Dang, no Geena tonight...

Dang, I didn't get my dose of Geena lust...er I mean admiration tonight. Commander in Chief wasn't on tonight. I guess I shoulda known what with it being a holiday week and all, but I only have two must see tv shows a week and neither is on this week. Since I didn't get my dose of Geena, I guess I'll just have to find something else to lust after....I mean admire.

Ha, and there's some silliness brewing around my President Geena. Some folks actually think the show is some kind of set-up or advertisement for Hillary! Ha, there are absolutely no similarities between Senator Hillary and President Geena. For one thing, hello, it's a tv show. Second, there is no way that Hillary is as smart or even has the same views as my President. And come on folks even if it were an ad for Hillary, she's gonna need a lot more than a tv show to be elected. You can call me crazy, but I don't think Hillary is President material, and I don't think she's gonna be our first woman president.

I'm going to make my own little prediction here. The first woman president is not going to be a Democrat. In order to cross party lines and win an election, I think that our first woman president is gonna have to be either a moderate Republican or an Independent. And I don't mean any yucky Republican candidates like Elizabeth Dole, she's gonna have to be a 45 to 55-ish up and coming star in the moderate Republican ranks. Emphasis on Moderate! Just think about it. Democrats are more likely to cross party lines in voting than Republicans. And I'll make the same prediction about the first black president too. He/She is gonna have to be a moderate Republican like a Colin Powell type. And hell no, I don't mean Condi either! She's too closely associated with Dubya.

By the way, I'm an Independent and I've voted for what I've believed was the best candidate in each election whether they were a Democrat, Republican. Libertarian, or Independent. Oh yeah I forgot the Green Party. Yep that's what I did!! No Green Party for me.

Okay I'm off to find a Geena substitute. As if?! In the meantime, I open the floor to debate.

Danger on the trails!

I just got back from my hike a short time ago..and it was another beautiful Fall day. And I had a mostly lovely hike except for almost being beaned with a rock. Here's my tale...

I was on one of the outer trails and about halfway up a steep and rocky hill. I'm a pretty quiet hiker, so I often walk up on people without them realizing it. Anyway, I'm zipping my way up this steep rocky incline and about 20 or 25 feet ahead of me near an overlook I saw a woman and her two kids. Just as I was registering this bit of information, the little 10 year old boy lobs a good-sized rock over his shoulder in my direction. I saw it coming and stopped in plenty of time to where it dropped a foot or two in front of me. I was simultaneously startled and annoyed to say the least...I easily could have been beaned in head!

I didn't think yelling at them would get me a very good result, so as politely as I could I called out.....Ah hey, you know you probably shouldn't be throwing rocks...especially back on the trail because you almost hit me.

I called this out as I continued to approach them and as I was coming up to the mom she says....oh that was my son throwing rocks. Then the kid says to me....I didn't know anyone was there...I wasn't trying to hit anything. To which I replied...yeah but that's just why you shouldn't throw rocks on the trail.

I was really annoyed by this point and even more annoyed because instead of moving over to the right on the trail so that I could get around them as trail courtesy dictates...they blocked the path. So I politely said excuse me...which did not compute and then I had to explain that I would please like to get by them since I was walking much faster.

Once I got past them, I couldn't help but feel annoyed with their mother. What kind of a response was that from her? No apology to me and she didn't even tell her son that he should be more careful or you name it. All I got was....yeah that was my son throwing rocks. And let's take the little boy....no apology for lobbing a rock in my direction just an oh I didn't see you there. I felt like I couldn't really be that annoyed with the little boy because his instruction for good manners and courtesy came from his mom and I saw firsthand how his mom was lacking in these skills.

Courtesy isn't rocket science. Common courtesy is a big deal to me not only because that's the way I was raised, but because it's a good thing. I've raised my sons to be courteous and polite. But too many people and parents today think courtesy is an option. In my book, courtesy is a necessity. Period.

Luckily though this incident happened early on and once I was able to zip by them, I had my usual peaceful hike without any further incident. Now I wonder if that type of incident were to happen again, if I should handle it differently...or perhaps I shouldn't expect a better outcome from the clueless and ignorant. Oh well...the whole thing is a shame.

Just this....

