Sent to me this evening from a reader. Thank you very much. In a short, throw-away note I sent the reader -- I am very, very aware of EOR and the fact that there's a lot of oil left
in the ground -- I remember the early days of the Bakken boom -- the
Whiting folks telling us that only 1 to 3 percent of the oil was being
captured, but they knew they could get to 12%.
I was not aware of this
article -- it says only 15% of the Bakken oil has been recovered.
Completely believable. The amount of oil in any of these oil fields is
directly proportional to the price of oil. So, maybe we'll see some of
that oil considering what's going on in the Middle East right now.
For the extended family and friends. Nothing to do with the Bakken or investing or Apple or anything else except California.
This is so cheesy. But I can't keep from watching it. LOL.
I wear (my) nostalgia on my sleeves.
My wife, I don't think, has any room for nostalgia.
But I showed her this video, link here, and was surprised how much she liked it.
The video has been disabled except on YouTube.
I didn't see California until I was 18 years old -- my freshman year in college -- six of us squeezed into a muscle car and drove out to southern California -- San Diego -- for Christmas break. I still remember the first that told me we weren't in Kansas any more: palm trees.
Two or three years later I spent a month in northern California, UC-Santa Cruz, visited two great-aunts in Watsonville, and a day trip to Pebble Beach when one could still visit the course for free (or a nominal entry fee -- I forget). One of many highlights was visiting San Francisco for the first time, learning to use chop sticks, and eating Peking Duck for the first time.
Four years later, I went back to California where I lived and studied for four years, but this time in Los Angeles.
I married a woman who was living in Los Angeles at the time. From there, we moved back to northern California, Travis AFB, Fairfield / Vacaville, CA, where we lived for three years.
That was my last time in California for any extended period of time, but I've been back many, many, many times, visiting extended family and friends.
I think I did it right. I saw San Diego and San Francisco first -- really, just short visits -- two weeks and four week, respectively. But then four years in Los Angeles -- where I really, really, really got to know California -- at least that part of the state.
And that's why I enjoyed that cheesy video linked above.
I said all that to say this. We have a granddaughter now who is going to school in northern California. At least we think she's going to school in northern California. In her first two years there, she's been on an archaeological dig in Peru, and participated in research in/on the Galapagos Islands. She learned to fly through a USAF flying program and a year-and-half later was back at Edwards AFB for an engineering research program, one of five USAF ROTC students from across the United States to be selected for the program. Later this summer she will be undertaking field training at Maxwell AFB, AL. From there she will be going to Australia for some other school-related course.
She's looking to spend a year (actually half-a-year because that's all the ROTC program will allow) abroad in Singapore.
So, we were talking last night -- that granddaughter and me -- and then tonight I was watching that cheesy video linked above -- all about Hollywood -- and I'm so glad I "did" California in the order that I did -- San Diego and then northern California before finally ending up in Los Angeles.
For me, Los Angeles IS California. Hollywood, Mulholland Drive, David Lynch, the Rose Bowl, USC football, Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski, California Institute of Technology, UCLA, LAX, Pasadena, Compton, Santa Monica, Venice Beach, James Dean, East of Eden, Griffith Park and the Observatory, Spock narrating a video at the observatory, Hollywood & Vine, Disneyland, Universal Studies, California Dreamin', Cher, the Monkees, Route 66, General Hospital, the soap opera, and LA County (General) Hospital. And the palm trees.
My granddaughter's experiences will be the San Francisco experience. Completely different.
