walking alone in profound thought

Thank goodness I have a "local" bank - using this as an excuse to leave the car (happily) behind and take a walk - a real walk - to the edge of the Financial District from North Beach which is just about a mile in distance. I haven't done any real walking since I was in Spain during January and I had a lot of meals to get rid of. I walk fairly fast... I can walk about two miles in about 17,6 minutes, and that's been with a camera stopping to snap at buildings and things.

When I got to the bank, I saw the manager in his office and asked my usual question about refinancing my spanish apartment with an american bank so I can quit losing $400+ monthly on conversion between the stronger euro and the weaker dollar. Of course I knew the answer would be negative but I always hope for a pleasant surprise and a positive reply instead.

I returned home using a different route taking me up to the steep hills of Nob Hill - I needed this exertion as I haven't walked in so many months. The frigid wind whipped around the corners as I reached the top but it was refreshing. An unseen ambulance blaring with sirens zipped by on another street... I didn't care. I passed by an apartment building with ornate windows and pulled out my cell to snap a picture... a woman walking a small brown dog watched me as she stepped closely behind me. Her expression told of unknown and unseen horrors; hopefully it wasn't her windows!
I saw cars zipping through stop signs, people walking by without noticing their close proximity to the driven danger, their eyes downward, talking on cell phones or listening to an unseen and unheard iPod. Birds not caring of the humans below and the unknown close brush with death glided above our heads.... twisting, turning, circling....

I walked down a steep hill where city workers dressed in bright orange vests were busily sweeping and pushing brooms. I greeted the two of seven nearest me, wishing them a good morning and to take care, and they politely smiled and returned the greeting.

At the top of the next hill at Taylor and Union, across the street a couple stood next to a parked car, looking to the bay where their cameras pointed. I looked past their cameras and smiled, and they smiled back. Stepping onto to Union Street a MUNI bus stopped, and the air hissed as the bus "kneeled" and dropped four inches to the ground as an elderly woman stepped gingerly off the bus and walked away, cane in hand. I waved to the bus driver as he waited for me to walk past in front of his bus before driving off.

a sunset to blind oneself by

The sky was so clear above the horizon and it was so blindingly bright that I couldn't face it. I looked to the south and saw a seemingly tiny sailboat bopping like a cork in the winds, going one way then another... I thought: that's not tacking at all.... bit the boat made headway and blew past the helo pad, then toward the bridge....

I read a book while waiting, thoughts turned to the chapters beneath my fingers. Cars zipped by.... bicycles zoomed by.... joggers ran past my car.... and the sun kept dropping lower in the sky toward the horizon. I could now make out a line of clouds just above the waterline.... very faint outlines, like skyscrapers over the water.....

Soon it was time to leave the warmth of my vehicle, grabbing the cameras to watch the last of the lowering of that golden globe. Birds flew past my eyes, past the cliffs and past the many strangers standing there... still, watching....

They blew past rather than flew.... they glided past at the speed of flung rocks from atop the cliffs, down toward the water to a thrown death but then gliding up again without flapping a wing, soaring even higher than before to hover endlessly, it seemed.... then winging toward parts unknown as they caught the wind in the wings again.

The sun was now at cloud-level and backlit the clouds brightly. It seemed as if on fire.... so bright were those soft edges.... soon it disappeared slowly into the clouds, splashing its golden glow upon that clear sky, dashing out the light yellow and painting the emptiness with golden streaks of color......
Then it was gone.... a container ship steamed past the golden exhibit as though it was a plain storefront with not even a look toward its golden light. It steamed out to the horizon, quiet.... disappearing soon into the clouds itself....

My Opinion

The world is in turmoil and it's all because of GREED. It used to be that products were made with care, patience and good workmanship with the end product being a quality item, or a service that would draw new customers or bring back previous clients. Now it's all made with the lowest quality materials with a planned breakage period of a few months. What happened to making a good product or providing a honestly-good service to make the client happy?

It used to be that you could walk into a bank and people remembered your name. They would smile, not because they were told to or to give the impression of being friendly.... they just truly honestly were friendly and wanted to help you. GREED has now taken over everything and everyone, and who cares about customer satisfaction?

If YOU and I were to open a company, we would be required to hold dear to out company values that all would be done in a timely and orderly fashion, to be financially sound, and if one day my company did not hold those values true, we would be closed.

Kaput.

Gone... NO longer a company. Nobody would help us... why help them? Someone else will take our places. Others will replace them. Let them close.... they deserve that. Nothing more and nothing less than would be offered poor normal everyday people like YOU and I.

