Benchmark Hunting

Some of you may know what a benchmark is.  Others of you may not.  Some might think of a benchmark in terms of a software reference, while others might think of it in terms of a survey marker.  The latter is what I think of when I think of the term "benchmark". 

I first heard of benchmarks back when I was a junior in high school, back at Randolph High School.  I'm very sure that this came up in a geology class, when we were watching a film that spent a few moments on benchmarks.  I thought that they were cool, but I wouldn't be seeing any as that you had to know where one was in order to go look at one, and plus I was thinking they were all way out west somewhere, a region of the country that I would not get to for some time.

As it was, I ended up out west sooner than I would have thought, when my dad accepted a transfer to California.  I was into ham radio by then, and I wanted to upgrade from the Novice class license that I held.  In those days if you wanted to upgrade, you had to go to the nearest FCC field office, which in my case was at the U.S. Customhouse in San Francisco on Battery Street.

My dad drove me up there for this, and after we had parked we walked over to find the Customhouse.  It was an easy find, a huge gray building, multistory, and from its looks it was built in the 1930s or so.  I happened to notice a disk on the corner of the building at the base, and it was a benchmark!  I thought that was pretty cool, seeing that there.  I pointed it out to my dad.  From that film I thought benchmarks were all out where wild animals lived and that you weren't going to find any in a city.  We then entered the building, I took the test that I studied very hard for, passed it, and got my upgraded license some six weeks later.

There were future visits to the Customhouse as I upgraded my license, working my up to the General Class, then Advanced, and then the Extra Class in June 1983.  I had forgotten about that benchmark as that I was more concentrated on passing those tests so that I could make the top of the line as far as ham radio was concerned, as that I wanted to talk to other hams in places like Tokyo and Blagoveshchensk. 

Fast forward now to 2000.  Or maybe 2001.  In those days I made several drives up to what is now the Ironwood Forest National Monument.  I knew the owners of a property up there and had permission to be on their land for hiking, camping, and wildlife viewing as long as I left the place just as clean or cleaner than before getting there.  (I know that I did at least two camping trips there).  This was up on Silverbell Road, somewhere between Marana and the old Silverbell Mine.  A lot of it was BLM land before it became a national monument (aside from the properties that some folks had) and it was a really great place to take some pictures.

One day on one of those excursions, I would notice these manmade concrete squares every other mile or so.  They were roughly fifteen inch squares, and I either pulled over to look at one of them, or maybe it was a relief stop.  When I got up to take a closer look, it was a benchmark!  It told me the elevation like the one in San Francisco did, and it too was placed there by the U.S. Geological Survey.  I saw several more of them up and down Silverbell Road, all of them being these concrete settings with the disk embedded in the top.

I didn't think about benchmarks for years after that, until day at work during my lunch break, I thought of them for some reason and went online to learn more about them.  I learned that they're scattered all over the country, and that there were a few between where I worked then and home, and one day a few weeks later I stopped off to look at one.

I started thinking about them a month or so ago.  I mean, they're out there in some interesting places, and seeing as how I like the outdoors they were giving me one more excuse to get out there, along with the hiking, hunting and fishing.  I learned where the ones on my side of town were by going online, and when Sheila wanted to go for a walk in Udall Park, I remembered that there was one there.  I printed out its data sheet, and after an early evening meal we went over to the park.  There was enough daylight, and it was a nice walk trying to find the thing.  A handheld GPS receiver would have sped up the search, but from taking readings from an app on my phone I was able to locate it.

We took some pictures of it, thought it was cool, and then went home. 

I have since spent more time online researching them.  Last night I created an account on Geocaching.com and I logged my find.  I spent today's lunch break looking at GPS receiver reviews, and I'm thinking about getting one in the near future.  I know, I've said before that a handheld police scanner was going to be my next toy, and I haven't forgotten that.  That said, if I take up deer hunting again I am really going to want a GPS receiver out there with me so I will know where I am.  (I'm also interested in knowing just how far above sea level I'm at.)

I plan to spend some more time researching GPS receivers, as that I'd like to get out and find some more benchmarks.  I don't see myself taking up geocache hunting, though I might see what it's all about.  A good friend of mine here is into it, and I'll have to pick his brain about GPS handhelds. 

In the meantime, here is a closeup shot of Saturday's find.  I should have taken a few of the monument itself, but I didn't. 

Oh well.

Next time.

Some Random Thoughts, 5/18/16.

I've seen headlines on the Drudge Report about the long wait times at security screenings at O'Hare International Airport and a few other airports as well.  Also, three thousand bags failed to make their flights at Sky Harbor in Phoenix last week.

So......we have a government agency, TSA, doing the screens.  We accept that as a consequence of 9/11. 

My question is........just how many of the people who missed their bags and their flights can't wait for the government to take over health care?

* * * * * * *

Let's say we have someone who makes $50,000 a year, and it costs him a dollar to buy a loaf of bread.

Then we have someone else who makes $100,000 a year, and it costs him two dollars to buy a loaf of bread.

Is he better off than the first guy?

My answer is the first guy is better off.  He's in a lower tax bracket.

The point here, is that the fatass politicians desire inflation so that they can confiscate a higher percentage of wealth from those loyal subjects they have contempt for.  Sure, the dollars are worth less, but their percentage is upped so that the real value of what they take is increased.

* * * * * * *

While on the subject of wealth, I sometimes hear about the rich "not doing their fair share", and thus need to have their taxes increased.  This makes sense to most folks as that they have a lot of extra money that they don't really need.........or so we're told by the Keynesians and especially by the 47% who pay no income tax. 

There's one thing that they haven't told us.

Just what is their "fair share"?  Is it a dollar amount?  Is it a percentage?

Don't hold your breath waiting for an answer to this.

* * * * * * *

And while we're on the subject of the rich, those folks who complain about them not doing their "fair share" say that money needs to be taken from the rich, since the rich are made evil by mere possession of that money.  These self-appointed do-gooders say that they want to take this money from the rich so that they can give it to the poor, or more accurately, they want appointed government bureaucrat do-gooders to do the redistribution of this wealth since they know what's best for the masses. 

So if it's money that is making the rich evil, then if we take it from them and give it to the poor, won't that make the poor people "evil"?  Do we really want to go around and make everyone else "evil"? 

I could ask if taking money from the rich will turn them into "good" people, and I could also ask if this redistribution will make only the rich "good" and everyone else "evil", but I might be more likely to get an answer to my "fair share" question raised above, and I think getting the Beatles back together would be easier than getting that answer.

 

* * * * * * *

Just what does it take be "rich", anyway?  Is it really the mere possession of money?  If say, the line is drawn at having $100,000 at a bank, does that mean that the person who only has $99,999 in the bank not "rich"?  If he's not rich, then is he poor?

OK, let's re-define this in terms of stocks. 

Today the stock is worth $100,000.  Tomorrow the stock market has a sell-off, but let's say that our rich stockholder was smart and only lost one dollar.  His stock is then worth $99,999. 

Is he now poor? 

 

* * * * * * *

One final thought.

If you're going to ask the Good Lord for a gift, then consider asking Him for the gift of wisdom.

If you have wisdom, then you'll have the means of getting most of the other gifts you could have asked for.