New Shoes in the Rain

Hello from the home office, where most of you will be reading this today.  I sincerely hope that everyone is well and that your families are, too. Interesting how much has changed since I last posted on our current pandemic that we're all facing and responding to with social distancing and working from home and no school and shortages of odd items like toilet paper.  And not so much for the better, either. I'd like to repeat my compliments to two governors, Andy Beshear of my home state of Kentucky, and Andrew Cuomo of New York.  Both appear to be doing a very good job of frankly and forthrightly speaking to the current state of affairs in their respective states.  Kentucky has not been as hard hit as more populous states, but I fear that our time is coming. As for New York and Governor Cuomo, they're on the brink of even more problems.  And they don't have the resources necessary to address the pandemic as fully as they would like. Which brings me to my next th

I lost a very good friend this week. He's been my friend for nearly forty years, but I rarely saw him more than once a year for the past thirty years. Let me explain, but I'll do so in keeping with my normal policy of not naming names. I grew up in a small town outside of Lexington, Kentucky and my first full-time job after college was working for the local radio station.  I friend whom I have known since childhood helped me obtain my initial part-time position there, and it morphed into something more a couple of months after graduating. We had the opportunity to broadcast a local high school sporting event and my friend, who also worked at the station at the time, suggested I go to see a man whom he was confident would support our broadcast by purchasing advertising (I worked on the air in the mornings and sold advertising to augment my income, which was pretty sweet for a 22 year old). I went to see this man, and learned a number of things about him right away:

Good morning, my friends.  Hope that you enjoyed a good weekend. I'm not generally someone who reacts with alarm to unexpected news on any level but I have to confess that I'm concerned about Covid-19, otherwise known as the coronavirus.  Based on items I've read and seen from various sources, we know these things without much disagreement: The virus is spread by droplets expelled by coughing or sneezing (or likely just breathing) by infected persons in the air that land on us or onto surfaces Approximately 80 percent of those infected do not require hospitalization and recover without any lasting side effects The effect of the virus is greatest on older people and those with underlying health conditions It's advisable to avoid large gatherings of people and close contact with those who may be carriers, so hugging and shaking hands should be generally avoided.  Handwashing and using hand sanitizer and disinfecting surfaces is also helpful. But what we're