Saturday 01 Greetings to the month of March - did my stretches, ran two miles, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
The Weather: Temps of around 49 to 71, winds out of the W to SW at 6-18 with gusts up to 40 MPH, humidity around 31 percent, altostratus clouds. Around 2:30pm a downdraft of cold air formed a thick dust cloud that traveled on the ground from the west and blanketed our area. Tomorrow we should have winds of 27-30 with gusts up to 41MPH, and a high of 65 degrees according to the National Weather Service.
Started calling my Family on my new cell phone but couldn’t get a holed of any of them, so I made a few calls to my friends. Called Tom and Aki and chatted for a while. Called Dale and talked about solar panels. Called Kula to talk about her new computer she is getting from Dell.
Went outside and was cleaning my yard when I finally got a holed of my sister Donna in Florida and talked to her. She was painting a picture of a Chinese Junk and I was raking my yard of debris. After I hung up with Donna the wind stated blowing and a big dust cloud started coming my way so I secured everything I could and got the Fat Cat and myself inside just as it hit. It has been real windy ever since, so much so, that I didn’t go on my evening walk.
Called my Mom and Dad and talked with the for a long while not having to worry about minutes left on my phone. Then I called Paula who was on the computer playing some kind of game online with friends; they all decided to be gnomes and run around a town naked. Ok, I guess it must be fun being a gnome and have the freedom to do that. Called my friend Larry Carlock and spent over an hour talking about old times. For me, that was a lot of fun! So that’s how I spent the better part of the day. Using my new cell phone and calling the folks I care about! I would have used up all my minutes on my old To-Go prepaid phone on just the calls I‘ve made today. So the $30 some odd dollars a month I am paying for this new service is really worth it to me.
Spent the rest of the evening reading the last two chapters of the astronomy book “Asimov on Astronomy” about why is the night dark (because of the expanding universe), and exploding galaxies, but the book was written before they found black holes in the centers of galaxies and the new explanations put forth for why this happens. I have a new book ready to read called “Black Holes and Time Warps” by Kip S. Thorne and will start it tomorrow night. It was a pleasure reading Isaac Asimov’s book on astronomy: he had a lot of insight on the theories of the day, gave some interesting speculations and computational facts that I‘ve never read elsewhere. Did my stretches, lifted weights, too windy to go for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Sunday 02- it’s my day off from exercising so I just did my stretches. Good thing too because the wind was really blowing.
The Weather: Temps of around 49 to 71, winds out of the N to NW at 14-26 with gusts up to 40-50 MPH, humidity around 26 percent, I don’t remember seeing any clouds. Tomorrow we should have N to NW winds of 4-7 MPH becoming calm, with a high near 61 degrees according to the National Weather Service.
So windy outside I just worked cleaning my computer room. Called Joan and touched base with her. Took apart an old nonfunctioning keyboard and got it working. Then I removed a disk drive from my old trusty Dell Dimension 733r desktop, replaced it with one that has Windows ME, and then went online to update its anti-virus and Firefox. Called my sister Shiela and yapped with her while I worked on another computer, this one was a Dell Dimension 2350 and just needed a dusting off right now. Call Lynn and Dave for a nice chat. The computer room is starting to look clean and much more together now.
Went on over to Stoney’s for dinner. We had hamburger steaks with fried potatoes and gravy. Mighty good, but I did control myself and didn’t eat as much as I usually do. Then we watched this guy on the Travel Channel who goes around to restaurants in different countries ingesting bizarre cuisine that I’d never would consider eating: fresh bull’s balls, meal worms, blood sausage, and barnacles were only the beginning of the stuff he ate. YUCK! This guys motto is “If it looks good eat it” and Stoney gets a kick out of watching him do just that. I departed before the next segment started that had him eating roaches!
Way too windy to go on my evening walk so I called my brother Kevin to yap at him for a while. He hasn’t tried out the Jacuzzi or the swimming pool at the trailer park where he now resides and still doesn’t know where the weight room is. Those would be the first things I would try out.
Called my dear friend Terry who lives in Virginia. We jawed for over two hours getting caught up on what is happening in our lives. Her whole Family is down with the flu and she is trying to avoid them.
Andrew called with a computer problem: the system doesn’t recognize the hard drive. I told him to replace the ribbon cable to the drive with a new one. It worked!
Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night. The winds have finally died down.
Monday 03- did my stretches, ran two miles, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
The Weather: Temps of around 45 to 65, calm winds, humidity around 23 percent, a few high cirrus clouds. Tomorrow we should have a high near 68 degrees, calm winds during the day becoming NW at 10-13 MPH during the night, according to the National Weather Service.
Such a fine day I spent it outside working in my yard cleaning it up, watering plants, and replanting a desert willow. Andrew called asking to borrow my Dell desktop computer. The one he was working on still has troubles and he needed to get a report done. He came by to pick it up and will bring it back later on tonight.
Jimmy (Stoney’s Son) called to tell me that he won an auction on Ebay for a fishing pole and had saved a bunch of money. He is planning another fishing trip in a few months and is really excited, but then again, he is always excited about going fishing.
Andrew came by with my computer and he went on an evening walk with me. He told me that there was a for sale sign on the corner above me for 2.5 acres, so we went to check it out and called the number on the sign. The guy had already sold it for $35,000 and only had the sign up for two days! We then drove by Ron M. home to have a look at a trailer and jawed with him for a spell. He is trying to clean his yard of all the junk he had acquired (sound familiar?).
Called Stoney to yak at him. I told him that Jimmy called me about his new fishing pole. Stoney told me a story about when he took Jimmy fishing back in the 60s. Jimmy was too young to bait the hook himself, so Stoney had to do that for him. Before Stoney could get his pole in the water, Jimmy would already have caught a fish and Stoney would have to stop fishing, unhook the fish and re-bait the hook every time. At the end of the day Jimmy had caught five fish to Stoney’s two. And Jimmy said to his Father, “Now who is the better fisherman?” I thought that was kind of funny.
Started reading “Black Holes and Time Warps” by Kip Thorne. It said that a black hole with ten solar masses is compressed into a singularity smaller than a atomic nucleus! Well if I read it correctly, I find that very interesting, but I will have to double check on that one, and if true it will give me pause for thought about a number of ideas that I have going around in my head.
Watched “Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles” on Fox, a two hour show. I think it is the end of the season for the show, I hope not, but if it is I’ll be excited when it starts up again. Did my stretches, lifted weights, went for my nightly run. While on my run at 10:15pm I saw two police cars with their search light scanning the desert one mile SW of my home. They ended up at a house and were still there when I came back for my run. I wonder what that was all about! Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Tuesday 04- did my stretches, ran two miles, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
The Weather: Temps of around 44 to 69, calm winds, humidity around 22 percent, high cirrus clouds covering most of the sky.
According to the National Weather Service "tomorrow should be sunny, a high near 64 degrees, with NW winds from 6-10 MPH.
Joel came by for me to drive him to pick up his other car that he left at the community center this morning so he could catch a bus to pick up the car he had in a shop in Yucca the other day. He brought me three donuts too! Afterwards I got cracking on my column for the newspaper and finally finished it after a few hours and sent it in. Then I went outside and cleaned up the east side of my house so I could build a patio there. I have all the aluminum for the roof and had it laid out on the ground to measure so I’ll know how much lumber I need for the structure. I’ve been wanting to build this for some time now to keep the Sun off the house during the summer and keep the house cool.
