New Shoes in the Rain

Happy Friday, everyone!  And not only is the weekend upon us, but Christmas is now less than a week away!  Are you ready? Have you shopped for those you love, hoping to find the perfect gift? I am receiving a grand present again this year, as I will be off work from Christmas Eve until January 5.  I have no concrete plans other than to have fun, enjoy my family, and not travel for work!  I think I've earned it! I don't know about any of you who's stopped by to read today's comments, but I think we're actually doing a little more for Christmas than we sometimes do.  I keep telling my wife that when I finally retire from full-time work (whenever that will actually be) that we'll need to scale back a little at Christmas.  That's true, but for now, it's less of a concern.  So we're being as generous as our means allow in advance of that adjustment. And for those who've raised kids, as my wife and I have, the old adage remains true, that kids are hard...

Happy Monday, everyone.  Had a hectic weekend of hockey, yard work and a choral performance by our middle granddaughter last night.  I've been thinking a lot, as many others have, about the state of things in this country and where we can and should and must go from here.  The question is "how?" I say that because we're right at a year from the Congressional midterm elections, which will most likely shift the balance of power away from Republicans.  But that's a long time to keep stacking one misery onto another for that period. And remember, the end of the federal government shutdown is only temporary, we get to endure this same process in January! So I think the "how" has to be one thing: We the People! My granddaughter's chorale performance was with a youth orchestra and their finale was a premiere performance of a lengthy piece with that title.  Stirring and patriotic. But the answer was in that title.  We all keep saying that Congress needs to d...

Good Thursday morning to you.  In my case it’s getaway day, as I have been traveling overnight for the past few days.  Looking forward to getting home later today. As of last night, our federal government is now reopened.  Is everything fixed?  Not so much.  The bill that the Senate passed did not include any provision for extending the COVID-era subsidies that benefited many recipients of health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.  It also contained, hidden within the text, a separate provision for settlement payments of some astronomical money to senators whose were surveilled in an investigation of foreign influence on our lawmakers. That’s how it is now, you know.  If someone in government is investigated and that investigation leads to no criminal charges, people are entitled to some sort of compensation from the government.  Starting at the top, it seems. So, will SNAP benefits again be fully funded and available?  We don’t know ...

Good Monday afternoon, friends.  Appreciate you stopping by. Kind of an interesting point in the year where we are now.  Baseball is over until next spring, although the World Series and several of the playoff series were quite exciting.  And my Cincinnati Reds qualified for the first round, losing two in a row to the eventual World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers.  They have a great team, as do the Toronto Blue Jays.  Well done to both teams! Professional and college football are sort of hovering in place right now.  The postseason isn't here yet but the season is not at all new anymore for either level.  And yet it's still hard to tell which teams will identify themselves as the best in their particular divisions. Professional hockey is now underway for about a month, and so far there are defined "good" and "not good" teams.  Luckily the team I support, the Colorado Avalanche, are "good," at least for now! Basketball is just getting started profess...

Happy Friday, all!  We've almost made it! Big doings in our family this week.  Our middle granddaughter, who is the second oldest of our five grandchildren, celebrated her 16th birthday on Wednesday!  She's a great kid, plays soccer and sings in the chorus at her high school.  Is progressing in the process of learning to drive, too! That inspired me to once again share some impressions of all five of the grandkids, albeit without a lot of identifiers like their names and such (for privacy purposes).  Here's the rundown on who's who, and where they live, respectively: GC #1:  Lives in Colorado, female, 20 years old GC #2:  Lives in central Kentucky, female, now 16 years old GC #3:  Lives in Colorado, male, will be 16 on October 28 GC #4:  Lives in central Kentucky, male, now 14 years old GC #5:  Lives in central Kentucky, female, will be 8 on December 1 The Colorado kids are our daughter's and son-in-law's, the Kentucky kids are our son's...

Happy Sunday morning, everyone.  I’m not doing anything in particular, so thought I would stop by to share some things that have been on my mind. A quick thumbs-down to Disney and ABC for pulling Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show from the airwaves.  Cowardly and not at all supportive of a guy who’s been a stalwart of your programming for many, many years.  Hard to imagine NBC doing the same to Johnny Carson, EVER. But an equally quick thumbs up for Disney and ABC reversing themselves, and restoring Kimmel to his rightful place after the local news each night.  And apparently without any restrictions or instructions on what to say or not say.  I’m not a regular viewer but in the clips I’ve seen, Jimmy seems to be back in his usual form. Our Vice-President has been in the news here and there since the Charlie Kirk shooting, and the Veep seems intent on making sure that he’s not forgotten by the MAGA faithful, who have always been a little wary of him.  It’s my u...

