Random Musings of a Ramblin' Fool VIII

Mom's Sixty-Fourth

Today mom turned 64. I'm so glad God has given her to us this many years.
I am so broke right now I was unable to do more for her than take her out to dinner in Cayucos following a 3.3 mile walk on the beach from the dog beach at Toro Creek inlet down to the state park parking lot at Old Creek inlet. Mom said she had a great time and since that is all that mattered I'm content.

A New Roommate

Today I got a call from my most promising potential roommate telling me he accepts the room.
I'm so happy and relieved! He looks like a cool guy and is an American of Korean decent and to be quite honest I'm rather fed up with white guys for roommates. They haven't been working out well for me of late.

My First Job?

I got a bite today from an employer at a financial firm who is looking for "a part-time associate."
I'm going to call the gentleman tomorrow morning and see how that goes.
He contacted me via Craigslist where he had seen my "Special Job Wanted By Special Guy" piece. I hope this works out but we'll have to wait and see. A financial firm sounds like something I'd be decidedly not interested in, however, none of what I said was a red flag to him and he said my Hawaiian shirt wardrobe should not be a problem which intrigues me so maybe this is a special place which is what I'm looking for.

Selling the Big Sikhote-Alin Meteorite

I've finally decided to sell my big Sikhote-Alin meteorite as badly as I wish to keep it.
I had hoped to make it a family heirloom but given its value and my debt it is just not right to hold onto it. There is a guy up in Santa Cruz County whom I gave assurance to that he'd have first crack at it were I to sell it which I almost forgot so tomorrow I call him and offer it to him.
If he can't afford what I'm asking then I'm going to place it on eBay for $9,800 and see what happens. The thing is the largest Sikhote-Alin I've ever seen and is certainly worth not just the weight value (11 kilograms) which your average good Sikhote-Alin bringing about $1/gram this having 11,000 grams but given its unusual size garners more value as well such as perhaps $2/gram.

Bill Maher Is A Complete Asshole

I saw Bill Maher on Larry King Live last night. I could only bear to watch it several minutes which which was nearly unbearable. I have no problems with folks who hold views I don't agree with including atheism and agnosticism and have met great folks from both ideological camps. However, Maher is just so damned smug and self-righteous and judgmental, not to mention hypocritical and his brand of secular humanistic intellectualism is itself anti-intellectual but he cannot see the irony, of course.

2008 Democratic Convention

Tonight the Dems started their convention which stank to high heavens saved only by Teddy Kennedy. It was sad to him up there speaking in what was his swan song which he and everybody else recognized while giving us a mere flash of that Kennedy passion and a faint wisp of wistfulness at what might have been had his own personal failings not crippled his political ambitions.
It was also sad seeing a man of his age and assumed wisdom and certainly gifted with the Kennedy name and brother to both Jack and Bobby demonstrating a decided lack of judgment extolling a weak sister like Barack Obama and asserting he will bring change.
Nobody, most of all Obama himself, has even begun to explain how he will bring change other than he and his water-carriers using that word as a vapid and trite campaign mantra, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. Indeed, that mantra was one which Clinton 42 memorably used in 1992. Did I mention nothing changed? Indeed, many of Bush 41's policies were continued from NAFTA to immigration to gays in the military even if euphemistically retitled like "don't ask, don't tell."

Uppity Ivan

Now the Russians are threatening to break off cooperation with NATO while NATO threatens same with the Russians who themselves say they aren't too worried about it.
Now add to that the Russian parliament has voted unanimously in favor of recognizing both break-away regions of Georgia, to wit Abkhazia and South Ossetia. This seems ironic if not a bit hypocritical of the Russians in light of their own troubles with restive regions like Chechnya.
The situation between the Russians and the West has not been this tense since the end of the Cold War and keeps worsening by the day it seems. Things are getting interesting in a hurry and Al Qaeda has never seemed less relevant since 9/11.

Tropical Storm Fay

Tropical Storm has turned out to be quite a storm making a record four landfalls in Florida and dumping prodigious amounts of rain across the Sunshine State and leading to the deaths of 13 Americans and 23 people on the Island of Hispaniola. The storm caused a oak tree to fall on the home of former President Jimmy Carter while he and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter were home but neither was hurt.

Fini

Hurricane Andrew 16th Anniversary

Sixteen years ago last night Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida from the east as a Category 5 storm with maximum sustained winds of 165 m.p.h. causing tens of billions in damage and killing 26 people directly and almost 40 indirectly.
The storm reemerged over the Gulf of Mexico and proceeded to strike the coast of Louisiana as a Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 115 m.p.h. on August 26, 1992.

