October 2008

Welcome to the Month of October!- did my stretches, ran three miles. My shoulder has been giving me problems so I’ve decided to go on long runs on Wednesdays and not lift weights or ride my bike on that day. We’ll see how it goes.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 72 to 96, calm winds, humidity around 30 percent, a few cumulus clouds. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday...Sunny. Highs in the mid 90s. Northwest wind around 10 mph shifting to the southwest in the afternoon.Thursday Night...Mostly clear. Lows in the upper 60s. West wind 10 to 15 mph. Gusts up to 25 mph in the evening.”
        Updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website’s calendar to October and a few other updates to the site.
        I went outside to work on the east side patio cutting wood and hammering nails. I really need to get some more nails because I ran out of the ones I use and had to scrounge some up that were bent, and then had to straighten them.
        Went for my evening walk listening again to “Nucleosynthesis”. It starts with the “Big Bang Nucleosynthesis” at ten billion degrees where high-speed collisions occur in a soup of Protons, Neutrons, and Electrons. A free Proton catches an Electron and becomes a Hydrogen atom. The Hydrogen atom fuses with another Hydrogen atom to form Deuterium with one Proton and one Neutron, and releases a Positron (antielectron-antimatter that is annihilated when it encounters and Electron, producing two high-energy Photons- Gamma Rays), and a Neutrino (an elementary particle that has little mass and doesn’t carry an electric charge). Then the Deuterium fuses into Helium-3, and two Helium-3 fuses into Helium-4 that is very stable. An increase in energy was released as heavier isotopes and elements were fused. In the first three minutes after the Big Bang most of the Deuterium was converted into Helium and small amounts of Lithium, and nothing heavier because things cooled down and the process stopped. I’ll listen to it again hopefully tomorrow and write about Stellar Nucleosynthesis.
        Called my brother Kevin and yakked at him for a while. Then I watched “Bones: Crank in the Shaft” (very appropriate title) on Fox about an office manager’s body parts found in an elevator.
        Did my stretches and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 02- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 72 to 93, winds out of the NW to SW at 4-20 MPH, humidity around 32 percent, high altostratus clouds with a lot of moisture as seen by the contrails left by jets. According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 87. West southwest wind between 8 and 17 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 67. West wind between 10 and 18 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.”
        I didn’t do a hell of a lot today but I did get on the roof to patch some places where it leaks into the shop. Messed around with the Asus EEE for a while. I downloaded IE7; I hope that wasn’t a mistake. Got it all loaded up with the programs that I need to make a functional laptop and still have 1.5Gig left of 4Gig on C: drive! Practiced writing in Word 2000 to get a feel for the keyboard: it is small!
        Went for my evening walk but didn’t take my iPod because the wind had piped up making it hard to listen to. Besides, I needed to give my ears (and my brain) a rest.
        I actually watched the Vise Presidential Debates! I’m really apolitical but was interested in how Palin would fair against Biden; I think that she did mighty well. Who won? I don’t think that anyone lost, and I don’t think that it will change any minds either.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 03- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 70 to 89, winds out of the NW to SW at 6-25 MPH, humidity around 36 percent, high altostratus clouds again. According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Partly sunny, with a high near 78. Windy, with a light wind becoming west between 27 and 30 mph. Winds could gust as high as 41 mph. Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 57. Breezy, with a west wind 23 to 26 mph decreasing to between 11 and 14 mph. Winds could gust as high as 37 mph..”
        Did the update on the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the newsletter. I also added an update to Roger’s Garden to it, and put up the pictures from last month’s Potluck- there was a lot to do.
        Stoney called asking that if I was out his way could I stop by to fix his TV. So I went over to check up on my Friend’s home who is on vacation and then went by Stoney’s. The problem with his TV was that the captions were set for “on” and I unselected it to “off”, it was no big deal. He gave me a tour of his new garden that Roger Smith is building for him. He finally has two small tomatoes after two months or more. The reason why so few tomatoes, he says, is that he has been over watering them.
        Got back home, but because of the wind, I really couldn’t do much work outside so I decided to go on my evening walk early. The wind was blowing really hard out of the southwest and blew my hat off a few times and I had to chase it down, no astronomy lectures for me today!
        I went online with the computer to get caught up with some of my correspondents and mindlessly surf the web as I do every Friday night. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night. I’m feeling mighty tired tonight!

Saturday 04- did my stretches. It was a beautiful day outside but windy.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 70 to 89, winds out of the W to SW at 12-25 with gusts to 35 MPH, humidity around 41 percent, cumulus clouds here and there. According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 80. North northwest wind between 5 and 9 mph. Sunday Night: Clear, with a low around 57. Calm wind becoming northwest around 6 mph.”
        I went outside to work in the “shop”, gathering all my tools into one place and cleaning them. I have this old rusted vice that I stripped down to clean, grease and oil. I got it looking almost new! Fat Cat just laid around watching me while I was doing all this work- lazy cat!
        Ron Dehart dropped by while I was in the shop. He brought me some yogurt and carrots I had ask for yesterday when he told me he was going to town. I showed him all the new stuff I’ve been adding to the patio.
        I went for a nice evening walk despite the high winds. When I got back, I called Family and Friends. Some weren’t home and I left messages, others were home and we yakked for a spell. I just mainly wanted to touch base, to say, “Hey I’m still alive!
        I thought I just kick back tonight to watch a movie. I decided on “Alien” (1979) starring Sigourney Weaver and Tom Skerritt. I remember when it came out; it was just after I got back from a two-month visit to Europe. Before I left for Europe, I saw an article about “Alien” with some of its artwork by H.R. Giger in Omni Magazine and I couldn’t wait to see it! It was one of the best Sci-Fi movies at the time, right up there with “2001 a Space Odyssey” (1968). I still crack up every time I see “Mother” the state of the art computer from the future 2122 with cathoray (CRT) screens! Then I watched “Alien 3” (1992). I skipped “Aliens” (1986) the second one in the series and the best because I had watched it a few weeks or so ago. I might watch “Alien: Resurrection” (1997) tomorrow. Yes, I do love my Sci-Fi movies!
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 05- did my stretches. It was another beautiful day outside. I think that the wind from yesterday has brought on my allergies. I don’t like taking allergy pills because they give me weird dreams. I took one last night and dreamed about an old girlfriend of mine. She was quite special to me a long time ago and the dream left me a little melancholy.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 69 to 85, winds out of the N to NW at 6-15, humidity around 35 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 87. Northwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm. Monday Night: Clear, with a low around 59. Calm wind becoming northwest between 5 and 8 mph.”
        Frank and Mary came by to pick up their laptop I had fixed for them. For fixing the laptop, Mary brought me a bottle of wine that I politely turned down. We sat around and jawed some and then they were off to visit other friends before they have to leave to go back down to the big city.
        Dale from Landers called to tell me about an article in last Wednesday’s paper about his fight with county officials to take care of a problem with his neighbor’s dogs that she lets run loose. He and his neighbors have been trying for some time to rid their neighborhood of these vicious animals that are threatening and killing their pets. Maybe they’ll get some action now that it was printed in the newspaper.
        I hopped on my Trusty Scooter and rode on over to my friends Danna and Karen’s home for a visit. They showed me a DVD, which had a PowerPoint presentation of their Grand Daughter Katrina’s graduation from high school. It was done very nicely; it showed Katrina when she was a little baby all the way up to a young woman with a bright future ahead of her. I wonder if I might be able to create a PowerPoint presentation like that. I got the program and took a few online classes on it! I just might give it a try.
        Danna was watching a NASCAR race where the cars were tailgating really close to each other. Danna said that the speed limit of the track was reduced to something like 195 MPH and drivers had to use drafting to maneuver into position. Driving so close at that speed there was bound to be an accident and there was; we saw something like fourteen cars in a fantastic collision with racecars going every which way! Fortunately, nobody was injured.
        Before I left, I took a tour of their garden to get some ideas building and planting mine. It seems that okra, squash, and bell peppers are the way to go up here in the desert. I rode off with a bag of okra and bell peppers that they had given me.
        Stopped off at Stoney’s to give him some okra and sat and jawed for a bit. When I left I noticed that my Angels baseball cap had fallen out somewhere on the way to his house and had to drive all the way back to Danna’s before I found it in the middle of the road.
        I went on my evening walk and then watched “Alien: Resurrection” (1997). When that ended, it was time to watch “Monk” (2002) on NBC. This was the end of a two parter that I had seen last week about a plot to kill a politician running for office.
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night. I took another allergy pill earlier and I hope I don’t have any strange dreams tonight!

Monday 06- I called my brother Kevin when I first woke up only to find that he was in the hospital during the weekend. He is okay now and is on his way back home. This has me a little worried!
        I did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights. I think that the pain in my shoulder was caused by doing pushups so I’m going to stop them for a while and when I start them back up, I’ll just go easy.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 68 to 87, light winds, humidity around 31 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 91. West northwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm. Tuesday Night: Clear, with a low around 60. Calm wind becoming northwest around 6 mph.”
        I started gathering info for my column, getting it ready to write, edit, and send it to the newspaper tomorrow.
        I downloaded a free ebook from Baen press called “The Course of Empire” (2003) by Eric Flint and K.D. Wentworth, and installed it on my Sony PDA. I read a few chapters in it during the day. It’s about an alien race that conquers Earth and is trying to retrain humans, for what I don’t know yet. It looks to be a page-turner!
        I went for my evening walk re-listening to “Nucleosynthesis”, but my mind was on other matters to remember much and my allergies kicking in didn’t help either. I did get a little more on the “Proton-Proton Chain Reaction” where Lithium quickly finds a Hydrogen atom and breaks down into two Helium4 atoms. Then the process suddenly had stopped by the cooling of the Big Bang, and if this process was left to continue, I believe they said that there would be nothing left but Helium4 atoms and the universe wouldn’t be as it is today (I’ll have to recheck this).
        Watched “Terminator: the Sara Conner Chronicles”. Another evil robot from the future is sent back to terminate one of John’s key lieutenants in the future, who is in the present, just a kid in a military school.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar and finally wrote a second verse to the song I’m presently working on: What ever happened to the girl I used to know from dawn of early spring. I had you, you had me, and that was all we really need (something like that). Wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 07- got a call from my dear friend Kula who was at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago waiting to fly home. We yapped for a spell. She says that it is faster to go through O’Hare from Iowa then Denver. Kula was in Iowa visiting her Mom.
        I did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 66 to 90, light winds, humidity around 25 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 93. West wind at 7 mph becoming south southeast. Wednesday Night: Clear, with a low around 62. South southwest wind between 4 and 7 mph becoming calm. Special Weather Statement A MAJOR CHANGE TO THE WEATHER WILL BE SEEN LATE THIS WEEK AND INTO THE WEEKEND. A STRONG PACIFIC STORM IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP AND MOVE INTO THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST ON THURSDAY AND THEN SOUTH INTO THE GREAT BASIN FRIDAY AND SATURDAY. ALTHOUGH SHOWERS WILL BE SEEN. THE MAINAFFECTS OF THIS SYSTEM WILL BE WINDS AND COOLER TEMPERATURES.”
        I worked on my column for the newspaper. I had one wrote up but I decided to go with another story; got it edited and sent it to the newspaper. Then I worked on Ken’s website for a while and have it completed. There’s be some tweaks I’ll want to do later, and changes he might want to make, but as far as I am concerned, it’s done.
        I got an email from my friend Karen Van Noort saying: “On Thursday night; Oct. 9TH, the power in our area will be shut off around 9pm, until about 6am Friday morning; Oct. 10TH. We received a notice in the mail from the power company, saying that they will be working on stuff & upgrading things in our area. Anyway, I know you like to star gaze, so that could be a good night for you, depending on the moon phase of course.”
        Yes! I believe I’ll take advantage of this outage and get out the old telescope! There will be dark skies for sure!
        Joel Levy delivered my mail and there was a check from the newspaper for $49 that was for the article “Legend of the High Desert” that I wrote last month, whoopee! I feel I’ve made the big time!
        I read a chapter in “The Course of Empire” and then went on my evening walk. I did re-listen to “Nucleosynthesis”; it is only a half-hour lecture but jammed packed with so much info that it is hard to put it all together in my tiny brain. In addition, I’m getting behind on my other lectures but I want to get this one down pat! I just might have to sit down and take notes instead of listening to it on my walks.
        Had a nice talk with my brother Kevin who is recovering nicely from his stay in the hospital.
        Watched “NCIS” on CBS. It was about a woman naval officer that was found dead shot in the back. An old Desert Storm Marine buddy of Gibbs now a Senator who had an affair with the dead woman wants Gibbs to keep his name out of the investigation.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 08- I got up early, fed the cat, and jumped in the Gross Polluter and headed to town.
        Just a note on yesterday’s post: It occurred to me that my post about receiving $49 for that article “Legend of the High Desert” I wrote for the newspaper may have sounded like sarcasm. It was not! I was really thrilled to get paid for something that I love to do! And that something is to put words together in a meaningful way so that other folks may understand my stories.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 69 to 100, calm winds, humidity around 19 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 87. West southwest wind 9 to 12 mph increasing to between 17 and 20 mph. Winds could gust as high as 26 mph. Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 59. West northwest wind around 17 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.”
        My first stop was to fill up on gas. It was $3.29 at Arco and I spent $30 filling up my truck and a five-gallon container. Then onto Bank of America where I deposited some checks. I always take off my Angels cap and sunglasses when I go inside because I look too much like a bank robber and folks appear nervous around me.
        WalMart was next and I went right in to get what I wanted and got out. Stater Brothers was a different story; they keep changing it around on me. My Brother says it’s a marketing ploy to get you to spend time looking around other places in the store, and possibly buying items you wouldn’t otherwise purchase. Well I know what I want and seldom vary from my list. I used to be able to find it quickly and get out. I may do my shopping somewhere else if they change it on me again. By the way, they replaced my missing yogurt from my last trip there that they forgot to replace after the bag ripped and everything fell on the floor.
        Home Depot was my last stop on my way home. That place is enormous and hunting down things there is worse than Staters. I don’t like to spend too much time in there because when I walk down the aisles I can see all these items I need for my home; kind of like Staters marketing ploy but done in a different way. I was so frustrated going from one end of the store to the other that I caught myself talking to myself; I’ll have to watch that being I don’t get out much. I got my nails, paint, some lumber, and two 4x8’ molded plastic lattices that I’ll put up as wind blocks.
        Funny thing is that I ran into Lee and Marcie Hines at WalMart, Staters, and Home Depot. Marcie jokingly asked if I was following them around.
        Finally got home, unloaded and put everything away, and started to paint my patio. Spent two and a half hours in the heat of the day painting until the Sun started going down. Took a shower and went on my evening walk.
        I was mighty tired after all this work; my whole body ached. I sat down to relax, called my brother Kevin, and yakked at him for fifty minutes. Then I watched “Bones” on Fox about a woman’s body that was found washed up on a beach.
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night. I’m so tired that I think I’ll sleep a sound sleep tonight.

