TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <1 Minute Read Happy Monday, and some housekeeping first. This will be the last post from my hey.com email address. All future posts will come via Substack. If you're reading this, you'll be getting a notification soon from me that your address has been moved there; all current subscribers receive free lifetime subscr...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 6 Minute Read Happy Friday, and this is the ninth installment of Maybe It Was Destiny. Preface and Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 THE WISDOM OF LEAVING MONEY ON THE TABLE My approach of applying professional consulting and project management techniques in custom home te...

OVERVIEW If you've traveled much, you're likely aware of how good a summer visit to the mountains can be. Whether it is the Sierra Nevada, the Cascades, the Rockies, or my beloved Adirondacks, sunny skies, mild temperatures, wildflowers, and the complete lack of snowboarders can make for a great destination vacation. Or destination wed...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <3 Minute Read Please allow me to virtue signal my way through hump day, while also demonstrating how well-read I am. Yes, I know, it sounds too good to be true, and I'll sweeten the pot by bringing my childhood into it, as well. I'll even somehow relate it to the financial planning exercise we did earlier this year. ...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <2 Minute Read Happy Monday, and let's begin the week by considering the term means test. It's relevant because VP candidate Tim Walz has been accused of being a dangerous flaming radical far-left insane socialist communist, by Trump and Vance and their mouthpieces. Because Walz, Governor of Minnesota, gave breakfast ...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 6 Minute Read Happy Friday, greetings from gorgeous Breckenridge, Colorado, and happy wedding day to Nikki Vale and Baron Belgium. This is the eighth installment of Maybe It Was Destiny. Preface and Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 I'M NOT KIDDING ABOUT THIS DESTINY THING One of th...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 1 Minute Read (+ Several Hours of Listening) Happy Hump Day and I am sending this from a too-early flight to Denver. We are off to the Rocky Mountain summer wedding of our niece Nikki Vale to the engineering stud Baron Belgium, in Breckenridge, Colorado. And yes, I do feel a micro Travel Guide coming on . . . But unti...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 2 Minute Read Happy Monday, and usually, I dislike hype. Hype like all the buzz around the Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz. No matter how well-founded, I typically hate when a threshold is crossed in the public zeitgeist, and certainly, that's happened here. You can't swing a dead cat and not hear the ...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 6 Minute Read Happy Friday, and this is the seventh installment of Maybe It Was Destiny. Preface and Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN, BLAH BLAH BLAH This was the last part of my personal plan, answering Dr. Anthony's last question, "I will keep what mental attitude throu...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 3 Minute Read (For the record, I love the Tim Walz pick. In the words of The Bear's Mikey: Let It Rip. Listen to this if you'd like to hear directly from Governor Walz. Let's just say Harris/Walz is an m-f'ing STARK contrast to Trump/Vance. Which ticket's envisioned future do you want for the USA? Now back to our regu...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 3 Minute Read Happy Monday, and maybe lightning can strike twice. I happened to be a fly on the wall at Dear Leader Trump's Mar-a-Lago lair recently, and I can report that the ghost of Ronald Reagan almost didn't appear in Trump's private bedroom suite. Because it stank. It stank of candidate Trump's meal, his favorit...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <6 Minute Read Happy Friday, and this is the sixth installment of Maybe It Was Destiny. Preface and Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 MIND OVER MATTER We left Chicago, where I had recommitted to Casa Integration and its success, and returned to San Francisco. Sure, it was the agreement with Julie to gi...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <2 Minute Read Welcome to Wednesday, and it is great being back in our beloved Marina District. An event occurred during our Westside sojourn - maybe you heard of it? The Republican National Convention? I have withheld comment until now, but rather than question the cultish fealty to Dear Leader Trump . . . . . . toda...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <3 Minute Read Happy Monday and the Olympics are making me feel worldly. Well, that, and I am deep into this fascinating and informative history of the British Empire. It's highly recommended if you're into that sort of thing. There are many interesting facts to be discovered in the book, including the obvious: the Br...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <6 Minute Read Happy Friday, and this is the fifth installment of Maybe It Was Destiny. Preface and Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 CHRISTMAS DRUG WITHDRAWAL Among the worst memories of the company's early days was Christmas 2002, spent in paradise, A.K.A. The Bracebridge Dinner at The Ahwahnee Hotel, in Yosem...