A good Saturday morning all. During these ‘special’ times, here’s my thought for the day:

“Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

“Thursday time to feed the cat” goes the saying. We don’t have a cat, so Marcia and I celebrated anyway and ended up at Quatman Café, one of our standby favorites. Our table was cleverly “Socially Isolated” through the use of several screens borrowed from my Proctologist’s office. But hey, they did the job.

Since most professional sports are a bit of a joke this year, plus all their political statements which I don’t need to have parked in front of my face – I’ve not watched any. However, at Quatman’s, hanging across from our table was a large screen showing the Miami Heat and the Milwaukee Bucks game. Most every Jersey had a saying written on the player’s back – all the mundane and approved stuff you’d expect. Except for one, that of Miami’s #28, Andre Iguodala; on his was printed “Group Economics”. Not sure exactly what he meant by it, but I could appreciate. Maybe it was Nike related?

Walking – was becoming a bit boring and so I’ve set forth on some new ‘highways and byways’. This past week it was lovely. In the back area of Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum I almost walked into three Bucks. I also made note of the passing of my dad, 56 years ago this week, as I walked past my parent’s gravesite.

At Rookwood Commons I came across this lovely LTI old London cab. It’s been at least 15+ years since my last ride in one during a London stopover.

On Wasson Way, one of our newer walking trails, I stopped for a moment to admire these high schoolers busy at work with the latest ArtWorks undertaking. It was a couple of years ago that Marin managed to get involved with ArtWorks where he worked for the summer on another of their projects. It’s a great learning activity for students, for artists an opportunity to gain note, and for the citizenry something beautiful to enjoy.

Power Bill – In Canada we have Hydro-One. Each bill comes with its own set of ‘hydro-glyphs’. The larger chunks I can figure out. The small bits and pieces add-ons are a grand mystery, but at least I only get it every three months.

Here back home I have done the right thing. I opted for the paperless model to singlehandedly save the planet by receiving an auto-pay e-Bill. Now comes this. Recently we’ve been scammed by the (now former) Ohio Speaker of the House to the tune of $62,000,000. He had skillfully maneuvered an extra bit of alphabet soup onto everyone’s power bill; it’s been a steady revenue stream.

Then looking at my new monthly bill, it dawned on me that my e-Bill only contains a ‘Total Due’ amount. To gain the details I would have to climb through a series of hurdles and into my actual account. Once there I was amazed at the ‘a few pennies here and a few pennies there’ acronym add-ons. It’s almost impossible to make any sense of it.

At this point I felt a little insight from ol’ buddy Earl might be good. That’s Earl Pitts, “Uhmerikun” for you who aren’t familiar with the sage.

Pizza – Marcia and I ‘attended’ our City’s School Board meeting. Did so virtually; did so over Pizza; and ‘peppered’ the meeting by us commenting continuously.

The result was pre-ordained and so the conclusion was not negotiable. The Cincinnati Public School System would not start this month; instead classes would start on-line from home. All was explained through the use of a series of glib Power Point slides. One of the key presenters joined remotely – and the audio ‘crapped’ out. I looked at Marcia and mentioned that what we were watching had been put together by an IT Specialist and it failed, how then would it all work with third graders in a class setting? I think not!

Most western nations, many school systems in our country, are all opening schools. These are all realizing that it is, “imperative to the normal development of our nation’s children” – Dr. David Samadi. And should you hear scare stories regarding Covid-19 transmission. Remember that the American Academy of Pediatrics flat out states; “COVID-19 Transmission and Children: The Child Is Not to Blame”

I’ve read and think it correct, the statement that currently the Coronavirus is 90% politics and 10% medicine. It’s time for politics to socially distance from medicine.

In Cincinnati, the Teachers Unions won out. Students are the losers. Parents will feel the hurt. Continue on this path and educationally the students will lose a year academically, and emotionally/psychologically/socially we’ll be on a path to lose a generation. That is really ‘The Science’.

Fini – We’ve all seen some old Western movie featuring a train robbery. However, today in 1963 was ‘The Great Train Robbery’ at Bridego Railway Bridge in Buckinghamshire, England. It’s the name given to a £2.6 million mail train robbery (the equivalent of £41 million today). Some of the gang escaped, some were tried, two then escaped. But, what I thing is best of all is that one of the jurors during the robber’s trial was called Mr. Greedy.

In Illinois a school system does not want its students to copy the habits of their ‘work from home’ parents. They want students to take remote learning seriously and have implemented a dress code for those sitting at home in front of their computers – no PJs

Starting Tuesday August 11 remember, it’s probably not a Jehovah’s Witness at the door, but just your friendly Census taker.

And last, this week a reporter asked President Trump why his guests weren’t social distancing or wearing masks. His immediate retort: “It’s a peaceful protest.” It made my day.

Make it great week, keep the peace, stay safe, and be healthy! All Lives Matter.

Back the Blue

Dirk