Thursday March 21, 2002
5:50a
Spent the morning expanding the Journal Index page and adding the next few Parts of the Journal, which are blank pages of course.
Friday March 22, 2002
6:05a
It must have been Sunday or Monday night. I was doing my going to bed rituals, putting the blankets and pillows on the floor in the front corner bedroom and all. It feels like I hadn't even laid down yet but maybe I was just laying there waiting for sleep. I got this mental image like in a dream for just a few seconds, maybe even just 2 or 3 seconds. It was Dad standing in space, he was wearing his nice clothes and not the usual green work clothes. He was smiling a kind of happy, pleased type of smile. Then poof ... the image was gone.
It has always seemed like I never think of Dad or Joel or grandma Hughes often enough. I don't know why. Well maybe I do, I spend most of the time thinking about the recent bad times. And they've always been recent bad times, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and now it is into the double naughts. That's like starting all over again from zero.
It's getting close to a year since my razor finally gave up. I don't know how long I've shaved with that same razor. I suppose it could have been the one I used during the navy years but it's probably one I got after that. I guess 15 years minimum and maybe 20 or 25 years. I had intended to write some prose about it, some akin to loosing a best friend and really old acquintance. But I never did.
The Lady hasn't sent email in a couple of weeks. But I was slow sending her one too. I still wait for some worth writting about to happen. And that seems to be the way it has been with other people I've tried corresponding with over the internet. We'd write out and back for a few weeks or months and then it just kind of fades away. But all that's just an extension of me not talking much either. She's probably just busy with school like I'm busy with work and regular life chores.
I met up with Don Gravely at the pharmcy last week. He waited out side in his truck till I came out. We talked a bit more. He said I reminded him of granduncle Addison, seldom saying anything but always saying something thoughtful when he did talk.
That must have got me thinking about the Hughes reunion that use to happen over at Paris mountain state park. The ones back in the 50s and 60s. And that lead to thinking about having one big reunion again too like I had thought about when I did the geneaology work. Descendants of Toliver Hiram Hughes and Matilda Skelton from 1820s, gathering 180 years worth of people together.
Time's up. Bye.
Saturday March 23, 2002
5:35a
I've gotten behind on sleep this week, that is, more than I usually get behind.
I finally went down to the Highway Department or SCDMV or South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles to get my license renewed. I had gotten a mail in form about 2 weeks ago. But to do it that way required going to an eye doctor to have the vision checked. Which meant making an appointment, going to do that and then go to the SCDMV where they would do the eye test anyway. So I did the renewal thing the same way I've always done it, at their office on Hwy 8.
I sat in the truck and filled out the mail in form before going in to the building. I had to do that over because they used bigger forms there. That done I sat down to wait for my number to come up. That took about 20 minutes which wasn't all that long considering how many others were there. "Now serving number 716 at window number 1."
I did the eye test, push my forehead against that bar that turns the light and read the letters. Left eye ok, both eyes ok, right eye all blurred like it usually is when reading letters. It was that small pinpoint retinia damage that makes the middle letters in a word look smaller than the end letters. They're turned crooked too now. It's probably a little worst than before. So I get handed another form for an eye doctor to fill out and told to go on my way.
I stopped by the doctor's office in the old Big Store building on main street. His door's locked, Monday through Thursday only. So I gone on back to work all upset. I just don't show it and feel it like I use to anymore. It's become so expected for things to be an extra hassle it's become normal.
Every year when it comes time to renew the diver's license I've had expectations of something going wrong and not be able to get it done by expiration on the birthday. Get stuck in a situation where I can't drive, have to take the whole test over again, not be able to pass the written part or mess up the driving part. And now I've got to be able to drive to take Mom to doctor's appointments, get to prescriptions filled, get groceries and all the other normal things.
If it was only me, I'd manage somehow.
Monday March 25, 2002
6:25a
Leander visited yesterday afternoon. She stopped by LeJauns to get her lunch and then drove on up to Mom's to eat. That was about 2:00. I stayed here that afternoon too instead of driving over to my house to lay around and do nothing except think about the things I should be doing. She's having her house worked on, replacing the roof and some face boards and siding. Later, about 4:00 we drove over to Aurie and Graham's house. We sat in their visiting room next to the kitchen. Aurie told her stories about the latest happenings with them. She's always so happy no matter what the misfortunates. But her other name is Happy so why shouldn't it be that way. Graham showed us one of his latest additions to this collection, another 100 year old something or other. Then we left there about 5:15 and came back to Mom's house. Leander stayed till about 6:30. So that was Sunday afternoon.
Wednesday March 27, 2002
5:30a
Six hours per night times seven nights per week times fifty-two weeks per year ... 2,184 hours of sleep per year. Normal people get 2,912 hours. That's 728 hours, 30 days of sleep I'm not getting. Seems like I read somewhere a long time ago that people can die after 10 or so days without sleep. Oh well, such is life.
I've been doing FEM and FEA at work. I've come to realize I'm not a mechanical engineer, don't know enough details about mechanical physics or material properties or forces, torques and boundary conditions. But I've always know that anyway. I'm a non-degreed computer programming still doing most anything else but writting code.
I started out doing electronic work for John Houser at Singer. Then it was electrical motor design work for Paul Nimalea with a bit of code writting for the old GE timesharing computer for Alex Chang and Paul. Then it was mechanical analytical work for Fanis Ginnopolous. Then is was that dreaded gear design work after whats-his-name fired Alex and 20 years of gear design knowledge walked out the door.
Does anyone ever really work at what they really want to work at?
Thursday March 28, 2002
6:00a
It's like watching everyone pushing a really huge and massive ball up a mountian. They're at the crest of the highest ridge. The ball is tittering at the point where its center of gravity is just balanced over the ridge's downward slope. It's the at the point of No Return.
One more extra push, one more child leaning into the effort of all the others ... and it will be over with. The ball will begin to slowly turn over own its own interia and nothing will be able to stop it.
It will wreak death, destruction and doom upon the world below.
For most of my life it seems like there's always been some group in the world chanting and shouting "Death to America" "Yankee go home" "American the Great Satan". And now it has come to planes flow into buildings, embassies, buildings, people blow up with bombs, common Americans around the world along with any others near them are the target of suicide bombers.
And then there're Omar the Taliban's words, "American will be destroyed soon, the plan is already in progress." More terrorist attacks on the States? Are you sure?
Enron collapes, Anderson mortally wounded, Paine Weber crippled. The States energy policy being decided by what size car one Senator's six foot something frame will fit into.