Hello, and happy Friday! Since our news and social media feeds are crammed with negativity and inhumanity, I thought it might be a good palate cleanser to share some of the better things I’ve seen, heard and experienced this week. First, please join me in remembering Robert Redford.  The actor and environmental activist passed away this week at the age of 89.  He’s been out of the film industry for a number of years, but most people of a certain age can name off many of his movies that were memorable and enjoyable.  My list starts with “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” followed closely by “The Sting.”  And as a lifelong baseball fan, we can’t leave out “The Natural.”  Would also include “All the President’s Men” and the ensemble piece “Sneakers.”   I was heartened to read so many nice tributes to Redford online, giving us a worthwhile diversion over the past few days.  I like to think that Paul Newman was waiting for him at the pearly gates, but th...

Good morning, all.  Hope you're having a good weekend! The phrase I used as the title of today's post is one I borrowed from Shakespeare, and I think in many ways it's appropriate just now. The other phrase I kept thinking of as I began this post is "those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it." Either one describes where we are. In 2016 a first-time political candidate was elected President of this country and things have not been the same since.  People who could have cared less about politics or elections suddenly were motivated to participate in the process and mobilized, thus assuring this candidate's victory.  Totally unexpected and unbelievable. The same candidate lost his bid for reelection four years later, losing to a former two-term Vice-President, as an equally large swell of voters, buoyed by a large swath of female and minority voters, voted in large numbers and the previous President was defeated.  But not before be attempted...

Feeling rather somber this afternoon, with news from Minneapolis of a shooting during a Mass at a Catholic School in that area.  After Sandy Hook I had real hopes that something would happen in the area of gun control, but the gun lobby got to vulnerable members of Congress first and nothing happened.  Maybe it will be different this time. This conundrum has me wondering if the current administration has done anything in particular for the benefit of the American people, regardless of which candidate they voted for.  I'm old enough to have lived through numerous administrations, and I would be pretty surprised to learn that every one of them signed legislation into law or enacted (or removed) a regulation that made some difference in how we live our lives. With the current administration, I simply cannot.  Other than actions that had been taken and later overturned by legal rulings, there has been nothing done to help the average American citizen. Everything costs mo...

Happy Friday, everyone! No specific theme or subject for today's post.  Just a hodgepodge of stuff that's accumulated since my last, more introspective post. Over the last couple of days I had some lengthy day trips for work.  I have satellite radio, downloaded podcasts and an audiobook I haven't started, but sometimes I like to dip into my personal music library (which lives on my phone) to listen to some music that continues to make me happy.  Wednesday I was on my way home from Knoxville, Tennessee, in and out of rain, and decided to listen to an old album by the singer-songwriter J.D. Souther.  John David is probably best known for co-writing many of the Eagles' hit songs, including "New Kid in Town," "Best of My Love," "Heartache Tonight" and many others he wrote on his own that were recorded by singers such as Linda Ronstadt and on his own solo records. The album I decided to listen to is called "Natural History," and it...

Good morning, all.  Hope you're having a good weekend and that you're in the part of the country where the weather is more agreeable than the oppressive heat we've had in Kentucky, or the frequent deluges that have caused flooding and other problems. I enjoyed sharing some of the details of our recent trip to Chicago, and we're still talking about some of what we experienced while we were there.  But the last day before we all traveled back home was my birthday, number 65 to be exact, so I now have a good bit to think about. I can start taking my Social Security and apply for Medicare right now.  But I would be limited on how much other income I may have until I reach "full" retirement age, as I understand it.  So my plan, for the moment, anyway, is to stick with full-time work until I turn 67, when I will then be able to draw my full benefit AND have the opportunity to earn other income without interrupting or reducing my monthly SS benefit. Worth mentioning ...

Greetings, all.  What day is it?  I have been way out of whack for almost two weeks.  I started a long-awaited vacation after work on Friday, July 11, and returned to work today.  And, yes, I know that it's Wednesday.  Isn't it? Anyway, the central event of this vacation was a trip to Chicago to attend our older grandson's basketball tournament there.  So my wife and I counted up my Marriott hotel points and found out where our daughter and grandson would be required to stay by the tournament organizers ("stay and play" is what this is called, pretty common in youth sports) and identified a Marriott property where I could use my points.  And if you visit here frequently enough, you know that I travel a great deal for my job and rack up hotel points routinely. I've always loved Chicago.  Took our son there to see the Cincinnati Reds play the Cubs at Wrigley Field on the north side of Chicago in 1991.  And this was before the Cubs ownership tur...

