Marcia got up early (due to the cold) and told me to just inform the thousands following these Ramblings that it’s; “too d*mn cold to type this morning”. Meanwhile, curled in a cozy cocoon under a load of blankets, I was too comfortable to even get up. Hence, The Ramblings are a bit late.

Two mugs of coffee and hearing the furnace blasting away, along with the outside temp a balmy 2° following the ice-cube -7°s yesterday, means that finally I am all set to go.

Which makes me think, what the ‘it’ is in the following sentence; “I wish it would warm up.” [answer: in Dutch so that you still have to look it up. I don’t want to make it too easy: in Dutch it’s termed an ‘onpersoonlijk voornaamwoord’]
Good luck 🙂

Now to put you in the mood:

WLW700am our local powerhouse 50,000 watt clear channel station was just awarded best AM station in the nation. A while back I detailed the amazing history of WLW especially its role during WWII – it’ll be worth your while to explore a bit.

Anyway, Marcia got up as mentioned and began listening to one of her favorite Saturday morning personalities on WLW, Gary Jeff Walker. His regular job is Bar Tender at a place in Northern Kentucky. Small banter delivered with perfect timing is what’s kept him on the air every Saturday morning for at least 15 years.

I paused my morning efforts to enjoy a bit of my coffee with her just in time to hear one of Gary Jeff’s regulars, a retired Lowe’s employee, Dick-from-Dayton. See, he has regulars call-in, folk such as a sweet little old lady from a nearby retirement home. Then there is Radio Rick, also from Dayton. Rick has a garage and basement full of vintage radios. He’ll discuss a new find or recently repaired classic radio. And, thus, it’s all totally listenable ‘stuff’. Bottom line; sure is a wonderful way to ease into one’s Saturday with a smile.

An early gift Well, I guess we all got an early ‘gift’ from the clown circus in Washington we collectively call our “representatives. And I am talking about, with a couple of exceptions, those in both parties; one exception being Senator Rand Paul from across the river.

Here he’s singing his version of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ to ‘celebrate’ and detail our ‘gift’:

The Cincinnati gang – meaning Vili and Vai and Grandpa (Opa) went out for lunch mid-week followed by a 2½ hour work stint at Matthew 25 Ministries. Where we were seated in the workspace we stared at 15 or so pallet loads of donated Zest “hand sanitizer”, 12 to a box. We had to block out the barcode on every container and reseal/restack.

This atmosphere surrounding us doing our chore was like ‘party central’ and the time flew by. Down deep I think it’s good for them, both to appreciate what they have and what it takes to get stuff to them. Here, a few pictures to tell the story.

     
Matthew 25 Ministries is one of my favorite charities serving folks caught up in disaster zones. They are always among the first to be on scene delivering both truckloads and plane loads of necessities. Also, and this is important, their administrative costs are about as low as possible. Keep them in mind with your own giving. This solicitation is not sponsored :).

Egg Nog Jog 5K – was lovely. Since it was also open to folk in costume, I dressed like a (as brother George called it, and he would know) a retiree from a Fort Meyers Retirement Village. Somehow I placed first in the +80 class and I hope there were more than just two of us in that group. Here are the a few photos including one of the route map, for those familiar with the Mount Adams part of the ‘Nati.

Fini – This week we experienced our winter solstice. Looking up some numbers:
• Stonehenge – theorized by the ancients to track solstices will have experienced somewhere around 5,000 of them.
• On planet Uranus the approximate length for each solstice (in our years) is about 21.
• The last year the planet Neptune experienced a winter solstice was 1997.
• Marie Curie on the winter solstice of 1898 placed the atomic number of radium (her discovery) as 88.

Isn’t all this grand? You’re now a little wiser.

As many of you know, I struggle a lot with nonsense of what seems illegal edicts, laws, etc. Most of these put forth to empower one group for self-serving purposes, or for covering a miss-step, or illegality, or for increased power/$$$. I came across this meme which hit me between the eyes and thought I’d share:

Arrogance can give people strength beyond their wildest dreams, especially via the pen, especially via Social Media. How about this individual telling Elon Musk to “shut up and build rockets and self-driving electric autos….You don’t know how to run a social media company.” Of course a social media company (the same one Musk bought) was used to inform Musk.

This week my little Dell Chrome opened up with a new photo display (it changes every so often). This one was of Ecuador’s nearly 5,900 meter high Cotopaxi Volcano National Park. It was years ago when we were in Ecuador that Marcia and I rode bicycles down that volcano. It was quite the ride, starting out with a squeaky voiced; “here we go” (due to the altitude). The experience of a lifetime.

There will NOT be a Rambling next week since I’ll be doing my cross-country travel
so let me give you my thought for the New Year now; this from President Reagan:
”We need only to believe in ourselves, in our country, and in tomorrow. Happy New Year.”

Ciao. Stay strong; keep pushing onward – please have a wonderful Christmas and stay safe.

Keep on storming the castle. Pray for Peace.

Dirk