June 2010

Welcome to the month of June! I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 64 and 93 degrees, S/Se winds at 6 to 18 MPH, humidity around 14 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 90. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph becoming east. Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 65. West wind between 8 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.”
I had to get all the paperwork together for my appointment at the DMV today at 3:45pm. I was in a mad rush trying to track down everything but finally got it all and headed down there with the hopes of getting it registered for off road. But dang that didn’t happen because the lady there said that I’d have to still get the certification for lights and such, dang! She said that the best I could do was to junk it and retain possession of the vehicle, and then I’d have the time to figure out what I need to do. So I took her advice and had her junk it. Downtrodden, I gave her the license plates and headed back home. I drove Stoney’s truck so I dropped it off there first.
I went for my evening walk listening to Astronomy Cast: Ep. 184: History of Astronomy, Part 2: The Greeks. It’s funny how they didn’t mention that Aristarchus (310-230 BC) was the first to mention the heliocentric model!
I spent the rest of the evening thinking.
I did my stretches, lifted weights, went for a night run, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 02- I did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 65 and 91 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 23 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 94. Northwest wind 6 to 10 mph becoming east southeast. Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 68. West southwest wind 18 to 21 mph becoming west northwest 6 to 9 mph. Winds could gust as high as 29 mph.”
I watered all my plants and cut the dying fronds from the two palm trees. It is starting to get warmer, the plants need more water now, and by this Saturday it should be over 100 degrees. The Moon is in retreat so the nights will be dark and just right for getting out the telescope to do a little stargazing!
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today" Asteroids Orbital Properties; “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” RNA Editing.
I went for my evening walk re-listening to Astronomy Cast: Ep. 181: Rotation.
I spent the rest of the evening reading a few chapters of “The President’s Daughter” by Jack Higgins.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 03- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 68 and 93 degrees, winds from the SW at 9 to16, humidity around 19 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 99. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming south. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 72. West wind between 9 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph.”
I did some paperwork that needed to be done and called to cancel my insurance for the Gross Polluter.
Semi came by with his netbook and I set him up with an email account and a blog. I showed him how to post and edit a blog and get his email. Now all he needs to do is practice!
I went for my evening walk listening to Astronomy Cast: Ep. 185: History of Astronomy, Part 3: The Renaissance.
I read and finished “The President’s Daughter” by Jack Higgins. I thought it was a mighty fine read!
It got windy outside and that put a damper on taking out the telescope so I decided I wanted something different to watch on Hulu.com and found this really neat series called “Kyle XY” and watched the first two episodes. It’s about a sixteen year old boy who awakens in a forest and doesn’t know anything of his past or how to talk, has no bellybutton, and is really smart. Seems like it’s going to be a good show; I guess it was because it made it through three seasons!
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 04- I did my stretches, ran two miles, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 72 and 98 degrees, winds from the SW at 7 to15, humidity around 18 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 103. North northwest wind at 7 mph becoming east northeast. Saturday Night: Clear, with a low around 74. South wind 8 to 10 mph becoming west.”
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter. It took a bunch of time because, along with everything else, I had to update the calendar and upload pics of Stoney’s Memorial.
I went for my evening walk listening to Astronomy Cast: Ep. 186: History of Astronomy, Part 4: The Beginning of Modern Astronomy.
I started reading “Star Trek: Prime Directive” by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens.
I went outside taking out the telescope with me. Venus was on the western horizon and Mars was in Leo close by the star Regulus.
I watched two episodes of “Kyle XY” and both made me laugh; I like this show!
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.

Saturday 05- I had some problems with communications on the internet and decided to just take the whole dang day off, besides it was hot! I spent most of my time reading “Star Trek: Prime Directive” by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, and calling friends and family.


Sunday 06- I did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 74 and 105 degrees, winds from the N-SW at 4 to18, humidity around 14 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 104. Light wind becoming south southwest between 12 and 15 mph. Winds could gust as high as 22 mph. Monday Night: Clear, with a low around 75. West southwest wind 15 to 18 mph decreasing to between 7 and 10 mph. Winds could gust as high as 26 mph.”
I’m not use to the hot weather yet so I mostly stayed inside reading “Star Trek: Prime Directive” by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens.
Ginger called telling me her car ran out of oil when she got back home from work last night. I have a couple of quarts here I said and that if she makes the short trip to my house I’d give them to her. She arrived already dressed to go to work; she looked mighty nice! So I did the decent thing and put the oil in for her so it wouldn’t soil her dress. Ain’t I a nice guy!
I watched an episode of “Kyle XY”; the one he goes to high school for the first time.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 07- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 75 and 107 degrees, winds from the NW/SW at 8 to 20, humidity around 16 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 99. Calm wind becoming southwest between 15 and 18 mph. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 70. Southwest wind 15 to 18 mph decreasing to between 7 and 10 mph. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph.”
It seems that I’m doing one day of exercise and one day off because of the heat. When it is hot like this you don’t really want to overdo it too much and try to listen to your body. The heat slows me down a bit!
I have some computers to repair; trying to figure out an intermittent problem. That kept me busy for a spell!
Then I got down to reading several chapters of “Star Trek: Prime Directive” by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens.
I watched two episodes of “Kyle XY”; one where he wakes from a nightmare and it’s raining, and the other where he’s playing high school basketball.
I went outside to gaze at the starry night. There was a cool breeze blowing and it felt mighty good. It was late enough so that could see the northern cross sitting in the Milky Way and the Teapot rising to the southeast. Good nights are waiting ahead!!!
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 08- I did my stretches, ran two miles, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 70 and 97 degrees, winds from the NW at 9 to 16, humidity around 18 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 97. West wind between 7 and 10 mph becoming calm. Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 67. West wind between 10 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.”
The baby doves are nearly ready to take their first flights. Lots of doves have been hanging around my property since Fat Cat gone missing last summer. Sure miss Fat Cat, but the birds are cool!
I went for my evening walk taking pictures of the desert; I’ll post a few later on.
I read a few chapters of “Star Trek: Prime Directive” by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens.
I watched an episode of “Kyle XY”; where he goes to a university to find out his past only to be told that if he keeps looking that he and his new family who took him in will be killed.
Towards the end of the month Comet McNaught will be brightening up to naked eye visibility before sunrise in the northeastern skies. Might be worth a look-see!
I 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 09- I did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 67 and 97 degrees, winds from the NW at 10 to 20, humidity around 16 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 93. West northwest wind between 14 and 17 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 63. Breezy, with a west northwest wind between 18 and 23 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph.”
I read a 1996 interview with Steve Jobs on Wired Magazine which was very revealing. Jobs was right on many things, wrong on only a few, and hates Microsoft. Also it was a good look into the psyche and philosophy of a great man. This interview was taken when he was no longer with Apple and had already started Next Inc. The Next computer was the one that Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first web browser and created the World Wide Web at Cern.
I went for my evening walk taking more pictures of the desert. The one above is of my solar home.
I read and finished “Star Trek: Prime Directive” by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. One error I found was on page 381where Spock says “Degrees Kelvin” you never say Degrees when you are talking about Kelvin! Oh poor Mr. Spock, what words these writers put in your mouth!
I watched an episode of “Kyle XY”; this episode he is able to read lips.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 10- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 63 and 89 degrees, winds from the NW at 16 to 24 with gusts up to 40 MPH, humidity around 16 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 84. Northwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 61. Northwest wind around 17 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph.”
The picture above is of my front porch!
I forgot to add to yesterday’s journal that we had a power outage at 9am and lasted for six and a half hours. My whole house is solar powered and wouldn’t have known about it only that the wireless broadband went down. I had thought it was something to do with my equipment and I spent some time checking everything before I called Mojavewifi.com who told me of the outage.
It was mighty windy today so I messed around with Ubuntu OS on my Dell Mini 9. I found that it could record songs! I recorded a bunch of my original songs and was going to share them on the internet, but unfortunately I recorded them in a file system called OGG where I should have done it on something else (I think). I really like Ubuntu; it loads fast and everything works on the Dell netbook, unlike Windows 7. Now I just have to get used to all the funny names of these extensions (like OGG). I finally think Ubuntu is ready for primetime!
I watched finished season one of “Kyle XY” and started on season two.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 11- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 61 and 83 degrees, winds from the NW at 11 to 26 with gusts up to 45 MPH, humidity around 17 percent, clear skies but cloudy in the evening.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 82. North wind 17 to 20 mph decreasing to between 7 and 10 mph. Winds could gust as high as 26 mph. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 61. Calm wind becoming northwest between 8 and 11 mph.”
