New Shoes in the Rain

Friends, it's now a week until Christmas, if you celebrate that holiday with your family and friends.  Hope you're ready--I think that we finally are! Was thinking the other day about shoes, particularly about my personal history of shoes and foot issues.  When we were kids, both my older and younger brothers were diagnosed by the doctor as needing "corrective" shoes (do these still exist?) and my parents dutifully bought them--once for each boy.  None after that. As I recall, my older brother seldom wore leather dress shoes after that.  His shoe of choice for many years was the original Converse Chuck Taylor basketball shoe.  He generally had multiple pairs to allow time for them to dry between wearings, which is actually something that folks in the know suggest.  My younger brother often wore whatever shoes one of us no longer wanted, to the point where I never actually knew what size shoe he wore. And then there's me. I had long feet as a kid, but they

Happy Tuesday to all....hope you're not digging out from a foot or two of snow, as some of my friends in the East/Southeast are today! I have to say that I caught a major break on the path and pace of that winter storm.  I made my annual trip to my company headquarters in south Florida for meetings last week and was due to fly out late Friday afternoon, just as I did last year.  This year, the weather in Atlanta was workable and so my flights left and arrived on schedule, delivering me home on time.  Last year a similar winter weather system caused a virtual shutdown of the air traffic system from Dallas to Charlotte, which prevented folks with connections from traveling through to their destinations further north.  I was delayed an extra 36 hours, but finally made it home on Sunday afternoon. And as a resident of the northern part of the southeastern US, I can vouch.  Despite efforts to prepare and to keep up, our home area is woefully unprepared for harsh winter weather.  And

Friends, I hope you're ready for a good non-Black Friday and an even better weekend! Have been compiling this morning's post for a while but only now had the opportunity to complete and post it.  As I think I mentioned a while back, I'm again traveling frequently for business, and that means hotels.  Lots and lots of hotels!  I'm not going to lavishly praise or freely bash any particular brand or chain of hotels.  In my experience they all have their pluses and minuses, as one would expect. The first, and nowadays for me, most important component of a hotel room is a comfortable bed.  Not too firm, not too soft.  For me this is made worse by the fact that at home I sleep on a TempurPedic bed.  Don't see those in hotels too frequently.  So the right firmness will determine how soundly I'm able to sleep, but also how many aches and pains will be with me when I wake up. The number of comfortable beds has been small over the past three months.  Usually beds ar

Happy Monday-after-Thanksgiving to all! I hope that if you had to travel home from visiting with family and friends over the long holiday weekend that you made it home in one piece!  I didn't travel over the weekend, but am leaving on a business trip later this morning, so wish me luck! My wife and I had an interesting Thanksgiving this year.  Our son and his family traveled out of state to spend time with our daughter-in-law's family.  We tentatively planned to visit with my mother-in-law on Thanksgiving but for a variety of reasons did not travel to see her.  So, for the first time in many years, it was just my wife and me for the holiday. We inquired of one restaurant that had endlessly promoted their Thanksgiving dinner and found that seating was very limited.  So we resigned ourselves to visiting another restaurant that was open for their regular hours and serving a meal especially for the holiday.  Not a bad option, but not quite the special occasion we would have p

Friends, did you vote this time last week?  If you did, you were part of a very large turnout nationally, one of the largest volumes of mid-term election voters in quite some time. I'm not going to replay what happened, or tout who won because of what reason, but this will make things in Washington very interesting come January.  I read somewhere that when current Congresswoman and former/likely future Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi first arrived in Washington that she was among something like twelve women serving.  Now she will be among more than 90 women in both houses of Congress. That's great, but that's still disproportionate to our population. There are Muslims who won the right to represent others in the House.  There are openly gay and bisexual persons who won the right to serve.  And there are many others with uncommon traits who will be in the next Congress.  And that's great, and better represents the population of this country. But let's face

