Hinckley Blog

Every year we rotate our annual Board planning meeting to a different state where one of our banks in headquartered. We have been to some nice places - The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs (Vectra Bank Colorado), the Biltmore in Phoenix (National Bank of Arizona), Torrey Pines in California (California Bank & Trust), the Houstonian (Amegy Bank of Texas). This year Nevada State Bank was the host, so off to Las Vegas we went!

For me it makes very little difference: I spend 90% of my time there in a windowless hotel conference room that could be anywhere in the world. Generally my only contact with the outside world is a run or two (my favorite of which was through the state park at Torrey Pines).

Still, Las Vegas was better than it sounds. The Palazzo was wonderful - a large room with a step down living area (see the view from our window at right), a faux St. Mark's square (where it is twilight 24-7), a Grand Canal lined with restaurants and shops. And if Venice grows old, you are only a short stroll away from Paris, New York, Egypt (the Luxor), Treasure Island, or even medieval England. That's the great thing about Las Vegas - hardly any of the new hotels have a Las Vegas theme! Jesselie Anderson said it best as we entered "St. Mark's Square" in the Venetian: "This is unreal!" How true.

Mom had a nice visit with Steve and Jill and I had a swell time in the Board meetings. I did get a couple of runs in along the Strip. And on Friday night after our company dinner at Postrio's (the Wolfgang Puck restaurant in the Venetian) we all had tickets to Blue Man Group. BMG is a bit odd - it seemed like of a set of gags that some high school kids did at the senior assembly, but with a million-dollar budget.

We drove the new Camry to and from: 41 mpg going South (downhill) and 35 mpg going North (uphill). And some how along the way, the satellite radio started working. We enjoyed it for about an hour, but then our free access must have expired. Oh well. That's the thing about XM Radio - easy come, easy go. Just like Las Vegas.

Chuck Pyle Returns to Greyhaven

For most of the past 35 years, I have been a banker in one form or another: Citibank, Michigan National, Zions. I lived in New York City when Franklin National failed and Chase Manhattan got caught up in the REIT crisis. I lived in a hotel room in Oklahoma City in 1983 after Penn Square Bank failed, and sat with Bud Stoddard outside the board room at night while the board voted to ask for his resignation. I lived in Scottsdale when Lincoln Savings imploded and over 1,000 banks failed during the real estate crisis of 1988-1992. But the past few months have had my head spinning. This past week alone, the stock of Zions saw a 39% swing between the high and low, and ended somewhere in the middle.

So I shut down my computer about 5:00 p.m. on Friday, wended my way out of the labyrinth that passes for our underground parking garage, and let the tension melt away as I drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon.

The occasion, of course, was the final concert of the season at Greyhaven with the Zen Cowboy himself, Chuck Pyle. "The rush of the music, the joy of the tunes." What could be more mellow than Chuck's Zen advice to "ride the horse the direction it's going," or his recitation of this bumper sticker from Iowa: "Dying in Des Moines is Redundant."

Momma Kath had two pots of her famous chili on the stove. Spencer had set up the chairs and the sound system, and he and Chuck had completed the sound check.

The show was well attended - Rick and Carolyn Evans, John and Christie Mabey, Ralph Finlayson, a good group of Chuck Pyle regulars, and an assortment of Spencer's friends (including Patrick Moench!)

Spencer opened with a couple of Buddy Mondlock numbers: The Leaving and Sara Kills the Day. Then Chuck stepped up to the mic and began the first set. Here is the playlist:

Power of One
My Grandpa's Hands
The Remember Song
Over the San Luis
Other Side of the Hill
Two Trees
Affected by the Moon
Intermission
Step by Step
A Time to Decide/Endless Days
Fine Automobile
Yucki Shushi
Sedona Ramona (requested by SCH)
A Mystery to Me
Angel
Cheap Little Ring
Colorado
Back in Yellowstone
Keep It Simple
Keeping Time by the River
Lay This Old Guitar Down (encore by request of Pops)

There was good magic - two hours of great songs with Chuck "playing this old Martin again," a wonderful audience, and the unmatched ambiance of Greyhaven.

There will come a day when Chuck will "lay this old guitar down." But today was not that day!

It's true that Columbus was not really sure where he was going - his goal was simply to sail west until he reached somewhere in Asia - and remained mistaken throughout his life about where he had actually gone. But for all that uncertainty, his remarkable voyage in 1492 changed the world.

In today's world obsessed with political correctness, it is in vogue to criticize Columbus for somehow being responsible for the death and subjugation of the people of the New World. But as Columbus wrote and the Book of Mormon confirms, he was driven by the Holy Ghost to see his history-making journey through to its world-changing conclusion. It hardly seems fair to blame him for what came afterwards, anymore than it would be fair to blame Henry Ford for global warming.

It is well to remember that his life made our life possible.

Happy Columbus Day!