July 07-13 2013

Sunday 07- temps over 110. I did my stretches, lifted weights, yoga, core trainer, ran up and down my hill with 5 lbs dumbells, and punched the heavybag for five minutes. I read and finished Units 7 and 8 of the CERT training course. Now I have to do lots of review of the whole book. I did my stretches, lifted 10lb dumbbells and went for my evening walk with my backpack. I watered the plants at night under the starry skies! I did my stretches, lifted 20lb dumbbells, and went for a night run. I practiced my guitar and wrote poems on FaceBook.

Monday 08- over 110 degrees. I did my stretches, lifted weights, yoga, core trainer, ran up and down my hill with 5 lbs dumbells, and punched the heavybag for five minutes. I reviewed the CERT training boo I took Kelly to town so she could take care of some business and we did our shopping at Vons and WalMart. There wasn’t much over at WalMart because this store is closing and their new Super Store is opening a mile east; I didn’t get home till after 9pm.

Tuesday 09- temps are around 110 degrees (was only suppose to be 98), with a lot of clouds and humidity. I did my stretches, lifted weights, yoga, ran up and down my hill with 5 lbs dumbells, and punched the heavybag for five minutes. I worked on the swamp cooler so that it would fill up with water automaticly on its own instead of me running out in the heat of the day every few hours to fill it by garden hose. I had to run a waterline from the front of the house to where it is in the battery room, then connect the whole system up to it. Now it works like a charm! I did my stretches, lifted 10lb dumbbells and went for my evening walk with my backpack. I studied my CERT training guide course thingy all day. I did my stretches, lifted 20lb dumbbells, and went for a night run. I practiced my guitar. I watched season 3 episodes 21 and 22 of “Numb3rs”: Art of Reckoning; Under Pressure.

Wednesday 10- temps are around 100 degrees with clouds and lots of humidity. I did my stretches, lifted weights, yoga, ran up and down my hill with 5 lbs dumbells, and punched the heavybag for five minutes. I watered the outside plants. I did my stretches, lifted 10lb dumbbells and went for my evening walk with my backpack. Again I studied the CERT material most of the day. I did my stretches, lifted 20lb dumbbells, and went for a night run. I watched season 4 episode 16 of “Warehouse 13”: Runaway.

Thursday 11- it rained today! I did my stretches, lifted weights, yoga, and punched the heavybag for five minutes. More studying for for CERT for the finale class tonight. Tonight’s CERT class covered Unit 7 Disaster Psychology: the psychological impact on rescuers and victims and how to provide “psychological first aid”, and Unit 8 Terrorism: what is terrorism, terrorist targets, weapons likely used, CBRNE indicators, how to prepare for a terrorist incident and CERT protocols during a terrorist incident. Chief Snow was away fighting a wildfire and couldn’t be here so Judy and Nancy gave the class. All those who took and passed the American Red Cross CPR and First Aid Training Course received their certificate; I was among those :) For the first hour we reviewed all the previous units of the CERT book and then watched a 45 minute movie on Disaster Psychology. We took a break and then we went over Units 7 and 8. Nancy’s husband, who is a CERT member and works in the field of radiology for 43 years, gave a thorough lecture on the effects, treatment, and different scenarios of a radiological incident. This is our finale Thursday night class and now we await the simulated training and test this 13th of July on Saturday morning at 8am; wish us luck! I watched season 3 episodes 23 and 24 of “Numb3rs”: Money for Nothing; The Janus List.

Friday 12- a very little bit of rain with lots of clouds. Temps in the high 80s to low 90s. I did my stretches, lifted weights, yoga, core trainer, and punched the heavybag for five minutes. Andrew came up from Los Angeles to pick up a car and needed a ride back to his truck in Joshua Tree. He offered to buy me lunch at the Sizzler restaurant for the ride; how could I refuse. We spent over an hour eating and yammering away the time; it is always nice to see my old friend. While I was down there I stopped to pick up a few things that Kelly asked for me to get and dropped them off at her house before getting home around 8pm. I watched season 4 episodes 1 and 2 of “Numb3rs”: Trust Metric; Hollywood Homicide.