For no special reason, today was very good day. Sarah and I got a lot done on our respective reports. And the work and writing seem to flow fairly effortlessly. We also had a very nice lunch which included nice conversation, but that's no surprise since we never seem to run out of things to chat about. In the afternoon, I went to the park for my hike. And I forgot that many people are on vacation this week so the park was busier than I like, but surprisingly that didn't bug me today. I realized at one point while walking briskly through the dense woods how much I was enjoying the day. It was a beautiful sunny Fall day in the 60s with hardly any humidity. Lots of the leaves have fallen and the park had that wonderful Fall smell to it. My hiking felt effortless today and I had energy to spare. I didn't let myself run any of the trails today, but instead I felt the need to enjoy it walking briskly instead. At the risk of sounding ridiculously corny, I had a moment while hiking where I had the feeling through and through of how wonderful it feels to be alive. I don't know how else to describe it than that.

The whole day seemed to be one of those life affirming days where everything just feels right. I'm not sure if it's simply that my good mood converged with beautiful weather today or if it's something more. I suspect or maybe just hope it was something more. Regardless...it was a lovely day.

Homogenization...

I fell in love with San Antonio years ago and long before I ever moved here. In fact my first visit to San Antonio was while I was a college student in Austin. Austin was an up and coming city in the early and mid-80s, but for some reason I never became enamored with Austin the year that I lived there. But I remember falling in love with San Antonio the first time I visited. San Antonio has such a distinctive flavor that I've always been drawn to. There's the history which not only includes the Alamo but the other Missions as well which date back to the 1600s. We have a rich German heritage as well which originates from a large influx of Germans to the Texas Hill Country in the mid-1800s. San Antonio has an annual two week long Fiesta every spring and some type of Wurst Fest every Fall. What a wonderful juxtaposition of cultures that we have here in San Antonio! Where else in America do you have streets named Culebra, Zarzamora, and Bandera located near streets named Marbach, Jones-Maltsberger, and Fredricksburg? My favorite park is named after one of San Antonio's most successful German families, the Friedrich family. I guess what I'm getting at is that I think that San Antonio has a unique flavor all its own which I hope that it retains.

So far in extolling the praises of San Antonio, I neglected to mention our famous Riverwalk. The Riverwalk is most beautiful around the holidays with all the holiday lights. But this year, one could say that this is probably the last year that the Riverwalk will be a unique treasure. You see, there's a bit of a controversy brewing here in San Antonio regarding our wonderful Riverwalk. For years and years the Riverwalk has been occupied for the most part by locally owned businesses and restaurants which gave it its uniqueness. And yes Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants have been quite ubiquitous on the Riverwalk, but there are others as well like the locally owned Hunan Garden which I've eaten at several times. Over the last several years there's been a gradual change in the types of restaurants on the Riverwalk. I'm talking about the national chain restaurants. First it was the Hard Rock Cafe that bought out a local owner, next came Planet Hollywood as well as others until now we've hit a turning point and controversy. The Hunan Garden owners as well as the owners of another building with several tenants have been made offers that they feel they can't refuse...and by whom? Landry's seafood and Salt Grass steakhouse. Now don't get me wrong here. I'm all for free enterprise and these local owners must do what's best for them. But the Riverwalk is in danger and many locals like me are concerned and upset too. How will and can the Riverwalk be anything special when the majority of the shops and restaurants are some-type of chain that you can visit in any other city in America? In my view, the Riverwalk is in very real danger of becoming homogenized. We're in danger of losing our unique flavor. Why would anyone want to visit here if everything is just like back home? It doesn't make sense.

Really the impending homogenization of the Riverwalk is happening everywhere in America too. It isn't just a problem in San Antonio, but I fear it's a problem in every city in America. I've lived in lots of cities and several states in my 44 years, and in the last 10 years especially I've seen this homogenization increasing at an alarming rate. It's seems that all our cities and towns are beginning to look alike with the same proliferation of businesses in each town. I think what probably started out as a good idea has now become a runaway train. In the beginning it was kinda nice for travelers to find similar businesses from town to town. It can be comforting and uniting. But at the risk of sounding overly dramatic....America is becoming homogenized in a Stepford kind of way. And I think it's both scary and sad. I suppose in a very real way, McDonalds is responsible for giving birth to this phenomenon.

I'm all for free enterprise and I certainly don't want anyone forced to stay out of the Riverwalk or other tourist spots. Although I don't know maybe it would be nice to make some places off limits. I'll have to think on that. Really though I'm not sure what the answer is though. I would like to think that the free enterprise system will work itself out...meaning that all this homogenization will hit a critical mass to where the consumer becomes sick of it which results in some kind of consumer backlash. I know I feel oversaturated by the chains...and yes I do visit some of them...it's near impossible not to.

