Welcome to Arizona...

As it happens, I'm headed to Phoenix this morning – and as I write this post, I'm sitting in Terminal 1 at San Diego's Lindbergh International Airport, waiting for my flight...

The Pharmacist's Monday Morning...

Via my mom:

Upon arriving home, a husband was met at the door by his sobbing wife. Tearfully she explained,

"It's the druggist. He insulted me terribly this morning on the phone. I had to call multiple times before he would even answer the phone."

Immediately, the husband drove downtown to confront the druggist and demand an apology.

Before he could say more than a word or two, the druggist told him,

"Now, just a minute, listen to my side of it. This morning the alarm failed to go off, so I was late getting up. I went without breakfast and hurried out to the car,

Just to realize that I'd locked the house with both house and car keys inside and had to break a window to get my keys.

"Then, driving a little too fast, I got a speeding ticket. Later, when I was about three blocks from the store, I had a flat tire."

"When I finally got to the store a bunch of people was waiting for me to open up.

I got the store opened and started waiting on these people, all the time the darn phone was ringing off the hook."

He continued, "Then I had to break a roll of nickels against the cash register drawer to make change, and they spilled all over the floor. I had to get down on my hands and knees to pick up the nickels and the phone was still ringing.

When I came up I cracked my head on the open cash drawer, which made me stagger back against a showcase with a bunch of perfume bottles on it. Half of them hit the floor and broke."

"Meanwhile, the phone is still ringing with no let up, and I finally got back to answer it.

It was your wife. She wanted to know how to use a rectal thermometer.

And believe me mister, as God as my witness, all I did was tell her."

Education: Cost vs. Benefit...

What's wrong with this picture?  In the past forty years, K12 spending per child has risen almost four times, while measures of achievement are virually unchanged.  That's not what I would call good value for my money. 

And I'm very skeptical of those measurements of achievement – I suspect they unfairly overstate the real situation...

Ulam Spiral of Primes...

Fascinating.  I'd never heard of this before...

On the Road Again...

I'll be travelling again tomorrow (Wednesday) – a quick dash to Phoenix and back on the same day.  But I'll be sawed off from the Internet most of the day, so there won't be much posting activity...

Spacy Photo...

Looks like something out of a science fiction novel, but this appears to be a real photo of a skydiver in the act of opening his or her parachute while watching the Space Shuttle take off from Cape Canaveral.  As always, click to enlarge...

One of Those Mornings...

I'm having one of those mornings when, after reading the news, I just feel disgusted with the “leadership” of the world's political leaders.  The proximate cause (this time) was reading various European and American leaders reacting to recent events in Iran, Turkey, Egypt, and Gaza.  It feels a bit like some sort of macabre charade in which everyone sees the bad guys, but pretends they're not bad – and instead starts beating up the only good guy in the area!

Bah.

A pox on them all!

I'm going to go do something interesting and meaningful, like drive to work and immerse myself in Java and JavaScript...

Father's Day...

Pondering Father's Day, and so many thoughts and memories that provokes.  My father is 3,000 miles away today, in Virginia where he and my mom now live.  The accompaniments of old age are upon him – he's hard of hearing (making telephone calls difficult), his vision is weak, he can no longer walk very far, and anything other than local travel is more than he can handle.  But though he's very different than when he was younger, he's still my father – and I wish I could be with him today, on this his day.  Or any other day, for that matter...

The photo at right is one I took five years ago, in July 2005 when he and I were on one of our many trips together.  On this trip we were in the San Juan mountains of south-central Colorado.  At that time he could still walk a mile or so without too much trouble, even at the high altitudes we visited.  We four-wheeled all over those mountains in our trusty 1996 Toyota LandCruiser – a vehicle we still own, and still use for such trips.  Now that my father can no longer make such trips with me, the memories of them are all the more precious...

Happy Father's Day, dad!  I hope your memories are as happy, and as comforting, as mine...

Light Blogging Alert...

Today and tomorrow I'm training a dozen or so of my fellow employees, on one of the products that my little team develops.  I'll be a little busy, so blogging will be light-to-non-existent...

Earthquake!

Last night at about 9:30 pm, a moderate earthquake woke us up and had us running for a doorway to stand in.  It lasted perhaps 25 or 30 seconds.  Being nighttime, there was little ambient noise – so the rumblings associated with the quake were quite audible.  In fact, it was the noise that alerted me to the fact that there was an earthquake in progress, rather than the shaking.

