Morning all, this getting ready for Christmas week.

Yesterday, about mid-afternoon the rains began and will stop this afternoon. Trouble is, during this time I will be part of a large group of folk doing a 5K around the hills of our Mt Adams – the ‘Egg Nog Jog’ 2021. In fact I’ll be round and about the hills about the time you read this.

After the ‘face-plant’ fiasco I masterminded a few weeks ago I promised sis-in-law Jolene that I’d pay attention to proper hydration. Hence, last Thursday I started a program leading up to this morning’s event. Such a regimen also causes one to get up during the middle of the night. In addition there will be NO coffee for me this morning, just herbal tea. The latter is a first for me.

I’m Confused – Mind you, my sentiment only, written by someone anonymous:

“They’re telling the unjabbed to take the jab because the jab works.

And telling the jabbed to get a booster because the jab doesn’t work

All while telling everyone that the unjabbed are putting the jabbed in danger by not getting a jab that didn’t protect the jabbed.”

And so we plod on.

Steel Drums – Earlier in the week Marcia and I were off the Vai’s school – Clark Montessori High School. With almost 700 students it’s part of the city’s public school system. It’s also the nation’s first public Montessori high school and is nationally recognized for academic excellence.

Part of their music program is the fact that they have several Steel Drum bands.

Now back to Vai, she and nearly 30 other new middle students made it into the beginning Steel band, and a performance of her band is what brought the two of us to the school. Two audio bits I’ve attached; first is the band director describing the capabilities of the instruments. Second is the band playing one of several pieces performed – Baja. Keep in mind these kids were all ‘newbies’ last August – most having never seen a Steel Drum before.

Sorrento’s – Italian restaurant is a place Marcia and I wander to every so often. This week we took Adrianne and the kids, none had ever been to the place (even though it’s been around since 1956). They loved it, especially the authentic homemade Canolis for desert. Over our table hung a large photo of Dean Martin (born: Dino Paul Crocetti – now you know why he decorates the wall of an Italian place). Only Marcia and I knew who ‘Dino’ was, the rest of the group – not a clue.

Neighborhood Luminaries – was last Sunday. And it was a perfect evening for this (almost) annual event. Enjoy the photos.

Tuba Skinny – It’s funny how things go in spurts. This past week I’ve listened to more of Tuba Skinny than I had for a long time, and I love that band. In case you don’t know about the group it’s a bunch of authentic New Orleans jazz musicians who still prefer to be viewed as just a group of buskers. I view them as wonderful talent.

Word of the Day – for this week actually a non-word but a brainchild of Jim Salveson. However it could be a word, it’s; “binfluencer” (bin-flu-enc-er). It describes the person on your street who always puts their wheelie bin out first on collection day and thus causes the rest of the neighborhood to follow.

Fini –
• This week Henry Orenstein passed at age 98. Orenstein was a Holocaust survivor, Polish-American, a toymaker, and inventor (held over 100 patents including the Transformer toyline).

• As of December 15, 2021 the space probe ‘Voyager 1’ is still ‘alive’ after traveling for 44 years and passing out of our solar system. At over 14.5-billion miles distance from Earth it still communicates with the Deep Space Network to receive routine commands and send data. It has 70.47% of the Plutonium-238 it had at launch remaining. All made possible thanks to nuclear energy!

•Dr. Wei Zhang PhD, MIT and Benjamin Pierce Fellow at Harvard, is an Atmospheric Scientist who recently posted; “people often claim “but the climate is changing much faster than ever before”. When you look at Paleoclimatology, you realize that we live in an era of remarkably stable climate. You can even argue that the natural changes in the early 20th century were way more dramatic than now.” I thought you’d want to know.

• The craziness and reversal of progress made with the WOKE push and the whole CRT nonsense is beyond horrible. These two photos best describe what’s happening. The first picture was from the early ‘60s, the second from this year. Really? We call that progress? Sad indeed.

• This week a Happy Birthday to Jeanne Z

• For almost a year now, thanks to brother Art we’ve all gathered and Zoomed twice a week for 45-minutes of pretty rigorous exercise. I believe it’s begun to pay dividends; however, a photo such as this proves we’ve got a long way to go!

• In a few days Kirstin and the boys will be coming to town. We are totally excited!

• Last Wednesday the central bank acknowledged that inflation is no longer “transitory”. The consumer price index rose 6.8% in November, and it could be ‘hot’ again this month. Next year, watch the rates rise; thank you Joe.

Have a great week, and a beautiful Christmas. Be safe, watch the drink, stay happy.

Best till next weekend.

Dirk – rain wanderer