July 2009

Welcome to the Month of July- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 77 and 98 degrees, a nice breeze, humidity around 35 percent, cloudy all day.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 11am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 94. Calm wind becoming east between 6 and 9 mph. Thursday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 76. South wind at 7 mph becoming west.”
It smelled like it rained somewhere, you can smell the fragrance of the greasewood when the rain hits it, but not here. It looked like it wanted to.
The same big old cloud hung around all day long trying to squeeze out what water droplets it could muster but it all evaporated before hitting the ground.
The day at least was pleasant, not hot, and I did a lot of sitting outside on the bench in front of my home. There is a small pond just a few feet away and these small desert birds would cautiously approach to drink if Fat Cat and I were very still. There were about fifteen of them that drank at once! Cool! Good cat too!
I went into the house to clean it up some. FedEx is delivering a new computer for me today and I have to make room for it. I may fix it up to sell or just keep it. I don’t know yet. I bought it because it had Win XP Pro. I need XP Pro to do the rest of the A+ course study. I bought the refurbished desktop for the price of XP Pro. It’s kind of like purchasing the OS and getting a desktop thrown in for free.
FedEx delivered it later in the evening; I set it all up and was impressed right away. It’s a Dell Optiplex GX620/USFF 2.7GHz Celeron processor with 512MB RAM and 40GB hard drive. That dang thing is small and compact. The power supply sits outside the desktop like a laptop’s does. I fired it up for the first boot and a restore program like Norton Ghost loaded everything up. The whole process took about forty minutes and XP was up and running. It’s a fast little computer!
I went for my evening walk listening to Astronomy Cast - Ep. 140: Entanglement. I won’t pretend to understand what I heard but it goes something like this: If you split a Coupled Pair of particles and send them on their way, they can communicate over vast distances instantly. This will require more listening to the lecture and reading for me to understand!
I started a new book by Clive Cussler called “The Chase” (Fiction 2007) about a bank robber of 1906 who murders all witnesses and the detective who is out to apprehend him.
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.

Thursday 02- did my stretches and ran a mile.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 76 and 101 degrees, a nice breeze, humidity around 30 percent, cumulonimbus clouds on the horizons but none overhead.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 99. Calm wind becoming south southeast between 6 and 9 mph. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 78. West southwest wind between 6 and 13 mph.”
I messed around with the new Dell system that I acquired yesterday. Did the usual updates of programs I like: Firefox, Avast Anti-virus, upgraded IE6 to IE8, and a few others. The system runs real slick!
I read this article late last night: Device Makes Radio Waves Travel Faster Than Light! If this is true it has great consequences in the world of science. My question is: if you sent a message faster than the speed of light would it get to its destination before your original message was sent? Interesting! I think I’ve been listening to too many Quantum Physics lectures!
I went for my evening walk listening to Astronomy Cast - Questions Show: Galileoscope, Black Hole Time, and What Exactly is Energy? The Galileoscope is a telescope that was constructed by professional astronomers to be like the one used by Galileo to view the heavens four hundred years ago. It was constructed to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy 2009. You can purchase one for $15 plus shipping at: Galileoscope.org. I might pick one up for my niece and myself. A question of Black Hole Time was asked. My understanding that I read of it sometime ago is that space time is stripped away as the particles become more compressed as they near the singularity. The best answer to What Exactly is Energy was that everything is made up of energy levels, energy performs work, and that someday everything of matter will go back to pure energy. Kind of left me hanging on what it really is. Maybe string theory will someday answer this question.
I read a few chapters of “The Chase” until late into the evening. Then 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 03- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 78 and 105 degrees, winds W-SW at 4 to 15 MPH, humidity around 27 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Independence Day: Sunny and hot, with a high near 102. Northwest wind at 9 mph becoming southeast. Saturday Night: Clear, with a low around 78. West southwest wind between 7 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.”
I stayed up really late last night. Before I went to sleep I posted an article I read: “Device Makes Radio Waves Travel Faster Than Light” on the Astronomy forum on Live Journal, and right away I was receiving comments and I stayed up to reply to them. Finally I noticed that the time was approaching 4:30am and I had to get my butt to bed! I awoke at 1pm or there abouts! I noticed that I didn’t have any messages on my cell phone that I had thought was receiving forwarded calls from my land line phone, only to discover a few hours later that I hadn’t forwarded the dang thing. I don’t get that many calls anyway so it probably was no big loss.
I went up on the roof with a bucket of water and cleaned all the dirt and dust off my solar panels. I noticed an increase in the amount of charge to the batteries right away.
I went for my evening walk re-listening to Astronomy Cast - Ep. 140: Entanglement and will probably have to listen to it again until I understand it a little. I brushed Fat Cat while we both watched the sunset.
I continued reading “The Chase” through the night only stopping to help Jimmy when he called needing my help on his Gateway desktop. I figured that the hard drive went bad and he went out to Best Buy and bought a new one. We loaded up XP on it from the restore disk that was supposed to install all the drivers for his system; it didn’t! There wasn’t a driver disk either. So now he has to go to download them from someone else’s computer that’s connected to the internet. I’d never buy a Gateway computer after the laptop I bought from them many years ago was nothing but a headache and their customer service sucks.
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.

