June 23-29 2013

 Sunday 23- temps into the high 90s.

I did my stretches. I called Family and Friends to yack at them for a short spell. I then spent the rest of the day editing, proofing, changing my first Sci-Fi book, “Rainbow at the end of Tomorrow.

Monday 24- Getting hotter all the time... 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 continued to edit my book all day and I still have many chapters to do. I did my stretches, lifted 10lb dumbbells and went for my evening walk with my backpack. I got so focused on my editing that I forgot to go for a night run.

Tuesday 25- the temps are starting to climb back into the hundreds. 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. Almost done editing! I did my stretches, lifted 10lb dumbbells and went for my evening walk with my backpack. I published the book, “Rainbow at the end of Tomorrow; book one” as a Kindle ebook at Amazon and priced it at 99 cents. I got to figuring that $2.99 is too much for an ebook, but that is the cutoff for me getting 70% royalty and Amazon getting 30%. Anything under $2.99 Amazon get 65% and I get 35%. Now if I go with the 99 cent I believe folks will think that is a fair price for an ebook that doesn't have to be printed and bound on paper and everything is done electronically saving everyone money and they’ll buy it. Would you feel right about paying the same price for a paperback book as you would for an ebook? I sure as hell don’t. So I even brought down the price of my very first book “A Little Desert Home to 99 cents. 99 cents is as low as Amazon will go before you have to put it up for free; and I ain’t gonna do that! I did my stretches, lifted 20lb dumbbells, and went for a night run.

Wednesday 26- temps are around 104 degrees today but with a few clouds. 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 studied Unit 6 for my CERT training class. I did my stretches, lifted 10lb dumbbells and went for my evening walk with my backpack. I kinda kicked back today and watched two episodes 13 and 14 of “Warehouse 13” on Hulu; The Big Snag, and The Skies The Limit. I did my stretches, lifted 20lb dumbbells, and went for a night run. I downloaded a copy of my Sci-Fi book onto my Kindle and found a few errors and a few things I can include to enhance the beginning. So I spent the wee hours of the night doing the update and resubmitting it.

Thursday 27- temps hovering around 100 degrees. 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 reviewed Unit 6 of the CERT training class. I did my stretches, lifted 10lb dumbbells and went for my evening walk with my backpack. I arrived at the community center for the CERT training class at 5:30pm for Unit 6: CERT Organization. This unit covers how to organize and deploy resources, how to protect CERT personnel during search and rescue, strategies for documenting situations and resources, and team organization and structure. After a short review of Unit 5 and a long lecture on UNIT 6 by Judy and the Chief on how to fill out forms; we were broken down into four groups and given different scenarios of a disaster and given twenty minutes to make a report up on how we responded. The overall scenario was a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that hit our area and our four CERT team deployed at different areas. One student was chosen from the whole class to be the Incident Commander/Team Leader who we would radio and report to. Teams would radio in their reports and updates and it was the IC/TL to setup his command structure according to CERT guidelines, allocate resources, and radio back to the individual teams his response. I would have to say this simulation was a very productive and informative demonstration of how CERT performs its function during a disaster. After CERT I drove to WalMart to get a motor for Kelly’s burned out one on her swamp cooler. It has been getting really hot in her house and I thought I’d help her out. When I went to check they were out. I asked them to check in back and was told that most of the merchandise has already been sent to the new store down the block that will open on July 17. I stopped off at Carl’s Jr. and got a couple of burgers for us; I didn’t want to arrive at her house empty handed with the bad news of the motor.

Friday 28- temps into the the teens, like over 114 or more degrees. I did my stretches. I went to Home Depot as soon as I woke up and picked up the motor and had it all installed by 2pm. I was a little overheated and I hung around at her house to cool down and didn’t get back home till midnight; the swamp cooler is working very well.

Saturday 29- I was too busy to noticed the temps but I am sure they were well over 115 degrees. I cooked up my usual beans and rice surprise and headed down to the community center for Potluck. There were twenty folks showing up on this very hot day with lots of food to go around. Tim Ayzei cooked and simmered to perfection the sauce for his fancy Italian spaghetti. Indy and his gal wiped up salad tabbouleh which mysteriously disappeared soon after. Mary Koval and daughter Chris cooked up a storm by bringing garlic bread, chocolate cookie bars, cowboy casserole, and WalMart cheese chicken. Dorothy Jacobsen and Dyan Carroll performed their magic at the stove with their Hawaiian rolls, kalua pork, shaved ice coolers, fruit bowl, and a banana cream pie; I done died and gone off to heaven seeing all this tasty food! Cal Myer’s brought a fruit and vegetable plate for all to enjoy. Kip Fjelds mixed up his wonderful Guacamole. Stephanie and Jay created a special edamame and feta salad, yum! New to potluck, Nancy Hanson and Corinne Lery carried in an angle food cake with white frosting and pumpkin Muffins. Finally let us not forget the world renowned master chef Chris Jonas and his splendidly supreme macaroni salad! Afterwards I took some leftover to Kelly. She was cleaning her house and asked if I would help; hey sure why not... I was there working with her until 2:30am helping her clean.

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