Finally, it’ll be a glorious Sunday – or so I thought. The whole week has scheduled rains. Oh, sure we can use them, but a whole week? Rains starting in mere minutes? But at least the temperatures are moving from triple-digit and high 90s to lower eighties.

Anyway, it’s still dark, it’s still quiet, and my coffee smells and tastes great.

By replacing your morning coffee with green tea, you can lose up to 87% of what little joy you still have left in your life ~ Anonymous

****I need to point out that next week things could be a little chaotic. Assuming all the puzzle pieces fit together I’ll be entering Canada this coming Friday. First thing I’ll see is a Northern Comfort which hasn’t had human contact since September 2019 – two whole years. I’ll try and post something at the regular Saturday slot, but can’t be sure. ¿Comprende?

Sad, how we managed – to once again screw up so royally. Not just under Biden, but Trump, and Obama as well; our penchant to be ‘nation creators’ and with that spend inestimable amounts of ‘blood’ and ‘treasure’ as well as incalculable psychological damage. I am talking about Afghanistan.

Two decades and $88-billion supposedly training a 30,000 member afghan army which managed to get defeated in mere days by a few hundred 1985 Toyota pickups with an old machine gun mounted in its bed. Meanwhile we’re also watching streams of ‘trained’ afghan ‘soldiers’ fleeing across the Iranian border driving the Humvees and other armaments; all courtesy of you and I the American taxpayers.

As Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of the U.N. World Watch (a human rights NGO and UN watchdog group based in Geneva, Switzerland) wrote the U.N. Secretary General in an open letter: “If the world body mandated to protect international peace and security cannot come forward and try uniting the world to save the Afghan people—and especially women and girls—from the Taliban terror, maybe it’s time to just close up shop.”

For shame! We’re watching a Vietnam part ‘deux’!

Covid-19 insight – Were you aware that when watching all the ‘hype’ and ‘hoopla’ swirling around the ‘horror’ of the “Delta” variant of Covid-19 there is one fact which is never mentioned? That being that nearly 100% of people ending up in a hospital did NOT get any early treatment and took the CDCs advice to stay home for a week and do nothing. Really, is that following The Science? Give me a break! Why is that ‘advice’ being spouted?

The Fun Continues – Right here in our nation we have a great opportunity to assess differing Covid-19 management options. Two quite similar states adjacent to each other; North Dakota implemented ‘life-saving’ lockdowns, mask mandates, and business restrictions. Meanwhile, they could have ended up like South Dakota which had no lockdown, masks, or business restrictions.

Don’t give in to any petty dictators and unelected bureaucrats and their power-grabbing edicts without a fight! Anything taken away by them will be twice as difficult to get back.

Last Sunday’s Jazz concert – held in our Washington Park was glorious; weather, location, people, and sounds. Here is my poorly made and shaky YouTube, but you’ll get the gist of it – sorry. The 17-piece Cincinnati Contemporary Jazz Orchestra (CCJO) & Mandy Gaines doing “Nothing Compares 2 U” (made popular by Sinéad O’Connor and written/composed by Prince), the last half of it, which includes a couple of great solos:

Cyclones Unfrozen 5/10k –Yesterday I completed the 10k portion – in a record time for me of 1-hour 28-minutes! Counting only the 426 10k finishers I came in at number 351, and that for was for all entrants not just the ‘geezer’ group. Enjoy the pictures:

Fini –
• My brothers lost a dear childhood and beyond friend yesterday, this after a long illness. RIP Jack Staun.

• Two of my preparatory 10k walks earlier last week were managed under ‘real-feel’ temperatures of around 104-degrees. Melt away weather.

• I just know you’ve been waiting to know just how many different type of Screw drives exist. Here’s your answer.

• To make sure I have enough of the substance, I am taking a full roll of the stuff up north this week:

• During High School years one of the sports I played was Water Polo. I remember playing a local Toronto Hungarian men’s team where afterwards my back looked like a Tiger clawed at me. Now I understand why I didn’t pursue the sport any further. The photo shows the former Water Polo great, Soviet-Georgian athlete Petre Kako Mshvenieradze with his grandson. The photo was taken during the 1990s.

• The corner of Chaos & Mayhem does have many a quiet moment. Times where a smile creeps across your face. This photo from across the street celebrating an eighteenth birthday.

• A photo of the 1928 “House Band” of the Michelin Hour variety radio show in costume. This photo is being posted especially for my brother George – he’ll understand.

• Competing in today’s world, can anyone tell me why in the world Oregon’s Governor Kate Brown signed a law which allows the removing of requirements that HS graduates show they can read, write, and do math at a high school level? She declined to comment on the decision. Another quick path into the ‘abyss’ has been created; how quickly we march into it.

• The Rolex two-day Fastnet off-shore race took place this week and my love of sailing got a booster’ shot (play on next item). This race is around the western edge of the British isles and finally rounding a large rock – Fastnet – with a lighthouse on it as the northernmost turning point. A number of differing classes and some spectacular sailing were seen.

• Finally, last Tuesday I had a physical along with the perfunctory blood-letting. The photo shows site of my Pneumonia shot, elbow site was a miss-fire with 3-pokes (“vein rolling about”), back of hand as the alternate site. Coming home, Marcia was duly impressed.

Off to do some organizing, packing, and readiness preparations for my travel. A reservation for a Thursday stay at the Driftwood has already been made. To all, make it a great week. Fight for what is true and right, value life, stay healthy, and laugh a lot. Best till next weekend.

Dirk