Personal footnote: I was staying at the Best Western Cameron Park Inn in El Dorado County, California, the night this occurred. First reports the next morning were initially few and I began to think that maybe it wasn't so bad given the lack of bad news. Soon it became clear the silence from the path of the storm was bad news as modern civilization as we know it ceased to exist in that zone for several days or more and some people became desperate for lack of basic necessities and still others became lawless and order broke down.

Political footnote: the storm's overwhelming aftermath contributed to the end of George H. W. Bush's Presidency as FEMA and the rest of the Federal Government were perceived as ineffective and slow to respond. Sound familiar?

Kimmer

Random Musings of a Ramblin' Fool VII

Realpolitik
----------------
Obama-Biden 2008

Democratic Presidential "presumptive-nominee" Senator Barack Obama officially announced and introduced Senator Joseph Biden as his Vice Presidential running mate yesterday although the choice was known late the previous night. This came as no surprise given that Biden was his best choice out of the list available to him.

There was little if any chance Hillary Rodham Clinton would end up as the veep for the obvious reasons to wit, the personal animus between the Clintons and Obama's camp not to mention that her own negative rating across the nation could hurt Obama who has a lower negative rating.

The reasons for Obama tapping Biden for the job are also fairly obvious, to wit, Obama absolutely must be paired with an older guy to counter the youthful inexperience charge and related to that Obama absolutely must be paired with a Washington Insider to counter not only the perception during the campaign but also the reality after taking office, if he wins, of his having too little experience and not enough connections Inside the Beltway to effectively govern.
Additionally, Obama absolutely must be paired with a white person to counter the residual anti-black feelings some Americans hold and Obama absolutely must be paired with a man and not a woman as the margin for error in getting by with pushing through a new boundary is limited to one so either the ticket has one black or one woman but there can't be both.

Win or lose, this ticket will push the envelope of our nation's racial tolerance boundaries and hopefully pave the way for a Powell or Rice Administration someday.

McCain-Powell 2008?

Yep, I heard of this rumor for for the first time yesterday.
I hope it is more than just a rumor.
I'm absolutely certain McCain has been courting Powell.
Therefore, the only barrier to this happening would be Powell and his wife I'm fairly certain.
If this pairing occurs it would be a brilliant master-stroke by McCain, much better than Obama's choice even though that was Obama's best possible play.

It is true that Powell left the Bush 43 Administration with a bitter taste in his mouth from Bush-ites and Neo-Cons (no, I'm using that expression in a non-conspiracy theory rant-sort-of-way). However, McCain was a political adversary of Bush 43 for the past several years even if that was tempered by the political expediency of being nominally on the same side of the aisle. Nonetheless, McCain got Bush-whacked in South Carolina in 2000 and surely Powell feels similarly by being set up to appear discredited after taking what later turned out to be incorrect intelligence before the UN in the course of carrying Bush's water leading up to the invasion of Iraq. Consequently, they have some commonality there and both are moderate Republicans who are militarily hawkish Vietnam vets with Purple Hearts but also socially more moderate than Bush and are not Evangelical Christians.

On a side-note to that last sentence, Bush 43 turned out to be a poser of an Evangelical Christian as he was a phony fiscal Reagan Republican.

Realpolitik - Geopolitik
--------------------------------

2008 Beijing Summer Olympics

I have not been able to get with the Olympics this time around I regret to report.
Too much more important stuff going on in my life, most of it negative, unfortunately.
Part of it I suspect is also my antipathy for the repressive regime controlling China.
I love the Chinese people who are some of the sweetest people on Earth.
However, I feel there has been a lot of white-washing the sins of the regime there by the IOC and other outside and inside interests and this has turned me off of the games this time around.
I look forward to the next Summer Games to be held in London in 2012.

Last night I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning watching the Gold Medal Game for Men's Basketball. It was a hoot and well worth staying up for although a bit less relaxing than I'd have liked given the spirited play of Silver Medalist Spain and the poor defensive performance by the USA. As it turned out it didn't matter as our NBA players held off a ferocious effort by Spain, 118-107, although that score doesn't reflect how close the game was for most of the way.
It was and is nice to see the U.S. Men looking good in basketball once again for the first time since 2000. Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and DWayne Wade controlled things for the USA while the rest of the NBA stars kept order when those three were on the bench with foul trouble.
Our boys represented our nation very well this time around in contrast to four years ago.

Lisa Leslie earned her fourth Olympic Gold Medal captaining the USA women's basketball team concluding her Olympic career as a winner to go along with being a class act as a human being.
Our WNBA girls continue to represent our nation well by not only winning Olympics after Olympics but doing it with class and style.

The USA won the most medals of any nation (110) but the Chinese won the most gold medals (51).

On a side-note I found this article about sex at the Olympics quite interesting.