Friday March 29, 2002
6:05a
... The world's oil reserves will be practically depleted within 50 years. Lobbists buying special interest legislation from Senators and Representatives. A war already in progess, another one in the planning stages, more expeditures with dwindling revenues from tax rebates, tax cuts. Fifty-plus years of government contractors getting everything they can out of citizens treasury. Swindles, scams, fraud, out-right stealing by thousands and millions of individuals from the petty thief to crime bosses to corporation executives to politicans.
... on and on and on the listing goes. Bickering, fighting, legal maneuvering between each and every special interest group. From anti-littering groups, not-in-my-neighborhood groups to national political parties and national policy groups.
... Everyone's pushing, shoving, leaning into the effort against that big, massive ball.
Saturday March 30, 2002
5:50a
The explosive Mideast War that's been expected and talked about for decades started 18 or 20 months ago. On Thursday or Friday and this weekend, Passover-Easter 2002, it escalated to its own point of no return.
The way Sharon and Arafat have been going at each other it's just that, a personal war between two old and bitter enemies.
Then again it could be a bit more than that. Sharon made a visit to the Temple Mount, I think, in the Summer - Fall of 2000. The ac is suppose to be political - religious leader who re-establishes the Jewish rites at the old Temple site. So what did Sharon do there?
I keep think of the other recent conflicts, civil, tribal, ethnic and religious sect wars. They have been 10s, 100s and 1000s of thousands brutally and viciously butchered. The rest of the world just kinda watched and let it happen with little concern or objection.
But for some reason when a few 10s and 100s of Palestinians and Isralii kill each other, oppress each other its a world wide crisis.
There was a news segment where one of the Palestinain terrorist was being interviewed on the streets. He was carrying his rifle and was wearing the too familar black ski mask. "We want the Israeli to feel the pain and suffering we feel. That's why they are suicide bombers." And then there's been the arguement made about the root causes of why individuals are driven to such extremes of suicide bombers.
Will it ever occur to their thinking that the Israeli and Jews feel exactly the same way? Their people are being blown up, butchered, murdered, shot and killed.
The phrases cycle of violence, revenage and retailation have become too simplistic. It's all passed that now. It's a run-away chain reaction, a melt-down of reasonable thought in the core of the reactor. It's reached its point of no return.
Back to that image on the tv news. Who would want that armed masked man as a neighbor? Who would want individuals who have developed a suicide bomber mentality in the community? Is there, or has they ever been, a reason to believe the Palestinians would be no less oppressive or murderous against Jews in a Palestine State?
the Seven Years (84 months) began several months ago. It's now 66 or 64 months and counting.
Monday April 1, 2002
6:20a
My spirit doesn't weep as much, a youth has found a cause. I wish him many successes in his efforts.
Now back to the other world crisis ....
Some 3, 4 and 5 thousand years ago, in the Mideast, the cultures worshipped one of them gods that demanded human sacriface, their first born children. Now it's the enlightened, ultra advanced, age of rational thinking civilization times. Nothing changed ... baal and its kind have returned and now go by the name of hamas, alqadea, terrorism. Their high priests call for the Palestinian people to send their children to their suicidal death, with promises of glory in the next life. It's become a sacred ritual for them.
Welcome to the beginnings of the thousand year age of terrorism around the world.
Tuesday April 2, 2002
5:05a
You can get anything you want with terrorism. It's part of the by all means neccessary theory. hamas, alqadea, fatah can do no wrong ... Israel and the States can do no right.
Bomb and attack your enemy, when they take the hits and do nothing, bomb and attack more. Bomb and attack your enemy, when they defend themselves and retailate, bomb and attack more. Bomb and attack your enemy, when they oppress, suppress, depress you more for your attacks, bomb and attack more.
Make your demands for what you want then terrorize the world till you get what you want. Not an iota less but more and more and more demands. There's no compromise, no giving up, no peace only destruction, death and doom for your enemy when you use terrorism to get what you want.
Death to Israel, Death to America, Death to Europe, Death to Christains, Hindu, Buddist, Death to Infidels, Death to the West, North, South, Far East.
Life to Hate, Life to Killing, Life to Destruction, Life to Muslim, Islam, Palestine, Arabains, Life to the Cresent MidEast.
You can get anything you want with terrorism.
Wednesday April 3, 2002
5:35a
Yesterday at work I opened another account at yahoo chat to see if that would get rid of the chat problem. I hadn't tried using their chat in almost 2 years. It would not work at work because of the firewall there I guess. I tried it again last evening and got in. It was the old old chat 2 version. I tried the old account then and it worked also. So either their chat connection got the bugs worked out, the old jave version was the problem or rebuilding the windows on this drive fixed it.
Anyway, after the second re-visit to that place in 3 or 4 years the religion arguements are still the same. There's been no evolving of religion thought.
I can't even remember most of the other chat names I use to see there.
Daniel wanted to know what time of day he was born. He didn't mention why and hasn't responded to the last email yet.
I have to go get my new glasses today and then go back to dmv for the license again. Maybe I'll get that done before the end of the week.
The more I try to do FEM and FEA and mechanical engineering work the more it becomes apparent I don't know what I'm doing. That new router collet design and LTP spec is going to haunt me the rest of my time there. I wish I could get work or a job where it's all computer code writting.
The news commentators and analyst are comming around to this MidEast, NearEast thing between Israel and Palestine is and always has been a personal conflict between Sharon and Arafat. Isn't that like all the old-world battles between kings and rulers and other men of power? It's really really really sad that so many common folk people have to die and suffer because of a couple of old men and their grudges against each other.
If the anarchists hadn't made a governmentless, rulerless society such a bad violent idea I'd be for anarchy.
That's all. Bye.
Thursday April 4, 2002
5:45a
I've already got all my morning kitchen rituals done. If it wasn't so early I'd go wash my hair, shave and finish getting ready for the day. But that would be too much noise and might disturb mom. So I'll just have to wait. Maybe I'll lay back down, like in the living room, and finish out the waiting.
I got the new glasses yesterday. As expected I can tell a whole lot of difference. They're probably better for long distance vision. Things are just a schosh sharper. But of course the computer distance vision is messed up, or else I'm not use to the different parts of the lens I'm suppose to be looking through yet. I'll go on down to the dmv place and see if I can get my license renew like I started a couple of weeks ago.
This morning's thought about the Israel - Palestine conflict is: How many other conflicts in the world there has been over the last 35 years and how many people have died in them? Some how I suspect the Mid-Near-East thing is in the bottom 25%.
After work at my house yesterday I tried the yahoo chat thing. It's still messed up over there so there's something wrong with that computer's software. I will have to finally break down and rebuild the windows and drivers and all the other stuff on that machine. It's what I've always suspected, corrupted files, bugs, plants, bad downloads, bad software. Of course I'll probably just end up breaking it down.