The USGS web site puts the magnitude at 5.7, and the epicenter at a few miles southeast of Ocotillo. 

A Sign of Things to Come?

Let's hope so!  In last week's primary election here in California, two San Diego County cities voted to reject the project labor agreements that Obama and the unions support so strongly.  One of those cities (Chula Vista) used to be our home, and in the past few years lost a major development project because the developer refused to be bound by a project labor agreement.

The margins weren't large, but they represent a sea change from the recent past, wherein voters pretty much rubber-stamped such progressive proposals  – even in San Diego County, one of the most conservative (politically) areas of California.  The union's loss here, after a well-financed campaign, is a big surprise to many.

Wouldn't it be just lovely if this were a portent of the November elections?

Hayabusa Lands Its Sample...

Or at least, we hope there's a sample on board Hayabusa, of the asteroid Itokawa.  The video below is from NASA, whose plane managed to catch Hayabusa's fiery re-entry over Australia's outback.  It looks like they've located the sample capsule and will pick it up in the morning...

Vast Riches in Afghanistan...

Now there's something I wasn't expecting!

Morning Walk...

I've missed these early morning walks for the past three weekdays, as I was in Arizona on business.  This morning was clear, with a light haze, and moonless.  The Milky Way was easily visible overhead, though not as crisp as it can be out here.  Venus was high in the eastern sky, by far the brightest object in the sky.

The dogs did their usual random things until we were about halfway down the driveway.  At that point, nearly simultaneously, all four (yes, even the border collie!) smelled something – and four noses hit the deck in tracking mode.  Shortly thereafter, all four were pulling strongly toward a pepper tree in the northeast corner of our yard – and I heard rustling underneath it.  I've no idea what sort of beast visited us, but the dogs clearly knew, and wanted to go investigate.  Sure wish they could talk to us!

California Towhee Nest on Our Patio...

For years our covered patio has been a favorite place for our local California towhees (Pipilo crissalis) to raise their families.  These are one of the most common birds around our home, along with Lesser Goldfinches, House Finches, and the various hummingbirds.  The nest shown at right presently occupies a corner formed by a roof rafter and a joist, just under the roofing boards, in the northeast corner of our patio.  We've had about six or eight nests this year, and many of the towhees and finches are raising multiple broods.  It's a good year for the birds, with lots of food around because of our rains this year...

An Assortment of Wildflowers...

Now here's a bunch more from our trip yesterday.  We haven't identified any of these yet.  If you know what any of these are, please let us know in the comments.  As usual, click any image for an enlarged view...

Mariposa Lily...

The Mariposa Lily (Calochortus luteus) is a flower we see more often on the eastern (desert-facing) slopes of our local mountains, and down in the Anza-Borrego desert itself.  Yesterday we saw just a few of them on our trip along the western flanks of Cuyamaca Mountain, but those few were simply spectacular.  I've never seen Mariposa Lillies with so many red spots and hairs on the petals.  Click the image to get a large view for the full effect...

Spineflower...

This year the pink spineflowers (Chorizanthe breweri) are more common in our chaparral hillsides than we've ever seen.  They seem to especially like small exposed areas on southern-facing slopes.  In places they make pink patches up to 100' or so in diameter that can be seen a mile or more away.  The flowers themselves are tiny - only about 1/8" in diameter.  Both the flowers and the stems contribute to the color as seen at a distance.  We saw these everywhere we went yesterday, but the best patches of all were very close to home, on the eastern flanks of Lawson Peak and Gaskill Peak, as we drove past Barrett Lake on Lyons Valley Road.  Some of those patches looked almost as if someone had accidentally left a pink picnic cloth lying on the ground...

Water in the Desert...

The roads we travelled yesterday are basically in the desert, and usually we don't see a single drop of water.  But yesterday many of the intermittent streams were running, in some cases strongly.  These photos are of a particularly pretty stream near where our road crossed it.  It was very pleasant to walk around the cold, splashing stream right in the middle of the warm desert.  Debbie stayed up on the road, as she doesn't like the idea of falling into the stream :-) ...

Larkspur...

We saw many of these larkspur on our trip yesterday, usually in shaded areas.  There are many Delphinium species in the chaparral, both blue and red, and I didn't try to identify these...