Welcome to the Year 2008!- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights. Nice way to bring in the New Year!
The Weather: Temps of around 31 to 55, calm winds, humidity around 27 percent, with altocumulus clouds thickening throughout the day.
I really went to work cleaning up the large trailer moving everything out of it and then cleaning. I have a whole lot of repairs to do to the inside: ripping out the rotted walls, replacing the wiring, and thinking about how I want to remodel it. I may gut the whole insides. While I was working Dale called from Landers and we yapped while I worked.
I called my Family to wish them a Happy New Year: Talked to Shiela who is getting over her cold. Called Mom and Dad. Then called my brother Kevin; we talked for a spell and I told him how great the holidays now felt to me than on previous holidays before I knew I had a Family. Called a few others who weren’t home but left messages.
Went for my evening walk and when I got back I called and said hi to Tom and Aki.
Went over to Stoney’s to eat those black-eyed peas that are suppose to make us prosperous in this new year. Watched a show called “Dirty Jobs” about this guy who goes and works at different jobs that are mainly pretty dirty and full of slime. Neat show!
Got home and did some computer work. Called Kath and we jawed for a while about her troubles with Verizon and how they screwed up her phone system. Then I did my stretches, lifted weights, went for my nightly run, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Wednesday 2- did my stretches and ran two miles.
The Weather: Temps of around 31 to 57, calm winds, humidity around 26 percent, with altocumulus clouds most of the day and covering the whole sky by evening.
Decided to go and check out Home Depot now that the crowds had gone. I needed to purchase a few 6ft 1by 12s for shelves and a desk I am planning to build. Wow! That place is huge! So huge and with so much stuff to look at that I was so awed by the immensity of the place when I first walked in that I forgot what I came after! It is so nice that we have a big building supply store here in our area now. Bar Lumber in Yucca Valley was just way too small and you play hell trying to get service and once you got your order you’d have to drive your truck inside their small lot and hope to find someone to help you fill your order and the place was crowded with other folks waiting in their trucks creating a big bottleneck. I usually went to Bar Lumber in 29 because it was more accessible and you were in and out a lot faster. But Home Depot you just get a big cart and stick the stuff on it that you want, checkout, and wheel it to your truck, plus they have service folk all around to help you. I like Home Depot!
Stopped over at Lee’s on my way home to install his new printer but he wasn’t there. Seimi drove up and we jawed in Lee’s driveway for a while talking about Hoss and Sandy. Hoss had passed away last week and we were worried about Sandy’s condition. Got home and went on my evening walk over to my neighbor Ron M. who lives a quarter of a mile away. He has a bunch of Airstream trailers that he is refurbishing and I wanted to get some tips from him before I start tearing my trailer apart.
Did some computer work, did my studies reading my physics book- I’m on the chapter about light, prisms, and lenses. Did my stretches and lifted weights, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Thursday 03-did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
The Weather: Temps of around 33 to 56, calm winds, humidity around 35 percent, with altocumulus clouds covering the whole sky. Looks like we may have a rainstorm coming in tomorrow. NOAA has issued high wind warnings for our area of 15 to 25 MPH with gusts up to 40! Better cover and tie everything down!!
Yesterday I went to Home Depot and bought this LED light to checkout, well it worked so good I drove down there and bought nine more of them. I also purchased some clay bricks that I will use on my front door steps. I only got twenty of them to begin with so I could see just how many I’d need. I dropped over to water my friend’s garden and talked to Joan who came by to pay three months of her dialup. Now if everyone could be like that it would make things a little easier for me.
When I got home I got cracking at putting a few of the LED lights up, and wow it’s like having glasses and seeing clearly for the very first time: they really brighten up the place. I put them over my work areas. Two of them I put over where I write my column for the newspaper, pay bills, make purchases, and do my dialup ISP service- I use a this computer for all that and don’t use it to experiment on new stuff or surf the web. I put another two in my computer room where I fix folks computers. One went in the kitchen and another went in my bedroom where I write my blog, experiment with new stuff and surf the web.
Went for my evening walk and then went over to Stoney’s for dinner. He had made spaghetti. He invited Roger S. over but he had a cold so I took a plate of it over to him and handed it to him through the door and left quickly: I don’t want to catch another cold! Stoney and I watched a program on the Science Channel about robots.
Continued to install the LED lights that I mentioned above. Got out the physics book and completed the chapter on lenses. Then I got caught up on my reading of “365 Starry nights” and finished December and started reading it all over again like I have done for the past two years. In the book they have something to do for every night and every time I read it I learn something new.
Did my stretches, lifted weights, did my nightly run- I ride my bike in the daytime now because it is to dangerous riding it at night and my right knee seems to be ok now to do night running. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Friday 04- did my stretches and ran two miles.
The Weather: Temps of around 38 to 58, winds out of the S to SW at 4 to 21 MPH, humidity around 34 percent, with altocumulus clouds covering the whole sky. NOAA has issued a flash flood warning at 8pm to 2am Saturday morning, but I haven’t seen a drop yet!
Did the weekend update for the CopperMountainMesa.com website and sent out the newsletter. Here’s this Saturday’s column:
By Bob DeLoyd
01/05/08
Our little community has heard that longtime resident Hoss Kuhn passed on the night of Friday 28 at the High Desert Hospital. Hoss was a gentle giant who loved his motorcycles and his wife Sandy. Hoss had helped out at the USDA food distribution for many years until he fell ill. We all knew he was going to go soon but not this soon; just a few weeks ago Hoss threw a big birthday bash for his beloved Sandy. We all will miss him riding his cycle, roaring down Winters Road with Sandy on the back holding him tight.
I made my “Famous” sweet potatoes with raisins, maple syrup, butter, and brown sugar, which everyone liked last Thanksgiving (at least they said they did). I got everything together and headed on down to the community center for potluck. Let me see; there was Rick and Bob Seeley, Bob Stonebraker and his Family, Judy Bowman, Rose, Lee and Marcie Hines, two couples that I’ve never met before: one couple lives on Daisy Lane over by Bob Seeley and the other lives down on Winters Road by the well. Gosh, I am sorry that I don’t remember their names (must be the cold weather). The couple that lives on Winters had grown up in Torrance where I did some of my growing up too. Marcie brought some macaroni with hamburger, and Clarice Stonebraker brought her extra crispy lasagna, she blamed it on a John Wayne movie she was watching at the time, the cheese was a little burnt but it was still great. There was coffee, two kinds of pies, and when everyone had their fill we all sat around and jawed for a spell. There were no sweet potatoes left!
Thought for the week: Life is full of possibilities; you just have to choose them carefully.
I got everything ready for the rains and wind we’re suppose to get later on this evening. When that was taken care of I started ripping out a dry rotted wall in the trailer. There is this kind of insulation that the builders used that has gone to dust and gets airborne easily. I really don’t want to breathe this crap into my lungs, so I ain’t going to do anymore gutting until I get a mask of some sort to keep these nasty particulates out of me!
