Saturday 18- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 86 and 112 degrees, winds from the N-W at 3 to 12 MPH, humidity around 45 percent, A few clouds here and there.
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 109. Southwest wind 5 to 8 mph increasing to between 14 and 17 mph. Winds could gust as high as 24 mph. Sunday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 81. Southwest wind between 8 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.”
I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the newsletter
I spent a few more hours on Marie’s Dell 1545 laptop installing nine driver updates I downloaded from Dell’s website last night. Before I did anything I flashed the BIOS to A08 from A02. Well her laptop is all up to date with drivers and Windows Update and it runs way better than before and doesn’t have the problem that she had when she first brought it over yesterday. I was glad to see it leave my home!
I called a few Friends and Family and then went on over to Stoney’s to finish off the steak and mashed potatoes and gravy. We watched a program on the Science Channel about Albert Einstein last days writing equations for his Grand Unification Theory that he never completed.
I got back home and called my neighbors to see if they saw Fat Cat hanging around, but none had seen him, dang! I still have his food ready and his water dish filled in case he comes back home.
I went for my evening walk checking a few more places he could be but found nothing.
I read a chapter of “Network Concepts” until late into the night. Then I did my stretches and went for a night run, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Current Mood: crushed

Friday 17- did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 82 and 111 degrees, winds from the NW-SW at 8 to 10 MPH, humidity around 30 percent, A few clouds here and there.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 109. West wind 5 to 14 mph becoming south southeast. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph. Saturday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 81. West southwest wind between 7 and 14 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph.”
I got Win2000 installed on Joan’s old HP N3110 laptop and downloaded the driver for the video and modem. The driver for the modem froze the system so I’ll look for another tonight.
Marie brought her Dell Inspiron 1545 over for a couple of days for me to fix. It has Vista on it that won’t boot into the OS. BSOD comes up with “IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL” After I tried a few things to no avail I looked it up on the web and it is probably a driver conflict. I’m downloading the new driver versions from Dell now.
I went over to Stoney’s for dinner with him and Roger. We had steak with mashed potatoes and gravy. We sat around the table jawing about this and that. Roger hurt his foot a few days ago when his bees attack him and he got mad and kicked the bee hive- Something I’d never consider doing!
When I got back home I went for my evening walk looking for traces of Fat Cat. I was mostly looking where he might have fought some kind of creature, but I found nothing to suggest that.
I went back to working on Marie’s laptop doing Windows updates that didn’t take because of the boot problem. Working on Vista is like rolling a stone up a big hill only to have it roll back down at you. I won’t go into detail of how frustrated I got working with it. It’s just not user friendly if you have to fix a problem! Why in the world would Microsoft bring out such a piece of garbage like that? I know computers pretty well and if I’m having problems I could only imagine what a newbie would be going through! Well I have to admit that Vista is new to me but I had no problem figuring out Mac OS 10.4 when I first got my MacBook. I really like XP and think that’s a wonderful OS and I’m hoping that Windows 7 will be something similar when it comes out in late October- I already have a copy of it on preorder at Amazon.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, downloaded drivers, and called it a night.

Current Mood: busy

Thursday 16- did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 82 and 110 degrees, winds from the NW-SW at 6 to 20 MPH with gusts out of the west at over 50, humidity around 40 percent, mostly cloudy skies with a few sprinkles hers and there.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 108. North northwest wind between 5 and 11 mph. Friday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 80. West southwest wind between 8 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.”
When I awoke to start making breakfast, Fat Cat wasn’t there! He always pounds on the door to let me know to let him in. I immediately went searching for him but he was not in his usual hiding spots. As I write this he is still missing. I can only hope that he got bored with me and will come back as soon as he has his fill of life in a desert that can be pretty harsh on a little kitty. I just hope he is okay!
Marie called having problems with her laptop again and I told her to bring it over to have a look-see. I did what I did to it last time and it seemed to fix it but she called later in the evening to say that it froze up again. She’ll bring it over tomorrow and I’ll keep it for a few days to do any updates of the driver and BIOS and whatever else I can find that may eliminate the problem.
I spent most of the day working on Joan’s laptop. The hard drive is dead but I put it in the freezer to shrink the heads and was able to run Puppy Linux to get the rest of her data off before it totally died. Then I found an old hard drive I salvaged from a non working laptop I had lying around. It only has 800Meg but good enough for Win98 and loaded that onto the hard drive. I have a spare Win2000 Pro that I’m trying to load up so we can use USB thumb drives as storage. I was in the middle of doing this when a wind storm hit with lightning striking close by and decided to continue it tomorrow.
I didn’t go on my evening walk because of the wind storm and I wanted to be around just in case Fat Cat came home. I did some webwork the rest of the night. Then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tags: fat cat missing
Current Mood: hopeful

