The Pacific Northwest

I recently returned from a week-long trip by car from Napa Valley, California to Seattle, Washington.  So many observations:

* There are A LOT of wineries in the Napa / Sonoma, California area.  I assumed they numbered in the dozens, but it's actually in the hundreds.  You can't tour / taste at all of them, but you can at most.  There's a stretch on the main road through Napa where they're lined up like suburban strip malls, one after another.  Also, did you know you can make white wine from pinot grapes?  Me neither.

* As expected, there are incredible, cliff-by-the-ocean vistas along the Pacific Coast Highway in northern California.  There are also some crazy, hilly, twisting routes that can get annoying after a while.

* Apparently it's a thing for cyclists to make epic, multi-day trips from north-to-south along that highway.  I saw dozens of riders hauling heavy gear who were navigating those crazy roads,  There were also plenty of signs to make drivers aware of them.

* It's also apparently a thing for campers and RVs to make the same north-to-south camping trek, and there were many camping and RV parks along the road for them to stay at overnight, or longer

* Farther north in California, especially just south of the Eureka area, the road becomes a long, winding stretch over and through small mountains, thick with tall trees.  There isn't much civilization along this stretch, and what small 'towns' you see aren't ones you're likely to spend a lot of time in.  Let's just say if I had to summarize the area in a word, it would be "Uni-bomber-like."

* Once the highway crosses into Oregon, the cliffs along the ocean turn into sand dunes, and beaches become more accessible.  (For golfers like me, don't forget to stop at the famous Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, the most Scottish looking course in America.)  Again, lots of campers and RV parks, but now you start to see some boats and marinas   When you can't see the ocean, all you see is trees.  Tall trees.  Everywhere.

* It was this area that I finally realized something about all of the towns in northern California and southern Oregon, at least the towns large enough to have schools.  The school buildings were sad.  Never saw a single one that looked newer, and most of them looked like re-purposed buildings that were decades old.  It's basically the opposite of the big new schools you see in Iowa, ever since we passed what became a statewide sales tax levy for school infrastructure.

* Oregon definitely rivals Colorado as the most cycling-friendly state.  There were bike lanes everywhere, not only in big cities like Eugene and Portland.  Many signs warned about cyclists being present.  There was even a bridge where a cyclist could push a button, setting off a warning light to let vehicles know there was a cyclist on the bridge.

* The entire state had a laid-back feel, but somewhere between the rural Oregon coast roads and the interstate-connected cities of Eugene and Portland, the culture changes from laid-back country to laid-back hippie.  Both seem slow-paced, but I preferred the relaxed, knit-stocking-cap wearing hippie vibe.

* The drive from Portland to Seattle would be unspectacular, if it weren't for seeing Mt. St. Helen's and then Mt. Rainier towering to the east.  The weather was so good, it was no problem seeing Mt. Rainier the last few days of the trip.

* At the famous Pike's Place Market in downtown Seattle, there is more fresh fruit, seafood, and flowers than some people might see in their entire lives, all reasonably priced.  And yes, I saw them throwing fish.

* Seattle isn't technically on the Pacific Ocean, but the Puget Sound makes for lots of shoreline, with beachfront real estate and great views.  Like Portland, I found it to have friendly people, and it seemed easy to get around.  Also:  lots of coffee shops with people wearing layers of dark clothes.

Saying No To The Book

I'm a financial planner.  I've been doing this for going on 10 years now, after more than 20 years of working for financial organizations.  I have great clients and my practice has had great growth, at least by my standards.  I'm content.

But based on the writings of many successful financial planners ('the book' as I call it), I should be trying to ramp up by adding staff and other advisors, and marketing more heavily.  I need to turn my financial planning 'practice' into a 'firm' and if I don't, I'll be ruined.  I'm supposedly not doing it right.

The thing is, based on 'the book' I shouldn't have been able to build a fairly successful practice.  If fact, if I hadn't followed 'the book' when I first became a financial planner, I'd believe I'd be much better off now than I am.  (It's occurred to me more than once that perhaps one of the reasons 'the book' says to add staff is, the so-called successful advisors who wrote it weren't smart enough to know how to do their own paperwork, or make their own decisions.)

So I have two possible paths now.  One, to slow down growth, and enjoy the practice and the balance it provides to my life.  Or two, pursue more growth, probably make more money, work longer hours, and end up managing other support staff, advisors, and the headaches that go with a large firm.

Choosing option #1 is easy for me.  My kids are grown and independent, and I live a comfortable if not affluent life. My focus is much more on health and having time to enjoy life more.  I want my practice to be something I can and want to manage.

