Recently, the California Senate has begun to push through a bill that would shake the foundations of how Independent Travel Advisors work in the state of California. This model, that has worked for decades, creates an environment for travel advisors to utilize the resources of host companies without the commitment of being considered an employee and frees them up to remain a sovereign individual in the business world. The bill is California Assembly Bill 5.

The bill was born from the court case Dynamex Operations West v. Superior Court. Because they were utilizing their own vehicles, they were considered independent contractors. But they were also utilizing their own vehicles to delivery. This presented a confliction in labeling their work force. In 2018, the court…

I felt like a kid opening a Christmas present last week when my AmaWaterways cruise documents arrived. The docs are for an upcoming cruise on AmaMagna and a christening ceremony on July 11. Three things that excite me about this trip:

“What’s that sound? I didn’t notice it yesterday? There it goes again!”

These were my exact words a week or two back when my clothes dryer began squeaking for what I could best determine was for no reason whatsoever. Like many people who share my upbeat attitude toward life, I knew that it would probably go away as fast as it came. I went back to living my life.

But when it started to make the same noise the next day, I took notice. Years ago I would have given the dryer at least two to three months to correct itself. Then, like most good husbands, I would have eventually gone out and replaced the…