New Shoes in the Rain

Greetings and happy Wednesday!  Hope the week is going OK thus far.  All downhill from here, you know. Today's our granddaughter's tenth birthday.  And while I don't often recognize my grandkids directly here, I think this warrants some special consideration. You see, this granddaughter lives in Colorado with her mom (our daughter), dad and younger brother.  And they're in Colorado, and she's here in central Kentucky with my wife and me.  This was due to a quirk in scheduling.  Last summer she was here for a while and then her family came to Kentucky for their annual vacation visit, and she returned home with them. This year, though, because of some other family events, she's here AFTER their visit.  Which means she's away from her immediate family for a milestone birthday like this one.  Adding to it is that our son and his family, including our two other grandkids, are on THEIR annual vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. So it's just

Wow, if that's not the most pessimistic thing one can say on a Friday afternoon....? Seriously, though, I'm very glad to see that the weekend is just about here.  Kentucky appears to finally be through with its unexpected monsoon season, so that means the weather is like it usually is this time of year.  Hot.  Damned hot, if you'll pardon the expression. I'm scheduled to play golf tomorrow with some friends about an hour from here, the location chosen to accommodate one friend who lives a distance away.  And it's scheduled to be a high temperature of 93 degrees tomorrow.  Oh, well, we should get plenty of roll with the dry conditions, anyway.... Actually, I'm surprised that it hasn't rained in the last couple of days, as I dug deep into my pockets and got the "deluxe" wash at the local car wash.  Interior, too.  I drive so much these last eighteen months that I rarely go to that expense for car washes, since it's going to just get dirty a

Good Monday to all. It's my fifty-fifth birthday today, for those keeping score! I don't feel any different, of course, but I will admit that I plan to get and use the AARP membership that I feel sure is on its way!  My wife won't, of course, but I'm far cheaper than she is, so we can consider that a certainty! I did give in to a little middle-age restlessness over the weekend and rearranged the furniture in my office.  I have been thinking of switching a few things around for a while, as I thought moving my pieces (desk and credenza-with-hutch) into an L-shaped arrangement could be good.  I did this Saturday morning, and think I'll be moving it back to the more traditional desk in front of credenza setup.  Gotta try these things, I suppose. I've been watching the Open Championship (the British Open to us unrepentant Yanks) over these last few days, and can certainly feel for the participants and organizers (and fans, too) having lost most of a day to ba

Good Tuesday morning to all.  Sorry for the slightly misleading headline today; this is by no means a news bulletin! That said, this morning's announcement that an agreement was reached between Iran and the US, Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China is big stuff indeed.  This has been underway for something close to ten years, from conception to agreement, and will now pave the way for economic sanctions against Iran to be lifted, since they have now committed to curtailing their nuclear weapons program.  And apparently this is all subject to verification first, which means that Iran has to do what they've agreed to before these sanctions will be removed.  Time will tell is this measure is useful, successful and wise, or none of these. I'm sure Donald Trump will have an opinion on this.  Heaven knows that he's expressed himself on nearly everything else, and, despite his bluster, is polling well among likely Republican voters. Did you see that over the w

Greetings from the hot heartland, friends. Taking a few days off to spend with our daughter and her family before they head back to Colorado later in the week. So far we've tested the capacity limits of our refrigerator and cupboard, explored new and different ways to configure child and adult seating for meals, used our washing machine and dishwasher many, many times (far more than my wife and I, the empty-nesters, do routinely), and generally have had a great time! We took the gang to the Newport Aquarium yesterday, and had a lot of fun there.  Somehow I like aquariums a little better than zoos, and I don't know if it's because I like the water so much, or if it just seems cleaner when one visits.  Regardless, we were able to see and experience all that that facility has to offer.  Good crowd for a Monday, albeit one just after a holiday weekend. Along with that, it was nice to be back in the greater Cincinnati area (it always is, in my book) and to see some of the