Friends, unless you've been living on a desert island, you know that tomorrow is election day.  And while you likely have a number of local and/or state races for which you can vote, you also have the opportunity to vote for your preferred candidate for Congress. You should be sure to do so. According to some information I've read, the last time we had a mid-term election (that is, at the mid-point of a given presidential term), approximately 35 percent of registered voters made their way to the polls to cast ballots. That's appalling. Here we are, in a country founded on democracy and freedom of choice, and that large a percentage doesn't feel it worth the time to vote. I somehow think this time it will be different. I don't know yet how I feel about last year's tax bill, as 2018 will be the first year where our returns are subject to the new terms.  I'm unhappy with the number of people and groups whose rights are being deliberately and systema

Good Monday morning.... I'm really not sure what to even say about the events of the past few days. We now know that the FBI and multiple law enforcement agencies apprehended a suspect in the rash of pipe bombs mailed to former President Obama, former Secretary of State Clinton, former Vice President Biden, current members of Congress and others who have all been critical of President Trump.  We also know that this suspect has a history of criminal behavior and that he has been a vocal supporter of the President.  And we also know that the President was somewhat dismissive of the validity of the suspect's apparent action, referring to the media's reporting as "'Bomb' stuff" and indicating that his own brand of negativity and divisiveness was in no way related to this individual's apparent offenses. Less widely reported was something that happened in my home state of Kentucky.  Last Wednesday a man attempted to gain access to a predominately Afric

Good Monday morning to you.  I hope that you were able to enjoy a great weekend. As the old saying goes, fall has fell, certainly, as we're now seeing more and more days where it's appropriate to wear a jacket or sweater, and far more evenings that fit that description.  We always know they're coming, just a question of when. I've reported here what a strange spring and summer we've had here in Kentucky, with more than ample amounts of rain and temperate conditions.  As I recall, we only had a few stretches of excessively hot weather (every time I opted to play golf this season, if memory serves) and that has contributed to a late fall for us. The marker here at our house is a large tree in the yard of a home directly behind us.  Seems every year that tree suddenly bursts into flaming orange and red, and often does so before this spot on the calendar.  Our son-in-law is an avid photographer and when he and our daughter and their kids visit in the fall he enjoy

Happy Friday to you all.  If you or anyone you love was/is in the path of the recent hurricane I certainly will hope for the best for you and yours. I'm delighted that this work week is nearly over, and I'm sure that those of you who are Monday-through-Friday people are, too. I'm in my third week of traveling in my new role with my company, and am meeting new people in pretty significant numbers.  Wisely, I decided not to try to memorize everyone's names.  But I think most know MY name now! This was one of the more peculiar travel week's I've ever experienced.  My early-week destination was a community in western South Carolina, so my optimal travel path was to fly to Atlanta, rent a car, and make the nearly three hour drive into SC.  That was Monday afternoon and evening, and I did the reverse Wednesday morning, flying out for three days of meetings in the Detroit area, where I am now.  Flying home this afternoon. The only other instance of a schedule t

Good morning, friends.....hope it's not raining where you are. I've just returned from a major event for my company that was held in the Dallas area over the past few days, ending yesterday.  If you've visited here for a long time, you know that I often will recount my travel experiences in this space, and, since I'll again be traveling a bit in my work, I'll resume that practice with some observations today. First and foremost, my current company is not based in Dallas, but chose to hold this major event there because of its central location and the abundance of flight options into the area.  Since our event included over 1,400 attendees, it made sense to do this. But I used to work for Dallas-based organizations and have watched the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport evolve over the years.  It looked to me that the evolution is completed for now, and that was a nice change.  My last instance of traveling there was in the fall of 2015, and the concourses

It's raining here in central Kentucky, friends.  I'm not quite sure if this is related to Hurricane Florence, which is stalled somewhere in the Carolinas, or a separate weather system, but it's raining here.  Again. As reported here on our last visit, my wife and I had the task of determining how we would use our now-vacant front room.  I sold my old, bulky office furniture recently and that set into motion a chain reaction that leads us to today. Our planned first step was to move our current kitchen table into the front room (which was designed to be a dining room) and give that a look to see what we thought of it.  So Friday I did just that.  This involved removing the legs from the long table, then scooting it into the other room, protecting it and the floors with towels underneath.  Then I reinstalled the table legs and put it upright.  I initially liked how it looked, both from the standpoint of size and of color.  But as the day wore on (I didn't have any out

