New Shoes in the Rain

Good Thursday morning.  Writing this morning from the road, where I have marketing activities to attend to today and tomorrow! Unless you are totally against knowing anything about sports or politics, you likely know by now that the U.S. women’s and men’s Olympic hockey teams both won gold medals at the recently completed games in Milan and Cortina, Italy.  Both squads defeated their Canadian counterparts in overtime to win their medals, with the women achieving their win a few days before the men. But you may not know that FBI Director Kash Patel managed to be at the men’s gold medal game and then found his way into the locker room just in time for the team’s celebration following their victory.  There is video and photos of him celebrating and chugging beers with the players, whom he claims invited him to join in.  Then, as if by magic, Patel’s cellphone rang and it was the President, wishing to use the occasion to congratulate the team via a poor speakerphone conn...

Feeling pretty irritated this afternoon, everyone. Had a negative experience while attending my grandson's junior varsity hockey game last night here in Lexington.  Here's the lowdown, and no real names are included. I’ve watched Lexington teams play against Louisville teams for a long time, and it seems that the Louisville players always approach these games with more desire not just to win, but to humiliate their opponents from Lexington.  Last night’s game between my grandson's junior varsity hockey team was tied 1-1 and there had been numerous penalties against both teams.  Midway through the second period one of our players was at our defensive blue line with the puck and a Louisville player met him there, banged him pretty hard and took the puck.  Our player responded in kind and the next thing you know, three Louisville players were on top of him.  He fought his way out from under them and play was stopped, because you know there were going to be penaltie...

Good Monday morning to you.  If you live in the middle of the US (north to south, that is), then you probably have something akin to what we have here in Kentucky.  Saturday we received six to seven inches of snow, which was followed by warming temps and freezing rain and sleet.  We then received more snow yesterday, and it's snowing now.  State officials are asking everyone to stay off the roads for non-emergency travel through today, at least, so I'm working at home today. And that's not so bad.  I can accomplish quite a bit without leaving my home location.  During the COVID lockdown I was very surprised that I was not furloughed until we had a better opportunity to get out and market directly to referral sources, but I was kept on board for the duration of that work limitation.  And we did a lot of creative things to use our time well.  We called other businesses for supplies we were having difficulty locating for our behavioral health facilit...

Good morning and happy new year!  I hope that you and yours have had a wonderful holiday season! Hello to those who find this space through Threads or Instagram.  Appreciate everyone's visits here and thank you for stopping by! I don't have anything deep or philosophical to offer this morning.  Like you, I experienced some highs and semi-lows during 2025 but am optimistic about what 2026 will bring. So allow me to conclude this brief post with something I sent to a friend this morning: Happy new year!  Grateful to begin this year with old and new friends,  and looking forward to the other new experiences that we know it will bring!  Challenges, yes.  Rewards, of course.  Happiness and joy, we hope so!  As someone who had serious health issues in the past, I am grateful to still be here and look forward to continuing to embrace every day as another opportunity! I wish you and those close to you a very happy new year!  

Happy Friday, everyone!  And not only is the weekend upon us, but Christmas is now less than a week away!  Are you ready? Have you shopped for those you love, hoping to find the perfect gift? I am receiving a grand present again this year, as I will be off work from Christmas Eve until January 5.  I have no concrete plans other than to have fun, enjoy my family, and not travel for work!  I think I've earned it! I don't know about any of you who's stopped by to read today's comments, but I think we're actually doing a little more for Christmas than we sometimes do.  I keep telling my wife that when I finally retire from full-time work (whenever that will actually be) that we'll need to scale back a little at Christmas.  That's true, but for now, it's less of a concern.  So we're being as generous as our means allow in advance of that adjustment. And for those who've raised kids, as my wife and I have, the old adage remains true, that kids are hard...

Happy Monday, everyone.  Had a hectic weekend of hockey, yard work and a choral performance by our middle granddaughter last night.  I've been thinking a lot, as many others have, about the state of things in this country and where we can and should and must go from here.  The question is "how?" I say that because we're right at a year from the Congressional midterm elections, which will most likely shift the balance of power away from Republicans.  But that's a long time to keep stacking one misery onto another for that period. And remember, the end of the federal government shutdown is only temporary, we get to endure this same process in January! So I think the "how" has to be one thing: We the People! My granddaughter's chorale performance was with a youth orchestra and their finale was a premiere performance of a lengthy piece with that title.  Stirring and patriotic. But the answer was in that title.  We all keep saying that Congress needs to d...