Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 37 and 58 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 29 percent, hazy then cloudy skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 62. North northwest wind between 8 and 11 mph. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 37. Northwest wind around 7 mph.”
I called a few friends and family to say Happy New Year! Did a little cleaning of the house and filled the bird feeder.
I practiced my guitar and have decided that I’ll try to do this twice a day for now on.
I went for my evening walk and then drove over to Ginger’s and took a couple of apples with me to feed to her horses. We jawed for a spell and watched the sunset; the first one of the new decade.
There was nothing on TV that interested me so I spent the rest of the evening reading, maybe I’ll just cut out TV altogether except for “Nova” and “Nature” or any other educational programs! I read the astronomy text book about: the Electromagnetic Spectrum. I started another textbook called “The Cell: a Molecular Approach”. I thought I’d try something new and read it aloud! The chapter I read told the story of the beginning of cell formation. There was once a time long ago before DNA called the RNA World; very interesting! I finished the evening reading “The letters of Richard Feynman” and “365 Starry Nights”.
I did my stretches, lifted weights and went for a night run; practiced my guitar; updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night. I think I’ve made a good start of it for the New Year!
Saturday 02- I did my stretches and ran two miles.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 36 and 64 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 28 percent, clear skies; just a beautiful day!
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday...Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 60s. Light wind. Sunday Night...Mostly clear. Lows in the upper 30s. Light wind.”
J (name withheld) called saying that she has tried everything but cannot log into her Gmail account. She brought her laptop over and right away I found that she had missed spelled her user ID and was able to login. I made a few jokes about that one to her.
I watered my plants and did some yard work. I called Family and Friends, and practiced my guitar. Then I was off to Stoney’s for lunch. He had called earlier inviting me over. After I left I stopped by Roger Smith’s to see if he had gotten a modem for his desktop; he did. I told him if he has any problems to give me a call.
I had downloaded three Podcasts earlier in the day and listened to them while I went for my walk: Ep. 166: Multiverses, Ep. 165: Doppler Effect, and Ep. 164: Inside the Atom. I may listen to them again tomorrow.
I again read aloud from the astronomy text book about: the Doppler Effect; redshift is receding, blueshift is coming at you. Also the lowest temp is -273 degrees Celsius which is 0 Kelvin, so water freezes at 0 degrees Celsius and boils at 100 degrees Celsius, where as water freezes at 273 K and boils at 373 K; just add 100. And read aloud from the textbook “The Cell: a Molecular Approach”: I feel kind of like an idiot trying pronounce the words of biology: Eukaryote, Prokaryote, Phospholipids, Saccharomyces Cerevisiae (which is Yeast), and other unworldly words that I won’t get into. I also read “365 Starry Nights” but I’m not going to mention this anymore in my posts because I have been reading from it every day for the last few years. I didn’t watch any TV, yea for me!
I want you all to know that tomorrow the 3rd: Earth is at the perihelion of its orbit; closest to the Sun (91.5 million miles). Quadrantid meteor shower tomorrow night through early morning on the 4th!
I did my stretches; practiced my guitar; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Sunday 03- I did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 37 and 64 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 29 percent, clear skies; just another gorgeous day!
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 62. Light and variable wind. Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 38. West southwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm.”
I still have a lot of cleaning and putting everything away after I finished the tiles last month, and that’s what I mostly did. I’m trying to sort out the stuff I want to keep, throw away, give away, or put into storage. The computer room is a mess with wires, CDs, DVD, old computers and parts lying here and there. I bought fifteen plastic boxes that I’ll put most of them into. I’ll need to build some shelving to hold the boxes and get everything off the floor. I cleaned up the pile of clothes and other items on the floor in the bedroom and it looks a lot neater now!
I practiced my guitar and then called up two of my oldest friends to wish them a happy new year.
I went on my evening walk listening to three new Astronomy Cast lectures: Ep. 163: Auroras, Ep. 162: Edwin Hubble, and Ep. 161: Launch Facilities that was mighty interesting!
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today” and “The Cell: a Molecular Approach”. The astronomy was about Spectroscopy: Emission Lines, Absorption Lines, and of electrons going to different orbitals from its ground state to a higher orbital when excited. The Cell was about Cells as Experimental Models using E.coli, Saccharomyces Cerevisiae (yeast), Dictyostelium discoideum (amoeba), Caenorhabditis elegans (mematode), Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly), Arabidopsis thaliana (a small flowered plant), Xenopus laevis (frog eggs), Zebrafish (the only one I could pronounce!), and Transgenic Mice (which sounds scary to me). I’m only putting these words here for anyone reading this journal to know what difficulty I am having. Reading aloud is very slow especially with biology whose words are just tongue twisters for me. Why I’m reading these aloud I’m not sure but I believe that I’ll benefit in some way from doing it; besides I live alone and don’t get the chance to talk that much.
I went outside around 8pm to watch the Quadrantid meteor shower. While I was outside I saw my neighbor Ginger and stopped by for a bit to say howdy. I spent over an hour gazing into the night sky looking for meteors and saw only one! But it was a nice one that streamed across the skies.
I finished the evening reading “The Letters of Richard Feynman”
I did my stretches; practiced my guitar; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
I still haven't turned on the TV!
Monday 04- I did my stretches and ran two miles.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 38 and 62 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 36 percent, cloudy skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 62. North northwest wind between 6 and 8 mph. Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 39. Northwest wind between 5 and 8 mph.”
I was going to do some more cleaning of the house when Roger T. called and asked me if I had a computer I didn’t need. I had one that was missing a hard drive and a CD drive and he could have it for a few bucks. He said he’d be down to pick it up in a little while. So I had to clean it up and blow it out with canned air. I found the box that the motherboard came in with instructions and CDs with drivers and such, and had it all together for him when he arrived. I told him that if he couldn’t get it working that I’d give him his money back. He lent me a DVD movie called “District 9” that I’ll watch tonight.
