New Shoes in the Rain

The shopping is done, the wrapping is completed, items to loved ones a distance away have been shipped, the Christmas cards have been written and mailed....now all there is to do is wait. Which gives me an opportunity to ask some valid if rhetorical questions about the holiday season..... Do people wait to see whom they receive Christmas cards from to decide to whom to send cards themselves?  My wife and I review our received cards each year and occasionally remove people from the list if we've not heard from them in some time (possibly due to an inaccurate address or a general lack of  contact outside of the Christmas season).  When my wife and I met I knew that there were a good many people with whom she and the kids exchanged cards because of her first husband's past relationships (friends, classmates, coworkers).  And we've maintained contact with many of those folks, even though I've not met many of them. The unfortunate part of this scenario is that some of

I bought an iPad last weekend. There, I said it....I've done my bit to stimulate the economy and get my jollies, all at once. The worst part was that I bought it Friday night during the annual Christmas shopping trip my wife and I make to Cincinnati, and it never occurred to me that I would need a computer in order to activate the damned thing. I did, so it sat tempting me until I got it home Sunday afternoon. It is SO slick, I simply cannot tell you. In fact, I'm writing this post on it. Thought briefly that this little guy could replace my laptop when I travel, but alas, no such luck. While I am fortunate enough to be able to use my Mac for work (good thing, since my company issued computer is circa 2003 and looks/feels it), I was unable to get past my employer's restriction on company e-mail on a personally-owned portable device. That's the rub...it's as though this thing is an overgrown cellphone, given that limitaton. Far more than that, obviously, b

....about a number of different, unrelated things.  Here's a sampling: I've been wondering why we're all asked to help the homeless and the needy during the holidays.  Don't those people need help all year? I've been wondering why University of Kentucky sports fans are so frequently among the most loyal yet the most fickle known to the sporting world?  A new football coach takes a team with a talented offense, yet a largely inexperienced defense, makes changes in several key coaching positions, and still comes out with a record equal to last year's, and he's considered a failure by many?  Or a basketball coach, in only his second year leading the program, and finding it necessary to replace just about all of the all-universe talent he recruited before last season, is now being roundly criticized for having lost ONE game...in November? C'mon, people, please.  Give these guys a chance. I've been wondering how the Republican party leaders and pr

I know, it's just the start of the "cold and flu" season, but I am already tired of not feeling 100 percent.  Permit me to vent for a moment (they say it's good for your health, you know) on the reasons..... Ongoing business travel....I spend six to twelve nights away from home each month for my job, and that doesn't even begin to account for how many days I'm out of the confines of our humble abode. Lots of contact with the public.....honestly, I don't know where you've been, or if you've EVER washed your hands, yet, here I am, with my hand extended to shake yours.  And vice versa. Eating strange things at strange times.....now, there's a recipe for disaster just waiting to happen. Oh, and I travel a lot by plane.  Yessir, nothing worse than an airplane cabin full of others who are in various stages of distress of one kind or another. What I have right now are the last vestiges of your garden-variety cold.  Started with some back-of-

Here's an entry that very nearly defies description, as indicated by the riveting title of this post..... Clint Hurdle will be named manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the next day or two.  Wish him and the team well, but this organization has been mailing it in for so long they have a longer futility streak than my beloved Cincinnati Reds broke this past season.  Hurdle's a good baseball man and I thought he'd get another shot at managing. Are you as puzzled by the Dallas Cowboys' strong play yesterday under their new interim coach (and former offensive coordinator), Jason Garrett?  Where was all of this wide open offensive creativity when Garrett was working under Phillips?  Why are the players playing better for him?  Will it continue?  Who knows? And in the "who cares?" department, we have Brett Favre, who threw three interceptions in the Vikings' loss to the Chicago Bears yesterday.  And then told the press he had no regrets in coming back, et

Busy few days in sports, if you've not been paying attention. The Dallas Cowboys, who were thought to have at least a shot of being the first professional football team to play the Super Bowl in their home stadium (this season's version will take place in the mega-Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, TX), instead have posted a 1-7 record and yesterday bade farewell to Wade Phillips as their head coach.  Phillips' pedigree indicates that he's a talented football coach, having successfully coordinated defensive units in Denver, San Diego and elsewhere.  But he's never translated that to head coaching success, at least not to the extent that he's one of those coaches who everyone reveres.  One sports pundit observed some time ago that he resembles "the guy who delivers your mail," but being an ordinary-looking and, by all reports, an exceedingly nice guy didn't serve him well trying to form a team of the players acquired by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.  The

