Drifting Thoughts

It is snowing a little and very cold outside today. Honey and I have been cooped up in the house for most of the long weekend and I'm hankerin' to get a little fresh air. Now, fresh air is not rare in Denver, but it isn't always available at lower elevations; that's below 7,000 feet.

I'm an architect by training and a bureaucrat by accident. After 15 years of practicing at Architorture, I elected to apply my skills to government work. I am proof positive that those who can't make it end up supervising those who can. There is definitely something wrong with that, but I have deluded myself into believing that 15 years of practice really wasn't a failure and that my dedication to technical excellence kept me from realizing my true potential. "True potential".... that would have something to do as being recognized as the world's greatest architect, surpassing Frank Lloyd Wright and all those other pretenders to genius.

Still, I am now wearing the golden handcuffs of a pension plan that keeps me from slipping the bonds of bureaucracy. After 17 years of "service" I am becoming more and more convinced that things just don't operate as they were intended.

My special hell is in working for a school district. In this hell, the devil is played by multiple players including the school board and the superintendent. Now all of these folks are smart and well intended, but they just never seem to stick around long enough to realize their goals. I don't know if this is because they become defeated and give up, move on to greater challenges or are just declared a "has been" when the term limits force retirement. Anyway, a large urban school system is like an ocean liner. She can't be turned in an instant. And, the "don't work" part of the system is that superintendents and board members can't seem to steer the ship long enough to aim her at the desired port. This crew is soon replaced by new sailors who see that charting a different course is the way to utopia.

We'll talk more about this later. At present, I'm cold and hungry and I'm going to go upstairs and get a bite to eat.

Ya'll be good,
R.K. "Tex" Arado