ForbesOnTech

Carl Icahn Raider of the Lost Ark-- Silicon Valley Takeovers Can Happen

Silicon Valley has always been unique. Entrepreneurs have been free to follow their dreams—as long as they coincided with the same path to liquidity as that of their venture capital backers.

But its gene pool lacks much of the fresh talent from outside northern California that marks other industrial centers. There’s almost nothing in the history of Silicon Valley and its entrepreneurs that makes me believe any company—most of all Yahoo—can survive a proxy fight like the looming battle between Jerry Yang and Carl Icahn.

Yahoo may be the best example in Silicon Valley of how not to grow a company.  In it’s short history, it’s never really been able to create a top notch brand and it’s become a revolving door for talent that’s moves laterally not upward. Yahoo is an artifact from an earlier age; a time when start-ups thought they would become content kings or giant search engine/ information aggregators. Along the way Yahoo lost its focus and it has jumped from haphazardly through a variety of business models, never quite succeeding at anything it tried. Yahoo has become yesterday’s brioche and it really doesn’t appear  there’s much that can save it.

To make my point try this: Every time you hear the name “Yahoo” think “Excite@Home.”  Where is this company today? It’s little more than a footnote and absent a near divine miracle, I think Yahoo is doomed to become a subordinate entry in the same footnote list as Excite@home.

But if nothing else, the unfolding story of Yahoo should increase the pucker factor for entrepreneurs and their investors. Until now the Valley has escaped predatory investors and take-over kings.  But if things are changing Carl Icahn may just be the lead predator in a pack of hungry foxes looking at some of Silicon Valley’s cash plump chickens.  Do I think Donald trump is going to invade the Valley anytime soon?  Hell no. But there are some companies that have enough cash to make them prime targets.

Take a second and imagine Apple if Steve Jobs’ health were to crash.  (Note, I give Jobs and Apple high marks for management of Steve Job’s brief fight with Pancreatic cancer that affected the company’s stock not a whit). If there were a change in Job’s health I believe Apple’s stock price would drop and consumer confidence in the brand would tumble. Add to this Apple’s image as “only one person can manage the beast so we don’t have a strong number two” and you have the picture of a company that could be taken over.

Who would do this? There are two obvious candidates in Silicon Valley—Larry Ellison’s Oracle or Google.

All of this is pure conjecture on my part and I’m not saying it would happen, I’m just noting that takeovers of technology companies are possible and could happen, as, long as the right celestial tumblers line up and the lock that’s heretofore stopped corporate raiders in Silicon Valley pops open.—Jim Forbes 05/17/2008.

New Trim Gateway T1628, Great Functionality at an Affordable Price

My idea of a good basic notebook computer is one that’s small enough to be carried like a textbook, has at least 2.5 hours of battery life, a fast hard disk with sufficient space for my music and video files, and most of all a screen that puts out enough light to be used in dimly settings like dorm rooms, libraries and even outdoors.  Gateway’s new T-1628, which uses Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system nails my qualifications and doesn’t cost and arm and a leg.

            This trim 5.5-pound notebook is only 1.3 inches at its tallest point and is 2.95 inches wide by 9.75 inches deep. I like the appearance of its silvery finish on its display case as well as its overall fit and finish. I can use this keyboard tirelessly for hours. I also like the track pad controller used on this system, which supports rapid vertical scrolling.

The performance of the Gateway T-1628 notebook is based on a solid configuration: A 2.0 GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile processor, and an ATI Radeon x 1270 video controller (with 256MB of memory) drives a WXGA14.1-inch TFT screen that delivers very crisp displays. The 250GB hard disk drive turns at 5400 rpm and is fast enough to enhance this system’s performance. Also, this system comes with 3GB of memory (but is expandable to 4GB).