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
I headed down to Joshua Tree to say goodbye to Stan and Jan who are retiring from their haircutting business Stan and Jan’s Hairstyling. Stan has been cutting my hair (or what’s left of it) for around five years or so. They started their business in Joshua Tree in 1997 at what used to be called Isadora’s, a beauty salon, and moved across the street to their present little shop in November 2000. Folks came in throughout the day saying their goodbyes, bringing and eating food from a potluck table setup inside. Stan says he’s been cutting hair since 1963 and my hair was one of the last he’d cut. I will miss our conversations of world politics while getting my hair trimmed. Goodbye Stan and Jan! Have a wonderful retirement!
I stopped off at Roger Smith’s to take some pictures of his garden that he is going to write about and post on Copper Mountain Mesa Website.
I watched a couple of episodes of “Kyle XY”; dang I love that show!
I tried to record a few more songs but find that I get nervous and screw it up; I have a hard time singing. But I did manage to get a new song I’m working on recorded. Now I have to figure out a way to get it on the web so others can hear it. When I do I’ll have it as a separate post.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Here is the link to the song I wrote called "Why"
Like I said it's a new song that I've been working on for a week and don't have all the verses made up yet so I repeat the ones I have: Plus I don't sing very well and totally screwed up the beginning of the song :) I’ll update the whole song later when I have more of it done and hopefully get the singing down better.

Saturday 12- I did my stretches, ran two miles, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 61 and 83 degrees, winds from the NW at 16 to 20 MPH, humidity around 19 percent, mostly clear skies. A beautiful day!
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 89. North northwest wind between 9 and 13 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph. Sunday Night: Clear, with a low around 65. Northwest wind around 7 mph.”
The picture is of a Road Runner taken while he was on my roof.
I found out when I went online this morning that an online friend of mine, Kris Grims, had passed away from lung cancer; I was shocked and very saddened to hear this news. We have been friends for a few years now. She wanted to come back someday to Joshua Tree to live and had found my online journal on MySpace. I will dedicate the new song I’m writing to her. Goodbye my friend!
I went over to Stoney’s to take a shower (I smelled like a race horse after my run). Roger Smith was there with his friend Hank from the outskirts of LA. They were headed to town to do something or other.
The winds picked up so I decided to call friends and family, and then do some webwork until late into the night.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 13- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 65 and 88 degrees, winds from the NW at 8 to 13 MPH, humidity around 18 percent, mostly clear skies. Another beautiful day!
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 96. North wind between 3 and 8 mph. Monday Night: Clear, with a low around 68. Calm wind becoming west between 6 and 9 mph.”
Late last night I downloaded a program to edit my “Why” song to take out the pause in the beginning of the song; that dang thing worked and I uploaded the new version. The program couldn’t do nothing for my terrible singing though!
I spent most of the day building a door for my bathroom. I had all the wood but I had to rummage for hardware. I found two hinges on the old outhouse and used them. I hung the door with old screws that I sorted out from a box I throw nails, screws and such into. The door looks dang good once I got down with it.
I went for my evening walk taking more pictures.
I watched two episodes of “Kyle XY” and one episode of “Warehouse 13”.
I went outside for an hour or so to do a little stargazing.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar and recorded a few songs, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 14- I did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 68 and 95 degrees, light breeze, humidity around 13 percent, mostly clear skies. Another beautiful day!
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 97. Calm wind becoming southwest between 14 and 17 mph. Winds could gust as high as 24 mph. Tuesday Night: Clear, with a low around 66. Breezy, with a west southwest wind 20 to 23 mph decreasing to between 10 and 13 mph. Winds could gust as high as 32 mph.”
I went on over to my friend’s house that I’m taking care of while he’s on vacation. Unfortunately a couple of weeks ago his electric went out and all the food in the freezer and refrigerator spoiled; the smell was atrocious; like a morgue on a hot day in Somali. We had Edison come out to fix the problem and I waited for the food to freeze up again before I went there today to take out the food, photograph it all for a refund from Edison, place it all in plastic bags, and throw it away. It still smelled and flies buzzed around me as I worked, yuck! I hope I never have to do anything like that again; had to wash my hands with Clorox to get the odor off.
I kicked back to watch a few episodes of “Kyle XY”; I really like this show!
I did my stretches, went for a night run and I did a little stargazing, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 15- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 66 and 95 degrees, winds out of the NW/SE at 6 to 18 with gusts up to 38 MPH, humidity around 12 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 91. Calm wind becoming southwest between 13 and 16 mph. Winds could gust as high as 22 mph. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 63. West northwest wind between 13 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.”
I guess I needed some down time today. I wrote my column for the Hi Desert Star and sent it in. I spent the day messing around with computers and thinking, mostly thinking. I’m in a thinking mood!
I watch a few episodes of “Kyle XY”.
I did my stretches and lifted weights, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 16- I did my stretches, ran two miles, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 63 and 91 degrees, winds out of the NW/SW at 8 to 21 MPH, humidity around 10 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 94. North northwest wind 5 to 9 mph becoming east. Thursday Night: Clear, with a low around 63. South wind 6 to 15 mph becoming west northwest. Winds could gust as high as 22 mph.”
I’m in a thinking mood again! Sometimes I just need to step back and contemplate life and where I’m going in it.
I did manage to water all the plants outside and watch a few episodes of “Kyle XY”.
I did my stretches and lifted weights, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 17- I did my stretches and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 63 and 93 degrees, winds out of the NW/SW at 6 to 14 MPH, humidity around 8 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Sunny, with a high near 95. Light wind becoming south southwest between 12 and 15 mph. Winds could gust as high as 21 mph. Friday Night: Clear, with a low around 64. West southwest wind 18 to 21 mph decreasing to between 9 and 12 mph. Winds could gust as high as 29 mph."
I mopped all the floors in the house and cleaned it up all spic and span! Then I installed new shelves in my bedroom. I still have to fill in and plaster some holes in the wall, sand the wood and paint them but at least I got everything screwed in and leveled.
I went for my evening walk taking pictures. I caught one of a small owl that was too far away for me to recognize what it was until I got back and enlarged the photo; pretty darn cool. I’ll post it here someday when I get the time to edit the picture down and make it presentable.
I watch a few episodes of “Kyle XY”.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 18- I did my stretches, ran two miles, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 64 and 94 degrees, winds out of the NW/SE at 7 to 12 MPH, humidity around 12 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 92. Northwest wind 5 to 15 mph becoming south. Winds could gust as high as 21 mph. Saturday Night: Clear, with a low around 62. West wind 17 to 20 mph decreasing to between 8 and 11 mph. Winds could gust as high as 26 mph.”
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter. I cleaned up the kitchen countertop and stove. I went for my evening walk.
I watch and completed season three of “Kyle XY” and found out that it was canceled and the last episode left many unanswered questions; I hate when the networks do that! Anyways I feel that it was one of the better shows that I have watched. The actors and story were a tightly put together and well played. It is sad that I will never know what happens to Kyle and Amanda; will they get back together? How about Josh and his girlfriend Andy who had to move away to Cleveland? At least I only had three weeks invested in the show on Hulu.com, where, if I had watched it as it was broadcasted would have been three years!
I then watched “Flight of the Intruder” (1991). I really think I’m over this Hulu thingy for a while and need to get back to my studies. It was just nice to play around with broadband for a spell to see what it could do and it took my mind off of things that were troubling me; dialup really sucked and I’m glad it’s gone!!!!
I did my stretches, lifted weights, and went for a night run. I practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 19- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 62 and 93 degrees, winds out of the NW/SW at 8 to 16 MPH, humidity around 11 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 95. Light wind becoming southwest between 15 and 18 mph. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph. Sunday Night: Clear, with a low around 62. West wind 17 to 20 mph decreasing to between 7 and 10 mph. Winds could gust as high as 28 mph.”
I watered my thirsty plants and then went inside and removed the 32Gig SSD hard drive from my HP Mini Note and replaced it with the old 8Gig that used to be in it. The sound has had a crackling noise and I wanted to see if it was Win 7 on the 32Gig. There was no crackling noise on the 8Gig so it is a software/driver problem with Win 7. While I had the 8Gig in there I loaded up Ubuntu 10.3 to see how it’d run. Everything worked except the wireless and HP Mini doesn’t have an RJ45 receptor, so I’m out of luck until I can download the driver on another system. This is a very difficult transfer between the 8Gig and the 32Gig and not as easy as the Dell Mini 9 where you just pop out one and replace it with another. On the HP you have to remove the keyboard among other things. I took back out the 8Gig with Ubuntu and replace the 32Gig with Win 7 on it. This kept me busy all day!
I called a few Family and Friends throughout the day.
A neighbor’s wife called needing me to tow her car that was just up the road from me. She said to come on over and pick up her husband who would help. He was drinking beer when I arrived. We got to her car; we hooked it up with chain to my truck. I was ready to start towing when her husband jumped into the passenger side of my truck and said he’d ride with me! I asked him who was going to steer his wife’s car and apply the brakes when needed. Oh Sh*T he said, jumped out and got behind the wheel of the other car. I thought that was kind of funny :)
I did my stretches. I practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 20- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 62 and 93 degrees, winds out of the NW/SW at 8 to 15 MPH, humidity around 10 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 93. Calm wind becoming south between 7 and 10 mph. Monday Night: Clear, with a low around 63. West southwest wind 14 to 17 mph decreasing to between 5 and 8 mph. Winds could gust as high as 24 mph.”
Ron Dehart came over to pay me a visit. We sat around jawing about this and that and other things of great importance. I showed him all the work I’ve been doing on the house especially the patio roof. It was nice to have someone come over to yap!
I called Family and Friends throughout the day.
I spent some time looking online for an E-reader. I looked at several including the Kindle, Sony, and many others. I think Barns and Nobel’s Nook is one of the best I’ve seen so far. I believe that the market for e-readers is going to get very hot in the coming months with new devices with more functions. My idea of an e-reader would be to use it online to get my email and surf webpages, read books of course, use E-ink, have an open architecture, be able to read different formats, listen to music, have 3G and Wifi, be able to use a SD drive, and it seems that the Nook comes very close to this if not all. I’m still going to wait to see what comes out in the following months; this is very exciting!
I watched a movie called “Farewell to the King” (1989) about an American soldier in WWII who escapes the Japanese Army on Borneo only to become lost in the jungle, captured by a tribe of headhunters, and becomes their king. Very interesting movie!!!!
I did my stretches. I practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 21- I did my stretches, ran two miles, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 63 and 91 degrees, winds out of the NW/SE at 3 to 15 MPH, humidity around 12 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 94. North northwest wind between 5 and 8 mph. Tuesday Night: Clear, with a low around 66. North northwest wind between 3 and 10 mph.”
I went over to Stoney’s to take a shower and do a load of laundry. I took an old college art book along with me called “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” (1979) by Betty Edwards. It was a supplemental book for my art class that I never read; I’m reading it now!
I went online and found that the Amazon Kindle 2 had just gone on sale for $189. My two choices were the Kindle or the Nook. The Nook went on sale too for $199, yikes! I wanted the Nook but found after a little research that you could only surf the web using Wifi and not the 3G (cell) connection. The Kindle 2 does it through 3G. I wanted to get my email anywhere I might be and from what I read the Kindle 2 can do this (very slowly) with JavaScript enabled in the browser. So I went with the Kindle 2 and I expect it to be delivered this Wednesday.
I went for my evening walk taking more pictures.
I started reading another Jack Higgins book called “A Game for Heroes” (1970).
I did my stretches. I practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 22- I did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 66 and 95 degrees, light breeze, humidity around 11 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 99. Northwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming east. Wednesday Night: Clear, with a low around 68. South southwest wind 5 to 15 mph becoming west northwest. Winds could gust as high as 21 mph.”
I mostly kicked back today doing a few chores around the house, messed with computer, and read a few chapters of “A Game for Heroes” by Jack Higgins.
I wrote my column for the Hi Desert Star Newspaper and sent it in.
I did my stretches. I practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 23- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 68 and 101 degrees, light breeze, humidity around 9 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 98. Light wind becoming south southwest between 11 and 14 mph. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph. Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 68. West wind 14 to 17 mph decreasing to between 5 and 8 mph. Winds could gust as high as 24 mph.”
I had to wait around the house for UPS to deliver my Kindle 2 E-reader. It finally arrived around 2pm and I started reading the manual. I wanted to see if I could go online with it to get my email. After fiddling around trying to get my password entered correctly with the small keyboard, I logged into my Gmail account and read and sent emails. It is slow; about as slow as dialup, but useable in a pinch. I then went to my CopperMountainMesa.com Website and it loaded correctly and the pictures on the site were viewable. On both the email and website the navigation was somewhat awkward but I believe that’s because I’m not used to the keyboard; in time I’ll have that down. I went to the Kindle site at Amazon to find free books. The Kindle was already setup with my Amazon account and I didn’t have to do anything. I found that it was difficult to find the section for free books and I ended up going online with my computer to get the titles I wanted, and then enter them into the Kindle books search on the Amazon Kindle site. I downloaded three free Star Wars ebooks in minutes and without any hassles. Tomorrow I’ll start reading an ebook. All in all I found that the Kindle 2 is all that I expected; and getting my email and the web, even being slow as it is, was a big plus!
I canceled my cell phone account with Sprint and will use Skype for now on to make long distance calls to landline phones and cell phones. At $30 a year for Skype vs. $32 a month for Sprint I’ll save big bucks. I still have a pay as you go cell phone from T-Mobile for emergencies.
Joel Levy came by and dropped off a delicious dinner of chili-mac and a meatloaf sandwich, Yumm!
I walked down to Ginger’s to see Dakota her son who is staying there for a few days. We walked back to my house where we sat and yapped for a spell. Ginger had called and left a message, I called her back using Skype on the Dell Mini 9 running Ubuntu. She came over with the rest of her family and we hung around outside for a few hours. It was kind of nice having her kids and dogs running around my place!
I watched "Star Trek: First Contact" (1996) on Hulu.com. It's one of my favorite Star Trek movies!
I did my stretches. I practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 24- I did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 68 and 100 degrees, light breeze, humidity around 8 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Sunny, with a high near 97. Northwest wind 7 to 15 mph becoming south southwest. Winds could gust as high as 21 mph. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 68. Breezy, with a west southwest wind 19 to 22 mph decreasing to between 8 and 11 mph. Winds could gust as high as 31 mph.”
Ginger’s daughter Lala and friend Julie came by to use my Wifi internet connection. I cleaned off the table outside and setup two netbooks for them to use. After a while we went down to their house where Ginger and her boyfriend Steven were working on the cabin. I took some pictures of the two girls feeding Princess.
I got back home to read a chapter of “Star Trek: Lost Tribe of the Sith #1; Precipice” on the Kindle and fell asleep for an hour or so; I must have been tired. I woke up hearing a noise outside and went to check. It was Ginger’s dog’s Fredrick and another one I can’t remember her name, who ran away about four days ago. I quickly shut the gate cutting off their escape. The female jumped over the fence and split but I called to Fredrick tempting him with a sausage patty. I got close enough to feed him a few pieces but I wasn’t quick enough to grab his collar; he jumped over the fence and was on his way after the female. I called Ginger, and she and the girls drove around and finally found them and brought the dogs back home.
I went for my evening walk.
I watched an episode of “Warehouse 13”.
I read a few chapters of “A Game for Heroes” by Jack Higgins.
I did my stretches. I practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Here’s a song I wrote back in the early 70s called “Don’t Tell Me” that I recorded recently. Only about five folks have ever heard it played, I thought it was time to share. The song is all electric with a lot of distortion (the way I like it when I play my Fender Strat). There are words but I didn’t have a mic when I recorded it. It’s a protest song and the playing is intense. Hopefully someday I can find someone willing to let me play on a big Marshall Amp
Best played loud!

Friday 25- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 68 and 98 degrees, winds out of the NW/W at 8 17 MPH, humidity around 11 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday...Mostly sunny. Highs around 89 in yucca valley...around 99 in twentynine palms. West wind around 10 mph. Saturday Night...Clear. Lows 63 to 69 in yucca valley...around 73 in twentynine palms. Southwest wind less than 10 mph shifting to the west after midnight.”
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
I uploaded my song “Don’t Tell Me” and posted it to my blogs. It’s something I made up during the early seventies on an electric guitar and recently recorded. It won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but I don’t care, I just thought I’d share it.
I watered my poor sun parched plants while I cleaned and tried to get my trusty scooter fired up after a year of non-use. The darn thing wouldn’t start, dang! I’ll try again tomorrow.
I went to my neighbor’s to feed their dogs while they’re away for a few days. I took them for a long walk and they were mighty happy about that.
I watched two episodes of “Warehouse 13”.
I did my stretches. I practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 26- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 73 and 97 degrees, winds out of the NW at 6 to 14 MPH, humidity around 17 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday Night: Clear, with a low around 73. East southeast wind 8 to 11 mph becoming west southwest. Monday: Sunny, with a high near 102. West wind 6 to 10 mph becoming southeast.”
First thing I did when I got up, even before breakfast, was go to give my neighbor’s dogs a walk. They been cooped up in the house all night since I last gave them a walk and they had to go pee pretty bad. I then fed the goats and mule.
I called up a few family and friends throughout the day.
Just before I headed down to potluck I took the dogs for another walk and watered my friend’s plants.
Got to potluck at 4pm where there were about ten folks that showed up. I always say, when attendance is small, it’s not the quantity but quality of the folks who come and share. Chris Jonas made his famous macaroni salad, Marie Morrison brought a fantastic blueberry cobbler and buttered bread slices, Ruth came with mixed nuts, Tim Atzei cooked up some spaghetti, and I brought turkey stuffing. Tim had some bad news; his sister Susan Bonani had passed away last September. Susan used to come to our potlucks a year or two ago before moving out of the area. We will miss her and it is very sad news in deed.
I got back home for only an hour and then it was time to walk the dogs and feed the goats and the mule. With that done I went back how to do some webwork until late into the night.
I did my stretches. I practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 27- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 73 and 103 degrees, light breeze, humidity around 19 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 103. Calm wind becoming southeast between 11 and 14 mph. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph. Monday Night: Clear, with a low around 72. Southwest wind between 8 and 13 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph.”
Sherry called and left a message that she had a lemon cake to deliver for me from the Bonners but my gate was locked so she left it over in Stoney’s refrigerator. I called her back to say thanks and we chatted for a spell.
I went over to Stoney’s to get the cake but it was so large I just had a big slice and left it there for later on; I love lemon cake!
I watered the plants while I worked on my trusty scooter and finally got it to start. I don’t think I’ll trust my trusty scooter until I can do some more work to it. It’s dang hot outside!
I called some family and friends.
I finished the ebook “Star Trek: Lost Tribe of the Sith #1; Precipice” on the Kindle.
I read a chapter of “A Game for Heroes” by Jack Higgins.
I watched a movie called “Daybreakers” (2009) about a world of vampires running out of blood; it was okay for a vampire movie.
I did my stretches. I practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 28- I did my stretches and ran two miles; it was 101 degrees when I started my run at 11:30am.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 72 and over 110 degrees I think; at least that's what my outside thermometer read, nice breeze, humidity around 12 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 101. Calm wind becoming south between 15 and 18 mph. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph. Tuesday Night: Clear, with a low around 73. South wind 8 to 16 mph becoming west. Winds could gust as high as 23 mph.”
I had to spend the day filling out some paperwork and stuff like that so I can mail them out tomorrow.
I called Kevin up testing out Google Voice; it worked pretty dang well!
Jimmy called to yak for a spell.
I called the Bonners to say thank you for the lemon cake they bought me. I told Bill that I checked the outside temperature and it read over 110 degrees and thought it was broken. Bill said that it wasn’t broken and it was the same at his house.
I watched “2012” (2009) about the end of the world as we know it. The Earth interior is being heated by neutrinos from outburst of the Sun because of an alignment of the Sun and planets with the galactic center of our galaxy; so the movie says : ) I saw this in the theater with Ron Dehart when it was first released. Great movie if you suspend science for two hours.
I did my stretches. I practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 29- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 73 to 104 degrees, W/SE winds at 6 to 13 MPH, humidity around 12 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 103. Light wind becoming south between 13 and 16 mph. Winds could gust as high as 23 mph. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 73. South southwest wind 14 to 17 mph becoming west southwest 6 to 9 mph. Winds could gust as high as 24 mph.”
I borrowed my friend’s truck and headed to town to get some supplies that I’m running low on. I did all my shopping and got home only to find that I forgot to mail the letters I had worked on yesterday, dang! Well they’re nothing pressing and I’ll find a way to mail them in the next couple of days.
I went outside to clean the dust off of one of my fans; there was this red truck with its motor idling parked out front. The guy yelled asking me if I had any old batteries I wanted to sell. I got a whole bunch of them, I said. After helping him get all the batteries and a few other items into his truck he gave me $120. Not bad for just stepping outside to clean a fan!
I watched “Avatar” (2009) another movie I saw in the theater with Ron Dehart when it was first released. Such a Great movie!!!!!
I did my stretches and lifted weights, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 30- I did my stretches, ran two miles, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 73 to 105 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 10 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 102. Light wind becoming south between 12 and 15 mph. Winds could gust as high as 21 mph. Thursday Night: Clear, with a low around 72. South southwest wind 7 to 17 mph becoming west northwest. Winds could gust as high as 24 mph.”
I was pretty tired after my workout. I went online to take care of some business; I bought a 125Watt solar panel on EBay. Around about 1pm I fell asleep and dozed for an hour.
I went over to Stoney’s to check on things and run his truck a bit. I ate some of that lemon cake sitting in the refrigerator over there!
I got caught up on my astronomy reading in “365 Starry Nights”, and then read a few chapters of “A game for Heroes” by Jack Higgins.
It was time for me to head down to Joshua Tree Lake for a small concert put on by my friend’s Mat Villarreal and Amanda for Mat’s daughter Lauren’s thirteenth birthday surprise. The singer was Marian Call from Alaska who is touring all fifty states. Marian and her guitarist Scott played for several hours to a small crowd of local folks. Marian has such a lovely voice; able to hit about any key that would turn my face blue. “Music like no other- Clever folk funk for hungry minds” is what she has on her website. I think she is a cross between Alanis Morissette and Joni Mitchell along with a little jazz and comedy thrown in. She is a real crowd pleaser! Lauren, who is a big fan of Marian, got to get up on stage and sang a song with her, and she did very well under the circumstances. I had a great time there; it was kind of magical!
I did my stretches. I practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Goodbye to June; you’ve been a very good month!

May 2010

Welcome to the Month of May! I did my stretches; again it’s dang windy outside!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 50 and 74 degrees, NW winds 18-22 MPH, humidity around 12 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 79. North northwest wind between 11 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph. Sunday Night: Clear, with a low around 51. North northwest wind between 18 and 21 mph becoming light. Winds could gust as high as 29 mph.”
Around about noon the wind died down enough for me to start working on the patio roof. I spent a few hours doing that and I would have gotten more of it done but I received several calls and had to stop work to take them. Of them a couple were hang-ups and I’d climb back up the ladder only to hear the phone ring again; this time it was an automatic call from the VA wanting me to confirm a doctor’s appointment for somebody else. I hung up, climbed up the ladder again and they called again. This time I took the phone inside the house to charge and went back outside to finish my work in peace.
I spent the rest of the evening calling friends and family. Then I read a few chapters of “Sheba” (1995) by Jack Higgins. Our heroes are made to work excavating the temple in search of Sheba’s treasure. Then they are put into a dry well to spend the night. They find a way out. They sneak around the bad guy’s camp and come upon Skiros’s tent and hear him say that he will kill them tomorrow and take the women by plane to a boat in Dahrein and set sail for Egypt. Our heroes find the women’s tent and tell them to wait until they get some weapons to make their escape. Unfortunately the plane arrives while they are getting the weapons and have to race to get to the plane before Skiros and the women do. Our heroes jump into a truck, make it to the plane and shoot at it. It explodes. But now all the assassins are after them and Skiros has the women. Our heroes make it back to the temple to attempt a rescue but are held up in a cave. The assassins throw hand grenades at the opening, sealing our heroes inside. As they are trying to find a way out they find a tunnel that leads to Sheba’s treasure! They make it out by an underground river and find that Skiros has already left with the women, dang! Our heroes take some camels from the assassins and head out after them.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 02- I did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights; still dang windy but I needed to run!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 51 and 72 degrees, NW winds 16-30 with gusts up to 40 MPH or more, humidity around 13 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 83. Northwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming east. Monday Night: Clear, with a low around 57. South southeast wind 6 to 10 mph becoming west.”
Ron Dehart came by with some digital pictures on his camera he wanted me to make into thumbnails so he could upload them to EBay. He also brought some chicken and rice that I had later for dinner, yum!
Still very windy but I went for my evening walk anyways and listened to Astro 10: General Astronomy: The Contents of the Universe.
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today" chapter review; “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” Eukaryotic RNA Polymerase and General Transcription Factors.
