New Shoes in the Rain

Friends, it's hot, DAMNED hot here in central Kentucky right now!  It's been that way for most of a week, that is, when it hasn't been raining.  I swear, I don't think I can remember a wetter spring and early summer! I have some followup items I wanted to touch on.... I believe I mentioned that on our auto trip to Colorado in late May/early June that our car, MY car, sustained a fair amount of hail damage when we stopped for the night in Kansas on our way west.  I didn't think it was that severe until I had the car washed and could really see all of the pockmarks.  There were MANY.  So when we returned home I called our insurance agency, just to get their opinion on whether I should file a claim.  It rested on the amount of damage, so I had an informal estimate done, and found that we were looking at a pretty good amount to repair all of it properly.  I filed a claim, the insurance company sent an appraiser out, and we had a check for a somewhat larger sum in a

Top of the morning, neighbors.  It's a good day to be alive, isn't it? It is.  Even though I was separated from my job last Friday. I cannot share specific details, but last week my supervisor and someone from our human resources department let me know that my position was being eliminated.  The details of this process were outlined for me, and that was that. So, as you can imagine, I've spent the past couple of workdays networking and contacting those whom I think can help me connect with my next opportunity.  Given the tumult in the employment market since 2007, I count myself very lucky indeed NOT to have experienced this until now.  After all, I'm part of that dying breed of "middle manager, " an endangered species, to be sure. Onward and upward, I say.  Companies do what they must, and while it is certainly personal to the affected parties, it cannot be to the company itself, as its actions are driven by an entirely different set of priorities and

Friends, I'm back with my wife (and a granddaughter!) from the wilds of the Front Range of Colorado!  Great to get away, but also very nice to be back at home. Actually, we had an extremely nice vacation, although the time just flew by with various family activities and such.  Drove out on the last Thursday and Friday of May, and encountered some severe weather a couple of times (and my car has the hail damage to prove it, although it's not THAT noticeable).  Nothing like what the folks in Oklahoma and elsewhere have endured, mind you, but if you're driving, heavy rain and wind is no fun indeed. Speaking of wind, the wind farms that have sprung up along Interstate 70 in central Kansas and northwestern Colorado continue to be a source of fascination.  I read online that the Kansas "farm" produces enough electricity to power something like 77,000 households annually.  No mean feat, but since the wind apparently always blows on the Great Plains, that's a good