There’s no scrimping on expansion ports on this notebook. It has three USB 2,9 ports, a 5-in-1 card reader, an external VGA port, an RJ45 Ethernet connector and audio jacks. The wireless connectivity on the T1628 supports 802.11 g (which is downwardly compatible with older versions of 802.11 wireless standard. I really like it that Gateway has included an integrated modem on this notebook (which is goes against the trend by many portable manufacturers to drop self contained modems).

The built in DVD/RW player has LightFlash disk labeling, allowing users to create unique labels for disks they create themselves.

Because I still occasionally rely on dialup Internet access when I travel I believe that it’s still too early for modems to join external hard disk drives on the dust heap of computer history.

I was impressed with this notebook’s built-in speakers, which worked very well with my iTunes play lists—which I play rather loudly. Although the screen on this notebook measures only 14.1 inches diagonally, its audio and video subsystems combine to make this a good entertainment-oriented system. TheT-1628 like most portables in this category also includes a 1.3 MPixel camera mounted in the bezel above the screen.

I have only one small complaint about this system: Like most AMD processor-based notebooks I’ve tested, battery life is short of comparable systems that use Intel mobile processors and chipsets. The average battery life for the system I tested (which had a six-cell power pack) was slightly more than 2.5 hours. The second item on my “I wish they had included this” list is support 802.11 n wireless ( which is offered on other comparably priced systems). Both of these small criticisms, however do not take away from this system’s functionality and its extreme utility.

I’ve used this notebook for the last several weeks, toting it in my backpack on trips to San Francisco, Los Angeles and around several college campuses. I’ve found it to be a powerful, rock solid, performer that met and exceeded my expectations and requirements.  Most of all, it’s inexpensive (well under $800 at some retail outlets) and worth serious consideration by anyone who needs a fully functional notebook that’s as easy to carry from classroom to classroom as a college text book or science lab book.

Because of its feature set, performance and value, I think members of the military should consider packing this machine in their kit before deploying. I also think this would be an excellent notebook to send away with college-bound kids.

There’s been a very positive change at Gateway over the last several years, due I believe in a large part to the number of first-rate marketing, engineering and design personnel who joined this company from Toshiba. The proof of their competence can be seen in systems such as the T-1628 and the Gateway One, a remarkable all-in one desktop that’s every bit as stylish and functional as an Apple iMac.—Jim Forbes 05/13/2008

 

Booming Barracuda Run Kicks Off 2008 Fishing Season-- Suggestions for a Tasty Treat

Here in San Diego, the water temps are coming up nicely, the bait fish are inshore and abundant and the sound coming out of most fishermen’s tongues on the boat ramps is a plaintive “Ba Ba Barracuda.” That’s right the 2008 season started out this week with sport fisherman cruising the outside of inshore kelp beds and watching their rods jink and dive with barracuda hook ups on live anchovies of lures that mimic big chovies.

My lord, there a lot of barracuda out off Pacific and Ocean Beaches and right off LaJolla. Hanging around the launch ramp at Dana Landing in Mission Bay late this morning It was hard not to notice anglers coming back with limits of ‘cuda. And the morning and evening cattle boats are coming back from five and six hour excursions with up to 95 legal cudas per boat. It’s been decades since I’ve seen a noteworthy barracuda bite of southern California, and I can’t remember ever seeing an inshore bite like the one happening on the southern California coast now.

I’m not a specialist fishermen, but I do love catching ‘cudas on the California coast they hit like freight trains, run forever and you have to fight all the way to your boat. There’s enough tussle in a legal barracuda to produce lifelong memories.

Most of how I fish for ‘cudas was passed on to me by a family friend, master fisherman, named Joe Cornejo and an Uncle, Bill Grandell, who owned a commercial fishing boat that was home ported in Wilmington harbor.How I was taught to fish for cuda was to use an extremely sharp hook, about 12 inches of wire leader and big active anchovies (or sardines if they’re available at the bait receiver). I use a six foot rod with a limber tip, an Ambassadeur 9000 bait casting reel and try to get the bait into clear water in kelp beds.  I don’t use any weight on the terminal tackle and let the bait take line from my reel, which I keep in it’s free spool mode.

