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WELCOME TO OUR WEB SITECOPPER MOUNTAIN MESA** THE ARCHIVES ** |
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WELCOME TO OUR WEB SITECOPPER MOUNTAIN MESA** THE ARCHIVES ** |
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By Bob DeLoyd 01/07/2006
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By Bob DeLoyd 01/14/2006 Our little Community is full of folks who love dogs and when one is lost we all keep an eye out for them. Well our friend Linda’s beloved dog Shati has gone missing. He is a Chow mix and approximately seven years old, black tongue, red fur, one ear up and one hangs low, is 50 lbs, and has a collar. If you come across Shati scampering around the desert please call 362-4071. Thought for the week: Lately I’ve been going outside at night to learn the names of stars in the Orion constellation and struggle with the pronunciations. I can only wonder what my neighbors think when they see me pointing at the night sky and holler out names in a foreign language. |
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By Bob DeLoyd 01/21/2006 Our little Community has heard that Richard DuBoise has passed away last month. Richard was a longtime resident of these here parts and, as I remember, was always in some kind of clever mischief, very unfettered, and well liked by many. Richard will be missed. Over the Christmas holiday some thieving idiot broke into our community center and made off with the community generator that is used to keep the respirators of poor elderly folks, and the refrigerators that can store their insulin and other meds, going when the power goes out for long periods of time after a thunderstorm. If you catch this lowlife gill-breathing moron just turn it over to the police. Don’t forgit to git fattened up at our first Potluck of the New Year next Saturday. We got all kinds of fantastic food to fill that hollow leg of yers and a great bunch of desert folk that will just jaw yer ears off. Thought for the week: Lobbying of politicians is a technique use to gain influence and circumvent the voter. |
By Bob DeLoyd 01/28/2006 Our little Community has a lot going on but not a dang think that I can think of to write about. Oh, I could write about our desert roads needing work and washboards so bumpy that it can rattle the bolts right off yer engine block, or about the UHF TV transmitter going out whenever the wind blows or someone sneezes. I could even write about folks who drive way too fast and create rooster tails of dust, which looks like low hanging fog on a windless day, we all have to inhale. Maybe write of the inconsiderate folks who dump trash along our roadsides, or dirt bikes cutting across our property without regard. I could write about all of these but then I would sound like I am complaining, and nobody likes a complainer, do they? Our first Potluck of the year is today at 4 pm. So forgit about yer new years resolutions and drag yerself and yer big appetite down to our community center where we don’t count calories or give a darn about fat content. Thought for the week: The older I git the better I am at hiding things from myself. |
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By Bob DeLoyd 02/04/2006 Our little Community is starting “Bingo Dinners” again after many years. Last week was spaghetti, next week it’s going to be Conkey Doodle or some such, gosh I don’t know, just ya ask Ruth Tuttle cause it is her dish. Anyways it all starts around 5:30 on Tuesday nights, before bingo starts at 6:30. So just ya come on down and have some fine dining desert style and play bingo on a full tummy. Built a door for my bedroom to keep Cat out of there. Cat had jumped up on my laptop table and it all came falling to the floor. Well that ain’t going to happen again, that dang cat is going to stay out of my bedroom for now on! Gave Cat a slap on the butt and he got really indignant about it and I had to offer him tuna to get him off the roof and be my friend again. Laptop is ok and so is Cat. Don’t fergit that the “Famously Fine First Saturday Breakfast” is today at 8:30!!! Birthdays this month: Stevie Villarreal, Pamela Waddey, Marcia McKinney, John Waddell, and Earl Wilbert. Thought for the week: When a nonprofit organization becomes a moneymaking vehicle for the rich and well connected, it’s time for it to close shop. |
By Bob DeLoyd 02/11/2006 Our little Community wants to thank Bob Stonebraker and Steve Tuttle for replacing the hot water heater at the community center. They spent most of the day Monday doing the job so we wouldn’t have to go without hot water for the bingo dinners Tuesday night. Thanks Guys! A few nights ago I saw a truck speeding pass my home on Winters Road like they were running from the Devil or something worse! I wish folks would just slow down out here. After they passed I saw something laying in the middle of the road and I ambled over to check it out, there it was a little bunny rabbit, a cottontail. It sat motionless, its head in an upright position, fixed gaze, long ears that fluttered as the wind caught them, and with the lower body resting at an odd angle, a very disturbing sight. So I stopped and picked the poor thing up with my shovel to bury it, but to my astonishment it was alive! I took it home cuddled in my arms and sat up half the night caring for it. The next day, as soon as I awoke, I check the box where I had left the bunny to rest the night before and to my amazement it was sitting up! I took the bunny outside and away from the road where it got hit and let him out by a big old greasewood. I sat and watched it hop away after a little while. Linda Dehart says I now have good bunny karma. Thought for the week: And when it’s all over when the shadows grow lean, you’ll know that life is worth living and to live is to be free. |
