August 2008

Welcome to the Month of August!- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 82 to 107, winds out from E to SW at 4-15 MPH, humidity around 35 percent, clear skies, but cirrocumulus clouds later in the evening. According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 104. Light wind becoming southwest between 14 and 17 mph. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 78. West southwest wind 14 to 17 mph decreasing to between 6 and 9 mph.”
        Got to work on the weekend update for the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter. That took a big chunk out of my day.
        Dale from Landers called telling me about his new solar home he is building. He doesn’t have the solar panels yet but the batteries and inverter he has. Then he told me about a Grass Root thingy he is trying to initiate. He says that the cops up here aren’t doing their jobs and don’t enforce the laws. I asked him how many folks he has in his committee, one so far, he said.
        I got the nerve to install Windows XP on my Asus EEE laptop. I did it from an SD card that I had preloaded with XP a while back, but didn’t have a DVD drive to load back up the Linux System that was installed on the device in case XP didn’t run. Well XP installed without a problem but I need to find the EEE DVD disk so I can install the drivers. About that time Stoney calls to invite me for dinner, so I’ll do this later on.
        Went to my Friend’s home who is on vacation to check it out and make sure everything is okay- everything was fine. Then I went on over to Stoney’s for dinner. He made some roast beef with vegetables in a crock pot that he had cooking for some eight hours. You could soak up the juices with a slice of bread. It was mighty good!
        Got home and went on my evening walk re-listening to an astronomy lecture on Quasars (quasi stellar radio source). A quasar is a supermassive black hole with the output of one trillion Suns and lies in the center of galaxies with a very high redshift making it very far (billions of light years) away taking it almost to the beginning of the Big Bang, some 13.7 billion years ago. This gets into the expansion of the universe and where the Hubble Constant/Law of the expansion rate of 72 kilometers for each megaparsec begins to fail at these very large distances. Quasars are powered by an accretion disk formed around the black hole where mater spirals in creating energetic electromagnetic radiation from a small area that out shines the galaxy which it resides.
        Did some reading of “T is for Trespass” but I kept on thinking about the Asus EEE. So I got the EEE DVD with the driver and installed them. I got everything to work except the audio that came back with an error code 20. I will look in the forums to see if I can find a solution tomorrow.
        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.

Saturday 02- did my stretches. Today and tomorrow are my down days I decided where I cut way back to let my poor old tired body catch up and rest. I tried it last week and it seemed to work and I felt rested. We’ll see how it goes.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 83 to 105, winds out from S to SE at 4-17 MPH, humidity around 45 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 102. Light wind becoming south southwest between 12 and 15 mph. Sunday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 77. Southwest wind between 5 and 15 mph.”
        I called my brother up and yakked at him for a spell. We talked about perspective and how each of us view the world around them through different “social lenses” that reflect our values and prejudices. I think some of us need corrective lenses!
        Fran and Mary came by to visit and drop off Mary’s old Toshiba laptop for me to fix. We chatted for a few, they are a nice couple!
        Spent most of the day trying to get the audio working on the Asus EEE and even did a reinstall of XP, but to no avail. I guess I’ll have to do without audio for a while until I can get the problem resolved. When I checked the EEE forums I found a lot of folks having the same problem and not to much help from the manufacturer.
        Went on over to Stoney’s for lunch. I had to make it early because I’ll be calling Mom and Dad at 5:30pm sharp. We had the leftover roast beef from the evening before, and it still was mighty good. Watch a little bit of “Shark Week” on the Discovery Channel and then I was on my way back home.
        Got home and played with the Asus EEE laptop for a time, still trying to figure out the audio problem. Then I called up Mom and Dad and yakked at them for almost an hour. I decided to go online and just mindlessly surf the web for the rest of the night- maybe I’ll find the answer to this audio mess.
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 03- did my stretches.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 80 to 104, winds out from S to SE at 4-18 MPH, humidity around 45 percent, thunderstorms but just a few sprinkles here. According to the National Weather Service “Overnight: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 79. West southwest wind between 3 and 9 mph. Monday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Partly sunny and hot, with a high near 97. Calm wind becoming south between 10 and 13 mph.”
        This is a rest day (my new experiment for letting my body catch up with my exercising) where I take Saturday and Sunday off. It’s kind of boring so I think I’ll figure out some other kind of activity to do. Maybe a long bike ride?
        Called up a few Friends and Family and yakked at them for a spell throughout the day.
        Tried a different kind of repair solution for the Asus EEE laptops audio that I found late last night. Nope that didn’t work either. Then I did a fresh install of Win XP and tried it again- same dang thing, no sound! I got pissed and loaded up the Linux OS that came with the machine just to see if the sound card was still working- it was! So I just left it that way until I can come up with a better solution. I may just keep the Linux OS on it!
        I figured that I needed to do something useful today so I worked on Mary’s laptop and got the network card working for here. I felt much better after that!
        Went for my evening walk and took the camera with me. This time I found some interesting thing to shoot and got a few pictures this time.
        Read an article “Before the Big Bang; three theories explore the back-story of creation” in Discovery Magazine that Ron left me. I know the subject matter somewhat and didn’t find too much of anything that I didn’t already know. There was one about the Arrow of Time that delves into the direction of time, entropy and equilibrium, where the universe keeps expanding and get to a state of “low entropy” creating other “Big Bangs”, which I found interesting. Also there was another that states there is no such thing as time, only now. This idea of only “now” is something I wrote about before in my column: “Thought for the week: An instant in time is all we have to plan for the future and think of the past. Thought for the week: Time is an illusion."
        Joel brought my mail and left in the box in my front yard. I did my stretches, practice my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 04- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 79 to 102, winds out from S to SE at 4-11 MPH, humidity around 50 percent, afternoon thunderstorms and we got a little wet! According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny and hot, with a high near 99. Calm wind becoming south between 4 and 7 mph. Tuesday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 79. South wind 6 to 13 mph becoming west northwest.”
        After I get done with my exercises I usually sit down at my computer to check my email and eat my breakfast, but there was thunder and lightning outside. I had to disconnect my laptop from the phone line to protect its modem from being fried by nearby lightning strikes. In addition, the clouds were obscuring my solar panels of any rays from the Sun making my battery power low. So I took my breakfast outside and sat under my shop/patio to watch the storm and check for any new leaks. Unsettled from all the thunder Fat Cat joined me.
        I was going to try something new on the Asus EEE laptop to get the audio going but the storm saved me from this tiresome exertion of loading XP back on the system. I decided to do a little reading of “T is for Trespass” and did so until 5pm when I went over to Stoney’s for dinner. We finished off the roast beef! We had three meals out of it over the last few days and every meal was great!
        Went for my evening walk re-listening to an astronomy lecture “Big Bang 1” About Cosmology: that looks at the universe as a whole, cosmological principal: that assumes that the laws of physics are the same throughout the universe, and space on a large scale is both Homogenous: matter is distributed uniformly throughout the universe, and Isotropic: there’s no preferred direction in space.
        Stoney call to tell me that the community center has been broken into again. They broke in through the south side door that didn’t have a deadbolt. I was under the impression that we just lately had deadbolts installed on all the doors, but I guess I was mistaken. The thieves made off with an old computer that wasn’t any good for much. Maybe someone will bring it to me to be fixed! Now that would make my day!
        Late last night after I finished my journal I signed up for two HP classes on Microsoft Office: Word advanced, and Excel. I was really looking for a PowerPoint class but I couldn’t find one. Well when I finally got online to checked my email there was one from HP saying that the PowerPoint class would be beginning tomorrow- I signed up for it right away! Now I have three dang classes to do but a month to do them in. Also I finally got the info for the website I am to create for Ken. Now I get to start on that too. Lots to do!
        I continued reading until it was time for my exercises. 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.

Tuesday 05- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 79 to 104, slight breeze, humidity around 39 percent, a few cumulonimbus clouds passing by here and there. According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Partly sunny and hot, with a high near 103. Northwest wind at 9 mph becoming east. Wednesday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 79. South wind 7 to 10 mph becoming west northwest.”
        Went to work on my column, completed it in about two hours, and sent it away to the Newspaper. Then I got cracking on the website that I’m creating for Ken. He never told me what he expected it to look like but he did send me some info that I could use on it. So I messed around trying this and that until I got something together to present to him and uploaded it to his server. It has been a time since I did a website from scratch, not from lack of knowledge but lack of work. I am excited to have the chance to do this website and use what I know.
        I had just gotten offline and turned the computer off (I was kind of pooped out from all the typing and brain work) and was going to lie down to read before my walk when Lee called up having trouble downloading a form from his email and asked me to help. I had him forward it to me and I printed it out for him to pick up. When he arrived he brought me some Twinkies for the work. I ate them all!
