Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Celebrate

I'm not as Green as I look. I'm using the air-conditioning in my apartment for the first time in years. I feel just terrible about my carbon footprint, but I was having a hard time breathing the incredibly hot and humid outdoor air and I'm kinda selfish when it comes to oxygen- I want it now- future generations can deal with my reckless ecology after I'm gone.

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Last night the radio station received an award from the city on account of us being such good citizens:


The station sure has come a long way.

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Me, I'm going back to where I was in 1999, sans hangover and impending Federal trial:

I got a call from the Bureau yesterday. I am to return to work on August 10, this time I'll be working in Field Operations. My 'new' boss is my old boss from 1999...I called him Monday morning and asked about work...he said : Well, I dunno...you know how it is here...can't promise anything, it's all up in the air right now, blah blah... etc etc.

A few hours later, my phone rang with the news that I begin training on Aug. 10. It'll be weird to be on the receiving end of training...I already know the job (I did it in 1999 and trained hundreds of people), and it's probably the hardest part of the whole operation...part of it includes visiting the city's ever-growing number of un-official homeless 'settlements' in order to count the people living in said camps.

Most urban dwellers probably are not aware of this, but almost any city with undeveloped, forested or otherwise inaccessible land almost certainly has it's share of semi-nomadic , neo-tribal homeless 'camps' ...in 1999, it was my part of my job to find these camps, which is a lot easier than you might think- all I did was ask myself this question:

"Where would I sleep if had no money, no friends and no resources?"

Answer: On an island in the middle of the river...in the woods bordering trainyards, interstates and shopping malls... in a particular row of abandoned warehouses...pretty much anywhere and everywhere. And that was during a time of national prosperity.

Luckily, it's a hypothetical question in my case. Sadly, I bet we find more camps than we did ten years ago.

12 comments:

Craig D said...

Good news, pal!

I'll be the one with the tattered bedroll playing the Beatle bass around the campfire. be sure to say, Hi!"

secret agent woman said...

That's good news.

What happens when you find the camps?

Allan said...

CD- Bring a hat and I'll bring some spare change.

SAW- I'm not sure what happens after that. No one has ever returned from one of those missions.

yellowdoggranny said...

hot damn sweety..that's good news..even if it's a step back..it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick..or so ive heard..you look mighty handsome in front of the green screen..

the blogger formerly known as yinyang said...

Congrats on the award and the job!

And, don't sweat it (pun intended) about your carbon footprint - it's a drop in the bucket compared to, say, McDonald's.

NYD said...

Great photo. I gave my students a challenge to create similar imagery. It was a horrible failure. I might just borrow this image for next semester...with your permission, of course.

Anonymous said...

Congrats! Can't stop the signal. :-)

Happy to hear that you are gainfully employed again as well.

Synchronicity said...

HI!

Good to see you...and a big congrats to you!

billy pilgrim said...

have you heard anything about using gps for locating and marking dwellings?

Allan said...

NYD- Permission granted.

MM- Hi! Nice seeing you.

BP- Yes, I have, and in mind-numbing detail...it was part of the Help Desk troubleshoots.

AC'63 said...

congrats .. just keep a postive attitude and if you can't .. think of the breakfast show.

AngelConradie said...

Oh that is SO awesome dude!