Went for my evening walk. Then I had some work I needed to do online and spent my time there until a new show on Fox came on called “New Amsterdam”. Seems like it may be a good one! About this guy who never dies and works in NYC as a homicide detective.
Did my stretches, lifted weights, went for my nightly run. Then practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night. Boy am I tired tonight!
Wednesday 05- real windy outside so I just did my stretches.
The Weather: Temps of around 43 to 62, winds N to NW at 9-16 MPH with gusts to 25, humidity around 24 percent, I didn‘t see any clouds.
According to the National Weather Service "tomorrow should be sunny, a high near 62 degrees, with N to NW winds from 10-13 MPH and gusts up to 18."
I finally got around to updating the calendar on the website to March. I went through my collecting of bills, wrote checks out for them, and got them ready to mail. I write phone numbers on little scraps of paper and had accumulated a whole bunch of them over the past few months and I spent some time today typing them into my address book. There were some that just had phone numbers which I have no idea who they belong to, so I put them in the round file cabinet.
Called my friend Seimi to wish him a happy birthday, and sung it to him. Called Hope over at the retreat to remind her that this months dialup fee is due but got Ruth Denison instead. She told me that everyone was down with the flu there and would tell Hope that I called.
Joel dropped by with a friend’s computer that I said I’d have a look at, but told him it would be a few days before I can check it out; I usually charge between 25 to 40 bucks depending on what‘s wrong or how much they can afford. I’ve been known to do it for free for really low income folks. Joel also brought me a burrito!
Stoney called to say that he has barbecued some pork chops (well I’ll have to put that burrito in the fridge) and to invite Andrew over. While I was getting ready to go to Stoney’s Rita called three times dictating a message about WorldOrg she wanted me to email to George Bush and the UN. Then Patty called with a computer problem and I straitened that out for her. Patty’s Mom’s computer is acting up too and they may bring it over on Monday.
Got over to Stoney’s late but him and Andrew waited for me. The barbecued pork chops were tasty and we ate them all up. Then we sat around the kitchen table to jaw about this and that for quite a long time swapping stories. I had a good time there.
No evening walk because of the high winds, so I read some of the book on black holes until “Law and Order Criminal Intent” came on NBC. About a scuba diver that washed up on the beach and lost treasure from sunken ships of long ago. Then I went back to my book. Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, too windy for my nightly run. I was writing to my journal when Mike from Hermosa called to tell me he has sent the memory stick that he intended to send months ago and we both had forgotten about, posted my journal to the web, and called it a night.
Thursday 06- did my stretches, went for a quick run and bike ride, lifted weights.
The Weather: Temps of around 39 to 61, winds N to NW at 3-8 MPH, humidity around 21 percent, altostratus clouds forming by noon.
According to the National Weather Service "tomorrow should be sunny, a high near 66 degrees, with North winds around 5 MPH becoming calm."
Got myself together, jumped in the Gross Polluter to drive to town. Mailed my bills, and got gas at Star: $3.35 a gallon. Stopped at WalMart to get a few things and spoke to Ora who works there and lives in our community. She is doing well and misses everyone. I asked her to stop by at potluck one of these days, but she has to work on Saturdays. Told me to tell everyone hi. I then went to Stater Bros. to get some supplies
Headed on over to Home Depot where I picked up some 4x4” by 8’ posts for my new patio I’m building on the eastside of my home. They ran out of cement piers so I’ll have to get them at Barr Lumber in 29 Palms on another day. Loaded the posts on the top of the truck and headed home and was halfway there when I noticed that I didn’t have my backpack with me! Frantic, I don’t get frantic too often, I pushed the little truck as fast as she’d go, back to Home Depot. I found the guy who was collecting carts when I first was there, and he said that he had found it on a cart and took it inside to the service desk and gave it to the woman there. After hunting around we finally found it stuck way in the back of an office. I tried to offer the cart collector guy $20 for being honest but he declined it. My backpack is orange and so are all the carts there and I guess I just didn’t see it when I took the cart back (I was actually looking at a pretty gal at the time walking into the store). I have my new cell phone, money, and an odd sort of belongings in that pack!
I was glad to finally get home! Dana drove up when I arrived and we jawed for a while about the garden he and Karen are planting. And then I went for my evening walk and that mellowed me out some.
Went on the computer to complete the two classes I am taking online and finished them all up. Then I read some of the black hole book until “New Amsterdam” came on Fox. I think it’s a great show. I kind of feel like the lead guy who plays a 400 year old. He watches everything change around him; new buildings replace old, friends die, new technologies, new ideas and trends. I see these things change too, but I’m only fifty-six.
Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went on my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Friday 07- did my stretches, ran two miles, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
The Weather: Temps of around 41 to 72, calm winds, humidity around 22 percent, altostratus clouds forming by noon same as yesterday.
According to the National Weather Service "tomorrow should be mostly sunny, a high near 73 degrees, with NW winds around 9-21 MPH with gust up to 29."
Worked on Joel’s friend’s desktop, a HP Pavillion a1203w with a 1.8GHZ AMD Sempron processor and (2x256)512MEG RAM, it was barely able to load the OS. I was able to stop a bunch of programs from starting by MSCONFIG, and that speeded it up some, but not nearly as I would expect. I then ran Ccleaner which cleared out a bunch of junk, still slow. Ran Avast at boot and found twenty eight Trojans and infected files: it runs faster now! Still needs some tweaks but I will do them over the next few days, and I will also try to talk them into upgrading the Ram to a GIG or more.
Went to Barr Lumber to get the cement piers for my patio I am building, and while I was there I had my two 5 gallon propane tanks filled. Talked to one of the workers there and he said there were a few layoffs a few months ago (probably because of Home Depot’s opening) but business was picking up and they brought a few of the guys back. I’d sure would hate to see Barr go under; nice folks who work there.
Got home and unloaded the truck, hoping I didn’t strain anything from lifting those cement piers. Then I went for my evening walk. Called Stoney, who was in the process of dismantling his new $300 chair that had broke due to some bad welds. He called me later to say that he got it all back together and working after tearing it apart, and re-welding a faulty bracket. Called my brother Kevin and his house had finally cleared escrow and received his check! We were kind of worried about that because it was suppose to clear on the 29th.
Read some more of my black hole book; it’s getting a little involved now. Watched “Bones” on Fox about the body of a woman found on the beach in front of LAX airport. Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went on my nightly run. Then I watched “Numbers” on CBS about a rich gal who was kidnapped by a radical group of young environmentalists. I stayed on the tube to watch the news and was about to shut off the set when I clicked over to PBS. Charlie Rose was interviewing Steven Hawking! Wow!
Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Saturday 08- did my stretches, a quick run and bike ride, and lifted weights. Really windy today! The Fat Cat is getting kind of listless because of all this wind we been having, and so am I.
The Weather: Temps of around 48 to 72, winds from the NW at 6-16 MPH with gusts up to 20, humidity around 21 percent, light scattering of cirrus clouds.
According to the National Weather Service "tomorrow should be mostly sunny, a high near 68 degrees, with NW winds around 13-18 MPH with gust up to 25."