Independence Day- did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 78 and 106 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 26 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 102. Northwest wind at 9 mph becoming south southwest. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 75. West wind between 9 and 17 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.”
It’s Saturday and it is my day to call Family and Friends. I wanted to get it done early before they all went out to celebrate. With that out of the way I was free to work on my computers.
Stoney called saying he bought two burritos for him and I from Santana’s when he went to Joshua Tree to deliver a clock he repaired. Cool! I rode on over on my Trusty Scooter. We both could only eat half and I took my half back home to eat later. We made plans to go watch the fireworks display over at the Marine Base tonight.
I continued to work on my computers. I was trying to update my Nokia N800’s software. It’s a big online download with the N800 connected to my laptop via USB. After one hour it completed the download but failed to update. So that was one hour wasted of my time.
I just had time for my evening walk before Stoney picked me up. I called him when I got back to see if he still wanted to go; he did. I told him don’t forget his camera. We drove to the place where we watched it last year. It was down a dirt road that runs in front of the base. There were lots of other folks parked here and there on the streets around the base. I think it’s a lot better than going on the base and having to deal with the traffic. We got out our chairs and sat waiting for the show to begin. He remembered to bring his camera but I had forgotten mine, dang! Last year’s show lasted around fifteen minutes; this one lasted for almost half an hour! Lots of rockets bursting in air (like the song). Halfway through the show Ron Dehart called me on my cell phone while he and Linda watched the fireworks from their backyard. I kept saying to Ron “here is the finale” but every time it’d keep going on and on. It was a great show!
When I got back home I read a few chapters of “The Chase” till 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.

Sunday 05- did my stretches and ran a mile.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 75 and 104 degrees, winds from the NW-SW at 4 to 15 MPH, humidity around 20 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 102. Light wind becoming southwest between 11 and 14 mph. Monday Night: Clear, with a low around 73. West southwest wind 18 to 21 mph decreasing to between 10 and 13 mph. Winds could gust as high as 26 mph.”
I can’t say I did much of anything today, just messed around on the computer some. I read “The Chase” by Clive Cussler throughout the day and finished it late into the night; the reason I’m making this post short. Between all this I went for my evening walk and talked to a few friends. Mat dropped by in the early evening to say hi. And of course I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 06- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 73 and 105 degrees, winds from the NW-SW at 6 to 18 MPH, humidity around 20 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 101. Northwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming south between 17 and 20 mph. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 74. West southwest wind 18 to 21 mph decreasing to between 9 and 12 mph. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph.”
I went and did some chores around the house while my computer was downloading some updates to its operating system. I went for my evening walk with no lectures to listen to; I’ll need to download some more. I started two books but just couldn’t get into them. Some days there just ain’t a whole bunch to write about.
I did my stretches and went for a night run, practiced my guitar, wrote and sent my column to the newspaper, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 07- did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 74 and 103 degrees, winds from the W-SW at 4 to 19 MPH, humidity around 22 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 100. Light wind becoming south between 14 and 17 mph. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph. Wednesday Night: Clear, with a low around 73. West southwest wind 17 to 20 mph decreasing to between 7 and 10 mph. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph.”
I talked to Ron Dehart last night and we decided to go to the Sizzler Steak House for breakfast/lunch. I was to be at his house at 11am so I went to bed a little early about 3am. I awoke around 8am and couldn’t get back to sleep so I did a rewrite of my column I sent into the newspaper last night to make it more readable. After I sent the column in, I still had time to rest a little and laid down for a sec. The next thing I knew the phone was ringing. It was Mac inviting me over for lunch with him and his wife. I told him I already had plans and then asked what time it was. It was 10:30! I had thirty minutes to do my stretches, get dressed, feed the cat, fill out a birthday card for my friend Mike, hunt for a pen to sign and address the card, throw everything in my backpack, and drive over to Ron’s. I was only five minutes late.
We got to the Sizzler around 11:30 and our Server was named Jackie. We ate like pigs, but Ron ate more than I. God that salad bar there is great! We left there to stop off at the post office so Ron could pick up his mail. We went to Ron’s so I could check out his guitar and amp hookup. I played a few of my songs while Ron tweaked with the controls. I think I played well, but that’s my own opinion.
When I got back home I decided to scrap the XP operating system on my Asus EEE 701 and restore it with the Linux it came with. Somehow it didn’t erase the XP partition like I thought it would so now I have to use Gparted to do this when I get the time.
I went for my evening walk re-re-re-listening to Astronomy Cast - Ep. 140: Entanglement. I think I mentioned this before: it’s about two coupled pairs of particles that can communicate over vast distances instantly and physicists don’t know the how or why. Oh there’s more to it but it’s getting late. But it is interesting!
I messed around with the Asus doing updates and configuring Kstars; an astronomy program I like that only runs on Linux- one reason I wanted to put Linux back on. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.