George "Sparky" Anderson, former manager of the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers, died yesterday at his home in California at the age of 76.  He was a more important figure in my adolescence than I thought at the time, as he managed the "Big Red Machine" edition of the Reds from 1970 through 1978 and was unceremoniously fired after finishing second to the Los Angeles Dodgers for the second straight year in 1978. Prior to that, though, he presided over the single best period of any Reds team (and likely any National League team at that) in history, winning two World Series, four National League pennants, and five National League Western Division championships.  But, at the time, "the Main Spark" didn't impress me all that much, as I had no clue about how difficult it often is to manage people (I know now, from professional but non-baseball experience) and thought that the great players on that team would have been equally successful without Sparky.

After a weekend trip to visit family out of state and a day trip to Charlotte, I watched the local, state and national election returns with some interest last night.  Changes are coming, whether I/we voted for them or not! In our home area of Lexington, KY, an openly gay man was elected mayor, ousting a first-term incumbent who had previously not run for anything.  Turns out that your record is your record, good or bad, and the outgoing mayor had some items in his term that must have led voters to choose otherwise. Our local congressional district will apparently continue to be represented by Ben Chandler, grandson of the late and hyper-popular former Governor A.B. "Happy" Chandler.  The younger Chandler really had problems defeating his opponent, who at this writing was just a few hundred votes behind.  Needless to say, he's not conceded. And now we know that in Washington, the House of Representatives will be Republican-controlled and a new speaker, John Boehner

I've been on the road quite a bit lately, and about to embark on two more trips, but more on that later.  Suffice it to say that I still believe that whatever doesn't kill us indeed makes us stronger, so I'm rapidly gaining strength in that model.  I had a very interesting day of travel two Mondays ago, starting with a call around 4:00 AM from Delta Airlines' computer.  I was being informed that my flight, scheduled to leave at 7:15, would now leave at 8:52.  Nice to know, but the auto-message didn't detail my newly changed itinerary.  The repeat call at 5:45 told me that, so I decided to give up and get up after all.  That flight was diverted from to Knoxville en route to Atlanta (from my home base in Lexington, KY) due to a mechanical issue, and I waited there until late in the afternoon to get to Atlanta and connect to my final destination.  Despite these inconveniences, the Delta staffers with whom I dealt all were uniformly pleasant, friendly, and as helpful as

Commenting on a few unrelated things noticed over the past week or two..... Did you hear about the flap over the Gap's proposed logo that was suddenly ditched in favor of keeping the current, navy blue box with "GAP" in thin white letters?  Apparently the image of the new logo (you'll have to find a news item somewhere to find an image) popped up somewhere online and people actually debated this via Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere, and public opinion was so heavily against the new logo that the Gap announced they're withdrawing the new logo and retaining the current one. Honestly, people, do we not have anything better to do than spend online time arguing about the validity of a retailer's corporate logo?  And what does this say about a company the size of the Gap, which also operates Old Navy (and thus are responsible for those absolutely stupid television commercials) and Banana Republic, that they would be cowed by what I suspect is limited public react

For the first time in almost nine years, I made a trek into the southeastern part of Kentucky for business purposes.  And I'm always struck by the natural beauty of Kentucky's "mountain" region (trust me, these aren't really mountains, but for local purposes they'll do nicely), particularly in the early fall when leaves are just starting to turn.  Yesterday was no exception, and here's a sampling of what I saw: The Mountain Parkway is still a two-lane road for a bit less than half of its length, so windy is its path that an added passing lane is all that could be built to resemble a modern, four lane highway. There are passages (in some cases several miles long) where the highway rests literally at the bottom of the hollow ("holler" if you're from eastern Kentucky), and still winds significantly.  One has to look upward quite a bit to even see the sky! Despite some of the natural beauty, there is still quite a lot of evidence of poverty

