February 2012

Welcome to the month of February! - Clear skies and a light breeze which built up to high winds later in the evening. The temps are still on the cool side.
I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, rode my bike, lifted weights, core trainer, punched at the heavy bag, rode my bike, and ran with weights.
I did my studies.
I went on my evening walk listening to Astro 7B, lecture 1 about: parallax.
I watched lesson 17 on the Berkeley biology course.
I watched a movie that I borrowed from a friend called “Cowboys and Aliens”, a mighty fine Sci-Fi!!!!

Thursday 02- The sky was a clear bright blue, but the temps didn’t get over 65 degrees.
I did my stretches, core trainer, and ran a mile.
I went on my evening walk listening to Astro 7B, lecture 2.
I watched lesson 18 on the Berkeley biology course.
I watched the movie “Apollo 18” (2011). It was really wasn’t that great except for the special effects made up for it; made you feel like they were really on the Moon.

Friday 03- I had to go into town to do some necessary errands and bought a car.
I did my studies.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the newsletter.

Saturday 04- I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, rode my bike, lifted weights, core trainer, punched at the heavy bag, rode my bike, and ran with weights.
I did my studies.

Sunday 05- The weather was sunny but a bit windy.
I did my stretches and just mellowed out all day; no Superbowl for me.

Monday 06- It appeared to be a nice day, what I seen of it from the inside of a car or store.
I woke up very early to do my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, rode my bike, lifted weights, core trainer, and punched at the heavy bag.
I did my studies.
I left the house at 9:30am to spend the rest of the day taking Kelly to her doctor's and shopping. We got back really late. I'm not a shopper- I just go in and get what I want/need. Women can spend long hours picking through this, sorting through that while shopping. I am glad the day is over! Tomorrow, maybe, I'll go pick up my car if it's ready. Otherwise it'll be Wednesday.


Tuesday 07- The weather was cold and cloudy all day long; looking like if could rain any minute.
I did my stretches.
I did my studies.

Wednesday 08- The weather was pleasant.
I did my stretches.
I got a call from Linda and Blake that they took John Massey to the ER this morning. I went to John’s trying to find his cell phone or some contact info for Linda so she could inform his family. I found a journal with names and such and Linda was successful getting hold of his son.
Blake was kind enough to give me a ride to pick up my Cougar in 29 Palms.
I paid for it and got to the DMV just before it closed and got it registered. I stopped off on the way home at Kelly’s to show it off.
I did my studies.
I went on my evening walk listening to Astro 7B, lecture 3 about: relativistic Doppler beaming from a standard frame.


Thursday 09- The weather was again pleasant.
I did my stretches, lifted weights and dumbbells, core trainer, and punched the heavy bag.
John Massey came over to ask if I could take him to his doctor tomorrow- I said I would and it wouldn’t be a problem.
I did my studies.
I washed my car. I didn’t think of it until now that I haven’t had a car since the early 80s when I sold my Porsche 914. Oh, I’ve had trucks and motorcycles, but no cars. It’s a nice change and I’m ready to travel. The Harley is cool and I’m going to keep it, but I’m getting too old to ride it any vast distances… then again maybe not.


Friday 10- Temps into the mid 70s!
I took John to his doctor in Palm Desert to get the stitches taken out. That took most of the day. When I got back Kelly’s cat was dying and I went over to help and support her and just be a friend.


Saturday 11- The weather started out really nice and all, but then it got mighty windy and cold, clouds started moving in!

I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, rode my bike, lifted weights, core trainer, punched at the heavy bag, rode my bike, and ran a mile.
Kelly’s cat died this morning; he was my favorite out of all her cats.

I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the newsletter.
I went on my evening walk listening to Astro 7B, lecture 4 about: relativistic energy and momentum.

I posted this on FaceBook:
I think we should try to put forth the effort to love one another! I love all my friends, all my antagonists, all the different religions and people who believe in them or not, all citizens of all nations of diverse political beliefs, and all the people I’ll ever come to know or never get to know. I hope we can spread that kind of love around and share it with the world and all its inhabitants! Okay, that sounds kinda 60ish, but I believe, truly believe that is something we lost over those decades between the 60s and now... LOVE and PEACE Let’s bring them back. Spread the word… I LOVE YOU!


Sunday 12- The weather mighty windy and cold!
I’m sick….
I did my stretches.
I did my studies.

Monday 13- Cold and windy!
I did my stretches.
I’m still sick….
I did my studies.
Kelly and I went to the store and ate Chinese.


Tuesday 14- Cold, cloudy, and windy.
Sick
I did my stretches.
I did my studies.
Chris called needing help restoring his computer from a bad virus- was able to talk him through the process over the phone- backing up all his files and docs- then we did a clean install of Win XP.
I watched a new episode of “Castle” and “EndGame”.


Wednesday 15- The weather was clear with sunshine. Until around 1PM when clouds came and flooded the sky and blocked out the Sun. Then it grew very dark and rained the rest of the day and into the night, flooding the ground.
I did my stretches, lifted weights, core trainer, ran a mile, and punched the heavy bag a little. I didn’t push myself any, just a light workout.
I did my studies. Had a few days to catch up on because being sick I didn’t feel like doing anything.
I finished reading “The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe. A wonderful adventure book written in 1719.
I watched lesson 17 on the Berkeley biology course about: Genes are made of DNA.


Thursday 16- It was a cold and blistery day!
I did my stretches and lifted dumbbells.
The people from Dhamma Dena brought Ruth’s hard drive from her laptop she gave away without taking her documents off. They retrieved it from a computer store after it was replaced by a new drive and thrown away. I spent four hours on it trying almost everything I could think of to get my computers to recognize the drive, but I kinda knew when I first hooked it up and heard the noise it made that it was a brick. I have one more trick to try tomorrow and if that doesn’t work I’ll have to give up.
The UPS guy delivered my new T-Mobile Samsung Dart Android Prepaid Phone. The reason I bought the phone was that I could use to make calls on their prepaid network or on free WIFI (like at home, McDonalds, or at Starbucks) without any charges. But T-Mobile isn’t very clear about that and the wording is misleading. It’s like what if I’m surfing the web or making a call on my home WIFI and find out I’m using my prepaid minutes- that wouldn’t be so good. So until I find out I’m not putting the SIM card in and just using Skype for now. It’s a neat little phone and for $99 at T-Mobile I couldn’t pass that up.


Friday 17- Nice weather today.
I did my stretches, yoga, lifted dumbbells, ran with weights, core trainer, lifted weights, rode the bike, and punched at heavy bag.
UPS dropped my new scanner off this afternoon- it has an automatic feeder- I’m going all digital and get rid of most of the dang papers I’ve been storing.


Saturday 18- Another nice but cool day with a bit of a breeze.
I helped cleaned Kelly’s house most of the day. She made dinner for us and it was mighty good!


Sunday 19- The weather was cold and there are high wind warnings for our area.
I got a call from Denny telling me he got a call from Roger saying that part of the roof was coming off and if I would call the guy who I recommended to fix it to go and repair his handy work. I called my friend and he needed help so I told him to come pick me up. We fixed roof in about an hour.
I get back home and there is a message on the phone- John Massey got his truck stuck in the dirt by the sand dunes out where we were searching for gold. It took me a half an hour to find him, he had dug his truck down to where the undercarriage was buried and there was a lot of digging to be done to clear that away, and another two hours to get him unstuck and on his way.
I stopped at Kelly’s to pick up 6 bags of trash to throw away and ended up staying there and resting for a spell.


Monday 20- Presidents day- I just mellowed out and got caught up on some reading.


Tuesday 21- It was overcast with a low into the 60s.
I did my stretches, core trainer, heavy bag, and ran a mile.
I went for a walk listening to Astro 7B lecture #7 by Joshua Bloom.
I stopped by Kelly’s to dig a grave for her kitty that passed on recently.


Wednesday 22- The weather is mighty nice with temps into the mid 70s with clear skies and a light breeze.
I did my stretches, yoga, lifted dumbbells, ran with weights, core trainer, lifted weights, rode my bike, and punched the heavy bag.
Kelly wasn’t feeling well so I went over to her house and sat with her for a long spell.