        Got in a little reading of “T is for Trespass” before my evening walk. On my walk I took the camera along and took some pics of an old shack with clouds in the background. I did a little contemplating on Ken’s website and what else to add to it to make it more official looking. My long walks help me to think and meditate on things. I just let the thoughts roll through my mind until I hit upon something and then I follow the thought through to its logical end.
        Spent the rest of the evening reading “T is for Trespass” and the Richard Feynman’s book.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. The sky was nice and dark with only a few clouds so I spent some time with the binoculars gazing at the Milky Way with Fat Cat on my lap.
        Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 06- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 80 to 107, slight breeze, humidity around 35 percent, again there was a few cumulonimbus clouds passing by here and there. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Isolated showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 102. Calm wind becoming south between 10 and 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Thursday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 78. South wind 6 to 13 mph becoming west.”
        I got cracking on two of my online classes: Intermediate Word 2007 and Excel 2007. And after four hours sitting at my computer completed the first two lessons, quizzes, and assignments in both. I guess you can call this “Home Schooling”. My PowerPoint class starts tomorrow, yikes!
      Laid down for a while and read a chapter in “T is for Trespass” and then got up and went over to check on my Friend’s home to see if all was well. Seems to me that the critters have taken over- lots of birds roosting that took to flight when I walked around to the backyard, and jackrabbits leaping in the air as they made their escape from little old me!
      On my way back home I stopped off at Stoney’s to yap for a spell. His neighbor’s dog ran off with one of my gloves left on my Trusty Scooter while I was inside. I went over to retrieve the glove but no one was home except two barking dogs, the culprits, and I gave chase just to show them who was boss.
      Got home and got a call from Ken, who I am designing a website for, and got a little more info out of him for the site. Then I went on my evening walk re-listening to an astronomy lecture “Big Bang 2” that covered a lot of stuff previously mentioned and went into the structure of the universe (as seen by a fourth dimensional person). Depending on the mass of the universe which is determined by Omega (that is the density of space and the shape of space). If omega is greater or lesser than one the universe will either expand forever or collapse– one type of universe is the Positive curvature like a balloon that is called a “closed universe” has an omega of more than one and will collapse into the “big crunch”- then a flat universe that is open, infinite with no boundaries and expands forever- finally a saddle-shaped one that is “open”, has an omega less than one, is infinite and unbounded and the universe will expand forever. It is presently believed that our universe has an omega of 1 and is flat. The Professor talked about black energy that makes up most of the known universe. There was a lot more! When I got back from my walk Fat Cat was waiting at the back gate for me!
      Spent the rest of the evening reading “T is for Trespass” and Richard Feynman’s book. Then I went and did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run.
      Read on someone’s astronomy blog that there is a nice binary star in Cygnus located at the Swan’s head called Albireo that has a yellow-white star and a blue one. I just had to get the telescope out to give it a look-see! The dang binary was at my zenith (straight up) and it was hard to get my telescope that is on a tripod to view it. I ended up putting it on a table and tilting it back on one leg to be able to observe this binary star system, but it was well worth it! Just as beautiful as Algieba in the constellation on Leo!
      Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 07- I woke up late, slept a whole eight hours instead of my usual five to six. I was in a rush and did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike while it rained and got all wet for my efforts.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 80 to 98, slight breeze, humidity around 55 percent, cumulonimbus clouds and they rained on us this time. According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 100. Calm wind becoming south southwest between 12 and 15 mph. Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 76. West southwest wind between 6 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph.”
        It’s raining and I sat with Fat Cat under the cover of the shop/patio roof. It was a nice down pour and the roof didn’t leak this time, so I presume my patch job worked!
        Chris (the guy whose computer I spent 12 hours fixing at his recording studio a few weeks ago) called to say that he would be over soon with a couple of computers to fix. I went online to catch up on some emails and did some other work on Ken’s website. I was into this when I heard a honk of a horn out in my driveway, I thought it was Chris, but it was the UPS delivery truck with my iPod Shuffle that I had ordered for my birthday tomorrow a few days ago. It’s to replace the one I lost when I blew a tire coming back from Tucson, Cool!
        Chris arrived shortly after with the computers. While we were getting them out of his truck I noticed a hissing noise coming from one of the truck’s tires. Chris had a repair kit and we had the leak plugged up in a few minutes. I showed him around the place, gave him the grand tour of my solar system and the house. He wanted to hear one of my songs so I played “Love Will Find a Way Home” and he said it was very good. We jawed for a while and he invited me to sit in on a session this Saturday. I told him I’d give it some thought.
        Ron Dehart called asking me if I’d like to come over to have a look-see at his new addition that is under construction on his bedroom. So I rode the Trusty Scooter over and took a few pictures of the work under way. Ron likes to pose!
        Got home and read Arthur C. Clark’s “Star” from a Sci-Fi book of short stories. Written in 1956, it’s a tale of a spaceship of the future that arrived at a nebula six thousand years after its sun blew up. They found that a civilization had gathered data of their people and put it all in a sort of time capsule before they all perished. Nice twist at the end: their sun was the star of Bethlehem!
        Joan called asking me if I knew anyone that cared for snakes. It seems like a king snake had eaten some artificial pigeon eggs that Joan had set out to make her pigeons happy. Well it didn’t make the snake happy at all and it worried Joan that the snake would die. She called me later to say she found a group that does care for snakes and they were coming out later to pick it up.
        Got my new iPod hooked up and loaded with an astronomy lecture and went for my evening walk. The lecture was “big Bang 3” and covered so much data that I’ll have to re-re-listen to it before I can write about it in any detail. It’s my second time listening to this lecture series from UC Berkeley. I only wished I had the talent and mental capacity to have gone there when I was younger! Anyways the lecture was about what happened ten to the minus forty-three seconds after the big bang, and we can only speculate what happened before that. Professor Joshua Bloom talked about Professor George Smoot of Berkeley who recently won a Nobel Prize for his discovery of the beginnings of structure in the early universe that was the catalyst to forming galaxies. Very interesting! He also talked more on dark energy.
        Got home, called my brother Kevin, and then went online to do my first lesson on PowerPoint. I completed that and then read “T is for Trespass” until it was time for my exercises.
        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.

Friday 08 My Birthday!- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike. I am fifty-seven years old today!
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 81 to 100, winds S to SE at 4-17 MPH, humidity around 35 percent, cumulonimbus clouds and they rained on us this time. According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 99. Light wind becoming southwest between 12 and 15 mph. Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 77. West southwest wind 15 to 18 mph decreasing to between 6 and 9 mph. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph.”
        First of all I’d like to thank all of you who called, sent me emails, and posted Birthday wishes on MySpace! This was mighty nice of you! Spent time throughout the day answering emails and the phone! You Guys Made My Day! Thanks!
        Worked on the Copper Mountain Mesa Website , uploaded it to the web, and sent out the Newsletter. Then I started working on Chris’s computers: two old ones with no hard drives that I am to combine into one for his wife, and a newer Dell Dimension B110 from his daughter. I got the B110 all setup and found that the hard drive was wiped clean! I wasn’t told that and called to confirm this with Chris. He said that his daughter inadvertently wiped it while talking to a Dell service rep. I told him to get the restore disks to me ASAP. I hooked up and tested the old ones and ran Puppy Linux that installs right in RAM without the need for a hard drive. I am going to use the one with the Pentium III processor and cannibalized the other. Now all I need to do is hunt around my parts shelf to find a hard drive. Working on computers is one of my pleasures!
        Lee and Seimi drove up and asked me to come by the house they are renovating and sort through some metal sheeting that I could use on my patio. I told them tomorrow would be best to do that- I just want to hang around the house today and dabble with computers and enjoy my day.
        Rod Dehart came by for a chat and to get some forms printer for a retreat he hopes to go on. While he was here Tom and Aki called to wish me a happy birthday.
        Went for my evening walk re-listening to the last astronomy lecture. It was about the different theories of the big bang and the universes that could have happened if it was weighted differently than the one we live in. Professor Bloom also discussed the prospects of intelligent life in other solar systems using astronomer Frank Drake’s famous equation N = R Fp Ne Fl Fi Fc L: (I copied the following from an online source)
N = the number of civilizations with whom we can connect
R = the rate of star formation (10 stars per year in our galaxy)
Fp = the fraction of stars that develop planets
Ne = planets suitable for life
Fl = planets that actually develop life
Fi = planets that develop life that is intelligent
Fc = civilizations that communicate
L = civilizations at the stage at which communication can occur
So you just plug in the numbers and depending on what numbers you use the results change in favor for or against intelligent life. Interesting!
