Holidays Again

Well boys and girls it's been on hell of a year.

Revenues are up which is a blessing and I am thinking the world is starting to balance out again.

I personally have under gone a lot of change. Some good, some weird and some unbelievable, but at the end of the day I am grateful for it all.

OK surveyors it's that time. Yes let's give it up once again for the Surfing Santa!!!!!

I love red clad this tubby bitch of the water ways. He signifies a lot of things for me and I am sure for a lot of you too.

Remember, no matter how old we get there is still a lot of kid in us. My New Year resolution is to let as much of my kid come out as possible.

So lets have a drink and chug a lug, by our kids a bunch of cool things to open on the 25th and if your are Jewish enjoy the Chinese food and the movies that day.

One thing for sure, even though we may be different in the way we think, our beliefs and the way we do things, we are all still surveyors and it is strange what a small community this is. It's one of those weird little bonds that we can't break no matter what, because there are so few of us.

Make it a great holiday season surveyors. Good bad or ugly I am grateful for all of you.

Peace, love and booty grease!!


Oh and what ever you do try to avoid this situation.

Surveyors of the Future

I have been pondering the future of surveying as of late and am wondering what we need to do as a group to make this an appealing profession for those bright eyed non jaded youngsters of America.

Question: Would you recommend that your children become a surveyor?

My Answer: Hell no!!

So what is the answer from my readers? Please chime in.

So there in lies my dilemma. When I am asked by a young person if I would recommend this as a profession what do I say? Really, if I would not recommend it to my kids how could I in good conscience tell someone else's kid to do it?

Do I tell them the truth?
That surveying is a great job as long as you work under the shield of the government or a big company.
And further be even more honest and tell them that it is an absolutely horrible business to be in.

How does one explain the truth to an enthused youngster without kicking the wind completely out of their sails? A great job but terrible business? Seems to be a contradiction.

How does one explain the difference between the surveying biz and the customer service biz?

Personally I am in the customer service business and surveying just happens to be the professional service that I provide. I get a lot of work from people that have previously used surveyors that have bad customer service.

So fellow surveyors, what say you on this topic?? Please step up with some input.

Make it a great week!

New Board Rules

I have been reading the new board rules and I will tell you right now that I like them.

I had some questions and asked the powers that be and got some great answers and feedback.

It was instantly clear that I need to slow down and be more thorough when reading things such as the rules that govern my profession.

Now I want to take a moment to thank the people that worked on updating these rules.

This is an extremely tough job as it effects each and everyone one of us in the surveying world.

Can you imagine the shit these guys have gotten through this process? How about the endless yammering by the non progressive numb nuts'zzzz?

I call that the not want to do anything but be the first to bitch syndrome.
So if you did not help, shut the fuck up. (Myself included).

Surveying is a profession where things do change. The fundamentals are the same but with technology comes change and staying on top of the rules needs to happen.

I am unsure how often they come up for review but I personally recommend that it get done more often.

So hey everyone, lets give some big ups to the people that stepped to the plate and put their valuable time and energy into something that is so important to us as professionals.

I am sure we will be better for it even with the small changes being proposed.

Peace out surveyors and make it a great week.

GDAC Issue

OK. I have raved for years about how I think GDAC is the greatest research tool I have ever seen.

I continue to say this today, however I found a problem.

The southwest corner of Section 4, Township 2 North, Range 4 East is noted on GDAC as an aluminum cap.

I have been to this corner several times and it has always been a 5/8" rebar with a smashed cap.

Big deal it checks and fits well with everything around it.

I have been working on a lot that the description commences on that corner then runs north 580 feet +/-. Actually every lot around there does the same thing.

Me being the diligent monkey that I am I shoot the section corner and go north 580 feet and what do I find? I find an aluminum cap stamped section corner.

Now here is my question:

What kind of crack was the crew chief smoking when he went to cap that rebar?

This person actually had to walk about a quarter of a mile and 200 vertical feet to cap a point that is no where near the proper location to which that cap belongs.

Now here is another kicker. That 580' point is called out on the GDAC interactive map and hits awesome for xyz.

Things like this are always a chuckle.

Thanks erroneous crew chief for the good belly laugh!!

This is honestly the first time I have ever found a real problem with any GDAC info.

Keep up the great work MCDOT.

Make it a great week surveyors.

Board Rules

Ever so often I do a quick scan through the Board Rules just to blow the cob webs out of the brain pan.

Every time I read them I think to myself, fair enough but one of them just rubs me the wrong way.

It is section 14, E, 2b, and regarding descriptions and it states as follows.

"All controlling monuments, noting their physical description, and whether found,
 set or replaced."

Now why in the hell would I do that?

In my opinion if a monument has another number on it I found it and if it has mine on it I either set it or found it.

At the end of the day if a monument has my number on it I own the responsibility, who really cares if I set or found it. Also if I am calling out other monuments in my description I still own the responsibility.

If I would change something about these rules that would be the one.

I am curious how many of you actually make those notations in a perfectly good description? All it does is clutter it up for the layman and also I believe it will create ambiguity for some green horn that still has a hard time properly writing one.