I keep my eye open for bait on the surface, which generally means there are cudas hunting below.  There’s no mistaking a barracuda hook up. The line takes off as the fish scoots away. I prefer to set the hook firmly and fight the fish using minimal drag on my reel. What I love most about barracudas is they will fight you all the way to the rail of your boat, and they are lightning quick.

Cudas are school fish, so if you catch one, you should try to get your line back in the water as soon as possible.

I also enjoy throwing iron for barracudas.  I use an old Rapalla in an anchovy pattern and a variety of other shiny lures with dark green patterns that I throw  into open water in kelp beds and retrieve at a moderate speed—stopping occasionally to let the lure sink back down. My spinning rod is seven feet long and my reel is loaded with 10-pound test low visibility Stren line. Serious ‘cuda fishermen here in San Diego often use fresh water spinning outfits, which makes catching a 24-inch 8-pounder something you’ll remember for a very long time.

So, what do you do with the two or three cudas you bring home?

Start by removing the dark stripe of flesh you find along the fish’s side, then clean it as you would any other toothy fish. Barbequed or smoked barracuda is something many people enjoy, but to many southern California fishermen, the real joy of a ‘cuda is frying up tasty barracuda burgers, just like you had on the charter boats as a kid.

Here’s how you make barracuda burgers.

Catch and clean the fish. Remove head and dark flesh on sides. Mince up the meat from one or two fish. (Note, one fish makes four to five patties).

            Place minced fish meat in bowl.

            Crack open and mush in the contents of one lightly beaten egg per fish.

            Add several tablespoons of breadcrumbs to mixture at the rate of three tablespoons per fish.

            Medium dice one-quarter onion per fish and mince one stalk of celery.

            Add vegetable mixture to minced fish product.

            Season with one tspn salt and several big dashes of white pepper. (note, I like t o add one tbsp of minced fresh jalapenos to my patty mixture.

            Add three tsp fresh lemon juice (per fish) and one tsp each of olive or vegetable oil, one tbsp minced dill, 1-2 tbsp tartar sauce.

Thoroughly mix ingredients and form one-half-inch patties

            Cook in hot oil in a frying pan. Brown both sides of patties, serve on hamburger buns and enjoy.

            Tight lines and remember Barracudas have nice sharp teeth so have fun—Jim Forbes, wirelessly from the launch ramp at Dana Landing in Mission Bay, San Diego, CA on 05/11/2008 using an incredibly rugged ThinkPad X300..

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Yeow, My Toe Hurts!

H Sorry I haven't been posting much. But.....I'm such a Klutz,  I had a small accident and dropped something heavy and pointy on my big  toe. the end result is this fugly bandage and my needing to keep my left foot elevated and my body seriously medicated with pain drugs.

I apologize for the use of my toe in front of a lovely rose bush in this photo.--Jim Forbes 0/20/2008

Cutting That Big Unkempt Field-- Without Starting a Conflagration

Let’s talk lawn tractors and blazing (that’s really the wrong wored here) a path through your property. To be specific, let’s talk about tending that unsightly two or three acre patch of weeds you can see beyond the fence of you house’s lot, but which your grudgingly paying taxes on year after year.

            The technical term for that piece of land is “rough field” but it has some other names like: “Untended, festering rattle snake patch,” “fire hazard field” and “that damn field.”

            Admit it, with enough coffee on a weekend morning you’ve thought “today is the day I do something about that damn field.”

            But you discover your yard tractor is low on gas and there’s none in the cans in your barn, or you just don’t want to siphon unleaded regular from you boat’s fuel tank before 8 in the morning. If you’re a little concerned about cutting the field safely, put those fears aside for a moment, brothers and sisters, start “Smedly” the tractor, put it in third gear and motor up to the field.

