New Shoes in the Rain

OK, I admit that I am not usually on of those people who lives by a countdown of some special event, but this time I think it might be justified. Our daughter is coming home with her family for Christmas with us, and my wife and I are VERY excited!  We've seen them near Christmas in their home area in Colorado, we went out there one Christmas and during another holiday season, we arranged for our son and his family to travel out for the holiday. But it's been a very long time since she, her husband and their two kids were here at Christmas! Despite the excitement, we also have a good many things to do to get ready, mostly in the area of grocery shopping.  We generally have a traditional dinner of pork roast, sauerkraut (my late MILwas from Austria) and lots of other side dishes.  The festivities usually kick off with a pizza party, easiest way to feed everyone on the day the hungry travelers arrive.  And there are breakfasts and lunches to consider. I have tried and tried to ge

Good morning and happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I just wanted to stop by to share a couple of brief thoughts on this, our national day of gratitude and appreciation. I am most appreciative that I have a wonderful family who loves me in spite of my failings, and who accept my love unconditionally! I am fortunate to have a job that I like, where I feel I am doing people some good (finally, after many years of NOT feeling this way!), and that I am very good at performing! I am grateful for the core of good friends I have upon whom I can rely for strength, support and comfort.  Some of them don't even know how much I feel for them, so I need to work on that.  But most all of them know who they are! I am thankful to live in a country that is not under military assault by another, and where I have the ability to exercise my right to help choose our leaders.  Let us hope that we are able to continue to provide this freedom in perpetuity. And I'm appreciative of this forum, where I ca

Good afternoon, friends.  Hope your week is going well. Let's put this out there.  I've had problems with my feet for a long time, dating back to the 90s.  Specifically, I have plantar faciitis in both feet.  That's a disorder where the tendon that runs along the sole of one's foot is too tight due to inflammation or other issues, causing pain and discomfort in most any activity, but particularly in walking. I began to develop this issue following some health issues, after which I began to walk for exercise regularly.  Plus I began working at a job where I was in a building but walked all over that structure during each day.  So there was no escape. At that time our next door neighbor was a nurse and she said that she knew what my problem was and recommended two things:  New Balance running shoes and insoles with pronounced arch supports.  That helped, but I needed to do more, particularly during the work day, so I began to explore shoes that were softer but provided ar

Good Thursday to you…. Have you ever really wanted something, eventually accepted that getting that thing was not possible, only to finally receive it when you least expected it? That happened to me recently.  Well, not JUST to me!  Let me explain. As I am sure I have mentioned in this space more than once, I am an enormous fan of the Beatles.  You know, John, Paul, George and Ringo!  Became a great admirer of their work well after they had gone their separate ways, followed their solo careers with interest and was astounded that so many songs I knew were actually Beatles songs.  With the help of a friend who loaned me his collection of British album releases of the group, I immersed myself in their music and became a true fanatic.  Listened to entire albums on tape on car rides, back in the days before streaming and playlists, and understood about how the group and their brilliant producer, George Martin, polished their songs (mostly written by Lennon and McCartney) and chose the orde

Remember that old song?  By Jimmy Cliff, the reggae star? For some reason, I’ve been thinking a lot about that song recently. Why?  Well…… I went for an eye exam back in July because I sensed that my vision had decreased over the most recent several months. I had a cataract removed from my left eye in June 2022 and that improved my ability to see well quite a bit.  But this latest decline was a little mysterious.  I do a lot of computer work for my job and was having some difficulty seeing the screen well at times. So in the process of my necessary vision exam the optometrist expressed some sense of loss as to why my right eye had declined so much since my last examination.  Upon closer observation she concluded that I had a cataract on my right eye.  The one I thought was OK around this time last year! I had already decided that if this happened, I would seek out a new ophthalmologist.  The previous one corrected my vision last year, to be sure, but had me come back repeatedly for wha