Thursday 09- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 66 to 87, winds out NW-SW at 6 to 19 with gusts to 40 MPH, humidity around 27 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Sunny, with a high near 78. Breezy, with a west northwest wind between 13 and 23 mph, with gusts as high as 34 mph. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 50. Windy, with a west northwest wind 30 to 33 mph decreasing to between 22 and 25 mph. Winds could gust as high as 49 mph.”
        I was watching the stock market plunge below 9000 and listening to all the doom and gloom being said like this is the end of the world, as we know it. I decided to invest $5000 from my IRA Money Market Fund, where it has been sitting for years waiting for this opportunity, into the Vanguard S&P 500 Index Fund. I might be nuts but like the man said about the secret of the stock market, “Buy low and sell high”. It’s just trying to find where the lows and highs are. Well the DOW closed at 8579 today from a high of over 14164 on Oct. 09, 2007 and I believe this is a good place as any to dollar cost average into the market even if it keeps falling from this point on. My rules are to buy when everyone is selling and to sell when everyone and their brother is buying, and don’t get greedy. With all the negativity in the press and the economy going into the dumps with bank failings and such it was my time to enter the market. I didn’t like doing it but them are the rules I follow!
        Did a little work on Ken’s website correcting errors he had found, some from the info he typed up and sent to me but I should have caught them. No matter, this is expected, and we’ll do it until it’s right.
        It is too dang windy to go out and paint my patio so I just cleaned up inside and played with some electronics. I read a few chapters in “The Course of Empire”. Then I went for my evening walk; it was too windy to listen to a lecture.
        Went on over to Stoney’s for spaghetti dinner. Roger Smith was also there and brought a salad. Stoney makes some of the best spaghetti I’ve ever had and to prove it I ate to much of it!
        Yakked at my Brother Kevin for almost an hour. Afterwards “CSI” came on CBS. Sara Sidle, played by Jorja Fox, was to be on the show and that’s why I tuned in to watch it (I stopped watching after she left). They killed off Warrick! Very sad show, but maybe Sara and Grissom will hook up again!
        Did my stretches and lifted weights. It was excessively windy for a run. I did go outside and used a little trick I learned in Meteorology- if you stand with your back to the direction the wind is blowing, and then bring up your left arm sideways to shoulder height and point, that’s where the low is. The wind was coming out of the NW and my left arm was pointing NE and that’s where this particular low coming down from Canada is located. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 10- did my stretches; too dang windy for anything else.
        Last night the electric company was suppose to shut down all power in our area, but they changed their minds and decided to do it some other time.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 58 to 79, winds out NW at 12 to 25 with gusts to 50 MPH or so, humidity around 29 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 65. Breezy, with a northwest wind between 18 and 25 mph, with gusts as high as 36 mph. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 42. Northwest wind between 9 and 13 mph.”
        Updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the newsletter. Then I watched the Stock Market until it closed to see what my buy in was for the S&P Index Mutual Fund. The Dow was down 128 points after a rollercoaster ride throughout the day dipping into the 7000range, climbing above yesterday’s close and then settling with a loss. I think I made the right decision, buying in when I did, but only time will tell.
        The wind died down during the afternoon and I went outside to do some painting and touch up of the patio until the wind started back up again a few hours later. It was really blowing when I went for my evening walk.
        When I got back I went online to work on Ken’s website; he found some more errors which I corrected. Then I watched “Numbers” on CBS about a bunch of thugs who go and kidnap women and have them withdraw money out of ATM machines.
        The wind is trying to blow my home away! I decided not to go on a nightly run and just did my stretches. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night. I’m feeling pretty tired tonight!

Saturday 11- did my stretches.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 48 to 60, winds out NW at 14 to 18 with gusts to 40 MPH or so, humidity around 29 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 68. North northwest wind between 13 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 44. North northwest wind between 10 and 14 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.”
        I didn’t do much of anything but talk to Family and Friends on the phone today: Larry, Lynn, Ron, Tom and Aki, and Mom and Pop. It seems that either I was calling them or they were calling me. This is a good thing but it takes up much time. It was windy outside so it really didn’t matter much anyways.
        I reminded Larry of our first beach dive in our scuba class back in the 70’s. The night before the dive, we got really plastered and felt pretty darn sick the next morning while waiting for everyone to show up for the class. I dug a hole next to me and barfed into it. Ah, those were the days!
        I did have to tinker with my electrical system; there was a weak connection to the inverter from the batteries and caused my refrigerator not to start when I turned it on this morning. It took me a little while to figure it out and I’m thankful that the inverter or refrigerator weren’t going bad.
        Went for my evening walk into the high winds that were blowing out on the NW. My walk was a fast one with the wind to my back but made for a long hard march on the way home.
        Jimmy called on his way back from a rifle handling and safety training class where he is studying to be an instructor for the 4H club that his daughter Angela belongs to. Then my brother Kevin called to yap for a spell.
        I watched a scary movie called “The Grudge” (2004), about a house where a family died a horrible death and their spirits still linger around killing folks; either in the house or following them elsewhere. After the movie, I made sure my door was locked!
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, double checked the door was locked, and called it a night.

Sunday 12- The Day My Internet Connection Died!- did my stretches.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 48 to 62, winds out NW at 6 to 12, humidity around 25 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Well my telephone is down and I don’t have an internet connection so I really can’t find out what the Weather Service says!”
        I was talking to my friend Kula when my phone went dead; that was around 2pm. I called her back on my cell phone and talked a little longer. When I was done talking, I checked my phone and it was still dead. I then took a phone out to the service box and hooked it up to that, still no dial tone. I called my phone with my cell and all I got was a busy signal. Called Stoney with my cell to see if his was working, it was, and he invited me over for dinner to finish off the spaghetti from Friday.
        In the meantime I called Verizon and got a hold of their evil robot to setup a service call. I tried to get a hold of a human but the evil robot wouldn’t let me (I wonder if she’s from Skynet!). The robot told me to wait a minute while it ran diagnostics on my line and came back telling me that the test was undetermined as to what was wrong. The Verizon evil robot informed me that there would be a Service Tech over Monday between 8am and 5pm and that I should be there to let him in, and if they had to reschedule I would receive a credit.
        I went for my evening walk. It was a little breezy and cold but it was a nice walk. Got back and checked the phone; still no dial tone.
        Hopped on my Trusty Scooter and drove it over to Stoney’s. Roger Smith was there and we ate up all the rest of the leftover spaghetti. We sat around the kitchen table jawing about the economy and other stuff until the Sun started going down.
        I got home just before it set and I checked the phone line again; it was still dead, dang! That means no internet for me and any folks who call will only get a busy signal and think I’m online with my computer.
        I called my brother Kevin and told him my woes of not being able to get online. So he got on his computer and read the news to me and surfed around checking on computer wireless plans from cell phone companies and ditching the landline. It looks like T-Mobile has the best plan; I couldn’t afford it at this time anyways, but it made me feel better. I do a lot of work online: web design, my column for the newspaper, my journal, my dialup ISP, updating the community website and need a dependable connection. If I got cell broadband wireless for my computer, I could use VOIP to make and receive calls and have a faster connection too! However, at $50 a month I really have some thinking to do before I commit.
        After reading a few chapters in my Sci-fi book I watched “Monk” on NBC about a Police officer who is framed for a murder of a drug informant at a carnival.
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, and didn’t post it to the web cause my dialup is down and this is the first time in years that I haven’t been able to connect; I feel so lost without the internet, and called it a night.

