Thunder and Lightning In 1972, Chi Coltrane, released her first, and probably her greatest hit called Thunder and Lightning. It is a simple song in terms of the lyrics and about the only thing it says is that “you’re in control”, and who knows what that means except perhaps that no one can control thunder and lightning and it is the ultimate uncontrollable state of nature. We all know that thunder comes from lightning, but…
The Movies I was once introduced to Ron Howard, Opie from The Andy Griffith Show of my youth and the filmmaker of greatest repute of my adult life. His directorial credits include Hillbillies Elegy, The DaVinci Code, Frost/Nixon (Nominated Best Director and Best Picture), Cinderella Man, A Beautiful Mind (Winner Best Director and Best Picture), Apollo 13, Backdraft, Parenthood and Cocoon. There are few people, other than perhaps Rob Reiner, Meathead from All in the…
Growing Up COVID When I was growing up I was influenced most by two wars. First there was WWII with it’s amazing sea-based battles. The visual images of dive bombers and Kamikazes buzzing like flies around battleships and aircraft carriers were vivid in my minds eye to the point of being the subject of many of my childhood drawing efforts. As for the ground battles in Europe, the landings at Anzio and Normandy were only…
EVolution It’s been a while since I’ve written about my Tesla and I think it’s about time for an update on my driving evolution in the land of the EV. I have now crossed the threshold of 10,000 miles on my Tesla X odometer after only about 60 months of ownership. That averages to about 170 miles/month, but since all but the last 18 months were spent in absentia, it would be more accurate to…
Native American Summer Last year I wrote about Indian Autumn in November. I realize that if the Cleveland baseball organization and the Washington DC football organization can change their names and the Kansas City Chiefs can get rid of their war-painted mascot (presumably as an inevitable first step towards changing their politically incorrect name), then I can change my reference for this time of year. Cleveland now has the Guardians and DC has the Washington…
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)…
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…