Piracy!

I should have known better. It was bound to happen, I guess, but I really thought it would be to someone else. I saw the odd looks when I just walked away without locking her up, you know, but what was there to lock her to? The sand? The water?

She was just gone when I got there Friday night, disappeared without a trace. There were three others still there that have been there all along. I loved that little dinghy. She was too small, too prone to getting punctured by the sharp rocks at the landing, and would absolutely refuse to track in a straight line when I was rowing her, but.......she was my first, and we had some fun and excitement together. I'll never forget the sight of her following us out of Angelfish Creek and into the Atlantic back in June....we were running for our lives from that evil squall, her painter grabbed hard to Reprieve's stern cleat, and every time I thought she was about to be swamped by the following waves she'd bounce right up and perch herself there on top of the wave. In my mind's eye I see her now, picture her like a little puppy, running hard, tennis ball in her mouth, trying to catch up.

So.....goddam scurvy dog pirates. Oughta feed 'em to the sharks or tourists if we find out who they are. One time before I had arrived at the landing to find her gone, but that just turned out to be kids staying at the motel next door had tried paddling around but gave up, apparently, and left her beached at a house down the way. I've asked around but nobody's seen her or has any idea who might have taken her.


I've been scouting Craig's list and the classifieds and the tackboards at the grocery store and bait shops to see if I can find another one, but no luck so far. If anyone out there in south Florida has a little dinghy friend that needs a good home, let me know, OK?

Feed the blog, bigdog......

Where does the time go, kids? It's already September and although I'm glad that it's football season and sailing time again it just doesn't seem right that this summer could have slipped away so quickly. I've slacked on the blog entries, obviously, but it seems like every time I've plopped my sorry ass down here at the keyboard lately my mind has been an absolute blank, and thanks to the burden of good role models I just cannot bring myself to post some lame-ass drivel just to be able to say I've kibbled the blog. I was complaining about this to a friend recently (who had just discovered that there is a bigdogblog) and of course she said "So, how do you explain the previous 70 entries here?" Good question. I'll, uhmmm, you know, get back to you real soon on that .......

But, nonetheless, a great summer it was all in all, and dadgum what is that itch oh hell here it comes I do feel the urge if not the obligation to just go ahead and start running downhill arms up head back start to let it out let it go put something down record all of the glorious sailing driving kissing sweating painting singing climbing cooking eating eating eating reading sleeping stealing looks out of the corner of my eye and apples from the end of the box adventures and heroic pursuits that happened to me and for me and everyone else I saw or didn't saw at Sibbyfest or Cranberry Lake or Vineyfig, Sunnyside, the doublwide or up in heaven on the bay and everyone up on the big rock candy mountain because the whole idea of this twisted blogation is to get it out there today right now damn hell what anyone thinks or even says about what I've done or what I've got to say or how I'm doing or saying any of it because it's not a matter of life or death and goddammit ain't nobody gonna starve or cry or have to stay out in the freezin' rain whether I do or don't bang this gibberish out or if I get divine inspiration from the Lord or the Muse or the youtube or wherever the angels speak from nowdays and stumble my way into saying something profound or crazy or both and bring love and joy to the Youth of Today that're all just out there right now, by Dog, you've seen'em I can tell by the look in you eye at this very moment, look around they're all searching for help and hope and happiness and if they don't wanna go to school tomorrow well then damn their hides bless their souls pass'em the biscuits and gravy and let's all of us just let them and us, yes US, all of us every last one just fall on into the old wooooooo-saaaahhhhhhhh and let it go let it go let it go, amen, ok?






Damn.

That feels better.

Gotta run.

shard

I don't know how it caught my eye
with the grey afternoon sun
low
and quiet
the river gliding slowly over my feet
beyond my gaze
one small black shape
in a river village of glistening stones

But somehow I turned
and knelt
and reached
through two inches of river
and into a thousand years of memory

This small piece of scooped clay, molded by hand
hardened by camp fire flame
once was part of a sturdy whole
holding water, and corn,
and the life blood
of family

Its weight and shape are comforting
and I'm surprised at the feeling
Like a favorite object
discovered in an unfamiliar place
not knowning until right now
it had ever been lost

Closing my eyes,
feeling the soft round edges in my hand
I see it then
as it was
a part of the whole
coming to life
long dead hands
in the cold wet dawn
probing the river dip by dip
for clay, and sand, and hope

And those hands....those lovely hands.....
lithe sinews pressing, pinching, shaping
sorting clay red from blue,
tempering the mix with sand, and moss
and instinct
quick fingers
brushing stray bits of wood and grass
from the perfecting form
rolled and stretched from the river

A caddoan bowl, I think
but only she knows for sure, now
and only she knows
why the deer, incised on the rim, lives there still today
or what story is told by the pattern, rolled across that damp red surface,
before it knew the fire

Standing in the river
my gaze lost beyond the bank
I wonder how many seasons this urn carried water
how many dry lips were quenched
by the little river inside

But the stillness breaks
children laughing bring me back to here
and now
I wonder how many seasons have passed
since a hand slipped, or a storm wind blew,
and this vessel scattered
shattered in the weeds and lost among the rocks

and how is it that now
this one piece,
this solitary shard
has come to lie exposed and alone among the riverbank pebbles
away from the bank
and the village
and the clay

And what has been lost
now that it is found?

