I’ve been trying to learn to play guitar for about the last 6 years. For the first 5, I focused on folk/country and basic chords on a steel string acoustic guitar. Townes van Zandt, Neil Young, and Merle Haggard were some of my main sources of inspiration. I really enjoyed it and got to the point where I managed a decent version of Pancho and Lefty and Old Man. I especially love finger picking but couldn’t do it the way that Townes played Pancho and Lefty and could never even imagine figuring out how to do more complicated pieces. After reading what I could find on finger-style guitar, I decid ..read more

After I got home from a run yesterday, my wife told me there was some sad news. Naomi Judd had died. We never saw Naomi and her daughter, Wynonna, perform in concert live, but they were a big part of our lives back in the 1980s. I’ve always loved music, in large part because of my mom, who was a professional cellist in the Utah Symphony. I pretty much love all music and tend to go through stages of active listening. These days it is Bach, and much of my spare time is spent trying to learn to play Bach on classical guitar. The Bach cello suites have been one of my favorite music for many years ..read more

…but fruit flies like a banana. In thinking about a way to explain my big blogging gap of about 1 year, I recalled one of favorite examples of bathroom graffiti that I saw in the Jean Cocteau Theater in Santa Fe, NM in about 1980 or so. I’m not sure how this applies to the pandemic, but it seems apt. I can see a pattern emerging in my updates. I get motivated over the holiday break and write a few posts. These days they tend to focus mostly on work-life balance, probably because the only time I have to update this post is when I get that right. Time has become a bit abstract for me these days ..read more

One thing that COVID-19 has taught me is that I can be more flexible in my schedule than I was in the “before times”. I usually work from home these days, because I’m often on zoom meetings, and they tend to be more comfortable for me at home. But I also like writing and reading at home, and this covers a lot of what I do with my work. I also realized that I could do things like go running in the middle of the day, which is a real pleasure that I normally didn’t do before COVID-19. It is great, because it breaks up the zoom meetings and allows me to have a change of pace, which is rejuvenating ..read more

After I got home from a run yesterday, my wife told me there was some sad news. Naomi Judd had died. We never saw Naomi and her daughter, Wynonna, perform in concert live, but they were a big part of our lives back in the 1980s. I’ve always loved music, in large part because of my mom, who was a professional cellist in the Utah Symphony. I pretty much love all music and tend to go through stages of active listening. These days it is Bach, and much of my spare time is spent trying to learn to play Bach on classical guitar. The Bach cello suites have been one of my favorite music for many years ..read more

I am glad that Gaylord Nelson had the idea of Earth Day, the origins of which are nicely captured in a recent New York Times article. But given the mess that we find ourselves in, maybe we need a bit more than a day! How about Earth Decade or Earth Century? Since my last post on the Cost of Driving, the United Nations report outlining strategies for mitigation of climate change was published. We don’t have much time to turn things around, but there are established technologies that can help us avoid the worst impacts of climate change. They note that electric vehicles and home roof-top solar e ..read more

My primary modes of transportation are walking and bicycling. I’m 61 years old and have never had a work-related parking permit, because I’ve always managed to live close enough to work or school to get there in less than an hour on foot or by bike. Biking is obviously more efficient, but it is remarkable how many problems I solve in my mind while walking. front viewFront, or rear, large round bag. All hand stitched and hand made from the finest oak tanned cowhide. A bag for my sweetyTouring style handlebar bag. All hand made, etc. When I’m on my bike, I’m pretty much focused on not getting hi ..read more

…but fruit flies like a banana. In thinking about a way to explain my big blogging gap of about 1 year, I recalled one of favorite examples of bathroom graffiti that I saw in the Jean Cocteau Theater in Santa Fe, NM in about 1980 or so. I’m not sure how this applies to the pandemic, but it seems apt. I can see a pattern emerging in my updates. I get motivated over the holiday break and write a few posts. These days they tend to focus mostly on work-life balance, probably because the only time I have to update this post is when I get that right. Time has become a bit abstract for me these days ..read more

One thing that COVID-19 has taught me is that I can be more flexible in my schedule than I was in the “before times”. I usually work from home these days, because I’m often on zoom meetings, and they tend to be more comfortable for me at home. But I also like writing and reading at home, and this covers a lot of what I do with my work. I also realized that I could do things like go running in the middle of the day, which is a real pleasure that I normally didn’t do before COVID-19. It is great, because it breaks up the zoom meetings and allows me to have a change of pace, which is rejuvenating ..read more

This past year has been rough for everyone. Not only have we been dealing with the most serious pandemic in over 100 years but until Jan 20 we had a president who didn’t listen to scientific expertise, and as a result the US leads all other countries in cases and deaths from COVID-19. I don’t know about you, but I got “tired of winning” about 4 years ago. The stress of COVID-19, the stress of the election, and the stress of a totally incompetent president over the past 4 years has been too much to deal with. COVID-19 required a complete redo in terms of adjusting our lives to stay safe and to ..read more