June 2009

Welcome to the Month of June - I did my stretches and ran two miles.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 69 and 94 degrees, W-SW winds at 4 to 19 MPH, humidity around 23 percent, plenty altocumulus clouds flying overhead. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 91. Light wind becoming south southwest between 14 and 17 mph. Winds could gust as high as 22 mph. Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 67. West wind between 7 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.”
Boy I slept good last night! I got to sleep at 4am and awoke around 12 noon! A full eight hours sleep! After I did my exercises and ate breakfast, I immediately went to my studies of the “A+ Certification for Computer Techs”. I finished two chapters today! I did take a break for a cookie run over to Stoney’s, and checked out my friend’s property to see if everything was in order. Then I went on my evening walk and listened to an astronomy lecture. Then back to reading until midnight.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote my column for the newspaper and sent it in, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 02 - I did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 67 and 91 degrees, W-SW winds at 6 to 20 MPH, humidity around 22 percent, plenty altocumulus clouds flying overhead (again). According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 86. Light wind becoming south southwest between 14 and 17 mph. Winds could gust as high as 23 mph. Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 60. West wind between 7 and 11 mph.”
I’m sorry if my journal has been a little boring of late but I am in study mode and like I said before when I get this way everything goes into the background. I continued to read the “A+” book. I finished chapter 16 around 11pm and started chapter17. In the mean time I watered some plants, Joel came by with my mail, and I went for my evening walk listening to an astronomy lecture on the age of the universe (currently13.7 billion years old). I watched “NCIS” on CBS, and then continued reading.
I did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for a night run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 03 - I did my stretches and ran two miles.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 65 and 89 degrees, NW-SW winds at 3 to 20 MPH, humidity around 24 percent, plenty altocumulus clouds flying overhead (again but a little more than yesterday). According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 85. West northwest wind 6 to 16 mph becoming south southeast. Winds could gust as high as 23 mph. Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 61. West wind between 9 and 14 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.”
It was nice and cool so I decided to run two miles. It always makes me feel better when it’s a long run. I went back to reading the “A+ Certification” and finished a chapter on videos. It was a long chapter and I didn’t think I’d finish it today, but I persevered through it and got it done well into the night.
I went for my evening walk listening to an astronomy lecture on the Big Bang and the Cosmological Constant along with the Hubble Law thrown in.
I copied the files that I got off the bad hard drive of Tiffanies and copied them to DVD and are ready to send to her.
Kevin called. He was trying to get Windows to recognize a hard drive r that he had cloned from another system. He and I couldn’t figure out why it was so. If I had it here and in my hands I know that I’d get it to work. Then I went back to reading the “A+” book. The next chapter is on audio and it looks just as long as the chapter on videos!
I decided to try out Firefox 3.5 Beta to see if that will run a little faster than the version I’m running now.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 04 - I did my stretches and ran one mile.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 61 and 84 degrees, W-SW winds at 4 to 15 MPH, humidity around 25 percent, some altocumulus clouds flying overhead . According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 80. Breezy, with a west wind 10 to 13 mph increasing to between 22 and 25 mph. Winds could gust as high as 36 mph. Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 59. Breezy, with a west northwest wind 20 to 23 mph decreasing to between 9 and 12 mph. Winds could gust as high as 32 mph.”
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen the weather this cool in June in the desert since I’ve been living here! I’m not complaining, but usually its way into the hundreds by this time of year. During the night I leave the windows open to let in the cool air and shut them before I go to bed, but tonight it was getting too cold and I closed them early and put on a shirt.
I did pretty much what I’ve been doing the last few days; reading the “A+” Certification book for computer Techs. I completed three chapters today but it took until midnight. I have only four more chapters to read. The next one is on networking and I’m a little hazy on that subject; most of the rest in the book I mostly knew and have worked with.
I called Stoney to say howdy. He may cook up some spaghetti tomorrow. I hope he does! I then called Kevin and yakked with him for a spell. He figured out the problem with the hard drive we were working on yesterday. Seems like his system was recognizing it as an IDE drive and he had two drives already mounted. But it doesn’t make much sense because the drive was on a USB IDE adapter.
The Firefox 3.5 Beta seems to be faster and running okay so far- my friend Kris over at MySpace wanted to know.
It has a new way to open a new tab with a little + box next to a tab that’s already open- like in IE8. My biggest concern with Firefox was that it was becoming a system resource hog and I read that the folks over at Mozilla were trying to fix this issue with this new release.
At midnight I finished the chapter on printers and put the book down for the night. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 05 - I did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 58 and 77 degrees, NW-SW winds at 8 to 20 MPH, humidity around 31 percent, some altocumulus clouds flying overhead . According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 80. Breezy, with a west wind 7 to 10 mph increasing to between 19 and 22 mph. Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 59. West northwest wind between 10 and 18 mph.”
After I did my exercises and ate breakfast I went back to reading the “A+” Certificate book for computer Techs. This chapter is on networking and is almost one hundred pages, yikes! I completed that chapter around 11pm. Networking is a topic that I’m weak on, the others were mostly review for me but I did learn a bunch of new quicker ways to do what I would have done differently to get a system back to running, and with new tools I can use. Also I was weak on some of the terminology, so this book has helped me with that. Three more chapters to go!
Stoney called earlier to say dinner was at 5pm. So when 5pm rolled around I was on my Trusty Scooter heading for his house. He made spaghetti and it came with a salad. Roger Smith was also there. Roger put hot sauce on the spaghetti! Why I do not know, but he put way too much on and was running around with his eyes watering, nose running, and drinking lots of water. We had to toss what he had on his plate into the garbage, got him a new plate, but by then he lost any appetite (or shall I say taste buds) he may have had. Me, I stuck with parmesan cheese on my spaghetti! I ate a whole bunch of it too.