Vacation

Put your hands in the air, brothers and sisters, it's Vacation Time! A few days on the beach at St. Augustine and then a week or so on the boat with Dad and The Bros. We're hoping for fair skies and gentle breezes, and have the boat loaded with food, beer, and toys, so I'm pretty sure we'll be ready for wahtever comes up.

Knee knockin' chest clutchin' buttermilk biscuits

I'm not sure exactly what prompted the jobsite backporch discussion this morning to veer off of punchlist issues and onto the subject of biscuits, but it did, and a couple of my superintendents and I enjoyed regaling each other with stories about how this place or that had biscuits that would just plain lay a man down. We started out, of course, with Hardees, which makes a decent enough dough nugget for a fast food place, and then the talk turned to other favorite diners and chicken shacks that we'd experienced that could really do 'em up right. Then Ralph, a country gentleman from up near Tallahassee, escalated the discussion by telling of the cathead recipe that his momma used to whip up that was so extraordinarily delicious that tears would spring from your eyes just smelling a batch of 'em coming out of the oven, and literally turn a person catatonic with a single bite.

Well, hearing that I just couldn't resist sharing at least the basics of the knee knockin' chest clutchin' buttermilk biscuit recipe that I stumbled upon a while back. I'll admit right here and now that I'm a loooong way from perfecting this, but I can tell you that even a culinarily challeneged homey like me can turn out a dose of these jewels that is, quite literally, mesmerizing. And that's before you add bacon, jam, or cheese.

I passed this recipe around to some family and friends a while back, but this morning's conversation prompted me think maybe I should send it out again. Sort of a public service thing.

Dadgummit, man, I've made myself hungry now....Gotta run.....Check this out and let me know what you think.......

Step 1: heat oven to 425

Next: Ingredients = 2 cups flour (1 cup all purpose and 1 cup cake flour, if you've got it, if not 2 cups all-purpose works OK)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick of lightly salted butter, COLD (not margarine - very important!)
3/4 cup COLD buttermilk

And then: combine dry ingredients, mix with a whisk or fork.

Oh Yeah: this is a good time to melt 3-4 TBSP butter for use later.

Moving on: cut the COLD butter into little pieces, as small as you can get them. Cut these into the flour with a pastry knife, 2 knives, or your fingers. I don't have a pastry knife, so I cut through the flour/butter mix with 2 steak knives for a while, then squeeze the butter pieces with my fingers to help the process, then go back to the knives. You want to end up with the butter cut into the flour so the pieces of butter are very small, for the most part. It should end up looking like a coarse cornmeal with butter chunks. The bigger butter pieces are OK - they help create the little voids in the biscuits that'll hold the honey later on. Gaaaaahhhhhhh!

After that: stir in the butter milk slowly with a fork until you get a sticky ball of dough. Don't stir too much - once the dough mix starts following the fork around in a more or less cohesive lump you've got it. It's OK to add a little more buttermilk if you have to to get all of the flour moistened, but if you do add more do it with very small amounts. You should have a really sticky lump that just barely holds itself together.

And then: pour some flour on the counter to use for keeping your fingers dusted while you roll the biscuits into balls. I like to grab a ball about the size of a tangerine (you know, a little bigger than a golf ball but smaller than a pool ball) and roll it VERY LIGHTLY into a ball. Squeeze it down a little bit and put it on a lightly greased (with butter, of course) cookie sheet. Handle the dough very lightly - the less you work the dough the fluffier the biscuits will be. Repeat the dough-ball-rolling bit until all of the dough is rolled - try to keep an inch or so between the biscuits on the cookie sheet. Use the butter you melted earlier to brush the tops and sides of the little dough balls of joy, and then slide them puppies in the oven. Wait about 12-15 minutes and pull'em out when the tops are a golden brown. The bottoms should be brown and crusty - sort of reminiscent of Mom's cornbread but the bottom crust won't be quite that thick.

Last Step: find a place to sit down where you can be comfortable while you're slathering on the butter, jelly, or other sweetness. Also good with sausage, cheese, bacon, eggs, and other fried commodities.