I've lived here for over six years and am so glad that I had the opportunity to enjoy the city that I fell in love with over 20 years ago. I may move away one day and San Antonio may become homogenized before I do, but I'll have my memories and experiences. And that's something, isn't it?

Courtesy and Attorney...

Apparently these two words don't belong in the same sentence.I got an email yesterday from a bank client that I did a property transfer assessment for earlier this year. About a month or so ago, we provided the prospective buyer of the property a letter stating that they could rely on the results of the investigation that we conducted for our bank client. Well that's all pretty standard in the environmental business and we provide those letters as a courtesy for our clients when the need arises.

Okay back to the email I received yesterday. The buyer wanted even more documentation of the additional services that we conducted on the subject property. Namely they wanted me to sign a sworn affidavit attesting to the fact that we did such and such services. Yikes...talk about overkill! In my 15 years in environmental consulting, I've never had a buyer or more correctly a buyer's attorney request such a thing. I told our client that I would be happy to sign it and have it notarized providing that the language looked okay to me. Well guess what?

Yep. The attorney that wrote the affidavit is apparently an expert in his own mind regarding environmental issues, and so his environmental language and narrative were not quite correct. But I'm just a lowly environmental geologist...what do I know?! Anyway I emailed our client back and explained my problem with the affidavit which he understood and apologized. He said he would forward my requested revisions to the buyer's attorney. So I get the revised affidavit back and two words were added, but none of my requested revisions were completed. Once again, I emailed our client and explained that I still couldn't sign it because the language that I didn't agree with was still in it and only one word from my requested revisions was used. I explained that since this was something that seemed so terribly official, I felt it necessary that it be accurate. Silly me....I wanted something that I signed to be accurate....I am such a trouble maker!! Then I told our client that rather than going back and forth over this, I would go ahead and make the revisions that were acceptable to me, sign it and notarize it.

Naturally all this came up last minute and the deal isn't going to close unless this got done immediately. So I put my scheduled billable work aside to revise, sign, and notarize it late yesterday and dropped it in the mail to the client last night. I faxed a copy also.

Guess what happened? The attorney still wasn't satisfied today. They emailed me their revisions and explained that they just couldn't use my already signed and notarized version and that their final revisions just absolutely had to be made. Okay two of their revisions were inconsequential to the document...in fact they had to do with how I abbreviated our company name in the body of the document and the third revision was actually to fix one of their own mistakes from the original document! I decided at one point today that they could just use what I sent them...well that is until my client's attorney called and said that they had to have the buyer's attorney's last version signed and notarized or the sale won't close tomorrow.

Let me point out something here. All this hoop jumping was being done as a courtesy to our client which in the world of common sense and sanity should have taken no more than an hour or two of my time....not several hours!! I can't bill my time, but you can be sure the attorneys are billing their time!

So the client's attorney called me at 3:30pm today to tell me that the affadavit I sent was unacceptable to the buyer's attorney and that I would have to redo it. And since she represents my client I can't say no...well I can't say no and hope to work for this client again. She explained that she'd send a runner out to get the document, but then she had the nerve to ask me if I could run and have it notarized...this is after my banker client already offered to send a combo notary/runner. I politely said no that she'd have to send a notary. To top it off, she didn't say that she appreciated my last minute efforts nor did she apologize for any inconvenience to me. I had to bite my tongue to keep from thanking her for reminding me why I decided against going to Law School! My tongue hurts now.

So what did I learn today with my dealings with the attorneys for both the buyer and the client? For one, apparently lawyers have to have the last word whether it's of any consequence or not. Second, they like to make extra unnecessary work so they can bill more hours at $350 an hour and churn up their total fee. And like many doctors, they think that their time is more valuable than anyone else's time. Lastly, courtesy and manners are apparently not part of a lawyer's standard operating procedure.

Oh yes indeed...I'm glad I decided against Law School! Ahhhhhh...you know what? Venting really helps....I feel so much better now.

Time...

I was sitting here reading, but my mind kept wandering until suddenly I thought, Holy Crap!...the year is almost over already?! How does that happen? One moment we're cruising merrily along and the next we suddenly realize that the time just slipped by.

One thing is for sure as I get older....time really does seem to go quicker the older you get. This is a strange phenomenon and one that I haven't quite figured out yet...and may never figure out. Why is it that as we get older and hopefully wiser...and to the point that life starts making some sense that the days and years start to suddenly zip by?

As a kid, I remember thinking the time between Halloween and Christmas seemed to be an eternity. I used to think it took forever for Christmas to arrive and nowadays I think...how the hell did Christmas get here so quickly....didn't we just celebrate it?

