The Big Dig

THIS WAS A YARD

As some of you already know, we have been watching our home warp and crumble around us for the past 4-5 years. It all started 3 minutes after we finished painting the final room.

A shifting, bending foundation is the problem. The causes of this problem are manifold:
* High clay-content (often misidentified as "caliche") soil which expands and contracts greatly - depending on how much moisture is present
* Poor, no, make that horrible site prep by the builder
* Inadequate use of stabilizing, imported fill
* Penny-wise pound-foolish cut-and-fill hillside technique
* Grossly inadequate residential house-building codes and lame inspection practices
* An epic ten-year drought punctuated by two Biblical rain events.
* A non-sober and possibly delusional original construction crew.

These factors combined and conspired to cause our foundation to drop over 6 inches in some areas. A time bomb built in to our home in the early 80's slowly and finally detonates. And our neighborhood has a 80-90% affliction rate. (Ca-ching!) The original builder carries no legal liability. D'oh!

We've hired two different consulting engineers, collected proposals from seven different foundation outfits, and consulted with three arboriculturists. All these experts and zero consensus about the best cure.

Get rid of all your trees!
Your trees are not the problem!
You have a leak!
You don't have a leak!
Insurance will cover i!
Insurance won't touch it!
Gotta tunnel!
Gotta punch holes!
Steel piers!
Concrete piers!
Injected-foam columns!
Lego piers!
Ten Grand!
Twenty Grand!
Thirty Grand!
Forty Grand!
Just water the foundation!
Watering is a waste!
Offer a Voodoo Sacrifice!

It's official: I detest expert opinions.

We went thru the five stages of grief:

1) Denial: "Not our house?!!?"
2) Anger: "I'm gonna find the builder and kill him"
3) Bargaining: "Maybe if we water 80,000 gallons per day...."
4) Depression: "It's gonna cost how much?!!?"
5) Acceptance: "We're screwed!"

So we finally decided to follow our gut, hire a proven contractor (the cheap guy who did not pressure us and has worked on a number of neighbors' homes) and ten days ago digging began. We now have 75 feet of tunnels (to access pier points and plumbing leaks) and over the next two weeks 30 concrete piers will be installed. Some will go as far as twenty feet deep. The result will be an almost perfectly level slab and a very stable base.

Then, after waiting a few months for the house to resettle itself, we'll bring in a sheetrock crew to patch, tape, and float. Then the Spalding crew will begin repainting.

And perhaps a little re-landscaping!

Pix attached. I'll send more later as things progress. Also, making portraits later this week of this remarkably hard-working crew.

Please send us your excess cash. And painters.

So now you know.

A New Page

We walked the MLK March here in San Antonio on Monday morning. Perfectly cool and clear. Well over 100,000 people - that's almost 10% of the population here.

Katie (11) got bored.

Nick (13) was bored.

Alex (17) got snarky.

Alex' girlfriend, Audrey (16), was polite.

Clem shot photos. Many, from the hip.

It's a singular moment in American History and I'm glad I dragged the kids to it and through it. Not the result I voted for but a result I salute nonetheless.

One more darkened door has been smashed open and one more group can see the real promise of this nation as their own. That's huge.

MLK predicted this moment, now it's up to Barry and Co. to deliver. We all lose if he fails. Terrorists and Recessions are equal-opportunity challenges.

Mr. Obama, we need your A game.

Is this a great country or what?

The Morning After

Dear Barry,

So you will be my new president in a couple of months.

Congratulations and may God be with you. 

I think you will quickly find getting elected is the easy part. You ran a brilliant, disciplined, scientific race. You positioned yourself in a way that allowed a broad spectrum of the voters to project their own needs/wishes/values/dreams upon you while holding your own close to your vest. You have risen from the most unlikely of origins to the most powerful office in history. You slew the Clinton dragon. Whodathunk that!?!?!

But now you must begin staking out what an Obama administration means. 

Overnight, the gravity of your words has increased a thousandfold. Prudence and wisdom must be your script.

Now you have the power, and the Congress, to effect change. May the long-term interests of this great country be your guide.

Unfortunately, your Congress is led by Nancy and Harry - quite possibly the two most shallow souls to ever hold those positions. The demonstrated cynical incompetence of this gang-who-couldn't-shoot-straight will likely become your biggest domestic headache. I'd start praying for a Capitol Hill coup, like yesterday.

Unfortunately, your Veep is Joe Biden - the political equivalent of Fredo Corleone. Maybe we can all just ignore him, OK?

The Pandoras of our world are loose and feeling frisky. You must be strong. You must be clear. You must make the difficult choices. Forget about your legacy, forget about French opinion polls. Instead, remember Reagan & Thatcher & Churchill & Truman. They made the tough calls, said the unspeakable, and ultimately left the world a far better place. Do the Right Thing and history will be kind. Following the Carter or Chamberlain models will cost us all dearly. Clarity is your friend.

Lastly, the Race Card in America is now officially dead. Thank God. No more excuses. No more whining. No more Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton shakedowns. I hope.

You have an unprecedented opportunity to now achieve great things. I hope and pray you do. We'll all be watching, we'll all be ready to help, we'll all be ready to give you the critical feedback you will need. Of that you can be sure.

Now, get out there, keep the ball moving, box out, use your elbows, and keep your eye on the shot clock.

