Greetings and salutations, race fans.
It's been a while, eh? Sorry about that.
Here is a little grab-bag for you.
Went to Indy again to further the training of our new rep there. Cool town. This was right before Turkey Day.
On Turkey Day, the better half and I loaded up three of the four carpet crawlers and headed for Kingston Plantation at Myrtle Beach, SC. The fourth carpet crawler, by the way, was in North Dakota to visit her father -a man I like to refer to as "the _____ _______." Alas, I digress. At any rate, none of us are real big fans of Turkey. We like ham. We like the beach even better. Speaking of ham -here are the three that we took down to the beach. They had a great time. (Sorry about the more than usual personal slant to this post. But then again... )
After T-day, it was back to NYC for a quick closing on a fairly big job. We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard on East 92nd to mix it up a bit. I did two photos from this "BIG WINDOW" room. I call one NYC Night. See if you can pick it out of the line up above. The other is a day time shot from the same window. Uh-huh---uh-huh--uh-huh... we closed the deal with a company that could become a big partner for our company down the road. It was great to deal with pros like the people from this company that we worked with. Unfortunately, all this business stuff got in the way of my usual camera phone happy ways. SO, not a lot of snaps from the apple. But, good news for you apple fans, this worm is returning to the core next week for three fun filled days of seminar. YEE-HA! (A cowboy in the city.) Sparks restaurant is worth the time to hunt down in the city. MAKE A RESERVATION, though.
Last week we went to Pasadena for the California Green Schools show. I think this was the first Green School Show in California. Hey man, God bless you if you are a birkenstock wearing (spelling?), tree hugging, earth muffin. I dig the fact that people suddenly want a greener, softer, and perhaps fuzzier earth. That's cool. And, I know it is here to stay. But it kind of reminds me of a sign in our office building that asks all who see it to conserve water due to the drought in NC. The mandate is to use paper cups and plates VS the dishwasher. So, the embodied energy in a paper cup and plate (not to mention the plastic ware that goes with that paper plate) VS the dishwasher or, better yet, a quick hand washing of the dishes is what exactly? It's that super-idiot thinking that kind of kills me.
Another example is LEED being the end-all, be-all of green. SO, if that is true, why do you get more LEED points for a petro-based rubber roof that is white and lasts 17.5 years on average VS one that has a life span of 100 years on average and will go into the recycling bin vs the landfill? "But you don't understand, G. The white EPDM reflects the sun and requires less cooling load." Oh. Thanks, Einstein. How much of the United States has a heating load that is bigger than the cooling load on a yearly basis? 20 % or 30% or 40% or more? Whatever it is, the answer to this little math problem is: ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL. LEED is cool because it, at least, is facing the problems. But, like a Washington politician, it may be a wee bit myopic. Then again, I may be, too. But, again, this isn't the USGBC website. It's the Closest Exit Blog. So, nah-nah-a-boo-boo. (Adult like, huh?)
At any rate, the show was cool, but there was a small lack of congruency in people that insist on wool carpeting while carrying around plastic give-away bottles from their favorite building product booth. One company, I won't mention any names, (DISNEY), was handing out rubic cubes with stickers that had earth friendly cartoon characters on all sides. The message was and is that Disney is very considerate of the earth. They also had a CD, "The Sacred Earth." This beautiful CD came packaged in a plastic container with full color graphics. Next to the Tree-Huggin' Plastic Rube Cube, this was pretty neat.
I am not saying that I am any better than these kids. Not at all. I love my Diet Coke in the kid friendly-drop-proof plastic bottle. I dig hitting the gas pedal and feeling the rental Malibu get up and scoot as the dinos at the Indy Children Museum (above) scream in three-part harmony from beyond the tar pit. I love the look of exotic woods as well as the look of the less than exotic woods and clients that can afford them. No doubt in my mind, there is some two-faced bastard hanging out in the G-man's body at times. I will not deny it. And, we do need to do something. Our forefathers and those hash-hitting freaks from the industrial age made a mess of things. (So did we, by the way.) We need to start and I salute the start. But hey, it's just you and me here, right? Please don't take a leak on my back and tell me that it is raining. Don't tell me that you hate people who aren't green while you eat your porterhouse-bovine-with-methane-based-by-product cooked over an open flamed charcoal fire. It lacks merit, but perhaps not more comments.
Man! THIS was going to be a short little post. Instead I climbed half-way up a soap box and made some half-baked statements about the half-fact that the Green movement may be more about money than it is about heartfelt beliefs. Or, that it may be more about getting on the old "hip train" instead of a deep-seated concern for the longevity of mama-san earth, kyoto. Wait, I made no such statements. I just said that the green thing is cool because it is a start, but may lack some congruency... like us...all of us.
Again, I digress. Californication is always fun. One of those places you can look at beautiful things while breathing in some of the cleanest air on the planet. I jest, of course. California is cool, though. A lot of very creative people. A lot of energy like NYC -in a laid back sort of way. If you go, log yourself a table at Dal Rae in Pico Rivera. No kidding. Rough neighborhood (kind of) but GREAT food.
This week I am in Boston. Love this town. It's very Americana. Hopefully I will get some good snaps and send them on to all of you. You, my Spotted-Owl saving, Randy Moss loving and hating, Porsche-drooling, Bovine-eating friends. I hear you. You're a little bit country, and a heck of a lot of ROCK AND ROLL! Yeah, party-on, Wayne. We're all a little incongruent. Like my bud Scott says, "Republicrat." That, my friend, is the US of A, and I love it.
Until next time, get out and live life and, oh yeah, hug the baby bamboo full color graphics on your corn-maize eco-friendly plastic-like bottle for me.
-G
Disclosure: The term "tree hugger" is not meant as a slam against those who feel that they have the right to hug the trees that I am trying to cut down for my next architectural project. We can work it out. Just hold the gas can for me while we talk about it. Thank you. -The MGMT.