April 1st came and went. It was my 500th night at Mom's house.
Friday April 5, 2002
5:30a
At 8:20a I left work to go to the dmv place to finish what I started 2 weeks ago. That's get my driver's license renew. I got there right about 8:30 when they open the doors and saw the line of people standing outside. I had the turn signal on but when I saw that I drove on by to that road just below their offices. "Do I really want to do this now?" I circled the area and came back out to the Easley highway just past Pickens Weslyn View Church. That's where there's usually a car or boat or something for sale on the corner. I don't think I had ever been on that road. I turn right and go on back down to the dmv office and parked in the back.
The crowd is mostly already inside and seated, there's just a few in the lobby. There's one of those kids who looks to be in his teens in front of me. He must be getting his for the first time. I get my number and go sit down and start the waiting.
I start to notice one man who's been standing at a counter for a long time. He stood there for 35 minutes after I started the timing. Never did pick up on what he was having done. Another man who was close enough to hear what's being said was told to sit back down for a while. Later he's called back. He had traffic violations of some kind, a couple where down in Savannah GA. The man sitting next to me commented to someone on his other side that it was 7 total. He would have to get those taken care of before first. He left. I think he might have been a truck driver, there was another man with him and I guess he was doing the driving. Then there's a lady who had to do the eye test. She tried 3 or 4 times before she got it right. Lucky guesses probably.
So anyway, the clerks there have a lot more to do besides simple license renewals, license plates, title transfers. I think they do the counter work for a while and then go back to their offices to finish processing them and then come back to do more counter work. It's no wonder it took 1 hour and 20 minutes to do my 5-10 minutes of work.
The lady didn't ask if I got new glasses and I didn't tell. I just said I had to have this form filled out by the eye doctor and handed it to her. I'm not sure the new glasses would have helped much anyway. The distance vision is a little sharper but the close up letter reading is the same or worse than the oldere glasses.
So that was yesterday's adventure.
I finished doing a plasticity FEA yesterday. Still don't know what I'm doing, just going through the motions of doing work.
The Lady is back. She's been busy with school, like I've been busy with work. Well, she's been busy with school work, house work, Spring flower planting work and a few other things too.
I looked at the stats on the Journal pages. I think most of them are being read more than I thought. It looks like 4, 5, or 10 times a week.
I stopped at Ingle's to get supper plates for Mom and me. On the way out the door I hear my name. It's Carolyn Gilstrap, she's the mother of one of my high school friends and they use to live in the old Metz house on the corner. We talked a bit. She had heart surgery 3 years ago. If I had known that I had forgotten but that's become the norm for me. Robin is retiring from teaching, or already has but is doing 3 more years. Working for the government does have it's advantages, do 30 years and then just quite. His brother Jimmy retired a few years ago but he's still teaching some anyway. I guess if I had kept on working those 9 or 10 years I would be thinking more of doing the same now. Just quite.
Maybe one of these days I'll get around to writing that multi-million dollar widget program.
Monday April 8, 2002
4:55a
The Rocket Boys, West Virginia, 1957-58, Homer Hickam and group ... the way it started, the Glory Years.
But the Glory Years are comming to an end. It's becomming more and more obvious the beginning of the end has started.
The States won't last much longer, about 50 years more or less. Sometimes it feels like it won't last through the Bush presidency be it 3 or 7 more years.
And then there's Israel, 3 to 5 years left in that Great Experiment.
It's all there in the forgein news coverage, just like it is in the States news media. Inflaming the emotions of the masses for one side or the other. Most of the rest of the world really and truly hates the States and Israel. Those that don't outright just turn an indifferent care toward them.
The protesters and demonstrators turn out by the 10s of thousands against Israel using violence in Palestinian territory. But not so when it's the hamas, alqaeda, Palestinain terrorists using human bombs against the Israeli.
For most of the rest of the world, Israel and the States are suppose to take the hits, the bombings, the civilian deaths and destructions, the terrorist attacks and do absolutely nothing in return. If they do anything to defend themselves then the protesters shout and scream at the violent reaction.
It won't make any differ if or when the Palestine State is created. The attacks on Israel and the States will continue. Terrorism will always find fault with them both, reasons to make more strikes against them.
Tuesday April 9, 2002
4:55a
I took Mom over to the lung doctor yesterday morning. Their offices had moved into a new building on St Francis property. We had to stop at one building that was on the left to ask directions. The lady there called them and then went outside to point out the building.
It was mostly just a regular visit. Mom told the lady doctor or practicianer about not being about her heart and shortness of breathe when she does most anything now. The doctor said if it gets worse to let them know. Then it's just another visit in 4 months.
I guess this time change has caused me to loose more sleep than normal. It takes about an hour for me to get to sleep which means it's the regular 9:30 time except it's the new 10:30 time. I was really tired yesterday afternoon and evening. I managed to lay on the floor til after 5:15 before getting up. So now it's already time to finish the morning routines and go on to work.
Thursday April 11, 2002
5:20a
Besides the usual stuff that goes on, I've started filling in the missing years of this Journal. That be the '93 through '98 years.
Monday April 15, 2002
5:30a
Saturday I cut the grass, did a spiral pattern from the center of the front yard. Then I spread some of the dirt from the septic tank work back a few years around where the whistere bushes were and cedar trees are.
Sunday I wasted away resting cause I didn't rest much the night before. I did get the boxes of stuff I use for a heat sink put back where they usually stay during the Summer. I was going to leave my coats over there too but didn't. I still need them for security blanket type feelings.
So now it's Monday morning and another work week already and I feel like I've accomplished nothing much. I was planning on doing the hard drive formatting and rebuilding windows on the big computer. That never got done.
Tuesday April 16, 2002
3:55a
I think this waking up at 2 and 3 o'clock in the mornings is really just wanting to have an extra two or three hours for myself. It's part of only having 30 minutes of reading before going to sleep and the hour or two in the mornings before getting ready for the day. I just want more time to call my own, that's all it is. So I wake up earlier and then loose it again when I'm sitting watching the evening news and shows half asleep.
Then again I waste most of my awake hours thinking how miserable my life is. That's just self punishment for feeling like I'm not doing enough to have a life.
That stupid pendulum problem at work is beyound Earl's capability to solve. At least easily solved. It finally dawned on me that others who have to do that test must be having the same problems. The test spec should have included how to calculate how far back to pull the tool to get the 40 inches per second velocity.
It's turned Summer like already. It's in the 80s this week with 60 or so for overnight lows. I'm going to try again to leave my coats at my house. Put the heaters away over there too. Take the one that's here back to my house along with the Winter clothes. Get everything set up for the Summertime ... then wait for it to turn cooler. But I really doubt that, the Summer heat is coming early this year. It's going to be a long hot Summer.
