I remember that Dad bought some Land in the Mountains behind Saratoga and we went there to SURVEY it. Dad used the Transit and I climbed up the mountain and held the Rod. Whenever you buy land, it is important to have an accurate Map so you can plan for builders to construct a home on it.

 There are laws that say how far you have to be away from a creek. There are also practical restrictions due to the slope of the ground. Dad worked as a Professional Surveyor for Decades. He measured the land for the San Francisco Airport. Then he worked at San Jose Title Company drawing Maps of Santa Clara County. VERY Handy to know who owns what and where. When he became a Realtor he used that information to arrange good locations for customers. "Just Ask Van..."
The land is located up Highway Nine. You go up a couple of miles and take a left hand turn at the road that goes to a Rod and Gun Club. There is a Shooting Range at the end of the road. Los Altos Rod and Gun Club?

Anyway, the land he bought was UNUSABLE for construction of a Home... and Unsellable... So he donated it to West Valley College as a Biology Classroom. Then He simply DEFINED the value of the Donation and wrote it off on his income taxes.

Strangely, neither my brother nor I went to work as Realtors... Often a son simply inherits the family business but... Martin became a Biologist at Genentech and I designed Computers for the Air Force... and the NSA... and then later Sold Electronic Equipment for Radio Shack. My work for the NSA was very interesting. I helped build a Secure Telephone in a Briefcase. Data Encryption and Telecommunication so Soldiers could talk without the enemy listening in... I met some Brilliant engineers there. One fellow knew how to predict which horse was going to win a horse race... we went to the track and won money... Just do what John Does and WIN! That man also beat me at Chess 9 out of 10 times... and then we stopped playing...

One piece of land that he DID subdivide was Apollo Heights. The name of the street is "On Orbit Drive" Saratoga. Driving down Highway Nine towards Saratoga you take a left hand turn at the Library and drive past the Cemetery and JUST KEEP ON GOING AND GOING AND GOING... His Saleslady, Dadi Nogerath Named the Street. In the German Language, "ON Orbit" is the correct term for what we call "IN Orbit" in English. She took customers up to see the property and before the roads were constructed, she rode a burro over the hills... Her Husband, Wolfgang, worked at Laugh Head (Lockheed)... They were people that came to America at the End of WW2. Just like Dr Wehner von Braun... I wish that I had worked for Lockheed and One time I was almost Hired. I was at a Job Fair at the Santa Clara Convention Center and there were hundreds of Companies recruiting... The representative from Lockheed said they wanted to hire me because I had work experience in the Computer Aided Design program CADAM. He said go to building number XXX on Monday morning for a Second Interview. I went and the office HAD NO PEOPLE. Just a Computer and an IN Basket to drop off your resume. I dropped off my resume and NOTHING EVERY HAPPENED. I Believe that at that time. Lockheed was Laying Off and the only reason they had a booth at the Job Fair was to KEEP UP APPEARANCES... so no one would know that their business was in trouble... this was in the late 1990s...

One basic problem with Facebook is My Words Vanish after about a Month... No matter how far I scroll down the page, they are gone. That's Why I copy and paste everything into Googles Blogger so my words are preserved forever... ALSO, it's important to me that Google knows everything about my life so that when THE SINGULARITY happens I can be born again as an Iduru... Just like in that CyberPunk novel by William Gibson...