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By Bob DeLoyd 02/18/2006 Our little Community wants ya all to be on the lookout for our stolen Winco Generator, Mod # HPS-9000E, Ser # 16079-913. If you see it or have had someone trying to sell it to you please call the police. We sure would like to catch this weasel and have him put away before he steals from others. Stuart Watson is running the "Bingo Dinners” every Tuesday from 4-6 prior to Bingo. $3.50 is all it cost for a hearty meal! Just a little reminder, our potluck will be next Saturday at 4:00 pm, and heaps of victuals will be spread out on tables awaiting your appetites. Thought for the week: Some people masquerade their political objectives with religious fanaticism. |
By Bob DeLoyd 02/25/2006 Our little Community really got pretty cold last Monday night with my thermometer going down to 28 degrees; cold enough to freeze my cat’s water dish and too cold to leave the cat outside to hunt for them rats that love eating my truck’s engine wires. Seems like a lot of other folks have the same problem; I’ve been looking for some rat traps but only have found the tiny mouse ones, the others are sold out. I was told to try peppermint on the wires cause rats hate it. I was also told to put Coke in a dish and that the rats would drink it and explode since they can’t burp! Well I think I’ll try the peppermint and skip the Coke one. Our potluck will commence at 4:00pm sharp today with hungry desert folks wrangling for the best position in the chow line. So ya all better come early and git yer place in line for some good old home cooking. Next Saturday at 8-11am is our “Famously Fine First Saturday Breakfast” and you really don’t want to miss it! Birthdays for March are: Andy "Joe" Lane, Seimi Shiba, and Harry Preciado. Thought for the week: I just don’t comprehend some of the nonsense that comes out of Washington these days. But I am sure they’ll say they are doing it for our benefit. Like that deal allowing an Arab company to take over six major U.S. seaports. What next our school systems? |
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By Bob DeLoyd 03/04/2006 Our little Community; I’ve been writing this column since Nov. 1999 and have written 327 of them! Wow! 327 columns is a whole lot of writing and trying to come up with stuff that may be of interest to folks. It amazes me that the High Desert Star hasn’t shut me down by now. “Our little Community” isn’t really that big and not a whole lot of material to write about; you know like “breaking news”. I sit here sometimes (like right now) at my computer with out a lick of what I’m going to write. I try to start with the “Thought for the week” and sometimes come up with something good; other times not so and my friends roll their eyes at me. After that I write about current events like the potluck or breakfast and try to hype it up a bit and make it interesting to the reader. Lastly, I begin on the main part (which you are reading now) and struggle through it if I don’t have anything adequate to write about, but when some folks give me some news to write it makes it a whole lot easier and I just breeze through it. I am not a reporter and I don’t beat the bushes for news; I have a life. So please help me out and send me some news! Come on down to our community center today at 8-11am for our “Famously Fine First Saturday Breakfast”. You’ll find all sorts of nice folks to jaw with and have a good home cooked breakfast served “hot” right at yer table. Other Birthdays to report: Dulce McDermott and Dennis McDermott whose birthday was last month on the 24th. Thought for the week: Being forgetful is going back and checking if you locked the door. Having anxiety is going back two or three times to check it. Being absentminded is leaving it open. Being inebriated is failing to remember where the door is. |
By Bob DeLoyd 03/11/2006 Our little Community has been getting heaps of wind from those storms passing through but no rain. With all the wind blowing stuff around isn’t it amazing that the UHF TV reception hasn’t gone out (good going you UHF Technicians!) like it usually does and I won’t have to miss my favorite programs. Now that I’ve said this: the rain will fall, the UHF TV will go out, and I’ll miss my shows! James Hoffman called me last Monday and left a very long message asking about a column I wrote a few weeks ago. It was about the rat problem and what I used to stop them from eating the wires in my truck, and where to get it. I tried to call James back but all I ever got was his fax machine. So here it is: peppermint oil, and I mix a little bit with water in a sprayer and spray it on the wires in my truck. I got it at the health food store in Joshua Tree. The blond lady there was the one who told me about the Coke remedy, where you pour some in a bowl and the rats drink it and since they can’t burp they explode. YUCK! Thought for the week: Information is knowledge, but disinformation is deadly. Believe only in what you can verify, and trust nothing from folks with an unreasonable amount of enthusiasm. |
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By Bob DeLoyd 03/18/2006 Our little Community has heard that Mike Villarreal has resigned from the Board Of Directors due to declining health issues and that Eric Johnson was chosen to fill the vacated position by the Board. During his term as board member Mike has put two programs into full force: The Disaster Project, and the recycling program. Eric does the Bingo dinners and has done so much in the short time he has been a member. On Friday the 10th around 4:30pm Linda Sibio was traveling west on Sonora between Mt. Shasta and Coyote Valley when she came upon a tan or beige Toyota Tacoma pickup that was parked in the middle of the road. She waited for a while for the truck to move and when there was no response she gave a honk. The truck then backed up and rammed into her. The truck then pulled about ten feet forward, Linda thought the collision was an accident and was in the process of getting out of her car to exchange information when the truck reversed and slammed into her car again and sped off at a high speed! Linda was going to pursue the truck but was to frighten and called 911 and waited for the police to come later that night at 9:30. Anyone knowing whom this Toyota Tacoma pickup belongs to please call the police and let them know.