Every time a politician moves his lips, or a news person for that matter, there's that sense of all of them rich and powerful entities taking us poor common folk for fools, simpletons, ignorant masses. It's as if they really and truly believe we will accept for gospel whatever words are comming forth from their tongue. The world's not only mad, mad, mad, mad but also insane insane insane insane.
Wednesday April 17, 2002
5:05a
Last evening after eating supper I took down the storm windows and put up the screens. I put the air conditioner up in the front bedroom too. It took about an hour and fifteen minutes. So the Summer heat is already here.
This morning while out on the porch I happen to think about the air conditioner sitting in the closet all Winter. What if the freon had leaked? So I guess I'll have to carry it outside come Fall this year. If I remember about the what if.
Last night was strange, or stranger than normal. My back hurt some depending on how I was laying or turning over. I thought it was from lifting the air conditioner or the extra bit of carrying windows and stuff. And then there was carrying that big ladder at work yesterday too. I must have woke up every 40 minutes or so till 1:30. Then it was almost 5:30 when I got up with a few more wake ups inbetween. I didn't look at the clock those times.
There as a dream too. One scene about a lake with cliffs around it and a road along the water's edge too. It was all frozen over. There was a sense of being work related in other scenes. But it's all fading away now.
So it's after 5:15 now and I need to get on with getting ready for the day. Bye.
Friday April 19, 2002
5:25a
I found another website that gives the visible satellite times. I didn't know the Hubble Space Telescope was visible. I was out in front of the carport yesterday morning and saw a light move across the sky from north to south in the western part. It had the speed of a satellite and looked more like a star than an airplane light. So I did an internet search and found this other website. Interesting, all these years I could have been watching that bit of human hi-flying technology pass over.
I did some writing at work yesterday too. Here it is.
Last evening NBC Dateline with Tom Brockoff did their show about the USS Stennis carrier. That got me to thinking about the Navy years, NAS Oceana, VF-84, CVA-42 USS Franklin D Roosevelt, and the '75 Med Cruise.
So I spent some time this morning trying to find stuff on the internet about those related things. I knew the FDR was scrapped in the late '70s, actually 1977. I didn't know the squadron had been decommissioned, that was in 1995.
Then I got the thinking about the "Grip Book" on the Med Cruise. That was were I and Marc made some intellectual exchanges. So I got to wonder how to find out if anyone inherited that bit of history. It doesn't look promising. But maybe I'll try a few places anyway. Maybe some of the AFQ shop people will be out there in cyber-space-time.
It's really kinda strange to be sitting here at work and typing these thoughts up. I've got use to doing non-work stuff on the internet so that feels sort-of normal. It's mostly because the only places I've ever made Journal entries had been at my house or at the kitchen table at Mom's house the last year and half.
I had thought about writing an email to those Near-Mid-East leaders who're doing all the fighting and killing over there. It's another one of those writing - something - important - for - humankind things. Yeah like anything I've ever writing made a diff. So I might as well do a bit of that now.
Thursday April 18, 2002
Dear Mr. Arafat: Dear Mr. Sharon:
I'm just another nobody in this world. What I think about world events doesn't make any real difference in the course of history. Just as my days on this Earth will pass without leaving so much as a ripple on some obscure, unknown, forgotten ocean. But that's just me and the other eight billion nobodys on this planet.
Then they are the rich, powerful, influential, well known individuals. It's not only their thinking about world events but also their actions that are the world events and world history. In some cases it's not ripples on an ocean but hurricanes, typhoons, tornadoes, earthquakes that they leave after their days have passed.
I suspect that out of all human history there's been only a few thousand individuals who caused tens and hundreds of millions to die in conflicts of one kind or another. Egotistical greed for power and influence ... and a place in world history. History will record the Forty Year Arafat - Sharon war.
But who remembers all the nobodys they caused to die? They are called peasants, serfs, slaves, masses, soldiers, warriors, civilian causalities, collateral damage, statistics ... most anything but a real, personal name.
It started to read like ... not read like I wanted so I quite then. I just want to tell them they're both jerks ... all three counting Bush. They're not fooling any of us common folk, peasants. Those three are the ones getting us poor and helpless people dead for their own self interests.
Monday April 22, 2002
4:40a
Saturday ... cut grass, washed pollen off car and truck and carport. Rode up town to the azelea festival. Saw the Hellbergs and Woodruffs, they were sitting under one of the tent eating barbaque, talked with them and learn Bill Cady died a couple of weeks ago. Rode up to Hagood Mill, got one of Stanley Altman's barbaque sandwiches, walked across the foot bridge, sat on a rock and ate it. SC public radio was recording the music in the visitor building. When I hauled off the trash to the re-cycle place I drove back along City Lake road. The boy scouts had a camp out up in one of the fields above the private lake.
Sunday ... fixed the tank in the pink bathroom. I brought the British Isle tour stuff over on Saturday and looked through the pictures this morning. Went to yahoo chat and talked with SilentDancing for a while, gave him my email and pointed him to the Journal, another no show or response yet.
There's probably other stuff I should have written about but I've forgotten it now.
Tuesday April 23, 2002
6:20a
When I got to Mom's house for lunch yesterday, the little phone stand I made was laying on the foot rest in front of the sofa. I asked what happened. Earlier that morning, after eating breakfast I guess, she was getting up to take her tray back into the kitchen. She lost her balance and fell back into the chair mostly. The big table got kicked and she must have tried to catch herself by putting an arm down on the small phone stand.
She said she wasn't hurt or anything, maybe bruised some on her back. She said she didn't feel faint or dizzy or anything either. Maybe her knee gave way on her.
A few days ago she burned her hand on the upper heating unit in the oven. She's burnt herself on hot pans and the oven door more often in recent months too. At least it seems like that.
I think she needs to start having someone stay with her. But she doesn't. I've always felt like she wants to wait til there's no other choice before doing something. It was like that in the Fall of 1999 when she started getting weak and not getting oxygen in her breathing. "Get my strength back before going to see the doctor." It's going to be like other cases we've heard about. I'll come back to her house for lunch one day and find her on the floor. That will have to happen a couple or three times, then we'll have to get serious about finding someone to stay with her, or move her into a retirement or nursing home place.
I fixed the handle and lever in the pink bathroom toilet tank last night. Glued the paneling back to the laudryroom door. Glued the leg back onto the phone stand.
Monday April 29, 2002
4:50a
I don't remember much of anything significant happening the last few days. So I guess that means my life is a boring as ever.
At work I've been working on a Visual Basic program that processes Nicolet o'scope data files. It's a take off of a previous one I did. This one is a bit more general, it just gets the stats from the data and calculates the RMS value of the waveform. The previous one was more specific as to the type of measurment being made and required calculating the resultant of two waveforms, the RPM of one waveform and the RMS of another one. But anyway, it as a bit of programming which is what I've always wanted to do for a job.
I let the grass go this weekend so next weekend it will be raining and it all will get too tall to cut the following weekend.
I got one of those Pendleton District newsletters this past week. It had a query about the Oolenoy tour, the road up to old Camp Adger specificly. I rode down to the library in Easley yesterday thinking I would do a bit of looking around on the old Pickens Sentinel microfilm. There was one lady already at the only microfilm reader when I got inside. So I just hung around for about 30 minutes and then left. They've got a dozen or more computers and internet connections there now. But still have only one reader. It was a waste of time to even try.
There was one of them school shootings again. This time in Germany. Three years, I guess that's about on schedule even though I was expecting it to be in the States again.
On well. Time to move on with the day. Bye.
Tuesday April 30, 2000
4:20a
Well, tomorrow morning will be my 53rd birthday. That will be the end of my 53rd something or other and the beginnings of my 54ths.
Sometimes I wonder where the gloomy future feelings come from. Are they from the world really becoming gloomier or from looking at the end years of a life. Probably from both.
At least one thing is always predictable, the Jerry Hughes negative attitude effect. It's one week into the mutual fund, stock market and they're down 2.4 percent. It's the JWH "Take 'em down" stock market index. The economy in the States is going for the big fall and I guess I just had to be a part of it. I just had to go for that ride down into nothingness.
There was another school shooting in Germany, two teachers got killed this time. It's the media reporting effect, cover the first event and 3, 4 or 5 more will follow.
It's the same thing that's happening with the MidEast, Palestine - Israel crisis. The news media, all of the around the world, cover the fighting and killing and that causing more and more of the same.
Well, I've been awake since 3 this morning. I need to get some other stuff done. Bye.
Wednesday May 1, 2002
4:00a
So. Happy birthday Jerry.
It's a slow, rainy night and pre-dawn time with a bit of thunder rumbling along. It's another wake-up at 2:30 get up at 3:00 morning and now it's 5:00 o'clock (all edt and not the est of the journal entry). There's no profound thoughts forthcoming either. I just sat out on the porch and smoked cigs and drank coffee. Then I just sat and read the yahoo religion room chat. No new insights there either. I read other people's thinking and make my own statements in reply within my own mind. I never let them know what I think.
The Lady wrote again. She's doing well. Active with school. I'll write back later this morning. I should do that now. This entry isn't going anywhere anyway.
Down and down the funds go. Where they stop nobody knows. Except maybe the Shadow. Or is only the evil in men's heart that the Shadow knows?
Sunday May 5, 2002
5:20a
Another 3:30a wake up ... I really should stop making an entry for that. It's not note worthy anymore.
Yesterday morning and afternoon I started the process of erasing, deleting files and programs from the other computer. The one at the house on the table. I saved all the important stuff onto iomega disks. Then I formatted the two hard drives.
It's basically dead now. Or comatose. Or on dos life support. I can't get the Windows setup program to run. The Windows startup disk seems to work but when the setup program on the Windows cd finishes loading the program dies.
I should have known, or I must have really expected such to happen. It hasn't phased me that much yet. I'll try a few things then take it somewhere to let them do it.
It's rained more than normal the pass few days. I didn't cut grass last weekend and it's too wet now. I'll have to do that one evening after work this week.
I guess that's all there is to talk about now. It's all the same routines anyway.
Except maybe yahoo chat ... since I've got the that working again on this computer I've started spending more time in the mornings there. It's better than reading the same old news media coverage about the same old news events.
Monday May 6, 2002
4:00a
It was cloudy and cool yesterday morning, sunny and cool by mid afternoon. Leander drove up for the afternoon and early evening. The grass did not get cut like I had planned. The computer did not get worked on like I had planned. NBC had a 75th annervisary show, they had some of the old, old film clips. It was just another reminder of how I've spent 45 years of my life sitting and watching television. That's sad.
So anyway another week has begun. Hoo-humm.
Cosmos - Religious - Thought - Theory #749. Eternity for spirit afterlife is a little bit longer than the life span of the civilization that supported it. You know, it's an extention of the Shinto - Ancestor worship theory. One's spirit lives as long as there's someone to remember you. A civilization's spirit afterlife lives till there's noone left to remember it.
Tuesday May 7, 2002
5:40a
Cut the grass last evening from 6:00 to 7:30.
Thursday May 9, 2002
5:00a
The hating, insulting, degrading index must be high this morning. There's lots of such in some of the yahoo religion chat rooms.
Saturday May 11, 2002
5:10a
It's the first day of vacation this coming week. It feels like just another Saturday morning. I've got no plans to go any where or do any thing special for vacation. I haven't felt ambitious enough to try anything like a real vacation in several years. It's gotten to the point where even an evening dinner at a restaurant seems like a luxery. It's that go somewhere alone, be there alone, come back alone to the same old responsibilities alone.
Might as well get on with it.
Saturday May 18, 2002
5:10a
Looks like I've gone the vacation week without writing anything. I guess that's as good an indication of what vacation is like for me, 9 days of nothingness. Mostly.
On Tuesday I did ride up to the top of Sassafras Mountain. They've cleared away some of the brush so you can see the mountains to the west and north. They've re-surveyed the North-South Carolina line too. There were a couple of wooden stakes in the ground. There's been some news about someone wanting to buy or close the top of the mountain for private devlopement.
On Wednesday I drove around northern Greenville county.
I went to Jones Gap north of Cleveland SC. There's no signs on the main road, SC Hwy 11, to show where to turn. I drove past Cleveland and then turned around and went to a filling station/cafe to ask. While there I got a couple of bacon biscuits and sat down to eat them. The cafe part had a sunken area where there was a model train and pictures. I went to look at them. One was about Echo Valley Amusement Park 1950s and 1960s. I knew that was where it had been, somewhere in around Cleveland. I remember Dad and I went up there at least once. It had a train and we rode it. It was a Ghosttown theme too. There was one kid in junior high that dropped out to go to work there. On the way out I asked about Jones Gap and the theme park. One of the ladys was at the counter then and she added that she worked there as a waitress and can-can dancer when she was in high school. But all that was 35 year ago.
Next I drove around looking for the Boy Scout camp, Camp Old Indian Reservation. There were no signs showing the way to that place either. There were some road workers on one road I turned onto, so I asked them. I followed where they pointed but ended up back on SC Hwy 11. Then I back tracked and made the first right like they said I should have done. It was on that road even though they said a different name. I almost drove past it before I realized that was it. I recognized the open, grassy field. I drove on in and looked for an office to check in at, just to let them know I was there and if it would be ok to roam around. There wasn't any so I parked anyway. There was some work going on over at the repelling tower so I walked over there. There was one of the camp staff people there and he said it was ok to visit.