I dropped by Stoney’s to see how he was and got a call from Marcie Hines saying if we wanted to pick up Stoney’s paint sprayer we could come on over; we did.
I went on my evening walk listening to a new Astronomy Cast lecture: Ep. 156: Famous Stars. I found most fascinating the most powerful star Eta Carinae that almost went supernova in 1843 and was the second brightest star for a spell. Eta Carinae lies in the southern sky and is almost one hundred times the mass of our Sun. Eta Carinae is a good candidate to go supernova sometime in the near (soon or in a million years or so) future. I was doing a search and found this recent article and picture.
I practiced my guitar and then read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today” and “The Cell: a Molecular Approach”; I’ll spare you the details! I read an hour from each book.
I watched “District 9” Sci-Fi (2009) and found it very refreshing the way it was filmed, the actors that were used, and the country it had taken place. I liked it!
I did my stretches and lifted weights; practiced my guitar; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
I still haven’t watched TV yet! Nova is on tomorrow night and I may watch that, but that’s okay because it’s on my list of educational shows I can watch.
Tuesday 05- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 39 and 62 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 36 percent, cloudy skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 64. North northwest wind between 6 and 8 mph. Wednesday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 39. West northwest wind between 3 and 7 mph.”
I was working in the yard when I saw my neighbor Ron M. driving his large black truck down the road and I went to my driveway to wave him down to say howdy. I showed him my tile job I did to the floors of my house and he was mighty impressed (probably because he thought I wasn’t capable of doing such a fine job). He stayed an hour or so and we discussed many things.
UPS drove up as I was practicing my guitar to deliver my Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 netbook that I order on the 31th of last month. I finished playing the guitar and then opened up the box and setup the netbook. It has this facial recognition program called VeriFace that scans your face and you use it to login. I gave it a try and it took around ten minutes of me sitting still staring at the webcam until it was satisfied. Then I went to logon and it scanned me and said it was me, which I already knew, and logged me into Win 7; pretty dang cool!
I went on my evening walk listening to a new Astronomy Cast lecture: Ep. 157: Constellations.
Stoney called and said to come on over at 4pm that he made some SOS (chipped meat in gravy on top of toast). I haven’t had that in a long while. The Army used to serve it up towards the end of the month when food supplies were low. It was my favorite then but most of the other soldiers didn’t like it.
I got back home to read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today” and “The Cell: a Molecular Approach”.
I watched “NOVA: Killer Subs in Pearl Harbor” on PBS. It was about five Japanese Navy Mini Subs that attacked our ships on Dec 7th 1941. Only one Mini Sub made it into the harbor to fire its torpedoes and that one sub was the only one not accounted for and remained a mystery until now (the rest either ran aground or were fired upon and sunk).When I was a kid I was always fascinated with submarines and my favorite sub movie was “Run Silent Run Deep” (1958) with Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster.
I played with my new netbook for a spell then did my stretches; practiced my guitar; wrote my column for the newspaper and sent it in; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Wednesday 06- I did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 39 and 62 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 31 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 63. North wind between 3 and 7 mph. Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 38. Calm wind becoming west northwest around 5 mph.”
I did a few chores around the house and continued to sort through stuff, a slow process, while doing security updates on the Lenovo Netbook and installed Firefox with Flashblock, Adblock Plus, Xmarks, and Avast anti-virus. I also practiced my guitar.
I went on my evening walk listening to a new Astronomy Cast lecture: Ep. 158: Pulsars which was very interesting especially about Magnetars that can send out powerful bursts Electromagnetic Eadiation like X-rays and gamma rays that can cripple satellites.
I went over to Stoney’s to help him finish off the SOS (chipped meat in gravy on top of toast).
I got back home to read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today” about Molecules and the three ways they emit photons: Electron Transitions, Vibration, and Rotation. “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” about Subcellular Fractionation; putting a bunch of cells through a blender, then on a centrifuge for various amounts of time to separate out the larger organelles from the smaller ones.
I watched “The Human Spark” series on PBS where Alan Alda is on a search to find out just when we humans became different from the other animals.
I finished the evening reading “The Letters of Richard Feynman”.
I did my stretches and went for a night run; practiced my guitar; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Thursday 07- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 38 and 64 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 34 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 63. North wind between 3 and 7 mph. Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 38. Calm wind becoming west northwest around 5 mph.”
I didn’t sleep well last night, I just kept waking up. At 6:30am I decided to stay awake after sleeping just three hours. Ron Dehart called to cancel going to the movies. We had planned to watch Avatar but he wasn’t feeling well and I really wasn’t up to it either. I told him I had some DVD movies for him to watch if he’d like to come and pick them up; he did and brought me some split pea soup he made!
I was lethargic all day from lack of sleep but I continued doing a little of this here and a little of that there to clean up the joint, and tried to continue my routine I set forth for this New Year.
I practiced my guitar. Then I went on my evening walk listening to a new Astronomy Cast lecture: Ep. 159: Planet X about the discovery of Pluto, the search for other planets, and pseudoscience speculation of a 2012 planet called Nibiru that will destroy Earth .
I went over to Stoney’s and yakked with him for an hour.
I got back home to read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today”, and “The Cell: a Molecular Approach”. I could hardly keep my eyes opened but did manage to read for a spell.
I did my stretches, and practiced my guitar.
I watched “NOVA: What are Dreams” on PBS; I hope tonight I can sleep and have a nice dream!
I wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Friday 08- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 38 and 60 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 36 percent, overcast skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 64. West northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm. Saturday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 39. Calm wind becoming west northwest around 6 mph.”
