Quail Gardens

Rain Forest Area

Quail Gardens is a botanical garden in Encinitas, CA. It is very big. The tickets are quite pricey, which is kind of funny considering it's a non-profit organization. I have noticed lately that "non-profit" means expensive. They have one day free (you still have to pay the parking fee but it's only a dollar).

Anyway, there was quite a crowd there. I guess not many people want to pay full price. While the garden is big and has lots of different plants subdivided into regions by countries, continents and climatic areas like rain forest, tropical, etc. the majority of plants were not very well marked and that was disappointing. I have noticed the same thing in Turtle bay Park in Redding (another non-profit) though and its garden was much, much smaller.

Anyway, it's a good place to spend a couple of hours. But I would not like to pay $10 to see it.

The Last of the Beans

These are Anasazi beans. They look a little like black-eye beans.

This is a picture of the three Anasazi beans. They have a curious history. The beans were found by one of Tom's distant relatives who lives in the desert and likes to explore the land. Thank you, Gary. He sent us these ancient beans but since we have no land to grow them we send them to our friend Jerry who owns a small ranch. He planted them and they grew and produced the next crop of beans. These three beans are from this crop. Then we decided to send the rest of the beans to another relative who is a farmer. Well, sort of. He is interested in organic farming and actually lives on a farm.

These three beans were taken out of this batch. They will probably grow. I migh actually plant them and see what happens. The amazing fact is that the original beans are probably at least 70 year old and they grew. Bean are one of the easiest plants to grow and they almost always produce some crop. Even ancient Indian beans did.

The Best Salesman in the World

Hey, I sold some stuff today at work!

For most of you it's probably not a big deal, but for me it is. I upgraded 3 services just by talking to clients. The interesting thing is that they would not buy it until you talked to them. Today I was on the roll. Some day you talk to them and they don't want to buy. Other days you say the same thing and they buy. So if you try to sell and see no success, just continue the next time. Some days are better than others. Besides, it's the numbers game, anyway.

The book with the title that I put in the post headline is pretty cool. Anther good one is The Richest Man in Babylon. But nothing actually helps except practicing your skills again and again.

Take care.

Back Pain

My blog partner Tom got a really bad backache so he won't be updating his blogs for a while. He had this pain in the back before with about once a year frequency but each time it gets worse. So keep your spine flexible. Spine is a real tree of life.

Cars, Cars, Cars, Cars...

Cars and Freeways, San Diego, CA. (Tomasito photo)
(Please click photo for detail)

Cars, cars and more cars.

Being in cars for hours every day is so much a southern California thing that distances here are given in time instead of miles.

Example: "San Diego is 30 minutes from Escondido." (If traffic allows.)

It is NOT considered odd to commute from El Cahon (12 minutes North of San Diego) to Escondido (30 minutes East of San Diego) every working day, as one of our new friends does.

("You get used to it." she says.)

What IS considered odd here is to consider people who drive the freeway for hours every week odd!

Freeway driving--commuting back and forth to work is normal. Two or three cars per family is normal. It is part of the essential "American way of life" which our armies are presently willing to die for here and there around the planet.

What is considered freaky odd here is to WANT to work NEAR the place where you sleep--to walk or bike to work instead of drive.

Coming out of San Diego there is a place on Highway 15 sixteen lanes wide if I counted right--and traffic on all lanes moving bumpertobumpertobumper at at least 65 miles per hour.

And this is considered normal??

This IS considered normal!!

Tomasito


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Wilderness Gardens

Wilderness Gardens is a park situated about 5 mils east of Pala, which is an Indian reservation. The park itself is not on Indian land, however.

The park is very desolate. There are some great trails to walk. They are all of moderate lenght, less than 1 mile but they continue and branch off from each other.

So is this park worth visiting? I think so. It's very dry and not many visitors there. You can see lots of typical wild plants of Southern California. There is San Luis Rey river running right through the gardens. Well, the name gardens is actually an exaggeration. So is the river. There is no river there but rather a dry river bed which I presume gets filled in the winter after rainy days.

One of the trails is full of horse flies so be sure to wear proper clothes.

There is also a pond in these "gardens" which you can't see because of cattails.

The landscapes are beautiful and there are some trees and unusual plants to break the monotony.

It's rather an unusual place. Yes and cacti were blooming while we were there.

Too Many Babies

Swarming Time in California

Us

I know as well as you do that you CAN'T say anything bad about children.

In fact children are about the only sacrosanct topic left.

You can say all you want about how cute and how dear and how wonderful and precious they are--

But you CAN'T say there are just too many of them! (Oh my, did I say that!?)

A politician can kiss as many babies as she wants--but she better not say anything like: "There are just too many babies being born!" if she wants to be elected!

Nope.

She can't say THAT!

And if the freeways are jammed--the food is growing ever more expensive--the water is going to be rationed--there are more and more homeless--the forests are disappearing--the oceans are polluted--and there need to be lots more prisons...

You just can't say: "Enough babies!"

Because babies seem to be the only sacred things left.

And always the more the better.

Well, the "Planet Eaters" (us) do seem to be entering their final swarming stage and the whole human population is quickly approaching the final destruction of the earth's resources.

Save and recycle as we will--there seems to be no way to slow the cancer of the planet--us.

Tomasito


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