April 2009

Welcome to the Month of April! - did my stretches. Pretty darn windy to do anything else!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 49 and 77 degrees, winds NW 10 to 18 MPH, humidity around 23 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 80. Breezy, with a northwest wind 9 to 12 mph becoming west southwest between 23 and 26 mph. Winds could gust as high as 37 mph. Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 53. Breezy, with a west northwest wind between 20 and 26 mph, with gusts as high as 37 mph.”
I had an appointment over at Marie’s to hookup a dialup connection for her. I got there about 1pm and found right off that her new Dell Laptop didn’t have a modem, dang! I spent an hour trying to setup a USB dialup modem that I have for my Dell Mini 9, but the modem’s drivers wouldn’t work on her Vista operating system for some reason; they were vista drivers and should have worked. I don’t use Vista but I have worked on other folks systems that have it. It is enough like Win XP but I have to hunt around for what I need. The nag screens that pop up really get on my nerves. I know there’s a way to turn them off but it is not my laptop or else I’d have done it. I showed her a few simple things being she is a newbie, so I didn’t waste my time by coming there even if I didn’t get her online. Her daughter who bought her the laptop will be getting her a USB modem from Dell and I’ll install it when it arrives. Two hours after arriving I was on my way back home.
I went over to Stoney’s for dinner. We needed to finish off the bean and rice dish he made last Friday. Well we made a dent in it anyways. He also made a salad of sorts by pouring bacon grease mixed with vinegar and sugar; I believe it’s called wilted lettuce. It was very good but I could hear my arteries hardening. The remote satellite TV in his kitchen wasn’t working and he wanted me to have a look-see. I spent an hour on that: reading the instructions, fooling around with the remote, and checking the connections. I finally figured it out, got it working, and watched an episode of “Myth Busters”.
When I got back home I did webwork most of the evening. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 02 - did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 53 and 81 degrees, winds W-SW 6 to 21 MPH, humidity around 22 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Areas of blowing dust after 11am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 68. Windy, with a west northwest wind 29 to 32 mph increasing to between 37 and 40 mph. Winds could gust as high as 60 mph. Friday Night: Areas of blowing dust before 11pm. Mostly clear, with a low around 42. Windy, with a northwest wind 28 to 31 mph decreasing to between 15 and 18 mph. Winds could gust as high as 47 mph.”
At 12:30 I drove Stoney down to Palm Springs for a test his doctor wanted him to take. The medical center down there is huge with a maze of corridors, offices, and elevators and easy for us to get lost in, which we did. If it wasn’t that we ran into a maintenance man who gave us directions I think we’d been late for his appointment. We went into a small waiting room that was really claustrophobic with six chairs and ten patients. While Stoney filled out his paperwork I chatted with a lady, Dorothy Church, sitting across from us who lives in Landers not far from Copper Mountain Mesa. She volunteers at the Senior Center as a Sunshine girl who writes thank you cards and letters to folks that are ill.
The nurse said that the procedure would take a couple of hours and I should wait in the reception area and they’d call me on my cell when he was ready to be picked up. I got hungry and left to find food. I was told that the hospital had a cafeteria but I don’t like being around sick folks, so I left the hospital grounds and headed out into the community of Palm Springs. On one street I walked past a row of small shops and boutiques that were recently closed and out of business. It looked like a ghost town except for all the cars driving by on the four lane road. So sad! I spotted a Denny’s down a ways, walked in, and ordered a Grand Slam Breakfast. I asked the waiter how long this Denny’s has been here and he said over forty years or more. I believe I’ve been in this one back in the early seventies when my friends and I used to hike up to Tahquitz Falls, but that’s a story for another time.
I made it back to the medical center to find Dorothy sitting in the reception area and we jawed a little more. I had my portable computer with me and was able to get online through an open WIFI connection! Dorothy thought that was just amazing! I showed her my website, National Weather Service where we got tomorrow’s weather, and the USGS for recent earthquakes. She doesn’t use computers and was surprised at how easy it was done.
I went to check if Stoney was ready. An attendant let me into see him where he was lying sideways on a bed looking groggy but alert. The nurse said he’d be ready for transport in a few minutes, so I made my way down to his car and drove it around until I found the right ramp that led to where I picked him up. The attendant helped get him into the car and we where off on our way back home with one little stop at Stater Bros where I picked up a few things he and I both needed.
Too dang windy for an evening walk, so I just did a few things around the house and returned a few calls that were left on my answering machine.
After watching the evening news and talking to Kevin, I thought I’d watch “Bones” on Fox. I’ve haven’t watched it for a while because it was getting away from what it used to be, and becoming too focused on junk I really don’t care about. This episode was pretty good and I may go back to viewing it.
Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 03 - did my stretches. I was just ten minutes away from going on a run when the wind whipped up to 30 MPH!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 43 and 70 degrees, winds NW 18 to 37 MPH with gusts over 60, humidity around 21 percent, hazy skies. According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 64. North northwest wind between 9 and 18 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. Saturday Night: Clear, with a low around 40. West northwest wind between 3 and 7 Mph.”
Well the wind was really blowing and I decided to stay inside and finish doing my taxes. It took a couple of hours till all was done. I jumped into the Gross Polluter and drove down to the mailbox and sent them off. Now I’m rid of them for another year!
I stopped off at Stoney’s for lunch and this time we really did finish off them rice and beans. We sat around watching “Cash Cab” for a while. Stoney had this shack in back of his house that the winds of today dismantled and sent into the atmosphere. He said that it was alright because now he can see Roger’s house to see if he is home.
I got back and did some computer work for a while until the news came on. Talked to Kevin afterwards and then watched “Terminator: the Sarah Conner Chronicles” where it seems that most of the cast are getting killed off- I guess it’s the economy! “Numb3rs” came on CBS. It was a rerun that I hadn’t seen before because I missed it when the UHF transmitter went off the air one night last October.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar after replacing a string that broke, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 04 - did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 40 and 66 degrees, winds NW 8 to 12, humidity around 18 percent, hazy skies from the wind. According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 72. Northwest wind at 9 mph becoming east northeast. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 46. East southeast wind at 7 mph becoming north northwest.”
I am going to make this post short because I’m very tired: I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter. Then I went outside to work in my yard watering plants and cutting fronds off the palm trees.
I called Family and Friends throughout the day trying to keep in touch. Then I went over to Stoney’s for some apple pie that he had baked.
I got back home too late to go on my evening walk, so I did some webwork until late into the evening. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 05 - did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 46 and 70 degrees, winds NW-E 3 to 7, humidity around 14 percent, hazy skies from the wind. According to the National Weather Service “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 76. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming east northeast. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 47. South southeast wind 5 to 8 mph becoming west.”
I can’t say I did much of anything today except enjoy the nice weather and do a little reading. I did go over to my friend Mac’s house for a visit and came back with a sink for my camper.
After yakking with a few Family members, I watched “60 Minutes” on CBS about the closure of a cancer treatment center at a hospital in Nevada that made my eyes tear up. Most of these patients got a notice in the mail about the closure and now have nowhere to go to get chemotherapy. Very sad and hard to watch! Then I watched “Nature” on PBS about frogs that are dying off all over the world and the steps scientists are taking to save them from extinction. Another sad story that makes me mad at what we have done to the Earth. I then watched “House” for the very first time, it was a rerun, and thought it was very good but a little corny.
Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 06 - did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 47 and 79 degrees, winds NW-E 2 to 6, humidity around 12 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 78. Breezy, with a west southwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming southwest between 21 and 24 mph. Winds could gust as high as 38 mph. Tuesday Night: A 20 percent chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 48. Breezy, with a west southwest wind 19 to 22 mph decreasing to between 8 and 11 mph. Winds could gust as high as 36 mph.”
I was writing my column for the newspaper and planning to work on a desktop to sell to a friend, when Bob Vandenberg called to say he was dropping by. Cool! I don’t mind changing my schedule for an old friend! He was coming up from Indio where he’s been working on a new apartment complex installing the plumbing. It would take him about 45 minutes to make the drive and I did as much as I could to complete my column before his arrival. We yakked for around an hour or so. He would have stayed longer but he got a call from a fellow plumber needing the master key to the apartment.
As soon as Bob left I got a call from Marie Morrison telling me that the modem had arrived for her laptop, so I headed over to install the modem, get her online, setup an email account for her, and show her how to work the browser. She told me that she won $100 at Bingo last Tuesday night; lucky gal!
I then made a fast stop over at Stoney’s to take some pics of the four baby birds that hatched in his trailer. Unfortunately they were asleep and it is hard to make them out in the nest. I’ll try again later in the week to get a better shot of them. Stoney had baked a lemon pie which I sampled and sampled some more. It was mighty good!
I received a nice compliment about my newspaper column that was left on my answering machine from a Muffin Hill. I returned her call and we had a pleasant chat.
Went for my evening walk and then read some astronomy until the evening news came on. There was a large earthquake in Italy that had destroyed many medieval structures and also killing over a hundred folks while they slept in the night. Kevin called and we jawed for a spell. Then I watched “24” on Fox where Jack is falling ill from the virus and is restricted to the FBI Field Office, while these evil doers are going to launch missiles containing a deadly virus at New Jersey.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, finished my column and sent it to the newspaper, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 07 - did my stretches and ran two miles. Looks like another storm will be rolling in tonight!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 48 and 79 degrees, winds S-SW 6 to 19, humidity around 15 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 64. Windy, with a west northwest wind 20 to 23 mph increasing to between 33 and 36 mph. Winds could gust as high as 49 mph. Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 45. Breezy, with a west northwest wind 21 to 24 mph decreasing to between 11 and 14 mph. Winds could gust as high as 31 mph.”
After watering some plants and doing a little yard work, I got to working on the desktop computer that I’m selling to my friend. It’s an old Hp Pavilion 4563z, Intel 433MZ Celeron processor, with 128MB of RAM. I couldn’t get the modem running on Win98, so I installed Win2000 which found it. The audio isn’t working and I’ll look for a driver for that later. I updated it to service pack 3, Installed Zone, Avast Anti-Virus, Firefox, and a few other programs. I got it online without any problems. It will be good to go tomorrow.
I went out to the camper to read the geology book and completed a few chapters in that. Then I went for my evening walk where the wind was kicking up some.
I watched the evening news, yakked with my brother Kevin until “NCIS” came on CBS where Abby is shanghaied by the FBI to work on a biological program. Then “Fringe” came on Fox about a small child that was found by a demolition crew sealed up in a hidden basement for some 70 years or so.