They did it.  Earlier than anyone thought they were capable.  The Cincinnati Reds are the CHAMPIONS of the National League's Central Division. Thank GOD! It's been difficult to watch this team play well most of the year, swoon a bit recently (only to have their archrival the St. Louis Cardinals swoon even more) and get tantalizingly close to their goal.....but not that quickly!  But they got there last night, in dramatic fashion with a walk-off home run by a homegrown player, Jay Bruce.  Fitting, I think. And I also think that a lot of teams don't really want to play the Redlegs in the postseason.  Why?  Here are a few reasons: 1.  Joey Votto is supernatural at the plate, and seems so often to come up with a big, run producing hit just when the Reds need it most. 2.  Defense...the Reds are at or near the top of the National League's standings when it comes to defense.  And you can certainly do yourself a lot of good when you catch the ball consistently. 3.

I work for a company that has a policy specifically written in reference to blogs and other online commenting mechanisms (Twitter and the like, I would think).  This policy expressly prohibits employees of the company from mentioning or speaking about the inner workings of the company on personally maintained weblogs or other online journals.  Funny, I find the very act of blogging to be a nice departure from thinking about work, so the last thing I'd want to do is blog about work..... And in the year-plus I've blogged here, I can honestly say it's been fun and a real pleasure and something of a creative release for me to post my thoughts and comments here, regardless of the limitations my company places on me and my fellow employees.  And I don't think I've yet posted anything just because I felt it was time to put up a new entry, or that I owed it to my readers (whomever and however many you are) to blog.  If you sense that to be happening, call me on it. I re

This is a great time of year to be a sports fan....college and professional football are both underway with their new seasons, while major league baseball is heating up its various divisional races. All the more exciting for me this year, since my beloved Cincinnati Reds are closing in on their first divisional title in well over ten years, and my Kentucky Wildcats are now 3-0 on the football field.  That's the first time a new Kentucky football coach (Joe "Joker" Phillips) has started his tenure with three consecutive wins since the legendary Paul "Bear" Bryant did so WAY back (NOTE:  most who are not Bryant historians or Kentucky football fans would not have known that the Bear began his collegiate coaching career at the University of Kentucky). Back to baseball for a moment....my son and I participated in an interesting phenomenon Thursday, as we partook of "all you can eat" seats at the Reds' Great American Ball Park.  Simple premise:  for

Funny, when I have a few odds and ends to post, I have the hardest time deciding what title to use for that particular post, and today's is no exception..... My Cincinnati Reds are not having much fun on their current business trip.  After winning many games in a row, they visited St. Louis Friday through Sunday and came away with one win.  Better than some trips, but I was hopeful that their play would be a little better.  But a win's a win, no matter how you slice it.  Then they traveled to Denver, a city near my heart because our daughter and her family live in that area, to face the Colorado Rockies for a four game set.  No better.  The Reds have not won in Colorado since 2008, and the futility continues.  Most of the Reds regular players aren't hitting, except all-universe first baseman Joey Votto (so much for the Sports Illustrated jinx), and the pitching has been less than great, too. One more game out yonder, then the boys head home for the healing salve of playin

Morning, all.....just a few comments about this and that today.....but mostly revolving around the recently completed three-day Labor Day weekend, the unofficial signal that summer is over, for all intents and purposes. Our weekend started with a nice dinner out at a favorite restaurant, and a trip to Target that didn't blow our budget (always a nice surprise).  Then on Saturday, Kentucky played football at the University of Louisville's newly expanded stadium.  Both teams had new coaches on display and the weather was absolutely perfect--mid '70's, breezy and sunny.  In other words, the kind of day you want to bottle and save for later.  Anyway, Kentucky played masterfully during the first half, not so much the second and came out on top. Sunday we had our granddaughter for the afternoon, then her parents had dinner with us when they came to retrieve her.  Again, another nearly perfect day weatherwise, so great weather for grilling. Yesterday I was scheduled to p

