New Shoes in the Rain

Good morning to all.  I hope that Thanksgiving was joyous, safe and relaxing for everyone. I suppose that I'm just sort of non-compliant.  I did not go out and shop on Black Friday (though I did stop by the grocery, but that really doesn't count), I did not visit a small business on Shop Small Saturday, and I did not order any merchandise online during Cyber Monday yesterday. Shame on me.  I'm usually dependable with respect to propping up our economy.  I wasn't a complete laggard, though, as my wife and I put up our holiday decorations Sunday and we began organizing our Christmas shopping, and actually did a little of it already.  But ONLY a little. Did you know that President Franklin Roosevelt moved the observance of Thanksgiving during his time in the White House?  If I have the story right, retailers pressured him to decree that Thanksgiving be celebrated early, as the year this was contemplated, Thanksgiving came late in the month of November. ...

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I am sure that if you're reading this, you have a lot to be thankful for this year.  I know that I do.  And while I won't bore you with a long recitation of the people and circumstances for which I'm grateful, I'll just comment that I am most appreciative of my family and close friends on this day every year, but more than usual during what has been a challenging year for me personally and professionally.  Without them I would most definitely be a poorer man indeed. So what are you having for Thanksgiving dinner?  Traditional turkey and dressing and mashed potatoes and gravy and sweet potatoes and bread and pie and so much other stuff?  Or are you one of those heathens who uses this occasion every year to rebel, and to make things like turkey croquettes or baked mashed potatoes (I know, a lot of this will happen AFTER Thanksgiving in a lot of households)? One of my closest friends mentioned to me that she and her gang are no...

....and we're all still here. Of course, President-Elect Trump won't take office for several more weeks, but now we've seen a few telling things that indicate how things will be. The first word that one could use, that HAS been used, is "unconventional."  This guy has no interest in how things have traditionally been done, and based on the recent purge from his "transition team," won't be pigeon-holed into making blah cabinet appointments and the like. But the sheer lack of understanding of how this has to happen is pretty astounding.  There were reports that his son-in-law and chief adviser blurted out a question about "how many of these staffers will be staying once we take over" while visiting the White House last week.  I have ready unconfirmed items that no one from the Trump team has contacted several major arms of the government, including Justice.  And as one pundit so eloquently put it, Trump is prepared to hand out these pos...

Donald Trump will be the next President of the United States. To the utter surprise of many.  I think that, deep down, Trump himself is surprised by this outcome.  Do I think that he believes himself to be the right person to lead?  Yes.  But did he think he would win?  I doubt it. I'm no expert, but it seems to me that political convention has been turned on its head completely in the last couple of years.  Traditional political thinking had us believe that Hillary Clinton would face Jeb Bush in this presidential election, so "inevitable" were both candidates.  Easy to forget that Barack Obama upset similar logic in Democratic circles in the 2008 campaign, and it's forgotten largely because traditional Democratic power bases seemed to have aligned themselves with him as their best chance to retake and hold the White House.  Hillary Clinton got a very nice consolation prize, becoming Obama's Secretary of State and furthering her resume and qua...

Greetings, friends.  I have not posted for a bit, because I began a new job not all that long ago.  And with that has come some, well, changes. For one thing, I have a schedule now.  It's not a terribly rigid schedule, but after almost seven months of not having a specific calendar to follow, it's an adjustment.  The good news is that what I do and how I spend my time is still largely my decision and I am also again working from my home, which I have done for nearly twenty years. To be fair, there are recurring events to attend for networking purposes.  The industry I'm now working in has geographic associations of service providers, and I have event for five or six of these geographic areas.  So that provides a little structure.  But unlike my previous position, where there were probably ten to fifteen meetings per month that I had no role in scheduling, this is much more manageable locally. After just a short time in this role I must say that I...

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...