Thursday, October 31, 2013

i was thinking about hillary

October was a weird month and now it's over, with nothing left of it but Halloween night, an annoyance at best.

For me, it was a month of tremendous dissatisfaction (hence, no blogging) for which I have no explanation.  I've had this urge to do something totally radical without having any decent radical options.

I'm thinking it's a panic-at-this-stage-of-life thing, realizing that there isn't enough time left to do everything and anything.  Boredom with the routine, maybe.

Or maybe just too tired to deal with the routine much longer.  The age thing again.

And that's when I thought about Hillary Clinton, an amazing woman of about my age, who may run for President in 2016, three years from now, potentially taking office in 2017.  She would be one of the all-time great Presidents, probably.

But why the heck would she want to?  Isn't she tired too and how much more tired will she be in a potential term extending eleven years from now?  Being President is hard work and, especially these days in the current political environment, ultimately unrewarding.

If I were her, I'd say No and go hang out with Bill.... well, at least some of the time anyway.  It's hard to picture the two of them being totally retired and watching "The Price is Right" together.

Same here.  No "Price is Right" for me.

Something else.  But something.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

mad but not quite bad

In the last couple months, I've kind of gotten into Scotch whiskey, liquor that I had never really thought about before.  I think it started with our catch-up binge of the TV series, Mad Men, and I've been going through a Don Draper-wannabe phase, which made me realize what a wuss I've always been with my alcoholic-beverage choices, so I went right for the other extreme.  I started with Glenlivit 12, which Jerry happened to have in our liquor cabinet.  Then a client gave me a bottle Balvenie Doublewood.  Both brands are terrific.

So I've been learning and trying various brands of Scotch, mostly, unfortunately, at the high end, which has made me become a Scotch snob who looks down on the lesser brands of Scotch.

A month or so ago, I was with my two business partners at our happy-hour bar next door to the office, and I asked the waiter for a glass of whatever their best Scotch was.  He said, "That would be our Macallan 18,"  so that's what I had, and it was so wonderful that it was practically a life-altering experience.  But then we got the bill:  $30 for that little two-fingers of Scotch.  Whoops.  But I played it cool, just as Don Draper would have.


Now we're on a new TV-watching binge, a show that has been around since 2008 (we're always a little behind the times), Breaking Bad, in which the main character produces and sells crystal meth.  No temptations there.

Monday, October 7, 2013

we've got to get ourselves back to the garden

Montreal Botanical Gardens
It's so hard not to go on a useless rant about John Boehner and his treasonous lunatic-fringe Tea Party idiots, but you're hearing enough of that already in these shutdown days, unless you are one of those people who only get their "news" from FoxNews or Rush Limbaugh, in which case, what the heck are you doing reading my blog anyway??

Hey -- the Montreal Botanical Gardens.... If you go to Montreal, it's a must-see -- the 2nd or 3rd largest botanical garden in the world (depending on which tour book you read).  It's beautiful and peaceful.  A good escape.

Friday, October 4, 2013

YUL to MSP (two days ago)



Back from Montreal... what a great city.... I could live there.  (Watch the video in full screen if you can)