Evening all:

Welcome to my evening post. This evening post thing will not be a trend setter ‘cause I value relaxing on my Friday evenings. However, since I am planning to head for Atlanta around 4:00 AM I thought that this was the way to go. It even leaves me time to make sure to fill the coffee thermos which Marcia made ready for the journey.

My trip is a quick, up and down skip into the Atlanta area to pick up a Cap for Marcia’s new truck. I snagged an almost new Leer truck cap (new it’s nearly $1,000) for $76.25 on eBay. Since these things are almost impossible to ship I bid in such a way that springing for a couple of tanks of fuel to drive down, install it, and drive home would still make it all worthwhile. I will have plenty of windshield time so feel free to give me a howdy-do hello on my cell.

Watching a little TV this week I was absolutely gobstruck [word of the week]. Four times over our town made network television coverage—and believe it or not all of it positive. The two most mundane dealt with contestants on those never-ending “reality” shows. The racing one has a family from our area and the one dealing with backstabbing survivalists features a young woman from here; ok, enough about that since I only wanted to talk about the other two.

So, here’s a little about the much more interesting two items. Last week’s “Week’s Best” site I connected to a video clip of a house with 25,000 Christmas lights all flashing to a Christmas carol recorded by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. This particular little clip quickly circled around the globe as the number-one “must see” internet item. It turns out that the home on the clip is located in one of our suburbs. The sad news is that one day after it was featured on the NBC Today show traffic in the neighborhood backed up so much that it forced the family to turn off the lights.

But best story of the four is about a woman architect, Zaha Hadid, who not only is the 2004 recipient of the prestigious Pritzker Prize, architecture’s Nobel, but also is the first woman to be named a laureate. It turns out that the flood gates opened for her and her struggling design firm after completing a building she designed here in our humble town. Our Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art sits on a compact corner site in downtown Cincinnati. The façade presents like multiple drawers sitting half open, jutting out of some piece of furniture, moreover it’s the interior space that just awes you.

I guess that what this piece of information brought home to me is to, at least once in a while, pay a bit more attention to what is around and about. I pass by or near this place on a fairly regular basis and until I spotted the story about Ms. Hadid on the CBS Sunday Morning show had no idea that this world-class jewel is part of our community.

Marcia and I are absolutely ready for Wednesday—the day that Adrianne arrives for the holidays from her Peace Corps assigned location of Tonga. This will be the first time since July a year ago that we’ll be together. To make it even better, Kirstin and Derek will be arriving the next day (thanks much Vince for sharing them for a few days). This promises to be an amazing week. What a marvelous way to start the holidays, it couldn’t be any better!

All of you reflect on what’s around and about you and make it a great week.
Cheers,
Dirk