Stoney called needing a jump for his SUV because he left his parking lights on overnight. I went on over and we quickly got the motor running. He was going to Staters in Twentynine Palms to do some shopping and asked if I wanted to go; I sure did, I’m running low on yogurt and fruit. I picked up some other items while I was there and I’m good for another month.
I got back home and went on my evening walk listening to a new Astronomy Cast lecture: Ep. 160: Eclipses: Eclipses, Transits, and Occulations of different celestial bodies. I remember when I was nine or ten years old I was a student at Newton Elementary School in Torrance California and we saw a partial eclipse watching it through smoked glass that we made in class; pretty cool!
I practiced my guitar; I think I’m getting better.
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today”; a discussion on telescopes: refraction vs. reflector telescopes, and their optics. And “The Cell: a Molecular Approach”; the four classes of organic compounds: Carbohydrates, Lipids, Proteins, and Nucleic Acids (I only read through to carbohydrates and lipids. Proteins and nucleic acids I’ll read tomorrow). It’s interesting how many ways hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon can connect to each other. It’s funny that reading these aloud is helping me understand and learn these complicated ideas.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter, and then finished the evening reading “The Letters of Richard Feynman”.
For the last few weeks I’ve had a nice fire going in the woodstove and it has kept the house nice and cozy while I read.
I did my stretches and lifted weights; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Saturday 09- I did my stretches, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 39 and 62 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 28 percent, overcast skies until around noon when some low clouds cam rolling in.
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 64. North northwest wind between 3 and 7 mph. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 40. West northwest wind around 7 mph.”
I mostly called up Friends and Family throughout the day and that consumes a lot of my time but is well worth it; I get free weekend minutes on my cell phone. I called Jose, a friend I used to work with in Redondo Beach and haven’t talked to him in over twelve years since moving to the high desert. We had a nice little chat about times gone past.
I practiced my guitar. One of the strings is going dead and I’ll have to order a new set of them.
I went on my evening walk re-listening to the Astronomy Cast lecture: Ep. 158: pulsars. There was some stuff there that I wanted to make sure I understood.
Stoney called telling be to come on over and help him eat some of his Meals on Wheels. The meals are ok but not very filling and Stoney burnt mine; I ate it anyways. He turns off the TV when I come over knowing that I’m trying not to watch anything but educational programs; I think that’s very nice of him! Besides, just sitting and yapping without the boob tube blaring is a whole lot nicer.
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today and “The Cell: a Molecular Approach”, but I didn’t read that much of them because my voice was going horse!
I did a little webwork and then did my stretches; practiced my guitar; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Sunday 10- I did my stretches; I decided to just rest today and let my body catch up with my mind.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 40 and 66 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 35 percent, sunny skies all day!
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 66. West northwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm. Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 38. Light west wind.”
I was talking to my friend Kula on the phone when two ladies came to my gate telling me that they live just down the street and that their neighbor hasn’t been seen in a few days, his dogs had escaped from his yard, and there was a funny smell coming from his house. They introduced themselves as Pricilla and Crystal. I told them that I didn’t know the guy and that he mostly kept to himself; I had once gone over to say howdy but he didn’t seem interested. I told the ladies that the best thing to do was to call and ask the police for a wellness check and that they’d come out and have a look-see. I drove over a little later and saw that Ginger was home and stopped by to ask her if she knew where the “missing” guy was. She said she hasn’t seen him for a few days. The police arrived an hour later and I moseyed on over to see what they had found. The two officers were treating it like a CSI crime scene wearing plastic gloves and wondering around the house and yard. I stood with Pricilla and Crystal and we speculated on what may have happened to the guy and we each came up with some chilling theories. Well finally after a spell the officers did get a hold of the “missing” guy on the phone and all our theories went down the drain. At least the guy is okay! I only hope that this guy appreciates the fact that there are folks out here that were concerned for his welfare.
Ron Dehart came by for a visit and to have me convert large pictures into smaller sizes so that he won’t spend all day uploading them onto EBay. He brought over some beans he had cooked up which I ate for dinner and they were mighty good!
I practiced my guitar. I didn't read aloud from the textbooks today because I wanted to give my voice a rest.
I went over to Stoney’s to take a nice hot shower and to yap at him.
Throughout the day I was downloading critical updates to the Lenovo Netbook; on dialup this takes a mighty longtime.
I watched “Nature: Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air” and it was a very captivating show! There was so much I didn’t know about hummingbirds and I’m glad I watched it.
I did my stretches; practiced my guitar; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Monday 11- I did my stretches and ran two miles; it felt good!Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 38 and 64 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 36 percent, mostly sunny skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 66. West wind at 8 mph becoming east. Tuesday Night: A 10 percent chance of rain after 4am. Partly cloudy, with a low around 42. West southwest wind between 11 and 13 mph.”
I heard that we may have some bad weather coming out our way on Wednesday and needed wood for the woodstove. So I fired up the Honda generator, got out the electric saw and cut up a wheelbarrow full of firewood from a pile of old wood I have in the backyard.
I did a few things needing done around the house and then went on my evening walk re-listening to the Astronomy Cast lecture: Ep. 152: Binary Stars. When I got back I practiced my guitar.
I went over to Stoney’s to see how he’s doing and also to collect my bag of groceries from the USDA Food Distribution that was held this morning.
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today and “The Cell: a Molecular Approach”.
6:20pm rolled around and it was time for me to be off to the Copper Mountain Mesa Board meeting. Board members Katherine Quinn, Steve and Mary Helen Tuttle, Annelies Kuiper, Rob Reese, and Ray Foyil discussed matters that keep our Community Center running while the audience consisting of Marie Morrison, Bill Treas and his wife Elizabeth, Chris Jonas, and I listened on. It was a good meeting and many items were resolved.It was cold and I fired up the woodstove and read some more from the textbooks. For some reason I couldn’t get my feet warm, so I took the kettle from on top of the stove and poured hot water into a bucket and soaked my feet for a spell; it felt mighty good!