Called Stoney, he went to 29 to eat Chinese with Mary, and he said the folks there at the Chinese place were mighty glad to see him again and treated him and Mary like family.
Went for my evening walk. I can’t seem to find my iPod with all those lectures on it. I haven’t seen it since I got back from Tucson. Bummer! Did some reading of the physic book and fell asleep while reading it. Woke up and was reading it again when my long lost friend Larry Carlock called to tell me that he was coming for a visit tomorrow! Yikes! Spent the rest of the night trying to make my home presentable. That meant putting stuff away that has been lying around for ages and doing a little cleanup here and there. At least now it looks more like a controlled disaster than a bomb blast! Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run up the hill. Last night and tonight I’ve been hoping to see some of the Quadrantid meteor shower that was suppose to peak around 11pm yesterday with an hourly rate of 120 meteors, but the clouds spoiled it, dang! Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Saturday 05- it’s my day off from exercising so I just did my stretches.The Weather: Temps of around 40 to 57, winds out of the S at 11 to 14 MPH, humidity around 40 percent, with altocumulus clouds covering the whole sky again. It rained sometime last night after I went to bed at 2:30am and the time I woke up at 9:30am, not much rain but it is sure welcomed.
While I was waiting for my long lost friend Larry Carlock to arrive I installed some more of those LED lights in the kitchen and read in my astronomy book.
Larry Carlock arrived with his son Lee and his daughter Brianna and I gave them the grand tour of my home. We sat around and jawed of old times and people and places we have been. We played a little guitar too! Lee is in the Marines and may be stationed out here in 29. Larry and I talked about the time when we went for our first (and my last) sky diving trip out to Paris California. On the way there we stopped at a liquor store and happen to see a picture in a newspaper of an expert skydiver hanging from electric power lines (it was his last jump) and we wondered if this was a bad omen. We arrived at the airport, got trained in skydiving and rode a plane high up for our first jump. I was the first to dive out of this perfectly functional aircraft, with my feet dangling out of the plane waiting for the word “GO” and when it came I felt like not jumping, really, but also thought if I didn’t I would feel like a real loser, and the next second I found myself pushing off and falling through the air! We were on static lines and the chute opened up automatically with a quick jolt, and I was floating towards the ground. It was really quiet and I was enjoying it until I looked down and saw that I was over some kind of factory bordered by electric power lines running alongside a freeway! Yikes! I had to maneuver my chute away from these hazards and run with the wind, which increased my speed. When I hit the ground I was going way too fast and injured my right leg. A few minutes later the instructor landed not more then 10 feet away standing up like Superman without even a bounce. He asked me if I was ok, and I said sure. Later Larry told me that after I left the plane the pilot and instructor were a little worried that they may have had dropped me off a little too soon- I can tell you that they did! Larry went on to make another 140 jumps in his skydiving career, and I got to walk around on crutches for two weeks afterwards.
It was time for Larry and his kids to leave and we all said our goodbyes and promised to stay in touch. Hopefully we can plan some exciting trips hiking and doing other crazy things. You only go through life once!
Went over to Stoney’s to help him finish off that spaghetti he cooked two days ago. Called my Mom and Dad from there but the cell phone had a weak signal and I had to use Stoney’s landline. After dinner he started watching “MASH” on the tube and I decided to leave before I got sucked into that.
Got home and read two chapters in the physics book on light waves, the Doppler effect, and spectral lines. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Sunday 06- it was really windy and cold outside so I decided to forgo the running, weights, bike riding, and just did my stretches.
The Weather: Temps of around 42 to 53, winds out of the SW at 14 to 21 MPH with gusts up to 35, humidity around 57 percent, with stratocumulus and then nimbostratus clouds later in the evening bringing us a good rain around 10pm.
Well I didn’t want to do any work outside because of the winds so I did some work on my website updating this and that and some of the memorials I’ve been meaning to add. This took most of the day. I also enrolled in an HTML online course so that I may stay updated on some of the new stuff that they add now and then. It keeps me in practice because I use NotePad as my editor to write my HTML. I write out my own HTML on this blog.
Setup Larry's daughter Brianna on my dialup service.
It is pancake Sunday! I make pancakes every Sunday for a treat for dinner. Lots of butter and syrup with an egg on top is how I like it. Called my brother Kevin while I was cooking, told him about that property in Bisbee AZ. and asked if he could do a search on it and see if he could find any info on it in the county records.
Read the physics book well into the night completing a chapter and a few pages into the next one, which is about Relativity. No evening walk because of the winds. I still haven’t found my iPod. I guessing that it may have fell out of my jacket when I was fixing that flat tire on the freeway coming back from Tucson. Who knows, it may still show up somewhere in my house.
At around 10pm it started raining pretty hard. I didn’t hear it at first because I was practicing my guitar. I got Fat Cat inside and I started writing my blog.
I was doing an online chat with Andrew when his electric power went out around 11:15pm and he had just enough juice in his laptop to chat for a few minutes before it went dead. I looked outside to see if all the lights of my neighbors were out and they were; it was very dark outside and I thought if it wasn’t for the rain and clouds I’d be taking out the telescope! I’ve been wanting to take out the scope since the New Year began but it has been cloudy every night! So I guess I’m the only one with electric power in my neighborhood. Solar power has its advantages!!!
Wrapped up writing to my journal, posted it to the web, and will just listen to the pleasant sound of rain hitting my roof for a while before calling it a night.
Monday 07- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights. The air was fresh after the rain and it felt good to exercise after two days of rest.
The Weather: Temps of around 37 to 51, winds out of the W to NW at 11 to 12 MPH, humidity around 50 percent, with cumulus clouds.
Stoney called to tell me that the electric power came back up at 7:15am and that he got mighty cold last night because of his electric blanket didn’t work.
I was out on the porch when I heard this hissing noise coming from around my propane tank. So I went to investigate by putting my ear down by the tank. It didn’t seem to be coming from there and I kept my head down listening for the direction of the noise and found a small horned rattlesnake curled up hissing and rattling! I talked to him and it seemed to calm him down. I got a bucket and a long stick and nudged him into the bucket without any problems: he was mighty docile. I carried him off down to an empty field and released him where I thought he’d find some of them mice that keep pestering my home.
Wrote my column for the newspaper and sent it to them. Did some work on the website updating the calendar and correcting a few mistakes here and there.
Went for my evening walk and when I got back I sat in my camper for a while just for a change of scenery and remembered that I had spent about six years living in a camper that was parked in a lot by the beach where I worked as a security guard at a apartment complex. I had lived on a boat for many years until the city kicked us all off the moorings where we had our boats, and I had to move into the camper. I then decided to save and invest every cent I made so I could move out to the desert and be self-sufficient. I held down two fulltime jobs for those six years living very frugally and enjoying the beach when I could. I worked the graveyard shift and got off at 5:30am. While I was sleeping Surfers would stand by the fence by my camper to checkout the surf and talk about girls and somehow all this got incorporated into my dreams: I had many a strange dream about surfing, parties, and girls!
