Here's My Quandary...

Here's my quandary, guy at the gas station asking for money while I am paying a ridiculous amount of money to put gas in my car: If you didn't have enough gas to get back to Riverside, why'd you come down here in the first place?

My favorite of these many incidents that I have been forced to endure occurred during my Quietly Working days.

I had pulled an all-nighter and was really sick to my stomach at the time. I needed to go down to the office to get some stuff to work on later in the day and on my way to the office, I had to make a detour to get some gas.

Before I could even make it to the gas station, I am behind a strip mall, hurling into a dumpster. After gaining my composure, I then head to get gas so I can get to the office and get home for some sleep before getting back to work. Those of you who know me know that I won't let a little thing like a stomach flu get in the way of getting my work done.

So, as the sun just starts coming up and I stop at the Chevron on PCH in Newport Beach, this guy comes over to me and asks me if he can have some money because he needs to get back to Riverside.

I found myself instantly sorry that I had wasted a good hurling in the dumpster instead of doing so on his shoes. I work for my money, Mr. Beggar, and I do it while sick as a dog. How dare you come ask me for some of my money, especially when you look like a healthy, able-bodied person, obviously of enough whit and determination to try to scam me of out some of my hard-earned cash! I do, however, love the look on their faces when I, unlike I am sure so many of their other victims, say, simply, "Nope," and keep going on about my business.

One Of The Oldest Plants On Earth Lives In Riverside County

At the top of a very nondescript hill out in Riverside County, CA, you'll find something pretty amazing. I can't tell you exactly where it is because the scientists that discovered it are going to do their best to protect this find, though they recognize that they are fighting a losing battle. According to UC Davis researchers, they have found what they believe to be one of the oldest living plants on the planet that is registering at 13,000 years old.

This plant is a wide-spanning thicket of stunted, gnarled oak trees wedged between a pile of boulders. To the untrained eye, it would appear to be of no consequence. The entire grove of Palmer's oak trunks is one plant with none of its stems rising more than a few feet tall. The plant is actually growing within the boulder pile, which has offered the needed protection in order for the plant to live it's extremely long life.

About a decade ago, while conducting a routine survey of plant life in the area, Michael May and his team came across this very unique plant. Their first clues as to what this plant really was came when they discovered that this apparent grove of trees was producing no fertile acorns, yet was seeming to continue to grow in size somehow. They then noticed that the trees were very similar in appearance, almost as if they were clones. This led them to discover that this is a single plant, growing in an oval 25 yards long and 8 yards wide. Researchers have found many plants that clone themselves, but very few that are this old.

Researchers have named the plant the Jurupa Oak after the mountain range in which it was found. They even believe that the plant has survived numerous fires over the years, with new sprouts springing to life after each fire.