New Shoes in the Rain

Good Wednesday morning, friends.  The rainy season continues here in central Kentucky.  Still. Today's diatribe addresses a variety of topics, loosely related in that they are all related to consumer goods or activities.  The idea for this post came from a business function I attended last week.  At that event I wound up sitting with a couple of people I knew pretty well and others I didn't, but we turned somehow to the subject of restaurants in our home area that have either closed recently or appear to be on the verge of doing so. The conversation started with someone commenting that "they're finally getting started building that Chick-Fil-A that replaced that old Applebee's."  Therein is one of the issues---that some food chains are going great guns, while others have fallen on hard times.  Applebee's locations have been closing in significant numbers in our area, and while that is rather meaningless to me (never was a fan), this changes the dining ...

This is not designed to be an update or rebuttal to January's "State of the Union" address. But the flurry of news items, information, accusations and leaks to the media make it almost impossible to read or watch news for any length of time without being exposed to the all-consuming subject of the Trump Administration and the campaign that preceded it. It's not enough that an investigation about the Trump campaign and potential association with Russians (and other bad actors) who wished to influence the outcome of the 2016 election began BEFORE THIS PRESIDENT EVEN TOOK OFFICE.... It's not enough that, in addition to somewhere around twenty women who accused this man of sexual misconduct of varying types prior to the election, we have since learned of at least two women who were paid to maintain their silence.... It's not enough that this president appointed two avowed opponents of protecting our environment and natural resources are currently in charge...

Good morning, friends.  I wish that I could say that spring has sprung here in central Kentucky, but, wouldn't you know it, we had another touch of snow last night!  But warmer days are ahead here, at least until it cools off again.  Mother Nature seems to have a sense of humor, at least. The baseball gods apparently do not, however, as the Cincinnati Reds finally had a complete game, with good pitching, decent fielding and timely hitting Saturday night, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates on a cold night in western Pennsylvania.  Then yesterday these things happened: They allowed five runs They managed ONE hit, and that was by their starting pitcher They lost their third baseman, Eugenio Suarez (who hit a go-ahead three-run home run Saturday night) to an injury, as he was hit by a pitch and fractured his right thumb And they lost If you follow the Reds at all you're bound to agree with me that we've seen this movie before.  Hoping the ending is different ...

It's supposed to be springtime, right?  The calendar says so.  Easter and Passover were just celebrated.    But this morning it's 35 degrees here in my home area. This is why our grandmothers used to warn not to plant anything, ANYTHING, until Mother's Day! Since spring appeared on the calendar we here in central Kentucky have seen rain, snow, high winds and a mixture of all of the above.  That's probably pretty normal, actually, but it's no less jarring. So we continue to watch the weather to have some earthly idea of how to dress day by day! The Reds were in a bit of a pickle last Wednesday.  They were scheduled to open their season Thursday afternoon, and the weather forecast predicted 100% chance of rain.  So instead of trying to play the game in conditions miserable for players and spectators alike, they simply postponed the game until Friday, when there was an open date on the schedule, and although the team lost to Washington, the game a...

It's Monday.  A good bit has happened since our last visit..... Saturday brought us the March for our Lives in some 800 locations throughout the U.S. and around the world.  About 1,000 people marched here in Lexington, and, of course, the largest gathering was estimated to be 800,000 in Washington, D.C.  Ironic that both President Trump and members of Congress were not in town when this occurred. I watched some of the coverage and many of the speeches, but was most taken by Emma Gonzalez and her speech.  If you're not familiar with her by name, Emma is the young woman who wears a buzz cut and has become one of the primary faces of the movement she and her classmates from Parkland began.  Emma's speech was deliberately punctuated by a period of silence to ensure that the entire length of her appearance was equal to the amount of time that the shooter roamed the halls of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine's Day.  To see that girl standing b...

Good Tuesday morning.  Here we are, just a couple of days from the calendar indicating that it's springtime, and my home area is under a winter weather advisory! I suppose this would explain why my wife, who loves being outside, is adamant about not planting anything until Mother's Day, which she considers the absolute first safe point to plant anything new.  She's been proven right more times than I can remember, too. So there are a lot of names in the news right now, not all of them for the right or best reasons, but many of them are people from whom we need to hear things, recollections of things that have already happened, plans of what they plan to do next, and so forth.  I doubt this is anything close to a complete list with respect to the news of the day, either. THE NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT SELECTION COMMITTEE:  These folks have really done something I didn't see coming--they've created an upset-filled free-for-all with this year's vers...

Good morning to you, from foggy central Kentucky.  We had a quick reminder that spring has not yet arrived here Sunday night, as we awoke to around five inches of snow here in our home area. Before leaving for some work in the field, I shoveled our driveway, weighing out whether or not I should.  A friend confided upon hearing my dilemma that I should have opted for what meant less work, but I persisted.  Turns out I could have left it exactly as it was and it would have melted, as the driveways of our neighbors were untouched. Oh, well, I needed the exercise. This is always an unpredictable time of year in our area.  I have probably mentioned before our plans to take the family to Florida on spring break, which one year was the first week of April.  We woke up to find that we had received four inches of snow, totally unpredicted.  That made for an interesting trip south. I have to say that I'm more than a little pleased with myself in that I recent...