Wednesday, December 01, 2010

December 2010



Welcome to the Month of December! I did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted dumbbells.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 32 to 57 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 13 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 66. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph. Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 42. Calm wind.
I wrote my column for the Hi-Desert Star Newspaper and sent it in. Thought of the Week: Eternity is wasted on the dead.
I gathered up all my dirty clothes and headed over to Stoney’s to do my laundry and take a shower. I put my clothes in the washer and took my shower, and then I put them in the dryer and went over to Kelly’s to drop off a mattress pad. Kelly told me later tonight that she is mighty pleased with the pad. I got to Stoney’s and climbed up on the garage roof to look at what wind damage was done. A whole 3x15 foot section was missing. Now that I know what’s wrong I’ll get what’s need to fix it before the rains come.
I went for my evening walk just before sunset and took a few pics.
I talked to Kelly for a spell on Skype. After I was done and ready to sign off when this MsLinda02 came on to solicit my attention. I usually don’t answer these because their predators and scammers after your money. She asked me what work I did and I made up this up on the fly: systems and mainframe integrations of sub-program routines on interlacing meta-files. She seemed impressed.
Here’s the rest of the conversation:
hello
[12/1/2010 8:28:06 PM] Bob Deloyd: hello
[12/1/2010 8:28:15 PM] Linda : how are you?
[12/1/2010 8:28:47 PM] Bob Deloyd: ok- how are you?
[12/1/2010 8:29:08 PM] Linda : not too bad, i;m ok too
[12/1/2010 8:29:35 PM] Bob Deloyd: where do you live?
[12/1/2010 8:29:47 PM] Linda : i am linda
[12/1/2010 8:29:55 PM] Linda : and i live in sunyani,ghana and u
[12/1/2010 8:30:17 PM] Bob Deloyd: Joshua Tree California
[12/1/2010 8:30:36 PM] Linda : ok...
[12/1/2010 8:30:37 PM] Linda : USA
[12/1/2010 8:30:41 PM] Linda : right?
[12/1/2010 8:30:43 PM] Bob Deloyd: yes
[12/1/2010 8:30:56 PM] Linda : i am Linda and you?
[12/1/2010 8:31:07 PM] Bob Deloyd: I am Bob
[12/1/2010 8:31:33 PM] Linda : nice to meet you Bob
[12/1/2010 8:31:44 PM] Bob Deloyd: nice to met you too Linda
[12/1/2010 8:32:31 PM] Linda : i am glad you write back..
[12/1/2010 8:32:40 PM] Linda : how's the weather over your place now?
[12/1/2010 8:33:08 PM] Bob Deloyd: It's my first time to write back
[12/1/2010 8:33:10 PM] Bob Deloyd: cold
[12/1/2010 8:33:21 PM] Linda : really?
[12/1/2010 8:33:28 PM] Bob Deloyd: how about where you live?
[12/1/2010 8:34:03 PM] Linda : well, where i live it;'s cold right now in the early morning but very hot in the day time
[12/1/2010 8:34:47 PM] Bob Deloyd: Yes it gets into the low 30F here
[12/1/2010 8:35:16 PM] Linda : And do you experience snow?
[12/1/2010 8:35:40 PM] Bob Deloyd: some times but not every year
[12/1/2010 8:36:11 PM] Linda : ok
[12/1/2010 8:36:22 PM] Linda : Bob do you live alone?
[12/1/2010 8:36:24 PM] Bob Deloyd: have you ever been in snow?
[12/1/2010 8:36:35 PM] Linda : there's no snow in ghana
[12/1/2010 8:36:46 PM] Bob Deloyd: I didn't think so :)
[12/1/2010 8:36:47 PM] Linda : and i have never seee snow with my physical eye
[12/1/2010 8:36:56 PM] Bob Deloyd: I see
[12/1/2010 8:37:08 PM] Bob Deloyd: just pictures
[12/1/2010 8:37:15 PM] Bob Deloyd: and movies
[12/1/2010 8:37:22 PM] Bob Deloyd: of snow
[12/1/2010 8:37:31 PM] Linda : yes
[12/1/2010 8:37:34 PM] Bob Deloyd: yes
[12/1/2010 8:37:55 PM] Linda : and i really love it that way it look.. i looks like ice right
[12/1/2010 8:38:01 PM] Linda : soft ice
[12/1/2010 8:38:14 PM] Bob Deloyd: yes it is
[12/1/2010 8:38:22 PM] Bob Deloyd: snow cone
[12/1/2010 8:38:46 PM] Linda : :)
[12/1/2010 8:39:22 PM] Bob Deloyd: you like snow cones
[12/1/2010 8:39:43 PM] Linda : yes like it and i have feelings that one day i will see it with my physical eyes
[12/1/2010 8:40:00 PM] Linda : do you live alone or with your family?
[12/1/2010 8:40:18 PM] Bob Deloyd: live alone; just me here
[12/1/2010 8:40:36 PM] Linda : are you single or married?
[12/1/2010 8:41:03 PM] Bob Deloyd: I've never married
[12/1/2010 8:41:24 PM] Linda : the same here.. i am single never married and i have no kids
[12/1/2010 8:41:31 PM] Linda : how old are you?
[12/1/2010 8:41:43 PM] Bob Deloyd: too old
[12/1/2010 8:41:46 PM] Bob Deloyd: :)
[12/1/2010 8:41:56 PM] Bob Deloyd: 59
[12/1/2010 8:43:03 PM] Linda : i wonder why you;re not married or you have been divorce?
[12/1/2010 8:43:31 PM] Bob Deloyd: why you wonder?
[12/1/2010 8:43:58 PM] Bob Deloyd: maybe too mean
[12/1/2010 8:44:36 PM] Linda : i am surprise because you should be married man or divorce and have kids..
[12/1/2010 8:44:40 PM] Linda : do you have kids?
[12/1/2010 8:45:21 PM] Bob Deloyd: no--- why are you not married and have kids?
[12/1/2010 8:46:29 PM] Linda : i am not married because i have not meet the right man for me.. all the men who came my way are not honest and they don;t have the husband life in them.. they only cheat on me
[12/1/2010 8:47:01 PM] Bob Deloyd: Oh my that is so sad :(
[12/1/2010 8:47:41 PM] Linda : but i hope one day i will find a man who would share real love with me and we can settle down and make happy life..
[12/1/2010 8:49:06 PM] Bob Deloyd: I wish you luck! I've been looking for a long time and haven't found anyone. Now I'm too old :(
[12/1/2010 8:50:24 PM] Linda : Oh i am sad and worried about urs...so what are you looking for?
[12/1/2010 8:51:48 PM] Bob Deloyd: A nice woman to share my life with
[12/1/2010 8:52:21 PM] Bob Deloyd: one that likes astronomy and science
[12/1/2010 8:53:24 PM] Linda : oh nice.. that sound really good.. and so since when have you been looking around to find ur woman?
[12/1/2010 8:54:11 PM] Linda : ???
[12/1/2010 8:55:08 PM] Linda : are you there?
[12/1/2010 8:55:53 PM] Bob Deloyd: yes I am here. I just didn't understand your question
[12/1/2010 8:57:13 PM] Linda : OK..
[12/1/2010 8:57:47 PM] Linda : I mean have you been seriously looking for a woman always or you only get much time for your job only?
[12/1/2010 8:58:27 PM] Bob Deloyd: Job. work all the time... how about you?
[12/1/2010 8:58:56 PM] Linda : well, i am a student and i am studying and so what job do you do?
[12/1/2010 9:00:21 PM] Bob Deloyd: I work with computers--- what are you studying?
[12/1/2010 9:01:08 PM] Linda : i am studying marketing
[12/1/2010 9:01:27 PM] Linda : what actually do you work in computer.. i don;t know such job is that
[12/1/2010 9:03:53 PM] Bob Deloyd: systems and mainframe integrations of sub-program routines on interlacing meta-files
[12/1/2010 9:04:06 PM] Linda : oh ok
[12/1/2010 9:04:24 PM] Linda : then you are a computer as u know much when it come to computer
[12/1/2010 9:05:26 PM] Bob Deloyd: Yes---- Marketing in Ghana?
[12/1/2010 9:05:41 PM] Bob Deloyd: Sounds interesting
[12/1/2010 9:06:04 PM] Linda : yes
[12/1/2010 9:06:29 PM] Linda : have you ever come to Ghana?
[12/1/2010 9:06:57 PM] Bob Deloyd: No--- have you ever been in USA?
[12/1/2010 9:07:16 PM] Linda : no i have never been in USA
[12/1/2010 9:07:32 PM] Bob Deloyd: do you like Ghana?
[12/1/2010 9:08:04 PM] Bob Deloyd: BRB
[12/1/2010 9:08:40 PM] Linda : OK..
[12/1/2010 9:09:08 PM] Linda : I would like to relocate when I can afford and i find a good man that when I am leaving Ghana i am going to stay with him
[12/1/2010 9:11:04 PM] Bob Deloyd: you sound very intelligent. You should do good
[12/1/2010 9:11:22 PM] Linda : thanks
[12/1/2010 9:11:28 PM] Bob Deloyd: :)
[12/1/2010 9:11:45 PM] Linda : :)
[12/1/2010 9:12:31 PM] Bob Deloyd: I must go now but maybe we can chat later sometime
[12/1/2010 9:13:19 PM] Linda : lets share details and so that we can see each other online when we want to chat another time ok
[12/1/2010 9:14:46 PM] *** Call from Linda ***
[12/1/2010 9:15:06 PM] Linda : yess
[12/1/2010 9:15:21 PM | Edited 9:15:24 PM] Linda : add me and i can be online on your skype so we could chat another time
[12/1/2010 9:15:46 PM] Linda : add me and we chat another time
[12/1/2010 9:15:46 PM] Bob Deloyd: Bob Deloyd has shared contact details with Linda .
[12/1/2010 9:16:13 PM] Linda : yes you have added me now
[12/1/2010 9:16:16 PM] *** Call ended, duration 01:30 ***
[12/1/2010 9:16:21 PM] Linda : can i see a pic of you
[12/1/2010 9:16:32 PM] Bob Deloyd: yeah that's me
[12/1/2010 9:16:55 PM] Linda : do you have a any pic to let me see you or open your cam for me to see you?
[12/1/2010 9:17:34 PM] Bob Deloyd: how about a picture of you?
[12/1/2010 9:17:54 PM] Linda : yes i have a picture of myself and you can see me too
[12/1/2010 9:18:42 PM] Bob Deloyd: where is your picture?
[12/1/2010 9:19:06 PM] Linda : do u have a picture of yourself too?
[12/1/2010 9:19:36 PM] Bob Deloyd: just the one you see--- for now
[12/1/2010 9:20:25 PM] Linda : i didn;t see any pic of you..
[12/1/2010 9:20:29 PM] Linda : ok start ur video
[12/1/2010 9:20:48 PM] *** Call from Linda ***
[12/1/2010 9:21:07 PM] Bob Deloyd: can't hear you
[12/1/2010 9:21:14 PM] Linda : i don;t have mic
[12/1/2010 9:21:30 PM] Bob Deloyd: oh :)
[12/1/2010 9:21:44 PM] Bob Deloyd: My video is down :(
[12/1/2010 9:21:50 PM] *** Linda sent photo 2.JPG ***
oh so i can;t see you?
[12/1/2010 9:24:25 PM] Bob Deloyd: that's right - I have another computer that has video
[12/1/2010 9:24:34 PM] Bob Deloyd: Very pretty girl
[12/1/2010 9:24:49 PM] Linda : thanks
[12/1/2010 9:25:02 PM] Linda : thanks for ur compliment
[12/1/2010 9:25:07 PM] Bob Deloyd: I find it hard to believe that you can't find anyone to love and to be loved
[12/1/2010 9:25:11 PM] Linda : i think you can let me see you on ur another computer
[12/1/2010 9:25:43 PM] Bob Deloyd: Maybe next time we chat
[12/1/2010 9:26:05 PM] Linda : oh wow.. i can see you now
[12/1/2010 9:26:12 PM] Linda : i can see ur pic
[12/1/2010 9:26:46 PM] Bob Deloyd: okay
[12/1/2010 9:27:38 PM] Linda : you are such a nice man to and i am surprise you haven;t find anyone to love and to be loved
[12/1/2010 9:28:22 PM] Bob Deloyd: Are all girls as beautiful as you in Ghana?
[12/1/2010 9:29:01 PM] Linda : Yes they are most beautiful than me
[12/1/2010 9:29:48 PM] Bob Deloyd: I can't believe that
[12/1/2010 9:30:13 PM] Linda : why :)
[12/1/2010 9:30:22 PM] Bob Deloyd: You should find nice young guy and live happy ever after!
[12/1/2010 9:31:49 PM] Linda : why do you say that?
[12/1/2010 9:32:46 PM] Bob Deloyd: Why not :)
[12/1/2010 9:33:27 PM] Linda : is nott young guy who will make me happy but anyone who love is pure could make me happy then... i hope u understand
[12/1/2010 9:35:14 PM] Bob Deloyd: I'm not sure
[12/1/2010 9:35:40 PM] Bob Deloyd: you look like Gina Torres!
[12/1/2010 9:35:54 PM] Linda : Who;s Gina Torres
[12/1/2010 9:38:31 PM] Linda : she is in USA?
[12/1/2010 9:38:47 PM] Bob Deloyd: yes she is an actress
[12/1/2010 9:39:07 PM] Bob Deloyd: you look just like her!
[12/1/2010 9:39:15 PM] Bob Deloyd: Twins!
[12/1/2010 9:41:15 PM] Linda : hahaha... i never knew i have a twin sister in usa
[12/1/2010 9:41:24 PM] Linda : and why am i in Ghana :)
[12/1/2010 9:41:43 PM] Bob Deloyd: you can be a star :)
[12/1/2010 9:43:33 PM] Linda : :) it would be great but i dont like to be a star to be popular
[12/1/2010 9:44:04 PM] Bob Deloyd: I think you are
[12/1/2010 9:46:29 PM] Linda : i am not
[12/1/2010 9:47:23 PM] Bob Deloyd: Oh yes you are!!!! I have to go now but I'll chat with you later. Good luck finding mr right :)
[12/1/2010 9:49:20 PM] Linda : ok..... i will chat with you later then
[12/1/2010 9:49:27 PM | Edited 9:49:30 PM] Linda : nice meeting you Bob :)
[12/1/2010 9:49:56 PM] Bob Deloyd: yes nice meeting you too lovely Linda :)
[12/1/2010 9:50:22 PM] Linda : thanks
[12/1/2010 9:50:27 PM] Linda : bye for now
[12/1/2010 9:50:47 PM] Bob Deloyd: bye

