Piles

They’ve stopped asking if I’m trying to kill myself.  I take it as a good sign.  The folks at Seaside City Hall have grown accustomed to the weekend expeditions to the top of something slippery and cold.  Most recently Eagle Peak.  How do you make Yosemite better?  Just add winter.

The roar of a jet engine, combined with the crash of thunder.  That’s what Yosemite Falls sounds like, up close, in winter.  The tallest waterfall in North America is flowing violently after a heavy rain / snow and, when sheets of ice come crashing down against granite, it sounds like thunder.  I miss the echo of thunder, and the fun of snow, and they’re both here.  Otherwise … I’m pretty much alone.  There’s one set of prior tracks in the snow heading up the 3,000 feet of stony switchbacks, but I never see who made them.  It’s a solo journey, but not really, as there are hawks and eagles up here and the memory of summer’s hike and river float with Amanda way over yonder and way down there.  

Never really alone.  Always really alone.  Discuss amongst yourselves.     

The day gig solo journey got big laughs at the Team Meeting Tuesday, as I read the words of the I-OPT assessment I took the week prior.  The test measures how you take in information and process it.  It’s a hot mess, and I read the negative words attributed to my “I-OPT Strategic Style” to the department heads to cascading comedic effect.  Insensitive, combative, impulsive, inexact, pushy, unfocused, inattentive and blunt.  There’s a roar of laughter in the room just slightly quieter than Yosemite Falls, and then I say “well, ok, I can see blunt”.  Sheet of ice crashing over and a thunder of laughs.

Laughing at me.  Laughing with me.  I think both, which is a good sign.  I also read the positive words - spirited, daring, creative, yada yada – and we all agree to take the test together, and ask the City Council to do the same.  Teams.  Teams are fun.

Teams are also demarcated by their strongest and weakest links.  Compare and contrast … oh, I don’t know, the 1985 Chicago Bears and the current vintage.  Discuss amongst yourselves because I gave up watching the NFL decades ago.

The former team chimes in with an e-mail.  Appellate court decision (here) in the sham open records case Rand won handily.  Good news is we (still we, though some can’t figure that out) won a few parts.  Bad news is we lost a few parts; the ones where the Corp Counsel deleted a bill and didn’t provide an opinion.  Worse is why does the case have my name on it?  Diercks v. City of Davenport and Malin?  I offered up every single document I had, as assuredly as I offered up every bit of spirited, daring, creative, yada yada in providing the opportunity for the community to succeed.  You can even get your own All Gaming Profits Stay In Community coffee mug through the magic of the Quad City Times photo archive emporium.  Search for "city-wide forum" in October of 2012 and remember, the 11 oz. size is perfect for holding an official George Spelius signed Midwest League ball.  What's not so perfect is the boxes and boxes of documents I provided for the open records request may not count for much as the documents not provided by the Corp Counsel opens the door for the opposing attorney to have his considerable fees paid by Davenport tax-payers, of which I’m one.  Bummer.  

The final good news (acknowledging the possibility of false positives) is the yada yada words greatly outnumber the blunt et al. ones which made the Seaside department heads laugh.

From the engineered falls of Lock and Dam #15, to the wild ones of NorCal, ever on expedition.