"The past is a bucket of ashes, so live not in your yesterdays, nor just for tomorrow, but in the here and now. Keep moving and forget the post-mortems. And remember, no one can get the jump on the future." Carl Sandburg

"The survival of the fittest is the ageless law of nature, but the fittest are rarely the strong. The fittest are those endowed with the qualifications for adaptation, the ability to accept the inevitable and conform to the unavoidable, to harmonize with existing or changing conditions." Dave E. Smalley

"Basic research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing." Wernher von Braun

Ground stop (GS), a part of life on the road. Two big ones this week. Missed one by hours, the other got me. O'Hare got hit with some summer rain Monday and Tuesday. The Monday event included hail. My flight was gone hours before. When the Tuesday rains rolled in I was on the ground in Louisville heading home. Once ground crews could not do their jobs in Chicago, O'Hare originated a GS. As a practical matter our flight from Louisville and others into O'Hare were "grounded." We waited for our "release" (i.e., "ok, release them, let em take off"). Them are the rules.

My advice is always bring a good book (or three) in the carry-on. My thanks to the United team in Louisville and at O'Hare for keeping us dialed-in. When I finally got to O'Hare, running from Term 1 to Term 2, my flight to Madison was "closed" meaning the last flight to Madtown had been missed. So much for my three hour layover pad. Experience has taught me, last flights out are, more often than not, a bad wager. Again, Mr. Murphy showed up to remind me - the last flight out odds are not so good, especially during the summer storm season. The temptation to keep the next morning auto-re-book and spend the night with friends in Chicago was strong but quashed by the press of affairs - that pesky day job again. Exhibit A - writing this post in the dead of night back home in Wisconsin.

The very cool thing about unexpected layovers is...the unexpected. Turns out Tom Asacker was in the room during my brief talk and he too was grounded, or somehow otherwise delayed, in Louisville. Kind enough to introduce himself, we had a fun chat. Thanks Tom! (p.s. sorry I missed your keynote - pesky day job, again).

Congrats & cheers: The first Broadcast Management Futures Summit was a fine first! French Lick is a very different venue. More in the coming daylight, including propers.

Thank you very much: Lindsay Wood Davis for his leadership of our session. The legendary Marv Dyson for his kindness in inviting me to join him and his family at one of the head tables for lunch - always a privilege Marv, always.

Hundreds of emails behind. Please standby. More later today.