I shared this later with Kelly and we had quite a laugh. Kelly agreed with me that the picture Linda sent was a dead ringer for Gina Torres :)
I did my stretches, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 02- I did my stretches and ran two miles.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 32 to 63 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 14 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 66. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph. Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 42. Calm wind.
I did some chores around the house and answered some mail that’s been sitting on my desk for a spell; almost forgotten to write a check out for my property taxes, yikes! Not that we get a lot out of the government except a lot of crap on how they can’t get enough of our hard earned money and they cut spending for the poor to give away to their rich friends on Wall Street; makes me kinda sick thinking about it.
I got caught up on some of my astronomy readings. I’m really way behind on my studies.
I went for my evening walk and took a picture of a Sun Dog, pretty dang cool!
I did some needed webwork for the rest of the night.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 03- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 40 to 66 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 12 percent, cloudy skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 62. Light southeast wind. Saturday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 38. North wind at 6 mph becoming west.
I watered all the plants and did some gardening.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
I’m still way behind with my studies. I did read a bunch of astronomy though.
Ginger called to tell me she found a book I may like and that she’ll get it to me somehow. I believe she said the author is Lee Child. Ginger said that she’s doing fine but still healing after her surgery. Yesterday she took the kids to the theater to see this movie called “MegaMind”; the kids enjoyed the movie but Ginger fell asleep. Actually I watched several of the trailers and it seemed pretty good :)
I went for my evening walk. I saw the bunny that lives in my yard and he didn’t run away this time; just ignored me, and I was able to get a few pictures of him. Usually when he sees me he scurries away really fast; except for that time with the snake, when the bunny and other critters stayed out in the open behind me.
I haven’t been able to get a hold of Kelly today and I'm a little bit worried. I think she may have gone to Bakersfield with Andrew to see her Doctor. I’ll try calling her tomorrow.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 04- I did my stretches.
I went over to Kelly’s house around 11am and she still wasn’t home. I fed all her critters; they were mighty happy to see me. Kelly and Andrew showed up a while later. Andrew had been helping Kelly get some personal things together for the last two days, so there wasn’t any reason for me to worry about her.
I stopped by Stoney’s house to take another look at the garage roof and check to see if Stoney has any Henry’s Roofing Sealer; he did. So all I need to bring is the roll roofing, nails and stuff like that.
I went for my evening walk.
I watched a new episode of “Fringe” where Olivia finally makes it back to our side.
I felt kind of tired and went to bed at 11pm. That’s mighty early for me!