Monday 13 - did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights. It was 49 degrees when I went for my run; burr!
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 47 to 64, winds out NNW at 12 to 18, humidity around 21 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 74. North northwest wind between 14 and 17 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. Tuesday Night: Clear, with a low around 53. Northwest wind around 9 mph.”
        Got a call from Randy the Verizon repair person telling me that the problem with my phone line was a bad MOX (whatever that is) and he reset it. If I have any more problems with it to call his supervisor, Randy said. Okay, now I got my phone and internet back! I called my friend Ron Dehart, who was experiencing the same problem I was having, and told him it was fixed. While we were catching up on our lives, swapping stories, the dang line went dead! I immediately called Randy’s supervisor Brian and explained the situation to him. He said he’d check on it and it would be tomorrow before he’d have an answer. The phone came back on, died, came back on, died again, and then came back on and stayed on for the rest of the day.
        I went online to get some work done that I wasn’t able to do yesterday because of the dead phone. Lots of emails to read and reply, blogs to post, and web work to do. It felt great to be online and connected again!
        I drove the Gross Polluter over to my Friend’s home to check on it while he’s away. Then I went over to Ron Dehart’s to pick up some old chairs he has for me. Ron was watching Boston Red Socks vs. Tampa Bay Rays. I watched it for a little while with him; Boston was down by five runs and Ron being from Boston was none too thrilled about that! We carried the chairs to my truck and I was off for home.
        It was cold and windy when I went for my evening walk but not too bad.
        I watched the news about the fires in Southern California and to find out what the Stock Market did; the Dow closed up 936.71 points! I made money on my little $5000 investment I made last Friday when the Market hit its lowest in six years or so, cool! Ron and I felt that it would rise on Monday; we’ll just have to see if it continues to rise. If it drops, I’ll throw more money into it, otherwise I’ll just hold.
        Yapped at my brother Kevin for a while, and then went back online to work for a while.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for a cold nightly run! I guess that I’ll have to hunt up my winter running gear. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 14 - when I woke up there was a message from Randy the Verizon repairperson telling me that the problem with my phone line was fixed again. He went on to tell me something else but I accidentally erased the message when I went to rewind it, dang! Well as long as it’s working that’s all I care about.
        I did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights. It was a really nice outside and a lot warmer than yesterday.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 53 to 84, winds out NW at 4 to 10, humidity around 21 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 84. North northwest wind between 6 and 8 mph. Wednesday Night: Clear, with a low around 54. South southeast wind 5 to 7 mph becoming west northwest.”
        I wrote my column for the newspaper, it took longer than usual because I had to hunt down info on Ruth Denison, the subject of my story. I called Ron Dehart who is a friend of Ruth’s to clarify a few items. Ron came by with my telescope I’d lent him and brought me some split pea soup, too!
        Tomorrow is Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty and I wanted to write and help: I believe that there is too dang much greed and indifference in our world. We expect our governments to handle these things, but they seem to just help themselves, while we go about our daily lives trying to earn a living and focus on our next purchases that are presented via media commercials: buy this fast car; buy this latest computer; buy this new and improved whatever! Buy, buy, and buy! We have been programmed by our society to be consumers: work, spend, work and spend, while less fortunate people of the world and in our nation go without.
        Greed can be seen in the recent bailout of financial institutions: the American International Group (AIG) went on a retreat in California spending $440,000 on its executives after getting an $85 billion bailout loan from our government, that’s you and me the taxpayers! Greed is what got us into the crisis that we’re in today and it was cause by such “executives”!
        Indifference can be seen in our country with the lack of health care coverage for the poor and working poor. We have the best medical care in the world if you can afford it, and some can’t. I believe if we had national healthcare it would take the burden off business of providing it and create more jobs. I also believe that our government should try a trickle up instead of a trickle down approach.
        What can I do about poverty? I live off a meager income that took many years of hard work to save. First of all, I’m trying to leave a small footprint on our world. Secondly, I look around at all the stuff I have acquired in my life that’s sitting in boxes stacked in storage. I’ve even took an online class on how to rid myself of clutter! Yes, I am caught in the same consumerism as the next person, but I’ve been trying to change these last few years. I’ve been donating my “stuff” to charity, I find that it’s hard to let some of it go, but I do keep trying.
        I believe that we as a nation will go through a paradigm shift, if we aren’t already in the beginning of one now, and realize our consumerism cannot continue as before, bleeding the Earth of her resources, and creating wide gaps between the rich, middle class, and the poor. Thank you for reading!
        Went to work on my patio putting up the lattice paneling I had bought at Home Depot. First, I had to cut, fit and nail 2x4s across the top of the posts. Then I had to paint them and screw the lattice paneling up. I was pretty dang tired when I was done. I washed up and went for my evening walk.
        My brother Kevin called to tell me about a class he is taking once a week. Then I watched “Nova” on PBS about the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 2003.
        I read a few chapters of Sci-Fi until it got late. Then I did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 15 - last night I had a toothache. The tooth was loose and I thought I could pull it out myself. I took a pain pill, got all the instruments together: pliers, kite string, stuff like that, and tried to yank it out, ouch! I found that the pulling of the tooth exceeded my pain threshold and I had to come up with a better option, maybe I could have Stoney pull it out, Nah! So I decided to setup a Dentist appointment when I woke up in the morning. And that’s just what I did.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 55 to 86, light breeze, humidity around 19 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 85. North northwest wind between 5 and 7 mph. Thursday Night: Clear, with a low around 55. Calm wind becoming west northwest between 5 and 8 mph.”
        Did my stretches and some online work until it was time for my dentist appointment. I arrived at the dentist 2pm and was headed home minus my tooth a half hour later. It was painless because of all the Novocain he injected into my gums; my face was numb for several hours afterwards.
        I got home and read the instructions from the dentist that I am to follow: no hot liquids, no exercising, rest, don’t spit, and a few others that didn’t pertain to me. After a while, the Novocain was warring thin so I took a pain pill and made a few calls before the pill took effect: one to Stoney, another to Ron Dehart, and one to my brother Kevin. Ron dropped by to get some bug spray I have so he could use it on the termites that are invading his fence. After he left, I read a few chapters in the Sci-Fi book before I got drowsy. I hardly ever take pills but when I do, they really affect me in a way that I ain’t good for anything other than mindlessly surfing the web. And that’s just what I did for the rest of the night.
        I couldn’t do my exercises because of the list of rules from the dentist, and it also felt like my head would roll off if I did. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 16 - did my stretches and that was all the exercise I did because of my dentist’s instructions. I’m not feeling much pain from the tooth extraction and that is a good thing!
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 57 to 88, light breeze, humidity around 2 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Sunny, with a high near 87. Calm wind becoming southeast around 6 mph. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 57. West wind between 5 and 9 mph.”
        Did some computer work and then went outside to a beautiful day! I did some painting of the patio and it is looking great.
        Joel called and is having a little trouble with his computer and I told him to bring it over. Seems that he accidently deleted a program he uses for his addresses called CardFile.exe. The system is an old Dell Optiplex GS+ with a Pentium 166Mz processor that I gave him for his birthday a few years ago so he could run his old programs from Win 3.1. After searching the web, I found and downloaded the program. I will install it tomorrow and he can have his computer back.
        I went for my evening walk and then watched the sunset with Fat Cat; it was such a beautiful day!
        My brother Kevin called and we yakked for a spell. We were wondering about our friend Ted who was supposed to have been back from Philadelphia earlier today. I asked Kevin to put me on hold while he gave him a call. He made it home all right and we three were on a conference call with Ted doing most of the talking. He went to an Obama rally there and gave us the whole story and more (over two hours!).
        I watched “CSI” on CBS about a woman who got a telephone call, put on a bathing suit, walked over to her balcony and dived off landing on a bus many stories below. Sara Sidle was in this one and back with Grissom but it looked to me that she was leaving in the end.
        I did my stretches. I was practicing my guitar when Joel came by with my mail along with a DC-to-DC car adapter I had ordered for my ASUS EEE laptop; I plugged it in and it worked just fine. Wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 17 - only did my stretches again today because of my dentist’s instructions.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 57 to 91, light breeze, humidity around 21 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 88. West wind 5 to 8 mph becoming southwest between 13 and 16 mph. Winds could gust as high as 22 mph. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 56. West northwest wind between 9 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.”
        Updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
        I went outside to a glorious day to do some more painting of the patio. Looks mighty good!
        Worked on Joel’s computer and found that the Ram was no good; it came up with a parity error when I tried to boot up the system. I took the two bad memory chips out and it booted up just fine. Now he has only 32Meg and I don’t have any replacements. I got him interested in buying my Dell Inspiron 2350 for $200 and I think it will be a good machine for him.
        Went for my evening walk and got a pic of a Jackrabbit sitting on the trail posing in front of me, cool!
        Read my Sci-Fi book until “Numbers” came on but there was something wrong with the broadcast- several channels were frozen in frame including Numbers. Therefore, I wasn’t able to watch it, dang! And read some more Sci-Fi instead.
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 18 - did my stretches.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 59 to 93 winds out of the NW to SE at 3-11 MPH, humidity around 26 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 84. Northwest wind at 10 mph becoming south southwest. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 56. West wind between 7 and 13 mph.”
        I worked on the Dell computer that I’m selling to Joel, cleaning all my stuff out of it and deleting a few programs he won’t be needing and updating a few that he might.
        It was such a beautiful day that I spent much of my time sitting outside doing nothing but enjoying the nice weather. It seems like the flow of time slows a bit when I listen to the quiet activities of critters buzzing and flying around on a lazy day in my front yard.
        Called my sister Shiela and yakked at her for a spell. She decided that retirement was excessively boring and got a new job at a school for kids, and is doing quite well there, so far.
        I called my Mom and Pop to yak at them about their week. Then my brother Kevin called, he had just gotten back from his daughter’s where he did his laundry. He spent most of the day helping John our brother in law store boxes of telecommunication equipment, and then went on the road to servicing his vending machines. He is getting back into bike riding on trails and that makes me happy.
        I spent most of the rest of the night reading my Sci-Fi book and got a bunch of chapters read. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 19 - did my stretches. Tomorrow I start my regular routine again- I haven’t done any heavy exercises since last Wednesday when I had my tooth pulled.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 58 to 89, light winds from the NW and SE, humidity around 31 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 86. North northwest wind between 6 and 10 mph. Monday Night: Clear, with a low around 55. West northwest wind between 5 and 8 mph.”
        It was another beautiful day but not as hot. I couldn’t just linger sitting around and went to work on the patio. I did some framing on the front getting it ready for the lattice panels I’ll pick up at Home Depot tomorrow or the next day. I also did more painting too. While I was doing that, I was also working on Joel’s computer doing a system clean and defrag. It is already for him now to pick up but I think that I’ll have to schedule some time to set it up for him in his home.
        I went for my evening walk and just meditated on a lot of stuff while I walked getting my mind in order. It amazes me how a walk everyday does so much good to the body and mind.
        My sister Audrey called and we chatted for almost an hour- we had lots to catch up on.
        I messed around trying to find a driver that would work to run an Apple USB modem on the XP OS but found that there is no such animal. I wanted to use the Apple modem on my ASUS EEE, which doesn’t have a modem except for the Bluetooth I currently use.
        Watched “Monk” on NBC about a rich guy who was shot pretending to rob a friend. Then “NOVA: Saved by the Sun” came on. I’ve seen it before but I enjoyed it last time especially when a so-called “Physicist” said that solar cells are only good for powering calculators! I thought that was funny since my whole house is powered by them and I am able to watch him say that on a TV that is run on solar. So much for any credibility he may bring to the table! Experts! They’ll get ya every time!
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 20 - did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 57 to 88, light winds from the NW and SW, humidity around 30 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 88. North northwest wind around 7 mph. Tuesday Night: Clear, with a low around 56. Northwest wind around 7 mph.”
        I got up late today, I stayed up until 4:20am last night lusting over new computers online (the Lenovo Idea Pad S10 looks mighty nice but so does the Dell Mini 9), and I have much to do today!
        Patty called thinking someone got into her files while she was away, but it turned out not to be the case: Yahoo messenger had added some files to a new folder.
        While I was exercising Stoney came by with Sue to deliver a bag of groceries to me from the USDA food distribution. Sue had just got back from Mexico City where she and Gail had got themselves stranded for a few days until Stoney wired some money to them.
        I went online to check my email and news while I ate my oatmeal. Then I jumped in the Gross Polluter and headed to town. I stopped at the Post Office to pick up an 8Gig SD for my ASUS EEE that I ordered a few days ago.
        I got to Home Depot and spent some time there getting the things that I need to complete my patio and some other stuff too. I bought eight lattice panels, one pier with ears, ten 2x4x8s, screws, nails, LED lights, and ten red pavers. It all rang up to over $260, yikes!
        I arrived home around 3:30pm. I was hungry and made myself a peanut butter, jelly, and mayonnaise sandwich. Then it was back to work hanging the two lattice panels on the front fence. That took a while because there wasn’t enough lip on the frame to screw them to. So I had to hunt around for some wood that I could nail to the fence to make a lip then paint them before I screwed in the panels.
        Went for my evening walk. Tomorrow I will listen to an astronomy lecture; I’ve been preoccupied with other things lately. I really need to get my focus back on the things I like.
        My brother Kevin called for a short chat. Then it was time for “Terminator: the Sara Conner Chronicles” where the evil liquid lady executive robot takes the child she inherited from the women she took the form of, to see a psychologist. John Conner is seeing the same psychologist to find out why Skynet is interested and protecting this psychologist.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. It feels so good to be running again!
        The sky was clear and I thought that I might view a few of the Orionid meteors that should be streaming across the heavens late tonight, but I guess it was too early because I didn’t see a one. I will try later before I go to bed when Orion will be up higher in the NE sky.
        Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and I am on my way outside to catch some meteors.

Tuesday 21 - last night at 3am before I went to bed I went back outside to view the Orionid meteor shower after an unsuccessful attempt at 10pm when I didn’t see a one. Orion was higher in the Northeast sky and I wasn’t let down! Even though the third quarter Moon was washing out the smaller meteors I saw many quickly shoot across the sky in bright white streaks, too cool!
        I did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 59 to 84, winds from the NW to SW at 3-12 MPH, humidity around 26 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 82. North northwest wind between 8 and 13 mph. Wednesday Night: Clear, with a low around 51. North northwest wind between 6 and 8 mph.”
        I wrote my column for the newspaper and sent it in. I went outside and installed three 8x4” lattice panels on the shop’s east wall. I unloaded the truck of all the 2x4s, cement pavers, and other stuff I bought yesterday. I laid out the pavers to widen the walkway in the west patio.
        I took a shower and got caught up on my astronomy reading. Afterwards I went for my evening walk and listened to the astronomy lecture on “Nucleosynthesis”. They discussed the process of Stellar Nucleosynthesis where heavier elements are made by the proton-proton cycle that creates lighter elements in cool stars, and the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle in stars that are larger than 1.4 solar masses. These larger stars burn and create elements all the way up to iron 57 that needs more energy than the star can produce to burn and there is no pressure holding up the stars core, and the star collapses (depending on its size) into a neutron star or a black hole. This is called Explosive Nucleosynthesis. The collapse takes less than a second and creates a tremendous amount of energy to bombard iron and other elements with neutrons to create heavier elements like gold, uranium, and the like. There is another Explosive process: one that involves an accretion disk that surrounds a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole. In each case, it involves a binary system where the dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole sucks matter from a neighboring large star, the disk reaches critical mass, and goes nova repeatedly. In addition, there is one other process where an old star that is rich in neutrons speeding from its core hit other atoms in the stars atmosphere to combine into heavier atoms. I’ll have to combine all that I have written so far on Nucleosynthesis and add to it later when I have time, but right or wrong; this is how I understand the process at this time. We are indeed made of star stuff!
        I messed around with the ASUS EEE laptop updating a few things: installed Potable Firefox to save memory on the main drive, did a clean and defrag, while I was reading a few chapters in my Sci-Fi book.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 22 - did my stretches.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 57 to 82, winds from the NNW at 6-9 MPH, humidity around 21 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 82. Northwest wind between 7 and 9 mph. Thursday Night: Clear, with a low around 51. West northwest wind between 6 and 9 mph.”
        I did a few things around the house: cleaning this and sweeping that. Ron Dehart is coming by at 1:45pm and we’re going to the movies so I want to get something done before we go.
        Andrew called and we yapped for almost an hour, mostly on the economy. I don’t talk politics anymore and neither does he: we’re both fed up with the current elections.
        Ron arrived and we drove his truck to town to watch “Appaloosa” Starring: Ed Harris, Robert Knott, Viggo Mortensen, Renee Zellweger, Timothy V. Murphy, and Directed by: Ed Harris. I thought it was a great western. The set had many historic replicas from the windows in the building that were bleary to look through and the old train that was used. Renee Zellweger did some fine acting and had me fooled: I didn’t realize it was she until a little bit into the film. It wasn’t on the scale with “Unforgiven” (1992) but it held my attention throughout, wasn’t too long, and had me longing for the old west. I am glad I went to see it!
        We stopped off at Santana’s Mexican restaurant for dinner before going home. I had the No. 7 entrée on the menu, which were two beef burritos with beans and rice on the side. Ron had a No. 5: beef taco and cheese enchilada. I took the second burrito home to snack on later,
        Got home just as the Sun was setting and I quickly changed my city attire for my bum around clothes and went for my evening walk.
        My brother Kevin called and we talked briefly. Then I went online to mindlessly surf the web and get some work done.
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 23 - did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 53 to 81, light breeze, humidity around 19 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Sunny, with a high near 85. West wind 5 to 8 mph becoming north. Friday Night: Clear, with a low around 51. West northwest wind between 3 and 9 mph.”
        I did some more work on the patio and that’s about what I did all day. Put up another lattice panel and did some more painting.
        Went for my evening walk and listened to an astronomy lecture “Nucleosynthesis” again.
        Read my Sci-Fi book until late into the evening. Then I did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night. I know this post is short but I’m tired!

Friday 24 - did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 51 to 81, light breeze, humidity around 20 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 84. North northwest wind between 3 and 5 mph. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 52. Calm wind becoming north northwest between 4 and 7 mph.”
        I worked on the weekend update for the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the newsletter. I thought that I would share my “Thought of the Week” with you who read my journal, so here it is: Thought for the week: I watched “NOVA: Saved by the Sun” last Tuesday. I’ve seen this episode before but I enjoyed it the last time because it featured folks like me who are trying to leave as small a footprint on our environment as possible. One so-called “Physicist” said that solar cells are only good for powering calculators and other small devices! I thought that was rather amusing that I am able to watch this guy say that on a TV that is run off my home’s electric that’s powered by solar cells, which also runs my refrigerator, computer, lights, and other “devices”. So much for any credibility this particular Physicist may bring to the table! Experts! They’ll get ya every time!
        I messed around with the ASUS EEE laptop for a while. Trying to delete some unneeded files and programs, off a system with only 4Gig of flash drive space. I only have 1.6Gigs left and want to make the best use of it. I’m still lusting over the Lenovo S10 and the Dell Mini 9 laptops looking for a deal. I like the S10 because it has a 10.2 screen, but the Dell mini 9 has a flash drive and Bluetooth, which the Lenovo does not. But then again the HP Mini has a better keyboard! So many choices, so little money!
        I needed to get outside for a while so I went to check on my Friend’s home who is away on vacation. Drove the Trusty Scooter over and all was well with his house.
        I called Stoney and he invited me over for dinner. It was getting late so I went on my evening walk before I took the scooter over there. We had fried chicken with potato Salad and watched a little TV.
        I messed around on the computer some until “Numbers” came on CBS about an imposter who gets jobs at large companies to still money. Charley got his FBI clearance reinstated in the end,
        I did my stretches, practiced the guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 25 - did my stretches.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 52 to 81, light breeze, humidity around 21 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 85. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 52. Calm wind becoming north northwest between 4 and 7 mph.”
        I stayed up late trying to make a decision between two mini laptops: Lenovo S10 and Dell Mini 9. After reading many reviews and hunting deals, I finally found a Dell Mini 9 at $329 (and that ain’t bad!) at the Dell Outlet Site. This is brand new mini laptop was sent back and recertified. A similar one bought new but with 1Gig RAM, that I’d have to replace anyways with 2Gig, would have cost $399! It has an Intel Atom Processor running at 1.6 GHz- 8gig flash disk- 512RAM that I’m upgrading to 2Gigs for $32through Crucial.com- XP Home Edition SP3- Glossy 8.9 inch LED display (1024X600) bigger than my ASUS EEE 701’s 7” screen that is just a little too small for me- It has no camera or Bluetooth but that’s okay. One reason I’m buying from Dell is that they maintain a great service site where you can get drivers, updates, and manuals on any of their computers, even very old ones- and I ought to know because I’ve fixed many of them! I’m getting the money from selling off some of my old computers (I have too many as it is) and from funds that I receive from doing webwork: so I won’t be dipping into my savings.
        I spent much of the day calling Family and Friends, as I do every Saturday, until it was time to go to potluck. Stoney called to ask if I’d like to ride down with him and I said that would be fine. He drove up and honked and I was out the door with my mac and cheese that I made. Eleven folks showed up, but there was plenty of food to go around: Marcie’s cheese and beef enchiladas with a side of Spanish rice; Chris’s famous macaroni salad; Rose brought peas; Pat cooked up a tuna casserole, Bob Seeley’s fruit platter; and of course my mac and cheese. There might not have been that many folks attending but the quality of their company are what really matters in the end, and these are all fine folks!
        I got home and went for my evening walk, and then I yakked at my brother Kevin for a long spell. I settled down to read my Sci-Fi book well into the night. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 26 - did my stretches. Tomorrow it’s back to the exercises!
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 52 to 91, light breeze, humidity around 20 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 89. Calm wind becoming east southeast between 6 and 9 mph. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 55. South southeast wind around 6 mph becoming calm.”
        I was outside watering my plants when my friend Sherry stopped by for a short chat on her way to Wonder Valley. What a beautiful day! It reminded me of spring, but it also reminded me that winter is just around the corner bringing the cold with it.
        I took my laptop into the shop to test the range of the Bluetooth to the modem in my bedroom and had no trouble with the reception.
        Called my old friend Bob Vandenberg to talk of old times. It is funny how time flies by, when he called up a few months ago after a lapse of twenty years or so, I asked him how his kids were doing now- I was thinking that they were still little kids- he told me that they are in their thirties with kids of their own, yikes!
        Called Joel to come and pick up the Dell desktop that I’m selling to him. We sat outside under the shade of my new patio and yapped for a spell; he will be going to Los Angeles sometime next month to be interviewed by a Canadian TV production crew about his friend Iron Eyes Cody. Joel is taking them to Cody’s old home and other haunts that the actor liked. Joel has many stories of Iron Eyes that will give the writers a lot to go on.
        Went for my evening walk. When I was back called some of my Family and Friends to yak at them: Leeanne was on a cruise ship somewhere in international waters and her cell phone was breaking up badly, so I’ll call her next week. Paula was home and awake and we had a nice talk. Shiela was making spaghetti for dinner and we talked with the noise of banging of pots and pans in the background. I quickly jawed with my brother Kevin, who was on his way to a movie.
        I watched “Sixty Minutes” on CBS about the real reason behind the collapse of our economy. However, I suspect there is more to it then what they presented, and I believe our economy has hit the “Perfect Storm” of many origins.
        I read my Sci-Fi book well into the night and I’m almost finished with it. I think it’s time for me to leave these fantasies of alien spacecraft conquering Earth and move onto something more enlightening. I just have to figure out what new subject I want to spend time studying.
        Did my stretches, practiced guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.