I went out into the field and took a GPS reading and made some pictures. Then I walked up one of the trails a little ways. It was where the boy scouts stayed. There are lots of little shelters. They're open on one end and just big enough for two double bunk racks. I passed one old building that had Dr O L Mauldin name on it. It was built in 1932 or 1933. He's a distant cousin of some kind, one of Sheriff Joab Mauldin's sons, the one mentioned in the Major Redmond articles in the Pickens Sentinell. It was really nice to walk around where the boy scouts have been over the decades. The only thing I remember from the 1950s was going up there when my brothers were boy scouts. I remember seeing all the tents out in the open field area.
Well, more about the one day vacation latter. It's raining this morning so I won't be able to do much outside if anything.
Sunday May 19, 2002
4:00a
Well I've managed to get up at 3:40 with the intent of doing lots of writing this morning but instead I've spent 45 minutes doing the regular websites. So now maybe it's time to continue with the travels this past week.
Back to Jones Gap state park. It's at the end of a 6 mile road which ends at the parking area. It's mostly a trail head place but it does have a meeting house and park office building. There's a trout pond there too which is in an open area. I walked up one of the trail just a short ways. There are a couple of campsites there and I found an old water race too. I decide it fed the trout pond originally. Now it has plastic pipe buried underneath it for that purpose. There's an foot bridge over the creek.
As I was driving the last mile or less I saw the Pretty Place chapel up on the edge of the ridge. That was where Randy and Shelia got married. You have to drive up past Ceasar's Head and the tv tower to get to it.
In the parking area I finished eating the biscuits I had bought earlier.
Now skip back to after Camp Old Indian. I drove through Tigerville and saw the North Greenville College campus. That was where Robin went and I guess I had been there during those years after high school. That may have been the last time I was in that area.
About lunch time I stopped at another filling station and cafe place to eat a hot dog. That was at Sandy Springs. There was a young man and his girl there. Then it was drive on down to Paris Mountain state park.
I came in from the north and passed a State Park road which I turned back to follow. It lead through residential areas mostly. Along the way I saw a woman walking the road. I slowed down to ask if the park enterance was up ahead. She said yes. It was maybe a couple miles more to it. The road passed in front of the dam for the lake. The water ran over the top for the spill way.
I started riding out the road passed the first shelters nearest the lake. And I just kept on riding. It was mostly through the woods. I think the first picnic shelter area I came up on was the one where Dad made the group picture for the last reunion held at the park. That's the one with everyone standing in front of the shelter. There was someone laying on one of the picnic tables so I didn't get a picture of that one. I made one of the shelter next to it. It turned out the man on the table must have been a park worker doing the trimming.
Not much further was the Sulphur Springs shelter area. That is were I remember one of the 1950s reunion. There's an open field next to the shelter on one side and a branch on the other side. There's also another small shelter on the road side of the branch too but I don't remember if it was there years ago.
So I made pictures there and went back to make pictures of the other reunion place and then continued on out the road. It was a long ride and I thought it might lead to another park enterance.
It eventually started up the mountain and then down another side and then back up. I sort of remember the down hill side. But anyway it ended at a lodge building and cabin area. There were a couple of men in outdoor clothes. As I got closer I realized they were law officers. My first thought was something had happened up ahead. But I drove on past without being stopped. Just around another curve or two were the first couple of sheriff's vehicles. Then there were about 7 or 9 more in the parking area in front of the lodge building. That's when I thought again something must have happened.
But as I was trying to see how to get backed out and turned around I decided it must just be a meeting of some kind. The only vehicle I remember seeing writing on was from Greenwood. I backed up and almost ran into the wood rail fence. Then I got backed off in between a couple of the sheriff's vehicle and turned around. On the way back out the two officers were walking back toward the lodge building. I slowed down and asked if there was only one way in and out of the park. He said yes, only one way in and out. I guess they were the watch look outs for warning the people in the building someone was approaching. I sure I saw him radio ahead when I drove past them going in.
I drove back out the long road and stopped at the lake area to make a picture. There were a couple of church vans from Alabama or Mississippi, I can't remember which now. At the gate I stopped to get some of the free pamplets and stuff.
I had decided I would drive back across Paris Mountain. I got my map out and started looking for the right road to take. I had to turn back once when I saw a road sign with a name on it that I had seen on the map. It's the typical narrow mountain road, except there's house all along it. Most are the ones that have been there a long time. It's the old rich people's type of area. They made it big in Greenville and built their homes on the mountain type of place.
I passed a couple of roads and had to stop again to check the map. I pulled onto one of them just enough to get out of the way. The man behind pulled in too. I thought he wanted to go on up the side road but he was just wanting to turn around. So I pulled up closer to the ditch. He gets backed up the road enough and then leaves. I guess he didn't know where he was going either.
At a few of the road side houses I saw how they had to make room for their cars. It's a narrow steep sided road. They had built decks on the side of the road for the car.
People are still building up there too. It's the really big houses they build now too, which makes it really strange to see such a big house on the steep sides of the mountain. There's one place that's being developed into a multi home area, just like another gated community.
I stop at on place where there's an overlook. There was a parking area down in a low place beside the road but I didn't drive down there. I just pulled over to the side and took the pictures. I was on the down hill side when I heard a car approaching. There wasn't room to get off the road on that side so I hurry back to the up hill side.
Near the top I see the last bit of road that goes up to the transmitting towers so I quick stop and turn onto it. There's a bicyclist slowly pedaling his way up. I follow along. At the top is where the old WFBC had their tower. It's still there but is used by someone else now. There're several towers and buildings up there. The old state park rangers house is there too, off below the towers. It was burned several years ago, I sort of remember that happening. Back in the 80s or early 90s I think.
There's grafftii on the sides of the buildings. So it's still one of the young people's gathering places.
I drive down the west end of the mountain and end up in Traveler's Rest. I don't get out on the big roads anymore. These around Greenville with all the traffic just look scary now. I pull into one store's parking to look at the maps again. I head for a parking space and driving right in front of someone driving out of the car park. But we both get stopped before hitting, not that it was that close, just scary. I leave there and go in a round about way down Main Street and back to US 25 and in front of the place where I was before. I followed the US 25 signs and get started back to the Berea area on the west side of Greenville.
This way goes by Furman University, the way I use to go when I went to see Ralph in '67, '68. It's also the way to Furman for the symphony concerts too in the late '70s and early '80s. But anyway I get to the Berea intersection and turn onto 183 headed back to Pickens.
