Boone?

Happy Saturday. Headline just noted on my morning news feed: “A Tale of Two Americas: D.C.’s Depression, America’s Revival”. Pretty well sums up the week, doesn’t it?

Before I forget (as I’ve done in the past few weeks), this bit of exciting news from the nearby downriver town of Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, they have a new mayor – Boone-the-hound. As the news headline stated: “A ‘paw-some’ campaign secures victory for Mayor Boone”.

Warning, Boone-the-hound is a serious ‘speechifier’ (definition: deliver a speech, especially in a tedious or pompous way):

Now some coffee as the real ‘Ramblings’ kick into high gear ~\_(“,)_/~.

Our little Super Bowl — Sunday was the Super Bowl. Neither Marcia nor I had any real interest in the event. Although way down deep there was a bit of a burning ember about the game and the final football of the season.

We compromised!

Our living/family room (other than the three season family sunroom which is still out of season) has no television in it. I don’t know how it happened, but enough testosterone was released for me to get active and place a big screen next to the couch. Sorry to all of you who see this as a failure, I just couldn’t resist.

Brother George, ever the thinker, advised I bolt it to the wall.

Historic? – Later today (noon) I’ll be at a city-wide meeting regarding the idiocy being foisted on us by our City Council. It’s euphemistically called; “Connected Communities”. This is all part of the ’15-minute city’ poppycock shoved down our throats. Already passed unanimously by the Planning Commission, it is by far the worst, very worse change in the city zoning code. Now off for passage to a council both inept and 100% filled by committed democrats, socialist cause afficionados.

Connected Communities gets rid of Single Families neighborhood zones up to 10 blocks from a major designated route – we are two blocks away. Allows construction of 4 story multi family apartments with minimal regard to building materials and out of State LLC landlords. No regulation dealing with the number of parking spaces. Anything you can think of that would destroy a viable neighborhood is part of this drivel.

Cincinnati is unusual in that over the years there have been three major local political parties: Republican, Democrat, and Charter. The ‘Charter’ has been more libertarian and its members seldom used local politics as a ‘stepping stone’ to Statewide or National positions.

Charter Committee Convenor (Lawyer and former City Councilman) Steve Goodin noted:

“In my more than two decades of working on city issues, I have never seen public input so thoroughly stage-managed, manipulated and ultimately ignored.
No matter what one thinks of individual aspects of the ‘Connected Communities’
Ordinance, the process was a disaster. It represented a complete breakdown of the transparency and responsiveness Cincinnatians rightfully expect from a Charter-based government. ‘Connected Communities’ cannot be fixed. It simply must be repealed.”

Then mid-week I’ll be at a second meeting, this one only for our neighborhood. We’re embarking on seeing to have the neighborhood designated as a Historic District (the ‘Nati already has 27 Historic Districts so it’s not impossible). My interest is two-fold, the historic district aspect is one to counter the zoning changes ‘Connected Community’ garbage but not yet finalized. Now it’s ‘Dirk the Activist’.

Thought, maybe we should have elected as Mayor ‘Boone-the-Hound’ for this city.

Overboard ~ or ~ Overside ~ or ~ Of-putting? Prior to this rewrite of a 1930s Pete Seeger and Woody Guthry union/socialist song, which I first heard in my youth and I actually liked (it’s a catchy tune). However, this ‘updated’ version has me pulling my nails on a chalkboard about 15-seconds in. That’s all I can take. If these groups form Trumps opposition, he has little to worry about.

Spam – is an ongoing horror and we’re in the midst of them. The other evening it was the third call of the day. This call was for something health related, and I was invited to hit another digit if I wanted to go further in Spanish. Marcia looked up to see if I’d respond in my normal manner, i.e. a hang up.

That’s when I opted to change my routine. Instead of answering any questions, me, now speaking my native Dutch nicely asked the atomtronic at the other end that “I’d prefer their call be conducted in Dutch” (Ik heb liever dat deze lezing in Nederlands wordt gemaakt).

Crickets!

The call did not come to a satisfactory conclusion (for them). Here Marcia howled.

Happenings – mentioning Robo calls this week, I should mention that this was also a banner week for the Fire Department here at the Corner of Chaos and Mayhem.

Tuesday, I came back from walking and saw smoke a block away. Turns out that three houses from our place Fire was hard at work dousing the engine compartment on a car. No more than 20 minutes after I got back that I spotted the burned car leaving on a tow truck.

Yesterday, it was one siren after another, and each would cease to sound immediately after turning at Chaos and Mayhem. That prompted a look. Eight fire trucks had gathered (3 were ladder and one was the big ‘Heavy Rescue’ unit). Add an EMT ambulance and some pickup trucks to assist blocking traffic coming from three directions.

Although we saw smoke by the roof and the firemen on the roof the whole business lasted no more than 45 minutes. No outside damage to be seen. It didn’t take long to clear up and none of the rush-hour traffic had an inkling of all the earlier happenings here at the Corner of Chaos and Mayhem.

Now it is best to unfold my rain gear, especially since it’s already raining hard. The weekend is beginning with 3” to 4” of rain followed next week by temps dropping into the teens and some snow, all capped with flood conditions in the burbs. It’s going to be a good one.

Life is AMAZING!

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

A U.S. patent (U.S. Patent 127,568) was issued in 1872 with the following text: “I, Robert Chesebrough, have invented a new and useful product from petroleum which I have named Vaseline…” The result being that probably every household in the nation has a jar of Vaseline sitting on a shelf and distributed in over 70 countries. It’s used by dermatologists, NASA, for cosmetic applications, and as a lubricant of fine machinery. Which of these names is NOT used to refer to Vaseline?

1) “Goop”
2) “Sludge”
3) “Petroleum waste”
4) “Translucent putty”
5) “Vaseline”