Thought for the week: Smile! And keep smiling cause they haven’t found a way to tax it yet! |
By Bob DeLoyd 03/25/2006 Our little Community wants ya not to fergit that our Potluck is this Saturday and there will be all kinds of good food and good folks to jaw with. So come on down to our community center around 4 pm and don’t be late! Andy "Joe" Lane writes: “My wife's Birthday is April 1st. Carol will be "50"! Wow! Anyways I am hoping you can put her name in the paper as you did mine (thank you). We have been married for, man I hope I don't get this wrong ha 30 years already, wow time fly's when your having fun. If you could add that her husband loves her, I would appreciate it, it seems after all these years together she sometimes forgets or doesn't believe my love for her. Thought for the week: Sometimes the best way to heal a festering sore is to uncover it and expose it to the open. |
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By Bob DeLoyd 04/01/2006 Our little Community has heard that the Bison Vacuum Cleaner Company is building a test facility in the Copper Mountain Mesa area for their new “Mini Suck” vacuum cleaner using small little black holes. The test facility will bring much-needed jobs to the community, a company spokesperson said recently at their home office in Heidelberg Germany. When asked by the leading Danish physicist Slein Rhob if the company was aware of the dangers of a mini black hole getting loose and falling to the Earth’s center and collapsing the core and sucking the rest of the world into it? The spokesperson’s response was; “That is why we are building the test facility in the desert”. Birthdays this month are: Carol Lane (Andy Lane’s wife), Patty Bradley, Mary Helen Tuttle, Marie Morrison, Bob Stonebraker, Bill Bonner, Ruth Malton, Roger Toomes, Brenda Zimmer, and Mac & Sayoko McDermott 25rd Anniversary. Thought for the week: I am just a little brain in a big universe. |
By Bob DeLoyd 04/08/2006 Our little Community where miracles do happen: Thought for the week: Oil doesn't grow on trees it comes from the ground and we're digging a big hole in which we’ll all fit very comfy, until someone comes along with a shovel and throws the dirt in over us! |
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By Bob DeLoyd 04/15/2006
Thought for the week: I wonder why these foreign nationals who protest in our streets, carrying their nation’s flag, demanding change in our government, don’t go and protest in their own country and demand change there. We did it ourselves in our country over 225 years ago. |
By Bob DeLoyd 04/22/2006
A longtime resident, Bob Nelson, called to tell me that he will be going in the hospital for an operation on the 26th of next month. We all hope the best for Bob and that everything goes ok. Now don’t ya forget to come down to our community center next Saturday for our Potluck! It starts at 4 PM and goes on till ya can’t git any more food stuffed into yer mouth and we have to bring in the forklift to git ya to yer car, fitting into the driver’s seat is yer problem. Thought for the week (From my friend Dale Knoll who lives in Landers): If ya can’t learn by yer own mistakes, it’s best ya learn from someone else’s. |
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By Bob DeLoyd 04/29/2006
The painting displyed here is by Linda Sibio a local and very talented artist and friend! I want ya not to forget that we have our Potluck today and that next Saturday is the ”Famously Fantastically Fine First Saturday Breakfast” that ya don’t want to miss! Birthday for May: Bob Nelson, Tim Herrera, Jackie Johnston, C. Myer, and Mary Moowea. Thought for the week: We are a country made up of many races and religions and if you are a "Patriotic American" you should be tolerant of them all. Religions didn't blowup anything; it was and is mad men who twist their religions to fit their evil purposes. |
By Bob DeLoyd 05/06/2006
Be sure to head on over to our community Bingo every Tuesday night! There are a whole lot of nice folks there and the dinners they serve before Bingo aren’t that expensive. Thought for the week: You may have the right to do a thing, but use a little discretion and timing before you proceed. |
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By Bob DeLoyd 05/13/2006 Our little Community has been heating up this week and it is a reminder that now’s the time to git yer swamp coolers and fans prepared for what looks like a really hot summer. I spent the last few weeks covering the roof of my home and trailer with snow-coat and it seems to keep things pleasantly cold inside and I haven’t had the need for the swamp cooler yet. Thought for the week: Common sense is nonsense if ya don’t take any actions. |
By Bob DeLoyd 05/20/2006 Our little Community is growing larger with new houses being built and younger folks moving into them. There are more cars coming down our dirt roads then when I first moved out here. Outdoor lights speckle the evening panoramas and it seems there are fewer coyotes howling and yipping. I may have to change the lead in of my column to “Our Bigger Community” but not just yet. Don’t forgit that next Saturday the 27th is our Potluck and ya should git there about 4 pm so ya won’t miss out on the fantastic grub and live entertainment provided by the local folks! Thought for the week from the “wise old owl” Ed Yocum: It’s what ya learn after ya know it all that counts.
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By Bob DeLoyd 05/27/2006
Birthdays for June are: RaeLynn Herrera, Sherry Rotruck, Lee Hines, ILA Foyil, and Karen McBurney. Thought for the week: If ya don’t know the facts don’t make them up. |
 Frank and Mary By Bob DeLoyd 06/03/2006 Our little Community spent Memorial Day in many ways. Frank and Mary Poole had friends and neighbors over for a barbeque at their beautiful home in the high desert. I dropped by and had some cake and cherry ice cream; I love ice cream. We all talked about the observance of Memorial Day and how it had become a three-day “Holliday”, and something much different then what it may have been initially intended to be. I heard a TV anchor say “Happy Memorial Day” and it just didn’t sound right, no it didn’t sound right at all. I personally don’t believe that there should be a Basketball game on Memorial Day, but hey that’s just me. Anita Baker will speak to all concerned citizens on Saturday June 10 (11-12) directly after usual 10am Board Meeting. Anita has been in Sheriff’s Department for 10 years, and was a former Public Information Clerk. Recently promoted to the Sheriff’s Service Specialist for the County area at 29 Palms, handling Community Neighborhood Watch, Community Meetings. Speaks about; school safety, child safety, Neighborhood Watch Program. Be There and Become Aware. Thought for the week: Travel light through life. |
