More Views of Savannah

Here are a view of the views of Savannah that I saw during my recent visit. Starting at the top:

A cobblestone street along the Savanna River. Lots of interesting shops and restaurants here...but watch your step it's kind of rough walking.

Paula Dean's Lady and Son's Reastaurant - wonderful Fried Chicken and yummy yams.....

A statue along the river front of the fabled, "Waving Girl of Savanna" the story goes that after this young womans love saied off to sea, she greeted ever ship that came into Savanna on the side of the river by waving a towel, hoping her love would be on board....she did this for over 40 years...day and night. Her love never showed up, however.

The old Cotton Exchange Building, along the river front.

A typical old town city street, with beautiful old homes, and Spanish Moss covered, Live Oak Trees.

One of 21 city "squares", little parks that are every two or three blocks.

The old colonial cemetary that was in use from the late 1700's to the mid 1800's. Sherman quarted his horses and troops here after his march to Savanna.

A big city foutain, that was purchaced by the city, by mail order cataloge at he end of the 19th Centruy.

The modern suspension bridge over the Savanna River heading out to North Carolina.

A View From Savannah

It was a beautiful spring-like day in Savannah yesterday. I was lucky that I had most of the day to explore. I had been signed up for a training course , which was to proceed the conference I'm here for that starts today. But the training was cancelled, after I already had my reservations and plane tickets. So rather than re-scheduling I decided to use the day to see Savannah.

I walked over seven miles today, exploring almost all of old Savannah, including a very good lunch at Paula Dean's resaurant......Here are a few of the things I learned today as I explored.

* Nathanial Green lived here after the Revolutionary War. Nathanial Green was second in command to George Washington. After the war he was given a plantation outside of Savannah. He was from New England and was not used to the heat and humidity that is common here during the summer. One day while riding his horse, he suffered heat stroke and fell off. He subsequently died, but not of heat stroke. The common remedy for heat stroke at that time was to apply leaches. Nathanial Green was a Hemophiliac .......he bled to death from the leaches. His wife had many children to care for, so after Nathanial's death she hired a tutor from Yale to teach her children. His name was Eli Whitney. Eli invented the Cotton Gin several years later in Savannah.

* One of the most prominate institutions in Savannah is something called "SCAD" - Savannah College of Arts and Design. It's everywhere. It's one of the biggest and most prestigious Arts and Design colleges in the country. In some ways they are sort of like McMennimins in Oregon. Dozens and dozens of historic buildings in Savannah have been restored by SCAD. Everywhere you turn you see another building owned by SCAD...a Libary here, and student center there, and on and on. SCAD has another campus in Atlanta, and a graduate school in Paris France. It costs over $50,000 a year to attend.

Some other interesting items:

* Jingle Bells of composed in a little chuch in Savannah, by a minister there.

*General Sherman ended his march to the sea in Savannah. It was the one place he didn't destroy along the way. He gave the city to Abe Lincoln as a Christmas present, in 1864.

*The Book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was set in Savannah. The statue of the little girl that was on the cover of the book, had to be moved from the cemetery it had been in to a museum so it wouldn't be stollen.

* Part of the movie Forest Gump was filmed here. I saw the place where the bench he sat on was.

* There are 21 "squares" in old Savannah...they are little square block parks, designed by ogalthorp.

*The big stones that pave the streets along the river front are not cobble stones. They are balsat taken from the English ships that sailed here during the 18th and 19th century.

*There is a very large Irish population in Savannah. They came here during the great potato famine. S avannah has the 2nd largest St. Patricks Day parade in the country.

*The Girl Scouts was started in Savannah, by Juliette Gordon Low

I'll share some photos later........

Work Stuff

I don't write much about work on this blog, so thought I would share a bit about a couple things that have been going on.

I just got back today from a three day DOL conference in Seattle that was called a Transformational Forum. The full title was, "Driving Transformation: Innovations Fueling Tomorrow's Workforce System. " It was one of two National Transformational Forums, the other one was held in Chicago. But even though this one was on the West Coast, we had teams from the East Coast in Seattle with us, including as far away as the Virgin Islands.

