USGS maps

Ok - so I am certainly a geek, and when it comes to maps, I am utterly smitten.

"Hi, my name is Christina," I say.

"Hi Christina," the chorus replies.

"I am a mapaholic and have been my entire life . . ."

At least that is the joke I tell to some folks.

I am evaluating some large land tract sales in Cobb County Georgia, and decided to head back to my trusty USGS 1:24,000 maps of old - we called them quadrangles.  I used to drive in to downtown Chattanooga, taking my life in my hands, park on Broad Street and go into the Map Store.  A wondrous place for certain.

Today, I found that there is a web site (of course) for the USGS - that is United States Geological Survey - where I can search and download, in PDF format (thank you Adobe), current and historical topography maps for the entire United States.

I am floored, and happy, and able to evaluate those sales a bit more thoroughly.  

I do love my work.

Brave ideas!

I love when a brave idea is undertaken by a brave soul and changes my life in such a positive way.  Apparently in 2005, when I was slogging through with just a pc laptop and brick sized smart phone (that was not really all that smart), there was some brilliant engineer who had a better vision of the future.  One that a brave man with lots of resources agreed to adapt and adopt and manufacture.

The iPad has again revolutionized my business the way that my first Compac laptop did in about 1989.  It weighed a ton (ok, maybe six or seven pounds) and had to be plugged in almost all the time.  But it allowed me to be in a courthouse reviewing deeds while entering them on a spreadsheet - saving that double entry time of writing them down and entering them on a desktop.

The leaps here with the iPad have been even more dramatic (or the older I get the more easily amused I am).  With GPS and immediate mapping feedback, the ability to look up sales data on the fly - out in the field, sending an email in an instant, responding right away to a client, and a host of other cool applications (yes that is the longer version of APP) make it a game changer.

When I saw this link on Facebook today, I just wanted to say, outloud, that we always need to honor and support and respect that kind of innovation and willingness to risk.  What if Jobs had not taken that leap or that engineer had not bothered to create this design - time and energy and financial risk that may not have returned anything.  Congratulations, thank you, and keep up the good work!

People really are mostly kind

On of the things that still today amazes me after 27 years in this business and more than 20 appraising primarily for eminent domain is that the people whose property is proposed for acquisition are almost exclusively kind and polite.

Most often, particularly in rural areas, a road widening or new highway is not what they want. Even more, when a roadway widening has been planned on and off for 10, 20 or even 30 years, owners have delayed plans, improvements and sometimes life decisions waiting for the project.

Sill, even this very morning, most people are truly kind and polite. And I really appreciate that!