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What is Architecture?

3/6/2015

Architecture is opinionated and diverse. It is many things to many people, so how can we tell others what exactly it is, if we can't nail it down amongst ourselves?

Architecture to me is designing buildings. That is what I thought when I decided as a senior in high school to pursue a degree in architecture. That is what it meant to me when I graduated from college and that is still what it means to me after having my own firm for 27 years.

As much as I have defined architecture for myself, my wonderful, frustrating, and enlightening education helped me see it was so much more. Architects are spatial organizers. We create environments which affect how people feel and interact. Architecture is a design process, we just design environments, be they buildings, enclosures, or exterior spaces.

The most wonderful thing about architecture is even if you consider yourself to be conservative like I do, it gives you the ability to see, think, and accept things, people, and concepts that you do not personally agree with because you have been taught to think outside the box. You understand that all things are not either right or wrong. A lot of life's decisions are just opinions and conclusions.

There are few definitive things in architecture, but there is an abundance of gray areas. We evaluate and process the information and based upon our knowledge and understanding of the subject matter we make what we think are the best decisions on how to address the issues at hand. Learning how to evaluate and analyze are two of the biggest assets we take from college. It is sort of like my half year of typing I took in the eight grade. I have no idea how valuable that would be down the road when the personal computers became a "thing". It wasn't until years after I got out of college did I realize just what they had taught me in Cowgill Hall (my school of architecture)

It is a fabulous profession. It is diverse, so many people can take many different career tracks. I look forward to working everyday, even when it is a struggle. It is a fun profession and God willin' I'll still be doing this when I am 90. I just won't draw as many buildings or be drawing them as fast.

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Illegitimi non carborundum

2/2/2015

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"You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away"

I know, quit stealing everyone else s words, but it is what comes to my mind when I think of what I want to talk about.

Dealing with undesirable clients.
Some start out nice enough, but then down the road they apparently turn to the dark side and you get caught by surprise! I was raised by a "colorful" father that I would say had one foot on each side of the track, so I have seen both sides in my youth. I pretty much decided that I only wanted to operated on one side and that is pretty much where I stayed, but when exposed to the other side I am not naive, nor do I have the deer in the head light look.

Sometimes you get in an undesirable situation and I would say most youthful people would keep following the dangling carrot to try to get out of the situation. As you get older you learn sometimes you just need to cut your losses or you need to stand your ground. Even when standing your ground you may lose, but you don't lose everything and hopefully make the situation as unpleasant and as much a pain in the ass for the other person. I like to think I have standards and morals and that is what keeps me from just walking away. If I walk away I lose, and if I stand my ground I lose, but at lease my conscience knows I tried to do the right thing.

I had an impasse with a client. I had given him five sets of drawing, but after I gave him the drawings is when the impasse raised it's ugly head. I told him not to use my drawings until we had a resolution, but he had taken them downtown and put them in for permitting. Since they were not paid for, I still considered them my drawings and promptly went downtown and took them back. I had sent an email stating what I was going to do, which the client didn't respond to, so I didn't feel obligated to tell him what I had done. It took him about three week to figure it out. I went back to inspections for a totally different project, but decided to see if anything had been done, so I looked in the bin that should have only had the application permit and found two more set of drawings the client had obviously reinserted. So I took those two, wrote a letter to everyone in inspections that I typically dealt with and explained the situation and asked them not to review the sets until I told them is was OK. The client told me I "ruined" his reputation downtown and that my letter had made it all the way to the Mayor's office. I responded I did not "taint" his reputations, but he did by his actions sneaking behind my back and slipping the additional two sets in when he knew I did not approve.

So how does all this apply to what I want to say today.
1) Find good clients
2) Dump bad ones as soon as you can
3) Unless you absolutely need the money (which I have in many cases) walk away.

I held my ground and came to a middle ground agreement with the client. He is not happy. I did not get compensation for what I was asked to do, but I got something. I have to be involved with this client on another project that has other people involved, so I came to some agreement so we would have not a toxic environment on the other project. I am not involved in the other project for the money as much as I am good friends with one other the other people involved and I didn't want to leave them hanging. Otherwise I would cut all ties.

This original situation lasted about two months and I found it to be mentally draining. It zapped to much of my energy and I resent that I had to deal with it. The client is manipulative and wants to renegotiate everything all the time to better his position. I do not want to deal with client like this. I have dealt with about three clients like this in my twenty seven years of being self employed, so I consider myself lucky.