I did my stretches and lifted weights; practiced my guitar; wrote my column for the Newspaper and sent it in; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Tuesday 12- I did my stretches, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 42 and 65 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 38 percent, mostly sunny skies again.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: A 20 percent chance of showers after 10am. Partly cloudy, with a high near 61. North northwest wind 5 to 11 mph becoming west southwest. Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 41. Breezy, with a west northwest wind between 22 and 25 mph, with gusts as high as 34 mph.”
I drove on over to Ron Dehart’s to take his truck into town to watch “Avatar”. I got out of the Gross Polluter as old couple from Maine pull up and said they were lost and needed directions to Yucca Valley. I told them that Ron and I are just about to leave for there and they could follow us. They were driving very slowly on our dirt roads and Ron had to keep the truck under 25 MPH as not to lose them. We finally got to pavement and speeded up some. They were still a little behind when we made the left turn on HWY 62 that takes you to Yucca. I looked back to see if they made the turn and I saw them go right on through the light missing the turn. Well, I said to Ron, that road goes nowhere and they’ll figure it out soon enough.
“Avatar” (2009) starring Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, and Stephen Lang, and written and directed by James Cameron. All I really want to say about it right now is this movie is way over the top, intense, and totally blew me away in that when I walked out of the theater I was dazed and visibly shaken; it was that kind of movie and the message that it left with you was perfectly clear. The movie was 162 minutes long; Ron and I gave it a 3.5 pee rating because I went three times and he four; thank God that the restrooms were easily accessible and we were back in our seats in less than a minute!
We stopped off at WalMart to get a few things; I got a Hummingbird feeder. We got back to Ron’s and I then drove over to Stoney’s to see how he was doing and to tell him about the movie.
Back at home I opened and read my mail until “Nova: Building Pharaoh's Ship” came on PBS; they’re lucky that they didn’t drown in the Red Sea!
I did my stretches; practiced my guitar; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Wednesday 13- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 42 and 63 degrees, NW winds 11 to 25 MPH, humidity around 43 percent, Stratocumulus clouds clearing around noon and then lots of wind.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 59. Breezy, with a north northwest wind between 16 and 23 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph. Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 36. Northwest wind between 8 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.”
I did some work in the yard for a while, and picked up around the table where I had cut the tiles for the floors of my house; there were lots of small pieces. I saw that Ginger was home and I moseyed on over to say howdy and took a slice of baloney for her little killer dog and an apple for her horse Princess. We sat outside for a spell yapping and watching her dogs play. It was a beautiful day, and then the wind started blowing pretty hard and I decided to go on home.
I practiced my guitar.
Ginger lent me the movie “Iron Man” (2009) Directed by Jon Favreau and starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, and Jeff Bridges. Pretty dang good movie and Robert Downey Jr. fit the role very well.
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today” about telescope optics. “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” was about the folding of Polypeptide Chains; I won’t pretend to fully understand this. It is interesting how everything on the molecular scale is the interaction between this or that atom that forms this or that molecule that forms a bunch of other stuff: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, or nucleic acids, which in turn create their own stuff; this stuff is what I’m learning now. It’s totally over my head but very fascinating to me to think of all these working on the molecular scale together to eventually form living tissue on the macro; I’ve never thought of it in this way!
I watched “The Human Spark: So Human, So Chimp”. This episode they discuss the difference between us and other primates. The one thing that got my attention was that chimps don’t get the concept of pointing, where a dog will!
I read a little from the book “The Letters of Richard Feynman”
I did my stretches; practiced my guitar; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Thursday 14- I was awoken at 7:45am by a bad dream. I just laid there and couldn’t go back to sleep when the phone rang (I usually have the dang ringer turned off). It was Ginger’s daughter Lola calling to say that their car is stuck in the dirt and can’t get it out. Okay, I said, I’ll be there in 15 minutes; good thing I left the ringer on! I grabbed my shovel and drove the Gross Polluter over to where they were stuck and dug them out. Lola may be a little late for school but they are mobile again.
I went back home and did my stretches and lifted weights; still too dang windy to go for a run.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 36 and 58 degrees, NW winds 14 to 23 MPH, humidity around 36 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 63. North northwest wind between 3 and 6 mph. Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 38. Light south southwest wind.”
I had to stay at home and wait for UPS to deliver a tuning device that clamps on to my guitar and four sets of strings, so I decided to make spaghetti. The first can of tomato sauce I opened exploded all over the place. I checked the expiration date and it was Aug 2007, yikes! I put the can outside for the critters (ants and such) and found a more recent can.
I practiced my guitar and then called Stoney to see how he was doing.
My friend Andrew called to say he is back from London and is staying in Los Angeles. We yapped for almost an hour about the environment; it’s snowing in London right now!
Too windy for an evening walk so I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today was about radio astronomy. “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” was about Enzymes as a biological catalysts.
I watched “Who Killed the Electric Car” on PBS. It’s about the GM EV1 electric car and its demise by the oil companies, GM, the California Air Quality Board, and our Government. GM took all the EV1s back that they had leased from satisfied customers and had them crushed! No wonder GM went belly up and we had to bail them out. Watching this movie will make you mad!
I did my stretches; practiced my guitar; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Friday 15- I did my stretches. I was going to go on a two mile run but Marcie Hines daughter called asking me if I could put the pictures of Lee’s memorial I took on these two electronic picture frames that she has. I told her to come on over and I’d do it. She and Marcie arrived an hour later with the frames and I installed the pictures on both.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 38 and 62 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 32 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: Partly sunny, with a high near 65. Calm wind becoming south southeast between 5 and 8 mph. Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 37. West southwest wind between 3 and 10 mph.”
