May 19-25 2013

 Sunday 19- a very nice day.

I did my stretches.

I left with Linda H. at 6pm to collect some flower seeds at a nearby dry lake and when she dropped me back home an hour later the last little dove had already flown away from the nest.

I recorded a couple of songs.

Monday 20- a little breeze later on in the evening, but nice during the day.

I did my stretches, lifted weights, yoga, core trainer, and punched the heavybag for five minutes.

Chris brought me a bag of groceries from the USDA food distribution.

Worked on my computers doing updates and upgrades.

Tuesday 21- a really nice pleasant day.

I did my stretches, lifted weights, yoga, ran a mile and a half with 1.5lbs around each wrists, core trainer, and punched the heavybag for three minutes.

I picked up Kelly and we went and did our shopping at WalMart, Vons (for their wonderful bread), Stater Brothers, and the Pet Store. We ended up at the Sizzler for dinner; had coupons for steak and all you can eat shrimp. I found that Kelly can really put away the shrimp, eating four plates and part of my second one I couldn’t finish. We got back to her house around 9pm. I stayed until 1:30am watching Star Trek and Burn Notice with her.

Wednesday 22- very windy day!

I did my stretches, lifted weights, yoga, core trainer, and punched the heavybag for three minutes.

I got a call from my brother Kevin that our father (my birth dad) had fallen earlier in the day. Dad has an appointment with his doctor on Friday and seems to be alright. I asked Kevin if he would keep an eye on him and suggest to Dad that Kevin move in temporarily. We talked about other contingencies too.

I was kinda stressed and wrote poems and such the rest of the night.

Thursday 23- windy but not as bad as yesterday.

I did my stretches, lifted weights, yoga, ran a mile and a half with 1.5lbs around each wrists, core trainer, and punched the heavybag for two minutes.

I cleaned up around the house and watered the plants. I found another new dove nest with in egg inside. I suspect that there will be one more by tomorrow.

At 6pm I was at the community center for my first CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training class. We had quite a showing of folks interested in training for CERT certification. There was a lot to cover this first meeting and the speaker was a Battalion Commander of the San Bernardino Fire Department in Apple Valley. He covered the first unit of our book; Emergency Preparedness, and talked a little bit about what we could expect as we progressed through the eight week class which meets every Thursday at 6pm to 9pm except for the last class on Saturday morning for field testing.

We received our CERT vests, backpacks, helmets and other gear we may need to start off with. The students were broke down into five teams and were told to build a structure standing five feet tall out of thin paper; team number four (my team) finished first using less paper than anyone else. Ours looked like a rocket held up with fins :)

I got home to find a message saying my birth father was in the hospital. I packed some clothes and was ready to travel in case events got worse; I didn’t get to sleep until after 5am.

Friday 24- must have been nice but I stayed inside waiting for phone calls about my Dad. I wasn’t sure if I should drive out to Tucson or wait to see how events unfold. I wrote a very short story and rewrote it several times; writing seems to take my mind away to faraway places.

Kevin called me later in the evening to say the doctors had Dad stabilized but was weak and would keep him there until Tuesday.

Not much I can do 426 miles away, so I continued to write and leave it to the doctors and up to my siblings and hope things go well... bed at 5am again.

Saturday 25- very nice and breezy day.

I received a message from Kevin telling me Dad is going to be okay and is sitting up in bed; I feel much better now.

I did my stretches, lifted weights, yoga, ran a mile and a half with 1.5lbs around each wrists, core trainer, and punched the heavybag for five minutes.

I updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter.

I cooked up some rice and beans for potluck while I talked to family and friends.

I was so involved with what I was doing that I looked at my clock and saw that it was 4:15pm and I was going to be late for potluck. I grabbed everything and was just about to open the door to leave when Chris Jonas called to ask me if I was coming to potluck; I knew it was him and quickly said I was on my way.