My brother Kevin called to say that he drove down to Bisbee to checkout that property that I was thinking of buying! Wow! The reason he went down there was that he couldn’t find anything on the property online and dropped by the County Assessors and Zoning Departments. Kevin found out that you need at least four acres to build a structure and this was a two-acre parcel. He tried to get to the property but had trouble even in 4wd and had to turn back after taking a few pictures of what could have been the property. The only good thing was that it wasn’t in a flood plain; the rest was all bad news. In his opinion he said I shouldn’t purchase this one and I agreed! I really wasn’t expecting him to drive 90 miles to Bisbee to check it out, but he did, and I love him for that!
Spent some time writing a response to an email sent by Ted about cosmology, the Big Rip, and Branes (M-Theory. I may be all wrong but this is my response:
In my opinion we are at a place in physics not unlike the years before Kepler where astronomers were shifting from a geocentric to a heliocentric system. In the geocentric system astronomers were using epicycles to explain away the retrograde of the planets.
The heliocentric system explained reality (what was being observed) much better than the geocentric but it still had a flaw: circles. Working with circles astronomers had to come up with many “fixes” to explain away the discrepancies until Kepler’s ellipses.
I believe that this is what’s happening today, in that physicists building upon an imperfect system that partially explains reality and are trying many “fixes”. There have been many cusps like this in history: heliocentric system, Newton’s laws, relativity, and the string theory are all close cousins in this respect I believe. Also I think we are on the verge of some break through, which will be elegant and folks will say, “Why didn’t I think of that” because it will be so simple and obvious just like relativity.
I like the string theory but not some of the “Epicycles”!
Did my studies completing two chapters in the physics book and read a little astronomy. Then I did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run up and down the hill. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Tuesday 08- did my stretches and ran two miles.
The Weather: Temps of around 36 to 49, winds out of the S at 6 MPH, humidity around 30 percent, with stratocumulus clouds.
When on my run it was sunny so when I got back home I opened the windows to air out the place. But it wasn’t long before the clouds blanketed the sky. I was on the computer doing some work and I noticed a chill and that my batteries were running low. I have my refrigerator on a timer and I had set it for three hours, and now it was sucking up all the juice because there wasn’t enough sunlight getting to my solar panels. I turned off the refrigerator and computer to let my batteries charge up so I could have power for tonight. Those clouds came in quickly bringing with it a cold chill. The house was cold so I went in my bed to stay warm and read some of that physics book. Stoney called to say dinner was at 4pm. I continued to read till it was 4pm.
Went to Stoney’s and brought my laundry to wash. We had fried chicken that he got at Staters; they fry some mighty good chicken there! We watched a few episodes of “Dirty Jobs” that we really enjoy watching. Chris came by and I gave him the checks that Sandra had donated to the community center and sent to me, and Chris will take them to bingo and give them to Maryhelen.
Got home and continued to read till it was time for my evening exercises. Did my stretches, lifted weights, went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Wednesday 09- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
The Weather: Temps of around 37 to 55, winds out of the NW at 7 MPH, humidity around 30 percent, mostly sunny.
Did a few things on the computer and read some physics. Went over to Lee’s to install a printer for him but he was asleep in bed so I couldn’t do that and I talked to his wife Marcie some. She runs the thrift room over at the community center and I asked her if she had any dishtowels over there that I could have. Marcie had some new ones in storage and gave me a few; that was very nice of her!
Went over to check on my friend’s home while he is away and used his phone to call my Sisters Paula and Shiela. Afterwards I dropped over to Stoney’s and gave him a LED push light for his bedroom in case the electric goes out and he won’t have to stumble around in the dark again. He was in his clock trailer working on an anniversary clock when I drove up. “Them are hard to work on” he told me, “and the parts are hard to come by.” We sat around and jawed a spell before I had to leave and go for my evening walk.
When I went for my walk the sun was just setting and I remembered reading somewhere that the twilight lasts till the sun is 19 degrees below the horizon, and I also read elsewhere that the earth moves 15 degrees east every hour. So I figured that twilight would last for a little over an hour, and it did. Cool!
Did some more reading of the physics book and then watched “Law and Order Criminal Intent” that was a rerun that I haven’t seen yet! Detectives Goren and Eames are called to investigate a shooting of a police officer, who turns out to be the old partner of Eames deceased husband, an undercover agent, shot during a drug bust. Goren, who is on “personal leave” comes back to help solve the case and causes hard feelings in the department when he questions the testimonies of a fellow officers and reopens Eames husband’s case. Damn good as always!!!
Did my stretches, lifted weights, and ran up the hill and back. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Thursday 10- got woken up by Linda S. telling me that our neighbor John’s house had caught fire and that the fire department had put it out. Well there goes my exercise routine for today! I jumped in the Gross Polluter and quickly headed over thinking on the way that there would be just a slab of cement left, but I got there and it seemed pretty much intact. An investigator from the San Bernardino County met me at the gate and asked me if I knew the owner. I told him that I did, that John moved to Oregon in late December but didn’t leave any phone number with me. I told him I had the keys to the house (I brought the wrong set of keys) and that John left a message that I was to let in some folks that wanted to see it last week but they never called me. Then he asked me when was the last time I was in the house, and I told him that would be last October. We went into the house and it was a complete mess; south side of the house was burnt pretty badly and the floor was burnt through where the couch was, and the rest had smoke damage. The microwave that is in the kitchen on the north side far from the fire was melted. I found a For Sale sign outside with John’s number on it and I gave it to the investigator, and I called to tell John the bad news when I got back home. We figured it was started by a light he had on a timer that had shorted somehow and had caught the couch on fire that had created a lot of smoke at first, this was noticed by the neighbors who called the fire department, who must have arrived just as the couch and the rest of the place reached its flash point and burst into flames. I came back to John’s with plywood and a bunch of nails and was boarding up the house when Linda S. came by with her boyfriend to take pictures to send to John. She told me that the fire started at around 7am and that the fire trucks came from Joshua Tree instead of from Lear which would have been 10 minutes faster. In all I spent four and a half hours on this disaster, but mostly I feel mighty sad for John who was hoping to sell it and have some money for his retirement.The Weather: Temps of around 38 to 60, winds out of the N to NW at 2 to 7 MPH, humidity around 37 percent, clear.
Went for my evening walk- still haven’t found that iPod- saw the crescent moon at sunset. Then I spent the rest of the evening reading a few more chapters in the physics book.
I forgot to mention that last night I took out the small telescope for a brief time. It was after my nightly run, so it was late, but the sky was clear of clouds. Mars was at my zenith and I couldn’t bring the scope into position to see the planet. So I just messed around going from one constellation to another until I got too cold and went inside.
Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Friday 11- did my stretches, ran two miles, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
The Weather: Temps of around 42 to 65, winds out of the N to NW at 3 to 4 MPH, humidity around 35 percent, clear. Looks like we’re headed for a warming trend, but look out for some winds.
