The Problem Being Gary Gary has become one of my great friends and advisors over the past four years. Let me describe who he is. Gary is tall and lean with a head full of white hair and the look of an aging Tommy Hilfiger model. In fact, if Tommy Hilfiger decided to launch a line of cool senior wear, I would submit Gary’s picture for consideration as a model. He looks like he would…
Sprintered There seems to be a new phenomenon that I missed seeing coming until now. A colleague explained that he was being picked up for a meeting in some heavyweight’s newest toy, a commuter Sprinter van. The Sprinter is a van that has a higher profile and comes in several lengths. It is made by Mercedes, so it is the top of the line van. I have done some online research and I now see…
Beyond the Horizon I’m staring out over the ocean this morning from my room in Bermuda. It’s a beautiful sunny morning here with billowy clouds in the sky and the ocean this side of the reef is that special azure blue that we all amaze at when we come to such places. It is hard not to think about retirement when you come to a place like Bermuda because it is such a pleasant place…
The Archipelago of New York Neither came from New York and yet both were of New York. It is said you choose your friends but not your family. I disagree. It’s like nature versus nurture. While your family forms your nature. I believe that with the passage of time, your nurture comes from your friends and they dominate who you are. You may be from where you spent your childhood, but you are where you…
Driving to the Finish Line Some people hate driving. They find it boring and tedious. During college, some people were always up for a good road trip. Others thought of driving back and forth home was one step up from the lot in life they would have to suffer as a bus driver if they didn’t finish college. My brother-in-law was a naval aviator. Every one of us takes pride in his service and admires…
Hot Sauce Burn Milton wore his Afro with pride. He had no choice, that’s just how his hair grew. He wanted to be on the football team, but you had to be able to run at least 100 yards and do a push-up to do that. He wanted to play in one of the high school rock bands, but you had to play an instrument to do that. Even the chess team rejected him. Turns…
Vacation House Nightmare In the past, I have owned ten vacation homes. That number surprises even me. Given that this was over thirty-five years, that’s an average of 3.5 years per vacation house, which is a pretty meaningless statistic. Right now, I own two, but then again, not really. One is a house in Ithaca that I pre-gifted to Cornell University, so while I control it, I don’t really own it. In another two years…
The Rules of the Game Winston put on his floppy sun hat, slid his fanny pack around to the back, put on one more application spf 30 lip balm, grabbed his walking stick and headed out for his morning walk. Winston was 73 and had been retired for over five years now. He had no particular long-term goals for himself other than staying as healthy as he could for as long as he could. While…
Hitting the Road As I get older, I dream more about hitting the road. What’s that about? When I get asked what I would do in retirement I have to review the bidding this way. I’ve spent ten years teaching. I actually became a Clinical Professor of Management and taught courses at the graduate level at Cornell for those ten years. That took care of that retiree notion. I’ve served on several not-for-profit boards ranging…
The Lone Ranger Gets a Black Eye Dave had been a child of the Wonder Years, but he suffered from cartoon-interruptus, which is to say that his mother had dragged him overseas to a remote tropical valley in Costa Rica just as he was getting a taste for Saturday morning TV. For our younger readers, let me set this stage a bit more clearly. The year was 1959 and Dave was five years old. …