I also remember being in college and thinking that four years in college was gonna take forever. I considered changing my major at one point, but my immature mind overruled the decision thinking that it would add too much time past my initial time investment. At the end of next year, it'll be 20 years since I graduated from college which I find amazing. In retrospect it seems that the time flew by, and I also think of how silly my youthful thoughts of time were back then. Adding a year or more to my college experience would have been a drop in the bucket.

Perhaps retrospect has something to do with this feeling that time goes faster the older you get. When you're a kid, you don't have much history and so you really have nothing to gauge and compare for the passage of time. As you get older and accumulate experiences and personal history then each moment, each day, each year becomes a proverbial drop in the bucket of personal experiences and time.

Thinking back on some of my silly youthful thoughts makes me remember a line from one of Frank Capra's movies where an older character was getting annoyed at the younger characters' inability to sieze the moment and exclaimed...oooo youth is wasted on the young! The older I get the more I understand that statement!

I'm not sure there's a solution to this, but perhaps the best one can do with this realization of time is try and appreciate each and every moment in that moment as best one can...for this and every moment slips away so swiftly.

Poetry by Erik

A Birthday Song by Erik

Erik of the bony arms
Has dealt his mother grievous harm
Her gift did he procrastinate
In buying, now it will be late-
Not arrived on the special date

O good maiden forgive him please
Do not bring the poet to his knees
Looking for mercy undeserved
He pens the following words:

For her birthday she wanted a tome
On her birthday she thought, "Goddamn-
I didn't get that book of poems,
I got a silly epigram!"

T'isn't loot, it's not a card
But indeed I have tried very hard
To come up with some whimsical rhymes
And contribute to the happy times!

Observations...

Okay so I finally got to see my Jodie in her new movie Flight Plan. Sarah, Amanda, and I went out to dinner and a movie the other night and I got to pick. When I explained to Sarah that I wanted to see Flight Plan because it got excellent reviews and it looked pretty exciting, she just nodded and smirked at me. And then while still smirking she said....Hmmm, so it has nothing to do with you really, really liking Jodie Foster, huh?! So I said...Doh! I'm so transparent! And yes I wanna see it because Jodie's in it! There I said it...are you happy now?! And yes I must say she was very happy once I admitted my real reason for wanting to see it!

I think I'm a pretty observant person and movies are no exception for me. I really try to take it all in...and especially with movies I like to pay extra attention to see what the director has in store as far as subtle and not so subtle visual cues. Here's what I found fascinating and later asked Sarah if she consciously noticed in the movie.

The movie starts out very dark and sad...and with some tension. In the beginning scenes, Jodie's hair is pulled back tightly in a bun...and her hair color appears to be a muddy brown. In the beginning scenes before she boards the plane, she looks very severe and sad and her hair adds to that effect. Once the plane takes off and she is sitting and beginning to relax just a smidge with her daughter, it appears that her hair has loosened some from her tight bun. Then as the action begins on the plane and she first starts to panic...a good sized strand comes loose and then another which hang in her face. As Jodie's character progressively comes undone in the movie so does her hair until the climax scenes where it's hanging all loose and wild. The closing scene takes place no more than a few hours after the plane lands in movie time, but as Jodie is sitting in the airplane hangar waiting and holding her daughter, her hair now appears much lighter in color...it's golden...and while it's still loose....it's arranged in a pleasing way. And her hair looks to be backlit to give it a golden and almost angelic or heroic appearance. The muddy brown color is gone to be replaced by carefree golden locks.

Jodie's hair represented her psyche in the movie. She started out the movie tight and controlled. As her character came undone with fear and anger, so did her hair. And once she prevailed at the end of the movie, her hair appeared golden and angelic.

The director went to a lot of trouble to set a tone and guide the mood of the movie much like a writer sets the tone and mood in a novel. The writer has only her words to set the description, but a talented movie director has visuals to work with as well. And to me, Jodie's hair was a subtle but very effective visual to set the tone and mood. So when I asked Sarah about it, she said that she didn't consciously notice it until I pointed it out to her. The point is consciously. As Sarah and I discussed it, she agreed that it was an effective tool whether it was observed consciously or subconsciously.

So I suppose the real question here could be...would I have noticed all this hair stuff if it were another actor? Hmm, I'd like to think so, but we'll never know! In the meantime, I'm glad that I am so observant because now I feel pretty sure that those skills helped me maximize my enjoyment of Jodie! Now if I can only have those good sex dreams on demand, I'll be all set.