Another Pleasant Valley Sunday I don’t mind outing myself as a Monkees fan. In the 60’s everybody my age was a Monkees fan. And then for thirty years or so I had to secretly hanker for a little Daydream Believer not to mention Another Pleasant Valley Sunday . Now that both Davy Jones and Peter Tork are dearly departed, only Mike Nesmith and Mickey Dolenz are left and between the two they have over 150…
Keeping Busy Yesterday, Kim and I made the trip from our home to Ventura, which, for those not familiar with California geography, is 175 miles north of here on the Pacific coast north of Los Angeles. I had ordered that new motorcycle seat for the new bike and I didn’t want to trust or suffer the over-burdened package delivery services since I had to both get my new seats and drop off my old seats…
Needless Mark-up I hear that Neiman Marcus is likely to declare bankruptcy soon as the latest signal that the retail business sector is the next in what promises to be an ongoing array of zombie business segments in the new normal. This morning I heard a retail analyst talking about it. He was actually quite balanced about it all. Clearly Neiman Marcus is an iconic brand that has been around for 113 years. It originated…
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…