Handling a truly prickly 150-year-old

Me (bad pic) and mom with
saguaro and organ pipe cacti

The Desert Botanical Gardens in Arizona, is truly one of my happy places (www.dbg.org).  When we bought a home near Phoenix last year, one of my first actions was to become a member so that I could go as often as I wanted.  So Mom and I headed there last week when she was visiting.

We stumbled upon the relocation of a huge saguaro cactus into the area that will be the Gardens' new butterfly pavilion that opens up in March (yes, you can bet there will be another posting about that since I also love butterflies). 

About saguaros

Before we delve into the relocation process, a bit of background on the saguaro (carnegiea gigantic, in case you wish to refer to it by its scientific name) may be helpful. 

When you think of Arizona and the desert there, this is the cactus you likely picture -- the tall thick ones that often (but not always) have arms growing out and up.  While statistics vary on how tall, heavy and old they can be, I think it's conservative to say they can grow 40-60 feet tall,  measure 18-24 inches in diameter, weigh into the multiple ton range and grow 100-200 years old.  Surprisingly, though, they are a bit slow out of the gate in terms of growth.  There is a Rule of Thumb for the saguaros -- that a 10 year old saguaro is only about as tall as a human thumb.  A docent showed us a 12 year old saguaro that was probably only about two inches tall.  Crazy.

The saguaros only grow in the Sonoran Desert, which is primarily in southern Arizona but stretches just over the border of southern California and northern Mexico.  The combination of its two rainy seasons, generally warm temperatures and soil are key to their survival. 

With limited rainfall, it's important for the saguaro to be able to absorb as much water as possible.  It has a permanent taproot that goes directly down and is only a few feet long to, well, tap into deeper water.  It then has a network of two types of radial roots that are just a few inches under the ground that span out as wide as the cactus is tall.  There are also thread-like roots that develop when it rains to quickly soak up water and then die afterwards so the cactus doesn't have to spend precious resources maintaining them when they're not needed.

The cactus can collect up to 200 gallons of water during rainfall.  The idea that there is water sloshing around within the cactus is a myth.  The structure of the cactus is a series of ribs that are joined by various fleshy materials that store the water in their cells.  When it rains, the ribs and the cell structures of the flesh can expand to accommodate more water, adding as much as 20-25% to girth of the cactus -- kind of like an accordion file.

Like any good cactus, it has sharp spines.  There is more to the large spines than protecting the cactus from being eaten/destroyed by large animals.  They have other functions as well, including directing rainwater to depressions in the cactus, cooling the skin of the cactus, insulating the cactus and re-directing wind.

If you see most saguaros, they have holes in them.  These are generally homes for birds and small animals.  The gila woodpecker usually starts the holes, carving out a space within the fleshy parts.  The cactus responds by forming a sort of scar tissue that protects the cactus from water loss and also creates a hard shell to define the woodpecker's nest.  Other animals like mice move into abandoned woodpecker nests.

The cactus flowers from roughly April through June, opening up at night and closing during the midday heat. (In case you're curious, the saguaro's flower is the state flower of Arizona.)  Fruit develops later if the flowers were pollinated.  It's estimated that each fruit contains about 2,000 seeds.  For a variety of reasons, though, few survive to become a seedling and fewer still to adulthood.

One other structural note.  If you ever see a saguaro with its arms hanging down, this is a result of frost.  If there is a severe frost and the cactus starts to freeze, the "joints" of the arms are impacted first and cannot sustain their structure and thus droop.  While they may survive and the ends of the arms may start growing upward, the initial droop remains.  Obviously, if the frost is severe enough, the entire cactus may die.

Moving saguaros

Due to challenges in reproduction and the growing black market for saguaros, legal protections have been put in place at the federal level as well as in Arizona that govern the harvesting, collecting or destruction of them.  For example, a developer in Scottsdale can't just bulldoze saguaros, but generally has to replant or give them away.  Companies can obtain tax deductions for donating them to organizations like the Desert Botanical Gardens, for example.

