The Prince and the Pea You all know the story of the princess and the pea. It’s about this young princess that is so very delicate that she must be given a bed that has an extra soft mattress in order to be able to sleep at night. She tells this to her prince and while he wants to believe she is a real princess, his queen mother wants proof so she decides to put…
A Trip to the Shore From my hilltop I can see forty miles of Pacific Ocean. That shoreline from Oceanside down to San Diego or even from Oceanside north along Camp Pendleton to Dana Point is arguably some of the nicest stretches of beach in the world. There is something about the beach in Southern California that is integral to the way of life. For us, while we occasionally take a ride over to the…
Revising My Life Today I spent the day sorting through all my personal effects here in Ithaca. I want to get this all done in two days so that I can avoid inflicting my triage activities on my daughter and granddaughters. I want them to throughly enjoy their last stay at this house and not be burdened by having to be constantly reminded that we are moving on. Nothing disturbs our dog Betty more than…
Summertime and the Living is Breezy It’s been an unusually nice summer weather pattern here in Ithaca the past fortnight. Some days get up into the 80’s and feel a bit hot in the afternoon, but most days have been in the mid 70s and start and end cool. Yesterday, my big event for the day was to be a barbecue in the early evening with several friends from my University involvement days. The granddaughters…
Deanship My friend Gary spent many years as a Provost of a number of Universities. The Provost is the chief operating or administrative officer of the university and is basically charged with the running of the business of the university. The President of the university is the top leader of a university, butt his job is far less administrative and far more about the primary mission of fundraising and making bigger picture mission or policy…
Cold and Rainy I spent my entire adult life living in the Northeastern United States, most of it in the Metro New York area, but also up here in Ithaca. Using Ithaca for this math, the average annual rainfall is 37.4 inches, with snowfall of 63.3 inches, resulting in 159.3 days with precipitation, leaving 155 sunny days. That compares to Escondido, which only gets 15.2 inches of rain (no snow) on 41.6 rainy days and…
The Immutable Power of Nature I have pontificated on many subjects here and in general. Pondering the great truths of life is something I am prone to doing more and more the older I get. I think in some ways that is very natural, but in other ways I have an unnatural need to declare these great truths, not so much because I don’t think others have thought them before me, but rather because I…
When Work is Done Does everyone know the joke about the sex survey that ends with the question, “How many people have sex only once a year?” And the little guy in the back is excitedly waving his arms and when asked why that makes him so happy he says, “Because tonight’s the night!” It’s a classic, right up there among the best because its all about wrong-footing the audience and then surprising them. I…
Arresting Development Back one summer in the mid-1990’s, I spent the Fourth of July weekend in Utah. Joining us that year was my nephew Alex, who must have been in high school at the time. We had taken a side trip to Fort Bridger, Wyoming where I had stopped at a roadside fireworks emporium and bought some seemingly harmless fireworks to shoot off in celebration of Independence Day. When the day came and it was…
Independence Day Today was July 4th. My whole life, July 4th has been a very special day for me. It began in my memory when I lived in Costa Rica in 1959 and 1960. As expats in a small far-away land, we were invited to the U.S. Embassy Independence Day barbecue, which was herald each year on the grounds of the Embassy in San Jose. It was a special day and we used to make…