Happy Saturday morning all:

“Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt” ~ Herbert Hoover (31st President)

So, in Washington DC a budget deal was passed with a further increase in the national debt. To achieve it retirement funds for retired military – cut. Benefit payouts to illegals – increased. Senator Coburn’s annual Wastebook-2013 detailing some $30Billion of egregious federal spending – nary a penny shaved from it. I guess that old Herbert hit the nail on the head.

I best kick up my feet and ease back a bit with my coffee before the blood pressure rises, as the song goes.

Something learned – Tuesday Marcia and I headed north to the snowy and bone-chilling windswept fields near Lima, OH. There we met up with Donn and Marlene for the funeral service of our friend Dennis.

The gravesite ceremony was solemn and complete with full military honors (Dennis served during the Korean conflict). The rifles were fired and the flag meticulously folded. In between, a hauntingly beautiful rendition of Taps was played by a solitary bugler.

Wednesday evening some neighborhood friends gathered for a Christmas-time evening and I shared the events of the previous day. Our friend Jeff, a musician in a previous life, spoke up. “Dirk, you do realize that that bugle was automated don’t you?” Huh! No, since I distinctly remembered a smallish elderly veteran in uniform blowing away on his bugle as a stunning rendition of Taps filled the air.

Doggone it, Jeff was right. It would be almost impossible to play Taps with such perfection in the cold. And, in fact, he didn’t. Buried deep in the bell of his bugle was a small device with attached speaker sounding Taps as it was recorded at a 1999 ceremony in Arlington National cemetery.

We do live in a virtual world don’t we?

Downton Abbey – is about ready for the start of season four. Nearly all the ladies in our family are totally hooked – I think it’s the mystique of that Edwardian mansion and a secret desire to wander those halls. Anyway, I said “nearly,” since Marcia had not sipped of the Downton koolaid. The girls were about to change all of that and last Mother’s Day they pooled and purchased Season 1, and 2, and 3 –which promptly arrived the day after we left for Canada and Northern Comfort.

Arrangements were made to carry the discs up north. And there they sat. Yes, they sat all summer. Every time the subject of watching them was brought up, the word ‘later’ was simultaneously uttered (Marcia does work on her own schedule).

Last night, Adrianne. Tevita, and kids all went to our Zoo’s Festival of Lights and I joined in. However, just prior to bounding out of the house I started up Downton Abbey disc one – Marcia actually watched the opening two plus hours.

She is now quite ready for me to start up the second disc. Soon she’ll join in on the happy banter as the various twists and turns of the happenings at the Abbey are talked about. Go Marcia! Who knows, maybe I too will “give it a ‘goew’” – as the Brits are fond of saying.

Enjoying our youth – aside from some work at the condo I was into furniture repair – primarily through the use of extra-strength wood glue. But, I did take the time to watch Marin’s team play a great game of indoor soccer. Then the highlight, trips with the little ladies into town. Craft projects at the main library. Hands-on learning how properly run model trains – yes there is a proper way.

It was a visit to the 50 story observation deck on our tallest building. Seeing all the big city buildings done up in Gingerbread. And, I was really surprised by this, a great hour-and-a-half at the Contemporary Arts Center; especially how a five year old maintained her attention span. Couple all of that with rides on the bus and the Holly Jolly Trolley, and a lunch at Skyline Chili.

Can you see where we had a super time? Can you see where it probably did me more good than anyone else?

Animal Planet – Weather is amazing. This morning it was mention that here in Porkopolis it was just about 60 degrees. Meanwhile barely 100 miles of cornfields away in India-no-where it was in the mid-thirties.

Last evening, at the Zoo’s Festival of Lights, the wait for the little Zoo train was made more bearable when a zookeeper wandered by holding a White Faced Owl. Vai, who at times can be so shy ran over to see the bird. Next thing I saw was Vai happily discussing some aspect of the Elephants at the place. She loves her Zoo visits.

Fini – This week make the celebration of Christmas meaningful and a happy one for you and yours. We’re making preparations for the arrival of Kirstin, Vince, Derek, and Kellen – and the wait makes the time slow way down. Make it a great week.
Cheers.
Dirk

From the Archives
Saturday, December 19, 2009
From a snowy/rainy ‘Nati, good afternoon all:

Wisdom of the Week:

“Where does the white go when the snow melts?” — anonymous

It was an impending snow-storm. It’s now been a full day since we were solemnly urged to flee to the markets and to stock up on the three main food groups—bread, milk, and Ho-Hos. Overnight we got one-half of one inch! I’ll refill my coffee mug and ponder on the whole event.

Thursday I took Adrianne, Tevita, and Vaioleti to the airport—their Tonga bound journey started at 4:50 PM. This morning I woke up at 2:30 AM in dire need of some cold-fighting medicine. While mixing my secret cold-repair concoction it dawned on me that 2:30 our time was just about exactly their arrival time in Tonga; a mere 35 hours after they started.

Should they, upon their return, complain about the trials of long distance travel with a sixteen-month old I’ll remind them that Captain Cook and his hearty crew would have taken a good year to accomplish this same task. And, during that whole time would have been eating sixteen-month old stale biscuits. Now that is real horror.

Here is my apology. I slept in (due to my cold and my secret concoction) and got a late start on this post. The late start also meant that Marin and Dinah showed up for a previously planned Saturday morning play-time with their Opa. The grandkids won out and, now at noon, I am just getting back to finish up this week’s ‘ramblings’.

The whole Holiday Mood thing has finally taken hold—I go out of my way to avoid all the sappy and gimmicky store generated holiday fare, but somehow it started to creep into my bones. Walking Shang this morning and watching that old dog romp in our half-inch of snow made all fall into place. Now, three hours later, he’s sound asleep at my feet and all I hear is deep breathing and every so often a contented sigh is tossed into the mix.

Last week I wrote that Marcia and I had a date with Vaioleti and took her to a Christmas party. In closing, let me just show the first and the last of a series of photos as Vai “warmed” up to Santa.

Make it a great week everyone. I am now going to try and talk Marcia into seeing a 3D movie with me.

Cheers,

Dirk

PS. The scrolling marquee at the top of the page I finally updated. The reason for the new statement is that I have code on this blog asking search robots to not scrape content into the various search engines. However, some disregard this request—usually from outside our borders. I took a look at the site’s stats and noted that, by a factor of 5, it’s Chinese URLs that demonstrate a complete disregard. So now you know.

12/19/2009 12:44:00 PM