Sleeping In Sleep is the great restorative. Nature tells us that regular and prolonged periods of rest are important for the wellbeing of the body and mind. And yet who among us has not struggled with sleep? For one, Betty never seems to have a problem. I estimate that she sleeps about ten hours at night since she nods off before us and then pretty much stays down for the duration, with only a rare…
Falling Uphill For months now I have gone up and down the back hill without incident. I am always careful, but parts of the hill are steep and all of it is rocky. What makes it even tougher is that there are parts of the turf that seems to have no substance beneath it. I can’t tell if that is due to gofers or just dryness that has dried out and aerated the earth. I…
Chamber of Commerce Weather In December 2011, Kim, youngest son Thomas and I took a road trip. We flew into San Francisco, rented a car and began a West Coast odyssey to find a new home for the future. I had sold my Park City home in 2007 during the worst moments of the Bear Stearns hedge fund debacle. That was not a home that I felt particularly attached to. I had bought the monster…
Our Pieces of Peace Kim and I differ greatly in some ways and are very much alike in others. If I had to define the demarcation, I would say that we differ in the things that motivate our souls, but are very much alike in the things that motivate our hearts. Let me explain that a bit. I am choosing to define soul as that which most defines how we choose to spend our time…
On Mechanization On another wet day on the hillside, I am pondering the mechanization of my gardening efforts. I will start with a simple commentary on manual versus automated work. It is true that I can get a strong Mexican laborer’s back for the day for $160. That’s $20/hr plus lunch and transportation for eight hours of work. Let’s keep this simple and talk about moving mulch or stone (as in smaller rocks and pebbles)…
Feelin’ Prickly No, I am not in a bad mood and I am not annoyed with someone or something…at least not at the moment. It’s just that when I have stuff to do, I have such performance anxiety as a natural part of who I am that I get that prickly feeling in my backside. I imagine that the feeling itself is somewhat primordial and comes out of the cerebral cortex rather than the cerebellum.…
Handy Rich Ever since we came back from our summer cross-country trip, Handy Brad and I have modified our arrangement. I think this was a combination of Brad getting some other work in his neighborhood for an older woman (i.e. someone who was not so penny-pinching as some of his other retiree neighbors) and me running low on new projects. Now, if I need Handy Brad for something, I call him and we agree on…
New York, Nëw York Tonight we flew into JFK on JetBlue from San Diego. Any way you slice it, that is a full day travel affair. We’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about reengaging with air travel and how we feel about it. While Kim hears all my thoughts on the topic, I don’t want to assume that her thoughts on the subject are the same as mine. I think we all have…
See You Around Campus It is the first day of school and I have on a suit and a nice dress shirt (no tie, thank you, for even on Wall Street, ties are very passé and mark you as an anachronism). But I believe this is my second time wearing one of my 15 remaining suits in the past two years. You know the two reasons for that. The first is COVID. I have had…
Taming the Hillside This week I am coming to the end of a progression of man versus nature. I don’t like to think that I have triumphed over nature because that would be a foolish perspective. Nature always wins in the end. It would also be foolish because this effort is all about finding ways to embrace nature and revel in it. But I cannot completely avoid feeling like I have wrestled some aspects of…