Sacramento, CA

I’ve been spending some time in Sacramento for the purposes of checking out a laboratory that my company uses to analyze environmental samples to either better understand a site we are actively trying to remediate, or as part of the actual remediation process. Yes, my day job is part of a team cleaning up other folks’ messes.

And while I was pleasantly surprised that it was not purely for show to visit the lab and make sure they were on the up and up (checking the box, as it were) and not “dry-labbing” their results (e.g., making up some reasonable numbers and putting them into a report as results when they never actually analyze the samples; and yes, I’ve seen it happen in the distant past), I got several bonus out of the affair that were unexpected: a better understanding of “exotic” service offerings that have come up on my radar in the past that I couldn’t find a lab to perform, some good chatting about other possible partnering opportunities, discovering some of the best Thai food that I’ve had in years (dinner was even better than lunch!), getting something on the order of 30k steps in and getting to see a lizard (gecko?) in the process, and (best of all), getting to meet someone in person I had only previously known via WordPress, Bridgette White.

Bridgette was kind enough to pick up some potential weirdo at the airport and give me the grand tour of Sacramento’s downtown area. We hit a really old graveyard (imagine: I’m into that kind of thing, who’da thunk?), saw house where some lady let out rooms to homeless people before she killed them and buried them in her yard, the “wild west meets 21st century” riverfront, and put up with me eating a very messy burger and fries on a paddleboat. And other fun things which gave me an opportunity to view the city as a passenger, which I am not used to doing. You see so much more when you’re not focused on driving (duh!).

The best part was swapping tales of similarities and differences we’ve experienced in our lives. Half-way across the country with one person in the frozen tundra and the other in a more tropical clime of California (it seems tropical to me!) and I felt we had more in common than you might think, given the differences in environment. It is refreshing to find common ground with someone for a change.

And, with all the travel that I’ve done this year for work and to help a friend move, I am even more convinced that people have more in common than the artificial barriers that we throw up at each other might suggest. Aside from the trappings of a given city, I’ve begun to see that people are more alike than we think, no matter where we live, or our religion, or our politics. It’s the intolerance of “the other” that drives a wedge between folk. But I don’t see “the other” as much lately. I see that these people are my relations, long lost family I have yet to meet.