Wednesday 08- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 74 and 101 degrees, winds from the NW-SW at 3 to 15 MPH, humidity around 24 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 99. West northwest wind 6 to 14 mph becoming southeast. Winds could gust as high as 18 mph. Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 73. Breezy, with a west southwest wind 19 to 22 mph decreasing to between 9 and 12 mph. Winds could gust as high as 31 mph.”
I spent most of the day fiddling around with computer networks. I signed up for an online class over at HP Learning Center on wireless networks and did three of the four lessons. Then I tried with some success to connect a couple of my computers but I had too many interruptions and would lose my train of thought and have to start over.
I went for my evening walk and then continued doing my network studies until “Time Team America” came on PBS about a team of archaeologist trying to locate the houses of the "Lost Colony" at Roanoke Island, N.C that was founded in 1586. They spent three days there and uncovered what they believed were the posts of a house from that era. Then “Ascent of Money: From Bullion to Bubbles” came on the same channel about the rise of the modern financial system. I thought it was very interesting. It’s a four part series.
I did my stretches and went for a night run. As I was running back down the hill I noticed that Mat was over at his old cabin and drove my Trusty Scooter over to chat with him for a spell.
I then connected two of my computers to a network I made, one having internet access and the other getting internet access from that one, but once it was all hooked up I couldn’t get internet access at all. I must be missing something important! I was able to get access again by shutting down the network. I’ll keep at it but not tonight.
I practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 09- did my stretches and ran a mile.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 73 and 105 degrees, winds from the NW-SW at 6 to 13 MPH, humidity around 22 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Partly sunny and hot, with a high near 100. Northwest wind at 10 mph becoming south southeast. Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 75. West southwest wind between 7 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.”
I did more studying on networks and really messed things up, but fortunately got everything back in order, whew! This took a lot of time and before I knew it was time to go on over to Stoney’s for some homemade chili beans with rice. It was the best he ever made in my opinion! We channel surfed for something to watch but out of 1000 some channels he has on his satellite there wasn’t much. So we went into his kitchen where he keeps his desktop and I fixed a minor problem.
I went for my evening walk re-re-re-re-listening to Astronomy Cast - Ep. 140: Entanglement, trying to rap my brain around it. It looks like I’ll have to buy a book about it to read.
Back at home I went online to find some kind of documentation on network routers and the DD-WRT program that runs on them and other info. I think I’ve found one: “Linksys WRT54G Ultimate Hacking Book”.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 10- did my stretches and ran a mile.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 74 and 104 degrees, winds from the W-SW at 4 to 9 MPH, humidity around 28 percent, cloudy skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Partly sunny and hot, with a high near 100. Northwest wind at 10 mph becoming south southeast. Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 75. West southwest wind between 7 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.”
Late last night after I completed my journal I ordered the “Linksys WRT54G Ultimate Hacking Book” from Amazon, and this morning I won the bid on a Linksys WRT54G v6 Wireless Router with DD-WRT v24 FIRMWARE from EBay. Now I’m in business!
While I was at Amazon I also ordered a used biology book called “The Cell: A Molecular Approach” because I am fascinated by the cell wall. It’s kind of like going back to the Big Bang in astronomy; how did it form to create life.
I got caught up on my astronomy reading and started another book called “Networking Concepts” that I’ll be studying for the next week or so.
I went for my evening walk listening to “Astronomy Cast - Ep. 141: Volcanoes, Hot and Cold” about the different types of volcanoes on Earth, other planets, and moons.
I got back home to continue reading until “Numb3rs” came on CBS; a rerun but I needed a break from reading. Then I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the newsletter
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 11- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 79 and 108 degrees, winds from the NW-SW at 6 to 19 MPH, humidity around 24 percent, somewhat cloudy skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 103. North northwest wind between 5 and 9 mph. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 76. West wind between 9 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.”
I mostly did webwork, read and studied the “Network Concepts” book, and called Friends and Family.
I went for my evening walk listening to Astronomy Cast - Questions Show: Avoiding the Heat Death, Orbiting Galaxies, and the Dangers of Space Radiation.
I went on over to Stoney’s to help him finish those chili beans he made on Thursday. He has these rat zappers sitting outside to electrocute the Antelope Squirrels that have been eating his tomatoes. He was watering his garden earlier today when one of them got wet. So he sat down with the zapper on his lap to re-bait it when it zapped the hell out of him, he said, and by reflex tossed it in the air about fifty feet away. Stoney said he ain’t going to make that mistake again. I bet the squirrels were watching!
I got back home and continued reading until it got late. Then I did my stretches, went for a night run, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 12- did my stretches and ran a mile. When I was bending over to touch my toes while doing my stretches I noticed ants crawling around on the living room floor, yikes! I got out the bug spray and now they are all gone. I leave all critters alone unless they get into the house and then their dead meat!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 79 and 109 degrees, winds from the NW-SW at 4 to 15 MPH, humidity around 22 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday Night: Clear, with a low around 77. West southwest wind between 9 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. Tuesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 104. West wind around 7 mph becoming south.”
I worked on Joel’s Iron Eyes Cody website and got a few of the changes he wants but there’s still more to edit. Finally got some pics of last month’s Potluck posted on the Copper Mountain Mesa Website.
I must have talked for over four hours on the cell phone today. I called Paula and that was 56min, and then Audrey called and we yakked for just over an hour. I also talked to a few Friends for a half hour each. My ear feels like it’s going to fall off! I need to get some kind of headset for the dang thing so my brains don’t get fried by the radio waves.
I went for my evening walk listen to Astronomy Cast - Questions Show: Why are black holes black, Unbalancing the Earth, and Space Pollution. Then I gave Fat Cat a good brushing. Kevin called and yakked at him for a spell.
I went back to webwork until it got late. I called Mike from Hermosa to wish him a Happy Birthday, and then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.


