Sugar Kane

My Dad died recently at the age of 90. for the last several months, we (my sibs and I) had been planning a big belated birthday party for him on 2 July. But Dad just couldn't hold on - he had been in very poor health for the last few months. Here's the official obituary.

Here's a picture of Ambrose and Marcella on their wedding day.




















And one of dad taken about 15 years ago by Kyle.













We decided to delay the funeral, etc. for a week because over 60 people - dad's eight kids, 22 grandchildren, 10 great grandchildren, etc. - already had made travel and lodging arrangements to be in Iowa this weekend. So, his birthday party will now be a celebration of his long and happy life.

I'm flying to Iowa on Wednesday and will be there for 10 days.

Work, work, work ....

I don't think I can take much more of this salt mine work environment. It's relentless. Last week they loaded everybody in my group (about 80 people) onto busses and drove them 90 minutes north into dreaded Napa valley. (Luckily, I had an emergency and escaped this so called 'outing'.) Once they were in the blazing heat of Napa, they split the group into two sections: the young-uns were forced to spend the next several hours playing paint ball. The older ones were herded into a hilltop building they called a winery and made to play with dangerous chemicals for the afternoon.

Ok, Google. This must stop. But no! This week on Thursday they escalated the pressure. Loading a thousand or more of us (everyone in Engineering) onto those dreaded busses again. This time they drove us south for about an hour and dumped us on the beach at Santa Cruz.

This time we weren't forced into any scary group activities but were left to fend for ourselves with only all-day passes to the boardwalk and way too much food and drink than is possibly heathy to sustain us in this harsh environment.

We weren't actually forced to do this, but great peer pressure was applied and most succumbed to .... The Giant Dipper.

Further evidence of this degrading experience can be found here.

I'd like to report this stuff to OSHA but I'm afraid of retaliation. Guess I'll just go on vacation and hope things are better when I get back.

Edge of the Known World

Not to complain, but that danged road will be closed for many months. This sign kinda says it for folks on this stretch of the coast:
















Not that its all bad. Had a great beach day recently, temps in the mid 60's and, because the road is broken, not many folks on my favorite beach just a mile up the road. So I took a blanket and a book and got prone for a couple hours with the sound of the booming surf in my ears.
















These guys had a great afternoon in the surf.















Me too - on the beach. At the edge of the known world. The silver lining.

My next job - not ! (actually about that danged road)

The latest estimate from CalTrans (the road maintenance folks in California) is that Devil's Slide (one of two routes out of the coast) will not be repaired and re-opened until October. It's gonna be a quiet, long summer here on this stretch of coast.

Meanwhile, the CalTrans guys are supposedly working 24 hrs/day to fix the road. Don't know if they are working around the clock, but they are certainly working in an exciting location. Here's the next job that I don't want (click on the picture for a bigger image):



















These guys are standing on a metal rack that is suspended from a giant crane up on the (unstable) roadway and hanging over the edge of the cliff 400 feet above the ocean. And operating heavy drilling equipment as they drive metal rods into the cliff face.

Right. That's the job I want!

Why we lie

Ran across this in a recent book review ( _).

Deception, for example, appears to come quite naturally for children, even for those too young to anticipate punishment. According to one study, at least sixty percent of people lie regularly, and many such inquiries confirm that males perjure themselves two or three times more often than females. In evolutionary terms, men tend to lie as a means of self-promotion and women for the sake of self-protection.

Contrary to popular information, such deeds are common among other intelligent mammals as well. Dogs simulate injury to secure nourishment; chimpanzees have been known to feign indifference before spitting water at unsuspecting passers by. Evidently, several species acquired the trait of ruse as both an effective instrument of self-preservation and an opportune means of entertainment.

Happy for no apparent reason

That's one definition for the sanskrit word 'samtosa' (or santosha, or ... depending on how you represent the word in English.) Another definition is contentment.

I ran across this word/concept in the yoga sutras written (perhaps) by the yogi sage Pantanjalii 2500 years ago. Seems like a good goal - so I decided I needed a reminder. Hence:













Each day - trying to be happy. For no apparent reason.