Sometimes people are stuck in a state of suspended fashion animation. Spikey Roxette hair is still big in Dallas having survived since the late 1980’s. I have at least ten confirmed sightings including a jogger this morning on my way to work. Most of the women I’ve seen sporting spikey do’s have been in their mid to late forties, which seems about right. They found a style that worked for them and have been wearing it for twenty years. If you’re going to be anachronistic go out on a limb; wear a peruke or tight flapper curls. I always thought it would be neat to kick it way old school: 17th century breeches, powdered wig, and tri-corner hat. There has to be a market for this. Why are we stuck in the same old pants and shirt paradigm?
Personal
Toll tag
One thing about taking the tollway in Dallas is that it helps to use a tolltag. Basically, this is a credit-card shaped plastic transponder you paste to your windshield. When you go through a tollgate it automatically debits funds for the toll from an account you have with the North Texas Tollway Authority. This ends up being quicker for everyone since you don’t have to scramble to find change for the toll. In exchange for using the transponder, you are given a slight discount on the total cost of the toll. So, for example, if the toll starts out at 75 cents when you enter the tollway, you might pay only 60 cents, which ends up being a sizable discount of around 20%. As you use the tollway, the funds in your account are replenished from the credit card you put on file with the tollway authority.
The North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) is a self-supporting political sub-division of the State. The NTTA receives no tax funds from any source. Debt service, operations and maintenance are funded entirely from user fees (tolls).
I’m growing to like the tollway. It’s less crowded than the other major highways in Dallas and it is a straight shot to where I work up in Addison. It’s pretty much due north and it saves me about 20-25 minutes every day. Judging from the amount of traffic during the day, the tollways must be a big money maker for someone. If you figure each car is paying anywhere from $.75-1.50 per trip, twice a day you start to get some huge numbers.
Since the NTTA is a quasi-governmental entity you can review the financials on the NTTA website. From there you find some interesting information:
Total operating revenues were $165.3 million and $152.5 million for FY 2004 and FY 2003, respectively. System toll revenues for FY 2004 were $160.7 million, a seven point six percent (7.6%) increase over FY 2003 compared to an eight point two percent (8.2%) increase in FY 2003 over FY 2002. Traffic on the System continues to grow, with approximately 863,100 and 811,000 average daily transactions in FY 2004 and FY 2003, respectively, and almost seventy-one percent (71%) collected electronically. Collection of tolls electronically increased over 2003, which was sixty-eight percent (68%). Actual traffic on the PGBT continues to exceed Traffic & Revenue Engineer estimates.
It’s interesting to see what kind of funds are flowing into the system. Traffic and highway systems are hugely complex and important systems involving millions of people and trillions of dollars. Everything we enjoy about modern life is made possible by the ability to get people, goods, and services in and out of the city.
Dryclean me
Second day of work at the new job, I’m in the deli by myself reading an old issue of Time magazine during my lunch break. The meatball sub I ordered is brought out and I take a bite as I read about the “best gadgets of 2005″ or some other such nonsense. As I bite down, a thick jet of hot spaghetti sauce spurts onto my lap and chest covering me with tomato gore. It was one of those laugh or cry situations, but being an old hand at embarrassing myself, I did my best to play it off. When the crowd thinned out I snuck out with my jacket in front of me and called the office and told them I’d be working from home for the rest of the afternoon since I wasn’t about to go back to the office looking like an extra from the set of Carrie.
Living in the Big D
I’m in Dallas now. Officially. I’m living downtown so the commute isn’t bad at all. I just hop on the tollway and 20 minutes later I’m there. Up here you hear horror stories about people getting up at 4am to drive an hour and a half to work from the burbs. Luckily, I’m able to stay on the tollway going in the opposite direction as everyone else.
Communion
You may remember a mention I made over a year ago about bottlefeeding a newborn calf who had lost his mother. During my visits to Oklahoma over the past year, I watched him grow from a wobbling baby into a solid young bull. He went from tugging on the bottle to shoving you out of the way while you tried to pour feed into his trough. As he grew, he became more standoffish; glowering from his corral like a sullen teenager.
Two weeks ago he was “put up”, which is to say slaughtered and butchered. And last week we had him for dinner.
After eating the same animal you helped raise it leaves you with a feeling of ambivalence. I understand now why primitive people honored the animals they hunted. They lived with an intimate connection to the natural world.
When I was a vegetarian, I thought I could buy my way out of the world’s cruelty. If I could just stop eating meat, I would somehow store up some credit with the universe. Nevermind that I wore leather shoes. This moral fiction provided a way for me to avoid the pain of reality; that I am a fleeting bloom of life like everything else in this bloody world.
Gospel of Thomas, saying number 60: “They saw a Samaritan carrying a lamb going into Judaea. He said to his disciples: Why does he carry the lamb? They said to him: That he may kill it and eat it. He said to them: So long as it is alive he will not eat it, but if he kill it and it become a corpse. They said: Otherwise he will not be able to do it. He said to them: You also, seek for yourselves a place within for rest, lest you become a corpse and be eaten.”
