January 2007

Monday 01- Welcome to the month of January and the year 2007- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike- called some more folks to wish them a Happy New Year- was invited over to Mac’s home for some sushi and met Clint and his wife Cindy. The food and the conversation were enjoyable. I wondered why everyone had their shoes off. Mac said it’s a custom in his household to take your shoes off, I told him I was being polite to everyone keeping mine on- went for my evening walk- called Stoney and he told me that the USDA food distributing will be on the 8th of this month because of the King holiday and I need to correct it on my website- did some reading in history and started reading (again) “365 Starry Nights” by Chet Raymo, which will take me one whole year to read (just like last year)- started writing my column for the newspaper.
Tuesday 02- I was just going for my morning run when Bob Ascherin called to say he is bringing over an old newspaper article from the “Desert Journal” of Aug. 3, 1972 that he told me of a few weeks ago, which is about the Copper Mountain Lake earthquake; in response to a column I wrote last December. I lifted weights while I waited for him.
Bob, who turned 89 last November but looks 70, arrived with the article and I gave him the grand tour of my home. He told me a story how on Friday nights back in the seventies he dined on fish and chips at the Sunfair Inn which was operated by a mailman who lived in Yucca. On the wall was a sign “Dollars for Drops” a box with a slot underneath where one could donate money for the lake. Bob was a General Contractor back then, his painter, Glen Hall, also was a watchman at the lake, who was there when it drained all 60 million gallons and said it first sounded like elephants galloping in the water and then a loud gurgling noise. Bob has been hanging around our area since 62, moved out here in 65 from Lakewood Ca. and lives out yonder on Aberdeen Dr. After Bob departed I went for my morning run of 3 miles.
The newspaper he brought me has many pictures of the Copper Lake after the earthquake and a short article. I hope to gather more information, take a trip out to the once dreamed of lake of Copper Mountain, take some pictures of what it looks like now, and write a column about it. I just wonder what our Community would have been like if the park and lakes dream were realized.
-did some reading: Biology, and Meteorology- went for my evening walk- Ron and Linda called and we chatted for a few- Andrew called and we jawed for a while- wrote my column and sent it to the newspaper.
Wednesday 03- I was just going to do my stretches but it was such a glorious day I decided to run a mile, ride my bike, and lift weights- worked around the yard cleaning it up- did some reading on Geology, while my Toshiba laptop did a clean and defrag- went for my evening walk- Andrew dropped by on his run and we jawed a while- watched the new series “Wired” on PBS- Picked up reading “The Earth Dwellers” by Erich Hoyt, where I left off on it in early December.
Thursday 04- did my stretches and ran a mile- went over to Ron and Linda’s to help them setup a new ISP on their computer- went for my evening walk- called up my friends Agnes and her daughter Nancy who lives in Washington State to yak for a while- read some History- watched “CSI” on CBS, then a show on PBS about Seattle’s Monorail- emailed the newsletter.
Friday 05- very windy today- did my stretches- Ron and Linda called to tell me that the ISP was working just great- went over to Stoney’s and washed my clothes and took a hot shower. We had some leftover beans with rice from potluck- went for my evening walk(very cold and windy)- watched “Numbers” on CBS- downloaded Red hat Linux “Live” disk and then ran it, but it couldn’t find my WIFI, so it is quite useless to me- downloaded Puppy Linux and had the same problem finding my WIFI. Ubuntu and Suse Linux have no problem with my WIFI.
Saturday 06- did my stretches ran 3 miles and lifted weights- on my run I stopped to talk to Jeff Reed who was home and his mother and brother were also there. Then I stopped to talk to Biker Ron and his dogs- Seimi came over to view pics of my family in Tucson, and I gave him shoes that don’t fit me- Jimmy called to tell me that his ribs still hurt from crashing on the Honda 90- went for my evening walk, left knee hurts some because of the cold I think- called and yapped with Stoney as I tried to find Comet Mc Naught or C/2006 P1 with my telescope. The comet is low in the west southwest horizon at sunset and beneath and to the right of Venus. The sky was very mottled with suspended dust from our high winds and I couldn’t find the comet- read some Biology- watched “Rosemary and Thyme” on PBS- put some wood on the fire, worked on the computer, and did some more reading.
Sunday 07- it’s windy again and my right knee hurts, so I am taking the day off from exercising and resting and will see how the knee feels tomorrow- Ron D. came by with some really good bean soup and we jawed for a few- Dale from Landers called and we exchanged insults- for the rest of the day I worked on the computer and read a few chapters in the book “The Earth Dwellers”; it’s about ants and the folks who study them.
Monday 09- did my stretches and lifted weights. My knee still hurts some- went through last years bills and statements, putting them in order and tossing some in the trash- Stoney came by with some food from the USDA- read some Astronomy, History and Meteorology- went for my evening walk and stopped by at my neighbor Joyce’s but she wasn’t home- Andrew called and we jawed about computers and the CES show in Los Vegas and the new tech toys being announced- watched “American Experience” on PBS- started writing column for the newspaper.
Tuesday 10- woke up early and listened to a lecture on Biochemistry 1 from MIT online course on Biology- did my stretches and went for a walk- Andrew came by and we worked on his HP laptop trying to get his wireless working- Stoney called and told me this story and this is what I wrote about it and sent to the newspaper:
I heard talk that there was a home burglarize just up the street from my house Monday night around 8 or so, and that there was shots fired when the criminals were surprised buy the homeowner. I also heard that one of the thieves was shot as they tried to run over the homeowner and may have later been apprehended at a hospital in Palm Springs. Sorry if I’m so vague, I did see the red lights of a patrol car flashing that night, this is all secondhand info from a good friend and may be already reported in this newspaper.
-went for my evening walk with Andrew- read more of that Ant book- watched “Nova” on PBS and then “Criminal Intent” on CBS- wrote column and sent it to newspaper.
Wednesday 11- did my stretches and walked a mile; knee feeling lots better- Ron D. is going to town to do some errands and asked if I’d like to tag along; I said yes and did all my grocery shopping for the next two months- Annalice called to say she received the XP disks from Dell. She told me that the scan we did on the hard drive showed some unrecoverable sectors, so I told her to buy a new on before we install the new OS- watched “Science Investigators” on PBS and then caught up on some computer work and emails.
Thursday 11- did my stretches and ran half a mile- Stoney called and said he’s going to Wal-Mart to bay a camera and wanted me to come along and help him pick one. We look at several and Marsha (who works there and is a friend of mine) said the Kodak 703 with 7.1 MP, and 3X optical zoom lens was pretty good and it comes with a dock. Stoney bought it and also bought a HP Deskjet F335 all in one Printer, scanner, and copier for almost the cost of buying refills for his old printer. Very good price. Marsha said she also has one, I needed a scanner so I bought one too. Went back to Stoney’s after we had lunch at what used to be called the Silver Dollar Bar and we both had hot roast beef sandwiches. I set it all up for him and showed him how to use the printer and camera- nothing on TV tonight so I’ll do some reading- starting to get very windy and cold again tonight!
Friday 12- it is snowing outside at 9am! I grabbed my camera, took some pics and video of the snow cover desert- Ed D. called to tell me that Delores Jefferson has recently passed on. I updated the newsletter and sent it out and also posted it on my website that she had passed. I had last talked to Delores back in December. I called Ruth T. to let her know. I may go down for the service on Sunday with her- did my stretches but too dang cold to do any other exercise- went to Stoney’s to help him with his new camera and load some software on his computer. We had meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy. It was very, very cold riding my “Trusty” scooter back home- Roger T. picked up some software I burned on CD for him and left some movies for me- Mac and then Joel called for computer help and resolved them over the phone- Linda S. and then Linda D. called about the community meeting tomorrow- my dear friend Terry Watson called and we jawed about this and that and other things for 164 minutes- did computer work the rest of the night.
Saturday 13- did my stretches, very cold outside so I just lifted weights- Carolynne Hansen called and told me that she was a dispatcher for the Fire Department back in the late 60s, early 70s and had some stories about the old lake and also from the area around these parts. We jawed for a while and since she had much information said she’d write up what she can remember and email it to me. Nice lady- I setup my new printer and printed a picture of Judith that she wanted that I took at potluck of her and her mother. Looks really decent- Mac brought back my old Toshiba laptop I had lent him when his was down- watched “Rosemary and Thyme” on PBS- tried to do another recording of “Love Will Find A Way Home” but I couldn’t get the recorder setup right and it sounded lousy, so I will try again tomorrow- forgot to tell ya all yesterday that when I went outside to use the outhouse that I had found snow inside of it and when I sat down to take care of business, the lid stuck to my butt it was so cold!
Sunday 14- still very cold this morning, 35 degrees at 10am, so I just did my stretches- Ruth Tuttle picked me up and we went to Delores Jefferson’s services at Mountain Valley Memorial Park and then to lunch held in her memory at the Joshua Tree Community Center- on the way home we saw a house fire on Ritchie Rd. and Giant Rock that was totally engulfed and burnt to the ground. My friend Dale who lives just a few yards away from the fire called and told me later that he saved the 89 year old lady that lived there. The lady is fine and the Church she belongs to is taking care of her- watched “24” on FOX- worked on my computer and started planning my column for next week.
Monday 15- 29 degrees with winds of 7-15 mph, so I only did my weights and stretches mostly inside- called Delores Jefferson’s son John and interviewed him about his Mother for my column. It was a very difficult and emotional interview to do, for him and for me, but we were both glad to do it- Stoney picked me up and took me to his home where we messed with his new camera, worked on the computer, and had stew with baked with dough on the top, very good- worked on my column most of the day and took a break to watch “24” on FOX and then continued to write and edit column- fished my column and sent it out to the newspaper.
Tuesday 16- got up to 40 degrees, no wind, so I ran a mile and lifted weights- almost all my plants are dead from the freeze. My Alavera plants that I blend in my breakfast drinks are froze, my Palm Trees look wasted, and all the flowered plants took a dump- worked on the computer some, found that I’d misspelled a last name in the column I wrote and had to correct it and resend to the newspaper- Linda D. called and asked me to come over to fix some problems on her computer. Was working diligently on her computer when I noticed that it was 4:25pm and I was suppose to meet Stoney outside my house to give him the picture I took of Judith and Juanita so he could give it to her at Bingo. Well I finished at 5:30 and Linda drove me down to the center to give them the pic and tell Stoney I’m sorry for not being there when I said I’d be- watched “NCIS” on CBS and then surfed the web.
