I was pecking away at something much safer- real life and death in human scale- but I saw a column the other day on the vast amount of out-of-state cash pouring into Virginia that made me sensitive to those insert ads that I saw on several sites as I scanned the morning rants. Here is […]

I may have made another mistake yesterday, but if I did it was in a worthy cause. The last time you were looking for a tractor, I imagine you went through the same thing I did. So tiresome. John Deere? Kubota? Buy new or used? Did you get the sticker shock I did, comparing even […]

It will be Fall this afternoon, officially, though driving through the Virginia countryside you can see that it has already arrived here. The hay-bales are stacked, some of them painted bright seasonal orange, and the advertising for the haunted hay-rides are sprinkled along Route 33 and the Zachary Taylor Highway that brought me, eventually, to […]

No, it is not like the Zimmerman Telegram. Dad used to get the Kiplinger Letter, a weekly business and economic forecasting periodical for people in management. It was started in 1920 by a former AP economics reporter and is still around today as a closely held company managed for more than eight decades by three […]

My associates have been beating the frontier drums all morning, and it is making me more than a little nuts. Sorry. Not your fault. The issues at hand include the drive-by shootings in Chicago, notably the one that produced 13 victims, including a three year old, in the Back of the Yards neighborhood where Mrs. […]

I had a pensive session with Old Jim on Tuesday; the news from the Navy Yard had made me lachrymose. We established a theme for our meeting on Wednesday, which was supposed to be about the current fiscal reality and concepts on how we can cobble together some sort of reliable income stream. Jim figures […]

So, the JG’s Explorer has a problem. He tried to have it in apple-pie order in order to put it to bed for the years he will be gone, but some things could not be fixed. Some bandit charged the air conditioner with new coolant, but it fizzed out. Before I take the vehicle down […]

There was a Commander in khaki uniform down the bar when I walked in. We occasionally have uniforms in the place, but I don’t abuse my former status and intrude on their privacy- Willow is not the VFW, after all. I said “Hi” to Old Jim and John-with-an-H leaned over and told me the CDR […]

Well, that is it. Done, fini, over. Mary Margaret took the opportunity to throw a party on Joe’s patio, starting whenever, and events swept us away with a rush as powerful as the jet of the filler nozzle at the deep end of the pool. I was ambivalent. I got back up north with the […]

Damn, halfway through the month and I cannot even believe it is started. I checked the weather, of course: more rain falling on my drenched pals in Colorado and more flooding, and a typhoon headed for the JG in Japan. So many things to keep straight these days. I wanted to pull together some seasonal […]