Spent an hour or so on Joel’s friend’s computer finishing up on some tweaks and called him to come pick it up. I told him to suggest to his friend that she get a GIG or more RAM which would really improve the overall speed of the system.
To make this post short (because it is getting late due to the time change that takes place tonight at 2am) I’ll just say that I called Family and Friends throughout the day. I love my new cell phone!
Too windy for an evening walk, so I read some of the black hole book and fell asleep for an hour. When I woke up I called some more Friends.
Did my stretches, lifted weights, but it was still too windy for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Sunday 09- my day off from all them exercises, so I just did my stretches and went on a walk. The wind is still blowing pretty darn strong.
The Weather: Temps of around 50 to 65, winds from the NW at 8-13 MPH, humidity around 25 percent, mostly clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service "tomorrow should be sunny, with a high near 73 degrees, and NW winds around 5-8 MPH becoming calm."
I really can’t remember what I did today. I just did a little of this and that around the house, and called a few Friends. We all lost an hour sleep because of the time change. I got up an hour early so I could get used to it and tried not to take a nap. I hate these time changes! They’re leftovers from when most in our society were farmers without electricity, and it doesn’t have anything to do with the realities of today’s world. Also it isn’t healthy to mess with someone’s sleeping patterns, or a whole nation’s. We should get rid of it, now, and for good!
The winds had died down enough, so I went for my evening walk. Went online when I got back only to get an email that one of our neighbors who had recently moved to Tennessee last year, my Friend Chuck Sercu, had passed on at the age of sixty-five, on February 17. What a shock; we had all thought he was getting better from the cancer he had been fighting. I’ll write something nice about Chuck in my column next week or the week after when I get more info from his sister Mary.
Did my stretches, practiced my guitar. My friend Larry Carlock called me and we yapped for a spell. Then I wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Monday 10- did my stretches, ran two miles, rode my bike, and lifted weights. No Wind!!!!
The Weather: Temps of around 45 to 72, calm winds, humidity around 25 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service "tomorrow partly sunny, with a high near 76 degrees, and NW winds around 6-9 MPH becoming calm."
Seimi came by to drop off a video “Pleasantville”. I’ve never seen it but saw the trailers on it back when it first came out in 1998. Joan called with a problem and wanted to bring it over for me to look at. I told her to come on by and that I had a carrying case for the laptop. She later called to say she figured out the out problem herself, but dropped by to get the case.
I worked outside trying to figure out just how to put up the patio. It’s an all aluminum roof that I will screw to the side of my home, but haven’t decide how to do it. Went for my evening walk. I sure miss that iPod for those lectures. It was small and didn’t get in the way, vs. my PDA that is bigger and I can’t clip it to my shirt. The iPod has its drawbacks: iTunes. I may look around for something similar that doesn’t require iTunes.
I was sitting outside listening to all the sounds of my front yard, meditating on this and that, when I felt the rays of the Sun warming my face and I thought to myself that these are photons that were created at the core of our Sun by fusing hydrogen into helium, taking somewhere around 36,000 years to reach the Sun’s surface, and then another 8 minutes to hit my cheek. All these buzzing bugs and chirping birds in my yard that I see, all the vegetation growing there, and all life on good old planet Earth depends on this little yellow ball some 93 million miles away to keep shining for their existence. And it has been doing this for 4.57 billion years! Fascinating!
I needed a break from reading pure science and decided to read a little science fiction. I had on my PDA “Star Soldiers” by Andre Norton” that I downloaded for free some time ago. I read four chapters before it was time to watch “New Amsterdam” on Fox about a woman physiologist who was found murdered in her home and the most likely suspect was a war veteran.
Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. When I got back my hamstring was bothering me so I rode my bike up the hill and back, that seems to have done the trick since my hamstring pain has gone away. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
P.S. last week when I was on my way to Barr Lumber I passed a Fire Station and there were two Firemen outside cleaning their fire truck. Remembering that I had with me the flashlight that was left at the house fire a few months ago, I stopped to give it to them. It turns out that the numbers that were etched onto it were from their station! Cool!
Tuesday 11- did my stretches, and a quick run, bike ride, and lifted weights.
The Weather: Temps of around 45 to 75, calm winds, humidity around 24 percent, with altostratus clouds throughout the day.
According to the National Weather Service tomorrow sunny, with a high near 78 degrees, and NW winds around 13-18 MPH with gusts up to 34. Oh noooo! Windy again!
I spent most of the afternoon writing my column for the newspaper about my Friend Chuck Sercu who had passed away last February, and I shall share it here:
“Our little community was sad to learn of the passing of Chuck Sercu, on Sunday, February 17 in Watertown, Tennessee where he had recently moved to be with his Family in his final months. Born in Buffalo New York, Chuck graduated from Seneca High School in June of 1959 to become a Long Haul driver for Bekins Van Lines. Chuck also raced stock cars at the 605 Speedway, bartender, and did auto body repair. Chuck even started businesses of his own: A drywall company, and Chucks Fleet Service. Chuck was a board member at our community center and helped put on many activities.
Chuck was my friend. I would go over for a visit and walk around to his back porch where he’d be sitting at a table cluttered with odds and ends of car parts, drinking a beer and smoking cigarettes. He had this cigarette lighter that said “GIT-R-DONE” every time he’d light one up. We’d be sitting there jawing while his young son Joseph bid for our attention. Other folks would meander by: Jerry and Barbara Turnbough, Bob Stonebraker, Andrew Nevsky, Stuart Watson, Chris Jonas, and a few other folks. Chuck loved to barbecue and would always have some kind of meat cooking, the smells of it would fill the air to make your mouth water and stomach feel empty.
Chuck lived a hard but full life and I will miss these late summer afternoon get-togethers and so will a lot of folks. Goodbye my Friend!”
Got a call from Stoney: “Come on over for spaghetti!” Moseyed on over around 4:30 and Stoney, Andrew, Roger, and I sat to eat our fill of spaghetti from a large pot. Roger came an hour late because he was still on Standard Time and didn’t know about the change. We jawed about earthquakes, the water district, George Bush, and our encounters with snakes. Stayed there pass sunset.
When I got home Fat Cat was waiting to be fed. I’d put him on a diet if I could, but with those big brown eyes staring at me and putting up such a show of affection when he wants to be fed, that I don’t think I’d have the heart to do it. Called my brother Kevin and we yapped at each other for 180 minutes! I usually never talk to anyone more than half an hour. Kevin is well educated and we talk about many things on social, religious, and political issues that I usually never dwell upon or speak of with others. I do get to sneak astronomy into our discussions once in a while. Tonight we talked about Cultural Literacy, something I never considered in my writings but had used them all the same to make myself understood to a wider audience; I wouldn’t use Chappaquiddick in a sentence to describe someone’s fall from power. I would use an older historical reference like Waterloo, which is some what similar but most folks would understand. Anyways this whole dialogue gave me much to contemplate.
Did my stretches, I’ve been feeling quite tired all day, so I skipped the weights and nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Wednesday 12- I was awoken by a honk, somebody had driven up to my gate, and I went out in my pajamas to investigate. It was Jehovah Witnesses inviting me to their church. The nice dressed lady, Naomi, handed me some brochures, said a few verses from the Bible, and then she was off again on her quest to save more folk’s souls. I did my stretches, and a quick run, and lifted weights.