There was around fifteen folks who showed up and for the first time that I can remember, and I have been going to potlucks from the start some 15 years or so, we all sat at the same table.

Mary Koval and her daughter Chris made the Ultima Cowboy Casserole, triple chocolate cherry bars and strawberry jello dessert. Chris Jonas and his granddaughter Anna whipped up Chris’s famously fantastic world renown macaroni salad. The broccoli corn bread Dorothy Jacobsen brought was unquestionably a pleasure to the palate. Ruth Malton served her Waldo-jello salad which she was mighty proud of. Dyan Carroll worked like the dickens these past couple of days creating a wonderful Ham and Cheese Rollups, Smashed Loaded Potatoes, and a Lemon Trifle that melted in yer mouth and made the angels sing. Kip Field was most happy to share his Guacamole and chips with us. Tim Atzi supplied the drinks.

Marie Morrison and her daughter brought Au Gratin Potatoes. Sadly Marie told us all that this would be her last potluck and that she was going to Wisconsin with her daughter to live. Marie has been my friend and a great friend of our little community for many decades; we will miss her very much. I told her if she has any problems out there in Wisconsin, we’d come to fetch her back.

***** Stuff I Wrote this Week******

Old Betsy

The old locomotive was chugging down the tracks, clickety clack, clickety clack she rode the rails eastbound on her last run before she would become scrap. She was the last of her breed, Old 4459 a coal fired engine, but her Engineer and crew called her lovingly Betsy; for she was their old girl and they treated her with the care of a queen.

Clickety clack, clickety clack she rode the rails; a familiar and comforting sound that put weary travelers on board to sleep, to dream of foreign lands not yet traveled and lovers to be found. Clickety clack, clickety clack upon the rails she rode.

The night was ablaze with many stars, aroras filled the sky, with colors bright of greens and reds and blues that waved from way up high. She was now on a straightaway by some unknown clear lake, picking up speed as the firemen shoveled coal more rapidly to make it up the mountain grade. Clickety clack, clickety clack she belched black soot from her stack.

Curve by curve she rode magnificently, up the grade she did climbed. Now she crested the highest peak and headed down the otherside, but as the Engineer pulled the lever to slow her speed down, the old brakes had finally died letting out an ominous sound. Gaining speed most rapidly she rode the curves and raced upon the rails, clickety clack, clickety clack, faster and faster down the steep grade to a certain death they made their way.

The Engineer slowly and expertly put her in reverse, and called out most anxiously for more coal, More Coal, for your lives men, More Coal!

Old Betsy was giving all she got and probably not survive, her boiler running red hot, steam pouring from its sides. Straining in reverse to slow the train, her wheels which ride the rails, were now a glowing orange hue as they clickety clack, clickety clack around the deep curve they rode.

Screams and yells pierced the air as the train swayed from side to side, with speed like this never done before they were destined not to survive.

Now if they were to live through that night they had to push poor Betsy more. The Engineer could smell the ozone from melting steel and spraying sparks galore.

Betsy looked like a comet shooting across the sky, as she made her way down dark mountain peak, carrying crew and passengers on the ride of their lives.

One last curve is all it took and she came and met its challenge. Around the bend was a straightaway and safety lay ahead. The Engineer began to ease the strain and bring her to a stop, clickety clack, clickety clack the train slowed on the track.

He told the crew to jump and get away before the engine blew. Betsy's back was broken her engine parts had frozen. There Betsy sat sizzling red hot upon the track a fitting end for no finer workhorse could be. Old Betsy did not blow, but later was towed by a newer engine than she.

Saving so many lives as Betsy had, to the scrappers she did not go. She now sits in a museum all spruced up, her brass shinier than gold. On the front there hangs a plaque that tells the story quite well:

Here rests Engine 4459 no better engine as she. Also known as Old Betsy to her beloved and those who knew her well. She gave her all for those who rode that cold and fateful night. Saving them all from tragic end; one being the future President of the United States, who saved her from the scrapping yards to be displayed at this museum.