Imagine: just months ago it took over $50 to fill your gas tank, and today that same amount of gas into your vehicle doesn't even cost $30. High profits? I think the word here that describes it accurately is GREED. No regard for your neighbors, your fellow man; just a requirement to get something out on the streets at any cost and toss it to the wind.... no regard as to whether it's financially sound for all, but just the one single thought of GREED to get as much money for me, my company and my shareholders.

In this time and age, most companies are turning out bad poorly-worked products that cost them pennies due to the low value of the materials used. Financial institutions are giving less in returns to their clients and charging more for services that used to be FREE. People were in the process of losing their homes, or had lost their homes.

Do the managers or CEOs in their big offices know what it's like to go from a home to return to at the end of a work-week, or to just have a roof over your head? I think in the time that they spend in their driven vehicles and in their huge offices, they have lost touch with their company, their workers, the community they live in, and in their company's mission and pride.

Do they care about old values that should be the new values? Do they understand loyalty, dedication, having a happy employee who would give their shirt/blouse for a company that cares for them as a person and not just being an employee?

Do banks and other companies realize what they are doing to the community when you start refusing refinancing, taking lower payments, or just giving a honest chance for working people to remain in their homes? Sure, they are a business first and must show a profit for their board and shareholders, but at what cost to the community?

Now you have a continuously growing population of people who used to own homes and who used to work. These people are on the streets! It could be you... it could be me. It should be them soon.... but as always, it never will be. If these pigs went to a prison, it's more like a country club. Their families would still be living quite comfortably in their nice warm homes with servants. No, they don't live a normal life like you or I. They are not subject to any law or any rules.... like you or I.

The least these companies can do is when the company is showing a profit again is to rehire those laid off. The least the banks and realtors could do is to contact those who lost their homes, and give them the first opportunity before all others to regain possession of their homes.

Realtors are just as dirty and greedy as the others, and just want to get a home, dump out the owners like the banks, and sell them to the first available client who comes along. What if it were your home? What if it were your memories within those walls? Could you deal with the sadness of losing it all?

I think it should be made a requirement for all CEOs, managers and other persons in positions of high responsbility to live the homeless' day on the streets, experience the sadness, live through the nightmare of being a homeless person (even worst with a family and kids) on the street(s). For one week or even better: live one month on the streets, living on welfare, walking around or using the public transport system to get to appointments and job interviews.... live the life of a normal person.... FEEL the emotions of someone who has lost everything and must restart their life. EXPERIENCE the frustration of not having a vehicle (repossessed) and without the help of friends (they left you when your funds ran out too), and SEE the coldness of streets filled with strangers.

I think this should be made mandatory to all persons in companies and also those in public offices....

WE cannot lose sight of what the people who rely on us for guidance, for your livelihood, our purpose in our workplace, and who who we look up to.... the people are the heart of a nation, the purpose behind a community, the backbone of a union, and the bleeding heart behind all of our values that WE should have, but have been tossed by the side of the filth and sorrow of the street.

What happened to being proud of a company that had great workers and a great quality product?

Will true and honest values return to company missions?

Will GREED still haunt the world after this mess is over?

What I say to all of YOU who are guilty: SHAME ON YOU. I wish you could see the lives of those broken under the title of your GREED. I wish you could live the life that has been tossed into the dark nights and live like the millions of homeless. I wish you all that should come to you, your company and your board; I won't waste my time here describing in detail what should befall your name, your position nor that of your company -- deep within you, one day what has come around will return onto you.... and you know this to be true.

It's just a matter of time.

tidbits of kindness and more....

I am just a really friendly person... too dam friendly sometimes and I get burnt a lot but oh well... I love to help people and in return, have been lucky to be helped also.

To give you an idea of how friendly (and crazee) I am, I recently was in a restaurant to eat with my sister. When dining out I have a (good) habit of washing my hands before and after eating. On this day I wore a long-sleeved sweater so by time I walked to the men's room, my sleeves were pushed up so I wouldn't get them wet. I pushed open the door to enter and saw a man there at the sink. He turned his head to me and looked - a common human reaction. I turned my hands upward as would a doctor and stated with a serious expression "I am getting ready for a surgery" as he laughed out loud. Hey, it's good to laugh!!

Often while on the road, I get stopped behind a bus picking up passengers and want to get into another lane... a car behind me sees my blinking turn-signal, flashes his lights at me and allowed me to enter that lane. I mention to my passenger that there's always a good person helping others for the sole reason of helping another individual..... to which the reply was: "you must have good karma... It would never happen to me".

Well, I have had this "good karma" just about all my life. Granted I haven't won any lotteries, have never been awarded a free vehicle or trip anywhere, but good fortune can consist of other things less material. I do things for others without any regard to myself. I've given change/money needed by a fellow shopper/human for a purchase, a parking meter, or other things. To the homeless, though I (try not to ignore but do) give food rather than money simply because I know where the food will go, but have NO idea where the money ends up.