Moving them is not easy, though.  First of all, how do you approach something that has large spikes all around it?  How do you transport something that weighs tons?  How do you ensure that it will survive when you're only taking a fraction of its root structure that has taken, oh, say, 100 years to build?

Not surprisingly, a cottage industry has emerged to address the need.  While I didn't get to see the preparation, it seems that they dug out a root ball that is large enough to capture the taproot.  They wrap carpets around certain spiny parts where they need to access or secure the cactus, including creating wooden structures to support the arms during transit and to create space among the arms during transport so they're not crushed.  The cactus is then attached with industrial-size ratcheting tie-downs to a specially-designed boom truck.

At the relocation site, the process is reversed as you can see in the photos below.  What's important to note is that the cactus must be situated in the precise direction relative to the sun as it was in its original location.  It also needs to be supported by braces for a while until it begins to rebuild its root structure.  Because it doesn't have a root structure sufficient to support such a large plant, professional attention is required to determined the best way to keep the cactus hydrated and to develop the root system.

I've named this replanted saguaro Sonny and can't wait to visit her the next time I'm back at the DBG.

Sonny on the truck, being moved into position and raised, protective structures removed and, finally, in place

An ugly blog

Is it narcissistic to love your own blog?  I don't necessarily mean love reading it, but that you love creating it.  Because I kinda love the Preuscher blog.  And every time I think of it these days, I get a smile on my face because it brings so many good memories of my time in Europe when I was contributing to it on a periodic, if not exactly regular, basis.  There were so many different experiences that I had there that I felt compelled to share them. 


But after that smile, I get a bit of a sad feeling because I haven't blogged for so long and, well, feel like I don't have anything of interest to offer.  That my life is dull, particularly as I am in a new role at work that involves basically zero travel, let alone travel to interesting international destinations.


But when I think back, it's not necessarily the travel element that is interesting (or at least appeared to be of interest based on feedback from readers who followed me then), but that the experiences involved a lot of learning.  And whether I am traveling or not, learning is one of my favorite things in the entire world.


So I'm going to try to pick up the blog again, but with a focus on the random bits of learning I will be pursuing.  And I think just knowing that I now have a blog focused on that will help me recognize when I am having a learning moment (which isn't quite as lofty a pursuit as finding "teachable moments").


I think one of the next blogs will be about hummingbirds, as I'm watching them right now outside my window in Arizona.  But first I have to experience a learning moment with the digital camera because my iPhone does a really poor job of capturing these little birds.  And I don't think anyone wants to read a blog without a picture.  You know -- an ugly blog like this one.  ;-)

To vacate or not to vacate

“ In matters of healing the body or the mind, vacation is a true Genius!” – Mehmet Murat Ildan

It’s a few days before the long Memorial Day weekend and I have a confession -- I am already anxiety-ridden about the very idea of taking vacation. Unfortunately, I’m not alone in this respect, as you’ve likely heard some of the rather sad and horrifying statistics about vacation in the US.

• About 25% of working Americans receive no paid time off.  That's just horrible to contemplate on its own, and unbelievable to some Europeans who receive over 30 days a year.
• But 75% of us who are fortunate to have paid vacation don't take all the vacation that we are allowed.  (Wouldn't it be nice if we could share the unused days with those who have none?) 
• It gets worse.  One in 10 people who do take a vacation say that they can't relax because of the need to check e-mails, be on conference calls and the like.

In an era where employment was shaky at best during the economic crisis and many were asked to do even more, our inboxes and calendars have become jam packed. The idea of checking out for a vacation inevitably creates fears of not being seen as responsive, wondering if you’ll still be needed if everything goes well while you’re away, or just the sheer volume of digging out required upon return. I’ve been guilty of thinking all of these things at various points in my career. But my experience living in Europe helped me understand that real vacation is doable with some careful thought and planning.


