On The Fly

No Norelco commercials again this Christmas season! Strangely enough I miss them. Have you noticed how fast time flies as you get up in years? We’re already into November, Thanksgiving in just two days! And yes , “Christmas - is - just around the corner.” Do you have this years tree? Stop by Home Depot and see me . . . It seems like yesterday. Santa cruising down the snow-filled slopes on his triple-head  Norelco  electric shaver. Before your time? No problem they’re on  YouTube  - of course. Now Santa is trying to sell you a luxury sports car (A red Mercedes). As a youngster I was convinced - just around the corner - meant Main Street; Marshall’s Hardware - Santa Land. My brothers and I would take a walk to town to see all the holiday decorations and toys we wanted Santa to bring. Day-and-Palin’s was the only Christmas tree lot that I can remember in Cuba, Illinois. Waiting for Christmas seemed like an eternity. The toys have morphed somehow, instead of a...

“Do you think I’ll need my gloves?”  “No doubt,” I said to Lori as we prepared to make the trek up the Mountain from Bishop, CA , on route 168, to the Bishop Pass trailhead at South Lake (elevation 9,620 ft). Bishop Pass Trailhead It was cold late October weather. 36 degrees when we parked the truck and stepped into the brisk, fresh Sierra mountain air.  The golden yellow fall colors of trembling Aspens surrounded us.  We never passed a single car driving the 20 miles from downtown Bishop past Parchers Resort (closed for the season) to our roadside parking. My first thought - where is everyone? Wonder if the trailhead is closed for the season? Nah, can’t be. The parking lot was gated . . . why? “ Last time I was here we couldn't find a place to park. There were bicyclists, people trout fishing Bishop Creek, and the resort was teeming with activity - this year no one. Weird!” Undaunted, we layered our clothes, strapped on our day-packs, adjus...

“My husband . . . Some people are tree huggers, mine is a tree sniffer.” “Try it. Right here,” as I touched the smooth bare russet wood of the ancient Bristlecone Pine. “This smells like Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey Whiskey, it’s like no other tree I’ve ever smelled. It’s an aromatic blend of pine, sweet honey, and wood.” I said to Lori as we hiked the four mile Methuselah Walk of the ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest . Lori laughed, “I doubt Jack Daniel's would advertise their Whisky with the slogan,” Try our special blend, smells like a Bristlecone Pine. The Bristlecone Pine (species Pinus longaeva ) is the longest-lived life form on Earth. According to our trail brochure, in 1957 Dr. Edward Schulman, searching for climate records in tree rings, increment bored a tree from this same grove. Upon counting the rings under a microscope back at camp, he nearly shouted at his colleague, “we’ve got a 4,000-plus tree.” It was later dated to be over 4,600 years old. Schulman na...

Time - It’s all relative, or is it? In the Special Theory of Relativity Einstein determined that time is relative - in other words, the rate at which time passes depends on your frame of reference. This got me thinking about the Cubs, Doc Brown, and Back To The Future . How do you determine your frame of reference? Here it is almost Christmas, oops, I mean Halloween (it just looks like Christmas at Home Depot where all the decorations are already in place). Soon we lose daylight savings time (November 1st) then its back to darkness at 5:00 pm. Honestly, it seems like we were just there. Doesn’t it to you too? But on the bright side, it’s 2015 and the Cubs are in the playoffs. October baseball. That hasn’t happened since the Steve Bartman incident in game six of the NLCS 2003 - has it really been 12 years? I’m thinking he’s watching the playoffs on TV. Can you believe it was 30 years ago that Back To The Future II predicted the Cubs winning the World Series in 2015! It ...

July Customer Service All Star “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.” I was reminded of this recently while learning a new job in the Electrical department of Home Depot. After almost 30 years of working in the jewelry industry, I found myself overwhelmed this summer with: new training materials, employee names, technical terms, acronyms, advice, procedures, passwords, and of all things - locker combinations. Developing a readiness to learn is the art that all good teachers practice. I’m afraid people tend to forget what it’s like to be a beginner. I know I do at times. Let’s face it, you tend to take for granted the things you do by habit. In hindsight, it’s easy to explain experiences based on your level of knowledge and understanding, rather than a student’s level of mental preparedness. There’s the key - mental preparedness. Learning a new job is not just having the right attitude towards the job; it’s being able to process the information and DO ...

