Monday, December 14, 2009

When Things Fall Apart

A not copyrighted picture of Ocean Tower implosion, December 13, 2009

The leaning tower of SPI is no more than a four-story pile of rubble today after all the excitement and "Oh my God" experiences of the implosion. It was all over in like five seconds; people cheered and then went to breakfast at Denny's or McDonald's. The island quickly reverted back to its quiet old Sunday ways, after one heck of a good thrill.

For all the cheer and optimistic spin, I found this a deeply depressing icon of our times. Perhaps this comes more naturally during the Christmas season, especially one in these terrible recessionary times of high politics and below-the-belt infighting. Here we have a signature emblem of boomtown enthusiasm and the best engineers available, and it literally all had to be brought back down to the Earth.

It's also a personal issue with me, since the contracting work has all but stopped, and I fear the impending doom of - ghasp - looking for work, even punching a damn clock. It is especially fitting after a major flame-out on the SPI Forums, in which I inadvertently accused a nice person of being "Tim." Apparently this "Tim" person must be really, really disgusting, since there was talk of me getting sued for slander! Gosh what can I say, I messed up and profusely apologized, but somehow it was like a large building was just imploded.

But just like the sun that is now feebly trying to burn off the persistent morning fog, we endure. There are smiles, the nice people you meet on the street, the nice things that take your mind off the negative, the opportunity to change to the better and follow some of those New Year's resolutions, and the promise of big things for the future like the myth of the Phoenix, a bird that rises from the ashes.

Onward through the fog!

6 comments:

~Melissa said...

Wow Sammy, Wasn't that cool? If you blinked or yawned....ya missed it.

You opening your mouth and inserting foot???? you? Never.....LOL. I don't read the forum much these days. Only the happy stuff. I want to leave my rose colored glasses on for now. *giggle* See ya around!

~Melissa

Sam said...

Moi? Me? And yeah, I haven't checked on the forum in about a week, feels great! See ya around the sandbar...

Anonymous said...

Sam, don't be so hard on yourself. Creating a fictitious character-in this case a lonely old man who needs a community center to make friends-in order to further one's agenda of having taxpayers fund a community center, is not such a nice thing to do.

Sam said...

Thanks, Anonymous.

But I can say that for nearly two years I was almost addicted to that forum. It was as if some person attacked the town, or spread vile lies, they personally attacked ME. I had to get away from all that mental baggage.

It's so strange because aside from these handful of evil complainers and whiners, SPI is a fantastically happy place. Hey, I've really come out of my shell, too - I used to be quite the shy type.

So bring on the bonfires, the music, and the intelligent conversation - or just some good ole laughs.

Anonymous said...

I hear you, Sam. It is kind of a waste of sweet life. I waste too much of my time jabbering on that thing and reading other's jabbering, much of it pretty negative, and I probably should make a New Years resolution to do a lot less of that. It does become kind of an addiction though. Hope to see you out in the real world one day and buy you a beer.

Island Princess said...

Just like you told me, "Everyone is allowed to be the town drunk for one night" well, everyone is allowed to make a gddamn mistake when talking, too. I wondered if you had had a few too many Coronas that night. Everyone could see your disagreement was with Tim and just went in the wrong direction, that's all. As far as slander goes, I think most ppl would say, "You did this where? On a forum? Who cares?" At least you didn't drive naked through the Whataburger and say, "I got your curly fries." Nobody really shivs a git, Sam. Time to look forward to a new year. May our fuggups from last year not even rival our fuggups from this year. This will be a great year for you if you choose to lead your mind in the right direction and not even think about a bunch of whining ppl constantly griping over signs, parking and the pollen count. Life shouldn't be so trivial, shouldn't it?