 Me and Buffy the Buffalo By Bob DeLoyd 06/10/2006 Our little Community wants to know if ya ever been licked by a buffalo? I’ve been taking care of my neighbor’s buffalo off and on for sometime now and once they git to know ya they’ll lick ya with their long pointy tong, feels like the texture of a cat’s to me. They are even playful in that they will play a kind of dodge with ya but it’s best to stay on the other side of the fence! Please don’t forgit that Anita Baker of the Sheriff’s Department will speak to all concerned citizens today, Saturday June 10 (11-12) directly after usual 10am Board Meeting, about school safety, child safety, Neighborhood Watch Program. Be There and Become Aware. Thought for the week: One person can change many lives. Many people can change a nation. One nation can change the world. |
By Bob DeLoyd 06/17/2006 Our little Community had Anita Baker and Roberto Lomeli from the Sheriff’s Department, along with Roxanna Shamay from the Citizen’s Patrol out of Landers, speaking to us folks about the Neighborhood Watch Program and fielding permitted questions from the floor. The information that they provided was very informative, but there were just a few questions that had to deal with our living in a rural area which they didn’t have the answers to that we ourselves can look up on the internet. All in all it was a nice meeting and Anita, Roberto, and Roxanna were really nice and well prepared professional folk. I was sad to learn that Joan Chadwick had passed on a few weeks ago. Joan had belonged to the Community Center for many years. She would come on down and waitress at our “Famously Fine First Saturday Breakfast” and was a hard worker and a nice soft-spoken individual who I never heard say an unkind word of anyone or anyone say any unkind words about her. Joan will be dearly missed by her family and friends. Thought for the week: Dang ya know it’s the loudest folk that have the least to say! |
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By Bob DeLoyd 06/24/2006 Our little Community is starting to git a little on the hot side of things and folks are turning on their swamp coolers and watering the plants at sunset. I heard that is going to be mighty hot this weekend so be sure that ya have lots of water in yer car even if yer going on a short drive. There was one guy who had problems with his tractor-trailer up there by Amboy a few years ago and decided to walk for help. The summer heat got him and was found dead the next day only about a mile from his rig. Don’t let this happen to you! My longtime friend Mynor Soto has just informed me that he is now a new permanent resident of the United States of America. Mynor had come to this magnificent country back in the late 80’s as a refugee and has learned our language and our way of life. He put himself through college while holding down and advancing at a full time job. He is a nice and wonderful person and he also reads my column every week. Congratulations Mynor! Thought for the week: There are those who do and them that don’t, and then there are also those who don’t do both. (Even I don’t git this one and I made it up) |  Car lost control and rolled over at the intersection of Winters and Lucile roads Wednesday 06/28/06 around 7:00 PM. Driver was lucky and was able to walk away. By Bob DeLoyd 07/01/2006 Our little Community has just checked its calendar and found that next week on Tuesday is the Fourth of July! Yikes I wasn’t ready for that! It seems to me that time goes by very slow out here until you look at the calendar and find half the year has gone by. I don’t ware a watch, I wakeup when I want and have no schedule to keep, and I like it like that. I am always doing something: writing this column, writing songs, playing guitar, working on the coppermountainmesa.com website, working on my house, fixing friends broken obsolete computers. I guess that I just wasn’t paying any attention to what day or even what month it was. It happens like that out here a lot, at least to me. Have a happy Fourth! George Chadwick called to let everyone know that he is well and has been very busy and tied up in so many details after his wife Joan’s passing that he is just now getting around to calling folks. George told me that they had a nice service for Joan up north with her Daughters and Granddaughters; it was most beautiful he said, lots of flowers and music playing in the background with a computer displaying pictures of Joan and of her life. He also told me that Joan was a professional photographer and was taught the art by her Father in Fullerton California. Joan was an amazing person! Thought for the week: The more devices and different ways we invent for communicating with folk the less we seem to. |
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By Bob DeLoyd 07/08/2006 Our little Community’s Stevie Villarreal has written about her family’s Celebrating 50 years in California: |  The Sawtooth Fire that was started by lightning last Friday afternoon and the National Park Service gave an "Estimated Containment Date July 11, 2006". Has this Tuesday flared up into a major disaster burning houses around Pioneertown and has provoked mandatory evacuations of Pioneertown, Rimrock and Bowden Flats, Piper Canyon and other communities in the fires path. Last I heard it has consumed around 6000 acres and I can see the flames from my home this Tuesday night and you can see that the setting Sun is "Blood Red". July 11, 2006 //bob UPDATE: As of Wednesday morning 30 homes have been destroyed and the fire has now covered over 26,000 acres and Flamingo Heights has been added to the mandatory evacuations list. July 12, 2006 //bob UPDATE: THURSDAY the fire has grown to over 40,000-acre and Governor Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency in San Bernardino County where 42 homes and 55 other structures were destroyed. The smoke from the fire had been going north-east of us, but late Wednesday night the wind has changed and now we are in a "fog of smoke". July 13, 2006 //bob UPDATE: FRIDAY the Sawtooth and Millard fires have merged! Using 2,600 firefighters and many support personnel, with a cost so far at 7.1 million, the fire is 20 percent contained at 62,000 acres destroying 56 homes. The largest fire to hit San Bernardino County was in October 2003 at 91,281 acres and the largest in the state was the Cedar fire in October 2003 in San Diego County at 273,246 acres obtained from the California Department of Forestry Statistics & Events. July 14, 2006 //bob By Bob DeLoyd The Sawtooth Fire that was started by lightning last Friday afternoon and the National Park Service gave an "Estimated Containment Date July 11, 2006". Has this Tuesday flared up into a major disaster burning houses around Pioneertown and has provoked mandatory evacuations of Pioneertown, Rimrock and Bowden Flats, Piper Canyon and other communities in the fires path. Last I heard it has consumed around 6000 acres and I can see the flames from my home this Tuesday night and you can see that the setting Sun is "Blood Red". July 11, 2006 //bob |
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Yucca Valley's “Summer of Music Festival” By Bob DeLoyd 07/15/2006
Ron Dehart and I went to Yucca Valley to their “Summer of Music Festival” and saw the band “Answer”. I saw them last year and as always they were great! I took some great pictures and brought a camera for Ron to use and he took a few pictures too. Birthdays for July: Bob Beggs. Thought for the week: Someone once remarked that there is no such thing as an original thought, I guess this someone never had one. By Bob DeLoyd 07/22/2006