Wednesday 17- cold and windy, temp in the 30s, did my stretches and lifted weights- did some cleanup inside and outside the house. Started pulling all those telephone numbers and addresses off envelopes and tiny bits of paper and putting them on my computer- did a clean and defrag on the old Toshiba laptop- went for my evening walk (finally)- watched “22nd Century” on PBS. It was about the wired brains and networking them together- worked on my blog and answered emails and helping my friend Kula figure out a way to transfer her address book to Gmail.
Thursday 18- I have never seen it this cold, lasting this long, since I’ve moved here in 1998. Well I really don’t want to run in the cold cause it hurts my right knee; seems that my hamstrings tighten up by the cold, so I just did my stretches today- loaded 2006 edition of Encyclopedia Britannica (3 gigs) onto my laptop. Lots of good stuff on it and don’t need to be online to use it- went to Stoney’s and had lunch, a salad, and messed around with his camera and installed Charlie on his computer- read some History; Alexander the Great and ancient Greece- watched “CSI” on CBS- worked on computer stuff.
Friday 19- cold, windy and cloudy day, so I just did my stretches- updated the website and sent out the newsletter- Annalice called to cancel our appointment for me to repair her computer, so now I have some time to kill- fixed Kula’s email problem by having her send me her address book in CSV form, but it arrived in WAB. So I just imported it into my Outlook Express and then logged into her account and imported it into Gmail- tried to get some files off my very old HP 200LX palmtop to no avail. I tried the IR between several devices and even put the PCMICA storage card from the HP into my laptops, nope ain’t going to happen. Will try and come up with something later- went for my evening walk- spent the rest of the night catching up on my reading (History, Astronomy, Geology, Meteorology, and Biology) and watched a online Biology class from Berkley.
Saturday 20- finally a decent day to go for a run; no wind and the temp was in the low 50s- I ran a mile, biked and lifted weights- Joel came by with my mail and we jawed for a while- Stoney called and asked when I was available to help Roger S. install an engine in his VW. I went to Roger’s at 12:30 and we finished putting the motor in around 2:00- called my Mom and had a nice chat- went for my evening walk- departed for Stoney’s where we had a spaghetti dinner with Roger- watched “Rosemary and Thyme” on PBS- Katherine brought over her computer to be repaired- spent the rest of the night computing and reading.
Sunday 21- winds up to 20mph, temp below 50 degrees, I just stayed inside and did my stretches- worked on Kath’s computer reinstalling her XP upgrade, then got it current with all the critical updates; took about 3hrs of my time- called some family up to say hi (to let them know I’m still around ;)- did my studies- watched the “Poseidon Adventure” on DVD on my laptop- loaded RealBasic C++ editor on my laptop and will start using and learning it.
Monday 22- still windy and cold; did my stretches and lifted weights- Joel dropped by with some donuts. I printed out instructions for his friends on how to change the settings for a new ISP and copied a dialer program to floppy for them- finished up on Kath’s computer and it’s ready for pickup- played around with an old laptop doing some tweaks on it- went for my evening walk- did my studies- watched “24” on fox- started writing my column.
Tuesday 23- cold but not windy so I ran 3 miles- did my studies- went for my evening walk- scrutinize the President’s State of the Union Address, then watched “NCIS” on PBS- finished writing my column and sent it to the newspaper.
Wednesday 24- real nice outside! Did my stretches, ran a mile, rode the bike, and lifted weights. When I was riding my bike a truck came up and bumped my rear tire, even though I was all the way to the side. I got off my bike and approached the driver, who looked surprised, and asked him what the f&%# he was doing! Turns out I looked like someone else who had swiped some of his property. He was very apologetic. I told him not to do it again- Joel came by for a chat- did some financial figuring and purchased a one year CD- went over to Stoney’s. Him, Roger, and I finished off the leftover spaghetti- went for my evening walk- did my studies and surfed the web.
Thursday 25- did my stretches and ran a mile- did some yard work and did some assessing of the damage that the cold did to my plants- Annalice picked me up to do an install of XP on her computer. It was the install from hell! I installed a new 80gig harddrive with no problem. Then I loaded the install XP CD, I thought, but it turned out that I grabbed the wrong CD! Annalice had found a Windows Millennium Edition “ME” install CD earlier (her computer is running Win 98) and had placed the CD (same color as the XP CD) by the computer in case I needed it; I didn’t, and had to go through with the ME install because XP wouldn’t load until ME was installed. Then while installing XP it came up and asked what partition to put it and if I wanted to delete the Windows folder. Well I thought it was the ME folder and deleted it, but it turned out to be the XP folder I was presently loading. Had to start all over again loading ME because XP went into a loop not finding the file. I will not tell you how long I worked on this simple install that should have only taken an hour. I will do installs at my home for now on- did my studies- watched “CSI” on CBS.
Friday 26- nice day, did my stretches, rode my bike and lifted weights- Stoney called and said he’s going to the store and if I’d like to come; we went to Staters- went for my evening walk- did my studies- updated the website and sent out the newsletter- downloaded Free Dos and will install it on my old Toshiba laptop.
Saturday 27- did my stretches- worked around the yard. Tried to hook up an old propane tank somebody had given me, but the valve leaked and I don’t think it was propane (smelled like acetylene) so I will discard it - called Family- called Annalice to see how her computer was running and tried to walk her through importing her address book; I will do it for her next time I go over- Linda D. called and we yapped for a while about composting our dead plants that had died from the frost- on his way to potluck Stoney came by with some of his homemade chili. He got to talk to my Sister Audrey while I dished myself some beans- went for my evening walk- did my studies- watched “Rosemary and Thyme” on PBS- fooled around with the computer the rest of the night.
Sunday 28- did my stretches and ran 3 miles- did my studies- went for my evening walk- Mike called from Hermosa Beach to say he is sick with the flu- watched “60 Minutes” on CBS, then “Nature” on PBS- Kath came by and picked up her computer I fixed- did some more of my studies.
Monday 29- my dear friend Agnes form Deer Park Washington called to say and that she was well- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode the bike, and lifted weights- started writing my column for the newspaper, finished it, and sent it to the newspaper- worked in the yard and cut some wood for the stove- dropped by Stoney’s for a visit (he baked cookies)- went for my evening walk- did my studies- Kath called and couldn’t get online; worked with her to until we solve the problem- watched “24” on CBS- Ron D. picked up all kinds of avocados from where he was staying in San Diego (because of the freeze they dropped out of the trees and they can’t sell them without the stem) and brought a truckload up here to give away to us desert folks- messed around with the computer and did some reading.
Tuesday 30- did my stretches and ran a mile- did my studies- Joel came by with his computer he wants me to backup and a Mexican casserole- Kath calls and asks me what type of monitor to buy- went for my evening walk- watched “CSI” on CBS- did some more reading and computer stuff.
Wednesday 31- did my stretches lifted weights- Seimi dropped by to lend me a book called “dancing in the dharma” by Sandy Boucher, we sat and jawed for a while- did some cleaning of the kitchen- went for my evening walk- did my studies- watched “Bones” on FOX- worked some on the computer. Good bye January! Ya have been a cold, windy, but productive month.

December 2006

Friday 01- Welcome to the month of December- did my stretches, lifted weights, and rode my bike- just goofed around outside watering plants and on the computer and just enjoyed the day- lots of folks emailing or calling telling how happy they are for me and asking when I am going to Tucson to visit my family and offering their help. Thanks everyone!- Joel came by with a broke computer that beeps when he turns it on. I will look at it tomorrow- went for my evening walk- watched “Vegas” on NBC (“Numbers” was a rerun).
Saturday 02- did my stretches and jogged a mile- Stoney came by with some breakfast for me from the community center- fixed Joel’s computer. I think the CD ROM is going out on it, did a clean and defragged it. He came by and picked it up and we jawed for a bit- went for my evening walk- did a lot of thinking and planning- called and talked to Shiela for an hour.
Sunday 03- did my stretches and jogged a mile- went over to Stoney’s to help him find a gas leak in the trailer. Plugged up two lines and it still leaked, so he had me connect the heater back and will check the stove’s pilot tomorrow. We had TV dinners and ate the rest of the pecan pie- went for my evening walk- Jerry and Barb called to say hi and congratulations- Katherine called and said she wants to bring her computer over to be reloaded; I told her after the holidays- Andrew called and we yapped a few minutes- thinking, planning, and working on “Project Tucson”.
Monday 04- did my stretches and jogged 3 miles- filled with dirt any place that a draft can get into the battery room where the Fat Cat sleeps- called Ruth T. and asked her for some info on Trudy Poe- left a message for Mary Helen to call me about Sandra’s email I had forwarded to her- started doing them Christmas cards I need to get out soon- Mac’s computer died and will lend him an old one when I get it back from Andrew- went for my evening walk- called Stoney and we yapped for a while about some history in these here parts. He told me of the lake down on Sunfair that they was building in the early seventies that held 60 million gallons of water supplied by to wells with big pumps. There were supposed to be two lakes; one for boating and fishing, and one for swimming. The Corp of Engineers were doing the digging, and the local Grange that was in the old bar was collecting donations by selling trees to folk and putting their names on them. It all came to an end when an earthquake hit and a big hole opened up draining the 60 million gallons in 20 minutes! They say it sounded like a freight train when it sucked all the water up- Mary Helen called and we got it squared away- wrote my column and sent it to the newspaper- continued to write them Christmas cards and seeing if a laptop can fit in a backpack.
Tuesday 05- did my stretches, rode the bike, and lifted weights- Stoney called and needs my help lifting his broken 37 inch TV out to Lee’s truck to take down to the repair shop. Lee picked me up on his way to Stoney’s and when we tried to lift the TV Lee had problems, so we called Andrew to come help. Afterwards Andrew drove me home and we downloaded some DMV forms he needs. Lee came by and has some kind of virus on his computer and Andrew went to Lee’s to fix- went for my evening walk- Andrew and then Mac came by. I had the laptop from Andrew to give to Mac all setup- Seimi called and we jawed for a while- watched “NCIS” on CBS- Joel called and I told him how he could help me with my project- the rest of the night I spent preparing for “Project Tucson” going through some pics and other memorabilia for my parents.
