A Prius breakdown, LA biking, California-crossing micro-odyssey — Mountain Biking Trip Interruptus The plan was a four city, week long, mountain bike/vacation trip to coincide with what we in Northern California call Winter Break or ski week. The trip would include: Sat Feb 20 — Mon Feb 21: visit to the daughter at USC in Los Angeles with…

My daughter has embarked on her collegiate journey this fall. Her new stomping grounds are the well-manicured, sun-soaked lawns of the University of Southern California. Her new locale provides a compelling motive for regular travel on the 6 hour north-south journey between home and her campus. Although flying has a…

Data source for cumulative Covid-19 statistics: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

3/25/2020 With shelter in place orders mandated through the land, folks are counting on the web more than ever. Zoom teleconferences, Amazon toilet paper orders, Netflix and decompress, and online gaming marathons are the new normal. At work With modern telecommunication and collaboration tools advancing, more work will be done remotely and…

Projections, caution and fear accompany emerging and media-saturated epidemics. Coronavirus has dominated our headlines and induced widespread fear. Time will tell the final story of this epidemic. Looking at the history and data of past well-known epidemics gives us a better grounding in how this one might play out. Let’s…

3/17/2020 The world has taken drastic action. If we look at the economy as a living organism, we have effectively swallowed a handful of sedatives. The economy is now in a somnambulant state and the pills are just kicking in. This is no sleeping beauty fairy tale. As we slumber…

Successful lifehacking is a combination of trial-and-error, internet searching and A/B testing. Here are a few of my favorites in no particular order. Coping with change Problem: What the heck to do with all the coins that accumulate over time? Traditional solution: Coinstar Hack: Self-service checkout machines Summary: Why use…

Death is scary. It often comes without warning. With today’s modern medical technology, detection of a terminal disease is becoming more common. Facing the end, a patient is faced with critical questions. Would you prefer to die instantly without knowing? If you had only 3 months to live, what would…

Short answer is “yes”. The extended answer follows. Simpatico with Quickbooks Quickbooks is a great accounting package. It is not surprising they continue to reign as the defacto accounting solution for small to medium businesses. AP, AR, GL and Payroll are simple, intuitive and well integrated. Setting up a chart…