Thursday 23- Beautiful weather, temps in the high 70s!
I did my stretches, yoga, lifted dumbbells, ran with weights, core trainer, lifted weights, rode my bike, and punched the heavy bag. Dang it, I forgot that I did all this yesterday. I’m supposed to have a one day break in between and take the weekend off.
I went to WalMart and Stater Bros. to get supplies and pick up mail. Gas is at $4.08 a gallon!
I did my studies.
I watered the plants around the house, and fed the doves (I feed them almost every day).
I went for a walk listening to Astro 7B lecture #8 by Joshua Bloom.
I watched lecture 18 and 19 on the Berkeley biology course about: Gene Expression 1- DNA is transcribed into RNA, and Gene Expression 2- RNA is transcribed into Protein.


Friday 24- The weather was fabulous- I ate breakfast and did my studies outside.
I did my stretches and ran a mile.
I sweep and mopped the bedroom and living room floors.
Linda S. brought back a gallon of gas I lent to her. I keep a couple of gallons on hand for my friends who run low and need it to get to town. They always bring it back filled.
The Cougar needed a little cleaning inside.
I went for a walk listening to Astro 7B lecture #9 by Joshua Bloom.
I watched lecture 20 on the Berkeley biology course about: Regulation of Gene Expression.
I watched a new episode of “Castle” and “Endgame”.


Saturday 25- It’s another beautiful day in the neighborhood. It got a bit windy later on in the evening.
I did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, punched at the heavy bag, and ran a mile.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
I setup the new scanner to the Toshiba Laptop and now will scan everything into it and go paperless, well as paperless as I can.

Potluck was special this month because it’s Chris Jonas’s birthday. Around thirty of us stood up and sang Happy Birthday to this wonderful, dynamic man!
Mary Koval and her daughter Chris made a poor man’s lasagna, dinner rolls, and baked up some peanut butter cheesecake brownies.
Chris Jonas and family went all out cooking up some mighty tasty meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy. The chicken tortilla casserole that Dorothy Jacobsen brought was undeniably a show stopper. Ruth Malton whipped up her Waldo-jello salad. Rose Matich steamed some peas and dragged Joe, her husband, to the center. Dyan Carroll spent the last couple of days slaving over a hot stove preparing us a magnificent meal of lasagna with a side dish of cauliflower covered in a special melted cheddar cheese sauce, yummy. Marie Morrison brought candied yams. David Royer concocted a ham and pasta salad for our enjoyment. I brought my regular stuff which paled in comparison to these others.


Sunday 26- Today started out with a little wind, but settled down by noon.
I did my stretches.
I cleaned the terminals on the batteries and topped them off with water.
I backed up all the community picture files onto two hard drives.
I watched the new episode of “Fringe”.
I messed around on FaceBook for most of the night…


Monday 27- Dang, windy today with dark clouds coming in over us.
I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, rode my bike, punched the heavy bag, and ran up the hill and back with weights.
I did my studies.
I went for an evening walk listening to Astro 7B lecture #10 by Joshua Bloom.
It got cold and the wind was really howling, so I lit up a fire and settled in for the night.
I found out that I sprained my hip muscles and it hurts like the dickens to put any weight on it when I walk, now I’m stuck hobbling around the place.
I watched lecture 21 on the Berkeley biology course about: Regulation of Gene Expression.
I got caught up on my astronomy readings.


Tuesday 28- A very nice day out but unfortunately I sprained my right hip muscle riding my bike full blast up that dang hill that runs by my house, yesterday. So now I have to stay off it for a few days. I mostly messed around on FaceBook and read.


Wednesday 29- A very blustery day it was with winds blowing a hard gust out of the NW at 50MPH.
I’m still resting up my sprained hip muscle. I did do a few light reps on my weights.
Kelly and I did drive to Staters Bros. at 8pm to get some munchies and bring them to her house. We had all her critters after the chicken we bought. We buried Solomon her cat that died a spell ago. I had dug the grave a few days ago, so it didn't bother my hip.

January 2012

Happy New Year- I can’t believe the wonderful weather we’ve been having- temps in the mid 70s!
I did my stretches, dumbbells, core trainer, and lifted weights.
I hung around the house just being mellow calling friends and family to say Happy New Year.
I decided that I’m going to spend fifteen minutes a day drawing something, even if it is just stick figures. Today I drew my radio while I sat outside in the sunshine. I also did my Latin lesson sitting there. I started reading “365 Starry Nights” by Chet Raymo as I have been doing every year for the past so many years.
I drew up a sign that says CREATE using a black ink marker and hung it over my bedroom door; I’ll make a better one later.

Monday 02- again another perfect day; the ants are even coming out of their holes.
I did my stretches, yoga, and went for a mile run.
I washed my clothes and shoes in a bucket using an old plunger type thingy that works pretty dang well for the small stuff. While I was at it I watered the plants.
I did my studies; today I drew a cactus and did a Latin lesson. I haven’t found anything to add to my studies. Completing reading aloud from the textbook “Astronomy Today” left kind of a hole. John said he’d help me with my math, so I’ll be doing that, but I think there’s something else I want to add, just don’t know what yet.
I do have to start editing my two books and continue to write the third which I have but one chapter completed.
I went for a walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: Gamma-ray Bursts.
I read a bit from the book “Robinson Crusoe”.
I practiced my guitar.

Tuesday 03- the weather is perfect!
I did my stretches, dumbbells, ran a mile with weights, core trainer, and lifted weights.
Sherry came by and dropped off a bunch of firewood for me! She is so sweet!
I did my studies outside again. I found an old study book whose pages are faded by age that I must have bought in the 80s. It is called “1100 Words you Need to Know” (1983). Seems like I did the first week’s lessons of the book way back when and then quit. I will continue on with it now.
I went for a walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: Galaxies- types, how they were formed, and dark matter.
I watched two UC Berkeley videos of Biology 1A lectures 1 and 2; review of chemistry and course outline.
I went outside at 11:00 for an hour or so waiting to see the Quadrantid Meteor Shower, but they were a no show here on the west coast (not a one!). I heard on the Atlantic side there were many.
I read a chapter from “Robinson Crusoe”.

Wednesday 04- the weather is still pleasant with temps into the high 70s.
I did my stretches, yoga, and ran a mile
I sat outside and did my studies.
I watched Biology lecture 3; it was basically about the difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, microscopy and electron microscopes- regular and scanning.
I did my stretches and went for a night run.
I read a chapter from “Robinson Crusoe”.
I found my old Palm M125 that hidden away in storage. It was broken and I had taken apart ten years or so ago. I tinkered with it, fixed it, and put it all back together in working order.

Thursday 05- the weather is a little bit breezy, but still nice with temps hanging around 70.
I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, core trainer, ran with weights, pounded on the heavy bag, and lifted weights.
I did my studies outside.
I watched Biology lecture 4; cell structure microtubules, microfilaments, and intermediate filaments.
I went for a walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: active galaxies- quasars and such.
I did my stretches and went for a night run.
I read a chapter from “Robinson Crusoe”.

Friday 06- the weather was in the 70s again; I ain’t complaining.
I did my stretches and then left to pick up Kelly and go to town.
We went Rite Aid to drop off a prescription and then to the post office where we picked up our packages and Kelly got a money order to pay her rent. Got back to Rite Aid to pick up meds and then went on to Yucca Valley. We had lunch at the Sizzler- our waitress was Jackie- we ate like little pigs. WalMart was our next stop. At the checkout stand Kelly had forgot her wallet in the car and had to run out to retrieve it. She came limping back in saying she slipped on some sand and twisted her foot, but was okay. There’s a pet store over by Vons called Pet Plus I think and the ladies who work there were might nice and helpful. We shopped at Vons where she limped around as we shopped. She got a $10 coupon on her Vons card, and in lots of pain, limped back into the store to spend it because it would be expired by the time we came this way again next month; I told her she was crazy to do this. It wasn’t until we went to Starbucks to get coffee and to use the internet on her new Kindle that she started really feeling the pain in her left foot; I could tell it was really bad by the tears in her eyes. In fact it was so bad that I decided that we should leave and not stop at Staters to get fried chicken and a few other items like we had planned. On the way home she was in so much pain that we both decided it best if we went to the ER to see if it was broken. I waited in the waiting room for two hours after they took her in the back for x-rays and whatever. I sat there with nothing to do but watch folks as they walked by me with butt cracks peeking out from their pants; I mean what’s that all about? Is it some kinda fad or something? So I learned that most folks who come into the ER on Friday nights are overweight and have butt cracks exposed. One big guy (no butt crack) was brought in by his wife or girlfriend (butt crack). He looked very sick or mentally disturbed and I was afraid that he might pass out right there or start fighting with everybody. I wasn’t alone in my thinking as the guy (butt crack) sitting across from me had the same thoughts I learned later after they took the big guy into the back room and he felt it safe to talk. Kelly (no butt crack) finally came out on crutches; she had broken some small bones in her foot. We had to go get some new meds for this and went back to Rite Aid in 29 Palms. There, while we sat waiting for the prescription to be filled, was a man who told us about how people from other planets wouldn’t live here because of our bad government (overweight and butt crack); we gave him a wide berth and let him ramble on. After we left there I stopped at Staters and got the rest of what we both needed as Kelly sat in the car. Then I took her home and brought in all her groceries. I’m going to start calling her by the nickname Lucky, I told her.

