New Shoes in the Rain

Happy Friday from Biloxi, Mississippi, where I've been attending an industry function since Tuesday afternoon.  If you're a little rusty with geography, Biloxi is on the Gulf of Mexico and was directly in the path of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated this region a little more than six years ago. This is my first trip to this area, and, I must say, I'm kind of astounded by what I've seen just driving around.  Some of the folks who are regular visitors to the area have mentioned how many large buildings, particularly the casino/hotels (I'm staying in one of them and writing from there right now), were severely damaged but quickly restored.  Yet when I drove around a bit Tuesday afternoon upon arriving the first thing I noticed near the Gulfport (neighboring community) airport was that the roof was still damaged at a National Guard building.  Then, driving along the beach highway to Biloxi, you see new construction alternated with ruined homes and structures surrou

On another business trip (first of four consecutive weeks of travel, which will bring the recent total to eight out of nine weeks) and I had some time to commit some stray thoughts to this blog. I'm actually in Richmond, Virginia today.  Arrived here yesterday afternoon, and leave around lunchtime tomorrow.  This appears to be a pretty nice city; the former capital and in the northernmost of the Confederate States.  I have visited her pretty regularly in the past two years and I like what I've experienced. My Cincinnati Reds are merely playing out the string, as they're out of contention with little to play for, a lot of guys hurt and fans are turning most of their attention elsewhere.  My son and I made one last trip to Great American Ball Park Saturday night, mostly for Johnny Bench night.  This event commemorated a statue outside the ballpark depicting the Reds' Hall of Fame catcher ("baseball's greatest catcher," we were reminded repeatedly during

Since so much of my comments here are observational, I thought today's title to be appropriate.  I also considered something else, but realized that journalist David Brinkley beat me to it as the title of one of his memoirs:  "Everyone is entitled to my opinion." True, true. OK, first, let's touch on sports.  This is one of my favorite times of the year, as the baseball season is winding down to reveal who will play in the post-season (and confirms what I've known for months, that my Cincinnati Reds will not be playing any meaningful games from here on out), and both the college and professional football seasons are getting underway.  Great time of year to be a sports fan. Not so great, though, if you're a fan of high-quality professional football, as most of the games that I've watched have involved some pretty sloppy play.  This is undoubtedly owing to the NFL lockout that prevented teams from having "off-season" workouts, mini-camps and

Well, sort of.....just back from a very quick business trip to Charlotte, where my supervisor and I interviewed candidates for a vacant position on my team.  And this morning I decided to move outside of the environs of my home office and am writing from a nearby bakery/coffee shop, soaking up that nice, strong, FREE Wi-Fi. Weather is an interesting thing, isn't it?  How often do we get what we really want?  Here in central Kentucky, we've been approaching drought conditions for a while (though not nearly the extent that many parts of Texas and elsewhere have experienced), so now with the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee parked over our region, it's rained pretty much continuously since last Sunday.  We live on high ground in the city, so flooding really isn't an issue for us.  But it certainly is for those closer to creeks and streams, and there have been many reports of flood damage in our area.  Be careful what you wish for, as you just might get it. The whole coff