Wednesday 15- did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 80 and 112 degrees, winds from the W-S at 4 to 18 MPH, humidity around 28 percent, mostly clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Thursday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 107. North northwest wind between 5 and 8 mph. Thursday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 82. West wind between 7 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.”
Joan came by with her laptop that is running very slow she says. Well the reason is that the hard drive is on its last legs. As I was trying to retrieve her documents and pictures that she hadn’t backed up; it died completely. I’ll have to figure out some other way to get her stuff off.
UPS showed up with my new wireless router and I got to play around with that for a while. I continued to read “Network Concepts” until it was time for my evening walk.
I watched “Time Team America” and then “Ascent of Money” on PBS. Both are a fine series worth the time to watch!
I did my stretches and went outside to look into the night sky with my binoculars. I saw this small fuzzy ball shaped thing in the northeast and I couldn’t figure what it was in that part of the sky. Maybe a comet I haven’t heard of? A globular cluster? One of Fat Cat’s hairballs? I brought out my telescope to get a better look; it was still fuzzy. Okay, so now I take a look at the constellations and recognize Cassiopeia and realize that the fuzzy ball is the Andromeda Galaxy! I’m used to seeing it in winter and not that low in the sky in the east.
Practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Current Mood: amused

Tuesday 14- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 78 and pushing 110 degrees, winds from the NW-SW at 8 to 11 MPH, humidity around 22 percent clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 104. Northwest wind at 11 mph becoming east southeast. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 79. South wind 8 to 18 mph becoming west. Winds could gust as high as 23 mph.”
It was another hot day and I mostly stayed inside again where it’s cool. I got around to putting the XP Pro on my Dell Mini 9 that came from another Dell computer I bought last month just for the XP Pro. It took a while to get it all up and running with an install of Service Pak 3, IE 8, and all the drivers.
I continued to read “Network Concepts” throughout the day, did a little surfing on the web, and had to call UPS to get a package rerouted to my home address that was mistakenly sent to my PO Box.
I went for my evening walk and then watched “Nova: Secrets of the Parthenon”. It was very interesting that these Greeks from 485 BCE built such a structure in just over eight years! “Nova Science Now” came on next. About a pill that can take you from couch potato to athlete, a story of the Northern Lights, how dinosaurs may have died from disease, and a plasma rocket for the trip to Mars.
I did my stretches and went for a night run, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Monday 13- did my stretches.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 77 and 109 degrees, winds from the NW-SW at 6 to 13 MPH, humidity around 21 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Tuesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 105. Calm wind becoming southwest around 6 mph. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 78. West wind between 6 and 9 mph becoming calm.”
I was making up a Birthday card when I noticed that their birthday is on the 16th and not the 23rd as I had mistakenly thought, dang, now I’ll have to make a special trip to the post office; just like me to mess up on birthdays! I decided to go shopping and stock up on some vitamins (I now have enough for a year) and get some groceries, gas, and make a stop at the library. But before I did all this I finally got my swamp cooler working after roughing it without one for two years. It works fine but I haven’t hooked the water up to it yet and have to carry a five gallon bucket every few hours to keep it going.
My trip was uneventful, didn’t really talk to anyone, even the guitar player that sits outside WalMart wasn’t there.
When I arrived back home the inside was nice and cool- I might just get used to that. I called a few friends to see what was up- Stoney was watching old reruns of Mash! He’s probably seen all episodes of them at least three or four time before.
I went for my evening walk listening to Astronomy Cast - Ep. 142: Plate Tectonics, very cool! I studied a little geology before on my own and it was nice to be reminded of the terms and names used to describe the Earth’s outer layers.
I continued reading “Network Concepts” until late. Then I did my stretches and lifted weights. I went outside for an hour looking at the night sky. I’m still waiting for Jupiter to rise higher above the horizon so I can look for Neptune that should be very close to the planet. Hercules is sometimes very hard to find- it’s between Vega and the Northern Crown. I had my binoculars and was trying to see M13 the Great Globular Cluster. I did find it but it was directly overhead but Fat Cat kept jumping on my lap making it hard to keep my eyes trained on it. I would have taken out the telescope but it’s just too dang hard to setup to look at something at my zenith. I’ll have to wait till it goes farther down into the west.
I practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Tags: m13, plate tectonics
Current Mood: calm

