Have a happy Pi Saturday – especially on the heels of a Friday the thirteenth.

“Must be Spring since I have begun to think about my ‘Sauss Ente’” by: Yours truly

‘Our Duck’ (a little Citroën Deux Chevaux [2CV]) is in storage up north, but the mind wanders, and so the French term; Sauss Ente (Crispy Duck) comes to mind. Then I discovered that in Germany Citroën actually released a “Sausss Ente” 2CV edition done in Mallard green and black; great looking paint and wonderful decal work. BTW; the small print above the “Sausss Ente” makes note of the tremendous acceleration from 0 to 100kmph in seconds; that in itself is enough to make any German smile.

Alright, even though I am sitting here enjoying my morning coffee, I am couth enough to know full well; that a French crispy-duck dinner absolutely requires that brandy as a finish be served.

An Amazing Neighborhood – Last weekend Marcia and I were at a pot-luck for the folk on our little side street. And we had a wonderful time. I had a lengthy talk with my neighbor, a retired Dean from our University and an early NAACP president, whose wife and two lady friends at that same time were attending the 50th anniversary events in Selma.

Another neighbor, the ultimate absent minded professor, enlightened me on the complete bus-routing system of Nice, France. But, that was not all.

We had just gotten ready to load our plates when the front door blew open and a stranger (to Marcia and I) entered. “DANNY” people exclaimed. It was Danny Adler, rotund sixty something, who had grown up around the corner, and who has 40-something music CDs on iTunes – oh, and he is a licensed railroad engineer.

Danny is one of those people who take ownership of a room. At some point he jammed on the piano for a solid thirty minutes.

Cincinnati, during the sixties, was a hot-bed for R&B and Blues music. At the top of the pile was King Studios. Anybody who was somebody in those genres recorded at King. So it was that a young Danny ‘hung’ at King looking for an entry into the music scene. He watched people such as Hank Ballard, James Brown, Roy Brown, and groups such as The Royales rehearse and record.

In time Danny recorded at studios like Stax, Decca, Olympic, and Abbey Road II. Anyway, two years ago, while back in town for some gigs he managed to break into the old King Studios – now a decrepit, run-down, leaky shell of a building. But, while in that place, inspiration hit him. He got a recording engineer buddy on board (railroad engineering term) and shortly they had a scheme to record at that old Studio one final time.

Running the necessary electronics from their car’s cigarette lighter, Danny, standing on a stage assembled out of wooden pallets topped with a few of the original vinyl tiles from the old studio all sitting in puddles of water, began singing and playing an acoustic guitar.

So, what proof did we have that this fantastic story was really true? Well, the session was not only recorded but also videotaped.

And, even better, Danny happened to have a few disks of that session in his car and gave Marcia and I one. Let me tell you, it’s fantastic!

As someone at the pot-luck murmured; “where else can a spontaneous pot-luck turn into such an evening.” Yup, we live in an amazing neighborhood.

Same old—part whatever – we’re now in full swing getting the old house ready for market. Marcia emptying cans of paint. Dirk with spackling compound. Yesterday the refrigerator was made ready for curbside pickup. Then, I managed to remove the Master Bath vanity and its two decrepit sinks. I see another Ikea event in our near future.

Next week a team of specialists will come on the scene to wash the roof. “Wash the roof” you say incredulously? Yes, wash the roof. One section located under a large side tree has developed mold and stain. A week from now it’ll look all sparkly.

April 6th a flooring company will begin to restore the hardwood floors in six rooms, two hallways, and a staircase. Once done and the newly restored brass vintage heat-duct grates inserted, people (buyers) will be in awe.

Our exterior house paint effort is another story – and a sad one at that. As is often the case with small service companies, their level of communication is minimalist. We knew ours was scheduled to start after the winter weather broke, but little else. Monday Marcia discovered a note on the door from the owner of our paint company asking to give him a call. She did. She made another call on Tuesday and again on Wednesday.

Thursday she happened to be outside raking leaves when a neighbor (who last year used the same company) stopped and asked if she had heard about Jason (owner of J&R Paints – our selected contractor). She hadn’t. Turns out that in the wee hours Tuesday morning his pickup slid out of a curve on wet road, hit a tree, and killed him – he was just 39.

Yesterday she talked with the team who were scheduled to do the work. Next week they’ll be by to asses and set the start date. As you can see, these projects have a two-step-forward-one-step-back kind of element.

Fini – The snow melt and 2.5” of rain have the Ohio River roaring by, six feet above flood-stage – the highest in a number of years. On the lower, Kentucky, side the flood-gates have been put into place. At least it’s better than the big flood from the late thirties when it rose 38’ above its banks placing the whole of downtown under water.

Congratulations to Dinah and Vai for making their first public speech at school. The assignment was to talk about a historical character (their person was selected by random drawing). A representative from each grade was selected to present to a school and community wide Oratory Festival next Friday morning. Vai got selected to represent the school’s First Graders with her talk on Dr. Albert Schweitzer.

Stay safe and be well, make it a great week. If the rain clears (now at 7:00 it appears that it will) I’ll offer to drag the grandkids to the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade downtown.

Cheers.

Dirk