New Shoes in the Rain

Greetings from the road, my friends.  Woke up way too early for my current Central time location so thought I would post some thoughts. First, I am in total awe of the leaders and people of Ukraine for their grit and determination and understanding that preserving their country is entirely up to them.  President Zelenskyy has far surpassed most all “expert” expectations about his ability to lead and rally his people in this horrible situation. And more reports continue to surface indicating that between 5,000 and 10,000 Russian soldiers and other military personnel have been killed in the fighting in Ukraine, although Moscow is not about to provide a number or confirm these.  Another report says that five Russian generals have lost their lives in the conflict.  And apparently, the incompetence of some elements of the Russian military have led to bombs being dropped on Russian military encampments and widespread frostbite among its fighting force, as they were not properly equipped with

Happy Friday, friends.  I hope it’s been a good week. Last week I was away on a business trip that involved two full days of travel, bookending a day of meetings at my employer’s location in northwest Indiana, not all that far from Chicago (and no, I didn’t have occasion to travel into the city).   This week was a little more typical for me, with three days of day travel, home every night.  But prior to that, I spent a little better than two hours at my dentist’s office getting a broken tooth crowned.  Fascinating process, whereby the dental office has a machine that make a crown in about an hour, based on a high quality scan of the area to be crowned.  I was pretty impressed, and happy not to go through the traditional process of temporary crowns, impressions and at least one return trip for installation of the permanent crown.  So that was good. It’s the second week of Lent, my wife’s least favorite six weeks of the year.  She is a devout Catholic and I’m not, but I have always tried

Good morning, everyone.  Hope you're ready for a good weekend and will have good weather.  The forecast for central Kentucky looks pretty good, especially for tomorrow. Still hoping for the best for the people of Ukraine.  Unfortunately, the Russian military appears to be asserting itself, and the flow of civilians out of Ukraine is now estimated to be around a million people.  With more to come. I'm just back from an overnight business trip this week.  In brief, here are some of the highlights of the trip: My company requires traveling employees to reserve a compact car, but because I have a membership with their preferred vendor, I almost always get an upgrade.  Monday night I went to pick up the car and my compact car turned into a Nissan Armada, a truck-based SUV that is, well, pretty big. The most expensive gas I saw during my trip was $3.89 per gallon for regular unleaded. We have a corporate deal with a hotel in the area where my employer's facility is located.  It i