Team BMC 2015 Team BMC wins the team time  trial  by one second in  stage  nine! Ah, Summer! Bicycling magic is renewed for millions when the voices of Phil Liggett, Paul Sherwen, and Bob Roll, grace the television airwaves broadcasting  Le Tour de France   (Le Tour). When you dare to believe you’re an accomplished bicyclist, just tune into the NBC SN Sports broadcast of Le Tour in July ( July 4 - July 26, 2015) . Very quickly humility sets in. To date, the riders in that race have ridden nine grueling stages, with an average distance of 186 kilometers, that’s 115 miles per day. This year is the 102 nd  Anniversary - 21 stages, a total distance of 3,360 kilometers, and only two,  yes two , rest days - of this classic race that tours the French countryside with the finale in Paris on the Champs-Elysées. Dare I say it – Le Tour can inspire even casual riders, take your bicycles from the back shed, dust them off, inflate their tires...

“Can you believe this? Everything is gone! It was 7:00 p.m., we were headed home after sampling the 29th Annual Fallbrook, California, Avocado Festival. As if by magic all traces of  frantic activity had disappeared when we left that evening, including the traffic. Only a few hours before a nine-block section of Main Street was closed to vehicles and converted to - avocado nirvana? If you’ve never visited the village of Fallbrook, it is an unincorporated community in northern San Diego County of about 30,500 residents. This quiet community is known for it’s avocado groves and claims the title “Avocado Capital of the World.” Before leaving for the festival that morning all our friends could talk about was the grandeur of avocados; an art contest, a children's avocado race, and so much more. We glanced at the local newspaper.  “Unbelievable - this festival draws anywhere from 70,000 to 100,000 people. Where in the world will all these people park?” We threw a few ...

The signs are all around you. Leaves on the trees have started to pop. Aqua blue skies form the backdrop over an eye pleasing green diamond, spotted with bases so white they glow against the brown clay of the infield. Listen carefully and you will hear the melancholy sounds of baseball on the radio. . . " Two and two to Harvey Kuenn, one strike away. Sandy into his windup, here's the pitch: Swung on and missed, a perfect game!"   For millions of fans spring rings in The National Pastime;  baseball. A time of renewed hope and fresh starts. The season officially kicked off Sunday, April 5, 2015, 7:05 pm (CST) with the Chicago Cubs battling the St. Louis Cardinals at historic Wrigley Field on ESPN   Sunday Night Baseball . Don't be fooled though, it's the magic of radio that still captures the vivid  detail and excitement of a game. " He has done it four straight years, and now he caps it: On his fourth no-hitter he made it a perfect game."   ...

Redevelopment starts small. Could it be something as simple as Christmas lights on the square? Let’s hope so. During a recent visit to Cuba, Illinois, I discovered a nugget of renewal. Cuba is a small, rural farming community in west-central Illinois where I grew up. Like many small towns, it has a Main Street, boasts a central square with a bandstand, old-fashioned street lamps, and a veterans’ memorial, surrounded by the local businesses. During my youth, it was a thriving community. Today it’s a relic, one of those midwestern towns that have fallen into decay. I never witnessed the decay; it was 1976 when I moved to Macomb to attend Western Illinois University. From there, I moved to California. At least once a year I return home to visit family. This year I lost my father . He was 80 years old, his spirit lives in all the people he touched.  Exasperated by the realization of losing her friend and lifelong companion, I quickly realized my mother found a lot ...

Fender Stratocaster “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” I’m sure you’ve heard that mind-numbing cliche many times. Well, I’m here to say that education is not a bag of tricks and humans are not dogs. Some do resemble their  ole’ dog, anyway . . .  For years I heard that platitude from students who would use it as excuse for not being able to successfully learn a new skill to their satisfaction or expectation. Agreed, learning a new skill is challenging. Let’s be honest, it’s downright hard. We tend to get entrenched in our comfortable ruts. Think back a minute. Remember what it was like to learn to ride a bicycle? It was exhilarating! Well, maybe not at first. Did you have training wheels? I’m sorry. What happened when your Dad removed those training wheels. I’ll bet you fell - over and over again. But with a determination that refused to quit, you learned to ride. It was simply a matter of learning the tricks.    You see, to remain young and ...