New Shoes in the Rain

Good Monday morning, everyone!  Note that I waited until 10:05 AM EDT to say that! Some weeks ago I received some alarming news in my annual bloodwork that I do for my cardiologist.  In addition to cholesterol numbers that are crucial to that aspect of my health, he orders a variety of other standard tests, and one of them captures a patient's glucose level. I think I'm in my fourth year with this cardiologist (my former doctor retired) and he routinely orders these additional tests.  My glucose level indicated that I was in pre-diabetic range for the last several years, which was not a great surprise, since both of my parents were diabetic.  But this year's glucose number was significantly elevated and he advised me to seek care with a provider who could address my newly identified condition. I should add that my former general practitioner had also retired several years ago, and since my cardiologist prescribes all of my medications, I really didn't have much need ...

Friends, I'm almost there.  I've almost pulled even with the narrator of the Beatles' tune "When I'm Sixty-Four!"  Today I turned 63 years of age. Do I feel different?  Not really, but I rarely do when I have a birthday.  Just grateful for family and friends who care about me and provide love and support when I need it most! I took some time away from work today to celebrate the occasion, although we began the festivities last night with a nice dinner out with our son and his family, which is always a great time.  Our timing was because our middle granddaughter is going with a friend to Orlando and leaving tonight.  Hope they have a great trip! This morning I had a what I would easily characterize as a unique experience.  Some weeks ago I noticed someone I knew way, way back and whom I had not seen in probably forty years had looked at my LinkedIn profile.  I viewed hers and we eventually began exchanging messages.  Turn out that she was one ...

Greetings, friends.  I know it's been almost a month since my last post, and I really don't have a specific reason why the delay, but it's good to be back in this space and I have a variety of comments to share. We now live in a country where a President of the United States was impeached twice and was later indicted on multiple federal charges.  And that man is currently leading the polling among Republican candidates for President in the 2024 election.  I don't know if there's anything else to say to that, we've come close to this sort of scenario but never to this extent.  And the investigations into this former President are ongoing, so there may yet be more charges forthcoming. We may never know exactly what happened in Russia a couple of weekends ago, but suffice it to say that it probably wasn't planned and it fell apart just as quickly as it came together.  As of this morning, there are questions as to the whereabouts of the leader of the Wagner Grou...

A lot has happened in the past few days, as always, so let's take a few minutes to sort this out.... Wildfires in Canada are creating smoke containing a variety of pollutants and the current shape of the jet stream has driven quite a bit of contaminated air into the US.  Flights have been postponed, as have sporting events, in various cities, mostly in the eastern US.  People in New York, particularly were advised to wear face coverings to protect themselves from the smoky conditions. My take? You have to wonder how much of the fouled air from our frequent wildfires in the western part of our country made its way elsewhere.  The reaction of some news outlets has been spectacularly stupid, to be frank, implying that Canada doesn't know how to manage its wooded areas and that they should do something. The Ukrainian military has finally launched its long-awaited counteroffensive against the Russian forces that occupy much of eastern Ukraine.  The results so far are enco...

Hello, friends!  Have been a little busy with work and some other considerations, and just got back from a week's vacation! My wife and I traveled from our home in Kentucky to Colorado for our oldest granddaughter's high school graduation last week.  We had not made that trip by car in quite a while, but since my job requires me to drive a lot, sometimes for several hours at a time, we determined that this was a good idea, particularly with the performance of most of the major airlines being a little suspect at the moment! We departed Lexington on Saturday morning, May 13.  The weather was OK, if not great.  Our route took us west on US 60 to Frankfort (Kentucky's state capital, for non-Kentuckians) and then onto Interstate 64 West.  We followed that highway all the way through St. Louis, Missouri. During our trip we ran into some clouds here and there but nothing significant, but once we made it through St. Louis and approached the interchange to Interstate 70 ...

Since my last post, there have been multiple shooting incidents where people rang the wrong doorbell, entered the wrong driveway, went to the wrong yard to retrieve a basketball, entered the wrong car, and more. Most of the shooters have claimed in court appearances and otherwise that they feared for their personal safety, were worried they were about to be robbed, and other possible reasons. At this point I'm becoming worried about armed vigilantes patrolling their neighborhoods without accountability (not unlike what happened in Brunswick, Georgia a few years ago).  I get irritated at other drivers who cut me off in traffic, change lanes without signaling and such.  But I no longer look in their direction, for fear that they may be armed and are prepared to respond to my irritation with deadly force. What's more, in many of the states where these most recently publicized incidents have occurred, abortion has been either severely restricted or outlawed entirely.   I have...

My friends, I hope you'll accept my apologies for being absent from this space for, oh, a good while.  My convalescence from my bout with COVID was completed some time ago, and I dived back into my work life with two hastily constructed weeks, followed by two long weeks of travel.   But since my last post I've had lots to think about a number of things, and lots of time to think about them. First topic has to be the number of mass shootings in these past few weeks.  We had a church-related school in Nashville endure a shooting by a person who was apparently a student there many years earlier.  Three children and three adults associated with the school were killed.  Then Louisville had two shooting incidents on the same day, and another last night.  And this morning's news brought details of a shooting at a sweet 16 birthday party in a small town in Alabama. President Biden says he's done everything in his power as Commander in Chief to curtail the prolifera...