Weird... yesterdays thunderstorm passed us north and south, and we only received a trickle of rain. I did make sure the computers were disconnected from the wall and phone line, just in case. Tonight we could see lightning up near the Tahoe area which was still socked in with thunderheads. The sunset was gorgeous looking to the east... Tahoe way.

There was a fire in Garden Valley today near Mt. Murphy, just up the hill from the California Gold discovery site in Coloma, a good 6-8 miles away from home. Gail and I could see the smoke in Placerville. A lot of acreage was burned, but I haven't heard of any damage. The state forestry has it pretty much mopped up. Reminds me all too well that where we live is all too volatile. We were evacuated in 1995, or so ( can't remember the exact year ), when the flames were just a few hundred yards away, up the hill from our lower pasture, on government land ( BLM ). We were spared, but many to the south of us were not, including my nephew's in-laws. It wasn't fun going to the Red Cross station set up in Georgetown, wondering if we were going to have anything to come home to. And evacuating the horses and dogs and cats was a nightmare ! I lost one of my cats when I opened my car door at the place where we were going to spend the night, and one of the mares was next to impossible to get into a volunteers trailer. Phew !

Anyway... I finished planting the ( 4 ) bare root roses and also planted a baby cedar tree I've been "nursing" for months. A number of new blisters, even with gloves on ! Hot and humid, slow, hard work.

Bid on another Flash Drive to see if I can snag one at less than wholesale. They retail at about $40 USD and I won't bid higher than $19 USD, including shipping cost. Since there are a number of them up for bid, I may have a chance yet.

I went to the library today in Placerville ( the big city ) and picked up a few books. "Make Your CD-ROM Work" by Ed Tittel ( what a cool name ! ) to see if I can troubleshoot my Win95 CD-R beyond what I've tried already: uninstall... re-install... let windows find the proper drivers... re-seat all connectors on the sound card/mother board/CD-R... etc.. And ( here's the good one ! ) "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying and Selling Collectibles" by Laurie E. Rozakis, Ph.D. "Hey it's you !!!" cried the book to me when viewing it on the shelf... "the complete idiot !" I gotta' talk to Dr. Liebschitz about these seemingly inanimate objects talking to me. But then, the advise of an imaginary psychiatrist may be suspect. My favorite line when e-mailing a family member some time back about Dr. Liebschitz is... "I paid him no mind, his usual fee". That line still cracks me up ! Seems to me I had created a poem about something and had included the line in it... I'll have to see if I can find the entire poem and share it in BLOGGER, my latest cathartic psycho-bibble-babble to no one in particular forum... most appropriate !!!

3.9 earthquake on the Hayward fault... whoopee ! I can recall many earthquakes in the Bay Area when I lived there that I don't believe made the news there in the 4-5 Richter range, and the Sacramento TV news is reporting a 3.9... sheeeesh !

Still no family e-mail... guess they're reading "it" all here !... in BLOGGER !