Consensus Construction I have gotten myself into a funny place…again. That funny place has to do with my deck renovation project. This is unlike any other project I have undertaken before. The fundamental reason is that I probably have too much time on my hands. Precisely speaking, I have both the time and am home-bound by COVID like we all are. That is proving to be a very expensive combination. I write 1,200 – 1,400…
Every Day is Special Yesterday was apparently Cyber Monday. Last Friday was Black Friday, whatever that is. Whatever it is, the marketplace seems to feel its necessary to advertise it excessively for two weeks before and a week after. Its like those old signs on the highway that said, “You just passed X, so turn around and drive back to find X”. And today is Giving Tuesday, which I imagine we are supposed to feel…
Dashing Through The Snow There is only one Thanksgiving song I think of when the season is upon us and it provides a great start to the holiday season. That is none other than that ubiquitous Jingle Bells that ranks up there with Happy Birthday as one of the best-known American songs in the world. It is supposed to be about going over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go. It…
Electrical Connections From the youngest age we are trained to be wary of electricity, and yet it is truly ubiquitous, surrounding us in our homes and cars. You cannot go very far without encountering electricity. As naturally beautiful as my hilltop out here may be, if I stop to think about it, I am dependent on electricity in every corner of my new world. Out in the Cecil Garden I have an electric fountain that…
Indian Autumn When I think of Indian Summer I think of the days in mid-October when the weather goes all the way up to the 60’s or 70’s for a few days and we all remember the warmth of summer to carry us through the impending long dreary days of winter that lay before us. Those rare sunny days have a combination of falling leaves and warmth that certainly confuse the local flora and make…
Anticipation Do you remember that Heinz Ketchup commercial with the ketchup moving down the neck of the bottle in slow motion towards the waiting hamburger? They used the 1971 Carly Simon song Anticipation from her hit album of the same name. I imagine no one but Carly thinks about that song any more without thinking about Heinz Ketchup. Interesting factoid, we have all wondered our whole lives whether its ketchup or catsup and what’s up…
People Are Funny Today, after several business calls with the financing half of my little scientific R&D company team and an email to my expert witness partner explaining that I am imminently qualified as an expert in why a project financing did not get financed for a big African gas project, I decided to take a long overdue motorcycle ride on a nice-not-too-hot afternoon here in Southern California. I know that rain is coming on…
An Unimaginable Life Last night we watched a Netflix show called My Octopus Teacher. Kim had heard about it from two separate animal-friendly friends and wanted to watch it. We share the same problem the rest of the world struggles with these days. It’s less that there is nothing good to watch on TV, but rather that we all rely so much more on TV to entertain us and the array of choices is seemingly…
A Liberal Retirement This is a strange week for me. So much is strange and new in 2020 that it’s hard to calibrate strangeness, but this seems to have crossed a threshold that has caused me to want to write about it. Let’s start with what makes this a strange week. I am in an expert witness hearing all week (actually two separate hearings since one goes all week and I must listen to it…
The Arc of the Sun I just noticed as I sit here in my office at my glass-top curio table, that the sun now rises further south and thus, in the live oak tree that sits on the very top of my little hilltop here in Escondido. This is convenient for me since earlier in the summer, the sun would rise further north and shine into my eyes as I sat her, requiring me to…