Hi All,

Don and I made a return trip to Olompali State Park today for a little picnic. The last time we were there, we enlightened you about this being the place where Jim Berkland discovered blue schist. We couldn't look for any blue schist today because it was to darn hot to look for anything other than shade.

But talking about odd occurrences. On our last trip it just so happened we arrived on the anniversary of the 1969 fire in the Burdell home and today of all things, the volcano-shaped fountain was working. A woman stopped by to let us know it hadn't been in operation for five years and yet today, it was working. Weird huh?

Of course Don was driving me nuts while we were there. He thinks he knows everything and the worst of it is, most of the time he does. While we were sitting there eating our lunch, he says, "oh, there's a tree squirrel." Well it took me a few minutes to find it and then I saw a bird and he tells me what kind of bird it was. He knows all the types of birds. No matter where we go, he can tell me what kind of birds' he's sighting. Just like on our trip to Parkfield when for the first time I had ever seen a Bobcat in the wild. He spots it, parks the car and says, "look, a bobcat."

Frankly, I'm sick to death of him always seeing everything first, being "all knowing" about every single thing. What makes it worse is if he doesn't know, he has ways of finding out. There is absolutely no way of escaping his infinite knowledge. It's disgusting. Just like when I took him to my study area for the first time, he immediately spots deer on the crest of the ridge and I'd never seen any deer there before. The next thing you know, it's not my study area anymore, it's our study area.

I guess you must be thinking by now, what does he need her for if he already knows everything anyway. Or why doesn't she appreciate his infinite knowledge? Well, he needs me along so he has another person to tell how much he knows about everything and I of course need to learn as much as possible. I can only hope in ten years I don't turn out to be like him. Then people will resent me for what I know or how I can find out if I don't know.

I just had to take a pause for a minute to think about what I might have taught him. It took a few minutes to figure it out, but now I think I know. It goes like this, "Sometimes, it's hard to be a woman." Not really, awe yeah maybe.

Well, I guess I've teased Don enough. In reality he doesn't know everything, but he's pretty close. But he does have the ability to ferret out information as that's what he was trained to do in the military and he is extremely good at what he does. He always tells me, "well, the taxpayers gave me an excellent education so it's only right that they receive some of the benefits of it."

It's been about three years now since we've been hanging ten out on the fault-lines, spending time at the annual AGU Fall Meetings together and we have learned a lot from each other. But the only time we have been in an earthquake together, from our respective places at opposite ends of my home, we both slept through it. (Yountville's Labor Day Quake.) I had to rely on my teenager to give me the full details. I was disappointed I didn't feel it and Don didn't care one way, or the other. My daughter at least had no fear of it and gave me a full description of exactly what happened, including the direction it came from.

So what's on the horizon with Mr. Know It All? Well, three things for certain. We've put up with each other for three years, so there must be more time coming. Next, we are going to attempt to do our first abstract and see if we can get the Zone as a poster at this year's Fall AGU Meeting in SF. Third, we've been working on a sci-fi story called "The Secret." Can't tell you what it's about, because it's a secret.
Now honestly, what you won't ever see on this board is his compendium of jokes. This guy never runs out of them. Not a week goes by when I don't receive more than one in my e-mail or hear several of them by ear. Though he seems terribly serious here, he loves to laugh. But he is serious about the earthquake process and spends more time doing research than I'm sure anyone who gets paid to do so. He is a true friend to everyone, and has many friends and some of those friends you wouldn't want to meet on a dark street but you'd want them in your corner when things got rough. But I think his best quality is that he affords others to have their own point of view even though he may not agree with them.

We don't agree about everything and he says I'm weird, but not strange. He acknowledges my abilities in the ESP world and though he doesn't have these kinds of experiences, just like he doesn't hear ear tones, he does understand both of them have a place and deserve some consideration.

One thing I've learned from knowing him is that he is always truthful. That's a rare commodity these days and one that deserves recognition. He is a person I greatly admire as he's lived a life that in your wildest imagination you could never equal. It's a miracle he's here with us today.

So as Sunday evening fades away and ole Monday for most, the work week begins, let us be of good cheer and enjoy the companionship of one of this boards premier contributors.

Petra