It's easy for me to ignore 'the book' now, to say yes to life, and no to more money and more work.  The hard part was knowing when not to listen to what people / 'the book' tell you to do.

RAGBRAI - 2016 Edition (Belated, With Complaint)

I wasn't going to write about the Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) this year.  I did come out of my self-imposed RAGBRAI retirement to ride one 50+ mile day with my daughter and her friend, but it was a relatively uneventful day, and I didn't think there was enough new things to add to my prior years' summaries.

Since then, I've had a another cycling-related issue come up to complain about, so I figured I'd include everything in one blog post.  Turns out this week was also the second anniversary of my last (and hopefully only) biking crash, so cycling is on my mind.

First, the 2016 RAGBRAI observations:

* I rode on Thursday this year, later than any day in the week I ever had as an adult.  I get the feeling that fewer people actually ride later in the week.  The weather was great, and the day was short, so I think this is a rational explanation for what, from my perspective, was fewer riders.

* Here may be another reason for fewer people:  Proximity of the ride.  The far southern Iowa route doesn't lend itself well to a daily ride of 10,000+ cyclists.  There are fewer towns, ergo fewer people to join the ride for a day, and even fewer roads for the route and its many support vehicles.  Frankly, RAGBRAI should permanently keep the ride north of Interstate 80, and then from time-to-time just send some of the ride proceeds to southern Iowa towns.  Win/win.

* Best sign this year was next to a cornfield late in the day's route, which declared it was the last chance to use the "World's Largest Transgender Bathroom."  (By the way, this is another negative about going through southern Iowa, where it's about 85% pastureland and only 15% cornfields.)

* Worst thing I saw this year was a roadside, trashy-looking acreage with a double-wide trailer and, ugh, a large confederate flag.  Really?!  That was not good optics for RAGBRAI or for Iowa.  It screamed ignorance.  I'd have given almost anything to see a team of riders raid that yard and destroy that flag.

* Still no pineapple pie anywhere.

Now for my complaint.  A lot of effort goes into the 'Ride Right' theme of RAGBRAI and large group cycling, where riders are encouraged to use proper hand signals and call out bike movements and stoppages.  That's great, but some cyclists are taking it too far.  I saw some getting upset at other riders who didn't live up to their "Ride Right' expectations, without factoring in that there are hundreds, maybe thousands of others on RAGBRAI who simply don't ride enough to know the rules.

Worse yet, some cyclists were yelling at drivers of vehicles who they deemed to not be properly sharing the road.  I saw it again this week when I was on a ride, where another cyclist got angry that a car didn't stop for him at an unmarked crosswalk.

C'mon now, you cyclist-douche bags.  I get that too many cyclists are being injured or even killed by careless drivers -- I have to make minor defensive maneuvers virtually every time I go for a ride.  But instead of cursing at the darkness, maybe just worry about continuing to make yourself a great example.  Be an ambassador of good, not evil, and always remember that in a  battle between the vehicle and the bicycle, the vehicle will win 100% of the time.

It's Like I Always Say

Over the years, I've had quite a few sayings that I've become fond of repeating.  For the most part, outside of my spouse and children, no one would know these quotes.

Now that I've just had another birthday, I'm getting old enough that I want to put these in writing.  I do this below knowing it will be a working list, I expect to add to it:

* There’s nothing wrong in living your life with a quiet confidence in what you’re doing.  [Social media and reality TV have ruined this concept.]

* There are no bad kids, there are only bad parents.

* No one is completely useless, because even useless people can be used as a bad example.

* He who lives with the afflicted, also suffers.

* Sometimes the reason a person does things is the same reason a dog licks his balls -- because he can.

* When you blame yourself, you feel like no one else has the right to blame you.

* If you aren't going to have an opinion about things, why bother waking up in the morning?

* People who don't support medical marijuana don't believe in evolution.

Modern Convention

I’ve been trying to avoid writing about the current state of America's national political affairs.  I feel like I’ve done that; even though this is a general election year and there’s a lot of crazy going on, particularly in the Republican Party, I only made one entry six months ago, around Iowa caucus time.

However, now that both national party conventions just ended, I have to at least write something about them.

So much of what you see and hear in the primary and convention season is coming from the party goofballs.  By that I mean, local political activists on the fringes who attend obscure rallies, and who will always follow the party line, no matter how extreme it is.

While these particular Democrats and Republicans usually have opinions that are very black-and-white (along with skin color), electing a president isn't a strict matter of pro-gun versus pro-gun control, or pro-business versus pro-middle class, or pro-religion versus pro-scientific fact-secular.  It's important to keep that in perspective.