Wednesday 06- did my stretches and ran a mile- finished packing for the trip to Tucson and called my friends who will take me there to pickup backpack. and he came and picked up backpack- went to Stoney’s for a hot shower- went for my evening walk- watched “Bones” on CBS and finish putting everything together for tomorrow’s trip- went to bed early.
Thursday 07- woke up at the un-godly hour of 6:45am and was outside waiting for my friends to pick me up by 7, they didn’t show till 7:40- then I was wedged into the backseat on their small truck with the their nice dog who had bad breath for an 8 hour drive to Tucson. The route we took went through the Joshua Tree National Forest to Interstate 10 and pass the beautiful mesas and cactus covered hills of Arizona. A little into the state we hit smog and for the rest of the whole trip it spread as far as the eye can see, and I thought to myself what a shame it is for such a magnificent land that Arizona is to have such a sick veil covering it’s scenery. We made two stops on the way; one to eat breakfast at a rest stop, another to fuel up- we arrived Tucson at 5pm Az. time which is one hour ahead of us and hunted for the motel my big sister told me to go to. It was supposed to be an easy off ramp drop off but we ended up almost getting lost. For some reason I felt that this wasn’t right because Shiela said there was a Denny’s near it; there wasn’t, but there were strange people hanging about. My friends dropped me off and went on their way to Texas and I called Shiela who wouldn’t be getting off till 5:30pm I found out; so I waited, and waited. At 5:40 I get a call from her, “where are you!” she asked. “At the motel you said to go to” I says, “I’ll be there in a flash” she says; so I waited, and 10 minutes later she finds the motel and we hug and greet each other and for the first time ever I have touched my own flesh and blood kin! We went to Denny’s and I had some dinner and we jawed for a while and tried not to cry, then on to Paula’s home. Got big hugs there, met her husband Mark; who is a really nice guy, and their Daughter Laura and Granddaughter Isabel. Paula gave me a notebook she had put together on our family’s genealogy that she had updated to include me. She also brought out her picture album, that we jokingly called her “Me” album, she is so sweet! Paula has a very thoughtful and kind soul. My little Brother Kevin came over and I found that I immediately liked him and started picking on him like all Big Brothers do! Then on to Mom and Dad’s home. Shiela and Kevin went with me to their home, Shiela more for support because I really trust her, except for her navigation skills, she is very wise and caring. This first acquaintance with Mom and Dad was a really significant experience for me, and kind of awkward for me and Dad at first because we where both told that we were dead; just one more twist in this strange episode of my birth, but I soon felt welcomed and felt comfortable. I gave Mom a big hug and gave her that gift that I had be keeping since I was a child, my baby shoe. Mom says that she never got the chance to see me as a baby cause the nurses took me from her. Dad, I gave a handshake to, and found that his grip is firm and strong, and he has a good sense of humor, kind of like mine. Audrey soon showed and we had more hugs! Audrey is very intelligent and has an easy going personality that I like. Shiela and Audrey left and after Mom and Dad went to bed, me and Kevin stayed up and jawed late into the night. When he left I went to my room and found the “family” picture albums and spent some time going through them. I am finding that I have a little bit of each of my family in myself and that they have a bit of me in each of them, too. A whole new experience for me for sure!
Friday 08- did my stretches- got up and cooked myself some oatmeal when Paula and Shiela came by and we all yapped for a while- Shiela, Mom and Dad, and I went for lunch at the Village Inn. Shiela had her own "ME" album and we paged through it looking at pics of places in the world she has been then afterwards Shiela had to go to work at a special education class where 8 year olds beat her up. I had a moment alone with Mom and Dad and told them the they ought to feel mighty proud for the family they razed. Then I went with Mom to her studio where she showed me her paintings; she is very talented artist and she let me pick out two for myself to take home- Kevin came by and then his Daughter Crystal showed up a little later and gave me a big hug; she seemed truly excited to meet me. Crystal is 21 years old and is married and has 4 dogs (her kids). She is highly energetic, kind of a brat but in a good way. Kevin and Crystal went on a walk with me through the neighborhood showing me the houses which gave out bad treats (Coco puffs, apples, and raisins) and to avoid them during Halloween. Our family has been living in this neighborhood since 1970. We met up with John who is Audrey’s fiancé and a big guy, knows about wireless networking, has his own business installing wireless, and has been to many third world countries setting them up- Kevin and John went to get Audrey’s mouse and drink some beer. Crystal stayed for dinner with me her uncle, Mom and Dad. Crystal was mostly brought up in this house and showed me where she sat in a chair in front of the Grandfather clock when she had chickenpox as a child. She knows web design, goes to college, and works at a pizza shop, she is a good kid and very outspoken like her Dad! Kevin showed up a little after Crystal left and we listened to Dad tell a stories about when he was on a Liberty ship in the Pacific working in the boiler room where the temp stayed a constant 110 degrees! We all swapped stories about sharks in the ocean and our travels in Europe- Candy a friend of Kevin’s for Intuit drops by and her and Kevin go out for Chinese food- Mom and Dad retire to the living room to watch TV and read (Mom) and do puzzles (Dad) from the day’s newspaper. I can only limit my attention and focus on one thing at a time, so I ended up watching bits of the shows and having bits of conversations with Dad. Read a little more of Nathaniel Philbrick’s “Mayflower” which one of our Ancestors arrived at Plymouth on. Ok, I know this sounds too dang good for a guy who just the day before Thanksgiving didn’t have “flesh and blood” kin, to a guy who has Ancestors from the Mayflower and a wonderful family! Yup, dang weird but true! And right now is the luckiest man on the face of this here planet!
Saturday 09- did my stretches- went into Dad’s study to yapped some and he showed me his collection of plates and miniature paintings on tiny easels; which was a surprise! My Dad is a man of few words until you get him talking about something he is passionate about, and then he opens up. He is very knowledgeable on many subjects- went on a 3 mile walk- stopped off at Audrey’s home on the way back. She said that Mom and Dad are going for a car drive after lunch and that she is going too. Audrey introduced me to her Daughter (my Niece) Stephanie and I got another hug. Stephanie is going to college and is very passionate about music- got back and had lunch. Dad showed helped me with the computer connection so I could get online. He told me about Hank the family hound dog of many years ago, who jumped at a June Bug and landed in the pool that they have in the backyard; he saw the dog sink to the bottom while still barking at the June Bug! Then we and Mom drove over and picked up Audrey and set out to go to Mount Lemon which is about 40 miles away and some 9,000 feet high. Lots of sharp curves going up to the top but a very nice view of Tucson.
Spent most of the time getting to know a lot more about my sister Audrey, in that we had some of the same problems as we grew up and had solved them about the same way. We had some wild tales to tell each other! I got some really nice pics of the folks at Marshal Gulch and Windy Point- Mom cooked tacos for dinner and Kevin, Crystal an her husband Mark (who is a really huge and nice guy), Shiela and her Daughter Susie showed up to jaw a while- after everyone left Dad put on one of his collections of the “The Dean Martin Show” and we watched “Law and Order” afterwards- got online and did my weekend update and answered my emails finally and one was an email from Shiela which contained a forward from my sister Donna.
Sunday 10- did my stretches and went on a 2 mile walk and stopped at Jesse Owens Park to watch a baseball game between the “Astros and the Read Socks“ (the Astros were wining)- Shiela and Kevin came by and we yapped some- had spaghetti or dinner- went for my evening walk- me and Dad went to the store for groceries- watched “Cold Case” and then some other show- went online to checked my emails and then settled down to read “Mayflower”.
Monday 11- went to Paula’s home where Laura and her Daughter Isabel; Cassandra and her Daughter Holly and Son Mark, were there. I got to play outside will the kids for a while and then Laura went to Jack and the Box to pickup some lunch for everyone. After we left me and Dad dropped Mom off at home and we went to get me some new shoes that I needed very badly- Went on a walk to Jesse Owens Park and had a quick talk with a crossing guard named John Wilber Smith who is seventy five and used to teach Little League until his knees gave out. He was said he was present when the League first started in Tucson- had the leftover spaghetti from last night and went for a walk. When I returned Shiela was there in the kitchen and we sat for a bit and yapped until she had to leave- watched TV with the folks until Audrey came by and we jawed for a while and then we went over to her house to meet her sons (my nephews) Clint and Troy, who are very intelligent, and athletic twins. They were on the computer and I was able to finagle it from them to show them my website and a few other things I have online. Then John lead me into what Audrey calls the “Pit” where he has all kinds of computer equipment! Yes! I would have stayed longer but I had to get home before the folks went to bed and I was locked out. I have so much in common with my little sister Audrey- started writing my column and finished it; sent it to the newspaper.
Tuesday 12- did my stretches- drove with Dad to take Mom to her friend Babe’s home for coffee, we went home and then picked her up an hour later. We went shopping at Fry’s, a supermarket in Az. where I mailed off my Christmas cards and bought pizza- talked to Paula who is upset about Cassandra and the kids, who when they arrived in Phoenix on their way to Montana, found that the mother of her boyfriend had left the door locked and Cassandra had to leave her belongings in the backyard. Me and Paula (and about everyone else) think that Cassandra‘s boyfriend should had got a job first before he brings the rest of the family up to a very cold Montana- we had lunch of leftover tacos, went for a walk to the park, and continued to read the “Mayflower” when I got back- we had pizza dinner and Kevin dropped over to talk to Dad, so I went for another walk- read some more of the book when I got back and then I went for one more walk; to do some thinking and look at the Christmas lights that decorate the houses near by- got back in time to watch “NCIS” on CBS with Mom and Dad. I like watching TV with them because I wont be seeing them for a while and will dearly miss them when I leave on Thursday. I made the decision on my walk. I really don’t want to leave my “Family” but I feel that if I leave now it would be best so that everyone can come to grips with the situation and have some breathing room until my next visit, and the fact that I‘d never leave if given the chance- called up Crystal to find out how her day went because I had heard she had some excitement the night before and I asked her if she had gotten any new tattoos (inside joke)- read more of the “Mayflower”- got a lot of thinking to do.
Wednesday 13- Dad had to take Mom to the doctor so I hung around the house cause I haven’t a key to get back inside, so I postponed my walk and read “Mayflower” till they came back which was suppose to be around 9 but they came back at noon and Mom missed her weekly lunch with her friends that was at 10am- Kevin, Crystal, Mark her boy friend, Shiela and her daughter Suzy showed up as we were eating dinner- later on after dinner when it was dark I went for a walk with Mom to look at the Christmas lights on the neighborhood houses and then we stopped over at Audrey’s house and jawed with John, Kevin, and Clint for a while, took some pictures and went in the “Pit” and talked a bunch of computer talk. Then John took me and Kevin out side to his barn where he has a machine shop and he showed us more of his “Toys”- got back home and watched some TV with the folks- started packing for the trip tomorrow.