I finish reading “Sheba” (1995) by Jack Higgins. Our heroes are now crossing the desert on camels. They stop at night and hear voices not too far away. They climb over a sand dune and see one of the assassins dragging Ruth from a tent and the truck that they been driving with the hood up. Ruth’s husband, Cunningham, wants to go get her but Kane holds him back and they devise a plan. Cunningham pretends to fall down the dune begging for water. The assassins go after him but he draws a machine gun and kills them all. Ruth tells them that Marie is with Skiros in another truck headed to an Arab camp. The truck is kaput and a sand storm hits and they lose the camels and have to trek across the hot desert on foot. They almost make it to the camp but they run out of water. They are saved by an American oil driller who helps them out. Kane, Marie’s servant, and the American driller leave the Cunninghams in good hands to go and rescue Marie. They get to the camp and Marie is there and is back in Kane’s arms, but only for a little while because Skiros steals her away again and makes for Dahrein to set sail for Egypt. Our heroes go after him and catch him on the sailboat just as he was leaving. Kane swims to the boat, sneaks aboard, but is caught by Skiros at gunpoint. Skiros takes Kane to his cabin where Marie is let out of a locked compartment. Skiros is about to shoot Kane when Marie’s servant sneaks through the window and kills Skiros by breaking his back. They jump overboard just as the Skiros’s crew gets the ship under way. They swim back to shore. All is well! The End.
I watched “Underworld: Evolution” (2006) about the fight between vampires, werewolfs, and control of vampire clans. I usually don’t watch vampire movies but this one was very good!
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar (I’m writing a new song), wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 03- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 56 and 82 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 8 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 89. West wind at 10 mph becoming south. Tuesday Night: Clear, with a low around 61. West wind between 8 and 14 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.”
I went to Yucca Valley to see what I need to have done to get my truck certified for the road. I found that there cannot be any cracks on the lens of any of the lights, so I need to get new lens to replace the ones I glued the cracks back together. They need to go over my breaking system by taking the wheels off, so I’ll probably need to get the breaking system fixed. And I need to get a smog check. I didn’t feel too confident after I left the auto repair place. I went to Stater Bros to get some groceries and went back home.
I went for my evening walk and listened to Astro 10: General Astronomy: A Mulitiverse.
Kevin called to chat and we yakked for a long time about his vending business that he owns and runs in Tucson.
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today" started chapter on Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto; “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” General Transcription Factors and Initiation of Transcription by RNA Polymerase II. I read it but I don’t understand it that much!
I talked to Ginger on the phone for a spell as she drove back from Palm Springs. She’s trying to get a job up here and has an interview tomorrow in Twentynine Palms.
I started a new book by Michael Crichton called “Next” (2006). It seems to be about bioengineering, and the thing is that I can understand what he’s writing about because I’ve been reading that Molecular Biology book! Maybe I am getting something out of that textbook!!! This is a resent book so I wont be giving a blow by blow account of it.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar (the new song is coming along quite nicely), wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 04- I did my stretches, ran two miles, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 61 and 88 degrees, mostly calm winds, humidity around 12 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 87. West wind between 8 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 59. Breezy, with a west wind between 15 and 22 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph.”
I did some yard work and watered the plants. It’s was such a beautiful day that I spent a few hours outside just sitting and enjoying the sights and sounds of the desert in spring.
I went for my evening walk and listened to Astro 10: General Astronomy: Interstellar Travel.
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today" the discovery of Uranus and Neptune; “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” Transcription by RNA Polymerase I and II.
I read a few chapters of “Next” by Michael Crichton.
I 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 05- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 59 and 87 degrees, winds out of the NW at 9 to 21 MPH, humidity around 14 percent, mostly clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 84. Northwest wind between 10 and 18 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 58. Northwest wind between 5 and 13 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph.”
I went to town for my truck appointment to get my lights and breaks certified. I asked the mechanic if he would just check out the front lights before he did anything else because of the damage done there. He came out to where the Polluter was parked and did quick look at it and said that it wasn’t up to speck (one light was a little lower) and that it had to be original parts. Well to get the original parts on it would require a whole lot of body work, more than the truck is worth. The mechanic didn't charge me for the quick look and that was mighty nice of him! It also saved me a lot of money, too! So I will be looking for another truck and register the Polluter as an off road vehicle. Not a good day for the Gross Polluter. When I drove home she seemed to have a little more spunk; kinda like saying to me: I ain’t done yet! I’ll use the Polluter around the dirt roads out here where I live; no she ain’t done yet!
I felt pretty down when I got home and didn’t feel like doing much of anything, so I secluded myself inside the house and just read “Next” by Michael Crichton for the rest of the evening and late into the night.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 06- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 58 and 80 degrees, winds out of the NW at 6 to 15 MPH, humidity around 16 percent, mostly clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Sunny, with a high near 86. North northwest wind between 6 and 9 mph. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 59. South southwest wind 5 to 11 mph becoming west northwest.”
I did housecleaning all dang day long! I swept and mopped all the floors. I put stuff away. That’s it! That’s all I did all dang day! I will do some more cleaning tomorrow, but right now I’m tired!!!
I went for my evening walk and listened to the last lecture in the series of Astro 10: General Astronomy: Einstein's Biggest Blunder? Professor Alex Filippenko is a very excellent lecturer and has a way of making difficult concepts understandable.
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today" the Physical Properties of Uranus and Neptune; “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” Regulation of Transcription in Eukaryotes.
I read and finished “Next” by Michael Crichton. What a fantastic book!!!
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 07- I did my stretches, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 59 and 84 degrees, gentle winds, humidity around 8 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 87. West northwest wind between 6 and 11 mph. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 56. West wind between 14 and 17 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph.”
I went over to my vacationing friend’s house to make sure everything was okay. When I was backing out I hit a pointed rock and it punctured the sidewall of my left rear tire. I spent ten minutes replacing it with the spare.
I did some more house cleaning and I thought I’d be stuck doing that all day when I got a call from Karin asking if she could bring over her laptop for me to fix because it doesn’t run that good. Her laptop took forever to boot up and I had to wait as Norton anti-virus did whatever it does. First thing I did was removed Norton and then installed Avast anti-virus; things were much improved. Got online and Karin said that it was running much faster than it had before. While I was on her laptop I went to the Copper Mountain Mesa website to see how it loads. Oh no, it didn’t render very well. I use Firefox all the time and I was looking at my website on Internet Explorer for the first time in a long time and you have to scroll across horizontally to read anything, dang! You are supposed to check your website on different browsers to see if it renders correctly. Last time I did it was on IE7 and all was well; I didn’t change anything on the website so I figured it was okay, big mistake! So after I went on my evening walk I spent much of the evening trying to figure out what was wrong and rewriting HTML until it rendered correctly; I finished around 9pm. So now folks can go to the website, not get eyestrain, and it won’t look like a piece of crap on Internet Explorer! Those on Firefox won’t notice the difference.
I started reading a new Jack Higgins book called “A Season in Hell”. I don’t think I’ll write a blow by blow on the books I read anymore. It takes a lot of my time, nobody really commented on them anyways, and it made my journal too large for anyone who just wanted a quick read.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 08- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 56 and 88 degrees, winds NW at 10 18 MPH, humidity around 11 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 80. Windy, with a west wind 6 to 9 mph increasing to between 28 and 31 mph. Winds could gust as high as 47 mph. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 49. Windy, with a west wind 27 to 30 mph decreasing to between 16 and 19 mph. Winds could gust as high as 45 mph.”
A woman came to my door. Her name was Wilda from Calgary Alberta Canada. She had bought property near me a few years ago on EBay and was asking about our area. I showed her around my place while yakking about our beautiful desert.
The service installer from MojaveWifi.com arrived around 2:30pm and spent the next couple of hours setting up my broadband connection. He did a fine job of it; climbing up ladders, drilling holes, stringing cables, and setting up my system in the house. MojaveWifi.com is a new company run by my friends and neighbors Mike and Stevie Villarreal who’ve been distinguished members of the Copper Mountain Mesa community for more than 40 years. Their business offers Dial-up, DSL, and Wireless Internet services throughout most of the Basin, covering Morongo Valley, Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree, Twenty-nine Palms, Landers, and even Wonder Valley is coming online soon. They want to make their customers exceedingly happy. In fact, it's part of their motto: "We Strive to Exceed Expectations!" Some of the benefits you'll see with Mojavewifi.com include: There are no term-lengths or contracts for service. They won't bind you in for a year or two, and so there won't be any of those awful Early Termination Fees, either. Also, they don't put "caps" on your service like some other ISP's do. (760) 362-1373 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (760) 362-1373 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Be nice to see a local business succeed! (I thought I’d give them a little advertising here for their new business)
Once the service installer had gone I was left to my own devices and promptly went to Hulu.com and watched one episode of “Fringe” and two Episodes of “Firefly”; tomorrow I’ll try Skype.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 09- I did my stretches. Lots of wind outside!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 56 and 88 degrees, winds W at 14 to 33with guests up to 50 MPH, humidity around 14 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 75. Breezy, with a west northwest wind between 16 and 22 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 51. Breezy, with a west wind between 15 and 23 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph.”