        I kicked back and read “T is for Trespass” for the rest of the night. My childhood friend Larry Carlock called to wish me a happy birthday and we chatted a bit of those old days when we lived in Torrance.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 09- did my stretches and that's all! It’s my day off from exercising!
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 82 to 100, winds S to SE at 4-9 and a SW wind at 28 MPH in the evening, humidity around 25 percent, cumulonimbus clouds but in the distance. According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 101. Light wind becoming west southwest between 10 and 13 mph. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 76. West wind between 7 and 15 mph.”
        Got in the Gross Polluter and headed out to Lee’s rental house where I was suppose to meet him at around 12:30pm to pick up some old metal sheets to use on my patio/shop extension, but he wasn’t there. I place a call and left a message that I was there and waiting. He never showed or even returned my call that day. So I went over to Stoney’s to have a yap with him. He was watching Cowboys and Indians on TV so I didn’t stay long, I had thing to do.
        Chris Y. invited me to his recording studio to listen in on a session with some of his friends. So I decided what the hell I need to get out of my tech hermit hideaway and mingle with folks who are into music like I am. Boy I was happy I did! I got there early and helped Chris setup some equipment and played the guitar some while he rant and raved at the sound system. I even played the drums to the some songs he had recorded and I felt like a kid banging on this and that (I never played the drums before) and it felt good! I met Steve Folino as he showed up and helped him move a bunch of his equipment into the studio, I kind of felt somewhat like a roadie. Steve is a tall slender man who wears a cowboy hat and has long skinny fingers (it helps to have long skinny fingers when you play guitar). He was very nice and let me play his two guitars: One a modified Stratocaster that he named after his daughter. I was so afraid of breaking it that I forgot the brand of the other one but it was very expensive, I think it was an old Gibson. Steve and I jawed about his guitar setup that he was showing me how to work. He is a very nice guy and I appreciate him going through and explaining these little boxes here, and that pre-amp there to me. Then Milo the drummer walked in and started setting up his equipment. I decided to stay out of the way for a while and leave the sound room and sit where the recording equipment is behind a glass window. This is where the recording engineer fiddles with knobs and sliders and adjusts the sounds to the individual microphones and instruments. I was playing guitar on the couch inside and was joined by Milo. He mentioned that he liked the way I strummed the guitar! That made my day! At that time Chris needed a sound check of some type and asked Milo to hold a mic close to the guitar I was playing. I didn’t know he was recording me and he then played it back. He laughed and said “now we have you hooked!” Milo invited me to play in Yucca Valley where a few musicians gather on Wednesday nights to play. Wow, I’ll have to give that one some thought. I told him that I make up the stuff I play and don’t have any experience playing with others except when I was thirteen when my childhood friends and I had a garage band that played only four or five songs. Milo is a nice person and was on tour playing drums since he was eighteen and did it for a few years. Chris wants to teach me how to work the recording equipment and said it would be a great help to him if I’d learned. I don’t know there are lots of buttons, knobs, switches, wires, cables, and a program on the computer that ties it all together, which I’d have to master (it looks more complicated than a Boeing 747 airliner’s cockpit). I had to go because I was getting hungry and had to call my Mom and Dad later on in the evening. So I said my goodbyes to my new found friends. Nice folks every one of them!
        Got home just in time to eat a sandwich and call Mom and Pop! We yakked for over an hour! Then my brother called and we did the same! I’m all yakked out. I missed my evening walk but hey it’s my day off from exercises. So I went online and did some catch up on stuff and mindlessly surf the web for a while.
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 10- did my stretches and that’s all! Saturday and Sunday are my exercise days off.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 81 to 103, winds NNW at 4-8 and a SW wind at 11 MPH in the evening, humidity around 24 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Monday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 102. North northwest wind at 11 mph becoming southeast. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 77. Southwest wind 7 to 15 mph becoming northwest. Winds could gust as high as 22 mph.”
        I called Family and Friends throughout the day while working on that Dell B110 desktop. Found out that the hard drive was dead meat after trying “many” different ways to bring it back to life. I replaced it with an 80Gig drive I had and was able to load up XP on it without a problem.
        I also cleaned around the house some, getting rid of this and that, going through old mail and keeping what was important; like the tags for my truck sent last April! I’m lucky I wasn’t pulled over! I think I need to implement a system for keeping track of these things. I have written before about the need for minimizing, I’ve even took an online class for it, but dang I can’t make a routine out of it. Maybe I can start a list of things to do, but then the list maybe too big. Hopefully I’ll figure it out.
        Went for my evening walk and took my camera but I couldn’t find anything worth shooting. I guess I should change my route when I take my camera for a change of scenery.
        When I got back I read “T is for Trespass” until “The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: Limbo” came on PBS. Then I read until I finished “T is for Trespass” around 1am in the morning and why this post is so short. What a great book! Fat Cat was banging on the door to be fed as I read the last chapter. He seemed a little pissed at me for feeding him so late when I let him in that I gave him an extra serving of that smelly canned fish that he likes so well.
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 11- I had just woke up and was letting Fat Cat in to eat when a horn honked. It was Lee and Seimi on their way to Lee’s rental property to do more clean up. I asked them what happened to them last Saturday when we were to meet at the property so I could pick up the metal sheeting I want to use for extending my patio/shop. Well they gave me some excuse that really didn’t matter to me now because they would be there today and I’d be there in an hour to pick it all up and haul it home. But first I did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 80 to 105, winds NNW at 4-8 and a SW wind at 11 MPH in the evening, humidity around 24 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 103. Calm wind becoming southwest between 10 and 13 mph. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 75. Southwest wind between 11 and 14 mph becoming light. Winds could gust as high as 18 mph.”
        I drove the Gross Polluter over to the rental and down the side road that leads to the backside of the house where Lee was sitting in a chair and Seimi was walking around picking up debris that littered the backyard then throwing it in a dumpster. The former tenants had left a mess in the yard and in the house. I walked up to Lee and asked him when he’d be done cleaning this all up- he and Marcie have been doing the cleanup going on two weeks. He said any day now and also told me that the former tenants had left about fifty old tires, had broken into the shed making off with its contents, dumped their garbage in a big pile in the center of the backyard, and had stolen a few other items.
        Seimi came to give me a hand picking up the metal sheeting and loading it onto my truck. I got some good pieces for my shop/patio. Marcie arrived and I walked up to the house to say hi. She gave me a tour and showed me the repairs they had done inside. When I first walked in there was the strong smell of urine. Marcie explained that the tenants had kept their dog in this room and that the carpet was saturated with the stuff and there was poop everywhere when they moved out. She had tried to clean it three times to get the smell out but to no avail. The carpet will have to be replaced. The tenants also put many holes in the wall, removed fixtures, took all the light bulbs, and left owing two months’ rent. I believe I’ll never be a landlord after seeing and hearing all this!
        Got home, removed and stacked the sheets neatly, and then took a hose shower to remove the scent of the rental. I ate my breakfast while I checked my email. Then I went to install the drivers on the Dell B110 desktop. I took out the system disks and thumbed through them but there wasn’t a driver disk among them, dang! Called Chris and he called his daughter whose computer it is, and she said that I have everything that she could find, double dang! Well now I’ll have to download the drivers manually from Dell, but I’ll do that later.
        So as not to have the day a complete waste I went back online and completed lesson 2 of the Word 2007 Intermediate class.
        I was going through the house to get something when I bashed my left foot on the guitar case I hadn’t put away. I sat down with throbbing pain emanating from the toe next to the little one I usually bang on things. It was already changing colors! I tried to walk on it but it hurt really badly, so now I’m limping and hobbling around the place. Later I tried to go on my evening walk hoping that it would feel better but I only made it a little ways away from the house before the pain got so bad that I had to turn back. It looks like it will be three or four days before I can use that foot, triple double dang! No running or walking, but I bet you that I can still ride my bike and lift weights!
        My brother Kevin called. I told him about my day and he sympathized with me. Also we talked about minimization and doing lists to sort things out. He agreed with my idea of a whiteboard with the days of the month hanging on the door. He sent me a couple of links to websites that write about minimizing belongings, but these sites were talking austere and I want my home to feel lived in and neat with everything in its place and not bare. All I got now is “lived in”! My Brother is a bright light in the cave of my soul.
        I started reading the book on PhotoShop 7 and made it through the intro and first few pages of chapter 1. Then I read a few chapters in “Surely You’re Joking MR. Feynman”.
        I have to go outside tonight for the Perseid Meteor Shower tonight so I am writing this early. I have just took a pain pill for my hurt toe in the hopes that I’ll be able to hobble around without too much pain and suffering, well it does hurt! I will signoff now and I promise to play my guitar and do my stretches (if my toe lets me). Fat Cat and I will be out watching the skies for meteors until very late into the night.