Some basic thoughts on rough field mowing:

1.                  Stay hydrated. Find a way to carry one gallon of water or more on your tractor, even if that means you use bungee cords to hold the water container to the back of your tractor’s seat.

2.                  Slather on the sunscreen and wear a hat. If you suffer from allergies a bandanna makes a stylish mask. Dark glasses not only will protect your eyes from irritants, they also compliment the image of the “bandit gardener.”

3.                  Do take  your cell phone, in the unlikely event you have to call 911 to summon professional fire fighters to put out an accidental brush fire.

4.                  Check the oil level in your tractor and tire pressure. Top off your fuel.

5.                  Try to cut your field with blades that are still sharp.

6.                  Make sure the guide wheels on the front of your deck move freely

7.                  Clear the pulleys, belts and discharge port of all foreign material

8.                  Disconnect and remove the bagger and chute assembly

9.                   Start cutting in the morning before it gets hot. Do not cut a dry field in the middle of the day when it’s hot.

10.             Mow with a plan in mind

11.             Remember the fire triangle: air; fuel and heat.  Break any one of the legs on this triangle and you stop a fire before it spreads.

I start cutting big fields by making several; diagonal passes through the field. This gives me a chance to see the lay of the land, spotting rocky out croppings I want to avoid.  I cut with my blade set to one or two inches. Once I’ve made my diagonal passes, I begin cutting rows.  When I intersect one of my diagonals, I slow down, lower the deck until I see that I’m hitting dirt and I continue forward for six or seven feet, creating a patch of earth that’s devoid of all fuel.  I do this ever couple of rows, thus creating “safe spots” I can retreat to in case of an accidental fire.

As you mow, remember that your tractor most likely has a “dead man” switch. If you get off your tractor when it s running, the engine and the tractor stops. Generally, the longer your yard tractor’s engine has been running, the hotter its muffler (most often located underneath it engine above or in front of its front axle) will be. After about one hour of use the muffler will be red hot, producing more than enough heat to ignite tinder dry weeds. If you need to stop, pull into one of the safe spots you’ve created and shut the motor off.

Direct contact with a red-hot muffler is just one of several ways dry grass can be ignited. A much more common method of ignition is radiant heat from your muffler as it sits over combustible material. A fully fueled tractor parked over a blazing patch of grass isn’t a pretty site. Using a safe spot that’s been cleared to bare mineral earth to stop your tractor is a very safe strategy for mowing rough fields.

Over the years I’ve seen approximately five fields that burned while someone was cutting thee dry grass. Universally, the person mowing assumes the fire started by the blade sparking against a rock or a piece of metal that’s laying in the field.  But when you walk the burned field what you often find is a fire blackened rectangle—positive proof that the fire was started by direct contact of fuel and a red-hot muffler, or by radiant heating of tinder by a muffler.

If you mowing and accidentally start a fire act quickly.  Fire is stopped quickly by disrupting any one of it’s three primary requirements: heat, air and fuel. The quickest way to do  this is to  pour the water you’re carrying on your tractor on the center or spreading edge of the fire and then using your size 13EEE boots to stomp out the embers.  Or, since you’ve been drinking water or coffee all morning pee on the fire (but do remember what you’ve just read about the dangers of radiant heating).

I mow fields in third gear. It’s a slow enough speed setting that I can easily control the tractor and low enough so that most of my lawn tractor’s power is going to the blades, not the wheels. Also, until I’ve learned the topography of a field, I keep on hand resting on the blade height adjustment lever, in case I have to raise the blades to clear a patch of rocky ground.

It’s best to mow up and down hills. Try to avoid mowing steep fields in a concentric pattern. While most lawn tractors have low centers of gravity, you can tip them over. Because lawn tractors have low center of gravities they are f=safer for rough field cutting than zero turn, riding mowers based on brake steering, which have much higher centers of gravity and are prone to tip-over accidents when used to cut hilly fields.

