Seeing Red I’m generally not inclined to link one story to another and prefer that each story stands on its own as opposed to being part of a series. So, while yesterday’s story is preamble to this one, you be the judge of its independence. Yesterday we bought a red car. We had decided in advance and together to buy a white car, which is really funny to me because I have a favorite and…
Controlled Falling Back in May when we were driving out of Death Valley I experienced the feeling of free falling as we descended out of the high desert to the valley floor. I wrote about it and likened it to parasailing down a mountainside. Today, I took a summer ride up up Palomar Mountain on South Grade Road (S6). It is a nine mile ride up from the Rt. 76, which runs along the base…
Hardballing The latest poll (indeed, a Fox News poll) about the general election in 2020 is out today and it stacks up Trump against all the leading Democratic contenders. The issue of who wins is not in contention with these polls. Ever since they began taking them in May, Biden, as the leading Democratic candidate, has gravitated between a spread of +2 to +13. Biden is currently at +12 (with three other candidates trouncing Trump…
Coping: If You Can’t Fix It On my flight to San Diego, the movie list included Brokeback Mountain. Between Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhall, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway and Randy Quaid, it’s quite a movie. It is, in my opinion, one of the best stories about the human condition that I can think of. When I went back several years ago to find the original book by Annie Proulx, I was surprised to find that it…
The Message of Flight On Friday we will fly out to San Diego for a five-day escape to our home out there. Ever since we bought the house seven years ago, whenever I fly out, I feel like I am, indeed, escaping reality. When we land at the gorgeous and efficient San Diego International Airport, formerly Lindbergh Field, we are picked up by our brother and sister-in-law in our Tesla X and we go…
Inventions Management For the first time in my life I am getting a front row seat at the process of inventions management. My company is trying to innovate in the electrochemical arena which involves everything from filing patents with the U.S. Patent Office and the various international patent agencies to managing the process of commercialization of the inventions, taking them from the laboratory to the marketplace. As one would imagine, there is a lot…
Fading Glory In June of 1996 I was driving to the Tompkins County Airport on Warren Road, in Ithaca, when I spotted a For Sale sign on a house that was opposite the 17th green of the Cornell Golf Course. I noted the broker telephone number as I passed, and on a whim I called to see what the old derelict farmhouse was on the market for. This was before the era of Zillow and…
Country Life John Denver said, “Well life on the farm is kinda laid back, Ain’t much an old country boy like me can’t hack. It’s early to rise, early in the sack. Thank God I’m a country boy.” No one would ever mistake me for a country boy. But I’m no metrosexual smooth dude either. I never grew up in the suburbs. I’m worldly and global, but not very Latino or Italian (those being the…
Owning it All I was worried about having time to write my blog this weekend. We are in Ithaca staying at our house there, with my daughter and her husband and kids. Their Ithaca life is heavily dominated by the pool, the yard and fireflies at dusk (as it should be) and my weekend is dominated by seeing old acquaintances from college. These are not my usual classmate crowd that I lived with for most…
Summer Haircuts Our dog, Cecil, is pure Bichon Frise, so like the dandelion pappus that adorn the late-summer lawns of the U.S., he becomes a fuzzball as the summer rolls on. When he gets his summer haircut he is as happy as a dog can be. It could be my imagination, but he seems to hop around with his high and tight white clip. Kim thinks he struts like a little tough. He looks cooler…