Sunday 05- I did my stretches and yoga, and ran two miles.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 38 to 62 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 12 percent, cloudy skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 63. Northwest wind around 6 mph. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 41. Northwest wind between 6 and 8 mph.
I talked to Kelly for a spell. Andrew brought her some little space heaters so she isn’t freezing when she goes to another room. He also fixed the water heater that’s been running up her electric bill. Andrew is trying to be a good landlord.
I decided that I’d better go on over to Stoney’s to fix the garage roof before it rains one of these days. I got the roofing nails, tools, and roll roofing and headed on over. It took me all of three hours to get it all done. The hardest part was lifting the roll roofing onto my shoulder and carrying it up the ladder to the roof; mighty heavy! Well it don’t look none too pretty but it will do. To clean up I used Vaseline to get the Henry’s tar stuff off my hands; something I learned from my surfing days when we’d get beach tar on our feet.
I called Denny when I got back to let him know that the roof is done and he was very appreciative; these folks are like family to me :)
Shiela called and we chatted for over an hour about stuff going on in Tucson; I’m still a little concerned for Audrey and her situation with John. But these are things I don’t write about here.
I decided to practice my guitar early. I surprised myself and came up with the last two verses for my song “Why”! Now the song is just about finished and I only need to tweak this and that and it’s done (well maybe come up with a better name).
I did my stretches, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 06- I did my stretches; burned out from yesterday’s fixing of the garage roof.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 42 to 64 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 18 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 65. North northwest wind between 3 and 7 mph. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 39. Light west northwest wind.
I wrote my column for the Hi-Desert Star Newspaper and sent it in.
It was a beautiful day outside and I got bored. So I took the Harley out for a ride. I had to mail my property taxes anyways. I stopped to picked up my mail and then headed to Joshua Tree Library to see if they had anything in the for sale section worth reading; they didn’t. As I was getting on my bike I noticed a mail carrier emptying out the mailbox. I handed them my tax envelope, this saved me a trip to the post office. I then went to Stater Bros in Yucca Valley to pick me and Kelly up some fried chicken; she’s been on edge lately if ya know what I mean. I walked on over to the Dollar Store and bought some Christmas cards that I’d be needing soon. Stopped at Home Depot to return an electric timer that wasn’t timing; would gain an hour a day. I was running low on yeast for my oatmeal and got some at Joshua Tree Health Foods where I was served by lovely Linda. Finally got to Kelly’s, she wasn’t ready to receive visitors, so I dropped off her half of the fried chicken and got the hell out of there. I talked to her for a long spell later in the evening when she was feeling better.
I recorded a new song called “City Lights” using the lousy mic on my Netbook. The song still needs some work here and there and I really do have to get a real microphone. Click on the link and let me know what ya think :)
I did my stretches, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 07- I did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 39 to 68 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 28 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 67. Light and variable wind. Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 42. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
It was another nice day outside so I just kinda kicked back sitting on my bench out in the front yard and meditated on a bunch of stuff. I went my evening walk and just enjoyed the sunlight. It was a very pleasant day :)
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 08- I did my stretches and yoga, ran a mile, and lifted dumbbells.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 42 to 67 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 26 percent, clear skies; just a beautiful day!
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 69. West northwest wind around 5 mph. Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 46. West northwest wind between 5 and 8 mph.
I went over to say goodbye to one of Kelly’s cats who is dying; so sad poor kitty :(
I then went over to visit my friend Ron Dehart and to reinstall a couple of handholds that someone hadn’t installed correctly; one of them broke as he was using it to get out of bed and he was knocked out for a few hours, dang that must have hurt! We sat around yakking about old girlfriends and stuff until the Sun set over the mountains to the west.
I called and jawed with my friend Ms Kula about life in general. She liked my new song “City Lights” I posted last Monday.
I spent the rest of the evening doing some webwork and watched a new episode of “Warehouse 13” on Hulu.com
I did my stretches and went for a night run (haven’t been on one of those in a few weeks), practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 09- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 46 to 75 degrees, nice breeze, humidity around 31 percent, clear skies; another beautiful day!
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Sunny, with a high near 68. Northwest wind between 5 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 47. Northwest wind around 9 mph.
I spent all day going through paperwork cleaning it up trying to find addresses so I can start my Christmas cards. Hell it’s the only time of the year that I get to practice my penmanship. Anyhow I finally got everything together and got the whole mess of cards done and stamped late into the night. In the middle of all that I found the time to water my plants, take my evening walk, and make spaghetti for dinner, yum!
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 10- I did my stretches and yoga, ran two miles, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 45 to 71 degrees, nice breeze, and humidity around 39 percent, clear skies until about 2pm then cloudy and cold.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 71. North northwest wind between 8 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 45. Northwest wind around 8 mph.
I did all the stuff I set out to do today, yea for me :)
I fixed a computer for Tim so he can use it to edit notes for our community’s Board meetings.
Updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and send out the Newsletter.
I rode the electric bike and stopped off at Stoney’s to take a shower and checkup on the garage roof I repaired.
I went for my evening walk with my camera but didn’t really find anything worth wild to shoot.
Messed around on my computer; mslindaxx the online predator/scammer finally asked for money and I deleted them off my Skype contacts. I waited ten days for mslindaxx to ask. Well it gave me something to do for a while :)
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 11- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 44 to 72 degrees, nice breeze, and humidity around 39 percent, clear skies until about 2pm then cloudy and cold.
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 74. North northwest wind between 5 and 7 mph. Sunday Night: Clear, with a low around 46. West northwest wind between 3 and 5 mph.
Brian and Naomi came for a visit and we stood around jawing while their two sweet daughters built castles and fortresses out of rocks, sand, and twigs. I really admire them their family life and the love they show for each other.
Kelly needed a ride to Stater Bros. in Twentynine because the place where she gets it messed up her order and wouldn’t deliver it, so I drove the Harley over to pick her up. We stopped first for gas and then over to Rite Aid to get her prescripts. Our friend Alexander was standing outside with his grocery cart decked out with American flags. He must have missed his meds because he was very animated and we decided to leave him in his ranting.
Then on to Staters where Kelly bought a 10lb bag of cat food, 5lbs of sugar, French bread, and all kinds of other stuff; we got fried chicken too! I kept asking her how she was going to carry all this while she shopped and bought more. “I’ll get it all to fit”, she said. We got it all out to the bike and I told her to go on and start packing it while I went to the head. I got back about 10 minutes later to see her trying to stuff the 10lbs of cat food into her backpack. I helped her and was surprised that we finally got it in the pack and zipped up.
We had at first started out driving with me carrying a pack on my back but it didn’t work, so Kelly had to hold both packs and hang on to me at the same time; I knew she bought too much but she don’t listen and I don’t want to press. We made it to her house okay; I think her arms were stretched out too much by the weight of the two packs but she’d never admit to that. We put everything away and fed the hungry cats. And then we sat in her car eating our chicken. I don’t think I’ve ever carried that much stuff on a bike of mine before and hope to never again!
I got home to watch a new episode of “Fringe” where this guy has his heart removed but is still alive afterwards; spooky!
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 12- I did my stretches and yoga, ran a mile, and lifted dumbbells.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 46 to 76 degrees, nice breeze, and humidity around 31 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 71. West northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 45. East southeast wind around 6 mph becoming west southwest.
I called up family and friends throughout the day.
I finished up on the computer for Tim.
I watered the plants.
I went for my evening walk.
I talked to Kelly for most of the rest of the night on Skype.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 13- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 45 to 72 degrees, nice breeze, and humidity around 36 percent, mostly clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 71. Calm wind becoming southwest between 4 and 7 mph. Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 49. West southwest wind between 3 and 7 mph.
I woke up today to find that access to my Gmail account was blocked until I changed my password! I spent much of the day doing the "Change your Password Two Step" because my user name and password, along with 1.2 million others, on Gawker has been hacked. I signed up for Lifehacker many years ago and didn’t know Lifehacker was part of Gawker until I got this email last night from “team hint” (probably the hackers) informing me of such and that my info was out there on Pirate Bay for the whole world to see! Last night I changed my Lifehacker info and thought I was done with the mess.
My problem wasn't the password but my user ID which I use on many accounts and the bad folks kept trying to log into my accounts multiple times; had to prove to Google just who I was (by phone!) before they'd unblock my account. This is my problem: if there are many attempts to log into an account the site will block access.
I went to the Gawker website to have a look-see and it appeared to be something like the National Enquirer; something I'd never visit, sign up or leave a password for.
I did find that Gawker Media is an American online media company, which I found interesting.
Now we, Lifehackers/Gawkers, all know how our Government feels to have its secret info out for the entire world to see.
I went for my evening walk to blow off some steam; such a nice day :)
I went to our community board meeting at 7pm hauling the desktop computer and monitor for Tim to use as secretary of the board. I met him in the parking lot there and put it all in his car; now my part is done in the matter. The meeting started on time. Mary Helen gave the treasury report which included a Year in Review Report for 2010. Here are my meeting notes: 49 adults and 3 children came to December’s First Saturday Breakfast. Bingo been having between 15-20 folks each week.101 folks showed up for the USDA Food Distribution. A discussion for raising the cost of the breakfast to $5 from $4.50 didn’t go anywhere. Daniel and Marcie will clean out all the nonworking electric items from the Treasure Room. So far11 families signed up for our Christmas Basket. Only 60 members have renewed their membership; 125 had by this time last year. Mary Helen and Steve are trying (in separate ways) to find a lower insurance policy for the center; right now it’s $3250.00 a year. Our Edison bill of $3005.00 for the year is still too high and we are having Edison audit our building. It was a productive meeting.
I went outside about 9:30 to see if there was any sign of the Geminid Meteor Shower. I wasn’t expecting much because of the Moon being 57 percent full would kind of washout the meteors, but when I first looked up I saw a green streamer cross the sky, wow! I sat for a short spell and saw several more! I went back inside to complete this journal and I’m going to make some coffee and stay up into the wee hours to watch the sky show.

Tuesday 14- I did my stretches and ran two miles.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 49 to 71 degrees, nice breeze, and humidity around 33 percent, mostly clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 62. West wind between 7 and 13 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph. Wednesday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 41. West wind around 8 mph.
I went back outside last night at 12:15am and watched the Moon set behind the mountains to the west with my binoculars; just love doing that! Then it was time for me to do some serious Geminid Meteor Shower watching. They seemed to come in bunches of five our more and I counted around 110 or more an hour! Lots of them green streamers zipping across the sky. Sometimes the big ones seemed to break and split apart as they fell; I’ve never seen that before. I got to sleep a little after 3am. What a dang good shower this turned out to be and the one time I didn't put in in the newspaper because I thought it wouldn't be that good because of the Moon being at first quarter.
After my exercising and taking care of a few things around the house I rode my electric bike over to Stoney’s to check on the place. Then I went on over to Roger Smith’s to visit for a short spell. He has his garden in the back and was showing me his new garden bed when he noticed that the turnips were ready to be pulled and gave me a couple of them.
I went for my evening walk just before the Sun went down.
I wrote my column for the Hi-Desert Star Newspaper and sent it in.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 15- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 41 to 62 degrees, nice breeze, and humidity around 43 percent, mostly cloudy skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: A 20 percent chance of rain before 10am. Partly sunny, with a high near 58. North northwest wind between 10 and 18 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Thursday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 39. West northwest wind between 7 and 9 mph.
I am going to make this a short post because I’m tired as hell. What made me this way? I went to town shopping with Kelly, that’s what. We finally got out and on the road at 1pm and didn’t get back to my house until 7:30pm where we offloaded my groceries and had coffee. Then we went to her house to drop off her groceries and I stayed there until 11:30pm; I am beat, we both were, but we had a grand time :)
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 16- I did my stretches. Because the ground was wet I didn’t go for a run, but I wanted to.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 39 to 58 degrees, calm wind, and humidity around 61 percent, mostly cloudy skies with rain during the very early hours of the night.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: A 40 percent chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 52. South southwest wind between 3 and 9 mph. Friday Night: A 20 percent chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 45. South southwest wind between 8 and 13 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph.” As long as it’s clear on Monday night’s Lunar Eclipse!
I did my Latin studies, yea! About time I restarted on my studies and get cracking!
I did webwork throughout the day and was trying to figure out a problem on an online friend’s computer; had something to do with the way BIOS looks for a bootable drive and how Vista configures the drives afterwards. It was fun for me and I believe the other person to get into our tech mood!
I went for my evening walk. The air was nice and fresh, the ground had dried some, and it turned into a wonderful day with the cloud formations overhead creating a kind of artwork gallery of nature’s rugged beauty.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 17- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 45 to 52 degrees, calm wind, and humidity around 49 percent, mostly cloudy skies with rain.
My neighbor Kelly called and asked if I’d go down to her new doctor in Palm Desert with her. It was her first time going down the hill in that area and I went along for the ride acting as navigator. It rained on our way down. We arrived about 1:30pm and didn’t get out of there until almost 6pm. One good thing I’ll say about the doctor’s office was that they had coffee, cookies, and hamburgers for the patients; I had two cheeseburgers and lots of cookies while I was waiting for Kelly :)
We stopped at an AMPM gas station to get coffee for the trip home. There was tape all around the gas pump area and a woman mopping and spraying it down. I asked her what happened. “No gas”, she replied. I asked again this time asking if there was a spill. “No Gas”, she said again. Okay she doesn’t speak English so I’ll ask inside. We got our coffee and the counter girl smiled as we approached the checkout counter and I pointed at the pumps outside and asked her if there was there a spill. “No gas” was the lady’s response. It rained on our way back to 29 Palms.
We got back to 29 and went to Rite Aid to get her prescription filled and had to wait until 8:30pm to pick it up, so we went to Del Taco to eat and waste some time. We noticed the artwork on the walls of Dell Taco; lovely paintings of desert scenery with adobe buildings in dazzling colors. It reminded me of the art deco of the thirties. But they were all painted in the late eighties by S. Morath.
As 8:30 rolled around we picked up her prescription and headed back towards home. I told Kelly that it was 13 miles to my house from Stater Bros. She told me that Andrew said it was 8 miles to her house she rents from him. So we checked the mileage and it was 11 miles to her house and 13 to mine; Andrew was off by a few miles.
We stopped off at her place so she could feed her critters and then went to my house to drop me off and have a cup of coffee and chat for a spell.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, but I couldn’t post it to the web because the internet connection was down, and called it a night.