Thursday 14- got up at 7am so Dad could take me to the Greyhound Bus terminal. It was tuff to say goodbye to Mom and she kept on waving to us as garage door slid shut. When we arrived I had my bags searched and myself scanned with a wand by security guard who spoke very bad English and probably was from some Caribbean island. Dad sat we me at the terminal till I was loaded on the bus and we talked about many things and got to know each other a little bit more- on the bus there was no room except all the way in the rear where I sandwiched myself between two guys whose names were Armando and Michael. Armando was on the bus for four days out of Miami and was heading for Los Angeles. Michael got on when I did and is headed for Portland via Los Vegas. Armando conversed with some fellow Latino travelers in the seats in front of us and they shared some sort of alcohol concealed in a bag which they’d pass back and forth yapping and laughing while Michael fell asleep and stayed that way for most of the two hour trip to Phoenix- transferred to a new bus and was on the way to Palm Springs with a seat of my own! We made two stops; one to pickup a gal, and the other for a rest stop for our driver. At the rest stop we were aloud to get off the bus and get food at Mc Donald’s and had to be back at the bus by 2:35pm. I had a Big Mac and fries and sat by the bus so as not to miss it. Some short heavyset fellow passenger smoking a cigarette came up to me and asked how much longer we had till the bus left. I told him we had 10 minutes left. He turned around and walked into the city of Blythe, Ca. and I never seen him again. I started calling Stoney, to arrange pickup in Palm Springs bus station, and when I couldn’t get a hold of him I talked to Andrew on his cell and he said he’d pick me up if Stoney wasn’t available. Two new passengers boarded, and older couple, who were headed down to San Diego and then Cabo San Lucas for a twenty two hours bus ride! They said it will cost them $180 each one-way. For many miles as we approached Indio and Palm Springs we could see a thick smog drape over the horizon. We arrived in Indio where the restrooms are filthy and the neighborhood is in decay; for a 20 minutes driver’s rest. I finally got a hold of Stoney and he said he is on his way to Palm Springs now. Arriving at Palm Springs I retrieved my backpack from the luggage compartment of the bus, thanked the driver, and only waited 20 minuets for my friend Stoney for the drive back home and the comforts of my own bed. My Fat Cat was really glad to see me and met me at the gate with a meow.
Friday 15- just got up and Stoney, Lee, and Andrew were honking for me to come with them to help carry Stoney’s 37inch TV into his home. That dang TV is very heavy but we got it in, hooked it up, turned it on, and sat around jawing about my trip- did my stretches and jogged a half a mile- watered the plants and stated getting my house in order after the chaos I had left it in when I left for my trip- went for my evening walk- Andrew dropped by and then Joel with my mail. Joel took care of Fat Cat while I was gone and I thanked him for that- worked on the weekend update and sent out the newsletter- watched “Numbers” on CBS- continued to work on computer and my blog the rest of the night.
Saturday 16- really windy and cloudy today, so I did my stretches and lifted weights- called Mom in Tucson to let her know I made it home alright- did some work around the house- went over to Stoney’s for fried chicken and gravy. It was mighty good- worked on catching up on some computer work I need to get done- I think I have caught a bit of a cold today.
Sunday 17- found my fiberglass septic tank on the side of the road when I woke up and had to roll it back on to my property and secured it down. The winds yesterday night where gusting to about 50mph- I wanted to run today but I have a little bit of a cold so I just did my stretches- had my breakfast and had just gotten off the computer when Stoney called for some help moving Sue’s trailer over to Gail’s yard. It took a couple of hours and when done we had some leftover chicken and gravy from yesterday. I tagged along with Stoney when he went to Staters and I picked up some more supplies I needed- will continue to read “Mayflower” tonight.
Monday 18- really chilly and windy and I’m still getting over a cold, so I just did my stretches- mostly read “Mayflower” and wrote my column and sent it to the newspaper- recorded another version of “Love Will Find A Way Home” and downloaded it to my website. I will release the song under a Creative Commons license so that others may share it, perform it, but not change it, or make money off of the song. (That’s if folks like it or even care to listen to it) Meaning that I reserve all rights to it.
Tuesday 19- still dang chilly (39 degrees) and the wind are still blowing but not as bad as yesterday. I’m feeling much recovered from my cold and decided that I’d better start my routine again, so I did my stretches, jogged a mile and lifted weights (I don’t think that I’ll exercise tomorrow)- called Stoney and he said there was snow on the ground when he went outside at 8am. I went to his house to help him cover his swamp cooler so the cold air doesn’t blow into his kitchen- Dale from Landers called- went for my evening walk- read more “Mayflower” (I’m a slow reader)- watched “NCIS” on CBS, then spent the rest of the night updating some files on the computer.
Wednesday 20- did my stretches- I’m still feeling a little under the weather so I’ll stick around the house today- Joel dropped off my mail and left some donuts; Yumm- worked around the yard and did some clean up- Stoney came by with some home made peanut butter cookies- worked on my conked out Dell 733 computer and replaced a ribbon that had broken and was the reason the hard drive was not recognized by the BIOS- went for my evening walk- watched “Bones” on CBS- Mike from Hermosa called- My dear friend Lenore Gross call and we caught up on the events in our lives.
Thursday 21- did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights- Andrew came by on his run and we jawed for a bit and I printed out some tickets he bought his Mom. He asked me if I’d come over later and help him pull some stitches out of Monica’s paw; I said ok- called Mary Helen and left a message about Sandra’s check for the Christmas food basket. Called Stoney and he said Mary Helen was doing the shopping for it today and would probably cash it then- Went for my evening walk- Andrew came by and picked me up and pulled some stitches from Monica and then we watched 4 episodes of “Cosmos” and then a movie called “The Red Planet” staring Val Kilmer, and I got home around 12:30- started doing the weekend update for the website.
Friday 22- did my stretches- I’m still having remains of the cold and decided to just spend the day reading and doing nothing; which I did.
Saturday 23- did my stretches and ran half a mile- called Dan A. and wished him a happy holiday- Dale from Landers called and we yapped some- Jimmy Stonebraker called to tell me he’d be down at Stoney’s house on Wednesday- a Bob Ascherin called about a story I wrote a few weeks ago of the lakes down on Sunfair, and he has an article from the seventies with pictures he is willing to lend to me!- called Stoney and he invited me over for chicken and dumplings- Andrew called and I went over and pulled the rest of the stitches out of Monica’s paw and watched some science programs and then “Rosemary and Thyme” on PBS.
Sunday 24- woke up at 5:20am with a really bad stomach ache. Must have ate to many dumplings. I ended up taking caster oil for it- Scott and Anita called to wish me a merry- Roger T. called to tell me he got a laptop from his brother- Stoney called and invited me over for dinner, but I told him I’ll pass on it because of my stomach ache- did my stretches, run half a mile, lifted weights, and rode the bike- spent a few hours calling friends and family to wish them a merry- went for my evening walk- Jerry and I finally connected on the phone and yapped about the old grave he found. He went up there today and filled in the 2 foot hold the Police dug into it. Seemed like the proper thing to do on Christmas Eve, Jerry said- watched the new version of “Miracle on 34th Street” which was pretty dang good, and then caught the last half of “It’s a Wonderful Life” where George saves Clarence who jumped over the bridge to save him from suicide, to the end.
Monday 25- Merry Christmas- I did my stretches and ran 3 miles as a present to myself- Started calling some more friends and family to wish them all a Marry. Got a hold of Audrey and we had a very nice talk- dropped by Roger T’s home to jaw and have eggnog- hopped up on my “trusty” scooter and rode the six miles to my mailbox only to discover that I had the wrong set of keys- went to Stoney’s where we had Christmas dinner (TV dinners) and then he was very kind and drove me to my mailbox where I found many a Christmas card from my Family waiting for me there- left messages for my family who were at Audrey’s for dinner. Called Kevin who was at home with Crystal- went and checked on my friend’s dogs while he is away- called my Dad and Mother in Tucson- my dear friend Linda Clark called and we chatted about old times where we use to live- Paula my sister called and we talked about family and what it means- stoked up the wood stove and started writing my column for the newspaper.
Tuesday 26- did my stretches, ran 3 miles, and lifted weights. I don’t usually run 3 miles back to back but the weather report says it going to be really windy tomorrow- stopped and talked to Biker Ron while on my run. Look like he’s moving in for a long stay- did some work around the house and cleaned the dirt off my solar panels- went for my evening walk- watched “Nova” on PBS- continued to read “Mayflower”.
Wednesday 27- yup it’s real windy just like the Weather Service said in their report yesterday. My outhouse was almost blown over and I had to prop it up with 2by4s, everything else is ok except a roll of toilet paper escaped from the outhouse and unraveled in the yard and I had to round it all up! So I just did my stretches today- called AAA and cancelled my insurance for the truck until I get it fixed- continued to read “Mayflower”- went for my evening walk- watched “Bones” on CBS-finished reading “Mayflower”.
Thursday 28- still very windy- did my stretches and lifted weights- went over to Stoney’s where Jimmy and his family are visiting. When I pulled up on my “trusty” scooter, Jim was working on an old Honda 90 that had been sitting stored in a shed for 15 years or so. I was handed a ham sandwich by Angela and started helping fix the Honda. I went for my evening walk by pushing Jim up and down the driveway trying to get the Honda started, which turned out to be a no go. Had dinner at Stoney’s and watched Jim play with his new toy helicopter. Everyone got a hand piloting it and it got pretty torn up in the process- I went home and found my friends Mac, his son Dennis, and Stuart in my driveway checking to see if I was ok because they haven’t heard from me for a few days. I thought that was very nice of them and took some pics of Mac’s bunny slippers- was just settling down and about to light the wood stove when Jim called and said Stoney’s computer was logging into a remote computer when it went online! Well I jumped on my “trusty” scooter to check it out but it turned out to be nothing. So they all had to sit around (I love a captive audience) while I showed them my websites and blog and downloaded my song and played it for them! Afterwards we drove to my house and brought my telescope over, trained it on the Moon and Orion, and everyone took turns looking into the eye piece- worked on my website for the weekend update and sent out the newsletter.
