It's all good so far

Inhaling to have the tray table down for a writing surface. I am trying to get back into the daily habit of nontechnical writing and taking advantage of time on the plane to get started.

I don’t normally put my seat back because I know how annoying that can be when suddenly I am surprised with my laptop being thrust into my diaphragm from an unannounced reclination by the passenger sitting in front of me. It’s a first world fat man problem.

It was a full day yesterday, especially since my boss and a coworker and I spent the previous evening solving the worlds problems until the wee hours.

Even with the short night We managed to get a lot accomplished. We found a work around for a reporting issue I needed. It does help to have a strategic partnership with the consultant.

The consultant is of similar vintage and we have some similar interests in technology and wines. He has done several trips to Napa and has had the opportunity to build an impressive cellar.

Our post meeting dinner was at the Hereford House restaurant. One of the best steakhouses on Kansas City. Our group managed a private room. I was volunteered to manage the wine. We were a diverse group with various experience in wine from some serious red enthusiasts to one younger staffer who had never had a red wine.

I picked a Le Adventure Paso Robles which everyone was pleased with. With six dining, a second bottle was needed. This one was allowed to decant for a short while which did make an improvement.

The consultant uses an aerator and decants everything he opens. Looks like Santa will be getting us a decanter.

It was a very pleasant evening. Did not stay late. We were back at our rooms by 9:00.

By 10:00 pm I had successfully fought the French style plumbing (evidently the pipes don’t always cooperate in cold weather) and had most of the packing done.

Caught the shuttle to the airport and in spite of my packing , I discovered that the TSA has additional issues with the CPap machine and electronics in the suitcase. Normally I would check the bags but with the quick connections on this trip I have opted to carry on my suitcase. I need to see about the prescreening. I will also re-evaluate what I am using as a day bag. Q1 promises a lot of travel.

Looking at a very quick connection in Dallas. This one will be challenging to get out and to the next gate. If it goes like Monday we had to wait on the Tarmac for our gate to free up. Fortunately the connection was late. With this last leg being a Dallas to Houston hop, I am not worried about having to catch another if this one doesn’t work.

This gives me another reason to see if the CPap will fit into my messenger bag. I don’t want to check the bag and have it thrown into the bowels of the cargo hold. Not the way I would treat my electronic toys.

Was able to do the gate dash and boarded the connecting flight with the first half of the A group. First flight that has not been stuffed full since I started this trip.

Managed to get some email correspondence completed before the take off. With the ordeal coming up this weekend, most of the traffic is from parents that did not print out their receipt which has a lot of that information.

After copying and pasting a standard response a couple of times, I realized that I could probably automate this with a text expander. So now typing Ordealinfo on the iPhone will load a detailed mresponse complete with links to both the lodge and the council websites. I just have to do a couple of quick edits regarding drop off and pick up locations/times and camp location. Now I just have to add text expanders to Google Chrome for gmail and Word/Outlook on my other computers.

I am open to a suggestions/recommendations.

Enjoying the cooler weather, sitting outside at our breakfast spot, trying not to appear like a wantabe writer. I have been doing more reading than writing. The writing I have been doing has consisted of technical procedures and training materials. Not the most fun part of the process. I am finding the limits of using a web based system.

However, I have the opportunity to work with others to decide how best to implement procedures. We have time to discuss, and to plan Instead of the procedures being stone tablets being delivered from the corporate mountain top with compliance forced downward. This time I am writing guidance documents – that can be custom tailored for each product line. Work instructions become templates. The drafts are circulated first to the respective HSE managers within the product lines with explanations of purpose. This allows line specific customization so we are not blindly pushing a one size fits all program. They will comment and we will revise. Then we will meet with their respective operations managers and to discuss what is required by regulation, and what they need to see.

In addition to the documents, I am supplying tools – online reporting tools that allow us to capture and preserve data, and will allow us to measure compliance, track trends, and to see what training is needed. It is a tall order, but I am getting to incorporate the best of what I have previously seen or used. I also have the opportunity to experiment to see what else we might be able to do. Everything is scalable to support the growth that the company desires.

There is a lot of support from management because we are providing a framework that will allow various lines to function with with a great deal of autonomy but in a cohesive manner under a corporate vision. It is all good so far.

I had a couple drafts started in various places. I haven’t posted much if anything since the travelogue. I should do a review of the discarded tailings to see if there is anything salvageable.

I have been reflecting some of the second half of life. I am looking at the rate of implementation of things at work and how much time that I may want to spend working for others. Another decade? That will put me at 65. I have worked on legacy sites that have more the ten years of history. I have scouting files for my current position that I developed 15 years ago. A decade working for others should get my my programs implemented, evaluated, revised, and improved. I should have a staff trained and running with things, training junior staff.

Not sure where the family business will be at that time, but we should be well into working with electronic archives and making committee decisions.

Watching the wheels coming off my dad who has been in great shape, but in the last two years he has gone through a knee repair and a significant fracture. He has compounded this by falling and fracturing his other femur one week into knee replacement recovery. Head strong independence has a price. Will be spending some time helping get him through rehab by getting him a means to work.

I know that Sandra and I need to plan ahead. We are discussing goals, and sharing plans. Looking at how we design our next home that will allow us both to downsize but remain independent. Perhaps borrowing a retirement community design to drop into the hill country. We are both working on the diet and exercise, now perhaps with a a little more diligence.

Still much more to do, but the rewards will hopefully be 30 plus more years together.