Monday 13- did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 77 and 109 degrees, winds from the NW-SW at 6 to 13 MPH, humidity around 21 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 105. Calm wind becoming southwest around 6 mph. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 78. West wind between 6 and 9 mph becoming calm.”
I was making up a Birthday card when I noticed that their birthday is on the 16th and not the 23rd as I had mistakenly thought, dang, now I’ll have to make a special trip to the post office; just like me to mess up on birthdays! I decided to go shopping and stock up on some vitamins (I now have enough for a year) and get some groceries, gas, and make a stop at the library. But before I did all this I finally got my swamp cooler working after roughing it without one for two years. It works fine but I haven’t hooked the water up to it yet and have to carry a five gallon bucket every few hours to keep it going.
My trip was uneventful, didn’t really talk to anyone, even the guitar player that sits outside WalMart wasn’t there.
When I arrived back home the inside was nice and cool- I might just get used to that. I called a few friends to see what was up- Stoney was watching old reruns of Mash! He’s probably seen all episodes of them at least three or four time before.
I went for my evening walk listening to Astronomy Cast - Ep. 142: Plate Tectonics, very cool! I studied a little geology before on my own and it was nice to be reminded of the terms and names used to describe the Earth’s outer layers.
I continued reading “Network Concepts” until late. Then I did my stretches and lifted weights. I went outside for an hour looking at the night sky. I’m still waiting for Jupiter to rise higher above the horizon so I can look for Neptune that should be very close to the planet. Hercules is sometimes very hard to find- it’s between Vega and the Northern Crown. I had my binoculars and was trying to see M13 the Great Globular Cluster. I did find it but it was directly overhead but Fat Cat kept jumping on my lap making it hard to keep my eyes trained on it. I would have taken out the telescope but it’s just too dang hard to setup to look at something at my zenith. I’ll have to wait till it goes farther down into the west.
I practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 14- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 78 and pushing 110 degrees, winds from the NW-SW at 8 to 11 MPH, humidity around 22 percent clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 104. Northwest wind at 11 mph becoming east southeast. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 79. South wind 8 to 18 mph becoming west. Winds could gust as high as 23 mph.”
It was another hot day and I mostly stayed inside again where it’s cool. I got around to putting the XP Pro on my Dell Mini 9 that came from another Dell computer I bought last month just for the XP Pro. It took a while to get it all up and running with an install of Service Pak 3, IE 8, and all the drivers.
I continued to read “Network Concepts” throughout the day, did a little surfing on the web, and had to call UPS to get a package rerouted to my home address that was mistakenly sent to my PO Box.
I went for my evening walk and then watched “Nova: Secrets of the Parthenon”. It was very interesting that these Greeks from 485 BCE built such a structure in just over eight years! “Nova Science Now” came on next. About a pill that can take you from couch potato to athlete, a story of the Northern Lights, how dinosaurs may have died from disease, and a plasma rocket for the trip to Mars.
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 15- did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 80 and 112 degrees, winds from the W-S at 4 to 18 MPH, humidity around 28 percent, mostly clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 107. North northwest wind between 5 and 8 mph. Thursday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 82. West wind between 7 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.”
Joan came by with her laptop that is running very slow she says. Well the reason is that the hard drive is on its last legs. As I was trying to retrieve her documents and pictures that she hadn’t backed up; it died completely. I’ll have to figure out some other way to get her stuff off.
UPS showed up with my new wireless router and I got to play around with that for a while. I continued to read “Network Concepts” until it was time for my evening walk.
I watched “Time Team America” and then “Ascent of Money” on PBS. Both are a fine series worth the time to watch!
I did my stretches and went outside to look into the night sky with my binoculars. I saw this small fuzzy ball shaped thing in the northeast and I couldn’t figure what it was in that part of the sky. Maybe a comet I haven’t heard of? A globular cluster? One of Fat Cat’s hairballs? I brought out my telescope to get a better look; it was still fuzzy. Okay, so now I take a look at the constellations and recognize Cassiopeia and realize that the fuzzy ball is the Andromeda Galaxy! I’m used to seeing it in winter and not that low in the sky in the east.
Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 16- did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 82 and 110 degrees, winds from the NW-SW at 6 to 20 MPH with gusts out of the west at over 50, humidity around 40 percent, mostly cloudy skies with a few sprinkles hers and there.
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 108. North northwest wind between 5 and 11 mph. Friday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 80. West southwest wind between 8 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.”
When I awoke to start making breakfast, Fat Cat wasn’t there! He always pounds on the door to let me know to let him in. I immediately went searching for him but he was not in his usual hiding spots. As I write this he is still missing. I can only hope that he got bored with me and will come back as soon as he has his fill of life in a desert that can be pretty harsh on a little kitty. I just hope he is okay!
Marie called having problems with her laptop again and I told her to bring it over to have a look-see. I did what I did to it last time and it seemed to fix it but she called later in the evening to say that it froze up again. She’ll bring it over tomorrow and I’ll keep it for a few days to do any updates of the driver and BIOS and whatever else I can find that may eliminate the problem.
I spent most of the day working on Joan’s laptop. The hard drive is dead but I put it in the freezer to shrink the heads and was able to run Puppy Linux to get the rest of her data off before it totally died. Then I found an old hard drive I salvaged from a non working laptop I had lying around. It only has 800Meg but good enough for Win98 and loaded that onto the hard drive. I have a spare Win2000 Pro that I’m trying to load up so we can use USB thumb drives as storage. I was in the middle of doing this when a wind storm hit with lightning striking close by and decided to continue it tomorrow.
I didn’t go on my evening walk because of the wind storm and I wanted to be around just in case Fat Cat came home. I did some webwork the rest of 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 17- did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 82 and 111 degrees, winds from the NW-SW at 8 to 10 MPH, humidity around 30 percent, A few clouds here and there.
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 109. West wind 5 to 14 mph becoming south southeast. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph. Saturday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 81. West southwest wind between 7 and 14 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph.”
I got Win2000 installed on Joan’s old HP N3110 laptop and downloaded the driver for the video and modem. The driver for the modem froze the system so I’ll look for another tonight.
Marie brought her Dell Inspiron 1545 over for a couple of days for me to fix. It has Vista on it that won’t boot into the OS. BSOD comes up with “IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL” After I tried a few things to no avail I looked it up on the web and it is probably a driver conflict. I’m downloading the new driver versions from Dell now.
I went over to Stoney’s for dinner with him and Roger. We had steak with mashed potatoes and gravy. We sat around the table jawing about this and that. Roger hurt his foot a few days ago when his bees attack him and he got mad and kicked the bee hive- Something I’d never consider doing!
When I got back home I went for my evening walk looking for traces of Fat Cat. I was mostly looking where he might have fought some kind of creature, but I found nothing to suggest that.
I went back to working on Marie’s laptop doing Windows updates that didn’t take because of the boot problem. Working on Vista is like rolling a stone up a big hill only to have it roll back down at you. I won’t go into detail of how frustrated I got working with it. It’s just not user friendly if you have to fix a problem! Why in the world would Microsoft bring out such a piece of garbage like that? I know computers pretty well and if I’m having problems I could only imagine what a newbie would be going through! Well I have to admit that Vista is new to me but I had no problem figuring out Mac OS 10.4 when I first got my MacBook. I really like XP and think that’s a wonderful OS and I’m hoping that Windows 7 will be something similar when it comes out in late October- I already have a copy of it on preorder at Amazon.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, downloaded drivers, and called it a night.