Monday 27 - did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 58 to 94, light breeze, humidity around 23 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 87. West wind 5 to 8 mph becoming east southeast. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 57. West southwest wind around 7 mph.
”
I was online getting my email and checking to see if my Dell Mini 9 had shipped, The email said that it was out for delivery! I had only ordered it Friday morning at 3am and it was already on its way, cool! I had no longer read the email when I heard a truck pull up, it was DHL with the laptop, double cool!
        I quickly opened up the box, put it on the table, hooked it up, and took some pictures of it. I set my ASUS EEE 701 next to it and as you can see by the pictures the Dell is slightly bigger and the keyboard is laid out in a much nicer arrangement. It has a glossy display: you can see my arm reflected in the picture (I had no problems with the display I found out later on after much use). The first thing I noticed was that there was no “F” keys at the top but imbedded on the third row from the top. You an get to them through the “Fn” key. No F11 or F12 keys! Another thing I noticed was the rugged hinges that holds the screen and body together. This is a well thought out and crafted machine.
        I fired it up and went through the process of setting up Windows XP. When that was done I hooked up my Bluetooth dongle and Bluetooth modem (I’m on dialup out here) and went online. This sucker is fast! Programs load quickly. I thought that I’d have problems with having only 512Meg of RAM but so far it performs like a sports car compared to the ASUS EEE and that has !Gig. I have 2Gigs of RAM being shipped from Crucial.com that should arrive in the next few days and I will then load Microsoft Office 2007 onto it and we shall see how that runs.
        I uninstalled bloated MacAfee antivirus and firewall to install Avast antivirus and Sygate firewall. Then of course Firefox with Adblock Plus and Flashblock addons.
        My friend Seimi called to ask a few astronomy questions; are there more atoms in a glass water than glasses of water in the oceans? I told him I’d find out, but I believed so.
        After playing around with the Dell Mini I called Stoney and he invited me over for dinner at 5pm. That gave me just enough time to go on my evening walk and ride my Trusty Scooter over to his place. We had sausage patties that we got from the USDA food distribution with potato salad and cottage cheese.
        Got back home to feed Fat Cat who was patiently awaiting me at the front gate. I got in the house to find a message from Joel that the Dell I sold him wasn’t booting up, it would just get to the Windows screen and die. I had him pick me up and drive me to his home to have a look-see. It turned out that he had it on a really old monitor and XP wasn’t recognizing it. So we switched monitors and it booted up just fine. What a relief, I thought he blew the power supply with all that old Mickey Mouse wiring he has in his home. I installed his AOL for him and got the machine online and I left him a happy man.
        Than I went back to setting up the Mini when I got back making it do all the stuff that I need to make it comfortable to work on. It comes with SP3 but right away it started doing updates, many updates.
        I did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal on the Dell Mini and found that the keyboard isn’t all that bad once you find where they hide all the keys. Posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 28 - did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 59 to 89, light breeze, humidity around 25 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 89. West wind 5 to 9 mph becoming east. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 58. West southwest wind between 6 and 8 mph”
        Seimi came by with “Pale Blue Dot” by Carl Sagan for me to read. I gave him “Field Guide to Stars and planets” by the Audubon Society. Seimi is getting interested in astronomy and I want to help where I can. He went on my mile run with me and then I showed him my telescopes. It would be really nice t have someone to stargaze and share the adventure with! There’s not many up here that are interested in things such as this.
        My online friend Steve98052 at LiveJournal sent me an answer to Seimi’s question of yesterday: are there more atoms in a glass of water than glasses of water in the oceans? Here is Steve’s answer: The glass of water isn't that hard to estimate. First, how large is a glass of water? Let's use a small one, one-quarter liter, about 8½ ounces. How many atoms are in that?
By definition, a mole is the number of atoms in 12 grams of Carbon-12. That's approximately equal to (within 1% of) the number of molecules of water in 18 grams of water, because H2O has a molecular weight of about 18. The quarter-liter glass of water has a mass of about 250 grams, so it contains almost 14 moles of water molecules, or almost 42 moles of hydrogen and oxygen atoms.
And how many glasses of water are there in the ocean? The diameter of the Earth is about 12000 km. The area of a sphere is 4πr2, so Earth's area is about 4π(6000 km)2 = about 450 million km2. About three-fourths of that is covered by water, if I remember correctly. I seem to remember reading that the average depth of the ocean is around 12000 feet, or about 3.6 km. So, (450 million km2)×0.75×(3.6 km) = about 1200 million km3.
Time to switch to scientific notation. 1200 million km3 is 1.2×109 km3. But that's cubic km; we want quarter-liter glasses. A cubic km is 109 m3, and a cubic meter is 1000 liters. So 1.2×109 km3 is 4.8×1021 quarter-liter glasses.
A mole is about 6.022×1023. The glass of water is around 2.5×1025 atoms of water. Thus there are about 5000 times as many atoms in a glass of water as glasses of water in the ocean.
Even if I'm way off on a few of the figures, the atoms win by a few orders of magnitude, unless I've slipped decimal places too.
Wow Steve you must have spent a lot of time on that one! Thanks!!!
        I wrote my column for the newspaper and spent a couple of hours on that one before I sent it in.
        Went for my evening walk. Such a nice day outside!
        My neighbor Ron the Graphics Designer dropped by for a spell. I showed him my new patio and shop then took him inside to let him have a look-see at my new Dell Mini. He was quite impressed with its small size.
        I watched “Nova: Hunting the Hidden Dimension” on PBS about the new geometry of fractals and Mandelbrot set found in all nature. A very interesting show and worth following up on.
        Chris came by after Bingo to give me a list of winners so I could put them in my column for next week and post them on the website. We stood outside and jawed for a little. Chris used to be a cook and told me some stories of the places he worked. One was the bowling alley in Twentynine Palms where he had a Friday night special of fish that would pack the small café. His liver and onion dinners were to die for they were so good, he said. Maybe I can get him to cook up them liver and onions some day!
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal on the Dell Mini; it still takes some getting used to, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 29 - did my stretches.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 57 to 88, light winds from the NW and SW, humidity around 30 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Partly sunny, with a high near 85. Calm wind becoming south southwest between 13 and 16 mph. Winds could gust as high as 24 mph. Thursday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 60. West southwest wind between 6 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph.”
        I did some painting outside on the roof. The frames that I built to hold my solar panels haven’t been painted yet, and it’s been over a year since I constructed them. So I had the paint to do it, I did it.
        FedEx delivered my 2Gig Ram for the Dell Mini 9 and I stuck it in and powered it back up. All it did was beep at me with a blank screen! I put the 512Meg back in, powered it back up without a problem. Well I thought it might be the BIOS so I updated Version A00 to A01, put the 2Gig back in, powered it back up, and still beeped at me- I got a bad 2Gig RAM and will call Crucial.com tomorrow to have it replaced.
        I went ahead and installed Office 2007. I wanted to wait for the 2Gig RAM to be installed, but Office runs just fine and loads quick on the 512RAM with over 200RAM left for other programs to run and that was a surprise because Office 2007 runs like an old dog on a hot day with my Toshiba laptop that runs a Celeron M 1.6Ghz with over a Gig of RAM. I like my Mini!
        Went on my evening walk and then called my brother Kevin and we yapped for an hour or so. I got caught up on some astronomy reading and then watched the Obama infomercial. To tell the truth I was quite impressed with the man.
        Did a few things on the computer. I finished my Sci-Fi book and started reading “Pale Blue Dot” by Carl Sagan.
        I did my stretches, practiced guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 30 - did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 57 to 86, light winds from the NW, humidity around 29 percent, clear skies with clouds forming later in the evening. According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 83. Calm wind becoming south southwest between 10 and 13 mph. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph. Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 59. Southwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming northwest.”
        I called Crucial.com first thing when I got up. I was put right through to a Tech without any waiting. I told her that the 2Gig RAM was DOA and she asked to explain. I told her the laptop just beeped when I booted up but had no problems when I put the 512Meg back into the Dell Mini 9. She asked me to try it again, I did, it beeped, she heard! Crucial will be sending me a new 2Gig RAM with free shipping and I’m to send the bad one back for a refund. I really like Crucial and their service- I don’t buy from any other company when it comes to memory.
        I went out to the shop to sort through all the junk and get it organized. I ended up throwing much of it away and keeping odds and ends that I might use later. I spent several hours doing this and got mush done. There were a few items that go back 20 to 30 years to bring back some old memories of when I lived on a boat in Redondo Harbor. It was nice to have my memory jarred and to reminisce on my life on the water.
        Went for my evening walk. Some clouds were starting to come over the mountains to the west making for a wonderful sunset.
        My dear friend Kula called asking me for her friend in Hawaii about WIFI and if it was legal to receive signals from a neighbor without them knowing it. I know that in some states it is illegal, but I also believe that it is unethical to do so in states without these laws. Plus it could leave your computer open to attacks. A few minutes after I hung up her friend from Hawaii called asking me the same thing. It seems that she can get online by using a neighbor’s WIFI. She is new to computers and I told her the same thing. She had some other questions too and I was glad to help her out.
        Read “Pale Blue Dot” well into the night. Then I did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Halloween! - did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 59 to 83, light breeze, humidity around 31 percent, altostratus clouds. According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 82. West southwest wind 6 to 9 mph increasing to between 17 and 20 mph. Winds could gust as high as 29 mph.

Saturday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 59. West wind between 11 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph.”
        I spent the morning working on the Copper Mountain Mesa Website. I changed the calendar to November and updated Karen’s Corner with her new story on Roadrunners. I still have to put October’s Potluck pictures on the site but I need to get some stuff done around the house.
        I went outside to the shop to sort through more stuff, as I did yesterday. I got a bunch of boxes out of the battery room that were full of this and that and began going through them. I’m putting everything where it belongs and a lot of it is being tossed away; I’ve filled up one trash can already.
        Seimi called as I was sorting and we talked about the Moon and how the craters were formed. He has many questions since I gave him that “Field Guide to the Stars and Planets”!
        Then late in the day Lee Hines called having problems printing forms on his HP printer. I stopped what I was doing and he picked me up for the drive to his house. I spent an hour trying to figure out why it wouldn’t print. I even reloaded the HP software but it still wasn’t printing when I left. I told him we would print it on my computer tomorrow. An hour after he dropped me back off at my home, he called to say that it just started printing by its self and he won’t be needing to come over tomorrow! That’s fine with me.
        Went for my evening walk and then read a little of “Pale Blue Dot” for a while until my brother Kevin called. We weren’t on the phone for a minute when his friend Laura called and he put me on hold. When he came back I asked what she wanted. He said that she just wanted to talk. I was thinking its Friday night and Halloween to boot, so I pressed on with my questioning. He said she asked what he was doing and he replied that he was talking to his brother. You fool! Does a lead weight have to fall on your foot, I said, she wants to go out, call her right back and find out! He did and called me back telling me that they’re going to a movie, too cool!
        I went back to reading my book till it started putting me to sleep (Carl Sagan does that to me sometimes) and started writing in my journal.
        I did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run.
        “Numbers” came on CBS about robberies of a parcel company involving an autistic savant who works in the dead letter department.
        I practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night. Well goodbye to October! We’ll see you around next year.

