Watts Consulting

More than you ever wanted to know about Alabama native Joe Watts

joewatts

Birmingham: Love it, Hate it

by

I have a love/hate relationship with the city we live in. Beautiful architecture, interesting considerate people, some great friends. We have amazing places to eat, some really great shopping, and, although I don’t usually get around to enjoying them, lots of cultural events. Birmingham is big enough to have all the great shopping and dining and still small enough so that you don’t have bad traffic (unless you try to drive down 280). Living in the city, we almost never run into traffic that is terrible. Try doing that in Atlanta.

Of course, there is a downside: we’ve got pretty bad crime. Birmingham has a VERY bad murder rate (not so much in the part of town we live in, but still, not what you’d really like to see).

Birmingham has questionable leadership–still a little early to know for sure, but judging by past performance, I have my doubts. There is such a reliance on old stereotypes and race still polarizes city politics. Maybe we can get past this. I sure hope so.

And, if that’s not enough, Jefferson County, where Birmingham is located, has had some pretty impressive corruption. Loads of county commissioners have gone to jail for graft–taking money (cash and services) in exchange for huge projects with the sewer. There was even an attempt to drill a sewer line under the Cahaba River (source of most of our drinking water). Luckily, it didn’t get completed, but how smart is it to send your sewer line under your drinking water. Enough of a rant for today!

Just Some Random Quotes

by

Not a lot to say today. The weekend was fairly uneventful, but the year is already starting to pile up with challenges. Instead of my own words today, I thought I’d pull a few random quotes. Some really are my all-time favorites, and others are just quotes I stumbled on while surfing the internet. I think that most give me something to think about in the least and give me pause to contemplate the bigger picture.

When the soil disappears, the soul disappears.—Ymber Delecto

The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t
found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the
heart, you’ll know when you find it.— Steve Jobs

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us.  When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.  ~Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

I conceive that the land belongs to a vast family of which many are dead, few are living, and countless numbers are still unborn.  ~Author Unknown

“Stuffed deer heads on walls are bad enough, but it’s worse when they are wearing dark glasses and have streamers in their antlers because then you know they were enjoying themselves at a party when they were shot.”
— Ellen DeGeneres

Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them.  ~Bill Vaughn

Happy Birthday to Leroy

by

Leroy, our platinum Burmese boy cat, turns four years old today. When we brought him home, we still lived at the Claridge Condos in Birmingham. He didn’t get to stay there for long, though, as we moved to our current location on Lakeview Crescent shortly after bringing him home.

We’ve taken to calling him Chicken Little as he runs from anything. If the doorbell rings, I can generally expect to meet him in the hall–he’s heading for the bedroom to hide under the bed as I make my way to the front door to discover who’s ringing the doorbell.

He’s always been skittish, but for some reason, he has gotten terrified of strangers lately. It all stems, we think, from when we had a good bit of work done on our windows earlier this fall. He didn’t mind people banging around outside when they were working on the deck, but somehow, he’s decided to play it safe and avoid people at all costs. Who knows, maybe he’s been reading the Birmingham News and is worried about the crime statistics.

Regardless, Happy Birthday to Leroy!

Deadlines and Saturday Mornings

by

Monthly newsletters really sneak up on you if you aren’t careful. It seems like just a couple of weeks ago that I finished the January issue of this newsletter, but here I go again, finishing another. I’m starting the third year of doing the newsletter for the Alabama Sierra Club and really enjoy doing it quite a lot.

Having monthly newsletters helps to even out the amount of work I can expect in any given month–I’d suggest it for anyone doing the kind of work that I do. Of all the projects I work on, I think newsletters are my favorite–it is always fun to piece together the dozens of bits of information and decide on headlines, pull quotes, photos and graphics and then plug it all together.

Getting positive feedback helps too!

It seems that I’m almost always wrapping up this particular newsletter on a Saturday morning.

The Camillas Are Blooming

by

Our camellias in the front yard are blooming as are the Daphne bushes. The Daphne bushes are amazingly fragrant. (If they were inside, my allergies would require them to be discarded, but they smell really nice by the front door.)

Many of the bulbs I’ve planted over the last two years or so are springing up. It shocks me to even think that spring is around the corner.

2007 was a blur. I’m looking forward to having a little time to stop and smell the flowers in 2008.

Hinson Family Olden Days

by

I’m getting ready for a trip to Montgomery to discuss the Alabama Byways program and to work on budgets and logos–not my two favorite things in the world. Still, I love the people and the concept. Not a lot of time for a post today, so thought I’d dig up a great old photo of Mama and her siblings. This photo would have to be from the late 1920’s or possibly the very early 1930’s. From left to right: Uncle Bud, Aunt Phebe (in front), Aunt Sadie Lou, and Mama.