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Family

Family, The SOLD Project,

Reflections on a Long Month

It’s been an interesting season here in the Goble household. My daughter flew to the East Coast, Europe, and on to Thailand nearly six weeks ago. Soon after my son flew to Thailand to meet her. In our home, that’s not too unusual.

But what is odd is having D’Aun gone as much as she has been. She had a great trip to Costa Rica with friends in the middle of January, then came home for a few days before heading to Thailand and joining our kids. During part of that time I’ve been to Belize and Santa Barbara. In …

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Family, Goble Properties, PathLight, Random Thoughts, The SOLD Project,

An Amazing Month

I seldom think of a particular month as “amazing”, but November seems to qualify.  A lot of good things happened this month and I’m deeply thankful for them.  It began with the racing day at Sonoma Raceway, followed by a fun day with the SF Westmont Urban students at our home.  There was the incredible D’Oliva harvest, and then we got an offer on a property we’ve tried to sell for over a year (and it closed within 3-weeks).  In the middle of the month I had lunch with a new friend, and within a week he had …

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Family, Random Thoughts,

Racing!

Last week I had an unbelievable experience. The Simraceway Performance Driving Center (formerly the Jim Russell School) has a one day lesson at the famous Sonoma Raceway. My son Jedd and I spent the day learning how to hit the apex of a corner, glide through a slalom, and brake hard before a tight turn. We did all of this in my Porsche Carrera S (it’s the white one in the videos below).

The day began with classroom instruction, but it wasn’t long before we were practicing turns in the parking lot. I never could get the one turn …

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Family, Random Thoughts, Wine Reviews,

Vineyard Harvest

It’s almost harvest time! Our vineyard manager says “late next week” should be perfect. This is our first harvest since moving to our new home, and we look forward to seeing the process begin. The Chardonnay is looking good this year, and the brix level is 22-23 depending on where and when you test it. So not only are the grapes tasting wonderful, there appears to be an above average yield.

Below are a few pictures you might enjoy.…

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Book Reviews, Family,

Judge Sewall’s Apology

I’ve written in the past about my interest in genealogy. It was a topic that seemed boring until my Dad passed away, and suddenly I just wanted to know: who were we?

The curious thing is that sometimes I’m not so keen on the answer. There is much to be proud of, and my overall impression is one of pride. But there’s something in every family that we would rather brush aside. As my Dad once said, “I began research on our family tree and it just made me want to buy a chainsaw.”

One such unpleasantry occurred in the …

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Family, Junkyard Management,

The Murderer Who Built Our Waterfall

Taking a break from blog posts about wine, books, or spiritual insights…and sharing a story from my youth.

My childhood was a weird mix of suburban predictability and wrecking yard madness. On the predictable side, I grew up in a typical tract home in the Willow Glen district of San Jose, we shopped at the regular stores, we wore clothes typical for the era, we ate regular middle class meals, and we attended a conservative Baptist church. Life was pretty straightforward.

But there was that madness side. Dad always had some odd deal in the works and he knew some …

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