In my travels for my job I often find it interesting and a pleasant way to pass the time when I meet new people.  And I'm not one of those who interrogates his seatmate every time I get on a plane....I've been victimized by enough of those to last me a lifetime.  But I just returned home from a business trip and found a couple of the people I encountered to be interesting. For example, on my flight home the lady who was scheduled to sit with me spoke up, politely, and asked if Lexington was home for me.  I answered that it was, and then asked her the same question.  "Louisville," she responded, and that led to about fifteen minutes of chatting about airports, travel, jobs, etc.  Turns out this lady is the mother of three, ranging in age from 17 to 9, was in the ministry (!) for seven years, and now is in marketing for some sort of collective buying cooperative that sells primarily to non-profits and church-related entities.  And we also established that she, as I, m

It's Friday, and we're heading toward the Labor Day weekend, slowly but surely.  Time for a bit of a brain dump with some random comments about random subjects. Has it been hot where you live?  Excuse me, I meant to say "HOT."  This has been a summer of ridiculous temperature extremes in central Kentucky, and I know from traveling it's been that way in a lot of places.  You know it's hot when dedicated golfers elect not to play on a Saturday. For the first time in a number of years, the Reds are in serious contention to make it to post-season play (we used to simply say "the playoffs" but now there's more than one round of playoff series leading to the World Series), so baseball has a different significance for me this year than in years past.  Usually, at this point, I'm interested to see the prospects that the Reds have promoted to the big club to see how they perform at the major league level, as they're often hopelessly out of the

As I believe I've noted here before, I fly a fair amount for my work.  Not traveling this week, thank God, or else all of the talk in airport gate areas and on planes would surround Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who lost his cool and stormed out the rear of an airplane onto the inflatable slide and into airline folk history, as well as custody. Most of my travels are on Delta and its affiliated regional carriers, and that's largely by choice.  From my home in Lexington I have far more options to get just about anywhere when I fly Delta than if I use competing airlines.  But let's be clear, I've flown most every airline that services the state of Kentucky, and have had what I would charitably call mixed results in terms of service and cooperation from flight crews. For about two years I traveled long distances regularly, as I managed a sales territory in the mountain time zone of the western US.  That meant a flight to a hub, then on to cities like Denv

I don't watch very much "reality TV," unless you count HGTV (my wife's favorite channel), the Food Network and the Travel Channel among that category.  No, I'm referring to shows like "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race" and others that run on the big four traditional networks, as well as some of this other unscripted stuff that pops up on MTV, VH1 and the like. But, first, a quick aside....does anyone remember when VH1 launched?  It was supposed to be music videos for the rest of us, that is, those of us over 20 years of age.  And their original lineup of veejays included such luminaries as Don Imus and Rosie O'Donnell (no, I'm not kidding). But I digress.... A couple of stories in the news recently made me think a little harder than usual about reality television.  One was the arrest of someone called "Snooki" from a show on MTV called "Jersey Shore."  Now, I've never watched this show, but have recently see

Today's installment is about commitments we make to others, and how unimportant they appear to be to some people and entities. First, let's all give a round of applause to British Petroleum, the fine folks who brand their overpriced gasoline as BP and who have been promising us for over three months that they're doing EVERYTHING they can to stop the uncontrolled flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast.  A lot of blathering, a lot of bumbling, a lot of excuses and one CEO later, it looks like that might finally be happening.  And to make matters worse, what we've been hearing for some time is that BP is trying to coerce Gulf are residents (particularly those who operate businesses adversely affected by all of this mess) into accepting lump-sum settlements with the added provision that the recipients of these settlements WILL NOT SUE. Don't sign them, people, I don't care how much is offered.  We just don't know what the long-term effec

This 50th birthday thing has been pretty interesting.  My wife engineered a celebration well in advance back during the weekend of July 3-4, because our daughter and her family were in town for a visit.  So we had a cake, I received some cards and even a gift!  Nice, right? Then last weekend, in advance of the grand occasion (which occurred on Tuesday), my wife and I went to Cincinnati for a weekend of R&R.  We had originally planned to go to Chicago, which would have been great fun, but given the distance and travel cost, we were probably better off visiting some of our favorite dining and shopping spots in the Cincinnati area.  Our argument has always been that you can be there in just a couple of hours from Lexington, and since we visit regularly we know what's there, what we like, etc.  We both got shoes at a store in West Chester that specializes in those with foot problems (which unfortunately includes me and my wife), had some nice meals out, did some other "power