September 2008

Welcome to the Month of September!- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 77 to 100, calm winds, humidity around 22 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 94. North northwest wind between 5 and 9 mph. Tuesday Night: Clear, with a low around 67. East northeast wind 5 to 8 mph becoming west.”
I again went down to where the students were filming to tie up a few loose ends. I met Director Andrews Wright’s Mom and Dad, Mike and Lori, who provided most of the financial backing for the production. Mike said some of the equipment was borrowed from work and the rest was out of pocket- the insurance for the large truck used to carry props and camera gear was eight-hundred plus the rental. Lori told me that Andrew, 20, was already interested in films since age five and she had walked in on Andrew and Ryan Elwell when they were both nine years old playing with the family video camera. Andrew also started playing golf at age three his dad said.
Andrew has two short films on the internet: One called “Balls of Gold”, and “Coming Home” about his brother-in-law Glen Kelly coming back home from Iraq, both can be seen at MySpace TV. He also had an idea for an epic based on the Greek 300 who stood up against the Persians at Thermopylae in 480 BC, but was stunned when he saw the trailer for the movie “300” on television. That dashed his hopes for making that short film, but his mom was relieved saying that they wouldn’t have to go out to find three-hundred friends for the shoot; he even wanted to include the rain of arrows!
“Legend of the High Desert” will be in postproduction for four months, after three years of college this short film will be Andrew’s last thesis.
Other members of the crew (but not all) are Director of Photography Ryan Elwell, Assistant Camera Melissa Ramirez and Noney Riddle, and Script Supervisor Mary Stasilli, who will be shooting a thesis in Big Bear next weekend based on the story “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien.
        You can see more pictures of the cast and crew of "Legend of the High Desert" at the end of my August Journal!
        Went over to Stoney’s for dinner. He made meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, and fresh baked bread. He used a lot of pork in the meatloaf and its drippings in the gravy- I can just hear my arteries hardening! He got a call from Sue who was stranded because her little dune buggy won’t start. We drove to her rescue, towed the buggy to her home and then messed around trying to get it to start, but the day grew dark and we decided that Stoney would check it out on Wednesday. On the way back home we passed by the students who were busy putting all the props and equipment into the large truck. I guess they have completed what they had set out to do and will be on their way back home. I will miss them!
        I had Stoney drop me off down the street from my house so that I could go on my evening walk. I called my brother Kevin when I got back to see how he was doing- he has been having a hard time of it lately. Then I read a few chapters of “Ring of Fire” until late into the night.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Took out the binoculars for a while gazing at the starry sky with Fat Cat on my lap. Then I practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 02- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 76 to 101, calm winds, humidity around 24 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 96. Light wind becoming west southwest between 10 and 13 mph. Wednesday Night: Clear, with a low around 70. West northwest wind between 5 and 13 mph.”
        Spent the better part of the day on the computer writing my column for the newspaper, downloading Google’s new browser called Chrome, and writing a proposal for a project I may do.
        Last night I found a nice site for Astronomy Podcasts called Astronomy Cast and downloaded “Electromagnetism” lecture and listened to it while on my evening walk. They talked about the history of magnetism and the Electromagnetic Theory developed by Maxwell who tied light, magnetism, and electricity as being the same phenomena. The massless, chargeless Photon, I learned, is the intermediary of electromagnetic radiation in all wavelengths and at different energies. There was a little talk about Virtual Particles and magnetic fields, which I’ll have to investigate later. Also discussed were black holes with accretion disks; how electromagnetism causes flares that shoot off into space at its poles. The lecture was only thirty minutes and packed with lots of information.
        I watched “NCIS” on NBC; a rerun I haven’t seen yet. It was about the Director, Jenny, who had been at a funeral for a colleague and overheard a code name mentioned by an East European that she suspected murdered her friend. In the end, she is involved in a shootout at a diner out in the desert where she ends up dead along with the five or so bad guys. Seems like the good-looking NCIS women end up being shot and killed; that makes two of them so far!
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 03- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 77 to 102, calm winds until late night W at 12 MPH, humidity around 26 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 101. Northwest wind between 3 and 8 mph. Thursday Night: Clear, with a low around 72. South southwest wind 5 to 9 mph becoming west northwest.”
        Lee Hines brought over his virus/Trojan infested computer for me to fix- I don’t know how many times I’ve told him not to click on popups! I was able to get pass the lockup of the machine to view his data and found that it was corrupt, so getting it off and saving it was out of the question- I don’t know how many times I told him to backup his Docs! I decided to do a fresh install of XP and whatever wasn’t backed up was lost.
        Patty called me when I was working on Lee’s machine and wanted help installing Yahoo Messenger. She is running Win98SE and cannot run the newer version 8.1 so I had her download an older Yahoo Messenger 7.0 (8.2 MB) at OldVersion.Com and walked her through the install. Yahoo Messenger 5 and below are no longer supported and won’t work since last May.
        If I find the time tomorrow I will finish Lee’s computer updating it with Service Pak2 and 3, install Avast antivirus, Sygate Firewall and a few other goodies on it. I hope Lee will try to listen to my advice about popups and backups- this makes the fourth or fifth time I’ve fixed his machine for him.
        Worked on the Gross Polluter fixing the wiring and the connections to the battery and she started right up. This is just a patchwork to get her going so I can get to town, buy a few parts, and really get her running right.
        Kula called needing help on a Dell laptop whose screen doesn’t want to stay at the resolution she sets it to and reverts to a lower resolution when powered back up- Weird! I’ll have to go to Dell’s site with the Service Tag Number to see if there are any updates for the video driver.
        Went for my evening walk and listened to a lecture on Gravity: From Galileo rolling balls, Newton’s theory of gravity, Einstein spacetime curvature, to current theory of gravitons and gravity waves, scientists still don’t have a good theory on what gravity really is.
        Watched “Bones: Yanks in the UK” Brennan and Booth are in London for a seminar at Oxford when a car with a young woman’s body was pulled out of the Thames river and Scotland Yard asks for their assistance. Meanwhile back at the lab Angela’s handsome lost husband arrives causing much conflict among the team.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 04- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights. All this gives me a reason to appreciate my weekends more and my two days off from exercising.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 81 to 106, calm winds, humidity around 35 percent, clear skies until 4pm when a layer of clouds raised the humidity and made it very uncomfortable. According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 101. West wind between 4 and 7 mph becoming calm. Friday Night: Clear, with a low around 72. Calm wind becoming west between 6 and 9 mph.”
        Went right to work on Lee’s computer installing all the goodies like an antivirus and firewall. I needed an install disk for the 56k modem and called him up to bring it over. I felt bad about not being able to recover his photos from the hard drive but they were corrupted by the virus/Trojan and I told Lee so. He said that there weren’t that many new pics on the drive for him to worry about- he just wants it running. I told him tomorrow he could have it back.
        Got a reply about the proposal I first mentioned last Tuesday. The editor of the newspaper gave it a go. Cool! What my proposal was is to have the “Legend of the High Desert” story separate from my normal column and run as a human-interest story. Now that I got the okay, I’ll start editing it. The real story behind my asking the editor to run this separately was that the students were very accommodating and excited about having the film written up in a newspaper. I did tell them I write a “small” column for our little area in the local newspaper, but things kind of escalated, the students were very enthusiastic, and I had over 700 words written and many pictures- my regular column has a 300 word limit and no pictures. I just didn’t want to let these young future filmmakers down.
        Read a few chapters of the Sci-Fi book “The Ring of Fire” and then decided to do a little editing of my story figuring I have lots of time. I went online to check a spelling and came across an email sent earlier from my editor saying she was going to shoot for Saturday as the publication date! I guess things move mighty fast in the newspaper world. That got me really cracking on it then and sent what I had edited to the paper! If she meant the Saturday a week from now, I’ll be that much more ahead.
        Went for my evening walk without my camera, without an astronomy lecture, I just wanted to think clearly and reflect on current events while I walked. You know when you’re up against a problem or something new that challenges your ability, you just have to work your way through it the best you can, and always with a smile. My brother Kevin called earlier today with good news about a problem he has been having that has had the whole Family concerned but now there's a little light at the end of that particular tunnel, and I for one am relieved that my brother has "worked his way through" this hard time in his life.
        Continued reading until late into the night. Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar and finally came up with the first verse for a song that I had made up, had cords and rhythm down pat and been playing it for over half a year now. I guess things go mighty slowly in the song writing world! Wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 05- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 82 to 105, calm winds, humidity around 25 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 101. West wind between 5 and 8 mph becoming calm. Saturday Night: Clear, with a low around 73. Southeast wind around 7 mph becoming west.”
        I did the weekend update to the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the newsletter.
        I finished up installing all the programs in Lee’s computer and called him to pick it up. He came and got it but called me to say that the mouse and keyboard were not working. I told him to come and get me so I can set it up for him- Lee is digitally challenged. While I was there, I also installed his printer for him. Everything is running fine now and he has promised me that he will do the backups of his data and not click on any more popups.
        I called Stoney up to see what he was up to. Yesterday he helped Sue on her little buggy but he couldn’t get it running and it was just way too hot for him to be working on it under the Sun. Sue asked him for a ride to the store, so he obliged, and on the way back his back tire blew. Now he had to go back out into the heat of the day to change the tire. I got on his case about that! He is eighty-nine years old and shouldn’t be out there doing these kinds of things especially after the heat exhaustion he suffered last spring when we had an unexpected heat wave. He agreed with me like always but I don’t think that will stop him.
        I went on my evening walk listening to a lecture on Galaxies. They discussed how most galaxies are conglomerations of smaller dwarf galaxies- our Milky Way is one of these that draw smaller ones into it. The Magellanic Clouds, which are irregular dwarf galaxies, pass by the Milky Way and some of the mass is being exchange by both galaxies by tidal forces. There are remnants of smaller dwarf galaxies that have been observed, which were absorbed billions of years ago by our Milky Way. Other super large galaxies had just started out that way from the beginning and not by way of cannibalizing smaller galaxies. There are other kinds of galaxies, which take on many shapes and forms: spirals, elliptical, and irregular and many sub categories. Seyfert galaxies have a very bright nucleus, are believed to contain a supper massive black hole that emits high-energy radio waves from debris from its accretion disk surrounding and falling into its black hole. Kind of like Quasars but less energetic. When two large galaxies have a collision the dust of both, combine to form many new large blue stars that die in a matter of a few million years and can eventually spell the death of the newly formed galaxy by forming heavier elements from hydrogen and lighter elements that are used in the creation of new stars.
        When I got back from my walk I went online to do more research for my article for the newspaper. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 06- did my stretches. It seems to me that doing my exercises during the weekdays and taking the weekends off to rest is working quite nicely! Moreover, I had a really goodnights sleep- 9hrs! I usually get five or six hours of sleep.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 81 to 105, calm winds, humidity around 20 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 101. Light wind becoming south southwest between 11 and 14 mph. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 74. West southwest wind between 6 and 14 mph.”
        Spent most of the day yakking to Family and Friends on the phone: Andrew, Lynn, Kevin, Tom and Aki, Mike, Mom and Pop, and of course Stoney. We don’t just yak for a few minutes either, so I’m all yakked out!
        Worked on the “Legend of the High Desert” and I think it’s ready to send in to the newspaper. I’ll reread it tonight and then send it to them.
        Got a call from a Marylou Almond who reads my column- she really likes it when I write about astronomy! She wanted to inform me that the MBTA (Morongo Basin Transit Authority) is having a meeting at 3:30pm on September 18 at the Helen Gray Education Center- 6601 White Feather Rd., Joshua Tree, CA, 92252. To discuss “Unmet Needs” (folks in wheelchairs and the handicapped) for the unincorporated area of the Morongo Basin, this means us out here in Copper Mountain Mesa along with other areas that are not in the Towns of Joshua Tree, Twentynine Palms, and Yucca Valley. I did a search online to find out more but I found nothing so far. It seems that money that would be earmarked for our area could be spent on other things like maintaining roads in other areas if there is not enough public input! Until I find more info and verification of this, I cannot put it in my column. Marylou said the she would email me more later on this week.
        Went for my evening walk. I been noticing that the black ants come out in the evening and the red ones I see on my morning runs and not on my evening walks. I wonder why that is.
        Did a little light reading of a few books I found lying around the house that I may start reading in earnest, I just have to decide which one.
        I went outside with my binoculars to watch the setting of the first quarter Moon as it slid behind the mountains to the southwest. It looked like a large ship slowly sinking, with the bow going down last.
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 07- did my stretches- tomorrow it’s back to the exercising for me!
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 81 to 104, winds out of the NW-SW at 6 to 20 MPH, humidity around 40 percent, cumulonimbus clouds bringing gusts of wind but no rain. According to the National Weather Service “Monday: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 98. Calm wind becoming south southwest between 11 and 14 mph. Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 72. South southwest wind between 11 and 14 mph becoming light. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph.”
        Did my usual morning routine of catching up on the news and reading my email. I called my friend Dan Adelsperger who moved to Victorville a year ago or so, to be with his brother who lives there.
        I called my friend Kula to help her fix the Dell Latitude C840 that is having a video problem: when you set the screen size to a larger resolution, it reverts to a smaller screen size after reboot. We spent an hour and a half downloading new video drivers and a BIOS upgrade, but it still wouldn’t work, Dang! Later in the evening, I searched the web for a solution and found a simple one: Hold down the FN key and press on the F7 key at the same time- “toggles between compressed and uncompressed Resolution modes,” they think (a Dell quirk on some of their laptops). I sent her an email and we shall see if that works. She has to have it working the 16th before she leaves on her trip to Hawaii. Kula is donating it to Carolyn who runs a cat sanctuary and feeds ferals on Kauai. Carolyn’s website is here: Kauai Cats
        Went to check on my Friend’s house while he is away and everything was just fine. On the way back I stopped off at Stoney’s to see what he was up to; he was watching “Hee Haw” (1969-93) on the RFD station- kind of like "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" (1968-73) but country style. I didn’t stay long.
        Went for my evening walk and there were a lot of storm clouds overhead. The wind was picking up with gusts up to 30 or 40 MPH! I thought it may even rain, but nah, it just passed us right by. It made for an interesting walk though!
        Yapped with my brother Kevin and then called my sister Shiela and jawed with her for a spell.
        I was reading “The Ring of Fire” when Seimi called at 8:30pm to inform me that there is a power outage in our area! It started at 6:35pm. I went outside and sure enough all the lights in our area were out. Seimi always lets me know when we have outages because I use Solar and batteries to power my home, otherwise I wouldn’t know! Too bad the Moon is out and washing out the stars or I would have taken out my telescope and take advantage of the dark. Maybe later, after the Moon sets, I’ll do just that!
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and I’m on my way outside with my telescope!