Ginger called asking me if I’d run down to her property and measure a door to see if a sofa she wants to get will fit through them. (What happened next is why this post is going to be short)
I jumped into the Gross Polluter and headed on down to her place about half a mile away. I was doing about thirty as I neared her driveway I put on my left turn signal, slowed down and started to make my turn when I heard a loud honk and just then a delivery van that was speeding behind me and trying to pass on my left smashed into the left front of my car as I tried to stop my turn after hearing the honk! When he hit me I saw pieces of the poor old Gross Polluter flying in the air. His Van went up on the embankment into the dirt and traveled for a distance. He told me that his brakes didn’t work when he tried to avoid me. He must have been doing sixty MPH when he tried to pass giving him no time to stop when he saw me making my left turn. Nobody was hurt but we were both well shaken up.
We exchanged information and he offered to give me $100 to fix the damage to my truck. I told him that it was more than that; the front side above the wheel well was caved in, the hood was so tweaked that it won’t open all the way up, the headlights fell out when the bumper was nearly ripped off, and the radiator came loose from its welds and is just hanging there. I can drive it at night and I don’t have a left front turn signal. I took pictures and will post them tomorrow; I’m just too raddled right now.
I did get Ginger’s measurements for the door and called to tell her what happened, and fed Princes (her horse) a carrot I brought for her before I left and stopped off at Stoney’s to show him the damage.
I got back home, took a tranquilizer, and didn’t do much of anything else but call my insurance company to file a report, write this to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Saturday 16- I did my stretches and ran a mile.Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 37 and 63 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 39 percent, mostly cloudy in the morning clearing to sunny skies around 1pm.
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: A 10 percent chance of rain after 4pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 61. Calm wind becoming south southeast around 6 mph. Sunday Night: A 50 percent chance of rain, mainly after 10pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 40. Southwest wind between 6 and 10 mph.”
When I got back from my run I noticed that Ginger left some biscuits on the outside table for me; she felt responsible for the car accident yesterday, but of course it wasn’t her fault and I told her that these things just happen.
I ate my breakfast and headed on down to her place to take some more pictures of the “crime scene”. She was home and was working on putting together a folding bed and I spent the next hour or so helping her and her daughter Lola constructing that. I fed her horse Princess a carrot; Lola fed her a lollypop, took my pictures and headed home.I called my insurance company to make sure that I said westbound on Winters Rd and not eastbound. I told the lady that I was very rattled when I called yesterday and may have made that mistake; she said I did. She also went on to say that she has been working at this job filing accident forms out for years and that when she had a minor accident herself she was so rattled that she forgot everything too, and if it wasn’t for the police officer that hit her she would have been lost! I told her that made me feel better.
I called Family and Friends throughout the day.
I went over to Stoney’s to grind a telescope mount to fit my new Meade 4.5” reflector that FedEx delivered Friday (I forgot to write about that yesterday). We had lunch and sat around yapping for a spell.I got the mount back home and put my new telescope on it and it fit perfectly! The scope isn’t the most powerful one I got but I needed one that I can transport easily, plus it’s better than the 90mm refractor I have. I still have a lot of work to do on that 12” Dobsonian that I bought a few years ago; the manufacturer did a shoddy job, there were parts missing, the mount is horrible, and the spider that holds the secondary mirror is so thin that it warps easily. I hope to rework the whole dang thing and make it a useful instrument.
I had a nice fire going in the woodstove and practiced my guitar, and then read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today” about Interferometry, and “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” about Coenzymes.
I spent an hour reworking and updating the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
I did my stretches; practiced my guitar; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Sunday 17- I did my stretches and ran two miles.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 40 and 60 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 41 percent, sunny in the morning then getting cloudy and nasty 3pm.
According to the National Weather Service: “M.L.King Day: Rain. High near 55. South wind between 11 and 21 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Monday Night: Rain. Low around 41. South southwest wind between 13 and 21 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%.”
There’s an “Epic El Nino Rainfall Expected in California” and it looks like it’s going to rain all week according to the National Weather Service, so I decided to get everything buttoned down and prepare for rain. I cut up a whole lot of firewood so I’ll be nice and cozy while I ride out the weather. I have no place I need to be this week so I won’t have to drive any long distance in the rain; after Friday’s accident I don’t feel like driving anyways.
My neighbor Ginger sent her daughter by horse asking help on patching her trailer roof before the rains come. We spent almost two hours on top of her trailer patching it up. I had to cut some sheet metal into squares and screw them down over two vents that were missing. Around 3pm the weather turned nasty. The sunny sky was gone replaced by clouds that looked mighty full of rain. We were finished by 4pm and I drove over to check on Stoney who was watching cowboys and Indians on TV.
I got back home just after sunset so I wouldn’t be on the roads without lights on my truck; the headlights were taken out during the collision. I practiced my guitar and read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today” about high energy astronomy, and “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” about metabolic energy; Gibbs free energy and ATP that went completely over my head. I watched “Nature: Clash, Encounters of Bears and Wolves” on PBS about grizzly bears and wolves in Yellowstone National Park.
It started raining and I called Stoney to let him know because he wouldn’t hear it over the blaring TV; rain is big news out here!
I started a new book “The Lost World” by Michael Crichton. I’ve seen the movie a couple of times but never read the book and books are always better than the movies; well except for the special effects, but then again it helps to have a vivid imagination when reading!
