You will probably never hear me talk about life on this hilltop any other way than I have. I love our hilltop and feel that we chose our property exceedingly well twelve years ago. The last five years of living here full time have done nothing but reinforce that view (pun intended). But now something has changed about life on the hilltop. Imbedded in any hilltop living is an overt or subtle sense of superiority.…
Out here on this hilltop, November is an unpredictable month. I can remember a stormy November with 17 days of torrential rain which almost made my flat roof unserviceable. This year it is more normal with a hint of evening rain on one or two days , but mostly clear skies, like we have had for the past many months. It’s been very dry overall for a long time…so say my succulents. With daytime high…
When did they stop making bootstraps part of our daily ritual? I have recently become a devotee of Claude, the AI bot from Anthropic. It tells me, “From what I understand, the literal bootstrap (the tab or loop on boots used to pull them on) has never entirely gone “out of fashion” – they remain functional features on many types of boots today, particularly Western/cowboy boots. If you’re referring to the saying “pull yourself up…
I’ve had some strange dreams lately. I really don’t know what to make of them, so I’m doing my best to ignore them. As is usually the case, I only remember dreams if I wake up in the middle of one. Disturbing images are not so incomprehensible, but sorting out what motivates some dreams gets very hard. Why would you dream of someone you long ago made peace with? Especially if that dream consists of…
I have misjudged the American people. I know I am going to bed tonight with some very important votes still to be counted, but right now, the numbers are not looking very good for Harris. I was horribly wrong about what I thought would be a coming to their senses of a majority of the voting population. Then again, maybe it’s me that has to come to my senses. The American electorate seems to have…
I have, for some inexplicable reason, been buying garden things lately. I go on sprees like this every once in while and this seems to be one of those nervous whiles. I say nervous because today is the day before Election Day and there is a lot going on for me, but at the same time, I’m not going anywhere. Let me explain. I am starting the final set of hearings on a case I…
Last night we went to the Hotel Del Coronado to attend the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation annual gala. As I have mentioned before, we were the guests of my sister Kathy and her Husband, Bennett, who are involved with the Foundation in support of their two grandchildren (Milla and Rhys, a.k.a Tiny & Mighty), both of whom have CF. We have been to several CF events at their behest and they have always been fun. This…
I surrender. I’ve tried for five years now and done everything I can to professionalize myself with regard to this task. I’ve bought the finest Italian-made tools. I’ve tried using every imaginable resource to improve my capabilities. I’ve broken the task down so that I space out my efforts and not grow weary. But I’m here to tell you after this latest bout of effort that I simply cannot clean windows well enough to justify…
I know few people stronger than Joventino. If you subscribe to Instagram as I do (I am a passive watcher, not a contributor), you may have seen the short videos of the humble and modest-looking gym janitor who comes up to the beefcakes pumping the big iron. He usually acts like he just needs to clean around the equipment, but then asks if he can try lifting the monster weights they are deadlifting. They kinda…
The tradition of Halloween seems to stem mostly from Celtic sources that celebrated the remembrance of the dead and martyred, specifically those that are cast into the Christian realm of purgatory where those souls who have died in a state of grace are further cleansed before their ascension into heaven. I guess I had always thought of purgatory as a bad and restless place that you went to if you were not worthy, but it…