I guess the holiday season is truly upon us, as this morning a massive throng of unruly shoppers burst through the doors of an East coast WalMart minutes before the 5am opening, and trampled to death a young temporary worker in their fevered pursuit of whatever it is these places sell. Reported the New York Times; "...the shrieking mob surged through in a blind rush for holiday bargains..."

WalMart recently changed its slogan of 19 years from "Always low prices" to ""Save More. Live Better.".

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Tomorrow marks the beginning of Week Two of my seven-week training program to prepare me to support network equipment for the Big IT Company here in Fort Collins where I have been placed. I fared well enough in the first week, as most of the content was review of things I have worked with before, or slight variants thereof. I expect the level of difficulty to increase rapidly as we get into stuff I didn't need to know previously in my high-falutin' Senior Network Engineer days in California. Now I will be paid a third as much for knowing three times more.

I can't help but think how much more exciting this would be if I was preparing to operate my own big network, rather than resolve problems experienced (caused?) by remote users on their networks.

In any event, I will carry on day by day, week by week, and see how things turn out.

Meanwhile, Pat and I have learned that there is a co-housing development planned for Silver City in Southern New Mexico - an area that had already drawn our interest as a potential retirement spot when (if) that time arrives. We may head down there to have a look around the end of the year.

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Fear and Loathing in the workplace...

Well, in a big turnabout, I decided to take the job in the network call center after all. I had told them on the 3rd that I wasn't accepting it, but on the 15th (a Saturday) two days before what would have been my start date, I sent them an email apologizing to the recruiter for my abrupt loss of interest (and explaining a bit why - which included my loathing of the urine collection drug screening). Then, on Monday morning, I got a call from them saying they still wanted me for the position, and could I be there that morning to be 'processed', and start the next day.

I had been mulling over the fact that this might be my near-last opportunity (after a three-and-a-half-year hiatus) to re-establish my credentials as a network engineer, and that maybe this wouldn't be such a bad gig as I had imagined. I also found that my desire to paint was not matched by a willingness to confront my fear of failure in that area, and I was was not eager to commence the process.

So in I went, and as of yesterday I was a drone in a massive hive of surreal tech activity...mysterious glass walled labs and acres of cubicle farms spread among numerous buildings in a campus with an enormous cafeteria in the center. The truth is, I now find the whole hi-tech enterprise thing rather dispiriting, and my former affection for technology has evolved into edgy wariness. I don't really think it has served us all that well, and in fact I now wonder who serves what.

Anyway, I am trying to survive the vague sense of dread from day to day as I commence the process of ramping up for the job. The training is good (and will last seven weeks!), and it has rekindled some interest for me and a recollection of some of the technical elements I once enjoyed (in a more cordial environment).

If I don't feel I will be able to serve post-training for at least six months, I had best cut the training short at two weeks so I don't feel I have unfairly exploited the opportunity.

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We were talking tonight about the Italian film Cinema Paradiso, which I would probably include among my five favorites. If you haven't seen it, try to at some time. Below is a vocal rendition of the lovely theme that I ran across tonight.



And here is a trailer for the restored director's cut that was seen in Europe before a bunch was edited out for the American audience. I believe this restored version is available from NetFlix.

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About half way home last Sunday evening, as the sun lowered toward the mountains to the West, we got off I-25 at the Las Vegas, New Mexico exit and made our way to the old plaza in the center o town. What a find! Obviously the railroad brought great prosperity to the area at one time, although now that prosperity was but a memory. The plaza is dominated by the old Plaza Hotel, which still provides rooms for guests.


The Plaza, viewed from the grand old hotel.


Pat in front of the Obama campaign headquarters on the plaza.


Junk store with disturbing clown.

After we walk around downtown for a while, we drove around the neighborhoods. While gawking at all the sights, after I went down the wrong way on a one way street I almost got a ticket from a local cop who we had seen earlier emptying whisky and beer bottles taken from a car at a traffic stop.

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Before we left Las Cruces, we drove around a neighborhood of adobe style (but frame construction) houses surrounded by mostly naturalized landscape. This style really appeals to us.


Nice front yard - sure beats a grass lawn.


Not so natural, but low maintenance.