Saturday 18- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 86 and 112 degrees, winds from the N-W at 3 to 12 MPH, humidity around 45 percent, A few clouds here and there.
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 109. Southwest wind 5 to 8 mph increasing to between 14 and 17 mph. Winds could gust as high as 24 mph. Sunday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 81. Southwest wind between 8 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.”
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the newsletter
I spent a few more hours on Marie’s Dell 1545 laptop installing nine driver updates I downloaded from Dell’s website last night. Before I did anything I flashed the BIOS to A08 from A02. Well her laptop is all up to date with drivers and Windows Update and it runs way better than before and doesn’t have the problem that she had when she first brought it over yesterday. I was glad to see it leave my home!
I called a few Friends and Family and then went on over to Stoney’s to finish off the steak and mashed potatoes and gravy. We watched a program on the Science Channel about Albert Einstein last days writing equations for his Grand Unification Theory that he never completed.
I got back home and called my neighbors to see if they saw Fat Cat hanging around, but none had seen him, dang! I still have his food ready and his water dish filled in case he comes back home.
I went for my evening walk checking a few more places he could be but found nothing.
I read a chapter of “Network Concepts” until late into the 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.

Sunday 19- did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 86 and 111 degrees, winds from the S-SW at 4 to 16 MPH, humidity around 41 percent, A few clouds here and there.
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 109. Calm wind becoming south southwest between 6 and 9 mph. Monday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 82. West southwest wind between 8 and 18 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph.”
I worked on Joan’s laptop trying to find a modem driver that would work but everyone I tried failed. So I dug around and found an old PCMCI modem that runs at the blazing speed of 14.4 Kbps I had from another laptop and stuck it in and it worked- very slow. As I writing this I just went on EBay and purchased one that runs at 56Kbps for $12 including shipping- that ought to speed things along for her! I called her to come and pick it up. I also showed her how to operate the new OS. I’m glad to get that out of my home!!! I think I’ll stop working on computer- no one has money up here to pay and I usually do it gratis- but dang I got another HP coming in tomorrow!
I called a few Friends to see what they were up to. Everyone is complaining about the heat and humidity. It’s just dang hot up here and I mostly stayed inside again today.
I went for my evening walk and still no sign of my beloved Fat Cat. I think in a day or so I will give up all hope. At that time I’ll give away his food to someone, stop putting water in his water bowl, and continue on with my life. It won’t be easy though.
Ron and Linda Dehart came over for a visit, I think it was to offer support, and we had a very nice chat. They miss Fat Cat too.
I did some webwork, Robert sent me an email to take down his website I created for him and I did it right away without any questions.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 20- did my stretches. Still no sign of my kitty…
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 84 and 114 degrees, winds from the NW-SW at 3 to 18 MPH, humidity around 36 percent, A big cloud came overhead in the evening with thunder and lightning but no rain here.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 107. West wind between 7 and 10 mph becoming calm. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 80. West wind around 10 mph.”
Ron Dehart called asking me if I’d like to go down and get some tiles for my house; he and Linda brought over a tile I liked last night. Linda has a good taste in colors which I don’t and I would’ve probably left the floor the gray color of cement. So I told Ron that I’d go down with him. We stopped by the post office in JT where I picked up three of the books I ordered from Amazon, and then headed to Home Depot. I got all the tiles and other items to do the floor of the entire house. I got a 10 percent discount when I signed up for their credit card and no payments for six months. I could have paid it all right there and then but I wanted the discount. I walked out of the store with a $546.00 sales receipt, yikes! We asked the cashier to have someone put them in Ron’s truck because the purchase was quite heavy and she said she’d have somebody right out there to help us. Yeah, right! We waited and waited but that somebody never came. So we loaded up the truck ourselves all the while saying to ourselves “I’ll have someone right out there to help you”.
We went to this new Chinese fast food place that’s next to Stater Bros market and found that the food was good, they gave out a good helping, and the price was just right; I’d eat there again!
We got to my place and unloaded Ron’s truck in the 114 degree heat. Ron left only to come back to honk his horn. Wondering what he wanted I walked over to him and noticed that my truck wasn’t there. I had driven it over to his house that morning. He then drove me over so I could pick it up. Must have been the heat!
It felt mighty good to take a hose shower after I put everything away. I then went inside and after skimming through my new books I took a nap. When I awoke I had three messages on my answering machine and all of them wanting their computers fixed. I called them back to say I’d be there in a while, but first I went on my evening walk.
My first stop was to Ruth Denison to help her with a printer problem and got her all straighten out. Then over to Lee Hines whose computer would not boot and I had to take it home with me. I sat with Lee and Marcie for a spell yakking about the community. My last stop was over to Joel Levy’s to pick up his friend’s computer for repair. Dang, when it rains it pours!
I got home late to do 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 21- did my stretches. I’m just way too burned out from lifting all those boxes of tiles yesterday; I sprained my wrist, my back hurts, and it’s just too dang hot and muggy today. And I’m bummed that Fat Cat hasn’t come home.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 86 and 112 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 34 percent, A few clouds.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 105. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph becoming east. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 79. West southwest wind between 6 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph.”
Ginger my neighbor came by to borrow my posthole digger. I haven’t seen her in a few months and it was nice to chat with her. She is planning to fix her property up and move here in the near future despite some thief ripping off all her building supplies, tires from her trailer, and tools that she had planned to use to build her home. There was also somebody who kept complaining to code enforcement about her living there and anything else that had to deal with her property. I wish her luck!
I spent most of the day working on the HP desktops that I was given to fix yesterday. Of course they didn’t back up their data! So far I wasn’t able to restore the data on one of them; the other doesn’t look very promising either. It was getting late and my batteries were beginning to drain. I wanted to complete Lee Hines’ computer first and at least get one of them done and out of my house, so I took it over to his house to finish. Everything went fine until I put in the driver disk for the modem; the CD drive wouldn’t recognize the disk, dang. I took the disk back home with me and was able to copy it off to a thumb drive. Now I’ll have to spend time tomorrow over at Lee’s. I think it’s time for me to get a life and stop fixing everybody’s computers.
Got home just in time to watch “Nova Science Now” that was about smart seals, why some people don’t like the taste of vegetables, sucking co2 out of the air, and an artificial liver.
Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 22- did my stretches. My sprained wrist and back still hurts, so I’m lying off doing any strenuous exercises for a few more days and let my body get back to some kind of equilibrium where it doesn’t hurt so much.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 86 and 110 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 38 percent, few clouds.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 103. Calm wind becoming southeast between 6 and 9 mph. Thursday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 80. South wind between 10 and 13 mph becoming light.”
I started working on the HP computer that Joel brought me. I had to take it apart to clean it and that was a chore in and of its self trying to figure out how to dismantle it. Then I took it outside to spray a can of air into its guts to flush out all the lint buildup inside and in the CPU fan and heat sink. I was able to copy the documents off this one but didn’t need them because I was able to replace the corrupted files it needed to boot. I have found that most folks don’t do backups and I try to make copies of the documents on the computers I work on in case things go terribly wrong.
Once I got Joel’s friend’s computer fixed and running decently I put that in the truck and dropped it off at Joel’s place. Then I drove over to Lee’s to finish up what I had begun yesterday. After I got everything working right I showed Lee how to backup his files to a USB thumbdrive and made him do it himself six times!
I went over to Stoney’s for dinner. He made chicken and dumplings! Roger Smith was there and had brought his camera over for me to get the pictures off. He told me that he had lost his camera’s cable, but I had just picked up one from Lee that he didn’t need any more. I reached in my backpack and pulled it out and asked him if this would do. I thought that kind of funny; like I carry this around with me every day! Makes me wonder what people think of me! It worked and we got his pictures off the camera. I let him keep the cable.
I went on my evening walk; still no sign of Fat Cat. I watched “Time Team America” where they searched for the first Black American founded town in 1836. They were especially looking for the remains of the old school house. Then the “Ascent of Money’ came on telling us about the history of insurance. Both shows I thought were very interesting.
Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar being careful not to strain my wrist too much, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.