Tuesday 12- Late last night after doing my stretches, lifting weights, and practicing my guitar, I started watching the 2008 Perseid Meteor Shower early Tuesday morning at around 1:30am. As the Moon set behind the southwestern hills and the sky became darker opening up the universe in all its grandeur, I saw the first two Earthgrazers coming in parallel streaking across the heavens at 132,000 mph in a race to their deaths in the upper atmosphere. Cool! I stayed up until a little after 4am as my Fat Cat had abandoned me earlier for the comforts of his bed and I was growing tired. I saw many meteors that night and had the time to ponder on the nature of our existence on a small speck of a world adrift in such an immense cosmos. This always fascinates me to no end!
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 78 to 103, slight breeze, humidity around 22 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 99. Calm wind becoming south between 7 and 10 mph. Wednesday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 75. South southwest wind between 10 and 13 mph becoming light.”
        Got woken up by Ken around 11am letting me know that his domain name has been successfully changed. Well I took that pain pill last night, only half of one, and I had a hard time talking on the phone. I told him I’d check it out later, and I did and was unable to upload to it! I believe that it was still being setup on their server.
        My toe still hurt but I managed to do some light stretches. I hobbled around getting breakfast ready, feeding Fat Cat, and other little things you do after you have woken up. I sat down to write my column for the newspaper and had trouble concentrating because I was still hung over from that pain pill, and it took me three hours to write something up! I haven’t taken a pain pill in over a year. I don’t like them, but sometimes they do come in handy because I was feeling no pain last night while watching the meteor shower.
        I then decided just to stay inside and stay off the foot. I did a little watering of the plants but that was about it. If I kept hobbling around I’d strain the muscles in my legs and I don’t want to do that. So I spent most of my time online completing a lesson in PowerPoint and one in Excel. I also read a few chapters in “Surely You’re Joking MR. Feynman”. I downloaded most of the drivers that I’ll need for the Dell B110 desktop I’m repairing. Replied to a bunch of emails that were sitting in my inbox for way to long! So now I’m all caught up!
        I was online most of the day doing these and only broke to eat dinner and call a few friends and my brother Kevin; we had a nice yap.
        Hopefully my toe will feel better tomorrow and not be so painful so that I can walk around normally. Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 13- My toe hurts and I’m still hobbling. Maybe tomorrow I’ll try to go on a walk. My sister Paula says for me to tie the toe to the one next to it but I don’t think I’ll do that. I did my stretches, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 81 to 108, slight breeze, humidity around 32 percent, cumulonimbus on our horizon but none came our way just cumulus overhead in our area. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Partly sunny and hot, with a high near 101. West southwest wind 5 to 14 mph becoming southeast. Thursday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 78. South southwest wind between 6 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.”
        I was finally able to upload to Ken’s new domain name and felt quite happy about that. I had talked to him later in the day and told him I got it done. He said he’d send me some more info for the website that I could use.
        Got to working on the Dell B110 desktop wanting to get it done and out of the way. I installed all the drivers I downloaded last night (a slow process on dialup!) and found some more I needed so I downloaded them and installed them too. I installed Avast antivirus, Service Pak3 that I have on my thumb drive, FireFox 3, Microsoft Works 2006 that she sent me, and a few other programs. I noticed that there are a few updates for driver updates for certain CD RW drives but I’ll have to check which manufacturer is on the machine by pulling the drive or running Belarc Advisor - I’ll do that tomorrow.
        I read a few chapters in “Surely You’re Joking MR. Feynman”. I really enjoy the way he writes and reading about the predicaments he gets himself into- a fascinating man!
        My brother Kevin called and I took a break from reading to yap for almost an hour. It amazes me how time flies when you’re on the phone. I have a phone that has a display with the minutes talked if I remember to look before I hang up. We were on the phone for 51 minutes!
        I read a few more chapters then decided to do lesson 3 in the intermediate Word 2007 class. I paid good money for Office 2007 and I’m going to learn it! This lesson was on footers and headers and how to manipulate them. Tomorrow it will be Excel or PowerPoint- I’ll probably do Excel (because it’s hard) to get it out of the way. Once I finish these three classes I’ll get cracking on Photoshop 7, which I really need to learn for my webdesign that I’m doing.
        I read an interesting article online about an idea for a faster than light spacecraft that could use dark energy to form a bubble around its self and decreases the dark energy in front of the ship to bring the expansion rate of the universe to a stop. It wouldn’t break the laws of Einstein: that nothing can travel faster than light in our universe. Because, they say, that the universe is expanding faster than light can travel and by using this expansion the spacecraft can exceed the speed of light. The only problem is that it would take the whole mass of Jupiter converted into pure energy to accomplish this! I don’t think we’ll see this for a long time to come. I wrote about something like this about black holes, that the compression of matter as it falls toward the singularity is squeezed to a point that it loses space time and could leak out of a black hole because it could exceed the speed of light- I’m only guessing on this part. Maybe this is dark matter or dark energy. Nobody knows yet what this dark energy/matter is.
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 14- My toe is feeling a little better now but I’m still hobbling a bit. Tomorrow I’ll go on a walk for sure. I did my stretches, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 82 to 109, slight breeze but picking up at of the S around sunset, humidity around 40 percent, cumulonimbus on our horizon but none came our way just cumulus overhead in our area (again). According to the National Weather Service “Friday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 101. Light wind becoming south between 13 and 16 mph. Friday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 79. South southwest wind between 6 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.”
        I decided to load XP on the little Asus EEE again. Last night I figured that I can get online with it using a Bluetooth modem and a Bluetooth USB adapter that I have. If the Bluetooth USB had worked on the Linux system that came with the machine I wouldn’t have had to install XP. After a few hours work I had XP Service Pak2 installed but without sound like the last time I installed it. The drivers that came on the Asus DVD for XP’s audio just ain’t any good! Anyways I got online with it just before I had to leave to check my friend’s house to see if everything is okay- it was.
        I stopped off at Stoney’s to see what he was up to. He made some buttermilk donuts with powdered sugar sprinkled on them. I ate two of them.
        I stopped off at my neighbor Barbara’s house. She had called me earlier needing my assistance pulling out the bathroom sink fixtures so she could hunt for a “dental appliance” that she had dropped behind it. Well it wasn’t there and I had to put the whole darn thing back together. While I was there I helped her with a printer problem and checkout a monitor that she was given for free. I had to tweak it so that the picture filled the whole screen. We had drunk green tea had a nice chat as I worked. She is car-less and stranded at home right now waiting for the money to get a Cam Sensor and a mechanic to put it in. I suggested she call Auto Zone to get pricing on the part and call her mechanic in LA and ask him how hard it would be to put it in. Maybe I could do it for her if it isn’t too difficult I told her
        Just got in the door when the phone rang. It was Ron Dehart calling to say hi and to give me an update on the work he is doing on his house. My friend Chris was there earlier putting the electrical in the new bedroom extension- such a small world. Things are coming along quite nicely with the new addition.
        My brother Kevin called and we yapped about our day. He had called in the afternoon while he was at FedEx getting a new printer head sent from Kodak and to collect his mail. We talk a lot because we have some catching up to do.
        I haven’t been watching TV much lately. I remember when I was in college I was to dang busy and didn’t watch it for four years. I was happy then; going to school, studying my lessons, and doing things that I never done before. It was wonderful! I seem to be happy now these days too since I started watching less TV and creating my own adventures. TV just sucks all the creativity out of us and replaces it with a false sense of reality that we integrate into our lives and become who we are not.
        While I was doing some updates on the Asus EEE I read a few chapters in “Surely You’re Joking MR. Feynman” and I’m almost done with the book. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 15- My toe is feeling much better now and I’m not hobbling as much. I did my stretches, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 83 to 105, slight breeze but picking up at of the SW at 15 after sunset, humidity around 46 percent, altostratus clouds covering us most of the day. According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 100. Light wind becoming south between 12 and 15 mph. Saturday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 77. South southwest wind between 7 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.”
        Got cracking on the weekend update for the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the newsletter.
        I decided that my old HTML editor that I had since 1999 is just too dang old. I’ve gotten very comfortable using it over the years but it has to go now that I am starting to do websites for other folks. I took an online class where we used NVU Website Developer and found it to be pretty good, opensource and free. I played around with it last night after I wrote to my journal to get familiar with it again and did some updates to Ken’s website and saved them to my thumb drive so I could work on it later on my other laptop I use for business. I did a few more tweaks to his site today and then uploaded it to his server. I just have to get used to using the new HTML editor along with all the other programs I’ve been learning just recently.