I did my stretches and lifted weights, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 08 - did my stretches and a mile.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 45 and 63 degrees, winds NW-W 11 to 29, humidity around 25 percent, mostly clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 70. Northwest wind 7 to 15 mph becoming southwest. Winds could gust as high as 21 mph. Thursday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 47. West southwest wind between 18 and 21 mph becoming calm. Winds could gust as high as 29 mph.”
Got back to working on the old HP Pavilion and got it ready to go. I called Raymond and told him it was ready, he said come on by. I set it all up at his house and asked him for the Earthlink disk, but he wasn’t sure if that is the ISP he is using, great! They take monthly payments out of his checking but he isn’t sure it is them. I temporary put it on my ISP so he could see that it works. I showed him a few things about the Firefox browser’s tabs, had him turn the desktop off and on, and then I left telling him that when he finds out what ISP he is using to give me a call and I’d come over and set it up.
I got home just in time for Kath’s arrival with her Dell laptop she wants me to check out. She thinks she caught a virus, but wasn’t clear why she thought she did. She forgot to bring the power supply thinking that I had one, and the recovery disks I had asked her to bring but instead brought a box full of old CDs that are for Win98! Dang! I told her that I need them, but will try to do what I could before her batteries run low.
Stoney called to say he had baked two banana pies and I should come on by to try them. I did and they were mighty fine.
Got back home and went on my evening walk. Then I got caught up on my astronomy reading.
P called saying that a popup says she needs to upgrade her browser and ISP. I asked her if she was still able to play her online games and she said yes, so I told her to ignore the popups. She is running Win98SE and there aren’t any upgrades for her browsers, and since she is still able to play her games (Pogo) everything should be just fine. The ISP dialup she is using is mine and I know there is nothing wrong with that, except it is dialup!
I did some webwork late into the night, did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 09 - did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 47 and 72 degrees, winds NW-SW 8 to 13, humidity around 26 percent, mostly clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Friday: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 65. Light wind becoming southwest between 14 and 17 mph. Winds could gust as high as 24 mph. Friday Night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 46. West northwest wind between 7 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.”
I messed around installing a Win XP operating system that I got with my new Dell Mini 9 onto my old Dell 733r as an experiment to see if it would work. It did and found everything including my modem and sound card. Cool! It still asks to be registered, but it was only a test.
I went over to Stoney’s for some more banana pie that he baked yesterday. While I was there I took some more pics of the baby birds that are in a nest in Stoney’s trailer. There are four of them and they look pretty healthy.
Went for my evening walk taking pictures of the flowers around my home and on the trail I walk on. I don’t remember there being so many of them since I’ve moved up here in 1998.
I fell off the TV wagon and watched the news, “Malcolm in the Middle”, “California Gold” with Huell Howser, “Bones”, and then “Gray’s Anatomy”. I feel like that Winchell Donut commercial where the kids get sucked into the television set! I have other things to do than watch TV.
Wessel, my friend from Holland, called to tell me he is in town and we will meet up on Saturday for a visit.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, updated the calendar on the website, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 10 - did my stretches and ran a mile.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 46 and 66 degrees, winds W-SW 8 to 18, humidity around 36 percent, cumulonimbus with thunderstorms and rain. According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: A 20 percent chance of showers before 11am. Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 66. West northwest wind between 11 and 21 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 48. West northwest wind 18 to 21 mph decreasing to between 9 and 12 mph. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph.”
I had just got done with my run and sitting down to eat my oatmeal when Joan called to tell me that she accidentally deleted the Firefox browser. She brought her laptop over for me to have a look-see. It was only minimized down to a very small square that she wasn’t used to. So that was a quick fix and now she knows! She also brought me a Sci-Fi book to read by Orson Scott Card called “Treason” that I’ll start reading tomorrow.
I was outside later cleaning out the Gross Polluter getting it ready for a small trip tomorrow when it started to rain! Cool! It wasn’t a whole lot but I think enough for the flowers to drink their fill. Lots of thunder and lightning in this storm!
I went over to Stoney’s for dinner. He made some macaroni with meat sauce and a salad made from lettuce from his garden. Roger Smith was also there telling about a rabbit hutch he found in his garden after leaving the gate open while he was away for a week. Then we all jawed about when we were in the military service. Stoney told us a story when he was being shipped over to the Philippines during WWII, and how he traveled down the Sacramento River on a paddlewheel to the Liberty Ship that would take him there. Once on the Liberty Ship someone told him to eat lots of bread to avoid seasickness and got two loafs in the mess and ate it all! Stoney was always asking his Sergeant for something to do on the long voyage, but there was nothing the Sergeant needed done. Later a notice went up on the bulletin board stating that if you didn’t keep your area clean you would be put on extra duty. So Stoney left his area in a mess, bed unmade and clothes lying around. He was put on extra duty painting Officer’s quarters. The Officer liked the painting job so much that he offered Stoney a drink and asked if he wouldn’t mind painting other Officer’s quarters. Well Stoney took him up on that and painted and drank his way over to the Philippines.
I got back home to feed Fat Cat and watched the evening news and then “Terminator: the Sarah Conner Chronicles” that was a mind blowing episode and the season finale. Now I can’t wait until next season to sort out what in hell happened!
Updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter. Then I watched “Numb3rs” on CBS about an animal rights group that kills a biology professor.
Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 11 - did my stretches and got everything together for the trip to Juniper hills.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 48 and 66 degrees, winds NW-W 7 to 19, humidity around 37 percent, few clouds. According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 76. North northwest wind between 5 and 9 mph. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 52. West northwest wind around 7 mph.”
I was going to go to the Easter Egg Coloring Party today to take some pictures, but my friend Wessel called a few days ago needing help retrieving a truck that broke down in Juniper Hills. I contacted Annelies Kuiper, who is going to be at the party, to write a story and take pictures for my newspaper column. So I was free to go help Wessel today.
I picked him up in Joshua Tree at 10am where he is staying at his friend Shaun Kruse’s storage yard. Juniper Hills is about a hundred miles away and the wind was gusting all the way there. We made one stop at Carl’s Jr. to eat; Wessel had a Western Bacon Burger and I had my favorite Super Star with extra mayo. We tried to have a chat on the way there but the Gross Polluter is so noisy from wind blowing through cracks here and there, and all the rattling of truck innards, that communicating was made nearly impossible. We arrived at our destination a little around 1pm and Wessel set to work on his truck while I walked around to take pictures until the Gross Polluter and I were needed to jump start the truck. We had the truck working in just forty-five minutes and took off down the road with me following Wessel incase he broke down. We stopped at the first gas station to fill up. Wessel wasn’t too sure about the truck starting again and neither was I and I told him to just keep the truck running. Normally you wouldn’t want to do this while getting gas! The dang gas station charged me twenty-five cents to use the head and I thought that kind of petty since we filled up both trucks there. We got back to Joshua Tree just before 5pm without any problems. I stayed for a little while to jaw with Wessel and Shaun. Shaun is the “wheeler dealer” type who has lots of deals going on at a time; he’s witty, a good person and funny too!
On my way back home I decided to make a quick stop over at Stoney’s for some of that macaroni he made yesterday. He was watching a Country-Western show with the lights dimmed while soaking his feet in this small electric foot hot tub. This made me laugh and I told him that all he needed now was aromatherapy candles to make it complete. I ate some banana pie, too!
When I finally got home and fed Fat Cat, I checked my messages and found one from my sister Audrey and called her back and we yapped for over an hour. Then I watched “Law and Order: Criminal Intent” where Goran has to go undercover in a drug ring to get his badge back. I think that “Criminal Intent” is the best of the “Law and Order” shows and wish NBC would stop messing around with this excellent show and be consistent in its airing!
Then I read a chapter in “Treason” by Orson Scott Card, did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 12 - did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 52 and 77 degrees, winds NW-SW 7 to 10 MPH, humidity around 26 percent, few clouds. According to the National Weather Service “Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 81. Calm wind becoming south southwest between 7 and 10 mph. Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 55. West wind between 6 and 14 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.”
I didn’t do a whole lot today, just resting from that long drive of yesterday. I did some yard work and watered the plants. My cacti that I had planted two years ago are starting to flower. I took some pics of them and maybe tomorrow I’ll post a couple of them here. Throughout the day I called Family and Friends to wish them a happy Easter. I read a little in the book “Treason”, and went for my evening walk. I was going to watch “60 Minutes” but there wasn’t anything I wanted to see on the show, so I went online to take care of some webwork. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 13 - did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 55 and 82 degrees, winds SW 7 to 12 MPH, humidity around 22 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Areas of blowing dust after 11am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 75. Windy, with a calm wind becoming west southwest between 27 and 30 mph. Winds could gust as high as 46 mph. Tuesday Night: Areas of blowing dust. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 42. Windy, with a west wind 29 to 32 mph decreasing to between 17 and 20 mph. Winds could gust as high as 47 mph.”
It was Stoney’s 89th birthday and him and I went down to the Sizzler Restaurant to celebrate and ate at the salad bar. We both got filled to the gills (meaning we stuffed ourselves). Stoney’s doctor put him on a special diet when he saw him today, so it was his last eating splurge for a while. I think I’ll cut down on my eating too, I told him. Then we made a stop at WalMart to pick up a few things, and then on to home.
I went for a long evening walk to burn off some of what I ate. Watched the nightly news and thought it grand that the American Captain held hostage by Somali pirates was freed by Navy Seal sharpshooters after shooting three of the pirates remaining on the lifeboat in the head from a long distance.
I read a few chapters in “Treason” and then watched “24” on Fox, where Jack is falling deathly ill from a virus but was still able to direct a successful raid on the evil doers compound, thus saving the world. Unfortunately Tony, who helped blow up the compound, but now trading sides, along with a mercenary, made off with some of the virus.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote my column for the newspaper, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 14 - did my stretches and ran two miles.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 42 and 72 degrees, winds W-SW 12 to 37 MPH with gusts to 55, humidity around 19 percent, altostratus clouds. According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 57. Windy, with a west northwest wind between 22 and 31 mph, with gusts as high as 44 mph. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 40. West northwest wind between 13 and 18 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.”
The winds began to pick up after I completed my run and it’s been windy all day. I decided to complete some webwork on Ken’s and Robert’s websites that I’ve been too busy to do lately.
I called Wessel to wish him a safe trip to Kansas City tomorrow where he will be gathering old iron steam radiators to ship back to Holland.
Stoney baked another pie and invited me over to sample it. This time it was a mixed fruit pie that was mighty tasty. With each new pie Stoney bakes the pie crust gets even better and better! We sat and watched “Cash Cap” to try and answer the questions.
