Photo of water and angel

It is amazing the way water plays in the sunlight as a cherub vies for a refreshing sip.

Insights from the mountains

I drove up and beyond Quincy for a couple of days of introspection and fishing. The area is simply awe inspiring. Clear water, fresh air, inspiring vistas of tree covered crags, and the stars at night so close that you could almost reach up and touch them.
I took a break at mid afternoon and found a boat up food stop. Big hamburger, fries and a Pepsi all the while sitting in the warm sun overlooking the lake. A gentleman came out to the alfresco deck with his motorcycle helmet and we struck up an conversation. He told me of is work with the Bank of America and that he had a territory of most of Northern California and he often went from bank to bank on his bike. He has seen alot of road under his wheels. He asked me what I did, and I told him about my new job working with the prison system.
Then I was put aback by a statement he made. "Your work could well save lives."
Meaningful employment. One piece to the puzzle of life.

The Quest Goes On

As in any blog there is a therapeutic catharsis in the process of putting your thoughts into words. Sitting at a keyboard and placing phrases in appropriate structure takes time and allows for introspection. But in the long run there is a haunting, almost minuscule little voice that cries from deep down inside that is constantly asking, "Does anyone actually read this stuff?".
But I digress. Well after being in an holding pattern for seemingly forever, I received an offer of employment. I know to all you rabid readers of "Quest of Meaningfulness", this sounds like good news. But I have trepidations and doubt. Any time you have to step out of your little bird nest, all comfortable with the trappings of life, there is self doubt. Doubt of the ability to do the job. Doubt of the in-kids will accept the new kid with his shinny new lunch box and his inability to find the bathroom.
The position is project management of a small project downtown Sacramento for the State of California. It seems there was a federal court case that mandated better health care for the prisoners within the state corrections facilities. It seems the state prison health care system was not as good as some would like. One small part of the mitigation and improvement is the creation of a state wide database to collect and store all prison health care records. My small project is to provide project management for the establishment of a business continuity system. This system would provide for both the long term viability of the data but also provide high availability to the data from all the required sites.
Well you can get happy for me now. It is almost overwhelming go and start anew. But it is a part of that one thing, the quest for meaningfulness.

One thing!

In the movie City Slickers, Jack Palance had a line, "all you need to do in life is find that one thing and everything else don't mean shit." I would suppose that a quest for meaningfulness is a quest for that "One Thing." At issue is there are so many competing "one things", family, job (still looking). fishing, stock market, housing, cooking, ...... . So what is my "one thing"? Still have not figured that one out yet. Stay tuned ladies and gentlemen for the next episode of "One Life to Live".

What I did with my fish from Santa Cruz

Dad's Fish Stew Recipe

Preparation time: 25 minutes.
Ingredients

* 6 Tbsp olive oil
* 1 cup of chopped onions
* 3 large garlic cloves, chopped
* 2/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped
* 2 cups of fresh chopped tomato (about 2 medium sized tomato)
* 5 tsp of tomato paste.
* 8 oz of clam juice
* 1 cup dry white wine
* 1 1/2 lb fish fillets cut into 2-inch pieces
* Touch of dry oregano, thyme, pepper
* Salt

1 Heat olive oil in heavy large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chopped onion and garlic and fry 4 minutes. Add parsley and stir 2 minutes. Add tomato, tomato paste and cook 2 minutes longer.

2 Add clam juice, dry white wine, and fish and simmer until fish is cooked through, less than 10 minutes. Stir roughly just before serving to break the fish up a little more. Add seasoning. Salt to taste. Ladle into bowls and serve.

Bonnie thought it was great.