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 Art by Linda Sibio By Bob DeLoyd 07/29/2006 Our little Community has been sweltering in the heat for the last week or so, and finding new ways to cool down is one of our favorite pastimes. When I git hot I just run outside and turn the hose onto myself. Other folk find different ways to keep cool like my friend’s son Dennis McDermott, who is thirteen years old, sent me this story: Artist and neighbor Linda Sibio has created another painting that you can view on the website CopperMountainMesa.com. Birthdays for August: Dolores Jefferson, Fred Frederiksen, Sayoko McDermott, Lauren Villarreal, Ruth Tuttle, Frank McDermott, John Jefferson, Bob Seeley, Johnny Lopez. Thought for the week: Can you think of ten ways to conserve energy? And if you can have you implemented them into your lifestyle? | By Bob DeLoyd 08/05/2006 Our little Community had some rain and hail a week ago Wednesday, and it came down pretty darn good, and the temperature dropped from 110 to 80 degrees in less than 20 minutes, hail was coming down so dang hard that it chipped paint off my house! Bob Stonebraker told me that Roger Smith has a rain gauge and it measured all must an inch! It was very localized with some folks getting hail and some not. I’ll tell ya that the rain and hail was sure a relief from the hot weather we been having. Thought for the week: Sometimes we focus more on where we been or where we’re going when we should take time out of our day to focus on the moment. |
 Winters Road being paved! By Bob DeLoyd 08/12/2006
Thought for the week: Make up yer mind like ya do yer bed: after ya sleep on it. |
By Bob DeLoyd 08/19/2006
Thought for the week: Instead of searching for our differences we should search for what we have in common. |
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By Bob DeLoyd 08/26/2006
Thought for the week: The more knowledge that you acquire is to become aware of what little of it you know, and those who know nothing know all. |
Stoney called to say that a car went off the road, and flipped over sometime Sunday 27, just west of me about a mile. I remembered seeing a police car drive by that night around 9pm. I grabbed my camera and headed over and took some pictures. Looks like the car traveled for about 100 feet when it left the road. I also heard that someone may have been taken to the hospital. //bob By Bob DeLoyd 09/02/2006 Our little Community, around this time of year with the weather starting to cool down, folks start bristling with activity working on their homes. I’ve been stuccoing my house for about a week now and there have been a few really hot days that have crept up on me. John Massey came by to see my stucco one day, he is thinking of doing it too, last time he came over was a week ago when the temperature was over 110 degrees and I was over heated doing the stucco; he had told his wife that I looked flushed that day. He asked me how I was today, and I told him fine, and I was looking all around for my glove that I use when I stucco, he started to help search when I found it on my hand! He asked if I was sure I was all right; we had a good laugh. Tip on stuccoing: cover the sand that you use to mix with the stucco if you live with a cat!
Birthdays this month are: Randell Herrera, Mike Villarreal, Donna Myers, Kimberly Herrera, Marcie Hines, and Ed Drzal. Thought for the week: One thing I can tell you from experience is that when you’re halfway done with a project at least two friends will come by to tell you that you’re doing it all wrong and other helpful tips like that. |
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09/09/2006
Thought for the week: My friend Dale Knoll calls me from Landers and we trade insults and try to one-up each other over the phone; we do this all the time. I said that I must have drank two gallons of water today, and he came right back at me saying that it was so dang hot that he drank four gallons of water and it cleaned all the impurities out of his system, I told him if that were true he wouldn’t be talking to me right now cause he would have dissolved. He came back with: that he had used Odor Eaters once and lost his feet. I know it is sick humor but we have fun. |
09/16/2006 Our little Community has folks moving in here all the time and one of them is Ivan and his family. They seem like very kind and graceful folks and we sat around eating chicken tacos and jawed with him and his dad, who was the chili pepper champ years ago on the TV program “That's Incredible” by eating 67 peppers. I forgot to ask their last name because it was just a “drop in and say hi kind of thing”, but I assure you that I’ll write more about them later on.
On Wednesday 06, a storm came our way around 7pm. First a thick fog rolled in and I thought it was really going to pour down buckets, then it made lots of noise with big gusts of wind, and then some lightning and thunder, but we only got a few drops of rain then it was gone.
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09/23/2006
Bob Stonebraker (Stoney) came by with some groceries and told me a story on how he used to play a practical joke on his friends with a cigar box with an old Ford ignition coil in it. He’d wrap it up like a present and then he would offer it to folks and they’d grab it and git shocked. Well, Stoney had this friend who wouldn’t wake up for no one. You could shake, and holler at him, but he would only awaken when it was time to go to work. Stoney brought his box over and told the guy’s wife that he’ll get him up and then placed the box between the guy’s knees and zapped him a good one. From then on the guy would wake right up when he heard Stoney’s voice. I am glad I didn’t know Stoney back then! Thought for the week: Time shouldn’t be wasted on the trivial. But what is trivial is for you to decide. |
09/30/2006
This you can believe or not but I sure don’t know what to make of it: on that Friday I was on the phone to my friend Mike Long and was walking outside to watch the sunset when the phone circuit to my house died a little after 6pm and I haven’t had phone service for a few days now. I would like to think that it was Mary Lou phoning home to let us know. |
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010/07/2006 Our little Community is sure gitting lots more traffic since the county paved the first two miles of Winters Road and the cars aren’t slowing down one bit when they hit the dirt road! I see cars doing over 60mph come zipping pass my home leaving a dust cloud behind and not a care in the world for the folks who live nearby. But there is one thoughtful driver I talked to and that is RJ from Verizon, who came to fix my phone problem. He told me that when he drives our dirt roads he slows down especially near homes to keep down the dust. Now that’s really considerate and we would appreciate more drivers doing just that. Birthdays for this month are: Larry Catron, Colleen Schweitzer, and Scott Lane. Thought for the week: if ya found a simple way to make cars run on water; some company would sue you for the rights, the price of water would sky rocket, and the Government would find a way to tax it. |