You need to listen to your gut and follow your conscience. My toughest decisions are internal. I can walk away from any client, unless I need the money to support the family. Right is right and wrong is wrong!

I tell friend "I am not intimidated by anyone, scared by some, yes, but intimidated, no!"

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Back in the saddle again...sort of

1/18/2015

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I tried posting last year on a regular basis and give props to the people who do. I lasted from the end of January to the middle of November. Then I got busy and things got a bit stressful so I determined to make more room to deal with life, the posting would be shuffled down in the priority list.

I assume most people post to expand their sphere of influence, as to bring on new work you need new clients. If the potential client doesn't know about you then you have two chances of landing them - Slim and none. I started posting because I just wanted to share my thoughts. I have been in this profession for 34 years and have been exposed to and learned a few things. Wisdom is highly underrated!

One of my biggest internal issues with posting is I don't like people telling me definitive things about what I should or should not do, so I don't feel comfortable telling others what I think. I know I typically come off in a submissive manner, saying this is what I think, but ...... Typically at the end of my post I try to clarify that it is only my opinion. I really have to stop doing that in 2015.

Will I try to post once a week, no. It is important for those trying to build up a large following to put out good content on a regular basis, absolutely, but that is not why I post. I will stop apologizing for my post and put them out when I feel moved to talk about things, which happens to be quite often.

I figured out last year small burst of text alternating with pictures are the most read post, but sometimes what I have to talk about doesn't require pictures.

November / December was a bit stressful for me. It reinforced my opinion and practice about how to deal with "Bad Clients" I will share it with you in the next post. Don't expect any pictures! :-)

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The benefits of self unemployment

11/17/2014

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Many times I just do things because I can. I decide whether I can do something and if I can I usually make the jump and head in that direction, so is the case with self employment. It takes discipline, commitment, and a strong work ethic if you want to be your own boss. I realize these things reflecting on what it has taken over these last twenty some years. I love what I do and just never considered it work, it is an integral part of my life. It is me. I don't separate work and pleasure, because my work is my pleasure. I still think it is fantastic that I can can create something from nothing but a verbal description, and sometime I have to struggle to get that description from a potential client. The challenges of architecture and business energize my motor. Sure I get tired and worn out, but once rested I want to jump right back into the fray

So yesterday, Sunday, because the weather was a warm 50 degrees, I went to a job site to measure a building. It is a new project. The owner of a small house wants to convert it into a business occupancy. He has a tenant that operates a small frame shop. It is a small house, but a neat house. There are tons of new apartments going up around Durham, and this little house sits right behind a new project. It reminds me of the movie "Up" and the book I recently read "Under One Roof"

Isn't this how most people imagine spending their relaxing Sunday afternoons? Clip board with quadrille paper, tape measure, laser measure, and a portable speaker with a small MP3 player inside attached to my belt loop with a carabiner!

Some times you get to see some neat things as this house was built with "real" 2 x 4s, yep I measured them and they were actually 2" x 4". No insulation in the walls, as it is being stripped and renovated on the inside. Wood slats and plaster.

Field measuring to me is fun, it is sort of like trying to put a puzzle together. Once you get back to the office you have to make sure all the parts fit. Usually they don't and there is some errant dimension that just doesn't make sense. I always tell the client, I will be back out a second time. I am experienced enough to know that.

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First time for everything....

11/9/2014

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I've been busy and have failed to post for the last two weeks. I have been posting weekly since the end of January. I am back in the saddle again.

We all have new experiences no matter how long we have been in this profession and this business.

I take care of my consultants. As stated several times before, they are my friend first and then business associates. We have built a great relationship over a long period of time and I know they always have my back. Therefore when involved in projects I always cover theirs.

We were involved in a project that started last summer. The permit drawings were finished in a couple of months and the tenant expected to be in before the winter, August to be exact. The contractor who spearheaded the project and help get the tenants to sign with the owner was not retained to oversee the project so instead of getting in by August, they finally got in about the end of April.

The owners was a nice guy as far a people go, but not very dependable. They always seem to be jovial and would smile and tell you they would take care of something, but it was iffy at best whether they did. My consultants did extra services for the owners above and beyond my contract with the owners. I always road the owners about making sure they got paid. I would get promises that after they got the current pay application payment the consultants would get paid, but it may end up being two or three pay apps later before they actually got their money.