Saturday 07- the weather was a bit breezy with the temps into the high 60s.
Because of last night’s episode at the hospital’s ER room and checking in on Kelly through Skype, I was up until 4:30AM or there abouts and woke up after noon sometime. So I decided to just do my stretches and use Sunday (my day off from exercises) to catch up.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
I spent the day calling and yakking to friends and family. Kelly seems to be okay for now resting in bed with a cast up to her knee on her left leg.


Sunday 08- still windy (8 to 20MPH) but the Sun is out shining down upon our little community.
I did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, and dumbbells, ran a mile with weights, punched the heavy bag, and lifted weights.
I read a few chapters of “Robinson Crusoe”.


Monday 09- the weather was pleasant.
I did my stretches, but that’s all I did before John Massey came over to pick me up and go hunt for gold at this abandoned mine he found in the hills south of where we live.
I went to the Neighborhood Watch meeting. I wasn’t feeling very well and didn’t stay for the CMM board meeting.
I cooked up some chicken in a pot with potatoes and carrots, but somehow I didn’t do it right, a miscarriage of chicken soup; it tasted awful. I ended up throwing it away outside in the vacant land across the street. I went out there the next day and some poor hungry critter had eaten it all up.


Tuesday 10- another nice day but I wasn’t feeling too well to enjoy it. I did do my stretches, completed all my studies, and listened to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: the Hubble Constant.
FedEx delivered another Palm M105 that I ordered for $6 on eBay.
I read a few chapters of “Robinson Crusoe”.


Wednesday 11- the weather was a little overcast and temps got up to about 65 degrees.
I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, ran a mile, punched the heavy bag, and rode my bike; I felt better today!
I did all my studies; Latin lesson, drew something, and did a lesson in the 1100 Word workbook.
I went for a walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: the discovery of dark matter.
I watched lesson 5 on the Berkeley biology course about: the laws of thermodynamics and how it relates to the metabolism of the cell. ATP (adenosine triphosphate) and how energy is derived from losing a phosphate atom through a hydrogen bond or some such to form ADP (adenosine diphosphate) with a helping enzyme is able to create more energy; I now understand the process but find it hard pulling it from memory and putting it into words right now. There’ll be more in the next lecture.
I watched “Castle” and an old favorite I used to watch as a kid “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” on Hulu.com.
I read a chapter of “Robinson Crusoe”.


Thursday 12- the weather got nice again, but temps still in the 60s and a little breezy.
I did my stretches and ran a mile.
I did my studies.
I went for a walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: more on dark matter.
I watched lesson 6 on the Berkeley biology course about: enzyme structure.
I watched an episode of “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” and the first episode of “Sea Hunt” starring Lloyd Bridges.
I read a chapter in “Robinson Crusoe”. I woke up very early and read another chapter and then went back to sleep.


Friday 13- the weather was nice into the mid 60s and little breeze.
I did my stretches, lifted dumbbells, yoga, core trainer, lifted weights, ran a mile, punched the heavy bag, and rode my bike.
I did my studies: Latin, drawing, 1100 Words workbook.
I went for a walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: CMB and very large structures in the universe.
I watched lesson 7 on the Berkeley biology course about: cell membrane, structure and metabolism.
I read a chapter in “Robinson Crusoe”.

Saturday 14- overcast and dang cold outside!
I did my stretches.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
I finished reading “Robin Crusoe”.


Sunday 15- dang windy today!


Monday 16- the weather is a little breezy and not too cold.
I did my stretches, lifted dumbbells, yoga, core trainer, lifted weights, ran a mile, punched the heavy bag, and rode my bike.
I spent the better part of the day building some shelves in my computer room for food storage. I will paint them tomorrow when it's not windy.
Verizon Phone Company finally got my phone working again around 2pm; it has been out since Thursday or there abouts. It seems like other folk’s phones were out in our area because I seen four Verizon trucks drive by my house today.
I did all my studies, Listened to an astronomy lecture on the expansion of the universe, and watched Berkeley biology lecture 8 about: Regulation of enzymatic activity.


Tuesday 17- The weather was a little bit on the cold side today but not that bad.
I did my stretches.
I painted the shelves. I didn’t have enough wood for the very bottom shelve but I did find a small piece to fit there temporarily.
Roger called to drive and drop off the Stoneymobile at the mechanic’s.
I updated my camera’s firmware.
I did my studies.


Wednesday 18- the weather was nice today with temps around 64 and a very slight breeze.
I did my stretches, dumbbells, core trainer, yoga, lifted weights, rode my bike, punched the heavy bag, and ran with weights.
I sat outside and had breakfast and did my studies.
I finished the shelves today by painting the metal parts white. Once they dry I can mount the wood onto them.
I went for a walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: expansion of the universe.


Thursday 19- the weather was cooler and cloudy today.
I did my stretches and ran a mile.
I did my studies.
Roger called to drive and pick up the Stoneymobile at the mechanic’s.


Friday 20- The weather started out very nice but grew ominous later in the evening.
I did my stretches, dumbbells, core trainer, yoga, lifted weights, and punched the heavy bag.
I went for a walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: multi-universes.
I watched lesson 8 on the Berkeley biology course.


Saturday 21- The wind was blowing very hard and fast- picking up small coarse gravel and peppering my face as I moved around outside to secure my things from being blown to Texas. It was really that bad.
Chris came by to pick up my old Honda motorcycle that I gave to him that’s been sitting since 2004.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
The electric power went out in our area for 5 or 6 hours.


Sunday 22- The weather cleared up midmorning and stayed nice throughout the day.
Darlene from Dhamma Dena brought Ruth Denison’s two computers over for me to fix. I formatted the hard drive on the Dell desktop and installed Win7 and all the critical updates along with Microsoft Security Essentials. I’ll work on her laptop tomorrow.
John Massey came by and we jawed for a spell about astronomy and other realms of science.


Monday 23- Rain and wind!
I did my stretches, dumbbells, core trainer, yoga, lifted weights, and punched the heavy bag.
John came over for a few hours and used my computer to do some research.
I did my studies.
Darlene came to pick up the desktop and laptop I fixed for Ruth Denison.



Tuesday 24- The weather was clear skies mostly with some wind thrown in.
I did my stretches.
I went to town to get some special cat food for Kelly’s cat and picked a few things up.
I saw a car for sale in a parking lot of an auto shop and stopped to enquire about it. I took it for a test drive where it immediately ran out of gas and I was able to coast into a gas station. I put three bucks into the tank and drove it back. I asked them a few more questions about the car, but the girl there said she’d have to get back to me on it.
Then I went to Kelly’s house to give her the cat food and we buried her cat Elvis who passed on a wee bit ago.
I did my studies.
I watched lesson 9 on the Berkeley biology course.


Wednesday 25- The weather was a bit breezy with a few clouds. Temps were around 64 degrees.
I did my stretches, lifted dumbbells, yoga, and core trainer, punched the heavy bag, lifted weights, rode the bike, and ran with weights.
I did my studies.
I went for a walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: the last lecture about the Drake equation.
I watched lessons 10 and 11 on the Berkeley biology course: Cellular energy production, anaerobic and aerobic.