Saturday 18- I did my stretches.
I still couldn’t get online. I called Matt; we went through the regular stuff to get it working but no luck. He said he was just going out the door on his way to his Aunt’s but he’d drop by. I told him go on to his Aunt’s, that I needed a vacation from the internet anyways; family is more important. He came by anyways, I knew he would, and I told him he has 10min to get it working and then he has to go to his Aunt’s. He couldn’t get it going and said he’d be back tomorrow. I started reading a new book called “Velocity” by Alan Jacobson. I read throughout that dark and gloomy day where it has been threatening to rain but hasn’t.

Sunday 19- I did my stretches; too much drizzle and rain here and there to do anything.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 45 to 52 degrees, calm wind, and humidity around 49 percent, mostly cloudy skies with rain.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: A 50 percent chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 57. South southwest wind between 5 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Monday Night: Rain likely. Cloudy, with a low around 46. South southwest wind between 7 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
It doesn’t look too good for Monday night’s Lunar Eclipse, dang!
I now have the internet back. I left the antenna on and I believe that Matt flashed the card on the microprocessor that controls the antenna’s router. Cool, I got lots to get done!
First off I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
Called Kelly on Skype to say hi and chat for a short spell.
Called family and friends; I use the computer to do that too.
Went through all my emails; answered some, trashed others, and left some for later.
This guy that comes up here on the weekends and who I haven’t seen in five years decides to come by for a visit. He sat in his truck honking and honking until I came out. He’d been drinking. I didn’t want to let him on my property. The gate was locked and we talked through it. I do not like sloppy drunks around me. He finally talked his way in; I kinda felt rude just having him stand there on the other side in the cold wind. I was showing him what I’d done to the house and told him about the new solar panels I have up on the roof. He grabbed the ladder before I could stop him and started to climb up to have a look-see, and immediately fell backwards landing on my Aloe Vera plants and scraping his arm pretty badly. I got him into the house and put hydrogen peroxide on the scrapes. Then I got him to leave and go home with the hopes that he’ll never come back.
I spent the rest of the day and into the rainy night reading the book “Velocity” by Alan Jacobson.
I did my stretches and lifted dumbbells, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Nice to have my internet back :)

Monday 20- I did my stretches and lifted dumbbells; lots of rain outside.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 46 to 57 degrees, mostly calm wind, and humidity around 68 percent, cloudy skies with lots of rain.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Rain likely. Cloudy, with a high near 54. South wind between 3 and 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Tuesday Night: Rain. Low around 51. South wind between 9 and 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%.
Joel Levy called to tell me that the electric power went out a little after 8am, and he called later to say it came back up at 12:30pm.
Chris Jonas came and dropped off my groceries from the USDA food distribution and I gave him a donation check from Sandra Foyil to give to Mary Helen at Tuesday night Bingo.
The rain was coming down pretty dang good so I spent most of the day inside reading the book “Velocity” by Alan Jacobson, doing webwork, and talking to Kelly.
LUNAR ECLIPSE: 10:33pm rolled around and I went outside in the rain to see if there were any breaks in the cloud cover. I stood out there in the light rain for a long spell willing the clouds to part. All of a sudden the rain stopped and the clouds thinned enough where I saw the Moon half covered by the Earth’s shadow! I ran inside, grabbed my camera, and quickly took a picture, but didn’t have the chance to use the zoom before it disappeared behind the clouds, dang!
Did you know that it has been 372 years (December 21, 1638) since a Winter Solstice and a Total Lunar Eclipse coincided and we will have to wait around until 2094 for the next one!
At this moment the Moon is at total eclipse and it’s really dark outside. I keep getting up when I hear the rain stop and hurry to the front yard to see if I can see it but the clouds are too thick. I will keep doing this until I get a picture of the total eclipse or 12:53 when totality ends.
I went outside a dozen or more times hoping to see the blood red Moon. I’m tracking in lots of mud onto the floors inside my house. I even sat out there the last 20min of the totality but it wasn’t to be. 12:53 had come and gone, and then 1:30 rolled around when rain started coming down in torrents and I got soaked.
Am I disappointed? A little, but it was fun, I gave it my best shot. I guess I’ll just have to wait around until 2094 when the next Winter Solstice and a Total Lunar Eclipse coincide for another chance :) Anyways there will be a Total Lunar Eclipse in 2014 but just not on the Solstice.

Tuesday 21- I did my stretches and yoga, ran a mile, and lifted dumbbells and weights; finally got tired of loafing around.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 50 to 54 degrees, mostly calm winds, and humidity around 96 percent, cloudy skies with lots of rain and fog!
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm before 4pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 4pm. High near 55. South wind between 15 and 18 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Wednesday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers, mainly before 10pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 40. West southwest wind between 8 and 11 mph.
I spent the better part of the day trying to write my column for the newspaper and talking to folks who wanted to yak their fool heads off over the phone; I really didn’t mind too much but I didn’t finish my column until later in the evening.
Kelly came by around 5pm for coffee and a chat. We sat outside most of the time so she could smoke her cigarettes. She had better luck at seeing the eclipse than I did! She had to get a prescription filled at Rite Aid late last night and happened to see the start of the eclipse and decided to drive a little ways out of 29 where it was clear; she got to see the blood red (she said it looked orange) Moon of totality! I am really happy for her.
I spent the rest of the night finishing the book “Velocity” by Alan Jacobson; turned out to be a mighty fine book and a first-rate author!!!!
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 22- I did my stretches and lifted dumbbells.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 40 to 55 degrees, mostly calm winds, and humidity around 100 percent (never seen it at 100 percent), cloudy skies with rain.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Patchy fog before 10am. Otherwise, sunny, with a high near 55. Light north northwest wind. Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 37. Light northwest wind.
I’m going through some old files that I have stored in boxes seeing what I can throw away and what I need to keep.
I went for a walk down to the bottom of the hill where a lake has formed in the middle of the street. A friend of mine called it "Lake Bob"! I was taking a few pictures when Dana drove up and we yakked for a spell. He said that Karin’s weather station she runs in their back yard registered 2 inches of rain from the recent storm. Dang, that’s a lot of rain! Dana drove off and then another neighbor drove up. He (doesn't want his name mentioned) told me he got a job down the hill somewhere working at an Apple store. It’s only a temp job but he hopes it’ll go fulltime; takes him three hours a day to drive there and back, yikes!
I had a nice chat with Kelly and worked a few things out.
I started a new book called “Deadly Sanctuary” by Sylvia Nobel; looks to be a good one.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar and broke a string, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 23- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 37 to 58 degrees, mostly calm winds, and humidity around 66 percent, some clouds in the evening but mostly clear in the morning and afternoon.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Sunny, with a high near 60. Calm wind becoming east southeast around 6 mph. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 38. South wind at 5 mph becoming west.
I went over to Stoney’s to check to see if there was any water damage from leaks. I noticed that on the west wall in the kitchen and the dining room the carpet was damp. We’re going to replace or patch the roof on that side of the house this spring but I’ll still let Denny know about this and air out the house when the weather gets better to prevent any mold.
I went over to visit Andrew who is visiting Kelly for a spell. His dogs were glad to see me. I used to dog sit them when Andrew lived up here and he would have to go on trips; I’d feed them hot dogs.
Around 7pm I went outside to do a little stargazing. The night sky was clear of clouds and the air was still; good seeing!
I read a little of “Deadly Sanctuary” by Sylvia Nobel and fell asleep waking up at 11:45pm; just in time to write my journal.