Geopolitik
---------------

U.S. Military Now in Georgia

A U.S. warship has now entered a Georgian port. There is now the potential for a mistake to occur with very serious implications, to wit, we mistakenly fire on them or they on us or Russians attack Georgians under our nose and we intercede or Russians and Georgians are fighting and we feel the Russians attacked us and we fire back, etc.

Oh, did I mention there are 15,000 nuclear warheads between the two nations?

You get the idea.

What Iraq War?

I'm still hearing references to the Iraq War. Do they refer to the recently concluded one?
On a related note, I'm really curious why I'm not hearing more from the media and Democrats about the rather dramatic improvement in Iraq this year with the complete collapse of Al Qaeda-in-Iraq as well as the defection of the Sunni tribes to our side as well as the on-going splintering and collapse of Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and his exile in Iran and the level of murder and mayhem per capita is now probably better than in many large cities in the U.S.

Things have now even gotten to the point that the leader of Iraq is now seriously discussing timetables for our withdrawal and we are discussing seeking remuneration from Iraqi oil profits.

Things seem to be moving along great now.

Afghanistan/Pakistan Mess

Things have really heated up in Afghanistan this year with the refocus of Al Qaeda switching back from Iraq where they were utterly humiliated. Folks should view the increase in violence as an improvement in our geopolitical situation given that fact.

The other day an incident occurred where depending upon whom you listen to we either killed a bunch of ladies and babies or we slaughtered a bunch of Taliban fighters.

I'm guessing both are true as it was a social gathering in a Taliban area.

War is hell!

In Pakistan Pervez Musharraf resigned as President which opens the way for both deterioration and improvement in that troubled land which has a collective choice now of which path to take.

By the way, I found this clip of Musharraf's resignation speech on my favorite new website, but be warned! Pervez has a potty-mouth!

The U.S. has just finallized a security

Kimmer

Random Musings of a Ramblin' Fool VI

Prologue

Well, this feels a bit unfamiliar: I'm posting a Random Musings blog after a three month hiatus from doing so. Did you miss them? Of course not!

Latest on the Home Front

Well, let me think: I'm still broke and now looking to sell my big meteorite and find a part-time job that is a good fit for me and my circumstances, Roommate #1 is turning out to be quite an odd one while Roommate #2 moved out last month and into his new girlfriend's place in SLO and I still haven't been able to replace him although there is hope that changed today, Mother continues doing her thing which doesn't include moving quite yet, my Brother continues doing his thing which doesn't include Mom or Me in his life, my Grandmother continues doing her thing which doesn't include a loan I humbly requested earlier this Summer, my formerly dear troubled female friend who once doubled as my cleaning lady continues doing her thing which doesn't seem to include hanging out with highest caliber of humanity, my landlord and landlady continue to do their individual things which doesn't include being together which bums me out as I like them both. Oh, and my desktop computer now constantly shuts off and then back on while ants are invading my house faster than Russians picking on a small neighboring democracy.

Something Sad I Saw

Last night while driving home just up my street and around the corner I came across a fawn that had just been hit and killed so I pulled off and stopped just down the hill a ways with the intent of going back and checking to make sure it was truly dead.
As I walked back to it I saw its mother approach the carcase so I backed off before I even reached it realizing it was dead and that the mother needed to be with the carcase.
Then today, while driving by the carcase I saw the mother still watching it from an adjacent field while their herd waited and watched from the field on the opposite side of the road.
How beautiful but how sad!

On Geopolitik

Since we last talked or more accurately, I ranted and you read it, Russia invaded a neighboring sovereign nation (Georgia) and the world stood by and did nothing including said nation's own allies which include the U.S.
My feeling is that Russian leader Vladimir Putin overreached and in the long run harmed his nation but in the near term made the U.S. and NATO and the U.N. look weak and impotent.
The single greatest failure of Bush 43's Presidency will turn out to be neglecting to deal adequately with Russia in much the same way Clinton 42 spent eight years inadequately dealing with Al Qaeda.

We appear to have triumphed in Iraq as Al Qaeda in Iraq has collapsed and the Sunni tribes are now working with us and fighting Al Qaeda and the Shiites are generally working with us with Al Sadr now trapped in Iran and not able to return and his Mahdi Army has essentially collapsed.
Now, the President of Iraq is asking us to create a timetable for withdrawal: GREAT NEWS!

Afghanistan/Pakistan is more unsettled now as Al Qaeda has packed up its bags in Iraq and refocused on Afghanistan.

Speaking of that part of the world, Pakistan's President Musharraf has left power and without a bullet being fired! He served our purpose to some extent but now Good Riddance!

On Realpolitik

McCain is surging at Obama's expense who's now falling back just a bit in the polls.
That being said, it is way too soon to put too much weight on polls before the conventions have even occurred.

I still can't believe Obama is the Democratic nominee.