Good Friday to all.  And to those in the path of Hurricane Florence, I wish you the best as you work to avoid or endure this powerful storm. Another standard potpourri of thoughts and comments, so here goes.... Did you know that the Department of Homeland Security has apparently diverted almost $170 million from other programs it oversees to ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency?  I didn't, either, until yesterday.  There were mentions about $10 million being directly diverted the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is governed by the Department, and with Florence making landfall today, one would hope that FEMA has appropriate resources to assist residents with recovery efforts. Reports indicate the remainder of that money was also diverted away from the Transportation Safety Administration (the TSA, the folks who oversee airport security), the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office and the U.S. Coast Guard.  Has the additional ICE funding been well spe

Today's title with apologies to Jimmy Buffett.... It's not raining right now, but our summer of rain resumed late last week and we're due to get rain off and on all of this week, too.  I was talking with someone last week and we agreed that usually, by this time, those of us without irrigation systems had long stopped mowing our lawns regularly.  Not this year, as I'm still mowing every five days or so. There are far worse problems to have.  It would be wonderful if we could transfer this rain to the areas in the western U.S. that are being besieged by yet more wildfires. A couple of sports items to mention--the Kentucky football team managed to snap a 31 year losing streak to Florida on Saturday night, and in Gainesville, Florida, no less!  I won't bore you with what a gallon of gas cost and such the last time Kentucky managed that feat.  Here's hoping it's not 31 years before the NEXT Kentucky win over the Gators! I don't follow tennis at all b

Happy day-after-Labor-Day, friends.  I hope that your work schedule allowed you to have a day off to reflect on the value of the labor movement in this country yesterday. I started my weekend a little early, as I also took last Friday off work.  Good thing, too, as I was in the worst stage of an upper respiratory disorder that was, well, inconvenient on that particular day.  Feeling quite a bit better now, although I'm not quite 100%. So this is the "unofficial" end of summer, you know.  The kids are back in school, so family vacations are over for now (unless families seize the relatively new phenomenon of "fall break" for some time away).  We actually have about three weeks of summer left per the calendar before fall arrives officially. I enjoy time time of year, and I'll gladly share why: First, it marks the return of college football season.  I watch the pros, too, but since I worked with the University of Kentucky Sports Network's broadcast

Good Monday morning to you all!  Summer took a brief hiatus around here, with comfortable morning lows and temperate afternoon highs for a few days, but in recent days Mother Nature reminded us who's in charge, as we had one of those stiflingly hot and humid days yesterday.  Oh, well, it IS August, after all... Given the time of year, no surprise that the most significant change is that our grandchildren have gone back to school, at least the four that are school age.  Our Colorado branch did so from a new home that was purchased in mid-summer, so I'm sure there were some adjustments associated with that, yet the kids both attend the schools where they already were.  Local kids went back to their school, too.  And our son returned to his night classes in law school last week. Part of the local school dynamic is that I pick up the kids a couple of days a week, when my schedule and whereabouts allow it.  Fun for them, more fun for me, since they're a couple of little come

Monday morning, folks.  Hope you had a great weekend and that you're planning to make it a good week. We had kind of an interesting weekend.  A soccer game featuring granddaughter #2 was to have been played in a nearby community Saturday afternoon, so we planned around that.  Weather threatened and the game was postponed, so that left us with some time open, so I used some of the afternoon to do a rescue cleaning of the interior of my wife's car. It should be noted that 95 percent of the time I'm alone in my travels, so my car gets more dusty than anything, except in and around the driver's seat.  However, my wife's car is the the transport for our three local grandchildren, so the in-and-out and snack and drinks and so forth present some different challenges. What prompted this cleaning episode was that my wife admitted that her non-car-cup-holder-fitting Yeti spilled one day recently, dumping tea through the front passenger seat onto, well, the rear floor.  

