August 10th Dave Wrote

Hello everyone:

Well, I think that I'm the first one to write this letter from 39,000 ft above South Dakota. Carol and I are on our way back from our west coast trip(s). I left July 28 for a 3-day field tour in southern CA plus two days of meetings at the Annaheim Hilton, right beside Disney Land. (No, I didn't go to Disney Land, both because I don't have time and because Disney is an anti-family rip-off company. But that's a different subject!) Anyway, the tour of Southern CA agriculture was fascinating as usual, with visits to almond, lemon, avocado, and pistachio groves; orange, lemon, avocado, and carrot packing plants. The carrot packinghouse we visited runs 24 hr/day and unloads, sorts, and packs one semi-load of loose carrots (machine picked) from the field every hour. It was pretty amazing. Also visited the California water project visitors center where we learned that 80% of the water in CA is north of San Francisco whereas 80% of the water use (population + agriculture) is south of San Francisco. Thus, moving water from south to north is a critical part of maintaining the California economy. In case you didn't know, if CA was a country by itself, it would have the 6th largest economy in the world. Another interesting bit of trivia: it requires about 14,000 gallons of water to produce enough food for 1 person for 1 day. Given those facts, you can begin to grasp that moving water is a critical industry in CA.

On Sat AM at the end of our tour, we visited the J. Paul Getty Art Museum and Gardens just north of L.A. What a spectacular museum! The entire complex was designed and built in 1983 with the fortunes built up by the Getty oil empire. The architecture is stunning, the gardens are amazing, and the art collection is priceless. We did not have time to see nearly all of it during our 4 hr visit.

On Monday of last week (Aug. 2), Carol flew from Newark to Portland while I flew from L.A. to Portland. We both arrived about 9:30 pm and were met by Carol's sister Sheryl Gingerich and her husband Charlie. They took us back to their house where their other sister, Bonnie Shrock and husband Elroy had arrived earlier in the day. On Tues and Wed we spent time at a rented house on the Oregon coast (fantastic beaches with almost no people there, interspersed with rocky outcrops similar to Maine). We enjoyed the rest of the week in Canby at Charlie and Sheryl's home. Bonnie and Elroy left on Friday AM, and we checked out for our flights back home earlier this AM (Monday). Now it is back to get both boys off to college and pick up the loose ends at my job.

Matt leaves for Myrtle Beach early on Wed. AM. Carol had to twist his arm to convince him not to leave before we returned from our trip. Nate heads off to SUNY Cortland on the 22nd. I believe that Derrick's last night in our basement is either tonight or tomorrow night since he indicated that his last day of work at the lab is Aug. 10th. Within two weeks, our house will probably be very quiet again!

In addition to getting the boys off to college, Carol has prep work to do for her nursery school which will start after Labor Day. I was foolish enough to agree to speak at an apple packers meeting in Michigan on Friday of this week, so I will have two days at home before I fly out of Albany at 6 AM on Thurs. for the MI meetings. Never a dull moment!

We really did enjoy our visit in the Pocono's. Thanks to all who helped to organize it, and I'm sorry that not everyone could be there for the full time (and that included us).

Carol and I keep all of you in our prayers: there seems to be an unusual number of family crises/stresses just now. Please remember Matt and Nate in your prayers as they go back to school this fall. Both of them need to find part-time work at school, and Matt will be retaking a math course that is required for graduation. With his learning disability, math is almost impossible for him, so I think he is likely to get through it only by God's grace and with a lot of prayer. I wish I could convince him that prayer might help!

According to the schedule above, this message is a week late. However, I suspect that most of you can read two messages in a single week. Summer has disappeared so quickly. I can hardly believe that it is almost over.

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