Getting Pickled I have a funny relationship with pickles. I think it must have to do with PH balance or something. There are times I like them and times I find them very distasteful. If I’m going to have a hot dog, I generally prefer one with mustard and relish and relish is nothing more than ground up pickles, right? Maybe its the combination with mustard (something I believe Heinz may have combined and sold…
Going to the Mountain I still feel new to my hilltop after three years here full time. It’s days like today that make me feel that way and stare in wonder at the beauty of the distant views. It forces me to remind myself that views may be one of the secrets to the universe. If you are a believer, like I am, that state of mind drives everything, very few things other than perhaps…
Bell Ringing We are only two weeks away from starting the official holiday season. I know I have discussed how much the season gets pushed forward on us by commercial interests and that’s all fine since we can each choose to ignore it if it offends us. But during Thanksgiving week, there is no avoiding the advent of Advent. We have our favorite holiday movies, which do not count the countless Hallmark movies that Kim…
As the Ball Bounces This is the first morning since my return from New York City that I am feeling more or less normal and over my bout with a cold. Yesterday, Mike asked me if I was still on to go with him to his ballgame over in Carlsbad. To be honest, I hadn’t remembered that I had committed to a Thursday outing, but I do recall bugging him about when I was going…
Being of Service When Kim joined the Hidden Meadows Women’s Club, she did so because she very much wanted to make more friends in the local community. She came back from the first meeting with a positive report that she felt there were many potential new friends to be had in the Club. One of the first things she did was to volunteer to have the next meeting of the group at our house. It…
Jury Duty One of the obligations of citizenship in this country is to make yourself available for jury duty when and if called. We cannot pontificate about the importance of the rule of law, a topic that gets mentioned every five minutes or more on cable news these days, if we do not help to support the judicial system by making yourself available to become part of the proverbial jury of our peers to adjudicate…
Adjusting to Reality I’m back at home now (actually on my second day already) and I am slowly getting back into the swing of life on the hilltop. We were gone for almost three weeks, but that was shorter than the five weeks we were away in Ithaca and on our cross-country trip this summer, but this must have been more of a real vacation to me because I feel like I need to come…
Up In The Air One of the things that Kim and I agree completely about is that the worst part of traveling is the actual traveling. In the case of going back and forth to Europe or the Middle East from San Diego, its an especially grueling ordeal that usually involves at least three flights. We usually like to transit through New York so we can see the kids. On our flight over this time…
Old White Couples While we were in Barcelona or riding our motorcycles through the Pyrenees and then across the northern coast of Spain, we were very pleased to find that there were not scads of people everywhere. It was especially nice that the roads, which were truly exceptional in condition, were largely wide open with only occasional other vehicles, very often other motorcycles doing some version of the same tour that we were engaged in.…
Getting Busy The whole idea of retirement is supposed to be to get less busy and to relax, but that seems rarely to be the case. I have written an entire published academic book on pensions and yet despite being a financial professional, I prefer not to delve too deeply into the financial aspects of retirement. That is more about wanting to stay away from the micro considerations than the macro issues. I just figure…