        Called Stoney to see what’s up and Roger S. was there. He asked me if I saw anyone dump garbage on Winters Road and Borland Pass. I told him that when I was on my bike ride that I saw a green homemade camper shell lying off to the side. Roger said that he saw and knows who dumped it there and is going to report them to the police if he can find the license plate number he copied down but misplaced. I don’t like people who dump in our desert and I hope they get in trouble!
        I spent a good part of my day optimizing XP to run on the Asus EEE laptop (the EEE has a 4Gig Flash Hard drive). I also loaded Word 2000 and Service Pak3. But the good thing about install is you have time to read while it loads. So I got to reading a few chapters in “Surely You’re Joking MR. Feynman” and will probably finish it tomorrow.
        Talked to my brother Kevin for almost an hour (53 minutes) before I had to go on my evening walk. The walk went okay without any pain to my toe, so I give it the weekend before I go for a run and just continue walking. I really miss my runs!
        I got back home to do a little more reading and then I went online to do a little work and mess around. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 16- it’s Saturday and I only did my stretches. The same goes for Sunday too! I will not feel guilty- well a little bit- but that’s the plan and I’m sticking to it: weekends off from exercising. I’m going to run on Monday and hope my hurt toe lets me.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 83 to 105, slight breeze but picking up at of the SW at 15 after sunset, humidity around 46 percent, altostratus clouds covering us most of the day. According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Isolated showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 100. Light wind becoming southwest between 15 and 18 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 77. West southwest wind 15 to 18 mph decreasing to between 6 and 9 mph.”
        called some Friends and Family to yak at them for a spell throughout the day. Then I got to work on that Excel lesson that I was going to do yesterday but gotten sidetracked by other stuff that was more important for me to get done. The lesson takes some time for me to work my way through it, do the assignment, and answer the questions on the test. It must have taken more than three hours of me hunched over the computer pecking at the keyboard ciphering this cell and adding that cell together until I got it done. Only have one more lesson in Excel to go! Whoopee!
        Called my Mom and Pop to jaw at them for a little while. Pop was having trouble with his Black and Decker Grass Hog (weed wacker) eating up the cord that whizzes around. The cord kept hitting the trimming device that was not adjusted and was leaving little various lengths of cord in a trail behind him using up a spool of the stuff very quickly. He got it all figured out in the end. I thought “Grass Hog” was a funny name.
        Went for my evening walk and took a few pictures while I pondered on that audio problem on the Asus EEE laptop. When I got back I set it up to try a few things that I thought of on my walk. I removed Realtek High Definition Audio Driver, uninstalled Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio, ran the install audio from the Asus DVD, and the install program said it needs to reboot so I clicked yes. As it was shutting down I heard a pop, Yes! When it restarted I had sound! Cool! Now I have a fully functional tiny laptop running XP instead of Linux and I’m able to go online with by way of Bluetooth dialup modem, but it took a whole lot of my time to figure it all out.
        My brother Kevin called having problems with his computer. It seems that he was running a cleanup program and it was going through his ini files and somehow messed up his boot.ini that contains the location of where XP is on the hard drive, so he wasn’t able to boot up the system. It would just come up with this error at startup: NTLDR (NT boot loader) is missing, so he lost that too. The NTLDR will default to C: partition if boot.ini isn’t found. NTLDR can be fixed with a setup floppy but he doesn’t have one, and was going to his daughter’s to get one when I last talked to him.
        Chris Young came by to pick up his daughter’s computer that I fixed and also brought a hard drive for the system I am putting together for him, and also an SATA to USB so I can try to retrieve his data from two SATA hard drives that have broken connections. He had a recording on CD of the studio session that I attended last Saturday and played it for me. The guys sounded great! We sat around outside under a full Moon and jawed for a spell about the universe and how many intelligent civilizations might be out there in its vastness.
        Well it got late and after he left I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 17- did my stretches. Tomorrow I’m going to try running if my hurt toe lets me. It has been a week since I hurt my toe and I hope this was time enough for it to heal.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 81 to 102, slight breeze but picking up out of the SW at 15 after sunset (just like the last few days), humidity around 32 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Monday: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 98. West wind 5 to 14 mph becoming south. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 75. West wind between 7 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.”
        I started working on Ken’s website creating another webpage. I wanted to do more but I’m working with the new HTML Editor and learning while I go. I need to get used to the interface with four different tabs to view and work from. At least I can go to the Source Tab to edit the HTML myself and that’s what I’m use to.
        Then got cracking on Chris’s computer that I am building from two old computers he had brought me and spent the better part of the day trouble shooting. The new hard drive is 200Gig and I don’t think that Win2000 recognized all of it and kept crashing. I knew there was a limit on large drives, so I went online and found that there is a limit of 137Gigs. I will partition the drive in two 100Gig partitions tomorrow and see if that works. But right now I put Win98 back on so that it has Windows NT that Win2000 needs for an install. I do this so I don’t have to use the five floppies that installs NT on the drive.
        While I was doing the install I was also reading “Surly You Joking MR Feynman” and finished it before I went on my evening walk. I took my camera and went a different route for a change of scenery. I dropped by my neighbor Barbara’s home to see how she is doing. She is still carless but she thinks that she has found a mobile mechanic to come fix her car. She did find that “dental appliance” I tore the sink apart a few days ago looking for. She had left it in a candle cup! I yapped with her some and then continued my walk. I got some good pictures of the mountains to the north of us. Nice shading of the hills, trails, and crevasses as the Sun set.
        When I got home I called my brother Kevin who was busy fixing his computer he broke yesterday, so I didn’t want to disturb him and kept it short. I went to read some of my astronomy book “365 Starry Nights”. It has something for every night of the year and I was behind a week. I’ve been rereading this book for over two years now.
        Watched “Mystery: The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: Know Thine Enemy” on PBS. It was about a man and woman team that kidnaps, rapes, and murders young girls. Very excellent program!
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 18- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights. Back to normal- toe feels fine! It’s great to run again.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 80 to 103, slight breeze but picking up out of the SW at 17 after sunset (just like the last few days), humidity around 31 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 100. Light wind becoming southwest between 14 and 17 mph. Winds could gust as high as 23 mph. Tuesday Night: Clear, with a low around 73. West southwest wind 14 to 17 mph decreasing to between 6 and 9 mph. Winds could gust as high as 21 mph.”
        I started working on Chris’s computer again. I thought that I could just partition the 200Gig hard drive, but I found out differently when I ran a program called MaxBlaster that’s suppose to do the partition- it said I needed to update the BIOS first. Went online to see if I could find the BIOS update so the computer could run hard drives larger than 137Gigs but couldn’t find one even at the manufacturer’s website, Dang! I have a 40Gig drive that I have all my backups on I could use but I’d first have to transfer them somewhere else. I called Chris and told him I was going with a 40Gig instead of the 200Gig drive. He said, “What am I to do with the 200Gig drive that I bought?” I wanted to say what I really felt he could do with it, but instead I told him that I needed it to store my data on from the smaller drive. He said whatever it takes. Well to make a long story short I spent much of my day transferring data by way of USB that was painfully slow. Once I got it all off the 40Gig I loaded Win98 then Win2000- that even recognized the video card. Unfortunately the sound and the network card don’t work and I’ll have to look for drivers for them later on. I should promise myself not to work on older machines ever again!
        Went for my evening walk and just did some thinking of things while I wandered on the trail. When I got back I went in through the front gate. There drinking out of the large bucket I leave out for critters, was a Red Racer snake! He was sticking his head right into the water. I guess he noticed that I had approached and raised his head around to give me a look. He sniffed at me with his tongue, then ignoring me, dropped his head back into the water and went right on drinking! Wow! To cool! I went and grabbed my camera but he had his fill of water and was making his way through the chaparral very quickly- they can travel at 7MPH. I did get a picture of him as he slithered away.
        Went over to Stoney’s to see what he was up to. It was nice to sit and jaw for a spell and get away from computers! I got home after sunset and decided to do the last lesson in the Excel class and be done with it. The last lesson wasn’t that hard and I finished it in a little over two hours. Now I can focus on my other two classes: Intermediate Word 2007 and beginning PowerPoint.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar and broke a string. Wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 19- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 78 to 98, slight breeze but picking up out of the SW at 20 after sunset (just like the last few days), humidity around 24 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 98. Calm wind becoming southwest between 13 and 16 mph. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 72. West southwest wind between 6 and 16 mph.”
        Mac came by to borrow my battery charger and sat around to jaw for a spell. He wanted to know when I’d be ready to work on my Honda Saber 700 that’s been sitting in my front yard out of commission for a few years. Mac has a bunch of knowledge of motorbikes and has offered to help me on replace the wiring that has degraded over the years. I told him soon but not until I get some other pressing stuff out of the way.
