Hi Roger,

I was ill all day with food poisoning from something I ate on Tuesday, which ruined my birthday on Wednesday and has now given me reason to pause on Saturday. You suggested in a post below that I give up on my ear tone project as I was probably only right one third of the time and I might be deluding myself, because you didn't believe ear tones were related to earthquakes.

So today, perhaps having had this invaluable time to myself, I took some time to think about what you said. Time is an interesting matter because sometimes we have to weigh whether certain things have any value in pursing them, just because of the time involved. Going down my road in time I recalled that some years ago it took three years to win a sex discrimination case which had a huge impact not only on the company I worked for, but forwarded the women's movement in equal pay for equal work. Those three years seemed really long, but well worth it. But then, that was "all about the money."

Last year it took 8 months to see the passage of the water heater legislation. Now that seemed really short. Progress was quick for this kind of thing. So again, good solid success in only eight months for 5.2 million Californian's.

So what about ear tone research? This takes me back 5 years when I first learned about people having this experience. There are so many who are so much more gifted than I am in ferreting out their ear tones. They don't use maps or math, but they have really good sound recognition. Charlotte King of course is one of the few who has gained not only notoriety for her skills, but has also been fully tested and does work with scientists. She's been at it probably 20 years. So in this regard, I am a fledgling, but one who believes there is a conclusion, but it comes not only from sound recognition, but a basis in an equation of some type, ie: Not Random.

I hope that I am right in this instance, rather than you. But I have to stay to the course to find the conclusion and determine if in fact, ear tones are not random and are related to precursory earthquake activity. Fortunately, it is a hobby and not an obsession. However, due to my interest in earthquakes and ear tone research they led me down the path to go out and ask why we didn't have public earthquake prediction years ago, develop earthquake safety information which I think is valuable to the public and seek the legislation that I did. It also provided me with a fairly good background about seismology and those who do pursue this interest intently.

Very little of my life today is spent on earthquakes or ear tones, which is of natural necessity. I will have fond memories of the days when I had a lot more time to pursue this interest, but there are other larger issues than earthquakes too.

Thank you for your opinion. I value your point of view and am always open to opinions from those whom I respect.

Petra