Happy Friday….we made it! I’ve been on the road this week, traveling several hours Tuesday, yesterday and again today.  So I’ve involuntarily used a lot of that windshield time to think through some things. And today’s title and corresponding topic kept coming back to me….. TAKE NOTHING FOR GRANTED! I turned 63 on my last birthday (Paul McCartney, I’m coming for your song next year!) and when you reach a certain age, I suppose it’s customary to be a little introspective.  Here’s a list of things that I find more and more essential as the years go by. FAMILY I was very lucky to encounter my wife when I did, and suppose it’s mutual, as she had been widowed not all that long before we met.  As I have mentioned here in the past, I was so fortunate to marry not only my wife, but also her children, who are now OUR children.  Our family arrangement was unconventional at first but after almost 40 years together it’s the way things are for us. I try very hard to take care of my family, our five

I am not the kind of person who routinely longs for the good old days.  I like to think of myself as a fairly progressive person, and that I know how to adapt to changing times and circumstances. But some recent events have made me think about how things used to be, compared to how they are now. For example, political candidates were frequently judged to be finished in the eyes of the public when some thing either happened or a past event was found out.  Remember Gary Hart, the handsome Senator from Colorado who had worked for John F. Kennedy and was often compared to him?  Reporters covering his presidential campaign in 1988 apparently heard a lot of rumors about Hart and his many infidelities and when confronted about these rumors by the media, Hart challenged them to follow him and find out. They did. He was photographed secretly aboard a boat aptly named “Monkey Business” with a pretty young woman named Donna Rice sitting on his lap and at a townhouse in Washington, DC.  He suspend

Happy Saturday, friends!  Hope.you had a good week and are ready for some down time. I don’t consider myself an early adopter of most anything, but I suppose that’s always a little subjective.  I resisted the iPhone when it first came out, not only because I really, REALLY liked my Blackberry at the time, but also because I didn’t want to have to switch to AT&T’s cellular service, which I believe was called Cingular Wireless at the time.  I have had Verizon Wireless for a long, long time, and like their service overall.  So that didn’t interest me right away. When I finally did get my first iPhone, I was pretty well blown away, and have been an enthusiastic user of various versions of this device since.  I actually had an iPad before I had an iPhone, but learned enough with the workings of that tablet that I was able to troubleshoot for members of my work team who had iPhones.  The rest came rather naturally, of course. I was also a little slow to adapt to HDTV, which is, of course

Hope everyone's week is off to a good start. My premise today is rather simple.  When is it best to replace something that's older with a similar item that's newer?  What criteria do you use to make that decision?  Is it something you give a lot of thought to, or is it more impulsive? My answer, for better or worse, is that it depends. And I stand by that response. For instance, for fourteen years my car was a 2007 Honda Pilot SUV.  Bought it as a demonstrator with 4,400 miles already on it.  Went a lot of places in that car, numerous business trips to St. Louis, Birmingham, Atlanta, Nashville, Cleveland and many other destinations.  Transported me and my son to Cincinnati to see the Reds countless times, and later took along his two older children for games.  Survived a couple of multi-state baseball trips.  Went on vacation to Colorado for other lots of other weekend excursions.  I did all of the major required maintenance, but after the second timing belt was installed,

Good Monday morning, everyone!  Note that I waited until 10:05 AM EDT to say that! Some weeks ago I received some alarming news in my annual bloodwork that I do for my cardiologist.  In addition to cholesterol numbers that are crucial to that aspect of my health, he orders a variety of other standard tests, and one of them captures a patient's glucose level. I think I'm in my fourth year with this cardiologist (my former doctor retired) and he routinely orders these additional tests.  My glucose level indicated that I was in pre-diabetic range for the last several years, which was not a great surprise, since both of my parents were diabetic.  But this year's glucose number was significantly elevated and he advised me to seek care with a provider who could address my newly identified condition. I should add that my former general practitioner had also retired several years ago, and since my cardiologist prescribes all of my medications, I really didn't have much need of

Friends, I'm almost there.  I've almost pulled even with the narrator of the Beatles' tune "When I'm Sixty-Four!"  Today I turned 63 years of age. Do I feel different?  Not really, but I rarely do when I have a birthday.  Just grateful for family and friends who care about me and provide love and support when I need it most! I took some time away from work today to celebrate the occasion, although we began the festivities last night with a nice dinner out with our son and his family, which is always a great time.  Our timing was because our middle granddaughter is going with a friend to Orlando and leaving tonight.  Hope they have a great trip! This morning I had a what I would easily characterize as a unique experience.  Some weeks ago I noticed someone I knew way, way back and whom I had not seen in probably forty years had looked at my LinkedIn profile.  I viewed hers and we eventually began exchanging messages.  Turn out that she was one of the people invo

