Our Pieces of Peace Kim and I differ greatly in some ways and are very much alike in others. If I had to define the demarcation, I would say that we differ in the things that motivate our souls, but are very much alike in the things that motivate our hearts. Let me explain that a bit. I am choosing to define soul as that which most defines how we choose to spend our time…
The Don Marlon Brando had a film career that put him at the top of the male lead actor charts for fully fifty years. It is hard to pick a best among Brando’s many films. He started in the 50’s with such greats as A Streetcar Named Desire, Viva Zapata, The Wild One, On the Waterfront and Guys and Dolls. These were all iconic roles and iconic films. In the 60’s he expanded his repertoire…
On Mechanization On another wet day on the hillside, I am pondering the mechanization of my gardening efforts. I will start with a simple commentary on manual versus automated work. It is true that I can get a strong Mexican laborer’s back for the day for $160. That’s $20/hr plus lunch and transportation for eight hours of work. Let’s keep this simple and talk about moving mulch or stone (as in smaller rocks and pebbles)…
The Shifting Wind Do you remember Mary Poppins? In case you don’t, she blows in on the East Wind and when its time to leave she blows out on the West Wind. I’m not altogether sure what the East and West designations means but I remember what Burt the chimney sweep has to say about it. He says, “winds in the east, mist coming in, like somethin’ is brewin’ and bout to begin…can’t put me…
Where To Stop For the past four months I have slowly but surely been reworking the back hillside. What has been simple gardening for the most part has turned into a passion of sorts. This was not a grand plan that was carefully thought through, but an evolving vision that just happened. It started with a set of existing paths that the prior owner had used to access the different parts of the back hill.…
Dream Sweeper Today I up and decided it would be a good day for a longer ride on my new motorcycle. As I have mentioned, the new bike is a BMW RNineT, which is a stripped-down version of the classic BMW boxer twin. It’s a lot of engine, 115 horsepower, on a very basic frame and accoutrement. There is nothing fancy about the bike, but rather, it stands out in its plain simplicity. Compared to…
Forced to Fly I find myself in a most unusual place. Two years ago, when planning a motorcycle ride to Spain, I had the brilliant idea of buying business class seats through a specialized third-party vendor who promoted being able to offer business and first class seats far cheaper than otherwise available. That was appealing to me because when we fly internationally, we pretty much insist on going business class (our size being a significant…
To Listen Is To Be Strong My youngest granddaughter Evelyn just started Kindergarten. She did well in her science-oriented nursery school (her father is a bit of science buff), but as the younger of two sisters, we don’t tend to think of her as the brilliant sister. She has the image more of the spunky sister. But truth be told, Evelyn is actually very smart. I’m glad I said it that way since the word…
McDonalds On My Mind For ten years I taught at Cornell on Monday evenings, ending at 7pm and then getting in my car for a four hour drive back to NYC. I have a house in Ithaca, so I’m still not sure why I did it that way, but I did and it lasted ten years with very few exceptions. Part of the routine was to stop at the East Hill Plaza, which was on…
Feelin’ Prickly No, I am not in a bad mood and I am not annoyed with someone or something…at least not at the moment. It’s just that when I have stuff to do, I have such performance anxiety as a natural part of who I am that I get that prickly feeling in my backside. I imagine that the feeling itself is somewhat primordial and comes out of the cerebral cortex rather than the cerebellum.…