Eyelids of Morning I am feeling tired this morning. My CPAP tells me I slept 6 hours and 39 minutes last night, which excludes the half hour I was awake at 3am, taking some Tylenol for my aching shoulder and reading a few emails. At that time of day there are usually only junk spam emails and one important email with Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters From An American, her daily recap of how the events…
Slowly, Slowly… Since last Thursday when the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack had its first, introductory session and laid out their plan to prosecute their case against those who conspired to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power after the last presidential election. At the center of that conspiracy, according to the Committee, is none other than ex-President Donald J. Trump, who they believe they can prove both took decisive action and…
Home Stretch This is reunion weekend at my Alma Mater. I matriculated at Cornell in 1971, so 51 years ago, and graduated with my BA in Economics and Government in 1975 (47 years ago) and with my MBA in Finance in 1976 (46 years ago). I have often noted that it seems wrong that we are forced to decide at age 18, 20, 22 or even 25 what we want to do for the rest…
Worlds Colliding Writing is something I find very soothing to do. I was recently so upset about an incident involving gun laws and some people I know who are involved at the most sordid end of the gun manufacturing business, that I wrote a story denouncing the whole affair and sent it to a subgroup of related friends for consideration. The reaction I got back was difficult for me. I spent a moment wearing a…
Advice and Nonsense I mentioned in my recent Into Thin Air story that I was heading to my local REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc.) store to buy rock climbing gear for my latest rock climbing wall project. I mentioned that I would be seeking their advice, but I had no idea what a tale that would become all by itself. I have been to REI and survived that experience, coming out with about 75% of what…
Downhill Racer Last night I made Kim watch A History of Violence, the 2005 film directed by David Cronenberg and staring Vigo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris and William Hurt. While Cronenberg leans more to the macabre and gory than I generally prefer, I have always like Vigo and there is always something appealing about the guy who wants to be at peace but gets dragged back into his violent past by circumstance (John Wick,…
Into Thin Air My hilltop is dominated by boulders. I haven’t really done an accounting of the exact number of boulders, but as I look at various drone photos I have of the property, I estimate that I have about 100 large boulders fairly evenly split between front and back hillside. It’s quite hard to come up with an exact number since one has to make an impromptu judgement as to what size rock constitutes…
A Dental Damn OK, admit it, you just had to start reading this story with a title like that, didn’t you? Don’t worry, this story has nothing to do with the latex product sold by that similar name, though I bet a lot of you are as curious about the device as I am. I have no particular reason to be so curious, but its just one of those things that you hear about along…
Arbor Arboretum Arbutus Carborundum Trees are once again on my mind at the moment. In the same way that I felt compelled last year to hire a consulting horticulturalist to teach me what I didn’t know about gardening (his message can be distilled to two words – MORE MULCH), I have just hired and spent two hours with a consulting arborist. I found him much more professional and credible than the horticulturalist, though they did…
Governance Provenance Where does the concept of governance come from? I have read the anthropological books like Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond that delineate the history of governance from the tribal to today’s democracy in all of the areas of the world. What Diamond suggests is that none of the development of civilization are really due to any inherent superiority of one race or culture of mankind, but is rather much more attributable…