Up and At ‘Em Being an early riser has done as much to define my life as anything else about me. I expect that it goes hand in hand with some of my flaws like overthinking things and being in my head more than I should be. But if those are the prices I have to pay for being an early riser, I accept that. I feel so incredibly much more productive first thing in…
Moving to Patagonia No, I am not leaving my hilltop. I have determined that I am not ever leaving our hilltop unless and until they carry me out. And no, this is not necessarily about our next trip to the Southern Cone of South America where the countries of Argentina and Chile merge through the Andes Mountains down to the tip of Tierra del Fuego (the land of fire), the archipelago that forms at the…
Planes Trains and Automobiles I miss John Candy. He died 28 years ago at an age that was way too young (43). He was a wonderful comedic actor who I, as a big man my whole life, found it easy to relate to. Other, less than svelte actors who died way too young included John Belushi (age 33) and Chris Farley (also age 33). The other big male actor I can relate to is John…
Pea Soup As part of my “Getting Busy” program, we have managed to squeeze in a short mini-break before we head off to the Pyrenees for a motorcycle trip in five days. That’s a little more tight than we might have wanted, but the occasion should be well worth the rushing about. We are spending this weekend in the mid-coastal region of California, that area between Santa Barbara and Monterrey which is some of the…
An Ethical Don Quixote My connection to the University of San Diego is strong enough to cause me to travel forty miles back and forth twice a week this semester to get to my two classes. Those classes start at 7pm so I go a bit early and grab a bite before my two and three hour classes. Last semester I was in the habit of going to a noodle cafe near the University, but…
Getting Busy The whole idea of retirement is supposed to be to get less busy and to relax, but that seems rarely to be the case. I have written an entire published academic book on pensions and yet despite being a financial professional, I prefer not to delve too deeply into the financial aspects of retirement. That is more about wanting to stay away from the micro considerations than the macro issues. I just figure…
Mapping the Trip The future is coming up on us fast. I am feeling it in several important ways. The first place this is happening is with our travel plans. Next week we will be heading off to Spain to suit up for a motorcycle ride through the Pyrenees and along the northern coast of Spain along the popularly significant Camino de Santiago. That ride will start in Barcelona, go up into Andorra, wind its…
One Not-So-Angry Man With a Metascore of 96, one of the top ten movies (number five to be exact on the IMDb listings of all-time greats) is Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men, about a jury sequestered in a murder case. The story revolves around twelve men on the jury, already a gender-biased and racially-biased statement about the changing times, since this movie’s 1957 release. These are literally twelve white men, serving on a NYC criminal…
Purpose As I sit on any given morning, pondering what is on my mind at the moment, I often use visual cues to spur me on. Since I have lately been writing in the morning at my office desk, I can choose to examine the things around me in the office, things that are by design filled with memories and imbedded aspects of my life that cause me to reflect. Every picture may tell a…
Changing Your Stars One of my favorite movies is A Knight’s Tale, staring Heath Ledger. In it he plays William Thatcher, the son of a thatcher (as in, a maker of thatched roofs) who is told by his caring father to go forth and change his stars as he hands him over to a knight to apprentice the boy and give him opportunity he might not otherwise get in Cheapside, where he is from. I…