Friday 29- did my stretches and ran 3 miles- Barb and Jerry came by and brought me a nice clock that even tells the temperature as a gift- Linda S. dropped by an borrowed 5 gallons of gas so she can get to town and will replace it later- a neighbor, Annalice, called and needs some help on her Dell 2100 computer. Spent the better part of the day working on it only to find that it has more Trojans, worms, and viruses on it than any computer I have ever worked on! Supposedly Dell is sending her a disk with XP on it, MS98SE is running on it now, and I told her that it would be better to wait till she gets the disks and load the new OS. Met her husband Jim, and friends Rob and Butch. All are musicians and Annalice writes books. She autographed one for me but I forgot it and will pick it up later. They all seem like mighty nice folks. Went for my evening walk while at Annalice’s home and the anti-virus program was running- Joel left an apple pie in my mailbox, cool- called Stoney’s and talked to everyone and heard that Jimmy fell off the Honda 90 while trying to start it being towed by Stoney in his SUV. He has all kinds of abrasions over his body and pain in his ribs. I bet that hurts- Ron and Linda called to say hi and we yapped for a while- watched “Numbers” on CBS, “South Park” on KCAL, and rapped up the evening with “Charlie Rose” talking to some IT bigwigs.
Saturday 30- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode the bike, and lifted weights- Linda S. returned the gas she borrowed yesterday- went over to Stoney’s and jawed with Jimmy and his family while their two little dogs, Aggie and Mickey, yapped and played. They are leaving tomorrow and invited me to go to potluck with them and it was hard to turn them down; so I went. Took some pics while I was there, saw some old friends, and ate way too much. I think I’ll need to run 3 miles tomorrow to burn it all off- went for my evening walk- watched “Rosemary and Thyme” on PBS- messed around on the computer some.
Sunday 31- did my stretches and ran 3 miles- called up a few folks to wish them a happy New Year- backed up files and then reloaded MS XP on my Toshiba laptop. It was running sluggish probably because of the two Linux OS I have and all the other programs I test out. I do this a few times a year so it ain’t no big deal- went for my evening walk- Linda D. picked me up to get some pieces of broken cement slab that someone had dumped, that she wants to use as pavers in her backyard- watched “60 Minutes” on CBS- updated the calendar on the website to Jan 2007- finished reading “365 Starry Nights” by Chet Raymo. Goodbye 2006 you’ve been a very good year!

This year I have accomplished a few goals that I had put forth last New Years: I quit chewing tobacco and now I’m addicted to nicotine gum. And I quit drinking coffee. I practice my guitar every night and have written a few new songs. I had been exercising for many years but had decided to increase them (weather permitting) to everyday, and got my running distance up to 3 miles. I go for a walk most every evening, and do my stretches too. I have been eating better, try to stay away from donuts, cookies, (at least I don’t buy them) and soft drinks. I’ve taken computer courses online (JavaScript, Servers, Intro to XML, PC Troubleshooting, and a few more). I have also been studying; Biology (I am very interested in cellular Biology, but find it mighty hard) , History, Astronomy, Meteorology, and Geology. I have cut the time I watch TV down to a few hours a week, and I don’t watch the news on the “tube” anymore but get it off the web.
What I like to do next year is continue to do these and add a few more. I would like to do: Hiking, learn Photography, a Programming Language, and some Math.
My Family has found me and this throws a new prospective on my life that I need to fully absorb, to understand, to nurture and incorporate into my being. This will take time.

November 2006

Wednesday 01- Welcome to the month of November- did my stretches and ran about three miles (once around the block)- got a call from Stoney; he needs help getting tires on and towing an old trailer that he bought from Chad. So that’s what I did most of the afternoon- Joel dropped off some pics that he wants integrated into his website- went for my evening walk- Andrew came by for a visit and showed off his newest tech device- Joel came by with donuts-watched “Bones” on Fox- finished the night reading.
Thursday 02- did my exercises– Roger T. called about a laptop he wants to purchase- worked on the weekend update of the website- My truck’s clutch is slipping and I don’t want to drive very far till I get it fixed so my good friend Ron D. picked up the rice I had ordered at JT Health Food when he was in town- jacked up the truck and checked out the transmission fluid; drained some of it out to have a look see if it was bad, but it looked ok to me- did some reading- went for my evening walk- watched PBS “Visiting ... With Huell Howser” it was a pre-opening Griffith Observatory Special with Dr. E.C. Krupp. Then watched “CSI” on CBS. Gosh! A whole two hours of TV in one night- Mike from Hermosa Beach called and yapped for an hour- was online and found and a IBM ThinkPad 390X P II 400 MHZ laptop at a decent price and ordered it. Maybe I can fix it up and resell it and make a few bucks.
Friday 03- did my stretches and ran about three miles- wrestled with changing my “trusty” scooter’s tube on the rear tire so I’ll have some transportation around these parts since my “faithful” truck took a dump. I guess it is a dump truck now. Anyways something wrong with the transmission, I’ll have to contemplate on it for a while to see what’s the best way to deal with it- got an email from the company that I purchase the IBM laptop from last night and they state that they can’t deliver it to my address where I reside cause it doesn’t match the address for the credit card. I told them that I live in the desert and that I am 6 miles from my mail box. They want me to send a copy of my drivers license and credit card and fill out a form I told them no way and that I will call up Visa and have my home address added to my card. After I did that I called the laptop company back and they ran it through again and it still wasn’t added. The guy at Visa told me the change would happen instantaneously but the lady at the laptop company said Visa told her it would take two hours. So instantaneously in two hours would be if Visa were on Pluto sending it to Earth, I told her. Then she tells me that the laptops are first come first served and that the one I had ordered is no longer available and then tried to sell me a lesser model; well that ain’t happening and told her to forget the whole dang thing- rode the scooter over to Stoney’s, he and Sue were cleaning out the trailer that she just purchased from him- got home and Sam from UPS drove up with Stoney’s new Dell computer. Sam is a good friend and had suffered a knee injury a few months ago and is now back to work. I brought him up to speed on what’s been happening around here- went for my evening walk- watched “Numbers” on CBS.
Saturday 04- did my stretches and lifted weights- Joel came by with the mail- Stoney picked me and his new Dell up and took us all over to his house so I could setup the computer; spent five hours doing the setup and security updates from Microsoft. He also brought breakfast for me from the community center (pancakes, eggs and hash browns, biscuits and gravy, and bacon and sausages). I did my evening walk over at Stoney’s mostly to burn off that big breakfast- got home and found that my answering machine’s plug was loose and missed any calls- Dale from Landers called- watched “Rosemary and Thyme” on PBS and “Law and Order” on NBC.
Sunday 05- did my exercises– just did some cleaning around the house and did some reading- Joel came by for a visit and dropped off some vittles- went for my evening walk and tried to take a picture of the full Moon but the sky was too hazing. My idea was to include the phases of the Moon on the website’s calendar and use the pics of the Moon that I took myself instead of some generic ones I found on the web. I will keep on trying- messed around with my very old Dell laptop running Win 95 and was successful in loading Basic Linux on it.
Monday 06- did my stretches and lifted weights- Stoney came by to checkout my truck’s transmission and John M. came by also and they both offered me their help. We figured it was best to drain the fluid out of it and remove the pan and check and see if there is any metal shaving and if the filter is stopped up. After they left I drained it and will remove the pan tomorrow- Ron D. came by with some split pea soup he cooked up- Joel brought by some eggs he don’t need- went for my evening walk- just messed around with the computers and talked to Andrew for a while- found an astronomy program that will run on my very, very old Contura 4/25 laptop that runs Win 3.1 and loaded it up and it runs nicely. Now it may be useful again.
Tuesday 07- did my exercises– started writing column for the newspaper- called Stoney and he says he can’t makeup his mind to go to the store or not. I told him if he decides to go let me know; he was over in less than ten minutes and we went to Staters in 29 Palms- dropped the pan on the transmission and had a look see. All kinds of nuts, wires, solenoids, and gears, yikes! Not much in the way of metal shavings in the pan or on the magnet. Tomorrow I will take the filter out and check it- Stuart dropped by a note to put in my column- went for my evening walk- finished writing column and sent it in- watched “Nova” on PBS.
Wednesday 08- did my stretches and ran three miles- Mac called and we talked about my transmission and what may be wrong. I will need to study the mechanic’s manual before I attempt anything- worked on the bathroom which has a lot of construction left to complete- Ron D. called and told me about a car dealership in Palm Springs working on his car left him stranded and standing for three hours in front of Star Bucks. A Cop stopped and asked him what he was doing and a few men tried but failed to pickup on him, but he was able to asked for the use of their cell phone to call the dealership- went for my evening walk- watched “Bones” on CBS- watched “War Planes” on PBS, dang I watched 3 hours of TV in one night!
Thursday 09- did my exercises- Chuck, Joseph, and Andrew dropped by to look at the VW bus and to say hi- drove the scooter to my mailbox which is 6 miles away and dropped over to jaw with Lee a bit- did some reading on this new biology book I got. Reading about DNA, RNA, and Protein Synthesis, a chemical process. If you think I fully understand all this yer wrong, but I keep on struggling through it in the hopes that one day I may understand a little of it (Maybe I should just stick with computers)- went for my evening walk- watched “CSI” on CBS- started work on the website for the weekend update.
Friday 10- did my stretches- worked in the yard doing some gardening- some angry old woman, who didn’t give her name, called yelling at me over the phone about a story I had written for the Hi Desert Star where an Officer was shot a few weeks ago; I hung up on her (I get these kind of calls once in a while and have learned not to get in an argument with them)- got out my two telescopes and cleaned all the optics and swapped the mounts between the two. I put the 90mm Mead on the equatorial mount and the Celestron 60mm on the azimuth mount- Stoney dropped by after he and Mary H. went to town to pickup soft drinks for the Coke machine at the center and ate Chinese- went for my evening walk- talked with Andrew on the phone and he told me of a movie he had a small part in recently and emailed me a picture- was going outside and was putting on my tennis shoes when I felt something fuzzy on the bottom of one and pulled it off. Yikes! It was a mouse head that the Cat had left outside on the ground and I had apparently stepped on it and brought it into the house- got the telescope setup and did some observing. The cleaning I did on the opticals really made a difference- watched “Numbers” on CBS.