Thursday 26- Beautiful day with temps of 76 degrees and clear skies!
I did my stretches and ran a mile.
I did my studies. I put a whole bunch of new words from the book “1100 Words You Need to Know” into my flash card program. I also put a few new Latin words into the program, and then did a review of both.
I went for a walk listening to an Astro 7B lecture by Joshua Bloom about: cosmology.
John Massey came over around 5pm for dinner and to do a little stargazing when it got dark. Lots of fun for me to have someone over and doing a little astronomy!
I went online to find that my package containing a power unit for my NEC MobilePro 900 is in my mailbox and made a mad dash down there to pick it up and get back to plug it in to charge it up!
I watched lesson 12 on the Berkeley biology course: Photosynthesis- the light reactions.


Friday 27- The weather was mostly cloudy and overcast with temp into the mid 60s.
I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, rode my bike, lifted weights, core trainer, punched at the heavy bag, and ran with weights.
I did all my studies.
I went for a walk listening to an Astro 7B lecture by Joshua Bloom about: different types of possible universes.
I watched lesson 13 on the Berkeley biology course: Photosynthesis- CO2 fixation and related processes.

I received an email from a friend of George's saying that George had passed away in his Wonder Valley trailer this past Monday, January 23rd.
George was a really neat guy with some wild and crazy ideas and it was great receiving those emails of his. He would come by my house in that old van of his complaining about the thieves who worked post office losing his mail, the VA messing with him, or them there criminals out yonder in Wonder Valley. He was real happy when he got that 'new' truck recently.
Such sad news :(
If any of you are in contact with his family, would you please forward their information to me to that I can notify them.
Sorry to hear that you left us George. Give them as much hell as you gave them here wherever you end up :)



Saturday 28- The weather was cool and a little hazy.
I did my stretches, core trainer and ran a mile.
I called family and friends to bother them if they were so unfortunate to answer their phone.
I headed down to our Potluck with some turkey stuffing and rice I cooked up. There, almost thirty of our community’s finest showed up- Tim Atzei cooked up a concoction he called Mac and something. Elaine brought her family; husband Kevin, and two sons Timothy and Matthew (their first time at the community center). Karry Kearns provided us all with beverages. Dave Royer baked up a fancy French (I thought he wrote trench) lemon tart pie thingy. Marybeth Rubin made some curry bites that were delicious. Marybeth and husband Alan had property here for thirty years and have just moved in permanently six months ago. Chris Jonas made his famous world renowned macaroni salad. Rose Matich brought along her husband Joe and steamed up her peas and corn for us to enjoy. Mary and Chris Koval created a lemon pumpkin dump cake (Mighty fine), and chicken mushroom mac casserole. Ruth Malton surprised us with red jello. Marie Morrison whipped up a German Chocolate Cake! There was plenty of fun in the Treasure Room especially when young Cody was clowning around with a woman’s wig and a bra- the girls got a kick out of that.
I watched two new episodes of “Fringe”.


Sunday 29- It is beautiful outside today!
I did my stretches, hopped on the Harley and took it out for a little ride and collected my mail along the way.
I spent the rest of the day doing whatever I wanted, and later in the evening I watched an episode of “Castle” and one of “EndGame” because I felt like it :)


Monday 30- It was a little overcast today with altocumulus clouds peppering the sky, I think we got your clouds Ginger :) with temps in the mid 60s.
I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, rode my bike, lifted weights, core trainer, punched at the heavy bag, rode my bike, and ran with weights.
I did my studies. I’ve been slacking off the Latin for a bit because I need to get caught up with the audio portion before I feel I can continue on the written portion.
I went for a walk listening to an Astro 7B lecture by Joshua Bloom about: the cosmological constant and Hubble’s law.
I watched lesson 14 on the Berkeley biology course about: Somatic cells- mitosis- and gametes (meiosis) inherit genomes… Yikes! I should just stick with astronomy :) Nah, I really need someone I can discuss and go over this with…



Tuesday 31- The sky was a clear bright blue, but the temps didn’t get over 65 degrees.
I did my stretches, core trainer, and ran a mile.
I had some pretty strange dreams last night and the night before, but mostly last night. I feel I have some arranging of my life to get in order and set my priorities straight in my mind.
Also, today I finally came to the realization that most people don’t want or need to know the truth. I believe that they are so used to being lied to that they don’t expect to hear the truth, but expect to be lied to instead. And if you are the messenger of the truth it will somehow end up being your fault which you’ll need to defend. I find this strange, but interesting.
So today I was kinda down in the dumps. I did manage to do my studies.
I went for a walk listening to Latin lectures.
I spent the rest of the night in deep thought; at least for me it seemed deep :)
Goodbye to January!

December 2011

Welcome to the Month of December- I did my stretches and went for a short walk; too dang windy and cold outside to do anything else.
I worked on Paula’s website.
It rained a little here and there all day.

Friday 02- I did my stretches, dumbbells, core trainer ran a mile, and lifted weights. It was a nice sunny but cold day.
I spent a few hours working on the Copper Mountain Mesa website and sent out the newsletter.

Saturday 03- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
Renee and Craig came by for a visit.
I took a video of my frozen cement pond; it’s now officially Winter!
I went over to Blake and Linda’s for a visit and to see their new puppy; an Australian herding type puppy. I got back home just before dark.

Sunday 04- I did my stretches.
I worked on the Gross Polluter (my truck) cleaning out the back of it which was really dirty and filled with garbage, filling it with gas, and pumping up the tires with air.
I then worked on the kitchen, pulling everything off the shelves, wiping them down and throwing old junk out that’s been hanging around for a few years.
I went for an evening walk.
National Novel Writing Month had ended and I went to claim my certificate, it said that I wasn’t verified. I told them I used the Validator on the 20th of November. They told me that the Validator only officially started verifying on the 25th and anything before that date was only used to count the words. Then they said I could email them a scrambled copy of my novel and they would do the count because the Validator was now turned off. So I went scrambled my novel and emailed it to them. Now I await their verdict.

Monday 05- I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, core trainer ran a mile, and lifted weights.
I mostly fiddled around the house.
I did a little webwork on Paula’s website.
I went for an evening walk.
National Novel Writing Month sent me an email:
"Hi Bob! Unfortunately, when you scrambled your document... you removed
your spaces! As a result, the document only comes up to about 1500
words or so. When you scramble, you have to be careful not to include any spaces, or it will mess up. You'll need to try again, and send me a document
with the spaces preserved."

Then they sent me this email:
"Bob, I went ahead and flagged your account. Don't worry about
resending. :) Welcome to the winner's circle!"

I sent them this:
I read your first email and thought to myself, I give up!
Then I read this one and YAY!!!!!!
I think I did about everything wrong on the Nano website :(
Thank you Heather!
Bob
It’s dang cold tonight!!!

Tuesday 06- I did my stretches and ran two miles.
I went for my evening walk.

I watched an episode of “Castle” on Hulu.

Wednesday 07- I did my stretches; going to town with Kelly today.
We went to Home Depot to get roofing supplies to fix Stoney’s garage, then ate at the Sizzler, WalMart, Starter Bros, two pet stores to get food for her critters, got gas, and got home at 9:45PM.

Thursday 08- I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, and ran a mile.
I replaced the deadlock on my front door that went bad, and did a bunch of small stuff around the house.
I went for my evening walk.
I watched “Warehouse 13” on Hulu.

Friday 09- I did my stretches. I decided that the weather was nice enough to head on over to Stoney’s house and repair the garage roof. I got there around 10AM. I brought some laundry to do while I was working and got that going. I hauled all the tools and roofing material onto the roof and started prepping it to lay down the Henry’s roofing tar. Roger Smith (pictured) came over to help and we got the job done in no time. I was pretty sore afterwards and just surfed the web.

Saturday 10- Kelly called me at 4:30AM to wake me up for the Lunar Eclipse. Dang it was really cold outside, but it was clear and I was able to get two good pictures with my lowly Kodak camera while yapping with Kelly.I went back to sleep and did my exercises and ran a mile.I worked around the house fixing this and that little thing. I even gathered a whole bunch of trash from around the yard and took it over to the trash bin at Stoney’s.
It's Universal Declaration of Human Rights Day!

Sunday 11- I did my stretches. I laid some more gravel around the corners of the front patio. John came by and we jawed for a long spell.I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa website and sent out the newsletter.It rained sometime during the night.

Monday 12- I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, lifted weights, and was about to go for a mile run when it started to rain.I stayed in most of the day reading and goofing off.Dang, I forgot to go to the Neighborhood Watch meeting. I’ll catch it next month.