I got back home before sunset but it was just way too windy for an evening walk, so I read a chapter in “Treason”, watched the nightly news, “NCIS” on CBS, and then “Fringe” on Fox. The high winds actually knocked my antenna around to where I’m getting better reception!
I did my stretches and lifted weights, practiced my guitar until I broke a string, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 15 - did my stretches. Too dang windy for a run!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 42 and 54 degrees, winds NW-W 20 to 31 MPH with gusts to 50 or more, humidity around 20 percent, a few clouds here and there. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 70. Breezy, with a north northwest wind between 14 and 24 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph. Thursday Night: Clear, with a low around 46. Northwest wind between 8 and 10 mph.”
I did some webwork and then headed over to Mac’s house. He said he may have some extendable clip-on mirrors for my truck that I can use when I ever get the camper on, and that will be when the win dies down. After we searched his yard and found the mirrors we sat for a while yakking about motorcycles and such. Then I was on the road headed for Stoney’s to see what he was up to. I found him in the kitchen working on the clock he had purchased a few weeks ago. He said it had stopped because of all the grime that had accumulated throughout the years, and was cleaning it. I sat around for a spell watching him doing the repairs and made a run to the clock trailer for a part he needed. I took a picture of the baby birds in the nest; how they have grown. I’ll post them tomorrow when I have more time.
I got back home to do some more webwork. I got the Meta description and keywords and a site map, which should make it easier for search engines crawlers to pick up, all set up on Robert’s website and submitted it to Google; I did the same for Ken’s site yesterday. I stopped long enough to watch the evening news to see if the rest of the world was still there, and jawed with Kevin when he called. I then went back to my webwork and did this until late into the night.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar on only five strings because I had forgotten to fix the string I broke yesterday and because it was getting late I didn’t have the time to do that. I wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 16 - did my stretches and lifted weights. Still too dang windy for a run!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 46 and 68 degrees, winds NW 10 to 15 MPH, humidity around 24 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Sunny, with a high near 77. North northwest wind between 10 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph. Friday Night: Clear, with a low around 51. North wind 5 to 9 mph becoming west.”
I woke up mighty late today, so it was a scramble to get a few things done. After I did my exercises and had breakfast I drove down to the mailbox to see if I had gotten a package with a hard drive my brother Kevin sent so that I can extract the data of it for his daughter. It wasn’t there. I’ll try again another day.
I have this thing for old computers. I have this old laptop, a Compaq Contura 4/25 laptop that I bought new in the early 90s, with 4MB of RAM and a 25MHz 486SL processor, running Win 3.1. I ran DoubleSpace which is a program runs under MSDOS Version 6.2 that compresses the files on the hard drive and it freed up over half of the drive. Then sorting through some old floppies I found an old version of Quicken that I loaded on the laptop and was surprised that the floppies still worked! I played around with Quicken for a while and then went online with Internet Explorer 3.something and surfed the web at an incredible rate of 9600-bps! It took forever for my website to load even though I had the pictures turned off in the settings; it was like watching paint dry! But it was a fun thing to do on a windy afternoon. I discovered that the battery still holds a charge, so maybe I’ll find some use for this old laptop yet
My dear friend Kula called me from Hawaii; lucky gal! She is over there to do some business for a company she is affiliated with. I told her that the next time they ask her to go there to say she needs to bring her assistant (me) along.
Stoney called to tell me about the birthday party for him and Bill Bonner he went to. Their birthdays fall on the same month and some friends take them out to lunch. He had a great time, he said.
I messed around with the old Compaq until I noticed that it was 11pm, so I quit and did my stretches.
I decided to replace all the strings on my guitar. They were all very old and frayed, and I am very cheap that I let them get that way. It sounds much better but the new strings need to be broken in before I get any good tone and action out of them.
I wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 17 - did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 51 and 73 degrees, winds NW 6 to 10 MPH, humidity around 19 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 83. North northwest wind around 8 mph. Saturday Night: Clear, with a low around 55. North northwest wind between 5 and 7 mph.”
I just sat down to eat my breakfast and read my email when Marie called telling me that her new Dell laptop died and if I could help. Told her to bring it on by and I’d have a look-see. She came by about 20 minutes later and it was an easy fix; the system just got hung up on shutdown and when it started back up it went into a recovery mode and all we had to do is finish the process. I told her that sometimes happens and just restart the computer. I’ve found that most problems can be solved by just restarting.
Ginger my new neighbor came by to drop off a post digger she had borrowed. She has been having troubles with somebody calling code enforcement everyday about her two horses. They are well taken care of and her son comes out to feed them every evening. She had been trying to build a shelter for them, but first of all some thieves made off with the materials she had bought. Then she bought more materials and constructed a shelter that had gotten blown down by the high winds we’ve been having lately. The horses she has were destined for the glue factory and she is trying her best to cope with the situation, but is at her wits end. She found a home for one of the horses and is going to move the other one sometime in the next couple of days. I told her that I’d help her build a shelter when she has it altogether. She is a nice and caring person and it’s too bad that someone is putting her through this, which she said almost borders on harassment.
I dropped by Stoney’s for dinner. We’re still eating the macaroni he made a while back, and there is still more left!
I got home and fed Fat Cat and went for my evening walk. Then I called Kevin to jaw for a spell before the nightly news came on.
Read a few more chapters in “Treason”, and then did my stretches and practiced my guitar. Updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the newsletter. Wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 18 - did my stretches and ran two miles.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 55 and 81 degrees, winds NW 4 to 8 MPH, humidity around 17 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 86. North northwest wind between 6 and 11 mph. Sunday Night: Clear, with a low around 56. East wind at 6 mph becoming northwest.”
After breakfast I went right to work on putting the camper on the Gross Polluter. I first had to take the camper shell off, then the bed liner. Under the liner were all kinds of crud that I had to broom out and then take a hose to. The crud filled up a five gallon container! Once I got all that done, I jacked up the camper and maneuvered the truck underneath. I connected the inside turnbuckles and tighten them as I lowered the camper. Everything was connected except the back turnbuckles because I couldn’t find a place to connect them. I made a test drive over to Stoney’s and some pie and ice cream. The camper slid back a little and before I got back home I applied the brakes and it slid forward to where it is suppose to be. I found some chain to add to the turnbuckles and got them secure to the rear end. Then another test drive and the camper only slid backwards a little bit. When I go to town I’ll stop in at Auto Zone to see if I can find something better to hold the camper still and in place, but before I go to town I need to fix and put on the extended mirrors. This took all my day! My friend Sherry stopped by for a little chat and it was nice to see her! I called and yakked with Family and Friends throughout the day while working on the camper.
I needed a rest from all the hard work I did today, so I did a little webwork and surf the web till late into the evening. Then I did my stretches, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 19 - did my stretches and went for a walk.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 56 and 87 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 18 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 90. North wind between 5 and 7 mph. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 59. South southwest wind between 4 and 7 mph becoming calm.”
I went back to working on securing my camper to the Gross Polluter. Stoney called and said that he had some turnbuckles over in his garage, so I made my way over and worked on the camper there. I found what I needed and so far it’s looking good and secured to the truck. I also used his compressor to lift the air shocks up a little more to even out the truck. Then we had lunch; more macaroni and pie with ice cream.
I went for my evening walk and then read “Treason” until “60 Minutes” came on. I was mostly interested in the Cold Fusion segment. It seems that several laboratories have been working on it and had some success. Twenty years ago when it first announced nobody could duplicate the experiment and was relinquish to the realm of UFOs and Big Foot.
Kevin called and we yapped at each other for a spell. I went back to my reading until it got late. I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 20 - did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 59 and 91 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 16 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 93. Northwest wind at 10 mph becoming east southeast. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 60. Southwest wind between 10 and 13 mph becoming light.”
I took the jacks off the camper, they must weigh around seventy pounds each, and then I cleaned the insides. When I opened the door to do the cleaning a bunch of these black moths come flying out, yikes! There must have been hundreds of them. After I shooed them away I was able to start my cleaning. I watered all my plants while I was doing this.
Stoney called to say he had baked three more pies, and wanted me to try them out. Hey, no problem! I was going to take a picture of the baby birds in the nest in Stoney’s trailer, but the nest was empty, they have flown the coop, I wish them well.
When I got home I went on my evening walk, watched the nightly news, and yapped with Kevin for a spell. I read “Treason” by Orson Scott Card and finished it after watching “24” on Fox. Then 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.

Tuesday 21 - did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 60 and 93 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 16 percent, a few high cirrus clouds. According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 92. Calm wind becoming southwest between 10 and 13 mph. Winds could gust as high as 18 mph. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 60. West northwest wind 14 to 17 mph decreasing to between 5 and 8 mph. Winds could gust as high as 24 mph.”
Since tomorrow is Earth Day, I am going to post this little story I wrote about the first Earth Day I attended in 1970 now:
I remember the first Earth Day way back in April 22, 1970. There was a rally held in a park next to the college I was attending at the time. The main speaker, a young well dressed bearded scholar, was lecturing us poor uninformed folk about how bad pollution and our way of living was destroying the world. After the rally I had some questions to ask this knowledgeable leader of the environmental movement. So I followed him out to his car and tried to ask my questions, but he said he was in a hurry and couldn’t spend the time with me. He then drove off leaving me in a cloud of black smoke billowing out from the tailpipe of his Mercedes diesel.
I learned a good number of lessons on that day. Practice what you preach. Even back in 1970, as it is today, it was hard to find anyone who does. And another lesson learned was “Experts” don’t know crap! You just got to keep an open mind and evaluate what knowledge you accumulate, because you’re responsible for what you do and how you live. Oh and by the way, the electrical in my home is powered by solar panels. I hope you had a wonderful Earth Day and actually did something to lower your carbon footprint. Every little bit helps!

I decided to test out and see how the Gross Polluter handled with the camper on it, so I drove it to Yucca Valley. I first checked my mailbox to see if Kevin’s hard drive arrived, but it hadn’t. Then got gas at yapped with a lady about her PT Cruiser, I thought it looked nice, but she said that she’d never buy another car from Chrysler again, and that ended the discussion. Stopped off at AutoZone to see if they had some extended mirrors, but they only have the crappy ones like the broken one I’m using now for thirty bucks. So I just bought some oil there. Went to WalMart and then Stater Bros to get some supplies, and then drove on home. The truck ran just fine with the camper on, but when I got home and parked I heard a hissing noise coming from my left rear tire, dang! I found the hole, plugged it, inflated it, and it was good to go.