When I lived in Germany, it wasn’t unusual for employees to take two or even three weeks of vacation, and not just for a honeymoon. And they didn’t generally just spend two weeks sitting at the beach. No, they were exploring, diving, hiking, mountain biking, deep sea fishing, surfing, sailing, trekking, enrolling in ashrams, taking photo safaris and a bunch of other amazing things in corners of the world I had hardly heard about, let alone visited. And they did it every single year, sometimes multiple times per year. Contrast this with my vacations that either took me back to the US or to favorite places like Spitzingsee in southern Germany.


My colleagues always came back refreshed and full of life. I came back mostly the same as I left, albeit sometimes with a sunburn or aching muscles. I didn’t have the mental refreshment that they did. I finally realized that I was changing venues, but not changing my mind. I wasn’t opening myself up to new experiences, activities, places and cultures and thus challenging my perceptions and letting my mind wander into new territory.


The other significant difference is that they were very up front about their vacation with the rest of the team, letting both colleagues and clients know in advance that they would be out, ensuring that the team members backing them up knew the status of current projects, wrapping up loose ends and debriefing immediately upon return.


I haven’t mastered the art of a work-free vacation, but am working on it. I offer a few tips that might help put you on the road as well:

• Plan a vacation. Put it on the calendar. If you don’t and think you’ll just take vacation “when things slow down,” you’ll never take the vacation. This also helps set expectations for your friends, family and colleagues. It also creates something to look forward to and may help get you excited about planning something special.
• Explore someplace new. It’s fine to have a vacation home or time share that you return to, but at least once a year, try to go someplace entirely new where your mind can be challenged by something new that may provide new perspectives. And truly explore. Flying into a new airport and hanging out at a self-contained resort doesn’t really count.
• Plan ahead.  At least two weeks before the vacation, start managing what’s on your plate, identify tasks that may extend into your vacation period, and get colleagues up-to-speed. And start mentioning the vacation to those who need to know that a colleague will be filling in.
• Manage work intrusions.  If you must check e-mail or attend calls, be up-front with both your colleagues and your friends/family and limit the calls to the time(s) of the day that will least interfere with the vacation (and stick to that time). And make sure that you identify a quiet place in advance where you can do that work so that you don’t wake up everyone with, say, your 5 AM call.
• Debrief.  Immediately upon return, debrief with your colleagues who covered for you. Might not hurt to bring back a small thank you gift for them.
• Repeat.  Before the vacation ends, plan your next vacation so you always have something to look forward to and can plan around.

 (The photo is one taken on one of my many hikes around Spitzingsee -- yes, the trail went through a cow pasture.)

The eyes have it

This weekend, I went in for a long-overdue haircut. I was handed off to a woman who was to wash my hair, as is the practice at this salon.  While I was sitting back in the chair with my eyes closed, it occurred to me that I had already forgotten the woman's name and had no vivid recollection of what she looked like.  I’m embarrassed to say I hadn’t bothered to really acknowledge her, let alone attempt to connect with her in some way.


I continued to think about this over the rest of the weekend, I imagined what it must feel like on the other end.  Would I feel invisible?  Ignored?  Dismissed?  Avoided?  All of the above?  Something worse?


The thing that struck me most was that I could be causing these types of feelings totally inadvertently. Literally not thinking about it because I was so caught up in my own world -- and things as simple as a haircut.  Which makes it that much worse.


And then I thought about what I would want to have happen in an encounter.  I’d want to be seen, to register.  A smile might be nice.


So I’m trying something new this week and which I certainly hope will not just be a one-week experiment. I am making a point of really seeing everyone with whom I come into reasonably close contact (within reason – not going to try this on the subway).  People I see at work, shopping, at the gym, in my neighborhood. Specifically, I’m looking at them to the point that I can see the color of their eyes.  And if there’s eye contact, I smile.  Because isn’t that what we humans do when we see someone we like?