Tuesday 13- I did my stretches and went for a mile run with five pound weights and got back just before it started to rain.I finished reading two books: one a short How To on exercising, and the other “The Art of Thinking” by Ernest Dimnet, first published in 1928. I read this book in the 1970s. The book was very hard for me to read; he uses a whole lot of French phrases and talks about authors and poets I’ve never heard of and who are mostly French. I do have to say that I have learned from this man because, which has surprised me, I have done mostly what the book has written from my first reading many years ago. “Reading the news as if it were history” is one of his thoughts.UPS finally came just before dark and brought me my new Celestron 20x80 binoculars for astronomy. Dang these are big! I now discovered I need a mount for them! I took them outside once it was dark and focused on Jupiter and its moons, and then the Andromeda Galaxy. I went back outside after 10PM to watch the Geminid meteor shower. Saw a few nice bright ones crossing the night’s sky on their way to a fiery demise.

Things I found online that were interesting to me this week:

What is a Higgs Boson? (Oh now I understand!)


TED - Michael Mann - A Look Into Our Climate: Past To Present To Future. (is it getting hot in here?)


Pendulum Waves! (Really neat to watch!)


メタル布教活動としてMr. Crowleyのギターを弾いてみた (A Japanese girl who can really play guitar!)



Wednesday 14- the weather was cold and overcast and I don’t think it got out of the low fifties. I did my stretches, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, punched the heavy bag for about ten minutes, and ran two miles. It was a great workout!I got the Harley out and rode it to the mailbox and back; it needed to be run for a while.I am starting to do my studies again.I went for a walk listening to a random astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: the methods used in finding new planets around stars other than our own.I updated my blogs; I have four where I post now, but I’m getting rid of MySpace at the end of the year and will not post there again. MySpace has become unblogable (Hmm, maybe I created a new word :)I watched some YouTube videos on how to punch a heavy bag. I ain’t doing none too bad from what I saw, but I do have to learn to bob and weave. Right now I just stand there and hit the bag.I played my guitar for a spell.

Thursday 15- the weather outside was again cold and overcast. I did my stretches, yoga, ran a mile with weights, and using the 30-30-30 heavy bag method punched the heck out of the bag: felt mighty invigorating.I swept the patio really good getting rid of all the dirt and leaves from the desert willow out front. I did my studies throughout the day: Latin, astronomy, entomology, and reading a book called “How to Study in College”. I went for a walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: the Hertzsprung–Russell (HR) diagram that compares stars Spectral Class: temperature and color (OBAFGKM), versus their luminosity: Absolute Magnitude. As a star is formed out of dust in a nebula, by gravitational contraction, it reaches a temperature of 15 million Kelvin (I believe) that ignites the fusion process. Most stars fall on the main sequence and star there for a spell; the Sun will be on there for another five billion years. Very massive and hot stars may only be on the main sequence for maybe a few million years burning their fuel very quickly. Compare this to a Red Dwarf that is about 40 percent the mass of our Sun, will burn their fuel for trillions of years. I got the wood stove fired up for the second time this winter. It felt good when I got back from my night run and soaked my feet in hot water!I practiced my guitar.

Friday 16- the weather is still cold and overcast, but add to this the high winds! At 11AM it was 49 degrees.I did my stretches, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, and went for a mile run. Oh, and I punched the heck out of the heavy bag again :)I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.I did my studies.I went for a short walk because I had to be around when UPS shows up (he never did), and listened to a continuation of yesterdays astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko.I did some stretches and went for a night run. I wanted to checkout my new binoculars but the sky was too overcast.I practiced my guitar.

Saturday 17- the weather was again overcast and it even rained late in the afternoon.I did my stretches and ran a mile.I called family and friends throughout the day as I worked around the house. John Massey came by and started showing me some math. He said that he will teach me; I have a mental block when it comes to math beyond addition. Well I did get a B in college algebra class.

Sunday 18- I decided to just kick back today and do whatever comes to mind. I did some reflection on recent events. I went out to the dirt road and gathered small rocks into a bucket and spread them around the cement pond.The night sky cleared enough for me to finally check out the 20x80 binoculars and I drank in the night sky!

Monday 19- the weather was nice and sunny.I did my stretches, lifted dumbbells, lifted weights, core trainer, ran a mile with weights, and punched the hell out of the heavy bag.Chris came by with a bag of groceries from the USDA food distribution. He said there were over a hundred folks showing up. I spent the day doing my studies.I went for a short walk and listened to another astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: neutron stars.The UPS driver finally showed up at 6PM with my new camera I ordered last week. It’s a Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ47 Digital Camera with 24x optical zoom, cool.

Tuesday 20- the weather began the day with some cold winds, but mellowed out later in the afternoon.I did my stretches, yoga, ran a mile, and rode my bike.I played around with the new camera checking out its 24x zoom. The dang thing has so many buttons and dials it’ll take me a while to figure it all out.I did my chores around the house cleaning this and that.I went over to John Massey’s for an early dinner. He lost his fancy knife with his name inscrolled upon it that he had for many years. He showed to me a few weeks ago and said, “I’ll never lose this knife.” We ate the chicken he got from the USDA Food Distribution yesterday; it turned out mighty good.I got back just before dark so I listened to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: more on neutron stars and beginning to talk about black holes.I decided to try to finish the textbook “Astronomy Today” by the end of the year. This is the book that I’ve been reading out loud for over a year now and need to put it to rest and move on to something else. Reading a text out load is a very slow process for me, but I read a whole of chapter 22 in about three or more hours. When I finished that I read from the books on college studying, and entomology. Then I did a lesson in Latin.I went for a night run and practiced my guitar when I got back inside where it was warm.

Wednesday 21- the weather was very nice, no clouds, with temps in the upper 50s.I did my stretches, lifted dumbbells, lifted weights, core trainer, ran a mile with weights, and punched the hell out of the heavy bag.I went over to Kelly’s to put her dead car battery on my charger and then took her to her mailbox.I went for a walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko. It was more on black holes and neutron stars; he gets sidetracked here and there and falls behind on his lectures.I then proceeded to read aloud the whole of chapter 23 about galaxies; that took about four hours. I’d write about it here but I’m kinda burnt out. I then read the other books of my studies- did you know that bugs can’t see the color red? That’s what my entomology book says. I did my stretches and went for a night run, fired up the wood stove, and soaked my feet in hot water.

I practiced my guitar.

Thursday 22- the weather was sunny but my cement pond was frozen when I got outside to do my morning exercises.
I did my stretches and ran a mile.
The winds came up later in the afternoon and it really started to blow hard so I skipped my evening walk and night run. I spent all day reading chapters 24 and 25 of “Astronomy today” and did my studies and practiced my guitar.


Friday 23- the weather was cold and windy all day and temps never made it into the 50s.
I did my stretches, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, ran a mile with weights, and punched the hell out of the heavy bag.
John Massey came by to ask if I’m ready. Ready for what, I asked. To go to town, he says. I don’t remember we made arrangements to go to town today, but hey I ain’t doing much of anything else except updating the Copper Mountain Mesa Website, so I ask him to wait a few minutes until I’m done. He wanted to go to the library and didn’t believe me when I told him they were closed on Fridays, but did believe the sign on the library’s front door. We stopped off at Home Depot and I got some building supplies while there.
We also stopped at Food For Less to get food; I’m not sure if it’s lesser than the other places I like to shop. I go back home just before nightfall and didn’t go for my walk, but did feed the doves.
I did my studies, but didn’t read aloud from the astronomy book because my jaw was sore from yesterday’s reading of the two chapters.
I did my stretches and went for a night run.

Saturday 24- what a beautiful day! It was nice and sunny.
I did my stretches and went for a mile run.
Sami called and I drove my Harley down to meet her in Joshua Tree. She came up here for a spell from San Diego for a visit with our mutual friend Sandy. We had lunch at Santana’s Restaurant and yapped about a book we are both working on. She made me a meal to take home; it was turkey, fried ribs, beans, and stuffing that I ate all of later in the night- it sure was might good!


Sunday 25- Christmas!
I just stayed home and yakked at folks on the phone.
I read aloud chapter 26 and part of 27 of the textbook “Astronomy Today” and have only a chapter and a half left to read before the year is up!!!