Godspeed.

Citizen Clem The Photographer

FOOTBAWL

Just posted a new portfolio to the clemphoto.com website.

Youth Football.

Watching these kids move from inexperienced trepidation to hit-seeking missiles is a remarkable experience. I helped with coaching my kids teams for a few years and that helped me gain intimacy that would have been impossible otherwise. But it is very difficult to coach with a camera dangling from your shoulder so I had to pick my spots carefully.

The action itself did not interest me as much as the mood and light of the subject. Indoor sports have perpetually bland light but football always gives you something to work with. I found myself still concentrating on faces - something of a trend with me - and how they looked just before and after the action.

Sometimes I had to be a full time coach (nobody else showed up) and wrangle 25 boys thru their paces, drills, and scrimmages.

It was a blast. I highly recommend it.

Coaching Horror Story:

Flag football practice. 9 year olds. It's late. We are all tired. The sunlight is fading fast, no lights on a YMCA practice field.  Trying to have the boys execute a reverse. Our two speedster wide-outs collide head-to-head in the backfield at full speed. No helmets.

Sickest. Sound. Ever.

For a long moment, they are both on the ground motionless and I am certain I have just killed two boys.

They came out OK. Giant goose eggs. 10 minutes later they are cutting up with friends like nothing happened.

Ah, youth!

Seven Years

Seven years since that beautiful Tuesday morning.

Seven years since history took a sharp left turn away from peace and prosperity and towards war and woe.

Any student of history knows that 9/11's roots go back to the feckless anti-terror efforts of the 90's, the unintended consequences of the 80's, the unaddressed  aggressions of the 70's, the miscalculations of the 60's, and even back to the arbitrary map-drawing of the post- WWI Middle East.

An Iranian taxi driver told me last year that it goes back 2,500 years to Cyrus the Great's imprudent kindness to the Jews.

R-i-i-i-i-ght.

It goes back to the eternal conflict of good vs. evil and the perpetual efforts of evil men to seize and hold power by hijacking religions and exploiting innate prejudices. Fear and its offspring, Hate, taken to their worst possible conclusion.

Within nine months after 9/11, I visited all three sites. Those sights, sounds, and smells will never leave me. I have watched friends, family, colleagues, and neighbors enter and return from the front lines. I have watched a brother struggle within the intelligence community to keep our country safe. 

Seven years and we have not been attacked again here. That's really something. That was unimaginable in the fall of 2001. That is a testament to the valiant and often unsung efforts of our fellow citizens who have taken an oath to protect us and to our elected leaders who have had to make the most difficult and unrewarding decisions.

I know our domestic safety could be shattered at any moment by a single lucky terrorists. It is something I dread. But I also believe it is important to give credit where credit is due. 

Thank you all. Thank you to every single woman and man who has given of themselves to preserve our freedom. I grieve for every single American and Allied soldier and every innocent civilian killed or wounded by this epic and confounding struggle to bring more peace, stability, safety, and accountability to our mortal world. 

God bless you all.

This is a slide show I made about my visits to the 9/11 sites.

Tying Shoelaces

One moment you are teaching your child how to tie their own shoelaces, the next moment you watch them tying their shoelaces on their shiny tuxedo shoes as they get ready for the prom.

How did that happen so fast? Where was I when this was all taking place?

Children: Just when you're ready to sell them to a medical research facility, they go and blow your mind and humble you.

And they don't even realize it.

Or do they? We're talking about teenagers after all....

Dear Competition,

Dear Competition,

Stuff I've always wanted to know but have  been too terrified to ask you:

1) Have you ever thought about killing a client? 

No, really. I mean like a genuine homicide. With blood and everything.  And you meet with somebody you found on Craig's list at a scary bar, to work out details? And then they turn out to be an undercover cop? And it makes you pause and ask yourself if it was really worthwhile to get this worked up about a last-second cancellation? And you find out that sometimes it is not good PR to make the front page?

2) Have you ever felt like you are the stupidest person in the world? 

Like everyone else is ten million years ahead of you? Like you just made the biggest turd sandwich of your career? Like you're pretty sure everyone knows what a complete Gomer you are? 

No? Nah, me neither. 

3) Have you ever completely blown it and then lied your ass off to cover it?

I'm just asking. In a hypothetical sense.

4) Have you ever faked that you were busy?

When you were actually just getting your oil changed? And the service dude screws it up by yelling "You want new wiper blades too?" 

Bonus points if you had to take a call while you were naked. For any reason.

Well, except THAT reason.

5) Have you ever had to pretend that you did not care? 

If the other guy landed that killer assignment? But inside you were screaming "I hate them all! Fools! Can they not see how right I am for this! I hope the rental car explodes and kills them all!"

Bonus points if fortune suddenly turns back your way and you get the gig and you are certain that the other guy is now cursing you.

6) Do you ever feel like quitting? 

And going into insurance like your Dad told you to 30 years ago but you were too stupid and dreamy and stubborn and stupid to listen to sound advise? 

Really?! What a coincidence....

7) Does it ever bug the hell out of you?

That even after all this time, after all these winning jobs you've nailed, after all the other competitors you've outlasted,  even after all that you still have to market your ass off? That the youngsters out there don't know who you are and that all the rules have changed and that you were just getting the hang of things and then Boom!

Not that your getting old or anything.

I'm just saying....