I still can't believe McCain is the Republican nominee.

Neither has any genuine vision for America nor how we achieve it.

Is either man worthy of the job?

Is either man capable of competently undertaking the job?

Is either man capable of putting together a cabinet and staff as qualified and capable as the previous two Presidents or even the two before them?

More than at any other time during my life it is important that both Presidential candidates choose their respective running mates very well and not just to help them get elected but select men or women who will bring a high degree of competency and confidence to the job. The reason I say this is obvious: McCain is old enough to die or become incapacitated in office from old age, whereas Obama could conceivably be harmed by somebody slipping through the cracks in security and doing the junior Senator from Illinois grave harm.

Gas Prices

Earlier this week I saw gas for just under $4 per gallon at the gas station on the north side of Greenfield, CA. Will this trend continue? I sure hope so!

Hi Mountain Lookout

Today the San Luis Obispo Gem & Mineral Club conducted a field trip to the Lopez Lake Recreation Area in search of a marine fossil deposit a first-time visitor to our most recent club meeting suggested we check out.

We all assembled at about 9 AM in the front entrance area.

Those present were myself along with club president Noah Doughty and his wife Julie and their young child plus club treasurer Mike Shipsey and club secretary Lynette and long-time and esteemed-member Helen not to mention the aforementioned visitor and her friend.

As we drove into the park past the entry gate after paying $7 per car we immediately found ourselves confronted by crowds of campers who had overrun the park for the Summer weekend. I was struck by how many people were there and how densely packed they were to each other. The place looked like Coney Island and I marveled how anybody could enjoy camping outdoors packed in like sardines. Then it occured to me: they are used to living that way in every other area of life so why not while on vacation.

We arrived at the end of the primary road through the park and parked our vehicles.We immediately discovered a deposit of fossils in a small roadcut nearby but they were nothing to write home about as they can be found all over San Luis Obispo County. We walked down that same primary road beyond the gate where most folks are prevented from driving upon and headed down to Lopez Lake Drive without our scout seeing anything familiar as it relates to her fossil collecting years ago.

We all jointly decided to head back to our autos but enjoy the beautiful scenery. Me and Noah and Julie and their child all headed up over High Mountain Trail so as to walk back a different route for a change of scenery.

The trail had been recently scraped by a bulldozer and there was plenty of fresh dirt.At one point we picked up a very recent trail of black bear paw prints which was quite cool.

Instead of driving home to Atascadero with our tails between our legs we decided to make a bit more of a trip of it.
We followed club president Noah Doughty and his wife Julie to a couple of other fossil-bearing locations nearby along Lopez Lake Drive with club treasurer Mike Shipsey joining us. We learned of a couple of new locations from Noah and Mike shared with us that his is investigating yet another nearby location for some other cool mineralogical material that hopefully our club will gain access to sometime in the future pending discovering the property owners and being able to get their permission to visit their property and hunt for it.

That all collectively didn't take long and after parting ways with them we decided not to simply head straight home with our tail between our legs but make this trip into even more of an adventure so headed up Hi Mountain Road into the Los Padres National Forest. My intent was to drive back home via Hi Mountain Road to Pozo Road to Highway 58 to El Camino Real and on home to Atascadero but with a catch: take a quick detour up to Hi Mountain Lookout on the way.

Outside the national forest boundary we passed Arroyo Grande forest fire station.That is home to Copter 527 which is a USFS Type-1 helicopter replete with a helitak crew.That morning there was no sign of it anywhere as it was probably off fighting the nearby lightning-caused fires or up in Northern California fighing the big lightning-caused fires up there.

The drive out Hi Mountain Road is beautiful all the way, but after the pavement ends a bit outside the forest boundary the road gets progressively more rough and slow-going. At one point after we entered the forest we noticed a good many "interesting-looking" hunters at one location. Dueling Banjos and bad teeth certainly came to mind. ;-p
At yet another location either on private property outside the forest boundary or within an inholding of private land within the forest boundary we saw a dry creek with lots of white mineral deposits staining everywhere the water had run in a clear sign of a mineral spring. I had noticed this feature the last time I drove through there but had forgotten about it.

The final climb up Hi Mountain Road to the saddle at the top of the ridgeline Hi Mountain is situated on is rather tortuous and ponderous but we made it with my old truck despite all the potholes and rocks not to mention the steepness.

We hung a left on the road up to the top of Hi Mountain where the lookout is located and headed up it and soon passed by Hi Mountain Campground which upon cursory glance by me while mostly keeping my eyes on the road seemed quite full and continued on up to the parking area adjacent to the gate up to the lookout, which was open (something I had never seen there before). We parked and got out and admired the view all around, especially the southern half of the horizon which afforded us a view of the Nipomo Mesa, Santa Maria Valley, Casmalia Hills, Lopez Lake, Guadalupe Dunes, Huasna Valley, Sierra Madre Mountains, San Rafael Wilderness Area, part of the Five Cities Area and a good chunk of the coast of the Pacific Ocean, some of which is pictured below.