Monday 26- the weather is staying pleasant!
I did my stretches, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, ran a mile with weights, and did the 30-30-30 routine on the heavy bag.
Kula wanted me to find out for sure about when I’d be going to drive John to the doctor in Rancho Mirage down by Palm Springs, so I drove over to John’s to ask and spent a spell there yakking with him about his woodstove.
I went for a walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: Relativity.

Tuesday 27- another nice day.
I didn’t feel very well today and spent most of the day inside except when I drove over to Kelly’s to put her dead car battery on my charger and drive her to her mailbox.
I finished reading aloud the last chapter in the textbook “Astronomy Today” and feel relieved it is finally done.

Wednesday 28- I did my stretches and John picked me up for the trip to his doctor; I will be driving him back home after the procedure.
We arrived at the office at 12:30PM and I gave Kula a call when I was about 15min before. Kula and Tom were still in route from Redondo Beach where they left earlier in the morning and had just passed Palm Springs. I waited only about half an hour at our rendezvous at a nearby shopping center where I had walked as to make it easier for them to find me. I was so happy to see them when they arrived! We would only have a short visit before I’d have to take John back home. They would remain a few days and enjoy a mini vacation in the lower desert. They checked into a nearby hotel room, I think it was a Hilton, where we had lunch, chili and cornbread, which Kula had prepared; she’s a really good cook! We sat around yapping about this, that and other things until it was time for me to pick up John and take him on home. It surprises me that I have such wonderful friends as these that would take the time out of their lives to come see me for such brief visit.

Thursday 29- warmer today in the 70s.
I still wasn’t feeling very well, kinda achy, so all I did was my stretches.
Jimmy and Clarice made the trip from Norwalk to spend a few days at the Stonebreaker Ranch. They had arrived the day before and were literally having a blast shooting their rifles at targets. I got there early to help them shoot holes in cans and other stuff we found lying around. They also had clay disks that we toss into the air and blow out of the sky with our shotguns; what fun!
I had to leave around 2PM to take Kelly and her sick cat to the vets. The poor kitty has some kind of flu or cold. The Vet gave her a bunch of meds cat and I drove them back home. I hope the kitten will be okay.
I made it back the Stonebreaker’s just in time for dinner, imagine that!

Friday 30- wonderful day!
I did my stretches and made my way back over the Stonebreaker’s and we shot at targets most of the day; we’re all pretty good shooters by now!
We had dinner and I stayed around for a movie called “RED” (2010) starring Bruce Willis; dang good film!

Saturday 31- the weather is still very nice for this time of the year around these parts; 76 degrees!
I did my stretches and went shooting again until 2PM when Jimmy and Clarice had to wrap it up, load up all the toys, and head on back home.
I finished the astronomy book “365 Starry Nights” and posted to my Journal.
I will go for a run just before midnight to run out the old and run in the New Year!

Being as this is the last day of the year and I have a few hours to reflect on it before it goes, I will try to put it to words here as brief as I can.
I am blessed having friends and family who care about me. Like I said earlier, it surprises me. This year had its ups and its downs: I have lost two souls very dear to me; one a very dear friend, the other I met again after 55 years of separation and never really got to know. I have stopped writing my newspaper column, but have written two books that I didn’t know I could. I’ve had my 60th birthday party attended mostly by strangers bringing gifts and a few dear friends being close. I had all my teeth pulled but still can smile. I continue to exercise and be in good health; life is good!
I asked someone once what they were doing for Christmas; their reply to me was, “It’s just another day.” Later, I asked this person the same about New Year’s Eve and they said the same to me, “It’s just another day.”
I guess it’s just another day if you let it. Every day is just another day, and the day after that, and the day after that until you have no days left. I feel these “special days” are days we set aside for reflection, for being with and in communication with the ones we love, to bring us full circle so the days are not just another day. I for one intend to make each and every day a special day until I run out of days. I now believe that is the reason why I write this journal and I never really thought of it in this way before until writing this tonight.

CREATE!

November 2011

Welcome to the month of November!
I did my stretches and went for a night run. Then at midnight on the November 1st I started writing my 50,000 word novel for the National Novel Writing Month. I was up until 3:30am when I finally fell asleep with the first chapter and 2000 words completed.
I awoke at 10am and did my stretches, yoga, and ran a mile.
Kelly and me went to town to take care of some errands and shopping. I stayed over at her house yapping till 7pm and headed home to write some more and stayed up till 5am.

Wednesday 02- I awoke around 1pm and did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, lifted weights, dumbbells, and rode my bike.
I started right into writing.
I went for my evening walk.
I did my stretches and went for a night run.
I now have over 7000 words and 3 and a half chapters complete in my novel.

Thursday 03- I did my stretches, yoga, and ran two miles.
George Stadler stopped by in his 72 Ford pickup he just acquired from a friend for 65 dollars.
I went for my evening walk.
It was just too windy to go for a night run.
I completed 10,000 words so far and decided to watch two episodes of “Warehouse 13” as kind of a prize. Then I wrote another 800 words before I went to bed.

Friday 04- I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, lifted weights, core trainer, and ran almost a mile but had to turn back because it started to rain. It was winding and rainy all day long.
I worked on my mailbox that I’m going to put up down on Lear and Winters. I painted my name and home address on it and would have taken it down there to plant into the ground but because of the rain I figured that the paint wasn’t dry enough and might wash off.
Dana called saying him and Karen were having computer problems and needed my expertise. He picked me up, I solved the problem, and he brought me home.
I wrote another 2000 or more words today. I’m up to about 13,000 words; I most have been crazy the day I joined to do this :)


Saturday 05- I did my stretches, yoga, and ran a mile.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
I went and planted my mailbox at the corner of Winters and Lear Ave.
I called a few family and friends.
I went for my evening walk.
I wrote most of the day.

Sunday 06- I did my stretches.
I cleaned out the small camper real good.
Then it rained most of the day so I just wrote in my book “Rainbow at the End of Tomorrow”- I am over 18,000 words now with 9 chapters written.

Monday 07- I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Mostly I just wrote. I have well over 20,000 words and 10 chapters written. Chapter 10 has over 2500 words, most chapter go a little over 2000 words. I seem to write about really, really good people and really, really bad people. Sometimes I wonder where I get these horrible ideas; maybe CSI? Some from books I’ve read?
UPS delivered my Lenovo A1 Tablet today. Played around with it a short spell and went right back to writing. I’m just a crazy geek kinda guy I guess.
I finished chapter 10 and then watched an episode of “Castle” for a treat!
I began chapter 11 and have no idea where it will lead me...

Tuesday 08- I did my stretches.
Kelly and me went to Yucca Valley to do some shopping, get her tire replaced, and fill her propane tank. We got back to her house about 9pm and I helped her carry in her groceries, put the tire back on (I took it off that morning), and connected her propane tank back up. I stuck around for a spell and got home around midnight. I wrote about 300 words before I went to bed, it wasn’t much…

Wednesday 09- I did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, dumbbells, weights, and rode my bike.
I had to drive the Harley to 29 Palms to pick up a package at the post office.
Wrote most of the day…

Thursday 10- I did my stretches, yoga, and ran a mile.
It was a gloomy, cold to the bone windy day.
I wrote some more.

Friday 11- I did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, dumbbells, lifted weights, and ran a mile.
I put up a set of solar panels I had to take down a few months ago for repair.
I am now done with chapter 13 and wrote up to or more than 28,000 words.

Saturday 10- I did my stretches.
It rained and drizzled all day long.

There was a barbecue at the community center, but I didn’t feel good so I just stayed home.

Called family and friends.
I wrote all day.

Sunday 13- I did my stretches and went for a morning walk.
I’m still not feeling good.
I found my iPod Shuffle in a pocket on the backpack!
I went for my evening walk.
I wrote all day. The word count is 34,147…

Monday 14- I did my stretches and went for a morning walk.
I stopped by at John Massey’s house to see him and the work he’s done to his place.
I’m still feeling under the weather.
I went on my evening walk.
I wrote all day. The word count exceeds 36,000 now.

Tuesday 15- I did my stretches and went for a morning walk.
I went for my evening walk.
I did my stretches and went for a night run.

Wednesday 16- I did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, lifted weight, and went for a mile run.
I went for an evening walk.
Word count 42937

Thursday 17- I did my stretches, yoga, and went for a mile run.
I went to John Massey’s to take pictures of his jeep to send to Ray.
I went for my evening walk.
I did my stretches and went for a night run.
Word count 47159

Friday 18- I did my stretches, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, and ran a mile.
I sat outside and had breakfast while I watered the plants.
I went for my evening walk.
At 8:01 PM I completed 50095 words and the challenge is over!!!
NOW I CAN GET MY LIFE BACK!!!!

