Sometimes I don't think Don is given enough credit for the work he does in formulating predictions and the extensive amount of time he spends doing research. I doubt there has ever been a time when he hasn't sat down and thought a place was going to have an earthquake and then would run catalogs checks, read papers or articles posted on the net and then sometimes doing nothing. He has a lot of wait and see times too. But then there's the go ahead. And when it is all said and done, the quake either shows up or it doesn't it, maybe it's too small, a little too large, a few miles off and one day to many.

Most people know that Don is the record keeper for the ear tone research group, so he gets every report that is made from every participant. He sits in a place where any investigator of this theory would want to sit. He can see the development of information that comes forward from some of the group indicating 3's, 4's and 5 magnitude earthquakes. And thus from time to time, he uses some of that information to develop a prediction he has been compiling. However, of the various tools he uses, b-value is not one of them.

Don bought a mapping program developed by DeLorme and that has proven to be another good tool. He takes the information from the catalogs he runs and maps prior earthquakes in specific place. Then he can visually see past earthquake behavior on certain faults. Scientists do this all of the time when they develop one program or another. Visualization not only helps them, but it helps them to explain their work to someone who is unfamiliar with it and the public as well.

So though I can't say that he anguishes before he makes his predictions, he has a real sense that he wants them to have value and that he's not doing this just for amusement or because he wants a reputation as a predictor. Don has the benefit of being retired and he has the time to explore what's new, gather information from research materials that are available to everyone and when that's not enough, he has a few friends who are scientists who he can present questions to.

To those who think Don just runs some kind of program delivered to him they are dead wrong. There is no one thing he uses ever to formulate his predictions. And in the midst of all of this work he does, he always has time to share what he knows on various Internet sites and when people write to him and ask for help, he never says no.

But what most of you will never be able to enjoy is being with him out in the field. This is where he really sparkles. His eyes catch everything from little wild animals up on the hillside to some geologic oddity that most would drive by and never see. He has a very good understanding of why ground is deformed, uplifted and twisted in places and its really fascinating to just watch and listen to him.

While he shirks off some of what he does by saying it was his military training as an analyst that causes him to see the forest for the trees, there's really a lot more to it than just that. He could have just as easily been a geologist or seismologist for that matter. However, I think all of us here benefit from his life experience because he talks about what he knows.

And lastly, he loves to laugh. Through the years both of us have collected jokes and funny stories and have enjoyed making the other laugh until our sides hurt, tears run out of our eyes and rush to the bathroom as well. A few times one or the other of us didn't make it too.

So here's to Don, the old wise one who seems like just a kid looking for another adventure.

Petra