New Shoes in the Rain

Good Thursday morning to all. Today I begin a new job, after a long, long, LONG period of exploration, research, application, interviewing, etc., etc., etc.  Very glad to return to full-time activity, and with a quality company as well! But before I leave the realm of the job-seekers, I'd just like to share some thoughts with those with whom I came into contact during this journey: To all of the prospective employers who made commitments of varying degrees without upholding any of them:  thank you for keeping me motivated.  The more this happened (and it seemed to have happened a lot over these past months), the more determined I became not to take anything except at face value.  To be fair, some of you wanted to hire me for your critical opening, but were overruled by your boss, or someone else in the organization who had a friend who also needed a job, and so on. But after a few instances of hearing that "the job is pretty much yours" and equally promising st...

I don't doubt that regular visitors to this space are well aware of my love for the game of baseball.  I am passionate about the game and its traditions and like to think of myself as a student of the game, too. These interests were magnified substantially when my son entered my life many years ago, as I met his mother and sister.  And as I've explained to my son over time, baseball is dynastic in nature, passed along from one generation to the next and the next.  And now that HE has a son, he sees that, too.  So it's been with a great deal of interest and pride that I have watched my now five-year-old grandson come to love and appreciate the game of baseball as well. As I believe I have also noted here, my son began night classes in law school some 80 miles away, commuting there three nights per week.  As it happens, he started these classes about the time that my grandson's fall T-ball season began, and those games were usually played on Tuesday, Wednesday...

Good Monday morning to all.  Trying to get back to my former habit of posting on Mondays.  I'm honestly not sure when that changed, but, anyway.... First and foremost, my career search has concluded successfully.  Since I don't routinely speak of work in this blog, I won't add a lot of specifics, except to say that I will be joining a well-respected regional company in a field pretty similar to my last twenty years of experience.  We have not established a start date, pending completion of a drug screening and criminal background check, but I would think I'll begin my new duties in the next couple of weeks. Hard to top that, but here goes.... Did you watch the presidential debate last night?  I watched with my wife and some other family members, and we all had this feeling that Donald Trump was going to walk up behind Hillary Clinton and slug her or something, given how close he got several times.  The "town hall" format is not my favorite, but at lea...

Happy Tuesday to all, if there is such a "thing."  Notice how people say "I didn't know it was a thing" or "don't make it a thing?"  I credit Aaron Sorkin and the writing staff of "The West Wing" for making "thing" a thing. Ahem. There have been a lot of transitions since my last post, so here's my take on several of them. As most everyone knows, the legendary golfer Arnold Palmer passed away a little more than a week ago at the age of 87.  I was very sad that he was gone, but he left us with so many vivid and positive memories.  He was Everyman on the golf course, hitching up his pants to attempt an impossible shot that often worked during his prime years.  He was definitely a man of the people, and his management company (which was an innovation in its day) did an effective job of marketing him to the masses, endorsing all kinds of products. He had a line of clothing that, for a time, was sold by Sears.  He endorse...