I went for my evening walk and listened to part of an astronomy lecture. Then when I got back home I gave Fat Cat a good brushing- he’s starting to like it now and doesn’t run and hide anymore when he sees the brush. I went back to my reading and like I said finished the network chapter around 11pm.
I did my stretches and went for a night run. It was windy and cold. I checked the temp when I got back and it read 59 degrees! I practiced my guitar, updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the newsletter, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 06 - I did my stretches and ran a mile.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 59 and 77 degrees, NW-W winds at 9 to 22 MPH, humidity around 29 percent, some altocumulus clouds flying overhead . According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 82. Northwest wind 6 to 11 mph becoming southwest. Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 62. West wind between 6 and 16 mph.”
I called Family and Friends throughout the day to let them know I’m still around.
I rigged up a solar controller to a spare 45Watt panel and two 6VDC golf cart batteries that had nothing better to do, and let them charge. I will use this for emergency backup power.
I went for my evening walk listening to an astronomy lecture on Hubble Volume- where you would be in the middle of a sphere of observable space and outside that sphere objects would recede away from you, because of the expansion of space, at a rate faster than light travels (I didn’t know that was possible).
I read another chapter in the “A+” Certificate book- this one on the internet and how it works (like I didn’t know). Only two more chapters left!
I took a break from reading and watched “Bat Man: The Black Night” on DVD. It’s over two hours and it didn’t finish until 1am. Great movie! The actor who played the Joker was really into it! He made the movie for me!
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 07 - I did my stretches- rest day.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 62 and 81 degrees, NW-SW winds at 7 to 12 MPH, humidity around 31 percent, few clouds. According to the National Weather Service “Monday: Partly sunny, with a high near 84. Northwest wind 7 to 13 mph becoming southeast. Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 61. West southwest wind between 7 and 15 mph.”
I watered my palm trees- they looked mighty thirsty. It’s kind of a rest day for me, so I mostly kicked back.
Ron Dehart called needing help upgrading his Mac to OSX 10.4 from OSX 10.3. I called my friend Mike Long who works with Macs and knows more about them than I do- I have a MacBook but only use it once in a while. He said that all Ron has to do is do the regular updates and run something called Applejack. I told him that Ron is only on dialup and couldn’t download the large update files. Mike said that he’d do it and send a DVD with all the updates.
I went back to reading the “A+” book for computer Techs. The chapter was on security and had it finished before I went over to Stoney’s for leftover spaghetti dinner. I helped him upload his pictures from his camera to his computer- he had a year and a half of photos on it. Somebody was messing around with his computer some months ago and deleted the Kodak program from his start menu so it wouldn’t run automatically, and Stoney thought he was uploading pictures all that time but didn’t know where they went. Well they didn’t go anywhere but stayed in his camera; over a hundred of them!
I went for my evening walk listening to a astronomy lecture on the different kinds of theories on how the universe was created, and the Drake Equation for life in the cosmos other than our own. Then when I got home I mindlessly surfed the web for a spell.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 08 - I did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 61 and 82 degrees, NW-SW winds at 7 to 14 MPH, humidity around 32 percent, a few clouds. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 79. Calm wind becoming west southwest between 8 and 11 mph. Tuesday Night: A 10 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 59. West northwest wind around 8 mph.”
I was online reading an email from a friend who sent a picture of herself, so I went to return the favor but when I went to search My Documents for a picture of me I got an error, yikes! I have My Documents on a 16Gig SD flash drive on this computer. When I tried to access it I got a message saying it couldn’t read the drive and asking me to format the drive, double yikes. I took the flash drive out to try on another laptop; same dang thing! Everything on that drive was lost. Well yesterday I did a backup of the files using the backup program that comes with Win XP. I’ve never used this for backups before and was just testing it out. I did a restore of My Documents to my USB hard drive and got all my data back. I formatted the 16Gig flash drive and it only came up as an 11.2Gig drive, meaning I lost 4Gigs from the drive! Anyways I was able to send my friend my picture after messing with this mess, and she’ll never know the effort I went through to send it.
Now that I’ve seen that Microsoft Backup works I decided to use it on my other two Dell Mini 9 laptops. I did a backup of the program and system files on one that has all the updates, and restored it to the other. It worked! It even transferred Office 2007 over! The only problem I had was with IE8 which somehow got corrupted, so I just reinstalled it from a download file I had. Now that works too!
I went for my evening walk listening to a new astronomy lecture about the size of structures in the universe.
I read and finished the last chapter in the “A+” certificate for computer Techs, yippee!!! Then I got caught up on my astronomy reading, and read a few chapters in “The Dork from Cork” that I haven’t picked up since I started reading “A+”.
I did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for a night run. I practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 09 - I did my stretches and ran two miles.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 59 and 85 degrees, W-SW winds at 6 to 18 MPH, humidity around 35 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 83. Calm wind becoming west southwest between 17 and 20 mph. Winds could gust as high as 26 mph. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 59. West wind 17 to 20 mph decreasing to between 7 and 10 mph. Winds could gust as high as 28 mph.”
I did some webwork on the computer getting things organized. Then I took the camper off the Gross Polluter which took a few hours unhooking all the clamps, turnbuckles, and tie downs that were holding it together so it wouldn’t fall off. Then I had to remount the jacks, pump them up, drive out from underneath the camper, and then put it on blocks.