        Spent a few hours writing the column for the newspaper and emailed it to them. Then I got to working on Chris’s computer. I found a audio card in the other computer he brought over and went online and was successful in finding a driver for that and the network card. I loaded the drivers up and now we have sound! I couldn’t check the network card but it took the driver (these parts are from 2000) and if it doesn’t work he’ll just have to purchase a new card. I also salvaged a Sony CDRW out of the other computer and set that up and got it working too. Did a few tweaks and loaded some programs like Advast anti-virus, Sygate firewall, and FireFox3. I’m done with it and it will soon be out the door!
        Went for my evening walk with my camera and took a few pics. I was watching the sunset with Fat Cat when Joel brought me my mail- still no Government rebate check! I think they have forgotten about me. Well in some ways that’s alright with me.
        Was yapping at my brother Kevin when my phone died with a loud click. He’d call back and five minutes later it would click and die again. This went on for a few times more when we decided to call it quits. This has happened to my phone line before and it has something to do with the main switching box in our area. It is intermittent and sometimes I can talk or be online for hours with no problems, and sometimes it gets really bad and cuts me off every five minutes or so. I’ll call Verizon tomorrow to have them fix it- I got in-home maintenance this time so they better not give me any hassle like a few years ago!
        I was able to go online to do the last lesson in Intermediate Word 2007 despite the line going dead here and there. I finished the class in about two hours. I can now focus on the PowerPoint class.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went on my nightly run. Replaced the string I broke last night on my guitar and did my practice. Wrote to my journal, posted it to the web (with the phone line going in and out), and called it a night.

Wednesday 20- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 77 to 97, slight breeze but picking up out of the SW at 13 after sunset (just like the last few days, again!), humidity around 24 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 99. Light wind becoming south southwest between 11 and 14 mph. Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 73. South southwest wind 5 to 14 mph becoming west northwest. Winds could gust as high as 22 mph.”
        Called the Verizon about the line going dead every now and then. Once I got passed the robot and got hold of a real person I told the lady rep very quickly that my phone may go dead as we talk and this has been a reoccurring problem for some years, and also that the problem is intermittent sometimes going dead after five minutes or going dead after an hour or so- of course it didn’t die when I was talking to her! Well they will send a repairperson out to my home next Monday. About a half an hour later a robot called me and said that “We believe we have found and fixed the problem. If this is correct press 1, if not press 2” I pressed “2” and then the line went dead!
        Ken called to discuss his website I’m building for him- he was on the road going up to Bishop to a lake there. I told him about my phone problem and that the line may drop. I got the impression that he wasn’t in a rush for the website and he said that he would send me more information to include on the site next week. Good! I need more info than I got from him so far. Well my line died and he called back, and then died again. He didn’t call back that time. Dang! Not a professional way to treat my client.
        Tried to go online to get my email and was able to get a few things done even with the line going dead. What a pain! I decided to just get off offline and do some other work. I started transferring my files over to the 160Gig drive (earlier I had said it was a 200Gig) that I took off the 40Gig, which I had to use to build Chris’s computer, and had the files stashed on every bit of hard drive space that I could find, I even had some of it on a USB thumbdrive! Now most of it is on the 160Gig freeing up space that I need to do my work on.
        My brother Kevin called and we talked for five minutes when the line went dead. He called back to say he’d call me tonight on my cell phone- I get free minutes after 9pm.
        Went over to Stoney’s for lunch/dinner. He had cooked up some spaghetti and fresh baked bread! Yum! Roger Smith joined us and we sat around eating and yapping about the community. I ate more in this one meal than I’ve eaten all week. I was mighty full!
        Got home and went on my evening walk without the camera or lectures to listen to, just walked and thought about things, planning, thinking, wondering, enjoying the desert.
        Messed around with the Asus EEE for awhile, read some astronomy. Kevin called while he was driving back from the theater on his way to his daughter Chrystal’s house. I got to talk to her and listen to her new baby, my grand niece, Cool!
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web (great effort on my part with the line going dead now and then), and called it a night.

Thursday 21- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 79 to 103, slight breeze but picking up out of the S at 10 after sunset (it changed from SW!), humidity around 25 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 100. Calm wind becoming south between 6 and 9 mph. Friday Night: Clear, with a low around 73. Southwest wind between 3 and 11 mph.”
        Went online to check my email and didn’t have any problems with my line going dead! Talked to my Brother and it didn’t die while we yapped. Well we’ll have to see if it stays fixed and doesn’t die during the remainder of the week before I make the decision to cancel the repair call. Kevin said to just have them come out anyways to check it to make sure that humidity wasn’t the cause. I just hate these intermittent problems.
        Finished transferring all my backup files to the 160Gig hard drive and now everything is back to normal. While I was on my Dell 2350 desktop I upgraded it to Service Pak3. I hardly ever use the 2350 but I like to keep my computers updated. As I was doing this I also gave my plants a good watering, and cleaned up the yard some. Took the dead battery out of my “Faithful Truck” (the one with the deceased transmission) and put it to charge on one of my solar panels. And I did some cleaning around the house too. The weather has been cooler for a few days now and I’m able to get more work done outside because of it. When it’s hot I go into hiding in the house mode.
        Lee and Marcie drove up to tell me that they aren’t Democrats anymore but Republicans! Wow what a big change for them! I told them that I was neither. I guess I’m a kind of political agnostic; I would like to believe that politicians could create a better society for the common good of all, but I haven’t seen any proof of it yet, and I am too logical to accept it on faith.
        I called Stoney to see what he was up to. He was having trouble trying to enter all his phone numbers into his mobile phone. It turned out the problem was that the battery was weak and wasn’t sending to the main unit. He asked if I wanted to come over to help him finish off the spaghetti but I declined saying that my stomach needed a rest after yesterday’s feast, he agreed, and we both decided on eating it tomorrow for dinner.
        I read some Sci-FI “Ring of Fire” that I had put down for a few weeks so I could do all these lessons on Office 2007. Then I took out “365 Starry Nights” to get caught up on that.
        Went for my evening walk and just wandered around wondering. Something is up with me, I can feel it! I think I may need to expand my horizons. I’ve been in this comfort zone for a while now, many years. A decision must be made but of what I don’t know yet because it is just now forming in my mind.
        When I got back home I called my Brother and we yakked for a spell without the phone going dead! I went online and completed two lessons in PowerPoint and finished the class, without the line cutting out! Now that I finished these Office 2007 classes my focus will be on PhotoShop 7.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web without the line dropping, and called it a night.

Friday 22- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights. Now I’m looking forward to two days off from my exercise.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 77 to 102, slight breeze but picking up out of the S at 11, humidity around 27 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 100. West northwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming southeast. Saturday Night: Clear, with a low around 76. South southwest wind 8 to 11 mph becoming west northwest.”
        Got to work on the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and uploaded it to the server, and sent out the Newsletter. Did some yard work cleaning and watering plants that I didn’t water yesterday. My brother Kevin called to say howdy and we jawed for a few.
        I read some more Sci-Fi “Ring of Fire” and then read a chapter in “PhotoShop 7”. It was 5pm and time to go on over to Stoney’s to help him and Roger Smith finish off the spaghetti that we started on Wednesday. Stoney baked some homemade bread again and it tastes mighty fine when it is fresh and hot with butter on it. I ate too much again!
        I went for my evening walk when I got home and just wandered around in deep thought again like the last few days. Fat Cat and I watched the sunset together sitting on the front yard bench.
        I then went online to take care of some work and when I got that done I mindlessly surf the web for a while. It’s funny that one site can lead you to another and that site can still lead you to more.
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web (the phone line didn’t go down once today!), and called it a night. It was a lazy day for me!

Saturday 23- the telephone rang early in the morning and it was my good friend Bob Vandenberg who I haven’t heard from in about twenty years! Wow! Last time I saw him was just a little after the city kicked me and other boaters off the moorings and I had to move my boat to a slip at Redondo Marina. We go back a long time. Bob used to hang out with Larry Carlock and I back in the 60s and 70s. Our main mode of transportation in those days was hitchhiking and we went on a lot of trips. We’d travel to the Colorado River or Sespe Hot Springs up near Ojai to camp out and pick up on girls. Later when Bob got married I’d go to Lomita where he and his wife Linda lived with their two young kids; we’d watch “Amazing Stories” on TV. Now the two kids are all grown up now and have kids of their own. It’s good to hear from old friends but it makes me feel old!
        It’s the weekend and rest time from my exercises, so just I did my stretches. Feels good to rest!
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 80 to 104, slight breeze, humidity around 30 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 103. West northwest wind at 11 mph becoming east. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 78. South wind 7 to 11 mph becoming west.”