I ain't jokin': use butter. It matters. Make sure the oven's HOT when you put them in. Eat 'em while they're hot, and plan to take a long nap afterwards.

Variation: add 1/3 cup of grated sharp cheddar cheese and about 1 TBSP less butter to the flour mix. Goddam. You don't even know, man.

Enjoy. The first time I made these I ate the whole batch at one sitting. I've made these at least a dozen times now, and each time they turn out a little different, but it's like the difference between nirvana and paradise so there ain't no big loss there....you know what I mean.

Feel free to pass this around to anyone you know who might be interested in this kind of self-abuse.

Anna & Thomas's Wedding

Congratulations on your wedding and best wishes for a healthy and prosperous future together, Anna & Thomas! Here are a couple of photos I took at the reception....you are all a very photogenic bunch!

A fire, a flood, a plague, and a miracle.....

Well, it's a sho'nuff real live hospital, now. We worked pretty much round the clock the last two weeks doing the final cleaning, touch-up painting, checking electrical circuits and filling medical gas cylinders. We had the kitchen to get fully on line, operating rooms to sanitize, x-ray and lab equipment to commission, and HVAC controls to program. And most everything went smoothly, except for the fire, the flood, and the plague.

Opening day for any project can be hectic, so it's not unusual for the run-up to actually opening the doors to be like trying to organize a litter of kittens into a marching band. And that's if there are no surprises. There are always the odd late deliveries to deal with, or equipment glitches to tweak out, or subcontractors that disappear at the wrong time or show up in the wrong place, and we generally have contingency plans to deal with those kinds of things. There are some events, however, that just plain defy the logic of planning. And knowing the history of this job, I should have known that things were going just a bit too smoothly here at the end. After all, over the last three years we've had to deal with hurricanes, heart attacks, bankrupt subcontractors, falling precast panels, labor unrest, immigration round-ups, and concrete rationing, to name just a few of the dozens of unusual events and mysterious happenings that have come up during the course of construction here. So I should have known that although it had been really frantic in the last months trying to get the work done and inspections signed off it was all just a little too, uhmmm......normal.

So....when I looked out at the building from the office trailer compound and saw a huge column of smoke billowing out over the roof of the loading dock I was actually surprised. "Dammit bubba, that just doesn't look right," I thought. Three years of construction, and now, less than a week away from handing over the keys, we're gonna burn the place down? Perfect! Luckily, it was a dumpster full of cardboard that caught fire, probably from a carelessly tossed butt, and not the actual building. And we were able to get a forklift over to it and pull it away from the building before it caused any damage. The fire department came, and after doing a thorough investigation of the scene decided that the only real hazard was to the dumpster itself, so they decided to take advantage of the opportunity to try out their new ladder truck in a variety of positions and ladder / hose configurations as they soaked the dumpster and loading dock area.

That next morning I got some good natured ribbing from the folks in the hospital as I walked through the building. No big deal, just glad yesterday's incident didn't really do anything to disrupt the ongoing setup work, especially here in the kitchen where the chef was starting up the kitchen equipment in preparation for the upcoming open house event. As I walked across the atrium floor one of the hospital staff, in a panic, came running up hollering "Andy man there's a toilet overflowing in the kitchen you've gotta come fix it!" No big deal, right? How bad could a stopped up toilet be to fix? So imagine my surprise when I opened the door into the kitchen to see a couple of inches of toilet water (to be polite) standing on the floor of the kitchen, and a steady stream of fresh toilet water streaming out from under the door of the staff restroom and into the food prep area. Yeah. Gotta love that. Luckily, the chef was pretty cool about it as he flashed his big butcher's knife at me and let me know that there would be filet on the menu that night and that it was completely up to me to determine if it would be beef or not. Also on the lucky side, we've got a great bunch of folks on the job, and once I got the 911 call out on the radio to our superintendents and labor crew we got the situation under control pretty quickly. In less than five minutes we had the source of the overlow isolated and shut down, and the cleanup and sanitizing completed in time to allow the chef to finalize his menu selections in a favorable manner. And it turned out that the root cause of the problem was towels that had been flushed down one of the toilets upstairs in the OR area. Curious, huh? Like you, once I heard that's what the problem was I immediately wondered how and why someone would be flushing towels down the toilet and just exactly how many flushes would it take to get the entire towel downward bound?

