New Shoes in the Rain

How about those Cats? To the uninitiated, I'm referring to the University of Kentucky Wildcats, who are putting together a memorable football season AND are off to a most entertaining start to their new basketball coach's tenure! Let's first address the basketball Cats, as most folks around the country know Kentucky for basketball first and foremost. New coach John Calipari has done everything right to restore the confidence and enthusiasm of their massive worldwide fan base since being hired last spring, and now that all of the public relations are in place it's time to play basketball! Coach Cal has assembled a great group of recruits, including uber-recruit John Wall and blue-chippers Eric Bledsoe, Daniel Orton and DeMarcus Cousins and they join returning stars Patrick Patterson and Darius Miller. They've played several games, won them all (although one or two were closer than expected) and have displayed brilliance balanced with the need for development thus ...

Since I travel quite frequently for my work, trips are pretty much old hat for me. But I'm on the way home from one of the more interesting trips I've taken in a while. Before I elaborate, note that I'm writing this entry while using a free sample signin for Delta's onboard GoGo Wi-Fi service. Cool, yes? Anyway, the primary thing that made this trip different is that my wife was already at our destination for a week before me. This was due to the arrival of our handsome new grandson, and my wife had been helping care for the little guy and his mom AND his big sister for the week before I joined the fun last Sunday. As anyone who travels will attest, the time zone difference always presents some challenges. Making it worse is my stubborn habit of NOT changing my watch when visiting far-off lands such as Colorado or Arizona. This is largely because I need to stay abreast of what time it is when I call home, and because my sleep pattern and my stomach don't recog...

This is going to be one of those catch-all posts where it's not really about anything in specific (is it ever, though?). I just traveled yesterday to the Denver area to meet my new grandson, and he's exactly as advertised! A very healthy, happy baby, doesn't make a lot of fuss and is very cute indeed. Can't decide which of his parents he most closely resembles, but in my limited experience with grandchildren, that perception continues to change over time. OK, then..... As I went to the security line of my local airport yesterday, I noted that there were five foreign women ahead of me and all apparently finding some difficulty with the language barrier. Along with that, all of them had more carry-on luggage than is customarily allowed, and to my utter astonishment, all of them had two laptop computers per person. Frankly, I cannot imagine why one would need two separate computers, but I'm sure it all made sense to them. All made it through the security checkpoin...