Do take the time to cut under stands of trees. But remember that tree roots push rocks to the surface.  Before you cut under trees, park your lawn tractor in a safe spot, dismount and thrown blown down limbs out of your path.

Late spring –while there’s still residual water stored in weeds, is a good season to mo a rough field.  The middle of summer, when it’s hot and there’s not a decigram of moisture in the wild grasses or in the air is not a good time.

Cutting a one-acre rough field should take less than two hours and it’s time you can spend thinking how you can landscape your property or make it more fire safe, if you live in the back country. Either way, it’s task you shouldn’t be afraid to do yourself and as you do it you’ll come to understand the topography of your property and the benefits of a great power tool—your basic riding mower.

Random Thoughts on Improving the Overall Experience of Field Mowing:

            If members of your family suffer from allergies or asthma make sure you close all of the windows on the side of your house facing the field you’re cutting.  You can also cut down on the amount of particulate solids bowing into your house by running a soaker hose between the fields your cutting and your house. The fine water spray will cut down on grass seeds and other particulate solids carried into your house by winds and breezes.

            I also like to run a water hose from the nearest hose bib to a long length of coiled hose near the boundary of the field I’m cutting and my house lot. I’d rather be safe than sorry.

            As you mow, be aware of disturbing creatures like rattlesnakes, ugly ass spiders, and the like. I’m not the least bit ashamed to admit that I’ve minced a few buzztails and decapitated the occasional gopher cutting untended fields.

Aftere you’ve cut your field a couple of times, don’t be surprised if one or more neighbors with similar unkempt fields stop by and just happen to ask how much you’d charge for cutting their field. In my family my Dad, Boardie Forbes a dozer operator, called this source of income “runner money.” The current cost for cutting a two-acre field with a tractor and a brush hog ranges between $100 and $150. Besides, cutting a field can be fun and it beats watching the History Channel in the mid-morning on a Saturday.

            Finally, the need to regularly cut a big field is one of the best reasons I can think of for buying a lawn tractor with a 46-inch deck, a two cylinder V-Twin engine, a parasol sunshade and a built-in drink holder. Besides, cutting a field is a good way to work on your tan.

            Happy tractoring and do try to keep your machine’s wheels on the ground, the blades in contact with grass and the chaff flying away in the breeze.—Jim Forbes 05/10/2008.

Search Engine Input as a Predictor of Election Results? --Oh My!

Up in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon, I listened as two major radio hosts aired a claim by Yahoo could predict primary election results by monitoring incoming queries.

            The two talk show hosts immediately jumped on Yahoo’s claim, getting a Yahoo spokeswoman on the phone during their broadcast to explain how search could be used to predict election results..

            I listened with amazement as the two radio hosts completely missed what the Yahoo spokeswoman was saying.  What annoyed me is that they seemed incapable of understanding that Yahoo was only talking about incoming searches it was fielding, not all Internet searches.

            At first, I thought their excitement over Yahoo’s claims might have caused them to overlook what Yahoo said. I listened carefully as the spokeswoman again explained Yahoo’s discovery.  And yes, at the end of one spoken sentence, the drill down: searches on our service had been said.

             The two talking heads on KFI AM radio still missed what Yahoo had said and motored on to talk and speculate about the implications of using search results as an election prediction tool. Looking at search queries, as a predictor is a fascinating idea, particularly when it includes the top-ranked search engine.

            It’s just too bad that the talking heads didn’t have either the sense, or the job-related experience to take their thinking a step further by calling Google’s PR department for comment or to get comparable results from their searches.

            All of this makes me wonder: At a time when legions of print reporters are out scrambling for a handful of PR jobs, why aren’t more of them looking to talk radio news for employment?.