Southwesterly view from the gate to Hi Mountain Lookout.

Rustic sign at the gate to Hi Mountain Lookout.

We then headed on up the short quarter-mile hike to the top. The view was incredible but I was disappointed to find there was no interesting fire-watching to do of the nearby lightning-caused fires which seemed pretty dead from our vantage point.

Our first view of Hi Mountain Lookout.

Upon rounding the final bend on approach to the lookout noticed a Forest Service SUV parked there and a couple of people on the tower with one being a woman (Karlien Lang) who immediately waved to us. This was yet another first for me up there as I had never met anybody else up there the other times I had visited Hi Mountain Lookout. The gal waved to us in a manner that struck me as seeming surprised to see us and a bit curious who we were.

View looking South-Southwest with Lopez Lake at center.

As we closed in on the lookout we noticed the dusty back window of the Forest Service SUV had the outline of a condor finger-traced onto it in somewhat humorous fashion. We were immediately met by a nice young college-aged guy named Pat White who proceeded to give us the grand tour of the site including its tiny Interpretive Center center on the first floor of the tower beneath the observation deck. We found this to be very interesting and informative.

Entrance to the Interpretive Center

Southeasterly view from the top of Hi Mountain.

When you are up on top of the mountain you feel you are rather high up and yet when you look at Hi Mountain from a distance it doesn't seem as if it would be that high up. Part of the reason for that beyond the simple visual/mental illusion that happens like that with all hills and mountains is that Hi Mountain doesn't have the more classic pointy mountaintop that protrudes into the sky but is more gently sloped and rounded which enhances the illusion from below that it is not that high up.

Northeast view looking at Black Mountain.

After giving us a tour of the Interpretive Center Pat then gave us a tour of the grounds which was really nice of him and eventually Karlien joined us for part of the visit. We learned they are both Summer interns with the local Audobon Society and the Forest Service had loaned them the SUV as they both had no reliable transportation to get to Hi Mountain. We also learned they were up there on weekends over the Summer to electronically track California condors.

Another South-Southwesterly view from the top.

After a relatively short, but sweet visit with Pat and Karlien we headed back down off the mountain feeling privileged to have had such a wonderful visit to the fire lookout and mountaintop.

Pat and Karlien bidding us farewell as we left.

On our way back down as we passed Hi Mountain Campground going the other way this time I noticed a couple of Department of Fish & Game wardens questioning folks in the campground. I then realized many of them were inbred-looking bumpkins and I was glad the wardens were there. ;-p We proceeded past that campground and got back onto Hi Mountain Road and headed north to to Pozo which actually seemed a significantly shorter drive than ever before and then on home.

Pozo Forest Fire Station

All in all that was a great little adventure and I hope to go back up to the lookout again in the future. I both HIGHLY recommend a visit to Hi Mountain Lookout for folks of any and every age.

2008 Nipomo Gem & Mineral Show

Prologue

The 2008 Nipomo Show was my second time around doing that show.
Last year was a very good experience for me and I made good money so I was very optimistic going into it this year. I was also more prepared and had upgraded not only my inventory including a good amount of lapidary rough but I also had a better display arrangement. Once again my business collaborator Mike Lyons shared our booth and brought his glass display set and his wonderful jewelry and gemstones, jade in particular.

Day One

We arrived at Saint Joseph's Catholic Church in Nipomo on Thursday afternoon around 2 PM-ish. This gave us just enough time get the skeleton of our booth set up, to wit the tables and displays put in in place how they would go and the flats of material adjacent to where we'd set things out in the morning. This process went surprisingly smoothly and quickly.
We even had time to take turns walking around the show visiting other dealer's booths which is always fun.
It's nice to visit those dealers whom we've befriended and touch base with them and admire the neat things they have brought to the show and in some cases wheel and deal a bit.

Such was the case with dealer Tom DeMaris who remembered to bring the 21.8 ounce Canyon Diablo (Berringer Crater/Meteor Crater) meteorite I agreed to purchase from him at the April Bakersfield show we both worked this year.
It was nice being able to finally take receipt of it although he was not able to get it out on this day as it was still tucked away in a box.

In addition to Tom and his wife, it was great visiting with our friends Gary and Janice as well as Keith Olivas and Ernie DeFever along with Andy DeBoer and his wife.
I am a little miffed with Dale Harwood as for the first time I never heard him tell me "The more you buy the more you save!" so I didn't buy anything from him.
Actually, I didn't but it had nothing to do with him and everything to do with how little money I made.