Sunday 12- did my stretches and ran a mile. When I was bending over to touch my toes while doing my stretches I noticed ants crawling around on the living room floor, yikes! I got out the bug spray and now they are all gone. I leave all critters alone unless they get into the house and then their dead meat!
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 79 and 109 degrees, winds from the NW-SW at 4 to 15 MPH, humidity around 22 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Monday Night: Clear, with a low around 77. West southwest wind between 9 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. Tuesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 104. West wind around 7 mph becoming south.”
I worked on Joel’s Iron Eyes Cody website and got a few of the changes he wants but there’s still more to edit. Finally got some pics of last month’s Potluck posted on the Copper Mountain Mesa Website.
I must have talked for over four hours on the cell phone today. I called Paula and that was 56min, and then Audrey called and we yakked for just over an hour. I also talked to a few Friends for a half hour each. My ear feels like it’s going to fall off! I need to get some kind of headset for the dang thing so my brains don’t get fried by the radio waves.
I went for my evening walk listen to Astronomy Cast - Questions Show: Why are black holes black, Unbalancing the Earth, and Space Pollution. Then I gave Fat Cat a good brushing. Kevin called and yakked at him for a spell.
I went back to webwork until it got late. I called Mike from Hermosa to wish him a Happy Birthday, and then I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Current Mood: busy

Saturday 11- did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 79 and 108 degrees, winds from the NW-SW at 6 to 19 MPH, humidity around 24 percent, somewhat cloudy skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Sunday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 103. North northwest wind between 5 and 9 mph. Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 76. West wind between 9 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.”
I mostly did webwork, read and studied the “Network Concepts” book, and called Friends and Family.
I went for my evening walk listening to Astronomy Cast - Questions Show: Avoiding the Heat Death, Orbiting Galaxies, and the Dangers of Space Radiation.
I went on over to Stoney’s to help him finish those chili beans he made on Thursday. He has these rat zappers sitting outside to electrocute the Antelope Squirrels that have been eating his tomatoes. He was watering his garden earlier today when one of them got wet. So he sat down with the zapper on his lap to re-bait it when it zapped the hell out of him, he said, and by reflex tossed it in the air about fifty feet away. Stoney said he ain’t going to make that mistake again. I bet the squirrels were watching!
I got back home and continued reading until it got late. Then I did my stretches, went for a night run, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Current Mood: Studying

Friday 10- did my stretches and ran a mile.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 74 and 104 degrees, winds from the W-SW at 4 to 9 MPH, humidity around 28 percent, cloudy skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Partly sunny and hot, with a high near 100. Northwest wind at 10 mph becoming south southeast. Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 75. West southwest wind between 7 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.”
Late last night after I completed my journal I ordered the “Linksys WRT54G Ultimate Hacking Book” from Amazon, and this morning I won the bid on a Linksys WRT54G v6 Wireless Router with DD-WRT v24 FIRMWARE from EBay. Now I’m in business!
While I was at Amazon I also ordered a used biology book called “The Cell: A Molecular Approach” because I am fascinated by the cell wall. It’s kind of like going back to the Big Bang in astronomy; how did it form to create life.
I got caught up on my astronomy reading and started another book called “Networking Concepts” that I’ll be studying for the next week or so.
I went for my evening walk listening to “Astronomy Cast - Ep. 141: Volcanoes, Hot and Cold” about the different types of volcanoes on Earth, other planets, and moons.
I got back home to continue reading until “Numb3rs” came on CBS; a rerun but I needed a break from reading. Then I updated the updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the newsletter
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Current Mood: busy

Thursday 09- did my stretches and ran a mile.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 73 and 105 degrees, winds from the NW-SW at 6 to 13 MPH, humidity around 22 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Partly sunny and hot, with a high near 100. Northwest wind at 10 mph becoming south southeast. Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 75. West southwest wind between 7 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.”
I did more studying on networks and really messed things up, but fortunately got everything back in order, whew! This took a lot of time and before I knew it was time to go on over to Stoney’s for some homemade chili beans with rice. It was the best he ever made in my opinion! We channel surfed for something to watch but out of 1000 some channels he has on his satellite there wasn’t much. So we went into his kitchen where he keeps his desktop and I fixed a minor problem.
I went for my evening walk re-re-re-re-listening to Astronomy Cast - Ep. 140: Entanglement, trying to rap my brain around it. It looks like I’ll have to buy a book about it to read.
Back at home I went online to find some kind of documentation on network routers and the DD-WRT program that runs on them and other info. I think I’ve found one: “Linksys WRT54G Ultimate Hacking Book”.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.

Current Mood: chipper