        Saturday is the day I call Friends and Family and that is mostly what I did today except when I went over to Stoney’s to pick up two loafs of bread and yogurt that he got for me when he went shopping. He was watching “Dances with Wolfs” and I almost got sucked into watching it myself but I have other more important things to do today.
        I talked to Mom and Pop for an hour and a half yakking about this and that until our ears hurt! Then Jimmy called to tell me about his recent fishing trip down to Mexico on a boat out of San Diego- he won a prize of $180for the biggest fish caught that day on the trip!
        Went for my evening walk and then read some Sci-Fi “Ring of Fire”. I watched a DVD that a friend gave me called “Who Killed the Electric Car” and boy was that an eye opener! After viewing this movie it made me believe that there is no hope for our environment when it comes up against big business and greedy politicians. If you don’t believe me, watch the movie to see for yourselves!
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 24- did my stretches- my exercise day off remember?
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 81 to 105, slight breeze, humidity around 35 percent, cumulonimbus clouds here and there but not a drop for us. According to the National Weather Service “Monday: Isolated showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 103. West northwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming south between 13 and 16 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Monday Night: Isolated showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 78. Southwest wind between 6 and 16 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.”
        Spent most of my day here and there yakking on the phone with Family and Friends: Kevin, Mac, Stoney, Leeanne, Mike Long and a few others. The time seems to slip by while on the phone: minutes turn into hours, but I don’t mind one bit because my Friends and Family come first, and I’m happy that they give up their time in return to talk to me.
        I read a few chapters of “Ring of Fire” throughout the day when I had a chance.
        The telephone line hasn’t gone down for a couple of days now. I decided to call Verizon and cancel the repair call scheduled for tomorrow. I can always call Verizon if it starts acting up again. I believe that someone else was having the same problem as I and it was subsequently fixed by Verizon earlier in the week- I could be wrong though!
        I got off the phone for a few hours doing an online update on one of my laptops and took that opportunity to do a little work. I put the recharged battery into the “Faithful Truck” (that don’t run), got it started and used my small compressor that plugs into the cigarette lighter to fill up the tires on that truck and on my Honda Saber 700 motorbike. Then with great effort that stressed all the muscles and tendons in my tired old body to the point of exhaustion, moved the Honda into the workshop for repairs. Then I climbed up onto the roof to patch a hole where light was shining through into the shop.
Went for my evening walk and took the camera with me and got some good shots of the thunder clouds (cumulonimbus) ringing our area. Then I sat outside watching the sunset with Fat Cat and took pictures of these bee like critters landing and filling up with water that’s inside the cement pond in front of the bench we were sitting.
        Joel came by with some Cajun concoction that I had for dinner. It consisted of them tiny barbecued hotdogs mixed in shell pasta with a barbecue sauce. It was very yummy and I ate it all up!
        Did some more yakking on the phone and reading until late into the night. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 25- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 82 to 104, S to SE winds at 6-16 MPH, humidity around 42 percent, cumulonimbus clouds here and there and we finally got a few drops. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 96. Calm wind becoming south between 10 and 13 mph. Tuesday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 76. South wind 6 to 14 mph becoming west. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph.”
        I was on my computer doing some work when I heard a strange sound coming from my roof! I went outside to investigate and to my astonishment, it was raining; not much, only a few drops here and there, it felt so good to just stand there in the open and let the drops from the passing clouds descend upon me.
        Called my brother Kevin just to touch base.
        I read chapter 2 of the Photoshop book and practiced it on the computer. Now I kind of know what Layers and Layer Sets are, and how to save my work in different formats.
        Read a few chapters in “Ring of Fire” and then went for my evening walk with my camera. I took a few pics but nothing really caught my fancy.
        I called Stoney to see what he was up to. He was watching an educational program about bees and not the cowboys and Indian shows he usually watches. I’ve been trying to get him away from the tube and doing other things, but the educational program will have to suffice for now. We yapped for a spell, him telling about cleaning his swamp cooler earlier in the day: the pump was clogged with debris from the pads and not putting out enough cool air.
        Created a PowerPoint slide show all by myself – I thought that I’d better do one soon after finishing the class so I won’t forget how to make one. It came out pretty good but I want to add sound to it and that wasn’t covered in the beginning class. I guess I’ll sign up for the advanced PowerPoint class if HP has one.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. As I ran, I could see lightning far off to the east making a spectacular light display. Cool!
        Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 26- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 81 to 98, S to SE winds at 6-19 MPH, humidity around 46 percent, cumulonimbus clouds here and there but they just quickly passed us by without a drop. According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 99. West wind around 6 mph becoming calm. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 76. Southeast wind 5 to 9 mph becoming west southwest.”
        Wrote my column for the newspaper, which took a big chunk out of my day.
        Called my good friend Kula and yapped at her for a while. We been friends for quite some time and I feel comfortable telling her things that I wouldn’t normally tell other folks. It’s always nice to have someone you can confide in.
        Worked in the yard gathering all the palm fronds that were lying in my yard after I stepped on one and its razor sharp teeth drew blood. I stuck them all in a 55-gallon barrel and I’ll burn them later on in the winter on some cold windless night when I have the telescope out. They are so sharp that I was wondering if early primitive people had used them as weapons.
        Read a few chapters in “Ring of Fire”. I was interrupted briefly when Joel brought me my mail (which is a good thing because it saves me a twelve mile round trip to my mailbox).
        Went for my evening walk and did some reflecting on some current matters of concern and trying to come to some balanced resolution.
        Watched “NCIS” on CBS, it was an episode that I had missed. The team is under investigation after the “Frog”, an international weapons dealer, was found dead after two days in the ocean with a bullet in his forehead. An eyewitness came forth saying she saw Tony do the deed. Now I know what happened to Tony’s girlfriend.
        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.

Wednesday 27- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 80 to 102, calm winds, humidity around 36 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 104. Northwest wind at 10 mph becoming east. Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 78. South wind between 7 and 10 mph becoming calm.”
        Decided to go to town and get some supplies because I was running low on a few things. I gathered up everything: library books, my list of stuff I wrote down to get, and jumped in the Gross Polluter and headed out into the Big World. My first stop was to get gas. It cost me $23.46 to fill up the Polluter and a gallon of gas for my Faithful Scooter. Dropped my books in the receptacle outside the library- I wasn’t done with the PhotoShop 7 instruction book but found a resource online that will teach me the fundamentals.
        My next stop was WalMart and spent some time there walking around collecting the stuff on my list. While I was in the pharmacy there, I stuck my arm in the automatic blood pressure machine: 118/82 pulse 96- I wonder if that’s good? Well I got out of WalMart without any mishaps. They didn’t have a shoehorn I was looking for so I stopped next door at Shoes For Less thinking that they should have one: nope! The cute gal there said that they don’t stock them and the company only gave them one for customers to use. She rummaged through a few drawls to find it and proudly displayed it to me. “Is there a shoehorn conspiracy,” I said jokingly. “Is there a shortage of shoehorns and companies are hording them?” She said with a smile that I should try looking on the internet to find one!
        On the way over to Stater Bros to get my groceries I was stopped by a young man on a bicycle asking me for change so he can take the bus home. He had a Marlboro cigarette hanging from his lips as he talked. Before I gave him my change, I asked what he really was going to spend it on. “Well I might buy me a hamburger over at Jack-in-the-Box because I just got out of prison for stealing a car and hated the food there,” he said. “Or spend it on cigarettes,” I said. I gave him the change that he wanted and he was on his way. I really didn’t like the looks of him, a little weasel of a man, and hope that I don’t run into the likes of him again.
        I got all my shopping done and was being rung up when I heard a crash! Bottles of jelly and yogurt had fallen out of the burlap bag I have given them to use instead of “plastic or paper”. I had purchased the bag there; it was its first use, and the bottom fell out! The box boy was on the floor cleaning it up and there was a bark from the check stand next to me; a little rat of a dog on a long leash was trying to get to the yogurt that was spread out on the floor. The woman on the other end of the leash was pulling him back yelling at him. I thought to myself, what was a dog doing in a grocery store. Well the box boy got it all cleaned up and another one had gone through the store to fetch my items that had broken- minus one yogurt I found out later when I got home- and I was rolling my cart following the woman with the rat dog out the door. The dog decided to squat and take a crap just inside the exit door! The woman was franticly trying to control the dog from crapping as she cleaned up his poop, while folks were walking into the store narrowly stepping on it as I gave out warnings. Such a site to watch! I guess that’s why markets don’t allow animals.
        On my way home I dropped by Home Depot to get some lumber for a project I’m building. I was help by an employee whose name was Gar Dean. We jawed a bit. Gar has been living in the area for over thirty years and has watched it grow from a small town. He hopes it doesn’t grow too much more. He told me he’d taken the job at Home Depot because of the housing downturn- he has been a framer for thirty-five years. He also reads my column in Saturday’s Hi Desert Star. Nice guy!
