Last night we went to the Hotel Del Coronado to attend the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation annual gala. As I have mentioned before, we were the guests of my sister Kathy and her Husband, Bennett, who are involved with the Foundation in support of their two grandchildren (Milla and Rhys, a.k.a Tiny & Mighty), both of whom have CF. We have been to several CF events at their behest and they have always been fun. This…
I surrender. I’ve tried for five years now and done everything I can to professionalize myself with regard to this task. I’ve bought the finest Italian-made tools. I’ve tried using every imaginable resource to improve my capabilities. I’ve broken the task down so that I space out my efforts and not grow weary. But I’m here to tell you after this latest bout of effort that I simply cannot clean windows well enough to justify…
I know few people stronger than Joventino. If you subscribe to Instagram as I do (I am a passive watcher, not a contributor), you may have seen the short videos of the humble and modest-looking gym janitor who comes up to the beefcakes pumping the big iron. He usually acts like he just needs to clean around the equipment, but then asks if he can try lifting the monster weights they are deadlifting. They kinda…
The tradition of Halloween seems to stem mostly from Celtic sources that celebrated the remembrance of the dead and martyred, specifically those that are cast into the Christian realm of purgatory where those souls who have died in a state of grace are further cleansed before their ascension into heaven. I guess I had always thought of purgatory as a bad and restless place that you went to if you were not worthy, but it…
I remain a faithful reader of Letters From An American, a daily newsletter from American History Professor at Boston College, Heather Cox Richardson (HCR). Since she publishes most often at night East Coast time (she lives in Maine), I mostly read her when I wake up at night and need some soothing before going back to bed. HCR blends an historical context with her reporting of the political machinations of the day. She has published…
For some strange reason, one of my obsessions is with the higher hierarchy of the Catholic Church. My mother and father were Catholics. My mother’s family were devout Slovak Catholics who intentionally lived across the street from their parish church on land that my grandfather donated to the church of that purpose. But my mother was a modern (for her time) first generation American who was far more pragmatic about life than any church doctrine…
Yesterday I took delivery of a large non-fruit-bearing olive tree in a 48” square root box. It is sitting on my upper driveway, having been delivered by my friends at Javier Nursery. I used to say that Moon Valley Nurseries, the land of the fully planted multi-thousand dollar trees, was the only place that had good tree stock from which to choose, but I have changed my mind. My buddy Mike used to recommend Briggs…
This week, both the L.A. Times and the Washington Post, owned respectively by billionaires Patrick Soon-Shiong (a biotech magnate ranked 204 on the Forbes 400 list of billionaires) and Jeff Bezos (Mr. Amazon is #2 on that Forbes 400 list, second only to Elon Musk and probably well above Musk had he not bifurcated his estate and given MacKenzie Scott, his first wife $38 billion in the settlement) shocked the liberal democratic side of the…
“IN THE LAST DAYS,’ GOD SAYS, 1 WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT UPON ALL PEOPLE. YOUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS WILL PROPHESY. YOUR YOUNG MEN WILL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN WILL DREAM DREAMS. IN THOSE DAYS I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT EVEN ON MY SERVANTS-MEN AND WOMEN ALIKE- AND THEY WILL PROPHESY. – ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 2:17-18 NLT Last night, as we did our usual “What do you want to watch?” dance,…
in the last few years when we’ve traveled overseas, we’ve gone with our neighbors, Mike and Melisa. We went to Egypt and Jordan with him and we went to Southeast Asia with him early next year. We will go to the far southern reaches of South America with them (this time on a cruise). The common thread of our travel adventures has been that we have gone to reasonably exotic places with the exception of…