Happy Saturday morning and here the snows have melted (more on the way overnight). I’m sitting in the dark playing a bit with the coffee mug while waiting for a moment of it cooling. This reminds me; are our troops still guarding the fences around the capitol? They are our troops are they not? We’re sure this isn’t some foreign Trojan Horse Horde planning to take us over?

The two-inches of snow we got Thursday evening caused complete havoc. I’m serious; HAVOC I tell you! The city alone had over 40 wrecks including a couple of police cruisers. This doesn’t include any of our 23 ‘burbs’.

Seems like our whole fleet of ‘salt’ trucks was incapacitated. Actually the trucks were fine, their drivers were all Covid quarantined, self-quarantined, and binary quarantined (they’re politically correct). Hence the drivers were ‘recruited’ from behind their city desk jobs.

At one point a cops had a truck blow by them in their lane when they were outside of their vehicle – spraying salt. With lights on they followed, and now the truck driver really ‘made tracks’. At one point as the cruiser got near he lifted the truck bed and turned that sprayer on and covered the cruiser.

Pretty soon the ‘po-po’ had this driver in the pokey.

Turns out the driver had around 30 previous traffic citations and did not have a valid driver’s license. But hey, these are the days of Covid and you got to do what you got to do.

Possibly the activity on our corner of Chaos and Mayhem is expanding outward.

‘Sempo’ – This week was International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27). Many of us know names of heroes whose actions saved many from transport to the Nazi extermination camps. Names such as Raoul Wallenberg and Oskar Schindler have entered our lexicon, but how many of us know of Chiune “Sempo” Sugihara? ‘Sempo’ was a Japanese Diplomat, fluent in Russian and stationed in Lithuania. Told not to, and disregarding orders, he spent evenings and weekends generating travel visas. These legal visas enabled the bearer to train through Russia to Siberia and to places from there. It’s been estimated that he enabled as many as up to 6,000 Jews to gain their freedom.

Any idea why Hollywood has never taken interest in ‘Sempo’ and his amazing life and the amazing good he accomplished?

“one should not do a good deed with the expectation that you will be rewarded, but for the good deed itself.” — Nathan Lewin (quoting his Rabbi)

Vendée Globe – Last week I noted that my twice a day Vendée Globe update is a constant fixture! Now you’re saying “lawdy, lawdy, he’s at it again!” Not so. This last piece is on aging.

The first ten boats are in and it’s one of my favorite boats, “Yes We Cam”, I want to mention. Then I’m completely done.

The oldest skipper in the fleet (Jean Le Cam, age 61), on one of the older boats (2007) “Yes We Cam !”, managed to cross the ‘kine’ in 8th place and came in 4th overall (from a starting fleet of 33 boats). This 4th place finish on a 25,000 mile, 80 days of nonstop sailing, “Everest of Yacht Racing” journey is amazing. Oh, and that was that after an 11-hour search he rescued another skipper from his life-raft bobbing in the middle of the Southern Indian Ocean,  whose boat had sunk.

The two sailed together on “Yes We Cam !” for a week before offloading his ‘passenger’ onto a French Navy vessel.

Now that he accomplished his remarkable finish, ending each little audio or video update with his signature staccato “clack clack clack” (loosely meaning, “go go go”) is what I’ll remember most. Le Cam is a French icon, their hero, and absolutely loved as “King Cam”. It was great seeing an oldie-but-goody do so well.

Lord Fauci – As the Wuhan-Flu rolls merrily along, Ohio is rolling out the vaccine in a most chaotic manner; it’s an ongoing pathetic attempt which would have bankrupted any private sector company had they done the same. Meanwhile, ‘Lord’ Fauci keeps on with one pronouncement after another. Couple that with the approval Ivermectin for early Covid treatment (allowed conveniently a few days after Trump exited). Now we’re hearing we might want to double up on masks. Triple anyone?

So rather than me getting on to a rant about it all, I’ll let Professor Saad provide some input.

Gad Saad is a Lebanese-Canadian evolutionary psychologist and professor in the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University – Montreal, and is a master expressing his thoughts; sarcasm at its best.

Well that didn’t last long – the honeymoon period with the new administration that is. I’m beginning to make note that the questions to Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, are becoming a bit more substantive.

And the answers are dutifully made note of by an eager Press Corps. Surprising that no one has gotten dizzy:

Fini – This week I was notified through “My Chart” to sign up for a Covid vaccine. This time, I went on-site within an hour after being notified. This message was displayed: “As vaccine shipments are received, additional timeslots will be added. We apologize if you are unable to make an appointment today due to limited supply.”

We were a major test site for the AstraZeneca vaccine and the way the rollout is going even their drug will be out and a brand new fourth well underway before we too get a turn to get ‘poked’.

This past week WWII Navajo Code Talker John Kinsel turned 100. Happy Birthday to a true hero.

A full week into the new administration and through ‘Executive Order’ Misogyny is alive and well:

This week I learned the word for Avocado comes from the Aztec word “ahuacacuahati” which is translated as testicle tree. Your week would not be complete without this ‘snippet’.

The reason for my Avocado interest is that a breakfast slice of toast with Avocado I am now sprinkling with something I picked up at Trader Joe’s. Thank you Kirstin!

These days I hear more about Sepsis as a quiet but deadly killer for all ages. I came across this “signs to watch for” poster and thought to park it here as a public service:

Now that we’re rejoining the “World Climate Change” money grabbing bunch, let me end with a quote from Dr. Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace:

“We do not know the long-term future of weather and climate, never mind the future state of politics or civilization.
Therefore in order to remain sane and not pessimistic and grumpy, it is best to emphasize hope over fear. Neither is certain, but the former is much more enjoyable.”

Make it great week, keep the peace, be happy, stay safe, and be healthy!

Dirk