One of my favorite summertime activities in the past few years involves trekking south for 45 minutes to Coronado Island for a Sunday night free concert in Spreckels Park on Orange Avenue, the main drag of this beach community. John Diedrich Spreckels (August 16, 1853 – June 7, 1926) was an American businessman who founded a transportation and real estate empire here in San Diego in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His legacy…
The start of this summer on the hilltop has been particularly pleasant. A few years ago I spent four full months, with a crew of three workmen, rebuilding our deck. It is a large deck of about 900 square feet that has folding glass doors that open the kitchen completely to it and two sliding doors from the living room out to it. It’s surface is a slip-resistant travertine tile and the railing is expensive…
A temper tantrum is an emotional outburst characterized by sudden, intense displays of anger, frustration, or distress. They’re most commonly associated with young children (typically ages 1-4) but can occur at any age. In young children, tantrums are a normal part of development. They happen because toddlers have big emotions but limited language skills and self-regulation abilities. Common triggers include tiredness, hunger, overstimulation, or not getting what they want. Managing tantrums typically involves staying calm…
We may occasionally try to pretend that the wisdom of age and perhaps the hurdles to attaining a ripe old age make the aged revered. Bullshit. The only honest comment along those lines is that growing old is better than the alternative. There is truth to the fact that wisdom and experience, which mostly only come with age, have value. If only I knew then what I know now is a very common thought that…
I am two days away from going to San Diego Airport to pick up my daughter Carolyn, her husband, John, and our two granddaughters, Charlotte and Evelyn. They will be with us out here on the hilltop for the month of July, as they have for the two prior summers. The trauma of my separation from my property on the edge of the Cornell campus (a tale of woe I have long since explained and…
When I was 9 years old and living in the middle of Midwestern America, taking a weekly bath and eating Swanson TV dinners while my mother toiled away in graduate school, the blockbuster movie of the year was It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. This 1963 American comedy was produced and directed by Stanley Kramer and starred Spencer Tracy and the best known comedians of that era including Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett,…
As I have mentioned, I am going through the process of applying for dual citizenship from Italy by virtue of my father’s birthright as an Italian citizen. I am doing this for myself and my youngest son, Thomas, who really prompted the process. To do this we have to go through what is called a judicial review process and that requires a whole lot of documentation. The company I am using to do this is…
The other day, Kim and I came to the realization that we had absolutely nothing planned for this weekend. Kim had no shows or show rehearsals. Due to school-ending season, most of the movies out in the market are kids movies. There were no neighborhood events. Nothing, not even necessary shopping chores. My daughter and her brood arrive next weekend and our dance card will be actively filled for a month with activities and lots…
At various times, the classic white shirt has been denigrated as stodgy and yet used repeatedly by cool dudes with the top few buttons open to exemplify the height of refined male couture. When I went to work in NYC after business school in 1976, the white shirt was more the former than the latter. It was legendary that if you worked at IBM you had no choice, you had to wear a white shirt…
I am wide awake yet again tonight. If someone asked me if I have trouble sleeping, I don’t think I would say I do. But there are nights like tonight that are enough to make me wonder. I know all the things you are supposed to do to get a good night’s sleep and equally all the things you are supposed to not do to keep yourself from getting a good night’s sleep, but that…