The Weather: Temps of around 51 to 78, calm winds until 9pm out of the NW at around 15 MPH, humidity around 33 percent, with cirrus then altostratus clouds later in the evening.
According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Areas of blowing dust after 11am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 78. Breezy, with a west northwest wind 15 to 18 mph increasing to between 25 and 28 mph. Thursday Night: Areas of blowing dust. Mostly clear, with a low around 53. Breezy, with a west northwest wind between 23 and 28 mph, with gusts as high as 37 mph.” Yes it looks like it is really going to blow! Will it rain Saturday night? Stay tuned!
Hope came by with her payment for the internet. I showed her around my place; she was most interested in my solar panels. She has a Mac Powerbook which the battery gets super hot and she hears a fizzing noise before the system freezes. I told her better call Apple and get it fixed, and if it were mine I’d see if it does it without the battery in it. I run my MacBook, and all my other laptops, without a battery in them without any problems. She might have one of those bad batteries that blows up! Or then again, it might have a bad power supply. Anyways it’s Apple’s problem because it is under warranty.
Worked on the weekend update for the website getting it done early. Joel needed a ride to get his car that he has in the shop down in Yucca Valley, so I drove him down there to get it.
Went for my evening walk. Then I spent the whole night reading that Sci-Fi book “Star Soldiers”. I really got into it! The winds started blowing around 9pm, so I just did my stretches. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, and called it a night.
Thursday 13- did my stretches. It’s my day off from exercising and it is very windy outside. All these flowers and their pollen are making my allergies act up, I’m feeling tired, with aches like the flu. I’ll just have to ride it out.
The Weather: Temps of around 53 to 77, winds from W to NW at around 8-20 MPH, humidity around 24 percent, with cirrus clouds. Lots of wind!
According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Areas of blowing dust. Sunny, with a high near 68. Breezy, with a west northwest wind between 21 and 24 mph, with gusts as high as 37 mph. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 45. West northwest wind between 15 and 21 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.”
I worked some more on the website, got it all together with all the updates, and uploaded it to the web. You can see it here: Copper Mountain Mesa.
Didn’t do much of anything else but a little cleaning around the house and some reading of the Sci-Fi book. Went over to Stoney’s for dinner; we had leftover spaghetti from the other day. He also made a sweet potato pie which was mighty good with vanilla ice cream on it.
Got on home and fed Fat Cat who was waiting by the gate for me. Then I went to reading the Sci-fi book till it was time to do my stretches. Real windy outside and my eyes are starting to water from my allergies, dang! Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Friday 14- because of the strong winds, I just did my stretches and lifted weights.
The Weather: Temps of around 52 to 62, winds from W to NW at around 12-18 MPH, humidity around 28 percent, with cirrus clouds throughout the day. Still windy!
According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 60. Windy, with a west wind 18 to 21 mph increasing to between 29 and 32 mph. Winds could gust as high as 43 mph. Saturday Night: A slight chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 41. Windy, with a west wind 29 to 32 mph decreasing to between 16 and 19 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.”
I’m still a little down with my allergies. Took a Benadryl last night that really knocked me out cold and I slept in till late morning. The antihistamine seems to have helped some, in that I don’t feel as bad as I did yesterday. I will take another one tonight before I go to bed!
Stayed inside the house cleaning up the kitchen, working on computers, and reading the Sci-Fi book. Found out that the book has two books in the file I downloaded onto my old Sony Clie PDA and using the Mobi Pocket Reader to view it: works dang well!
Read a little astronomy. Watched “Numbers” on CBS, a rerun I’d seen before, about a woman journalist who was kidnapped by an evil real estate developer. Did my stretches and lifted weights; still too windy to go for my nightly run, or take out my telescope! Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Saturday 15- and I thought yesterday had strong winds! I just did my stretches. Even Fat Cat doesn’t want to wander outside!
The Weather: Temps of around 44 to 58, winds from W to NW at around 13-22 MPH with gusts up to 50 or more, humidity around 32 percent, with altocumulus clouds later in the day. Very windy!
According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Scattered showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 11am. Partly sunny, with a high near 55. Windy, with a northwest wind between 23 and 33 mph, with gusts as high as 55 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Sunday Night: Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly clear, with a low around 39. Breezy, with a north northwest wind between 20 and 29 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph.” Hope we get some rain tomorrow!
Well another day spent inside because of the wind, while my patio that I’m adding on to the east side waits to be completed. Did some work on my Toshiba Tablet. I had to remove the keyboard to get at the serial numbers on the back of it so I can order a new one. The current one doesn’t type a “g” or “Bk Sp” and that ain’t very useful to me.
Got a call from my friend who wants me to check on his dogs, so I drove on over there, glad for the break from being cooped inside the house; his dogs were glad to see me! Stopped over to Stoney’s and yapped with him for a spell. I ate his cashew nuts he keeps by his recliner and munches on while he watches TV and made off with one of his chocolate donuts he hides in the fridge. He has a crack in the radiator of his SUV and was working on it before I came over. He is trying to seal it up with Gorilla Glue that just about glues anything; be interesting if it works on that.
Got home and called up my Mom and Dad and chatted with them for over an hour. Didn’t call anyone else today; I thought I’d give them all a rest this week from all the calls I placed to them last week on my new cell phone. Read my Sci-Fi book for a while, then went online to answer some emails and do some surfing. Around 11:30pm I noticed that the wind had stopped, so I did my stretches, lifted weights, and WENT FOR MY NIGHTLY RUN! It was 34 degrees and a slight breeze out of the west when I started my run. It was all very fine when I was running up the hill to the east, but when I turned around and started running west I was going against the wind, which picked up, and it was very cold. I wondered to myself what the hell I think I was doing, but I completed my run just the same and without any frostbite.
Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Sunday 16- my day off from exercising, so I just did my stretches. To dang cold and windy to do them anyways.
The Weather: Temps of around 33 to 54, winds from N to NW at around 15-25 MPH with gusts up to 40 or more, humidity around 35 percent, with cumulus humilis clouds all through the day. Very windy!
According to the National Weather Service “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 61. Breezy, with a north northwest wind between 16 and 22 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 42. Northwest wind between 10 and 16 mph.” Dang! More wind!
Because of the wind I stayed inside most of the day reading, cleaning, and going through some old papers. My friend Mike from Hermosa called and I jawed with him while I was in the camper. I have this feeling of wanderlust come over me lately, and when I do I sit in the camper to dream of things I could be doing. I’ve been here in the desert for over ten years and I think it’s time for me to do some traveling; where, I do not know. But my home here is home base, something to come back to, that I never had before.
It’s pancake Sunday and I made myself a stack of them with two eggs and lots of butter and syrup. My brother called to yap for a while. He’s doing great in his new trailer and has everything setup to his liking.
Watched “60 Minutes” on CBS about problems with our healthcare system where over one hundred thousand people die in hospitals in our country because of mistakes each year. And another segment on sleep and that not getting enough will do to your mental and physical health.