This year we participated in the barbecue at the end of the day for the dealers and Orcutt Mineral Society members which was a wonderful experience.
That was in contrast to last year when we decided we didn't want to wait in line but get on home.

After dinner I ambled back to our booth and found a good deal of activity at my new lapidary rough bins. Apparently, a cluster of dealers found some cool things amongst my slabs which came from the inventory of an older, local couple who were members of the now-defunct Estero Bay Club and who used to sell at shows around the Central Coast but are now deceased.
I made a good deal of money from those dealers in cash and trade picking up some nice slabs of marcasitic Nipomo agate from Ernie DeFever, who was back in the show this year for the first time in a number of years. I trusted the dealers to give me good value as most were my friends/acquaintances not to mention good people but one dealer I was less familiar with did screw me out of about $50 in value I'm told.
Oh well, live and learn: I didn't know what my inventory was worth as I'm new to dealing with lapidary rough.

Day Two

We had to get to the show early on this day as we still needed to put most of the inventory out so we got to the show a couple of hours early which means about 8 A.M.
We got done around 10:30-ish but it didn't matter we weren't quite done at opening as the day started slow until things picked up a bit later in the morning.

While we were setting up we heard lots of sirens and an inky black column of smoke rose from the neighborhood to the west about a mile or so across the field next door. One could even hear explosions as tires on the burning travel trailer popped as did perhaps its propane tank.
Thankfully nobody was inside it at the time and it was nice to know that due to my scanner I had with me. Unfortunately, the batteries ran out before the fire was done but by then we already knew the particulars.
The prevailing winds at the time took the toxic smoke and its pungent fumes right over the show venue. Soon thereafter charred pieces of insulation and other material from the burning/burned travel trailer began falling out of the sky and down onto the church grounds, in some cases right into some dealers booth, including our own.
Some of these pieces were surprisingly large in size.


Unfortunately, the burning travel trailer was the high point of the day as sales were okay for a Friday but not overwhelmingly great. However, given what we managed despite it being a workday we were still optimistic Saturday would be great.
I did pick up that meteorite from Tom DeMaris along with a beautiful specimen of fluorite with chalcopyrite and calcite and perhaps a wee bit of dolomite.
It was a gorgeous specimen I planned to add to my collection.
However, Santa Lucia Rockhounds President Gene Bilyeu got sight of it and fell in love with it and inquired if he could purchase it for his wife Barbara. Given how I feel about that couple I was more than glad to sell it to him for that purpose and for not much over what I bought from Tom DeMaris as he got a buddy deal from me.
At the end of the day around closing time some friends of mine, Blythe and Dan Slaten dropped by to see me as they headed north to my house to visit for the weekend.

Day Three

On this morning we were able to leave a bit later as we were already set up for the show which was nice given how tired we were. We also were entertaining the Slatens which meant two adults, two children, and a dog so we were busy.

Once we got to the show we were able to quickly fire up our booth and await the unrelenting hordes of buyers shoveling money into our booth that we hoped were on their way.

No dice. Not even close.

This day, which was a Saturday, usually the best day of any show, was worse for me than the Friday or Sunday of this year's show.
What made up for it was the visitors to our booth.

The aforementioned Slatens dropped by to see our booth in full glory as did a couple of wonderful young children whom used to be my neighbors in Atascadero and are both now full-fledged rockhounds despite being younger than ten years old whom their grandfather brought to the show. He also brought one of them to another show of ours, I believe this year's June Cayucos Show.
We also received a lot of other children as visitors whom we treated to a lot of freebie material but also even sold a few low-priced items to.

Most of this activity was early on and by afternoon we were in the doldrums.
At least misery loves company: most dealers I talked to complained of the slowness on Saturday and with the show overall with just a few exceptions.
I can't blame myself as I had upgraded my inventory over last year and was very ready for the show. The club can't be blamed as they did an excellent job promoting the show which found mention on television, radio, and in the newspaper.
Clearly, it was the economy, stupid!

Consequently, we needed comforting after the show that day.
Since we're saving ourselves for marriage comfort-sex was out of the question and since we were too poor to comfort-eat we went comfort-rockhounding for Nipomo agate in the adjacent fields and creeks along with fellow-dealer and Salinas Valley Gem & Mineral Club President Ernie DeFever.

What got this started was talking to our friend and fellow-dealer Keith Olivas who told us he had hunted for agate in the fields next door the day before and even showed us his finds.

That got us thinking that we could do the same but even go further with it which we did.

The two of us headed out to the west and checked the field next door to the west and followed the nearby creek southwest but found only small amounts of agate, but in the process picked up Ernie who joined as on our more serious expedition all the way across the field to the west and into the primary creek bottom at the far end. There we found abundance of Nipomo beanfield agate some with sagenite but most without and none were marcasitic, unfortunately.
Still, it was great fun and we found some really nice pieces, even finding some carnelian.

