New Shoes in the Rain

Do you listen to music while you work?  I suppose that's a bit of a loaded question, as you have to work in the right environment to have that opportunity, right? I ask because there is a worker at the vacant house next door (it's a rental, so goodness only knows who or what we'll have living next door soon) and every time he shows up over there (if we're home, we know, because he has a very loud older Jeep) he opens all of the doors and windows and plays irritating country music at a very aggressive volume. I spoke briefly with him once when I was doing some yard work several weeks ago.  I complimented some work he did on the front door, he looked at me strangely and said "it's OK, I suppose."  The song playing at that moment indicated that he loves his country, he loves his country, and he loves HIS president.  Somehow, I don't believe the song was referring to the current occupant of the White House. But I digress.  One of the best aspects of workin

Happy April 3, everyone!  That’s not really a thing, but no one attempted a prank on me on April Fool’s Day, so just thought I would mention that. Lots going on in the world right now, as always.   I don’t know what your opinion of what’s happening in the Middle East might be, but at this moment I’m just sick about the most recent events there.  I have long been in awe of Jose Andres, a renowned chef and founder of World Central Kitchen.  WCK goes where the need is and feeds people in the midst of war, natural disasters and many other events.  Not surprisingly, they’ve been on the ground in Gaza for some time. If you had not heard, seven of their team members were killed as collateral damage from an Israeli missile attack, despite having coordinated their travel route with the IDF.  A senseless tragedy and one that cannot simply be explained away. There is ample blame to go around in the Israel-Hamas conflict, and until US diplomats and President Biden finally persuade everyone involve

Wishing you a very pleasant Sunday morning, as I write this post.  Hope all is well in your corner of the world! Like most people, I have numerous electronic devices that are a big part of my everyday life, both for work and for leisure.  I have a mobile phone (we finally got rid of our land line a couple of years ago), a tablet and a desktop computer.  I also have a laptop computer that was assigned to me by my employer, and I use that for specific purposes. My question this morning is whether or not you use cases for the items you carry with you every day.  I'm sure there are surveys somewhere that spell this out, but I find it interesting that so few people go without some sort of case, particularly on their cellphones. This has been so for a long time.  In my case, I've generally relied on a case to allow me to hang the phone from my belt, as older phones would easily overwhelm one's pants pockets, and I don't always wear a coat or jacket (the days of routinely wear

Hello, friends.  It's Monday, so hope it's going well for you.  We have sun and 70 degrees here in Lexington today, which is a nice way to start the work week. Once in a while I take stock of some things I've done around the house and take a small amount of pride in what I've done.  Please note that my father was NOT a handy person, attempting to mount a basketball hoop with nails when I was a kid.  I thought I could do better, so as a confident twelve-year-old does, I asked my mom to take me to the hardware store so that I could get the right items to secure the rim to the existing backboard we had. My father didn't speak to me for well over a week, he was so angry that I had shown him up. I don't try things I can't do, which usually is a plumbing or electrical issue that is more than my limited skill would permit.  But I generally will try things if I can find a YouTube video that explains what I need to know. For instance, the rear climate system quit wor

Anyone out there a little fuzzy from staying up to watch the end of the big game last night? I'll confess here that I wanted the 49ers to win.  Not a big fan of these inevitable dynasties, we suffered through it with Belichick and Brady and now this.  Despite how much I like and appreciate Andy Reid being something of a throwback in many ways, there are members of his team that are the very definition of the popular and thus overexposed athlete. There, I feel better. What I came here for was to discuss what's being said at campaign events by the former President, who's had a break from court appearances to campaign for the job he really wants.  I understand fully that he comes from outside of "mainstream" politics and that's a big part of his appeal to a certain percentage of voters.  But making disparaging remarks about anyone who's serving in the military (active duty or reserves or National Guard) is not appropriate.  Nor is implying that foreign dictat

Last Monday of January.  Already.  Where does the time go?  If you know, please speak up! Today's post isn't really ONE post, but numerous small ones.  Here goes. Are you excited about the Super Bowl matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers?  I read that the Niners are slight favorites, but the Chiefs have been in four of the last five SB games with this one.  Hard to beat that. But I'm almost to the point I was with the Patriots, as in, "Them?  Again?" $83.3 million.  Ahem. Meanwhile, various entities are trying very hard to pull the U.S. into active war in the Middle East.  Our next move is likely to be calculated as a proportional response to the death of three service members.  Let's hope that more won't follow. Charles Osgood, former CBS reporter, anchor and host of "CBS Sunday Morning," passed away recently, and his former show devoted its entire 90 minutes to Osgood, who was a witty, comfortable presence in many l

Greetings, one and all.  I hope that January is going well for you so far.  I have to confess that returning to our usual routine has been a little bit of a letdown, after having our entire family together for full week over the holidays! But I digress, as I stopped by this morning to address something that has been nagging at me for some time. After many years of using Twitter, now called “X,” I decided to stop doing so and deleted my account. Why?  Well, for one thing, the current owner of that platform decided to end Twitter’s longstanding practice of making it possible to use what is called a “client” to view content from that platform.  In that model, it is possible to completely tailor one’s account to see only what the user wants, only those accounts the user follows, and no ads. One of the earliest actions that rankled me was the elimination of these clients.  That meant using the native Twitter app, which meant that my feed was polluted by a growing amount of unwanted advertis