Wherever my wife and I travel internationally, we see the ubiquitous presence of the United States. The American commercial culture is almost impossible to ignore. Restaurants serve Coke products. Blue jeans are worn by young and old alike. American pop music plays in hotel lobbies and airports. The …
The Children of Light and The Children of Darkness (Chapter 5)Read More
My wife and I are blessed by having loving friendships with faithful Catholics. My sister-in-law is devout Catholic and when we visit her, we usually attend Sunday Mass at her parish church. When Catholic friends visit us, we go with them to a Catholic Church in our community. I find the Mass ritual …
The Children of Light and The Children of Darkness (Chapter 4)Read More
I have owned five homes. My first home was purchased about 18 months after university graduation. My first wife and I barely scraped enough cash together to make the 5% down payment to qualify for a mortgage loan. Mortgage interest rates were over 16% due to the post-Carter administration high …
The Children of Light and The Children of Darkness (Chapter 3)Read More
After two years of trading gasoline in New York Harbor, I was transferred into international products trading and assigned to the Pacific region. My primary responsibility was to export refined products (gasoline, gas oil, fuel oil, and heavy ends) out of Shell’s west coast refineries and import …
The Children of Light and The Children of Darkness (Chapter 2)Read More
In the early 1990s, I started my first trading position as a junior gasoline trader covering New York Harbor (NYH), a northeast gasoline trading hub. My boss, Larry, was a crusty man from Arkansas with a good heart. I sat next to Randy, a seasoned senior gasoline trader, who mentored me. I was new …
The Children of Light and The Children of Darkness (Chapter 1)Read More
Today is Memorial Day, the federal holiday that signals the start of summer but more importantly, it is the day Americans honor the men and women who died while serving in the military. My country’s leaders will gather within Arlington National Cemetery at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for a …
The Children of Light and The Children of Darkness (Introduction)Read More
My favorite world news service is probably the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). When we lived in London, my wife and I would take walks through Regents Park and on our way home, walk by the BBC Broadcasting House on Portland Place near The Langham Hotel. The BBC is funded by the UK government …
I was aboard an early morning flight from London to some European city which I can’t currently recall. I went on hundreds of business trips that after more than a decade of retirement, all seem to run together. I was dressed in a business suit and sitting in an economy aisle seat with two …
I have been on a blog sabbatical since coming home from our Australian cruise. I had spring household and photo organization projects to complete prior to our drive northwest to Vancouver Island. In addition to these projects, my daughter’s family spent their spring break with us in Austin, my dad …
A few days before we departed our cruise ship, my throat felt sore. This is normally my first symptom of an oncoming head cold. By the time we docked at Singapore, I had a drippy nose and weeping eyes. My wife, with similar symptoms, tested negative for Covid and the flu. We did not have a fever nor …