Dang windy outside! I stayed in the house playing with the Wifi broadband on my computers. I was finally able to update my MacBook which had a 1.7Gig update and would have taken me weeks or months on dialup to download, but on the broadband did it in about two hours. I got Skype going and called about everybody I knew so I could test it. I have all these computers and stuff which runs off of Wifi that’s been sitting around for years collecting dust; it was like that movie “Independence Day” where that captured flying saucer that was in Area 51 started to come alive when the aliens came to Earth. Well that’s what happened to my computers. Oh what fun I’m having. I spent all day testing this and that see what it could do. I am a very happy camper!!!
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 10- I did my stretches. Another windy day and it looks like the next two day will be the same.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 51 and 77 degrees, winds NW at 14 to 24 with guests up to 35 MPH, humidity around 17 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 72. Breezy, with a northwest wind between 20 and 28 mph, with gusts as high as 39 mph. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 50. Breezy, with a northwest wind 21 to 24 mph decreasing to between 8 and 11 mph. Winds could gust as high as 33 mph.”
Karen and Dana Van Noort came by for a visit and to have me show her how to use her new external hard drive she got for Mother’s Day. While they were here I showed them my new Wifi broadband and connected it to her laptop; they seemed to be impressed.
I went to the Copper Mountain Mesa Board Meeting. I almost missed going because I had fallen asleep but heard Chris Jonas honk when he drove by my house. Treasurer Maryhelen Tuttle reported that there were 51 adults and 7 children showing up to our first Saturday breakfast bringing in $262. The soda machine netted $146.54! Bingo brought in $322.00 for the month. The Thrift Room brought in another $82. We had a discussion about drawing in more folks to volunteer and help out with the breakfast and bingo. We depend on only a few individuals that do all the work and they need help. Bingo will be shut down on June 1 because the volunteers that run it have to be away that day. I called Chris at home to tell him that I will call bingo if he could find anyone to help with the cash register. Also if we don’t get more people to help we may have to abandon the USDA Food Distribution that helps many needy folks in our area; 105 folks last April! It is very important that folks know that our little community center is one of the few centers left that is not run by the county but by volunteers from our community and that if we don’t do something soon there may not be a center left to come to.
I read a few chapters in “A Season in Hell” by Jack Higgins until it got late.
I did my stretches and lifted weights, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 11- I did my stretches; another wild and windy day!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 49 and 65 degrees, winds NW at 28 to 30 with guests up to 45 MPH, humidity around 19 percent, clear skies with a few clouds on the horizon.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 77. North northwest wind between 7 and 17 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 55. West wind between 8 and 11 mph becoming calm.”
I stayed inside because of the high winds and loaded a Linux OS on my Asus EEE 701 netbook but it didn’t have sound and I didn’t like how it ran so I installed the original Linux on it, did all the updates, and it ran perfectly.
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today" the Atmospheric Composition of Uranus and Neptune; “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” Transcription Regulatory Proteins.
Joel Levy came by for a short visit and brought me a steak dinner, yumm!
I read a few more chapters in “A Season in Hell” by Jack Higgins until Roger Toombs came by with his computer to see how my new Wifi Broadband works; he liked it very much.
I watched “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” (1964). I never saw it before and I thought it was time that I did. A very excellent movie!!!!!
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 12- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 53 and 77 degrees, winds NW at 13 to 20 MPH, humidity around 25 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 80. North northeast wind between 3 and 10 mph. Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 57. East southeast wind between 5 and 8 mph becoming calm.”
I went to checkup on a friend’s house and stopped over to Roger Smith’s to see what he was up to. He had a visitor; his name was Berry out here from Oregon celebrating his Mom’s birthday. I stayed to yak with them for a spell. Roger may have a vehicle I may purchase and maybe not. We’re going to look into that. I told him about the new Wifi Broadband that we have out here and he seems very excited about that; dialup is killing him!
I got back home and did some chores and then read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today" the Weather of Uranus and Neptune; “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” Structures and Function of Transcriptional Activators.
I spent the rest of the night mindlessly surfing the web. Now I can do it 1000 times faster!
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 13- I did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 58 and 78 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 15 percent, clear skies becoming overcast later in the day.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday...Mostly sunny. Highs around 81 in yucca valley to around 86 in twentynine palms. Northwest wind around 10 mph. Friday Night...Mostly clear. Lows 51 to 59 in yucca valley to around 60 in twentynine palms. Northwest wind 10 to 15 mph.”
I wrote my column for the newspaper and sent it in.
I went to town to WalMart to get a new tire for the one that hit a sharp rock that ripped the sidewall out a few days ago. While I was waiting for the tire to be replaced I bought cards for Mother’s Day (a little late) and sent them on their way. I also did some shopping at Staters.
I got back home and read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today" the Magnetosphere of Uranus and Neptune; “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” Eukaryotic Repressors. Now I don’t claim to understand all this Molecular stuff and I almost quit reading it yesterday, but it is helping me to pronounce difficult words. So I’ll keep reading the dang thing aloud. (The astronomy stuff I understand very well)
I watched “Star Trek: Generations (1994)” on Hulu.com. It wasn’t as good as the first time I saw it. The plot wasn’t all that great, but still it’s Star Trek!
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 14- I did my stretches, ran a mile, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 60 and 85 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 14 percent, clear skies becoming overcast in the evening.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 86. West southwest wind at 9 mph becoming north. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 60. West southwest wind between 10 and 13 mph becoming calm.”
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa website and sent out the Newsletter.
Then I went outside and did some construction on my patio roof while I watered all the plants. I found that the doves have made two new nests and there are eggs in them!
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today" the Moons of Uranus and Neptune; “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” Relationship of Chromatin Structure to Transcription.
I went for my evening walk and took the camera along; I got some nice pics.
I read and finished “A Season in Hell” by Jack Higgins. It was a very adventurous mystery with lots of twists and turns and a surprising ending.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 15- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 60 and 92 degrees, calm winds, humidity around 13 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 88. Calm wind becoming southeast between 10 and 13 mph. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 60. South wind 5 to 14 mph becoming west. Winds could gust as high as 18 mph.”
I called family and friends throughout the day. I also hammered more nails into the patio roof. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll start sealing the roof with Henry’s roofing compound and paint it with Snow Coat. All this should keep my cabin cooler by a few degrees this summer.
I went for my evening walk and listened to two Astronomy Cast lectures: Ep. 176: Mysteries of the Milky Way, Part 1, and Ep. 177: Mysteries of the Milky Way, Part 2.
I played around on the computer for a spell and then I started reading a new book Jack Higgins called “Midnight Runner”.
I did my stretches lifted weights, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 16- I did my stretches, ran two miles, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 60 and 93 degrees, winds SE 4 to 16 MPH, humidity around 11 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday...Partly sunny. Highs 71 to 73 in yucca valley to around 82 in twentynine palms. Light wind becoming south 10 to 15 mph in the afternoon. Monday Night...Mostly cloudy. Cooler. Lows 46 to 50 in yucca valley to around 55 in twentynine palms. West wind 10 to 15 mph with gusts to around 30 mph.”
I worked on the patio roof sealing it with Henry’s roof patch. Boy it was hot up there! Good thing I’m doing it now instead of the summer when it really gets hot.
I went back inside the house and did my Wikipedia thing where I go from one subject to another; I could spend all day doing this!
Dropped on over to Stoney’s to check out the place and everything looked okay. I took a shower while I was there and feel clean again.
I called Sherry up and told her about Stoney’s memorial on the 29th and she said she has to work but will drop by on her break.
I read this neat story in the news about a 16 year old Australian girl, Jessica Watson, who sailed around the world! She just got back a few days ago after spending seven months out at sea. This makes her the youngest person to sail around the world unassisted! Wow!
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today" the Rings of Uranus and Neptune; “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” Regulation of Transcription by Noncoding RNAs.