And then....everything went quiet again for a few days. On the day of the VIP reception and open house the morning came in clear and cool, with a light breeze off Biscayne Bay that gently rustled the fronds on the royal palms in the parking lot. All the workers and staff had gotten situated and were busy with their tasks, and I had just finished my morning meeting with our Owner's rep when I got a call on the radio. Our superintendent Mark, a physical giant of a man and one of the calmest, most laid back people that has ever walked this planet (he's from Elmore County, Alabama, by god) called from the parking area right next to the hospital front entrance, which just happened to be the place where all of the VIP attendees for that night's reception would be parking. "Uhmm, hey bro, you got a minute?" "Sure thing, Mark, what's up?" "Well, ahhh, you know anything about bees?" "They sting and they make honey, I guess. Why?" "Well, I gotta tell you, man, it looks to me like we're either gonna have a bunch of honey or a whole lot of bee stung suits tonight. Maybe both" Long pause, then "What the heck are you talking about, Mark?" "Maybe you oughta come out and see this, bro, 'cause there's the biggest swarm of bees out here I've ever seen, and it looks like they're settling right in to these live oaks out here." Sweet.....

We got the local beekeeper out, of course, and he weaved his magic and the bees disappeared.

And the open house events that weekend went really well, with no further Murphyisms or Steven King type episodes. And the last week was busy and stressful, but predictable, and, to paraphrase Ms. Piercy, there's real comfort and satisfaction that comes with bending your back to a task and slogging ahead through the muck towards an end in common rhythm with a team of men and women pulling equally at your side. And that's how it went, all the way up to Sunday morning when the old hospital closed their ER and we opened up the doors here. It took until around noon to transfer the hundred or so patients from there to here, and by early afternoon the new place was in full scale operation.

So, a little before noon on Sunday, May 6, 2007, after three years of fitting together countless puzzle pieces of concrete, steel, wood, and glass, and two weeks of fire, flood, and plague, we could really call this place a hospital when the first miracle happened here - little Ramona Quiala came squealing into the world at six pound fifteen ounces. I was up on one of the patient floors when they announced her arrival over the intercom, and for an instant my mind flashed to the thousands of men and women whose efforts made this moment come together, and all of the long days and sleepless nights that have passed since I got here from Denver. We all bitch about our jobs from time to time, and I know I've done more than my share of that, but to have been able to play out my small role in making this miracle happen here is rocket fuel for the soul.

Cool stuff brothers and sisters, very,very cool stuff.

Gotta run now, and get to bed before it gets too late.

Grand Opening

So, we opened the hospital in grand fashion this weekend. And I say we but it was really a pair events organized and put on by the hospital - a VIP reception Friday night for the hospital doctors and staff, the Board members, the architects, and community leaders, and then the public ribbon cutting and open house on Saturday. The Friday night event included some speechmaking, some fireworks, awesome food, and seven, count 'em, seven, open bars set up around the atrium. A good time was had by all, if I recall correctly.

The Saturday event had a crowd that was estimated to be between 7,000 and 10,000 people. All wandering around in my building scuffing the floors, dinging the walls, flushing diapers down the toilets. Ahhh, serenity now..... Anyway, it was rewarding to me to see the excitement on people's faces as they walked around their new hospital, and the hospitaldoes seem to be serious about their message to the community that this is indeed intended to be their hospital. There was face-painting, free food and refreshments, and the local Nascar folks even brought a race car out for the kids to climb in. Cool stuff all around.Another thing that I think is cool is that the hospital didn't skimp on artwork for this place. The walls are lined with the works of local artists and photographers that depict scenes from this area and it really solidifies that idea of this being a community building.

Zeke and Judy came down for the weekend, and it was fun to hang out with them, although I kept getting pulled away to shake hands, visit, smile for pictures, etc. and didn't get to spend as much time with them Friday night as I had hoped, but we did get a chance to take a long, leisurely, and private behind the scenes tour on Saturday.

And Sunday we went sailing on Florida Bay under a beautiful clear blue sky with a nice breeze and a cooler of beer and sandwiches. Wish you could have been there.....



So, gotta run. Here's a link to a news story that one of the local stations ran last week right before the opening, and a couple more photos from Saturday. Including a nice one of Zeke & Judy.

TCO

Good news tonight from Homestead, brothers and sisters. We received the TCO from the City today. Tee See O'Hellyeah. That's what I'm talking about. I've never seen a more beautiful, official, bona fide beauracratically originated piece of paper. The freakin' Mona Lisa of construction documentation and that ain't much of an exaggeration, trust me on that my friends. We have overcome our ob stacles and seen many wonderous things along the way, too. This time of tribulations is coming to an end, and I know there's a glorious new day gonna come a-dawnin' soon. Praise the Lord pass the biscuits and damn!!!