Friday 24- I did my stretches and yoga, ran a mile, and lifted dumbbells.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 36 to 60 degrees, mostly calm winds, and humidity around 46 percent, clear sunny skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Christmas Day: Mostly sunny, with a high near 61. Calm wind becoming southeast between 5 and 8 mph. Saturday Night: A 30 percent chance of rain after 10pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 44. South wind 9 to 14 mph becoming northwest.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
The Honda 750 motorcycle I have sitting out in front of the house had fallen over a few days ago when the heavy rains undermined the rock that was supporting the kickstand that held the bike up. I figured it was a good time to put the bike back upright. It’s a dang heavy bike and I had to use a 2x4 as a lever to bring it up enough to kick a few cinder blocks underneath to where I could let go of the 2x4 and hoist the bike the rest of the way by hand.
I drove the Harley to my mail box to retrieve any last minute Christmas cards. It felt good to get out there and ride. The roads were still washed out in spots but easily passable.
I stopped over to visit my friend Ron Dehart on the way back. I played the new song I wrote and he liked it. We sat around and yakked for a spell till evening came.
I spent the rest of the night calling and being called wishing a Merry Christmas to all :)

Christmas- I did my stretches and yoga, and ran a mile.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 40 to 62 degrees, mostly calm winds, and humidity around 45 percent, with clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: A 30 percent chance of showers before 10am. Partly sunny, with a high near 54. West northwest wind between 9 and 14 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Sunday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 38. Northwest wind around 8 mph.
I spent the day kicking back. I called a few folks to wish them a Merry Christmas.
I read a few chapters of “Deadly Sanctuary” by Sylvia Nobel.
I did my stretches, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 26- I did my stretches, too dang windy and cold for anything else.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 37 to 52 degrees, WNW winds at 8 to 22 MPH, and humidity around 52 percent, with mostly hazy skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 56. North northwest wind between 13 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph. Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 38. Northwest wind between 6 and 13 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph.
Again, I spent the day kicking back and called a few friends.
I went for my evening walk but cut it short because of the wind.
I read a few more chapters of “Deadly Sanctuary” by Sylvia Nobel.
I watched a movie called “Stargate Continuum” (2008). I liked it! I had only seen the original “Stargate” (1994) when it first came out. My online friend Ami Ven will be mighty glad that I did; she writes these neat little stories about Stargate and now I’ll know a little something of the characters.
I wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 27- I did my stretches and yoga, ran a mile, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 38 to 54 degrees, NW winds at 6 to 17 MPH, and humidity around 41 percent, with clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 57. Northwest wind between 5 and 8 mph becoming calm. Tuesday Night: Rain likely after 4am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 42. South southwest wind around 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
I didn’t feel all that well today. My whole body seemed to ache and my muscles were tight.
I read a few more chapters of “Deadly Sanctuary” by Sylvia Nobel.
I watched a movie called “Stargate: The Ark of Truth” (2008). It was okay but the one I watched yesterday was better.
I still haven’t replaced my broken string on my guitar, did my stretches, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 28- I did my stretches and ran two miles.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 40 to 57 degrees, calm winds but starting to pick up around 11:30pm, humidity around 34 percent, with clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Showers likely, mainly before 10am. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 55. Windy, with a southwest wind between 30 and 36 mph, with gusts as high as 49 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 34. Windy, with a west wind around 31 mph, with gusts as high as 44 mph.
I felt much better today, even ran two miles.
I wrote my column for the Hi-Desert Star Newspaper and sent it out. Thought of the week: “There are those who walk this world that see only hate and deceit, they pollute the earth, pollute your mind, with their money and their greed.
There is hope for the world if you just brighten up your day, wear a smile, become alive, feel the happiness grow inside.
My friend Kula called telling me about her Christmas and asking me to come over for a visit with her and Tom soon. She said I would have their beach condo all to myself while I’m there. And believe me this sits right on the beach with a magnificent view up and down the California coast and out to Catalina Island!
I went for my evening walk. Looks like there are rain clouds off in the distance and coming our way.
I haven’t started the Harley for a few days and decided it was time to let her run for a spell.
My friend Terry called from Bristol Virginia! I haven’t talked to her in ages and we had a lot of catching up to do; 108 minutes worth.
Yapped with Kelly for a spell.
I replaced the broken string on my guitar, did my stretches, 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 34 to 55 degrees, SW-NW winds of 9 to 27 with gusts of over 50 MPH, humidity around 51 percent, with stratus clouds and rain.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 44. Breezy, with a northwest wind between 24 and 28 mph, with gusts as high as 39 mph. Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 27. West northwest wind between 17 and 20 mph becoming light. Winds could gust as high as 28 mph.
Kelly had asked me yesterday if I wouldn’t mind tagging along with her for a doctor’s appointment down the hill in Palm Desert. I said I wouldn’t mind at all and she picked me up at 11:30am.
Once we got over the hill and out of Yucca Valley, clouds began to form. There was rain with high winds all the way to Palm Desert. I was the navigator and I did a dang good job of getting us to the doctor’s office where we spent a few hours. We then had to make another trip across town to another doctor’s office where we spent a few more hours.
On our way back there was an accident on Hwy 62 going up the hill to Yucca Valley; it appeared to be two trucks that did battle on the wet road and both lost. We finally got back to my house around 7pm after making a quick stop at Von’s to pick up some fried chicken; dang good fried chicken there! Kelly stayed until 9pm. We sat outside in our usual spot by the camper in our chairs, drinking coffee, and looking at the stars as they came out from hiding in the clouds. We discussed a multitude of topics as the weather worsened.
I read a few more chapters of “Deadly Sanctuary” by Sylvia Nobel.
I did my stretches, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 31- I did my stretches.
You’ll notice that I didn’t write about Thursday because I fell to sleep at the computer last night, but Thursday was just too dang windy and cold that I just stayed inside cleaning and sweeping the floor, going through old files, and reading “Deadly Sanctuary” by Sylvia Nobel.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 26 to 42 degrees, NW winds of 7 to 12 MPH, humidity around 37 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “New Year's Day: Mostly sunny, with a high near 44. Southeast wind between 5 and 9 mph. Saturday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 27. East southeast wind around 6 mph becoming calm.
I really had a good sleep last night and slept till 11:30am this morning; must have been mighty tired to sleep all them hours.
I went for a little walk after I ate breakfast and then got back to cleaning the house.
I got a call from Frank and Mary’s son Matt telling me that they had a water tank and ladder stolen from their property and saw it on the property just up the street. I gave him a few numbers to call.
Kelly called about 2pm asking me to drop on by if I could. She is having MojaveWIFI connect up her internet later in the day. I said I would come on over. Besides I wanted to drop on over to Frank and Mary’s house and find out what was stolen from there.
I got to Frank’s house and talked to Matt and he pointed out the house where the stolen stuff was. I asked if he wanted me to go over there with him but he said that he already confronted the guy and he kinda denied everything. I told Matt that the guy was a known thief and had stolen from my friend Stoney and his son Jimmy, and was a worthless piece of garbage.
I got to Kelly’s and she was busy cleaning and mopping the floors; she didn’t want it to be a mess when the installation guy came over to hook up her internet. I dug a hole for her dead cat which we will bury tomorrow. The internet connection was hooked up in less than 45minutes and he was gone just after sunset. I stayed around yakking with Kelly and messing around on the internet watching these Japanese anime with her; kinda looked like cartoons to me.
I got home around 11pm just in time to finish off my “365 Starry Nights” astronomy book, do my stretches, and go for a midnight run! So at 10 minutes till midnight I, after putting on some long underwear and bundling up really good, went outside in the 25 degree cold and ran out the old year and ran in the new! I did this for the last few years now. I’d have to look back to see when first I started this. It was about a mile run and as I neared the top of the hill I saw fireworks going off and I knew it was the New Year :)
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
I wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday, November 01, 2010

November 2010

Welcome to the month of November- did my stretches and yoga, ran two miles, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 53 to 78 degrees, light breeze, humidity around 28 percent, mostly clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 82. North northwest wind around 6 mph. Tuesday Night: Clear, with a low around 54. North wind around 6 mph becoming calm.
I backed up the data on Mac’s HP desktop and then did a format of the hard drive and install of the OS. Then I downloaded most of the critical updates and Service Pack 3for Win XP. This all took about four hours mostly because the three restore disks had to create a new partition on the hard drive for the restore files and then copy them there before it would install the dang OS. I’ll try to finish it all up tomorrow.
I did my studies: Latin and pre-algebra. Latin=flashcards, Pre-algebra= read from the text.
I read aloud from the textbook “Astronomy Today” about Spectroscopic Parallax: a method to measure the distance of main sequence stars out to 10 thousand parsecs using a star’s spectra to determine luminosity. I want to learn more about Spectroscopic Parallax.
I went for my evening walk with my camera but didn’t find anything interesting to shoot.
I spent most of the rest of the night talking to Kelly. Like I said before; she sure can talk a lot. We had our webcams going and it was kind of cool seeing her and her cats and dogs lying on the bed. The first time I did the webcam was with Andrew a few months ago; this was even better :)
I did my stretches, finally re-stringed the guitar and did my practice, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 02- did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted dumbbells.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 54 to 82 degrees, light breeze, humidity around 28 percent, mostly clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 84. West northwest wind between 5 and 8 mph becoming calm. Wednesday Night: Clear, with a low around 56. East southeast wind around 6 mph becoming calm.
I went back to work on Mac’s HP desktop and updated a bunch more critical updates and two hardware updates. When I rebooted Internet Explorer would open with an error message and die. Dang never had that happen before. Fortunately I had installed Firefox and I was able to download IE and re-installed it and all was well. I still have a few more updates to do on the OS and load up the new wifi dongle (had to use mine because of his dongle software needed service pack 3 that wasn’t present when I reloaded the OS) then I’m done with it.
Me and Kelly went for a ride on the Harley to Twentynine Palms. She needed to get cat food so it was an excuse to get out and ride. We ended up at Burger King over by Stater Bros. and ate hamburgers there; we weren’t very impressed with the food or the service. We finished eating and sat outside on the benches so Kelly could smoke and I drank my coffee. There was the guy with the American flags and boom box that we saw at Rite Aid a few weeks ago and we sat near him. He gets very animated singing these old 60s and 70s songs and is entertaining to watch. We even sang along with him on a few songs. His name is Alexander and he is a very nice man. If you’re a local to the area you’ve probably seen him. Kelly went to talk to this guy who had two little rat dogs like hers in his truck. I kept looking at the guy thinking he looks mighty familiar. It took me a while but it hit me; it was Raymond who lives two miles away from me and the truck he was driving was the one I sold him; my “Trusty Truck”! I asked him about his brother, who I helped setup his cell phone a couple of years back, Ray said that his brother had passed on over a year ago. I told him I was sad to hear that and was sorry for his loss.
On our way back home we stopped off at Mac’s house so I could introduce Mac to Kelly; Mac lives just down a ways and across the street from her. We jawed for a spell and checked out some sissy bars for the Harley so that Kelly won’t fall off the back. We finally got back to Kelly’s house just as the Sun was setting. She let her dogs out and handed the little rat dog to me who went berserk biting Kelly and pissing on me; I dropped that dang taco dog as fast as I could. After washing up, I brought the two chairs around front and we spent the next four hours or so outside yapping and stargazing. She made some Sumatra Coffee for us and I got quite a buzz off of it; actually I’m still buzzed as I write this. I think Kelly is a bad influence on me :)
I got back home and did my stretches, practice my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 03- did my stretches and yoga, ran a mile, and lifted weights.
To make a long story short; after I did some more updates and finished Mac’s desktop computer, I took the Harley over to his house at 4pm so him and me could work on it. He was drinking beer and I was drinking coffee. Believe it or not we got a lot done on the bike. Mac is a great story teller and I listened to tale after tale of his adventures on the road. Then towards the end of the night he asked me to tell him a story. I was trying to think of a good one to tell when he played this CD with the song “They're coming to take me away, ha-haaa!!” and I lost all concentration; if you ever listened to the lyrics you’d understand. So I never did get my story together. One funny thing I noticed earlier was that the gas valve was turned and I asked Mac if he did it. He said you should always turn the gas off when the bike sits, and I showed him that he had set it to reserve :) If you remember my story of when I was on the road to Tucson and thought I ran out of gas you’ll understand why it was kind of amusing to me. I got back home around 1am and was going to write my journal and the other stuff that I do when Kelly called at 1:30 and we yakked until 3:30 in the morning. I finally got to sleep around 4am. I have some of the best friends a person could ever want!


