On The Fly

In this episode, Are We Full of Sh*t? . . . Let me ask you this, are you a reader ( listener ) concerned with young people's education today? Are we teaching our children to be creative or follow archaic rules handed down through generations? If so, let me introduce you to the author Don Hanley, Ph.D., and his inspiring memoir that we just finished. But before I do, let's set the stage for how unforeseen pivotal moments can unexpectedly change your life for the better. In hindsight, one of those moments for me was an invitation to join a local writer's group after my early retirement from GIA in 2014. During that experience, I met and became friends with Dr. Don (as I call him), a former Catholic Priest who left the ministry to marry. Don earned a doctorate in psychology and has served for over 40 years as a psychotherapist, graduate school professor, and counseling supervisor. Now retired and approaching his 90th birthday, his writings include four non-fiction books on psy...

In this episode, Your Creative Imagination . . . This week I’d like to revisit a piece we posted in May 2020; it was one of our first episodes. Let's pretend today is your birthday; you received a gift from a loved one that’s beautifully boxed; what’s your first impulse? Would you set the box aside, “I’m busy right now; I’ll get to it later.” My guess is you would enthusiastically open the box. Let me ask you this: What if I told you you’d had the most precious gift in your possession since birth, yet you’ve never taken the time to open the box? I’m referring to the power of your creative imagination. Albert Einstein summarized it best, “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.” Let’s examine our daily thoughts; what do you think about it? Seriously, are your thoughts dependent on your reaction to “what’s happening right now” situations and other people? If so, that special gift we’re discussing is not being used. And if we’re not careful, our imagination ca...

In this episode, The BIG Apple . . . Have you ever wondered how New York City got the name The BIG Apple? What follows is consolidated from Wikipedia & the Interesting Facts e-newsletter. Before it was referred to as The City That Never Sleeps, the term "Big Apple" was an expression that meant a big deal, an object of great desire, or big dreams. The first time New York City was referred to as the "big apple" in print may have been in 1909 when American journalist Edward S. Martin wrote in his book The Wayfarer in New York that those in the Midwest (Kansas) are "apt to see in New York a greedy city. It inclines to think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the national sap." - However, the phrase doesn't seem to have been intended as a nickname, especially since the name was not capitalized. A horse-racing column published by the New York Morning Telegraph in the 1920s popularized the term: " The Big Apple. ” “The dream of ev...

In this episode - Watching the Wheels . . . In last week’s episode, we revisited John Lennon’s Imagine . He’s been gone for over 43 years, but his impact still lives on through his music. Don’t believe me; think about this; Another hallmark of music is it seduces you into listening again and again, planting a catchy melody and words into your subconscious mind. And as you circumnavigate life, accumulated experiences provide new meaning to what, on the surface, appear to be just words. However, through a fusion of these experiences, emotion, rhythm, and repetition, the simplicity of the language takes on new meaning. For example, let’s examine the tune Watching the Wheels - reading the lyrics, how do you relate to them? “People say I’m crazy Doing what I’m doing.” What’s happening in your life right now? As an adult, you’ve established your independent daily routines, and your life has many different facets apart from anyone else. Of course, others have their contradictory opinions....

In this episode - Imagine 2023 . . .  Imagine it - 2023! If you’re like me from the Baby Boomer generation, it does not seem possible, yet here we are. On New Year’s Eve, I’ll admit I still celebrate at Midnight relative to Eastern Standard Time (EST). With the advent of streaming content and YouTube TV, you can watch CNN and the celebration in New York with correspondent Anderson Cooper. This year its first since the COVID pandemic, the celebration hosted millions in Time Square. Just before  The Ball  dropped, Chelsea Cutler sang her rendition of John Lennon’s Imagine; this got me thinking. Looking back on 2022, it all seems like a blur. We recovered from the worst pandemic, watched war rage in Ukraine on the news, attended a major league baseball game, went to see Cat’s on Broadway in San Diego, made our vacation trip to Yosemite National Park, celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas, and so much more. I’m so thankful this podcast has given me the discipline to document ...

In this episode - PG&E Launches EV Pilot Program . . . In a previous podcast episode ( Bi-Directional Charging ), we reported on V2H and V2G technology. Happy New Year, welcome to season four of On the Fly. Dateline: Dec. 6, 2022 - Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) announced the launch of a pre-enrollment website for customers interested in joining the company’s upcoming Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) pilot program.  The “Vehicle to Everything” pilot envisions a future in which automobiles not only draw their power from the electrical grid but can strategically add electricity back to the grid when demand is high — and generate some money for their owners. It’s based on the concept of bidirectional energy flow using EV batteries; this isn’t new, but having a utility company as dominant as PG&E onboard could transform the idea into a reality. The pilot has space for 1,000 residential customers and 200 commercial customers. PG&E isn’t releasing the numbers for how ...