And, of course, we got it at the last possible minute before not having it would have been a huge problem. The state hospital licensing folks are coming tomorrow morning (yeah, that's right, tomorrow 8 a.m.) for the last of the pre-occupancy inspections, and their mission is to make sure that there are sheets on the beds, pills in the drawers, supplies in the cabinets, etc. and that the hospital is all set up to be able to treat patients the minute the inspection is over. And, of course, having documentation from the City that the building is fit for habitation is one of the first items on their list of things to check. So, there I was, sitting at the building department at 4:29 p.m. this afternoon going over a computer printout with the chief building official showing where we stand with inspections and open permits one last time to make sure we had gotten all of the i's dotted and t's crossed. The office closes at 4:30 sharp, one of the few things down in this part of the world that does happen on a rigidly observed schedule. I saw the official glance at his watch a couple of times as he sifted through the stack of paper in front of him. An administrator came in and reminded him that it was time to close up and she was taking off. For a minute I flashed to a scene from some cheap action flick where the battered hero is struggling to defuse the bomb as the timer ticks down toward zero.....

But we all know how those stories end, and that I am no hero. We did get the piece of paper we needed, though. Today. In hand in time for tomorrow's last final inspection. Dadgum I wish I could bottle this feeling and sell it cause Coca Cola ain't got nothin' on this.

I've gotta scoot now. Time for bed and hopefully some rest tonight. Buenos noches mis amigos, y sueños felices.

Slow down and listen

I ran across ths story this morning. If this had been printed on April 1st I would have assumed it was a joke.

Decompression

Today was another in a string of just achingly beautiful days here, friends. Wish you were here to experience this. Cool morning, bright blue sky, and the air just absolutely transparent. Everything had an almost too colorful glow in that early morning sun. I assed around the house for a while enjoying the morning before heading off to work, and the lure of the water as I crossed the bridge was just too powerful to resist. I did a quick run-through at the jobsite to make sure there weren't any disasters brewing, checked e-mail, shuffled piles of paper from my desk onto other people's desks, and high-tailed it back to my little island paradise.

A day on the boat is good and powerful medicine even on a gloomy weather day, but on a day like today the natural beauty of the bay and the peace and quiet are almost disorienting. There was a gentle breeze coming out of the northwest today, so Reprieve was facing out into Florida Bay, and sitting on the foredeck I enjoyed a couple of bloody marys and gazed out at squadrons of pelicans ghosting just inches off the surface against a backdrop of about three miles of placid water. Four hours passed before I knew it, and for the life of me I can't recall if I fell a sleep or just spaced out on the view and the gentle bobbing of the boat on the incoming swell. I'm pretty sure a man could get used to that feeling, though, awake or not.....

~~~ _/) ~~~~
~~ ~~~ ~~~
~~~ ~~~

Hurdle cleared...

Hey friends....good news. We had the AHCA inspection team here today for a final final inspection, and at the end of the day they granted approval for occupancy. This isn't the end of the inspection process - we've still got the fire marshal inspections to finish as well as the local building department inspections, but getting AHCA behind us is HUGE. We're almost finished with the other inspections, and by the end of next week we should have the temporary certificate of occupancy, which is the document we need from the City that will allow the hospital to move into the building.

The grand opening is April 28th, and if you're reading this you're invited.

I think it's time for a cold beer. Cheers!

Hole in the head gang - new member

Welcome to the club, brother Rick. My sympathies on the upcoming headaches and aggravations that come with having a piece of your skull removed so someone could go rooting around in there with a stick, but, you know, it's all worth it in the long run. I understand that it was problems with typing that tipped you off to the problem. For me it was not being able to make left turns. Pat's awareness of and enrollment in the hole in the head club came with much more immediacy, of course, but it kinda makes sense that everyone would take their own route to membership in the perforated cranium society.

The good part of this is that from now on you've got an official bona fide medical excuse for being as goofy as you want to be, and, as I'm sure you've noticed, that's something that Pat and I have taken full advantage of every time the opportunity has presented itself. And on some occasions before the opportunities have arisen, but that's not something we need to go into here, of course. Anyway, from now on you've got license. Forget a birthday? - dadgum hole in the head. Go to the grocery store for bread and milk but come home with radishes and light bulbs? - doggone noggin' knockin' gotta be the reason. Wear red sneakers everywhere? - well, you get the idea.....

Seriously, though, I hope you get back on your feet as quickly as you want to and you don't have too many unpleasant side effects. If there's anything I can do to help please let me know. There's a comfortable spot for you here at the Crazy Cave for convalescence if you're interested.

And, also seriously, let's all try to have fun out there but be careful not to end up brain side down too much, OK?

Progress

I took a few shots of and in the building before I left work tonight. We're getting close to being able to call this a built.....