Saturday 17- I did my stretches, yoga, and went for a mile run.
I went to John Massey’s on my electric bike just for a visit.
I went for my evening walk.
I’ve been hiding out lately in my camper reading Treasure Island.

Sunday 20- I did my stretches.
I went for an evening walk.
I called family and friends.

Monday 21- I did my stretches, dumbbells, core trainer, and lifted weights.
Chris came by with my USDA groceries. He said 118 folks showed up for food at the center.
John Massey came over with a whole lot of oranges and apples. He got them from his son who came down to help him out on the reconstruction of his house.
I went for my evening walk.

Tuesday 22- I did my stretches and went for a mile run.
I rode my electric bike over to visit John Massey to see how he was doing.


Wednesday 23- I did my stretches and decided I needed to get some work done around the house; these short days are not helping at all, seems like I just get up and it’s evening in a few hours.
I topped off the batteries with water, move this and that around, and been going through my files getting rid of junk I don’t need anymore; a never ending task!
I went for my evening walk and hid out in the camper reading.

Thursday 24- I did my stretches.
I continued to do work around the house.
I had pancakes for dinner. There were places I could have went for Thanksgiving dinner, but this Saturday I have two dinners I have to attend and thought that this would make up for today.
I went for my evening walk.
I feel like I have a large hole missing in my center that I must fill. It turned out to be writing! So I’m starting Book Two of Rainbow at the End of Tomorrow. I am well over the 50,000 words of the National Novel Writing Month, which I attained on Friday 18th, but I just got so involved with what the story was evolving into I now have to continue it.
Ami Ven, I’ll get around to your blog Friday night and read some of those great short stories you write about of NCIS that I like so much!

Friday 25- I did my stretches, dumbbells, core trainer ran a mile, and lifted weights.
I went to visit John Massey on the electric bike (gotta get some use out of it).
Joel called to tell me the electric power went out. He called a few hours later to tell me it was on again.

Saturday 26- I did my stretches, yoga, and went for a mile run.
I went to two parties today.
I went to the Villarreal’s Turkey Bash at 1pm.
Then I went over to potluck at 4pm where there were some eighteen hungry folks showing up.
Then I went back to the Villarreal’s to listen to some guitar players and eat a plate of smoked turkey and other vittles.

Sunday 27- I did my stretches.
I went for an evening walk.
I’ve been hiding out lately in my camper reading Treasure Island.
I called family and friends

Monday 28- I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, core trainer, ran a mile, and lifted weights.
I woke up with a throbbing headache because I quit drinking coffee on Saturday night. I must have drunk enough Saturday to last me all through Sunday.
I finished all my Christmas cards and their ready to mail out.
I went for my evening walk.
I went out to my camper to read Treasure Island, but fell asleep.

Tuesday 29- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
I went to my mailbox and then to Yucca Valley to get supplies.
I took my blood pressure and it was quite high and my throbbing headache continued from yesterday. I decided to have a cup of coffee when I got home; I did and I feel much better, headache went away. I think I’ll just try to taper off the coffee instead of quitting it all at once.
I went for my evening walk.
Chris called from the center wanting to know where Cody lived so the center can give him and his family some extra food they have. I drove to the center just before Bingo started and took the food over to Cody and his family live.

Wednesday 30- I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, and ran a mile.
I went to Stoney’s and took a nice hot shower, washed my clothes and while they were drying I went to my other mailbox over on Lear Ave.
It got very windy around 4pm after my evening walk.
It rained later on into the night.
I finished reading "Treasure Island".

October 2011

Welcome to the month of October- I did my stretches, lifted weights, core trainer, and ran a mile.

The picture above is of these vase like things made of mud by some kinda insect. I found them on the backside of my outside temperature gauge when it blew down off the wall in high winds. It appears that whatever was birthed in them are now gone. Weird!!!
I went to visit John Massey.
I mostly worked on my book filling in some gaps here and there.

Sunday 02- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
Roger needed help with Stoney’s car.
Again I mostly worked on my book filling in some gaps here and there.
Kelly came by to pick Solomon up.

Monday 03- Kelly picked me up and we went to Palm Desert for her doctor’s appointment. While in the waiting room I watched lecture 28 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Nervous System 3.
Then we went to Sizzler in Yucca and ate like pigs, did some shopping, and ended up at her house about nightfall where we yakked for a spell.

Tuesday 04- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
I worked on my book filling in some gaps here and there.
Mat came by and put up a new antenna that went bad so now I’m back on the internet! Yippy!!!!!
I watched the rest of the “Fringe” episode that I was watching when my antenna died. And then I watched a new episode of “Castle”.

Wednesday 05- I did my stretches, lifted dumbbells, and ran a mile. It was very windy and there were some raindrops here and there but it felt good to run in that weather- kinda makes me feel alive.
I did my laundry over at Stoney’s, and then checked on a friend’s house and watered her plants.
When I got back home I took a broom and mop to the floors of my home and now it’s all clean and nice smelling!
I went for my evening walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: White Dwarfs.
I watched lecture 29 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Stem Cells/Cloning 1.

I found out that Steve Jobs had passed on earlier in the day- I am really sad about that after having seen him and his company grow from the beginning. I’m not a fan of anything except what works for me; never bought into this fanboy/girl thingy. I used an Apple II when I was in college- before that DOS- before that OS MVS JESII on an IBM 370. I have ancient computers lurking around my home: a Newton here, a TRS Model 100 there. Old laptops that run on Win 3.2 on up to Win7, a couple of Macs from the earliest to my MacBook running Snow Leopard. I never did like the Mac OS simply because I couldn’t choose what platform to run it on without a lot of tweaks and I’m more familiar with Windows.
Now with all that being said I believe that the iTouch is one of the greatest devices ever created. I never thought I’d watch anything from a 3.5 inch screen, been there done that, but with the Retina display I can very easily watch my lectures from MIT and Berkeley. Take pics and movies and upload them to FaceBook. Dang I can even place calls using Skype. I do have an iPad but find it too bulky to use as an ereader or whatever- still trying to find a use for it- but the iTouch I pop into my pocket and I’m off on my Harley :)
I’ve watch Steve ever since he created Apple, he’s a little younger than me, and watched Bill, too. These are guys like you and me who had a vision. For example: I was shown by a Xerox Rep a top secret device when I was taking classes at Xerox for forms creation on the 9700 Laser Printer. In a locked room of the security section in the building was a small computer. It looked like the 820 with a small laser printer hooked up to it; no big deal I thought. What was amazing was the screen; no command line with blinking cursor but a GUI, with a trash can and a few other icons on a desktop and an arrow controlled by a mouse, wow! I said to myself this is where computing is going. Steve Jobs saw the same thing and said to himself this is where I’m taking computing! There is a difference…

I watched a new show called “Terra Nova” on Hulu and it seems to be pretty good so far.
I went for a night run.

Thursday- 06 I did my stretches, yoga, and ran a mile.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
I went for an evening walk listening to an astronomy lecture by Alex Filippenko about: Supernovas.
I watched lecture 30 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Stem Cells/Cloning 2.
I watched “Starship Troopers 2” I guess it wasn’t very good because I’ve seen it before and had completely forgotten about it.
I went for a night run.

Friday 07- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
I printed up an agenda and flyer for the Neighborhood Watch that Linda sent me this morning and needed it by noon.
I went to my mailbox and mailed a letter for Kelly. Then I drove to this bike shop on the north side of HWY62 just before you get to Yucca. I met a guy call Ian who was waiting for his bike that was in the back getting new tires. Ian is a Marine and headed on his bike to Ohio to visit some buddies of his who had recently got out. I’ve never been to this shop before and I was buying oil and a filter for the Harley. I reached into my wallet to get a credit card and the owner said we take cash only so we can provide the lowest of prices for our customers, besides, he went on to say, card companies charge him $600 a month to use them in his store. Well cash it was and the prices seemed okay.
I got home and changed the oil on the Harley. After watching how to do it on YouTube a few times it was easy to do.
I watched a new episode of “Fringe” on Hulu.