Of course I was part of the Oregon delegation, a group of about 10 people representing different parts of Oregon's Workforce System. Only two of us from the State Employment Department; myself and one of my Regional Managers went, and most of the others from Oregon were from CCWD (Community Colleges and Workforce Development) the other major player in Oregon's Workforce System.

I have to admit that it sounded like a typical DOL extravagant production, complete with Orwellian sounding handlers called "Thought Leaders" The DOL conference I attended this summer in Kansas City was like a Broadway Production complete with theme music (It's a Beautiful Day) for the Secretary of Labor, every time she came on stage. This one was not near as elaborate, and where the Kansas City meeting had over 3000 people in attendance this one in Seattle, probably only had two or three hundred.

And somewhat surprisingly this one was quite productive. Mainly because we had many hours together as a State Team to plan and strategize. Even though we are all from the same state, being from different organizations, we seldom have this kind of opportunity.

We will be continuing this type of thing during the next few months and this meeting will probably be the springboard for some significant changes in Oregon's Workforce system. It coincides with several change initiatives that we already had in progress.

At the end of the conference, as a reward each state team got a toy "Transformer"....your Federal tax dollars at work.

Seattle was very pretty during this time of year with much of the downtown area decorated. I didn't have much time to explore much but we did all go out to dinner one night at an "Asian Fusion" restaurant. I asked WHW, what the term "fusion" meant when part of a restaurant title, and she said that it meant "that it was expensive" ....she was right.

Well I was also going to mention that I had breakfast last week with the Governor, well me and about 40 other people. I've been appointed to a Steering Committee to The Governor's new "Re-Entry Congress", a group of Agency Directors, and others who will be looking at a variety of ways to eliminate multiple bureaucratic barriers put in the way of ex-offenders when leaving the many state prisons. In Oregon, in the last 10 years the prison population has increased by over 90%, yet almost all of the rehabilitative services that prisons used to provide have been eliminated, and the funds put into the construction of new institutions. Nationally the pendulum is now swinging back a bit toward rehabilitation, some of the impetus towards that direction is actually being provided by some conservative Christian groups, that and the realization that we are pumping out thousands and thousands of inmates back on the street every year, usually in much worse condition than when they entered, and often with no resources other than $25, and no address, no skills, and many other barriers. A condition that the system has created, and that many of us with full cognitive abilities, would probably have a hard time being successful in.

Oh, the breakfast was good too.

Well that's enough work stuff for one time....I'll get back to dog news soon.

Clocks, Trips and Jobs

We have a new alarm clock. It’s relatively hairy has 4 feet and a very wet tongue. Oh and by the way, its name is Heartman. Heartman is a great sleeper. As long as he gets a chance to pee a little before bed, he will sleep the whole night through,…generally. But he also has an amazing internal alarm clock. Almost every morning two to three minutes before 5:00AM – the time our old fashioned clock radio alarm clock is set for…We are awakened by a sloppy wet and cold tongue. First WHW, and then over to the other side of the bed to get MBD. The clock has beat him a couple times, but when it does, he springs right up for the rest of the wake up treatment. He will be great if the power ever goes out - the only trouble is, he has a hard time telling weekends from weekdays!

Heartman and Guido met their house sitter, Ruth Yesterday. She will be staying with the boys while we begin our vacation starting tomorrow. We will be heading toward Glacier National Park for a week and then back home for the next week to pick up our new puppy and help him out through the first week of transition.

BD had big news on the job yesterday. I’ve been made Interim Assistant Director for Business and Employment Services. My boss took a voluntary demotion last week, so I’ve been appointed to fill in for him for the next three to four months, while they conduct a nation-wide recruitment for his position. Of course the first thing I had to tell them was I had one condition…The two week vacation previously scheduled doesn’t get changed…and they agreed. So one of my first duties today has been to select and Acting Asst. Director for the time I’m gone...or is that an Acting Interim Assistant Director, Or an Acting Acting, Assistant Director…..

Should be an interesting next few months