Ok, it’s a bit early. You are probably thinking that I got up, to write and then sit to just sit back waiting for Punxsutawney Phil to make his annual Groundhog Day appearance. But noooo, you’d be wrong. I got up real early to get ready and grab the 7:15 bus (using my $1.00 Geezer pass) to head into town. A walk down to the river bank and then enjoy the Cincinnati Cyclones Frozen 5/10K. I did it two years ago, loved it, and am ready to do it again. Maybe it’s the Hot Chocolate at the end.

However! Having said all of this, I have enough time to pour a piping hot mug of coffee.

~ Paul Harvey audio restored, from the original of this homily around 1965.

You MUST click on the embedded LINK once you open the above

Maybe it’s just because I’m getting old and grumpy. Even assuming I have become a curmudgeon. But, I cannot help but sit back and watch this past week’s goings on and not reflect.

Cov-Cat – Last week I shared some thought on the ‘tempest-in-a-teapot’ which involved Covington Catholic (Cov-Cat) high school and student Nick Sandman. Here, the one person who had no interest in getting involved in anything gets completely skewered by the popular press, legislators, social media, and even the religious, while being the one individual who behaved in the most adult manner.

Even the school’s overseeing Bishop who reamed the kids in a letter, then reversed and sent out a ‘mea culpa’. Who then excluded the kid most seen on screen from participating in sports and classes. Who then reversed that as the Dioceses caved under pressure. What a loser! What a leader! (being sarcastic)

Virginia & New York – Next were the beastly events in both New York and Virginia. Virginia, the same state where 1,000s of people were forcibly sterilized right through the 1970s for the ‘crime’ of being someone’s idea of ‘defective’; now has passed legislation which allows abortions through the period where the mother is delivering a full-term infant. In my dictionary that is either ‘infanticide’ or ‘murder’ – take your pick.

New York made a similarly hideous move. And upon passage found the legislature cheering and that evening Governor Cuomo had pink lights displayed on various structures.

Dr. Omar L. Hamada stated succinctly:

“I want to clear something up so that there is absolutely no doubt.
I’m a Board Certified OB/GYN who has delivered over 2,500 babies.
There is not a single fetal or maternal condition that requires third trimester abortion. Not one.”

Then, sadly. the week’s craziness and world-upside-down business continued.

FBI – a political hack whose views you can agree or disagree with was hauled in this week. Such a case usually is managed with a note to the person’s lawyer for their client to report. Our latest method was to storm the guy’s home during the night, surround the place by over two dozen agents with long rifles, vests, night goggles, and helmets. His hearing impaired wife was also marched outside in her nightgown, a woman with no, as in zero, charges against her now placed under the camera scrutiny of a tipped-off press as her husband was shackled and hauled off. This all is so wrong. This is stuff of brown-shirts and jack boots.

No matter what party affiliation you have, this is beyond the pale and pure political gamesmanship. And remember that something such as this can also happen to you and I should the ‘winds of change’ blow our way. This does not have any place in a nation supposedly operating under the rule of law.

What sad comments on our current history. What a sad time for a nation touting itself as “home of the brave, land of the free.” Maybe listen one more time to Paul Harvey’s homily and then ask yourself, just how close are we to the edge?

Finis – We got a really cold blast of air this week. Even our bathroom cold water pipe froze, but just for a day. Then, was it really that cold?

During the years of 1977 and 1978 we had two back to back terrific winters. It got cold enough, for long enough, so that the Ohio River froze over. It was frozen hard enough that the newspaper posted photos of folk walking across the river.

This week, the Ohio did NOT freeze over.

Barb and Bulent, our Canadian neighbors (neighbours in Canadian) spent a night while working their way to California in a cross-country driving adventure. Let me say, that it sure was good and loads of fun to have them with us. We did it well, a great Tapas dinner at Abigail Street restaurant including a braised lamb’s neck. With the cold Marcia and Bulent started with an amazingly creamy Butternut Squash with Lobster chunks soup. Barb and I had a ‘to-die-for’ Bouillabaisse. A.S. is also one of the few places where they have quality wines on tap.

  We followed that with short walk for a beer chaser at the Taft Alehouse a craft brewery located in a nearby refurbished church. Then back at our little condo, along with a flood of conversation, we discovered an evening’s chaser of Willett Bourbon which we had picked up at a small but magnificent, family run, distillery over a year ago.

Now off to the Cyclones Frozen K.

Last evening we went and gave our goodbyes to our long-time friend, Janie Melvin; may you rest in peace after these difficult weeks.

Make it a great week. Personally, I can’t forget to order my 2019 copy of Turbo Tax.

One quick question, just when did the fog roll in?

Ciao
Dirk – p.s., is my bib on straight?