Morning all:

” I was gratified to be able to answer promptly. I said I don’t know.” — Mark Twain

Hello from the land-of-the-rains. All the nasty stuff from out west has finally hit our region in the form of rain. The way it works in these parts is that all this rain is collected in gulleys and in sewers and then eventually spills into the Ohio River. The Ohio connects with the Mississippi River which eventually passes by New Orleans and flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

Since New Orleans is actually below sea level they have arranged for a series of very strong ‘never failing’ levees just to keep all the water on course and out of the city.
So much for the geography thing.

You know how oftentimes in the early morning you have these tiny moments of clarity where brilliance flashes before your eyes? Well, this morning I had such a flash—rather such a ‘flush’. It crossed my mind that my flushing could be that one 3.5 gallons dose that would “break the camels back” and breach a New Orleans levee, thus undoing a whole year’s worth of reconstruction stuff. Maybe I should skip my coffee. Nah!

Wednesday evening it was hockey-night in Cincinnati and many in our family went. It also caused me to miss my exercise walk. Thursday evening I walked double-time to make up for the lack the previous evening. All it took was a little lack of a warm-up and a little dehydration to wake up with a three AM muscle spasm that left me feeling like my leg was about to snap in half. Yesterday the knot in my left calf caused a noticeable limp. This morning all is back to normal.

Notice that I have written about a major leg issue and not once mentioned our latest national disaster – RLS. One evening in front of the television these days and you’ll just absolutely realize that 99.6% of our population lies about night and day with squirmy legs (aka Restless Leg Syndrome) requiring massive amounts of pills to unsquirm. We really have become dependent on an array of little ‘magic’ pills. In fact we have become ‘woosified’ to the point where we are completely accepting of newly invented nonsense ailments. Hurrah for the pharmaceuticals.

I am now poised to receive a score of vicious rebuttals from the majority of the fifteen or so readers of these Ramblings who have recently been saved from the devastation caused by RLS.

Last evening we went to a fund raiser for a school group heading for Morocco. The evening consisted of Moroccan foods and a wonderful marionette performance of “Amahl and the Night Visitors”, all just in time for the celebration of Epiphany. Marin was absolutely entranced. Luckily we had a marionette of Disney’s “Goofy” character for him to try his skills on after we got back to the house. It doesn’t require much to realize that he could readily be an expert marionetteer.

Make it a great week everyone: focus on the simpler things, often times they are the best.

Cheers,
Dirk