New Shoes in the Rain

Good morning….do you ever feel that other drivers have forgotten everything they learned when they were taught how to drive? As someone who logs a lot of highway miles and is in a lot of different cities throughout the Midwest each month, I think that remedial driver training might be an idea whose time has come. I think we’re all much more distracted now than we were ten or fifteen years ago.  And I say “we” because I catch myself doing things that I know are not quite right, but do them anyway.  Here are a few of the common offenses I observe and occasionally commit: THE ROLLING STOP:  This is most common, we approach a stop sign, see that no other car is coming from any other direction, and we proceed through the intersection without stopping.  I complain about this, but at times am just as guilty as anyone.  Yes, the coast is clear, but that’s now how this should work! RUNNING YELLOW LIGHTS:  Same principle, if I can get through that light while it’s ye...

My wife and I accompanied our son and his family of five to Cincinnati last weekend to celebrate his milestone birthday (too hard to find an evening at home to do it, everyone had soccer and hockey practices!) and to attend some youth sports contests that our youngest granddaughter and younger grandson would be involved in. As I looked around the table at dinner Friday night (at a great rib place that is renowned in Cincinnati dining circles) I could not help but be delighted, as always, to be with a large portion of our nuclear family (our kids and their families, simply put).  Everyone was smiling and happy that we were together for a nice meal and a wonderful occasion. My grandson beat me to a trick I pull on him regularly, offering me a French fry for “quality control purposes” before I could ask.  The younger granddaughter present was beaming because she was sitting between our son and my wife, two of her favorite people in all of the world.  She tolerates me most of...

Good Sunday to all.  Hope you're having a great weekend! It was reported today that our President is pausing military action in Iran at the request of other countries in the region who have developed what has been described as a framework for an end to our ongoing conflict with the Iranian state.  Lucky for the President that he then had time to participate in another club championship at one of his golf clubs today. That seems the nature of this presidency:  start something, become bored or mired in indecision, and move on to something else.  The ICE raids would fall into that category, as would all of this nonsense about Greenland and Venezuela.  Tariffs come and go.  He continued to contend that the word "affordability" did not exist until invented by the Democrats.  And he appears to be accepting the fact that his acting Attorney General will not be confirmed, so he'll just leave him in place as the "acting" AG. But let's give credit where due, as ...

Good Sunday to all.  Hope you're having a good weekend! I'm having a GREAT weekend, because I began a ten day vacation Friday evening at the end of the work day!  No plans, no overnight travels, just whatever my wife and I decide to do with the time.  Just needed a break from work and schedules and the like. I don't often post on Sunday but was thinking about this subject, broad though it is, recently.  As I drove home from my marketing visits to some hospitals and clinics on Thursday, I decided to listen to some of Harry Chapin's music.  If you're not familiar with Harry, he was known for his "story" songs, many of which were too long for popular radio.  Among them was a song simply called "Taxi, and I played that first.  Found myself becoming emotional while listening to it, so I wiped my eyes and paused to find something else among Mr. Chapin's work.  Landed on another story song, "A Better Place to Be."  Same thing, was just a wreck ...

  Good day, friends.  Hope you had a good weekend, and that if your father is still among us, you had the chance to at least call him or better yet visit! Thinking about a few things during my travels for work and just in general as well.     I will not dwell on what’s happened with the current presidential administration since our last visit here, mostly because there’s not a lot any of us can do about it, but also because we all know it’s something we will endure and eventually move past. So here are some of the things that have crossed my mind recently…… I think it may be time for public parking lots to have separate areas for pickup trucks and large SUVs.  I drive a mid-size SUV so I can park about anywhere, but get awfully tired of watching these concrete cowboys (and -girls, to be sure) take two or three passes at parking their behemoth vehicles by backing in.  And then being challenged in leaving their chosen spot. I also thi...

Good morning, friends.  Hope you’re having a stellar weekend and that the weather is good where you are! I can say that after a good stretch of rain that we’re having that good weather I mentioned.  Breezy with low humidity.  Could not ask for better. Today’s title refers to what is happening regarding a prospectively large event in our nation’s capital sometime in June.  It’s nominally a celebration of our country’s 250th anniversary, but it’s also meant as a birthday celebration of the current occupant of the White House. A number of musical performers were apparently booked for this extravaganza, but one by one most of them realized what the intent of the event was and decided to rescind their acceptance of the invite to perform.  Unless I’m missing something, none of those who pulled out in the past few days is what I would call an A-lister but there were some recognizable names in that list. In the end, all decided they did not want to be associated with an...