New Shoes in the Rain

Well, I was able to locate the name of someone at our local newspaper, something that the customer service unit was not willing or able to provide. I sent him a polite e-mail describing what had occurred, and copied his boss. He called back within fifteen minutes of my note, talked rationally with me (speaking negatively about their customer service vendor, which amused me somewhat) and I agreed to continue my subscription after he offered to have someone come to the house with the missing material from yesterday's paper. He even agreed to contact my wife about the problems that her office has been having with the same organization. Not bad. So, in the end, if we can complain about bad service, we should take equal effort to celebrate good service. I hope I've done that successfully here!

I hate to rant about anything, but I had an experience with which I'm sure many will identify. We have a single local newspaper in my home area, and for the past few months have been receiving this publication via subscription on a Friday-through-Monday basis. We had gone without a subscription for some months due to my travel schedule and a general lack of interest, but resumed on the basis above. The only day where we really look forward to the paper's delivery is Sunday, understandably, as there's more content, plus we rely on the weekly retail fliers to determine what products might be on sale and we appreciate the coupons that are generally contained therein. Yesterday during a leisurely breakfast my wife and I were perusing the paper and I could not help but notice that the comics were from LAST SUNDAY. I remembered because I am a Dilbert fan and remembered the previous Sunday's strip. I then noticed that the Parade magazine insert was also from the previous S

This is a test post. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

I just returned from a business trip to Las Vegas and observed a few things that I felt warranted comment: The last three times I've visited Las Vegas I am immediately assailed by cab drivers telling me how bad things are there. I can tell that the volume of visitors is down just by looking around the airport, but I'm still not quite sure what a cabbie would like for me to do about the situation! It's just me back here, pal, and I'd like to help you out, but.... I remain astounded at what folks will wear in a place like Vegas. No one I saw on the streets, in a handful of restaurants, in my hotel or in the airport was dressed in an objectionable way, but here's an example. I was passing through the airport on my way to my departure gate yesterday morning when I saw two men sitting side-by-side at a couple of slot machines (first thing to remember about Las Vegas is that gambling opportunities can be found in MANY places!). As I got closer I noticed that they wer

Politics aside, one has to privately thank the late Senator Edward Kennedy for his many, many years of dedicated public service. Lots of things have been said and written about him over the years, but, like him or not, he has left an unmistakable record of achievement in issues that affect all of us every day. He was well respected by his own party and the opposition, a rare feat in American politics. I hope that when I reach the age of 77 that I have put together a similarly extensive and impressive body of work. Speaking of great Americans, I'm in the midst of reading Douglas Brinkley's wonderful book about Theodore Roosevelt, "The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America." TR was a fascinating figure in American history and his legacy transcends politics, as this book illustrates so completely. If you like history it's (so far) a great read! Where's Harry Truman when we need him so?

Did you see the news item about the blogger who was sued by someone about whom she commented on her blog? Now the blogger is apparently suing Google (the owner of this hosting portal) for "outing" her. I suppose I'll have to be a little more careful with my opinions than I thought!

I've read a lot of blogs over the years since they first came into existence. Some are/were good, some not so much, but they've all had at least something that first caught my interest. I hope that's the case for you with this blog. I'm not famous, I don't have advanced degrees in anything, but I do have 49 years of life experience and I am what I would consider to be a pretty normal person. Hopefully we'll find some common ground. Oh, and if you're wondering about the blog's name, that phrase has rolled around in my head for a long time. To me, it typifies "real life" in that in "real life" we take the good with the bad. Good: I got new shoes! Bad: I got caught in a heavy downpour IN MY NEW SHOES! I'll be posting stuff here that I find interesting, amusing or at least worth a comment. I welcome, encourage and even beg for your feedback to anything you read here! Thanks for visiting. Less about me next time--I promise!