Greetings, friends! I come before you this morning in a buoyant mood, as I am now on vacation for about ten days!  I must confess that I don't believe I have ever taken a vacation from a job that was this long before.  I like it! I'm thinking what you're thinking in an overall sense....can it get worse in our country? The short answer is "yes," I am sad to say. I won't recap all of the individual events of the past week or so, but every time there's a natural disaster that heavily affects Americans, I cringe to think how poorly that disaster will be handled by our government.  My heart goes out to the people of the Hill Country of Texas for their unimaginable losses. But it's really the events that are created intentionally that are so bothersome. Let's go take over a park in Los Angeles, someone said!  Even though there aren't any of our "targets" there, let's go with a bunch of armed agents, some of them on horseback, and scare ...

Well, my friends, it seems we are through the looking glass with regard to a directional turn our United States Congress has taken, moving further into authoritarian territory than many of us ever thought possible. If you've been paying attention to the news you likely know as much as I do about this spending bill that just passed the House and therefore the Congress.  It is a mish-mash of a lot of programs that will be affected one way or another.  Bottom line is that the wealthy will receive more tax cuts, middle class people not so much, and less fortunate people will suffer deep cuts in social safety-net programs like Medicaid and SNAP benefits. But never fear, the Republicans have thought of most everything, as the cuts take effect in 2027, so the GOP can blame Democrats for these program cuts, as they so often do. Worth remembering that the President said more than once, and several times on camera, that he would veto any bill that contained cuts in Medicaid funding. ...

Good morning, friends.  I’m in central Indiana this morning for business, but, wow, was there a hellacious display of severe weather here last night!  I met with someone around 2:45 and within an hour or more the skies had darkened, the wind had increased and there were suddenly severe thunderstorm and high wind warnings. I made a beeline for my hotel and walked into the building minutes before it started.  My fourth floor room offered quite a view of the rain and wind, bending trees sideways and causing a total loss of visibility!  There are tens of thousands of people in the region who are without power! If you had severe weather yesterday and last night, as did residents of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, hope you came through it OK. That wasn’t my main reason for posting this morning, but weather did play a role in this. I was in an accident several weeks ago and will be picking up my car tomorrow, with repairs on the accident damage now completed.  But I’ve...

Ask yourself a question.....when you interviewed for the job you have now, or the last job you had, were you not asked for a description of the skills and experience you have that would be necessary to succeed in that job, right? I see the same, but with the added element of having worked for several years in the temporary staffing industry and in Human Resources.  In both cases verifying that someone had the ability to do a job and the experience to ensure that they would do it well were paramount considerations. Yet in the current presidential administration, these ideas are quaint but generally not even considered.  For instance, it came to light not long ago that the latest choice by the Administration to oversee the Federal Aviation Administration was found to not have a qualification that he touted, claiming he held a commercial pilot's license that he actually does not have.  It's not essential that the FAA Administrator have a pilot's license, but rather to be hon...

Good Thursday morning to you all.  I’ve had what I simply call “one of those weeks,” where I had many places to be over a relatively short period of time.  I have visited referral sources in four states this week! So here we go…. As you no doubt remember, I was in an accident a couple of weeks ago and the car is now in the care of the body shop associated with our local Honda dealer.  They had done crash damage repairs for us in the past and we were pleased with the results, so decided to take the car there.  As is the usual process, they arrived at a total amount of damage and submitted it to my insurance company and the proposal was accepted.  They began work on repairing what was damaged this past Monday, but yesterday I received a call from the estimator that as they removed some of the damaged body parts they uncovered several other areas that will require replacement or at least repair.  Per agreement with my insurer, they will submit these findings a...

Good morning, friends.  I'm happy to be at home this morning.  Allow me to explain.... As I've mentioned frequently here, I travel extensively for my job, almost entirely by car.  It's a grind sometimes, but for the most part I enjoy the work I do and feel it makes a difference to certain people. This is not a complaint about business travel. I took an extra day following Memorial Day last Tuesday, so when Wednesday rolled around, I had to get out and see some business contacts.  Went Wednesday to Radcliff, Kentucky, which is near Fort Knox (which was not where my business contacts were!) and conducted three meetings of varying success. The following day I traveled to southern Indiana, by way of Louisville, Kentucky, for meetings with a new contact and with a longtime customer.  Both went well.  I left Jeffersonville, Indiana around 3:30 that afternoon, crossed the Ohio River into downtown Louisville and proceeded on my way back to Lexington.  No big d...

