Okay, not a holiday theme, but I was in a meeting earlier today that brought this to mind. I have no idea how often the old Aesop fable of the Tortoise and the Hare has been told nor is there probably any way to know. The spin-off sayings of, “Slow and steady wins the race,” etc., all convey the same concept. There are other instances where being slow is indeed inertia and someone does come along and “light things up” to help achieve a goal.

Locally we have two important projects that languished for decades; not for lack of want or effort, but because getting the resources was complicated. In both situations, a group of people steadfastly kept plodding with an occasional “surge” until resources finally improved. The specificity of the projects – one of which is still not complete although far enough along now as to seem genuinely on track – is not important.

The aspect of the meeting I had this morning involves the art side of the community. When the last art galleries closed in the 2008-2010 real estate bust, there were hopes they would recover as did the general market. That didn’t happen and while efforts to date have not been successful, the adverse impact of COVID was and continues to be a factor. However, there are some things “bubbling along” – okay, “simmering” might be a better word – that won’t necessarily bring galleries back yet, but may provide more routine venues for artists. There are still pieces to be moved into place and that’s what some of us are working on at this point. It’s always tricky with scarce resources and “collaboration, not competition” is vital. We’ll have to see what happens as we continue to be more tortoise than hare, and do hope the fable is proved to be correct again.

I was guest speaker at one of the local Woman’s Clubs yesterday with my presentation of, “Inadvertent Pioneer”. This was in honor of Veterans Day. That presentation is focused on the transition time of 1974 thru 1995 when significant changes took place for women and I happened to be part of it through a series of circumstances.

Anyway, this presentation always stirs memories of different parts of my career. As I’ve posted before, my husband and I were with Second Corps Support Command (2d COSCOM) under the VII Corps for Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He was moved to the newly established Task Force Bennett and I stayed with the COSCOM Headquarters. In practical terms that meant he was further forward in the desert than I was and we did see each other briefly occasionally when our duties overlapped. During the main part of our deployment, we did have some trailers as office space at the headquarters (we did move three times I think it was before we folded into King Khalid Military City after Hussein surrendered). Most of the headquarters was in tents; the large ones for mess hall, operations, etc.,  – smaller ones for living. One of the things we had to get used to were the sudden, violent dust storms that would appear in the same way squalls do. We often saw towering “dust devils” in the distance which were interesting to observe. The type of storm I’m talking about would appear with little notice from a clear, hard blue sky. Think of one of the large tents like you see at events except instead of open sides, the sides are down and pegged into the ground. Now think of that same tent being literally snatched up a few feet off the ground, twisted and set back down, partially collapsed. The storms rarely lasted more than maybe ten minutes and weren’t always that intense. Everything was obscured though and you certainly didn’t want to be outside without protection. As far as I know, no one ever got hurt, but cleanup always took a while.

As it is birthday eve, Mother Nature is being a bit “blustery” and so diving tomorrow is more than I care to mess with. They cancelled yesterday afternoon’s trips and according to Hubby, the wind and waves definitely picked up the latter part of this morning. As long as I can get a dive in by Tuesday though it still counts as a birthday dive. Depending on what else I have tomorrow, I might jump in the pool to get wet at any rate. We are joining friends this evening though who are down from New Jersey. That steered me more toward a leisurely lunch out Saturday and nice steaks at home Saturday night. Yes, that’s the day after, but again, it’s close enough to count.

Since we have trip to D.C. area coming up that will also involve some nice dinners out although it’s difficult to know how things will be with the COVID situation. Hopefully, not as bad as last year’s trip with hotel services curtailed. On the other hand, we have that to use as a gauge, so don’t expect it to be worse. Other friends we haven’t seen in quite some time are coming up from North Carolina and while my girlfriend does have business to attend to she might take part of Tues, the 14th off. If she can’t, we’ll still all have dinner, plus the performance and the gala after for “catch-up” time. The reason we’re staying close to the Kennedy Center for the night of the performance is because the gala always runs late and at least we’ll have a short distance to go when we unplug. It is a school night due to how they had to reschedule from last year’s date and I don’t think the kids have decided yet if they will get up extra early to take granddaughter to school or let her skip a couple of hours. It probably makes sense to wait and see before making that decision.

Although I try to stay away from politics per se, certain social aspects often come close to, if not actually share a line with politics. I genuinely don’t know how many people are continuing to stay unemployed because of drawing extra pay through COVID-19 relief. There are no doubt some as there always are. What I do know is there are “Now Hiring” signs in many places and restaurants/hotels are having an especially hard time finding employees. A response is, “Then employers should pay more.” In some cases, I agree. I do not agree with the concept of a minimum wage of $15/hr, but that is not exactly the topic here.

There are conflicting studies that show a raise in the minimum wage causes jobs to be cut to accommodate the increase in labor costs and studies that show no job loss. I suspect either may be correct depending on the type of company and location. The reality is  minimum wage and low-paying jobs are intended to be entry level, or perhaps second-job opportunities, or augmentation jobs for someone who wants a degree of income with no real responsibility. A “fairness issue” arises when those are the dominant type of jobs available in a location so there is little chance of “getting ahead”. That also applies when the cost of living is such that even making more money may not help lift one from having to live paycheck-to-paycheck with no buffer in the case of an emergency.

What I do know is this. Companies who want to hire and retain employees and can do so increase pay and benefits in order to have a stable qualified workforce. Small to mid-size companies may simply not have the capital to do so. In the small company I worked for after I retired from the Army, the owner was great about getting around to talk to all the employees. (That changed as the company grew and was one of the reasons he and his co-owner wife eventually sold off most of what became a “group”.) Anyway, during one session, the subject of increasing compensation was raised. The boss nodded and said something like, “Everyone always wants higher salaries. We understand that. We have to stay competitive. If we charge too high a price for our services, we won’t get the contracts and can’t stay in business or grow.” The belief that any company that refuses to pay employees a bigger salary is motivated only by greed for the bosses is generally not correct.

Things have been extra hectic as sometimes happens with multiple commitments. It’s also part of why I wasn’t able to get out to dive in June and not sure how the rest of July will go either. It’s not uncommon for me to miss both months because during peak dive season the boats are often full on the few days I’m available.

Anyway, one of the things I was busy with was preparing for, then holding a presentation for high school students in the College and Career Prep Program of the Homestead Mexican-American Council (MAC). https://www.mexamcouncil.org

It’s a great program that runs all year with extra sessions in the summer. This year they have 20 students in the classes and 20 students in a variety of companies/organizations as interns. The title of the presentation was, “The Writing Journey: Rarely a Straight Path”. This is version three as I tailor this to the audience I am talking to. It was a combination of my own extended and circuitous path to writing and some of creative process with crafting a novel and a “cozy series” in particular. All the students were polite and several were actually interested.

Another big chunk of the week has been juggling multiple tasks involved with our upcoming Art and Artisan Show. This is the event we were supposed to have last year. If we are successful, our intent is this will be a premiere event annually in April or March. (There is one other annual event we have to work around so we don’t schedule them both too closely together). We held a small version in 2019 as a part of our Homestead Center for the Arts Showcase and that’s what led us to try for something “bigger and better”. With only a couple of exceptions all the vendors are artists or artisans with hand-crafted items. We have a nice variety with jewelry, a couple of our woodturners, a lady who does hand painted mail boxes, soaps and lotions, and more.

This is no “flea market”; it’s a boutique shopping experience that we think will resonate with the community.