It’s Thursday and I’m ready for the weekend.  Are you? I don’t know about you, but I’ve always enjoyed the well-timed or well-worded quote, whether from a famous person or otherwise.  Some end up become clichés of the speaker/writer’s original intent, others continue on as is. Indulge me as I enumerate some of my all-time favorites, and I will do my utmost to attribute them to the proper source: “Baseball is ninety percent mental.  The other HALF is physical.”                         --Yogi Berra “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”                         --Winston Churchill “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”                         --Franklin D. Roosevelt “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”                         --Will Rogers “Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter could be said to remedy anything.”                         --Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

It's Monday afternoon, friends, so that's one day almost done, four to go until the next weekend rolls around! As most regular visitors to this space know, I'm a big sports fan.  Baseball, college (but not professional) basketball, football and, yes, professional golf all attract my attention. I have to confess, despite friends who are definitely not on board, that I enjoy watching Tiger Woods play golf.  And let me qualify that.  I enjoy watching a HEALTHY Tiger Woods ply his craft on the golf course. It's been really difficult for the last several years watching him endure one surgery after another (seven was the number I heard yesterday) over the years.  There are lots of lists out there, but I believe the worst of this started after his astounding U.S. Open win at Torrey Pines in 2008, when he limped through a playoff round with Rocco Mediate and then had reconstructive surgery on a knee about a week later.  He's since had at least four procedures designed

It's Monday, friends.  Again.  Seems we do this regularly, don't we? Anyway, I hope you had a good weekend, as I did.  Despite the fact that I played golf. If you detect a note of sarcasm therein, you're right.  At an earlier point in my adult life, I was HEAVILY into playing golf as often as possible.  I had a job that required me to travel by car regularly, sometimes overnight, and I consistently had my clubs and shoes with me, ready to play on short notice.  I managed to play twice a week on average in those days, and the quality of my golf game was pretty evident in my scores. That was in the early 2000's, so that would make me fifteen or more years younger. Fast forward to the present and I played Saturday for only the fourth time in this calendar year.  And played very, very inconsistently.  I wouldn't say I played poorly (although my Saturday playing partners expressed sympathy on that basis) but I did not play as well as I am often capable.  It's

Good Monday morning, friends.  We're experiencing some temperate weather here in central Kentucky lately, which is more than I can say for my friends out west, where wildfires are raging in numerous locations.  If you're near any of those spots, please be safe! Several different things to note this morning, so forgive me if I jump a little too rapidly from topic to topic. First, my wife and I went to a movie yesterday, which we now do about twice a year.  Went to see the latest "Mission: Impossible" picture, starring the never-aging Tom Cruise.  As an aside, whomever is doing Tom's aesthetic work is doing a great job! Anyway, without going into any detail, this was a great action/adventure film, full of nice plot twists and great action sequences.  The advance media articles noted in great detail what lengths Cruise will go to for realism, as he's built that expectation among his fans, and I have to say, what appears in these movies is among the best of

Happy birthday to me.... Today is my 58th birthday, friends!  I don't feel all that different, of course.  Turns out that I share this birthday with Alexander the Great, the actress Diana Rigg, former Minnesota Twins great Tony Oliva, singer Kim Carnes, guitarist Carlos Santana, television personality Erica Hill, and supermodel (and wife of quarterback Tom Brady) Gisele Bundchen, among many others. I think that this is all that we have in common, although I do know how to play the guitar a little bit.... Was chatting with a friend yesterday via text message (that's how we do it these days, you know) and in speaking of today's birthday I referenced an old Jimmy Buffett song title:  "Growing Older but Not Up."  Seems to fit my current mindset!  I'm not rebelling against my current age but also not giving in to it, either. Think about this:  I've got a wonderful wife, two great kids (who are also married to terrific people) and five beautiful grandchi

