Hilltop Still-life I have started to pack for our trip East next week. Truth be told, I already sent a box of clothes to Ithaca so that we don’t have to lug so much back and forth in the car. God knows, I have enough summer clothes out here since it is summer all year long as I see it. Putting a week’s worth of roadtrip clothes in a leather satchel took all of ten…
Calling in the Cavalry When I decided to move out here to San Diego about two years ago, I spoke with Kim and we decided to just put a stake in the ground. I said we should move out at the end of 2019, which meant we should extend our lease on our apartment in New York for only eight months instead of twelve months. When I spoke to the rental company I expected some…
The Eclectic Home A few years ago we visited two homes on either coast of the country. One was the New York condominium apartment of a an old colleague and the other was a friend’s condo out here in the West. Both homes had something in common, they were as lovely and well-decorated as a model home on HGTV might be, but they both equally lacked any soul. They didn’t looked lived-in. Indeed, both were…
A Picture Worth a Thousand Memories I have had an active policy on this blog of NOT using photographs to compliment the stories. I have often written stories in which I embed photographs and made the stories look and feel like magazine articles. Some people ask for photos and I certainly understand the value of a visual aide, but I use this blog to force myself to write and write and write. As I formulated…
Always Be Closing The movie Glengarry Glen Ross is a classic and its probably the best sales movie ever made. Some throw that accolade to Boiler Room, The Pursuit of Happyness or The Wolf of Wall Street. Others think about non-financial selling like fracking contracts in Promised Land, aluminum siding in Tin Men (my choice for runner-up sales movie),or the other classic “Everyman” salesman of Death of a Salesman. But the combination of the GGR…
The Entry as Space The analysis of space holds a special place in my education. The professor who taught my Freshman Writing Seminar in the Fall of 1971 was technically a professor of Art History. Every Freshman had to take writing seminars their first two semesters. The academic powers that be at Cornell in those days felt that writing skill was a necessary component of the education of all students, regardless of anticipated major and…
Zen and the Reality of Motorcycle Repair I just returned from the first long motorcycle trip I have taken with either of my two motorcycles. The 2019 BMW R1250GS Adventure was bought last year from old and recently incapacitated pal Lee Barba (no, he was not injured on a motorcycle, but rather while getting exercise on his racing bicycle). I now have 7,000+ miles on it, all from local day trips. My other “spare” or…
The Eagle Has Landed Birds are a big part of our life here on the hilltop. We have had a whole quail episode up here on Quail View Drive and the quail were quickly adopted by Kim via large bags of quail food from the local feed store. We were aware that bunnies and squirrels also like the quail food, but we figured that so long as the diners list did not expand to rats,…
Wildfire on the 15 Right now I am sitting on my renewed deck enjoying a sunny and clear, but coolish Sunday morning. To the Northwest I look between the canyons and can see a sliver of the Rt. 15 and Old Rt. 395. Across the 15 is a ridge line of hills just a few hundred feet lower than our hill. The ridge line is called the Merrimacport Mountains, which seems a bit more grand…
The Goodbye Gang Goodbyes have been the subject of many stories, movies, plays and songs, and probably even operas (if I actually knew anything about opera), for many years. All of life is about meeting and leaving, along with all the complexity of life that goes on in between. Meetings and goodbyes come in lots of different varieties. First you’re alone and then you are with someone. That’s the essence of a meet. I always…