Real Time View

Sometimes, timing is everything. At other times, you just cannot rule out luck. Over the past couple of weeks Margo and I have really run up the miles. We drove from the Florida panhandle back to Colorado and then on to Monterey. After which, we drove the reverse route. All up, I seem to recall, we did more than five thousand miles over the course of four weeks or thereabouts. Regular readers will understand that this isn’t a one-time road trip, as we normally drive to wherever conferences and events might be held. One regular trip we have done many times has been the Colorado to Mississauga, Ontario, loop just so we can spend a day with the Canadian Tandem User Group. For many, sitting in a car for this amount of time is inconceivable and yet, for Margo and me it’s the time when we get to talk about what we can expect to hear at a conference followed by a further discussion on what we did hear. This time, however, external events played a larger-than-life part – it was the height ...

There will be numerous highlights during the upcoming NonStop Technical Boot Camp; perhaps time is right to retire older NonStop systems! A short time ago I was assisted by one of the local parcel delivery company’s driver to move some unwanted office furniture to the curb to be picked up by our trash collectors. This has been a fairly regular routine over the three years we have been in residence in Windsor, Colorado. A small tip was all that was needed to encourage the driver to shift focus away from carting new furniture to the house to help us dump the old stuff. It is very true to say these days that furniture, like many other household items, lose value very quickly and as much as we might like the quality and the comfort, there is no residual value to talk about. We have been fortunate more than once to find new homes for some items, but furniture purchased almost two decades ago no matter how stylish it might be, is like fish and needs to be disposed without agonizing over th...

As is so often the case, the NonStop community is looking at where growth will occur next; simple answer? Everywhere … Traversing the continental United States as often as we do it’s easy to forget what we have seen along the way. From North Carolina’s Outer Banks to the San Francisco Bay, we have pretty much seen it all. In the last year, we chalked up some 50,000 plus miles in our vehicles and each time we pull back onto the driveway of our Windsor, Colorado, home much of what we have seen becomes little more than a blur. From the Tesla factory in Fremont, California, to the massive salt works outside Salt Lake City and then the many transportation hubs between there and the Mississippi, you would be hard pressed to think of anything other than the immense diversity of industry between the coastlines that define America! January is almost at an end and already, Margo and I are thinking about the upcoming European NonStop HotSpot 2020 - Conference & Exhibitio n. It w...

With the year rapidly winding down there is much for the NonStop community to consider going into 2020 … The traditional Christmas dinner is over and for some it’s been a time to revel in even more traditional Boxing Day fare. For Margo and me it’s been a time where our thoughts have drifted back to where this time last year we were busy celebrating the season in Sydney. When it comes to traditions then yes, it was a feast that included grilled sausages (on the nearby BBQ) together with Pavlova for dessert. Sorry, my Kiwi friends, Pavlova is an Aussie creation / tradition. On the other hand, so too is watching a cricket test match beamed live from Melbourne, even as locally all eyes are on Sydney Harbor for the start of the annual blue water sailing classic, The Sydney to Hobart yacht race. Here in Colorado it’s been more a case of celebrating Christmas Eve with the family where Polish traditions have dominated the conversations. And the food! There will be deviled eggs along...

The niche NonStop occupies is about to widen to include all mission critical scenarios – and it’s all because critical CIO concerns have been addressed … Living alongside Colorado’s Rocky Mountains certainly has its moments. There are times when it’s all about rapidly changing weather conditions even as there are times when the view to the west can be awe-inspiring. Driving across the top of the Rockies is always a wonderful distraction from the daily routine and to cross the continental divide well, spectacular is the most descriptive word that comes to mind. Having driven the Peak-to-Peak Highway many times and traversed the length of Trail Ridge Road almost as often, Margo and I never shy away from the prospect of driving it one more time. Estes Park anchors both drives – one heading south along Colorado Highway 72 while the other heads west, up and across Rocky Mountain National Park along US Highway 34 – but choosing either way highlights how clinging to a ribbon of...