New Shoes in the Rain

I've been on the road again, as the song goes, but neither of my most recent trips left me feeling much like singing, between what happened to and from my destinations and what occurred while I was on the ground.  I travel frequently for my work, as I've noted here previously, so I expect some bumps and bruises (literally and figuratively) along the way.  But the last two weeks have been a little moreso than usual, even.  Here's a sampling of what's given me pause recently..... Weather.  I know, I don't live in Philadelphia or Boston or New York or another very hard-hit city in the Northeast.  I live and travel primarily through the Southeastern US.  But make no mistake...if Atlanta is part of your travel plans during this time of year, you MUST expect delays, hiccups and other problems.  Two weeks ago I had a two day trip....two flight legs to my destination, two to return home.  All four experienced delays of some sort.  And while weather...

Nothing in particular today.... A very good friend wrote to tell me that "the rat guy" has now visited her home FOUR times to remove dead rats from her premises.  Honestly, can you imagine how you'd feel if you learned that rats were dying in your basement/attic/crawlspace?  Hmmmm..... OK, now that I've repulsed you, that's my last gross-out reference....for this post, anyway. After a pretty nasty respiratory infection AND the afore-mentioned kidney stone (see my last post if you dare), finally feeling good enough to function normally.  Realized this morning that it had been almost a month(!) since I mounted my treadmill for a workout.  Shame, shame! I was very, VERY happy that the New York Jets took care of business and defeated the odious New England Patriots last weekend.  Not a big fan of Bill Belichick, or, for that matter, anyone who so clearly feels he is completely superior to, well, everyone else.  Our gang is already talking about Super Bo...

Not a long period of time, but there was an 84 hour period that I just experienced that seemed like an eternity.  Let me explain.... I left Wednesday morning at 10:30 AM for Birmingham, Alabama for a mixed trip.  Business Wednesday night and Thursday, leisure Friday and Kentucky football Saturday.  I was fighting a pretty bad cold (or upper respiratory infection, possibly) but was coping.  Trip went well, and I had a nice visit over dinner with the sales rep who handles Alabama for my company.  So far, so good. In the middle of the night I was awakened by searing pain in the upper right side of my back.  After waking completely up, I knew the cause.....a kidney stone.  I had one about three and a half years ago, and it's pretty hard to forget.  Took some over-the-counter pain reliever, but that didn't even touch the pain.  So I dressed and went the front desk of the hotel to ask where the nearest hospital was.  Thankfully it wasn't f...

Just back to the daily grind after being off from work since December 23.  This is a slow time of year in my industry, but I still had a bit of catching up to do when I gritted my teeth and downloaded my E-mail this morning. And my wife and I have been fighting colds or something like them for about the last week.  What fun!  And this was while our daughter and her two kids (a very active five-year-old girl and a boy who's fourteen months old) were visiting over the holidays!  Fortunately, no one contracted major diseases during this period, although my wife and I were both left to contemplate never, EVER feeling better! About the biggest problem with my infirmity was that it prevented me from helping our son gut his kitchen over the weekend.  Mind you, I have virtually no construction skills, but, dammit, I can tear stuff up with the best of them!  And because he started on the day we took his sister and her kids to Cincinnati to the airport to fly bac...