I’ve never been to California, but I just spent my first week there. I made my travel and accomodation arrangements so I could make use of the bus and light rail system. The Valley Transit Authority has assembled a much better solution than our Houston Metro system. I was able to get most everywhere I needed to go in a reasonable amount of time. But like our Houston light rail, no one uses it here either. This surprised me, after all, this is the state known for its leftist and environmental extremists. Every other car had some sort of green initiative sticker on it, and usually only had one occupant, the driver. So in the typical left coast fashion, they want us all to use public transportation, but won’t use it themselves. I did see some folks out commuting on their bikes. Given the climate and gas prices, if I lived there, that would be my choice. I was also surprised how dirty Sunnyvale was. there was trash everywhere.

Three inches of rain and winds at 31 Mph gusting to 36 Mph made for a very soggy Scout Fair this year. It rained for the better part of the day, soaking all of the Scouts that braved the weather and setup  their outdoor exhibits. Needless to say, attendance was down a little bit this year. There we still plenty of things to do inside the Reliant Arena, and for the most part, a majority of the booths were occupied.

Our Troop built our annual structure, despite the rain, and occasional interuptions of lighting that made us hve to seek shelter inside. But it has never been said of our Troop that we are or have ever been “fair weather” scouts. Kudos to everyone who participated, and attended in spite of the weather.

If you were out in the early eveneing on Monday December 1st, you would have been able to see the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in the night sky. I noticed it coming back from our barn after feeding the horses.