....and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it. I'm talking about my 50th birthday, which will occur next Tuesday.  Ironically, I'll be on a plane to Charlotte that morning, as I have business there that day and in Columbia, SC the following day.  Great way to celebrate. But I'm not depressed, at least I don't think I am.  Mostly, I'm grateful to still be here, after a major heart attack at 32 and a coronary bypass at 34.  I'm grateful to have a family who loves me and tolerates me, in that order most of the time!  And I'm most grateful to my wife of now 24 years (I must remember to change my profile), for being there always. And like so many people, my first 50 years have been marked with challenges, triumphs and setbacks, but I wouldn't trade any of it.  Well, I might trade the last few days, when I've been slowed by what I think was a case of food poisoning that is still hanging on four days on.  Just about out of the woods, so to spea

If you recall from my last post our daughter, her husband and their two kids had just arrived at our home for a ten day stay.  They all just returned home yesterday afternoon, and I must say that our house seems awfully large and awfully quiet today, as I've also returned to work after vacation. Our grandson was an absolute delight, as he's now at the age where he recognizes people more readily and was lots of fun for all.  Perhaps the most enjoyable occasions were when he and our local granddaughter, who's exactly two weeks older than he, were together, as it's always fun to watch babies try to figure each other out! We did some rather touristy things while our visitors were here, but all were enjoyable and we caught a break on the weather, as it was probably about fifteen degrees cooler for parts of last week than it is now or will be during this week. And, as planned, both he and our younger granddaughter were baptized in a joint ceremony last Saturday.  That o

I'm not quite to "geezer" status, but I'll be hitting a pretty big milestone in about a month when I turn 50.  And some events of the last week have me thinking about that and what it means.... I spent most of last week traveling to and from and attending some organizational meetings in Florida for my employer.  Not exciting stuff, but a chance to see a few people I like and enjoy, coupled with the dreaded all-day meeting scenario.  I can honestly say I didn't learn a great deal from these meetings that I did not already know, but I think a few people learned some things about me. I continued to make the point with almost everyone who asked (and many who didn't) that, at the conclusion of the trip I would be starting a ten day vacation and that my wife and I would be joined for nearly all of that time by our daughter and her family, visiting from Colorado!  The enthusiasm for this visit was etched on my face, I suppose, because nearly everyone could not he

Now that I've finally completed a start-and-stop project for work I have a little time to post here and regale you with what's been happening on my end of the connection.  The answer, simply, is "not much." But what will be happening next week should be something great.....I return from a business trip and about twenty minutes after my plane lands in Louisville (not my home airport of Lexington) our daughter and her family should also arrive, and I'll be bringing them back home with me for a visit that will last through July 5! And we're going to have a huge DOUBLE baptism on July 3, so we should have a lot of fun with the little ones here (oh, and their parents, too).  Can't wait to see our Kentucky granddaughter and our Colorado grandson crawling all over the place! But we have lots and lots of work to do to prepare, since I have to leave on that business trip on Monday.  Shopping, cleaning (carpets cleaned Wednesday, and just in the nick of time!)

Well, well, well....the Smith manse is looking a bit spiffier these days, with the addition of new countertops in our galley kitchen! The genesis of this started, oh, years ago, from our obsessive viewing of HGTV (and it's not just my wife, as I like many of the design and real estate programs) and the desire to update our kitchen.  You see, we attempted to sell and relocate a couple of years ago (a story I'll tell at length at some point in the future), and while our kitchen contained a new-ish fridge, range and microwave, the countertops, primary lighting and wallpaper were original equipment from our home's construction in 1987.  And at the suggestion of our realtors, we did nothing to it except clean thoroughly, as our realtors felt that most homebuyers could look beyond any dated decor and foresee placing their own stamp on the space. So we were unsuccessful in selling.  Then, in the early part of 2009 we decided to strip dated wallpaper from our downstairs bathroo

A few sports observations in today's post.... First, farewell and congratulations to Ken Griffey, Jr.  He announced very quietly and very indirectly this week that he was retiring from major league baseball after 22 seasons, eight of which were spent with my Cincinnati Reds.  Now, let's be fair...Junior got a lot of flak from fans and the media while he was with the Reds, because his contract was so large that it prevented the Reds from acquiring other players, and he began to physically break down and experience major injuries for the first time in his career.  But when he was healthy, my, he was something to see.  Even after he had lost a step he was still capable of producing thrills on the field, smashing majestic home runs with that oh-so-sweet swing of his and robbing opposing batters of home runs with electrifying catches at or even over the outfield fence!  He was a quiet, private guy, from all reports, but loved and respected the game and his teammates and I wish him