I would love to hear some thoughts on this one.

Peace out surveyors, make it a great week.

Dollar Value and what not

I have just not been into blogging lately but today I have been inspired.

I was telling a friend of mine that I was waiting for my new website to be built and then I was going to blog away because it would then be embedded in the site. However as most things go this is taking longer than expected to get built.

On to the topic.

I always chuckle inside when someone calls me says something like " It's an old street" "The lot is a rectangle" "Everything should just work because" etc, because they are trying to let me know up front that their particular job is easy and I should be able to do it for a minimal bust obviously intrusive cost.

I had a guy the other day tell me that his lot measures to the millimeter and I should be able to follow it just as close.

I have been estimating projects lately like they should be. I have broken the tip off of the pencil and am sending out real time professional rates.

I would love to see the look on some of these super cheap Mofo's faces when they get my estimate. Tire kickers is what I call them.

I have always marveled at how it is almost impossible for the Land Surveyor to explain dollar value to a client when all the client cares about is what they own which I am unable to legally tell them anyway. I make this statement in regards to boundary surveys.

The average client only understands cheap. They see us roll onto the site, look around for a while with a stick that has a disc on top, leave flagging and then disappear only to later receive a pdf file and an invoice.

I understand their angst. I really do. Hell I'd be pissed.

So herein lies the big question.

How do we intelligently explain the dollar value of flagging and paper to the client?

It's hard. I always explain it in time. Time seems to be the one common thing that everyone understands.
Before I even hang up with a client on the phone I am emphatic about how time consuming a project will be and the estimate goes out appropriately to follow.
It's true, surveys take a lot of time that we need to be compensated for in a professional manor.

As of late I have been getting professional rates and am loving it. The world is opening again and people such as myself can be paid as they should be.


On to the what not.

A couple of weeks back my Hiper had a horrible accident and broke the face plate among other things. It will not take a charge and needed replaced.
I was getting ready to take a quick run up to Prescott at 4am one Friday and noticed that something was just wrong with the GPS. I plugged it in, flipped it on and had 10% power and it went right to zero in a matter of seconds.
Well hell! I called the client and explained what was up and he was happy because he was running short on time and I scheduled one of my awesome contract guys to jump up there the following week.
I then jumped on the phone with Yon from RDO and went over and saw him. He hooked me up with a loaner and got my Hiper into the hospital. The damage was quite extensive and I carry a blanket policy on my equipment and called my insurance agent, told her what happened and she told me that is was a claim and it got filed and paid and Mr. Hiper will return this coming week. Yay!!!

Enough of that, lets talk about some fun stuff.

I am going to kick some major survey ass this week and then jump over to California next week for Fall Break. Fall Break, is a BS hiatus that the school district created for who knows what so I have decided that leaving for a pre-holiday vacation is the most prudent thing I can do. Thank you SUSD!!!

 Surveying will be here when I return.

Wow! What if it wasn't? What would I do with myself? I do think big picture at all times.

Well that's about it for the moment surveyors. I have had a lot of bloggy type stuff boiling and am going to be back into from here on. Until I lose the luster again that is.

Peace out boys and girls, be safe out there and make lots and lots of money!!!

Forward Motion

OK, Lately I have been doing a lot of thinking about how I have done business up to now and the important things that need to change.

After taking the seminar I mentioned in the last post I have decided to create a wall between myself and that dreaded word Liability.

Liability is a word that to many surveyors want to absorb and I have always wondered about that. Why??? Why in the world would one want that??

I recently took all of my contracts and map notes and some other doc's to an attorney that specializes in working with surveyors and engineers and have asked him to do a major sprucing of everything.

I want to separate myself as much as possible from liability and paint a very clear picture of the clients responsibility and liability in every engagement.

I also want to make it abundantly clear that I am not a design professional. I have never designed nor will I ever design anything.

One major point I want to be very clear on is the fact that I can never tell a client what they own. That is a matter of title. I am a professional evidence producer and everything I do is merely an opinion and should be verified if they choose to do so.

There a several other points that am having him work on, those are the most prevalent.

I am through taking responsibility for things that a Land Surveyor should not.

On to another topic.

I have made a solid decision to switch to Micro Survey. I am finished with Auto Cad.

I got a call the other day from a really cute girl trying to get me to update to C3D. I politely told her that C3D is a solution for Civil's and design professionals and I have zero use for a program that I will only use 10 percent of.

She was nice and I decided to let her work me up a cost anyway and upon receipt firmly decided to switch software and I gave her a written punch list as to why.

This coming year is going to be a whole new ball game for this kid. I have a new company name, a soon to be released web site, a solid marketing plan in place and a plan for new equipment and most important a forecast that dictates things are becoming normal again.

Peace out surveyors.

Seminar about Title Stuff

Last Friday I took a seminar on Title vs Survey issues and boy am I glad I did.

The content as always was a little dry but I learned a metric shit load about title issues.

