Virtually everyone who knows me knows about my ongoing quest to visit every National Park Service site. Well, I’ve decided to add a similar quest: visiting every designated wilderness area in Arizona. Despite hiking for more than a decade, I’ve hardly scratched the surface. Given the remoteness and ruggedness of most of these areas–not to mention my lack of a sturdy 4WD high clearance vehicle–I suspect this quest will take a while.
I’m busy, and it’s not easy keeping up with what I need to in my job. After running across the GTD philosophy, I made some significant strides forward. My project list bulged to 100-150, my active to-do list exploded to about 300. I felt like I was actually getting things done.
Note the past tense of that last sentence. I’m no longer actively processing, dumping, contexting, and so on. And, I admit, it shows. My desk–both at home and at the office–are overflowing with files, papers, and stickies. And while I have a hundred or so tasks identified and diligently logged in Outlook, I rarely actually use the list to work off of, opting instead for quick “must do today” post-it notes. Hell, my pda hasn’t been sync’d in several days.
Well, things are about to ramp up at work, and I need to be ready and as productive as I possibly can, so I’m recommitting myself to the GTD methodology.
It was a tough day for Kim, as the Colts erased an 18-point second quarter deficit to pull ahead of the Patriots in the waning minutes of the AFC Championship game. I’d be lying if I didn’t think that the Colts were finally going to beat the Pats in the playoffs. I’m just surprised that the Patriots have put the “system” so far ahead of “players,” that they seem more willing to dump talent in favor of no-name players. Sure, no-name players in this system turn into “known” guys, but you have to wonder why there isn’t a bit of urgency within the Patriot organization to win now.
Let’s face it, the team isn’t getting a whole lot younger. Core players on defense are starting to age, and you never know when the franchise will take a major hit, whether from career-ending injury or a free agency raid. One of the central figures of the Pats’ current run–probably second in importance to only Tom Brady himself–suited up in the dreaded Colts uniform this year, joining the likes of Ty Law and Deion Branch as former Patriot stars tending big contracts in warmer locales. But, the bigger question for this franchise is the head honcho himself. Why isn’t owner Bob Kraft providing Belichick with all the tools necessary to win? Or has he, and Belichick’s refused to spend the cash?
One thing is certain: Belichick and the budding Patriots dynasty won’t be around forever, and they probably still need at least one more win to solidify their status as a dynasty worthy of joining the Packers, Steelers, Niners, and Cowboys among the great franchises in NFL history.
But for now, they will back and watch their rival–their nemesis–the storied, but hereunto unsuccessful, Peyton Manning guide the Colts into battle against the Chicago Bears, who hope that the adage “defense wins championships” will guide them to a “Ravenesque” win on February 4.
The Patriots will likely have another day, but it’ll come sooner if they start investing in talent on April 22.
I am now an official site steward for the state of Arizona. My primary assignment is up at Agua Fria National Monument, but I’ll also be working on Ironwood Forest National Monument and Sonoran Desert National Monument.
The Arizona Site Steward Program is an organization of volunteers, sponsored by the public land managers of Arizona, whose members are selected, trained and certified by the State Historic Preservation Office and the Governor’s Archaeology Advisory Commission. The chief objective of the Steward Program is to report to the land managers destruction or vandalism of prehistoric and historic archaeological and paleontological sites in Arizona through site monitoring. Stewards are also active in public education and outreach activities.
I first learned about the program about a dozen years ago. I was wandering around the Superstition Mountains near Hieroglyphic Canyon and ran across a fellow hiker. We got to chatting a bit near the petroglyphs. He pointed out some vandalism, I showed some disgust, and he said that I should consider becoming a steward. I was interested in learning more, but never got around to researching it.
Fast forward to last year, when I got involved with the Friends of the Agua Fria National Monument. Two board members, Shelley and Trudy, are both site stewards, and through their involvement in the program, I decided to take the step and get involved. I completed the field training back in October, and then the classroom training in November, and received my volunteer agreements shortly thereafter. Well, the regional coordinator, Lila, brought me out to the monument and showed me a couple of pretty cool sites last week. I’m stoked about doing it.
While most site stewards have a particular site that they are assigned to monitor, Lila is going to let me wander around the monument a bit more. Given my work with the monument, it’ll be a good opportunity to get a broader view of monument impacts than just focusing on a single site.
Bring It On! provides some handy descriptions for the warning symbols over at the ready.gov, the new Department of Homeland Security website intended to provide answers and information during emergency situations.
