73 degrees this morning, walk 34;57 minutes 93% Humidity
Got up and noted 80% chance of rain and almost decided not to walk. However there was a 10% chance of rain yesterday, but it poured most of the afternoon and early evening, so….
The weather map made it look like the rain was actually slightly north, so I decided I’d try it and just head back a the first drop. Hoping of course that the first drop wasn’t when I was at the farthest point from home!
Anyway, I was surprised to finish the walk with no drops and I am even more surprised to be sitting on my patio!
The walk was actually good, although I felt a little like I was walking though a light blanket of moisture that wasn’t rain!
Pace was 23 seconds slower than my goal. Since I almost didn’t walk, that is fine with me.
When I think about it, only a little “push” from me could easily help me meet my goal. This is just a few seconds per mile and I could easily push a little, but…. I don’t want to make the walk unpleasant or I may not walk and it is much more important to walk than to worry about 30 seconds.
Rain just started. I have moved to the very small portion of the patio with a roof, although if the wind blows it over here I will go inside.
Listening to the biography about Robert Moses, I learned some things about “Public Authorities” (also called “Public Trusts” etc.
These are the semi-private/semi-public organizations set up by governments, usually as a fiancée mechanism for sewer, water, turnpikes, economic development.
Even though I have worked with them for almost 40 years, I didn’t realize how they could be misused and abused. (I want to say that in my experience, I saw them rarely abused as I noted below. The only time I did notice it was after I had left the City I was working in and a Mayor and Council was elected whose ethics were doubtful to say the least)
First, they are not (if set up the “wrong” way) accountable to anyone. The “contracts” they have make them bulletproof to a degree. Most of the the Public Authorities or Trusts I worked with, the elected officials were the trustees, so this wasn’t really a problem.
The corruption problem comes when the Board or the Trust Director (or whomever) makes deals with the banks (who make a lot of money on underwriting and interest) and contractors (who make a lot of money on construction contracts), and engineers, architects etc. (who make a log of money on “professional services” contracts become the real “power” and they make political contributions to keep the money flowing in the sense of new projects etc.
Of course, under most state laws, “professional services” contracts (engineers, underwriters, legal services, architectural services, financial “advisers” etc.) can’t be bid, so you can imagine what happens when you get a corrupt administrator! Again, most are honest, but more on this in later posts!.
That’s it for now, Monday, August 13, 2018.
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