I did my stretches; practiced my guitar; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
M.L.King Day- I did my stretches. There was a light drizzle with dark clouds heavy with rain on the horizon so I didn’t go on a run.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 40 and 53 degrees, SSE winds at 11 to 29 MPH, humidity around 63 percent, stratus clouds covering the whole sky bringing lots of rain later in the afternoon and evening.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Rain likely, mainly after 4pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 55. West wind 7 to 16 mph becoming south. Winds could gust as high as 23 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Tuesday Night: Rain likely, mainly before 10pm. Cloudy, with a low around 41. Southwest wind between 10 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.”
Stoney called me early in the morning saying he’s having a hard time breathing and asked if I could take him to the doctor around 2pm; I said I could. I guess what I said yesterday about not having to drive any long distances in the rain just went down the drain, but that’s okay.
I restrung my guitar with the new strings I got last week and it sounds mighty good!
I got to Stoney’s around 1:30pm to take a shower before we drove down to his doctor in Yucca Valley. We took Stoney’s car and headed to town as the rain grew heavier. The rain was coming down pretty good when we arrived at 2:30. The rain was continuous filling up the streets with muddied water. I stayed in the car reading “The Lost World” while Stoney went inside to see his doctor. We left the doctors around 3:45 and the streets were flooded and we decided to go a different route home up HWY 247 instead of through Joshua Tree because when there is this much rain the streets are sometime impassable, plus it was there was a lot of traffic. We did stop at the Chevron to get gas and sandwiches at the Subway there. It took us until 5pm to get home because the streets were so flooded, and there were spots where it looked like a river crossing. Coming down Winters Road it was like driving in the center of a river; water kicked up by the tires covered the whole car and made it hard to see the road. There was just enough light left when we got to Stoney’s house that I was able to drive the Gross Polluter home without headlights (they were ripped out during last Friday’s accident).
I got back home and lit a fire in the woodstove and settled down to read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today" and “The Cell: a Molecular approach”. Then I continued to read “The Lost World” until late into the evening.
I did my stretches; practiced my guitar; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Tuesday 19- I did my stretches and lifted weights; the ground is too soaked and muddied to go on a run, dang!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 41 and 54 degrees, SSE winds at 4 to 22 MPH, humidity around 61 percent, stratus clouds covering the whole sky bringing lots of rain later in the afternoon and evening again.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: A 50 percent chance of rain after 10am. Cloudy, with a high near 52. South southwest wind 8 to 11 mph increasing to between 17 and 20 mph. Winds could gust as high as 28 mph. Wednesday Night: Rain. Low around 38. Breezy, with a south wind 22 to 25 mph decreasing to between 11 and 14 mph. Winds could gust as high as 34 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%.”
My insurance company claims department called to take a statement for the accident last Friday and said that they will supply me with all the information that I need to file a claim with the insurance company of the guy who hit me. Giving the statement made me relive it, which wasn’t very pleasant for me. I realize now that if he hit me a fraction of a second later he would have hit the driver’s door (where I was seated) and may have flipped the Gross Polluter over and done some serious damage to me and the truck!
I went over to Stoney’s where he was welding a part of his woodstove that he broke trying to repair the vent. I brought along a part of my woodstove that had cracked in two and had him weld that too. When I left it started to rain, and it rained all day.
I’m feeling kind of restless not being able to go on my runs or evening walks, and I think I gained a pound or two. When the weather gets better I’ll return to my routine but until then there is much I have to do around the house to keep me busy.
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today" and “The Cell: a Molecular approach”. Then I read “The Lost World” until late into the evening; just like last night.
I watched "NOVA: Riddles of the Sphinx" on PBS.
I wrote my column for the Hi Desert Star Newspaper and sent it in.
I did my stretches; practiced my guitar; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Wednesday 20- I did my stretches; still can’t go for a run because of weather…
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 38 and 54 degrees, S winds at 6 to 20 MPH, humidity around 61 percent, stratus clouds covering the whole sky bringing lots of rain later in the afternoon and evening just like the last two days.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Rain. The rain could be heavy at times. High near 52. Breezy, with a south wind 11 to 14 mph increasing to between 22 and 25 mph. Winds could gust as high as 44 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Thursday Night: Rain. The rain could be heavy at times. Low around 38. Breezy, with a south southwest wind between 20 and 23 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%.”
Marcie’s son Paul dropped off an old Mac G3 laptop yesterday for me to checkout and setup dialup internet for him. I got it all completed and he came later in the evening to pick it up.
I went over to Stoney’s for a short visit; the weather has been mighty damp and misty with overcast skies and I needed to get out of the house. On my way back home I noticed that Ginger’s horse Princess was out of her corral and running lose outside the property, yikes! I quickly drove over there to see if I could get her back, but she was just running around paying no attention to me as I called out her name. I didn’t have my cell phone on me and I had to drive back home to get it. Once home I called Ginger and she said she was on her way from Yucca Valley. By the time I got back down to where the horse was roaming Ginger’s neighbor Gary had secured Princess in a yard down the street. That was great news for me because I wouldn’t have to chase after her! Ginger showed up a little later and she decided to leave the horse there until she could mend the broken fence tomorrow. We brought hay and water over for Princess as the rains started again. Ginger said that there isn’t a dull moment in her life, and I jokingly said that there wasn’t one in my life either since she moved into the neighborhood.
I got back home and practiced my guitar and read “The lost World” for a spell.
No evening walk for me because of the rain was coming down hard. I forget when I had last gone for my walk because the weather has been so bad lately.
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today" beginning the chapter on the solar system, and “The Cell: a Molecular approach” about Photosynthesis.
I started a digital electronics course that I bought a little over twenty years ago; talk about procrastination! It has cassette tapes, books, and electronic components that you plug into a breadboard for the projects in the course. I now know how to convert binary to decimal numbers and convert decimal to binary! I messed around with the course until “The Human Spark” came on PBS. It was the last show in the series and it gave me lots to think about; a very good program!
