New Shoes in the Rain

When my wife and I purchased our current house, we traded a somewhat rural environment for a more urban one.  That is to say, our old house was in a development about five miles from Lexington, and we now live within the city of Lexington itself. We wanted to live in the city, as that put us both closer to our jobs and a lot of other things we needed or wanted to have nearby, like shopping, dining, etc.  We also bought a newer house, which we felt would give us some advantages in the way of maintenance upkeep costs.  And we were also glad to be connected to a central sanitary sewer system, instead of the septic tank and field drain bed setup we had at our previous home. But one thing we did NOT count on was insects.  Bugs.  And I don’t mean your garden variety flies or mosquitoes or even bees and wasps.  No, I’m talking about all kinds of critters that we had never seen in our years in the country, near a farm.  These...

I’m dating myself with this, but there was a modestly popular song back in the early to mid-70’s by a journeyman country singer/songwriter named Tom T. Hall by the name that today’s post also bears.  His tune went through a list of what he liked about his life and life in general, and each verse ended with “and I love you, too.”  All very nice. Driving to work one morning this week, that tune popped into my head, and I thought, how great would it be if we ALL took a few minutes to think about the aspects of our lives that are good and positive and uplifting….people and things and circumstances that we LOVE.  So here goes, without an effort to rhyme or set to music: I love: My wife My kids Their families, but especially THEIR kids My friends (well, some of them, anyway) Baseball Cincinnati Reds baseball Golf (playing more than watching) University of Kentucky basketball and football Movies (my tastes are well d...

Friends, I kind of went back to the future today.  Concluding my third week in my new position, which is office-based, but since last Friday our office was like a ghost town, with virtually everyone deciding to work from home, I gained permission to do the same. And it's just a little strange to be back here at home, in my home based office that I occupied for ten years.  New job yet so familiar.  Lucky that it's not entirely foreign to me, I suppose! Enough of that.  Lots going on in the world that warrants comment. My heart truly goes out to the people of Egypt.  Whichever side of the dispute you come down on, and I frankly can't quite decide who's right and who's wrong, you have to feel for a nation that by all outward appearances is tearing itself to shreds.  Death, extensive injuries, complete chaos and not much in the way of order is no way for anyone to live. I also have been astounded, as I always am, at the heroism of the brave men and wome...

If you are a regular visitor to this little corner of the World Wide Web (does anyone actually call it that anymore, and MEAN it?), you know that I was recently displaced by my former company and was about to start a new job with a different, larger organization.  I’m nearing the end of my second week and thought I’d share some observations about my new company and my role within it: First, and probably most obviously, is that after ten years of working from a home-based office, I’m now back in an office environment the majority of the time (that is, when I’m not traveling, and as a newbie, I’m not traveling at all yet.  When I worked at home, I had a routine that was a little unorthodox, but since there was no one present to arbitrate my schedule, I could do as I needed to do.  Now, I come to an office, where it’s not that rigid, but it’s a place outside of my home, so that’s an adjustment.  And it’s twenty or so minutes from my home, so I had...

I celebrated my 53rd birthday on Saturday (that reminds me, I need to update my profile for accuracy!) and must say that it was a very memorable occasion! My wife, son and daughter-in-law and I agreed that we should spend Saturday and part of Sunday in Cincinnati.  We had decided it would be fun for us all to attend a Cincinnati Reds game, but the weekend series with the Pittsburgh Pirates was experiencing high demand for tickets, and it was difficult to find a way to get all six of us (their kids, too, of course) into the ballpark into good seats.  So we initially decided to postpone. Then I learned that there was something special planned and that we all had to be AT the ballpark but not necessarily IN the park.  For the life of me, I had no earthly idea what that meant, but we determined that tickets for my son and me would be sufficient, and my wife, daughter-in-law and the grandchildren would do other things while we were at the ballpark. So we traveled north S...

Greetings, all....here we are, halfway through July already.  I suppose I'm showing my age in saying this, but the time certainly does seem to fly lately. Are you excited that Twinkies and other Hostess products are making their return to store shelves?  "The greatest comeback in the history of....ever!" is their slogan.  Not sure if I agree, but I'll pick up a package sometime soon.  I never loved Twinkies, but was a little nostalgic when it appeared that the brand was going away forever. Not a comeback, but how about Kentucky's own Kenny Perry, winning his second consecutive major golf tournament on the Champions Tour.  He was the winner of the U.S. Senior Open, played in steamy Omaha, Nebraska.  I didn't watch a great deal of it, but, as he often does, he looked pretty cool despite the weather and the pressure of the competition. My Cincinnati Reds could certainly use a comeback.  As it stands now they'd qualify for one of the two  playof...

Let’s spend a little time today posing some questions to which perhaps none of us knows the answer, but that doesn’t stop them from being at least somewhat interesting.... Does the media like reporting a potential scandal more than the facts of a given situation, particularly in Washington? How do Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson and Adam Sandler continue to work in motion pictures? Why is GOOD customer service so rare as to be considered exceptional, regardless of the industry? Can we ever successfully get money out of college athletics? Why are the long-term unemployed so insignificant to our representatives in Washington?  Is it thought that these people, or those close to them, do not vote? Does baseball really need instant replay, as exists in professional football? Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes announced that she’s running for the U.S. Senate, and will oppose incumbent and Senate Minority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell.  Does ...