Read some astronomy and Sci-Fi the rest of the evening. Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night,
Monday 17- still a little windy but did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike. On my run I saw a bunch of yellow flowers blooming and soaking up the sunshine. Nice and sunny!
The Weather: Temps of around 39 to 62, winds from N to NW at around 10-18 MPH some gusts up to 25, humidity around 24 percent, with clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 72. North northwest wind between 9 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 47. Northwest wind between 5 and 9 mph.”
Stoney dropped by my house with a bag of groceries from the USDA food distribution. We sat in his car and jawed some. He told me that they are having a memorial at potluck for Flo Carpenter who past away last week. He said to call Chris for the details, which I did later and will write a little something for this week’s column, and then about the memorial the following week. Flo was a really nice gal who played bingo and went to the potlucks at our community center. I remember her at our potlucks where she got around using a walker. It is sad to see another old timer moving on and another empty chair at bingo and potluck.
Started working on my column for the newspaper gathering stuff up and editing stuff down. I’ll complete it tomorrow.
Went for my evening walk and listened to an astronomy lecture on the Moon and Sun. Until I get a small MP3 player I’ve decided to just haul around my heavy PDA and get on with my learning. Read Sci-Fi until “New Amsterdam” came on Fox, about a killer rapist taxi driver and the damage done to women and their families by these scumbags. I’m really getting to like this show!
Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. I only run half a mile but it is up and down and back up the hill in front of my house. I also added pushups to my routine. I’m just starting out doing five at a time now, and will build it up as I go; no sense hurting something.
Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Tuesday 18- nice warm day! Did my stretches, ran two miles, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
The Weather: Temps of around 45 to 72, winds from N to NW at around 4-9 MPH, humidity around 23 percent, with clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 74. West wind 6 to 16 mph becoming south. Winds could gust as high as 22 mph. Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 49. West wind between 9 and 16 mph.”
Got done with my exercises and found a message on my answering machine from Stoney telling me his washing machine went south and to come on over and help Roger replace the washer with another one he has in the yard. He wouldn’t be there because he had to be at Mary’s by noon. I finished my breakfast and was headed for my truck to drive over, when I saw Stoney speed by on his way to Mary’s. I decided to go to Roger’s first and see what’s up. He said that they had already had the other one in and working! “Why didn’t you guys call to tell me and save me the trip?” I asked. Well we got to jawing for a while on how he hates computers, how his ain’t working right, and I trying to tell him what may be wrong with it. We decided that I should bring my laptop over someday to see if it’s his phone lines or his computer that is malfunctioning.
Worked on my column, got it done, and sent it to the newspaper. Did some yard work and watering plants, while I had a program running to convert a DVD movie to another format that will fit on a SD drive; it took over three hours to complete. When it was done I tried to run the movie on XP WMP but it didn’t have the codex for it and came up with errors when it try to download them. Well this is the first time I have tried to do this and I think I may have messed it up somehow. I copied it to an SD drive, stuck it into my ASUS EEE laptop running Linux and it ran perfectly! Go figure! I think it has something to do with DRM why it didn’t run on XP.
Stoney drove up while I was in the yard and stopped to chat. He and Mary went to town to do some shopping. I asked him about the washing machine and he said that he had so many things going on that he forgot to call and tell me that him and Roger had fixed it; Good enough for me. We sat in his SUV and he said that he is having trouble with his air conditioner, it isn’t blowing cold air. So I reached over and pushed in the AC button; wha la!
Went for my evening walk and listened to an astronomy lecture. Spent the rest of the evening reading the Sci-Fi book until “Nova: Saved by the Sun” came on PBS, about the use of solar to power homes and businesses. I love it! I am sitting here watching this on my 17” LCD TV powered by two golf cart batteries that were charged by my solar panels, my whole house is solar electric, when this expert comes on and says that it isn’t feasible to use solar in homes (he must work for the oil companies). Of course there were others on the show, who, like me, have there homes powered by solar. Great Program!
Finished the Sci-Fi book and then did my stretches, lifted weights, went for my evening run. Much warmer outside now, with no winds! Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Wednesday 19- I must have been really tired because I slept in late, eight and a half hours! Jimmy called to yap about his new fishing reel he purchased on Ebay, while I made breakfast. Then I did my stretches and went on a mile run.
The Weather: Temps of around 47 to 73, winds from NW to SW at around 2-12 MPH, humidity around 25 percent, with clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 74. Northwest wind between 8 and 15 mph. Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 46. Northwest wind between 7 and 15 mph.”
Andrew called to tell me that some beer company (Rolling Rock Beer) is going to put an ad on the next full Moon, that would be on the 21st of this month. I don’t think so! And we both think it is a publicity stunt. There is a link: www.moonvertising.com if you want to check it out for yourself. I’m on dialup and the site took way too long to load so I wasn’t able to view it, but some of the message boards I went to also think it is a bunch of crap.
Called my friend Joan to see how she is doing and we jawed for a spell. Then my old friend Hotsie called with a computer problem on his Dell XPS 400 desktop. It starts to load then shuts down; could be a lot of things: bad power supply, RAM needs to be reseated, loose connections to hard drive. I told him I’d look into it and call later to night. He still has it under warranty, so this is good. Went online to answer some emails and do some work. And then went outside to work in my yard for a while.
Went for my evening walk and listened to an astronomy lecture on star formations: Protostars and Protoplanets that form from giant molecular clouds. Went on over to Stoney’s where he had cooked up some barbecued pork, with baked potatoes, and a salad. Was mighty good! Then we watched some program on the Food Channel about different restaurants that serve up deep fried food. There was deep fried turkey, hamburgers, hotdogs, Snicker Bars, pickles, Twinkies, and more stuff like that. The hamburgers looked mighty tasty to me. What was funny to me is that the patrons at these deep fried restaurants were all over weight.
Got home and read some of the “Black Holes and Time Warps” book, and then a chapter in a new Sci-Fi book called “Time Traders” by Andre Norton. Watched “Law and Order Criminal Intent” on CBS, about an alleged rape of a call girl by football players from a wealthy college, and one of the witnesses had been murdered.
Hotsie called and I walked him through a few steps on his computer from the maintenance manual I downloaded from Dell, to try and determine what it could be that’s hanging his computer. His ability or reluctance to open the computer up and sort through the entrails made us both decide that he should call Dell in the morning. Joan called asking for my help in looking for a new laptop. I will look around on the web tonight to see if there are any deals to be had.
Did my stretches, went for my nightly run, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Thursday 20- my day off from exercising so I just did my stretches.
The Weather: Temps of around 51 to 73, winds from N to NW at around 6-10 MPH, humidity around 25 percent, with clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Sunny, with a high near 76. Northwest wind between 8 and 11 mph becoming calm. Friday Night: Clear, with a low around 48. Calm wind becoming west northwest between 10 and 13 mph.”
Went on the computer to read my email, then I jumped in the Gross Polluter and headed on down to Yucca Valley to get supplies. On my way I picked up a hitch hiker, his name was Chucky I think, who lives off of Border Ave before you get to Winters Road. He just had his Harley stolen, his Mom just died, his Dad died a few months ago. I listened to his sad story and felt mighty sorry for him. Dropped him off on HWY 62 and Sunburst.