Saturday 11- did my stretches and ran 3 miles- went to our community’s annual meeting at 1:30pm, they had already voted cause they’d gotten bored and didn’t wait till 2pm for the vote. The board members are: President Steve Tuttle, Vice President Stuart Watson, Second Vise President Chuck Sercu, Secretary and Treasurer Mary Helen Tuttle, Ray Foyil, Lee Hines, Brenda Zimmer, and Bob Seeley. I took some pics and jawed with everyone, most I haven’t seen for a while and found that I had missed them much. All in all I had a fine time. Chuck gave me a whole bunch of ribs to take home that I took over to Ron and Linda’s to share and gave the bones to Seimi’s dogs. Took some more pics of Stuart and Terry at the new thrift store that is housed in the old fire station, picked up some mounts for my telescopes that they had there that Stuart gracefully delivered to my home latter that night (no room on my “Trusty Scooter)- got home and had a really nice message from Frances who liked my “Thought for the Week” and is going to cut it out and put it on her refrigerator, now that’s cool! I like getting messages like that instead of yesterdays angry old woman call- it started to sprinkle a bit when I went for my evening walk- watched “Rosemary and Thyme” on PBS.
Sunday 12- did my exercises- did some yard work and cleaned up around the VW bus getting it ready for Chuck to tow out- Stoney called and invited me over for tacos at 4pm and I told him yes- called Chuck and he can’t make it today, so we’ll reschedule. We yapped some on starting an Astronomy club, and for folks to donate old computers that I can refurbish and give to kids who live in our area that don’t own one- did my evening walk early and then rode my “Trusty” scooter over to Stoney’s. We sat around and talked about many things; from the community center to an old 1924 Rolls Royce he’d owned scores of years ago and wondering how much it would be worth today. He bought it for $350 and sold it for $550- got home and watched “Nature” and then “Prime Suspect” on PBS.
Monday 13- Jerry and Barb called to say howdy, they read this blog daily, and wanted to talk about the community Board elections- did my stretches and ran 3 miles- was working in my yard deciding where to build some wind blocks when Stoney drove up and asked if I had an hour to spare helping him cut out a new rug for that van he sold to Sue, I said of course, and it took more than a hour but we had it cut and placed in the trailer in under two. After we finished the rug we finished off the leftover tacos from yesterday and then I went for my evening walk from Stoney’s- Roger T. called and we yapped about computers- did some computer work, started my column, and read some.
Tuesday 14- did my stretches and lifted weights- when I went outside this morning I found that the high winds of last night knocked a few things over, one was my tool chest- messed around the yard cleaning up and also cleaned the computer room and spent 2hrs downloading security updates for XP on my ThinkPad- Barb and Jerry called and said they’d left a copy of the newspaper with my story of the “Grave” in my mailbox around 10:30AM- went for my evening walk- did some reading and watched “Nova” on PBS that was about a "Family That Walks on All Fours" and then “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” with Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe (I don’t care much for the other two new detectives)- wrote my column and sent it to the newspaper- downloaded WAMP Server and WordPress on the Toshiba laptop and installed and got them working. Now I have a blog that is on a server on my laptop; very cool.
Wednesday 15- did my exercises and ran an extra 2 miles- drove my “Trusty” scooter to collect my mail- went to Stoney’s and helped him some and he gave me the rest of the rug he had left over from the trailer that I’ll use to cover my computer room- Steve T. came by and dropped off two Honda scooters which he gave me. His truck runs on vegetable oil and smells like French fries. He may be interested in that Lister generator of mine and will save it for him and let him know first if anyone else wants it- went for my evening walk- did some reading in the biology book- watched “Bones” on CBS and then “War Planes” on PBS.
Thursday 16- did my exercises- Andrew came by and we just had to start messing around with them Honda scooters and found that the fuel regulators need to be replaced- went to Stoney’s and cut and positioned a rug in the bathroom of the trailer and then we ate watermelon- Ron D. picked me up some supplies from Staters and I drove to his home to get them and also to have a look see at his cement job he’d did on his foundation- went for my evening walk- read some and then cleaned and moved all the cabinets from the computer room to prepare it for the new carpet that I will lay tomorrow- watched “CSI” on CBS- did weekend update of website and uploaded it to server- it was a really nice night out with good “SEEING” so I took out the telescope and did some observing.
Friday 17- did my stretches- installed the new carpet in the computer room, which took the better part of the day, and it looks really nice- called my Stepmother and wished her a happy birthday (I actually sung it to her)- went for my evening walk- watched “Numbers” on CBS.
Saturday 18- did my exercises- washed clothes and hung them out to dry- setup my old Dell desktop in the computer room and it couldn’t find the hard drive and failed to boot after I added 256 meg of RAM, so I got to trouble shoot my own computer. After trying a different hard drive and a few other ideas, it finally came down to just putting in the boot disk and rebooting- Mike from Hermosa called and talked about computers- Dale from Landers called and we yapped- went for my evening walk- drove my “Trusty” scooter over to visit Stoney; he was in the trailer he’s selling Sue fixing a few things- jawed with Andrew for a while about people and computers- took the Celestron telescope out early tonight. I really like its 2 inch eyepiece that gives me a larger and richer field of view than the 1.25 inch on my other telescope- watched “Rosemary and Thyme” on PBS- worked on website and did some reading.
Sunday 19- Andrew, using my home as the halfway point, dropped over while doing his jog so I joined him on a jog back to his house and I continued on for a total of 3 miles- Andrew called later and asked if I would show him the old mines over in Copper Mountain. I told him to come on over- before we left exploring we saw a lady in the field behind my place and she appeared to be having car problems so we went there to help. Turns out that she is with her two babies and her husband checking out the property they had purchased and was trying to figure out where the borders were. Their names are Mike and Betty from Tarzana Ca. and they seem to be really nice folks so we spent the next hour helping them and answering lots of questions about these here parts-
finally made it to the old copper mines and it was a good thing that we took the Jeep cause there are some very tricky passages on the way there. The first mine went back about 200 feet and we kept hitting our heads on some outcroppings that hung from the ceiling. There were a lot of beer cans and places were folks had campfires and had painted graffiti on the walls. The next mine was farther up the mountain and went back about the same as the first but in the middle it had two passages that sprang to the left and right.This mine was a lot cleaner with more headroom but we still managed to hit our heads a few times. Got some good pics of the mines and then left before the sunset so we could navigate the ruff terrain going down the mountain- watched “Nature” and then “Prime Suspect” on PBS.
Monday 20- did my exercises- Stoney dropped me off some groceries and invited me over to his home to have dinner with Denny, Judy, and Dustin at 5pm- started writing my column for the newspaper to get it in early because of the holiday. Think I’ll write about the mines and the winter of 2004. Now I just got to come up with a “Thought of the Week”- paid a visit to my neighbor John M. who has his wife, daughter and son-in-law staying there for a while. Right now the pluming is stopped up and they are trying to locate the septic tank; there are holes they’d dug all over the place looking for it- Andrew dropped by for a chat and he went on my evening walk with me- went over to Stoney’s for dinner and had a great time yapping with everyone. Denny was barbequing pork steaks and they sure were good! Sure was nice visiting them, and Dustin is really growing up and I think he may even be a really smart kid. I ate so much that when I got home I laid down and fell asleep for an hour or so- finished my column and sent it into the newspaper.
Tuesday 21- did my stretches and jogged 3 miles- Andrew called and said he’d be over later tonight to pickup computer for Chuck, so I got it ready and put a modem in it- did some reading- Linda D. called and has a movie for me called “What The Bleep” and I drove my scooter over to pick it up- went for my evening walk- watched the movie and then “Nova” on PBS- Andrew came by to collect the computer and stayed a while when I got the telescope out and showed him the Andromeda Galaxy and Orion’s Belt.
Wednesday 22- did my exercises- rode my “Trusty” scooter down to collect my mail- fooled around the house- Mike from Hermosa called asking my opinion on a laptop. I told him that Dell, HP, Toshiba, or IBM are good brands- went for my evening walk- called to touch base with: Mac, Roger T., Ron D., and Andrew- messed around on the computers the rest of the night- got an email from my friend Kula with pics of her and Tom getting married! I am so pleased and happy for them. I have known Kula for many, many years. I sent her a reply saying that it looks like Tom is holding her up! What do you think?
Thursday 23- did my stretches and jogged 3 miles- Mike from Hermosa called to say Happy Thanksgiving- checking my emails there was one from a Kevin with the subject line: Fishing Expedition, and it had an attachment on it. Well I didn’t know any Kevin, I thought it maybe spam or a virus so I put it in the junk mail. Later I decided to open and read it without opening the attachment and what I found written was a life changing experience. And once I sort out this scattered jigsaw puzzle of my brain that this email has created I may share it or not with readers of this blog (if there are any). All I can say now is it is most private and personal to me - Stoney called and invited me over for Thanksgiving and I accepted- Roger T. called and invited me over and I told him thanks but I was going over to Stoney’s- Ron D. brought over a dish full of turkey dinner! I got some mighty nice friends out here and that’s what counts in life, not money, nor possessions, but friends- went over to Stoney’s and had dinner with his family and did my evening walk there with Dustin- did the weekly update on the website- watched “CSI” on CBS.
Friday 24- did the full workout and ran 3 miles (I meditate on things when I run)- most of the day is a blear to me after receiving more emails from Kevin with some more pictures and another very nice email, that made me feel wanted, from his sister Shiela. This is possibly the most marvelous event to happen in my life and I don’t want to mess it up, but I must tell them the truth and get that part out of the way even though it may hurt. I just don’t want to lose them now- got a call from Jimmy saying that he is going to be at his father’s (Stoney) tomorrow and asked me to swing by- went for my long evening walk- Ron D. called and I told him of the emails from Kevin and he said I am handling it right and is mighty happy for me- Andrew called and needed help holding one of his dogs down so he can tape its torn paw- went to watch “Numbers” on CBS but the UHF transmitter that we rely on was down (must be too cold for it) so I called Andrew who has Direct TV to tape it for me- spent the rest of the night thinking.
