New Shoes in the Rain

Happy Thanksgiving week, friends.  Hope your plans this week include some quality time with folks you love. Sometimes I want to comment on a lot of things but they're kind of disjointed, and today is one of those days.  So here are some one (or more)-sentence random thoughts about, well, random subjects: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, we hardly knew ye.  Tough to jump onto a train that's already moving, I suppose. The music from the movie "Interstellar" is easy to overlook when considering the film as a whole, but it's extremely important to the movie.  Same can be said of many other movies, too. Movies in a series present some difficulties, as the middle ones often are designed to keep the plot moving and by design don't conclude much.  This is true of the latest installment of the "Hunger Games" series, which is called "Mockingjay Part 1."  Good movie, but it starts and ends in the middle of a larger plot. On that same line of t...

Good morning, gang.  It's snowing here in central Kentucky.  The weather forecasters are calling for anywhere between a dusting and a couple of inches of the white stuff.  And it's the middle of November. So I suppose in that respect, this morning's title is a bit of a misnomer, as I would definitely NOT classify today's weather as anything remotely resembling an upgrade! One thing that certainly is an upgrade is this year's Kentucky basketball squad.  So loaded with talent is his team that Coach John Calipari has divided the ten best players into two "platoons," and thus far he has substituted these groups as a unit (five players at a time).  The team hasn't really played anyone but that will change when they meet Kansas this week.  So I suppose we'll see how well this works out long-term. The same cannot be said for Kentucky's fading football team.  After getting off to a fast start at 5-1, the team has now lost five straight games, with ...

Friends, I come to you today with some remarks about a number of things, but I want to start with some thoughts about sports team uniforms. Yes, that's right.  Uniforms. This has interested me for some time.  I read a blog periodically called Uni-Watch, about, guess what?  Sports uniforms.  So here are some things that I want to throw out there: Every university or fan or sportscaster who made fun of the University of Oregon for their ever-changing uniform combinations and possibilities, take note.  On Saturday, the University of Kentucky (famous for "Go Big Blue") wore grey uniforms for at least the second time this year.  On Senior Day.  I like them, don't get me wrong, but it's just a different thing, that's all.  On the same day, Oklahoma, whose uniforms had changed little in many, MANY years, wore white helmets.  Probably not the first time, either.  Arizona State University wore "anthracite" (dark grey to most of us) with cop...

Good morning from the Bluegrass State! I used the above title because today, of course, is Election Day in many parts of the country, my home state of Kentucky included.  And Kentucky takes its politics seriously.  There's a little Catholic church in western Kentucky in a place called Fancy Farm that apparently invited a political candidate or two to speak some years ago, and now that event, which is simply referred to as "Fancy Farm," is heavily attended by just about anyone running in a statewide race. This year was no exception, as veteran Republican U.S. Senator (and Senate "important guy") Mitch McConnell is running for another term.  His primary opponent (there is at least one "minor" party candidate in the race) is the current Secretary of State, Alison Lundergan Grimes.  The maiden name is important, as her father, Jerry Lundergan, has been a major player in Kentucky Democratic politics since I was a kid.  He and his family operate a major ...

Good Monday morning, campers!  It was a beautiful weekend here in central Kentucky. The great weather began around Thursday and was spectacular all the way through to today.  Fall is indeed here, with just a little cool in the air.  Gonna be cooler still later in the week, they tell me. Today's post is so titled because I spent a couple of hours on my roof yesterday.  No, I haven't gone completely around the bend, I just needed to finish a project I started last weekend.  I don't like to paint, which I think I have adequately documented here previously, but I can do it and do a decent job of it.  Home ownership these past 25+ years has made me develop at least tolerable skills in this area (and others, of course), and I'm not about to spent $1000 for someone to do what I can do passably myself. So this painting project was the exterior trim.  Didn't need to paint the garage or entry doors, I had done those in the last couple of years.  No, we'...

Good morning, all.  A slight detour from my normal slice-of-life diatribes.  This morning my treatise concerns villains from movies and books. Why are we fascinated with villains?  Is it because we secretly wish that we could act that way, with no real consequences?  Or is it because we know that most, if not all, of the time, the good guys win out in the end of a movie or book? I don't know, but I find many "bad guys" from movies to be most interesting, possibly the MOST interesting character in a given work.  Without further introduction, and in no particular order, here are some of the villains I've found compelling in various movies and other sources: Sir Laurence Olivier enjoyed a long and distinguished career in acting on stage and screen, but may be known best to people in my demographic for playing the Nazi war criminal Christian Szell in the '70's thriller "Marathon Man."  The plot is somewhat difficult to explain quickly, but in it Du...

It's a rainy Tuesday afternoon here in central Kentucky today.  Hope the weather is a little more agreeable wherever you're reading this. Working my first all-office day for some time.  Somehow I thought this would be more common when I moved into yet another work-from-home position, but given staffing changes, ever-changing client expectations and, well, an endless pile of things to be done, it has not happened much.  Hopefully this is the beginning of a trend! Yesterday I was in the hills of eastern Kentucky for a meeting in Martin.  This is a small community in Floyd County, for those keeping score, but I have client locations based there.  It's a pretty drive from Lexington to Martin and yesterday was no exception, as there are many wooded areas along the hills en route to that part of the state and many of the trees have begun to blaze into fall colors Ironically, my wife and I spent most of three days in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains in ...