Following that we headed straight home, exhausted but feeling a lot better than before.
We missed dinner with the Slatens, unfortunately, but it was worth it as any respectable rockhound would feel. ;-)

Day Four

Given how yesterday went and that this was a Sunday morning and we were tired from the show and had been hosting house guests we were in no hurry getting down to our booth on Sunday morning. The Slatens headed home on this morning and followed us down until we pulled off US101 at North Thompson Avenue to take less crowded and more relaxing way into Nipomo.

The morning started slow as one might expect but things did pick up and Sunday exceeded my expectations although it didn't come close to making up for Saturday's shortcomings as we ended up making half as much money as year's show. Don't get me wrong, I loved doing the show and look forward to doing it again next year when I hope the economy is better as it does seem fairly obvious the economy is the primary culprit here.

Near closing time a lady and her man showed up and dropped several hundred dollars at our booth, some spent on Mike's stuff and some on ours but by far and away our best customer of the show and yet the transaction wasn't even finalized until after show had officially closed.
It was very nice to end the show on such a positive note.

Following that we quickly broke down our booth and put everything away with little regard to organization and headed home where we crashed (metaphorically-speaking).

A Day Trip to Southern California

Last month, on July 15, we took a day trip to Southern California to visit a place that has always been special to my mother and in the process take a drive down memory lane for the both of us and visit some of my old haunts growing up in Southern California.

We left Atascadero bright and early on that Tuesday morning and took Highway 41 northeast to Highway 46 and took it east into the Central Valley to Highway 33 and took it south to Lokern and took it east to Highway 58 and took it east to the park in Buttonwillow where we took our first break of the day. At the park there while walking my little brown monster she suddenly attacked this cute little bugger pictured below:

Buttonwillow toad

Buttonwillow toad

Buttonwillow Toad

From Buttonwillow we proceeded east on Highway 58 to Interstate 5 where we then headed south down the Central Valley and over the Grapevine to Highway 138 which we took east into the Antelope Valley and paralleling the San Andreas Fault Zone.

At Three Points Road we turned south and took it a short distance to Pine Canyon Road.
In this area we encountered the aftermath of the Pine Fire which began four years ago a few days previous killing one firefigher and burning 17,418 acres and 3 homes and 21 outbuildings.
It felt strange being back after having not been down that way since the day the fire began.
On that day Mom and I had been driving in the Central Valley near Coalinga on our way to check out another fire caused by lightning that was up Los Gatos Creek Road northwest of Coalinga when we heard Kern County Fire Department do the first dispatch on the Pine Fire until they discovered it was in Los Angeles County Fire jurisdiction who took command of it although I believe Kern provided mutual aid.
We decided to drive down and check it out as we liked the area and had only recently started to visit the area and explore it being the geology buffs we are and the San Andreas Fault Zone trending prominently through the area.
Anywho, we had discussed going back down after the fire was out to check out the burn area but never got around to it until now. I kind of wish we had checked out the burn area when it was fresh as four years later is was not entirely clear what the final boundaries of the burn area were as grasses and lighter brush have grown back.
In the four-year-old burn area it was still quite obvious where some stands of digger pine had been toothpicked and beds of manazanita and chamise and sage brush had been moonscaped.
As always it was fun to drive alongside our old friend the San Andreas Fault Zone.
We took Pine Canyon Road to Elizabeth Lake Road with a quick break at the Angeles National Forest day use area at Elizabeth Lake.
As we headed down Pine Canyon Road/Elizabeth Lake Road we noticed rapidly building convection over the Mojave Desert and Transverse Ranges to the east and hoped we got into an electrical storm at some point in the day.
We picked up Highway 138 again in Palmdale, which sucked more than ever in the context of both the traffic and the home boys, and took it east to Highway 2 and up into Wrightwood.
On the way up the hill we encountered evidence along the side of the road and just off the road of recent monsoonal flashflooding of the more mild sort but nonetheless it was interesting to see after such a long dry spell.
We also noticed that dark monsoonal clouds were forming right over that entire area which was cool both literally and figuratively.

At Wrightwood we took a break and enjoyed being back in a town our family used to visit fairly regularly back in the late 1970's into the early 1980's.
To top it all off we concluded our visit in Wrightwood by visiting the Church of the Open Door's old Acorn Lodge property which looked better than ever. There even was remodeling work being done on the swimming pool area while we were there and it was clear somebody had been recently sinking a lot of money into the place.
This was nice to see as the last time we had been there in Summer 2002 it had been for sale and was in disrepair it appeared.
The capper was the thunder we heard right above our heads while visiting the old lodge.

Acorn Lodge in Wrightwood.