The main reason I took the particular seminar is because I am involved in a problem that was created by an RLS that worked for me several years ago and yes of course my name is on the map.

What happened is this. He did a land division and prepared what may or may not be a bunk legal. I am yet to reach a conclusion. All of the line work is perfect etc.

He later amended it but the descriptions remained the same.

The description was recorded, map filed, the monuments were set, walls were built etc. The buyer assumed he was getting an acre.

Long after the RLS was gone from my company they came back for another amendment and I personally did it and inadvertently fixed the descriptions.

Now here is the crazy part. They never got title insurance on anything. The buyer had it but our client never got it because they owned it outright.

Problem: Buyer loses property to bank, a new guy buys it from the bank with the assumption that he is purchasing the property within the walls, he has a title policy.

The new buyer being diligent gets a survey done and discovers that that deed is that of the old split and that the seller had never adopted the second amended. All of the monuments reflect the lot split but the deed does not and now he thinks he owns an additional 1/4 acres.

I received a call from a very cool surveyor telling me what was going on. He said our survey was awesome and all of the monuments hit really well. I explained to him that they obviously never had any title work done, he agreed and I thanked him and waited for my client to call.

Well we all know what happened when the client called. Of course they are thinking this is our fault. I promptly told them that this is a matter of title and the buyers company was responsible.

I will tell you that making an angry person believe that someone as glorious as a title company man could make such a huge mistake is almost impossible.

It sure is fun owning a business!!! Just one hoot and holler after another.

Well we had a meeting. I put my insurance company on notice. We spoke a few more times and I am yet to hear anything else.

What I did tell them is if they decided to try and sue me for any reason the insurance company would sick some big bad wolf of an attorney all over them, he will prove that they were remiss in the issue, he will prove it is in fact a title issue and he will drive their legal fees through the roof and all I will have to do is meet my deductible.

They also threatened to turn me in. I told them they could but it would do them zero good to do so. I am thinking they are of the mindset that kind of thing is public like the ROC and it would in some way hurt my biz because anyone can have a look for marks.

Now these people are very niece and amiable and I hope it stays that way. I told them I would help in anyway that I can but my hands are tied until they sign a release stating that they will not sue me.

We will play the waiting game now. I have a feeling it will all work out to their benefit. That is if they follow proper protocal.

Cities

I never cease to wonder about the operations and efficiencies of the different municipalities.

The thing I marvel at the most is the utter lack of communication between the separate departments and also the utter inability to make a decision.

Now I understand that a city employee is prohibited from telling you how they think something should be done and they are tied to city guideline, however a little extra effort to point a citizen in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

I am wondering what causes these poor people to become absolute minimalists? I am sure that they start out ambitious but something at some point sucks the life out of them and they bend into a lifeless wet piece of paper.

I have had some great experiences with most city folk, but unfortunately as humans we have a tendency to focus on the less than good times.

The two I deal the most with are Phoenix and Scottsdale. For the most part I have great success and really like everyone I deal with, but ever so often I get that curve ball that throws it all into a tail spin.

I can only imagine the shit that gets blown at these people on a daily basis.

I am a very chill person and I am thinking that's why I get along with most that I encounter because I am always respectful and grateful for the help even if the result takes me in circles.

I know dealing with the public is tough especially when you get a belligerent numskull in front of you breathing hate.

I also know that everyone is different and piling all of you into the some category is massively inappropriate. Sometimes a guy just has to bitch a little.

So hey city employees. I am here so say thanks for doing a job that I would never be able to do.

Keep up the good work.

Exciting Stuff

So there I am yesterday morning in an intersection in a quiet residential neighborhood that is not quite ghetto.

I look up and here comes a cop blazing down the street. He passes by me, stops jumps out of the Tahoe, draws his weapon and points it at a guy in a car that is in a driveway.

Needles to say I immediately vacated said intersection and went behind my truck in case gunfire ensued.

The cop holstered the weapon and grabbed him and dragged him out of the car while the guy (a great big white supremacist looking fella) proceeded to scream like a little girl. It was actually sad.

By then two other cop cars had arrived and the suspect was subdued and the friend on the front porch was being spoken to by one of the cops.

Exciting? Kind of in that this happened at 5:30 am.

So I was going around a block doing a boundary. I get to my lot and this old guy from next door (Nick) comes out and talks to me for a bit. He keeps an eye on things and the property that I was surveying was vacant. Great guy, he even let me go into his yard.

I was asking him about some of the neighbors because I had to trace some adjoining monuments and he told me that I should probably watch out for the guy on the other side of the subject, that his kid is a heroin addict.

I looked at him and asked if I should lock my truck. He chuckled and said "he's to dumb and to slow to steal your stuff, he's just unpredictable".

Comforting?  WTF?

All in all the job went smooth and I actually made some money on it even with the results of survey that I had to prepare. I'll wait to file it until I have a few to do.

Keep your eyes open out there surveyors. You never know what might land on you.

Back in Action

OK Boys and Girls I am back on the air wave.

You want to know the worst thing about coming back from vacation? COMING BACK!!

