Tickling the Beast While I have a hard time saying it and as much as I consider myself an expert in the subject, I am retired. I have spent a year now preparing myself for being retired and think I have done some admirable work in positioning myself appropriately for my next stage of life, which I consider to be the retired state of being. We all understand that in a world with increased longevity…
Losing Friends I may have mentioned along the way that I have moved primary residence twenty-three times in my life. That averages to a tad more than two years in a residence. While that average appropriately characterizes my high level of movement over my life, the three longest stays in one place were nine years in the South Street Seaport (where I met Kim), seven years on Canterbury Road in Rockville Centre (where my two…
The Mulch of Life I’ve gotten through my life very nicely without mulch up until now. You may recall that last year I made the logical, but ill-conceived decision to hire a horticulturalist for an advisory session. The cost of the advice was about the same as two days worth of hard garden work by Joventino or his father Benito. It turned out to be worth considerably less, 30% because of the extremely hard-working nature…
Girding Your Loins The expression is more interesting than you may imagine. Whenever I heard the expression I assumed that it referred to the fact that before going into battle, an ancient warrior would wrap his legs to the top of his legs to protect the soft underbelly of his body, It is strange that man, the most advanced species, chose to become bipeds when the mere act of walking erect exposed frontally the softest…
Slowing Down Everything is slowing down, so why aren’t I? Last year the politics was running hot and heavy in the run-up to the election. Joe Biden was on the ropes and it was unclear who would emerge as the Trump-killer. Every day there was excitement about what that idiot Trump had done lately and what his tweets were lying about. The Pandemic alone was a full-time job keeping up with events. We had just…
Door to Door on DST We have been having an uncharacteristically cold week here in sunny San Diego. Between that and the intermittent rain over the last week, I am reminded that the nice weather we usually enjoy is truly a blessing. I guess this is how we learn to appreciate what we’ve got, or at least what we usually got. The clocks changed yesterday as we moved to Daylight Savings Time. Spring forward and…
Trippin’ This week suddenly saw a flurry of travel activity in our lives. We decided several weeks ago that we would rebook our motorcycle group’s Silver Anniversary, which got postponed last year due to COVID. That is a May event, which the perfect time of year to see southern Utah. We also postponed a planned trip to Mendocino in the northern coast area with Frank and Loretta, which we have now rebooked for April. This…
Lighting the Hillside When I first decided to light up the landscaping of my house, I got a specialized outdoor lighting company to come in and bid on the entire job as they envisioned it, understanding that I would likely phase the project rather than do it all at once. The two biggest reasons for that were the likely cost and the fact that I was just starting to deal with the renovation of my…
Moving the Spirit Do you remember Fridays? They used to be such happy days. They were the end of the week and the beginning of our weekly breaks. They signified that we had done the hard work of the week and were now deserving of some rest and relaxation. It was such a universal phenomenon that there is now an 870 store chain called Thank God It’s Friday, where people can gather to celebrate the…
COVID-Free At Last Last Saturday I had my second dose of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine and after only about an hour’s worth of chills and slightly elevated temperature, I have been fit as a fiddle. The event of the vaccination, which I did in the idyllic burg of La Jolla was really a non-event. I parked in a nice parking structure, walked on serene pathways following big COVID Vaccination signs to a large and airy building…