Greetings from Lompoc

I presented my research paper today for the Monday Afternoon Club. It was well received and I had fun giving it. The paper was on the history of Lompoc, California (pronounced Lom poke). 

I lived there in the seventies and thought that the town had some interesting aspects to it. It was founded as a temperance society. It is the Flower Seed Capital of the World. It was home to the 'country club' prison that housed H.R. Haldeman and other Watergate criminals. Vandenberg Air Force Base is there and is still launching unmanned missiles into the wild blue skies. And, it is the setting of the most completely restored Spanish mission, La Purisima, which is now a state park. 

On a bookish note, Lompoc is mentioned often in Sue Grafton's series of alphabet mysteries. Lompoc is about an hour's drive north of Santa Barbara, which is the real town to Kinsey Millhone's Santa Theresa. Kinsey's mother was from a well-to-do Lompoc family. The town is featured prominently in J is for Judgment and Q is for Quarry.

It amazes me how much time and thought goes into preparing one of these papers. Lots of research and then getting the information down and then the tweaking, tweaking, tweaking, followed by many practice presentations. And then more tweaking. 

I don't know if others spend as much time as I do but for the past two months I have felt that preparing for this 30-minute presentation has been like a second career. 

I will be happy to give my mind a little rest.