New Shoes in the Rain

When my wife and I purchased our current house, we traded a somewhat rural environment for a more urban one.  That is to say, our old house was in a development about five miles from Lexington, and we now live within the city of Lexington itself. We wanted to live in the city, as that put us both closer to our jobs and a lot of other things we needed or wanted to have nearby, like shopping, dining, etc.  We also bought a newer house, which we felt would give us some advantages in the way of maintenance upkeep costs.  And we were also glad to be connected to a central sanitary sewer system, instead of the septic tank and field drain bed setup we had at our previous home. But one thing we did NOT count on was insects.  Bugs.  And I don’t mean your garden variety flies or mosquitoes or even bees and wasps.  No, I’m talking about all kinds of critters that we had never seen in our years in the country, near a farm.  These...

I’m dating myself with this, but there was a modestly popular song back in the early to mid-70’s by a journeyman country singer/songwriter named Tom T. Hall by the name that today’s post also bears.  His tune went through a list of what he liked about his life and life in general, and each verse ended with “and I love you, too.”  All very nice. Driving to work one morning this week, that tune popped into my head, and I thought, how great would it be if we ALL took a few minutes to think about the aspects of our lives that are good and positive and uplifting….people and things and circumstances that we LOVE.  So here goes, without an effort to rhyme or set to music: I love: My wife My kids Their families, but especially THEIR kids My friends (well, some of them, anyway) Baseball Cincinnati Reds baseball Golf (playing more than watching) University of Kentucky basketball and football Movies (my tastes are well d...

Friends, I kind of went back to the future today.  Concluding my third week in my new position, which is office-based, but since last Friday our office was like a ghost town, with virtually everyone deciding to work from home, I gained permission to do the same. And it's just a little strange to be back here at home, in my home based office that I occupied for ten years.  New job yet so familiar.  Lucky that it's not entirely foreign to me, I suppose! Enough of that.  Lots going on in the world that warrants comment. My heart truly goes out to the people of Egypt.  Whichever side of the dispute you come down on, and I frankly can't quite decide who's right and who's wrong, you have to feel for a nation that by all outward appearances is tearing itself to shreds.  Death, extensive injuries, complete chaos and not much in the way of order is no way for anyone to live. I also have been astounded, as I always am, at the heroism of the brave men and wome...

If you are a regular visitor to this little corner of the World Wide Web (does anyone actually call it that anymore, and MEAN it?), you know that I was recently displaced by my former company and was about to start a new job with a different, larger organization.  I’m nearing the end of my second week and thought I’d share some observations about my new company and my role within it: First, and probably most obviously, is that after ten years of working from a home-based office, I’m now back in an office environment the majority of the time (that is, when I’m not traveling, and as a newbie, I’m not traveling at all yet.  When I worked at home, I had a routine that was a little unorthodox, but since there was no one present to arbitrate my schedule, I could do as I needed to do.  Now, I come to an office, where it’s not that rigid, but it’s a place outside of my home, so that’s an adjustment.  And it’s twenty or so minutes from my home, so I had...