I stopped off at Stoney’s to say howdy and pick up the USDA groceries that he had for me. We watched “Cash Cab” for a while trying to guess the answers.
Back home again, I went for my evening walk, called Kevin, and watched the nightly news. I started a new Sci-Fi book by Anne McCaffrey called “To Ride Pegasus” and read it until “Fringe” came on Fox. Then I did my stretches and lifted weights, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Earth Day! - did my stretches and lifted weights.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 60 and 90 degrees, NW-SW winds at 4 to 17 MPH, humidity around 20 percent, a few altostratus clouds. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 88. Breezy, with a light wind becoming southwest between 22 and 25 mph. Winds could gust as high as 38 mph. Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 59. West wind 18 to 21 mph decreasing to between 9 and 12 mph. Winds could gust as high as 31 mph.”
Kath finally brought the power supply for her Dell Inspiron 1501 Laptop so I can start working on it. I think it’s been about a week since she first brought the laptop to me. When I boot up, the system says it doesn’t recognize the battery, but it charges it and I can run it on the battery, weird! I did some cleanup on it, updated the antivirus and anti-spyware, checked for driver upgrades but found none except for the BIOS. I hope updating the BIOS will clear the battery problem. I’ll download it tonight.
I worked on the battery room door, securing it to the frame and putting a latch for a lock on it. Sounds simple but it took a few hours to do. Then I cleaned up the shop area putting tools and other stuff away in their proper place.
Went on over to Stoney’s for a short visit. He got his kitchen clock working. I told him all he had to do is sleep on it and the fix for the clock would come.
Got back home and did some more work in the shop, watched the nightly news (nothing exciting there), chatted with Kevin, and watched “Secrets of the Dead” on PBS about the pirate Blackbeard’s grounding of his ship the Queen Ann’s Revenge, how it was discovered in 1996, and the recovery of its artifacts. Then I did some reading.
I did my stretches and practiced my guitar. Downloaded the BIOS update for Kath’s laptop, and yes it had the fix for the battery problem: “1. Fixed erroneous Bad Battery message during post.” I rebooted it after I ran the BIOS upgrade and the problem was gone! I wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 23 - did my stretches and ran a mile.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 59 and 87 degrees, SSW winds at 6 to 20 MPH, humidity around 22 percent, mostly clear. According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Areas of blowing dust after 11am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 82. Breezy, with a north northwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming southwest between 26 and 29 mph. Winds could gust as high as 43 mph. Friday Night: Areas of blowing dust before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 52. Breezy, with a west wind 21 to 24 mph decreasing to between 11 and 14 mph. Winds could gust as high as 37 mph.”
I worked on Kath’s laptop doing a clean and defrag. Then I backed up all her documents to disk, called her and left a message for her to come and pick it up. Then I went back to doing my own stuff like working on the camper and cleaning the yard and my shop. Did this all day and then went for my evening walk. Read a few chapters of “To Ride Pegasus”.
My friend Kula called asking about cell phones that connect to the internet. She is thinking on getting a Samsung Rant. I told her I’d check it out for her. Kevin called and yapped with him for a spell. Then Ron Dehart called to say howdy and we yakked for a spell, too.
I went online to do some webwork until late. I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 24 - did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 52 and 81 degrees, NW-SW winds at 10 to 19 MPH, humidity around 23 percent, mostly clear. According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Areas of blowing dust. Mostly sunny, with a high near 70. Breezy, with a west northwest wind between 17 and 24 mph, with gusts as high as 36 mph.
Saturday Night: Areas of blowing dust before 11pm. Mostly clear, with a low around 49. West northwest wind between 13 and 21 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.”
Now that the weather is nice these last few days, I’ve been really busy working outside on my property preparing it for the hot summer months ahead. While I was in the process of doing this Kath came to pick up her laptop. I sat her down to show her what I’d done, but if she comprehended I do not know.
I went on over to Stoney’s for lunch and to do my laundry. He made this kind of casserole that has beef stew on the bottom and biscuits with cheese on top. Was very filling!
Got back home and continued to work on the house. Watched the nightly news where they reported about a new strain of swine flu that is working its way up from Mexico. There is no vaccine for it yet and over sixty have died. The Mexican government has closed schools and other public places where people gather. Folks are wearing surgical masks down there already. Sounds scary to me!
I was replacing the batteries on an old HP LX200 PDA, but the dang thing wouldn’t power up. I had to dig out the manual to see if I could find a fix, and I did after a little reading. I did a cold start by pressing three certain keys at once, and it came on. But I loss what I didn’t have backed up on the flash card, dang it! This PDA I’ve had over sixteen years and I’m still surprised it is still running.
I watched “NUMB3RS” on CBS, and I think it was the best one ever. Then I did my stretches and practiced my guitar. Updated the COPPER MOUNTAIN MESA WEBSITE and sent out the Newsletter. Wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 25- did my stretches. Another windy day.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 40 to 75, winds from the W-SW at 11 to 23 MPH, humidity around 25 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 77. West northwest wind between 6 and 10 mph. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 51. West northwest wind between 8 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.”
I did about the same as I did yesterday, worked in my yard. While I was working I called Family and Friends. Then it was time to get ready for potluck.
I cooked up some baked beans and called Stoney to see if he was going, he was, and I asked him to pick me up so we could ride together to save gas (well mine anyways). We got to the center a little after 4pm and were surprised to see so many cars in the parking lot. I saw Rick Seeley’s golf cart, it’s been a while since he’s been to our potluck. We had over twenty hungry folks show up this time! There was lots of food. Dyane Carrol cooked a sea food lasagna we all enjoyed. We devoured Dorothy Jacobsen’s chili relleno casserole. Marcie Hines made a great meat lasagna. Lisa and Elizabeth Treas brought scalloped potatoes, marble cake, and a lemon and apple pie. Marie Morrison made some delicious brownies. Bob Seeley had his fruit platter. I was wondering out loud if Ruth Tuttle would show when I turned around and there she was with a tossed salad. We’re supposed to start at 4:30pm but the food looked so good that folks started getting in line at 4:15! What a great bunch of folks!
I got home and fed Fat Cat and watched “Harry Potter and the Secret Chamber”. This is one I’ve never seen before and I thought it was fantastic! Someday I like to read all the Harry Potter books.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
I’m going to take a hiatus off from the internet, but I’ll keep writing to my journal and will post it when I go back online in a few days or so.

March 2009

Welcome to the month of March! - did my stretches and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 50 and 77 degrees, light breeze, humidity around 24 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Monday: A 20 percent chance of rain after 10am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 78. Calm wind becoming west northwest between 6 and 9 mph. Monday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 50. West northwest wind between 5 and 7 mph.”
        I felt ambitious today and went outside to start digging a trench from my water meter to the font of the house. I dug up the hose I have connected to the meter that runs underground to my home. Bob Vandenberg is going to come out here one of these weekends when he isn’t busy and help me install the pipes and hookup the water to my kitchen sink. Gosh, I’ll have running water inside for the first time and won’t have to carry it in jugs!
        I went inside the camper to read a few chapters of “Black Wind”. As the Sun was setting my brother Kevin called and we had a productive chat. Afterwards I went inside the house to read until “60 Minutes” came on CBS about Harry Markopolos who repeatedly tried to blow the whistle on the Bernie Madoff investment fraud to Securities and Exchange Commission but was ignored until investors lost $56 Billion! I think Bernie should be in jail instead of living under house arrest in a luxury hotel apartment! They also had the segment about the war on drugs at the Mexican border where drug lords are winning with guns and drug money from the USA.
        Read a few chapters more till “Jesse Stone: Thin Ice” (2009) came on CBS Starring Tom Selleck. Very good show! I love these Jesse Stone series and never miss them when they come on!
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar (after fixing a string I broke last night), wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and will call it a night after I start my column for the newspaper and get a little of it organized to write and send in tomorrow.

Monday 02 - did my stretches and ran two miles.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 51 and 74 degrees, WSW winds 3-11 with gusts to 25, humidity around 24 percent, altocumulus clouds. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Partly sunny, with a high near 72. Light wind becoming south southwest between 12 and 15 mph. Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 45. Northwest wind between 11 and 14 mph becoming calm.”
        I finished my newspaper column and sent it in. I didn’t do much else during the day but read “Black Wind” in my camper. I guess that the camper is my little get-a-way where I hide and read, not to be disturbed. I lived in a camper for three or so years while I saved up my money while working as a security guard at an apartment complex on the beach in Redondo. I kind of miss that feeling of smallness and freedom of travel that a camper provides.
        Went for my evening walk. When got I back I got a call from my sister Audrey and we had a nice chat. It’s a wonderful thing to talk to Family!
        Was going to watch “24” on Fox to see if Jack had finally saved the world from evil, but I couldn’t get the station to come in, dang! I’ll have to see about fixing the UHF antenna someday soon. So I read until very late into the night only to be interrupted a few times to help setup an internet connection on a friend’s computer over the phone. We tried this and that only to discover that there wasn’t a modem on the system! I told him to go and buy one and then give me a call.
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 03 - did my stretches.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 49 and 68 degrees, WSW winds 4-8 with gusts to 15, humidity around 34 percent, mostly clear. According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 65. Southwest wind 5 to 8 mph increasing to between 18 and 21 mph. Winds could gust as high as 28 mph. Wednesday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 43. West southwest wind between 6 and 13 mph.”
        I decided that I’d better go to town and get the Gross Polluter smogged. It is a very stressful thing for me; two years ago it didn’t pass the first time and I spent somewhere over $300 to get it to pass. I called up Autosmiths to make an appointment, and they had an opening at 3pm. While I’m in the mood to spend money, I wrote out a check for my property tax to mail in.
        On the way to town I dropped off some library books and mailed my property tax. Then I went to Auto Zone in Yucca Valley to get some Pass-or-don’t-Pay for the smog test. I asked about shocks and I bought two heavy duty shocks for the front, and two air shocks for the back which are on backorder. I dumped the Pass-or-don’t-Pay into the tank and was off to Juffy Lube in Twentnine Palms to get an oil change and give the Pass-or-don’t-Pay time to clean things up. While I was sitting waiting for the oil change I heard them laughing at my truck, so I popped my head outside and saw that one of the mechanics couldn’t open the driver side door and was stuck inside. I forgot to tell them that they’d have to pull on the rod that goes to the handle that ain’t there.
        With the oil change out of the way, I went over to Stater Bros to get some groceries and then drove home to put them away. I had forty-five minutes before my appointment at Autosmiths in Yucca Valley so it was a quick stop.