With that all out of the way I laid down to rest for a spell. Then I went over to Stoney’s to finish off that four day spaghetti.
I went for my evening walk listening to some new astronomy lectures on Radio Astronomy and Interferometry. I brushed Fat Cat and watched the sunset when I got back.
I watched “NCIS” on CBS, a rerun but it was a good one! I needed to write my column for the newspaper, so I did my night exercises early: Stretches and a night run.
I called Mike from Hermosa to figure out how we can get Ron’s iMac updated to OSX 10.4 from 10.3. Mike misunderstood me the other day and now we know that just the regular updates won’t do it.
Then I practiced my guitar, wrote my column for the newspaper and sent it in, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 10 - I did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 59 and 82 degrees, NW-SW winds at 8 to 21 MPH, humidity around 29 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 86. Calm wind becoming west southwest between 12 and 15 mph. Winds could gust as high as 21 mph. Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 63. West wind 15 to 18 mph decreasing to between 6 and 9 mph. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph.”
Got to working outside watering plants and cleaning up a little. Then I put the bed liner back into the truck and put the tailgate back on.
The “A+” book came with a CD that has the full book in PDF and also some practice tests, so I loaded it all up on my laptop. I took a practice test and scored an 82% but you need a score of 80% to pass the real test. I have a lot of practice to do if I want to get a higher score and feel confident if or when I take the real test. Some of the answers were tricky and I’ll have to get used to the way they word them.
I went for my evening walk listening to an astronomy lecture on Micro Submillimeter Telescopes. These telescopes can measure small minute changes in molecular clouds which can indicate the beginnings of star formation. The wavelengths are so small that water molecules in our atmosphere can disturb the signal, so these telescopes need to be placed high on mountain tops. I just read of a new discovery tonight: “Planet-Forming Disk Discovered Orbiting Binary System” by using the images from the Smithsonian’s Submillimeter Array (SMA). Now that discovery was in perfect timing with my lecture!
I called Kevin and we yapped about what we would spend the money he would have if he won the lotto. I told him I want a lap pool, an observatory, and build a super computer. I think I’d like to go back to college, too!
I did some reading and surfed the web till late in the evening. I was testing Facebook over a year ago. I didn't do much with it until recently when family members and friends just started adding me! So now I guess I'll have to get a little more into Facebook. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 11 - I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 63 and 83 degrees, NW-SW winds at 9 to 18 MPH, humidity around 30 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 86. North northwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming south southwest between 14 and 17 mph. Winds could gust as high as 23 mph. Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 64. West southwest wind between 7 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.”
I over slept- I went to bed at 4am and awoke at noon, yikes! I guess my body needed to catch up with my brain. I hoped into the Gross Polluter and headed to town. My first stop was at Home Depot to pick up a cable tester and network tool kit that include a crimper, RJ45 connectors, hundred feet of Cat 5E cable, and stuff like that to set up a Ethernet network. Dennis in electrical was a great help! I figure if I’m going to learn networking it is best to learn by doing, and setup my whole house with it first. I also bought bolts to put my camper shell back on the Polluter.
I then got gas over at Arco and was surprised that the price had jumped to $2.79 a gallon! The last time I bought gas was when I got back from Tucson over a month ago and at that time it was around $2.10- $1.85 in Arizona. I stopped off at WalMart to get Father’s Day cards. I left the store and was walking over to Stater Bros when I saw this young woman selling old DVDs by the bicycle rack. I told her times must be tuff to sell your video collection. She said that she was getting by and that after she sold some of them she was going to submit an application to WalMart. I asked how much and she said two for $5 or 1 for $2, which didn’t make any sense to me, but hey I’m not going to argue about it. Well, being the kind hearted guy I am, I bought one called “Cloverfield” for two bucks. When I got home I found on the side of the DVD cover: 3 day loan from the library in Yucca Valley. I guess I’m really a kind hearted fool! I’ll go ahead and watch it and then return it to the library.
I bought some fried chicken at Stater Bros and took it over to share with Stoney and saved some for Fat Cat- he’d smell it on my fingers and would be mighty mad if I didn’t bring him some.
I went for my evening walk listening to an astronomy lecture on space dust- the kind that forms starts and planets.
I talked to Kevin for a spell. Then Andrew called and we yapped about computers and such for over an hour. After I got off the phone with him I read a few chapters of “The Dork from Cork”.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 12- I did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 64 and 83 degrees, NW-SW winds at 9 to 18 MPH, humidity around 30 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 84. West northwest wind 9 to 15 mph becoming south southwest. Winds could gust as high as 18 mph. Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 60. West wind between 7 and 17 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.”
When I get done with my exercises I kick back, go online to read my email and check the news, and eat my oatmeal while doing this. I don’t usually add this here in my journal but I decided to add it here today- it’s kind of mundane and hardly ever changes.
I bolted my camper shell back on the Gross Polluter with the nuts and bolts I bought yesterday. I finally figured out a way to easily mount the shell by putting two 2x4s across the bed and then sliding the shell to the front of the truck. That way it doesn’t fall off to the sides.
I was pretty tired and made a cookie run over to Stoney’s on my Trusty Scooter. He was rolling dough to fill pie pans and I stayed to watch how it was done. Tomorrow we’ll have fresh baked sweet potato pie to eat!
I got back home and started a new book “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking. I’ve read it many years ago and thought that I’d read it again because of some of Stephen’s insights into physics and the way he believes the world is the way it is. I needed a break from studying computer books for a spell…
I went for my evening walk re-listening astronomy lecture on the Cosmological Principle (Ep. 123: Homogeneity): on large very large scales, the Universe is homogeneous and isotropic. Isotropic is anywhere you look in space it appears the same and homogeneous is where everything is uniformly mixed, given a big chunk of space will have about the same amount as any other big chunk.