010/14/2006
I believe that this is the best time to go and visit the Joshua Tree National Park. I went up to Indian Cove last week with Linda Sibio; we hiked around and took some really nice pictures of boulders and other wild geological formations, while we hunted for a waterfall that Linda said was there. Linda is putting together an exhibit of 20 Polaroid pictures with twelve other artists and one of her pictures is water falling into a pond. We never did find the waterfall but had a great time looking for it. We finally ended up at the 29 Palms Inn and the Oasis of Mara where Linda took the picture of the pond there as I poured water from a container into it. Thought for the week: Don’t let the past be your anchor, but your guide. |
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010/21/2006
Last Sunday I took my trusty scooter for a spin to visit Chuck Sercu. Chuck told me that he is running for the Copper Mountain Mesa board of directors this November 11, and that he and Ruth Tuttle are going to barbecue some hot dogs for the folks who show up at the General Meeting to vote. Afterwards I drove on over to Jerry and Barb Turnbough’s home. I was greeted at the front gate by their little yapping dogs and big old Bear, who gave me a lick and a doggie hug. We jawed for a few about that old grave they found over on Copper Mountain. I had to leave before it got dark so I could take my walk and bid them farewell. On the way home I got a flat right by Chuck’s house. We tried to put air in but the tube was shot. We lifted the scooter into Chuck’s truck and they took me to my home where I rolled my “trusty” scooter into the front yard where it will sit till I patch the tube. I then proceeded into the house and made me some pancakes. Thought for the week: If it wasn’t for bureaucrats searching for our paperwork that they lost, I think they’d all be out of a job. |
010/28/2006
While visiting with Frank and Mary Poole last August Jerry and Barbara Turnbough showed up with some pictures of a gravesite they found in the surrounding Copper Mountain area and we sat around and jawed about the grave and who might be in it. Of folks who we came up with were: Jimmy Hoffa, Aliens from Area 51, and Willie Boy. I told Jerry that I’d like to take a look see of the grave, and he said ok but don’t print anything of it till I notify the Sheriff. |
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11/04/2006 Our little Community had a little excitement here a week ago when there was a shootout. Did you hear the gunfire and helicopters flying around that Thursday night? Sometime maybe around 9pm, Officer Adrian Garcia responded to a domestic disturbance and was fired upon by someone with a shotgun and Officer Garcia was hit in the hand. Suspects Adam Lopez with his girlfriend Tonya Campbell then fled by car. Wounded, Officer Garcia made his way over to Lee and Marcie Hines home and placed a call for backup and received first aid from retired RN Marcie, who wrapped a towel around his injured hand. Lee told me that it weren’t more than ten minutes before squad cars were pulling into his driveway and a helicopter flying overhead. Adam and Tonya were still on the loose until later on Friday when they gave themselves up to authorities. I saw pictures of Adam and Tonya on TV and they looked a whole lot different than when I knew them five years ago. Just a dang sorry mess for our little community, because I believe we as a community are better than this. The McDermott take EXTREME pride in the announcement of the newest "lil Mac” Amelia Jade, born in Arizona at 8 lbs 14 oz to Frank & Dulce, the AzMacs of Arizona. Sayoko and Mac are now Grandma and Grandpaw, and Dennis is just Uncle Dennis. The Community Center is opening an extension to the Thrift Store in an unused building on the property. It will be open from 12-5pm on Saturdays and also during Center activities for sales and donations. Birthdays for this month are: Joel Levy, Bill Stonebraker, and Jan Bonner. Thought for the week: Lots of dreams and little money. |
011/11/2006  Our little Community mainly lives off the support of donations from kind folks in our area and somebody donated all kinds of stuff last week. So the community center is having a huge yard sale on this Saturday and Sunday and the following weekend from 9am to 5pm. So come on down with yer hard earned cash and do some Christmas shopping on the cheap and support our center. Don’t forget CMMCA Annual Meeting is today. This is where we elect new board members for those old board members whose terms are ending, this Saturday Nov. 11 around 2pm. Following our regular Board of Directors meeting that starts at 10am there will be a barbeque with lots of food, refreshments, and merriment. Ok, merriment might not be the word I was looking for but it sounded polite. Please check all weapons: chains, knives, and brass knuckles, at the front door. I had to wrestled changing my “trusty” scooter’s tube on the rear tire so I’ll have some transportation around these parts since my “faithful” truck took a dump. I guess it is a dump truck now. Anyways something is wrong with the transmission, I’ll have to contemplate on it for a while to see what’s the best way to deal with it Thought for the week: It may not be much but it’s all I have, this place that I call my home. Built with my calloused hands to rest my tired bones at night, this place that I call my home. It’s my sanctuary from a bitter world, this place that I call my home. At my journey’s end dig me deep so I can finally rest and have some peace, on this place that I call my home. |
011/18/2006  Our little Community had its annual meeting so I moseyed on over at 1:30pm, but they’d already voted cause they’d all gotten bored and didn’t wait for the scheduled 2pm vote. The new board members are: Putting on my tennis shoes to go outside I felt something fuzzy on the bottom of one and pulled it off. Yikes! It was the remains of a small mouse head staring at me that my fat Cat hadn’t eaten and left outside on the ground. I had apparently stepped on it earlier in the dark and it stuck to my shoe bringing it into the house. Thought for the week: The impossible is until somebody does it. |
011/25/2006 Our little Community is having some mighty fine weather lately but I remember just two short years ago this week when we had “The Great Snowstorm Of 04” that left about 6 inches or more on the ground. The electrical power had gone out at 9:30 that Sunday morning till 6:30 A.M. Tuesday, and the UHF TV and local FM radio stations were off the air. Folks were helping their neighbors with candles, Coleman stoves, and wood for fireplaces. I like the current weather lots more!  My neighbor Andrew Nevsky asked if I would show him the old mines on Copper Mountain that are just a few miles from our homes; so we left exploring. Thought for the week: I been seeing more folks these days blaming their woes on someone or something else. Going through their existence disguised as victims, and in doing so, never taking on the responsibilities to “Make Their Own Way” in the course of their lives. |
012/02/2006 Our little Community hopes you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