Greetings, friends.  I know it's been almost a month since my last post, and I really don't have a specific reason why the delay, but it's good to be back in this space and I have a variety of comments to share. We now live in a country where a President of the United States was impeached twice and was later indicted on multiple federal charges.  And that man is currently leading the polling among Republican candidates for President in the 2024 election.  I don't know if there's anything else to say to that, we've come close to this sort of scenario but never to this extent.  And the investigations into this former President are ongoing, so there may yet be more charges forthcoming. We may never know exactly what happened in Russia a couple of weekends ago, but suffice it to say that it probably wasn't planned and it fell apart just as quickly as it came together.  As of this morning, there are questions as to the whereabouts of the leader of the Wagner Grou

A lot has happened in the past few days, as always, so let's take a few minutes to sort this out.... Wildfires in Canada are creating smoke containing a variety of pollutants and the current shape of the jet stream has driven quite a bit of contaminated air into the US.  Flights have been postponed, as have sporting events, in various cities, mostly in the eastern US.  People in New York, particularly were advised to wear face coverings to protect themselves from the smoky conditions. My take? You have to wonder how much of the fouled air from our frequent wildfires in the western part of our country made its way elsewhere.  The reaction of some news outlets has been spectacularly stupid, to be frank, implying that Canada doesn't know how to manage its wooded areas and that they should do something. The Ukrainian military has finally launched its long-awaited counteroffensive against the Russian forces that occupy much of eastern Ukraine.  The results so far are encouraging for

Hello, friends!  Have been a little busy with work and some other considerations, and just got back from a week's vacation! My wife and I traveled from our home in Kentucky to Colorado for our oldest granddaughter's high school graduation last week.  We had not made that trip by car in quite a while, but since my job requires me to drive a lot, sometimes for several hours at a time, we determined that this was a good idea, particularly with the performance of most of the major airlines being a little suspect at the moment! We departed Lexington on Saturday morning, May 13.  The weather was OK, if not great.  Our route took us west on US 60 to Frankfort (Kentucky's state capital, for non-Kentuckians) and then onto Interstate 64 West.  We followed that highway all the way through St. Louis, Missouri. During our trip we ran into some clouds here and there but nothing significant, but once we made it through St. Louis and approached the interchange to Interstate 70 West, we saw

Since my last post, there have been multiple shooting incidents where people rang the wrong doorbell, entered the wrong driveway, went to the wrong yard to retrieve a basketball, entered the wrong car, and more. Most of the shooters have claimed in court appearances and otherwise that they feared for their personal safety, were worried they were about to be robbed, and other possible reasons. At this point I'm becoming worried about armed vigilantes patrolling their neighborhoods without accountability (not unlike what happened in Brunswick, Georgia a few years ago).  I get irritated at other drivers who cut me off in traffic, change lanes without signaling and such.  But I no longer look in their direction, for fear that they may be armed and are prepared to respond to my irritation with deadly force. What's more, in many of the states where these most recently publicized incidents have occurred, abortion has been either severely restricted or outlawed entirely.   I have diffi

My friends, I hope you'll accept my apologies for being absent from this space for, oh, a good while.  My convalescence from my bout with COVID was completed some time ago, and I dived back into my work life with two hastily constructed weeks, followed by two long weeks of travel.   But since my last post I've had lots to think about a number of things, and lots of time to think about them. First topic has to be the number of mass shootings in these past few weeks.  We had a church-related school in Nashville endure a shooting by a person who was apparently a student there many years earlier.  Three children and three adults associated with the school were killed.  Then Louisville had two shooting incidents on the same day, and another last night.  And this morning's news brought details of a shooting at a sweet 16 birthday party in a small town in Alabama. President Biden says he's done everything in his power as Commander in Chief to curtail the proliferation of guns

