So Long, Farewell This morning was our collective get-away moment, so naturally, there was one last opportunity for fun during breakfast at the Lodge at Red River Ranch. Whenever you get a large multi-generational group together for a few days of fun, there are bound to be a range of personal circadian habits on display. The group is made up of early birds and night owls. The night owls tend to be the ones that…
The Cowboy Olympiad Today was the last day of our family gathering here in Southern Utah and what a perfect western day it has been. Tomorrow we scatter to the four winds (literally) with people leaving as early as son Roger & Valene and son Tom heading out pre-dawn to drive to catch planes in Salt Lake City for points east (Delaware and Brooklyn respectively). Niece Nichole & Domenic with kids Ethan, Jackson and Parker…
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch We’ve finished one of the four days we are here with our combined family groups. Here is Teasdale, Utah, right next to Torrey, Utah and Capital Reefs National Park with its magnificent red and white high bluffs set along the Fremont River, smack dab in the middle of Southern Utah and what is generally called Canyon Country. By the way, once I used the term “smack dab”, I wondered what…
Clan of the Cave Bear In 1980, Jean M.Auel wrote the first of her Earth’s Children series called Clan of the Cave Bear. This was a very popular book that chronicled the mixing of Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man in a very graphic, if somewhat speculated fictional, way. It was a fascinating read to me in my young adult days (I was the age of my youngest son Thomas when I read it) and I have…
What I Stand For Years ago I worked with a guy named Josh, who was my deputy in several roles and at several organizations over some eight years. That is a long time to mentor someone and perhaps an even longer time to be mentored. While he was, technically, a subordinate and was younger than me by a dozen years, I came to think of him more as a peer than a subordinate. Such was…
Being Kind is Cool My granddaughter Evelyn arrived with her family yesterday and after the hugs and car loading we headed off from the airport to go to a lunch spot we like on San Diego Bay. We use to like our visits to San Diego to start that way and like to show our guests the same pleasurable entry point. Once we had sat down I could finally look at my granddaughters and chat…
The Kids are All Right In 2010 there was a movie that may have missed your screen. It was with Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo and it was called The Kids are All Right. It is a story about three adults in a love triangle specifically because of two of them having parented a few kids who were coming of age. As America and the world ages day-by-day, I suspect we will get…
Doubt For some reason, tonight I chose to put on the Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams movie from 2008 called Doubt. It is an interesting movie about a Catholic priest in a working class neighborhood that is the subject of scrutiny about his relationship with a young black student, as instigated by an older very cynical mother superior and a young more sympathetic teacher/nun. The story is about the attitudes of people…
Waiting For Miss Betty It was almost three years ago that we adopted Betty (a.k.a. Cheyanne, the senior stray dog that was picked up on the streets of East L.A.). Betty has diabetes and, at the time we adopted her, was blind and scrawny. She has since had her teeth fixed (mostly pulled), had cataract surgery, and put on a regimen of daily eye drops and vitamins, not to mention a combination of very healthy…
A Really Good Week I have always considered myself an extreme optimist. I feel that while the direct connections between thinking positively and actually accomplishing things is hard to draw, I do stand by the power of positive thinking as a force magnifier. There is little doubt in my mind that people prefer to be around positive attitudes than naysayers and that having other people on your side always helps get things done. That said,…