I don’t watch TV much but there are a few shows I like, one was on Friday night. I turned on the set and there was nothing! The dang UHF transmitter we rely on caught a cold and was down till sometime Sunday. Thought for the week: You should awaken each day with awe. To wonder at the splendor of life. To evolve into something more. You should greet each day like a family you haven’t seen for 55 years. |
012/09/2006
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012/16/2006
Thought for the week: If yer down in the dumps, take heart, just a little digging you’ll find someone in the dump a layer below you. |
012/23/2006 Our little Community has been hunkering down for the past few weeks with the wind blowing cold and ice forming on the critter’s water bowl. So we’re stoking up the old wood stove and bundling up good, wrapping presents, and writing cards to loved ones, while the scent of Christmas trees and smoldering wood fill the air. |
012/30/2006 Our little Community had a pretty good 2006. We have two miles of Winters Road paved. We have a new dishwashing machine at the Community Center. And seven needy families had a nice Christmas dinner thanks to the donations of many folks, including Sandra Foyil and her brothers who donated in the memory of their Grandfather Tex Foyil. We seen the usual: The UHF TV transmitter going out for a few days whenever the wind blows or someone sneezes. Folks who drive way too fast and create rooster tails of dust, which generates a low hanging dirt fog on a windless day. And a few of them cars becoming airborne, crashing and rolling over, too! And the bad: Someone made off with the Center’s Winco Generator. And the unusual: Jerry and Barbara Turnbough found a very old gravesite in the surrounding Copper Mountain area and we all wondered who might be in it. We had some mighty fine folks who done many a fine thing for our little community, pass on: Kaye Hileman, Joan Chadwick, Rufus Stokes, Mary Lou Kernop, Trudy Poe, and Richard DuBoise. Birthdays for January are: Rick Seeley, and Sharon Weaver. Thought for the week: A New Year could be a new beginning. All you have to do is make it so. |
Our little Community has the temperatures going up and the flowers are doing the same everywhere. It is a nice time for company to pay ya a visit and two of my friends, Jennie Kula and Tom Merritt, are coming by here on their way to Arizona from the South Bay. I spent the better part of two days cleaning and tidying up the old homestead and got it pretty well done for their arrival this Wednesday.
Our little Community has learned that Stoney Stonebraker has some family from Pittsburgh Ca. come over for a visit: his daughter Judy, and Dustin Donahue, his great grandson. Dustin is a great kid, a good athlete and smart too. When I dropped over there to say hi, Dustin talked me into a game of catch with a football and we threw it back and forth for about an hour. I can truthfully tell ya that my arm will be a hurting for a week.
Our little Community has been told that Mac and Sayoko McDermott celebrated their 25th Wedding Anniversary last Tuesday dining at Applebee’s restaurant in Yucca Valley; Sayoko had Teriyaki Steak & Shrimp Combo, while Mac and Dennis had Ribeye Stake. Well-wishers and friends called throughout the day to convey greetings and salutations. Later that night Sayoko, the Woman of Mac’s dreams, had run off to play Bingo at our community center and left Mac and Dennis home alone, they decided to bake Anniversary Cupcakes and surprise her when She gets home.
Our little Community always has tourist dropping in from time to time and this visitor landed right at my doorstep! I was kicking back on my porch when Jeff Chipman landed his hang glider in a field not more than a quarter of a mile away. I grabbed my camera, jumped in my truck and headed over to see if anyone was injured. As I drove up Jeff was walking the glider over to the side of the road; he looked like some kind of big bird. Well he said he was all right and that he started with a few other hand gliders, who were still in the air around Twentynine Palms, on Highway 18 up where the ski resorts are some 35 miles from here. As we were dismantling his glider, which is held together with Velcro and other flimsy stuff, for transport and waiting for the recovery crew to arrive Jeff was telling me that he got as high as some 12,000 feet! I told him that I was as high as I wanted to be at 5’10” tall. Jeff works at the Getty Museum in the Computer Department and since I work with computers my self I invited him up to my house and “talked shop” while we waited for his friends to arrive. 
Our little Community has many artisans and artists living in our area and one of the exceptional is our friend and neighbor Linda Sibio. She called me last Monday and said that she had just finished one of her latest creations and wondered if I would like to come by and have a look and take some pictures. I grabbed my camera and was standing outside her gate in about 10 minutes being greeted by her friendly dogs: Ewok, Shaggy and Shati. Linda’s art is different than what you may see in some galleries, representing the inner self meticulously drawn out and displayed on canvas, which is then left to one’s own imagination for interpretation. I was very pleased with what I’d seen and after telling Linda of my own interpretation of her work, she told me hers, which was quite revealing. I got my photos and will display them on my website CopperMountainMesa.com.
Our little Community finally has gotten some needed rain these past few weeks after a very longtime. Most of the time it just looks cloudy and looking like it may rain and it passes us by. On July 3rd my friend and neighbor Joel Levy called to let me know that the electric power was down for 2 hours; I am on solar and wouldn’t know when the power goes out. It rained and thundered that day. It has been hot and muggy some days and others hot and breezy, just right for the old swamp cooler.
Our little Community is sad to hear of the passing of Rufus Stokes. October 2005 was the last time I saw Rufus Stokes, he was visiting his friends in our area after selling his home that July and moving to Missouri with his wife where he did a lot of fishing. Rufus loved to fish. Raymond Smith told me a story where he took Rufus over to Parker Arizona to fish for catfish and Rufus caught a 20 pounder. He was so proud of that dang fish he took it to a Parker Newspaper to have it published. Well the guy at the paper laughed and told Rufus that 20 pounds ain’t that big around here. Not to be put down Rufus told the news guy that it may not be the biggest caught here but it was the biggest he’d ever caught and had Raymond drive him to one of our local newspapers to have it published. Among his many friends one of them is my neighbor Bob Stonebraker who had know Rufus for over 30 years. I sit listening to the two of them swap stories of olden times working at the Marine Base and some implausible yarns I don’t know whether to believe or they’re just putting me on. Rufus was a big strong man and a kind and friendly man, his body may have worn out but his spirit never did. 
