Only the Lonely My weekend theme is loneliness for some reason. We all know that older people get lonely as the rest of the world carries on with it’s busy schedule. They seek out ways to stem that tendency, but it’s not clear to what end. While it always remains that people are all different, I tend to think that as we age we have less tolerance to exchange comfort for adventure or companionship. Some…
Working My Way Back to Me I keep seeing this TV ad for Land Rover that highlights the Dragon Challenge in Hunan Province, China. Land Rover must be in advertising saturation mode since the ad is on all the time. It seems to be an amazing 99-switchback mountain road combined with a 999-step staircase going 45 degrees up the side of a mountain. In the commercial, the Range Rover Sport climbs straight up the…
Dying Too Soon Today my youngest son and I went to go see a movie that had a lousy Rotten Tomatoes score of 43. I was skeptical of the score since the fan rating was 79 and it starred Julianne Moore, Billy Crudup and Michelle Williams. The movie was After the Wedding. It’s the story of a successful entrepreneurial woman (Moore) and her sculptor husband (Crudup) who wants to make a large charitable gift to…
When it’s Time This morning I have a mild headache brought on, most likely, by a stiff neck. Maybe it was from sleeping too long (I had a catch-up eight hours last night) or maybe it’s from driving a total of six hours yesterday with one full hour being in a blinding downpour. Then again, I played golf on Saturday for the first time in two years, and while the lower back stiffness has…
Teaching to Learn I am way too impressionable. Not like Trump, who adopts whatever posture he has been advised to consider by the latest person to talk to him. But when I hear or read something that strikes me as valid, I take it to heart and most importantly, I try and act on it. Yesterday, my wife and I were talking about how to keep track of things we need to do. She likes…
Jetsetting Blues Today is fly back to NYC day. We are big fans of JetBlue and their direct transcontinental service, especially their new Mint Service. It is as good as any international or domestic carrier that we fly (acknowledging that many of the Asian and Middle Eastern carriers are pretty awesome if you have mega-bucks). For some renovation reason JetBlue has been relegated for eighteen months to the old Terminal 1 at SAN and that…
Silver Alert Yesterday was a day for acting like I was finally retired. Granted it’s August and lots of people are away enjoying themselves, but I am here in San Diego and it was Monday (the proverbial start of the work week). All our siblings are either off to work or off to home. Lazing about the house has a certain charm to it, but there were a few errands to take care of, so…
Controlled Falling Back in May when we were driving out of Death Valley I experienced the feeling of free falling as we descended out of the high desert to the valley floor. I wrote about it and likened it to parasailing down a mountainside. Today, I took a summer ride up up Palomar Mountain on South Grade Road (S6). It is a nine mile ride up from the Rt. 76, which runs along the base…
The Message of Flight On Friday we will fly out to San Diego for a five-day escape to our home out there. Ever since we bought the house seven years ago, whenever I fly out, I feel like I am, indeed, escaping reality. When we land at the gorgeous and efficient San Diego International Airport, formerly Lindbergh Field, we are picked up by our brother and sister-in-law in our Tesla X and we go…
Country Life John Denver said, “Well life on the farm is kinda laid back, Ain’t much an old country boy like me can’t hack. It’s early to rise, early in the sack. Thank God I’m a country boy.” No one would ever mistake me for a country boy. But I’m no metrosexual smooth dude either. I never grew up in the suburbs. I’m worldly and global, but not very Latino or Italian (those being the…