Category: Personal

My daughter  started a new job last August. She is working for a great small company called Inside Track. They are doing something that I don’t think has been done before. Inside Track  provide success coaches to college students  and they sell the service to the colleges. There was an interesting article about the company in USA Today a few days ago. The article  explains how the Inside Track business model makes a lot of sense. From a student’s point of view having an inside track coach makes a lot of sense too.  It is no wonder  they are growing so fast.

Shannon will be 21 next Friday! She was home for the weekend so we had friends over for dinner and a birthday party last night.  I went through all my old pictures and found a bunch of pictures of her over the last 21 years. I went to Kinko’s and had them  blown up to 8×10 and I put them up on the walls all over the house with the happy birthday signs. I know that every parent of a 21 year old says this, but it seems like only yesterday that she was just a cute little kid with lots of personality. I must be in denial because I put 18 candles on her cake!  I am so proud of the adult she has become. It is just so amazing how fast 21 years go by.

It was great to see my friends too. They have all know Shannon since she was born.  Whenever we entertain I always realize how much I enjoy it and  that we should do it more often. When you are really busy you tend to think you just don’t have time but  it really isn’t that hard. I just have to make it happen. I am reminded of a great piece I read by Tom Stienstra in his book California Fishing. I just found it on his web site. It is called Beating the Time Trap.  Basically what he says is that if you enjoy doing things you will only find time for them if you schedule them. Stienstra is talking about outdoors activities but I think it is true for other things like entertaining too. If I want to entertain friends more I just need to schedule it.

One thing that has always surprised me about the San Francisco Bay area is how Little the bay shoreline is used by the public for recreation and as expensive housing. I suppose it is because so much of the shoreline is industrial  You would still  think that there would be parks and restaurants and housing ringing the bay and on the whole there isn’t. Don’t get me wrong there are lots of places where you can go for a hike out by the bay but  If you want solitude the bay is often the place to find it.

I like to go places I’ve never been before. This evening Duke and I went for a hike at Oyster Bay in San Leandro just south of the Oakland airport. It was a beautiful night. The sun was setting over the peninsula and we had the park to ourselves. We sat on a bench overlooking the bay, watched the planes and enjoyed the sunset. The trail goes right along the shore. The park is still being developed and used to be a landfill. On the shore side it backs up to a recycling facility. I bet that 100 years form now this and many other areas along the bay will be parks and housing.  I have to believe that some day the San Francisco bay shoreline will be  a desirable address but it sure isn’t now.

I take piano lessons. I took lessons briefly as a kid and started again in March of 1999. I have very little if any natural talent and even after 6 years of lessons I don’t think I’m very good but that’s not the point. I really enjoy the whole process. I play for myself.

I am a firm believer that almost anything can be learned if you work hard enough at it. Algebra comes easy to me but to a lot of people it doesn’t. I have some talent at Algebra but even someone with no natural Algebra talent can learn Algebra . It is that way with me and music. I’ll never be great but as I take lessons and practice regularly I am constantly improving. I love seeing the  progress.

I find that playing the piano takes total concentration so not only am I learning music but I am also learning how to stay focused. And most of all I just enjoy it.

I also believe that taking piano lessons is good for me. There was an article in the New Scientist a few months ago called 11 Steps to a Better Brain. It is a very interesting article but the point that is relevant to this  blog entry is that music lessons may improve your brain. I can believe it. But the bottom line is playing the piano is just plain fun.