buckle-up

It was barely a week that passed before we were packing our bags again and heading back out onto America’s highways. For this trip, we had the BMW i8 back in the garage following its minor traffic accident in Plano, Texas, so it once again became the chosen mode of transportation. Our BMW M4 was given time off following its trip to Las Vegas for the HPE big tent marketing event, HPE Discover 2018. It continues to surprise us how well the i8 is suited to grand touring and there is ample room to fit our soft bags along with a couple of soft suit carriers. With summer prices for gas skyrocketing, having a hybrid that only needs a top-off of its miniscule gas tank every three hundred miles or so, it proved an advantageous choice once we crossed into California and saw how expensive gas had become – almost $5 at one gas station! This trip would take us back to Las Vegas and then on to Simi Valley, California, before we turned north to Half Moon Bay for a week of meetings over the o...

These past few weeks it’s all been about the miles we have covered. Road trips took us to Dallas and then after just a few days back in the office took us to Las Vegas. As we work on this post we are looking at yet a third road trip, this time to southern California and then on up the coast to Palo Alto in northern California. It’s summertime so it’s not all that bad even if the temperatures have been scorching hot, but that’s the nature of travel at this time of year. It hasn’t been totally incident free, mind you, but the time out and about on America’s highways still beats standing in line waiting to pass through TSA security even as we hope our upgrades come through. Dallas proved to be a fun place to visit. Actually, our conference was well north of Dallas as it was held in Plano. This has become a regular part of our summertime routine as we have been to this part of Texas a half a dozen times already in just the past couple of years. In a manner of speaking it has also ...

Leipzig; the home of Goethe – who knew? According to Goethe, “Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.” I think that this has to be one of the better quotes of all time but Goethe didn’t stop there. He also said, “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” How cool – for years I have always thought about my high school motto, “Know Yourself” which dates back to Socrates who famously declared that the unexamined life was not worth living. When asked to sum up what all philosophical commandments could be reduced to, he replied: “Know yourself.” Leipzig; located in former East Germany, it has morphed into an attractive city transformed in more recent times to were today it’s a wonder it doesn’t sit further up any travelers list of must-see cities. Did you know that the game of soccer, as administered today by the DFB (Deutscher Fußball-Bund) was founded on 28 January 1900 in Leipzig? Margo and I had the opp...

You know who your friends really are when after you leave your former residence in Southern California to return to Colorado, they go and buy a plane. Yes, for them it is a pleasant one day flight with stop overs in Sedona for a late breakfast and then a final fuel refill in Santa Fe. Yes, they did that and they have come across to spend a week with us as they head off to Indianapolis for the end of May racing calendar that culminates with the running of the Indy 500. Good friends indeed and ones we cannot see often enough. And the timing couldn’t have been any better since we too will be heading for the airport this weekend as we take off for Germany. Through the years we have spent vacations with them in Europe and in Australia but it’s now been quite a few years between drinks, so as to speak. Fortunately, we will be opening calendars to check dates in 2020 – it really needs that much planning to pull off.  Their business has really taken off and Brian being th...

Oh yeah, the “grass is riz” and the “boid is most definitely on the wing.” Or to say it another way, our ever-present flocks of Canadian Geese have finally headed north and as beautiful as they are to watch in flight I am rather glad that they have elected to move out for the summer, and the grass freshly planted last fall is greening up nicely. Spring is a time for rebirth, regeneration and yes, a time to simply kick back and watch Mother Nature do her thing. It’s been quite a while since Margo and I were last in New York, but just running across this phrase atop the post brought back memories – we need to head back to the Big Apple soon, if only we could find the time.  The business of Pyalla Technologies, LLC, has really picked up over the past year and we are being constantly kept on our toes – this weekend we are off to Northern California, our former home for many years when Margo and I both lived and worked in Silicon Valley. It’s good to visit, even if we no longer y...