Much has changed for this kid over the last month or so. I have been working on several projects (not all revolving around surveying) and yes working on survey things to.

I have gone and changed the name of my company. I am now the proud owner of "Arizona Surveyors Incorporated".

You may be asking yourself why on earth did you change the name?

Simple. Marketing and SEO. That is the only reason and the old name is that of a dead guy. (I think I mentioned that before.)

So now I have a lot of work to do revolving around the new name. First is bank accounts and informing clients and vendors. Second is a website.

The website is something I am jazzed about. This site will be built on new technology using word press and this blog will be embedded in the site itself.

My dusty old RJR site is just that, old and dusty. I will be letting it go into the cyber sky shortly.

Out with the old and in with the new.

I hold a philosophy that when a person becomes to comfortable they will stagnate and fall behind. In many ways I have done that in my equipment and technology. Mixing it up and changing is key to my life.

Cash flow and billings are on the rise again, so I will now blast like a big red rocket of love into the forward motion. I will be an unstoppable machine with a constant increase flowing my way. Business will expand and things will fall back into place.

Then will it be good enough? Good enough never crosses my mind. No matter how good it gets it can always get better. No, it's never good enough.

In case any of you though I did this job for the glory? Ha!!!!! You would be incorrect.

OK. Much is coming on this blog. I have a lot of cool survey things to talk about and also a lot of biz.

Stay tuned!!

Summer Time

OK. It's summer again. This is the time of year when my mind really starts to wonder off to places other than work.

I obviously still have a lot of kid in me.

All I want to do is hang at the beach or anything that has nothing to do with surveying.

Yes business is really starting to pick up and I have some people moving (mostly on construction) and May has been a great month even though I can't really remember any of it, oh and with all kinds of other distractions happening, I still managed to crank some great receivables.

Biz is good and getting a lot better.

OK, now here I am again back in summer mode. Yes I am going to the beach. It's a must. My mind is already there and I am grinding the days and doing it well until I get there.

I am on a blog hiatus until Mid July. By then I should have all kinds of interesting things to spout about. I have been doing a lot of thinking about content and have a lot of things to write about.

Until then I hope the following photos can be as influential on you as they are on me. They truly make life worth living. I have a little something for everyone.

Peace out surveyors. Make it a great summer. Be sure to play a lot, love a lot and whatever you do please remember that there is a fun loving kid in you too.

Sometimes you just gotta hammock up!

Curious

How many of you got that envelope from Leica Geo Systems with the words "For your eyes only" stamped on it with the special email invite to check it out?

Well I did and I have to tell you that Leica did a great piece of marketing with that.

I immediately went to my computer and typed in the address and waited with anticipation as the page loaded. I sat there just wondering what it could be???

Then the anti climax thing occurred. It was an invite to Vegas to check out their new shit that is being released next moth.

I have to admit I was a tad pissed off. I have such a huge imagination that I was sure that this was it, my life was about to change as I know it and off to the races I was going to go like a bullet at 3000 feet per second. However that did not occur.

Now I am sure if I decided to make a sudden change to Leica all of that would come true but those chances are small.

So here I am again on a Sunday with that haven't done my homework feeling and I am facing down a Monday unprepared and all alone. Yes that's right boys and girls a modified version of one of my favorite quotes from Eddie Spaghetti.

OK, enough of all that. I have something much larger to discuss.

A week or so back I went and met with a guy about designing my new website.

I really liked this person, he was professional, well spoken and cut through all of the BS and set me straight about what was what. It was absolutely refreshing to have someone tell me the truth and tell me I do not need an lot of unnecessary stuff.

The guy told me he would get me a cost by end of day or no later than the afternoon of the following day. That was a Thursday.

I did not hear anything from him until Monday afternoon. Not even a message telling me he was running behind or anything.

Needless to say this person lost my account even though I liked him the best. His cost was very good and he was a pretty awesome guy.

So now I am curious how that kind of thing seems to have become the norm in business?

When did it become OK not to communicate when we are in the age of ever rising forms of communication?

Yes, ever so often people are going to drop the ball myself included. The difference between me and others that I have observed in, is that I tell the person that I dropped the ball and then politely ask if they still want me to do whatever. It just happens, but I have noticed this particular trend as of late and frankly it is very irritating.

I know I can only speak for myself and conduct business the way I think it needs to be done, however when I need something, I usually need it right then or at least a call or message.

It is a curious thing this new way of doing things. Yes I know the world can never stay the same and I would never want it to. I love change, but this one I am having a hard time swallowing.

Make it a great week surveyors.

Measuring

Ever notice how you can shoot some monuments and so can 10 other people and they will all come up with different results?

I am of the opinion that it is impossible to take any measurement without a certain degree of error.

Remember the old days as an eyeman when you had that old crew breathing down your neck while you were rapping angles with the good old T2? There were times when I would rap 10 different sets because the mean closure was not good enough.

Fortunately I was honest. I used to be so good with these angles that I could give a false reading so the crew chief would move along. It's all simple math when you think about it.

Which brings me to the point of all of this.