Thursday 04- I did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted dumbbells.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 58 to 85 degrees, light breeze, humidity around 22 percent, hazy skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday...Mostly sunny. Highs 80 to 82 in yucca valley...around 86 in twentynine palms. Light wind becoming southeast up to 10 mph in the afternoon. Friday Night. Mostly clear. Lows 51 to 57. South wind around 10 mph in the evening becoming light.
I’m going to lend Mac one of my laptops and spent a few hours getting one ready for him so he can pick it up tomorrow.
Kelly came over around 2pm and we rode the Harley to Yucca Valley and did some shopping. First we stopped off at the tobacco place so she could stock up on the stuff. Then over to the feed store on Hwy 62 where she put in an order for critter food to be delivered to her house. Stopped off at WalMart to pick up a few things; Kelly got her steel tipped riding boots and two sweaters for us to wear on our way back home because the day grew later and colder than we thought. We got hungry and ate at the Chinese food joint just down from Staters; about the same as the other one in Twentynine. We mailed off her rent check at the post office and headed on back home in the dark. Then we sat outside stargazing drinking coffee and yapping until 11pm. I just don’t know where the time goes when I’m with that girl!
I did my stretches, practice my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 05- I did my stretches and yoga, ran a mile, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 56 to 83 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 20 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 78. Calm wind becoming south southeast between 7 and 10 mph. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 51. Southwest wind between 10 and 13 mph becoming light.
I gathered Mac’s desktop, the laptop I’m lending him, and headed to his house where we spent an hour or so going through a few items of importance about the laptop’s functions.
I got back home and updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
I watered the plants and went for my evening walk.
I watched the new episode of “Fringe” on Hulu.com
I yakked with Kelly for a long, long spell on Skype.
I found this neat website for physics and astronomy videos called “Sixty Symbols” and watched a few of them: Planck’s Constant, Einstein’s Relativity, and Hubble’s constant.
I did my stretches and went for a night run, practice my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 06- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 56 to 79 degrees, winds out of the SE at 10 to 15 MPH, humidity around 23 percent, mostly cloudy skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 71. Northwest wind between 3 and 6 mph. Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 50. South southwest wind between 6 and 10 mph.
I mostly called Family and Friends. I did finally get out there to wash down and detail the Harley and she now looks very nice indeed!
I spent a lot of time inside cleaning this and that making sure everything is clean just in the far off remote chance I’d have visitors; nobody came :(
So today is my kickback day and I’m just going to rest up and enjoy.
I did get caught up on most of my emails that I’ve been neglecting. I feel better for it.
I did my stretches, practice my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 07-
I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 51 to 72 degrees, winds out of the SE at 10 to 15 MPH, humidity around 29 percent, mostly cloudy skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: Partly sunny, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 66. Breezy, with a west northwest wind between 14 and 22 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 42. West northwest wind between 8 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.
I was getting a few computer items done when Joan called telling me that she really misses Win98 desktop jungle theme; has bongos playing, birds chirping, and a big scary black cat growling. I went online and did a search for it and there it was (and runs on WIN7 too) here it is if ya want it: Jungle Pack starts right up on Win7 with no problems at all (even Joan was able to do it!). So now Joan says she owes me big time. Joan is really a happy camper now.
I went for my evening walk. Kind of an overcast day so I didn’t shoot any pictures.
Kelly called to say she has her boots on and is ready to hit the road on the Harley and for me to picked her up on my way there to Stater Bros. We first stopped at the dollar store so Kelly could get a few knickknacks for her apartment. Next we went to Staters to get coffee, sugar, and cream. We were going to get chicken but decided against it in favor of Chinese again after arguing for a bit. Plus the chicken didn’t look all that good. We both love the Chinese at that particular shop by the Stater Bros market in Twentynine Palms. Donna was our waitress and did a very wonderful job of serving us.
We finally got back home and I put “Avatar” (2010) on the new 17” laptop and hooked up my best external speakers. With all Kelly’s smoke brakes we finally finished watching it at 2am. We were both really tired; how I managed writing this journal is beyond me.
I did my stretches, practice 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, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 48 to 67 degrees, winds out of the W at 8 to 20 MPH, humidity around 35 percent, cloudy skies here and there.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 62. Northwest wind around 11 mph. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 40. West wind around 6 mph becoming calm.
I had a message on the answering machine when I got back from running. It was Mac saying he needed my help getting connected to the internet. I called but his wife said he was away at the park or something. So I did other stuff and called him back a few hours later. After I got him to really listen to what I was telling him we finally got it all hooked up and running just fine.
My mind has been preoccupied trying to figure out “things” and this has left me in a reflection mode kinda way. So I spent most of my day reflecting :)
One of my best friends called to tell me that he will be laid off in a few weeks; that was really upsetting to hear. The good news is he might already have another job lined up!
My dear friend Kula called to tell me that she is doing fine and the new Realtor she and Tom found looks to be internet savvy and will hopefully bring more prospective buyers around.
I spent the rest of the night talking to Kelly on the phone; yakety yak.
I did my stretches, practice my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 09- I did my stretches and yoga, ran two miles, and lifted dumbbells.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 40 to 66 degrees, winds out of the NW at 8 MPH, humidity around 22 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 66. West wind between 10 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. Wednesday Night: Clear, with a low around 41. Northwest wind between 15 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.
I wrote my column for the Hi-Desert Star Newspaper and sent it in; that took a few hours off my day.
I went over to Stoney’s to fix a problem with the water pressure but first I had to figure out what the problem was. Eventually I found that the water flow meter was malfunctioning and reset the dang thing so it’ll let water pass through. Now there is good pressure throughout the house except in the kitchen; I’ll check that one out another day.
I went for my evening walk. I need to find new lectures to listen to on my walks.
Found this interesting news item about a mysterious missile that was fired 35 miles off the coast of California by Los Angeles. I watched the video and yes it was a missile!
I did some webwork until 9pm when I went outside and waited for Chris to drive by on his way home from Bingo. We sat for a spell in his truck yakking. Only 14 folks showed up for bingo. He said the “crowd” from Yucca Valley didn’t show. After he left I went for a night run.
I spent the rest of the night jawing with Kelly on the phone. She pretended to be upset at me because I ate pancakes and eggs tonight without her.
I did my stretches, practice my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 10- I did my stretches, ran two miles, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 38 to 65 degrees, winds out of the W at 8 to 22 MPH, humidity around 20 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 66. West wind between 10 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. Wednesday Night: Clear, with a low around 41. Northwest wind between 15 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.
I can’t say I did much of anything but thinking. And when I get in this kind of thinking mode that’s about all I do. I can tell ya that I’m working on a couple of new songs and trying to figure out the lyrics.
I went for my evening walk thinking.
I did my stretches and went for an evening run, practice my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Since I don’t have most to write about here is Kelly’s letter of yesterday about my violating Pancake Sunday:

Department of Pancake Sunday

VIOLATION


Dear Mr. Deloyd,

It's come to the attention of the board members of the Department of Pancake Sunday, via direct communication on Skype that you have violated the natural order, and routine of the good people of the Copper Mountain Mesa community. The board noticed that you missed Time Change Pancake Sunday, a minor violation, yet we never imagined you would do such a selfish act.
You openly and clearly stated that you were violating Pancake Sunday by partaking in this tradition on a TUESDAY. Your actions forced the good people of Copper Mountain Mesa to have to follow suit. As you are clearly aware, that due to its decadent, sweet, rich goodness it is irresistible, your reckless actions cause others to have to deviate from their natural Tuesday routine, to partake in Pancake Sunday which is clearly NOT Sunday. We have yet to understand the full extent of your actions upon our beautiful community.

Due to the severity of your actions, the board called a special meeting to discuss your punishment, normally the repercussions would be banishment, yet due to the fact that you ARE one of the PS founding fathers, and have never before openly violated our sacred tradition. It is therefor decided that you will be held responsible for any and all damages, either or emotional, physically, psychologically and financially, due to your reckless abandonment of the natural order of routines and traditions. Mr. Deloyd not only have you violated this sacred tradition, you also chose to do this right after the time change, which you are aware is a time of great confusion, your timing is clearly an act of emotional terrorism, further adding to the list of violations.

Mr. Deloyd, these are SEROUS charges, your actions have effected and touched the lives of those of us in the good community of Copper Mountain Mesa, including myself, my Tuesday attire is now ruined because of syrup, my kitchen is in a state of disarray, dirty pots, and soiled new utensils, which were intended for use on Pancake Sunday ONLY, my poor animals are psychologically mixed up. If that was NOT enough you lead astray one of our newest most innocent member of our tradition during her acclimation stage. I personally saw this, yet due to the severity of charges already against you, and our history of being friends I kept this information to myself, but, I have decided to make a requirement that I feel is acceptable and very fair considering the severity of your actions. First, upon EVERY Pancake Sunday, emphasis on the day Sunday, you will invite the new innocent member you tainted, over and uphold the tradition to the letter, as to ensure the honor, tradition community cohesion and all the other wonderful things that is Pancake Sunday.

