Sarah Palin meets Thomas Jefferson

I just had to share this.

Teddy Bears

Two nights ago there was a rocket launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, just south of us on Point Conception, carrying some do-hickey for the Air Force. I believe it carried a pod of stuffed bears in a capsule, or something.

The launch was to take place at 9:24 PM, and I was hoping to make it to that hour despite having played in a golf tournament for the past two days, and having played the day earlier as well. I was pooped, but lay in bed reading anyway, just trying to make it to the appointed time. Well, the book was boring, the hour too late and when the time for the launch came and went and nothing happened I just gave up. I did not wait long past 9:24.

( I did not get to see this)

During the first fits of sleep I was kicking myself for being such a wimp and nodding off because I had seen a daytime launch when we were here in January and I thought a night observation would be pretty cool – much better than daylight hours. The bedroom windows were wide open and I strained to hear the rumble of the launch, but I am getting older by the minute and am told that my hearing is not what it used to be, so I got out of bed and peered out the window for maybe 15 minutes. No launch. The sky was crystal clear and there was zero air traffic, as you would expect. Back to bed.

A short while later I heard a low, deep sound, enough to wake me from my semi-sleep, and I was certain that it had to be the teddy bear missile, so up again. So all that I see is an oldish arching contrail headed out over the Pacific and a jet at high altitude moving due west from us making its own new contrail. I had missed the launch and had been awakened by the jet plane that was flying into cleared air space.
No report on the teddy bears.

Sailing South - for Chris & Sandy

There is a reason that sailors leave Portland and points north before the Fall and Winter swells set in along the Oregon coast...

Flowers

On the central coast of California there are micro-climates piled upon micro-climates and each area seems to specialize in some different type of agriculture. In our immediate neighborhood we see a lot of lettuce, strawberries, broccoli and greenhouse flower operations.

As a way to both educate the public about their businesses and to promote the retail aspect of some of these operations, each year a group of them hold an open house and invite the public in for tours. This year there were seven greenhouse businesses here that we open for about six hours for tours.

Julie and I toured the operations of Eufloria because we pass it almost every day driving the seven minutes into the center of our little hamlet of Nipomo and they have a very small, simple sign stuck in the ground by their entrance road that just says "Roses".

Men, if you ares still wondering how to obtain the attentions of a female just know something about roses and send a few. Better yet, take her on a rose greenhouse tour.

This operation ships millions of roses each year and literally have the growing down to a science. Our tour guide was also the sales manager for the company and President of  a statewide growers association, so not only did we learn a bunch about the growing of roses, we also learned about the politics of competition from abroad.

This greenhouse operation is controlled in ways that I had not thought about, I suppose because I had never considered how one would go about getting the maximum production out of a flower. These are all hydroponic plantings in a greenhouse environment and use a gas powered boiler system to produce extra heat when needed, but they capture CO2 generated in the combustion process and route it in a controlled manner into the greenhouse when extra input is needed for growth. Every aspect of growth is controlled and parasitic bugs are mostly managed by other bugs that eat them for lunch.  The rose stock is grown and distributed by Dutch companies who have learned how to manipulate all of the desirable characteristics. These plants will not do well at all outside or in a home because they are specifically designed to produce maximum results within a greenhouse.

There was so much more information on this tour, all of it interesting and great fun to learn.

(This is the pre-packaging stage where the staff removes any imperfections before placing the product in big walk in coolers)

Perhaps the best thing is that Julie now knows that she can pull into the parking area of Eufloria at any time and buy local, fresh roses for cheap and they can last from two to three weeks if the temperature is kept cool. How cool is that?