Fail city council meeting.

As you know, a few years ago I got on a health kick. I was waking early, going to the gym five days a week, riding my bike 20 to 50 miles three days a week, eating very healthy having cut out all sugar, high protein, low fat ect. Im sure it was a reaction to the things going on in my life at that time. I had just sold the club and had just separated from my girlfriend. I was making changes. Consequently in the year after that I was in great shape, the best I'd been in for years.

Over the course of the last year I've gone back to work after taking a year off. As dad gets closer and closer to retirement I've stepped into the family business of property management. It's been nice to get back to work and I've always enjoyed real estate so its a good match.

Unfortunately, one of the casualty's of work has been my strict work out regiment. I'm by no means out of shape, I just cant dedicate the time I did last year to being in the gym. I still have my hopes though. I'm doing all the mental tricks. posting stickers around so when I see them I tell myself to go for a bike ride or make room for time in the gym. I have a few pictures around of when I was in my best shape to remind me that I need to stick to that strict diet. It's hard with work, but I'm trying.

As for work, it's great. We still have the properties in Santa Cruz and Carmel and of course the stuff in Los Banos where my parents are from. In recent weeks I've been spending more time in the valley, reestablishing our connections to Los Banos. Meeting with the chamber and going to city council meetings. It's a great little farm town that still has a sense of community.

Last Wednesday was the city council meeting and so off to Los Banos I went. This would be the second I attended the first being a few months earlier. So as of yet I wasn't a familiar face. Nothing to exciting on the agenda and I quietly took a seat and started listening to the proceedings.

Now, I know a lot of communities do this, televise the city council meetings, but something that I thought was a little different about Los Banos's is the fact that rather then having the cameras at the back of the room filming the city council members, they have the cameras at the front of the room shooting over councilmans heads. Effectively this puts everyone in the room on TV. I learned this after the last meeting when I went to breakfast the following morning and the waitress said "Hey! I saw you on the TV last night!"

Anyway, I took my seat and folded my hands and started listening to the proceedings. A trophy for the Los Banos football team for the outstanding performance over the last season. A proclamation for a 17 year old girl who has been named the fastest draw with a six shooter in California.

Then the meeting was opened up for public comments. To the podium in his cowboy hat and boots strolled a local to address the council. He was in charge of the city's local graffiti task force. Hey! I thought, I know this guy! We had spoken on the phone a few months back. I had some graffiti on one of my buildings and was pointed to him as a possible source for help. Sure enough, after some brief calls, he and his crew of volunteer kids painted over the graffiti.

At the time I had promised him a donation for supplies but in the hustle and bustle had completely forgotten about it. Great, here's my chance to get his info and send him a check. He continued to voice his concerns for the next few minutes, politely wrapped up and turned to leave.

As he started to walk away from the podium I gave him the pez and waved. I pointed to the back of the room and got out of my seat. I brushed past people and made my way to the rear of the room. He looked at me rather quizzically at which point I held up a finger and dug in my pocket for my iphone. I didn't want to speak, I didn't want to interrupt the speaker. I did whisper "I want to get your address." As I finished the phrase I got my iphone out and held it up for for both of us so I could enter his address and number. he moved in so he could see the little screen. I hit the button.

OK, remember I said 'd been leaving myself little reminders about staying in shape? Yeah, I figured, since I take my iphone with me every where that I should put a picture on it so I could take a look at it and remind me to stick to the diet. So, my iphone wall paper is a picture of me in great shape (for me anyway), shirt off, sweating like crazy, with a chainsaw in my hands. I had been hard at work at my house after the storms last year. Here, ill post the picture.














I hit the button. OK, as a rush of horror washes over me as I do a mental brief recap. I'm standing in a room that's being televised where being quiet is a necessity. I've just flagged down a good old boy who has never met me and asked him to come to the back of the room. When we get to the back of the room I whisper to him "I want your address..." Whip out my iphone and produce a picture of my half naked sweaty body for this guy to look at... Not exactly the impression I was planning on making. Now I'm pretty much frozen. This guy tilts his head and looks at me as if to say "What the fuck?" I half expected to hear "You're not from around here are ya boy."

Quickly I try and regain my composure "I wanted to talk to you about the kids" I stammered... Not a good start. That's it. I'm not coming back from this one. I dropped my head and silently shook it from side to side as I gently pushed him to the side and walked out the door.

I'll let you know how the next meeting goes.