Thursday 23- I have been in a funk all this past week and I came to realize that this is the day; I’ve have now given up all hope for Fat Cat’s return. It’s been seven days now and a hot desert with its many predators is no place for my little kitty to have survived. Today I’ve given away all his food to friends who own cats, cleaned all his dishes, emptied his water bowl that I’ve been keeping filled just in case he came back, cleaned out his hair brush, and folded and put away his bedding. I reluctantly must move on with my life.
I will miss Fat Cat knocking on my front door when he needed to be let in; he learned that from when Stoney came over for a visit and knocked on my door. The first time Fat Cat did it I opened the door and nobody was there. Then the knock came again and I opened the door and there was Fat Cat! He’s been doing it ever since. One night he knocked and I let him in, he had a kangaroo rat in his mouth and let it go in the house so he could eat his food. I spent almost an hour before I cornered and captured the poor rodent and set it free!

He liked sleeping on the roof. On one night I could hear him running all around up there and I came outside to see what he was up to. He came down and we were sitting on the bench as an owl flew overhead. He was trying to catch it! He was a very good mouser; when I first got him he killed four kangaroo rats everyday for over a week. I knew because he’d left the tails on the front steps that lead into the house. I am sorry to say that he killed one fox, and four rabbits that I know of. And once chased off two dogs that got into the yard; I heard the ruckus and rushed outside thinking that the dogs were attacking Fat Cat, but it was the other way around, one dog was so frightened that he banged into the fence as he was trying to get away; there were lots of yelps!
One time Ron Dehart brought his dog over when he visited and Fat Cat came down off the roof with his hair all puffed up walking sideways. I told Ron he’d better put the dog back in the car because I didn’t like the way Fat Cat looked. Ron said that maybe they’ll be friends and let his dog go and the dog walked over to Fat Cat for a sniff and got swiped on the nose very quickly. The dog jumped up into Ron’s arms with a bloody nose. Ron said that his dog never jumped into his arms like that before. But Fat Cat was friendly to people and would greet them at the front gate.

Fat Cat preferred to stay outside except in the winter where he’d sleep by my feet on the bed. When I’d drive up to the front gate after being to town, he’d be always there to greet me. I will miss that!
When I’d go outside at night to look through my telescope he’d be there waiting till I sat down so he could jump up on my lap. When I watched sunsets he’d do the same. I will miss that too!
My kitty is gone and it makes me feel old; there are more days behind in my life than there are ahead. I must continue on without him but I’ll miss him dearly! Good bye my dear kitty, my Fat Cat!

Friday 24- did my stretches. I’m still lying off doing any strenuous exercises for a few more days after loading and unloading all those boxes of tiles in and then out of a truck. My wrist is much better but my back and hip still hurt some but not as much. I guess I’m getting old!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 82 and 106 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 38 percent, few clouds.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: Isolated showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 96. Calm wind becoming east southeast between 6 and 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Saturday Night: Isolated showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 79. South wind at 9 mph becoming west. Chance of precipitation is 20%.”
I really couldn’t get into doing anything today; nothing seemed interesting; couldn’t concentrate on anything. I will get out of this moping mode I’m in but it will take a little time. I did start a new book later in the night called “Entanglement” which finally held my interest.
I got a lot of nice emails and calls from friends from my post last night about Fat Cat and I really appreciate them and all their well wishes. Here are two:

Dear Bob
I was barely able to finish your beautiful tribute to Fat Cat.
I have been reading your blog for a long time now. I don't even really
know how I happened upon it. But what drew me in was your kindness
toward animals. From the poor abandoned puppy to your darling Fat Cat.
I too have a fat cat except her name is Dratt, Dratt the cat. I so
enjoy reading what was going on in the desert especially what your Fat
Cat was up to. Even the little things like when you put water on a
towel for him to lie on to keep him cool.
Since you mentioned that he was missing I have kept my fingers crossed
that you would somehow find him.
I know it is of little consolation really, but there might be some
other poor little kitty just waiting for a wonderful person like you to
give him a home.
I wish you the very best.
Karen

Judy Ruggles wrote a poem:
A snake, or a kitty a bird or a mouse
When they are no longer there to
Give chase 'round the house
There is such a vacancy
Void in your heart
I'm sorry to hear that your world blew apart
Your cat having wondered and
Straying and gone
A void like a canyon
in that great beyond
Thinking that Fat Cat is in that far place
Where most think is heaven
Well, thoughts won't erase
He'll no longer knock
You'll answer for days
And miss what was Fat Cat's
In so many ways
You'll grieve as if children
Had run into the street
You cannot imagine
This mental defeat
You'll have all the pictures
And memories it's true
But Fat Cat will be in your heart
Cuz you're YOU
You'll treasure those memories
and smiles he gave you
Moving on's good
And that's what you'll do
But there will be memories
And moments to sigh
As you think of your FAT CAT
In that vast desert sky...
Judy Van-Ruggles
10:53 a.m. 7/24/09

Saturday 25- Trying to get things back to normal: I did my stretches, ran a mile and lifted weights. I awoke with a sty in my eye, dang! I looked it up online and it could take one to three weeks to go away. One remedy is to put a tea bag on the eye. I’ll see if it gets better on its own before I try that.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 83 and 104 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 40 percent, few clouds.
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 103. Calm wind becoming east southeast between 4 and 7 mph. Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 81. South wind 7 to 13 mph becoming west.”
We had our potluck today with about fifteen hungry folks showing up and there was plenty of vittles to go around. Dyan Carrol made apple dumplings and teriyaki with rice, Rose Manish brought her pea peas and corn. Marcie Hines brought a macaroni and hamburger dish with baked beans. Chris Jonas whipped up his famous macaroni salad for us to devour. Bob Seeley came by with his fruit platter. Dorothy Jacobsen cooked up this marvelous surprise casserole dish with a side of corn bread! And I cooked up my turkey stuffing with raisins. There was ice cream, too!
I went for my evening walk and watched the sunset when I got back which was a neat red glow as the Sun went down.
Today I read one chapter of “Network Concepts” that was about computer security, and two chapters in “Entanglement” by Amir D. Aczel which is about quantum physics and the strange phenomenon of two particles that are created at the same time become a coupled pair and exchange information instantly over vast distances, which would be faster than light would take to communicate between the pair. From what I’ve read so far I don’t believe that anyone knows or has solved the “why and how” yet. It interests me.
I watched “Castle” on ABC, and “Globe Trekker” on PBS where they investigated volcanoes from around the world. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 26- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 90 and 108 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 43 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 106. Northwest wind at 7 mph becoming east southeast. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 81. West southwest wind between 8 and 14 mph.”
Judy called to give me some suggestions on how to treat the sty in my eye. You get a gold ring and rub it really quickly till it gets hot and then touch it to the sty. Now I need to find a gold ring!
Joel brought me my mail on Friday and with it was the 56k PCMCI modem that I had ordered from EBay for Joan’s laptop. I called her and she came right over, I installed it, it worked, and I was done I thought. She handed me her new thumb drive and asked if I could show her how to transfer her files to it. I said sure thing. I selected the files I wanted to copy, then left clicked and held it down and brought the files over to the thumb drive. Then I deleted them from the thumb drive so she could do it. But the files weren’t there! In Win 2000 when you do that it moves them and not copies them like in XP! Dang! So all her files were deleted! I spent the next hour or so trying to find a program to recover deleted files; I had read about them. After downloading and experimenting with a few I found one called Recuva (by the same folks who developed Ccleaner) that worked and it was free; saved my butt! At first it didn’t find the files and then I checked the box for “Other” and it found the extensions to the old .wps files I wanted. I’m going to make a donation to them! She came back over and I then showed her the correct way to do it on Win 2000.
I went for my evening walk taking pictures of lizards, one horny toad, and a fantastic sunset. I read the rest of the day completing one chapter in “Network Solutions” on email, and four chapters in “Entanglement” giving a little bit of the history of the physicists who developed quantum physics.
I went outside at 11pm to check the temp and it was 98 degrees! It has been hot and muggy all day and into the night. I’ve been having a hard time keeping cool. I drink a lot of water and take hose showers when I get over heated, have all the fans in the house turned on me, and this seems to work a bit.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 27- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 90 and 111 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 40 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 107. West wind between 5 and 8 mph becoming calm. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 79. West southwest wind between 7 and 17 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph.”
I went to town to pick up a package at the post office; it was another Linksys wireless router I purchased at EBay. The Linksys WRT54g hacking book said I need two of them for experimentation. I stopped off at the local drug store to ask Rocky if he had anything for the sty in my eye. He said that nothing would work but a prescription drug, dang!
Then I went on over to Bar Lumber in Yucca to get these shelve hangers for my house. They don’t sell them anywhere else. I went to WalMart to get another 12VDC fan to replace the one that’s making a lot of noise. Got gas, stopped off at the health food store to get yeast, went to the library and checked out an algebra book, and headed home. But first I stopped over to Stoney’s to get Jimmy’s hard drive he wants me to get the data off of. Stoney made BLT sandwiches!
Got home just in time to get ready to go down to the community center where the Activities Committee: Annelies, Katherine, Rob, and I. We folded newsletters to be sent to paying members of our community association. To cut down on costs we will be sending out another abbreviate newsletter to non paying folks on our mailing list to either pay the membership fee or get it by email. We also hope that some of our paying members will go for the email option, too.
I read one chapter in “Network Concepts” about multimedia networking. I’ll be glad when this book is finished; it seems kind of dated. Then I read three chapters in “Entanglement” where the author is discussing the disagreement between Einstein and Niels Bohr about the quantum theory. Einstein didn’t like the randomness and probability of quantum physics; a field he helped bring about. He’d come up with these thought experiments against it. And Bohr would defend the theory by finding fault with Einstein’s experiments. This is where Einstein came up with Entanglement to disprove the theory. I believe as I reading that this kind of backfired on him.