All of us at the Department of Pancake Sunday, along with the community of Copper Mountain Mesa hope to put this incident behind us and get back to our normal routine, we hope that this was a isolated event one which will never occurs again.

James Butterworth
(Mrs. Butterworth's great grandson)

Thursday 11- I did my stretches and yoga, ran a mile, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 41 to 66 degrees, winds out of the NNW at 13 to 28 MPH, humidity around 27 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Sunny, with a high near 64. North northwest wind around 9 mph. Friday Night: Clear, with a low around 41. West northwest wind between 6 and 8 mph.
I went over to Stoney’s to do my laundry and fix the kitchen sink. After going under the sink to check it out and deciding it wasn’t the connections there, I then took the whole dang faucet apart, pounded it with a hammer, stuck a wire into it, and got it to finally work. Now it’s putting out lots of water.
I went for my evening walk; a short one because of the cold wind.
I started reading a new book called “Billy Boyle: A World War II Mystery” (2006) by James R. Benn. Looks to be a good read! I’ve read a few chapters already and the words flow very nicely along until you realize a few hours have gone by.
I think I’m coming down with a cold or something, dang! Just starting to feel it and been coughing a little bit.
I did my stretches, practice my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 12- I am sick. I’m sicker than a four letter word! My body aches all over, my lungs are congested, and I’m running a fever.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 41 to 64 degrees, winds out of the NNW at 6 to 12 MPH, humidity around 24 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 67. North northwest wind between 8 and 14 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Saturday Night: Clear, with a low around 44. Northwest wind around 10 mph.
I might be sick but I have stuff to do. I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
I went over to Stoney’s to take some measurements of the bathtub and kitchen table for Denny.
I watered my plants but that wasn’t hard at all. After that I just stayed in the house updating drivers on the HP MiniNote.
Joel Levy came by with donuts! I can tell you that a donut can really cheer a guy up when he’s sick.
Thank God I got a good book to read because I read a bunch of chapters of “Billy Boyle: A World War II Mystery” by James R. Benn.
Kelly called and we chatted for a little bit. She’s not feeling very well either with a bad headache.
I hope I’m feeling better tomorrow so I can go to the Copper Mountain Mesa General Membership Meeting. This is where we elect members to the board who will reign over our little realm. If I’m still sick I ain’t going.
I didn’t do my stretches, I didn’t practice my guitar, but I did write to my journal and post it to the web, and then called it a night.

Saturday 13- I still sick but feeling a bit better.
I went to the Copper Mountain Mesa General Membership Meeting. We elect members to the board who will reign over our little realm. First we had the board meeting: 50 folks showed up for our first Saturday Breakfast ( no power outage this time); Bingo dinners brought in $88; Bingo 12 to 20 showing up during the month; Thrift Room $60;USDA 92 bags of food distributed. Mary Helen told us that the cutoff date for the Christmas basket will be Dec 18. It was sad to hear that Colleen Schweitzer had passed on. There will be a memorial for her at the community center next weekend. I will find out the time and date later but I believe Carol said it was next Saturday from 1 to 5pm. Colleen was one hell of a woman!
After the board meeting there was a barbecue luncheon with hamburgers, hot dogs and all the fixings. Then the General Membership Meeting was called to order by President Katherine Quinn. There was a vote taken and the old board members were re-elected along with new board member Daniel Gray. The board appointed Tim Atzei who will join the board as secretary and voting member.
I got home to spend the rest of the day/night in bed reading “Billy Boyle: A World War II Mystery” by James R. Benn. The book was so good that I couldn’t put it down and finished it that night.

Sunday 14- I’m feeling much better; I think it’s just the common cold (I hope).
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 43 to 69 degrees, winds out of the NNW at 7 to 13 MPH, humidity around 26 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 70. North northwest wind between 10 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 47. West northwest wind around 8 mph.
I didn’t wake up till 1pm because I was up after 4am finishing the book “Billy Boyle” by James R. Benn; dang great book!!!!! I just stayed inside the house in bed trying to shake this cold; might as well try to enjoy it by not doing anything but rest.
Joel Levy came by later in the evening with jar of instant coffee, one half of a meatball sandwich, and some honey; he said the honey would help my throat.
I yapped at Kelly for a spell until her internet connection failed; we were talking about Wind Scorpions and other strange desert critters.
I wrote both this and Saturday’s journal and posted it early to the web.
Now I’ll find something else to read to keep my mind occupied.

Monday 15- I’m still sick.
I’m mostly reading and staying in bed in and out of sleep. I haven’t felt like doing much on the internet.
Chris (he's sick too) came by with my bag of groceries from the USDA food distribution. He said there were 102 folks showing up there.
I read and finished “Hostile Intent” by Michael Walsh. I guess it was an okay read. There were some exciting parts, but also some situations that I found hard to believe. He may have gone a little too much into the backgrounds of his characters and their motives. The flow of words didn’t carry well here and there and I had to go back to clarify. I also caught a few spelling errors that got by the editors but no big deal. All in all it kept me entertained!!
Talked to a few folks: Kelly, Mac, Ron Dehart, Joel Levy, and someone else but I forget who.

Tuesday 16- I’m still sick. I’m sick of being sick!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 47 to 74 degrees, calm, humidity around 27 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 72. North northwest wind between 7 and 9 mph. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 42. South southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
It was warm today so I opened up all the windows of the house and let it air out for the day. I even sprayed disinfectant on everything to get rid of them germs. I washed my hair, shaved and basically cleaned up. Kinda felt better afterwards :)
Started reading another book called “The Secret Warriors: A Men at War Novel” by WEB Griffin. So far it seems to be a decent read.
I guess when I’m sick all I want to do is read. It’s kinda nice to be away from the web, exercising, and other responsibilities for a little spell :)
I spent time yakking with Kelly. She’s having problems getting a FedEx package delivered to her house.
I found this old (expired in 2003) package of Theraflu. I put hot water in a cup and mixed it in. I fell asleep at 9pm after drinking it and awoke at around 1am feeling better. If I go to the store tomorrow I’m going to get me more, but current, bunches of that stuff!!!

Wednesday 17- I’m still feeling ill.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 42 to 72 degrees, NW winds 6 to 9 MPH, humidity around 24 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 73. Calm wind becoming south southeast around 6 mph. Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 44. South southwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm.
I wrote my column for the Hi-Desert Star Newspaper and sent it in. Thought of the week: something lost never goes missing.
I read more of “The Secret Warriors: A Men at War Novel” by WEB Griffin. I’m waiting for some action to begin.
I went to Rite Aid with Kelly so she could pick up her prescriptions and I got my packets of Theraflu. We stopped off at Stater Bros. to get some supplies and fried chicken. Then we went to Circle K for coffee and ate the chicken in the car.
I got back home and went to bed.

Thursday 18- I’m a bit better. It seems that it going away and then wham it is back. As I write this journal I feel that tomorrow I’ll be over the worst of it and that Saturday I’ll be able to go to the functions that I was invited to.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 44 to 73 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 34 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 70. Southwest wind between 6 and 13 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph. Friday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 46. Southwest wind between 11 and 18 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.
I kept going to sleep off and on all night and finally fell into a deep sleep around 3am or so and woke up at 7am, dang. I made breakfast and had a cup of coffee and around 9am I fell back to sleep until 1pm. I decided that the medicine I bought last night wasn’t working and went to town to get some other flu and cold stuff. While I was at WalMart I remembered that Kelly doesn’t have a heater in the house to keep her warm so I decided to buy an electric heating blanket for her. That way it’ll keep her electric bill down because space heaters require a lot of watts and the electric blankets don’t; she’s on a fixed income.
Kelly called on Skype and we yakked (mostly her) for well over an hour. It kinda cracks me up that she’s in bed with all her dogs and cats climbing in and out of the blankets keeping her warm while we yak the night away. She was mighty happy to hear about the blanket, too.
I’m going to wrap up this post, take some cold medicine, read a few chapters of “The Secret Warriors: A Men at War Novel” by WEB Griffin. Then try to go to bed. Tomorrow I want to begin my stretches again.

Friday 19- I’m still feeling ill.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 46 to 73 degrees, SW winds at 11 to 26 MPH, humidity around 24 percent, cloudy skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: A 20 percent chance of rain after 10am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 62. Breezy, with a west southwest wind 7 to 10 mph increasing to between 20 and 23 mph. Winds could gust as high as 32 mph. Saturday Night: A slight chance of rain before 10pm, then a slight chance of rain after 4am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 40. South southwest wind between 11 and 21 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
I had to call and cancel a dinner party I was invited to this Saturday. I’m really sad I can’t go but they understood and that made me feel better.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
I spent the better part of the day working on a laptop setting it up with a printer and scanner.
It’s supposed to rain tomorrow so I got the house ready just in case.
Kelly came by and spent the evening keeping me company. She created the perfect barbecue chicken that was as good as KFC or better! We had it for dinner along with baked potatoes and stuffing.
I wish my posts could be more interesting but I just don’t feel up to writing right now. I want to be out riding my Harley!

Saturday 20- I did my stretches! I’m feeling a little bit better.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 40 to 62 degrees, SW winds at 11 to 26 with gusts up to 45 MPH, humidity around 44 percent, cloudy skies with some sprinkles.
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: A 20 percent chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 57. Southwest wind between 17 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 36. Southwest wind around 8 mph.
I woke up at 1pm still not feeling that well. Colleen’s Memorial started at 1pm and I was late. So I quickly threw on my clothes and headed on down to the Community Center to take some pictures. There was a whole bunch of cars in the parking lot as I drove up; must have been some eighty people there to say their goodbyes to Colleen. I stayed there for about an hour taking pictures. Colleen would have been happy that all these wonderful folks showed up. I wish I could have stayed longer and visited for a spell but had to leave early because I wasn’t feeling well.
On the way back home I decided to stop off at Mike and Stevie’s dinner party to take a few pictures; they had invited me for dinner today but I called and canceled yesterday because of sickness. I only stayed for half an hour. There were two turkeys being cut up but I still left; I ate oatmeal when I finally got home.
I read more of “The Secret Warriors: A Men at War Novel” by WEB Griffin and that put me to sleep for a few hours.
I awoke feeling pretty good, well better than I have been feeling for the past week!
I watched two new episodes of “Fringe”.
I yakked with Kelly for a spell.
I did my stretches; practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and then called it a night.