Good Tuesday morning to all. Allow me a couple of comments about the U.S.-Russia summit in Helsinki, Finland yesterday. We're in a dark and rather dangerous place now, and my feelings echo virtually all of the analysis and coverage that I've read over the past eighteen hours.  What President Trump did in siding with President Putin and against the entirety of the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement communities is unprecedented and I am honestly unsure what can be done about it. Officials in the Trump Administration can resign and make some noise on their way out of their positions, but that won't really change anything.  And our Republican-controlled Congress has done what it always does....make some statements about how bad all of this is, but it never leads anywhere. For my part, those average citizens who are not happy with our current course have one clear alternative--vote.  No, we're not voting in a presidential election, but the entirety of the House of

Friends, it's still hot here in central Kentucky, but, hey, it's July, so you have to believe it's gonna be this way, right? We've gotten some local news recently that I found very interesting.  Of all companies, Wal-Mart is closing some stores in our vicinity.  You're reading that correctly.  They're closing the remaining "general merchandise" store in Lexington, which means that the store that's going away isn't a SuperCenter.  I forgot there were still stores like that, given that Wal-Mart was a client of mine some twenty years ago and the SuperCenter was a relatively new concept at that point. Anyway, this particular location is directly across a major road from a Kroger Marketplace store, and company management apparently determined that they could not adequately compete without adding a grocery department to this store, and that apparently wasn't possible. They're closing a similar store in Louisville, as well as two of thei

It's Monday and it's hot again.  Enough of that. Like most people, I read and hear and see the news and things that pertain to our current President and his administration never cease to astound me.  And the word I keep coming back to is "cruel." I could just as easily settled on "inept," "indifferent," "inexperienced," "unfeeling," "vindictive," or any number of other single words. But "cruel" seems to sum up so much of what we're exposed to. To make my point: --The Trump administration acknowledged in the past few days that it estimates approximately 3,000 children were separated from their parent(s) when they attempted to enter this country illegally or arrived and requested asylum.  To this moment the Administration also acknowledges that they do not know the precise whereabouts of these children's parents, or whether the parents may have already been deported back to their countries of

Good Monday morning to all.  We're in the midst of a very hot stretch of weather here in central Kentucky, which was nicely broken by a mid-afternoon rain yesterday.  No such luck for a couple of days, it seems. And I'm being completely honest with you! How did we get to the point where we are forced to question the honesty of virtually everything that's said to us, that's reported to us, that we see and that we experience? When famous people say something is "fake news," they're either lying or saying that someone else is lying.  Period. There are no "alternative facts," as a White House counselor famously stated to a reporter some months ago, when confronted with a blatantly false statement made by a fellow staffer. When a college football or basketball coach says "I'm not planning to leave" and then announced a new contract with a different university a short time later, he was lying, plain and simple. When an athlete

Good morning, friends.  Back to work today after a wonderful stay-cation wherein our daughter and her family came home to Kentucky for a weeklong visit! While they were here they were working on a couple of things that required some followup and it occurred to me that they and a good number of others whom I know are in some sort of transition right now.  Here's a short list: I have a good friend who's getting married in about a month, and it's his first marriage (and he's 48!). Our daughter and her husband are selling their current house and buying a larger one, with all of the bustle and activity associated with that process. Our son is wrapping up summer term of his night law school classes and begins his third year of study in a few weeks. My mother-in-law just relocated from my brother-in-law's basement apartment into an assisted living community. A friend and business contact just left her job here in Lexington to return to her home area in western

It's Monday here in Steam City, otherwise known as Lexington.  It's not even summer yet, and the weather here is already chronically humid and uncomfortable.  At least we're getting rain every few days to keep grass and plants healthy.... Had a couple of experiences last week that were worth noting.  Both involve meeting people, but in different contexts. The first was a complete surprise to me, as I got to visit with a former roommate, the last one I had before getting married, for the first time in better than ten years! He contacted me via LinkedIn to say that he was in town for a few days and asked if I'd be available to meet.  It turned out that I had some morning time free last Thursday, so we agreed to meet for coffee that morning. Here's a little background.  This guy had always wanted to live in Florida, and after I got married, he made good on that intention and moved to the Orlando area, if my memory is clear.  I heard from him occasionally (remem