28 Apr 07

And I’m back. The trip was precisely fine: informative and uneventful. I didn’t have a great time—I never like changes to my comfortable life, and yes that worries me on occasion—but nothing remotely bad happened.

‘Twas strange, though, being in a company town. Cedar Rapids is mixed zoning, strip malls glaring at industrial plants that sit a block away from quiet neighborhoods. About half of the light industrial buildings I saw had Rockwell Collins signs out front. There’s no huge corporate complex, and all the buildings are flat and wide as a lake. I don’t think I saw a single three-story building anywhere outside of downtown.

If I headed a company like that, I’d want a campus. I’d build tall buildings with style, not a bunch of cookie-cutter industrial parks.

But then, I’m not heading a company like that. Perhaps it’s good that they don’t spend money on that sort of thing.