Saturday 25- did my stretches and only ran 1 mile (thought I’d better not over do it on the running and meditating part)- gotten emails from my brother Kevin, and my sisters Paula and Shiela today (I can call them that now because that’s who they are and have always been). Got the torn pictures of me that clinched it all and left no doubt in my mind. Received the reason “why” from Paula and Shiela that I’ve been searching a lifetime for, and that I accept without reservations. I have two more sisters Donna and Audrey, and Mom and Dad are still around. Life is a mysterious and wonderful journey. You see; I was adopted and didn’t know my real family existed until I opened that email from Kevin on Thanksgiving Day. There’s more to the story but that’s “Family” business- went over to Stoney’s for a visit with him, Jimmy, Cloris, and their daughter Angela. They are saving me a piece of pecan pie that Jimmy’s mother-in-law made (she was there too). They all went on to potluck at the community center and I went home to attend “Family” business (had a lot of emails to read, reread and reply to)- went for my evening walk- Mike from Hermosa called and I gave him the wonderful news.
Sunday 26- did my stretches- more emails from my family and more replies to do. I answer them all individually and it takes much time, but like I wrote Paula, it is worth it to me- Stoney called and I told him the wonderful news about my family. I told him to save me some of that pecan pie for tomorrow cause I’m to busy today- Ron came by with some split pea soup he made- went for my evening walk- Mike from Hermosa called and we yapped some- went back to the emails and tried to give a brief history of my life from age 17 when I went into the Army, till now. I have found that I do tend to drive folks away from me when I think they are getting to close; survival instinct I guess. I think this time it’s different. Besides being my family they seem like kind and decent folks.
Monday 27- I awakened at 11:40am! I had stayed up till around 3:30am writing and reading emails to and from my family. I’ve been going like this since Thanksgiving Day and my body said enough and made me sleep a whole 8 hours- really cold and windy outside today so I ran a mile and lifted weights. Oh yes, I did do my stretches first- called Stoney and was going to go over for some pecan pie but he has company over. I told him to hide the pie- was looking through some old boxes when I came across my old college notebooks that I will sort through and send the good stuff to my family(we got a lot of catching up to do)- went for my evening walk and it is still windy and cold- got a nice fire going in the wood stove and went back on the computer. I need to get started writing my column for the paper tonight.
Tuesday 28- dang cold outside again, but no wind- I did my stretches and ran 3 miles- went back online and finished replying to some emails and scanned some pics into my computer and emailed them to my family- Sam the UPS guy dropped by with my delivery of a SD Flash card for my Kodak camera and Fostex recorder and I played with them some- went for my evening walk- watched “NCIS” on CBS- it is getting mighty cold outside and the wind came up so I started a fire to thaw me old bones out- finished writing my column for the newspaper and sent it in.
Wednesday 29- did my stretches- Stoney called and asked for help loading up the stairs to the trailer he bought that is over at Chadwick’s and taking them over to his house. We picked up my mail on the way. Once we were done, we had turkey sandwiches and that pecan pie I’ve been eyeing since Thanksgiving day- the wind is really blowing and it is colder than yesterday. I went around the insides of the house looking for any drafts that may be letting in the cold- went for my evening walk and the temp is around 40- watched “Bones” on CBS”- worked on the website getting it ready for the weekend update- went outside to check the temp at midnight, it was 22 degrees and my fat cat is banging at the door to get inside!
Thursday 30- went outside and all the water that I put out for the critters was frozen. I was told that it had gotten down to 15 degrees last night- did my stretches, jogged 3 miles, lifted weights- Delores Jefferson called and told me she is doing well and to say hi to all her friends up here. She had some sad news for me too, Trudy Poe had passed on- was doing some final tweaks to the website before I upload it when Andrew came over. He had jogged from his house and we jawed for a while and then I decided to jog back to his house with him and watch the “Numbers” show he recorded for me on Friday night when the UHF transmitter went down. We also watched this show “Survivor Man” that was really funny. It is about this guy who gets dropped off in the desert and has to survive 7 days. Can you believe he finds a stream! Talks about how hot it is and how you can die of thirst, then later says its 70 degrees! What a laugh! Andrew needed a dog house and I had one that I ain’t using and told him that I’ll take my evening walk back from his house and he can drive on over to mine and meet me there. We got the dog house in the back of his Jeep and that was that- my friend Joel is back from the Middle East (Missouri) visiting his Dad- finished the website and answered some emails- Good Bye November you been a very interesting and wonderful month!

October 2006

Sunday 01- Welcome to the month of October- did my exercises- one of my L16 batteries has died and had to run the generator till I can jury-rig something with another battery- called my Dad and Stepmother to see how their doing- messed around the house fixing things and cleaning- called Jerry and Barb and yapped for a while- Ron D. called and we talked about going to the Wild West Coyote Fest Friday, October 6th - 4pm-10pm Saturday, October 7th - 10am-10pm in JT next Saturday. He also told me about a Guitar shop in JT where he got his guitar fixed and that the owner will have an open stage where folks can play their stuff, -also they have training for school kids; instruments laying about that the kids can pickup and try out with instructors near by to demonstrate how to use them- couldn’t spend much time on the computer cause of my battery problem- went for my evening walk- watched “Mystery” on PBS- too cloudy out for the telescope so I just watched the night sky with my binoculars.
Monday 02- did my exercises- connected a car battery as a jury-rig to my electrical system until I can get to town to get a replacement for the L16, may try golf cart batteries- went for my evening walk- Kath came by with her laptop to fix and her desktop to tweak- Andrew came by to try a new computer device and then we took out the telescope and turned it on the Moon.
Tuesday 03- did my exercises- drove to Yucca and stopped off at Ace Alternators to picked up two golf cart batteries to replace the bad ones. While I was in town I picked up a few supplies at Wal-Mart, Staters, Health Store in JT (I like the gals there), and filled the truck with gas- installed the new batteries and everything seems fine- worked on Kath’s laptop and installed 128 meg of RAM memory I had laying about. I also installed some security programs and did a cleanup of the harddrive- went for my evening walk- Mac called to jaw for a bit-watched “NOVA”- wrote my column and sent it to newspaper.
Wednesday 04- did my stretches- worked on Kath’s desktop and “tweaked” it, then I spent some time on her laptop trying to figure out why AOL died after it updated it’s self and caused system.ini to malfunction on boot. She plans to dump AOL anyways and I will be glad to uninstall it for her- went for my evening walk- Roger T. called to say hi- went over to John M.’s home o help him with his word processor- watched “Bones” on TV- been too hazy the past few days for the telescope so I played with my computers.
Thursday 05- did my stretches- worked around the hose cleaning it up- went for my evening walk- Kath came by and picked up her laptop- called Stoney and jawed for a few- watched “CSI” on TV- Andrew called and we chatted for a long while- updated the website and uploaded it to the internet.
Friday 06- did my exercises- cleaned up around the house some more- almost done reading that biology book I started earlier in the year- UPS delivered an unexpected package from my Dad and Stepmother: a box of shirts. I will call and thank them on Sunday- went for my evening walk- Stoney called and invited me over for dinner. I brought over a computer to replace the old one he has but I couldn’t get it to function properly once I had it all setup. So I had to reconnect his old one back up, the modem and then the monitor wouldn’t work so I spent more time getting those to work. I spent 3 hours working just to leave it the same way as I found it, but the biscuits and gravy were excellent- watched “Numbers” on TV.
Saturday 07- did my exercises- Dale from Landers called to jaw for a bit- still cleaning around the house throwing out old stuff that I don’t need - Andrew called and needed help hanging a garage door so I went on over to help him- went for my evening walk- watched TV program on PBS: Rosemary and Thyme- Ron and Linda D. called to say howdy and that Ron’s back has been giving him much pain- Mike from Hermosa called to yap for a while- nice day but the nights are starting to really cool down.
Sunday 08- did my stretches- went through some old papers I have saved and trashed those I didn’t need anymore- read another chapter of that biology book I love so well, yeah right, it puts me to sleep in the middle of the day- went for my evening walk- watched “Nature” on PBS- installed Kubuntu 6.06 on my laptop.
Monday 09- did my exercises, and on my bike ride visited my neighbor Ron M. who happened to be outside his home as I rode by- worked in the yard cleaning things up- Andrew came by for a bit and went with me on my evening walk- loaded up Ubuntu my laptop. Now I have 3 operating systems on it.
Tuesday 10- did my exercises- I went up to Indian Cove with Linda Sibio; we hiked around and took some really nice pictures of boulders, while we hunted for a waterfall that Linda said was there. Linda is putting together an exhibit of 20 Polaroid pictures with twelve other artists and one of her pictures is water falling into a pond. We never did find the waterfall but had a great time looking for it. We finally ended up at the 29 Palms Inn and Linda took the picture of the pond there as I poured water from a container into it. Afterwards we stopped off at the Sun Runner for Linda to give her condolences to Steve- went for my evening walk- Joel came by with burgers and donuts, yumm- Andrew called needed help moving a van (he had cookies)- wrote column and sent it into the newspaper.
Wednesday 11- did my stretches- got the first coat of paint on the wall in the utility room done- I forgot to tell you that I have finished that dreaded “Biology The Easy Way” book that wasn’t, and has put me to sleep so often. I have now started on a “Geology” book that seems more interesting to me (I didn’t fall to sleep yet)- went for my evening walk- went to Andrew’s and took some pictures of his house with my camera that he wanted. We couldn’t get them transferred to his laptop so I’ll email them to him later on- called and jawed with Stoney for a while about how “Bingo Tuesdays” went this week; about 15 folks showed up and no big prizes won- finally got a hold of Kath to come and pick up her computer tomorrow- no “Bones” on tonight so messed around with the computers the rest of the night updating stuff, emailing pictures, and catching up on some blogs I read. INTEL “finally” has a blog and I replied to a post there; hope I didn't screw that up.
Thursday 12- did my exercises- washed clothes- did weekend update for the website- did a bunch of reading- went for my evening walk- watched "CSI" on TV- Kath finally came by to collect her computer.
Friday 13- did my exercises- sent out CopperMountainMesa Newsletters- cleaned around the place getting things ready for a rain we might get tonight; very quiet day- went for my evening walk- read a few chapters on the subjects I am studying- watched “Numbers” on TV.
