On The Fly

For over 80 years, students of gemology have struggled with spectrums, bewildered by birefringence, and simply plagued by pleochroism. The following sonnet is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face, a glow to your heart, and a simple reminder that students of life and gemology rediscover nature's gifts every day.  Ode to Gemology , by a GIA on-campus student. Dispersion, fire, adventurescence. Orient, sheen, or iridescence. Refractive index, high or low. The luster should indicate that, you know. Polarization, double or single. What to do now, they intermingle. Pleochroic colors you really should see. Was that only two, or actually three? Birefringence should help you a lot. Use your polarizer and watch the spot. Now, did it jump most on low or high? Sure, you can get it if you really try! Your liquids should be an aid, I think. Does it float, suspend, or slowly sink? Just use your imagination now. (He doesn't see me wiping my brow.) Solid inclusions or only bubbles? Huh, th...

In this episode, the Stubborn Choice to Rise There’s that tiny, breathless moment during a bicycle crash when you realize gravity has won, and it’s not going to budge. I recently found myself in that exact situation.  My front tire collided with another cyclist, and momentum took over,  and I flipped like a sack of uninspired potatoes flung into the back of a truck. As the dust settled and I lay there, thrown from the bike,  trembling  . . . I did that quick, quiet check we all do: Am I broken? Will I ever be able to swing a golf club again? And, most importantly, can I rise again? Thankfully, the answers were no, yes, and absolutely. I walked away bruised and battered, but okay. Once I realized that neither my golf clubs, hiking boots, nor my bicycle was going to retire early, I felt a rush of overwhelming gratitude. A physical crash is loud, embarrassing, and leaves a mark. But the truth is, most of us are crashing much more quietly every single day. We crash into ...

In this episode, the interactive obstacle course of the San Marcos bike path. (Sunday, April 12, 2026) It started out as a beautiful day for a ride—our usual 30-mile Sunday trek to Escondido. The weather was moody, with brooding dark clouds threatening rain, but the streets were mostly empty. The traffic was light, and the bike paths were eerily quiet. It gave off the distinct, yet entirely false, illusion of a peaceful sanctuary. We were headed home, and I had settled into a smooth, hypnotic cadence on the path across from Palomar College in San Marcos. I was listening to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field, minding my own business, and dressed to be seen. Between my colorful jersey and my cherry-red vest, I was illuminated like a human traffic cone. You could spot me from low Earth orbit. Apparently, that wasn't visible enough. Up ahead, I spotted another cyclist. He was cruising along in a state of pure, unhelmeted zen—completely unburdened by the earthly concepts of peripheral vision ...

In this episode, from Pedals to Hiking Trails. Normally, today would be a day for the roadway—the gears, the cadence, the 30-mile push of a cyclist. But today I’ve stepped off the bike and descended into a creek-side trail, where the thick brush effectively erases the neighborhood’s roads. In this concealed corridor, I walk with an old neighbor, Henry David Thoreau, and his words resonate through the limpid air like a frequency I’m finally tuned in to hear: “I am convinced, both by faith and experience, that to maintain one’s self on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime, if we will live simply and wisely.” — Walden There is a specific kind of magic that reveals itself only when you are below the asphalt. By blocking out the sight of the roadways, I’ve also blocked out the noise of the social grid. Today, I once again realize that wisdom and knowledge aren’t things we collect like toys or miles. Instead, they are part of a universal energy—a living spirit that flows through the la...

Picture this: an email lands in your inbox. A colleague—maybe even a friend—needs a favor, a second set of eyes, a moment of your time. You sigh, stare at the glow of your monitor, and type: “I’d love to help, but I just don’t have the bandwidth right now.” Hit send. Problem solved. Conscience clear. Except it shouldn’t be. Most of us have said or sent that line at least once, hoping it would land gently. On the surface, it’s perfect—efficient, polite, even self-aware. And that’s exactly the problem. It lets you decline without ever quite telling the truth. You didn’t just say no; you softened the discomfort of being human until it barely felt like a feeling at all. Instead of admitting, I’m overwhelmed , or I don’t have the energy , you reach for the sterile vocabulary of a server room. You turn a feeling into a metric. A boundary into a system limitation. Apologies, my data transfer rate is capped. Please submit a ticket to my emotional help desk. It’s a clever little trick—and an un...

There is something different about pre-dawn this morning. Sitting in my reading chair, an almost eerie, luminous glow crept through the window, demanding to be acknowledged. Stepping outside into the quiet chill, a nearly Full Moon was sinking into the West beneath a crystal-clear sky, the Big Dipper hanging faithfully in the dark above. But looking at that Moon meant looking at a ghost. Because light takes time to travel, the Moon we see in the sky is not the Moon as it exists in this exact microsecond. It is the Moon as it looked about a second and a quarter ago. When we look up, we are forever staring into the depths of the past. And right now, somewhere in that million-mile abyss between our present and that past light, four human beings are hurtling through the vacuum of space at unbelievable speeds. Today is Good Friday. For centuries, it has stood as a profound marker of the universal human experience—a day that asks us to sit with suffering, injustice, and the "dark night ...

In this episode, A funny thing happens when you stop searching for your golf ball—you start enjoying the game. Welcome back to On the Fly . Let’s be honest: at 69, most people are focused on staying upright and not tripping over the cat. Not me. Fueled by a lifetime of Zig Ziglar wisdom—especially A View From the Top —I’ve been chasing a goal that sits somewhere between ambitious and “mildly delusional”: By my 70th birthday, I want to shoot my age in golf. And yes—before anyone calls the PGA Tour—this is happening on a par-3 executive course. This is The Amen Corner of Retirement, where the holes are short, the rounds are friendly, and the expectations are... negotiable. Still, a 70 is a 70. The Quiet Progress And lately, something interesting has happened. This week? I’m noticing the progress. I’ve been spending time on the parts of the game that don’t make headlines—chipping and putting. No drama. No hero shots. Just quiet, repetitive work around the greens. And now... the payoff is...