Today's newbies have zero clue what it really means to measure. They will never know a chain for what it really is, they will most likely never rap angles and most likely never run 3 wire levels. Yes there are some exceptions depending on where they work and what they are doing.

So my questions is what will became of the basic fundamentals of survey measurements?

Is the robot or total station more accurate than the GPS? I think absolutely in verticals. Horizontal who knows? I will tell you that I often use steady sticks with the gps, especially when obtaining control and I let it cook a little longer, at least 30 senconds.

There was a time in my life when all we did was run level loops all day long. Yes that's right youngsters loops.

The guy that I spoke about a couple of posts back Howie went to some on site welders and had them make these turn plates that were made of 3/8" steel with bolts in the top and those were the turn plates that we toted from station to station and then back again and again. They had 3 angled legs, were 6 inches tall and then the bolt and were about a foot by a foot and we would drop them and then stomp them in. They weight about 20 pounds each.

We ran some tight stuff and if we checked in over 5 thousandths we did it again. Why? I'm not sure.

I am wondering if the newbies know how to read a rod to the thousandth or if they even know to rock the rod? I'm sure some do.

When I was with Howie he made us use a calibrated deluxe rod bubble and only a 2 section wood rod.

I am wondering how many know how to run levels up and down hills and keep the turns balanced?
Simple. You and the rod man stay exactly 100 feet apart and parallel on the slope and work your way up and down.

Anyone pre 90's probably knows this.

I find it amazing that different companies can shoot the same section with the same character in monuments and come up with significant different results. Tenths, not hundreths. I actually think part of it may be an incorrect grid to ground scale factor. But who knows. It could just be a case of lazy head up ass.

So what is actually happening to measurements? Are they improving though technology or getting worse from button pushers that have zero idea of the basics?

It's a good question.

What say you??

Make it a great week surveyors.

Correction!!!!!!

In the post below I mention a rail road issue in which I developed the center by a series of 3 points arcs.

Since I am a diligent research monkey I kept digging and finally found a document with a definite radius call on the south right of way. Yes there are spirals but one course goes through my entire project area.

I jumped all over it, added 33 feet to it for center, drew it in on my points and that thing fit amazingly well.

The client loses another tenth or so to the RR, but I felt all warm and fuzzy knowing that I had something definite to work with.

I would have stood by my first method had this document not been recovered, however it is nice when something pops up that truly brings it all together.

Rods

Last week I got a tricky boundary survey in the door.

This particular boundary is in an old industrial area and has a Rail Road on a portion of the north.

I asked one of my contract guys who lives a lot closer to go out and shoot the section on Sunday morning because this is in a very high traffic area.

Upon receipt of the data I immediately dove in head first.

I pulled maps and documents and I also received a description and some easement doc’s from the client. No title report seemed to exist but they got all of the paper work from the city in which they are thinking of purchasing the 2 lots.

The description was partially written in Rods and it made some very distinctive calls that were just not adding up according to my section breakdown.

I did some further review on some very old subdivisions in the area and quickly discovered some non-nominal  1/16^th corners that everyone since the dawn of time has been using.

So I jumped in the truck and went out to do my own search and destroy mission.

The first thing I discovered is that the 1/16 corner is not on the mid-section line. The next thing I discovered is the 1/16 to the west which is an old pipe (which is in character with plats) is still there and checks awesome to the brass cap in hand hole 1/16 that is previously noted as a stone.  Oh, the pipe lands in the railroad right of way between the main line and a spur.

Right then I jumped all over those 2 monuments and started running around the subject boundary and man stuff started fitting like no one’s business.

I found some monuments in character with some older surveys and it all started fitting together.

I brought it back to the office, tossed it into cad and re-calc’d it all and soon discovered that the North East corner is clipped by the Rail Road right of way.

I am sure that no one has really ever considered this one, upon looking at all of the documents anyway. So now here we are with that little thing. It only takes a tiny chunk that should never make a difference to anyone.

The track is funky as well. (I love straight track!!). It is in a curve or I should say a series of curves. I could stand there a see that it was obviously multiple curves, most likely spirals.

I took a bunch of center shots all the way past the tangent and in the office I drew a bunch of 3 point arcs and then offset the 33 foot half right of way.

There is a map that is quite illegible but I could still make out the 33 feet and adjoining plats confirmed it.

I will do some more research before making a final determination on that North East corner. I think I have buttoned up but want to be sure.

I like these kind of jobs. It's what makes surveying good and breaks up the day to day drag of the same old stuff.

Just the fact that this thing was written partially in Rods makes it unique along with the obviously long history behind the 1/16 corners.

Make it a great week surveyors.

Old Days

I was on a job site Saturday morning and I got to talking with this mason that I have known for a bit. He is in my age bracket and we starting talking about the old days when everyone was not so sensitive, people settled things with fists, we could call each other names and ride the green horns hard and then drink beer together at the end of the day and all that real cool stuff of days gone by.

It was a great talk. It reminded me of all the Cowboys and Oldsters that schooled me and would not survive in today's work place.