My home city of Lexington, Kentucky has always struggled with finding an identity for its downtown area.  When I was a kid I remember the phrase "urban renewal" being thrown about pretty regularly, and gradually a few new office buildings, a couple of hotels and Rupp Arena, home of the Kentucky Wildcats basketball team, all were built.  A few other developments have taken place in the the thirty years since all of that development, but not all that much.  But things appear to be moving along now. The catalyst?  An upcoming event called the World Equestrian Games. Now, to be fair, I'm not a devotee of equestrian sports.   My understanding is that this series of events involves a great deal of training and dedication, and I do not wish to demean anyone who participates in this sport.  But the Lexington area is making significant investments in infrastructure in order to accommodate the large numbers of visitors (competitors and spectators, one would assume) who are ex

As I write this post, I'm sitting in a bakery in Montgomery, Alabama, in a behind-numbing chair that apparently has seen its better days.  I've just about concluded a three day road trip for my company and my fourth travel day of this week.  This trip involved sales calls and representing the organization in a charity golf event outside of the city here.  With all of that in mind, I have some open questions I'd like to pose to no one in particular.... Isn't it nice to hear everyone (or nearly everyone, anyway) speak with a lilting Southern drawl? This part of the country has endured some pretty serious rain over the past several weeks.  With that being the case, how can a golf course have such rock-hard ground all over it?  About the only thing that was soft were the greens.  Everything else was hard-pan with very short and spotty grass. Why do certain parts of the country NOT restrict smoking in certain places, like restaurants?  The information on the health ris

Just saw this news item reprinted from the Des Moines (IA) Register and paraphrased here: Iowa's world-famous “Field of Dreams” is for sale.  The field featured in the 1989 move is part of a 193-acre tract that the Lansing family have had in their family for more than 100 years.They're asking $5.4 million for the field and surrounding farmland plus the house used in the movie. The sale will be conduced without stipulations, meaning the new owner could potentially plow under the field, just as the fictitious Ray Kinsella was urged to do by his bankers in the movie. Now, if you're not a baseball fan, or a movie buff, or a Kevin Costner fan, perhaps you've not seen this gem from 21 years ago.  But if you are any of those things, then you know that this is almost sacred ground.  Because I've actually been there! One of those odd convergences of circumstances wherein our daughter was moving to Denver for a residency in her field, and so my one and only condition

Lots of fodder in the recent sports headlines to chew on.... First and perhaps most disappointing if true:  there are reports from anonymous sources (is there another kind in a situation like this?) on the Seattle Mariners that Hall-of-Famer-as-soon-as-he-retires Ken Griffey, Jr. was not inserted as a pinch-hitter in a recent game, ostensibly because he was ASLEEP in the clubhouse!  Frankly, Griffey always seemed to have enough respect for the game that I find this hard to believe, but you just never know.  And the players were supposedly younger players who like and respect Griff, so, again, it's hard to tell what's what.  Very telling, though, that both Griffey and the team's manager were very quick to refute the report.  What IS true and not in dispute is that Griffey's offensive production is so poor that he doesn't even serve as the designated hitter in every game.  He's batting around .200 (that's not very good, for any non-baseball fans reading this

This entry isn't about any one subject.... First, I find it repugnant that BP is acting as though it's not REALLY their responsibility to clean up the massive and ever-growing oil slick that threatens to contaminate the Gulf of Mexico's coastal areas for the next several years.  Simply put, you break it, you bought it, in my opinion, so in that context it IS BP's responsibility.  But this doesn't really strengthen anyone's argument that "drill, baby, drill" is going to be the answer to our domestic energy needs, at least not without destroying the environment in any part of the country where drilling will take place.   This, of course, does not in any way contemplate what happens to those who work the ocean for their livelihood, namely the commercial fishing and shrimping boats.  And I agree with those who wrote that they don't understand why this event has caused gasoline prices to spike 10 cents a gallon. Glad to get that off my chest. Sa