The Second, Second Best Blog

The Second, Second Best Blog turned two years old on Monday. Back then I called it “The Second Best Blog” but the owner of SecondBestBlog.com, one Sybrand Strauss, discovered it (after some 4 months) and complained. I am happy to report that it has been profitable (though hardly lucrative) almost from the start (with a [...]

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Sunday morning started a little later than normal. My first look at the bedstand clock said it was 8:50. I left my peacefully sleeping sweetie and dressed, anticipating a chocolate muffin from Costco, the Sunday paper and playing with the Weekend Breakfast Club. I was in the kitchen after bringing in the paper when I [...]

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While I was unemployed, we, my most excellent spouse Patricia and I, kept our fingers crossed that we would not incur any major unexpected expenses. For the most part we did not. But as you might suspect with a thirty year old house, which we have lived in for twenty-three, they cannot be kept in [...]

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Rarely a day has gone by in the last few months without some more bad financial news. Rarely a day has gone by in the last few months without a fresh barrage of presidential campaign ads polluting the airwaves. Today’s financial humdinger was that for the first time since records have been kept, the American [...]

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For most of my adult life, there has been one, and only one, credit card in my wallet – a Visa card from Bank of America. Its expiration date was approaching and a new one arrived in the mail today. As has been the case for several years, the new card had a sticker on [...]

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For the most part, I detest advertising and go to considerable lengths to avoid it. Nearly all my TV viewing is recorded (by DVR) so that commercials are run over by the fast forward button. Even if a show comes on that I really want to see while I’m already watching TV, I wait at [...]

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On the way back into the house after retrieving the Sunday newspaper, the scene at left caught my eye. The spider webs are almost surely there all the time, but the fog destroyed their camouflage. It also hid the sun until after 10:00 AM as can be seen at right looking down the street in [...]

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The morning walk across the backyard to get some bird seed gave me pause to reflect on the nature of things. The tableau of feathers on the lawn suggests that the day’s start was very good for one fortunate Cooper’s Hawk and the very worst for one of the 16 or so Mourning Doves who are regulars at [...]

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