Our little Community is mighty dark out when the moon is hiding on the other side of our planet and the stars come out and parade across the sky. The UHF transmitter that we depend on for TV has been out in our area for a few days now, so I decided that it has been too dang long since I took out the old telescope. There were a few wisps of scattered clouds obscuring the southern portion of the sky around the “Tea Pot” but I was still able to view the area around Antares and just make out globular cluster M4. Saw a few nice meteors and a very small satellite on its lonesome journey across the sky. The bats were out, it was so quiet that you could hear them clicking in search for food, I saw one dive down and land on a tub I fill with water for the critters and heard it lapping a drink. I turned the scope on the northern part of the Milky Way and browsed the sky there for an hour.
Local Artist, and neighbor Linda Sibio called to say that she had completed another project. So I grabbed my camera and headed on over and took some pictures of the fabric Linda had painted she called a motif that is to be worn by her friend of many years. They were so large we had to hang them on the clothesline to get a good shot. I will post the pictures on the website.
Thought for the week: On the twelfth of this month one year ago a good friend and neighbor Kern Watson passed away. That day after receiving the news from his Wife I went outside to watch the sunset. While observing that sunset I made a promise to myself and to my departed friend I would watch every sunset for a whole year, and I have kept that promise. So to those of my friends who had wondered why I left abruptly in the middle of a conversation to go outside; now ya know.
Our little Community has lost a very special person. I am sad to report that Mary Lou Kernop has passed away a little after 6pm on Friday 22.
Our little Community is feeling the coolness of autumn settling in for a stay. Folks are wrapping their swamp coolers and winterizing their homes to be prepared for whatever weather may come this season. It’s always nice to have leaks patched when it starts to rain, particularly the one over yer bed.
Our little Community was cloudy all morning last Saturday, then around noon it started to sprinkle some and then it started a light rain about 2pm. I took out my old raincoat and slipped it on for my evening walk and ran into a tortoise that was ambling along the back roads that I walk. I said hi to him and kept on walking so I wouldn’t disturb him. I didn’t take my camera today cause of the rain so there were no pics of Mr. Tortoise.
Our little Community got a nice soaking late Monday night around 11:30pm and continued on and off for the rest of the night. Some folks were surprised by the wet ground when they came outside in the morning.
welded together out of one and a half inch solid iron rod. It appears to have been there for many years and hasn’t been disturbed. We paced it off and it is some 12 feet long and about 4 feet wide, and was piled high with rock at one time but looks like it has collapsed into a cavity and sunk down. The view from the gravesite is awesome and looks to me that somebody took a lot of care and effort into location and burial. I took some pictures of it too!
President Steve Tuttle, Vice President Stuart Watson, Second Vise President Chuck Sercu, Secretary and Treasurer Mary Helen Tuttle, Ray Foyil, Lee Hines, Brenda Zimmer, and Bob Seeley. I took some pics and jawed with everyone, most I haven’t seen for a while and found that I had missed them much. I stopped off and visited Stuart Watson and his girlfriend Terry at the new thrift store that is housed in the old fire station. Before I left the center Chuck Sercu who was barbequing gave me a whole bunch of leftover ribs to take home, which I took over to Ron and Linda Dehart’s home to share and gave the bones to Seimi’s dogs. 
All in all I had a fine time. And when I got home there was a really nice phone message waiting for me from a gal called Frances who liked my last week’s “Thought for the Week” so much that she’s cutting it out and putting it on her refrigerator, now that’s cool!
We made it to the old copper mines late in the day and it was a good thing that we took the Jeep cause there are some very tricky passages on the way there. The first mine we went into went back about 200 feet and we kept hitting our heads on some outcroppings that hung from the ceiling. There were a lot of beer cans and places were folks had campfires and had painted graffiti on the walls. 
The next mine was farther up the mountain and went back about the same as the first but in the middle it had two passages that sprang to the left and right. This mine was a lot cleaner with more headroom but we still managed to hit our heads a few more times. We had to leave before the sun set so we could navigate the ruff terrain going down the mountain. We both suffered headaches that night.
On Thanksgiving Day I was checking my emails and there was one from a Kevin with the subject line: Fishing Expedition, and it had an attachment on it. Well I didn’t know any Kevin and I thought it maybe spam or a virus so I put it in the junk mail for deletion. Later I had second thoughts and decided to open and read it without opening the attachment and what I found written was a life changing experience. Once I had sorted out this scattered jigsaw puzzle of my brain that this email had created I just couldn’t believe it. You see; I was adopted and didn’t know my real family existed. I was told my birth parents died in a car crash, and I believed this until I opened that email from Kevin who is my long lost brother and he told me that Mom and Dad are still alive, and I have four sisters: Shiela my big sister, Donna, Audrey, and Paula.
Our little Community is sad to hear that long time resident Trudy Poe has passed on. Trudy was there at the founding of our community center, was a longtime member of the board of directors. She put forth much effort and contributed a great deal to help make what Copper Mountain Mesa is today.
Our little Community has lots of history and sometimes I hear some decent tales from my neighbors and friends who been around these here parts before jeans had zippers. One night I called Stoney (Bob Stonebraker) and we yapped for a while about some of the area’s history. He told me of a lake down on Sunfair that they was building in the early seventies that held 60 million gallons of water supplied by to wells with big pumps. There were supposed to be two lakes; one for boating and fishing, and one for swimming. The Corp of Engineers had done the digging, and the local Grange that was in the old bar was collecting donations by selling trees to folks and putting their names on them promising to plant the trees by the lakes. Stoney said that he bought many a tree. It all came to an end when an earthquake hit and a big hole opened up draining the 60 million gallons in 20 minutes! One old guy who was tending the pumps that night said it sounded like a freight train when it sucked all the water up. “I don’t believe any of them trees with nameplates were ever planted“, says Stoney.