Do you believe that eggs are $2.79 a dozen! The cheap bread was $1.19 a loaf. Gas was up around $3.50 or so a gallon; I don’t even look anymore, I just give the guy at the register a twenty and then pump the gas. Stuff has really gone up since I last been shopping some weeks ago. I decided to buy a bunch of stuff to last me a month and hope prices come down a little. If they go up, at least I will look back on what I spent today as a deal. There seemed to be a whole lot of folks shopping today. Usually when I go on Thursdays around 1pm there is hardly anyone there. Is something going on that I don’t know about. There were even long lines at the gas stations. Weird!
Got back home safe and sound, put all the groceries away and found that I had forgot to buy potatoes, dang It! Went for my evening walk and listened to an astronomy lecture on how astronomers use the Doppler effect when finding new planets around stars. When planets circle a star they pull on that star and make it wobble a bit. Astronomers monitor the spectrum of a star to see if there is a shift to the red or blue from the wobble. Red is going away, and blue is coming towards us, and they are able to discern by the degree of this wobble where and how large the planet is that is creating the wobble. There is also another method they use and that is when a planet goes in front of a star in its orbit, the star dims by a small degree. Comparing this dimming to the stars absolute magnitude they can figure out the size of the planet. At least this is how I understand it from the lecture and I’m writing this all down from memory.
Read some astronomy and then a chapter from the Sci-Fi book. I decided to watch a movie I have: “Terminator: Rise of the Machine” which I’d seen before some years ago. Dang good flick! When that was over I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Friday 21- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights. What a fine day!
The Weather: Temps of around 51 to 76, calm winds, humidity around 21 percent, with clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 77. Northwest wind between 5 and 8 mph becoming calm. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 50. Calm wind becoming north northwest between 4 and 7 mph.”
Seimi dropped by on his way to the dump to jaw for a while. Spent around three hours updating the Copper Mountain Mesa website, more time then I usually spend. I got an ad from someone selling a piano and refrigerator to put up on the classifieds. One of the links was bad that they sent and this caused me a lot of problems because I thought that there was an error in my HTML that I was coding. Got everything straighten out and their pictures loaded of the piano and fridge.
Patty called wanting to defrag her computer. So I walked her through the process over the phone. We had done this before a few months ago and she had remembered most of it. She is getting to be a pretty good computer expert! Called Annelies and yapped for a spell about her recent trip to Kenya. I had setup a special webpage for her emails she had sent from Kenya about her adventures. I told her that I need some pictures to make it complete. Annelies said she had taken over 700 pictures and would send me a few.
Drove on over to check on my Friend’s dogs, and then over to Stoney’s for dinner. We finished off the barbecued pork chops, and had some cranberry salad that he made that was mighty good. I stayed there to watch an episode of “The Rifleman” and then bid him and his cowboy shows farewell.
Went on my evening walk and listened to another astronomy lecture about the processes going on in a star’s core and photosphere. What you see as the Sun’s surface is really not, according to the lecture you must think of this as a layer of fog; the photosphere is hundreds of miles thick and what we see as the “surface” is where light is free to spread out into space. Another thing I learned was when he asked the class what the spectral/temperature classifications of stars were, I immediately said: OBAFGKM that I learned in astronomy class in the 80s by using the Mnemonic: Oh Be A Fine Girl Kiss Me. But he added to the ending Lovingly! Turns out that there was added a new classification L for temperatures of 13-2500 K, which are extremely cool stars. So later on I checked this out online and found that not even was there an L added but a T class too! The T class are failed stars or Brown Dwarfs, too small to ignite hydrogen fusion. So now it is OBAFGKMLT. Yikes!
Spent the rest of the evening reading Sci-Fi until it got late. Then I did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Saturday 22- did my stretches and ran two miles. Another fine day!
The Weather: Temps of around 51 to 79, slight breeze mostly calm, humidity around 20 percent, with clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 78. North northwest wind between 3 and 9 mph. Sunday Night: Clear, with a low around 49. Calm wind becoming northwest between 4 and 7 mph.”
Angela called about a computer problem she was having with her Zip drive. Not ever using a Zip drive I was able to figure it out somehow. Talked to her dad, my friend Jimmy, about his fishing trip he is going on in July. Then I did some work online replying to some comments to a post I made on the Astronomy blog.
In my quest to get out more often and mingle with folks, I emerged from my shell and drove the Gross Polluter down to the Joshua Tree Music Store where they were having a sidewalk sale on guitars and other music equipment. There was a nice Marshall amp that I wouldn’t mine owning. I was content just dabbling around with the guitars they had on display and listening to the folks playing music, when they asked me to play. Yikes! They were playing mostly country and western, and I told them I didn’t play that. “What do you play,” one asked. “Just stuff I made up and I don’t sing very well,” 
I said. “Well this is what it is all about, so go ahead and play yer song.” Well I took the bait and sat down to play my song “Love Will Find a Way Home”. I’ve never sang in public before, I got really nervous, someone pulled a mic up to my face, so I closed my eyes and played my song. As I played I noticed that the guitar was out of tune; dang I should have checked that first. The other guitarists, who are excellent players, tried to follow along as best they could. I got through the song okay and when I opened my eyes back up I saw that there were fewer folks hanging around, and I asked where did everyone go! “Well I warned you guys”, I said. I spent the next half an hour trying to redeem myself and fade away into the neighboring surroundings. I said my goodbyes to the players there and drove on back home thinking all the while why I had done such a thing. But after I got home I was glad I did it. I had gone out there to be among folks that have the same interests as I, had played the guitar and sang in front of people. Even though I don’t think I sang very well, it is the fact that I gave it a go that counts. I might just do it again (if they let me). I did have fun and these are fine folks!Went to my Friend’s home to feed and check up on his dogs. While I was there I made a few calls on my new cell phone (I have free weekends). Called my sister Paula and yakked with her for a while. Her daughter had to testify in a murder trial against a man who shot and killed her 16 year old friend. They had found the man guilty and will be sentenced in April to ten or twenty-two years; I hope he gets the max! At least this is over and my Sister and my niece wont have to worry about this anymore. Before the police caught the man, the murdered girls friends beat him to a pulp that put him in the hospital; Good for them! I called Mom and Dad too.
Got back home and read my Sci-Fi book until really late into the night (probably to get my mind off playing guitar in front of everybody). Did my stretches, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Sunday 23- did my stretches and ran one mile. It is my day off from exercising but it was such a fine day outside that I just wanted to take a run and smell flowers in the air and the Sun on my skin.
The Weather: Temps of around 52 to 78, slight breeze mostly calm, humidity around 19 percent, with clear skies. Just like yesterday!
According to the National Weather Service “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 79. Calm wind becoming south southeast between 6 and 9 mph.
Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 49. South wind 6 to 13 mph becoming northwest.”
It is Easter Sunday so I called a few folks throughout the day to say howdy when I could catch them at home. Did some work on the website putting another ad in the classifieds for Lee who is selling a truck. I had dropped by his house and took a few pics of it to go along with the ad. My Brother Kevin called to chat for a spell. The more I talk with him the more I find we have in common.
Went over to feed my Friend’s dogs, who are always happy to see me. I give them hot dogs and pat their tummies and they are glad to receive the attention. Stopped over at Stoney’s to jaw for a bit. He wants to try deep frying some hamburgers, like the ones we seen them do on TV a few days ago, for dinner tomorrow. Well it looked mighty good on TV, but I don’t know how our arteries will handle it.