Monday 08- late last night around 1:30am I went outside to take advantage of the power outage in our area and took out my telescope. The night sky is a different story when all those lights that folks use to turn night into day are out- the Milky Way looks so grand and our area looks so pristine! It’s to dang bad that some folks just have to bring the “city” out our way. I did a little stargazing, then I went on back inside a little after 2am. Before I went to bed at an hour later, I peeked through my window and saw that the power had been restored and the lights were blazing away again.
        I did my stretches, ran two miles, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 81 to 100, winds out of the S-SE at 7 to 16 MPH, humidity around 41 percent, cumulonimbus clouds bringing gusts of wind and sprinkles! According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 96. Calm wind becoming southwest between 17 and 20 mph. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 71. West wind 17 to 20 mph decreasing to between 6 and 9 mph.”
        Wanting to find out more about the MBTA meeting on “Unmet Needs” I called the Helen Gray Education Center and asked them if they knew about it. A nice woman told me that they don’t give out info on private meetings just health meetings that they hold there, but she gave me the MBTA’s phone number. I called MBTA and was told that yes, they are having a meeting on the 18th and that San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG) is going to be there to discuss Unmet Needs. Basically, I was told that it concerned extending times on existing routes. There was no mention of the handicapped and disabled. When I asked about the unincorporated areas, he repeated what he had just told me. And yes, he knew Marylou Almond who is ambassador to the MBTA. So I ended up with less than when I started- this one is over my head with inconsistent statements and I think I’ll just leave it alone for now and maybe just put the meeting, time and place in my column for folks up here who want to attend.
        Called Stoney to see what he was up to. He invited me over for spaghetti tomorrow! Yum!
        I started reading “Beyond this Horizon” (1948) by Robert Heinlein, about genetically engineered humans who are perfect in every way except they are not happy. It’s one of the few stories written by Heinlein that I haven’t read yet. My favorite story of his is “Stranger in a Strange Land”.
        Went for my evening walk and took the camera and got some nice pics of some storm clouds.
        Watched “Terminator: the Sara Connor Chronicles”. The good robot girl is reprogrammed when she gets blown up in a car and starts hunting Sara and John. Meanwhile an evil robot woman who is an executive of some high tech company gets the chess-playing computer that was stolen from its inventor. Lots of action!
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 09- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 78 to 97, winds out of the S-SW at 4 to 14 MPH, humidity around 33 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 92. West wind at 11 mph becoming southeast. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 70. South wind 6 to 11 mph becoming northwest.”
Wrote my column for the newspaper and sent it in. I then spent a bunch of my time communicating by way of email with my friend Kula’s Sister Judy, about me helping her out editing her website. She wasn’t happy with her webmaster because he was always late in getting things done. To make a very long story short: it turns out that the webmaster is a family member of hers and wasn’t charging her for the editing he was doing, which she thought was what she was paying for and he was only charging her to host the site. I thought that was very nice of him to do that and told her so! Now that she understood this after I explained it to her, she called him up and he is going to help her learn how to make changes on her own. I may have lost a paying job but I did what I thought was right. Dang!
        Went on over to Stoney’s for that spaghetti dinner. I took my dirty clothes over to wash, too. Roger Smith was there and we all sat around eating and jawing about their neighbor’s dogs that used to come out barking and threatening us every time we’d go outside. Well the dogs are no longer there because everyone complained and Stoney told him to get rid of the dogs or leave- he is Stoney’s renter. Roger and Stoney are growing some tomatoes and the caterpillars are munching on them. We must have picked off around fifteen of the suckers while we were jawing outside.
        Went for my evening walk. The weather is cooling down and it was such a fine day outside! When I got back, I read a chapter in “Beyond this Horizon”, and started another book called “Modern Logic” that I bought back in the 70s for a college class I never took. So I thought that I should give it a go. It starts out talking about Deductive and Inductive reasoning. An example Deductive Reasoning is: All men are mortal. All Greeks are men= All Greeks are mortal. An example of Inductive Reasoning is: The Sun will rise tomorrow. Okay, not so bad so far, but I only read up to page ten! They describe the Traditional Deductive System (Syllogism) developed by Aristotle in the fourth century BCE and was in use up into the nineteenth century. And that’s where I left off.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 10- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 76 to 95, winds out of the S-SE at 2 to 10 MPH, humidity around 34 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 91. Northwest wind at 7 mph becoming east. Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 70. Southeast wind around 6 mph becoming northwest.”
        I did some work online updating the calendar for my website, read and replied to some emails. Then I was off in the Gross Polluter heading to Twentynine Palms. My first stop was at my Doctor’s office to have him sign a document that I’ll have to come back later in the week to pick up. My next stop was to Barr Lumber to get some piers with ears; they are made of cement and used to anchor down 4x4 poles into the ground, and the ears stick out giving you something to nail from. For some reason, I felt very manly walking up to their order desk and asking for “piers with ears” like I know what I’m doing. Feeling manly I even helped the yard person load them into my truck; they are heavy and awkward to carry. Sometime I just have to laugh at myself; I mean I haven’t felt “manly” in a long time; usually I just fell like me. Maybe all those years of exercises are finally paying off.
        On my way back I checked my Friend’s house who is away on vacation and then dropped by at Stoney’s for a spell. Tomorrow we are going to try to finish off the spaghetti from yesterday.
        Called my brother Kevin and yakked for an hour. He has a vending business and one of the compressors went out on a soda machine. That is going to cost him $300 to fix! I told him about my “manly” day and we both laughed. When I left him, he was making taquitos with jalapenos, peanut butter, and fried banana!
        Read a chapter in “Beyond this Horizon”, and then started reading “Modern Logic” but fell asleep. I guess if I ever want to take a nap, all I have to do is open a math book! I hate to say it but I’m mathematically challenged.
        Went for my evening walk and re-listened to the lecture on Galaxies of a few days ago. Then I watched “Bones” on Fox about a body found in an outhouse, yuck!
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went on my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 11- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 74 to 94, winds out of the SE-NE at 6 to 19 MPH, humidity around 36 percent, cumulonimbus clouds but no rain for us. According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Sunny, with a high near 92. Calm wind becoming north northwest between 4 and 7 mph. Friday Night: Clear, with a low around 69. North northwest wind 6 to 10 mph becoming west southwest.”
        I went online for a while answering emails and doing a little work but nothing interesting. I need to go again to the Doctor’s office to pick up that document I took down there yesterday and mail it off. Stoney called to ask if I could stop by his house on the way to town and pick up some letters he needs to mail, and get him a gallon of milk on my way back. I was just on my way out the door when Kula called for some help on the laptop she is taking to Hawaii that she is donating to a cat rescue there. Well that lasted forty-five minutes but she is a good friend and it is for a good cause. Then Dale from Landers called, I made it a short chat and he will call me tomorrow- he has the firewood that he promised me.
        Hopped in the Gross Polluter and made my way to Twentynine via Stoney’s. Picked up my document and stopped off at Stater Bros. and did my shopping. Drove on home to put my groceries away and then over to Stoney’s to help him finish off that leftover spaghetti from Tuesday- nah, we didn’t finish it, so I think I’ll be back Saturday or Sunday. Dang good spaghetti though!
        Went for my evening walk listening to a lecture on “The Strong and Weak Nuclear Force”. The Strong Force is what holds the nuclei of atoms together. When larger nuclei, on the periodic table of over one hundred, form, the strong force begins to break down and isn’t strong enough to hold everything together. The strong force causes gluons to fly back and forth between protons and neutrons to hold them together in the nucleus of an atom. The electron is not affected because of the electrostatic force. The Weak Nuclear force has to do with decay of neutrons and the cause of radioactivity. I’ll just leave it at that for now and I’ll re-listen to it again since there was so much more in the lecture.
        Talked to my brother Kevin for a spell; it’s his birthday today! He went over to his daughter’s for dinner and she cooked up spicy hamburgers, which Kevin consumed two. He kept burping over the phone he ate so much! Well it’s his birthday and he deserves it.
        I read three chapters in “Beyond this Horizon” late into the night. Then I did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 12- did my stretches, ran two miles, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 72 to 97, calm winds, humidity around 23 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 96. West northwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 67. East southeast wind at 9 mph becoming northwest.”
        Worked on the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the newsletter. Did a little house cleaning and then went outside to figure out how I want to extend the shop/patio. Now I have 4x4s and cement piers lying around to trip over, but I got a good idea where I want to place them.
        Called my friend and neighbor Joan to see what she’s been up to. I found that she likes to read Sci-Fi just as I do and we discussed authors we both like. I’m going to trade her Sue Grafton detective novel for an Orson Scott Card one that I’ve haven’t read yet.
        Went on my evening walk listening to an audio of “Dragon*Con” a Sci-Fi convention held in Atlanta Georgia. Astronomer Dr. Pamala Gay, who does the lectures I recently been listening to, went there to host a discussion group on what science facts Sci-Fi is getting right and wrong. They all agreed that Armageddon starring Bruce Willis was the worst in not getting the science facts right- I agreed whole-heartedly with their assessments of the movie.
        When I arrived back home I went online to mindlessly surf the web for a while until “Numbers” came on, a rerun that I’ve seen before, but I do like the show very much.
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

From Bob's Stuff

Saturday 13- only did my stretches- it’s the weekend!
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 73 to 106, calm winds, humidity around 21 percent, clear skies except for some smog coming up from LA. According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 96. Northwest wind between 4 and 7 mph becoming calm. Sunday Night: Clear, with a low around 66. Calm wind becoming northwest between 5 and 8 mph.”
        I spent most of the day outside working on my front patio putting up a wind block on the south side that I’ve been meaning to do for a number of years now. It started to get hot out, around 106, but I still managed to get it all framed in. Tomorrow I’ll do the north side of the front patio, and that should pretty much enclose the front patio from the wind and dust.
        I called my Mom and Pop to see what they were up to. They went to lunch with my sisters on Friday to a place called Country Biscuits that doesn’t sell biscuits just sandwiches. Pop did say that the girls let him have a few words in the conversation.
        Went for my evening walk listening to the lecture again on the “Strong and Weak Force” so I could get a little more info out of it. The Strong Force also extends (by way of Gluons) down into the realm of Quarks which protons and neutrons (Hadrons) are made of. A proton is made up of two “up” quarks with an electric charge of +2/3 and one “down” quark with an electric charge of -1/3, which add up to a +1 charge for the proton. A neutron is made up of one “up” and two “down” quarks and does not have a charge. A free neutron will over a short period of time decay into a proton, and electron, and an antineutrino. The Strong force at this small of a level acts upon the color (charge properties) of the quark. At least this is how I understood it.
        Watched “NCIS” on CBS about an international villain who makes squeaky clean fake identifications for terrorist. I haven’t seen this one before.
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 14- only did my stretches- it’s the weekend! Tomorrow back to my exercises!
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 74 to 103, calm winds, humidity around 20 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Monday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 100. West northwest wind 5 to 11 mph becoming east southeast. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 70. South southeast wind 6 to 11 mph becoming west northwest.”
        Ron Dehart went to town to pick me up copies of Saturday’s newspaper that was supposed to have my article of “Legend of the High Desert” in it, but he couldn’t find it. So he asked to see Wednesday’s paper and there it was on page ten! They only had two papers left and he bought both. I was excited to read it and look at the pictures myself! I’ll have to stop by the Hi Desert Star to pick up more papers so I can send them to the students and their parents. That was mighty nice of Ron to do this for me.
        I got to work on the north side of the patio and spent much of the day measuring, digging holes for posts, and hammering nails. I got the main fixture erected and will do the rest in the next couple of days.
        Went on over to Stoney’s where we finished that spaghetti we been eating for the last week. He didn’t think that there was enough of that so he also made a chicken casserole, but we were both full of the spaghetti and only ate a little of the casserole just to see what it tasted like.
        My brother Kevin called and we yakked about computers. He is the only one who called me today.
        Went for my evening walk listening to more of the lecture on the “Strong and Weak Nuclear Force”. I think I’ll just have to find a book to read on the subject if I want to understand it better.
        Watched “Fringe” on Fox, a two hour episode about an FBI agent who is after someone who murders everyone on a passenger airliner with a toxic substance that eats flesh. Fringe is a cross between the X-Files and 24- I’ll just have to see one more episode and see if it’s worth my time to watch. I did like the mad scientist and thought he was the most interesting person in the whole show! I think that the show needs to build on their characters some.
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 15- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 75 to 103, calm winds, humidity around 20 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Partly cloudy, with a high near 94. Light wind becoming east southeast between 13 and 16 mph. Winds could gust as high as 23 mph. Tuesday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 71. Southeast wind 5 to 9 mph becoming west.”
        Stoney dropped off a bag of groceries for me on his way back from the USDA food distribution. He stopped long enough to tell me that everything went well at the distribution, which he manages.
        After I read my email, I went back to work on the north side patio and spent most of the day doing that. I dug another hole for a pier and stuck it in, but when I went to get the post that sits on the pier, I found that I didn’t have any more of them left- Dang! So I hopped in the Gross Polluter and headed down to Home Depot. While I was there, I decided to get more 2x2, 4x4, and four more sheets of plywood that should be enough to complete my project. Got home and went right back to work on it.
        Went for my evening walk and re-listened to “Strong and Weak Nuclear Force” lecture- this makes 3 or 4 times I listened to it.
        Patty called having problems getting connected to the internet. She had called me earlier telling me that her monitor went out and was going to get one from the community center’s Thrift Room. I told her that the modem connections probably weren’t connected properly after she put in the new monitor and she should check them. I guess that was the problem because she never called back.
        I watched “Terminator: the Sara Connor Chronicles”, about a nuclear power plant that was being taken over by the evil robots so that the resistance of the future couldn’t use it.
        My whole body aches! Must be all that work on the patio. I did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run- felt better after that! Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night,

From Bob's Stuff

Tuesday 16- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 74 to 96, E-SE winds at 7to16 MPH, humidity around 45 percent, cumulonimbus and a little rain. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Partly cloudy, with a high near 94. Light wind becoming east southeast between 13 and 16 mph. Winds could gust as high as 23 mph. Tuesday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 71. Southeast wind 5 to 9 mph becoming west.”
        I wrote my column for the newspaper and sent it to them. The column writing actually went by pretty fast and I was done in about an hour.
        I then went outside to continue working on the north side patio. I just had it done, hammering in the last nail when some thunderclouds came over bringing with them high gusts of wind and a little rain. All that is left for me to do is paint what I have finished so far and then decide how I want the roof done.
        Went on over to Stoney’s for lunch/dinner. He had cooked up some Chicken Alfredo that was mighty good! We watched an episode of “Dirty Jobs” where Mike was in Pasadena dismantling floats from the Rose Parade. All the floats are made of vegetables, flowers, and fruit that had rotted. Nasty job for sure! It was very interesting for me to see the insides where the driver sits; he cannot see where he is going and has to rely on a spotter for directions.
        Went for my evening walk and took the camera to shoot some storm clouds that were still lingering around.
        My brother Kevin called to tell me some good news; he has finally gotten the title for his trailer after being ripped off by an unscrupulous RV dealership six months ago. This was a great burden on my brother causing him much stress and anxiety. I am relieved that this has been lifted from my brother’s shoulders and that he can get on with his life.
        Watched “NOVA: Einstein’s Big Idea” on PBS. It was two hours! I could have watched “Fringe” on Fox but I really wasn’t that impressed with the show- except for the Mad Scientist. Yes, Nova was what I wanted to watch and I’m glad I did!
        I was asked by a blogger, “Just what may I ask is a Gross Polluter?” The "Gross Polluter" is my 4-cylinder $250 Toyota truck. When I first got it, I took it down to get it smogged and it didn't pass! The test printout said it was a gross polluter! I looked at all those SUVs and trucks that were 8- cylinder gas guzzlers driving around, and I thought to myself, fine, my little truck is a gross polluter. Of course I got it fixed but the name stuck. I even have my Trusty Scooter that I ride and my Faithful Truck- the one that kept breaking down and now sits there in my yard with a blown transmission. Now ya know!
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

