New Shoes in the Rain

Good morning to all.  I'm still a bit off my regular schedule (did I even have a schedule?) of posting because of a lot of recent days of travel.  So allow me to share a few stray thoughts this morning. The political landscape continues to become stranger and stranger.  Jeb Bush, the presumed Republican presidential nominee about a year ago, dropped out of the race (they all appear to use the word "suspended" in order to continue to have access to campaign funds to settle accounts) after another dismal finish in South Carolina.  Donald Trump continues to build on his lead in the delegate count as well as in the polls with his win there.  And Ted Cruz yesterday fired a top campaign aide for what was characterized as a dirty trick against Marco Rubio, but from what I read, the aide actually apologized to Rubio for an error before being fired. I suppose that the Democratic race is less strange, only because there are only two candidates there and one is named C...

Greetings, friends.  Late afternoon post today, as I had some time and a couple of odd things on my mind... Presidential candidate and Senator Marco Rubio got himself into some hot water during a debate Saturday night by repeating a portion of his stump speech in response to a question....three separate times. This made him look as though he cannot think on his feet, which he may or may not be able to do. But what really got to me is the wording of his "rehearsed" comments, in which he said that it was time to "dispel with the notion that...." Why did that bother me?  Well, if you look up the word "dispel," it means to "make disappear."  So one would "dispel a notion," not "dispel with a notion."  Not a big deal to most, but if one aspires to be President and is no more erudite than that, who's to say what else is lacking?  And, to be fair, he may not have written the line, which makes it all the worse, as that would...

Greetings!  Reporting from inside (thank goodness) here in central Kentucky, where we're receiving an unusual mixture of rain, sleet, hail and snow today.  This is predicted to last until sometime tomorrow, which should make things interesting tomorrow, to say the least. We joined with most of America and watched Super Bowl 50 yesterday (no, I don't usually use the "number" of the game, but this one is a nice round figure).  We had too many snacks of varying types, prepared a very loosely structured taco bar, and had a good time.  And that was made better by a win by the Denver Broncos, who just two years ago had a terrible time of it against the Seattle Seahawks. This time the Broncos were the dominant team, smothering Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers and containing their very potent offense.  The Denver defense was so dominant, in fact, that the game's Most Valuable Player was a defensive player, havoc-creating linebacker Von Miller.  Peyton Manni...

Good midweek to all.  Hope your horse won in Iowa Monday night. For some reason, lately I've been thinking about computer software that I've used, loved, hated, dreaded and endured.  I'm 55, and have been dealing with computers in one way or another for over thirty years.  Mine was the first generation to be converted over to primarily using computers vs. manual methods of writing, typing, financial recording and other functions, and I began long enough ago that MS-DOS was the first operating system that I used. So let's review the recent history of the personal computer, and maybe I'll remind you of a program or two that will bring back some (hopefully) good memories. I mentioned having started out with MS-DOS.  The first really big program business embraced for that operating system was Lotus 1-2-3.  I encountered this in a sales job, and while it was the "killer app" that helped my company sell computer equipment, it always baffled me, as it used ...