It's been a fact for a long time that to win a general election, a candidate must appeal to the more centrist general electorate.  This is where the more centrist party figures are, and they don't attend the national conventions.

The centrist electorate is also where the political independents have the power.  That's folks like me.  But independents aren't invited on the crazy-town major party national convention train, either.

And so, the conventions come and go with no one really caring about those who don't think as they do, and no one asking for the help they ultimately need.  It's an unfortunate and frankly dumb way to go about nominating a person for president.

It's too bad there isn't a bona fide independent party.  And no, Libertarian Party, you're still too 'out-there' to qualify as a party of independents, although by being fiscally conservative and socially liberal, you're closer than the others.

Letter To My Younger Self

Earlier this week, recently retired basketball star Kobe Bryant made a minor news ripple by posting a letter to his younger self.  He wrote about investing in other people, rather than just giving them things to make them feel good.

I didn't care so much for the letter as I did for the idea.  In his case, he was writing to his 17-year-old self, the point at which went from high school straight to his professional basketball career.  So here's a letter to my 22-year-old self, when I went from high school to the working world:

Dear Younger Me,

Now that you’ve got the new degree, new job, new apartment, and new wife, you probably think you’ve got the world by the tail.  I’m happy to tell you that for the most part, you do, relative to most people your age.  That’s also true relative to the rest of the world – and that’s what I want to write you about.

Things have been teed up for you pretty well your whole life.  For sure, it wasn’t exactly given to you; you had to work a lot on the farm as a teenager (at a time when most kids your age were doing next to nothing), and you had to spend almost everything you earned by paying for college (although that no-interest loan from your parents made a big difference).   But you did not want for much.

It turns out that there are millions of people in America, and millions more in the world, that didn’t have the opportunity you had to get to where you are.  Your idea of what’s righteous isn’t the same elsewhere.  Unfortunately, you won’t realize this for many years.

It’s going to take at least that long to mentally escape the ultra-conservative, white-bred geographic area and culture from which you came.  In a way, it’s just like your dad told you:  There are a lot of jerks ‘out there’ – but it turns out, you may be someone else’s ‘out there.’

You don’t know this yet, but being an upper-middle-class, white male in America is as cushy as it gets.  Since you’ve never been anywhere that wasn’t dominated by upper-middle-class white males, you will tend to think that’s how the world works.

Don’t do that.  You’ll eventually figure it out, but unfortunately, a lot of folks won’t.  They’ll always think their own version of society should be the same everywhere, which was a problem thirty years before you were born, and will be a problem over your next thirty years as well.  It’s still called bigotry.

So listen to me now and believe me not too much later, you started the marathon at the 15-mile mark.  There’s still a long way to go, but it could be worse for you, and it is worse for plenty of others.  Be more thoughtful and understanding, and teach your kids to do the same.

Most importantly, don’t believe everything you hear, especially from something that you’ll later refer to as the ‘internet.’  Think for yourself.  Find out for yourself.  Decide for yourself.  This lesson will come in very handy in your professional life, too.

Any by the way, please pay more attention to the lyrics of songs, not just the rhythm.  You’ll thank me later.  Also, you might want to reconsider being a Vikings fan.

Best Regards,

Older Me

Best Song Lyrics (Part XVIII)

I've been listening to a lot more music in the past year or so.  Part of it is because I've started to use headphones (at a low volume level) while biking.  Another reason is because I've had access to a couple of temporary subscriptions to satellite radio, with it vast number of specialty channels.

Regardless, I've heard a lot of old songs that remind me how good music can be.  One artist that I've been listening to more, and only recently gained an appreciation of, is Bob Seger.

It doesn't matter if it's a solo song or more likely with his famous Silver Bullet Band, Seger has a great library of stuff.  Some of it may have gained excessive popularity from a movie (Old Time Rock and Roll from Risky Business) or from a commercial (Like A Rock from Chevy).  However, other stuff probably deserved more popularity than it got.

As an example of his many great songs with great lyrics, I give you one about a romantic proposition between lonely friends, We've Got Tonight.

I know it's late, I know you're weary
I know your plans don't include me
Still here we are, both of us lonely
Longing for shelter from all that we see
Why should we worry, no one will care girl
Look at the stars so far away
We've got tonight, who needs tomorrow?
We've got tonight babe
Why don't you stay?

Deep in my soul, I've been so lonely
All of my hopes, fading away
I've longed for love, like everyone else does
I know I'll keep searching, even after today
So there it is girl, I've said it all now
And here we are babe, what do you say?
We've got tonight, who needs tomorrow?
We've got tonight babe
Why don't you stay?