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Car Pooling to Rosenbloom's

OK - so car pooling - so boring ??

However - Frank King and Don Luke frequently car pool in from the south somewhere, as they did today to Rosenbloom's. I would like to understand how those two "ratchet jaws" can co-exist in one car ? ;-))

Robert Garner picked me up from a restaurant in Los Gatos to the trip to Rosenbloom's via Hwy 17 and Felton. You would figure two techies would talk about - say computer control by microcode vs "random logic" or some such thing.

But OH NO - Robert is a closet Botanist - would you believe - and regaled me the whole way with a running monolog of:

  • See that sand mine there - the sand was left over from when this area (now about 800 ft. elevation) was a sea shore about 5 million years ago. The ... plate in the Pacific dives down under here, lifting this region

  • See that creek there, coming over those rocks, a unique little flower grows about 100 yards further up. I've hiked in here -

    ( I've tried hiking in these hills, the hill slopes are like 45 degrees - not easy at all !! Branches, brambles, poison oak every where !!! Give me the Sierras any day !!! )

  • Sand = Poor soil, Ponderosa Pines ... The Ponderosa Pines here in the Santa Cruz area were first recorded by the Spanish explorer ... in 15xx - before the Ponderosa Pines in the Sierra Nevada ( a slightly different species ).

  • The granite over there is about 65 million years old, same as the granite in the Sierras -

  • ... ( I wish my memory was better ) ...
One of Robert's friends had made a living as landscape person and was really into California plants. Robert says that the friend learned the Latin names of 3,000 of the 7,000 native California plant species. Friend is now chief botanist of some institution near Los Angeles, CA

Dilbert, eat your heart out, ya don't have to be an utter boooor to be a techie, even though it helps before exams and other acceptance tests ;-))

Just before a delay caused by the jack-knifed semi caught on a hairpin turn, Robert had checked his rear view mirror - and spotted an old station waggon towing a trailer. (easy to spot a trailer on those winding roads). Could that be Frank and Don ?? it was !! how about that for timing ;-))

Originated Feb 5, 2012
for comments/questions mail Ed Thelen ed @ ed-thelen . org