Donut Holes I can tell that this quarantine has gone on too long or at least long enough. It’s been seven weeks by my count and any way you slice it, that’s a long time to be at home. The problem is, I can’t reasonably expect any sympathy for that since the entire world considers staying at home the least troubling of the three choices. The first choice is to be sick with COVID-19 and…
Ghost Writing More than two years ago a friend of mine sent me the first fifty pages of a manuscript that he had “written” than chronicled his career and life. He had put together some 230 pages of thoughts and notes in somewhat random order and had hired a ghost writer to help him bring it all together as a book that would be both readable and compelling. He sent it to me to read…
All Tesla All Day Almost three years ago I got it in my head that I might want to own a Tesla X to use out here when I moved for good. The experience from start to finish was interesting. Kim and I went to one of the urban malls that are scattered in San Diego. This one was near La Jolla, which meant it was close to the mother lode of excess disposable income.…
Reefer Madness The 1936 cult classic movie Reefer Madness has been called one of the worst movies ever made. I suppose that is what made it a cult classic. It was produced by a church group as a cautionary tale for the youth of America to warn them about the hazards of recreational drug use (mostly marijuana) and how it could lead to harder drugs, personal failure and general societal malaise. In overshooting its mark,…
The Man with the Pan You all know by now that I am the proud owner of a like-new 2019 BMW R1250GS Adventure motorcycle. You also may recall that I am still stumbling around with the registration process out here in California (or even in New York for that matter) given the COVID-19 closure of all DMV facilities. Given what we all know to be the experience at whatever DMV we go to, it will…
Giveth and Taketh I have a complicated life right now for several seemingly silly reasons. The first involves my newly acquired motorcycle and the other involves my newly acquired car. Let’s start with the car. I have been leasing new cars for many years now. I am simply not a fan of residual value prognostication and much prefer to pay a budgeted amount over three or four years and be done with the whole affair.…
Rocks in the Head I have always had a thing for rocks. I collect geodes. Lots of geodes. My favorite antiquities are pre-Columbian art, especially the pumice stone statues (one standing woman and two heads) and the pumice stone footed dish. The sculptures I have preferred to collect are usually a composite of rocks and metal. I have my Socrates in Ithaca and my buffalo here in San Diego. I think the reason I favored…
Getting Chile In 1985 I was sitting in our Chairman’s office with five other senior officers of Bankers Trust Company. I was 31 years old and had been with the bank for nine years. I made the first-line officer rank of Assistant Treasurer in 1978, Assistant Vice President in 1980 and Vice President in 1982. This was somewhat of a lockstep, but a lightning-fast lock-step if that isn’t too much of a non-sequitur. The career-track…
The Distant Peaks In my new office I have surrounded myself with things to make me feel good. That’s what we do in life, right? To my right is a NixPlay digital photo frame that shows a continuous array of pictures that my family can send in for my viewing pleasure. I can also download a bunch of travel snapshots and therefore I have my own little memory lane. This helps a lot with my…
Waiting for Popovers It’s Sunday morning, Easter Sunday to be exact. It’s a grey day so far here in San Diego, but as I have learned, that can change quickly, hopefully for the better. Dark Sky, MyRadar and The Weather Channel (a subsidiary of IBM) are of little help as they show no particular weather front over or near us. I am tempted to say that this weather seems to be flying below the radar.…