Tuesday 28- I did my stretches. I still have the sty in my eye but I think it may be getting better.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 91 and 112 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 40 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 105. Calm wind becoming southwest between 5 and 8 mph. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 75. West southwest wind between 7 and 14 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph.”
I messed around with my new router plugging it here and then there, just doing a little experimenting; I still don’t know what I’m really doing yet, but I learning!
I tried to get Jimmy’s data off of his hard drive but everything I did wouldn’t see the drive; I think it’s a lost cause. The only other thing I can think to do is replace the controller board on the drive itself with one exactly like the one that is on it now, but I’ve never done that before and I don’t know if I can find one, or if that would even be the problem.
I read another chapter in “Network Concepts” about the Internet, mostly stuff I already know and do. Then I read a few chapters in “Entanglement” where about John Stewart Bell’s theorem which proves that “local hidden variable theories cannot remove the statistical nature of quantum mechanics. Philosophically, Bell's theorem implies that if quantum mechanics is correct, the universe is not locally deterministic.” I think it means that you cannot use locality, as Einstein tried in his thought experiment, if quantum mechanics is correct with its randomness and probability; the Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle states that “the position and momentum of the same particle cannot be localized.”
Linda Dehart came by to go on an evening walk with me. We talked as we walked only stopping to watch the sunset. It was a nice long walk and it was dark as we made our way back.
I watched “Nova Science Now” about water that contains remains of plant life locked into 250 million year old salt crystals; Ice coring done in the glaciers of the tropics that tells the history of the climate; Looking for water on the Moon to supply a permanent Moon base; And the similarity between the way birds and humans learn speech.
I did my stretches and went for a night run. 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 29- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 89 and 109 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 36 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 104. Calm wind becoming south southeast between 7 and 10 mph. Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 75. Southwest wind between 7 and 14 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph.”
I am just not feeling very well today. I still have the sty in my eye and I think my allergies are kicking in, too! I took an allergy pill last night and it knocked me out and I slept over eight hours and woke up groggy. The Sun hurts my eye with the sty when I go outside, so I mostly stayed inside doing updates on a computer, except to venture into the yard a few times to water some plants. I didn’t even go on my evening walk, yikes! I read a few magazines that Linda left here yesterday with my one good eye.
I watched “Time Team America” where they spent three days at Range Creek, Utah digging on the site of an ancient Fremont Indian village of 1000 years ago. Then the “Ascent of Money: Planet Finance” where Niall Ferguson wrapped up the series with the housing crisis we are going through right now and related it to past bubbles and bursts in our world’s financial history.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar after I fixed a broken string, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 30- I did my stretches. I think that my sty problem is coming to a head, literally! I’m hiding out till this thing goes away!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 82 and 107 degrees, a little breezy, humidity around 32 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 103. North northwest wind at 10 mph becoming southeast. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 75. South wind 8 to 13 mph becoming west.”
I mostly kicked back and read today. I completed two chapters of “Network Concepts”; about setting up a network. Got caught up on my astronomy readings, and finished three more chapters of “Entanglement”
I went for my evening walk re-listening to an old lecture by Professor Bloom from Berkeley on the Big Bang. The Lecture was almost two hours long!
I continued reading till it was time to do my exercise. 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.

Friday 31- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 80 and 105 degrees, a slight breeze, humidity around 27 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 104. Northwest wind at 7 mph becoming east southeast. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 74. West southwest wind between 8 and 13 mph.”
A really strange thing has happened to my sty eye! Yesterday on my walk I noticed that I could see better with my glasses off after the Sun went down; I thought nothing of it. I’ve been reading with just my good eye lately because the sty eye was blurred. Tonight I walked into the kitchen without my glasses and noticed that I could see the clock on the wall, which I couldn’t see before. I closed my good eye and I could see almost crystal clear with the sty eye. I closed my sty eye and opened the “good” eye and the clock was fuzzy! I’m near sighted or was; now I’m near/far sighted, weird!!! I wonder how long this will last. Maybe I should get a sty in my “good” eye and have really good vision! Anybody know what’s up with this?
I went over to Stoney’s for lunch. We had BLT sandwiches and banana bread for dessert.
I went for my evening walk listening to another of Professor Bloom’s lectures; it was on nebulas: emission and reflecting.
I read a chapter in “Network Concepts” on servers; only two more chapters to go and I can put the book away. Read a chapter in “Entanglement” that was very interesting. As I understand it; scientists shine a laser through a crystal that cuts a photon into two photons with half the frequency of the original photon. These become entangle. Then the two entangled photons hit a half –silvered mirror. One gets reflected through a lens, a filter, and an aperture with the letters UMBC (University of Maryland Baltimore Country) where some get blocked and some pass on to a detector. The photon that passes through the mirror is the one that displays the UMBC image! What this shows is that the entangled pair communicates between each other at a distance. Weird! Totally weird! I’m really enjoying this book!
I watched “Numb3rs” on CBS about Chinese Ghost Brides. Then I did my stretches, found out I could see farther with my sty eye, 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. Good bye to July, you’ve been a very hot month! I will miss my Fat Cat, too!