December 2019

December 2019

Sunday 01- still feeling sick.

Monday 02- I felt better today and did my stretches and lifted weights. Just not up to jogging yet.
I drove to the Twentynine Palms post office to pick up a package of two old Nokia 800n handheld computers. I filled up the car and two five-gallon containers with gas and then went to Staters to pick up some supplies.

Tuesday 03- bad weather...

Wednesday 04- rained all day long. I did my stretches. It was a perfect time to sit down and write, address, and stamp all my Christmas cards. I finished all twenty of them and just need to send them out.

Thursday 05- very cloudy with intermittent showers.
I did my stretches, core trainer, and jogged a mile with Cassie. I wanted to exercise on the weight bench but everything was soaked after the rains.
I did my studies: astronomy and biology and listened to Astronomy Cast Lecture # 523.


Friday 06- the Sun came out today and charged up my batteries.
I did my stretches, core trainer, weight bench, and jogged a mile with Cassie.
I did my studies: astronomy and biology and listened to Astronomy Cast Lecture # 524.


Saturday 07-
I did my stretches, core trainer, weight bench, and jogged a mile with Cassie.
I did my studies: astronomy and biology and listened to Astronomy Cast Lecture # 525.

Sunday 08- overcast with sprinkles. I woke up in the middle of the night with a splitting headache. It kinda scared me. I think it's due to these pills to reduce my cholesterol that I ain't going to take anymore. It still hurts right now but not as bad. I'm just going to take it easy today.

Monday 09- sunny with a few clouds here and there. I did my stretches and took Cassie for a short walk. I’m still feeling kinda weird and I guess I’ll feel this way until those cholesterol pills are washed out of my system.
I worked on and spent most of the day publishing my two books on Amazon, but ran into some problems with uploading one of the covers for the paperbacks; the Ebooks went okay though. I sent the template to Bonnie my cover artist.

Tuesday 10- sunny. I did my stretches and took Cassie for a walk.
I then drove Kelly down to the county office in Joshua Tree to get land she purchased registered into her name. This is the second time I had to drive her there. The last time she was told that the seller who lives in Canada has to go to the US Embassy to get it notarized. We went shopping after that. We stopped by Burger King so I could wish my friend and fellow poet Giovanni a happy birthday and Kelly and I ate burgers and fries. I finally mailed off all those Christmas Cards I had ready to send to friends and family.
Found out the other paperback cover wasn’t working but I’ll wait on this and send it to Bonnie later.

Wednesday 11- sunny. I did my stretches, core trainer, exercised on the weight bench, and jogged a mile with Cassie.
Astronomy Cast Ep. 526 about The Event Horizon Telescope and imaging M87 black hole event horizon.
I went to the Community Center for a meeting to discuss disaster preparedness. Two members from the Joshua Tree Water District were there along with 15 or so from our community. We had some great discussions and also formed ideas on how to proceed in creating some sort of an organization to implement these ideas. We decided to have a meeting sometime in January.

Thursday 12- windy. I did my stretches and took Cassie for a mile jog.
I worked on books.

Friday 13- very windy! I did my stretches and took Cassie for a walk.
I drove my truck to Home Depot to get 16 2x4x8s to finish my patio. Stopped off at Walmart to get some supplies. I fueled up the truck and two 5 gallon gas cans. I stopped at Bar Lumber to fill up two 5 gallon propane tanks. I’m all fueled up and ready for the winter.
Still working on the books.

Saturday 14- even windier! I did my stretches and took Cassie for a walk.
Worked on the books.

Sunday 15- windy and cold. I did my stretches and took Cassie for a walk.
I drove down to Space Cowboy Books for the poetry reading. I didn’t read but took pictures and put them online to share. It was way too cold for these old bones and I left early.

Monday 16- still cold and windy. I did my stretches, core trainer, weight bench, and took Cassie for a mile jog.
I attended our 2019 Morongo Basin CERT Christmas Party. I took a bunch of pictures. Elections were held, awards handed out, gifts were exchanged, and everyone got mighty stuffed on all the great food that was waiting on the serving tables for us to devour.

Tuesday 17- cold; my cement pond froze.
I did my stretches and jogged a mile with Cassie.
Bonny and me finally got the cover right on my new book, Upon Ashen Roads: Betrayal and Resurrection” and I published it!

Wednesday 18- colder! I did my stretches, core trainer, exercised on the weight bench, and jogged a mile with Cassie.

Thursday 19- not as cold. I did my stretches and jogged a mile with Cassie.