I’m only a little over a day into this, but I can’t tell you how much happy, positive energy I have gotten out of these encounters.  What surprised me more is how many people have not only met my smile, but raised me a “Hello.”  And this morning was particularly fun because I saw some of the people I "met" yesterday and the smile came so much more easily for both of us.  Because we connected.  I am personally appalled by how much I have been missing.


I hope I am the only one who is like this, operating in a personal bubble.  But for those who might have their own bubbles, I invite you to try the color of their eyes challenge.  See if it adds to your appreciation of those around you and what they have to offer.  And adds a few more smiles to your day.

Identifying privilege to increase inclusion

In a typical professional environment, it may be easy to assume that those around us are more or less the same.  For example, we have similar degrees, have obtained professional licenses and certifications and have demonstrated an ability to serve clients.  But the exercise in the attached link shows how just asking a relatively small number of questions can highlight some of the unseen differences.


While the exercise is primarily designed to identify "privilege" it can just as easily serve to identify diversity -- not only diversity in background but the various lenses through which we view the world and the tools we can bring to bear in solving complex problems.  It may surface things we didn't know about our colleagues, topics that don't come up in a typical business settings, answers to questions we may not have even thought to ask.


The more we know about our colleagues, the more we can understand them and help all team members bring their whole selves to work and truly act as inclusive teams that leverage our diversity to make a better working world.


Take a look and see if this may help you and your teams.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/07/06/what-is-privilege_n_7737466.html?utm_hp_ref=canada-impact&ir=Canada+Impact

22 November 2012 - Thankful for Trailblazers

Look for the white blaze that marks the trail

["Twilight on the Trail" - I prefer the version recorded by Perry Como]

So I am have now moved back to the United States and more blogs will follow on that experience.  But it's Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd take a quick moment to write about one of the many things I am thankful for this year while also covering one of the many things I love about my new state, New Jersey.

This is the first Thanksgiving I've been able to celebrate in four years due to my location in Germany.  I've been traveling so much that I haven't had a chance to really settle down or take more than the four days of vacation I'd eked out before I moved here.  So I decided to take the week off and hunker down in New Jersey and just rest.  Okay, and do some "retail therapy" with a friend who was visiting most of this week.

So in that vein, today I slept in a bit and then headed out to explore a bit of New Jersey.  I bought a book of day hikes for northeast New Jersey, so I randomly chose the hike for Monks Mountain which has some scenic overlooks on the Monksville Reservoir.  This is essentially adjacent to the Long Pond Ironworks Historic Site, which was created by a German immigrant, Peter Hasenclever, in the mid-1700s to take advantage of the power created by the Wanaque River and the availability of iron ore due to numerous mines in the area.  Hasenclever is said to have "imported" 500 European workers to work in the plant and to build the related infrastructure needed.  Apparently the iron works were used during the Civil War to make weapons for the Union army.  Unclear whether it also was used to make weapons or other things for the Revolutionary War as it was founded prior to 1776.

View of the reservoir and dam from the trail

What's more interesting to me, though, is what lies beneath the Monksville Reservoir.  In a word, "Monksville."  While some buildings were moved, the remainder were allowed to be flooded to make the reservoir possible.  I can't seem to find much information about this online, so I assume this isn't the same case of flooding of a town that we studied in law school and which I think took place somewhere in the 1940s or 1950s, but the pictures are kind of burned into my brain (alas, my law books are in storage in Chicago).  There is some mention than that at some point Jacques Cousteau examined the underwater town through the use of a submarine.  Further, in recent years, apparently the water level dropped far enough that some chimneys of the buildings became visible.  (See http://abandonedplaces.livejournal.com/1020767.html )

But back to Thanksgiving (other than being thankful that my hometown was not flooded to make room for a reservoir).  I parked at one of the boat launch parking lots and followed the Monks Mountain trail for a nice circle loop of just under three miles.  It was a good trail - generally narrow, some steep climbs, rocks to keep your eyes out for and mostly buried under a thick carpet of leaves so you couldn't see what was below and may require adjustment on your part - and full of twists and turns.  I was really glad that the trail was well marked with white blazes approximately every 30 feet or so, but also that my hiking guide suggested some additional things to see - like the outcropping where I had my lunch of cold roasted chicken (not quite turkey on Thanksgiving, but close enough for me).