Sunday 21- I did my stretches. Hopefully in a day or two I can go for a run.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 40 to 62 degrees, SW winds at 8 to 16 with gusts up to 30 MPH, humidity around 46 percent, a few clouds here and there.
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: A 20 percent chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 57. Southwest wind between 17 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 36. Southwest wind around 8 mph.
I called family and friends throughout the day to let them know I’m still around.
Denny, Judy, and Dustin are staying over at Stoney’s for a spell so I drove over for a short visit. They beat the rain up north on the coast and made it here last night. Dustin has gotten big in the last few years. He must be six foot and he’s only fifteen!
Kelly came by around 8pm for Pancake Sunday! She said she wanted three pancakes and three eggs and that’s what I made for her. I only had two of each. She got mighty full and had to lay down for a spell. While she was resting her fat butt I rolled about twenty cigarettes for her. She can’t afford to buy them by the carton and ran out of tubes with filters. I hand roll them with used filters, yuck! I still have the technique down pretty dang well and had them rolled in no time. I don’t smoke but I’m not a Smoke Nazi. I don’t let nobody smoke in my house though. She left around 11:30 but not before we went outside to check out the full Moon and Orion rising out of the east.
I did my stretches; I practice my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and then called it a night.

Monday 22- I did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights. It feels mighty nice to get out and exercise again. I want to thank those of you that sent me such nice “get well” messages!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 36 to 57 degrees, SW winds at 6 to 12 with gusts up to 20 MPH, humidity around 40 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 54. West southwest wind between 6 and 14 mph. Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 31. West wind between 15 and 21 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph.
Kelly is down sick in bed with the flu despite the darn flu shots she got last month. She is quite happy that I got her the electric blanket to keep her warm during her illness.
Kelly called needing some coffee so I dropped her some off on my way over to Stoney’s. I spent the rest of the day with Denny, Judy, and their grandson Dustin. We sat around jawing and watching TV. I haven’t watched TV for some time now and was reminded by the commercials why I don’t miss it. Denny cooked up a whole bunch of chicken fried steaks along with mashed potatoes and gravy, YUM!
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 23- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 33 to 58 degrees, SW winds at 6 to 14 with gusts up to 29 MPH, humidity around 40 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 50. Northwest wind between 9 and 14 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 29. Northwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.
I wrote my column for the Hi-Desert Star Newspaper and sent it in. I had a hard time coming up with anything but I finally managed to put something together.
I read a chapter of “The Secret Warriors: A Men at War Novel” by WEB Griffin.
Kelly is still sick and called asking me to pick her up a few things from the store. I put on my long johns, got all wrapped up, and jumped on the Harley on my way to Twentynine Palms. Dang cold on the bike! I got all the stuff plus three cans of chicken soup (I heard it was good for a cold) and headed on back and dropped everything off at her house while all her little critters barked and meowed at me.
Then I stopped off at Stoney’s to show off my Harley to Denny. Roger Smith came driving up in his old dilapidated VW Bug; if you follow him you may pick up some antique parts that have rattled off. It’s the first time he’s seen the Harley but he said that he heard it go by sometime ago.
I got home and coughed my dang fool head off. I think I’ll just stay inside the next few days and take it easy!
Ginger called to say howdy and let me know that everything is okay except that she has caught a cold; dang everyone’s getting this cold! She is going out tonight to get an electric heater because the one she has isn’t working very well.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 24- I did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted dumbbells.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 34 to 51 degrees, SW winds at 7 to 10 MPH, humidity around 50 percent, some clouds.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thanksgiving Day...Sunny. Highs 46 to 51. North wind 10 to 15 mph. Thursday Night...Clear. Lows around 33 in yucca valley...around 27 in twentynine palms. Northwest wind less than 10 mph.
I mostly stayed inside and kicked back. I didn’t feel like going anywhere or seeing anyone. I’m kind of in a reflective mood today; like awakening from a long dream that seemed to be so real but only turned out to be just a delusional fantasy.
I read several chapters of “The Secret Warriors: A Men at War Novel” by WEB Griffin.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thanksgiving Day- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 27 to 49 degrees, light breeze, humidity around 11 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Sunny, with a high near 54. Light and variable wind. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 29. South southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
The cement pond in my front yard has frozen!
I skipped breakfast because I knew that I’d be eating bunches of food today! I got to the community center 1pm for our Annual Member Recognition Thanksgiving Pot Luck Party. There must have been around fifty hungry folks showing up. This is the fourth Thanksgiving the center has held it. As usual Mary Helen and Steve Tuttle, Ray and Ila Foyil were busy at work with other helpers preparing the feast. Steve and Ray cooked the turkeys the night before. There were all kinds of cakes, pies, and candied yams, and other yummy foods that folks brought. Everyone had full plates of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing; and a lot of folks went back for seconds and thirds! I could only stay for an hour or so because I had to make some calls to Family.
At 3:30 I then headed on over to Stoney’s where Denny, Judy, Dustin, Jimmy, Clarice, Johnny, and Mary all came up from out of town to celebrate Thanksgiving together; I was also invited. I thought they’d have ham, but instead this year they decided on turkey with all the trimmings! I got pretty much stuffed with bird. Dustin, 15 years old and a football player, can really put the food away! It was really great to see everyone and to tell tales of Stoney Stonebraker.
I got home and fell asleep for a spell and then read a few chapters of “The Secret Warriors: A Men at War Novel” by WEB Griffin.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 26- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 29 to 54, light breeze, humidity around 14 percent, clear skies.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
I got over to Stoney’s where Jimmy and the bunch where setting up targets to shoot our 22 rifles and handguns at. We spent all day shooting this and that, mostly rocks and stuff we set on these steel beams. Jimmy is a shooting instructor for the 4H Club in the Los Angeles area and was showing Dustin and Dustin’s cousin Stephanie the correct and proper procedure of handling and firing a weapon. We shot over 500 rounds of 22s and a few dozen 9mm until the Sun set into the western sky. We all had a “blast” :)
I got home and Kelly called; we yakked for over three hours and that’s why I didn’t post this until Saturday.

Saturday 27- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 29 to 59 degrees, light breeze, humidity around 16 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 52. Breezy, with a west northwest wind between 22 and 28 mph, with gusts as high as 39 mph. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 32. Northwest wind between 14 and 17 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.
At 12:30pm I dropped over to Stoney’s and said goodbye to everyone. It was really nice to see Stoney’s Family come out and stay awhile during Thanksgiving just like when Stoney was still around.
I arrived at Mike and Stevie Villarreal’s Thanksgiving dinner party at around 2:30. There was somewhere close to fifty folks or more attending. It’s a good thing that the Villarreals have a large home that can accommodate seating for that many people. I was also sent on a mission by Kelly to get her some turkey since she had missed Thanksgiving because of sickness. I asked Stevie if I could take a plate for Kelly and she said that would be just fine. I talked to many people and took many pictures of the party. After I ate, Mat’s daughter Lauren asked if I could bring my guitar inside from the truck and play a few songs. There was this other guitar player who had brought his electric guitar and amp and accompanied me while I played. I guess we sounded okay; at least they clapped when we were done.
I left the dinner party a little after 6pm and went over to Kelly’s with her turkey dinner; she was mighty happy for that. We yakked for almost three hours; dang I just don’t know where the time goes when we’re together. She has all these darn cats that crawl around on ya and I’ve been plucking cat hairs off of me since I left. Pulled a few out of my mouth, too!
I wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 28- I did my stretches; too dang cold and windy to go for my run.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 32 to 53 degrees, winds out of the WNW at 22 to 28 with gusts to 45 MPH, humidity around 16 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 48. North northwest wind between 16 and 18 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 29. Northwest wind between 7 and 11 mph.
I cleaned my house today and talked to friends, family, and Kelly throughout the day.
I read and finally finished the book “The Secret Warriors: A Men at War Novel” by WEB Griffin; it turned out to be a decent read!!!!
I did my stretches, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 29- I did my stretches and yoga, ran a mile, and lifted weights; still too dang cold and windy to go for my run but I did it anyways!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 27 to 48 degrees, winds out of the NW at 16 to 22 with gusts to 34 MPH, humidity around 11 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Partly sunny, with a high near 51. North northwest wind between 3 and 7 mph. Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 31. West northwest wind between 3 and 7 mph.
I cleaned out the wood stove of ash and chopped a wheelbarrow full of wood.
Kelly told me that there is going to be a Lunar Eclipse on Dec. 20- I looked up the times for our area (Pacific Standard Time) and they are: Partial Eclipse begins at 10:33pm- Total Eclipse begins at 11:41pm- Total Eclipse ends at 12:53am- Partial Eclipse ends at 2:01am. If the weather is fair and sky is clear I will be sure to be out there braving the cold to watch this event. Last time when the Lunar Eclipse went total the wind died and coyotes’ began to howl, spooky!
I found that the collection of pennies that I’ve been collecting since I was a kid are worth a little over three dollars; made me feel like a real loser! I’ll have to think about what this all means.
I did my stretches, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 30- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 22 to 50 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 20 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 60. Light north northwest wind. Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 37. Calm wind becoming west northwest around 5 mph.
I slept for over ten and a half hours! It was mighty cold and my bed was mighty warm so I stayed in bed and had a lot of strange and wonderful dreams.
I needed to go to the store and I called Kelly to see if she wanted something; chicken she said. So I rode the Harley to Staters in Twentynine bought my supplies, got gas at Arco, and headed to Kelly’s. She has a bunch of dogs and cats so we decided to eat our chicken inside her car. She is almost over her flu now and is feeling much better. I didn’t get back home till almost 10pm.
I did my stretches, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, started writing my column for the Hi-Desert Star Newspaper, and called it a night.
Goodbye to the month of November; you been a happy but cold month, and I was sick for almost two weeks going through ya.