Friday 20- warmer today. I did my stretches, core trainer, exercised on the weight bench, and jogged a mile with Cassie. Later we went on a bike/run.
I cut up a bunch of firewood.
I made rice and went to the Community Center's Christmas Potluck (not to be confused with our monthly potluck). Many people there I didn’t know who attend our First Saturday Breakfast that ends about the time I wake up.

Saturday 21 and Sunday 22- I did my stretches and took Cassie for a walk... that’s all I can remember... except working on the short stories.

Monday 23- Rained all day long but it didn’t create Lake Lucille. I did some stretches and exercised with the 20lbs dumbbells.
Worked on the short stories I decided to include in “Azure Sea of Dreams”.

Tuesday 24- sunny cold. I did my stretches, core trainer, weight bench, and took Cassie for a jog.

Wednesday 25-  cloudy cold. I knew it was going to rain tomorrow so I did my stretches, core trainer, weight bench, and took Cassie for a jog.
Worked on the short stories.

Thursday 26- SNOW! Rained all day. Lake Lucille at the bottom of my street, cars getting stuck, Leaks in the house. I did my stretches and stayed mostly inside. Solar panels covered in snow and not charging batteries, so I had to cut down on using electrical.

Friday 27- sunny, windy, and cold. I did my stretches and took Cassie for a mile jog.
I worked on the roof fixing the leak. It was where I had drilled to put in a little solar panel to run a fan during summer. I also cleaned the corrosion off my trucks battery terminals because it didn’t start. Got it started and filled up a tire that has a slow leak. I finished formatting “Azure Sea of Dreams” and loaded it up, but again the cover has to be redone because I added 30 or 50 thousand words. I really want to get back to storytelling instead of all this editing and formatting.

Saturday 28- started out sunny and then came the wind and the cold.
I cooked up my pot of rice and headed to potluck, except my truck wouldn’t start. I needed to pick up Chris because she has the keys to the center and people would be left outside waiting. I couldn’t take my little car because it wouldn’t make it past Lake Lucille that forms on Winters Rd. when it rains, making it very difficult for small vehicles to get through. So, I tapped the battery terminals with a hammer and that did the trick and I was on my way.
Earlier, Dyan Caroll sent me a text:
“I’m doing a pot roast so big I have to use 2 crockpots. Honey buttered carrots, Brussel sprouts in a cream sauce, brown and serve rolls and a strawberry shortcake trifle. Cal and Tina are coming too. My sister is making the mashed potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese and a beautiful cookie platter. I’m hungry I haven’t ate yet today and don’t plan on it till dinner.”
There was lots of yummy food, good friends, and nice conversations with these wonderful folks who I consider Family.

Sunday 29- cloudy, windy and cold. I did my stretches and took Cassie for a mile jog.
I really did a thorough cleaning job on the truck’s battery terminals. It took me an hour, but it starts up the engine every time!

Monday 30- cold and cloudy. I did my stretches and took Cassie for a walk. I didn’t have much time because my guest Kelly needed a ride to the car rental place in Yucca Valley so she can visit her doctor in Palm Springs. I did some shopping at WalMart. The place was crowded and so were the streets getting there.

Tuesday 31- 58/46F cloudy. I did my stretches, lifted weight, and took Cassie for a walk. My Guest needed me to pick her up from the car rental place after she drops it off. I am preparing for my run out of 2019 and run into 2020 a new decade, a new beginning, and many bright promises if we let love and tranquility into our hearts.


**************** December 2019 POEMS ************

Instead of New Year's resolutions for 2020, I'm making me a road map of detours, roadblocks, dead ends, and toll booths to hopefully avoid. <3 p="">~RD

If I was a younger man I’d shower her with chocolates, flowers, and gifts galore. I’d whisper sweet tender words into her ear to warm her loins and sway her love towards me. But alas, I am an older man, lost youth be to me, I can only gaze upon her sweet cherry lips, gypsy lace velvet hips, with raven hair so dark it’ll suck up my soul......  from across the foggy sea banks from afar on yonder shore I ponder my fate.
~RD

Push! I want to become relevant in a world gone non relevant. Or how to stay relevant in a non-relevant world... :)

If we all decided to leave Earth and left it to all the animals to evolve on their own... would they miss us?
~RD

There’s something is missing, a great loss from deep within and you can't put your finger on it.
I know, it can happen later, maybe a month or many years later those feelings I spoke comes roaring back... Sometimes I wake in the morning and there's that sense of loss; it could be from a dog, cats, or people in my life I had enjoyed their presence but have passed on and my longing for them persists into the years.
~RD

Poems are like this: We reflect our souls into them, and they shine right back at us in words of rhyme and reason to comfort us in times of despair, to enlighten us in times of doubt, and to give us joy in these times of uncertainty. Poems are our way of expressing the inexpressible…
~RD

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