I spent the afternoon working and updating the CopperMountainMesa.com website, included a new column on the front page: “Letters From Kenya” About: Annelies Kuiper lives in our little community and is a professional writer: "Kenya Cowgirl" Uhuru International 1990. Also she is a board member of the Copper Mountain Mesa Association. Annelies has decided to return to her place of birth "Kenya" and wants to share her adventure with us. Kenya has been going through a period of unrest lately and we all hope for the safety and well being of our neighbor Annelies. Then I sent out the newsletter.
I started my HTML online class and finished lesson one. Went for my evening walk and took another route this time to the north towards the Marine base.
Finished up the last two chapters in volume II “Light. Magnetism, and Electricity” of the physics book and will start on volume III tomorrow. Then I did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run.
I watched “Numbers” on CBS about a kidnapping of a woman reporter who was about to release a story exposing corruption of some sort when she went missing, and it was up to Charlie to figure out what it was, but he becomes a target of the kidnappers.
Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Saturday 12- did my stretches, ran three miles, rode my bike, and lifted weights.The Weather: Temps of around 42 to 66, winds out of the NW to SE at 2 to 4 MPH, humidity around 30 percent, clear.
I was doing some experimenting with a couple of my computers when Roger T. calls to ask if I wanted a free woodstove. He said it was a good one with an electric fan, but it was on the second floor of his house and needed help getting it down. I told him that I’d come over for a look-see and that I’d help him carry it down the stairs even if I didn’t want it. Drove to my mailbox a collected the mail first then went to Roger’s. Yes it was a good one, a lot better than my present one and a lot bigger too! The dang thing was heavy but we managed one step at a time coming down the stairs and manhandled it into my truck. We jawed for a spell and I remembered that I have an air conditioner that is still in the box that I had bought at WalMart. I thought that I could use it but it drew too many amps from my batteries and I just boxed it back up. I asked if he wanted it for free and he said yes. I told him that the next time I come over I’d bring it. What goes around comes around!
Stopped to check on my friend’s house who is away for a few weeks and called Larry Carlock and yapped with him for a while. Called my Mom and Dad too. Then I drove on over to Stoney’s for dinner. He had cooked up breaded hamburger steaks with mash potatoes and gravy. We even had some ice cream! Stayed there for a while watching the Science Channel about weight lifters.
When I got home it was dark and the night sky was clear so I took out the big telescope and started searching for comet 8/p Tuttle. I had everything setup, I had my big and little telescopes, my laptop with an observatory program running, and a small pair of binoculars. I had to wait for the waxing crescent moon to set before I could make out the constellations in that part of the sky. So I watched as the moon set around 9:15pm passing behind the mountains to the west and seeing the trees on the ridge as the moon slid passed them. Mighty cool! I do this all the time and never tire of it. The comet was in the constellation Cetus and it took me a while to find the comet and to verify, with the help of the computer, that it was. The comet was a small greenish fuzz ball and very hard for me to find. It was getting late so I wrapped things up by checking out Mars; I still can’t get enough resolution on it.
Did my stretches, lifted weights, went for my nightly run, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night. Boy I am tired!
Sunday 13- this is my day of rest so I just did my stretches.
The Weather: Temps of around 41 to 60, winds out of the NW at 7 to 12 MPH, humidity around 32 percent, clear.
Unloaded the woodstove from the truck using a piece of plywood for a ramp and a dolly to move it once I got it on the ground. Dale from Landers called to complain about his neighbor’s dogs getting loose and terrorizing his neighborhood. Joel brought by a piece of cake and left it in my mailbox in front of my house (the post office doesn’t deliver there but I have it for UPS deliveries and friends who drop off cookies).
I didn’t like the way my Toshiba laptop was performing so I decided to just wipe it clean and do a reinstall of the OS. I do a lot of experimenting and beta testing on this laptop and sometimes it gets bogged down even after I do an uninstall of the programs. So I backed up my Docs and Download files to a USB hard drive, and then zapped the system doing a format of the hard drive. Reinstalled XP and set the date for 01/13/05 because on other installs when I go to install Service Pack 2 it says it has expired, so I reset the time and it runs fine. I just have to remember to reset it back or things get buggy, like: Windows update, Firefox, and the antivirus. Got all my favorite programs running: Firefox with its addons (Addblocker Plus, Foxmarks, Flashblock, and the Google Toolbar). Now I’ll have to do all the Window XP critical updates using dialup, yuck!
Went for my evening walk and then cooked up some pancakes and eggs for dinner. Started reading the next volume of the physics book.
There is a new program I watched tonight on FOX called “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”. Seemed like it will be a good show if the follow the same timeline of events of the Terminator theme. It’s on tomorrow night at 9pm so I’ll be watching it then.
Read some more, did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Monday 14-did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights. Stoney came by with some groceries for me from the USDA food distribution. We sat in his vehicle and jawed for a while. He invited me over for dinner; he’s going to try and cook up something with the canned beef and rice we got today from the food distribution.
The Weather: Temps of around 36 to 58, winds out of the N NW at 4 to 6 MPH, humidity around 31 percent, clear skies.
Finished lesson #1 on the HTML online class I am taking. Messed around setting up a LAN from my Toshiba laptop to my ASUS EEE laptop. Afterwards I was able to go online using the Toshiba’s dialup with the EEE connected and download a BIOS update for the EEE.
Went on my evening walk and then drove on over to Stoney’s for dinner. He did a mighty fine job of doctoring up the canned beef! We ate that and coleslaw and then we watched the Science Channel about giant squids. Stoney had heard some bad news about a friend who had passed the other day, but the family wanted it kept private, so I’ll give them a call tomorrow and ask if I could write something nice for the newspaper in my column. If not then this is all I’ll say about the subject.
Went home and read some astronomy and then watched “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” on FOX at 9pm. Still seems good to me! When that was over I did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. The Moon is staying out later now and the skies had a haze so I didn’t take out my telescope. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Tuesday 15- did my stretches, ran three miles, rode my bike, and lifted weights. Very nice outside!
The Weather: Temps of around 37 to 61, winds out of the N and SE at 3 to 7 MPH, humidity around 30 percent, clear skies.
Joan called to say she is having a computer problem. We tried to fix it over the phone at first and I told her I’d come by to her house to look at it. She called me back a half hour later to say she figured it out herself and I gave her a gold star! That’s a good first sign of computer competence (figuring it out yourself).
Started Lesson #2 of the HTML online class and I will finish the assignments tonight. Wrote my column for the newspaper and sent it to them and then did some cleanup of my files putting them in better order.
Went for my evening walk. Read a chapter in the physics book till “Nova: Absolute Zero” came on PBS. About the Race for Absolute Zero and what it means to physics, the computer industries, and mankind. Mighty good program! Right on with what I’ve been reading lately.
Did my stretches, lifted weights, went for my nightly run. Finished the assignment for Lesson #2 for the HTML online class. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Wednesday 16- did my stretches, ran two miles, rode my bike, lifted weights. Tomorrow I’m taking the day off from exercising!