Greetings, my friends.  It's been a while, but I have a very good explanation. Two weeks ago tonight, I returned home from a three day business trip and didn't feel quite myself.  Felt like the beginnings of a cold or perhaps even a sinus infection.  Friday I felt worse, but soldiered through my day's schedule.  Didn't sleep well that night (didn't have any decent cough medicine in the house) but did better the next couple of nights, as I got some over the counter stuff to put that cough at bay. That Sunday evening my wife, who also wasn't feeling that well by this time, suggested we do at-home COVID-19 tests, just to be sure.  Worth mentioning that by this point in time we had both had two vaccinations and three boosters, the most recent administered in October 2022. We both did tests.  I tested positive for COVID-19, my wife tested negative.  Then I happened to glance at the test kit box and saw that the tests we used were expired.  Since we had several on han

It's Monday, and you've read the title for today's comments correctly. I first want to offer some observations about ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot that may or may not be revolutionary in some way.  That all sounds fun and rather innocuous in most respects, but since its capabilities have been reported in a widespread manner, there are now instances of companies using it to write advertising copy and some universities are screening entrance application essays to determine if prospective students are or were utilizing the service to write the endless essays necessary to apply to the college of one's choice. There are many more uses, most legitimate, for such a service.  A tech oriented podcast that I listen to regularly has spoken of it repeatedly and even had it write the intro to a recent installment.  And it sounded pretty good! Not to be left out Microsoft has revamped its Bing search engine (remember that, since Windows users really didn't have a ch

Happy Monday, friends.  If you have today off from work I hope you enjoy the day, and, if not, well, welcome to the club!  We had two of our local grandkids sleep over last night, since they were out of school, enjoying having them here. But that's not what's on my mind this morning. How many consecutive days has there been a report of some sort of mass shooting event somewhere in the United States?  As so often seems to happen, the Michigan State shooting incidents seem to have triggered some activity in workplaces and in family scenarios since that time. Conspicuously absent this time has been the cascade of "thoughts and prayers," mostly from right-leaning politicians who are in deep with the NRA and other conservative causes. And one of the more appalling aspects of what happened in Michigan is that some of the students at MSU had already been through a mass shooting event in their high school in Oxford, Michigan a couple of years ago, and one or more had also sur

Hello, friends.  Don't often post on Tuesdays, but it's not so that I can keep you guessing! I had originally conceived a pretty significant rant in the wake of the Kansas City Chiefs win over the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday night.  It seemed to me and my wife as we watched that game that the television announcers were squarely in favor of the Chiefs winning (by winning they qualified for their third Super Bowl in four years) despite some grudging compliments toward the Bengals, who started the game slowly but gained momentum and looked to be in position to win. The other group that seemed unfairly favoring the Chiefs were the officiating crew.  Several calls were iffy, to say the least, there was a do-over opportunity given them by the striped shirts, and in the end a penalty against the Bengals sealed the chance to win for Kansas City. With a little more time having passed since that game ended, I don't really think that the officials were in the tank for the Chiefs, but it

Thank goodness we made it to the weekend, people.  I don't know about you, but I had a pretty hectic week, capped off by acquiring some sort of respiratory issue while on a business trip.  But that's not why I stopped by for a few comments. No, I'm going to vent for a minute or two about Twitter.  Not because they are not moderating incendiary content. Not because the platform is owned by a megalomaniac who is apparently open to allowing another back onto the platform.  Not because he's laid off the bulk of the workforce who kept the thing going for most of the time. I'm mad because I have to use the Twitter app. Let me explain.  Regular visitors to this space know that I've mentioned my Twitter tactics previously.  I routinely go through the list of feeds that I follow, purging those from whom I feel I gain no benefit in following, or those with whom I've become a little bored, or interests that have moved elsewhere. I've also mentioned that I prefer to

First post of 2023!  How's it going for everyone? My new year is off to a fast start, already have one overnight business trip under my belt and another coming next week.  Rental cars and hotels, same stuff, different day/week/month.  So they say. My family had a very nice holiday season, thanks, and I hope yours did as well.  Our son bought and hid a new television in our garage for a time, and I helped him install his mount for it shortly before Christmas.  Family likes it very much and they also enjoy additional living room floor space, as they no longer need a console on which to place said television.  Nice improvement!  And his two older kids received new phones for Christmas (the younger grandson had never had one), so more people for me to harass via iMessage!  Our daughter and her gang also got new phones, since the cellular companies are again practically giving them away! We've resisted, although my wife would like to replace her phone sometime in the not too distant