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Happy Saturday morning, and I am lucky to be with you. Yesterday morning started as most others. Coffee was poured. Sat back sipping happily and got caught up with the morning happenings and news. Then mug two was poured and I filled a bowl of cereal.

That’s when it all happened. Actually, it was really a case of me outsmarting myself. See, I mistakenly bought a case of Almond milk. It tastes OK, just has about 0-gms of protein. Here is where it all started.

To add protein, I got a scoop of protein powder and put it in the cereal and stirred. I just didn’t stir it enough. One bit was still full of very fine, very dry, protein powder. The stuff exploded in my mouth. The choking, sneezing, coughing, along with a flob or two continued well over 5-minutes (a glass of ice water got me back to normal).

A shortie – Ramblings this week. A variety of reasons for this. A heat wave which kept us indoors in the A/C. Then a clogged A/C drain stack which affected our place – this required me to set the alarm throughout a night and a chunk of the day at 90-minute intervals so that I could dump each collected water bucket (it took 2 plumbers 3 hours to rectify the situation). The plumbing guys were loud middle easterners; I am now almost fluent in a ‘motivational’ Arabic language variant.

Also, as soon as I post I’ll be heading for the Riverfront for a 5K race. It’s the WEBN (radio station) Froglegs event with $$ going to our local Epilepsy Foundation.

WEBN also is the sponsor of this Sunday evening’s Fireworks, set to music display at the riverfront. The Riverfest is nationally recognized as one of the top single-day festivals in the country and draws more than half a million people divided equally on the riverbanks – Ohio and Kentucky. Ribbbbbit!

Quote – this from Franz Kafka, author from Prague, (1883 – 1923)

“One idiot is one idiot
Two idiots are two idiots
Ten thousand idiots are a political party”

That quotation came back to me seeing Thursday’s softball (or was it T-ball?) interview wielded by CNN’s Dana Bash.

Murder in the drive-through – Will the police come? No, I seriously doubt it. But what Dunkin Donuts serves as their “Pumpkin Swirl Frozen Coffee” is a killer – and not in a teenager’s good sense. With not a single natural ingredient and 185 grams of sugar this stuff is a killer.

If you’re a diabetic, it’ll kill you sooner rather than later. If not, you’ll climb onto a steep downward slope. To give you a hint, a pre-diabetic should limit their sugar intake to 5 grams or less per meal.

Talking the importance of food to our health, do yourself a favor and get a hold of this book – Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health – on audio or paper. It’s written by whistleblowers brother Calley Means and sister Casey Means, MD who expose “how Big Pharma has co-opted government agencies and the food industry to poison America and keep us sick.”

Casey is a Stanford educated MD (class President) and trained as an Ear-Nose-Throat surgeon. Rather than read, listen to their discussion on the Joe Rogan Experience (click on this name-link); It’s definitely well worth a listen.

Driver’s Ed – 2024 and this year two of our grandchildren crossed that magic age where they’re eligible to try for a driver’s license. This crossing of that Rubicon caused Marcia and I to embark on a ‘discussion’. This whole ‘Driver’s Ed’ business we yammered on, over two cups of coffee. Me stating that I remember that schools all had mandatory Driver’s Ed. Marcia was just as steadfast saying that; “no it was parent’s having to hire a private firm.”

Ok, she went to private school and that probably was what it was. However, according to the Institute of Education Sciences public schools had Driver’s Ed from the mid-1930s to 1965. During that time more than 13,000 schools had classes, and 1,700,000 students were trained.

My learning years were in Canada and there I had my father sitting in the passenger seat giving me guidance. What I do remember were any number of TV bits and movies where the driving instructor was either a coach or a Barney Fife lookalike. Any of you readers have any remembrances?

The weather – The climate – OK, this week we’ve been experiencing a heat wave. Not as hot as some we’ve had, but with the humidity causing it to feel around 105 was horrid.

Luckily, I haven’t really heard any of that old “Global Warming” or “Climate Change” business. In other words, it’s been a hot summer and somewhere down the road we’ll have a cooler one seems to be the consensus.

Anyway, it did get me to hunt up this old CNN interview with John Coleman who died about 6 years ago at the ripe age of 83. Coleman was a trained Meteorologist and the founder of The Weather Channel. Enjoy listening to someone who won’t kowtow to the myriads of political power grabbers
wanting more and more:

Lastly – This week Marcia made a reference remarking something about my vision. I’ll close this Rambling with one of Ruth Buzzi’s Poems:

“My face in the mirror’s
Not wrinkled or drawn.
My house isn’t dirty.
The cobwebs are gone!
My garden looks lovely,
And so does my lawn.

I think I might never
Put glasses back on.”

Happy Labor Day to all workers (even slackers like me). And to Vai a happy, happy. You’re turning into a beautiful grownup lady; and becoming First Alto drummer in the school’s Steel Drum band this year is quite an honor.

Life is AMAZING!

May Peace prevail! Shalom.

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

We have a new Postal delivery guy who wears a Pith helmet (kinda cool). Anyway, which of these is NOT a Pith Helmet?

1)   salacot
2)   topee
3)   kippah
4)   safari helmet
5)   bowler
6)   topi
7)   Panama
8)   deerstalker
9)   sola topee
10) Balmoral bonnet