The Weather: Temps of around 37 to 61, winds out of the NE at 6 to 12 MPH, humidity around 42 percent, altocumulus clouds covering most of the day. A cold wind came in around 1pm and the temps started to drop.
I’m still sorting and arranging my files. I have picture files, PDFs, junk, Docs I have written for the newspaper, and other writings; they are all over the place and I would like to have them where I can find things fast. I have some files and Docs that I don’t require anymore and need to purge from the system. So I spent the better part of the day doing this.
Went for my evening walk and the wind was blowing very cold out of the NE; I think I’ll fire up the wood stove tonight. Read two more chapters in the physics book: Ions and Radiation, and Electrons within the Atom. Question: Suppose, going against common theory, that there was something that went faster than light, how could we detect it?
Did my stretches, lifted weights, went for my nightly run. The temp was already down to 33 degrees at 9:30 when I went for my run but at least the wind stopped blowing. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Thursday 17- it's my day off from exercising, so I just did my stretches. When I went outside there was ice in the cement pond and everything was frozen and it stayed like that all day.
The Weather: Temps of around 28 to 46, winds out of the NW at 6 to 9 MPH, humidity around 28 percent, mostly clear skies.
Started working on the HTML online class Lesson #3 for a while, then decided not to stay in a cold house all day and went to WalMart. When I arrived I expected to see the old guitar guy who sits outside playing for money, I usually stop and chat with him and drop some change in his guitar case, but he was nowhere to be seen. I guess it was too cold for him. I stood in line to return a $9 12volt air compressor that kept blowing fuses whenever I tried to use it. I had a feeling when I bought it that it was too good to be true, and it was! They credited my Visa and I found another compressor for $20, this one has a light. I hope it isn't crap like the last one. Went to Staters and got some supplies and fried chicken, then gas, and I was on my way home after one last stop to check my friend's home who is on vacation.
Got home and called Stoney to ask him if he'd want to have some fried chicken for dinner, he said fine, and I went over to his home after I did my evening walk. We watched the Science Channel for a while: How it's Made was on.
When I got back to my place I completed my work on Lesson #3 and sent it in. Called my Brother Kevin and yapped with him for a while. He was helping John, our brother-in-law on one of his WIFI towers on a mountain when he had slipped and really banged up his elbow. He sent me a picture of the golf ball size bump of a swelling on his elbow. Looks mighty bad! I told him if it ain't better tomorrow morning he should have a Doctor look at it.
Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Friday 18- did my stretches, ran two miles, rode my bike, and lifted weights. When I do my run when it's cold; the longer the run the less clothes I need to wear. My body heats up and I start to sweat on longer runs, so if I start out to do a mile run and end up doing three miles I am over dressed and get over heated. I need to plan my runs or get some running clothes that work better in cold weather.
The Weather: Temps of around 30 to 53, winds out of the NW at 4 to 7 MPH, humidity around 31 percent, clear skies.
Got to try that new air compressor I got from WalMart yesterday on three very low tires and it did a nice job of filling them up. I had to replace two fuses that the $9 compressor I returned to WalMart blew before I could use the new one. Messed around with my computers for a while. I got the ASUS updated so it will run the KDE Desktop. Transferred those lecture MP3s from iTunes folder I had backed up on a USB hard drive to my Toshiba laptop with the fresh XP install. Since I don't have my iPod anymore I won't be installing iTunes on it and will just have to use my old Dell Axim X5 to listen to the lectures on my walks. Never did like the iTunes interface anyway.
Went for my evening walk and when I got back I had a call from my friend Kula who had a small problem with her Outlook Express. I called her and found that she needed to reset the program access and defaults before she could use it properly. Then I called Stoney, and he was having problems getting online. It turned out that he had Internet Explorer browser set for “work offline” and I walked him through reseting that. He invited me over for tacos tomorrow. Yum!
Started a nice fire in the wood stove and called my brother Kevin to find out how his elbow was doing- it was really swelled up last night when I last talked to him. He said it still hurt but the swelling had gone down. We jawed for a long while about this and that and other things brothers talk about.
Read some physics and astronomy until it was time to do my exercises. Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run; it was 39 degrees outside! When I got back I soaked my feet in a bucket of warm water that I had heated on the wood stove and it felt mighty good! Then I watched “Numbers” on CBS about a police officer who was pulling women over to rape them and the “team” had to catch him using Charlie's formulas that searches for relationships between groups and environments.
Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web (or else you wouldn't be reading this), and called it a night.
Saturday 19- did my stretches, ran three miles, rode my bike, lifted weights. Tomorrow I'm definitely taking a break!The Weather: Temps of around 32 to 54, calm winds, humidity around 31 percent, clear skies.
Spent the rest of the morning working on the Copper Mountain Mesa website and updated a whole lot of stuff like my “Bits Bytes and Bugs” article: Just click on the link if you would like to visit the website and read my news column.
Was doing some yard work when Roger T. came by with a few videos and a few parts for the wood stove he gave me. I gave him the air conditioner that I had promised him. Saw a Dragon Fly and took a picture of him. I can't believe that they're still flying around this late in the season.
Called Tom and Aki to say hi and touch base to see what they were up to. Then I went for my evening walk and listened to a lecture on astronomy on my PDA (I gave up looking for my iPod).
Called my Mom and Dad. Mom had tripped on a rock while visiting a neighbor but she says she is ok she thinks. I told her not to trip any more!
Went over to Stoney's for them tacos and I probably ate too much. Did some work on his computer; it seems that something is wrong with the IE6 browser and getting slow page loads. I reset the advanced settings and did a clean of the system and now it's a little faster. I'm going to get him going on Firefox and tell him not to use IE. After all that we watched “How its Made” on the Science Channel.
Got home way after dark and read a chapter in the physics book on electrons and quanta. It had to do with the different shells that the electrons take up around the nucleus of an atom and why the Periodic Table is like it is with different groups of elements in a family with similar properties. I may have to reread this chapter because it seems to be the key to understanding quanta and why the elements are like they are.
Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run; it was 37 degrees outside. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Sunday 20- it's my day off from doing my exercises so I just did my stretches.
The Weather: Temps of around 32 to 56, winds out of the S SW at 3 to 15 MPH, humidity around 32 percent, clear skies. Looks like we are headed into some windy weather this week with a chance of rain come Wednesday night on through the weekend.
Cut up a bunch of wood for the stove that should last through next week. Did some more yard work and getting things prepared if we do get any rain.
Went over to check on my friend's house and water his plants. Then I went to check on another friend's house (the one that had the fire) and as I drove up I noticed that the front door was open. The last time I was there to board it up, the door wouldn't lock because the fire department hit it with a sludge hammer to gain entrance, it shut but not secure. I guess the wind blew it open. Harrison who lives across the street came by and we both fixed the door so it wouldn't open again. He is the one who reported the fire and said that the Fire Department came out of Joshua Tree instead of out from Lear Ave., and took 25 minutes to arrive after he called it in to them. I told him it was the couch that put out all the smoke as it smoldered and gave time for the Fire Department to arrive before it burnt down to a slab like so many of the house fires out here. Got back home and cooked me up some pancakes and eggs for lunch.
