Monday, August 20, 2012

No More Second Hand GOD

Cheezy Tourist Shots                                                  Ranchos #16                                                                c-2007

No More Second Hand God

I awoke with high expectations for the day. I had planted a number of business seeds last week and I was certain that today I was going to get to see a little green poking through the top of the soil; or at least get a phone call. By 11am phones were silent and inboxes for emails were deserted. “Hum”, I thought as I prepared to leave for yoga, “Is it really gonna be another one of those days?”

As I rode to class I thought about Monday mornings in the corporate world and how it would always take until late Tuesday or Wednesday for me to get answers on things from those folks, as they needed to ramp back up and my days were 24/7; in that I owned the place and had the luxury of spending nights-weekends-holidays cranking stuff out for the sake of “progress”. 
Class was good with one of our favorite instructors and I spent time afterward going over the Scope of Work I had put together for the Owner with several contractors. Most of the work is required because of poor workmanship by previous contractors so I spent a lot of time going over details and more details  written, graphic and “in the attic” where the temperature was deadly.

One of the good things about my training was that I learned from really talented folks who knew how to do it right and only do it once. I am cursed with an inherent “?really?” meter so if something smells fishy with a proposed solution I can generally sift through it until I “feel” where the potential problem will lie down the road and address it early on. Having to warrant my own work for years has honed this skill.

As I rode home I thought of the structure shown in the photo above. Saint Francis of Assisi – Ranchos de Taos,NM  (the most painted/photographed church in North America). It was first built in the 1500’s then burned a bunch of times and this one built in the 1700s – Every year the parishioners all gather as a community and mix adobe and straw and the women of the group apply it by hand all over the exterior surfaces. They do it once (a year) and do it right. Their neighbors across the mountain in Penasco got lazy a decade or so ago and got talked into applying a latex based surfacing agent over their adobes. It looked GREAT on the outside for year after year until one weekend the entire south side collapsed. Then the east and west walls caved in. It appears that the latex held in the moisture and would not let it escape and we all know from our Southwestern Construction Algebra that moisture(m) x (a) adobe=MUD/YIKES…………Kind of gives a whole other meaning to “Holy Sh%^ !!”.  Needless to say the parishioners in Penasco now pray in trailers. Children’s Children will be atoning for that one and all will be forgiven from above but the bigger question will be “did they learn anything?”  I try not to get into those debates but sometimes I do enjoy being a spectator.

I returned home to find “nada” on the phone or the inbox. “Yep, it IS one of those days” I said out loud.  I took the time to “converse” with Edy via FB-Txt and do a bit of research on some things I had not gotten to last week. While doing research I was reminded of one of my favorite author/thinkers and a poem he wrote in 1940. His entire book is fascinating but the title poem has always stuck with me and I'll share a small part of it for you:

“Here’s to verbs !”



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