        Got home burned out from all the shopping and spending my hard-earned money. I called my sister Shiela to talk to her for a spell about a Family problem in Tucson that is a private matter. I won’t go into it here; I’ll just say that it has gotten the whole Family concerned.
        I settled down to read my Sci-Fi book “Ring of Fire” until late. Then I 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.

Thursday 28- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 83 to 108, calm winds, humidity around 30 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 102. Calm wind becoming south southwest between 15 and 18 mph. Winds could gust as high as 21 mph. Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 76. South southwest wind between 15 and 18 mph becoming light.”
        Because this is a holiday weekend I did my weekend update early to the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
        My brother Kevin called for a quick yap letting me know all is okay. In the middle of our conversation, the dang phone line went dead: first time since last Thursday night.
        Unloaded the Gross Polluter of all the lumber I had bought yesterday, stacked it neatly in the shop and out of the Sun. Then did a good watering of the plants: they looked mighty thirsty to me.
Ron Dehart came by wanting me to come over and look at the work that he and John completed so far on his addition. His phone and his neighbor’s phones were out so he had to drive over! Well that did it! I called Verizon to place a service call, they will be out tomorrow to fix my phone, and everyone else’s too, I hope!
        Went over to Ron’s to take some pictures of the addition. He was in the process of mudding a wall when I arrived. The addition looks dang good to me! I told him about my call to Verizon and that they were going to be in our area tomorrow to fix the lines.
        Got back home and went on my evening walk. I have to find a new astronomy class or something else to listen to on my walks. I could re-listen to the last astronomy course I had been doing- there was so much to learn and I think I picked up only about twenty percent of it. However, I think I need a change of something different right now.
        Read “Ring of Fire” and yapped to a few folks in between. Then I 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.

Friday 29- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 82 to 103, S to SE winds in the evening a 7-16 MPH, humidity around 32 percent, mostly clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 11am. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. Partly sunny and hot, with a high near 96. South southwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming south between 14 and 17 mph. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph. Saturday Night: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 11pm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 73. South southwest wind between 7 and 13 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph.”
        I have to wait around the house all day for the Verizon repairperson to come fix my phone. Therefore, I spent my time outside measuring out my addition to my shop/patio to see what else I may have to get at Home Depot- why is there a “T” at the end of Depot? Must be the dang French again sneaking into our language!
        Chris came by to collect his computer that I built out of old PCs. I turned it on for him and all worked right and I shut it back down. Then I thought I’d better check to see if there are any disks I may have left in the drive, so I powered it back up and it wouldn’t start, dang it! I spent the next half hour troubleshooting until I found the problem and sent it on its way out of my house never to be seen by me again- I hope!
        I was reading a few chapters in “Ring of Fire” when I got a call from Verizon’s Evil Robot telling me that the repairperson couldn’t make it today and that they have set an “appointment” for tomorrow from 8am to 5pm! Double dang! I waited around the house for nothing! I even put a can of Coke in the fridge for the repairperson so it would be cold when they arrived!
        Went for my evening walk- I still haven’t found something that interests me to listen to yet. I do have some Greek history and may listen to that for a while.
        Called and talked to my brother Kevin for over an hour- we had a nice chat. Read a little more, then went online and mindlessly surf the web as I do every Friday night. I was so involved doing this that I lost track of time- it was 1am in the morning! Yikes! I have things to be done before I hit the hay!
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 30- got woken up by the phone repairperson saying that my phone was fixed. He said it had to do with a MOS board at the main box and he had replaced it. It’s the weekend and downtime for me so I just did my stretches.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 79 to 93, S to SE winds in the evening a 7-16 MPH, humidity around 47 percent, nimbostratus clouds with rain here and there. According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Isolated showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 95. Breezy, with a south southwest wind 6 to 9 mph increasing to between 21 and 24 mph. Winds could gust as high as 29 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 67. Breezy, with a west southwest wind 21 to 24 mph decreasing to between 7 and 10 mph. Winds could gust as high as 34 mph.”
        The rain came down pretty hard sometime last night and found its way through a few holes in my shop/patio roof that I thought I had all fixed. Well I guess I’ll have to go up on the roof again to do some patchwork, but not today.
        I used a feather duster that I just bought at WalMart and it worked great! I dusted off books on shelves, the TV, and a number of dust-encrusted items- I got kind of carried away with it. Living by a dirt road my home gets these fine particles that build up layers of dust, and I hope that the patio roofs I’m putting up all around the house will help eliminate most of what dust finds its way inside.
        Drove the Gross Polluter on over to the community center where they were having a Labor Day party. I got there an hour late but there were still a whole lot of folks having a fine time eating hamburgers, hotdogs, and potato salad. Everyone from our potluck was there. I walked around taking a bunch of pictures. Brenda Zimmer, Annelies Kuiper and another board member, were instrumental in putting on this fine event.
On my way home I thought that I’d stop off where a film crew has been shooting since yesterday; just down the road from my home. I told them that I write a small column for the Hi Desert Star newspaper and they were very accommodating. I was told by their Director, Andrew Wright, that they are students from the Art institute of Los Angeles out of Santa Monica College filming “The Legend of the High Desert”. I jawed for a spell and watched a scene were JW (that’s what I go by), who was dressed as a sinister villain cowboy in a silver scaled mask carrying a whip and a six-shooter in his belt, was shot, but it took a couple of takes because the small explosives failed to detonate. Because of the clouds, setting Sun, and poor lighting, they wrapped it up and called it a day. The Director invited me to come by tomorrow when they break for lunch and join in. I think I’ll go!
        I called Mom and Pop and yakked at them for an hour then I went on my evening walk. It was getting dark when I went so I didn’t take my camera and just enjoyed the fresh air and the coolness of the evening.
        When I got back I read a few chapters in “The Ring of Fire” and then settled down to watch a movie “Aliens” on my little Asus EEE laptop. Before I knew it, the time was 1:30am! Second day in a row I’ve done that! So, I quickly did my stretches and practiced my guitar. Wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 31- It’s the weekend and downtime for me so I just did my stretches.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 80 to 94, S to SW winds in the evening a 8-20 MPH, humidity around 39 percent, cumulonimbus clouds on the horizon but mostly clear skies for us. According to the National Weather Service “Labor Day: Sunny, with a high near 93. Northwest wind between 5 and 8 mph becoming calm. Monday Night: Clear, with a low around 64. Calm wind becoming southwest between 7 and 10 mph.”
        I’ve started watching the track of Hurricane Gustav as it approaches Louisiana. Right now, it is a category 3 hurricane with winds of 125MPH heading in a northeasterly direction toward the coast at 17MPH- looks like it’s going to be a big one!
I went down where they are filming “The Legend of the Hi Desert”. I talked to the Producer Marchette Stamps, Associate Producer Mica Rausch, and Production Designer Tammie Childree about the film. The film is about two brothers, one lives in a cubical, and one lives in a car, who are brought together in search for five acres in the Hi Desert that they had inherited, but unbeknownst to them they have to face an evil gunslinger from the past that haunts the area waiting to take his next victim. I asked these students where did they get the financing for the production and was told it is their last year in college and that their families and friends had put up the money. I thought it mighty nice that their families and friends are so involved and these students are being helped out in such a way; that takes a lot of love and pride. I stood around taking pictures of the filming and was quite impressed by the effort and professionalism put forth by these young future filmmakers. They have hopes of having it played in film festivals. I wish them luck!
While I was there I a local named Alison walked up to ask me what was going on with the cameras and all the people. I told her what I knew. She had been dropped off there on her way from church to home and needed a ride the rest of the way. I told her to jump on into my truck and I would take her the ten or so miles to her house- I thought she might get in the way of the filming crew. However, the truck wouldn’t start right off, I had to go under the hood, and pound on a few things before it would start. Then we were on our way.
        I then dropped by Andrew’s rental house to yap at his renter Eric. He is an inventor and he showed me the gadgets he builds in his top-secret mad scientist laboratory- pretty cool stuff! When I went to leave the Gross Polluter would not start! I fiddled around with the wires to the battery but still no go. I asked Eric for a jump and as he was driving to where I was parked, the dang truck magically started! So I drove it right on home instead of going to Stoney’s like I had planned. I’m going to strip down, clean and replace the wiring until it starts every time.
        Got home and called my brother Kevin for a spell. Then my dear friend Kula called and we jawed for a little bit. Afterwards I went on my evening walk.
        Surfed the web until “Masterpiece Theater:
The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: One Guilty Deed” came on PBS. I seen this one before but they are done so well that I didn’t mind seeing it again.
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night. Goodbye to August, you been a very happy month!