Went for my evening walk but without my PDA with the lecture on it because the battery was dead! Dang!
Called Stoney to see what he was up to. He had a visit from his old friend Lee who lives down by LA somewheres. They went out for Chinese food in 29 and jawed about old times. Stoney seemed mighty cheerful when I talked to him!
I went to reading my physics book and finished two chapters: Electron Energy Levels, about solid state and how you can create n-type and p-type semiconductors using germanium crystals with a trace of arsenic for the n-type and and boron for the p-type will direct the flow of electrons when a electric current is applied. These are used in transistors and also solar panels. The Chapter on Radioactivity was about the discovery of alpha, beta, and gamma rays and how it lead Scientists to the workings of the nucleus of the atom. Imagine this: if an atom was the size of the Earth with the electron shells at Earth's surface, the nucleus at its center would have a diameter of only 700 feet, and that's a lot of empty space! Then I went on to read some astronomy.
Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Monday 21- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights. It was 40 degrees and windy when I started my run.
The Weather: Temps of around 32 to 56, winds out of the S at 7 to 10 MPH, humidity around 32 percent, clear skies but clouds are on the horizon.
Spent a few hours writing my column for the newspaper because I couldn’t think of what to write about. Finally dug something up after a while; there ain’t much of anything going on around here!
My neighbor Mac came by for a visit and pay for his dialup.
Got a call from a lady called Martha who is trying to setup a support group for folks in our area who’ve had transplants. She has a booth at the High Desert Medical center’s Health Fair this Saturday from 8-12 and wanted me to include it in my column but I told her I had already sent it into the newspaper. I will find out more and may post it on my website.
Went for my evening walk and listened to a lecture on astronomy. When I got back I spent the rest of the evening reading a chapter in the physics book about Isotopes: properties, how they are formed, and the methods used to determine their half-life.
Joel called and we talked about Martin Luther King’s assassination.
Watched “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” on FOX at 9pm. I like the program and I hope FOX doesn’t cancel it like they did to Firefly after only one season! I really got into Firefly and was very disappointed when FOX did that.
Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. It was 37 degrees outside but the wind had died down and it was a nice run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Tuesday 22- did my stretches, ran three miles, rode my bike, and lifted weights. The temp was 41 and there was a good cloud cover blocking the sun but it would peek out from time to time sending its warmth through my cold body as I ran down the desert trail.
The Weather: Temps of around 33 to 54, mostly calm in the morning with winds out of the SE at 6 MPH later in the day, humidity around 45 percent, with cumulus clouds. Looks like it might rain Wednesday night.
Worked on my online HTML class getting everything completed except for the assignment that I will do tonight. I’m doing all the code by hand without the use of an editor.
I’ve been wanting to start drawing for some time now but haven’t set any time aside for it. Well today I did. For just around half an hour I sat outside and drew the landscape in front of my home facing west towards the mountains. I hope to make this an everyday event added to my studies. I had two art classes in college that were very rudimentary in their scope but I learned much about drawing and patience. I also learned that it is really hard to draw people. One class we had to draw nudes. How anyone could sit naked for an hour while students drew them escapes me! I mean that I couldn’t do it. Anyways, after I settled down and got used to the naked gals posing it front of me, I did ok, until it came to their noses, the noses that I drew always came out looking like Richard Nixon’s! I think I’ll stick to landscapes because them gals didn’t look none to good with Nixon’s nose. I did pass the class though!
Went for my evening walk listening to an astronomy lecture about the phases of the Moon and how it effects the earth. Did you know that the Moon is 1.3 light seconds away from the earth?
When I got back I turned on the TV to watch the news about what’s going on with the Stock Market. I had read that there maybe a meltdown of stocks because of the home loan debacle and on Monday some global markets took huge losses because of worries for the US economy. The Stock Market opened up with a sharp decline until word got out that the Federal Reserve had just decreased the prime interest rate by .075 percent, and the Dow bounced back but still closed below the 12000 level for the first time since 2006. If it starts dropping lower I may consider cost averaging back into the market.
Read another chapter in the physics book about Nuclear Chemistry. I didn’t know that all the natural elements have/are isotopes and that their atomic weights are made up of the average of the isotopes for that element using a formula worked out by physicist allowing the carbon-12 isotope to have a mass of 12.0000. At least that’s the way I understood it from what I read.
Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, and then went online and completed the HTML assignment. Wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and then called it a night.
Wednesday 23-did my stretches, ran three miles, rode my bike, and lifted weights. Had to get another three miles in just in case it rains over the next few days. Tomorrow is my day off of exercising.
The Weather: Temps of around 35 to 53, winds out of the SW to SE at 3-11 MPH, humidity around 40 percent, with cumulus clouds. We‘re still waiting for the rain that‘s suppose to come in tonight.
Spent over an hour trying to track down a package that was sent from Buy.com by way of UPS. It turns out that UPS had handed it over to USPS and USPS doesn’t deliver to my home address and I called the 29 Palms post office and they told me they had sent it back to Buy.com as undeliverable. I call Buy.com and they gave me a refund to my credit card. I didn’t know that UPS did this kind of thing. What a waste of my time!
Cleaned up in the house and then went outside and did some work there. Covered up the new wood stove, I have sitting out front, in case it rains. Then I did a drawing of the “Gross Polluter” (a 9 year old could have done better). But like I said yesterday I’m trying to add drawing to my daily routine.
Went for my evening walk and listened to a astronomy lecture on the inner planets: Mercury, Venus, and Mars. Did you know that Venus’s day is longer than its year? Venus orbit’s the Sun every 223.65 Earth days and rotates every 243 Earth days, where Earth takes 24 hours.
Joel came by with a dinner for me he had cooked and it was mighty good!
Then I got down to reading the physics book. The chapter was about Artificial Radioactivity and how scientists bombard elements with neutrons to create radioisotopes that are not naturally found on our planet. (If I got this right) They also use this method to create heavier elements than Uranium, which is found naturally, by firing neutrons at the Uranium which absorbs the neutron into its nucleus to form elements like: Neptunium, Plutonium, and other nasty elements like that. They also use this method to create lighter radioisotopes for medical use. While doing this scientists stumbled upon Carbon-14 which they found is created in nature in our atmosphere by cosmic rays and is absorbed by plants and animals. When the plants and animals die, the Carbon-14 (with a half-life of 5770 years) decays. And by how much it has decayed scientists can determine their age.
Watched “Law and Order Criminal Intent” about a young Black journalist who was murdered after she got an offer for her unpublished book.
Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Then I practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web and called it a night. It started raining at 1:14am!
Thursday 24- it’s my day off from all those exercises so I just did my stretches. Called Ron Dehart to tell him I’d be over later in the day when I got some prior commitments out of the way.
The Weather: Temps of around 36 to 51, winds out of the W to S at 6-12 MPH, humidity around 52 percent, with cumulus clouds. Looks like the next chance for rain will be Saturday and very likely Saturday night into Sunday.