            As I listened to the banter on talk radio about Yahoo’s claims, 35 years of reporting experience went into overdrive. The bottom line, however, was very clear, KFI’s two on-air talkers didn’t realize they had just glossed over a topic that could fill an entire week’s worth of shows. More’s the pity though, cause it’s just this sort of topic that keeps me interested in the long-term implications of search engines and how they are changing our lives.—Jim Forbes 05/07/2008

The Unintended Dangers of A Redial-- from a Soldier's Cellphone-- In the Midst of a Firefight

Today’s personal technologies like cell phones, portable computers and digital cameras are so commonplace among members of our military that many soldiers forget they are carrying them in the rucksacks or pockets of their utility uniforms.

            Take the case of a young soldier stationed in Afghanistan who tried to call his parents back home in Oregon but no one was home. So, the young Army specialist puts his cell phone back in his pocket and goes off on patrol.

            The patrol is engaged by Afghani evil-doers, the soldier takes up a firing position using a HumVee for cover.  The Problem then is that as the soldier presses up against the vehicle, his phone accidentally redials, connects and he ends up leaving a three-minute voice mail of a hot firefight, which scares the Bejesus out of his parents when they listen to their voice mail when they come home from shopping. The audio in the voice mail lays it all out, soldiers screaming for “more ammo,” orders to engage distant targets, and an urgent request for a replacement barrel from the soldier for his Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW). The voices are urgent and in the background is the constant thud of an automatic 40mm grenade launcher, the longer brrps of the SAW and the high pitched racket of M16’s, all left on an answering machine back home in Oregon.

            The accidental redial ends about three minutes into the call, just after one of the patrol’s other members spots an incoming smoke trail and yells “RPG!” (rocket propelled grenade).

            The upside of all this is that the parents were able to reach the soldier on his cell phone later that day and discovered his was fine, but embarrassed about the commotion of the unintentional redial. It was then that his little brother posted the audio to YouTube. You can listen to it here.

            I guess that in addition to making sure that members of patrols are buttoned up, have clean rifles, chow and water, squad sergeants now have to make sure that soldier’s have their cell phones turned off before they cross the wire.—Jim Forbes 05/06/2008.

The Pods Return--My Stuff Comes Home. The Good Life For Me, But Not So Good for the Gophers

In addition to a nice relaxing soak in my new Jacuzzi/bathtub, the other great thing about my remodel was watching the storage company bring my two storage pods up from the street this evening.

Much of what I missed dearly in the five-plus months I lived in my den is packed in those two storage pods.  Essentials like: the LCD TV I had in my bedroom, the cable converter, my Monsoon outdoor speakers, my hyper accurate scoped Beeman pellet rifle, My good suits, coastal approach charts that I’ve annotated and marked with locations where I’ve caught various Thunnoid family members and large halibut, my two hand made custom fishing rods, the sofa and coffee table that use to be in my den, and if I remember correctly, my favorite mission style chair, and my personal DVD collection.

Good Lord, I’ve missed my stuff. But now it’s back home locked in two storage pods in my front driveway. And starting early tomorrow morning it gets loaded back in my house, one trip at a time.

It’s funny how much stuff you can accumulate rather quickly.  My general rule of thumb is this: if I don’t use something for two years, it gets tossed or donated. As I loaded the pods last winter, I carefully put “stuff” I didn’t need in donation piles and then had my son run them to AmVets as soon as he had a truckload. In all, he made three runs to AmVets. That’s a lot of stuff and it made me aware of my tendency to be a packrat.

Unpacking tomorrow gives me a chance to reexamine my “stuff” all over again.  I anticipate at least one more run to AmVets since I really don’t need heavy winter coats living here in San Diego.

But there are some things I’m anxious to see and put to use again.  High on thi list is my radio controlled model plane, which the local hawks don’t like one bit. And I really like my six-foot spinning rod. It has exactly the right center of balance and guides I need to put iron ( a lure) where the yellowtail swim.  And catching a Pacific yellowtail on a jig is one of the real “Wa Hoo” experiences in life.

