Let’s see, what was on my list this morning? <I got a letter off to Sofia of course.> Most important things first! I found a pleasant surprise in my mail box this morning, the March issue of “Scientific American” (SA) - at last it has come! So I’ll count the article on the perpetual expansion of the universe theory, which I read in SA, as a start on getting into physics. I talked to Freddy Salguerro, and, as is his habit, he passed me off to someone else. He did say they are expecting delivery of the scale and silage chopper, & that they have the money for the cows (20,000 Colones)! Marques (Profy Gomez’s replacement) agreed to talk to me, tomorrow. So that is the new “showdown” time. I’ve got to be very blunt, & tell him I am not going to even attempt to help them manage their cow herd unless I receive firm assurances that they are going to make the necessary investments in facilities, equipment and labor. They have no corral, no pastures, no milking facility or equipment, and nobody in the whole organization that has any experience with cattle, except me. I am all through donating free moso {manual} labor. They’ll have to hire a full time herdsman plus the workers to plant pastures & sorghum, put up fences, & build a milking shed. I don’t think they have any intention of doing it, & I have no intention of staying around to watch 20 cows suffer needlessly! Perhaps my quitting will give them pause.
I had better luck at the {U.S.} Embassy. they said that if I get seed that is certified & fumigated by CENTA, I will have no trouble taking it into the U.S. Next step is to get out to CENTA and see what they charge for the service.
I got a letter from Jan with some pictures - some of El Maizal & some of Costa Rica. All came out nice. Jan says she’s working hard and trying to learn Spanish - has found an instructor. I have to write her about that job opening at Country Day {School}. She should have written them by now.
I made myself some oatmeal for a snack tonight. First time in a while, & it tasted good.
Reading about the fact that the universe is expanding (so they say), I wondered if it might not be illusionary. It’s substantiated by the Doppler effect - which even I had read about previously - so if the accepted “laws” of physics hold universally, it must be so. But motion is all relative, so if everything is moving away from everything, only relative distance is changing, so mightn’t it all be an illusion, and does it make any difference? My words don’t have the ring of cogent scientific thought, but reading the article made me believe physicists haven’t really got the creation figured out yet. Maybe not even as nearly as they believe they do. A “big bang” theory doesn’t say why the bang occurred, what formed the “pre-bang” universe, etc. The article said it was meaningless to ask what came before the bang. Smells like a cop-out!
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