New Shoes in the Rain

I've been on the road again, as the song goes, but neither of my most recent trips left me feeling much like singing, between what happened to and from my destinations and what occurred while I was on the ground.  I travel frequently for my work, as I've noted here previously, so I expect some bumps and bruises (literally and figuratively) along the way.  But the last two weeks have been a little moreso than usual, even.  Here's a sampling of what's given me pause recently..... Weather.  I know, I don't live in Philadelphia or Boston or New York or another very hard-hit city in the Northeast.  I live and travel primarily through the Southeastern US.  But make no mistake...if Atlanta is part of your travel plans during this time of year, you MUST expect delays, hiccups and other problems.  Two weeks ago I had a two day trip....two flight legs to my destination, two to return home.  All four experienced delays of some sort.  And while weather...

Nothing in particular today.... A very good friend wrote to tell me that "the rat guy" has now visited her home FOUR times to remove dead rats from her premises.  Honestly, can you imagine how you'd feel if you learned that rats were dying in your basement/attic/crawlspace?  Hmmmm..... OK, now that I've repulsed you, that's my last gross-out reference....for this post, anyway. After a pretty nasty respiratory infection AND the afore-mentioned kidney stone (see my last post if you dare), finally feeling good enough to function normally.  Realized this morning that it had been almost a month(!) since I mounted my treadmill for a workout.  Shame, shame! I was very, VERY happy that the New York Jets took care of business and defeated the odious New England Patriots last weekend.  Not a big fan of Bill Belichick, or, for that matter, anyone who so clearly feels he is completely superior to, well, everyone else.  Our gang is already talking about Super Bo...

Not a long period of time, but there was an 84 hour period that I just experienced that seemed like an eternity.  Let me explain.... I left Wednesday morning at 10:30 AM for Birmingham, Alabama for a mixed trip.  Business Wednesday night and Thursday, leisure Friday and Kentucky football Saturday.  I was fighting a pretty bad cold (or upper respiratory infection, possibly) but was coping.  Trip went well, and I had a nice visit over dinner with the sales rep who handles Alabama for my company.  So far, so good. In the middle of the night I was awakened by searing pain in the upper right side of my back.  After waking completely up, I knew the cause.....a kidney stone.  I had one about three and a half years ago, and it's pretty hard to forget.  Took some over-the-counter pain reliever, but that didn't even touch the pain.  So I dressed and went the front desk of the hotel to ask where the nearest hospital was.  Thankfully it wasn't f...

Just back to the daily grind after being off from work since December 23.  This is a slow time of year in my industry, but I still had a bit of catching up to do when I gritted my teeth and downloaded my E-mail this morning. And my wife and I have been fighting colds or something like them for about the last week.  What fun!  And this was while our daughter and her two kids (a very active five-year-old girl and a boy who's fourteen months old) were visiting over the holidays!  Fortunately, no one contracted major diseases during this period, although my wife and I were both left to contemplate never, EVER feeling better! About the biggest problem with my infirmity was that it prevented me from helping our son gut his kitchen over the weekend.  Mind you, I have virtually no construction skills, but, dammit, I can tear stuff up with the best of them!  And because he started on the day we took his sister and her kids to Cincinnati to the airport to fly bac...

The shopping is done, the wrapping is completed, items to loved ones a distance away have been shipped, the Christmas cards have been written and mailed....now all there is to do is wait. Which gives me an opportunity to ask some valid if rhetorical questions about the holiday season..... Do people wait to see whom they receive Christmas cards from to decide to whom to send cards themselves?  My wife and I review our received cards each year and occasionally remove people from the list if we've not heard from them in some time (possibly due to an inaccurate address or a general lack of  contact outside of the Christmas season).  When my wife and I met I knew that there were a good many people with whom she and the kids exchanged cards because of her first husband's past relationships (friends, classmates, coworkers).  And we've maintained contact with many of those folks, even though I've not met many of them. The unfortunate part of this scenario is that some...

I bought an iPad last weekend. There, I said it....I've done my bit to stimulate the economy and get my jollies, all at once. The worst part was that I bought it Friday night during the annual Christmas shopping trip my wife and I make to Cincinnati, and it never occurred to me that I would need a computer in order to activate the damned thing. I did, so it sat tempting me until I got it home Sunday afternoon. It is SO slick, I simply cannot tell you. In fact, I'm writing this post on it. Thought briefly that this little guy could replace my laptop when I travel, but alas, no such luck. While I am fortunate enough to be able to use my Mac for work (good thing, since my company issued computer is circa 2003 and looks/feels it), I was unable to get past my employer's restriction on company e-mail on a personally-owned portable device. That's the rub...it's as though this thing is an overgrown cellphone, given that limitaton. Far more than that, obviously, b...

....about a number of different, unrelated things.  Here's a sampling: I've been wondering why we're all asked to help the homeless and the needy during the holidays.  Don't those people need help all year? I've been wondering why University of Kentucky sports fans are so frequently among the most loyal yet the most fickle known to the sporting world?  A new football coach takes a team with a talented offense, yet a largely inexperienced defense, makes changes in several key coaching positions, and still comes out with a record equal to last year's, and he's considered a failure by many?  Or a basketball coach, in only his second year leading the program, and finding it necessary to replace just about all of the all-universe talent he recruited before last season, is now being roundly criticized for having lost ONE game...in November? C'mon, people, please.  Give these guys a chance. I've been wondering how the Republican party leaders and pr...