Riding a motorcycle through the desert during the winter does interesting things to one’s mind. You think about the strangest things. That’s especially so when you decide that it’s not as interesting to listen to music through your Bluetooth helmet, but rather to take in yet another book on tape. Lately I have very much gotten into listening to one book after another, mostly because of the time I spend each day on my treadmill…
Have I ever mentioned how much I like The Economist as a publication? Back in my days on Wall Street, I used to think The Economist was too highfaluting for regular usefulness. It seemed to delve into the esoteric aspects of geopolitics and global economic issues that seemed less than fully connected to the practicum that mostly interested me. That has all changed dramatically for me in retirement. I now read the publication religiously, but…
I listened to a video that a friend made based on a letter of advice he had sent to his granddaughter on the occasion of her going off to college. He was giving her advice about how to make friends and specifically how to selectively establish relationships that will help you create the world you want to inhabit as you go forward. It was all perfectly good advice, but one thing struck me about his…
Everyone knows that health is wealth, but it is also said that “Health is not valued till sickness comes”. Well, this past Sunday morning, for the first time in a long time, I awoke to the beginning symptoms of a cold. A typical cold follows a fairly predictable pattern over 7-10 days. It starts with scratchy or sore throat, sneezing, and fatigue. Then symptoms intensify – nasal congestion becomes heavy, runny nose with clear or…
Like in most of North America, spring does not officially start on this hilltop until march 20 with the Vernal Equinox. However, with tempertures trending for over a week now into the mid-80s, it’s hard not to think of this as a spring season. Both my plants and my gardening instincts are starting to bud. Last week I planted nine new cacti/succulents mostly along the lower drive and roadway. I am noticing those areas more…
Every morning, Kim spends her time with her puzzles. People are drawn to puzzles for a surprisingly rich mix of reasons. The most obvious one is the satisfaction of solving something. There’s a genuine dopamine hit when pieces of a puzzle click together or you crack a solution. It’s one of the few activities in life with clear, achievable “wins” that you fully control. There is also the mindful escape aspect of puzzling. Puzzles demand…
Sometimes you encounter a day when its not a weekend and yet there are absolutely no errands that are critically demanding attention. This is the case for both Kim and me today. Don’t get me wrong…there are always things that can be done to fill up the day, but sometimes there is nothing that is in desperate need of attention. In our case today, the Christmas decorations are all down. The repairmen have fixed or…
There’s a lot to love about Southern California and every once in while even she surprises you with a gift. For the next seven days, I see that the weather forecast says that the average high temperature will be 75 degrees, the emoji attached indicates sunny skies and there is 0% chance of any rain with humidity running at about 20-25%. I’m not sure that it gets much better than that. This pattern was supposed…
I turn 72 in a few weeks and I’ve been living out here for six years, which means I’ve been retired for at least five years. Retirement is one of my favorite topics to write about for some reason, and always has been since I started writing for fun forty years ago. I am not sure where this obsession with retirement comes from, but it probably originated just about forty years ago when I took…
I am totally into my fitness program now and I’m really glad to say that none of it is linked to any New Year’s resolutions. In fact, the only New Year’s resolution that I made this year was not to make any New Year’s resolutions. My success rate with them in the past has been 0%, so I wanted to avoid confusing myself and my intentions with some flaky cultural norm of thinking that starting…