On the road

It seems i've been on the road a lot lately: field trips, commuting to school, commuting to work. I think it brings out the worst in me, highlighting how far there is to go to be like Jesus (or how little i walk with him). Sure, people drive like maniacs, selfishly endangering others on the road; people are gratuitously attracted to other people's trouble (aka rubbernecking); but even though these conditions are true, i don't think Jesus would condone the dark thoughts i have toward my fellow commuters! :( Today's rainy conditions on the 60 were a good test of my attitude, and it mostly failed. This is how i felt:

And these are some of the places i've been on the road: the 60 is much less attractive so it isn't here:

Highway 133, from Laguna Beach field trip. The dark smudge is a ding in my windshield, a result of not-so-courteous sharing of the road with gravel trucks.

A foggy day at the Philip Raines Rest Stop field trip on Route 99.

Over the Grapevine

Two field trips in one week! Friday's field trip was much longer than Monday's--we went to the Philip Raines Memorial Rest Stop on Highway 99 in the Central Valley. It's near Tulare in the middle of the bread basket of California, which is quite possibly the bread basket of the world. (Except, of course, they don't really grow much grain. It's more a cows, fruits and veggies kind of place.)

This is from just north of the Grapevine in the minuscule hamlet of Grapevine. We tried to get to Grapevine but we got stuck in the on-off ramp vortex, so the parking lot of the Don Perico restaurant it was. Isn't it lovely how the hills frame the amber waves of grain? (By the way, that is tule fog, not haze or smog.)

Most of the birds at rest-stops were crows and starlings although i did hear one phoebe and one hummingbird. These guys looked like they were waiting for something tasty from the vending machines, but i think they were going to be a long time waiting. People didn't get much out of the vending machines--i don't think ice cream or even potato chips sell well when it's 40 something degrees out (F), and definitely no picnics going on either.

This is from Southern California Edison's AgTAC center, free demonstrations of energy efficient and cost-saving ideas. They have this cool sample wall, roofs and windows, so you can feel the difference from insulated houses, roofs, and windows, and they also have demonstration crops because 20-30% of the energy used in CA is used to move water: irrigation, drinking water, sewage. If you can grow crops with more efficient and effective irrigation, you save money, water, and energy. This is a corn field. Did you know they are graded by laser!? Tractors with lasers!

One way they've found to increase the yield from stone fruit trees is to prune them to grow like this. That's because you can plant them closer together--12 feet apart by 6 feet apart, instead of 12 x 12. Each arm of the V gets sunlight too, instead of having the center of the tree produce wood and twigs but no blossoms.

There were many trucks, oleanders, and tumbleweeds along the way, as well as fields and fields of grapevines. Flat land, and mirky with winter fog, it was a long drive but nice to see a different side of California. It's quite a different place up there.

And on that note, i am SO glad i don't have to go to Las Vegas next Friday. The undergrads are going to the Springs Preserve, which i would like to see, but it would be another crazy long day, not so fun. Instead, i'll go standby (Yay brother who will make captain in a month!) over spring break.

No Dumping: Drains to Ocean

Our most recent project is to redesign a beach access in Laguna Beach, a real project being worked on by a real firm, not us, but we get to pretend and use some of their graciously-lended data. To scout it out, i made two trips there, one at night and one during the day. It isn't ugly, but it could use some love:

There isn't very much parking (surprise, surprise) and the parking that does exist in Laguna Beach is mostly parallel and metered. There are many of these signs--but most of them are more visible, of course!

One of the problems faced by beach structures, whether stairs, streets, buildings, or the beaches themselves, is erosion. It's a fact of life and the result of pounding waves and tides, but here it is accelerated by run-off from the hills, as well as the fact that beaches are partly grown by sedimentation from proper amounts of run-off. That doesn't happen when you have a hill-side community of paved roads that chute rain water and irrigation water down to the ocean. They've apparently had to redo the stairs at least once:

The view is worth the work cut out for us, isn't it? Even Clemente Island was visible. Too bad we had rush back for a lecture on campus--i'd have happily spent the whole day as a field-research field trip. :)

Calm before the storm: a place to retreat

I know that some people think the word "retreat" is not fitting for retreats. I've heard them called "advances" or "work" or other things. I'm not a particularly martial person, but i do know that a retreat is not a bad thing. Routs are bad things. Retreats are strategically important in order to regroup and re-attack. So.

Semantics aside, a friend and i went on a solitude retreat together (ha, we carpooled and shared a room) to a monastery and retreat house in Santa Barbara called Mount Calvary. I went with a stack of four books, seven letters to write, my journal in which i hadn't written since September, and knitting. I accomplished: one letter, one journal entry, and a completely different book that i hadn't intended to read but found in the library there.

This is the main entrance to the monastery and retreat house. We rang the doorbell and entered (as a small hand-calligraphed sign directs) and Will, a spry 82-year-old monk, greeted us and showed us our room. It felt very peaceful from the first step in.

The grounds are scattered with benches all over the place, some in secluded nooks, some with sweeping vistas of the Channel Islands. In the early morning and evening, bunnies hop around. The monks compost and garden and use little pesticides, so there are songbirds flitting about too. I saw two great horned owls one night; they were hooting right outside the reading room very loudly.

This is part of the lower garden. It's left kind of wild and Italianate, a cheerful mix of herbs, fruit, and flowers, and it smells good. Lots of hummingbirds and other birds around.

The labyrinth/prayer walk.

A detail of the labyrinth.
A labyrinth is meant as a place where you can walk as you pray and think without having to pay too much attention to where your feet are taking you. For a kinesthetic learner or a person like me who has a hard time concentrating when sitting still, they are great for focused prayer. (They may not be so for everyone, that's okay.) It looks small, but because the path is narrow it actually creates quite a long walk. Nonetheless, if you are concentrating on the conversation with God and not on where you are--the point--then before one realizes it, one is at the center. I liked it. Wish i could make one in my yard, but i don't have a yard.

One of the many trails led to a few benches near this carved wooden cross.

I went with an idea of how to spend my time: full, busy, cramming in knowledge. Instead, i spent several hours the first evening just being quiet, reading a few Psalms, and being still. I craved that during the past quarter, and i will probably crave it during the next quarter no matter how disciplined i try to be with time management, so i think it was good that i didn't meet my idea of a successful retreat. I'll be back. I'll probably take a stack of books again too, but i'll be happy again if i am quiet with God and am reminded that above all, i am His, His workmanship created for His work, and not my own.