I climbed up on the roof of the building next door to take these next shots:





This is the Pediatric ICU, called "Speediatrics" because the Nascar folks are big contributors to the pediatric program here:



This is the ICU nurse's station:



This is one of the operating rooms:



This is a view of the surgery waiting area on the second floor from across the atrium:



Cool stuff. Our state inspectors will be back at the end of next week for what we hope will be the last of their final inspections. After they get done we'll still have the fire department finals to complete (they've inspected everything but the first floor already), the health department (for the kitchen), and then the last of the City finals. We've got a lot of loose ends to wrap up, but I think we're gonna gitter done.

Gotta scoot now. It's bedtime and I need some sleep.

buenas noches y sueños dulces, los niños....

See the sky

When was the last time
you really saw the sky?
Not through the windshield
or out the kitchen window
but full on
head back
eyes open
falling in

Lying in the grass
in the afternoon sun
under the bright blue dome
my mind wandered back
to you
and your eyes
and the first time I really saw the sky

Warming trend

These are the glory days, as far as the weather is concerned, anyway, here in the beautiful Florida Keys. Cool clear nights, warm and bright days. It seems like everything sparkles, and the water....good lord, the water....it takes my breath away every time I catch a glimpse of it. I bolted from work today after lunch, and the view from the top of the Card Sound bridge, with the calm green of Barnes Sound to the south and the deep blue of Card Sound and Biscayne Bay to the north, was almost unbearable. Like driving through a picture postcard. I had intended to spend the afternoon looking for birthday presents for my March birthday friends and relations, but I hauled ass to the house instead, got my gear, and rowed out to Reprieve to spend the afternoon. Please accept my apologies if you're among the many who are still checking the mailbox for a package from the Crazy Cave, OK?

Anyway, it was a glorious afternoon, and it seems kind of funny now, but for the few hours I was on or on the way to and from the boat I felt like a kid skipping school, which is something I have a lot of memories of somewhere. The sun on my face, the sand under my bare feet, the deck rising and falling on the swell....no phones, no fax machines, no inspectors, architects, subs, or superintendents. Peace and freedom, by god, and I highly recommend it.

Peace and freedom. I don't know if those are necessary partners with independance and solitude, but for me they sure do seem to go together pretty well.

Hanging out with Susie a while back reminded me how powerful and soothing it can be to have someone to be close to, and how unfamiliar I've become with the comfort of a close ear to whisper in. It also reminded me how much work is involved in being in a relationship, and how if you're gonna go for it you'd better make sure you've picked the right person.

There was a wedding at Snook's this afternoon. They have a jetty that goes a little ways out into the water, and the bride & groom exchanged their vows as the sun disappeared into Florida Bay behind them. I stopped and watched from the dinghy for a few minutes as I was rowing in. It was a beautiful scene, but it made me wonder if maybe getting married at dawn wouldn't have a more hopeful symbolism.

I stopped at the cafe on the way home for some frijoles negros y maduros, and flirted with an incredibly charming woman. Usted tiene la sonrisa más hermosa, I said, and she replied with, I believe, my smile is for you. And she was right, because I left with the smile she gave me.

The weather forecast for the next few days here is sunny and warm......

Smelling onions and bacon

The mood at the exit conference was tense. For two days we had three state inspectors going through the upper levels of the building testing the fire alarm, nurse call, and medical gas alarm systems, checking ADA issues, inspecting wall penetrations above ceiling, spot checking the test and balance reports, etc. The full blown fine toothed comb approach to checking out a building for occupancy that only a group of state employees could provide. At the end of the second day we gathered up in our conference room with the architect and engineers and the Owner to hear the inspectors read through their comments from the inspection and deliver the verdict on whether or not the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th floors of the building were approved for occupancy. It was clear during the inspections that the systems were working almost flawlessly, and at different times each of the inspectors commented on the fact that the quality of the work was so good that they weren't finding very much to complain about. I could tell from the looks on our superintendent's faces, however, that they knew from past experience that "almost flawlessly" could be grounds to deny occupancy, and we were all holding our breath as the mechanical / plumbing inspector started off reading his notes and comments.

The way the state hospital inspection system works here, by the way, is that one inspector is responsible for the HVAC, plumbing, and medical gas systems, one inspector handles the electrical and nurse call systems, and one inspector reviews the architectural components. Each inspector is a registered professional engineer or architect, and although they're all very professional each has their own unpredicatable little quirks. Our team and our subs had all worked night and day, seven days a week for the last several several weeks to get the systems completed and tested and the building itself spit-shined and polished for this inspection, so we were all a little on edge waiting for their decisions.

And...they signed off the 4th 5th, and 6th floors completely, and we got the mechanical / plumbing sign-off for the 3rd floor. The old almost flawlessly thing kind of hung us up on 3, but, you know, we'll celebrate the successes we did achieve and make belt and suspenders sure that the things that weren't just so on 3 are tightened up all the way before the team comes back.

