The weather this week has reminded me of a time I took off from El Paso on a hot August day. It was 115 degrees when I climbed into my plane at the little Texas airfield. There was smoke in the air from local fires and the southwest heat wave was in full swing. As…
DetailsMy mother passed away about a year ago at the age of 93. She had 11 children, so there was little free time for herself. As a result, late at night she could often be found at her desk putting together a puzzle. It was her personal break from life that she deeply loved. One…
DetailsMy grandpa loved inventing contraptions. He was always looking for an easier way to do things. One of his more popular inventions with the neighborhood kids was his ice cream maker. Long before the invention of automated kitchen appliances, making homemade ice cream required turning a hand crank mixer for about 30 minutes. Grandpa would…
DetailsAs a teenager I took a summer job in Hawaii. I thought it would be a fun way to make some extra money while enjoying the islands. I had no idea when I signed up how very difficult it would be. My assignment was to plant pineapple. Planting was done by hand with a simple…
DetailsI have written much about how to avoid financial scams, but as soon as an article goes to print a new slew of schemes is already being introduced. There isn’t time or space to list all the ways criminals will try to separate you from your money. Recently, a new type of scam has started…
DetailsI looked around during an airline safety briefing and was amazed at how few people were paying attention. As a pilot in command of an aircraft, I never do anything without carefully briefing the action first. When I fly as a passenger I always stop whatever important thing I am doing before take-off to pay…
DetailsLast week I travelled home from a business conference in South Carolina. Shortly before heading to the airport, I received notification that my flight had been cancelled due to a winter storm in Denver. From my experiences as a pilot, I generally don’t book through Denver in the wintertime, but in mid-March during a fairly…
DetailsMy mom loved root beer. Before she passed away a year ago at age 93, she wanted a McDonalds’ hamburger and a root beer. It was about that time that some of the kids and I stumbled upon a website that sold what they called, “Vintage Sodas.” One of the collections they offered was a…
DetailsAt the age of 7, I decided I wanted to play baseball. I was living in beautiful Yorba Linda, California, and in my town, baseball was life. I was a little nervous as I watched games at the local ballfield because I was one of the smallest kids my age. In fact, in thinking back…
DetailsA visitor to my office asked if I thought the stock market was still a good place to invest given all its “recent volatility.” This frequent question carries with it the inference that there was once a time when the stock market was not volatile. When I first became serious about investing the Dow Jones…
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