I went for my evening walk and listened to Astronomy Cast lecture: Ep. 178: Mysteries of the Universe, Part 1.
I read a few chapters of “Midnight Runner” by Jack Higgins.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 17- I did my stretches, ran two miles, rode my bike, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 55 and 78 degrees, winds WS at 6 to 18 MPH, humidity around 24 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 76. West northwest wind between 15 and 17 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 56. West northwest wind between 10 and 17 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph.”
I went back up onto the roof to paint some Snow-Coat on the patio to keep it cool. The first pic is the bare plywood with Henry’s roof sealant I put on yesterday, and the next pic is when I finished with the first coat of Snow-Coat. While I was painting Ron Dehart call and we yapped for forty-five minutes. Then I went back up and continued painting. Everything went well and I was down off the roof in about an hour or so.
Joan call having a little problem on her computer and I told her to just bring it on by and I’d take care of it; which I did.
I’ve been spending some time looking at sailboats for sale online and dreaming. Maybe I should buy one- they are pretty inexpensive right now- and just use it for the summer. I just don’t know what I want to do yet.
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today" the Discovery of Pluto; “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” RNA Processing and Turnover.
I went for my evening walk and listened to Astronomy Cast lecture: Ep. 178: Mysteries of the Universe, Part 2.
I watched two episodes of “Fringe” on Hulu.com.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 18- I did my stretches. Pretty windy outside!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 56 and 78 degrees, winds NW 16 to 28 MPH, humidity around 27 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 89. North northwest wind between 6 and 11 mph. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 62. West northwest wind between 9 and 13 mph.”
Since it was windy outside I decided to write my column for the newspaper and send it in. I really didn’t do much of anything else during the day. Joan called with another computer problem but it escapes me right now of what it was.
Around 5pm Ginger called asking for my help with her new UHF antenna that she got from Radio Shack (she told me they are going out of business and are selling stuff at half price). I drove on over and I couldn’t get the dang thing working. We tried it on another TV set she had and worked just fine after tweaking it a bunch. She gave me a dish of ice cream with chocolate syrup on top. I sat on the couch eating it while she showed me pictures of her family. We went outside to see Princess her horse and I fed her a carrot; she looks well! I got home well after sun down.
I watched an episode of “Fringe” on Hulu.com.
I read a few chapters of “Midnight Runner” by Jack Higgins.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 19- I did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 62 and 90 degrees, winds NW 10 to 16 MPH, humidity around 19 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 93. West northwest wind between 7 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 64. West wind around 11 mph.”
Leah from the Census Bureau came by to double check on the form filled out a week ago by the visit to my home of another Census person. She read to me all the questions and they all agreed except for one: I told the first Census person at the time that I refuse to answer what race I was because I believe that it’s none of the government’s business. Well he checked the box for my race anyways after I specifically told him not to. I told this to her and I told her I was upset and that I wanted to call a supervisor. I called the Census Bureau in Yucaipa and told them about the situation. I also stated that to be a color blind society that our government should set the example and not ask that question of anyone anymore. He told me that it was for other government bureaus. I asked him what they would need race for. I believe that it is sufficient that they know that there are poor or rich people in a neighborhood and not what race they are, and act accordingly. I am a firm believer in that if you are an American you have all the rights that other Americans have and that you are not a Mexican American, European American, African American, or any other; you are an American, period! You can be proud of your heritage but when it comes right down to it you are an American and that’s all the government needs to know. Well the Census supervisor called me a couple of more times trying to sort things out and will notify me in a few days of what was done to correct this problem. He also said that the first Census interviewer should have left that question about race blank.
I drove down to Home Depot to get some more wood and fittings for my patio.
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today"; Physical Properties of Pluto “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” Processing of Ribosomal and Transfer RNAs.
I went on my evening walk listening to the Astronomy Cast lecture: Ep. 180: Albedo.
I spent the rest of the evening mindlessly surfing the web.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 20- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 64 and 92 degrees, winds NW 8 to 21 MPH, humidity around 16 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Sunny, with a high near 88. West northwest wind 8 to 11 mph increasing to between 18 and 21 mph. Winds could gust as high as 31 mph. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 59. Breezy, with a west northwest wind between 21 and 24 mph, with gusts as high as 34 mph.”
It was another windy day so spent the day cleaning, working on computers, and installed a bathroom medicine cabinet.
In the evening I went over to Ron Dehart’s to sit and chat with him for a spell. He is going to get hooked up to broadband tomorrow!
I got back home and finished working on this Toshiba Portege M200 Tablet. I need to get a new keyboard for it and maybe more RAM, otherwise it’s good to go!
I watched “Starship Troopers” (1997). I remember seeing it when it first came out at the theaters but it doesn’t seem all that long ago to me.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 21- I did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 59 and 91 degrees, winds NW 13 to 26 MPH, humidity around 9 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday...Mostly sunny. Windy. Highs 71 to 73 in yucca valley to around 79 in twentynine palms. West wind 20 to 30 mph. Gusts up to 40 mph in the morning. Saturday Night...Mostly clear. Windy. Lows 45 to 47 in yucca valley to around 52 in Twentynine Palms. West wind 20 to 30 mph.”
I drove to Twentynine Palms to fill up the Gross Polluter with gas, fill two 5 gallon propane tanks at Bar Lumber, and pick up some supplies at Stater Bros. I have to get as much done before the temporary permit on the truck runs out on the 31 of this month and I won’t have any transportation except Stoney’s SUV; which I feel uncomfortable driving. It’s not that I dislike the car- it’s because me and him went to so many places together in it. Oh well life must go on.
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today" The Origin of Pluto; “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” Processing of mRNA in Eukaryotes.
I went on my evening walk listening to the Astronomy Cast lecture: Ep. 181: Rotation- Figuring out the difference between centripetal and centrifugal force. I’ll have to listen to that one again!
I did some more tweaks on the Toshiba Portege M200 tablet and installed MS Works 9 and all its updates.
Ron Dehart called to tell me that he loves his new broadband. We talked about a bunch of other stuff for well over an hour- mostly history of World War two.
I read a few chapters of “Midnight Runner” by Jack Higgins.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 22- I did my stretches. It’s really gusting this morning!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 51 and 76 degrees, winds NW 21 to 27 MPH, humidity around 13 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 62. Breezy, with a west wind between 13 and 22 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 45. Breezy, with a northwest wind between 15 and 22 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph.”
I did as much yard work as I could with all the wind blowing. I did manage to water the plants. I called up friends and family throughout the day. I also worked on my computers doing updates to the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sending out the Newsletter.
Way too windy to go on my evening walk.
I did some webwork for the rest of the evening- lots to do!
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 23- I did my stretches. I was going to go for a two mile run today but it was cold and rainy outside; weird weather!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 38 and 55 degrees, winds NW 17 to 30 MPH, humidity around 27 percent, cloudy with rain here and there.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 73. Northwest wind 5 to 11 mph becoming south southwest. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 51. West wind between 8 and 10 mph.”
Dang cold outside! I don’t remember it being this cold this late into spring. I called a few friends and yakked at them for a spell. Then I downloaded and tried to install Free BSD on one of my old laptops; unfortunately after finally figuring out how to install the dang OS the laptop didn’t have enough disk space and I had to abandon that project. But it kept me from being bored.
I didn’t go for an evening walk because of the wind but I did roam around my property checking on the two dove’s nests to see how they’re doing. Each of them has two eggs and they should all be hatching pretty soon.
I read a few chapters of “Midnight Runner” by Jack Higgins.
I watched episode1 of “Firefly” on the computer.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 24- I did my stretches, ran two miles, and lifted weights. Finally a nice day to do such!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 38 and 52 degrees, winds NW-SW 3 to 13 MPH, humidity around 15 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 80. North northwest wind between 3 and 8 mph. Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 56. West southwest wind 14 to 17 mph decreasing to between 6 and 9 mph. Winds could gust as high as 23 mph.”
Seimi came by to ask me about wireless broadband. He wanted to know if Skype would run on it. I said it would and demonstrated it to him by calling Ron Dehart.
I went to Yucca Valley and stopped off at WalMart to pick up supplies. On the way back I got some more lumber at Home Depot.
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today" Chapter 13 Review; “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” Splicing Mechanisms.
I went on my evening walk listening to the Astronomy Cast lecture: Ep. 182: Astrometry.
I read and finished “Midnight Runner” by Jack Higgins: good book!