Friday night after the inspection I took our folks out for a happy hour at the local watering hole to unwind, and it was really great seeing everyone let loose a little bit after busting their asses so hard to get things finished. We've still got a long way to go to get the rest of the building done, of course, but I can tell that now that everyone has gotten a glimpse of what the complete finished product will look like it will be easier for them to bear down and push through to the end.

I was absolutely exhausted when I got home, and collapsed into a deep sleep as soon as my head hit the bed. In the night I had a dream that I was a dolphin swimming effortlessly through crystal clear water, chasing little fish in and out of coral canyons and across sandy flats, and I remember thinking that although the fish were tasty and the swimming and chasing was being done in gorgeous surroundings it wasn't all that exciting. Breaking the surface of the water, though, and taking in the salty air and peeking at the clouds and the sky, now that....that was a thrill. Just a dream of course, but.....gotta wonder about the symbolism of being engaged in something that comes very natural but being so intently drawn to something so completely out of my element.

Meanwhile, back on earth.....got up Saturday morning to go to work and the car wouldn't start. Got the battery jumped and headed out but the brakes started squealing like a junior high school band at the first halftime of the season. Pulled over at a Napa store and sprayed some fix it all stuff on the pads which quieted the squealing. Stopped and got gas on the way to work, and when I checked the oil the dadgum dipstick tube came apart and I ended up pushing the dipstick, and my knuckles, halfway through the plastic shroud over the engine. I really love my Jetta, but it was clearly time to do something about it. I bailed out on work and poked around on the net for a while researching cars, and decided to bust a move on a new Jetta. Check it out:



It's got the TDI diesel engine, which allegedly gets more than 40 mpg on the highway (my small contribution to reducing our country's dependance on foreign oil, so you'll know), and VW's done some good stuff lately to reduce diesel emissions. Along with the new low-sulfur diesel fuel the overall emissions from this engine aren't much more than a regular gas engine, and it will put about 25% less greenhouse gas in the air than a comparable Jetta with a gas engine. Cool stuff. And it's got rich Corinthinian vinyl leather interior and a jammin' stereo with satellite radio, so, I mean, I just couldn't not make the deal, although it feels a little out of my element to be driving such a shiny clean new car. Hmmmmm......

So, I did get some work done Saturday, and got some good sleep that night. Early Sunday morning, around 4:00 a.m., the aroma of fresh brewed coffee and bacon and onions frying in a skillet wafting in through the open window in my bedroom woke me from an awesome dream where Halle Berry and I were playing backgammon in the rain on a trampoline on a soggy but freshly disked orange grove.....ahhhh, paradise! I guess one of my neighbors was having a stick to your ribs breakfast before heading out to go fishing, and a lucky coincidence of breeze and open windows brought the sumptuous bouquet of fried bean water and sizzling pig across my nose. There was no way I was gonna be able to get back to sleep and onto that trampoline at that point, so I got up and shuffled around the house for a while trying to get the old flywheel turning. I poked around on the computer for a few minutes, half-heartedly flipped through the new issue of the Sun for a little while, and stared at the laundry that I had pulled out of the dryer and piled up on my bed. After making my coffee I could still smell scent of someone's bacon and onions, and as I stood there in the kitchen gazing out the window at the dawn starting to break over the mangroves I thought "you know what, you ignorant shitforbrains, here you've been awakened from slumber by a signal from outside your comfortable little domain, and if you don't do something to act on the inspiration that's been provided to you you're gonna rot in your same old sorry assed rut forever."

So, I snapped out of that little stupor and, grabbing my destiny by it's neck, slapped a half pound of bacon into my old cast iron skillet with a cut up red onion and some garlic and proceeded to have myself a religious breakfasting experience on a folding chair out in the back yard with the birds and lizards. Halelujah, Amen.

Inspiration is out there, brothers and sisters, and even if your response to it isn't epic and life changing, let me tell you it's good for the soul to do something every day to get yourself out of yourself, if you know what I mean.

Take care of yourself so you can take care of others, OK? Till next time, know that I love you and think about each of you more fondly than you'll ever understand.

Follow your own path....

It was one of those days when traffic on the Turnpike was moving really well, which was good because I had less than two hours to cover the 180 miles left between me and my meeting in Clermont. I had left the house a little later than I had planned, so I was really hustling to avoid being late, especially since I had forgotten to get gas last night and had to swoop into the Circle K and fill up. When I went in to pay - the dadgum pay at the pump thing wasn't working, again - I let myself get drawn into a conversation between the cashier and a state trooper about whether or not widening the Stretch and replacing the drawbridge at Jewfish Creek with a fixed span was going to make a difference in the number of wrecks there - the trooper, who's worked this area for a long time, said she didn't think there was anything that would stop the speed freaks and shitheads that blaze down from Miami from finding ways of ending up upside-down in the mangroves or running head-on into Winnebagos full of innocent tourists from Ohio.