Then I continued to read “The Lost World” until late into the evening; just like last night and the night before.
I did my stretches; practiced my guitar; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Thursday 21- I did my stretches and lifted weights; still can’t go for a run because of weather…
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 34 and 40 degrees, SE winds at 6 to 30 MPH, humidity around 71 percent, stratus clouds covering the whole sky bringing lots of rain later in the afternoon and evening just like the last three days.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: A chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 10am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 48. Southwest wind 9 to 12 mph increasing to between 18 and 21 mph. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Friday Night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 10pm, then a slight chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 34. West southwest wind between 7 and 17 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.”
It rained all day long and didn’t let up. I just stayed inside reading “The Lost World” until late into the evening. I practiced my guitar somewhere in between. I’m going to make this a short post because nothing really happened and I am very tired and stranded inside my home.
I did my stretches; practiced my guitar; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Friday 22- I did my stretches and ran two miles; a very cold and windy run!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 33 and 45 degrees, SW winds at 10 to 16 MPH, humidity around 61 percent, stratus clouds clearing at times with little rain.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 53. West northwest wind between 10 and 13 mph. Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 34. West northwest wind around 8 mph.”
I was filling the bird feeder when I saw Ron the Graphics Guy drive by in his jeep. He stopped and told me that his friend couldn’t get to work this morning because HWY 62 was closed going down to Palm Springs.
It stopped raining enough for Ron Dehart to come by with some homemade spaghetti sauce that I later added to some pasta I cooked up especially for it. We played guitar and chatted for a spell.
It didn’t rain the rest of the day and my solar panels gave a good charge to my batteries. Yesterday I had to run the generator to get them charged up.
The wind was blowing cold so I didn’t go on my evening walk, but tomorrow is looking good for a walk!
I was transferring files for my HTML editor from Windows 7 to a laptop running XP because it wasn’t working properly. I got everything on the XP machine and loaded it up but the index file date was something I did on 10/31/09 and not the newest one. I went back to the Win7 HTML files and the index file had10/31/09, but when I started the editor it open with 01/07-10, weird! So I just copied it from the editor and pasted it to notepad and pasted into the XP laptop’s HTML editor. I do not know where nor couldn’t find where Win7 stored the updated HTML files, but all the recent pictures were there. This HTML editor I got in 1999 and works fine in XP.
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today" and “The Cell: a Molecular Approach”.
Roger Smith called asking help for a problem on his computer and we spent the next forty-five minutes trying to figure it out; had to do with his monitor and screen sizes. Finally we got it right just as my phone started beeping telling me that its battery was getting low.
I read “The Lost World” until late into the evening while the warmth from the woodstove heated the house.
I did my stretches; practiced my guitar; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Saturday 23- I did my stretches.Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 34 and 51 degrees, NW winds at 8 to 15 MPH, humidity around 58 percent, sunny skies!
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 53. Northwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm. Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 36. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm.”
Naomi and Brian came by with their two cute daughters to preach the word of the Lord. They are a nice family and I let them have their say; I’m not very religious and they don’t push it upon me. Brain told me a heartbreaking story of how his father was gunned down by some young punk about five years ago and is now serving a life sentence for murder. His little daughter said that she never got to see her grandfather and that kind of made me mad; I don’t like murderers and thieves. They take what isn’t theirs, even your life, and that is just plain evil! Sherry dropped by while we were talking and warned us that the roads were really bad going west on Winters Road; I thought that mighty nice of her.
After they left I went inside and updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the newsletter.
Ginger’s daughter Lola came by with all their dogs asking if I’d come down to help them construct a shelter for Princess their horse. I said sure but first I want to feed the dogs some baloney; they were mighty happy about that! Ginger, Lola, and I spent the next two hours digging and hammering getting Princess’s shelter together. I hope she likes it and stays inside this time so I won’t have to go chase her down.I left there and drove on over to Stoney’s and yakked with him for a spell. Then I went home and did the same with my folks.
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today" about Terrestrial and Jovian planets, and “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” about cell membranes. Then I did a little studying of the digital electronics course.
I read “The Lost World” until I finished it late into the evening. The book was nothing like the movie! I liked the book better!
I did my stretches; practiced my guitar; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Sunday 24- I did my stretches, ran two miles, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 36 and 51 degrees, NW-SE winds at 4 to 8 MPH, humidity around 47 percent, sunny skies again!
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 56. Calm wind. Monday Night: A 10 percent chance of rain after 4am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 40. West wind around 5 mph becoming calm.”
My good friend Kula called telling me that her condo on the beach had closed escrow, yea! Now she and Tom have to sell their mansion in Palo Verdes Estates; I thought it too big for them anyways. She also had a computer problem that I tried to help her with but she’ll have to wait till Tom gets home to do what I needed done; he’s more tech savvy and she’s somewhat digitally challenged (don’t tell her I said that). I’ve known her since the early 80s when I worked as a security guard at Harbor Cove Apartments in Redondo Beach while I went to El Camino College.
I called Friends and Family throughout the day.
I went on over to Stoney’s to see how he was doing and to take a shower. He’s doing well but I wish that he’d do something other than watch television. Then on my way back home I fed Princess (Ginger’s horse) an apple and played harmonica while she ate.
I went for my evening walk; I went on one yesterday but forgot to include it in my journal. Yesterday I listened to Astronomy Cast: Ep. 153: Dark Skies, and today Ep. 154: Dragon Con Live with Seth Shostak about the SETI Program. I’ve listened to these last month but thought I’d give them another go.
I practiced my guitar and then read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today" about interplanetary debris, and “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” and finally finished chapter two. Then I did a little studying of the digital electronics course about logic circuits.