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 2 Minute Read Happy Wednesday and while you've been doing whatever it is that you've been doing, Julie and I have been actively managing the household of our pals Louise Lederhosen and Byron Browne IV. In other words, we're housesitting at their swank pad in western San Francisco whilst they're screwing off in Africa ...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 1 Minute Read I had a fun piece on SF's Westside planned for today's post, but of course, that will have to wait. With Papa Joe, in perhaps one of his last lucid moments, dropping out of the 2024 Presidential election, I perhaps am speaking for many with my reaction. I CAN FUCKING BREATHE AGAIN. And Joe Biden saved hi...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 6 Minute Read Happy Friday, and this is the fourth installment of Maybe It Was Destiny. Preface and Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 MAGILLA GUERILLA It all started so positively in early 2002. Scott Edwards drafted a direct mail letter (still a viable medium at this time) that I mailed to an address list purchased from ...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <2 Minute Read Special thanks to Politico for this. They compiled the list below of VP candidate J.D. Vance's comments to date about Dear Leader Trump. This man simply has no principles - none. To say the following, and then accept an invitation to join the Republican Presidential ticket? In fact, I don't believe Trum...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS (I wrote this just before someone took a shot at Trump. How appropriate.) 3 Minute Read Happy Monday and this is not what you think. Today, I lament the loss of SF's beloved Stern Grove Festival. Oh, it's still taking place, in the Sigmund Stern Grove (pictured above), located in southern San Francisco at the corner o...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 4 Minute Read Happy Friday, and this is the third installment of Nobody Cares Maybe It Was Destiny. Preface and Chapter 1 Chapter 2 IT WAS SCOTT EDWARDS (AND PLEATHER, AND PEET KRAKOW) Sure, I like music, the gear for it, and later, I even connected a computer to a TV. Big fucking deal. None of that would have mattere...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <3 Minute Read Welcome to Wednesday and some outrage. It's real, pissed-off outrage, but with a happy ending, or at least a useful suggestion. But first, a warning: Those who find complaints from overly pampered old white men distasteful might want to put this down and pick up a book instead. And this glass of whine w...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <1 Minute Read Happy Monday, and I hope you enjoyed the quasi long weekend. Reconnecting with my British friend and former colleague Randy Smee has been great and it has stirred once again the Anglophile in me. And audiophile, as you'll see. So you can thank Randy for inspiring today's largely Darwin-free blog. Well, ...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 4 Minute Read Happy Friday, and this is the second installment of Maybe It Was Destiny. Preface and Chapter 1 THE ROOTS OF ENTREPRENEURIAL MADNESS Growing up in Albany, NY, one's dreams are by nature somewhat stunted; still, I dreamt big as a kid. One constant fantasy was starting a company. Whatever that meant. I viv...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 1 Minute Read Happy Wednesday, and let me be clear: I mean no offense to anyone - religious or secular - with today's post. But in celebration of America's founding on the 4th of July, I am pushing back on the ongoing insistence that I observe Jesus Christ as some kind of a God. Taken to the extreme, and with the weir...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 3 Minute Read Happy Monday, and this is my fantasy. Barack Obama was dreading this and hoped beyond hope it could be avoided. But last Thursday's horror show of a debate meant he had been called upon by his party to ask his friends Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to step aside. He brought some helpers to ensure it would g...

We are interrupting our regularly scheduled broadcast to bring you this important announcement. As I've said before, Biden is too old and should have stepped aside. He didn't and here we are. It took last night for me to realize the Democratic party leadership backing Papa Joe is almost as mindless as the Republican leaders sticking wi...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <2 Minute Read + a Long External Article I bet you didn't envision a post on homosexuality today, did you? And that's not all: What I present is as disturbing as anything I've ever published. And no, it's not me coming out as gay. What follows is not mine nor anything about me. I didn't write it, and as I've read and ...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 2 Minute Read Happy Monday, and no, today's topic was not just an excuse to run an adorable baby picture of myself. Instead, it is to remind you that the entire world is simply not having enough babies, adorable or otherwise. Most of the rich world is getting older, fast, and that's not a good thing. I have been seein...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <3 Minute Read Happy Friday, and with the likely exception of a particular North Carolinian blog troll, many going into the weekend are asking themselves: Oh, Portico, please tell us where you source your t-shirts! If I must, and I'll even include a bonus fashion item at the end, one sure to thrill many. As always, th...