So, I was running late, and happy that traffic was light and what cars were on the road were really moving out. I had just topped an overpass when the left rear tire blew out, and that comment by the trooper about knucklheads and upside down vehicles replayed itself vividly in my head as the Jetta did the 90 mile an hour drift towards the median. Luckily I was going fast enough that my forward momentum carried me past the concrete barrier on the overpass, and the grass in the median was wet and fairly smooth. It's amazing just how big a difference anti-lock brakes make for stopping a sliding car on wet sand, you know?

Anyway, I didn't hit anything, and I was able to get the car out of the median and stopped on the left hand break-down lane with a minimum of excitement. Of course, the spare was flat so I had to call AAA to come out with an air tank and fill it up. As I was waiting, a trooper pulled up to check and see if everything was OK, and he, of course, made a comment about how lucky I was, judging from the skid marks in the grass, to not have ended up upside down in the mangroves or head-on with a Winnebago. I thanked him for his endorsement of my exceptional driving ability.

I got to Clermont eventually, and did the walk-through of the site. The hospital there is wanting to add a new bed tower and outpatient imaging center, and our company is one of the construction firms that's been invited to present a vision of how the proejct could be done and how much it might cost. My task was to survey the site with one of our superintendents and put together a logistics plan and schedule based on the hospital's "program", a one-paragraph narrative we've gotten from the hospital describing what services they wanted included in the new addition. We spent an hour or so walking the building, and developed a fairly detailed schedule and logistics and phasing plan based on nothing more than some notes indicating the number of patient rooms to be included and the different flavors of radiology equipemnt to be included. We made our best guess about where the tower should go based on the locations of the various departments in the existing hospital, and came up with a plan for routing the power, chilled water, etc. from the existing CEP into the addition without disrupting occupied spaces too much. Cool stuff, but I wish there was more time to do a really thoughtful evaluation before having to finalize our view of how this project needs to get put together.

And that's how it goes, I guess, making decisions on the fly without knowing all the facts or having enough time to really consider all of the options or be able to contemplate the impacts of the occasional unexpected blowout. What really puzzles me is how or why sometimes things turn out really well and sometimes things turn out really whacked. A wise man I know pretty well once said that everything is highly unlikely, but is it really just an endless chain of random chance events that has gotten the world to be exactly the way that it is today? That's a question that's occupied far greater minds than mine, of course, and I would guess that there are as many opinions on it as there are people on the planet today.

Regardless of how and why things happen, whether guided by destiny, god, physics, chance, or some combination of those, we all end up following a unique path, don't we? Right now I can't honestly say whether or not I really like, or understand, where my path has taken me. And don't get me wrong - there's a lot of good stuff in my life right now. Having been handed $85 million bucks with instructions to go live on an island and build something really cool has been OK. I've got an amazing family, with nieces and nephews that I adore. Y habia esta chica hermosa! So it's not like it's been all gloom and doom, you know, but more and more lately I've been contemplating how or why I've ended up here and where I'm headed next. If it's all up to random chance I guess there's no sense sweating it too much, but if personal choice and preference can at least in some small way affect where we end up, I better get my shit together and figure out where I want to be next. I should probably figure out what's in my "program" first, and then put together a schedule and logistics plan....

I stumbled across this little clip a few minutes ago, and it occurred to me that it illustrates the idea that there are many ways to get something done, and that we're all going to find our own way and our own style to to do what we do. This is a reminder to take some joy in the getting it done, too.


Amazing - video powered by Metacafe

Good morning

There's a hole in my head that the coffee goes into, but I'm not sure it's draining to the right spot because there just ain't no waking up this morning. Maybe a colada from the cuban cafe will do the trick.......I'll go check that out in a minute, but first I want to share this:



Oh yeah, I added a few new links over there in my favorites list.....

Peace out till later on, friends.

Up for air...

Dadgum, has it really been almost two months since I posted last? What a freakin' slacker.....

I have been busy, though. Thanksgiving with the clan in Elkin was a lot of fun. Here's a link to some photos from the gathering (plus two bonus shots!).

I've been spending lots of time at the jobsite, too, of course. Things are coming along pretty well there, but there's still a lot of work to do before we'll have the entire building ready to turn over to the hospital folks. Here's a link to some recent shots from the building.

Oh yeah, and it looks like the thing with Susie isn't really working out the way I hoped it would. Guess that's the way it goes, huh?

Well, at least I've broken the ice here by getting something posted, and now I've gotta scoot.

Eat a peach for peace.....