Saturday 14- did my stretches and went for a long run- around noon it started to sprinkle some and then it started a light rain about 2pm- I worked on the computer updating and cleaning out some old files, and read some on my subjects I’m studying- got out my old rain coat and went for my evening walk and ran into a tortoise that was ambling along the back roads that I walk. I said hi to him and kept on walking so I wouldn’t disturb him. I didn’t take my camera today cause of the rain so there was no pics of Mr. Tortoise- Joel brought by some spaghetti that was mighty good- Billy called from Redondo Beach to say hi and she sounds much better than the last time I talked to her- talked to Kath about cats for an hour- watched TV program on PBS: Rosemary and Thyme- Mike from Hermosa called and we chatted for a while and I sent him two of my original songs that I wrote and recorded.
Sunday 15- did my stretches- worked on the computer setting up a PDA and downloading some updates for it- called my friend Kula in Palos Verdes and chatted about her wedding that she is having in November- took my trusty scooter for a spin to visit Chuck. He told me that he is running for the Copper Mountain Mesa board of directors this November and he is also going to cook hot dogs at the General meeting. I then drove on to visit Jerry and Barb. I was greeted at the gate by their yapping dogs and big old Bear gave me a lick and a hug. We jawed for a few and I had to leave before it got dark so I could take my walk. On the way home I got a flat right by Chuck’s house. We tried to put air in but the tube was shot. We lifted the scooter into Chuck’s truck and they took me to my home where I rolled my trusty scooter into the front yard where it will sit till I patch the tube- made me some pancakes- went for my evening walk- Mac called and we talked about chocolate cake- watched “60 Minutes”- will try to catch up on some of my reading tonight- got out my old Dell Latitude XPI Laptop and with DOS went online.
Monday 16- did my exercises- Chuck came by and I gave him a tour of my home- Stoney dropped off some canned goods- drove on over to Ron D’s home for a visit, his back is doing much better, and he gave me some Thai food to take home with me- went for my evening walk- did a bunch of reading- was surfing the web on my Toshiba Laptop when all of a sudden my screen went dead! The backlight was lit but there was no display. I hooked it up to an external LCD monitor and it displayed just fine. It was 3am and I was getting tired, so I will try to repair it in the morning.
Tuesday 17- did my exercises- Kula called from O’Hare Airport in Chicago on her way to see her mother in Iowa where the land is flat and they eat a lot of corn- went online to see if I could find how to fix the problem with my laptop’s display. Found what I was looking for and dismantled my laptop, fixed the problem, put it all back together, and now it works fine (had me scared there for a while)- Ron and Linda dropped over to say hi- went for my evening walk- watched “Nova” on PBS- wrote column and sent it to the news paper- been too dang windy the last few days to get the telescope out, so I just did some reading.
Wednesday 18- did my exercises- worked on my solar panels and raised them to an angle of about 35 degrees to the sun- saw some really big jets fly over my house and rushed inside and grabbed my camera and fumbled with it to get a picture of them before the passed by- went for my evening walk- called John M. and jawed for a bit- Andrew call and asked if I would like to come on over cause he is having a barrel fire outside and has cookies. So we spent around 3 hours sitting by the barrel putting wood on it, we had a nice blaze going, and jawed and ate cookies.
Thursday 19- did my stretches- went to town for supplies. Went to Wal-Mart and ran into Ron and Linda D., they were buying me a plant for my front yard (very nice of them). Went to Staters, filled up the truck with gas, and then on to the health food store in JT but the gals I like weren’t there- Ron D. called and needed help installing the DVD he purchased at Wal-Mart and needed some chicken wire (and I have plenty leftover from the stuccoing). We had the DVD player up and running in no time and they gave me a snack to take home with me- went for my evening walk- watched “CSI” on CBS- the rest of the night I just surfed the web.
Friday 20- did my exercises- updated website and sent email Newsletter out- went on the roof and did some more work aligning the solar panels for optimum performance- went for my evening walk- Mac called and jawed for a while- watched “Numbers” on CBS.
Saturday 21- did my stretches and went for a 3-mile jog- Ron D called and invited me over for a visit. While I was there Seimi came by with an Emachine computer for me to look at. It looked in pretty fair condition that he got from a friend in Hemet Ca. but wasn’t working. I took it home with me and started to check it out and found that the problem was intermittent with no video (the worst kind to track down). I tried replacing the RAM; I tried a different power supply. Sometimes it would start but most times not. Will try again tomorrow- Seimi came by with a big concrete bowl for the outside of my home- went for my evening walk- did some reading most of the night.
Sunday 22- did my stretches- called my Dad and had a nice chat- Ron D called and I told him that I was working on Seimi’s computer and what ever I tried wouldn’t work. He invited me over and had some food for me. We jawed for a while- went for my evening walk- went back to work on Seimi’s computer and did a “Hail Mary” on it and cleared the BIOS by moving the pins to reset it. The dang thing rebooted and I was able to get into setup and change a few settings. I got into XP and loaded up Avast anti-virus program and had it do a system scan on reboot; it found Blaster (a worm) and I had it delete it. I removed and deleted all the old users and their files. Also uninstalled AOL and a few other programs. Went into MSCONFIG and removed a bunch of programs at the startup file. Replaced the CD ROM that wasn’t working with another. Installed Sygate (a firewall) and went online. Went into services and disabled MS Messenger cause it kept popping up with adware. It has been working after many reboots and I’ll keep my fingers crossed. Tomorrow I will install XP service pack 2. That is how I spent my evening.
Monday 23- did my stretches and lifted weights- worked on Seimi’s computer: installed XP service pack 2, did a system cleanup, did a defrag, and called Seimi and told him his computer is ready- dug a hole for the cement pond that Seimi gave me and put some rocks around it, then I filled it with water. Looks really nice, even the Cat drank out of it- updated Joel’s “Iron Eyes Cody Environmental Statue” website for him- went for my evening walk- recorded the song I wrote “LWFAW” and put it on the computer. Maybe I’ll send it to Kula and see what she thinks of it- read some more of those books that I have on my list to read as a substitute for watching TV. Maybe I’ll learn something instead of being a creature of the tube!
Tuesday 24- did my exercises- wrote my column and sent it into the High Desert Star newspaper- called Barb and Jerry and told them I wrote about that gravesite they had found and will email them a copy- Seimi called and said he was home and I could bring the computer over. I told him I would after my evening walk- went for my evening walk- took everything I thought I needed over to Seimi’s and hooked it up, but the keyboard didn’t work. I figured that it must me the USB mouse that Seimi provided that I didn’t use when I fixed the computer and is the only thing different. So I drove back to my house and picked up a mouse I had and went back and plugged it in and the keyboard works now. Before I left I showed him the bare basics and he caught on very quickly- watched “Nova” on PBS. It was about magnetic pole reversals and was very interesting.
Wednesday 25- did my exercises- worked around the house fixing miscellaneous little things that needed repairs- started feeling ill so I took my evening walk early and when I got back I went to bed with the cold chills and a throbbing headache- Andrew called sometime later that night and we talked for a while.
Thursday 26- I am feeling much better today. Whatever it was I caught, it hit really bad and laid me down hard; has gone but left me feeling mighty weak- did my stretches- Andrew came by for a visit- Jerry and Barb called me about the column I wrote and said it was very good- worked on the truck some- worked on the website getting it ready for the weekend update- Joel came by with some donuts- Raymond came by for a spell and I gave him an old TV I had that I don’t use anymore- went for my evening walk- Stoney called and we talked about getting him a new computer- after hearing that I was sick Joel came by with some chicken soup which was mighty nice of him- called Andrew and jawed for a bit.
Friday 27- did my stretches and ran a mile- did some work on my computers: the monthly disk cleanup, and defrag- Ron and Linda D. called and I went over there and helped pickup a mattress and move a bed into their yard. They asked me if I had heard the gunfire and helicopters last night, I didn’t, and they told me what they knew. I had also heard more later on from other folks and what I heard on the TV news. I’ll try to piece it together for you: Some time maybe around 10pm Thursday night, Adam Lopez shot out some windows where he resides in Copper Mountain Mesa. Officer Adrian Garcia responded to a domestic disturbance and was fired upon by Adam with a shotgun and Officer Garcia returned fire. Officer Garcia was hit in the hand and the patrol car’s antenna was blasted away. Adam then fled with his girlfriend Tonya Campbell. Wounded and no way to call for help Officer Garcia made his way over to Lee and Marcie Hines home where he received first aid from Marcie and was able to place a call for backup. They brought in a helicopter to help in the search. Adam and Tonya were still on the loose until later on Friday when they gave themselves up to authorities. I saw the pictures of Adam and Tonya on TV and they looked a whole lot different than when I knew them five years ago. Just a dang sorry mess for our little community, because I believe we as a community are better than this- went on my evening walk- watched “Numbers” on CBS.
Saturday 28- did my exercises- messed around the house and did some reading- called Stoney and told him I am bringing my Dell 2350 XP desktop computer over for him to use until he makes up his mind to get a new one or not. Spent the afternoon at his house updating it and setting it up for him to use- went for my evening walk- watched TV program on PBS: Rosemary and Thyme- took out the old telescope and trained it on the setting Moon in its first quarter as its massive body slid pass the southwest horizon of little houses, trees, and power lines. Very impressive!
Sunday 29- did my stretches- called my Dad and yapped for a while- did some reading and then went over to Stoney’s and finished up loading his files and showing him how to use a few things online- called Barb and Jerry and jawed a few- went for my evening walk- Joel dropped by with some cake he’d baked; was good too- read some more finishing up the book “DOS for Dummies” and then messed around with the computers.
Monday 30- did my exercises except for the bike ride- called Lee and Marcie about what happened last Thursday night so I can put it in my column. Lee was having some minor problems with his computer, so I went over to his house and pay them a visit- Andrew came by for a while to use the internet and afterward we went for an evening walk- called and yapped with Mac for a spell- called and howl with Roger T. for a few- Joel came by with a big old “In and Out” hamburger with fries and we worked on his website- did a bunch more reading.
Tuesday 31- did my exercises- Stuart came by with a notice to put into the paper that the Community Center is opening an extension to the Thrift Store in an unused building on the property. It will be open from 12-5pm on Saturdays and also during Center activities for sales and donations- spent the rest of the day reading- went for my evening walk- me and Stoney’s son Jimmy finally talked Stoney in to purchasing a Dimension E520 desktop computer. On his way to bingo he dropped off his credit card and I put in the order for him- watched “Nova” on PBS; about Black Holes in the center of Galaxies- while checking out the night sky with my binoculars I caught Stoney on his way back from bingo and gave him his credit card- wrote column and sent it to the Newspaper. Goodbye to October you’ve been an excellent month!