Monday May 20, 2002
5:00a
I had thought about writing something for one of the ABC discussion forums, the one about early warnings of Sep 11. But what's the use, it would be just more thoughts cast upon the turbilent waters of internet messages.
One would think everyone in the States had their heads buried in the desert sands of Arabia for the past 12 years. Previous bombings in the States, overseas embassies being blown up, war ships attacked, and that ever present chant "Death to America" echoing around the world. Was there a collective Homer Simpson "Doh!" on Sep 11th from all parts of the States?
The same news media that brings this "who knew what and when did they know it", "connect the dots" issue to the forefront also had it within their "freedom of infomation" powers to do their own dot to dot line drawings. But they chose other issues with which to bury everyone's head.
As for the elected officials in the States, they continued to do what they do best. That's being American politicians bickering and fighting among themselves, selling out the public's interests to the highest lobbist bidder. Seems like during the months before 9-11 their only interest in airports and airplanes was on time performance.
Tuesday May 21, 2002
4:55a
Thirty days till Summer Day.
A while back my cousin Elizabeth flew from LA to PA and then drove a car down to SC. She visited with Uncle Bob and Aunt Edna for a week or so and then flew back to LA. The car is still down at her parents place. Uncle Bob drives it around some on Sunday afternoons, he takes Uncle DM along too. This past Sunday I got to ride in the 1979 Cadillic.
We went over into the area where Bob worked the real estate business for a couple or three years. It was all rich people type of lots and houses around a golf course. We rode over into Landrum and Tyron too. Tyron is a nice mountain town. I think Leander has rode up into that area too a while back. We drove out through Merriata on the way and came back through Cleveland, some of the same Hwy 11 where I went on my trip last week.
So that was the last day of vacation week.
I was over at my house yesterday afternoon after work and laying on the couch. The phone rang and it was Mom. The power was off over here at her house and would be off for a couple of hours. She needed me to come over and change the portable oxygen tanks. She had called the power company when it went off and was told they were replacing a pole and it would be off for a couple of hours. That was about 4:15 or so. We were sitting in the den when the phone rang. This time it was DM wanting to know about an accident on Fox Squirrel Ridge. He had been watching the news and saw that report. I told him the power was off here but I didn't see any accidents on this end of the ridge road. Then I asked if the power was on down at his place. Of course it was because he was watching the news but I'm doing things like anyway.
Mom and I go ahead and fix some sandwiches to eat. She had started cooking some squash when the power went off. I was in the den eating and thinking it would come back on about the time we finish eating. A few minutes later that's what happened.
So that's what happened last evening.
Yesterday at work I followed some of the discussion at one of the ABC message boards. The terrorism topic turned into the usual mutual politic and party bashing. I added one message, "The States will self destruct from its American politics. Somewhere there's a terrorist type chuckling while watching it all happen and thinking, "Way are we bothering with terrorism?"
It just reinforces the thought of what terrorism really is, they just like to blow things up. If they really wanted the destruction of the States they would be doing more sutble things that just accelerates the internal weaknesses and failings already present. Cause more Enrons, instigate more racial hatred, increase the corruption and fraud and government waste.
Wednesday May 22, 2002
5:15
On the mornings when I wake up and get up early I have 2 or 3 hours before getting ready to leave for work. It's just a bit of time I can call my own. That's basically means I don't have to think about Mom or work. Of course I don't get as much sleep or rest then.
On the mornings when I wake up early but don't get up and just lay there on the floor waiting for sleep to return, I get up later and have just an hour or so for my own. I get a bit more rest but loose an hour or two that I call my own.
Life is slipping away, one way or another.
Monday May 27, 2002
5:00a
Yesterday was mostly another Sunday routine kind of day. Went down to Ingles for the chicken. Mom cooked some green beans with squash and made potato salad. Lucille came over about 1:00 to visit with Mom. I went over to my house and laid down for 1 1/2 hours and then rode up to Glassy and up the mountain highway a bit and back. Then it was the usual Sunday evening, except the tv movie wasn't all that good. And then there was the Memorial events.
The national event in DC felt like more exploitation of the terrrorist attacks and the usual victims, fire, police and emergency personel. The common, average type citizen victims were forgotten again. There's still that sense and feel of the general public being manipulated by their emotions.
I didn't rest well last night. It was because of the extra sleep or resting during the day. And then there's this NPR program about health on Sunday afternoons here. It was about sleep problems. Not sleeping well and waking up early can be cause by lonliness, a lack of socializing. So that's been my problem all these years too. I should have known.
Well I guess I'll finish the morning routines and go lay back down.
Sunday June 2, 2002
4:50a
Apparently I can't break the habit of reading the discussion boards concerning the current events in the Middle East and South Asia. That's where I spend most of my morning time now. Trying to learn what others are thinking about the situations.
Work this week was mostly doing FEA on one designers part. And there's that nagging bit slip spec to change and I don't know what to do with it anymore. It's mostly doubt about what is going to be the path of least resistance or disturbance.
I was going to do more work on that dirt pile yesterday, but it's up in the low 90s now and I just didn't feel like getting out in that heat. So the yardwork got skipped over this weekend. I didn't even cut the grass it is so dry already.
Website stats indicate a increase in visitors, or re-visits. I think it's mostly people looking for short-story and personal journal reading material. Geocities - Yahoo lost 4 days worth of stats this week. It was down 4,000 yesterday morning but this morning it's back to Tuesday's numbers. About the only safe statement is that these webpages have been looked at more than 17,980 times.
Well it's time to move on the the rest of the Sunday morning routine. Bye.
Saturday June 8, 2002
4:40a
Well, another week has passed by. I've spent most mornings reading the messages at the ABC boards again. It's mostly the same there, Bush this Clinton that. Politics must be the elementary particles of all discussions and topics.
I made a posting before leaving work yesterday. It was about a committee of common citizens grilling, questioning, investigating the Senators and Representatives the same way those before the current hearings are being grilled. "What did you know and when did you know it? Senator. Congressman." The thread, 3 or 4 other responses, got cut overnight. Typically predictably reaction when those needing to be investigated start to get grilled.
Last Sunday morning if finished getting rid of that dirt pile that's been out back next to the metal building for 3 1/2 years. It's all gone ... or rather, redistributed among the cedar trees on the small bank in back. At least I don't have to think about having to do that chore anymore.
Work is dragging by a week at a time too. I'm just not producing much. It's that router bit qualification problem. I'm at a lost about what to do about it. It's that doubt about whatever I try won't work out anyway.
That's enough for now. I guess it will be another typical weekend.
