Saturday September 13, 1997
Los Banos, California USA
Its still Brown season here, our last rains were mighty but short and
stopped in February several months earlier then normal after doing much
damage because a years worth of rain came in a few short weeks. Now
today as I am surrounded by no less then three computer screens with the
color TV playing in the background I ask myself not only why do TV's
have screens but what if I had only had one of these pc's when I was in
high school? No doubt in my own mind my life would have been different
but alas they have for the most part only replaced the radio and tv as
another avenue of pleasure and now communication between beekeepers and
friends.
Right now I am miles high looking down on the clouds that cover the eastern
pacific, something I could not have even dreamed of doing in high school
with a computer costing millions and filling a room without at least
leaving the comfort of my home office and here comes LINDA, a real
hurricane, and hopefully a tropical storm when she makes her move on
California. You see we in California have never had a hurricane or even
seen one up close and personal. We are human and fear not what we can
not see so if we get a real hurricane you can expect the loss of life
and property to be much higher then it would in areas that know about
them as so many here will want to see one. We had a close one the year
before I was born and 40 people who made the mistake of walking down to
the sea for a up close and personal look never walked back.
The storm is still a few days off and everything is normal, 90 degrees,
Brown, and lots of sun. The experts say this hurricane is going to move
north and change into nothing more then a tropical storm, before it
turns on California. But these are government men who can't even agree
on when its going to rain, everyone knows here that a 10% chance of rain
translates into one weather man out of ten voting for rain. It is also a
fact that what the daytime weather man gives you the night time one
takes away. Never could understand why the two shifts did not at least
rotate once en a while.
I got the feeling this time, maybe its my sore noise, the one with the sun
cancer now the size of a quarter, from second hand smoke no doubt about
it or maybe just one load too many of chewing tobacco spat into the
wind.. This one is different, its a first, and its heading straight for
my noise and no man from the government is going to change that. I guess
I will wait and see what happens but I have no plans for any trips to
the coast which is less then one hundred miles west of Los Banos. It
used to be a lot closer but as I have grown older the distance seems to
have increased, who would believe I once thought making the trip five
times a week to work bees was great fun.
When LINDA hits, if she hits, things will change, some non-believers
will be believers and others will be gone forever. One inch of rain here
is a lot when your annual total is many times less then ten, (Linda
could bring 15 inches of rain to the coast and less inland), the official
amount typical of a desert is 10 inches or less, but most deserts get
more then we do, anyway after the damage is done, measured, and clean up
starts, our Green time starts and from that day its only 30 more until
the first flowers and how to get the bees to fly in a early cold Green
season is another story few around can tell as no one lives that has
ever seen a hurricane come ashore in California.
ttul, the OLd Drone
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(w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk.
91397
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