Good Monday morning!  I'm off today, and spent a couple of hours on some much needed yard work yesterday and again this morning.  Shortly I will collect my younger grandson and take him to lunch and shopping, as he graduates eighth grade tonight and turns 14 on Friday! Have had a decent bit of success in getting things resolved with product and service sellers and manufacturers.  Not that I have all that many problems, but it's nice to get things the way we want them, right? Let's start with a simple thing.  I bought my wife a new screen protector for her iPhone.  Turns out I bought a three-pack, and ruined the first one attempting to install it.  Not happy.  The second one went on pretty well, but I saw that there were some bubbles and marks on it and advised my wife to go to the Apple Store and get a better one there.  She saw that I had failed to peel off the protective coating on this protective cover and the guy at the Apple Store was kind en...

Good Saturday, everyone.  I write this from Lexington, Kentucky, the part of Kentucky that's NOT hosting the Kentucky Derby today (that's Louisville).  It's cool and rainy here.  Looks the same for the race as well.  Guess you can't have everything, even if you bought a special outfit for the occasion. Here to touch on a subject near and dear to my heart, and that's music.  My whole family is well aware of my love of music, and most of my closer friends are, too.  My mom insisted that my older brother and I take piano lessons, but the music we were taught never really stuck.  I liked the stuff I heard on the radio better. And that would mean late 60's AM radio music, so we're talking about a little Elvis, a little Beatles, Three Dog Night, Creedence Clearwater Revival and some other luminaries.  Not much later I developed a great affinity for other artists, like Elton John (as I write this, I'm listening to his latest recording with his longtime f...

Happy Thursday, friends, if there is such a thing….hope you’ve had a good week! I borrowed today’s title from the “last” Beatles song that was completed and released almost two years ago, but I think it’s fitting with what I want to get into today. I don’t know about you, but I am old enough to remember the past, in which elected officials largely operated in the background and didn’t run to a microphone or camera when anything happens.  Social media didn’t exist and neither did the toxicity that accompanies it. These elected officials would routinely face their constituents who elected them, tout or at least explain their achievements and what else they tried to accomplish.  In turn, the voters who attended these “town halls” would ask polite questions about issues old and new and there was healthy dialogue and politicians would sometimes come away with new ideas, or at the least some new understanding of what’s important to work on for his home state or legislative district....

Good Saturday afternoon to you as I write this…. Unless you’re not a resident of the southeastern US or other areas that have been affected by our recent bout of insane weather, you probably know that we’re seeing a LOT of rain throughout most of Kentucky at present.  Like more than a month’s worth since Wednesday night.  Weather then was so severe that we received a tornado warning, although it turned out that the tornadic activity was about sixty miles south of our home area. But before you decide that the worst is behind us, consider this….Kentucky’s governor announced yesterday on social media that as of this morning there were 390 road closures throughout the state.  I know of a couple. Yesterday I headed out to make some marketing calls in a couple of smaller communities south of Lexington.  Along the way I had to attend two conference calls that occur every Friday.  Following the second, I went about my plan and visited two offices and called a friend who...

Good Monday morning, friends. Would you believe that I am in the fourth day of a four day weekend?  This is unusual for me, as I am pretty bad at taking time off from work unless there's a specific occasion or trip involved.  But a couple of weeks ago I sent my boss a time off request for last Thursday and Friday.  He messaged back that he was already scheduled off for the same week, so asked if I would mind changing my request to Friday and Monday. Done. So my time off started by watching the Cincinnati Reds' season opening game last Thursday afternoon.  While the Reds lost 6-4 that afternoon, they won on Saturday afternoon but lost again yesterday, by a score of 6-3.  So it goes. What else have I done with my time off?  Well, for starters, not traveling, which I do most every day.  My job is in outside sales, and while I work occasionally in my home area of Lexington, most of my work is at least an hour's drive from my home base.  So this was ni...

Hello, friends.....hope your week is off to a good start. Eagle-eyed readers will note the title of today's comments, borrowed from a concert film and album featuring the late musical group Talking Heads.  One of the more inventive concert films I've seen, directed by the late, great Jonathan Demme.  I saw a show on the same tour from which these performances were taken, and it was quite something.   But that's not why we're here, is it? I'm in my mid 60's, so in my memory, when a Presidential administration felt the need to be less than truthful with the American people, there was a narrative created that more or less explained away the straight facts that the public already had in their possession (back when we all cared more, certainly) about a situation or a growing scandal or something equally difficult to hide. Now, though, our current President and those loyal to him simply say whatever suits them at the moment.  Take the present White House Press Secreta...