Note white blaze and slight change in course required

And that's when I finally realized the literal meaning of a "trail blazer" - someone who not only has found the way, but has taken the time to mark it so that others can follow, too.  Others come by later to write trail guides to point out minor additional information that is helpful, but they are following in the paths of others.  And every once in a while there are big changes to the trail for conditions that could not be anticipated by either - such as a bunch of trees downed by Superstorm Sandy - that require the person on the path at any one point in time to determine the path s/he will take.

Maybe I'm a little slow, but I'd always thought of trailblazers as those who were just forging ahead alone on the path.  I didn't really consider what they were doing for all who followed.  Both on the trail and in the figurative sense for those who I consider trailblazers personally and professionally.  And it reminds me of my responsibility when following such trailblazers to keep sharing with others the changing conditions of the trails so that they can make the journey as well.

Happy Thanksgiving!

6 August 2012 - Chipmunk in my ear

["Christmas Song" by Alvin and the Chipmunks]

If you've been following this blog since the very beginning, you may recall the Frantic for Fran blog regarding voice mail in Germany.  I ended the blog essentially pining away for one of the Cisco IP phones that I know and love.  Well, I now have a Cisco IP phone in Moscow and I still have telecom issues (through no fault of Cisco, I believe).

Let me preface this posting with a cultural note.  In the US, we like our voice mail.  It's convenient for when we're on another line, away from the phone or (let's be honest here) don't want to talk to whoever's calling or think that the "Unknown" number is a telemarketer.  This leads to very good corporate voicemail systems that, for example:

• Allow you to send a voicemail to a colleague without having to call them directly (for example, if they're busy and you don't want to interrupt them or it's just easier to leave a voice mail than to type something out in an email that might be misinterpreted or, worse yet, forwarded)
• Forward messages received to other colleagues (which admittedly subverts one of the pluses of voicemail above, though there is the "private" option that prevents forwarding)
• Send messages to a group of people at one time (e.g. "Hey, everyone in my team, here's something you should know [and I know you don't read all your emails]")
• Respond back to a voice mail without having to call the person (this saves a lot of time and money, particularly when you're traveling or don't have a piece of paper to write down the person's number etc.)
• Send an e-mail to you when you have voice mail so you know when to dial in
• Allow you to call in from "local" dial-in numbers in multiple countries

This is the kind of goodness I'm used to.  We only had maybe one or two of those features in Germany.    And German voice mail is a rock star compared to Russia.

But the other part of the cultural note is the reality in Russia, which seems to be that you always pick up your phone when someone calls.  It doesn't matter if you're in a meeting, if you're on a different line or (as I have seen in action) are in the bathroom.  No need for voice mail.  Uhhh.....  To me this was shocking.  I've always been taught that if you take a call when you're with or talking to someone else, it signals that the person calling is more important than the one you're talking to (which is to say, it's rude).  You avoid being rude by saying in advance, "I'm expecting an important call from my [client, boss, wife, etc.) and will need to take that" or noting when that person calls that it's X and would you mind if you take the call quickly?  And it is for this very reason that the "Send all calls" button exists - so you can block out interruptions when you're on an important call or in a meeting.

Not so in Russia where there is neither a Send all Calls button or an ability to divert a call to your assistant.  In fact, it turns out that even when I was on a call, the inbound call would not go to voicemail.  Instead, it would be routed to my assistant.  If she didn't pick up, it went to the other administrative assistant.  If she didn't pick it up, it went back to assistant, and on and on until either someone picked up or the caller hung up. It never came back to me nor did it go to voice mail.  When I discovered this, I asked to please have all of my calls go to voice mail if I wasn't available.  I was met with a kind of stunned silence.  My assistant said she'd look into it.  It turns out this required direct intervention from IT to reprogram this for me.  Seriously?  But I now have voice mail, though when it plays the messages, it seems to do so in double-time, so it's kind of like listening to a chipmunk talking. Not so good.

So that pretty much covers the situation for incoming calls.  Outgoing calls is an entirely different matter.  If the number you're calling is a local Moscow landline with a 495 prefix, it's easy - just dial a 0 and enter the numbers after the 495 and you'll be connected.  It gets a bit complicated if it's a mobile phone, a "toll free" number or, heaven forbid, a number in a different country.

In those instances, you have to go to a menu on the Cisco phone.  First, you have to indicate whether it is a long distance call or whether it is an internal call to one of our selected offices globally that have VOIP (Voice over IP) calling.  The latter option is actually pretty cool.  You scroll down the list of countries (Germany is #1 - just sayin', though USA is at the very bottom at #23 but which is a jersey number of a certain former Chicago Bulls player, so I'm okay with that) and select the country of interest.  In most cases, you then just type in the last five digits of the phone number and you're put right through and it comes up locally with at least your last name rather than a long, off-putting (and perhaps intriguing) string of numbers beginning with 007 (+7 being the country code for Russia).  If you select the US, though, you then get to scroll through all the cities where we have offices.  Apparently, I am the only person who sees the beauty of this as apparently no one had raised the issue that the alphabetic listing of cities ended somewhere after Boston, thus neglecting such key cities as Chicago and, yeah, New York.  All pretty magical - and has to be much less expensive than dialing directly.  More on cost-of-calling in a moment.

If you're not calling an internal number, though, you must choose from a separate menu of three choices:  Chargeable, non-chargeable and private.  Now, at any given point in time, there are probably 10-12 projects open in my name that I may be working on.  I don't know all of the eight-digit engagement codes by heart, so I usually just choose non-chargeable (and also because, as many of you may know, I really don't like to talk on the phone, but prefer a quick e-mail).  And with very rare exceptions, I don't make personal phone calls from the office, particularly with the time difference to the US and lack of time to make any friends locally.    Even so, though, it is a hassle to just make a phone call.

The import of all of this came to haunt me sometime in April, though, when I got my first electronic phone bill through the firm.  For my land line, it lists every single call I've made and asks me to provide the related internal or client charge code.  Line by line.  Failure to do so results in everything being classified as "Private" and being deducted from my paltry salary.  Good incentive to "encourage" review, I have to admit.  But honestly, I have no idea who I called and many do not match up with appointments on my calendar.  Hmmm....  Difficult.  And very time-consuming.  It reinforced the beauty of using the VOIP options to other options, though, as they're "free" or at least not listed on the chart of my calls.

The same is required of my BlackBerry.  This gets more difficult because you also have to indicate the right code for incoming calls and who knows who has called me from which numbers?  And then there's a blanket charge for the data service and you can't really allocate that to anything in particular.  I know I'm not surfing the internet with the horrible BlackBerry browser, so it's a bunch of emails that could relate to anything on any given day.  But about a month ago, I learned how ridiculously expensive roaming is on my current plan.  In one month I had been in Stockholm, Budapest, Amsterdam, London and the US and my resulting phone bill was about RUB 100,000 or about $3,000.  Yikes!  I think that is more than I had even when I was in China for an entire month!  Half of that was data, but the other part was a bit ambiguous as usual.  I entered the calls that I thought made sense and submitted for reimbursement.  But it wasn't approved.  Not denied, just not approved.  And they took all of it out of my paltry payroll here (recall, I only get per diems here).  Ouch!  Still working on that.  Not at all pleased....

And don't even get me started about not having an instance conference call number to use.  The best we have is to set something up with only a Russian dial-in.  Not a big crowd-please for international calls....