New Shoes in the Rain

Writing a brief post this morning, as the flooring crew is in day two of installing hardwoods in our main living space.  We managed to get through the vinyl installation on Tuesday and are very happy with the outcome! But that job was not without incident.  In their efforts to wrap things up after a long day, the installation crew that handled our vinyl did not replace the drain hose for our washer, and when my wife went to wash a load of clothes (having to first tell me that they must not have turned the water on) we had a bit of a flood on our hands!  Nothing that a shop vac and some towels could not handle, but it was still a mess.  And then we determined that the hoses were connected backwards, hot connected to cold, and vice versa.  So that's the only downside so far, and since the flooring that was affected by the excess water was being replaced anyway, no problem for us. But it's been interesting these last couple of days.  I spent some time movi...

Greetings from Lexington, where the air temperature this morning is a balmy 5 degrees.  We've had a reprieve recently, but back into the freezer Sunday night.  The forecast says that it will warm up a little bit over the next few days. But we all know that weather forecasts can be incorrect, as weather systems move in different directions and a different speed than might have been originally anticipated.  And all of the computer models in the world don't replace looking out the window to see what's coming a bit later. Case in point--my home area was in the path of weather that on Saturday was predicted to deliver seven to twelve more inches of snow, preceded by a wintry mix of snow, sleet and rain.  Instead, and most thankfully, we only got about an inch of snow, but more rain.  I assume this occurred because temperatures were warmer here than predicted.  No matter, we certainly didn't need more snow, after ten-plus inches last Monday and then a couple ...

Good morning from central Kentucky, where we just got another couple of inches of snow, on top of the 10 1/2 inches that fell on Monday.  I shouldn't complain, because we're not in the same position as our friends in Boston, for example, who are closing in on 100 inches for the season.  Honestly, if that happened here, I'm not sure there'd be many folks left here who could stand it, given how poorly our region handles even a little snow. So I am writing this before trudging out to shovel the latest of our bumper crop of snowfall.  The piles of shoveled snow are rather comical up and down our driveway and such.  For instance, today is allegedly trash day, so our cans are at the bottom of the driveway.  Not by the curb NEXT TO the driveway, because I simply could not get them up onto the snowpiles there. And it's supposed to be COLD here for the next several days.  Low temps below zero will be common during that period.  But, again, we're more fortun...

Good Monday morning from central Kentucky, where it's raining here.  Suppose it would be worse if it were snow.... It's award season, you know, and since we're all in the mood to recognize people for their creative accomplishments during this time of year, the Recording Academy gave out the majority of its annual awards last night, and my wife and I decided to tune in. A recent phenomenon has been the sometimes unexpectedly delightful but often unnecessary pairing of a "traditional" artist with a contemporary one.  Such was the case last night, wherein Paul McCartney performed with Rihanna and Kanye West, and Tom Jones sang "You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling" with Jessie J.  The latter pairing was interesting, but that's a difficult song for a man/woman duet anyway, although Jones was in fine voice.  The ads promising some of these pairings were enough to intrigue us into watching. The performer I was most interested to see with a younger...

Good Monday morning, all.  I write from eastern Kentucky, where I have just landed for a pit stop on my way to meetings further into the region.  It's cold, getting colder, and starting to snow here.  If I post again later it will be because I have been somehow stranded here! Despite not having a dog in the fight last night (more about dogs in a bit), my wife and I watched the Super Bowl last night.  You read right....no party this year, as our son and his brood have been circulating a respiratory ailment among the four of them.  So they stayed in, and so did we.  Not nearly as much fun as it often is.  We made chili, which was fitting for a cold, wet day and evening, and watched the game broadcast in hopes of seeing the dreaded New England Patriots get theirs and lose. No such luck.  Inexplicably, the Seattle Seahawks had the game in their grasp, called a different, riskier offensive play as the game was winding down, and committed a turnover...