Some money................................

 

..............................is just too expensive.

I just don’t want money dictating the type of work I do or the kinds of people I work with. The money is not worth the misery.

-Ben Carlson, from here

Checking in......................

 

....................................with Chris Lynch:

People have said that every great fortune is based on a crime. Most of the members of Congress are millionaires. Just saying... 

I have no regrets.......................

 

..................................about being a History major in college (of course 1973 was a long time ago).

A pretty good role model.................

 

I wake up every morning, vigorous in anticipation of how Josquin, Telemann, or Mozart will add to the joy with which I drink my tea, eat a bagel, or listen to the birds.

-Rob Firchau

it behooves us....................

. . . if before us someone has inquired into [wisdom], it behooves us to seek help from what he has said. It is irrelevant whether he belongs to our community or to another.

-Averroes

a certain kind of temperament........

 A lot of people with high IQs aren’t great investors because they have terrible temperaments. That is why having a certain kind of temperament is more important than brains. You need to keep raw irrational emotion under control. You need patience and discipline and an ability to take losses and adversity without going crazy. You need an ability to not be driven crazy by extreme success.

-Charlie Munger, as cut-and-pasted from here

My Sweetie and I...........................

 

..................just returned from a ten-day jaunt in Spain and Portugal.  A fabulous experience we highly recommend.  The weather was about perfect.  Mostly sunny blue skies, high day-time temperatures in the 70s, low night-time temperatures in the 50s.  We traveled with another couple.  None of us had familiarity with either the Spanish or Portuguese languages, but that fact created no issues for us.  Our lodgings were clean and comfortable and the hotel staff helpful. Restaurants abounded and we ate and drank well—menus typically had English sub-titles.  We enjoyed more gelato than is reasonable.  We were pleased not to be driving ourselves.  Both countries feature awkward traffic patterns and signals for those not familiar with them.  The idea of clearly identifying street names never apparently occurred to them, and the older parts of the cities (which are very old compared to anything in America) mostly consist of short, winding, narrow lanes.  Having said that, getting around was simple.  For local trips, splitting cab fare between four people made it easy and economical.  Having a map handy resolved any language issues.  If we couldn't understand each other all we did was point and say "here".  For longer trips, their high-speed rail was amazing.  The people we encountered treated us well and for the most part they seemed very pleased to be living where they were living.  Happy and there by choice.

      Both my Sweetie and my well-travelled cousin commented that we tried to fit too much into too short a time.   That being the only complaint, count this trip a success.  We highly recommend it.

Barcelona................

 

        We landed on day-one in Barcelona, a fairly sizeable city.  Depending on where you stop counting, there are about 2 million people living there.  We barely scratched the surface of seeing the city.  Many of the highlights required pre-booking. We only pre-booked one thing: a day-two guided tour of The Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudi's amazing masterpiece (still under construction).  We got on one of the hop-on, hop-of tour buses and saw a considerable amount of the city, without any understanding of much of what we were seeing.  Did drive past Camp Nou, the home of the Barca football team, looking unsuccessfully for the ghost of Lionel Messi.  Did spend an afternoon walking along the Mediterranean Sea.  Was amazed by the amount of graffiti—it was everywhere.  A piece of advice about visiting Barcelona: know what you want to see before you get there, and pre-book it.  But, do go!

The Sagrada Familia

Construction began in 1882.  Expected completion date: 2026

Gaudi loved the play of light.  Stained glass windows create the color pattern

Gaudi loved nature.  The support columns are designed as trees

Another Gaudi designed building

The Catedral

The Catedral

A hotel on the Mediterranean

Spanish architecture seems opposed to straight lines

We were entertained.  A group of younger folk sitting behind us were
singing along with this street performer.  Lots of laughs and smiles

No sense having a beach if you can't enjoy it.

Andalusia.......................

 Probably should understand the internal governance of Spain better than I do.  Andalusia is the main reason I wanted to be in Spain.  It is considered an "autonomous community," that includes the cities of Sevilla, Cordoba, and Granada.

We hopped on a regional airline and flew from Barcelona to Sevilla, where we spent four nights.  Loved Sevilla.

We took a day-trip from Sevilla to Grenada to see the Alhambra.  Did this one right.  Pre-booked an English-speaking driver for the two-and-a-half-hour drive from Sevilla and pre-booked an English-speaking tour guide for the Alhambra.  Lots of learning.

Cordoba.........................

 

      An easy cab ride took us to the Sevilla train station where we caught the high speed, non-stop train to Cordoba.  The historical tug of war between Islam and Christianity in southern Spain is well displayed here, especially in the Mezquita.

along the Promenade of Kings at Alcazar of Cordoba

the gardens at the Alcazar of Cordoba

a monument for Averroes

The book that started it all......................

 

Sevilla........................

 We spent four nights in Sevilla and loved every minute of it.  Of course, it was the time of the Feria, which made it even more fun.