        Got to Autosmiths on time but still had to wait for them to finish smogging the car ahead of mine. I sat in a small reception room worrying if my truck would pass, while “Squirrel” tested on my vehicle. I heard voices of other mechanics in the background saying things like “it failed” or “waste of time”, that only heightened my fears. As twenty minutes passed into thirty, “Squirrel” appeared and I was expecting the worst, but all he said was “your good to go”, I asked “did it pass”? He said “yup”. With a happy heart I left Autosmiths and headed on home, but first I stopped off at Stoney’s to say hi and see if he made any cookies that he’d said he might bake; he did! I ate four of them while I told him of my adventure in town.
        Back home again, I fed Fat Cat and called my brother Kevin. We yakked at each other for over an hour. I watched the evening news; Stocks are down again and I might invest a little more. Then I read a few chapters in “Black Wind” 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.

Wednesday 04 - did my stretches, ran a mile, and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 43 and 64 degrees, WSW winds 7-12 with gusts to 25, humidity around 38 percent, mostly clear. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 63. West northwest wind around 6 mph. Thursday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 40. West southwest wind between 5 and 9 mph.”
        I got up early today and after my exercises I went out to the front yard to dig the water ditch to my house, deeper. Wrestled with a water hose which I accidentally hit with the shovel; it sprayed water everywhere. That took the better part of the morning. After digging and all that, I went to cleaning the house. Then I worked on my UHF antenna using Gorilla Glue to attach parts that had fallen off during the high winds we been having of late. I got all this done and it was only noon!
        With all this done I figured I needed a rest and retired to my little camper to hideout and read. Joel called to ask if I wanted some soup that he’s cooking; he’ll bring it by at 5pm.
        Took a fast break from reading to make a cookie run over to Stoney’s. Then it was back to reading until Joel came by with the soup. The soup was some creation of his and tasted mighty fine.
        My brother Kevin called. He was waiting for a call from a gal he met online the other day. He didn’t think she’d call and I bet him a nickel that she would. He sent an email later saying he owed me a nickel.
        I continued reading late into the night and finished “Black Wind” by Clive Cussler.
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 05 - did my stretches, ran a mile, and rode my bike.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 40 and 62 degrees, WNW winds 6-11 with gusts to 18, humidity around 35 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 59. Northwest wind between 10 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 38. West northwest wind 18 to 21 mph decreasing to between 8 and 11 mph. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph.”
        I went out to the camper to get caught up with my astronomy reading. Then I meandered over to Stoney’s for a shower and some cookies. He was online looking for clock parts. The company he used to buy off of is not that dependable anymore and he was looking for another store that he could purchase from.
        I started bolting together the UHF when I got back home. I had to splice and tape a few wires, turn a few screws, and lift the whole dang twenty foot pole with the antenna into the air over my head and secure it to the house. With that done and out of the way I went for my evening walk.
        My brother Kevin called and we yakked for a spell.
        I called Seimi to wish him a happy birthday. He spent his day transporting folks to and from the meditation center and Palm Springs Airport. He mentioned to a passenger that it was his birthday and she pulled a piece of leftover birthday cake from her backpack and gave it to Seimi.
        I started reading “Blue Gold” by Clive Cussler and Paul Kemprecos. It’s not a Dirt Pitt adventure but a novel from the NUMA files. We’ll see how it goes.
        Did my stretches and lifted weights. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 06 - did my stretches.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 38 and 60 degrees, WNW winds 8-14 with gusts to 26, humidity around 32 percent, mostly clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 61. North northwest wind between 5 and 9 mph. Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 38. West southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm.”
        I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.
        My friend Bob Vandenberg is coming tomorrow to lay the pipe from the water main to the house and hook up the sink, so I need to get the rest of the trench dug and cleanup the house some. This is about all I did all day until sunset, except when I went over to Stoney’s after he called to say he had baked a couple of pecan pies. He finally got the crust right, and tasted mighty yummy.
        I read a few chapters in “Blue Gold” but the book is dragging from page to page.
        Watched “Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles” on Fox. Later I watched “Numb3rs” on CBS about: an artificial intelligent computer is suspected of murdering its creator.
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 07 - did my stretches.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 39 and 61 degrees, NW winds 6, humidity around 27 percent, mostly clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 65. Calm wind becoming south between 12 and 15 mph. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 42. West southwest wind between 5 and 14 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph.”
My friend Bob Vandenberg arrived to work on bringing water into my house! He is a plumber, I am not! I had everything ready for him to begin; the trench was dug, everything was cleared out of his way, and Fat Cat was put inside where he could lounge on my bed. It took a little less than two hours for Bob to get everything hooked up except for the sink because it had a leak in the faucet. He wanted to go to Home Depot to get a few keys made for his camper that he keeps on my property, so I got a new faucet while we were there. We stopped off for a quick lunch at Jack-in-the-Box, and then drove back to hook up the new faucet. Once that was done, I had running water in my home for the first time! I’ve been living here for over ten years, always helping other folks dig trenches for their water, and now it was my turn. I was so excited that I called my Mom and Dad in Tucson to tell them the good news. They said that they would have a toast with glasses full of water; I think that they were only humoring me. Bob went to do some work on his camper and I started filling in the trench with dirt till it was time to go over to Stoney’s for a spaghetti dinner.
We got there at around 4pm and went right to eating and had some pecan pie for dessert. We sat around and jawed for a spell and watched westerns on TV. Stoney gave Bob a tour of his parts garden where he has old Model T parts and a quantity of other old car and mechanical parts lying around outside rusting slowly under the desert’s dry environment.
        I said goodbye to Bob when he dropped me off back at my house, and thanked him very much for the expert work he performed. Then I called my brother Kevin to tell him about the water being brought into the house and how I won’t need to be filling up jugs anymore. He asked me why I waited so long to do this, and I told him that I lived on a boat for over twenty years and had to row water in jugs out to my sailboat. Then after that I lived in a camper and still used jugs for water. I guess I was so use to this that I never gave it much thought.
        I did a little webwork till it got late. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 08 - did my stretches.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 41 and 64 degrees, SSE winds 8-17, humidity around 31 percent, mostly clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 62. Windy, with a light wind becoming west southwest between 27 and 30 mph. Winds could gust as high as 48 mph. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 39. Breezy, with a west wind 22 to 25 mph decreasing to between 14 and 17 mph. Winds could gust as high as 38 mph.”
        Last night I was reading an article on restoring old yellowed plastic to look new at LifeHacker.com when I read a comment that made my blood run cold: “Mixing equal parts of Ammonia and Bleach achieves better results:)”. Yikes! This is a deadly mixture that releases toxic gasses: chloramines and chlorine gas! I thought I'd better post this on the site: “Bleach + Ammonia= DEATH
The combination of ammonia and bleach produces dangerous chlorine gas. Chlorine gas, also known as mustard gas, was actually used in WWI & WWII! Chlorine gas causes a very painful death!”
I’ve been monitoring the site off and on all day answering comments and trying to stay on top of this because my worst fears is that a naive reader may read the “Mixing equal parts of Ammonia and Bleach achieves better results:)” post, try mixing the two together, and get very sick! This post was about the scariest and most irresponsible that I've ever read online.
        I been trying to call Stoney all day but the phone just rang and rang and didn’t go to his answering machine, so around 4pm I drove over to his house to see if he was okay. Thankfully he was in his kitchen playing solitaire on the computer and was blissfully unaware that his phone wasn’t working. I demonstrated it by calling him on my cell phone. It would ring on my cell but his phone remained silent, but he could pick it up and talk to me. We called Verizon and they would send a repair person out on Tuesday to have a look-see.
        I stopped off at my neighbor’s, who has the horses just down the street from me, and chatted with Ginger for a spell. She is in the process of fixing up a stable and shelter for the horses that she saved from the glue factory. She now has an Airstream trailer to stay in while she is here.
        I watched “60 Minutes” on CBS about Bank failures, and how unreliable eyewitness accounts are. Then I read a few chapters in “Blue Gold” until late.
        I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 09 - did my stretches and ran a mile.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 39 and 61 degrees, SSW winds 9-16, humidity around 39 percent, mostly clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 60. North northwest wind between 5 and 9 mph. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 40. Calm wind becoming northwest between 4 and 7 mph.”
        I drove to Yucca Valley to pick up those air shocks I had on backorder at Auto Zone. I stopped off at the California Visitor’s Center to see if the rumors that they had a WIFI setup, and they did, so I went online and did a few computer updates. You get to use it for one hour after you logon with a password they supply.
        I stopped off at WalMart and Stater Bros to get some supplies then drove home, put everything away, and then went over to Stoney’s for dinner. We had the leftover spaghetti from Saturday and pecan pie.
        I went for my evening walk, called my brother Kevin, and then read for a spell until “24” came on Fox where Jack saves the President from evil doers.
        Continued reading late into the night. Then I did my stretches and practiced my guitar. Wrote my column for the newspaper and sent it in. Wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 10 - did my stretches and lifted weights.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 40 and 63 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 31 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 65. West wind 5 to 8 mph becoming south southwest between 15 and 18 mph. Winds could gust as high as 23 mph. Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 41. Southwest wind 5 to 15 mph becoming north northwest. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph.”
        Verizon Tech RJ called to ask directions to Stoney’s home. He said that Stoney canceled the repair but he found some problems in the main circuit. I gave him the directions and told him if there were any problems to call me; he can’t call Stoney because the ringer doesn’t work.
        Seimi came by to ask me about laptops. He wants to buy one for his roommate Rita. I showed him what I had and suggested that he buy a new one. There is one down at WalMart he told me for around $300. I told him that I’d check it out for him next time I’m down there.
        I tried to call Stoney but his was still out, so I drove over to tell him what the Tech said when he called me. I had some more spaghetti and pecan pie, too!
        I went for my evening walk pulling out that invasive Sahara Mustard plant as I walked. It’s trying to establish itself in our desert and kill off the indigenous vegetation.
        When I got back home there was a message from RJ saying that he’d be back tomorrow to do some more work on Stoney’s phone.
        I went online to get some webwork done and worked until late. I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 11 - did my stretches and ran two miles.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 41 and 68 degrees, slight breeze picking up to a SE wind at 10 MPH in the evening, humidity around 31 percent, hazy. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 64. West northwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm. Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 40. Calm wind becoming west northwest between 7 and 10 mph.”
        Late last night I was prowling the Dell Outlet when I came across a Dell Mini 9 4GB SSD, Ubuntu, 512Meg RAM, with webcam and Bluetooth for $189! I went ahead and bought it. I want to learn the Linux system better and at this cost it ain’t that bad to buy a dedicated system for it. Plus I might swap drives from my Dell Mini 9 that runs XP Home into this new one so that I’ll have Bluetooth and a webcam. I can’t believe that these netbooks are so inexpensive (almost the cost of an XP Pro operating system) and made so well.