Marcie H. had left a message yesterday asking for any pictures of Juanita Marx (her memorial is Saturday at potluck) and I was going through my massive archives of pictures, when to my surprise my friend from MySpace Bonnie Young calls up. Well me and Bonnie yakked for over and hour as I searched for Juanita’s pics. Bonnie is a very talented artist who does some of the most incredible paintings in her own style with a uniqueness that I’ve never seen. She has overcome some very difficult times in her life with robustness and an enlightenment that is refreshing in these days of pessimism and self-pity that some with her disabilities may descend into: meaning that she doesn’t sit in front of the TV all day watching Oprah and judge Judy but actually gets out into the real world to accomplish and create something of worth. Now if you don’t believe me just type “Bonnie Young MySpace” into Google search and find out for yourself. I have great adoration for anyone who takes the initiative and pulls themselves up to a higher level; life must be lived not watched!
Collected all the photos I had of Juanita on my thumb drive and headed over to Stoney’s to get a few pics that he had of Juanita and her two daughters. Then it was on over to Lee and Marcie’s to print them out. Lee’s old printer was out of ink so I had to install the new printer that he had gotten for Christmas that took an hour to setup. After we printed out the pictures and got Marcie’s approval on them, I left for Ron Dehart’s home. He had just gotten back from a visit to Texas the other day and we had much to talk about. He had made some chicken soup that we had for a late lunch.
Got back home with the phone ringing as I walked in the door. It was Dale from Landers calling to chat and we did for the next 45 minutes. Then I went for my evening walk and took some pictures of the snow on the mountains to the west and the cloud formations in the sky overhead.
Got to reading my physics book and somewhere around 9:30pm I nodded off to sleep, awakening later thinking that it was the morning, but the clock told me different saying it was 1:40am and the physics book on my chest helped me realize that I haven’t even written to my journal yet or the other things I usually do in the night. So I got cracking on that journal!
Friday 25- if you read my journal from yesterday I fell asleep at 9pm (I usually stay up till 3am) and awoke at 1:30am. So I guess my body just decided I needed a break. I stayed up till 7am surfing the web and then went back to sleep. I was awoken at 10:30am by Ron Dehart on the phone telling me that the movie “Cloverfield” was playing in Yucca Valley at 2:15 and he’ll pick me up at noon and have lunch at Santana‘s Mexican restaurant! I laid in bed for a half hour or so collecting myself, I was still pretty dang tired. I had enough time to feed Fat Cat, wash up and get ready to go.
The Weather: Temps of around 39 to 55, winds out of the SE at 3-13 MPH, humidity around 41 percent, with cumulus clouds.
We had lunch (breakfast for me) at Santana’s and then headed over to WalMart to pickup some stuff and kill 45 minutes before the movie started. We got to the theater, got our tickets, and we were the only ones there to watch Cloverfield except for one other person; everyone else got tickets to see Rambo. Cloverfield is a cross between Blair Witch and Godzilla. It was a little slow at first (to set up the story) with the goings on of young folks and their love affairs at a going away party with some not so bright dude documenting it all with a hand held movie camera that was used exclusively through the whole film. Just when you had enough of that there was a huge kind of earthquake, then the action just rolled right along really fast. The special effects were dang good and I really got into the film, but poor Ron had trouble with the jerking around of the handheld camera and it made him dizzy. I rate this movie as excellent unless you easily get motion sickness.
Got home and updated the CopperMountainMesa.com website and sent out the newsletter. Then I spent the rest of the evening reading the physics book; Chapter about Nuclear Structure. How nuclei with an even number of neutrons and protons are much more stable than nuclei with an odd number of them, and are more abundant on our planet: iron, oxygen, magnesium, silicon, sulfur, and nickel. Iron being the most stable with 26 protons and 30 neutrons. The chapter also got into nuclear reactions; fission and fusion. And I didn’t fall asleep this time!
Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Saturday 26- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.The Weather: Temps of around 41 to 57, winds out of the SW to SE at 2-7 MPH, humidity around 38 percent, with cumulus clouds early in the day changing to stratus later in the evening. It started to rain at 9:14pm. There is a Flash Flood Watch for our area until 5:00pm, Sunday.
Got a call from Kula’s husband Tom who is working on her computer and needed a little help. Something was stopping a new install of Firefox from accessing the web. She has Norton anti-virus running and I told Tom to shut it down to see if that was the problem; it was. I hate Norton and I uninstall it on every computer that I work on and install Avast anti-virus which doesn’t try to control everything and isn‘t as bloated.
Called my Mom and Dad, and then my brother Kevin.
Got ready for potluck and Juanita’s memorial by cooking up my special recipe for yams. Then I hopped into the Gross Polluter and headed on down to the community center around 4pm. There were already a bunch of cars parked along the front so I parked in the back. Dana and Karin Van Noort drove up and parked next to me. Animal was sitting outside and greeted us as we walked in.
I haven’t seen him since Hoss’s wedding. Animal, that’s his nickname, made some spicy beef stew that was mighty good. I started taking pictures of everyone and jawing with folks. There were a lot of framed pictures of Juanita covering two tables that showed her in different stages in her life and I took pics of these too. The other folks who came were: Rick and Bob Seeley, Lee and Marcie Hines with their friends, Mary Hodges, Bob Stonebraker, Ray and Ila Foyil, Frank and Mary Poole. Sherry and Thomas Felix with their Granddaughter, Rose, Ruth Tuttle, Ruth Malton, Brenda Zimmer, Chris Jonas, 
Juanita’s daughters Judith Bowman and Eve Heart, and some other folks too. They all got in line for the food while I took pictures. There was so much good food there that I sampled everything and got mighty stuffed! After everyone finished eating Chris got the microphone and said some nice things about Juanita, then Stoney said a few words. Eve talked about life with her Mother and told us all how her Mom really believed in marriage being married five times. Juanita would always be on the move from state to state with the two young girls, never leaving them behind. Eve joked that her Mom would move just because she didn’t like cleaning house. Eve did a very elegant job of speaking! 
Then Rose got the mic and said a few words and broke out in tears. We all had a moment of silence and said goodbye to our neighbor and friend Juanita. Then we had cake!Dropped by Stoney’s on the way home to bring in some firewood for his stove and empty the trash. He was mighty stuffed with all the food too! Stayed to jaw for a few minutes and then I was on my way home.
Listened to an astronomy lecture on the stages that stars go through in their lifetimes; from formation in a nebulous cloud, to becoming a main sequence star, then onto a white dwarf.
Kath called to ask if I could do a fresh install of XP on her Mother’s computer that they are selling. I said yes and then we yapped for an hour or so.
I got a call for someone who vacation up here with his parents back in the 50s when he was five years old and asked me how the area has changed. He said he knew Roy and Caroline Kirschman who lived near by. I told him to come on out and I’ll give him the grand tour.