I’m a sole man
Yeah, well, I’m the only one at work today, but then I’m the guy who’s leaving. I expected everyone else to be here, but I’m out of touch with what everyone else does. It’s entirely possible I was apprised of everyone else’s schedule, but it didn’t stick. I also don’t really do vacations. I’m more of a long weekend kind of guy. I’ll take off a Friday here and there. That’s about all I need usually to feel rested. If I can plan my time off around the weekend it’s a lot more efficient, especially since I don’t have anything like paid vacation time at the moment.
Christmas makes me explode into metaphor
I left for Oklahoma right after work last Wednesday. I made good time driving north and arrived around eleven; two hours before anyone expected me. When got out of the car, I stretched and sucked in the night air; crisp and fresh like a bite into a chilled apple. Looking overhead, you could see the Milky Way stretching in a band across the sky like a string of faraway Christmas lights. Closer to the horizon, the orange, gibbous moon hung like an ornament above the clouds.
I walked up to the house where I could see light spilling from the livingroom near the front. I had to knock a couple of times before anyone heard me because they were all watching the weather and I was unexpectedly early.
Once inside, I dropped off my bags and gifts near the dining room table. Jody gave me a big hug, and her mom heated up a bowl of chili for me as we all joked around with one another in the kitchen. I took a moment to bask in a warm sense of welcome, a sheepish smile glued to my face.
I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy
After Jody’s graduation ceremony and dinner Saturday night, her mom told us some horrible news. The night before, Jody’s 22 year old cousin had been killed in a car accident. I can’t imagine what her family must be going through. It is the worst possible thing that could happen to anyone. My heart goes out to them. Something like this puts everything else in its proper perspective, which is to say that nothing else matters more than the ones you love. Nothing. With that in mind, please take the time to tell the people you love that you love them. That is one small thing that we all have control of.
I forgot to mention a coupla things
Number one: A good friend of mine, James Stewart, is getting married this summer in Shreveport to his lovely fiancee Melissa. They are actually living a hop, skip, and jump from where we’re living in Dallas. James asked me to be one of his groomsmen, and I am quite honored. Looks like we’ll be headed to Shreveport in June. Maybe Jody and I can do some gambling or head down to N’awlins or something. I’m looking forward to it. I like seeing people get hitched.
Number two: I bought a used Blackberry off Ebay. I am now a road warrior. If I had Blackberry Enterprise Server with Exchange email it would be even better. Then I could sync my calendar, task list, and address book to the device. When I was at Jiffy Lube the other day I foisted myself on a fellow Blackberry user and found out he works for Fedex in sales. He actually knows a lot of the people I used to work with over there. It seems like they have a sweet deal in sales. Apparently, Fedex provides a stipend for their sales people to have a new car. You’re not even allowed to drive anything older than five years. That makes sense obviously, since you would not want a sales person showing up in a beater. That doesn’t exactly promote the right image.
My so-called life
Several things to report for those of you interested in keeping up.
I’m moving to Dallas at the beginning of January. I procrastinated enough, but actually found a great job pretty quickly once I started looking. Sent off several applications and cover letters to various places from craigslist, et al. Got a few bites then met with a company for an interview a couple weeks ago up in Addison, which is one of Dallas’ many satellite burbs. As is the case with every other job I’ve ever gotten, the rapport with the interviewing group was strong and instant. A decision was made on the spot to offer me the job pending approval of the CEO.
I can tell you a few things that I think made a big difference. For one, I was completely calm and confident. I didn’t need the job. I had a commitment from my current employer to allow telecommuting from Dallas if that’s what I wanted to do. I also have my freelance work including clients on retainer, and I have zero debt unless you count my recent Christmas shopping. So, I was not even thinking about not getting the job. It was obvious I was qualified and experienced, and I interviewed very well. For another thing, I was a perfect fit for the position, and this makes a big difference. It’s better to be a perfect fit than to try to alter your self-description to fit a particular job you may not be ideally suited for. Another thing that helped is that I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable speaking to people since going to Toastmasters. It’s forced me to stay out of my comfort zone. It also helps that it’s a good economy. If you can’t find a job in this economy, you may need to tweak your strategy. For example here’s a job that’s open now… mine!
If you know a web designer / web developer my current employer now has an opening. Basically, technical skills will take precedence over design skills as we have an on-site person who actually comes up with all of our designs for both print and the web. Send your resume to my email address if you’re interested. I’ll be involved in making the selection, so the main things I look for are responsibility, competence, and evidence of skill. Send a resume and a few examples of some of the projects you have been involved in to my email address and I will set you up for an interview if you meet the requirements. It’s a great place to work with tons of freedom and responsibility. I’ll probably post the job to craigslist shortly, so I will send a link if that happens. Update: here you go.