. Like I said before: I don’t understand much of it and the teacher talks mostly in chalk (meaning that he is writing equations on a blackboard that I cannot see while he is speaking), but it still is interesting to listen to. He was lecturing on the Schrödinger equation and time-dependence (some is and some are not dependent on time?) of Quantum physics. My tiny brain will have to look this one up.
Watched “Nova : Marathon Challenge” on PBS about: Can normal folks run a marathon. Nova took twelve basically unfit folks off the street and put them in training for the Boston Marathon. This was well worth watching, seeing these people go through the riggers of nine months of training. One lady, Betsey Powers-Sinclair 41, was seventy-five pounds over weight, and they almost had to let her go at the beginning because her heart had an irregular beat when they tested her on a treadmill. If you want to see if Betsey makes it, the show will repeat this Friday night at 10pm. well worth the watch for any “couch potatoes” thinking that they can’t do it!
Went outside to observe comet 17P/Holmes. I wanted a quick look see so I may write about it in my column so I used my little telescope instead of setting up the big one. Then I finished my column and set it to the newspaper. This is what I wrote about the comet:
” The comet 17P/Holmes has literally exploded onto the scene at
2nd-magnitude in the constellation Perseus. The far-off comet expanded to the size of Jupiter by unknown reasons and is visible to the unaided eye. You can see this little puffball by facing northeast, looking up for Cassiopeia (the sideways M in the sky) then going down and to the right from the bottom star of the M about 15 degrees (hold out your fist at arms length with thumb and little finger extended) to Perseus. Good comet hunting!”
Went for a run up the hill, wrote in my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Wednesday 31- did my stretches, ran four miles and it felt good (I guess that program on Nova last night gave me some motivation), and lifted weights.
The Weather: Temps of around 56-77 with NW to E winds at 4-8mph. Humidity was around 36 percent. There were no clouds.
Was doing some work on Judith’s computer transferring some files off of it that she wants, when Stoney call to ask if I wanted to go to WalMart: he picked me up soon afterwards. WalMart had my bike tire in stock that they didn’t have last week when I was there. Now I can go for my nightly bike rides that seems to help with my hamstring problem I get from running. We ran into a friend of Rufus nicknamed Judge and we jawed with him. Rufus had passed on last year and was a mighty nice guy, and Judge seems to be the same. Then we stopped by Stater Brothers and I picked up a few items that I forgot the last time I was there.
Did some more reading of “Coming of Age in the Milky Way” then I went for my evening walk, dang I forgot to bring my iPod with the physics lectures.
When I got back I fixed the bike tire, did some more reading, and listened to those lectures. Watched “Wired Science” on PBS about: artificial blood that is made of perfluorocarbon-based molecules; CAT scans of fossils; a guy who calls himself Mr. Megavolt that plays with Tesla coils; and sensors that are placed around cities that detect gunfire.
Went for my nightly bike ride (finally) and then took out the small telescope to check on comet 17p/Holmes. It seems to me that the comet has moved in relation to the nearby stars of last night. I will look at it tomorrow and see if this is so. Wrote in my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