I got a call from my new friend Delia who lives in Yucca Valley and we had a nice chat. Then I called Kevin who was heading up to the mountains to take pictures of stars, cool!
I did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for a night run. Then I watched “Nuber3rs” on CBS. It was one I’ve seen before but I like the show.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Community website and sent out the Newsletter. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 13- I did my stretches and ran two miles.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 60 and 83 degrees, S-SW winds at 14 to 22 MPH, humidity around 28 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 87. West northwest wind between 5 and 14 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph. Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 61. West wind between 8 and 18 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.”
Today is Saturday and this is the day where I call Family and Friends, and that is what I did between working in the yard cleaning it up and downloading some astronomy lectures from Astronomy Cast to listen to on my evening walks.
I went over to Stoney’s for some of that fresh sweet potato pie he baked yesterday. We put Cool Whip on it and it was mighty good!
I then went on my evening walk listening to an astronomy lecture on Gamma-ray Astronomy: Astronomy Cast - Ep. 136: Gamma Ray Astronomy. For now on I’m going to include links to the lectures I listen to. Gamma rays are highly energized electromagnetic radiation possibly created by the merger of two black holes, or neutron stars merging with black holes, massive black holes at the center of active galaxies, or cosmic rays colliding with matter like space dust. They are so powerful that they pass through spacecraft, can destroy or change DNA, and can kill you! Lucky for us our atmosphere blocks most but the higher energized Gamma Rays. We have satellite Gamma ray telescopes that pick up all but the highest energetic ones. These can be picked up by land based telescopes because they collide with particles in our atmosphere where these telescopes can observe the remains of the collisions; kind of like the collisions in a particle collider. I hope I got this right and I’ll have to do a lot more study of them.
I got back home to read a few chapters of “A Brief History of Time”. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 14- I did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 61 and 83 degrees, NW-SW winds at 11 to 23 MPH, humidity around 29 percent, hazy skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 88. North northwest wind 7 to 13 mph becoming south southeast. Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 65. West southwest wind between 7 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.”
I had nothing better to do today and my Toshiba laptop was acting up, so I did a reinstall of WinXP. I believe it was when I used Gparted a few months ago to repartition the hard drive when I was installing Linux that a few bits were lost, or it was that flunky IE8. After the reinstall I had to fix the MBR and then Windows booted up nicely and then updated it with the service packs, uninstalled Norton and a few other “Value Added” programs. While I was doing this I downloaded a few more astronomy lectures.
I called and had a nice chat with Shiela, Paula, and Kevin. Then I went on my evening walk listening to an astronomy lecture: Astronomy Cast - Ep. 138: Quantum Mechanics which I’ll have to listen to again before I post anything here (there’s some terms I have to look up).
I then drove my Trusty Scooter over to Stoney’s for some more sweet potato pie. Well he baked three of the dang things and someone has to help him eat them! They really are good!
Yesterday I forgot to add that I stopped by Stoney’s neighbor who I never met before. His name is John and lives in a red house on Winters Road. He moved here in 2000 from Berkeley and attended the university there. I’d give my left you know what to attend Berkeley’s astronomy courses and sit in a classroom listening to Professor Bloom’s lectures in person instead of on my iPod (maybe someday when Kevin wins the lotto!).
I got back home and read some more of “A Brief History of Time”. Then I watched the “Cloverfield” DVD that I bought for $2 from an unscrupulous lady outside WalMart that I have to return to the library. Great Movie! I think it was better on DVD then when I saw it in the theater!
I did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for a night run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 15- I got a call early in the morning from Chris saying that Stoney didn’t show up at the USDA food distribution and couldn’t be reached by phone and was worried. I got up and jumped on my Trusty Scooter and headed over to his house where I found that his car wasn’t there. We found out later that he had a morning appointment with his doctor and was all right. I did my stretches and ran a mile.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 61 and 83 degrees, S-SW winds at 9 to 20 MPH, humidity around 26 percent, overcast skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: A 20 percent chance of showers before 11am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 84. Northwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm. Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 65. West wind around 8 mph.
Marie called having problems with her laptop and I told her to bring it on over and I’d have a look-see. It wouldn’t boot into Vista and would come up with a BSOD! I booted it into safe mode, ran CHKDSK at boot, and the system now runs normally, well as normally as Vista runs.
I reinstalled Microsoft Office 2007 on my Toshiba laptop and a few other programs like an anti-virus and stuff like that, while I cleaned the house.
Stoney drove up around 4pm while I was watering the plants in the front yard. He told me about his day and I told him about going over to his house earlier. He had two doctor appointments; one in the morning and one at 2:30pm and he was just getting back from that one.
I went for my evening walk listening to Astronomy lecture on Optical Astronomy and re-listened to the one on Quantum Mechanics from yesterday’s walk. I got back home to brush out Fat Cats hair and read a few chapters in “A Brief History of Time” until late into the evening.
I called my friend Billie to see how she was fairing. She lived in the marina on a boat around the same time I did. It was a short call but it was great to yak and catch up.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, and wrote my column for the newspaper and sent it in. I wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 16- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 65 and 83 degrees, NW-SE winds at 7 to 14 MPH, humidity around 38 percent, overcast skies again. According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Partly cloudy, with a high near 89. North northwest wind 5 to 9 mph becoming south southeast. Wednesday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 69. West northwest wind between 6 and 11 mph.”