It's an endless list of who and where I have helped people. I am not trying to toot my own horn, but kindness is contagious and am hoping that if you read this, you will think of situations and times you can also help others.

Recently on a curvy, twisting, turning narrow downgrade down a mountainside, I was followed soon by bicyclists behind me. When I was a young lad, I had a ten-speed and on a steep SF hill, a taxi stopped on a "dime" in front of me without any warning but his brake lights; I had NO time to stop gradually and hit the back of the cab and landed on the taxi's front hood.... that's all I remember but I do know I wasn't hurt at all. I remember that moment in my life and always try to respect bicyclists now when I see them. These two bicyclists were zipping down the steep mountain with me, just 20 feet behind me. I looove driving twisting roads and hardly touched my brakes but when I saw them, tried to keep in front of them and when there was a spot I could pull over, I did. To my {pleasant} surprise, the lead rider actually sat up on his racing bike in the middle of a tight turn, turned his head and waved at me shouting "thanks a lot!". I know it's hard to brake behind a car and a car can stop faster than a bicycle and when you're zooming, it's difficult to gauge how a car driver will react and if you'll end up on his hood and worst: off the road in the bushes. Besides, his thoughtful reaction and words were as kind as my pulling off the road for them.

I was in Costco a few week ago looking for an item when I passed an older short woman with a shopping cart. She was alone in an empty aisle trying to pick up a heavy case of water - she wasn't having too much luck. I immediately walked to her and as she noticed someone was nearby, she started to look up to ask for assistance, but I beat her to it and offered to help her. I picked it up and placed it in her cart, and she was grateful. As I walked off, she said: "I am so happy you walked down this aisle!".

I have a bad habit of walking up to strangers holding maps and asking if I can be of assistance. Many refuse saying they know where they are, though they continue to look at their maps. I can understand as a fellow traveler that you can never know when to trust someone in an unfamiliar place.... but I keep doing it, and have done so whenever and wherever I am: Germany, the UK, in Sweden and many parts of Spain and throughout the USA. I still continue this habit, happy to be able to assist others to get where they need to go/see.

I am all over the place taking pictures and see oftentimes others at the various locations where I find myself with my camera. Sometimes we speak but often it's just silence. When I see a couple/individual with camera in hand trying to get a decent picture of themselves with no tripod or others available to help them snap a pix, I always walk up to volunteer to snap their picture. I don't mind at all! I used to hate having pictures of myself - still do actually - but now that I am away from my good friends in Spain and Oregon, I find myself snapping pixs of myself often - shock & surprise - so that I can share with my far-away friends. I know that if I were in their shoes, I would also enjoy seeing where they have been or how their lives are. There are even times during the thousands of sunsets I've observed that I'll encounter someone with their camera, unable to get the true colors of the dying sol before them. So, I'll take their camera in hand and try to get it for them.... their happy faces of gratitude are enough for me.

Back in Spain, I remember one hot summer day as I walked back home after meeting friends in the downtown area. I never walk long return, but take off-streets and zig-zag through the maze of the streets to my apartment. On this day, I saw a woman carrying her day's shopping.... she had three bags and used both hands and her wrist to balance the heavy bags. So, I walked up beside her and asked her in spanish: I am going the same way you are.... may I help you with your bags? She paused in her steps while looking at me. What a dilemma for this woman... wanting assistance but afraid to ask from a stranger.... not wanting to insult someone by refusing but on the other hand, who can be trusted these days? After what seemed a long pause, she agreed and she put the bags down so she could give me bags to carry, which I refused and instead took the heavier bags. I walked beside her for about 10 slow-lazy minutes, making small-talk about the weather (everyone in Spain always talks of the weather), how the day has progressed, etc... and finally left her closer to her home. I would have taken the bags all the way to her home but thought that was way too much from a stranger.

These are just tidbits from my life of helping others. I am sure you have done the same and more.... just remember: we are all human and we all need help sometimes..... though we may not want to ask... a helping hand will always be gratefully accepted.....

Practice random acts of selfless kindness. Again, this isn't to toot my horn, but to show you how everyone and you can help others. This doesn't make me better than others.... I think it just makes me more human.

PS: I was just informed that the court case I was rejected as a juror weeks ago didn't even last four days... the day after I was ejected as a juror, the case was settled out of court! ;-)

View from the Bedroom Window

soooo it's raining. It rains around the world....
but sometimes from above the street, it takes on a unique perspective....
No, this image above isn't the world drain, but the corner street sewer being flooded with the surge of water from a hard downpour. Don't worry, as we speak, I am trying to figure out HOW to email 100 gallons of water to my friends in Australia.