I watched episode of “Fringe: Over There Part 2” on the computer.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 25- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 56 and 77 degrees, winds NW-SW 3 to 9 MPH, humidity around 21 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 83. West northwest wind 6 to 9 mph becoming south southwest between 15 and 18 mph. Winds could gust as high as 28 mph. Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 56. Breezy, with a west southwest wind 22 to 25 mph decreasing to between 11 and 14 mph. Winds could gust as high as 38 mph.”
What a beautiful day! I spent a little time outside just smelling the flowers and listening to the critters buzzing around in the air. There were lots of weird looking crawling bugs, too!
I wrote my column for the newspaper and sent it in. I think it’s one of my better ones.
I played around with my Dell Mini 9 taking the 32Gig SSD drive out and replacing it with a 4Gig one that has Ubuntu installed on it. I haven’t done any updates on it for 309 days it said, so I started the process of updating: 300Meg on the first round of updates and 418Meg on the second! It appears to be replacing the whole dang OS!
I read aloud from the textbooks: “Astronomy Today" Began Chapter 14 Solar System Debris; “The Cell: a Molecular Approach” Alternative Splicing.
I went on my evening walk listening to the Astronomy Cast lecture: Ep. 183: History of Astronomy, Part 1: The Ancient Astronomers.
I started reading “The President’s Daughter” by Jack Higgins; I bought a bunch of Higgins’ books at the library for fifty cents each!
I did my stretches and lifted weights, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 26- I did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights..
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 54 and 81 degrees, winds NW-SW 8 to 19 with gusts up to 40 MPH, humidity around 16 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 79. West wind 5 to 8 mph becoming south southwest between 18 and 21 mph. Winds could gust as high as 29 mph.
Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 52. Breezy, with a west southwest wind between 14 and 24 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph.”
It was just another beautiful day but a little breezy. The wind pick up around 3pm and I didn’t go for my evening walk.
I downloaded the newest addition of Ubuntu but it wouldn’t fit on the 4Gig SSD drive of my Dell Mini 9 and gave me errors, dang!
I drove to town again to Stater Bros. to pick up some more supplies that I’ll need when I can’t drive the Gross Polluter because my temp registration expires at the end of May.
I did webwork the rest of the day until it got late. I’m really tired because someone called and woke me up at the ungodly hour of 7am and I couldn’t get back to sleep. So I’m going to bed early tonight.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 27- I did my stretches, dang windy this morning.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 52 and 81 degrees, winds W/SW 8 to 23 with gusts up to 39 MPH, humidity around 23 percent, clear skies in the morning but overcast later in the day.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Sunny, with a high near 78. West northwest wind between 11 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 53. West northwest wind between 11 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph.”
Well the wind was really blowing this morning but that’s alright because I have stuff to do around the house.
I took the 4Gig SSD drive out of my Dell Mini 9 and put in a 32Gig SSD drive that had Windows 7 I wasn’t using and installed Ubuntu 10.04 on it. After messing around installing drivers for the wireless and got that going I was up and running. Actually it seems like a nice OS so far now that it has enough disk space. I installed Adobe Flash and was able to watch Youtube.com and Hulu.com on it.
Ginger dropped by with a book for me called “Star Trek: Prime Directive” (1990) by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. I’ll read that when I get done with the Jack Higgins book I’m currently reading.
I watched a couple of episodes of “Warehouse 13” to see what it was about. It wasn’t too bad. It’s about two Secret Service agents that look for lost artifacts that have special powers and store them in a government warehouse hidden in South Dakota for safe keeping.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 28- I did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights. Still dang windy but I ran anyways.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 52 and 76 degrees, winds W/NW 9 to 14 with gusts up to 25 MPH, humidity around 20 percent, mostly clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 85. North northwest wind between 13 and 18 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 58. North wind around 9 mph.”
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
I drove the Gross Polluter for the last time on the paved roads to fill her up with gas and also to fill a couple of five gallon containers with the same stuff. Stopped by Barr Lumber to get wood shelving which was priced better than Home Depot! I checked on my friend’s home on my way back.
Got back home and gave the plants a good hosing down. One of the dove’s eggs has hatched and I took a picture of the baby, cool!
I watched another episode of “Warehouse 13” and another one of “Firefly” called Train Job.
I found that Gary Coleman had died in Utah and I thought that was mighty sad! I did a search to see what Dana Plato about had to say Gary’s death and found she had overdosed and died in 1999, yikes, so young and I’m so sad again!
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 29- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 58 and 81 degrees, winds NW 7 to 14, humidity around 12 percent, clear all day long.
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 89. North northwest wind between 5 and 10 mph. Sunday Night: Clear, with a low around 62. East southeast wind at 10 mph becoming west northwest.”
Brain and Naomi came by with their two daughters to chat for a spell.
Jimmy called saying that he and his Family arrived at Stoney’s, so I beat feet over there to say howdy. Jimmy, Clarice, and Angela were out back at their rental property cleaning up after the last renter who left the house in quite a mess. I started to help when Pat Smith called to say that Lee Pearcey got lost on his way to Stoney’s Memorial and needs someone to drive to Twentynine Palms and show him the way to Stoney’s. So I drove there in the Gross Polluter and guided him the rest of the way.
We all got to the Community Center around 3:30pm for Stoney’s Memorial and folks started drifting in. We didn’t start until Pat Smith and his family arrived at 4:30 because they got detained on the way by the beauty of the Joshua Tree National Forest. Everyone was eager to start eating but I told them they’d have to wait until Jimmy (Stoney’s son) and I said a little something in remembrance of Stoney and his life. Jimmy read from a letter that his sister Judy wrote because she couldn’t be here for the memorial. He emotionally added to it with his own thoughts and thanked everyone for coming. It was my turn to talk and I got up and told some of Stoney’s stories he told me of his life beginning in his childhood working on kid’s bikes for five cents, his Army career in the Philippians in charge of the motor pool, owning his own auto repair shop near Hollywood, him and Jimmy working together on a water hauling business, moving out to the desert, Stoney’s involvement in our community, and to when Roger Smith, Sherry Rotruck, and I found him peacefully sitting on his favorite chair with his beloved westerns playing on the television and finding he had passed on. There were over forty friends and family who showed up to pay their respects and partake in the celebration of Stoney’s life. Lots of fine foods were on the table and everyone got their fill. I thank everyone for coming and the fantastic food they had brought!
Afterwards the family and I headed over to the Stoney’s to yak and tell stories. I didn’t leave until way after 9pm. It was a fine day, closure to a chapter in my life since I finally got to say what I was unable to say at Stoney’s funeral because of a very talkative preacher.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 30- I did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 60 and 91 degrees, calm, humidity around 7 percent, clear all day long.
According to the National Weather Service: “Memorial Day: Sunny, with a high near 93. North northwest wind at 9 mph becoming east southeast. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 62. West southwest wind between 18 and 21 mph becoming calm. Winds could gust as high as 29 mph.”
I promised Ron Dehart that I’d drop on over to figure out the problem he is having with his computer. I got him up and running in no time and was off to my next stop.
Over at Stoney’s I found the Stonebrakers working over at the rental again. Angela was ripping out a built in corner desk with a hammer; wood was flying all over the place and I thought that it wasn’t safe for me to be around. They invited me over for dinner at 4pm and I said I’d be there.
I went over to Frank and Mary’s for a visit and we sat around yakking while their Son’s kids drove motorbikes around the dirt course set up in their yard. Frank was barbecuing and had me eat a bratwurst that was mighty greasy but mighty good too!
I made my way back to Stoney’s for dinner at 4pm and we watched an Angels baseball game; Angels won!!! Dinner was served at 5pm when Sherry arrived. We had sloppyjoes, a salad, and watermelon! After yakking for a spell we took Jimmy’s new 9MM handgun outside and shot off a bunch of rounds at targets we setup. We didn’t do very well because the Sun was setting and in our eyes; that’s our excuse and we’re sticking to it! We went back inside when it got too dark to shoot and yakked some more.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Memorial Day- I did my stretches, ran two miles, and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 62 and 93 degrees, S/Se winds at 7 to 23 MPH with gusts up to 35, humidity around 11 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 88. Northwest wind 8 to 11 mph becoming southwest. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 62. Breezy, with a west wind 20 to 23 mph becoming west northwest 6 to 9 mph. Winds could gust as high as 32 mph.”
I mostly mellowed out today messing around with my computers. I’m just trying to rest up some after a hectic weekend. The winds started gusting later on in the day so I didn’t go for my evening walk and went back to the computers.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Goodbye yo the month of May!!!