I needed to go to the post office and mail out Father’s Day Cards, one birthday card, and a DVD full of Tiffany’s Docs I retrieved off her hard drive which is now toast. While I was in town I stopped off at the market by the post office and bought some carrots. Stopped off at the library and bought two used books.
On the way back home I dropped my Lee and Marcie’s and jawed with them for a spell. They told me that the electric power has been down since noon. While we were sitting there yapping (me eating cookies) the power came back on; that was close to 3pm.
I dropped the carrots off at home and continued over to Stoney’s. We were eating sweet potato pie in the living room while Stoney told me of his day. He fixed a friends clock they had brought over earlier; all it needed was cleaning and a little oil. The he said that he had put Miracle Grow on his plants this morning and he said that he could watch them grow right before his eyes! Yup, that’s what he said.
Got back home and read another chapter in “A Brief History of Time”, and then went for my evening walk listening to Astronomy Cast - Questions Show: Hidden Fusion, the Speed of Neutrinos, and Hawking Radiation.
Talked to Kevin until “NCIS” came on CBS; It was the one involving a Fight Club. I also watched the “Mentalist” but felt that I lost an hour of my life doing so. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 17- I did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 69 and 89 degrees, nice breeze, humidity around 30 percent, a few clouds.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 94. North northeast wind between 5 and 8 mph. Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 72. Southeast wind 5 to 8 mph becoming west southwest.”
I worked on cleaning up the house some, and then I went over to my friend’s home to help him setup a computer network. It was a very educational getting into the nitty-gritty of network servers, DSN, and DHCP stuff. I didn’t get home until midnight!
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 18- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 72 and 94 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 27 percent, mostly clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 96. Light wind becoming south between 11 and 14 mph. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph. Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 70. Southwest wind between 8 and 11 mph.”
I went over to my friend’s house again for around three hours or so messing around with computers. Then I dropped over to Stoney’s to jaw for a spell and eat sweet potato pie. He was sitting at his computer when I walked in playing Spider solitaire. His friends are coming over a little later to pick up that clock Stoney had repaired for them, so I didn’t stay long. Before I left he invited me over for dinner tomorrow evening; I think he said barbecued ribs!
I went for my evening walk re-listening to the Quantum Mechanics lecture. Then I settled down to read “A Brief History of Time” but fell asleep. I went outside to watch the sunset with Fat Cat and took some pics of it. I called Kevin and we yakked on this and that for almost an hour. I watched twenty minutes of “The Mentalist” on CBS and turned off the TV. I guess I just don’t care for the show.
Picked up “A Brief History of Time” and finished the chapter I was reading earlier on evaporating black holes and virtual particles, pretty neat! I did my stretches and lifted weights, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 19- I did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 70 and 98 degrees, W-SW winds at 4 to 19, humidity around 28 percent, mostly clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 94. Breezy, with a light wind becoming west southwest between 21 and 24 mph. Winds could gust as high as 34 mph. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 68. West wind between 8 and 18 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.”
I worked outside painting the bottom edge around the house. Then I moved everything back against the wall that I had moved so I could paint. This took around three hours to do but will look mighty nice when I get it all cleaned up.
I went over to Stoney’s for those barbecue ribs I told you about yesterday. Roger Smith was there too and brought coleslaw and carrot juice to share. When I set the table I put the hot sauce next to Roger’s plate just in case he wanted to entertain us like he did the last time we all ate together when he over dosed his spaghetti with it and ran around trying to cool himself down; he declined to use it this time. Roger made fun of Stoney’s tomato plants that have been growing for months now and haven’t produced any eatable fruit yet. We swapped stories and laughed at each other, and had a great time!
I went for my evening walk listening to Astronomy Cast - Ep. 139: Energy Levels and Spectra, it’s a follow up to the Quantum Mechanics lecture. They talk about the use of spectra lines- the absorption or emission of energy at a particular wavelength, that are radiated from black bodies (the Sun is a black body or even a light bulb), and are able to distinguish which elements are present. An Atom can absorb a photon- missing line on the spectrum, or emit a photon- that appears as lines on a spectrum.
I yakked with Kevin for a spell. His car was in the shop for two days getting the air conditioning fixed and he had to ride his bicycle around town until it was done.
I read a chapter called The Origins and Fate of the Universe in “A Brief History of Time”. Then I did my stretches and went for a night run. Practiced my guitar, updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter. Wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 20- I did my stretches and ran a mile. On my run I found a horny toad, pick him up, rubbed his tummy, put him back down, and he was on his merry way- they are amazing critters! Then there was a sidewinder in the middle of the trail I run on. He had a big bulge and I reckoned he just ate something, I hope it was one of those Antelope Squirrels that eat the wires off of cars! I stopped to let him pass by.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 68 and 90 degrees, NW-SW winds at 6 to 26, humidity around 36 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 90. Northwest wind 9 to 14 mph becoming south southeast. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph. Sunday Night: Clear, with a low around 65. West northwest wind between 7 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.”
I did some cleaning in the shop and fiddled around the house a bit- nothing really too drastic, it all adds up over time. It’s my day to call Family and Friends.
I called up Larry Carlock who I haven’t called in a while. When he picked up and recognized it was I he said that he was just about to call me (likely story). His son is visiting from the Marines; they bought a couple of surfboards and are probably going surfing later on today. I also called Bob Vandenberg- he and his wife Linda are over at Linda’s mother’s house fixing Malibu lights. I called some more folks up but they are either away for the weekend or have caller ID.