Last week I receive a copy of an email sent from my consultant to one of th the owners asking about payment for an invoice that was originally dated in July of 2014. With the tenants having moved in and having seen similar invoices over the past months I decided to email the owner.

My email below (the names have been changed to protect the innocent)

Owner,

It was brought to my attention that you still have unpaid invoices from work done for the upfit project? Is this so?
I would greatly appreciate it if you would pay it as I know the consultant would not have done the work if you had not asked.
It you have no intention of paying the bill, would you man up and just tell me so.

Thanks,

Tim

Now I know that is is not a professional sounding email, but I felt comfortable enough with the owner, that I would have said "Hi Bob" instead of "Good evening Mr. Smith" if I had run into them on the street. This was the second project I had worked on with this owner. I had bent over backward to help him on his first project. I had a comfort level with him that apparently he didn't have with me?

About five minutes later I got a phone call and by the caller ID I could see it was the owner. The conversation went something like this:

"Barber Architects"

"YOU M****F*****, IF YOU EVER SEND ME ANOTHER G**D*** EMAIL LIKE THAT AGAIN, I WILL GUT YOU LIKE A PIG!:

"OK?"

Click.

I wasn't mad. I wasn't upset. I definitely was surprised. I went over this again and again in my mind. Apparently writing "man up" challenged his masculinity? If it had upset the owner, I could have expected a reply similar to:

"Tim I got it taken care of"

"Tim I really didn't appreciate the words or tone you used"

"Tim I was a bit insulted by your email"

But gut me like a pig? Apparently he was having a very bad day!

I did get a call from my consultant about 45 minutes later telling me he had gotten a call from the owner. He said the owner was very pleasant to him, asked him to clarify what the extra work was for and then told him he would get a check out to him next week. At the end the owner asked the consultant how much of the money ($400) was I getting? The consultant told him $0. I assume the owner would not have sent the amount owed to me because I had obviously gotten on his bad side.

I still think the client is a pleasant, but not so dependable person. I wish him no ill will, but I also will never work for him again. Not that he would ask me, but it wouldn't surprise me somewhere down the road he would forget about the phone call and contact me again.

First time I have ever been cussed out by a client. Sorry I offended him. My email was not the most professional and I was mistaken about my relationship with the owner, but I don't think the call was justified by my email. Obviously the owner did.

Just another bump in the road of life, so we move on.

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Humility, Appreciation, and Thankfulness.

10/21/2014

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Step up on soapbox....

I will try to make this short, but sometimes when I get started....
I guess I just see things differently than most people, but don't most architects? I was brought up in upper middle class america, never really wanting for much. I had, when looking back, a great combination of parents, a very loving mother and a very hardass Dad. I learned from both. Dad has his bad points, but what I picked up were his strenghts. A very important one was self sufficiency. Mom taught me how to treat others.

In recent weeks I have read about the discouragement of the "millennials" not wanting to be "CAD monkeys" and I keep seeing on linkedin the debate about what you should call architectural graduates. It seems to me that apparently certain people don't appreciate the good things they have in life.

I never needed to worry about paying for my way through college, as my Dad made enough to send me. I struggled academically, but I was persistent. As I would drive from Roanoke, Va up to Blacksburg, Va (home of the Virginia Tech Hokies) we would take a short cut through the back woods to beat the traffic. We pass through the intersection of Ellett. I always remember thinking how fortunate I was that I could attend Va. Tech. I also was thinking that the next Einstein could be out working on the farm in Ellett Valley because his family could not afford to either send him to college, nor have him stop working on the farm. When I was in my fifth year, I had someone tell me to go over apply for student aid as it was easy to get. I told them why should I deprive someone who really needed that money from getting it because my Dad could afford to send me to college. I took a part time job my last year in college as a "Tape Dubber". I only worked one day a week and I took the job not for the money, but for my self esteem. I worked every summer to earn "spending money" when I was in college, but my Dad also sent me a little monthly allotment to supplement my needs. My friends had to earn all their money and got nothing from home. I felt inferior because I was not as self dependent as they seemed to be.

So now I read about these people complaining about how hard it is to become an architect. As stated in an earlier post, I don't have a problem with modifying the system, as there are things that don't make sense to me. I heard the anger and disdain about how they are disrespected and won't go through the archaic process. Then there is the constant, as of lately, topic of what to call architectural interns, like intern is now bad word?

Do people not realize how fortunate they are to be able to make a living in this profession? It seem like some are complaining about feeling that they are being treated like second class citizens or indentured servants doing their time until they can become one of the chosen few, The Architect. It not about titles, it is about the ability to provide a service to others and make this world a better place. Yes it is a business too and you better understand both architecture and business or you will not succeed at neither of them. I am pragmatic and ideological at the same time. I think all architects need to have a mix of both.

Come on, we are really having debates about what to call those who have graduated from college and not gotten licensed yet? Really?
I use to tell people I was an intern architect and I saw nothing wrong with that. I didn't feel any less useful or important. Titles don't mean squat anyway. I have seen guys who have been working in this industry for years work circles around "Licensed Architects". You judge a person by what he can do, not by what label he or she has! I realize society does treat people different because of title and the perception of what that title means, but in an office when it gets down to the nitty gritty, those titles go out the window and those who can produce rise to the top.

It drives me up the wall that it seems like some are complaining about doing the "grunt" work, but we all didn't like doing it.

I'm a cup half full type of guy. I am thankful for what I have and look forward to the challenge of achieving more down the road.

Thankful - It makes me more thankful for my life when I read about a tragedy of a young person losing their life. I have been so fortunate to have experience 58 year of both highs and low that a young person will be robbed of due to a fatal accident. We typically don't have total control of our lives, but we can direct it into certain directions. Life isn't fair so make the best of what you have.

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If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all ......

10/14/2014

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Yes, I do kinda miss Hee Haw.

There are three things I fear as a sole proprietor
1) Having my work computer go on the blink
2) Having my plotter stop working
3) Having my bond copier stop working

Nothing brings a chill to my spine more that working late at night on a project because you have a meeting the next morning and one of the three items listed above happens. At 2 AM in the morning there isn't much you can do.

I've had my trusty Designjet 500 (don't laugh it goes well with my AutoCAD Release 14) plugging away for years. Last Thursday night I could hear it stop long before it had time to complete the sheet I wanted. So I went to investige. As I looked at the plotter's LCD screen it indicated a paper jam, but there was no paper jam. I also noted some "black" items on my sheet that shouldn't have been there. I initially thought it was excess ink. After about the 4th "jam paper" incident, I felt the paper and realized with wasn't ink at all, it was a piece of rubber. I examined the carriage belt and the rubber gears were falling of the plastic band. So the Designjet was retired for the night.

So I thought I would just print out what I had on 8 1/2 x 11 on my desktop printer. It is an HP photosmart 1115. Hey, If it ain't broke don't fix it! I wouldn't call my equipment vintage, but it is economical not having to buy new equipment. Wanting to print in black and white, I was surprised to get a nice shade of red? Yep, ink cartridge out and did I have a backup in the office? Of course not! My trip to Office Depot would have to wait till the morning.

So plan "C". I also have a backup plotter a used HP Designjet T1100PS. I haven't used it since I got it. After moving things around I finally got the USB cable over to the T1100. I loaded the CD into my work machine so I could have the proper drivers installed and lucky me it did work on XP! So I got my work machine recognizing the plotter and on the first "test plot", I get a message that one of the ink cartridges has expired? I had never seen that one before. Taking it out and reseating it seem to satisfy the plotter, so a second try. This time another ink cartridge (the black on of course) was empty and needed to be replaced. None of my local stores had it, but my blue print company did! So I ordered one on Amazon as a backup and drove across town to get the local cartridge. I finally got the new black cartridge in and made a successful plot. I was back in business. Not two plots later the T1100 kindly imformed me that my Yellow cartridge was low.

So new cartridges have been ordered, I have ordered a new carriage belt for the Designjet 500, and I am back functional again!

I keep telling people that as soon as you think you got things under control, BAM!, things go a muck. I tell them that chaos is the norm, just most people don't acknowledge it.

I didn't panic, I knew within a few days I would have things back up and running, but my what a pain. Just a bump in the road of life. You need to be prepared for your misfortune (aka bad luck). That night it was just one bump after another, but by Monday I was a "Pickin' and a Grinin'" again!

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Reflections - A legacy (sort of)

10/8/2014

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I try to post every Monday evening / Tuesday morning, but sometimes being a one man office just gets in the way, especially when you have to travel out of town.

My oldest son was in an automobile accent this week. You don't expect stuff like that, but when his first words were "Don't worry Dad, I'm OK" you kinda get a feeling the rest isn't that good. Both he and the family in the other car are all fine. He said their car probably just needed a new bumper, but his VW was probably totaled. I don't recommend going under a trailer hitch with your thin metal hood.

I told him the same thing I always say "None of my kids have cancer!", "It's all about negative margins, baby!" and "This is just a bump in the road of life, we will survive and advance!".

I found this video only line. I wasn't looking for it, but it was either on my Feedly or Facebook.
The Brittany Maynard Fund
My oldest son is 28. I sent this to him and said this is why we don't worry about your car.

So it got me thinking, when our time comes (we architects) what is our legacy? What do we leave behind if anything. There are many different types of jobs and once someone leaves to go to a new job or leaves because of an illness, they are just replaced by someone else. The cogs in the gears of production just keep on spinning.

Many of us architects are trying to get acknowledgement while we are practicing. If you don't, do you ever get it after you stop?

The answer is "Yes" whether you want it or not. The body of work you have done, no matter what the scale or scope, will somewhere down the line cross somebody else's path. I have worked on a couple or jobs, usually upfits or alterations, on older buildings. I have been given actually blueprints to use to draw the base plan. I have spent time just looking at those plans, looking at how they drew and what they drew. I then would go online to see if I could find out any information about the local architect.

So even if you work in the shadows and the public has no idea who you currently are, down the road your buildings will speak for you. Like it or not!
I have been self employed for 27 years. It varies year to year how many new building, upfits, alterations and additions I do, but I figured there is a ton of them. I wonder how long it will be before the last surviving building I did falls down out of disrepair or gets pushed over for progress? I don't know, but I bet it will be a while.

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Self Unemployment

9/30/2014

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I never planned on being self employed. I had planned on leaving the last firm I worked for, as things had gotten a little funky there. I came back from lunch one day and was asked to come to a room by both partners who told me they were going to have to let me go. They are really nice guys and still friends of mine today. I told them not to worry about it as they had done me more of a favor than they realized.

When thinking about what I was going to do next, my first thought was to go get another job, but before I even left the office that afternoon I really decided I could do everything my bosses could do and the only thing I was missing was clients! It was a pretty easy decision to go on my own and never look back.

Being self employed to me meant I would never be laid off again. My fate would be in my hands, not in the hands of someone else. My ability, my commitment, and my personal relationship with future clients would determine if I sink or swim. I have managed to tread water for 27 years.

Do you have to be super talented to be successful, no. Being a better business man is more important than being a great architect, if you consider successful as staying in business.

You have to be disciplined, and more importantly you have to be self motivating. I like what I do to a fault. I have never had a time when I did not wanted to come to work. My enjoyment of my job has been detrimental to the profitability of my business for I have looked far more often through my passion rather than my wallet. I am not saying I would take advantage of people to make a profit, but I have done work for far less of a fee than I should have. I am the only one to blame, but I have made a good living. Is there a potential to make a great deal of money in architecture, sure, but it is like any other business and if that is your goal and you market and price accordingly you probably can make a lot of money. I just don't think for many of us money was the motivating factor for getting into the profession.

I do not advertise and all my work is by referrals. Treat people fairly, be honest and give good service and you stand a good chance of surviving. You have to remember there are all types of clients and niches to be filled. I cater to contractors and developers, so for some more detailed oriented architects that type of work may not be satisfying. There are those who cater to the high end residential and for some that may be to demanding.

Your business is what YOU make it. If you think you should run your business one way and you don't get clients, you better change and adapt or go figure out where that clientele resides and move there.

Some would say dedication is required for self employment, but if you are disciplined and self motivated, dedication just follows along. One characteristic I did fail to mention is confident. That is not to be confused with arrogant and I think a lot of people can't distinguish between the two.

Who should become self employed? I think it is something you just know. If you spend your time trying to figure out how to do things more than you spend time worrying about if you should do things, you probably are one of the few that should make the leap.

Why do I laughing refer to myself as "Self Unemployed"? It didn't occur to me until after I left my last office. While working for someone you assume as long as you do your job well you will remain secure at your position, you will stay employed. Once I started working for myself I realized I had no guarantee that any client would ever walk through my door to bring me work. The false security of working for someone else made me realize we are all just a moment away of being unemployed. So I concluded self employment was just client funded unemployment in a way, right?

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"You do what you have to do because it's the right thing to do" - Barry Martin

9/22/2014

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Last week I told you about a book I had ordered "Under One Roof". I got it on Monday and finished it on Friday. I ran across this book via an article that I had read in my Feedly - architect's folder. It was about an 84 year old woman who wouldn't sell her house so they built the shopping center around it and how the foreman, Barry Martin, befriended her and took care of her until she passed away.

I see there being to basic parts of the architectural business, the architecture and the business. Sometimes what architects complain about are business issues, not architectural issue. We all need to make money to stay in business. The architectural part is the more warm and fuzzy part of the two. Architecture is the creative part and the emotional part or maybe it is just the people part?

I see many discussions on how architects should be paid and how undervalued and unappreciated we are. I agree that I don't think many people know what architects do and I am not quite sure some architects do. Every now and then I am asked to help someone. They may say "Do you do this?" or "Can you do this", but they really have no idea what is involved in providing the service they are asking about. Let me state that I work to my own standards, so I will provide them with exactly what they asked for, but my final product is usually of a quality above what they expected. I go into a lot of these situations with the intention of doing it for free, just to help them, but I don't always tell them that. In the end they say "Let me pay you something" and I typically reply "You don't owe me anything". They insist on paying me something so I tell them whatever they want to pay is fine. I think this gives them a sense of satisfaction, so I end up getting paid $500 for about $4000 worth of work. In my mind even $10 would have been fine. I take a great deal of satisfaction knowing that I have made their space better whether they really do or not.

My wife and I have friends who asked me to help them with the new house they had purchased. They wanted to remodel and reorganize some spaces. There had been a hallway coming right off the living room that they wanted to close off. On one end they were going to make an additional closet for the first floor bedroom and the other side a half bath for visiting guest. I told them that was not a good location as it was to close to the living area and no one would use it. At first they didn't understand why, so I explained that people are very self conscience about going to the bathroom and having anybody hear them. So I recommend they put a hallway into the garage area, that was also being remodeled, and at the end of the hall put in the half bath. The new bathroom was still in the front of the house, but at the other end. You went from the living area past the dining area, which was open to the living area, and down the hallway to the bath. I told them contrary to what they may think, swing the door out toward the direction they had just come from, as this would give visual privacy into the bathroom. My last suggestion was to get the loudest fan they could find as it would give a sense of audible security to the individual using the bathroom. We have been over several times and I am constantly thanked for making such a great recommendation. This was one of those project I intended on doing for free but was given a small stipend for my work and for the first time my wife finally realize and said "People don't really understand the amount of time you put into these projects do they?"

In North Carolina you are required to have a sealed set of drawing when the project square footage is over 2,500 SF and the cost over $90,000. I was referred to a young lady by a local building inspector, as she was going to rent two tenant spaces that use to have a demising wall between them, but it had been removed. She wanted to put the wall back up, but because the two space totaled more than 2,500 SF she was required to have sealed drawings. I am all for using architects on projects for life safety and good design, but I do not think you need an architect to reconstruct a straight wall that use to separate two tenant spaces. Both tenant spaces had met the code and has separate bathroom. So the only thing she need was to put this one wall back. I wouldn't do he project for free, but I would charge a very, very minimal fee. We agreed to meet at the site which was only about 15 mins from my office. I got there at 2:30 as agreed and she was a no show. I didn't get mad. I have dealt with people in the past that are of limited means trying to start a business to better themselves. In this case I may have been a necessary evil for what she wanted to do, but not in the budget. I don't know if she followed through with her plans for the space and she never called after our scheduled meeting. She had to have an architect as decided by the inspections department, based on what she wanted to do, I don't think she really needed an architect, but she obviously need help from one, so sometimes "You do what you have to do because it's the right thing to do"

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What is Architecture?

Illegitimi non carborundum

Back in the saddle again...sort of

The benefits of self unemployment

First time for everything....

Humility, Appreciation, and Thankfulness.

If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all ......

Reflections - A legacy (sort of)

Self Unemployment

"You do what you have to do because it's the right thing to do" - Barry Martin

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