Oh, and while my stuff has been in storage, there’s been an explosion of gophers and voles, down in my yard.  Just as soon as I get my pellet rifle out tomorrow morning I think I’ll engage in some pest control.

Too bad Mr. Gopher and Mrs. Vole, Caddy Shack is on tonight and that’s all the inspiration I need.---Jim Forbes 05/02/2008

My Remodel Completed, and I Have a Long Celebratory Soak in My New Jacuzzi Tub

            For long suffering home remodelers there comes that magical day when the building inspector arrives, pulls your plans from the PVC tube where they’ve been safely stored during the one or more seasons of your discontent, pulls out their trusty pen and signs off below the box marked “approved for occupation.”

            And with that convoluted lead I’m pleased to say that biggest part of my remodel/addition project is now complete. So, I called “the boys” (nephews and such), and arranged for them to help unload the two storage pods that come back up the hill tomorrow morning.

            The reopening of my house and move back into somewhat normal living spaces is something I’ve been awaiting a long time. There’s really no way to honestly say that living in your den for six months is a lot of fun. It’s definitely not something I’d recommend, ever.

            So now all that’s left is to settle down in the new space, arrange furnishings I haven’t seen since December and then get Ma Forbes, packed up and ready to move into her new digs. That comes in two weeks and by then I hope to hav her house sold so I can close the last chapter of my family’s life in little Azusa, CA.

            Now that it’s all done except for the moving in part, I can’t say it’s been fun. It’s not. It’s been a pain in the ass. But, the remodel simply makes my life a lot easier by eliminating the once or twice a week 200 mile round trip excursions I was making to Azusa to take Ma Forbes shopping and the like, and it helps me reat easier knowing that my90 year old mother is somewhere safe and not alone in a house opposite a freeway off ramp.

            The really good news is that Ma Forbes now has a safe, new living space that’s designed around her needs. Also there were no unpleasant surprises during our remodel and finally it came in on budget and nearly on time.

            I think the lack of problems we had can be traced back to two factors:

1. We spent a lot of time during the front end planning process, thinking about what kind of living space my Mom wanted and what she wanted in her new digs. We plotted out the room using graph paper numerous times, going so far as t o create scale paper cut outs of her furniture and then encouraging her to arrange the planned space.

I also was very fortunate to have a fellow co-worker from Windows Magazine, Jonathan Blackwood, come calling with his partner, who is an architect. Jonathan and Dean spent a long time talking to us about handicapped accessibility and senior living requirements.  That conversation is reflected throughout Ma Forbes’ new quarters, even though she still is very ambulatory.

2. We made sure the contractor’s designer understood what we wanted and involved Ma Forbes in that process. We were also open to any suggestions the designer had and then made sure all the parties agreed to what was proposed.
3. As a result of our planning there were no “While We’re at it” changes to any of our plans.
4. At the end of every work day we made sure we knew what was on tap for the next day and most often reviewed progress with our site/job superintendent.
5. As the project moved along, I periodically brought MaForbes down so that she would stay enthusiastically connected to the remodel addition. I’d also call her at the end of the day to give her progress reports.
6. Our remodel took place just as contractors were being deluged with rebuilding homes lost in the Witch Creek Fire.  Most of the contractors down here in north San Diego County have been absolutely slammed with work, but ours, Jackson Design and Remodeling, completed the job efficiently and on time.
7. When I started the project I foolishly assumed that because I used the Internet for many of life’s transactions my contractor and local building department would too. Boy was I ever wrong. The Building trades and their corresponding municipal agencies very much run on inked signatures (although it’s commonplace to exchange .PDF documents. Someday building processes will come to the Internet, but it’s going to be a while before that happens.

And that’s it for my remodel. The first payoff for me is a long soak tonight in my new Jacuzzi bathtub back in  the master bedroom suite. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.—Jim Forbes 04/30/2008

I-5 "Farm Fresh Produce" Yum Yum!