Got back home, went for my evening walk listening to an astronomy lecture on the life and death of stars. It was really concentrated with a lot of information and I may have to listen to it again. Made myself some pancakes and eggs, and then settled down to read more Sci-Fi. I finished one book and started another in the series of “Time Traders”. Talked to Mike from Hermosa. He is starting a new job tomorrow gathering signatures for petitions. I wish him luck! Did my stretches and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Monday 24- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather: Temps of around 50 to 79, slight breeze mostly calm till later in the evening: SW at 11-13 MPH, humidity around 18 percent, with clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 80. West northwest wind between 7 and 16 mph. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 53. West northwest wind between 14 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.”
I was writing my column for the newspaper when Andrew knocked on my door. He had just did a run from his house to mine; seems like he needs a destination when he runs, where I only need to be able to get back. We yapped for a spell about dogs, girlfriends, and computers. I showed him where I was building my patio on the eastside of my house. Then he was off running back to his home and I went back to work on my column, that I finally finished an hour later. Did some watering of plants in the yard and cleaned around the house.
Went over to Stoney’s for dinner. He was deep frying hamburgers just like on the TV program I wrote about a few days ago. They tasted okay, but weren’t anything to whoop about we both decided. Tried to deep fry some pickles too; we didn’t like those at all! We still would like to try them battered deep fried Twinkies someday. We watched a program on the Science Channel about ancient Greece and how the melting of the glaciers razed the water level which in turn flooded the Mediterranean and the Black sea.
Got back home, went for my evening walk listening to an astronomy lecture that I needed to go over again. About the life cycles of stars: from nebula, to protostar, to fusion ignition and hydrostatic equilibrium, to becoming a main sequence star on the HR chart. Then to the collapse of the hydrostatic equilibrium, to the burning of helium and becoming a red giant star. It’s a little more involved than what I write here but it’s getting late. He also gave a brief talk on absorbing and reflecting nebulas. I was only able to get halfway through and it amazes me how much information this professor has in this lecture.
My brother Kevin called and we yapped for an hour on the Ice Age and how the Americas were populated back then. There is a new theory that postulates that early man from Europe came by way of boats during one of these Ice Ages across the Atlantic by following the glaciers. Interesting if true.
Read a few chapters in the Sci-Fi book. Watched “New Amsterdam” on Fox about a homeless man who was murdered by an overdose. Great show! Then I did my stretches and lifted weights. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Tuesday 25- did my stretches, ran two miles. On the way back on my run the winds started to blow and continued blowing all day. My allergies are kicking in again, dang it!
Today’s Weather: Temps of around 54 to 79, winds out of the N to SW at 12-20 MPH, humidity around 22 percent, with mostly clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 78. Breezy, with a west northwest wind 10 to 13 mph increasing to between 20 and 23 mph. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 52. Breezy, with a west northwest wind between 16 and 24 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph.”
Right now I'm suffering from my allergies really bad. I have aches and pains all over my body: I feel like crap! It's the worst I've had in a longtime. I think it was the winds today the blew all the pollen into the air. Fell asleep at 9:30pm to awake at 1:20am, Yikes and I haven't wrote my blog! So I’m going to make this short.
Tried to go online only to find that the service was down and spent a few hours trying to contact my provider. This was at 11am and it was down until 7pm. They finally let me know that: “One of the upstream providers is dealing with a routing issue that is affecting multiple vendors such as MegaPOP and Pacwest. Your customers can see several types of problems from this from DNS issues to connectivity to authentication.” Only one of my users call to tell me that they were down, that was Patty who said that her Mom’s computer was down too, and she runs AOL on it. So I guess this was wide spread. Andrew came by to get a picture printed of his dog.
Went on my evening walk and listened to the astronomy lecture. Hopi called and wanted me to transfer files to a 8Gig thumb drive before she sends her Mac Powerbook away for repairs. So I drove over to do this for her. That’s when I started feeling sick. Got back home to watch “Nova” on PBS. Did my stretches, practiced guitar, and then dropped off to sleep until 1:30. Wrote in my journal, posted it to the web and called it a night.
Wednesday 26- did my stretches but that’s about all I did because of my allergies. I feel like I've been run over by a garbage truck, dragged for two blocks, and then dropped down an open manhole. As the day grew old I started feeling better, but I mostly stayed inside, laying in bed and reading SCI-Fi.
Today’s Weather: Temps of around 54 to 77, winds out of the NW to W at 8-18 MPH with gusts up to 33, humidity around 26 percent, with mostly clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 76. Northwest wind between 8 and 14 mph. Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 49. West northwest wind between 6 and 9 mph.”
I got a call from a 77 year old lady Monk, who bluntly asked if I could quickly teach her how to operate her laptop before she dies (I like her frankness). I said I could and would be over to the retreat where she stays, tomorrow. Depending on her computer skills, I may direct her to my friend Bonnie Young who trains older women on computers. Then I got a call from a guy doing some work at the same retreat who needs dialup because his broadband doesn’t work up here. I told him I’d be over that way tomorrow.
Finished my Sci-Fi book and watched an episode of South Park on TV. For some reason I like the show’s bazaar Humor. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night. Hopefully I‘ll feel better tomorrow.
Thursday 27- did my stretches, lifted weights. Too dang windy to run or bike.
Today’s Weather: Temps of around 52 to 75, winds out of the NW at 7-11 MPH, humidity around 25 percent, with some high clouds. According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 77. West wind between 5 and 13 mph. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 52. West northwest wind between 13 and 18 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph.”
I got a few chores done around the house before it was time to go over to the retreat and start teaching the computer to the woman Monk. Out of respect I won’t give out her name or any details, but that I had a fine time teaching her! I told her that after three days I will return to show her more. 
She said “I’ll have to wait for three days?” I told her “No you will be practicing on the computer what I showed you for three days!” Sweet!While I was there I setup Adrian’s computer on my dialup service. He will only be staying at the retreat for two month doing some construction. As I completed his setup I loaded CopperMountainMesa.com to show Adrian my website. A friend of Adrian‘s, Richie Miller who lives in the area, dropped by and saw the website and asked if I was the guy who wrote the columns in the newspaper: I said I was him. He shook my hand and thanked me for writing about “Snow Coat” that I had put on my roof to keep my house cooler, and that he had did the same after reading it in my column. Now that made me feel mighty good!
Got back home later then I thought I would and started doing some work on the computer. Andrew dropped by and we both went on an evening walk. We yapped about all sorts of stuff and had a great walk.
Then I went back on the computer for a while and tried to finish what I was doing. I will have to finish updating the website tomorrow because it was getting late. Andrew called and we yapped some more on women, philosophy, and traveling. He said that the folks he has met in LA are more into money and put on the airs of being rich, when all the while they are deeply in debt trying to support their lavish lifestyles. I told him I believe that love and money were over rated and happiness should be the goal. Did my stretches, lifted weights, practiced guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Friday 28- did my stretches, and ran two miles. I’m feeling a lot better from my allergies now, but I’ve still been taking Benadryl at night before I go to bed. Nice day except for all the wind.
