Month: May 2019

She had short curly-brown hair, an upturned nose, and a pixie-like smile.  She seemed to chirp instead of speak.  I was driving her Nissan Rogue.  I had rented it from her for my two week stay in the islands, and I was now taking her to the airport.  I thought I would be returning it … Read moreDana and the Nissan Rogue

Some people can go through life seemingly without a care.  I envy those people.  It would seem that I am, not exactly the polar opposite, but I do tend not to be very satisfied about things.  I used to think that I would be carefree if only . . . but, even when I attained … Read moreWas It Worth It?

  Super performing athletes, during moments of peak performance, report the experience of seeing an activity as if it were in slow motion while they were doing it, making the task easier or, at least, doable.  Also, recently,  neuro-scientists have discovered that the brain takes slices of time, snapshots, to capture in the memory of … Read moreHeretofore Former Glory

When I was working at HP in the 80’s there were a lot of Chinese students working there as interns.  The view in Silicon Valley was that sharing information and using synergy to create fresh ideas was the best way to develop advanced technologies.  Because this was the only place that I had worked up … Read moreAntikythera Mechanism

The lake at Big Bear is perhaps 20 miles long.  On the East end there is another small natural area that, this year, has become a small lake, thanks to the copious amount of rain and snow during this year’s winter.   Yesterday Nancy and I walked through this preserve.  For a large part of … Read moreStansfield Cutoff

Nancy asked me to buy two pounds of ground beef at the Community Market on the corner after I had my tires rotated.  No problem.  I parked, went in, strode with purpose to the meat cooler and looked for some ground beef.  No ground beef.   But, there was some ground chuck . . it … Read moreGround Chuck at the Community Market

Last week I was driving out of Tehachapi headed east toward Barstow, and eventually to Big Bear, when I spotted hundreds of gigantic white windmills spinning their massive propellers and generating power to support our technological infrastructure.   They were dotted across the fields and up the mountains like white splatter on a Jackson Pollock painting.  … Read moreJackson Pollock and Tehachapi

The basic assumption that someone will do the right thing depends on the character of the person and the situation.  This also depends on what the right thing is, because not everyone has the same set of values.  A bigot, for example, might feel that the right thing to do is prevent a person of … Read moreFruit of the Poisonous Tree