        Stoney’s phone is still down and RJ from Verizon called me to say he couldn’t get out this way today and will try tomorrow. So I had to drive over to Stoney’s to let him know that he’ll have to hang around tomorrow for the repair guy. Stoney had baked two pies but he didn’t have pecans so he used peanuts instead; tasted okay we decided.
        Spent much of the day reading “Blue Gold” in the camper, and then went for my evening walk.
        My friend Kula called and we chatted for a spell. Her and Tom are going to visit family soon. Tom is into college basketball and March Madness is here, so Tom will be totally involved with it. He runs all the statistics and bets on what team has the best. He usually goes to Vegas to drink beer with his buddies and place his bets, but he never wins big.
        I read until it got late and then did my stretches and lifted weights, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 12 - did my stretches.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 40 and 66 degrees, slight breeze picking up to a NNW wind at 6-13 MPH, humidity around 34 percent, humulus cumulus fair weather clouds. According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Sunny, with a high near 69. North northwest wind between 11 and 17 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 42. Northwest wind between 8 and 10 mph.”
        This is one of those lazy days for me where I just want to kick back and read, that’s what I did besides watering the plants.
        Stoney invited me over for dinner. He made up a chicken casserole that had: biscuits, gravy, mashed potatoes, and chicken all mixed together with cheese on top. It all came out of a box but was mighty tasty. We had cantaloupe for dessert.
        I went for my evening walk and took a few pictures of the clouds and landscape. Flowers are starting to bloom!
        Watched the evening news where they said that Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty, placed in custody, led away in handcuffs, while folks in the courtroom applauded. I hope the only conjugal visits he gets are from other cellmates!
        I’m really starting to believe that much of TV programs are a wasteland of addictive crap. Television should be a place where we get informed, learn new things, and not just for entertainment. I think of all the time I’ve spent watching meaningless sitcoms when I was a child; what a waste of one’s intellect! I think of all children over the last fifty years who were indoctrinated into television shows that are barren of any social responsibility and a desolate place for learning. We blame our schools and teachers for the failure of our students, when the real culprit is television. Parents have the chance to break that addiction and save the next generation of children from mediocrity, but they the parents need to set the example themselves. How else can we compete in a global society? Television is a wasteland for individualism and dreams.
        I read late into the night and finished “Blue Gold” by Clive Cussler; the book got better the farther I read into it.
        Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Friday 13 - did my stretches.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 42 and 68 degrees, slight breeze picking up to a NNW wind at 7-11 MPH, humidity around 27 percent, humulus cumulus fair weather clouds again. According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 72. North northwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming west southwest. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 46. West southwest wind around 9 mph.”
        I decided to drive down to Stan and Jan’s in Joshua Tree to get my yearly haircut. We jawed about the economy while I sat in the barber chair watching myself in the mirror as Stan cut away at my gray. Jan said they used to cut hair in Desert Hot Springs before coming up here. We talked about our favorite TV shows and all agreed that we loved Abby on NCIS.
        Went over to Sam’s Market to get some mustard and cheese for my baloney sandwiches and a dozen eggs. It all came to $6.35 which wasn’t that bad.
        Then avoiding HWY62 I took the dirt road down to the library. I checked out a few books: Treasure of Khan” by Clive Cussler, “The Fabric of the Cosmos” by Brian Greene, “The Nature Company Guides: Rocks and Fossils”, and “Drawing You Can Do It” by Greg Albert. These should keep me busy for a while!
        Got back home and started reading “Treasure of Khan” in my camper; I guess that’s my reading room now. Then I went for my evening walk.
        Called my brother Kevin and yakked for a spell.
        I watched “Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles” on Fox, read a little more, then watched “Numb3rs” on CBS. I’ve really cut down on my TV shows that I watch for entertainment, these two shows plus “24” and NCIS are what I like. Unfortunately there aren’t much educational shows on regular broadcast TV anymore, so I read. I stand by what I said last night about television being a wasteland. I do not believe watching TV for something to do and having it on all the time is healthy. Narrowing it down to a few select shows that you enjoy watching is okay. I avoid sitcoms and daytime TV. I grew up on sitcoms when I was a child and have seen about every twist in a plot and every gag there is. I’m trying to kick this addiction to television and I think I’m doing a good job of it. When I went to college I didn’t watch any TV at all and got good grades. Okay, enough of my TV ranting!
        I did my stretches and practiced my guitar. Updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter. Wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 14 - did my stretches, ran two miles, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 44 and 71 degrees, SW-NW wind at 4-11 MPH, humidity around 26 percent, hazy skies. According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 69. West wind at 7 mph becoming east. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 45. West wind between 7 and 11 mph.”
        I’m going to make this post short because I am just plain tuckered out tonight:
        Called Family and Friends- Read a bunch of chapters in “Treasure of Khan” by Clive Cussler- Went for my evening walk- Did some webwork and a little more reading- Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 15 - did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 45 and 71 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 33 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 74. West wind 5 to 7 mph becoming east southeast. Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 49. South wind 7 to 9 mph becoming west northwest.”
I decided to get out of the house and go for a hike over at 49 Palms. It’s about ten miles from my house on Canyon Road off of HWY62. I don’t like going on hikes by myself but there isn’t anyone around here I know that goes hiking. I realized that I can make friends along the way, just like my trip to Europe when I went alone but made many friends while traveling there. The three mile hike into 49 Palms really seems like six; there are plenty of switchbacks going up and down hills. The flowers are just starting to bloom and I believe that in another few weeks 49 Palms will be covered heavily with them. I met a lot of folks from different states.
Karin and Larry form Massachusetts and vacationing in Palm Springs. They make the trip every year to our gorgeous desert.
Caleb Murphy was taking his parents from Colorado for the hike before he and his wife are deployed to Afghanistan. Caleb is an artillery specialist in the Marine Corps. I wished them well!
There was young Mike and Jenna Masters from Philadelphia traveling with all their belongings in a big U-Haul Van to Pasadena where they’ll be going to college.
I met Mike and Carol Lovy at the end of the trail where the springs and palm trees are nestled between high canyons with large rock outcropping. They just moved to Pam Springs from Seattle and are really excited to be living in the desert. She spotted a desert tortoise making its way eating through the flora.
Chastity and John Murphy were hiking with their two young kids. They were the only locals I met on the trail. They plan on making hiking a habit on their family outings.
Well I’m not as athletic as I thought and I was mighty tired once I got back down the trail to my awaiting truck. My knee hurt a bit from an old skydiving accident, but with a little rest I’ll be going back in a few weeks to see the flowers.
        I went to Stater Bros to get something to eat I was so hungry from the hike: Fried chicken for me and Fat Cat! But before I got home I had to pick up a hole-digger for my neighbor Ginger who is building a shelter for her horses. I stayed to yak with her for a spell while her puppy ate horse droppings that I thought was mighty gross.
I read a little and watched “60 Minutes” on CBS where they had an interview with the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank that was very candid and interesting. Then I read some more of “Treasure of Khan” until late. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, and posted it to the web. Then started writing my column for the newspaper and called it a night.

Monday 16 - Stoney came by and honked waking me up; he had groceries from the USDA food distribution for me. He invited me over for dinner tonight. I then did my stretches, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 49 and 72 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 28 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 77. West northwest wind between 5 and 8 mph becoming calm. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 51. South wind at 7 mph becoming west northwest.”
        After I did my exercises I was pretty sore with all that hiking yesterday, so I mostly kicked back. I did run a telephone cord out to my camper so I could go online. This took a little time to do because the first cord I used had a bad plug at one end and I had to scrounge up another. With that done I went online in the coziness of my little camper.
        Raymond came by for me to sign over the pink slip for my “Faithful Truck” that I sold him a few months ago. He spent a lot of time, effort, and money to replace the transmission and a few other knickknacks, and he got new tires for it, too. Looks good! I showed him a desktop computer I’m working on to see if he’d be interested in buying it. He said he would buy it when I got it done.
        I went over to Stoney’s for dinner. He made up some ham with mashed potatoes and gravy. Roger Smith couldn’t come because he was down with a cold, so we fixed him up a plate and I walked it over to him. When I got back to Stoney’s my legs were hurting and I told him that I just went on my evening walk. The hurt was a good hurt, the kind of hurt that tells you that you got a good workout. I ain’t complaining.
        When I got back home I just laid back and read for a while until Kula called. She was on her way back home to Palos Verde Estates from a meeting in Indio. We talked for over an hour and I missed the first half of “24”, but I rather be yakking with her. When we were done I watched the end of “24” where Jack gets into more trouble trying to save the world.
        I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 17- did my stretches and went for a short walk; still recuperating from the hike.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 50 to 78, slight breeze, humidity around 26 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 82. North northwest wind between 5 and 8 mph. Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 51. Southeast wind around 6 mph becoming west northwest.”
        Another lazy day for me! I messed around outside filling up water bowls for the critters and pulling Sahara Mustard plants.
        I moseyed over to my neighbor Ginger’s property, where her and her kids are constructing a shelter for her three horses. I stood around jawing for a spell when Ginger noticed that someone was at my house. It was the FedEx delivering my new Dell Mini 9. I just pulled up to the house as he was getting back in his truck. He told me that he left it on my door step, cool! So for the next few hours I played with it. The new Mini 9 is a refurbished unit with a camera, Bluetooth, and runs Ubuntu Linux. So what I did was switched out the 4GB SSD and the 512MB RAM of this new Mini with my other Mini 9 that is an 8GB SSD and 1GB RAM running Win XP with no camera and Bluetooth. Now I have Win XP on the new Mini with a camera and Bluetooth, and the Linux running on the older Mini. To my surprise everything worked fine. Crucial has a 32GB SSD for $79 and I think I may buy one when I get some money.
        I went for a short evening walk, called and yakked with Kevin, then kicked back to read for a while.
        I watched “NCIS” on CBS about a prize fighter who was shot multiple times and was an old friend and mentor of the director, who personally took over the case from Gibbs. Then I went back to reading until late. Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 18 - did my stretches and ran a mile.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 52 and 79 degrees, slight breeze, humidity around 28 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 82. Calm wind becoming south southeast between 8 and 11 mph. Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 53. South southwest wind at 10 mph becoming northwest.”
        I water my plants while I installed Win XP on the new Dell Mini 9. I would have left Ubuntu on it but I couldn’t get the dialup modem working, so I installed an old copy of XP, service packs 2-3, and all the drivers. I got working and online without any problems. It took a hell of a longtime; a few hours!
        I went for my evening walk and then got home in time to watch the nightly news to see what incompetence and hardships our government and Wall Street are bestowing on us poor taxpayers today. What a crock of crap! It seems that we all have to lose our jobs, homes, and retirements to keep these greedy companies afloat. They say it’s to stop a total collapse of our financial system, but at what expense? Ours I guess! And to pay big bonuses to the very ones who brought this mess about. Kind of makes me upset (to put it mildly).
        I read a few chapters of “Treasure of Khan” until late in the evening. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.


Thursday 19 - did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike. It is a beautiful day outside! Spring officially starts tomorrow as more flowers begin to bloom and the bees get busy collecting their pollen.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 53 and 81 degrees, medium breeze, humidity around 24 percent, hazy skies. According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Sunny, with a high near 79. North northwest wind between 3 and 9 mph. Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 51. West wind between 6 and 11 mph.”
        I messed around with the new Dell Mini 9 installing MS Office 9, Sygate Firewall, Avast Anti-Virus, and a few other programs that I frequently use. All this fits on a 4GB SSD drive with about 1.3GB left over.
        Lee Hines dropped by to pay for his dialup and we yakked about the community center; there were 91 folks who came to the USDA Food Distribution instead of the usual 70 or so. We expect more folks to show as more workers get laid off and times get hard.
        I went over to Stoney’s so I could take a shower and be presentable when I go to the dentist tomorrow to have a tooth pulled that has been giving me problems lately. We sat around and jawed for a spell while “Cash Cab” was on TV in the background; we tried to answer the questions and got a few right.
        I went for my evening walk.
        It looks like IE8 is out of beta now. I have IE7 which I think is crap. I am going to download IE8, run it, and hope it removes IE7 in the process. I heard a few good reviews of IE8 and a few bad ones when it was still in beta; we’ll see how it goes. It’s a 16Meg download and will take about an hour on dialup.
        I read most of the night and then did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

First Day of Spring! - Stoney called to wake me up for my dentist appointment. I did my stretches.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 51 and 79 degrees, moderate wind, humidity around 26 percent, hazy skies; high cirrus clouds . According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 75. Windy, with a west wind 5 to 8 mph becoming southwest between 27 and 30 mph. Winds could gust as high as 43 mph. Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 52. 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 arrived at the dentist a little early and was rushed into a small room where I waited for fifteen minutes. The dentist shot Novocain into the gums surrounding my bad tooth, and then yanked the dang thing out of my mouth. It still hurt even with the Novocain and the whole left side of my face went numb. They charged me $145and I thought that a little too much but kept that to myself. I may look around for another dentist.
        On the way back home I took a detour to an auto parts store to pick up bolts that I need to put the front shocks on the truck. I think I’ll start that project tomorrow.
        The dentist told me to lay low for the next couple of days to give some time for the tooth hole to heal, that means no exercising, so I messed around the house and played with the computers.
        Stoney called to tell me he just got an old kitchen clock he had ordered online- he been wanting one for many years and I told him to just buy it. I went over to check it out. He already had it running when I walked into the room. I believe the clock is from the 1900-1920's and the woodwork is still in good condition.
        I read and finished “Treasure of Khan” by Clive Cussler, only stopping to watch “Terminator; The Sarah Conner Chronicles”. In this episode it appears that John Conner has found his true self that will eventually save the humanity for the evil robots in the future.
        Took half a pain pill to relieve the dull throbbing in my head for the tooth extraction, did some light stretches, practiced my guitar which sounded pretty good due to the effects of the pain pill, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 21 - did my stretches.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 52 and 73 degrees, winds NW-SW 6 to 12 MPH, humidity around 31 percent, hazy skies; high cirrus clouds . According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: A 20 percent chance of showers. Areas of blowing dust after 11am. Partly cloudy, with a high near 59. Windy, with a west southwest wind 23 to 26 mph increasing to between 36 and 39 mph. Winds could gust as high as 60 mph. Sunday Night: Areas of blowing dust before 11pm. Mostly clear, with a low around 39. Windy, with a west northwest wind 35 to 38 mph decreasing to between 22 and 25 mph. Winds could gust as high as 55 mph.”
        I got to work putting the front shocks on the Gross Polluter. The first one was the hardest because I never did this before. I got the heavy duty shocks for our dirt roads out here and I wanted to give them a test; wow what a difference! I drove the six miles down to my mailbox and it drove really nice over some dips that before would make the whole truck bounce almost out of control. I made a quick stop over to Stoney’s to show off my handy work. Now if the weather is nice tomorrow I’ll be putting on the rear air-shocks and then get the camper ready to mount on the bed of the truck. If all works out, I may plan a short vacation soon!
        My dentist told me to take it easy on the exercises, so I won’t be doing anything strenuous, even my evening walk. I’ll start my exercises again on Monday. Hopefully the weather will become warmer at night and I can start my nightly runs again, too.
        Looking through my mail I came across a small pamphlet that fell out of my Verizon telephone bill. I don’t usually read these but the title caught my eye: “Area Code Overlay Approved for 760 Area Code”! What this boils down to was that there are going to be two area codes in the same area: 760 and 442. This means that on May 02 I will have to dial a 1+the area code, instead of the seven digit phone number, to call my neighbor a mile away. I wonder why the “Powers that be” just didn’t split up area code 760 into two separate codes instead of this stupid area code overlay. They sure didn’t ask for my input on this.
        I called Family and Friends to yak at them for a spell.
        There wasn’t anything on TV that I thought worth watching so I started reading a new book called “The Fabric of the Cosmos” by Brain Green. I read the preface and the first chapter and it looks like it’s going to be a god read!
        I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 22 - did my stretches.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 39 and 52 degrees, winds W 16 to 34 MPH with gusts up to 55, humidity around 31 percent, hazy skies; high cirrus clouds . According to the National Weather Service “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 65. Breezy, with a north northwest wind between 15 and 22 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 42. Northwest wind between 11 and 14 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.”
        It was really windy, gusts of wind reaching 55 miles an hour or more! Outside is not the place to be today. So I stayed inside all day reading and doing computer work.
        I learned something interesting in my readings: “Till 2007 the equinox fell on March 21 or 20; now only on March 20; in 2044 it begins falling sometimes on March 19.
        I watched “60 Minutes” on CBS. They had an interview with the President who was very optimistic on the recovery and how they are going to attempt to fix all its problems. I wish him all the luck in the world with his efforts to do such.
        Then I went back to my reading and webwork until late. I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 23- did my stretches and lifted weights; too dang windy outside!
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 44 to 62, SW winds at 11 to 18 MPH with gusts around 45, humidity around 23 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 70. North northwest wind between 8 and 14 mph. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 46. Breezy, with a northwest wind 7 to 10 mph increasing to between 19 and 22 mph. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph.”
        I called up my neighbor Joel who said that the electric power in our area was out from 4pm till 2am yesterday. I called Lee Hines to confirm it. I wouldn’t have known because I’m all on solar and batteries and my power never goes out.
        It’s still too dang windy to do much of anything outside. I messed around the house doing some cleaning and a little reading. My Dell Mini’s internal Bluetooth wouldn’t work with my Bluetooth modem so I decided to do a fresh install of Win XP and the drivers to get rid of some of the crud I’ve been experimenting with and to see if that would repair the Bluetooth problem. After a few hours of doing the install, I finally got the Bluetooth to recognize the modem and was able to go online, but every time I use it to go online I have to reconfigure the modem all over again; I’ll eventually figure it out.
        I watched “24” on Fox where Jack tries to save the world again from the evil doers by pilfering a truck from them that is carrying a deadly virus that the evil doers want to release on American cities. But the evil doers get the truck back and Jack is contaminated with the virus.
        I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tuesday 24- I got a whole eight hours sleep last night and I feel good! I usually get four to five hours, so I guess I needed it. I did my stretches, ran a mile, rode my bike, and lifted weights. There’s still a stiff breeze but not as bad as the last few days.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 46 to 68, NNW winds at 4 to 12 MPH, humidity around 21 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 73. North northwest wind around 10 mph. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 50. West northwest wind between 7 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph.”
        I was hoping to do the rear air shocks on the Gross Polluter but the wind was blowing just too much for that, so all I did outside today was fill up the water bowl and cement pond for the critters.
        I did about what I did yesterday; I messed around the house doing some cleaning and a little reading. I also installed MS Office 2007 on the new Dell Mini 9. I still have to mess with the Bluetooth Modem to get it working, but I’m getting better at it. Maybe I should just reinstall the drivers or something, but I’ll keep messing with it a little while longer.
        I dropped by Stoney’s for a quick visit and to get out of the house for a bit. He was in his clock trailer where he was working on an anniversary clock that runs for four-hundred hours between windings. There is a small bird’s nest on the front window of the trailer with four or five tiny eggs. You can watch the nest from the inside of the trailer! The mother bird was coming and going all the time I was there. I wish I had brought my camera!
        I went for my evening walk and then I read a chapter of “The Fabric of the Cosmos”. I’ve found that the author’s use of the Simpsons in the examples was quite amusing, but some of the explanations are long and drawn out making them a little confusing for me.
        Watched “Nova: Extreme Ice” about the global warming and its effects on the world’s glaciers; fantastic show! Then watched “NCIS” on CBS, where a mother finds a handgun in her young son’s room that later is found to be involved in a killing.
        I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Wednesday 25- did my stretches and ran a mile.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 49 to 78, WNW winds at 4 to 11 MPH, humidity around 23 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 75. Breezy, with a northwest wind 15 to 18 mph increasing to between 26 and 29 mph. Winds could gust as high as 41 mph. Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 47. North northwest wind between 10 and 14 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph.”
        I ate my breakfast while I read my email, then I went over to Stoney’s to use his floor jack to rise up the Gross Polluter to mount the air shocks on the back. Since I didn’t know what I was doing it took about three hours to install. It all worked just fine when I put air into it the truck lifted right up! Now all I need to do is put the camper on. I was so grimy from crawling under the truck, the under belly of a truck isn’t the cleanest place, that I took a shower there and got all cleaned up; I felt like a new man!
        I read a chapter of “The Fabric of the Cosmos”, went for my evening walk, and read some more. Nothing was worth watching on TV, so I did a little webwork until late. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Thursday 26- did my stretches, too dang windy outside for a run.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 47 to 72, NW winds at 9 to 31 MPH becoming calm in the evening, humidity around 23 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Friday: Sunny, with a high near 68. North northwest wind between 13 and 16 mph. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 42. Northwest wind between 5 and 9 mph.”