Happy Thursday, everyone…the work week is almost over! When I was a kid, I recall vividly coming to the realization that, in order to survive in this world, I was going to have know how to fight!  And I don’t mean gathering one’s inner strength and persevering, I mean actual physical fights! Suppose that was a byproduct of most of what we watched on TV in our household, lots of Western shows and movies, detective and police shows and movies and generally a lot of action.  Seemed to me that I was going to have to fight it out with people, and frequently, in order to get anywhere in this world!  Not only that, but quicksand seemed to be an imminent threat as well! Of course, none of that was true then or now.  “Fighting” in real life is more about sticking to one’s principles, standing up for one’s self and one’s family, too. Thank goodness! But let’s face it, life is full of contradictions, and it seems now that we are in the second term of President Trump, contradict...

Happy Friday, friends….we’re almost there! As things stand now, massive numbers of federal government employees are being laid off…or not.  Our President is going to force Ukraine to surrender to Russia…or not.  The U.S. gold reserve is still at Fort Knox…or not. Who knows about any of these things?  The chaos and confusion that seems to reign in Washington right now is pretty well beyond our individual control, and the circumstances keep changing to fit the latest stories that are circulating.  And the American people are seldom getting the full story or straight answers to questions asked of President Trump and other high-ranking officials. So we work on the things where we have some control and ownership.   For example, I have migrated from Twitter (now called “X” by its owner) over a year ago.  Over time many of the accounts I followed to keep up on things of interest migrated to Threads, which is connected to Instagram.  I enjoyed Threads for the ...

Greetings from Cleveland, Ohio, where my grandson and his team are competing in a regional hockey tournament!  So far they’ve won a game and lost one.  They’ll play again later and that will decide if they play in the upper or lower level of the playoffs.  Good luck to them! Cleveland is between five and six hours’ car travel time from our home in Lexington, but I am always struck by the differences between our home area and a large established city like this.  For instance, when we came into the main part of the city, we looked over to the right and in a low area could see a really old working factory.  I don’t know what they make there, but it reminded me so much of photos I’ve seen of Henry Ford’s original manufacturing plant in Detroit.  Smokestacks and that ancient look to it, like the same product had been made there for a hundred years. Looking out my hotel room window at the grounds of what I imagine is the headquarters of the Eaton corporation. ...

Happy Thursday, friends.  Almost to the weekend! I don’t have a theme for today’s post, as it’s really a collection of things I’ve seen, read, heard and experienced.  In no particular order…. I saw that Netflix is soon to raise prices for all of their various tiers of service.  Guess one could conclude that they have “won” the streaming wars, as they still stand head and shoulders above the competition.  We’ve had Netflix in the past, and after my wife and I concluded that we really didn’t have a lot of interest in what they offer on their service, we dropped it over a year ago.  We resumed our service for a few weeks to watch the Great British Baking Show (I know, but we both enjoy it) and then dropped it again after that show wrapped up. For comparison, I’ve been enjoying another free trial of Apple TV+ since the holidays, as that trial came with a generous Apple gift card that was given to me by my son and his family.  First thing we did was watch the fu...

Good morning, all!  I write from Indianapolis, Indiana, where the current temperature is -1 degrees!  With the wind chill it feels like -13! At least this area, where I’m working today and tomorrow, did not receive the multiple inches of snow that fell throughout the states along the Gulf of Mexico (that’s the name of that body of water, in case recent events caused any confusion)! So no question the story of the week is the inauguration of Donald Trump as President.  Because it was going to be a little cold in Washington, he ordered that the ceremony be moved indoors to the Capitol rotunda.  Or was it because a relatively small number of people were planning to attend it when it was going to be outdoors?  One wonders. Unfortunately, I watched his “official” speech after being sworn in, and never once did he address an actual issue or problem that regular Americans have faced or are facing right now.  It’s still all about grievance and whataboutism and how ...

Happy new year, friends!  Enjoyed some wonderful time off with family and now back at work.....just as a major winter storm struck the middle of the country, including central Kentucky! But never fear, I'm planning to be back out there among them tomorrow, weather permitting! But I digress.  I wanted to provide two updates to my screed about customer service that I posted not too long ago.   Let me write of our experiences with the United States Postal Service, as mentioned on 12/23/24.  On that date I detailed that my wife had taken a parcel to our local post office to ship to our daughter's family in another time zone.  The box was shipped via a somewhat new service called Ground Advantage.  Simply put, there was no advantage.  My wife visited the post office twice, was told both times how understaffed they were this holiday season and that everything was going to take time to get to its destination. Christmas came and went, no evidence that the parc...