Wine Country Event Experts

01/06/2026

Planning to travel in 2026? If you are, I've got some suggestions. If you aren't, here are some thoughts and tips to get you going. YOUR thoughts and tips welcome! 😎

A dynamic, colorful illustration of the many values of travel, created by Gemini AI.Do you travel enough? Or at all? Worry not, and no eye rolling, please. Nothing here about the number of landmarks, cities, states, or countries you've visited or not visited. The focus here is on why travel matters....

09/17/2024

Voting by mail? I have questions.

1. If the IRS, the Social Security Administration, multiple other government agencies, and budget-conscious commercial enterprises have found the US Postal Service reliable enough to use them for decades, how is it that that same Postal Service can't be trusted to deliver mail-in ballots reliably?

2. If the current GOP nominee for President now believes ""ABSENTEE VOTING, EARLY VOTING, AND ELECTION DAY VOTING ARE ALL GOOD OPTIONS," as he recently posted on his Truth Social network, what changed his mind since 2020 when he said those options were how "his" election got "stolen?"

3. If said GOP nominee now endorses absentee ballots and voting by mail, why does Elon Musk, one of the nominee's highest-profile supporters, continue to cast aspersions on those methods, even though a PAC he started is running online ads encouraging voters to use them?

08/17/2024

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"Piglet?" said Pooh.

"Yes?" said Piglet.

"I'm scared," said Pooh.

For a moment, there was silence.

"Would you like to talk about it?" asked Piglet, when Pooh didn't appear to be saying anything further.

"I'm just so scared," blurted out Pooh.

"So anxious. Because I don't feel like things are getting any better. If anything, I feel like they might be getting worse. People are angry, because they're so scared, and they're turning on one another, and there seems to be no clear plan out of here, and I worry about my friends and the people I love, and I wish SO much that I could give them all a hug, and oh, Piglet! I am so scared, and I cannot tell you how much I wish it wasn't so."

Piglet was thoughtful, as he looked out at the blue of the skies, peeping between the branches of the trees in the Hundred Acre Wood, and listened to his friend.

"I'm here," he said, simply. "I hear you, Pooh. And I'm here."

For a moment, Pooh was perplexed.

"But... aren't you going to tell me not to be so silly? That I should stop getting myself into a state and pull myself together? That it's hard for everyone right now?"

"No," said Piglet, quite decisively. "No, I am very much not going to do any of those things."

“But - " said Pooh.

"I can't change the world right now," continued Piglet. "And I am not going to patronise you with platitudes about how everything will be okay, because I don't know that.

"What I can do, though, Pooh, is that I can make sure that you know that I am here. And that I will always be here, to listen; and to support you; and for you to know that you are heard.

"I can't make those Anxious Feelings go away, not really. But I can promise you that, all the time I have breath left in my body...you won't ever need to feel those Anxious Feelings alone."

And it was a strange thing, because even as Piglet said that, Pooh could feel some of those Anxious Feelings start to loosen their grip on him and could feel one or two of them start to slither away into the forest, cowed by his friend, who sat there stolidly next to him.

Pooh thought he had never been more grateful to have Piglet in his life.

Credit: A. A. Milne

08/01/2024

Please, PLEASE read this -- and remember how recently it was that many of us believed this country would never elect a man like the current GOP candidate President. Then, if you don't want the America these guys want, vote in November. And get as many others as you can to vote as well. And not just for the President. No elected position is too inconsequential to be ignored, as any can be a stepping stone upwards.

The disturbing truth behind the tech bros who are trying to send JD Vance to the White House.

07/08/2024

Interesting things happen when we ask before we assume...
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There’s a lot of misinformation floating around out there about homelessness in California. We use data to dispel several common myths.

07/02/2024

Attention, All : Please seek out, destroy, and replace all search engines that deliver 'polyester' when I enter 'cotton,' sugared when I enter 'sugar-free,' or items in every size except the one I've requested. and deserve search results that match customer requests.