Oh yeah. I've been reading my write up about the trip I made to the British Isles in 1993. And looking at the pictures too. It's my waiting for sleep time reading now instead of Sci Am or Britannica. Most of it I can't really remember, it's that sense and feel of having really been there. But I wrote what I wrote and took those pictures so I must have really been there and saw those things.
Thursday June 13, 2002
4:30a
Last weekend I had that sore, irritated throat feeling. It was partly due to coughing up smoke and tar. But it turned into a head, throat and lung cold by Monday. I stayed home at my house Tuesday and yesterday. Drank the orange juice, V8 and grape juice. I was feeling better most of yesterday and thought I was over it. But last evening and this morning it came back. I've still got the dripping nose. Taste hasn't come back yet either. And then there's the stuffingness I get here at Mom's house. It's always had something to do with the carpet dust in the house. And I'm still sleeping on the floor too, right next to it.
I guess I'll go in to work this morning and see how things go. If I can't keep my head clear I'll just leave after noon time and go back to my house.
Tuesday I just laid around on the couch, drink juice, go pee. I did manage to go for a ride that afternoon. Just to get out of the house. Yesterday I rode up to Little Eastatoe and walked up and down the rocks next to the creek. That was while it was cool in the morning so I would at least feel like I've got out and done something. The rest of the day was more laying around. I did put up the boxes of emerg evac stuff from last October. So the kitchen is cleared again. And I filed away the bills, bank statements, and such too. So that's done.
Era the geneaology lady called Sunday afternoon. Someone wanted to know about the Hagood family and she left his email address. I sent him what I knew on Monday. He sends one back with lots of questions. So I answered them yesterday too.
I looked at the genforum boards Monday too. One lady had a post about Jeremiah Hughes, actually a response to my James Austin Hughes post a couple of years ago. So I sent email to her and maybe she'll help fill in that part of the family. I did that from work on Monday and if she's replied she sent it back to that address.
Well enough of this. My head's stuffed up again. Bye.
Tuesday June 18, 2002
5:05a
Work on Thursday lasted till 1:30 then I left and went back to my house. I stayed out of work on Friday, except just long enough to fill out that time card. So Friday through Sunday was more laying around feeling bad. I did manage to get out at least once a day to ride or do some little something. I got the floors cleaned with a wet cloth. At least they're not as dirty.
Monday morning I had that dentist appointment since about March or when ever it was I was there last. I had one tooth to be really sensitive to cold and I had always thought it a cavity. It wasn't that, it wasn't much of anything except maybe another fractured tooth. They did another xray and it didn't show anything bad and the doctor checked out the rest of the teeth. I had thought I never did that good keeping them brushed and clean but they're in better shape than I thought they would be.
I was coughing and the sinuses were still stuffed up by yesterday afternoon and evening. It felt like it was all starting all over again. I had been thinking the past few days how I'm just worn out and worn down. Life long depression and anxiety, never felt like I've had a life, not sleeping enough every night, responsible for this responsible for that, hot weather and the nights aren't cooling off, job it's going right, not ever having a job doing what I really wanted to do, and on and on and on. So after 40 years of that why shouldn't I be worn out and worn down.
In the Scientific American that skeptic man is onto evolution and creation again. Actually the letters he got from that February article. In his article last month it was about the religion of science, at least that's what he made it out to be. He used words normally associated with religion for describing science. Like Saint Hawkings. And then there's that "ignorant" word and "uneducated" word for those who don't follow the science faith. His work is just bascially a putdown of religion like I saw in the religion chat rooms at yahoo.
I've wondered again why is it always "evolution versus creation"? I think the default is the Biblical Creation. Why isn't it ever evolution versus some of those other religious creation stories? Why is there even evolution versus anything? It's just another science versus religion arguement.
Sunday June 23, 2002
4:55a
Well, Summer Solistace has come and gone. Didn't do anything but the normal routines. No special trips to the lakes or mountains or hills. Just another day.
I'm still coughing up stuff. It has something to do with smoke, more so now anyway. I've got it back down to 5, 6, 7 cigs a day but I doubt if that will last. Come Monday at work I'll be going out back to smoke .... Oh, I don't want to write about that.
I was going to cut the grass yesterday. It hasn't rained since first week in June. But I didn't. Mom didn't want to stur up dust. It's the same thing every year. Almost like a conditioned response. So I'll just let the tall weeds grow till .... whenever. I'm so tired of all this.
The truck was starting to get slow to start. The battery was getting low even though the gages indicated it was charging at 14 volts. I remember Robert saying it had a new battery during their trip across country. So something most be wrong with the charging system anyway. I got a new battery yesterday morning. But then yesterday afternoon while sitting in the truck over at my house, I had the door open and saw that floor light on. I had been doing that more recently too, sitting with the door open and the radio on. So I wonder if that's what caused it to go down? Still it should have charged back up. But then again I don't drive it but a few miles inbetween cranking it.
The stock markets are going down. The dow was 10,600 or there abouts in February. Now it's 9,250 or there abouts. And I thought the post 9-11 crash-crisis was over. I should have been the greedy, American capitalist and made money off of the attacks. I should have bought in during late September and sold out during February-March. The markets will be down to their levels after the terrorist attacks by the 1st year anniversary.
Friday June 28, 2002
4:05a
It's the editor of Scientific American that's on the Science versus Religion topic now. His article was about evolution versus creation. He gave the science answers to 15 points the creationists make about evolution. That skeptic man wrote another one about his February column too. By the time I had gotten through the editor's article I had the feeling of being in the religion chat rooms with the science types downgrading the religious types.
And then there was that last page in the magazine. It was full page cartoon, a take off on the old fantistic voyage through the human body. Well that ended up having more meaning than the editors' had inteneded. Yep, Scientific American has evolved into just a joke of a science magazine.
I started to get together some thoughts and write them. It was something I had started back in March I think and decided it was now time to finish it. But I haven't done anything yet. It's the what's the use problem. What I write won't make any difference and all the science - religion arguements have already been made ... over and over and over again.
"How does one disprove a shadowy, omnipotent being?" wrote the editor. Look at your own nonsense question you over-educated, egotistical idiot. Don't you even know the basic religious principle? It's a belief system because those types of things can not be proved or disproved. Geesh.
I did stop by my house yesterday morning and went into the back room where the boxed up magazines are. I found where the mutation of Scientific American evolved. The March 2001 issue was the last that had the Burke and Morrison columns. The April 2001 issue had the skeptic column. It a little before that time when the new editor showed up too.
I'll make one of those test preditions about this bit of evolution theory. My subscription will become an extinct species in about 2 more years.
Sunday June 30, 2002
4:40a
Spent the morning writing some more about Terrorism 2002.
Monday July 1, 2002
4:30a
Time to move on to the next section, Summer 2002.