New Shoes in the Rain

Greetings, one and all....thanks for stopping by.  Just a few stray thoughts to capture before getting into the work day. Just back from a quick-turnaround trip to the northern Virginia area, where I saw an airport, a hotel, and a shuttle van.  When I say "quick," I really mean it!  Actually, my sole purpose for traveling there was to interview a candidate for a position on my sales team, so the trip was useful for that purpose.  With a little luck that was my last overnight business trip of 2012.  Cross your fingers. During my travels, as so often happens, I noticed one or two things of interest.  First, in the Atlanta airport the PA system is playing very traditional Christmas music.   I have to confess to being a bit of a stick in the mud when it comes to holiday tunes.  Not that contemporary singers don't have something to say by reinterpreting "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" but there are older versions, most likely those  that I grew up hearing, that I

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving, one and all.  Hope you'll have the opportunity to enjoy the holiday with family and friends. The recent news that Hostess is probably going to liquidate its operations, meaning no more Twinkies, HoHos and Ding Dongs (and, no, I was NEVER willing to call them "King Dons") made me start thinking about things that endure versus things that don't.  Let's start with luggage and briefcases, in a generalized way.  When I was a kid I remember my dad used to travel overnight once in while and would use a medium-brown faux-leather suitcase.  You remember these, semi-hard sides, double clasps, the stiff cloth dividers with the turnbuckle closures.  I happened into a shop recently that sells antiques and vintage items (hard to tell the difference, frankly) and saw a couple of suitcases that looked eerily similar.  And he used an attorney-style brief bag, which he always called his "grip," for work papers and such.  Both appearsed to be

Morning, all....hope the week is breezing by for you. Now that the election is over and most people have moved on (save for those pesky yard signs that won't seem to go away), I suppose things are getting back to normal. Can you believe that Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK?  Me, either.  That one slipped up on me rather unobtrusively. My wife and I had a very nice weekend trip last weekend, with one of the highlights being our viewing of the newest James Bond picture, "Skyfall."  I won't spoil it for any of you who might be planning to see it, but suffice it to say that we liked this movie VERY much. Our primary purpose with our trip was to kickstart our Christmas shopping.  We've relied on this technique numerous times in the past, finding that if we were out of town we could focus better on the task at hand, and we've had success with this approach.  This trip was no different, as we made a significant impact on our basic lists. There was one disappoi

Good afternoon.....hope that you were able to take the time to vote yesterday, regardless of who you supported.  As I get older I feel it's extremely important to exercise our rights as citizens, plus there's the old adage that "you can't really complain if you don't vote."  So there's that, too. I have to say that I was very invested in the outcome of the election, but now it's over and the folks who were chosen by our cities, counties, districts, states and country can get ready to get to work.  So the rest of us should move forward with, well, whatever. Thanksgiving is TWO WEEKS from tomorrow.  Boy, talk about something sneaking up on you!  I don't think we yet know where we'll celebrate or with whom, but I'm looking forward to a few days off. And, of course, following Thanksgiving is the invevitable rush to Christmas and New Year's.  I can say with sincerity and honesty that we're NOT READY.  My wife and I were debating wh