Bye Bye July

It is the last day of July, and the image on the left is taken from my back porch. Japanese Maples are among my favorite specimen trees and we are fortunate to have two as back porch bookends. The garden is in full bloom, just below, and we're continuing our never-ending battle with gophers and deer. This year, there are more than just a few red foxes shrieking all night long, and a lot of raptors scaring the hell out of our flock of chickens, now numbering 19. Red-tail Hawks, Osprey and the occasional Falcon.

The Author has taken a new vocational assignment, as VP of Marketing at an Integrated Communications Management company. That's a mouthful, to be sure. I've posted before about the changing face of marketing communications in a digital world, and now I've got a great opportunity to put theory and vision into practice in a company I admire and respect. Doesn't hurt that they have great customers who love them. I'm expecting this development to impact my ability to keep up the three-to-four posts a week that has been a benchmark objective for this blog. The good news is that once I have systems, policies and procedures in place the insanity will subside and I'll get back to my normal schedule. Oh, and my new employer bought me a brand-new MacBook to get us on the same page. That's an awesome piece of gear, and totally complements my iPhone and iPod. So I'm in gear-head heaven as I contemplate all the cool stuff I can add to the system. I'll post a note with the story about my first Mac, a pre-launch gift from Ron Roner and the Apple marketing team in 1986 (or was it 85?), at a future date. It's a good story.