Well I am not supposed to relish my first breakfast date back, I need to get the Napa travelogue finished. No blogging about inlaw tech support or insurance battles, this one has to be about grapes.

On the third day there was wine. It started with a solid breakfast. Most of the restaurants that we looked at served breakfast or brunch. Something fortifying or restorative before the tasting tours started. You could tell those who had gone before us and had valiantly consumed each pour rather than sample and spit/spill. These bleary eyed veterans spent much mores time studying tyre menu and discussing what would have staying (down) power.

If you weren’t watching the tour veterans, you were overhearing conversations about various business deals by the non-native residents. The stories were GE same whether it was at ABC (wed am), Napa Biscuits (thurs am), or Grace’s Table (Fri am).

Wednesday was the tour bus. Platypus Tours with Karl. Excellent idea. You get a knowledgeable guide, who has working relationships with many different vineyards. He is the designated driver since a number of the folks don’t understand/remember sample/spit/spill. Tasting fees are reduced or waived. An excellent lunch is provided. You learn that there are 400 plus vineyards in Napa County which has some of the most expensive dirt in the world. Land around the smallest , best known appellations goes between $300-$400 k per acre.

We got meet owner/operators and sample not only what they made for general consumption but some of their own favorites. One local rep at Hopper Creek, gave an excellent lesson on various techniques to sample wine. We visited:

Jeff Hill – Black Dog & Jeff Hill labels. Left with a couple of pinot rose’, and his off tour cab.
Hopper Creek – left with a merlot
Turnbull – left w a rose’ and a cab.
Hagafen- last stop, and left with a couple of their dry reisling.

A good time was had by all.

Wednesday dinner was simple at a tavern across from hotel.

Thursday am- recharged by a hearty breakfast at Napa Biscuits, we braved the wine country on our own. We wanted to see the Russian River area for the pinot noirs. Our first California wines that we started drinking were from Toad Hollow vineyards of Healdsburg. They have a tasting room on the square and we were already fans of their: rose’, red, Pinot, and sparkling wine. So they were a must see.

We wanted to see what we would find on the trip out there. So trusting in the mapping apps, we set off. We stopped briefly in Yountville to pick up some snacks at the Bouchon bakery and get some exterior pictures of the restaurant since we had our anniversary dinner there the previous evening.

There were some back roads that allowed us to cross out the mountains out of the Napa Valley and into Sonoma County. There were a lot of back roads. We were in canyons and hills on a two lane road without any cellular service, flying blind. We finally broke through to a major road and rejoiced when cellular reception returned.

Our first stop was Korbel. Very interesting to see such a large scale operation that moves 1.5 mm cases of champagne a year from this one location. The tour is well worth the time, they have a nice deli and dining area, and none of their products is over $25. Loaded with a could of bottles of their sparkling wine and one of their brandy we drove on.

We detoured to see the redwoods then pressed on another back road towards Healdsburg. Grapes to the right of us, grapes to the left of us, onward into the Russian River valley we road.
Finally into Healdsburg.

Small wine town America. Parked on the square and had a late lunch at a French bakery. Then it was into Toad Hollow Tasting room. We celebrated the Toad, bought several things toad. Pintos for me, toad related art for the wife. We stowed our purchases in the trunk and walked around the town some more, deciding that there would be more Pinot chasing in our future.

Friday was the last hurrah. We had to complete our tours and get anything we wanted to ship home back to our growing collection in the hotel. Breakfast at grace’s table then onto the big name vineyards in the Stags Leap appellation. Knowing that we are out of their top tier league but wanting to sample the best of the best in our price range and their second tier. And we wanted to see where America beat the French at the wine game. Stag’s Leap Cellars.

Our tasting host did not mind that we were second tier samplers. We discussed water projects, oil development in the Dakotas, etc. it was an enjoyable visit. What was even more surprising was that my wife liked the cabernets we sampled. This is the one that was a white zin drinker, one who knows she liked red blends. I now have a big red monster on my hands. We left with two bottles of their best non-estate cab and their book that was the basis for the movie bottle shock.

Lunch at Addition, which was a shack behind the Ad Hoc restaurant in their rear parking lot. A lot of yelp hype and not much flavor. We then stopped at Yountville main square to meander around. We saw more grape stuff, photos, memorabilia, souvenirs, and sorted other stuff. Left to get one more winery before we would have to leave.

Our finale was Frog’s Leap. We got in during the last round of tasting. You had two choices of tasting – same wines but one inside at the table and the less expensive one outside. We chose to sit by the lily pond. The wife declared she was not moving from the lily pond. I had to fetch each sample and get her verdict. We moved fast through the samples unlike the group of young ladies that were treating the tasting as a really good happy hour. I did get to overhear a conversation between a soils consultant and the agriculture director for the vineyard. They were drinking the petite syrah as their insider quaff of choice. They must have like the current pour but were looking forward to the current harvest. Took their recommendation to heart and ended up with two bottles of same.

We managed the rush hour drive back down the Silverado road through the very expensive vines and back to the hotel. We managed to get everything listed on the shipping labels and the wines down to the concierge for shipping. We used our new found knowledge to order wine at dinner, picking one that could work well with calamari and pizza.

Saturday was packing and making the drive back into San Francisco. Note there is no fuel near the airport. Returned the rental then spent all day in the airport waiting on the plane to be serviced. Burned our United Club passes to make the wait tolerable.

We were home for the week waiting on the wine to arrive. We have found that a little knowledge or experience is a dangerous thing for now we are more informed and more expensive choices for our weekday wines. We are also talking about our return to California and what we will visit the next time.