Ten-Digit Dialing I got an interesting notice yesterday from my mobile phone service provider, which happens to be Spectrum (since they offer the Verizon system without the added Verizon cost structure and smarmy, cheating ways as documented in previous stories). The notice was intended for their customers to inform them that from now on there is no such thing as “local calling” and that all calls must heretofore be placed with a full ten-digit number…
The Dead Never Call Yesterday, while driving from Kansas City to Kim’s home town of Wabash, Indiana, I got an email from an old business school pal, Bob. To be fair, Bob has actually been more than a B-school pal, but that is where I first encountered him. I went to business school directly from undergraduate. I took several courses in the last semester of my senior year and then managed to get enough courses…
Big Tree I have written many times about my fascination with trees. Last year I read (or more accurately, listened to) several books about trees and their hidden lives through their root systems and through the fungi that help them communicate with one another. I also recently wrote about hiring a local Consulting Arborist to advise me about my various trees on my property and how best to care for them. I only had him…
Getting Out of Dodge Today we drove from Gallup, New Mexico to Dodge City, Kansas on our way to Kansas City tomorrow. You all remember Dodge City with Marshall Matt Dillon (James Arness), Doc (Millburn Stone), Chester (Dennis Weaver) and Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake) with her Long Branch Saloon. You might also remember the scruffy guy who seemed like a town bum, but would occasionally get deputized. That was Festus (Ken Curtis), who was not…
Rejection Angst Many of us guys have had a lifetime of experience with rejection and should presumably be somewhat immune to it as we reach our retirement years. Not really. It’s not that I fear rejection or anticipate it and thereby avoid situations where it might arise, but when it finds its way to me, I simply don’t like it. Who would? But I keep thinking that I am past needing external validation, and that…
The Day Before the Day Today is a perfect San Diego June day. The sun rose at 5:38am and there was no June Gloom marine layer of mist or fog. The high is projected to be 75 degrees with a humidity level of 50%. By the time the sun sets at 8pm, making today the longest daylight day of the San Diego year, we will be ready for our roadtrip. Technically, the longest day should…
Boosted A few days ago Kim asked me what I thought about the idea of getting our second COVID booster shot before we started our drive back to the East Coast on Sunday. My first thought was to check quickly on Google how long one should wait after having a COVID infection before one gets and injection of a vaccine that puts more antigens of the Coronavirus into one’s blood stream. The quick research was,…
As the Mist Lifts It’s June on the hilltop and that generally means that every morning starts out looking misty or fog-bound. June gloom and all that. Some mornings it takes a few hours for the mist to lift and some mornings, like today, the mist sort of gradually rolls out towards the Ocean and the hilltop gets clear and sunny before 9am. All that mist accumulates in the night because the evenings and sunsets…
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…
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…