Morning all:

Quote Of The Week:

“Don’t knock the weather. If it didn’t change once in a while, nine out of 10 people couldn’t start a conversation.” Kin Hubbard

Last night Adrianne and Tevita were over for dinner. A side benefit was that I took my old walking buddy Shang with me for my after-dinner walk, and it was cold. This morning the temperature is ‘single digits’ so we’re definitely off to a crisp start this morning and, finally, winter is here. My hot mug of morning coffee is absolutely what I needed.

February, the winter of 1942, was the coldest that The Netherlands had experienced since the year 1850¹. The German occupation was complete and wartime shortages and restrictions were evident throughout the country. Typical for houses at that time there was no central heating system, just coal a burning stove in the living and dining room—no heat in the upstairs bedrooms. So it was in the living room that little Dirkjan was born. Many years later I remember my mother telling me that the first thing she noticed about me was that my hands were purple from cold.

For some strange reason I have always loved winter.

This week I attended the first of three 4-hour training sessions to join Cincinnati’s Citizens on Patrol. This program operates as a citizen adjunct to the local police department. Since inception in 1997 around 1300 people have been trained and patrols are active in over half of the city’s 52 neighborhoods.

The fact that the Lieutenant Colonel in charge of several areas including the area’s SWAT team spent the better part of an hour kick-starting the training shows how seriously this town takes this program—literally the eyes and ears for the police department.

Once patrolling, in teams of three, we’ll have police radio with us and if required have instant communication and response. Our neighborhood is stable but in some the teams can expect ongoing contact with drug dealings and other issues. For me the decision to involve myself is a direct result of getting sick and tired hearing my own carping about events in the city and more and more about events in my own neighborhood. I guess there comes a time when you have to get off your ‘duff’.

Talking about ‘events’, back in 2001 Cincinnati made the national and international new because of race-related riots. The whole incident I had primarily chalked up to an extremely weak city leadership – a mayor and a city council that literally froze and stood around with a deer-in-the-headlights look. This week I ran across an article printed in last December’s copy of Esquire magazine. Written by an African American it gives perspective to what happened. It is one of the most powerful articles on the subject that I have come across. Maybe not everyone’s cup-of-tea, but I urge you to read it since it goes well beyond just this town. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the “Week’s Best” button. Your feedback is welcome.

Since tomorrow I will be winging it to Provo, Utah at the same time that the Super Bowl is on I will miss our (now an annual) traditional Super Bowl party. Marcia will still end up going and – based on brother Pieter’s recipe – sometime today I will make a batch of Dutch “Bitter Ballen” for her to take along. Oh well, by missing this event I am certain that I won’t have an opportunity to get agoraphobic about another possible “costume malfunction”. For those who have already forgotten, the ‘costume malfunction’ just referenced is aka the case of the “the escaping breast”.

Make it a great week everyone: as you watch the game on Sunday remember Vince Lombardi’s words, “Winning is not everything, but wanting to win is.”

Cheers,

Dirk

¹-27.4°C

Leave a Reply