Did something just flash?

Holy God.

Half the time, I think I see things out of the corner of my eye, the other half I am talking to total strangers on the phone about their e-commerce sites.

I have become a creature of immediacy.

If you have a problem, we will address it NOW. Otherwise, someone else will handle it later. This approach obviously has its consequences, especially if you apply it to real life. I can't think of the times someone has opened their mouth in query only to have me put them on the spot for resolution. This trickles down to weekend behavior as well, only having a moment to piss off the random passerby or bum panhandling at the intersection, or random driver to the left of me.

HOMELESS VET? Well get the hell off the street and apply for a job at the restaurant 50 feet from you.

HATE JOB? Get your ass out of the building and walk 100 yards to the competitor.

PROBLEM WITH HOA? Mow your lawn.

Tonight, I came home to find an errant trash can sitting at the tip of my driveway. It sure as hell isn't mine, and I wasn't about to call the City to determine what serial number belonged to whom, so I made a quick observation on who was missing a HUGE BROWN TRASHCAN in their driveway, and casually walked the can to the nearest neighbor who had none. Problem solved.

Or at least out of MY hands.

Life is like this: You will avoid problems, or face them head-on. Given the limited amount of time we walk this earth, you might as well take some action and push beyond the situation. While this doesn't solve EVERY problem out there, it definitely avoids the logjam effect, which will ultimately affect EVERYONE. Whether you like it or not.

Coming from a rampant bureaucracy, I guess this is just my natural way of rebelling against inaction.

So get up, get moving, and get it done. No one else will do it for you.

Your party may not be seated if not all present

Two months have whizzed by at Rackspace, and while life remains essentially the same, I keep noticing more and more California license plates on cars travelling the roads to- and from-work.

This is disturbing on several levels, but I will point out the most important.

My aunt in Sacramento works THREE jobs to keep abject poverty at bay: 1) Real Estate agent, 2) Insurance Claims agent, and 3) Paramedic. This should say something about the state of things in old Cali', including the level to which So-Cal and Nor-Cal transplants are willing to stoop to make ends meet. Couple this with the inherent desperation in your average South Texan resident to "just have a job" and you get a monumental clash of ideals in an otherwise sleepy town. I say this because I come from a background where hard work is the order of the day - regardless of whether you are payed well for it or not. I have no builtin desire to scam my fellow man, unlike some of my peers, so I remain overworked and underpayed. But generally happy.

Now this is all changing.

While having to only compete with fellow South Texans in recent years, I suddenly realize that Californicans are relocating to this state at such an alarming rate they are skewing the average price of everything in the market. Whether that means higher energy rates or increased DMV taxation it doesn't matter - the influx of the "holy crap, I can't believe how CHEAP everything is down here in Texas!" crowd is destroying our finely-tuned economy.

Case-in-point: Up until about 2 or 3 years ago, the average lunch at the average San Antonio restaurant hovered around $5 and change. Today it is $8 and change. Same for the energy rates (like electricity and natural gas) - once pennies per kilowatt, now increased seasonally and "special adjustments" due to increased consumption. This also rolls over to inflated housing prices. Once a relatively stable buyer's market, San Antonio residential real estate has now been thrown off kilter because most Californians cannot understand our ridiculously skewed school tax valuation scheme, which means your average $500k home in Cali is worth about $150k in South Texas (what a STEAL!). Until you figure that your property taxes will come to about 3% of your home's annual appraised value.

Ouch.

Guess no one looked at that chapter before they relocated here.

Of course, the saving grace is how repulsed the average Californian feels when trying to negotiate a living wage for whatever skillset they offer. I have seen situations where the wife of a husband who was relocated here flippantly figured she would get a "temporary job" at someplace like Starbucks or Walmart until she could get a higher paying job in her field, only to find out she is COMPLETELY WEDGED OUT of the cheap-labor market by thousands of other native San Antonians who are just looking for a regular job!

If you don't believe me, browse the Jobs section in sanantoniocraigslist.org and see for yourself.

Having lived here for some 20 years, I can now say with authority that this town is NOTHING like your last place of residence. The key is to understand how useless you are in an entertainment and hospitality based economy and then make an appropriate decision on what level of mid-management you wish to aspire to. Don't think for a moment that you will usurp existing potentates just on skill alone - Noooooooo...

It will take much more than your Prius and unflappable optimism in humanity to come to a rest in this part of Texas.

Meanwhile, enjoy the crappy chain-restaurants and dollar tacos!