New Shoes in the Rain

Good Friday morning, friends....after a stormy night, the sun is shining here in central Kentucky, but it's going to be another hot day.  It IS summer, after all... Just a couple of things to mention today.  I don't think I managed to bring this forward, but I upgraded my cellphone recently and am now the owner of an Apple iPhone 6 Plus.  In case you're been out of contact with the tech world for the last few months, that's Apple's answer to the "phablet" that had been introduced by Samsung, LG and other cellphone makers.  Much larger than a standard smartphone, but not quite as big as a small tablet.  I had been thinking about this for a while and decided to give it a try, knowing that I could return it if needed. I've had it for two weeks now, and like it very much.  My wife helped me look for protective cases and together with the electronics store rep who handled my transaction we found a transparent soft-touch cover that is nice and grippy but...

It's Monday once again, friends, so I hope everyone had a good weekend.  And if your dad is still with us, I hope you had the chance to visit with him for Father's Day! I had a great Father's Day weekend, thanks.  I didn't play golf for the first weekend in the past four, but my back and psyche probably appreciated the break.  But I did take in a Reds game in Cincinnati with my son (the only one of the three this weekend that they lost, but that matters less than the stellar company).  And my wife and I joined him and his family late yesterday for a carryout picnic of chicken wings and fixings that was very good. The evening was punctuated by some of the U.S. Open golf championship, which was played in the Pacific Northwest for the first time and televised (also for the first time) by Fox in prime time.  The leaders going into the final round didn't tee off until 6:00 PM Eastern, so that way the entire round could be viewed by the majority of the country on ...

Good morning from central Kentucky, where we're in the midst of some Hurricane Bill powered rain and severe weather. This is always an interesting phenomenon when we here in Kentucky, this far inland, feel the effects of a hurricane or tropical storm.  But that's what's going on weather-wise here.  Yesterday I had an office day at home, except for a trip out for two errands and lunch with a pal, and noticed three different instances where rain seemed imminent.  It only rained once where I live, but that was a pretty substantial downpour. And I have to get in the car in about an hour for a trip south to see two clients.  Crossing my fingers..... My most sincere sympathies to those affected by the church shootings in Charleston, SC.  It just depresses me so when I see what we humans are doing to one another yet again.  Coincidentally, I managed to watch "Schindler's List" again recently in several installments.  My wife is often surprised that I've...

Summer has not yet come to central Kentucky, at least not officially, but judging by the thermometer over the weekend, it's gonna be a long, HOT summer! I had a good weekend despite the temperatures, and hope that you did, too. My weekend began by driving back from a most-of-the-day work meeting in Louisville (a little more than an hour away, for those unfamiliar).  There is a great deal of road construction in the downtown area there, and, as you'd expect, paving and other less involved projects along the path from and to Lexington.  But I managed to sail through all of it without delays and made it home early enough to watch the Cincinnati Reds win in Chicago against the Cubs. The following morning began a little early, as I met friends for breakfast and then proceeded to Garrard County, the home of the Peninsula Golf Resort.  This consists of what was once a very nice and challenging golf course, designed by the legendary Pete Dye, and now villas for travelers to...

It's Monday, friends, so here we are again.  Kind of a habit, isn't it?  But hopefully not a bad one, as it certainly isn't for me. Permit me to begin by stating emphatically that this is a Duggar- and Jenner/Kardashian-free zone.  Since there's so much out there on those subjects collectively, my input would only be redundant at this point. If you'll recall, I believe I had touched on the frustration that we've experienced over these past few weeks with Time Warner Cable, our local cable TV provider.  Note that here in Kentucky each geographic area is awarded a single cable TV "franchise," and Time Warner and its forerunners under previous ownership (Telecable, TCI, Insight, et. al.) have held said franchise for as long as I can remember.  So it's not possible to simply switch to another cable provider, although satellite is available from multiple vendors, or I could just do without channels beyond the normal broadcast options. Anyway, to r...

Good Thursday to all.  Today's entry is a product of a slow week at work--no outside meetings, only a handful of mind-numbing conference calls to endure.  So I've had some time to myself, which has been nice for a change. I read with some interest about Google Photos, a service from the online search giant that was apparently a part of their Google Plus social network program (which by all accounts was not that successful) but is now a standalone.  Per the items I've read from trustworthy sources, this service will allow users to upload all of their collected photos to an online storage repository, and view them from any device, as well as add additional photos easily and seamlessly.  There's already a Google Photos app available for the iPhone and iPad, and I'm sure there is also one for Android devices, too.   Since my library is somewhat more limited than either my son's or son-in-law's, I decided to see how it worked and yesterday afternoon I began u...

Good Monday to all....as a comedian once said, I'm glad the weekend is over.  I couldn't take much more! My wife and I started the weekend with some ambitious plans, and accomplished virtually everything we intended, albeit a little differently than planned.  Let me explain... We began the weekend Friday night by attending a minor league baseball game with our grandson, his family and a couple of teammates from his Wee Ball team.  It was league night, and there were a number of teams represented there.  A big win by the home team and fireworks afterward assured a good time for all! Saturday morning we had some breakfast and went to our grandson's game, which went fine.  From there, our plan had us going back to the garden center to buy what we planned to put in our front yard to finish out the bare place right in front of the house.  I decided to mow first, and then proceeded to begin the task of breaking up the ground with a mattock, a sort of pick-a...