I was glad her decision to stay in the bed, to write witty poems spreading cheer through my thick head. Be she quick with her laughter to smile and to dance or be bright like a glow bug leaving me in her trance. I say, take me with you, sweep me high above yonder trees, who bob in rhythm with the cold mountain breeze. But it is silent now, the day grows dim, I search for her words, was she only a whim, just an apparition, a ghost of a dream, or really an Angel singing gently to me.

brisk is the morning that fills our hearts with joy, sweet is the song from the birds singing in the trees, as bees buzz around us, the sun shining warms us, a hawk soars high in deep blue sky above. We cherish these moments, as our love of it awes us, flowers painting nature’s canvas with colors of delight, lightens one’s soul with the beauty of what we call is life.

I could write a thousand poems about your smile, but none may capture its radiant beauty, that falls upon my eyes so sweet, and melts away what holds my passion, makes sway so slightly on my feet. It isn’t lust that turns my brow, but a longing for your sweet sweet smile.

At last behold the seven seas, that lie beyond in harmony, to sail them now may you be blessed, out ahead of a wave's steep crest, to ride this unbounded power, this pure wave of energetic water, to dive to depths no one has been, and always kiss your lips as if in sin, we ponder life as we are as one, never knowing how it begun, treasure it not a waste of time, but a moment in space, a lovers cry. Earthly be bound to our desires and pleasant memories in silence hours.  

Humans should eventually leave Earth to colonize space and let what precious life we haven't killed off with our pollutants and waste alone to evolve on its own. We were made for space.

I had an epiphany (Merriam-Webster: “an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event) usually simple and striking”) once in a college astronomy class. I was on the roof of the college astronomy building where the dome to the large telescope is housed; I did my independent study there and wrote my paper a few years later on intrinsic variable stars (Wikipedia: “Intrinsic variables, whose luminosity actually changes; for example, because the star periodically swells and shrinks”). Our class had ten 8 inch Meade Newtonian telescopes to work with. It was our first time setting them up to follow the stars across the skies.

First you setup your scope for polar alignment by aligning the latitude adjustment scale to the latitude of your location, align the settings circles; one axis is RA (right ascension) with Polaris, sighting that star in your eyepiece you then align the other axis (declination) by dialing in 90 degrees; or another method I was taught is to make the fine adjustments afterwards by focusing on a bright star whose Dec and RA are known to you, like the Dubhe in Ursa Major (Big Dipper), and dialing those coordinates into your scopes setting circles. Once you have these settings your scope is good for a night of stargazing. (obviously I’m trying not to go into too much detail here and there are probably other and better methods used nowadays)

I was having a problem of sorts conceptualizing the idea on how the motorized scope followed the stars from east to west while at the same time we could go find other stars or clusters by their RA and Dec. The light didn’t go on in my head until our Professor, Dr. Palmer, explained to me quite simply that the sky is stationary and it is the Earth that we are standing which actually moves.

Now I must say I knew the Earth was moving and the sky was stationary, but I never had the opportunity to put them both together for practical use until this night. Also, it is a very powerful illusion to overcome because we can see the sky is moving overhead as we stand on ‘solid ground’.

Since that night I cannot look upon Earth and sky in any other manner than the Earth moving and the sky stationary. Once you have an epiphany, even a small one like mine, your view of nature settles into a new paradigm (Oxford American Dictionary: “A worldview underlying the theories and methodology of a particular scientific subject”). May we all seek them out.

In reply to a beautiful painting of a faraway planet: My home on the planet Gacanaphrous Prime 10,600 light years away circling a star in the globular cluster M22 in the constellation Sagittarius . We grow grapes there. :)

I just hope we survive the next five to ten years, but it is always nice to plan ahead. I have great hopes for our species, but we must first overcome greed and the sanctioned systematic release of harmful products into the environment and our food supplies.

******