buckle-up

What else can we say; bathed in sunlight one moment and then, in a matter of hours the temperature nosedives fifty degrees Fahrenheit and just like that the chill winds from the north arrive and snow follows. When we built our Windsor home we made sure we had fireplaces on both levels – real gas ones and not those decorative electric showpieces. Their backup batteries work just fine should we lose power, but fingers crossed in that regard; should we have had a couple of gas lamps installed while the contractors pulled all the lines? Margo and I enjoy living in Colorado as it’s not just colorful but you do get to experience all four seasons and contrary to popular belief, when the snow falls it rarely accumulates to any extent and as a storm front passes we know with a certainty that give it a couple of days and it will be sunny again. Any reminders of the snow that just fell will only be visible in mounds piled high by the graders clearing shopping center car parks. I think th...

I cannot recall a time when I have thought about devoting a whole post to our Buckle-Up blog to just one individual, but now the dust has settled on his first year racing as a pro in the Indy Car series and Colton Herta deserves to bathe in the spotlight one more time this year. Oh yes, wouldn’t you like to know what is being talked about between father and son, above, but there is no denying the family dynamics have swung 180 degrees in a matter of months. No longer Bryan’s son, but now, when it comes to Colton, then it is Bryan who holds the distinction of being referred to as Colton’s dad! And come a long way, the family has indeed managed to do in an amazingly short period of time. Our good friends, the Kennys, befriended us over coffee at a Starbucks in Simi Valley’s Wood Ranch shopping center. We did not realize at the time how close to royalty this new relationship would take us because at the time, the relationship was borne out of a shared interest in red Corvettes. Both...

There are trips we take where we just going through the routines and where the time away from home is dedicated to working with our clients. And then there are other trips where we continue to be very much business focused and yet the scenery we pass is inescapably beautiful. Margo and I spent many years living in California – both in the surrounds of Los Angeles and San Francisco – where the simple beauty of California’s coastline never failed to delight us. Of course, it helps when the weather lends a helping hand and for this trip, the ocean fog left us alone.  Coming from Australia naturally enough I discount the beauty California affords those who visit its shores as there really is nothing that comes close to the golden beaches of Sydney, but then again, I am sure there are those who will argue fervently that California has everyone beat. However, with summer coming to a close, this trip was as much about where we dined and what we dined on as it was about taking in the...

I was reminded of this title when I came across a Led Zeppelin DVD – it’s the name of the video of a live concert by that group filmed back in 1973. A soundtrack album of the same name was released a little later, in 1976 – and it wasn’t long after that I returned to Australia and with each Christmas, I found a new Led Zeppelin album under the tree. “I had a dream Oh, yeah Crazy dream, uh-huh Anything I wanted to know Any place I needed to go Hear my song” Even now, there are radio stations in some cities that do little else but playing tracks from these albums for commuters who are leaving their offices and drive home. Perhaps it is a little melodramatic to kick off a post with these words but the more things change, the more they stay the same or, to be more precise, plus ça change, plus c’est la même. Before you move on to another post maybe it is a bit extreme to combine songs by Led Zeppelin with expressions by the French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphon...