"The ultimate inspiration is the deadline." - Nolan Bushnell A warming trend out there in the valley of the Chemung this morning, rocketing from nine below zero at sunrise to seven degrees right now. Yesterday I failed to post, not out of sloth but because there wasn't a moment to sit in front of a computer and write something. My most difficult class falls on midday Thursdays, Tax Planning for Real Estate Transactions. The syllabus is a nonspecific mess, with 200 pages of re

I have found me a home. -Jimmy Buffett Partnership Tax starts in about eight minutes, so a very quick post. Last night after Estate Planning class Peg and I walked two blocks to Swift's Hibernia Lounge for tapas and a cocktail before bed. What a marvelous place, with live Celtic music, Guinness, and every Irish whiskey known to man. And no TVs, anywhere. I'm beginning to like this place.

"Some men like a dull life - they like the routine of eating breakfast, going to work, coming home, petting the dog, watching TV, kissing the kids, and going to bed. Stay clear of it - it's often catching." - Hedy Lamarr Already handled my first call today, with a deposition starting in about a half-hour. I know I'm probably not getting paid for this one--the client is broke, but it's too late the cancel. An incentive to work from the stretch instead of the windup, and move o

"A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water." - Carl Reiner The great blizzard of '26 has proven a bit of a bust in Lower Manhattan. We drove back midday Saturday, me still aching from surgery the day before, trying to beat the massive snowstorm that was to arrive overnight. Portable signs along the side of the interstate warned of the blizzard, and directed that no commercial vehicles be on the road after midnight. We arrived back here a litt

Missed yesterday because of knee surgery, scrambling around to make sure my work affairs were in order before becoming unavailable in a way only general anesthesia can ensure. Things went fine, and even with a suture or two Peg needs to pull out in a few days it hurts a lot less than when I walked through the hospital door yesterday. A hopeful sign. Now scrambling/hopping around again this morning, catching up on work stuff and organizing our wagon train to drive ourselves an

“My favorite thing about New York is the people, because I think they’re misunderstood. I don’t think people realize how kind New York people are.” —Bill Murray A quick update because class is in two hours and I pretty much lost yesterday in a full day mediation which, if I actual get paid, may just about cover the rent this month. That's our place, up on the fifth floor on the far right. We're directly on Houston Street, the busy thoroughfare that leads to the Williamsburg B

"I go to Paris, I go to London, I go to Rome, and I always say, 'There's no place like New York. It's the most exciting city in the world now. That's the way it is. That's it.'" - Robert De Niro Well, we've arrived. Our view, at least four nights a week, for the next three-and-a-half months. Not so long, really. We've found our grocer, our tailor, our neighborhood pub, our deli (Katz Deli, of course, made famous by When Harry Met Sally ). our bookstore. All within a couple bl

I've got this feeling That today's the day. -America, 1976 Gray and 14 out there. Mediation in a couple hours, then down the hill to the next adventure. It's down there waiting. Let's see what happens . . . Musical Coda https://www.google.com/search?q=ive+got+this+feeling+that+today%27s+the+day&oq=ive+got+this+feeling+that+today%27s+the+day&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIICAEQABgWGB4yCggCEAAYChgWGB4yCggDEAAYChgWGB4yDQgEEAAYhgMYgAQYigUyDQgFEAAYhgMYgAQYigUyDQgGEAAYhgMYgAQYigUyD

"I can control my destiny, but not my fate. Destiny means there are opportunities to turn right or left, but fate is a one-way street. I believe we all have the choice as to whether we fulfil our destiny, but our fate is sealed." - Paulo Coelho Winter's back. When Peg left it was thirty outside, our high for the day. Tomorrow's sunrise promises to be barely into double-digits. They're calling for a seventy percent chance of heavy snow today, but so far it's just a dusting, un