Below is a story that I first posted in 2011. It's about a guy that used to ride me like a donkey, give me shit from sun up to sun down and then buy the beer. Enjoy.



This is about Howie.

I was thinking the other day about this guy, one of my first crew chiefs, he went by a certain name but when I found out his middle name was Howard I immediately dubbed him Howie. (He hated it).

Howie was a nasty son of a bitch.  He chewed Copenhagen, smoked generic cigarettes and drank coffee all day. At night it was a 6 pack of Old Style and the cheapest TV diner he could find. He was a connoisseur of prostitutes and had the clap 11 times that he knew of.

He would go to Saudi Arabia for 2 year stretches and sleep in the back of his Land Rover to avoid housing bills and then vacation in Thailand every 6 months, get baked out on Thai stick and bang hookers for 2 weeks, hence the clap so many times.

He carried a 270 behind the seat of the truck just in case he saw a wild burro. He would shoot them on site claiming that they would pull out stakes. (Note: This is true, I have had it happen and they set them neatly over a hill and crapped on the nails.) I suspect that he was part burro himself that’s why he hated them so much.

He avidly hated anyone that worked in the office and referred to them as “office pukes”, he had zero use for anyone wearing a white hard hat or white shirt and was convinced that anyone that wanted to work in an office had a vagina.

While he was all of this, he was an awesome field surveyor (only) and passed his LS the first time. (Early 70’s)

This nasty Mofo made me tough. I was already pretty tough and still am but he would go out of his way to make things very hard on me. He was an agitator. He would mess with your physical and mental status, he had a way of making a person continually question themselves, therefore I became a check freak. I still am.

He had a method to his madness and his training. Those with a weak mind or the PC pussies of today would have never made it with him. They would have quit and cried to mommy.  I actually witnessed people quit on the spot because of him.

Bottom line is that he made people good surveyors. That was his main goal with youngsters and he accomplished it well. He was a living breathing survey machine and he wanted to teach. He loved it, but only on his terms.

Today, he would be written up, fired, sued and have the book thrown at him.

But that won’t happen because one day he was on vacation with his mail order Philippine wife in an undisclosed location, he smiled at her and dropped dead from a massive heart attack. Death was quick for the old surveying donkey.

If you were on his good side he would treat you well after hours (I was), but on the job it was take no prisoners. If you were on his bad side you were total shit and he wouldn’t spit on you if you were on fire.

Speaking of fire he had an eye-man burn one of his trucks to the ground. Imagine how the rest of the time those 2 spent together was. My question is: how the hell do you accidently torch a truck?? What goes through your brain before and during that??

I know a lot of you my age and older were brought up by similar guys of the older generation. I personally loved these old guys. They were tough and the work ethic was hardcore.

I would love to be able to send these new/young guys back in a time machine and give them 6 months of Howie. They would come back much better having done it.

So let’s all take a moment to remember the guys that trained us. Good, bad or ugly, we all learned a lot.

Because of them, I am who I am today, just a whole bunch more refined.

Office Time

Last week was one of those times that an overly active person such as myself dreads.

It was the week where there is a bunch on contracts out, the work is boiling and of course you know it will hit all at once and there was not much to do except admin.

Admin as mundane as is it is happens to be a huge part of business. Back in the days of many employees my office manager took care of all of that and I never had to deal with it. However today things are a lot different especially since I am an army of 1 now.

The whole admin thing consists of filing, catching up on doc's such as waivers, stuff for the cpa, field folders, bills etc. and the most important part, Quick Books.

I had failed to reconcile anything in over a month so Thursday was bank day.

I have to tell you that over the last 5 years my accounting skills have sky rocketed to a level it never would have if things had remained steady and we avoided falling into a sucking vortex from hell.

I have always thought that the most important thing about a business is the cash flow because it is truly the life blood. I also have always wondered how these guys get by having someone else do all of their books and never looking at a thing. I often think they are most likely getting ripped off because they fail to pay attention. It actually kind of scares me.

Even when I did not do all the other stuff I always paid attention to the books by requesting daily balances, monthly P&L's, weekly out going and receivables. By doing so I ensured that I was always ahead of the game and could make split second decisions if I had to. Another thing I have always done is have the bank statements sent straight to me and always be the first to review even though the office manager would do the reconciliations.

So as a business man I have adapted to all of it, boring or not it must be done in order to be effective.

I had an excellent teacher who was a surveyor but also a business man that made a fortune in other areas. He always told me that no matter what anyone tells you most small business are 3 months from going under and the second I take my finger off of the life blood pulse it will kill me.

He was right. There where times early on that I failed to pay close enough attention and almost wiped myself out. Fortunately he was still with us and I was able to ask for advice.

I was taught early that people who are older by virtue know more and I should listen especially if they have had the same type of things happen. Sometimes that statement is false but for the most part it is right.

Because of that, I have been successful and will continue to be in every venture I step into.

Oh and the lack of trial and error fear helps a lot and the occasional get your own ass handed to you really helps to

It takes balls to run a business and anyone that speaks to the contrary is obviously very naive.

Here's to all of the Cowboys and Oldsters that spent time schooling us Youngsters.

Make it a great week surveyors.

GDAC

The GDAC program. As I have said many times it is the greatest tool we as surveyors have ever been given and it will continue to be for as long as I will be doing this job. That can be said for certain.

Since most of the published work was done several years ago there have been significant changes to the existing monuments due to varies conditions of construction, goofy people etc.

GDAC still remains the greatest tool for positional research and recovery but since things have changed so much especially in the city areas extreme caution needs to be upheld.

I have been noticing a change in the monuments in character also horizontally and especially vertically.

I use to jump all over them but now I have backed off and always check into another, especially when establishing elevation.

There have been instances when I have found monuments to still be in character but have changed vertically, once again due to construction or goofy people.

I have gotten into the habit of hitting those NGS points in the can before I go any further as a start point. Those have a tendency to stay accurate.

A program such as GDAC no matter how awesome it is can not survive accuracy with humans. Consistent updating would need to occur and the cost would be astronomical.

So the question is how does the inventory stay current? I am sure that there is a plan in place and I would like to know what it is.

Do we as the private surveyor need to report a change?

I am curious to see how well the maintenance will go in the future. I am hopeful that it will continue to be updated and remain current.

Make it a great week surveyors.

?

You ever have one of those weeks that when it is done you wish you would have followed your childhood dream of playing guitar for Ozzy or becoming a Jedi Knight or a Dragon Slayer or a Nascar driver or anything instead of becoming a surveyor?

Welcome to my world boys and girls.

Aggghhhhhhh!!!!!! Here we go, here we go, here we go again.

Make it a great week surveyors.

I will have something much more interesting as soon as I get my brain back.

Field Stuff

There must be something in the air or I am in attract weird shit mode.

I was working on a job a while back and I approached a patio area. Going along the patio was this strap stuff that looks like Mule Tape.
I needed to locate the patio corner and it was under a tree so I whipped out old Mr. Pocket tape to pull 2 swing ties. I flipped the tape across the strap and got hit with a massive Zot of electricity, I dropped everything including the gps that got tangled in the tape.
I backed up blurted several swear words and then grabbed the rod by the carbon fiber part and got the gps out of the tape as I was hearing "zap, zap,zap".

What the hell man? Who puts electric fence around their patio? I was dazed and felt like my heart stopped. Luckily I did not have to check my pants.

I immediately set 2 traverse point and came back and detailed the area with the reflectorless TS.


Next I mentioned in my last post about doing a job in one of the more colorful parts of town. Well I returned last week to set the property corners and guess what I found that was not there before?
A brand new constructed Hobo Village under a tree right where I needed to set a corner.

I approached the lean to and was stopped by the sound of a gravely voiced female and a male with like voice arguing, about what I have no idea.
I have to admit that listening to it was majorly entertaining, however I did feel less than inclined to knock on the door and tell them that I have to set an iron pin in their living room.

I set all the rest, called the client and told him that when he serves an eviction notice and chops down the tree I'll run back and set the last pin.

I packed it up and was sitting in the truck, I looked over and the female came out of the village. She looked like Slash the guitar player, she was wearing headphones and then proceeded to do an amazing little dance that lasted for a couple of minutes while she was lighting and smoking what appeared to be half cigarettes. I was amazed and mesmerized all at the same time. If I was shameless I would have taken a video and posted it here, however I decided to keep this one for my own memory and not exploit the lady.

I do love an early morning survey in the ghetto.

Make it a great week surveyors.

Troubleshooting

I did an ALTA the other day down in a very old part of town.

The monuments I recovered reflected a change in right of ways and things were just wrong.

I contacted the City of Phoenix and they quickly sent me some quarter section maps that cleared a lot of things up. My measured monument distances were close to them and the block broke down great with a surplus and the interior monuments came in nice as well.

I finally got the title report and that confirmed everything.

There is an underground tunnel easement running through the area. I have the description of it from the title report and I plotted it but it looked extremely wrong.

I contacted the city again and they sent me some ADOT maps that assured me that I had it plotted incorrectly.

I beat my brain out looking at this thing every which way and could not figure it out. It had a POB that started 34' +/- from the south quarter corner and was certain that I was starting there.

I got so frustrated that I walked away and left the office.

About 8pm I was still thinking about it and kicked me like a donkey.

I had this thing starting in the right place according to my field points, however I was tied into the monument line of Central Avenue and not the mid section line.

The next morning ran to the office, moved everything to the correct position and what do you know that easement was spot on according to all of the info I have.

I think the moral of this story is sometimes you just gotta choke the pooch before the light comes on.

Things we see in the field

OK. Last week was a strange week in many ways.

A couple of things that happened last week that really stand out are shown below.

First I was working in a guys yard running a topo and out of the corner of my eye I see something jump, I look over and see a dog standing on a block wall staring at me.

I've seen this before but this one was pretty cool. He actually watched me complete the job.

And then Graupel.