I messed my evening walk because it was windy and I was still tinkering in the shop. I made a few more calls: Stoney, Tifany, Kevin, Joel Levy, and a few other folks. Then I just kicked back and mindlessly surfed the web till late into the night.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 21- I did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 65 and 92 degrees, S-SW winds at 6 to 20, humidity around 27 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 94. Northwest wind 5 to 11 mph becoming east. Monday Night: Clear, with a low around 67. South southwest wind 7 to 13 mph becoming west northwest.”
It was kind of one of those kick back days for me. I just watered some plants, messed around the house doing this and that, fooled around with my computers reinstalling an OS on one, and read a chapter in “A Brief History of Time”. It was just a lazy day.
I went for my evening walk listening to Astronomy Cast - Ep. 135: X-Ray Astronomy. Most x-ray astronomy is done from high altitude balloons or satellites from space because or atmosphere (lucky for us) blocks most of them. X-Rays come from a number of objects; supernovas, our Sun; our Moon reflects x-rays from the Sun, neutron stars and black holes. There is an x-ray background radiation much like the Microwave Background Radiation (which happened 380 thousand years after the big bang when the universe cooled down enough to uncouple photons from protons and radiate then into space), but x-ray background isn’t well understood yet.
Kevin called and we yapped for a short spell. Then I started to watch “Impact” on ABC, but after the first five minutes of the show I was convinced that they had Al Gore as a science advisor. The show opened up with folks watching a meteor shower with telescopes! I do take my telescope out when I watch showers but that’s to look at stars or other celestial objects but not meteor showers; a few times by accident I did have a meteor zip past my telescope lens. Then the Moon gets hit by a brown dwarf! Chunks of the dwarf fall to earth in solid form and a scientist tries to pick it up! Brown dwarfs are between one and eighty Jupiter masses whose small mass failed to ignite and burn hydrogen by way of fusion reaction. Also we would detect something so massive coming our way because it would most likely affect the orbits of the planets. I threw up my arms in disgust, turned off the TV, grabbed my binoculars and went outside to gaze at the night sky. While I was doing my sky gazing I listened to Astronomy Cast - Questions: An Unlocked Moon, Energy Into Black Holes, and the Space Station’s Orbit, which made for a wonderful night of observing.
I did my stretches and went for a night run, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 22- Stoney was at the hospital this morning having minor surgery to remove a growth from his head. I was standing by ready to come and get him if he needed a ride back home, but he called after he got home and said everything went alright and he was able to drive back himself. I then did my stretches and ran two miles.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 67 and 93 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 19 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 98. Light wind becoming south between 10 and 13 mph. Winds could gust as high as 18 mph. Tuesday Night: Clear, with a low around 71. West southwest wind between 8 and 10 mph.”
It seems that it’s getting a little warmer these last few days, been in the 90s. Seimi stopped by to ask me a few astronomy questions about last night’s showing of “Impact” on ABC! I had to laugh and showed him what I posted to my journal and to the Astronomy Forum I belong to; so far I’ve received 18 comments to what I posted there.
Again I messed around with computers today trying to figure out which one I want to load up Win 2000 Pro on so I can begin setting up a network in my house. I think doing is the best way to learn. Somehow the MBR (master boot record) got corrupted on my old IBM laptop and I spent a while on that successfully booting up Win 98 but lost Puppy Linux. I need to find a switch for the network to complete the equipment I need.
I went for my evening walk listening to Astronomy Cast - Questions Show: NorthEast Astronomy Forum (NEAF) where amateur astronomers asked some very good questions and Pamela Gay gave excellent answers.
Then I went over to Stoney’s for dinner. He tried baking squash with potatoes, onions, and garlic rapped in aluminum, it was a little over cooked but was mighty good.
On my way back home I stopped off at John’s to see his new internet satellite system that he says is mighty fast. Then I went across the street where Roger is building a rental and yakked with him till it got dark.
I finished the last two chapters of “A Brief History of Time”. Things I have to remember from the book are: the Anthropic Principle (we see the universe as it is because if it was different we wouldn’t be here to see it), Pauli’s Exclusion Principle (no two identical particles can have the same position and velocity), and Feynman’s Sum over Histories Method (which I’m still trying to figure out). Then I did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for an nightly run, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 23- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 71 and 101 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 17 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 98. North northwest wind 5 to 11 mph becoming east. Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 74. South wind 8 to 17 mph becoming west. Winds could gust as high as 24 mph.”
I wrote my five-hundredth column for the newspaper and sent it in.
I started reading “de Bono’s Thinking Course” by Edward De Bono that someone lent me. I read the first chapter but it was more an introduction to the book than anything else, but it talked about thinking as a skill. I’ll check it out- I don’t put much faith in these self-help books but this one may be different.
My HP Mini Note was down to just 900Meg on its 8Gig SSD drive- my Dell Mini 9 that I reinstalled the OS with every possible MS update and Office 2007 has over 2Gig of space left! I don’t know what they add to the OS at the HP factory, I thought that I got rid of all the bloat. I decided to reinstall the OS on the HP!
I went for my evening walk re-listening to Astronomy Cast - Ep. 139: Energy Levels and Spectra to see if I could a little more understanding of spectra in relation to the photons that are given off by atoms and how it can identify elements. Lots to learn!
I watched “Nova: Ape Genius” on PBS. Very interesting that the simple process of humans communicating by pointing to teach may be what separates our intelligence and hinders an ape’s progress to rationalize. I did watch “The Mentalist” on CBS and finally they had something I thought was worth watching!
I finished up the HP’s install by loading up Office 2007 and a few other programs, setup Firefox with by favorite addons: Xmarks (formally Foxmarks), Ad Blocker Plus, and Flash Block. Now the Mini Note is flying and I have 3.6Gigs left!
