SWCAMBORNE

“No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married more than a quarter century.”

Mark Twain

Here is a picture of the orchid in my office that I made re-bloom.

I have no idea what the type is.  I know that this success is a statistical thing.  I have four orchids, I feed them irregularly and keep them damp and warm.  Every few years one of them blooms.  I claim credit.  Every few years one of them dies.  I blame global climate change.

Title:

“I Spilled a Latte on My Laptop”®

sample line:

“… the password to my life is gone.”

A sad but true story.

Most of what you hear about the economy is negative so this entry is to remind you that it is not as bad as the news media makes it out to be.  And that one persons problem is another persons opportunity:
10% unemployment is 90% employment which when I went to school was an “A”

This economy is:
Bad for gardeners… Good for teenage helpers
Bad for car sales… Good for car repairs
Bad for fancy restaurants…. Good for buffets
Bad for Retailers in Malls…. Good for Etailers
Bad for home owners….  Good for home buyers

The Men of Stone completed their first public installation last week at Colbert Studios 94 North Baldwin in Sierra Madre, CA.  The owner of Colbert Studios, Allyn Colbert was extremely gracious, helpful and cooperative in allowing us to make this installation.

DeLoss admires the Colbert Stone.

Dr  Payne and DeLoss with the new installation.

During the last two years, what I call the learning phase of our enterprise, the Men of Stone have discovered, recovered, designed and installed seven stones at no charge.  We have learned a lot about the process and what works and doesn’t and are now ready to begin the next phase of our project.  In the next phase we will install seven to ten large stones at cost on qualified sites.  Qualified is a term of art that will be defined as we go along.

Our objective in the second phase will be to perfect our skills and to begin positioning the art for marketing in the final phase.   These stone fountains are works of art.  They are difficult to create and require a coordinated effort of a number of artists, craftsmen and engineers.  The final price will have to reflect this reality.

To see more photos of this installation click here

To see more photos of all our installations click here.

To contact the Men of Stone about an installation email simonburrow@mac.com

So my current obsession is the names of the independent cabs in San Diego.  There are cabs that describe the ride you should have i.e. the “ASAP Cab”, the “Challenger Cab”, the Rumi Cab, and the “Happy Cab”.  Of course,  there are the traditional Yellow Cabs and Orange Cabs but there is also a “Black and White Cab”,  which is red and the “Emerald Cab” which is blue.  But my favorite, however, is the “Maipu Cab”.  The answer to this question is not here!  This obsession has me searching for it where ever I go and hoping to get a picture of it. (We actually turned around the other night when we spotted it but it was gone.) As soon as I get one I will post a picture of it.  Does any other cities have such fun with cabs?  If so I want pictures.

“Accept that some days you’re the pigeon and some days you’re the statue.”

Roger C. Anderson

In 1945 at the end of WWII England’s economy was going into a tailspin.  Soldiers were returning home without jobs, unemployment was rising and shortages of basic commodities were everywhere.  So the British electorate threw out Winston Churchill and the Conservatives and elected Clement Attlee.  England for the next 25 years tried to solve it economic problems with a combination of socialist redistribution and centralized planning.  They implemented free nationalized health care, the government owned the railroads and the steel companies and national economic policy was focused on saving jobs.  The government tried to make life fair for everyone.  It didn’t work.  The economy stagnated and millions of people fled to places like Canada, Australia and the USA where there were more opportunities.

In 1979 Margaret Thacher was elected and she changed the countries direction.  She broke the coal union and privatized industries.  She let capitalism happen.  There were winners and losers and England boomed again.

Unfortunately the “stimulus” bill that is about to be passed by the Congress is attempting to solve our problems in the same way that Clement Attlee tried to solve England’s problems in 1945.  It didn’t work then and it won’t work now.  I’m preparing for a couple of decades of a bad economy.

A few weeks ago I posted a “Moral Dilemma” about some kids playing in the front yard of  a church.  Last Friday, in order to do something I sent the link to two of the public emails at the church in question.  On Monday I received a phone call and a blog comment from Robert B.  What he said on the phone was pretty much the same as the blog comment.  Here is an excerpt:

“Instead of hiding behind closed doors and taking secret picturs like some amateur detective, why did’nt you just walk across the street and ask what was going on, instead of making accusations which have no truth in them. ……  I would get the facts before making broad statements which have a minimum of credability.”

Well Bob the reason I didn’t “walk across the street” was because I was worried that whoever I talked to would get defensive and attack the messenger.  I rest my case.

I understand the feeling of being attacked and I apologize if I offended anyone or touched a nerve.  I’m sometimes the one who gets defensive so know how it feels.  What  I wanted was to make sure that the Church knew that there were children playing near the main street and had thought about it.  It is clear that the little bit that I did to make that happen was too much so I’m going to stop.

One thing I have observed is that:

“You get the maddest when you are the wrongest.”

“Do what you can, where you are, with what you have!”

– Theodore Roosevelt