"Instead of clearing his own heart the zealot tries to clear the world." - Joseph Campbell So, I was minding my own business, limping into Wegman's after sneaking off for a few minutes in the gym over lunch. Yes, this Wegman's. The photo was snapped October 3, 2020, the day we arrived in Corning to start this crazy adventure. Within five steps of my emerging from the truck, I was approached by a rather earnest, fifty-ish lady, hair pulled back tight and a ziplock bag of beige

“Losing a mother doesn’t happen in a moment. It takes years to appreciate the impact of what’s gone.” — Lisa-Jo Baker Just below freezing and not a cloud in the sky out there. Watching an airliner mark in the sky to the east, making a turn over the Elmira Vortac and bending the white arc leftward toward Chicago or places west. We always knew the altitude of the contrail layer when we were flying as part of a strike package, or practicing 2 v 2 or 4 v 4 out on the ranges. Gene

When the world is running down You make the best of what's still around. -Sting A pretty morning out on the lake, our last for a while as we head to Manhattan after Peg gets off work Thursday. This morning I learned a new word, or maybe it was created overnight. A blogger I admire referred to another event in the "polycrisis", the national disaster we're living right now. His particular focus was upon DJT siccing DOJ, led by a reality TV judge, on the Chairman of the Fed over

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming We're finally on our own This summer I hear the drumming Four dead in Ohio Gotta get down to it, soldiers are cutting us down Should have been done long ago What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground How can you run when you know? -Neil Young Still reeling over the week we've endured, and the murder in Minneapolis two days ago. At least they've identified the murderer. Hope you and your family don't get a peaceful night's sleep for wha

Bad news on my TV screen Bad news on the magazines Bad news on the newspaper Bad news on the elevator Bad news on the street Bad news in my car Bad news under my feet Bad news at the bar All over my clothes Under my head On the radio In the laundromat Hanging in the air Laying on the ground Walking up the stairs Bad news all around No matter where I go I can't get away from it Don't you know? I'm knee deep in it Who's gonna believe liars and lunatics? Fools and thieves and cl

"Look round and round upon this bare bleak plain, and see even here, upon a winter's day, how beautiful the shadows are! Alas! It is the nature of their kind to be so. The loveliest things in life... are but shadows; and they come and go, and change and fade away, as rapidly as these." - Charles Dickens It's in the upper 30s out there, with higher temps forecast for the balance of the week. The snow is mostly gone, leaving barren hills under slate grey skies. This is shaping

"If it were necessary to give the briefest possible definition of imperialism, we should have to say that imperialism is the monopoly stage of capitalism." - Vladimir Lenin The news lately is just so, so bad. I find myself thinking that the narrative about "American exceptionalism" on which my generation was raised indeed highlighted the exceptions. Birthed as a representative democracy, to be sure, but only for white males with property. We sent 600,000 to their graves in a

I am a tariff man, standing on a tariff platform. - William McKinley It's 21 and snowing lightly out there on Canandaigua Lake this morning, with a big blob of snow creeping up from down around Naples. I was supposed to be in a Zoom hearing right now, but the judge unilaterally moved it by an hour because of a scheduling conflict he knew existed several weeks ago. We found out when we logged into his Zoom room. I love my job. Rather than writing about Genghis Don conquering a

"The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses." - Francis Bacon Cloudy and fourteen degrees outside, after a surprising amount of sunshine New Year's Day. I'm feeling pretty good about this new year, after two devastating gridiron losses over the holiday. You see, I've observed over the decades that my personal fortunes seem to travel in opposition to my sports teams. When the Bulldogs and the Trojans have seemed unstoppable, my l

"And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been." - Rainer Maria Rilke Man, I'm glad to have this one almost on the books. I bet you are as well. Wishing us all a better 2026.

“He had been out among the dragons, he said, and he assured himself that they were not so hideous as he had imagined them.” ― Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage Twenty-two degrees with howling winds out of the northwest, and a light dusting of snow that fell overnight. I'll be out in it a little later this morning, visiting the doctor over in Elmira for a look at this knee that keeps getting more immobile and painful. I sense an expensive arthroscopy in my future, just i