I did my stretches and went for a night run, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 24- did my stretches and ran a mile.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 74 and 104 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 21 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 97. Northwest wind 6 to 8 mph becoming east northeast. Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 69. Northwest wind 6 to 13 mph becoming southwest. Winds could gust as high as 18 mph.”
I needed to mail my driver’s license in before the state of California goes broke and can’t afford to send it to me! I gave it to the mail lady who just completed filling our boxes. I had business at my new bank Chase that took over Washington Mutual. I had transferred an IRA for another institution over to them in January and haven’t heard from them since, and I was starting to feel a little anxious. They straitened it all out for me but it took over an hour.
Topped off the Gross Polluter with gas- it only took 2.4 gallons but that was six bucks! Then I went to WalMart to pick up a few items. On the way out I gave the guitar player who sits out front a buck. I was walking into Stater Bros to get some groceries when I was confronted by a kid collecting donations for high school football. After questioning him a bit trying to make sure he was legit then afterwards when he convinced me I gave him two bucks. I was paying my bill for the groceries when the cashier asked if I wanted to donate a buck to something or other, and I told him that the guitar player and the football kid outside already had gotten to me first.
I bought three pieces of chicken to share with Fat Cat and Stoney. I went to Stoney’s first, he was in his clock shop working and was ready to call it quits and have some dinner. If I got home smelling like fried chicken Fat Cat would be pretty upset with me if I didn’t bring him some- he has a way to make me feel guilty. So when I got back home he almost had a whole hind quarter to himself.
While I was away I downloaded a whole bunch of MS security updates and they were all, 33 of them, done when I got back.
I went for my evening walk re-listening to Astronomy Cast - Ep. 135: X-Ray Astronomy in the hopes that some of it will rub off on me.
I read a little more of the de Bono’s thinking course, and then mindlessly surfed the web for a few hours. I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 25- I went to sleep around 4am and awoke at 12:45pm, yikes! I usually sleep around six hours or so but sometimes my body takes advantage while I’m sleeping to say enough is enough you’re going to sleep in today so I can catch up with you. I only did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 69 and 97 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 26 percent, cloudy (altostratus) skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 98. North northwest wind between 3 and 8 mph. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 72. South wind 7 to 10 mph becoming west northwest.”
Ron’s wife Linda came by with a stereo that was only playing out of one audio channel, but after awhile of fiddling around with it for a bit trying this and that we both decided she would take it back to where she purchased it and ask for a refund. She just came back here from Texas where she teaches at an elementary school and hasn’t seen the additions I made to my house, so I gave her the grand tour!
I had to make a trip over to P’s to update her anti-virus license and straighten out her Java install. On the way back I stopped off at Lee and Marcie’s to update their license, too. I did a little PM on their system while we sat around discussing stuff going on at the community center. While I was in the Polluter driving around I decided to make a stop over to Stoney’s to see how he was doing. He has this big bandage on his head from the surgery of a few days ago and seems to be doing okay.
Got back home, ate a tuna sandwich, talked to Kevin, and then went on my evening walk re-listening to Astronomy Cast - Questions Show: NorthEast Astronomy Forum (NEAF).
Read a little of the de Bono’s thinking course, but grew tired of that and read a few chapters in “The Dork from Cork” which is an excellent read!
I called Andrew to wish him a happy birthday. His girlfriend Stephanie took him for a helicopter ride over LA today, cool!
When I was over at P’s I learned that Farrah Fawcett had passed on; so sad because she fought so hard to live. I almost missed the announcement of her passing because Michael Jackson’s death was the big news item of the day and her passing was just a footnote. Well they say they go in threes and Ed McMahon’s passing a few days ago at the age of 86 makes the three!
I did my stretches, lifted weights, went for a night run, and practiced my guitar. I called Mike from Hermosa to say hi, then wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 26- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 72 and 102 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 23 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 103. North northwest wind 6 to 8 mph becoming east.
Saturday Night: Clear, with a low around 76. South southeast wind 6 to 9 mph becoming west.”
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Community website and sent out the Newsletter. Then I went outside to cut off some palm fronds that were getting kind of frayed and brown. I didn’t even get cut by the fronds this time; I was very careful. My two palm trees look mighty nice now. I gave them a good watering, too.
I read a little in “de Bono’s Thinking Course” and still haven’t decided if it’s worth reading it yet; my mind has a mind of its own! Now that may sound weird but it’s the truth, honest it is. Got caught up on my astronomy reading and was just getting ready to walk out the door for my evening walk when Kevin called wanting to jaw. Hey no problem, it’ll be cooler the later I go. When I went for my walk I decided not to listen to a lecture but just walk and think. I like doing that.
I had called Stoney earlier and left a message and I tried to call him again but no answer. I drove over to see if he was okay. He was in his clock shop and forgot to take the phone with him. In the next couple of days we’re going to run a phone line from his house to his shop so he won’t be forgetting anymore.
I messed around with some old computer systems, I like doing that too, until “Numb3rs” came on CBS. It was a rerun that I missed on its first airing because a wind storm knocked out the UHF station that night. Then I did my stretches and went for a night run, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 27- did my stretches and ran a mile.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 76 and 108 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 19 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 103. North northwest wind 6 to 8 mph becoming east.
Saturday Night: Clear, with a low around 76. South southeast wind 6 to 9 mph becoming west.”
I mostly called Family and Friends, watered the plants, and messed around with my computers. I cooked up some stuffing for Potluck and awaited Stoney’s arrival.
We arrived at the Community Center at 4pm. The temp was around 108 and it was nice to enter the pleasantly cool environment of the center’s main building. There was pert near twenty hungry folks and enough grub to satisfy everyone. Rose skipped her peas and corn and surprised us with German style cucumber salad. Marie Morrison made her Mom Pearl’s Pineapple coleslaw. Dorothy Jacobsen cooked up some chicken and fried rice with Spam. Donna Myers whipped up a tuna casserole. Chris Jonas brought his famous macaroni salad. Marcie Hines made her tasty meat lasagna dish. Dyane Carrol couldn’t be here because of her relatives were visiting but she made a lemon trifle that was to die for and had Dorothy bring it for us to enjoy; I thought that was mighty nice of her! Tim Atzie baked up cinnamon rolls. Chris Fergie who has lived up here for over ten years and she finally came by for a visit to see what it was all about and came prepared with a turkey/cheese dip with chips. And Bob Seeley had his fruit platter; we saw him rush by on his way to town to pick it up which made him a little late. We all sat down to eat and then silence fell on the great hall.
When I got back I went on my evening walk, and then read a few chapters of “The Dork from Cork” until “Castle” came on ABC. I watched one episode last year and thought it was a good show but I missed the show when it aired again. I think this show is worth watching.
I did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for a night run. I then took out my telescope to watch the Moon set behind the mountains to the west. It was kind of cool this time because far away little clouds that were low on the horizon floating about in our Earth’s thick atmosphere would drift across the shimmering Moon. Then I trained my scope on the constellation Cygnus the Swan that lies amidst the wisps of stars and dust of the Milky Way. In Cygnus shines a double star 380 light years away called Albireo. One star appears blue and the other gold. I had it in my eyepiece and it held me there, fascinated by its beauty. After that I caught Jupiter rising in the east and could just make out a few bands on its surface. What a wonderful night!
I practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 28- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 76 and 111 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 19 percent, a few clouds moved in later in the day.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 102. North northwest wind at 8 mph becoming east. Monday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 77. Southwest wind between 6 and 14 mph."
I water the plants some more and soaked a towel where Fat Cat likes to lay when it’s hot and it keeps him cool during these hot summer days. I did a few chores around the house. It was too hot outside to do any real work there. I’m trying to figure out what to read next and skimmed through a few books. I still have the “Dork from Cork” to read but I like to read a little bit of it at a time to make it last longer. I really like the book. I like his style of writing and how he can introduce and build a character in such few words that you feel you know that person well. This is what I did most of the day.
I went for my evening walk early to take advantage of the clouds that came in the later part of the afternoon. I made it a short walk because of the heat.
I did some webwork for a few hours and then decided to watch “Impact” on ABC to see if it was still as stupid as I thought it was when I turned it off twenty minutes into the show last week. Folks replied to my last week’s post of the show in the Astronomy Form telling me that it had gotten worse. People were being pulled off the streets and from outside cafes’ and lifted into the air, yikes! So I forced myself to watch this second part tonight and all I can say is that the science really stunk so bad it made me laugh and cringe at the same time! Thank God that it was shown at a late hour that young impressionable minds were saved from its bad science. Enough said.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 29- did my stretches and ran two miles.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 75 and 104 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 24 percent, a few clouds moved in later in the day.
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 102. Northwest wind at 8 mph becoming east. Tuesday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 78. Southwest wind between 6 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph.”
I stayed inside after my exercises and mellowed out surfing the web. I found that Amazon.com is taking preorders for Windows 7 Upgrade for $49.99 that comes out on October 22nd. I’m going to order one.
Stoney dropped by my house after going to WalMart to purchase a three station wireless phone system. I went over to help him set it up. Now he has a phone in the kitchen, living room, and his clock shop.
I went on my evening walk and took my camera along. I took some shots of ant hills and sunsets. Kevin called when I got back and told me of his day. His was probably a lot more interesting than mine.
I read “The Dork from Cork” till it got late. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 30- did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 78 and 108 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 27 percent, a few clouds moved in later in the day and hung around all night.
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 99. Northwest wind 5 to 9 mph becoming southeast."
Wednesday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 77. Southwest wind between 5 and 9 mph.”
It was another kick back day. Yesterday I ran two miles and thought I’d give my legs a rest. I read and finished “The Dork from Cork” by Chet Raymo. If you ever get a hold of this book it’s a good read! I really enjoyed it. The book is about a dwarf who writes about astronomy, love and the absence of it, beauty and ugliness, and the perception of life from a four foot tall man.
Delia called me about her broke computer. She is such a busy woman that she never got to the point of what she wanted me to do with it when she had to rush away again.
Kevin called and we yakked for a spell. We were talking about GUI (Graphic User Interface) that was developed at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Centre where the company sends very intelligent folks. They are set free without much supervision to be creative and invent new technologies. I kind of feel that way here in the desert. I’m free to follow whatever I want without much distraction. I write songs for my guitar. I write a column for a newspaper. I study astronomy and other sciences. I exercise. I play on and fix computers. I like my life here. It seems that all my life I’ve been on the outside looking in and at sometime decided to look the other way and go beyond the prejudices of the box and find my own path.
I went for my evening walk and took my camera. There wasn’t much in the area I haven’t already shot with my camera but I wish I had it when that sidewinder came across my trail a few days ago. I got back in time to watch the sunset with Fat Cat and give him a good brushing.
Looking for a movie to watch I came across “Contact” (1997). I haven’t watched it for a few years and stuck it in the MacBook, and hooked up the external speakers. That’s how I spent the next two hours of a cloudy night. Great film!
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night. Goodbye to June!