Acorn Lodge in Wrightwood.

Acorn Lodge in Wrightwood.

Building electrical storm over Wrightwood, CA.

After we finished in Wrightwood we headed back down the hill on Highway 2 and then east on Highway 138 down into the Cajon Pass and by the Morman Rocks en route to Interstate 15.
It felt weird driving down the Cajon Pass and looking down into the wash where I spent so many of my days rockhounding for actinolite.
It was also quite interesting to be back where the burn areas of the 2003 Grand Prix and Old Fires are located and this was the first time I had been in the Cajon Pass since checking out those fires a few days after they roared through that area.

We took Interstate 15 all the way down to Interstate 10 as I failed to turn east onto the newer segment of easternmost Interstate 210 in order to take it to Redlands and get on Highway 38 up into the San Bernardino Mountains.

After picking up Highway 38 via Interstate 10 we headed up through Mentone.
It was cool seeing those roads in Mentone named after minerals which I had forgotten about.
The roads in question are named the following and appear in order as one heads eastbound on Highway 38: chrysolite, jasper, opal, turquoise, tourmaline, beryl, olivine, malachite, and agate.

As we headed up Highway 38 we started looking for signs of a then-recent fire that burned near Mountain Home Village after starting up in the hills behind Yucaipa, but saw nothing.
We finally turned off of Highway 38 and onto Forest Falls Drive which we had not been on since our last visit in October, 2002.
At that time we were struck by how many brown, dying trees there were on both sides of steep Mill Creek Canyon and surrounding mountainsides.
This time we were struck by how relatively few brown trees there were compared to last time.
This time the trees that had been brown five and half years ago appeared to have become grayish-brown skeletonized trees with much fewer brown, dying trees in the mix.
My impression is that the then-ongoing big tree die-off that was a front page story in the local paper that very day we were last down there has at least in Mill Creek Canyon ended or slowed down dramatically which was nice to see.
We drove directly into and parked at our destination for that day: Forest Home Christian Conference Center.

Forest Home Fire Patrol

As we walked through the parking lot there of the main conference ground we encountered a type-5 engine belonging exclusively to Forest Home which was interesting.
It appeared to not be kept up very much if at all which is unfortunate.

Forest Home - Blinco Lounge

Mom personally knew Joe Blinko whose name appears on at least one building at Forest Home.

Joe functioned as a surrogate father to her at a time she needed one desperately.

Metal marker placed on tree by waitresses of Summer '67.

Mom worked as a waitress at Forest Home over the course of the Summer of 1967.
Each year the waitresses from each Summer Camp session commissioned such a plaque that they placed on a tree outside the dining hall.

The Dinning Hall mom worked at in the Summer of '67.

The cool tunnel linking both sides of the road at Forest Home.

At the far end of the tunnel in the photo above is a cool water fall which on this hot day was a God-send.

The coolest building at Forest Home.

Sunshine Cottage where mom lived during the Summer of '67.

Biltmore at Forest Home

My little monster Tequila drinking at the doggy water bar.

More cool architecture at Forest Home.

Forest Falls

White Poppy in Mill Creek.

We rockhounded in Mill Creek and found plentiful garnets imbedded in quartz.

Lakeview Lodge at Forest Home.

On this particular day the lake was shut down and looked a bit too green which might explain its closure. After visiting Lakeview we headed home via the route we took down to Forest Home.
One exception was we took Highway 166 west from Interstate 5 to Highway 33 and then took that north all the way to Highway 46 and on home the way we came earlier that day.

Thunderstorm brewing over Wrightwood as seen from Cajon Pass.

On the way home we encountered lightning over the Wrightwood area that was clearly visible from Interstate 15. The same cell complex produced flashflooding west of Wrightwood draining out of the San Gabriel Mountains and down into the Mojave Desert.

Flashflood crossing Highway 138 near Llano.

Flashflooding at Highway 138 near Llano.

Monsoonal clouds over the Mojave Desert.

Thunderstorm building over the Eastern San Gabriel Mountains.

Beautiful sunset amid monsoonal clouds as seen from Leona Valley area.

Monsoonal-tinged sunset over Leona Valley area.

Sunset viewed from the Three Points area.

Sunset near the Three Points/Neenach area.

Sunset near Neenatch.

The day ended with a gorgeous sunset created by the monsoonal moisture interacting with the low-angle sunlight. We still had a couple of hours of driving after dark once the Sun set.
On the way home we were discussing tales of the supernatural and matters of a supernatural nature when as we approached the south end of Taft northbound on Highway 33 a street lamp we were about to pass under suddenly shut off in dramatic fashion which not only startled us but momentarily freaked me out as I was sort of psyched out by our discussion.


All in all it was a wonder day and a cool adventure and we were kept safe the entire time.