I cancelled any plans for a ride this week due to what looked like rainy weather all week. It so happens that its clear and sunny today even though it rained a lot the last day or so. I felt OK about cancelling anyway since next week I am heading out for a ride into Death Valley for a few days. I’ve been to Death Valley a number of times, but its been a while…
Have you noticed how many of the rich and powerful elite of the world are getting mowed down by the Epstein Files? This story is the gift the keeps on giving in almost every direction and in almost every language except one. Teflon Trump continues to evade accountability for what is certainly now proven to be the deepest and most enduring close relationship with the pedophile that exists. The prolific mentions of Trump in those…
I seem to be in a virtuous cycle of watching movies with single word titles. Instinct (1999) is the latest. It’s a psychological thriller starring Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding Jr. Anthony Hopkins plays Dr. Ethan Powell, a renowned anthropologist who disappeared into the African wilderness to study mountain gorillas. Two years later, he’s found and arrested after killing two park rangers and injuring others. That makes it a blend of Gorillas in the Mist…
Back in business school at Cornell, the most notable professor was a guy by the name of Hal Bierman. Hal taught finance. I had the unique experience of taking finance from Hal while his son was also taking finance. That’s a strange experience, but I’m sure it was more strange for both him and his son. Hal was a serious guy who tried hard to be pleasant and avuncular, but who always seemed more serious…
All life ebbs and flows. There are special times and mundane times. Things get exciting and then they get boring. There are moments of great hope and then come the depths of depression. Such is life. Even if we are people that enjoy the roller coaster ride with all its ups and downs, it would be hard for anyone to admit that it isn’t a bummer when you come off a high and have to…
I was watching a movie last night about the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm during World War II. It was called The Exception and it starred Christopher Plummer as the Kaiser. At the time, he was in exile in Holland while Adolph Hitler was ravaging Europe. He had just invaded Holland in 1940 and the story tells the tale of the military and service people surrounding the Kaiser as Hitler tried to manipulate him to root out…
After a run of very nice warm winter weather out here on the hilltop, while much of the rest of the country has undergone a particularly cold and brutal winter, we have momentarily reverted to the cold and wet that winter is generally thought to be about. It’s 50 degrees out and pouring rain today, but the good news seems to be that the rain will end some time this morning and the temperature will…
Our nearby neighbors have five kids. You don’t see that much these days. I have no idea if that’s a religiously driven situation or just a family plan preference. They are lovely people and we have a good relationship all up and down the age range, having employed each and every child except the youngest in one household chore or another. They have even hired my son, Tom, to do some business videos for the…
Today I am wearing a t-shirt given to me by my daughter Carolyn. It is a light blue shirt that simply says, Easy Breezy. I suppose that it might be a statement about the weather here on the hilltop. Today, a day in early February, it’s scheduled to be in the high 70s, which usually means it will end up being in the low 80s. Right now at 8am its sunny and 65. From the…
The Tyrol (or Tirol) is a historic region in the Alps that straddles the Austrian-Italian border. There’s the Austrian Tyrol, which forms the Austrian state of Tyrol (Bundesland Tirol) with its capital of Innsbruck and South Tyrol (Südtirol/Alto Adige), the southern part that became Italian territory after World War I. That is now an autonomous province of Italy with its capital being Bolzano/Bozen (the place of my state’s heritage). There’s area is still largely German-speaking…