New Shoes in the Rain

Friends, I come before you with a few tales of good old fashioned American commerce, and the individual needs and wants of a specific customer--me. I sometimes use this space for venting purposes, but sometimes I don't manage to convey when something has been resolved or at least addressed to a point of mutual satisfaction, so allow me to relate at least one example of this. So here's one that turned out well.  About three weeks ago, I recognized that I needed auto service.  Nothing major, just the usual oil change and tire rotation.  The stuff that if you do it regularly, you prevent problems down the road.  Rarely an issue beyond the time investment needed to take care of it.  We have dealt with a regional chain of tire and auto repair shops for a number of years, so I went to the nearest location to our house.  They were full up, so I went across town to one close to an appointment I had later.  They worked me in, and appeared to take care of my...

Greetings...as I have shared in this space, I'm making my way through the masterful Ken Burns "Baseball" miniseries (my version of spring training, as I quipped to a friend recently).  Watching that, I'm struck by one of the lost aspects of sports--player nicknames. The great George Herman "Babe" Ruth, possibly the most famous baseball player to ever live, had MANY nicknames, in addition to the name by which most know him: Bambino Sultan of Swat Wazzir of Wham Caleph of Clout Behemoth of Bust and more His New York Yankee teammate, the durable and underrated Lou Gehrig, was nicknamed "The Iron Horse," owing to his consecutive game streak that was broken a few years ago by Cal Ripken, Jr.  And Cal had no nickname that I know of. Another Yankee, Joe DiMaggio, was known alternately as "Joltin' Joe" or the "Yankee Clipper."  National League slugger Jimmy Foxx was known simply as "Double X," and Rogers Horns...

Greetings, all.  I don't usually post on Sundays, but opportunity knocked this morning, so to speak. Was thinking not about people who have faded from everyday sight, but rather some products that I (and most likely a number of others) formerly used, when they were readily available.  As quickly as consumer products arrive on the scene and store shelves, they appear to disappear just that fast.  So here are some such items that fit that description. First up--a childhood snackfood and breakfast favorite--Concord grape Pop-Tarts, by Kellogg's.  When I was a kid we didn't eat much cereal at our house (I didn't and still don't drink milk, so that was a big holdup); in fact, breakfast was kind of a foreign concept in our family, except on weekends, when time allowed preparation of something pretty good.  So packaged stuff was about the only breakfast to be had during weekdays.  And we liked Pop-Tarts, and I can almost remember when they were first introduce...

Good Monday morning.  What's good about a Monday, you ask?  It's gonna be over 70 degrees here in central Kentucky today! Washed the accumulated salt, filth, grime and other corrupting influences from my car's exterior yesterday, which must be an expression of my confidence that the worst of winter is most likely behind us.  Our usual car wash is closed on Sundays, so we considered a couple of alternatives and wound up at one we hadn't used before.  Good result, a little less expensive for the full-tilt exterior wash (we keep up the interior ourselves) than the norm and hand dried by a very polite young woman who thanked us for turning off the car while she did her thing! The weather was similar yesterday, mid 60's and sunny, so I seized the opportunity that the great weather provided and overseeded and fertilized my yard.  Now I'll have to water it, which seems counterintuitive, given all of the water that soaked in with the rain and snow melt. And my wif...

Good morning, folks.  Hope that the week is going well wherever you are! I don't think I'm in the minority when I state that I have had a difficult time adjusting to our "new" time, with Daylight Saving Time going into effect over the weekend.  Had significant difficulty sleeping the first couple of nights, and have had a couple of especially busy workdays since.  I slept better last night, so I'm hopeful that my biorhythms are getting into sync. Unless you're totally disinterested in sports, you likely know that the University of Kentucky men's basketball team just completed their regular season undefeated.  That's quite an accomplishment in this day and age, since television contracts demand that major college sports be played on odd days and at unusual hours.  Plus, the Southeastern Conference is a lot bigger geographically than it used to be, having now included schools from Texas and Missouri.  Next step for the Cats is a trip to Nashville for...

It's the day after round two here in central Kentucky, folks.  We had an official snowfall amount of 13 inches of snow.  Or 11.  Or 14, depending on who is asked for the info. Doesn't matter, that's a LOT of snow, any way you stack it up.  So once again, central Kentucky is virtually paralyzed.  But that's OK with me, at least for the moment! I was really in a quandary earlier in the week.  I had the misfortune of back-to-back trips this week, first to Martin, in southeastern Kentucky, and then to London and the surrounding area, which is closer to directly south of Lexington.  My Martin trip was a day trip, and I was able to get there and back without any issues.  I encountered some rain, but instead of the cold temperatures we've been experiencing, it reached 60 degrees on that day.  So the roads were messy from the melting of what was left of the snow, but that was about it. The next day I left for London and an overnight stay there....