From Bob's Stuff

Wednesday 17- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 75 to 92, E-SE winds at 6to12 MPH, humidity around 49 percent, cumulonimbus and a teeny tiny bit of rain. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Partly cloudy, with a high near 92. West northwest wind 5 to 15 mph becoming east. Thursday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 72. West southwest wind 15 to 18 mph decreasing to between 7 and 10 mph. Winds could gust as high as 28 mph.”
        It was cloudy all day and I couldn’t paint the addition to my patio so I worked on Ken’s website. He finally sent me some information the other day and I decided to convert all his Word 2001 files to PDF so that when loaded on the website they would be more accessible. I created a few new webpages for the site but haven’t uploaded them- I want to review the docs first and figure out how I want to categorize the content. This took a lot of my day to do.
Went for my evening walk taking pictures of the storm clouds again. I notice that the Black Ants are very active in the evening hours and the Red Ants are more active in the early hours of the day when I go on my run. It seems to me that there are more Black Ants now than when I first moved up here and the Red Ants are in decline. I followed a trail of Black Ants, and at first, they keep it all bunched up for a while and then fan out over a large area to forage. I have seen them go from large anthills to other smaller ones and I wonder if they are taking them over. I got a good pic of a small lizard sitting on a piece of wood!
        Lee Hines called to ask for my help; his computer won’t go online. We couldn’t do it over the phone so he picked me up. Seems that Microsoft .Net had created another user profile and he had his dialup set so that user would be the only one to access online.
        Watched “Bones” on Fox about a human finger found in a bird’s nest that leads the team to a body of a veterinarian who was killed by a dog.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 18- I woke up at 11:30am. I slept a whole eight and a half hours! I turned the ringer back on the phone, received a call from Jimmy, and yakked for a half hour, which made it noon. Then Dale from Landers called; there went another half hour. So here it was 12:30pm and I haven’t even done my exercise yet. I could have skipped them but nope! I did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 74 to 93, SW-SE winds at 4to8 MPH, humidity around 30 percent, cumulonimbus but no rain. According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Sunny, with a high near 90. Calm wind becoming west southwest between 11 and 14 mph. Winds could gust as high as 18 mph. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 69. West wind between 7 and 14 mph.”
        So here I was at 1:30 and eating my oatmeal and sitting at my laptop reading my email. There were clouds outside and it looked like it may rain, but maybe not. I really didn’t want to work on the computer and Ken’s website because I did that yesterday and found out later by email that I had wasted my time on something I thought he wanted included on his site; a little misunderstanding and he hasn’t been too helpful communicating what he wants. To hell with the clouds! To hell with the website! I just wanted to complete something! Therefore, I decided to go and paint my patio! That took a few hours of hard work and I painted until the paint ran out. I felt mighty good when it was done.
        While I was painting I ran Spybot anti-spyware and did a virus scan at boot on my IBM laptop- that felt good to do too!
        Went for my evening walk listening to a lecture about “The Search for the Theory of Everything” that is combining all the forces of physics into one grand theory. Basically, the present “Standard Theory” doesn’t include Gravity or is having a hard time getting it to fit into equations. The String Theory does include Gravity but there isn’t any proof that this theory is plausible yet, but it is the only one that is in the running at present and scientist are at an impasse hoping to fine some kind of verifiable evidence. One such support for String Theory may be the Large Hadron Collider, which just went online this September, if the collider could measure gravity at a microscopic scale and provide evidence of extra dimensions. Also, scientist are looking for the ever elusive Higgs Boson, which they believe exists and causes matter to have mass. At least this is how I understand it right now. There was so much covered that I’ll have to re-listen to it.
        Jawed with my brother Kevin for fifty minutes discussing our day. Then I read a little astronomy.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web and called it a night.

Friday 19- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 73 to 94, calm wind, humidity around 20 percent, cumulus humilus clouds(fair weather clouds). According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 92. Calm wind becoming southwest between 13 and 16 mph. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 68. West wind between 6 and 16 mph.”
        I went to work on the weekend update for the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and uploaded it to the web, and sent out the newsletter. I worked on Ken’s website doing some more tweaks and uploaded it to his server.
        At 1:20pm Dale from Landers showed up with a trailer full of wood that he promised. I had him unload it on the west side of my property and told him to stay on the level area there because the ground was packed. He told me that his truck is like a Billy Goat and that it didn’t matter where he drove, so I thought he had four-wheel drive- he didn’t! Well he gotten himself stuck in the soft sand. It took an hour and a half of hard work to get the truck and trailer unstuck. Now I have a new nickname for him- Billy Goat!
        I was so tired from all that work that I just laid down for a little while and relaxed. Then I went for an early evening walk and listened to a questions and answers astrophysics lecture. One question I thought interesting was about the force of magnetism. Why is it that the Earth’s magnetic field can be over whelmed by small refrigerator magnets? The answer was that the magnetic force loses its power because of the inverse square law- it loses it strength inversely proportional to the square of the distance to the source. Therefore, you can take a small magnet and place it next to a compass, which over powers the Earth’s magnetic field. Then draw the small magnet away by several feet- it no longer affects the compass and the Earth’s magnetic field takes back over because it’s so prevailing- 4000 miles beneath our feet and still extends way out into the upper atmosphere and into space to reflect high-energy particles emitted from the Sun solar wind causing auroras and protecting life.
        I went over to Stoney’s for dinner. He made salmon cakes with mashed potatoes and gravy. Roger Smith was there to help us devour them all.
        I went home and mindlessly surfed the web looking at new hi-tech computers that I can’t afford. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
        Last night Blogger.com hiccupped and I last a few pictures. I found that they were all stored on Picasa and that I could imbed them into other blogs that I write! So Now I will have pictures on MySpace and Live Journal! I only have dialup and it was a pain in the butt to load them on every blog, but not any longer!

Saturday 20- did my stretches.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 71 to 90, winds out of the SE at 4 to 10 MPH, humidity around 22 percent, cumulus humilus clouds again(fair weather clouds)- just a nice and pleasant day! According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 90. Calm wind becoming southwest between 8 and 11 mph. Sunday Night: Clear, with a low around 64. West wind between 6 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.”
        This was a lazy day for me. I kicked back and messed around with Mary’s computer, downloaded some free Sci-Fi books from Baen Press- basically I just goofed off the whole day doing little things around the house. I did go over to Ron Dehart’s for a little while to take some pics of his new completed room addition and picked up some wood and other building material leftovers. Sometimes it is just good to take a day or two and just wind down!
        I called Mom and Pop but they weren’t home. Called my old friend Bob Vandenberg and we jawed about old times. My brother Kevin called to say hi and talk computers.
        I went for my evening walk without a lecture to listen to, or my camera- I just wanted to let my mind wonder to where ever it wanted to go, and it felt good.
        Watched “CSI” on CBS of a rerun I haven’t seen before. It was about a taxi cab driver who was shot to death while carrying an Admiral of the Navy who was also gunned down.
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night. Goodbye Summer! Hello Autumn!

Sunday 21- did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 70 to 93, winds out of the SE-SW at 4 to 18 MPH, humidity around 23 percent, clear skies.According to the National Weather Service “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 91. West northwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm. Monday Night: Clear, with a low around 62. Southwest wind between 5 and 8 mph becoming calm.”
        I went right to work on Ken’s website tweaking this and adding that. I feel that I got much of what I wanted to do on this website today- it’s up and running, all the webpages work. There is just a bit more I want to add to it later after I give it some contemplation and read the documentation he had sent. Right now, it looks somewhat empty and I’m still waiting on him to send me a picture of himself. In addition, I’m still learning the new HTML editor that can be somewhat of a pain at times- it crashed twice losing a few changes I made!
        I went outside to figure out where I am going to put a wall up on the southeast side of my shop/patio. I got to measuring where the pier should go and started digging around it. Next thing I knew I had dug the hole, had the pier in place, and leveled. I decided to put up the post, then had the plywood nailed to it. I didn’t start out to do this today but there it was an hour or so later standing up on its own. Tomorrow if I have the time, I’ll finish it. I still need to buy some more paint.
        I called up Mom and Pop. I only got to yap at Pop because Mom was in the bathroom having a bath or some such. Pop told me that the reason they weren’t home yesterday to receive my call was that they were over at Paula’s eating chicken. He had thought to let me know they weren’t going to be home but that was as far as he got.
        Went for my evening walk and took the camera. The day was so wonderfully nice and fresh, that I forgot to take any pics.
        Called and talked to my brother Kevin. Then I called Tom and Aki to touch base. I started reading the Sci-Fi book and fell asleep for a little while and when I awoke; I just lay in bed in one of those half-awake, half-asleep states. I finally got up and decided to disable a dialup user of mine who hadn’t paid this month’s fee and the month is almost over. They haven’t contacted me to let me know what’s up. I didn’t want to disable them during the weekend so I waited for Sunday night: just to give them a wakeup call. It worked! They called and then came over with the money. This is just a hobby for me and I don’t like playing the bad guy. Along with the dialup service, I provide them with free computer help; I fix their computers when they break.
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 22- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 69 to 91, winds out of the NW-S at 6 to 10 MPH, humidity around 26 percent, clear skies.According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 91. Calm wind becoming south southeast between 4 and 7 mph. Tuesday Night: Clear, with a low around 64. South southwest wind between 4 and 7 mph becoming calm.”
        I went on the computer to do a few things like read my email and checkout what the NY Stock Exchange and the financial meltdown of our economy was doing- it don’t look good! I didn’t think that putting a trillion dollars into saving “some” of these investment banks was such a good idea. It would cause a lot of inflation and just make matters worse, and I told my Dad that yesterday. A lot of innocent folks are going to get hurt, but it’s the greedy ones, the ones who were after a quick profit in the housing market and the banks who financed them that I feel are to blame and should feel the pain, not the families that bought a home to live in, I believe. However, our government will probably bail out the “fat cats” and leaving these families out of their equations and out on the streets. I hope not! Maybe our government should try a “bottom up” approach for once.
        Got to working on the southeast side of the shop/patio for a few hours completing most of it, I only have one 2x4 to go. I decided to panel that whole side with plywood and have a door. Now I’m running out of nails!
        My brother Kevin called to tell me he is taking magnets out of a few hard drives to use them to sort out slugs from his vending machines.
        I went for my evening walk to listen to the “questions and answers astrophysics lecture” again, just to make sure I understood it correctly.
        I got to thinking about the Higgs Boson and if it is what’s at the center of black holes- that all matter is compressed into these Higgs Bosons. I read that the Higgs Boson is what gives matter mass. A very large star would first implode to the electron degeneracy pressure which holds the core, and then collapse further to neutron degeneracy, and then finally to a singularity where the Higgs Boson degeneracy takes over. This is all speculation on my part and they haven’t even found the Higgs Boson yet.
        Read a chapter in “Beyond this Horizon” and then watched “Terminator the Sara Connor Chronicles” about an evil Terminator who kidnaps Charley’s wife to get Sara far away from her son John so it could get back into town and kill John.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 23- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 69 to 91, calm winds, humidity around 26 percent, clear skies.According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 95. Calm wind becoming south between 4 and 7 mph. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 67. South wind 5 to 7 mph becoming west northwest.”
        I wrote my column for the newspaper. It took me two hours to come up with something because there really isn’t much happening around here in the middle of the desert. I included an astronomy lecture on magnetism that I heard and had written down in my journal. I spent much time researching it for accuracy- I just hope I got it right!
        Went over to Stoney’s to help him install new springs on his garage door. Last week one of the springs broke and the garage door fell on his head giving him a few cuts and scrapes and a headache. Well it turned out that he bought the wrong springs, they were too small and the door wouldn’t close all the way. It took us a while to figure out that the springs have safety chains inside to prevent the springs from flying around when it breaks. What had stopped the door from closing were the safety chains inside the new springs that were stretched to their limit. He’ll have to go to town and get the right size. I left Stoney’s to go over to check on my friend’s house while he is away on vacation.
        Got back home to read a chapter in “Beyond this Horizon” and took a nap afterwards. I then went on my evening walk without my camera or lecture to listen to; just did some thinking on this and that.
        Called my brother Kevin to yak at him briefly, and then watched “NCIS” on CBS about the three new team members and one of them is a spy. Gibbs and Abby tries to get the old team back together.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Then I went outside with my binoculars to do a little stargazing. Fat Cat was glad to have my company and sat on my lap wanting to be scratched. Found the Andromeda galaxy for the first time this year. The Pleiades cluster was rising out of the east. At this angle in the eastern sky, it looked to me like a silhouette of a person, maybe Lincoln. Cool!
        Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 24- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 73 to 100, calm winds, humidity around 21 percent, clear skies.According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 98. West wind 5 to 13 mph becoming north. Winds could gust as high as 18 mph. Thursday Night: Clear, with a low around 71. West wind between 7 and 9 mph.”
        I asked Stoney to drop by before he went to town and pick up a birthday card for my sister Audrey that needed to be mailed right away. He came by at a quarter to twelve and then was on his way to town for lunch with his friends. That saved me a twelve mile round trip to the mailbox!
        I did some cleaning inside the house and it really needed it. It got kind of dirty from neglect, my focus has been elsewhere. The kitchen looks spick and span now and the trash has been taken out.
        I could of went outside and completed the southeast patio but it was hot, so I decided I needed a break from that. I stayed inside, cleaned up some computer files on my Toshiba laptop, and transferred some memory hogs over to an external hard drive. Then I messed with the ASUS EEE laptop doing a few tweaks on it getting it running the way I want it to perform, and with all the programs that I need to take it on the road. I still have 1.75Gig left on its 4Gig flash C: drive and use a 2Gig SD drive for storage of files. If I need any more storage, I can always use my 8Gig USB thumb drive. Then read a chapter in “Beyond this Horizon”.
        Went for my evening walk and listened to an astronomy lecture on “Rocket Propulsion”: Ion propulsion, solar sails, magnetic propulsion, fusion drives, and an innovative way to get a capsule into space by using a long tether. Then I re-listened to two past lectures I have already written about: “The Search for the Theory of Everything” and “The Strong and Weak Force”.
        Had a short talk with my brother Kevin, then watched “Bones” on PBS about a headless body of a young writer found in an evaporation tank. It appears that Zack is back! They had put him in an insane asylum after he admitted to killing a man but he actually didn’t; he just said he did to avoid being put in prison where he wouldn’t fair well with the other inmates.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night