Today’s Weather: Temps of around 51 to 76, winds out of the NW at 6-13 MPH with gusts up to 23, humidity around 25 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 75. West wind between 11 and 16 mph. Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 51. West wind between 11 and 18 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.”
Went online to update the Copper Mountain Mesa website and that used up an hour or so. Then I went over to check on my friend’s dogs. Fed them all hotdogs to keep them friendly. Dropped by Stoney’s to jaw with him. He told me that he was attacked by a pack of dogs out in his front yard. He had fended them off with a two by four and cracked the leader really good in the head. He then ran inside to get his handgun but had to stop to catch his breath; they were gone by the time he got back outside. Him and Roger (armed to the teeth) drove around looking for the pack of dogs, but they had vanished into the desert. We watched “The Big Valley: Boy into Man” a cowboy show from the late 60’s and one of the actors was a young Richard Dreyfuss. I really wasn’t sure it was Dreyfuss until the credits at the end.
Went for my evening walk and listened to part of an astronomy lecture. Read a little of the “Black Holes and Time Warps” and then a some astronomy too. Watched “Bones” on FOX about a rapper that was found mummified behind a wall in a dance club. Did my stretches, lifted weights; When is this wind going to end so that I can go for my nightly runs and take out my telescope? Read some more astronomy, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Saturday 29- did my stretches, and ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather: Temps of around 53 to 80, winds out of the SW to W at 7-12 MPH with gusts up to 17, humidity around 30 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 66. Breezy, with a west wind between 14 and 23 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 45. Breezy, with a west wind 20 to 23 mph decreasing to between 10 and 13 mph.”
I was running around getting everything ready for potluck. Stoney called asking me to come over before 3pm to help him move some boxes. Dale from Landers rang me to yap for a while about this, that, and other things. He still has some problems with neighbor’s dog that they let roam free. I told him about Stoney being attacked yesterday. This seems to be a bigger problem out here.
Went on over to feed my friend’s dogs. They seem to be very laid back and didn’t even bark at me this time. Called my Mom and Dad from there. Dad, I found has allergies too! Then I stopped over to Stoney’s to move them boxes. Got back home to cook up something for potluck. Called my sister Donna and chatted for a while about her new business that her and her husband Roger are starting. She says that the weather where she lives in Florida is very nice. Someday I may go for a visit and frolic in the surf breaking on the beach.
Got to potluck and Florence Carpenter’s memorial at 4pm, and there were already a line of cars filling the parking lot. Many of Flo’s Family were there: Her sons Gary and Ray with his wife Carol, her niece Violet Jonas, and nephews Roy, Gerald, and Christopher Jonas, four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Plus many from our community to wish her farewell. There was a lot of mighty good food to go around and everyone got their fill. As we ate dessert folks would go up to the microphone that was setup and say a little something in remembrance of Flo: she was an aircraft assembler during World War Two, a Foster parent in La Puente California bringing up thirty some kids, played board games and canasta, loved to tell stories and make people laugh. Flo also played the organ and did handicrafts to keep her hands busy. Flo was many things to many people. There was pictures of Flo starting when she was a pretty young child, going through her life as she aged. I only knew Flo in her later years and spent much time examining those pictures and getting to know her a little better. These pictures that I saw summed up a life of a woman that was well lived, who gave love and was loved.
Got home, went on my evening walk and listened to an astronomy lecture. Then I called Jimmy who was having trouble with his computer’s Macromedia flash player. We thought we found a fix on the Adobe site but the errors persisted after we ran it. We’ll have to check a little more into this later; he is running AOL 9 and that might be the problem. Called Lynn to see what she was up to. Her mother-in-law is in the hospital having heart surgery but is doing well. Was reading “Black Holes and Time Warps” when my friend Mike from Hermosa called to jaw for a bit. He is still in the process of getting the info he needs to setup his own petition business.
The wind has died down enough for me to go on my nightly run! So I did my stretches, lifted weights, and did my run! Felt good especially after having a big meal at potluck! Read a little more, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Sunday 30- did my stretches, and ran a mile.
Today’s Weather: Temps of around 48 to 67, winds out of the W at 10-15 MPH with gusts up to 20, humidity around 30 percent, cumulus humilis clouds (fair weather clouds). According to the National Weather Service “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 68. West northwest wind 5 to 14 mph becoming south southwest. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 45. West southwest wind between 5 and 9 mph.”
Spent two hours removing some of the Sahara Mustard weed from around my yard. This weed that is invading our desert is first to sprout before others, can grow very rapidly, and prevent other plants from growing by taking up most of the moisture and sunlight. I spent all this time bent over pulling these dang weeds and only got about one third of them! You can go to this website: Desert Museum: Sahara Mustard and see for yourself what this weed can do to our desert. I had just recently learned about this plant in an email from Susan Jordan who now permanently lives in our community.
Went to feed my Friend’s dogs and called my sister Shiela from there. She says she is going to retire in late May for the Tucson School District, and will substitute once in a while. Dropped on over to Stoney’s to help him finish off the chili beans that were leftover from potluck. Went to Lee’s to help him solve a computer problem.
Got home and read a little astronomy. Called my brother Kevin to say howdy. Then I watched “Solaris” on KCOP. Starring George Clooney, and beautiful Natascha McElhone. About a psychologist sent to a space station that is in orbit around some kind of an anomaly far from Earth to learn what is wrong with the crew. His long dead wife appears on the ship! Strange movie, but good!
Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Monday 31- did my stretches. I decided to take the day off from my exercises; my allergies are acting up again.
Today’s Weather: Temps of around 45 to 70, winds out of the NW at 4-8 MPH, humidity around 27 percent, don‘t remember seeing any clouds. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 71. Light wind becoming south southwest between 11 and 14 mph. Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 50. South southwest wind 7 to 15 mph becoming west northwest. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph.”
Got all cleaned up and made my way over to do some more computer training of the Monk. She is a sweet lady but she didn’t have time to practice on what I taught her last week, so I went over with her on it again. To help her learn the mouse I have her playing solitaire which she had never played before (I wonder if that’s ok to teach a Monk to play cards). Got her writing on MS Word, cut and paste, loading CDs, and getting her familiar with the desktop. Was over there teaching the computer for two and a half hours. When I was done I drove over to where Hope is staying to drop off my MacBook for her to use while hers is getting fixed, but she wasn’t home.
Spent another two hours pulling out that dang Sahara Mustard weed out of my yard. That dang weed is taking over my property! I listened to an astronomy lecture while I weeded. Then I went for my evening walk. My eyes feel swollen from all the pollen in the air (maybe from pulling all them weeds). I think I’ll have to take another Benadryl tonight; I had skipped taking one last night; I don‘t like taking them because they make me drowsy.
Called my friend Joan to see what she was up to. She had just gotten back from taking a sick chicken to the Vet‘s. Started reading a new Sci-Fi book called “West of Honor” by Jerry Pournelle and also read a little astronomy. Then watched “New Amsterdam” on FOX, about: Detective Amsterdam (who is over 400 years old) is call to investigate a murder of a young gangster family member, and finds out it is one of his descendants from a marriage in 1913. Then I did my stretches, practiced guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night. Goodbye to March a windy month!
