PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

If you are driving to Southern California and then back to Oregon, you have a lot of time to think, even as you try to drive safely with, on occasion at least, a lot of traffic.

With so much time, your thoughts go in unusual directions. Here are just a few examples of what occurred to me on this long, 16-hour trip behind the wheel.

WHAT IS LOGISTICS?

Remember when trucks hauling stuff was called just that – hauling stuff.

Then, the words change to transport or transportation. And, now, the word has changed again. It’s called “logistics.”

Many of the hundreds of sixteen-wheelers we saw on the trip south and north have the word “logistics” written on their sides, thus advertising the credentials of their companies.

I guess logistics is a bigger word, implying how the dictionary defines the word – “the planning, implementation and coordination of the details of a business or other operation.”

So, now you know – logistics is more than hauling stuff.

SPEAKING OF BIG RIGS ON THE HIGHWAY

Ever wonder why many of those rigs stop on entrances or exits to rest areas rather than in the rest areas themselves?

I do.

So, I asked a question on the Internet and found that the answer may be that the drivers are stopped to sleep at least for a bit of time. But, if that is true, why not stop in the rest areas themselves?

I don’t know and also have never found the right opportunity to ask a driver this question. So, inquiring minds want to know.

DEALING WITH 120 DEGREE HEAT

In the Palm Springs area, the highest temperature we experienced was 120 degrees. Most days on this trip, the temperature hovered around 115.

So, the question is, how do folks down there tolerate that kind of heat?

Well, one answer is that they go outside in the early morning hours, then retreat to air conditioned homes by about 9:30 or 10 a.m. Not for me.

So, it was a relief when we arrived back in Salem to “only” 101 degrees.

AND THIS QUESTION ABOUT GOLF

The preface to this blog notes my involvement in golf — call it an addiction.  So, this question after being in the heat of Southern California.

Why doesn’t the golf ball fly farther in the thin air of heat? The answer may be that, with all the watering being done down in Southern California, the heat is compromised by humidity and that humidity tends to offset the greater golf ball distance available in the heat.

Just my supposition and I know everyone will care about this critical issue even as we watch President Trump – I hate that title president attached to Trump’s name – head off for two weeks of a “working vacation” dominated by golf.

And, wasn’t it Trump who skewered Barack Obama for playing too much golf?