When I look out my window

So, if you are wondering why I left California 16 years ago, this is the view from my office window. Enuf said.

Seriously, this landscape boggles the imagination. Do peneplains really exist? This view shows an erosion surface that may be well over 5 million years old. The Jory/Bellpine soils that occur out to the horizon have pedorelicts of gibbsite and decades-old volcanic ash. So much interesting stuff, all clothed in a beautiful doug fir forest. Mary's Peak in the background is an uplifted fault block that exposes 45 million year old sea floor pillow basalts overlain by deep marine sandstone. It's all a piece of Oregon's history. Too bad the sands don't contain a few hundred million barrels of oil. We could disguise the pumpers as log cabins or black berry bushes and make oil while appeasing the environmental types. Oregon's economy could use a kick in the pants. Our great govenor wants to put a gps device on every car in the state and tax us for the number of miles we drive. Since we have one of the highest gas taxes in the nation, but have too many fuel efficient cars (you know - powder-blue Prius'), the tax revenue has dropped as people have fought through $5 a gallon gas by not driving as much. So, if the gas tax can't bring in enough money, the gps locator tax is the best way to get more money and really hurt the poorer class that has to commute long distances to work due to less affordable homes in the big cities. It surely won't put the burden on the upper class. How about that political view? How did this get started? I was talking about geology and beauty and things millions of years old?!!!! Then oil and taxes? That's Oregon for you. Never a dull moment. My solution? Let's have a hunting season on Prisus' that will decrease overall fuel efficiency and increase gas tax revenue.