I lifted weights and was doing my stretches getting ready for my nightly run when at 9:14 it started to rain! Well that put an end to my run, so I called Stoney to tell him it was raining (he usually has the TV up loud and doesn’t hear it) he answered the phone saying “I know it’s raining”; he had gone outside for something when it started and got all wet!
Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night. It’s still raining now at 1:30am.
Sunday 27- it’s my day off from exercising so I just did my stretches. Really windy outside!
The Weather: Temps of around 42 to 54, winds out of the SW at 28 with gusts to 35 MPH, humidity around 59 percent, with a few cumulus clouds early in the day changing to cumulonimbus later in the evening with high winds and a little rain.
Updated the CopperMountainMesa.com website with pictures of the potluck/memorial and then did my online HTML class completing all but the assignment which I’ll do tomorrow.
Called Judith to tell her that I have copied the pictures of the memorial to CD and will bring them over to her so that Eve her sister can take them with her when she leaves for Idaho on Monday. I dropped off the CD and sat around and had a nice chat with Judith and Eve. On my way back home I dropped off another CD of Thanksgiving that I have been meaning to take over to Mike and Stevie. I pulled up to their gate and Stevie walked on over, but I didn’t recognize her at first for the way she was dressed: she looked like an old Russian peasant woman wearing a babushka around her head, in a dress with leggings wrapped in a heavy gray coat. I was waiting for her to sell me potatoes. Stevie called me later to say thanks for the CD and that her and Mike spent some time watching them on the computer.
Since it was really stormy outside with the wind blowing mighty hard I decided to watch “The Day After Tomorrow” on my laptop. Its about the beginning of a new ice age and I watch this once a year when the weather is like it is tonight.
I was just calling my friend Mike from Hermosa Beach on my cell phone when my landline phone rang. It was Mike on his cell phone calling me and I could hear his landline phone ringing and I told him that it was me on the other line. What a coincidence! He has the flu so we didn’t talk too long.
Read a little in the physics book about cosmic rays. Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Monday 28- did my stretches but it was way too windy to go for a run or even be outside.
The Weather: Temps of around 36 to 49, winds out of the S to SW at 29 with gusts to 50 MPH, humidity around 50 percent, with a few cumulus clouds throughout the day. Very Windy!
Since it was useless to venture outside I worked on my HTML online class and finished it all except one assignment that I will do tonight and then it will be all done!
Got cabin fever and drove over to Stoney’s for an hour to yap at him. He made some sweet potato pie that we ate right up.
Got home to find that Kath left her mother’s desktop computer for me to fix up so that she can sell it. I need to take all her mom’s files off of it and put them on CD. I will have to do that tomorrow because it is to late in the day and I don’t want to drain my batteries. Couldn’t go for my evening walk so I got down to reading the physics book and completed that. Chapters on Anti-Particles and Other Particles like Muons, Pions, and Strange particles. I didn’t know that Neutrons can decay into one Proton and one Electron. Now I understand something about Neutron stars; that when a star several times the mass of our Sun collapses its electrons and protons get squeezed so tightly together that they form into neutrons. Took me a while to finish all three books, but I was persistent!
The wind has died down enough so that I did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run! I really needed that run! Then I finished that assignment for the HTML class and I’m all done with the class now. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Tuesday 29- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights. It was actually a pleasant day!
The Weather: Temps of around 32 to 49, winds out of the NW to S at 2-8 MPH, humidity around 44 percent, clear skies.
Started working on Kath’s Mother’s computer cleaning all their files and personal settings off of it. My friend Joan came by with her laptop so I could installed Shockwave for her. Finished up Kath’s computer and went for my evening walk. Saw biker Ron grading the road to his house with his truck and stopped to jaw with him for a while. He wanted to know about the fire at John’s house a few weeks ago and I told him the insides were a complete loss. That it appeared to have been started by a timer that was connected to a light that caught the couch on fire.
Got back home when Kath came by to pick up the computer. She also wanted me to take a few pictures of her hair (which is 34 inches) and upload them to a website that sells hair! Ok! Seems like there is a market for white hair out there and you can make big money from it.
Wrote my column for the newspaper and sent it in. Then I watched “Nova: Secrets of the Parthenon” about: the Greek Government is spending a lot of time and resources restoring the Parthenon in Athens that was built in the 5th century BCE. It took the ancient Greeks nine years to construct the Parthenon, and the modern Greeks have been working on reconstruction of it for the past thirty years having lost the skills of their early ancestors, and their quest to recover these skills.
Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. It was 39 degrees outside and looks like it will be a cold one tonight. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Wednesday 30- did my stretches, but the wind was blowing pretty hard and I didn’t complete my exercises. Hopefully tomorrow it will be a nice day and I can get some running in.
The Weather: Temps of around 36 to 50, winds out of the NW at 12-20 MPH, humidity around 39 percent, a few cumulus mediocris clouds lingering about.
Messed around the house cleaning this and that, gathering some stuff that I don’t need or use anymore to donate to the community center. Spent the whole afternoon and evening doing this until I went over to Stoney’s for dinner. We had macaroni with a mixture of canned beef and whatever Stoney found to throw into it. It was pretty good and we ate our fill. We sat and watched “Myth Busters” on the Science Channel. They were trying to see: If an airplane could take off if it was on a conveyor belt; If you could open a car door if it was sinking in water; If cockroaches would survive an nuclear bomb blast; Also if you could fold a piece of paper in half over seven times.
Got home and hunted up a new book to read. Found one called “Asimov on Astronomy” by none other than Isaac Asimov. Read the first chapter on tides and the effect the Moon and the Sun play in creating them. You have four tides during a 24 hour period: two high tides, and two low tides. Each month there are two times when the tides are higher (spring tide) and lower (neap tides). Spring tides come at full and new Moon, and neap tides come at first and third quarter Moon. At new Moon the Sun and Moon are on the same side of the Earth pulling up a bulge, and at full Moon they are opposite each other pulling a bulge at both ends of the Earth but adding to each other‘s bulge. At first and third quarter the Sun, Earth, and Moon form a right triangle and cancel each other out creating neap tides. At least this is how I understood it from the book.
Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Thursday 31- did my stretches, ran two miles, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
The Weather: Temps of around 34 to 53, winds mostly calm, humidity around 32 percent, with cirrocumulus clouds.
Did some work on the website updating the calendar for February and I finally got an email from Annelies who has written from Kenya and posted it to the website. I’ve been posting her emails from her trip and haven’t gotten any for a week or more and folks been asking if she was alright. Well she is doing just fine having the time of her life and hasn’t run into to much of the turmoil that has plagued that nation for the past month or so. Did some yard work and then went for my evening walk.
Went over to Stoney’s to help him finish the leftovers from yesterday. Watched “Myth Busters” on the Science Channel again, about: does a nitroglycerin patch blow up if you use a defibrillator on a patient who is wearing one; is there a way to fool a traffic camera from catching you speeding.
Got home and read another chapter in the astronomy book about asteroids. Finished the website’s weekend update and will upload it tomorrow morning. Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night. Goodbye to January you‘ve been a nice but windy month. Oh yes, and thanks for the rain!
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