I made a 900-mile Bay Area round trip excursion over the weekend.  All the way from Escondido here in San Diego County to San Mateo, on the San Francisco Peninsula in one long non-stop, 394-mile, hop in my Prius via I-5 and various connectors up to 101.  I’m not one of those Californians who snivel about driving the I-5 cement ribbon between LA and San Francisco.

            It’s a drive I’ve done so often since the early Seventies that I just put my mind on “auto-pilot”, set my cruise control so that I’m safely part of a pack of cars, pop in a books on tape CD and watch the miles just roll by.  Truth be told, I still find this particular drive very interesting, although it can be butt-numbingly long. Luckily the poppies on the side of the hills through Tejon Pass on the Grapevine were in full bloom, a site that always make me burst into “California Here I Come” no matter how old I’ve become.

            After the poppies the next thing that always amazes me are the mile-after-mile rows of orchards and field crops that line California’s north/south artery. I spent more than three decades as a reporter covering various technologies. First it was aerospace and later it centered on computers and software. But at no time in my career was my mind very far from awareness that California’s most valuable commodity wasn’t capital for risk-based ventures, or a seemingly limitless supply of bright engineers, administrators and entrepreneurs, but rather rich soil that supports a variety of crops.  No matter what story or beat I was assigned to, over the years I always managed to find the time to pull over to the side of a rode, kick off my shoes and socks and curl my naked toes in rich California soil.

Driving I-5 strengthens my roots with California like a balanced dash of pot ash  rich organic fertilizer reinforces a young plant’s root structure.

And then there’s scenery: resting raptors perched on fences around pistachio and fruit groves, low-flying AgCat aerial sprayers wheeling overhead in the early morning and long stretches of the California Aqueduct that bring water down to the “Cadillac Desert” of southern California. But what most often catches my attention on I-5 are signs alerting divers to “fresh produce ahead.”

Parched from a 101 degree heat, I’m easily seduced by the thought of a plump Sequoia strawberry or a cold fresh navel orange, either of which may have been in a field o orchard just hours before. But not this trip, the purpose of which was to attend a memorial service of a good friend named Judy Sobieski.

As I peeled off on the connector leading from I-5 to the Bay Area I realized a couple of things:  How lucky I was to have been befriended by Judy, her husband, Andy, and daughter, Marie and how much I learned from this short-dark-haired native San Francisco lady. I’m so glad I made this trip, because it allowed me to provide emotional support and cover for Judy’s husband and daughter.

It was an altogether beautiful trip for me because I got to spend time with people that literally adopted me into their family at a time when I really needed family support and for some reason the weather in San Mateo was utterly fabulous. As I pulled into the neighborhood where the Sobieski’s live, I heard a faint slightly rural voice reminding me to be sure and bring a cake or pie when I go “calling.” So off I went in search of a pie and a cheese cake.

I was really impressed with the memorial service for my friend, Judy Sobieski, and the incredible job her daughter, Marie, did in putting it together to help her family’s friends and relatives come together to remember one of life’s great treasures.

All too soon, I changed into my short pants, a t-shirt and moccasins and whirred my way back home to Escondido, where the amazing Mr. Perro greeted me with two welcome home “yip-barks” and a series of mighty sniffs to see if I had been around anyone he knew.

I didn’t make it back down I-5 uneventfully. I stopped to buy some good looking Sequoia strawberries and four excellent navel oranges. Hell, there’s no sense in passing signs advertising “farm fresh produce” with a stop to see if fruits and vegetables grown by someone else taste as good as yours.

Is Central Valley “road fruit” as good as anything I grow?  You betcha!

I-5. It’s more than just a four-lane artery through California. It’s also a good chance to taste excellent regional produce. “Farm Fresh Produce” yum yum—Jim Forbes 11/28/2008.