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Southbound on a secondary highway in New Mexico, we were driving in a river valley by the Sangre de Christo mountains when a flash of gold on a white spire caught our attention up the hills to the East. A Stupa! So we drove up and meandered around the dirt and gravel roads until we located the monument. A lovely example of this sort of Buddhist artifact. A little background can be viewed here about how this Buddhist installation and nearby meditation center came to be there.



We asked some folks at a nearby home about the history and back story, and discovered that one fellow we were chatting with was a harp maker with a big workshop nearby, where we visited and he took down some instruments to demonstrate for us. He also gave us more fascinating background on the local spiritual artist who was memorialized by his students with the nearby stupa.





These are the kind of events that define a road trip for me.

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Thanks to those folks who gave me feedback on the job decision. I appreciate your thoughts.

I am not going to accept it.

I already had serious doubts about it - the five weeks of training on proprietary technology, our desire consider leaving Colorado in the spring, the stress of a call center job being chained to a desk in a shared cubicle wearing a headset all day. The deal breaker came today when I received my offer letter. "...paperwork, background and drug test needs to be completed as soon as possible.".



Drug test? No one mentioned that before. I am deeply and unalterably opposed to unwarranted workplace drug testing. I view the underlying motivation as too often political, and feel that it represents an effort to impose an oppressive social agenda on citizens who are increasingly willing to surrender their personal integrity and constitutionally and naturally endowed rights in the face of such coercion. I share the philosophy of the American Civil Liberties Union on this subject...

Privacy in America: Workplace Drug Testing

Today, in some industries, taking a drug test is as routine as filling out a job application....despite the fact that random drug testing is unfair, often inaccurate and unproven as a means of stopping drug use.

But because there are few laws protecting our privacy in the workplace, millions of American workers are tested yearly - even though they aren't suspected of drug use.

Employers have the right to expect workers not to be high or drunk on the job. But they shouldn't have the right to require employees to prove their innocence by taking a drug test.

That's not how America should work.

The American Civil Liberties Union opposes indiscriminate urine
testing because the process is both unfair and unnecessary. It is
unfair to force workers who are not even suspected of using drugs,
and whose job performance is satisfactory, to "prove" their innocence
through a degrading and uncertain procedure that violates personal
privacy. Such tests are unnecessary because they cannot detect
impairment and, thus, in no way enhance an employer's ability to
evaluate or predict job performance.

I am going to try painting full time for a few months. If I can complete fifteen or so successful paintings, I can approach a gallery for representation. Pat and I want to explore Silver City, NM as a prospective place to relocate to. We need to make the house sale-ready.

I am willing to tighten my belt to make these things happen.

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Last night we wandered around the Dia de Los Muertos altars in the plaza at Mesilla.

It's time to head home - we're packing up the motel room this Sunday morning in Las Cruces. We were planning to stop in Abuquerque, but I think we will try to make it all the way (775 miles, 11 hours) to Fort Collins tonight. Hopefully take turns napping in the car underway.

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Still haven't been able to reach a decision about the call center job. Money would be nice, although a third of my California earnings with twice (or more) stress. Might be fun, might be dreadful. Might cost money because of inability to adequately monitor and manage finances (including so called investments) during a time of national/international economic ruin. Who knows?

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Las Cruces has some charming homes and qualities, but there really doesn't seem to be any compelling reason to pull up stakes and schlep everything down here at the moment. We ran around most of the day with a realtor, and enjoyed the tour, but other than the wonderful house he and his friend are building, there wasn't anything exceptional to see.


Pat and the realtor chat under the gazebo they are completing atop the hill on which their home is nearing completion.


The gazebo, from the house below. It commands a dramatice 360 degree view of the surrounding vallet and mountains. You can see Mexico from here.


There are some wonderful old adobe homes of the style I have always admired, but they are not numerous or readily available.


Here's a pseudo adobe modern house in Taos - there are quite a few of these here in Las Cruces. They have a certain charm and suggest a more graceful habitation than the average tri-level of Northen Colorado.

In general, Las Cruces suffers from the dreary sameness that afflicts pretty much the entire country, with identical franchises and fixtures of consumption and infrastructure so indistinguishable from one region to another. A little different climate and geography - not much more to get excited about, I'm afraid. Oh, but quite a bit more hispanic influence, which would be nice to encounter regularly.

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