        I went into the camper to eat my breakfast and read my email; I guess being in the camper is a way to get away and out of the house. The wind was blowing and reminded me of when I lived on a sailboat out on the moorings. The boat would rock back and forth, sounds of halyards banging on masts of boats, large waves breaking over the breakwater, and my rowboat bumping against the side, made a symphony of the harbor where I had a front row seat! I miss those days!
        Got a message on my answering machine from Dale saying that his roof blew off his house! I called back but he wasn’t home. I found out later tonight when he called that he went to his mom’s house in Apple Valley to stay until the winds died down. I told him if he needs any help with the roof to let me know.
        Ruth Denison called desperately needing help finding a document on her laptop (she is in her eighties), so I drove on over and found the document for her and installed a program that would read it to her; she was thrilled. Ruth Denison is the founder and resident teacher of Dhamma Dena Desert Vipassana Center just down the road a spell.
        Since I was in the neighborhood I stopped in at Lee Hines to install a “NEW” video camera on his computer that one of his kids gave him. He asked me if I could do this for him last month and this was the first chance I had. I hooked up the camera, but once I started installing the software I noticed that the instructions called for Win 95 and Win 98 operating systems! Since I was so far along on the install I loaded it up anyways. It ran but the video was very jerky and poor in quality. We had a good laugh and both of us decided that it needn’t be on the system and I uninstalled it. But it wasn’t all a loss; I upgraded his anti-virus and installed Spybot. I also installed the new Opera browser that has an accelerator for slow connections like the dialup we have.
        I got back home just in time for Mac to drop by to say hi. He has been away for a few weeks to visit his son in Arizona. Then I read “The Fabric of the Cosmos” until the book put me to sleep.
        Around 8pm Ruth Denison called saying that she accidentally deleted her document while using the speech program I installed. I went right over to find that she did in fact delete it. I didn’t show her one important step in the process which I took for granted that she’d know. So, I spent the next two hours walking her through the steps, and then reading the printout of that document while she typed it back into the computer. I didn’t mind helping her do this because: 1. it was my mistake for leaving out that important step, and 2. she is such a fantastic and interesting person! We both had fun!
        Back home I did my stretches and went for a nightly run! I had no excuses not to run; the wind had died, and it wasn’t cold. I think the cold had been affecting my knees so I’ve been shying away from running at night. It was wonderful, the sky was clear and the stars were bright in the sky! Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night

Friday 27- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 42 to 69, NW winds at 6 to 8 MPH, humidity around 20 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 77. North northwest wind between 3 and 6 mph. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 48. West wind between 3 and 9 mph.”
        What a beautiful day! I spent some time outside watering the plants and just messing around. But before I did that I needed to update the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and send out the Newsletter.
        My neighbor Ron the Graphics Guy came by for a chat. He wanted to know about my solar system that I have installed to power my home; I gave him the nickel tour.
        Then I went over to Stoney’s for dinner; he made a rice and bean dish that was mighty good. I did my laundry while I was there. I went into Stoney’s clock trailer to snap some pics of the bird’s nest that is in the front window. I waited patiently until the mother bird came to sit on the eggs. I would have posted the pics here but my dialup connection is slow today:(
        Too late to go for my walk, I watched the evening news. Then I watched “Terminator: the Sarah Conner Chronicles” on Fox.
        Called Kevin and yakked at him for almost an hour. He went on two dates today with women he met online- I think I should try this! He said the dates went fine.
        I did my stretches, went for a nightly run, and lifted weights; I think this made up for my missing the evening walk today. Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Saturday 28- did my stretches and ran two miles. Boy am I tired!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 48 to 76, moderate winds, humidity around 22 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Sunday: Areas of blowing dust after 11am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 78. Windy, with a west northwest wind 7 to 10 mph increasing to between 28 and 31 mph. Winds could gust as high as 43 mph. Sunday Night: Areas of blowing dust before 11pm. Mostly clear, with a low around 49. Breezy, with a west northwest wind between 18 and 26 mph, with gusts as high as 37 mph.”
        I just fooled around in the house and outside doing little things that needed to be done. I started reading “The Nature Company Guide’s: Rocks and Fossils” and found it very interesting, so I read a few chapters in that in my camper.
I called some Family and Friends before it was time for potluck at our community center at 4pm. I cooked up some stuffing and added raisins because I had no canned chicken to add; I hope it tastes ok. I got to the center on time, just as folks started to arrive. About seventeen folks showed up and everyone brought something, so there was plenty of grub to go around. Dyane made a white cake that she kind of flubbed up on the ingredients, but it was one of the most unusual cakes that I’ve ever gobbled on. Donna mixed up a pea salad and baked a German chocolate cake that was mighty good. Marcie brought a macaroni and meat dish. Chris had his famous macaroni salad for all of us to enjoy. Susan made a green bean salad. Bob Seeley arrived late with a big bowl of jello. And last but not least, Dorothy cooked up this fabulous Mexican lasagna with jalapenos mixed in to give it some zing! We all had a great time and laughed while we were sitting outside at the end of potluck, when Dyane and Donna were staring at the trees that run along the center. I asked what they were looking at and Donna said that they were waiting for the sap to fall. I suppose you gals sit around and watch the grass grow and paint to dry! I said. Donna came back with “only after I’ve had a couple of drinks”.
My Dialup internet is going faster than it did last night so I’ll put two of the pictures I took yesterday over at Stoney’s clock trailer. They are in the front window and we can watch them from inside. There is a screen between them and the window so the pics are kind of grainy. When I got back from potluck I was mighty stuffed and decided I’d better go for my evening walk and work off all the food I ate. I did a little more reading and then went on the internet to do a little webwork until late into the evening. Then I did my stretches and lifted weights, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Sunday 29- did my stretches.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 49 to 75, winds from the W-SW at 11 to 23 MPH, humidity around 25 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Monday: Sunny, with a high near 67. North northwest wind between 16 and 18 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 40. West northwest wind between 7 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.”
        My friend Mike from Hermosa Beach called to say he was coming up to Joshua Tree for a visit after he rides with his Harley group on a rally to Palm Springs. We decided to meet at Santana’s Mexican restaurant for lunch at 2pm. Around 1:30pm I got in the Gross Polluter to head on down to JT but the battery was dead. So I took the battery out of the camper and used jumper cables to start the truck, and then place that battery in the back just in case the battery in the truck wouldn’t charge up on the way there. I stopped off to fill up my tank with gas and had to jump the battery again to get it started. I then parked in front of Santana’s to await Mike, who called a half hour later telling me that he was given the wrong directions, went the wrong way, and wouldn’t arrive for over an hour. I told him to just go on home because the winds would be picking up later in the day making unsafe for him to ride; he agreed. I had to jump the truck again to get home.
        It was too windy for an evening walk so I messed around with my computers for a while. I had called Stoney earlier in the day, left a message, and tried calling him several times since. I decided to drive over on my Trusty Scooter to see if he was okay, but the Trusty Scooter wouldn’t start no matter how long I tried to kicked start it. Just by chance I tried the truck and it started right up! I drove over and left it running while I ran inside. Stoney had been in his clock trailer working for the last six hours and his phone didn’t ring out there. I told him about my day, and he said that he has a battery that’s out of his tractor I could use if I put it on charge in his garage overnight. I did that and drove back home.
        I watched “60 Minutes” on CBS about a computer worm that has infected millions of computers throughout the world. This worm just sits on these computers waiting for instructions; supposedly it will be transmitted on April 1st, to do some sinister deed.
Then I watched “War Games” 1983, about a young hacker who is trying to break into a computer game company, but instead breaks into a government site that programs war games for the military. He plays Thermonuclear War with the computer program he hacked into, but this computer is tied into the defense grid and simulates a real war in the underground defense installation in Colorado. This is the movies twenty-fifth anniversary. I worked in computer rooms much like the one in the beginning of the film for many years back in the 70s and early 80s and felt right at home with the big IBM 3350 disk drives (I don’t think they stored more than 20GB) and the row of tape drives in the room. I didn’t see any computer though, but it could have been an IBM 370 in those days.
        I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 30 - did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike. On my run I saw smoke coming out from the mountains to the south in Joshua Tree National Park but I didn’t hear anything about it on the news later on in the day.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 40 and 52 degrees, winds N-NW 9 to 12 MPH, humidity around 20 percent, hazy skies; high cirrus clouds . According to the National Weather Service “Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 74. Northwest wind between 3 and 10 mph. Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 47. West northwest wind between 8 and 11 mph.”
        Stoney called to say he’s going to WalMart and if I needed anything. Well I need a new battery for the Gross Polluter, so I asked if I could go along and he said he’d pick me up in fifteen minutes. When he arrived I put my old battery in the back and we drove off to town. We made a fast stop at the bank so he could cash a check and then on to WalMart where I got my new battery for $72 and Stoney got what he needed.
        When I got back I did some computer work that needed to be done and started writing my column for the newspaper.
        I went for my evening walk with the wind picking up so I had to cut it short. Then I got caught up on my astronomy readings.
        Kevin called after the nightly news to chat for a spell. Then I watched “24” on Fox where it was confirmed that Jack has been exposed to a deadly virus and the FBI is closing in on the evil doer’s stockade where they took the canisters of the virus that they took from Jack after Jack had stolen it from them.
        I went back to work on my column, finished it, and sent it to the newspaper. Did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night

Tuesday 31 - I called my friend Joan when I woke up, just to say hi. I did my stretches and ran two miles.
        Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 47 and 74 degrees, winds NW-SW 3 to 14 MPH, humidity around 19 percent, clear skies. According to the National Weather Service “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 78. Northwest wind 9 to 12 mph increasing to between 17 and 20 mph. Winds could gust as high as 28 mph. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 49. West northwest wind between 8 and 11 mph becoming calm.”
        After doing some webwork I thought I’d better start doing my taxes before it becomes too late! So that’s what I did for the rest of the day, only breaking for my evening walk which gave me time to think on a few tax problems. I got brain-burn from all these tax instructions and forms I have to read and fill out.
        Gave up on the taxes for the day and watched the evening news, and then “Nova: Last Extinction” about how scientists are exploring the possibilities that a comet or meteorite hit Earth 12,900 years ago in North America causing the extinction of many large mammals. I stuck around to watch “Frontline: Sick Around America” about the health care system and the mess our country is in because of it.
        As the river of time flows by, sometimes we need to dip our oars in the water and navigate to shore.
        Did my stretches and lifted weights, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
        Good bye to the month of March! See ya next year.