ok what i did was to use Timer 1 (16 bit) with a prescale of 1:8 at 4 MHz. This gives me 1usec*65K*8 or about 0.5sec interrupt period.

Now with or without DS readout I get the same clock speed, and get the calculated interrupt period. So looks like this will work. Trick is to also be sure all lengthy PAUSE statements are broken into DO loops of 1msec PAUSEs and no other "WAIT" options. The readout of the DS doesn't seem to be a problem since I issue a convert command, then test for BUSY bit in a loop, so it can be interrupted.

If I had a 32 KHz xrystal I would run an external clock, but don't right now. Can get een longer interrupts that way (including a realtime clock).

The biggest reason in going to Timer 1 from 2 was the 16 bit count registers for 1 vs 8 bit for 2 (even though you can adjust the clock)...win some and loose some.

So this fixes my problems. Thanks for the good suggestions.