You may be asking what the hell is that. Well that is what fell on us last week.

Per Wiki:

Graupel (German pronounciation: ['gʁaʊpɛl], also called soft hail or snow pellets)^[1] refers to precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water are collected and freeze on a falling snowflake, forming a 2–5 mm (0.079–0.197 in) ball of rime. Strictly speaking, graupel is not the same as hail or ice pellets, although it is sometimes referred to as small hail. However, the World Meteorological Organization defines small hail as snow pellets encapsulated by ice, a precipitation halfway between graupel and hail.


There is more but I think you get the idea.

Below is a small part of my Shea Boulevard adventure.

Software

I am having a dilemma. I hate auto cad and it's monopoly on the drafting industry and it's ridiculous license renewal fees.

I dropped mine in 2008 and am starting to fall behind in the area.

I have looked at Micro Survey which seems to be the most appealing and I have also looked at Traverse PC which is an issue because you have to literally import a cad file while MS just opens them and vice versa.
Oh, Carlson is completely off of the table.

My biggest problem is time and the learning curve. I desperately want to put auto cad in my rear view mirror. The other solutions are feasible, however the language they speak does not make it an easy enough transition.

I would stick with AC but they do not have a solution that I want. Every time a sales person calls me I ask them if they have a solution for surveyors and they say yes they do, Civil 3d. I promptly tell them that I have had CD3 for 4 years and have never used it and never will and that it does not have a practical purpose for what I do.

They just keep trying to sell it to me insisting that I must surely use it if I have it and once again I will tell them that I have no interest in updating a program that I will never use except for a small part of. It's very irritating and totally pisses me off that the people calling me have zero understanding of what it is I do and how CD3 has no purpose for me and my business.

So here I am 4 years later, I am to busy to learn something new but I have to or do the upgrade with the beast.

I recently became acquainted with a survey drafter that I think may be up to par with my standards. I am considering throwing him a majority of my drafting and then drop back and learn the Micro Survey. It's an option I am considering.

All will tell in time, however right now I hate being behind.

Make it a great week surveyors.

A Good Experience

A couple of week ago I found a significant error an a plat that was done by one of the big machines.

I promptly brought it to their attention and they looked into it.

It took them about 2 weeks to get an answer for me. It turned out that I was correct and they recorded an affidavit of correction and provided me a copy.

I get a little impatient when there is a problem and I want it fixed right away. I have absolutely zero understanding of corporate culture and their procedures, it's like the government in many ways, it all has to be done through process.

The beauty of being a small business is that we can most often do things right away, there is little wait time and we are able to jump in with both feet and find resolution.

Through no fault of their own the big machine I was dealing with had to grab that job out of archive which apparently was a whole deal and then verify what I said etc.

I understand all of that, it was just the time factor. As a small biz that is something we do not have the luxury of is time.

While a big machine can take 2 weeks we as small guys have to be in the now and on top of customer service at all times, that is what keeps us going.

My client was getting extremely agitated and kept can the big question, "can't you just??" and of course my answer was no.

At the end of the day the problem got solved and my client was grateful for my sharp eyes.

The big machine was awesome and I am very grateful to them for working with me. They were gracious and thankful that I had brought the issue to their attention and the people I worked with were attentive and kept communication going.

I the past I have been told by similar companies that it is my problem and deal with it and they are finished.

That is the utmost in non-professional behavior and the company I just dealt with are all pros and I will never hesitate to contact them again for any reason.

I know one of the people I dealt with checks this blog out from time to time, so I want to shout out big thanks to you for all the help.

2013

OK. So we are still here, we survived the whole 12-21-12 thing. The survey world keeps moving forward.

This is going to be a very good year. Things are truly on the up swing and the future looks good. That's first time in quite a while I can say this without that small voice in the back of my brain saying the opposite.

Proof. My revenues are up from 2011 and this January so far is killing last year. Overall projections look good and the climate and all around attitude is better.

I think there was so much uncertainty in 2013 that none of us really knew what we were going to do.

I also accomplished some great things last year.

I have successfully incorporated my contract labor program and so far so good.

I was able to give fellow surveyors in other parts of the state some good referrals and some panned out nicely for them and their business. I love being able to do that. I am going to discuss that on another day.

I was able to create some great alliances with fellow surveyors. This is good. Does it enhance business? Not really but having people to bounce some things off of is awesome.

This coming year I am going to change the name of my company and I am going to implement a different type of marketing strategy that I will be discussing as I go along.

I am in the process of building a better business than I had before the crash, I am just going to take a different direction that I honestly think will be better and more efficient.

It's time for us all to dust off that equipment that's been sitting there doing nothing, get new batteries for them and start making some money.

I have a lot of good stuff to discuss this year. I think you all will like the changes you will see.

Lets go kick some ass surveyors. It's time. All the dead weight is gone and all of the good guys are still standing and ready to rock.

It's time for this kid to jump in with both feet, throw caution to the wind and make some shit happen and to hell with anything that gets in my way. It's time for me to get what I want.

2013. Make it great one boys and girls.