San Diego

I recently went to San Diego to meet with some of my clients – mainly to make sure they remember me, but more importantly to talk with some of them about current projects. I had a really good time, played a little golf, went sailing, took some of my clients on a coastal cruise from Mission Beach to Del Mar and back. I’ll post some photos when I get a chance, but just wanted to say that I was shocked at all the development there. It really is growing at a remarkable rate and I was most surprised with how much downtown has developed. The skyline was dramatically different and the number of condo’s has exploded. It’s still nothing like Chicago, but it’s a lot nicer than in the days boefore Horton Plaza was built.

Anyway the food was tremendous as always, as were the prices of everything, except one thing – wine. It was so nice to be able to buy a bottle of good wine for under $8. I do miss it, but it’s not the place that I grew up with anymore.

Here is a linky to the full-screen version

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My dumbass best-friend, Dan

In my youthful Navy days there was a guy that I had the greatest time with, Dan Haywood. He and I were roommates, drinking buddies, motorcycle companions – best friends. He made my laugh, and sometimes cringe. He was the best man at my wedding, and the reason I met my wife Samantha.

And he always seemingly had a lot of bad luck, though mostly he made bad decisions.

We all make bad decisions. I should have bought a house in San Diego in the 90’s instead of living on the beach for eight years. I should’ve studied Calculus and Physics harder. I should have left home to go to school in the 80’s. I shouldn’t have done a lot of things, but most of them were kind of “big picture” mistakes and the kind that you learn from. Whatever, possesses Dan into doing some of the things that he still does eludes me.

He is a drunk. Now, that’s not really a bad thing for some people. I know plenty of drunks that are doing fine. My Uncle George who lives in Victoria Canada and makes his own wine said to me one visit “I’m just a old drunk”. Of course we were both pissed at the time and I have no idea why he said it (maybe just to be funny in a “old guy set in my ways” way), but I never though of him as a alcoholic. And maybe that’s the point, he isn’t one.

Dan is. He’s had multiple DUI’s and even spent time in jail for them. The last time he confessed that he went to jail for a DUI I told him that I was glad that happened. At that time I had a daughter who was only 3 or so and I said that I didn’t want her on the road with someone like him. I don’t want to sound prudish, we all have at one time or another had too much to drink and still drove home, but how many times do you have to do that before you get caught two or three time? Answer in case you thick – too damn many.

Dan also doesn’t like authority. I am not really sure why. Maybe he got caught too many times doing something stupid, or maybe his Mom of Dad were too harsh on him when he was little (they are divorced and I know that was hard on him). I guess no one really likes a policeman until you need one.

And so comes his latest foray into stupidity. He lives on his 25′ Catalina sailboat somewhere in Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis (he claims the cove he stays is in Scooter Libby’s backyard, somehow appropriate). Well, forever getting drunk with some other dumbass this time he thought that he would try to swim away and hide from a rent-a-cop. you can read the article that made the front page of the Annapolis Chronicle here.

If it weren’t for the fact that I know Dan, if I had read this in my local paper I would have thought “what in the world is this guy thinking?” But, that is the answer – he wasn’t/doesn’t.

I talk with him on occasion (when he’s not in jail), and I do love him. I just wish that he would move up into the mountains in a cabin that would withstand winters, and he wouldn’t have any people around him to set him off.

More later, I guess (hope).

Posted in Dan Haywood, Samantha, Wine | No Comments »