I watched “Nature: American Eagle” on PBS. It’s nice that eagle populations are increasing and are now off the Endangered Species List!
I got back to reading “The Feynman Letters” that I put down to read “The Lost World”.
I did my stretches; practiced my guitar; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Monday 25- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 39 and 56 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 48 percent, sunny skies again!
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: A 20 percent chance of rain after 10am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 56. Calm wind becoming south southeast between 5 and 8 mph. Tuesday Night: Rain likely, mainly before 4am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 39. West southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm. Chance of precipitation is 60%.”
Ron Dehart came by to pick me up to go to the theater in Yucca Valley to watch “The Book of Eli” (2010) starring Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, and Mila Kunis; about this guy who walks across a post-apocalyptic America after a ‘flash’ created it some thirty years ago. He is carrying and protecting a book he needs to deliver in the west. Ron and I rated it two pees (we only had to go twice each). This is the kind of movie that I need to sleep on before I can really say if I really liked it, but I can say it was worth seeing.
Got back home too late for my evening walk because the Sun had already began to set.
I called Stoney to see how he was doing; he’s still having troubles breathing he said. I’m going over there tomorrow to have a talk about that.
I practiced my guitar and read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today" about planetary missions to other planets, and then “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” and started chapter three about heredity, genes, and DNA. Then studied from the text of the digital electronics course about AND gates.
I did some webwork until late into the evening.
I did my stretches; practiced my guitar; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
With a heavy heart I must inform you that Bob Stonebraker (Stoney) had passed away quietly while watching his favorite Western TV shows on Tuesday 26 of this month. He would have been 90 this April. Stoney would tell me and Roger Smith stories when we went over to his house for dinner. No matter how many times he’d tell us the same tale we’d always have a fun time hearing them again. Here is my favorite:Stoney told us a story of when he was being shipped over to the Philippines during WWII. He traveled down the Sacramento River on a paddlewheel to the Liberty Ship that would take him there. Once onboard a shipmate told him to eat lots of bread to avoid seasickness. Never being on a ship before Stoney got two loafs from the mess hall and hurriedly ate them all!
Needing to keep his hands busy Stoney was always asking his Sergeant for something to do on the long voyage, but there was nothing the Sergeant needed done. Later a notice went up on the bulletin board stating that if you didn’t keep your area clean you would be put on extra duty. So Stoney left his area in a mess: bed unmade and clothes lying around. He was quickly put to painting the Officer’s quarters. One Officer liked Stoney’s painting job so much that he offered Stoney a drink and asked if he wouldn’t mind continuing painting around the ship. Well Stoney was glad to take him up on that offer and painted his way over to the Philippines.
Life is a wondrous gift that we are sometimes reminded of when someone precious is no longer present among us leaving a great void in our lives to fill.
Sunday 31- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 41 and 59 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 45 percent, sunny skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 59. Calm wind becoming southeast between 4 and 7 mph. Monday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 40. South southwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm.”
I thought I’d post a little something now that a few days have gone by and I’m able to reflect on this past week without falling apart. It all happened Tuesday when I got a call at 1:03pm from Stoney’s son Jimmy saying that Stoney had passed away and that Roger Smith had found Stoney and was over there now. I quickly got there almost running into Roger’s VW that was parked in the driveway I was such in a hurry. There was Stoney seated in his favorite chair as naturally as can be watching TV except he wasn’t moving. He had a calm expression on his face and it appears that he passed on peacefully. Roger asked that we don’t call the authorities for a spell so that we may spend some time with him, and I agreed. We talked of old times we had with him just like he was still there alive. We cried, we laughed, and we reminisced. We were waiting for Stoney’s son-in-law Denny to call us back to tell us that he had made arrangements with the mortuary before calling 911. I suggested that we instead call Sherry who works for the county and is a friend to come and make the call. After Denny called I placed the called to Sherry and she arrived about a half hour later and made the call that would bring the authorities. After doing this she went outside and broke into tears; knowing this would happen I went outside to comfort her. It took the authorities an hour to arrive giving us three friends a little more time alone with Stoney before they kicked us out of the house.
I told Sherry and Roger that I’d stay until they took Stoney away. Roger was cold and went to his home because we couldn’t go back inside the house and it was raining. Sherry sat with me for an hour or so before she had to leave making sure I’d be okay first. The coroner arrived and finally released Stoney for transport at 9:45pm. I followed Stoney as they wheeled him away and told the attendants as they put him in the van to be gentle with him and that he was loved; they assured me Stoney would be treated with respect. Then I put my hand on Stoney and said goodbye to my old friend.
For some reason I went into protective mode deciding to wait at Stoney’s home until his son Jimmy and the rest of the family arrived the next day. Andrew called telling me he was driving out Wednesday to visit Stoney and I had to break the news to him. He asked me how I was holding up and I told him not to well and that I had a hard time eating because my hand shook so bad that I couldn’t get the food to my mouth. He said that he’d see me soon but I didn’t know that he would jump into his car and drive all the way from Los Angeles; he arrived here at around 3am and was a great help keeping my mind together. I told him I didn’t want the house to be empty when Stoney’s family arrived. We talked until 9am when he had to leave for a meeting. Jimmy arrived at 11am, then the rest of the family about 3pm. I stayed with them until around 5pm. I believe I was awake for some 34 hours and went home and slept for a straight sixteen hours.
The rest of the week went past in a blur and I need not write about it even if I could remember.
Stoney was my best friend and I had talked with him the night before his passing. One thing I told him that I never did get around to until that night was “Stoney you are like family to me and I will be always there for you” and he said “I know I feel the same way about you”. Saying and hearing these simple words were a great comfort to me in the days that followed.