 

Saturday 13- slightly over 105 degrees. I somehow woke up at 6am for my CERT disaster drill training that starts at 8am. I had two alarms set and four friends to call me at 7am; one alarm didn’t go off and one friend forgot to call. I arrived early for the class; amazingly I was the second one there. Chief Snow started out with a review and then we were given the test; all students received 100 percent! Now the hard part was to do a disaster drill. There was a 7.2 earthquake that hit our area and we had to work things out for ourselves. The Incident Commander was chosen, Ray, and he divided us up into four groups and directed each group to perform different tasks. Our CERT trainers had been busy while we were taking our written test, placing bodies around the area with various injuries. Each team had to do a CERT sizeup where they were assigned and communicate their finding back to the Incident Commander. Without going into any great detail; there were many mistakes, confusion, missed victims, and some members not following CERT sizeup rules. My team, but me especially since I was the Team Leader, missed two victims and misdiagnosed one victim as dead. I must say that most if not all teams had problems and not following CERT rules and procedures. Now saying all this you might think I thought the drill was a complete failure, but it really wasn’t. We did complete our objectives by doing the greatest good to save the greatest number of people. With our CERT training we were much more organized than some group who didn’t have training. I honestly believe we did very well even with all these mistakes we made, because we learned, reassess the situation and corrected them and moved on. If we have another drill or a real emergency, our CERT teams will even be more aware of what is required of them. We all lined up in front of the CERT trailer afterwards for a class picture. I made many friends here and wish them luck. I picked up Kelly around 4pm to drive her down to Rite Aid to collect the rest of her prescriptions. We then ate at Burger King and were going to go shop at Staters, but Kelly fell ill and I took her straight home. I watched season 4 episodes 3 and 4 of “Numb3rs”: Velocity; Thirteen.

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

Freedom is the way she choose, to color our world of gray. Of yellows and reds of daffodils, her canvas progressed throughout the day. With browns and greens of growing things, as bright blues filled out our skies. She sang her songs of colors so bright to take root and blossom amongst our minds. Forgotten now by all humankind these colors and songs she played. Songs left behind to win against our fears and find her love and trust, but we seek no more, it’s all washed away with her sorrowful tears, replaced by cement and rust.

The 60s were fun... I remember being in a friend's garage with rock music blaring, the smell of strawberry incense mixed in with the odor of a sweet pungent smoke that lingered in the air, psychedelic posters hanging on the walls under black lights, and I'd be examining this album cover for it seems like hours. Garages were the main place to hangout in the 60s and 70s...

I never found school all that inspiring until I finally went to college at the age of thirty-four. Then I was among thinking people, most of them anyways, who took a broader view of the world and life than I; in their art, writings and thoughts. To be among creative minds such as they was, and still is, very interesting to me.

When it comes to my philosophy of life, I've always been a pick and choose kinda guy myself, never falling for anybody's dogma, just took a little piece here and a wee bit of a piece there that made sense to me.

Normality is an evil that hampers the soul, negates creativity, destroys individuality, and turns our minds into gooey kind of gray mush. Tuneout the naysayers be they external or come from within and Dare to be yourself, Dare yourself to create!

I write because it brings a calm to my mind, a joy that I can share with others. Some folks actually like my writings, journals and poems, which humbles me greatly and keeps me balanced.

I try to live by example; funny I should say this now after such a wild life I lived out in the 60s and 70s ;)

I think with age comes a kind of reckoning; advice we like to pass on to others. To hopefully say to anyone who comes along in later years and reads my writings that I lived here on this beautiful planet; I made a difference. Making money off my writings; I don't really care one bit :)

Watch those: to too two, there their they're, then than, sense and since, and a host of other like sounding words the English language throws at you :)

I written this poem for a friend who wrote to me about my other poem, "To a Dying Friend". She told of her friend who had a young 18 year old daughter in the hospital who was dying and my poem had come along at the right time. Well the young girl, who was supposed to be in college and have a bright future, passed from this Earth today. This affected me so, that I wrote a poem for her. The only condolences I should get from anyone is not ever having the chance to meet this sweet wonderful girl. (Again, I hope I have not overstepped):

Dark clouds have gathered the sun grows very dim a youth passes us by not to come this way again. Released from her worry, released and depart, her young soul has left but she remains in our hearts. Such grace and glory, of pink ribbons and bows, she now dances among angels on clouds of silver and gold. A future so bright has now come to pass, all the little things that matter in life have slipped from her grasp. Her essence prevails of memories so sweet in all those she touched and all who she loved.

*****