Thursday 25- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 77 to 100, calm winds, humidity around 27 percent, clear skies.According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 97. West northwest wind 5 to 9 mph becoming east northeast. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 70. West southwest wind between 7 and 9 mph.”
        Stoney called wanting me to come over to remove the garage door springs so he could take then to town tomorrow and exchange them. I hopped on my Trusty Scooter and had the springs off in no time. He told me about his luncheon engagement he went to yesterday. It turned out that it was Marcie Hines birthday and he didn’t know about it. He arrived early and waited for everyone else to show. Lee and Marcie had a flat tire on the way there and were a bit late. They had to call Bob Seeley because he forgot all about the luncheon just as he did our last potluck.
        I got back home and hammered in the last remaining 2x4 onto the southeast shop/patio- I think for now on I’ll just call that part of the house “The Shop”. I have to remember to pick up some nails and paint next time I am in town. I had better start a list of what I need.
        Then I went into the house and installed FreeDOS onto my old Dell Dimension L733r desktop. I first did FDisk on an old hard drive before I did the install. It took me three tries to get the install done because the system would hang on the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) that assigns the IP address. So I had to do it manually and I wasn’t sure what to put in. I just typed in some numbers that it didn’t except but it got me pass the point where it would hang the system. Got it up and running and started the GEM GUI, went to the games folder and clicked on Doom. I never played Doom before; I was stuck in a building after killing two somethings or others that were shooting at me, there are doors but I didn’t know how to open them so I quit the game. At least I knew that FreeDOS was running correctly. I’ll have to check into DHCP problem later tonight. If I can’t get it working, I’ll be unable to go online. I’ve had DRDOS on my machine before and didn’t have that problem.
        Went for my evening walk, then read a few chapters in “Beyond this Horizon” until it got late.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run, and practiced my guitar.
        Last night I download and installed Microsoft SteadyState, which is suppose to keep users and their files in a separate partition that can be deleted if they get a virus or Trojan. I was testing it out for a friend whose computer I’m always fixing because he can’t keep himself from clicking on popups that say “FREE!” that puts malware on his system. Well SteadyState didn’t work as I thought it would; I was logged in to my user ID and working on my journal when it gave me a warning that the system would shutdown in ten minutes! Well apparently, it created an Administrator ID, set my ID with the attributes that I assigned to the test ID I had created, and I couldn’t find a way to change mine back, dang! So tonight, I uninstalled SteadyState, but after the uninstall it left me with a login and shutdown box similar to Win2000! Oh well I guess I can live with that.
        Wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 26- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 78 to 100 and something, calm winds, humidity around 25 percent, clear skies.According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 98. Northwest wind between 5 and 9 mph. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 70. West southwest wind between 6 and 9 mph.”
        I did the weekly update to the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter. I got a call from Stoney, he has the new springs for the garage, So I went on over and helped him install them. We sat and jawed about potluck, which is tomorrow, and a few other things.
        I puttered around the house when I got back and started fixing this and that, moving the answering machine into my bedroom so I can use the speakerphone on it, and doing a little feather dusting.
        Ruth Denison called asking for my help un-jamming her printer. I went on over to find that the printer was jammed with a brochure that was stapled together. I jokingly told her that it wouldn’t fit through; she had picked it up from a box of recycled paper she uses. Then she asked me to teach her to cut and paste in a document. All and all, I was there for over an hour or so. She invited me to her eighty-sixth birthday this Monday, and I accepted. She asked what she owed me and I told her that all I wanted was a big hug, which I got. She’s a great gal!
        Stopped off at Ron’s to see how he was doing. He’s been sick for a few days and I was a little concerned. Well, he didn’t look to good; I told him that he should take it easy and not to overdo it for a while.
        I went for my evening walk and just meditated on some things that I need to do later in my life. When I got back, I called my brother Kevin and yakked with him for a spell. He is doing much better and that makes me very happy.
      It’s Friday night so I mindlessly surfed the web until late into the evening. I have a blogger friend of mine Call MM who is very proactive and informative. She writes about computers and other technical things. She mostly points out what is wrong with web programs. She posted that she is being “Flamed” when her posts were featured on Digg and Reddit, and she was mighty upset about the whole mess. I replied to her; I have found that most of the comments on Digg are anything but constructive. It seems like they are written by insecure 13 year olds that have nothing better to do then trash someone. I like constructive criticism but you have to "Digg" deep into the comments for those! Maybe that's why they call the site Digg! I really like Lifehacker; they monitor the comments to keep the character assassins at bay. Just keep writing and doing your thing and don’t ever look back! I write a small column for a local newspaper and that is what I do.
      Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night

Saturday 27- did my stretches. It’s the weekend and my day off from exercising.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 78 to 98, calm winds, humidity around 26 percent, clear skies.According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 95. Calm wind becoming southeast between 6 and 9 mph. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 72. South wind at 8 mph becoming northwest.”
        Messed around the house doing little chores. I returned a call from a person in Twentynine Palms who wants to sign up for my internet dialup service. I explained to them that it was only a hobby for me for the folks in my community and that I don’t have it setup for online payments. She said that she would send me a cashier’s check for three months in advance. Well that sounded okay with me, and told her that I’d set her up on the first of the month.
        I called Family and Friends and yakked at them for a spell while I was getting ready for potluck at the community center.
        I was online when I found out that my bank, Washington Mutual, went bankrupt last Thursday. Then I got a letter from a company that handles my mutual funds that said that in January they had lost a box of computer tapes that they had taken offsite with customer’s personal data, and that my name was among them, YIKES! They also stated that the reason they are just telling me this now is that it was due to forensics. Well that’s just dandy! They are now providing me with free credit protection for twenty-four months: why didn’t they provide me this when they lost the dang tapes with my personal data on it! I’ll have to sign up for this protection next time I go online.
Went on over to the community center on my Trusty Scooter carrying the pot of macaroni and cheese I made. I walked in the door a little after 4pm and everyone was already eating. Hey, you guys ain’t suppose to start eating until 4:30! Well we got hungry they said. There were some mighty exciting dishes on the table to choose from and I decided to sample them all, so I couldn’t blame them much for starting early. There was Ruth Tuttle’s konkydoodle, Diane’s vegetable casserole, and Donna’s Potatoes Au Gratin, a macaroni and hamburger dish, and other nice things that I’ll have to ask Marcie about who made what when I write this up for the newspaper. Some new folks showed up: Mike Kant and his wife Pat, who moved out our way last March from Arizona. They live over by Lear Avenue. Then there was Susan Atzei and her brother Tim who live just a ways behind the center. They came with their friend Daniel Gray; he lived in Alaska before coming out here to stay. I asked them how they like the desert so far, and they said it takes some getting used to. I agreed and told them that some folks see the desert as a barren land were others see all the wonderful life that abounds and the gentle solitude and freedom that one can cherish if one can live in the moment and let it grow from within. I also said that you could be lonelier in a big city then out here because out here you will always find good friends that are out here for the same reasons that you are. Well dang it I was stuffed to the max again! So when I got home I went on a longer walk than usual to work some of it off.
        I got an email delivered to my Copper Mountain Mesa website from a person who was looking for his son. I get these sorts of emails every now and then and try to help the folks out. This time I knew right away, whom I needed to call! I made this call tonight and now they are planning a reunion of the father and son! Cool! That made my day!
        Called my brother Kevin when I got back. He was busy making hot sauce and transferring files to backup a hard drive. After I was done yapping with him, I called my friend Andrew and we discussed the economy, the Higgs Boson, computers, and other interesting stuff that I don’t get to discuss much with other folks- I put them to sleep!
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 28- did my stretches. It’s the weekend and my day off from exercising.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 76 to 98, calm winds, humidity around 28 percent, clear skies.According to the National Weather Service “Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 95. Calm wind becoming east southeast between 7 and 10 mph. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 71. South wind between 4 and 7 mph becoming calm.”
        I just puttered around the house today. I actually hung some curtains! They made my bedroom appear neat and the kitchen clean. Am I getting domesticated? I also put a brighter LED light to read by, on the wall behind my bed.
        I need some more desk room in the living room where I have a laptop and two printers- I need more space for other projects. I also want to put shelves for books over the new desk. So, I’ve been hunting and gathering materials that I have stashed around and putting them in one place so that when I come up with a design I’ll be ready to build.
        Called a few Family and Friends, but mostly tinkered around getting my house in order. Read a few chapters in “Beyond This Horizon” throughout the day and only have two chapters left, which I’ll finish off tomorrow.
        I went on my evening walk listening to a new astronomy lecture called “Nucleosynthesis: Elements from Stars”. Nucleosynthesis is the formation of elements from either the Big Bang (light elements no greater than Lithium); Stellar Nucleosynthesis (heavier elements from Carbon to Calcium); Explosive Nucleosynthesis (elements heavier than Iron) created by Supernova; and Cosmic Ray Spallation that creates lighter elements by bombardment of gas and dust in the interstellar medium. Some of this I already knew but the term for it “Nucleosynthesis” is new to me. There was so much discussed in the lecture, and for me to understand fully the process, I’ll have to listen to it again and add to this post later. I did catch one error though; they said that light takes over a hundred thousand years to reach the surface from the Sun’s core, when in fact it takes around thirty-three thousand years. I think they had gotten their data from an old NASA site that hasn’t corrected it to the new theory yet.
        Watched “Monk” on NBC, part one of a two parter. A Politician running for office is shot at during a rally and a bodyguard took the bullet and died. I like Monk and I wish that NBC would stop messing up with the series- it first came out on regular broadcast TV, then they switched it to cable, back to broadcast TV, and then back to cable again! This particular one came out in 2002!
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 29- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights. When I was riding my bike up the hill a black SUV came roaring past me at 60 MPH plus and left me in a cloud of dust! Some folks just don’t have any respect for others!
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 75 to 98, calm winds, humidity around 31 percent, a few cumulus clouds and just the scent of rain. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 93. Calm wind becoming east southeast between 6 and 9 mph. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 69. South wind around 6 mph becoming calm.”
        I was doing some dusting with my new feather duster I got from WalMart when all the feathers fell out! They were spread out all over the place. I gathered them all back together and with great effort binded them back up with rubber bands. What a cheap piece of junk! It was all held together by string that came untied; they should have used hot glue or something a little more permanent.
        I read the rest of “Beyond This Horizon” by Robert Heinlein. It was a great read but a little dated (1949). Heinlein deals mostly with the human spirit and the predicaments and conflicts that arise in a futuristic theme. You can actually see the beginnings of “Stranger in a Strange Land” in this book with the introduction of “Smith” a man from the past (1926) who was held in a stasis field that kept him preserved until he was released many centuries later into a society that was alien to him. I then got caught up on my astronomy reading.
        I drove the Gross Polluter over to Ruth Denison’s eighty-six birthday party. Ron Dehart warned me to bring my guitar or I’d end up dancing, so I did.
From Wikipedia:
"Ruth Denison (born 1922) was the first Buddhist teacher in the United States to lead an all-women's retreat for Buddhist meditation and instruction. Her center, Dhamma Dena Desert Vipassana Center is located in the Mojave Desert, in Joshua Tree, California. She was also a teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. She sometimes teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California.
After spending her youth in Germany she immigrated to the United States. In the 1960s and 1970s she was part of the alternative and counterculture scene.
She is one of four Westerners who have received permission to teach from Burmese master U Ba Khin, a layperson known for a particular method of awareness practice, called "sweeping," in which the meditator closely observes bodily sensations."
        There were quite a few of Ruth’s friends who showed up. Linda Sibio gave a surreal impromptu performance of a young girl who grows old into her eighties. She gave a nice ending to it and everyone applauded. My two favorite Buddhist Nuns showed up; the ones that I was teaching computers to, Gunishary and Ottoman (I probably miss-spelled their names). Ruth gave a little sermon on what reaching eighty-six meant to her, love, community, and how we all are born fresh again with each and every birthday. Then we all sat down to eat chocolate cake! At my suggestion, we all sang Happy Birthday to Ruth. Then I was asked to play my guitar. While I was playing a song I’ve made up, people were doing this dance, so Ron was right! I am neither a Buddhist nor anything else for that matter (I just keep my mind open), but I enjoyed being there with these fine folks, and I was glad to have been invited! I hope I get an invite to Ruth’s eighty-seventh birthday!
        On my way back home I was driving around 30 MPH and that black SUV that I told you about earlier, went zipping past me leaving me again in a cloud of dust! Maybe I forgot to mention that we live on dirt roads out here. I wonder who this crazy person is.
        I got home late but I still went on my evening walk. I called my brother Kevin for a little chat. Then I watched “Terminator. The Sarah Connor Chronicles” about the girl Terminator Cameron having flash backs and forgetting who she is and ends up in jail making friends with a streetwise girl- she acts human.
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 30- did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 74 to 97, calm winds, humidity around 27 percent, a few cumulus clouds floating around. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 93. Calm wind becoming east southeast between 6 and 9 mph. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 69. South wind around 6 mph becoming calm.”
        I spent much of the afternoon writing my column and when completed emailed it to the newspaper.
        Went outside to work on the east side wall of the shop digging in another pier, nailing in a post and plywood sheet. While I was working my neighbor, Biker Ron drove up on his Harley to yak for a spell on the side of the dirt road. We were talking about economics when Brenda stopped on her way to Bingo to say hi; I think she is interested in Biker Ron. Then Chris pulled over for a bit to yak. It seems that there was a lot of action on the dirt road in front of my little home today! I went back to work after they all left.
        Went on my evening walk listening to that astronomy lecture on Nucleosynthesis trying to gleam a little more understanding of the process.
        My brother Kevin called to jaw for an hour. Then Kula’s Tom called to ask a few computer questions and talk about the stock market. I believe that the government shouldn’t bail out the investment bankers and that the market will find its own level and the failing bank’s assets will be bought up. I don’t think that 700 billion ($17,000 per family) would fix a problem that was created by greed.
        I caught the very last part of “NCIS” and decided not to watch it. I watched “Fringe” on Fox instead. It was about a cylinder shaped like a torpedo that popped up out of the Earth at a construction site. It emitted vibrations first at 200Mz and then 400Mz. There was a strange bald guy in a business suit who was sitting in a café waiting for it to appear. I still believe that the Mad Scientist makes the show!
        Did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for my nightly run. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night. Goodbye to September!