Saturday 08- I did my stretches, lifted weights, core trainer, and ran a mile.
John Massey came by wanting me to printout a chapter of his book. While I was at it I printed out a chapter of my own book.
Seimi came by to yak for a spell.
I called Family and Friends throughout the day.
I watched lecture 31 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Molecular Medicine 1.
I watched “Silent Running” (1972) Starring Bruce Dern on YouTube in nine parts. It was a movie I watched when it first came to theaters, about; all of Earth’s forests, wetlands, and deserts are stored off Earth on spaceship cargo haulers. Pretty cool movie still!

Sunday 09- I did my stretches. My day off from exercising!
I started collecting all the tools I have lying about and cleaning them with the used oil I got from the Harley.
I watched about half of Avatar.

Monday 10- I did my stretches, yoga, lifted weights, and ran two miles. I was going to only run one mile but it was such a beautiful day and you never know how many beautiful days you have in your life to run two miles so I ran two.
I did more cleaning of Tools- this is going to take a few weeks.
I watered Linda’s plants.
I went to the Neighborhood Watch and then the board meeting- kinda burned me out, I hate doing meetings.
I finished Avatar- already seen it a few times- great movie!

Tuesday 11- I did my stretches.
I met Sami at the park in JT and she went over my book for grammar and such. She called me a few days earlier and introduced herself and said she is an author and staying at Sandy’s house while she’s away. We spent the whole day yapping about this and that. We decided to write a fiction story through email- she writing a paragraph and then I write one. Sami is a pleasant and easy to get along with.
I watched a new episode of “Warehouse 13”.

Wednesday 12- I did my, lifted dumbbells, and ran a mile.
I drove to Yucca and did some shopping before I picked up my parts from the Harley shop that finally came in.
I did a bunch of updates on computers. It seems like everybody (Meaning Microsoft and Apple) wanted to update. I installed OS5 on the iPad and iTouch after updating iTunes. Then it was security updates for Microsoft. I played around with the new OS5 for the rest of the night and found it made the iPad very useful to me as before it just didn’t cut it in my book. The browser was updated and much more user friendly.

Thursday 13- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
I worked on Tools most of the day- I keep finding them around the yard.

Friday 14- I did my stretches, lifted weights, and ran a mile.
I watched “V for Vengeance” a really thought provoking movie that Kelly set up for me to watch at an online movie site called Justin.tv that was interesting just by itself.

Saturday 15- I did my stretches, yoga, and rode my bike.
I went over to Kelly’s house and we sat outside doing a little stargazing- about four hours worth.

Sunday 16- I did my stretches.
I called friends and family throughout the day.

Monday 17- I did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, lifted weights, and ran two miles.
Chris ran out of gas.
I worked on tools some.
I had to take the sissy bar back off because the plates that hold it weren't drilled right and placed the tail lights too far forward- I re-drilled the holes in the back of the plates a larger diameter so the tail light extenders would fit through the dang hole- found nuts for the bolts that didn't come with any, I had asked for them but I guess the parts guy forgot- and put the whole dang thing back on correctly so my Ms. Honey Badger can rest her back and not slide off onto the road! What a pain in the butt, but worth it!
I went for my evening walk.

Tuesday 18- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
Worked on tools
I went for my evening walk.

Wednesday 19- I did my stretches, yoga, lifted dumbbells, core trainer, and rode the bike.
I signed up for National Novel Writing Month where you write a 50,000 word novel from scratch in 30 days.
Worked on tools…
I went for my evening walk.
I watched lecture 32 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Molecular Evolution.
I went for an evening run.

Thursday 20- I did my stretches, yoga, and ran a mile.
I watched lecture 33 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Molecular Medicine 2.
I went over to Kelly’s to give her a ride to her mailbox and also to check out the sissy bar. I found out that the bolts that hold the turn signals were rubbing against the tire. I spent the rest of the day cutting and grinding them down to fit right. I hope what was supposed to be a simple order parts and install that started on August 02nd will finally be done! Not much of anything I ordered was compatible with one another and had to be sent back or reworked by me or the Harley shop.

I went for my evening walk.
I watched new episodes of “Warehouse 13” and “Castle” on Hulu.

I did my stretches and went for a night run.

Friday 21- I did my stretches, yoga, ran a mile, core trainer, and lifted weights.
I watched lectures 34 and 35 of MIT Introduction to Biology: Human Polymorphisms, and The Future of Biology. The Professors were Eric Lander and Robert A Weinberg. This is the end of the Biology Class.

Saturday 22- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
I watered Linda’s plants and drove down to collect my mail. I found a Jury Summons in the mailbox- I thought to myself what else could go wrong. Just as I was about 500 feet from my driveway my rear tire started going flat, dang. Well no problem I thought, I’ll just pullout the nail and put a plug in it- nope it appears to have an inner tube, dang again. I’ll wait till tomorrow to pull the tire off.
I told Kelly I needed company, I was feelin kinda down, so she invited me over to her place. I brought over my tablets and she really liked the iPad and played with Google Earth showing me where used to live- I did the same for her showing places where I moored my sailboats when I lived in King Harbor. We ate crackers spread with spicy refried beans topped with sharp cheddar and olives. We kept her begging dogs and cats at bay with a water spray bottle.


Sunday 23- I did my stretches.
I mostly spent the day talking to friends and family who called. I been having trouble with my landline phone and had to forward it to my computer to use Skype to call them back.
I removed the rear tire from the Harley and took pictures of everything I did so I’ll not be having any troubles putting it back together- it actually wasn’t that hard.
I watched a new episode of “Fringe”.

Monday 24- I did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, dumbbells, lifted weights, and ran a mile.
Desert Cycle and got tire fixed. Doctors, Rite Aid, Staters, Kelly’s.
I went for my evening walk.
I did my stretches and went for a night run.

Tuesday 25- I did my stretches and ran two miles.
I watered all my plants.
I mounted the tire back on the Harley- what a pain!
I test drove it and ended up at Kelly’s and we yapped for a spell.
I did my stretches and went for a night run.
I practiced my guitar and tried recording a couple of songs.

Wednesday 26- I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
I wrote last paragraph of chapter one of The Pawn, my collaboration with Sami.
I read and caught up on astronomy reading.
I did my stretches and went for a night run.

Thursday 27- I got on my Harley and drove to the Doctor’s office to pick up the signed jury duty summons and went right back home.
I did my stretches, yoga, and ran a mile.
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
Mostly I worked on computers all day. One of my Win 7 came up with a warning that the software was bogus. I knew it wasn’t and had to go through Microsoft to get it corrected- felt like strangling the robot voice on the other end of the line.
I went for my evening walk- still can’t find my iPod Shuffle with my astronomy lectures on it.
The cheap Android Mid 900 Tablet I bought for $60 still wasn’t working right with the Uberoid V5 version that I had loaded on a few months ago using number 8 settings- video wouldn’t play correctly. I read up some more and decided to try setting 7 and it looks to be running fine now. But now I find that Uberoid has a version 6 out, dang, so I downloaded it and may try it tomorrow.

Friday 28- I did my stretches, yoga, dumbbells, core trainer, lifted weights, and ran a mile.
I updated the Mid 7” to Uberoid V6 and it seems to be running better.
I went for my evening walk.
I watched “Sahara” on the Mid 7” tablet and it ran very well on the new version of Uberoid this time.
I did my stretches and went for a night run.
I practiced my guitar.

Saturday 29- I did my stretches and ran a mile.
I called Family and Friends throughout the day.
I went to potluck at our community center-
I went for my evening walk.
I stopped off at Kelly’s to bring her some potluck leftovers and stayed over for a spell.

Sunday 30- I did my stretches- my day off from exercising.
I fixed Kelly’s fence so her little rat dog would have a harder time escaping, and then put a plug in her flat tire.

Monday 31- I did my stretches, yoga, core trainer, lifted weights, dumbbells, and rode my bike.
I watered my plants.
I wrote another couple of paragraphs in reply to Sami’s latest one sent to me- I killed off three of the stories characters :)
UPS arrived with the 8Gig memory for my netbook.
I’ve been fretting over what to write for my 50,000 word novel in the National Novel Writing Month that starts tonight- I don’t have a clue but I guess I’ll find out tonight. My name for the novel is “Rainbow at the end of Tomorrow”- Wish me luck!

Goodbye to you October! Such a nice month you were!!!