time moves along

Happy Saturday morning. And a very happy 80th to my brother Pieter – make it a classic, guy!

Remember: “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

I’ve finally isolated a week to make it possible to run up north to Northern Comfort. This coming week it’ll be a solo run with me planning to return Sunday a week. Without anyone else coming up it’ll be yard work, cleaning the interior, making certain all the batteries are fully charged, meeting our new neighbors, a bit of Kayaking, some rest in the hammock, reading and some more reading (my Kindle is fully charged). Then, it’s a quiet cigar to top it off!

Not forgetting, saying hello to Marlene and Donn.

After all of that, whew, I’m worn out!

A Change – All of this will demand that for the NEXT TWO WEEKS, my Ramblings will be on HIATUS!

Quote – “If you think you are smarter than the previous generation……50 years ago the owner’s manual of a car shows you how to adjust the valves. Today it warns you not to drink the contents of the battery.”
– anonymous (from on-line)

An old corner, the corner of Chaos and Mayhem – There is that old saying about a tree falling in a middle of the forest, does it make……..

Well, here is what happens when a tree falls across the roadway leading to the corner of Chaos & Mayhem – it shuts the place down! And that is exactly what happened early this past week. Of course, it had to happen at the start of the afternoon rush hour.

But that’s not all.

Yesterday at 1AM I woke up due to the racket made by a Fire truck. This was quickly followed by 5 more trucks. A dozen houses down the street was an empty (it was under reconstruction) house which had caught on fire.

Once again, a cruiser was dispatched to block what? Yup, you guessed right, the old Corner of Chaos and Mayem was locked down again. The news reported that they had 50 firefighters at the scene.

I woke up at 3-AM and the cruiser was still casting red and blue colors on the ceiling.

More Volunteering – and Marcia is still shaking her head in disbelief. I did it again, I volunteered, and my volunteering offer was accepted. Mid-August I will be a volunteer on the Committee for Suite Hospitality at the……drumroll here please……the Cincinnati Open 2025 Tennis Tournament!

This major tournament will be going for 14 days. This is to account for the men’s and women’s singles fields growing from 56 to 96 players. This year the campus will also open to display a brand new $260million transformation on its 40-acre campus, and in a couple of weeks I’ll get to view the awesome new look.

Our prestigious tournament’s early beginning go back to 1899 and it has grown ever since. This year, the top 65 players in the world, from the women’s and men’s tennis tours, are set to compete.

For 2025, the Cincinnati Open ranks number 12 on a list of the 20 best tournaments – worldwide!  It’s the lead up to the New York Open.

I am truly excited about the opportunity! It should be awesome.

My early years had me playing tennis a fair bit – at church Family Camp in Germantown when our kids were babes there tennis got pretty serious (me using my old-school wooden racket). Then, as life got busier, it morphed into indoor hand and paddle ball.

So, to be involved in this event, at my current ‘reflective’ age is huuuge!

Ripley, Ohio – the little town of 1,800 stuck on the banks of the mighty Ohio and a ways east of the ‘Nati. Last week’s Ramblings detailed the lead-up to an occurrence at this town, so, here is the conclusion. Wednesday evening, they drew cards until they had a winner ($1.6-million) for their Queen of Hearts drawing. And the winner had to declare the winning ticket within 10 minutes.

Wednesday they indeed had a winner, and the winner was a local (thousands had driven in from the “Nati and places out of State), he was 67 years of age and had purchased $3,000 worth of tickets.

Got Gassed – yesterday I stopped by the Sam’s Club gasoline island. After staring for way too long at the pump I realized I had no idea on how to make the thing work. It would appear that a newer technology had passed me by.

Luckily, a cop pulled up behind me and he heard my pleas. I had no physical card, so the transaction was all electronic. A QR code was on screen. First, I had to allow my mobile’s camera read the code. That activated the Sam’s Club App. Then everything became simple and the pump sprang into action. Whew!

The good news was that my receipt was placed on my mobile phone – only missing was that it didn’t auto log my mileage.

All the above showing to be a far cry from the time, while driving across the Province of Saskatchewan, when I needed to stop for gas. The small town where I stopped had just experienced a power outage. Not to worry though. The gas pump had a handle to manually pump gas, and in short order I was ready to head on out – full tank and all.

Tell me, which technology do you think is better?

Time doesn’t stop – as time rolls on and as we observe how time transforms, I referred to two such phenomena. One I didn’t mention is our Vaioleti. Born as a micro-preemie who needed to be rubbed on her back to ‘kick-start’ her breathing every time the incubator’s alarm would set off.

This fall she’s going to start her senior school year. Now a young smart and self-assured delightful young woman, she’s just begun her very first summer job – working at the Cincinnati Zoo. She’s ready to help you select that perfect gift as you scour the main gift shop. So cool!

Life is AMAZING!

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

Which of these ‘myths’ are actually true?

1) “The Great Wall of China is visible from space”
2) “Bats are blind”
3) “you swallow spiders in your sleep”
4) “Einstein failed math”
5) “Goldfish have a 3-second memory”
6) “Lightning never strikes the same place twice”

Independence Day

Quote – “I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration.”
– John Adams, July 3, 1776

Happy Saturday morning. Happy day after Independence Day.

4th of July – I sure hope that all my readers had a wonderful day, whether a cookout, parade, movie, or just sitting in the yard with your feet in a kiddy pool.

Then, here wishing that all dogs have recovered from any nearby nighttime fireworks noise. A couple of homes on either side of our place seem not to be satisfied until they’ve emptied a store shelf from a nearby Fireworks store.

Now, I’m pouring another coffee as the best way to spring back to normal.

Not quite normal – I just received notification to reserve the date for the 2026 Flying Pig. Early this week I received a shirt imprinted with Top Pig 5K; I believe I achieved some top spot in my age category – cool. The very next day I cut through a back lot at Xavier University on a walk, there, parked, was this car, marked “Rig of the Pig”. Now I’m wondering, am I being subjected to a full court signup press?

Northside Parade – Northside’s slogan; “Keep Northside Weird” fulfilled its wish. With its traditions going back to 1854 this year’s 4th of July Parade, aside from being the region’s largest, somehow managed to (sort of) keep a balance between being traditional and ‘edgy’. Adrianne offered me a slot and walk with the Peace Corps contingency. My excuse being that since Marcia couldn’t participate, I’d fill her role (mid-sixties, Venezuela). It really was a fun time, albeit somewhat hot.

I spotted this late 1950s Chrysler Imperial, aside from being gorgeous it also is representative of the traditional portion of the parade.

Flashback; when these ‘beasts’ were new, my uncle Harry came to visit us and guess what he was driving? If you guessed that it was an Imperial you’d be 100% correct – a shiny black one no less. I remember thinking I’d never seen a more beautiful car, that thing was gorgeous!

Open the (above) photo and try to spot the character in the back corner behind me. He represents the more ‘edgy’ side of Weird Northside.

Manhattan Eruv – Over the years my brother Pieter has performed the role of a Sabbath Goy for observant Jewish acquaintances. Exploring this whole Sabbath Goy thing a bit further I eventually came upon an Eruv. Without which, for observant Jews, life on the Sabbath would really become a royal pain.

Now, I’d heard of an Eruv but never understood how perfectly it allows life to proceed seamlessly. Then I came across this short YouTube – it explains it all perfectly, especially the oversized Eruv around Manhattan. So, enjoy!

Ripley, Ohio – is a little town of 1,800 stuck on the banks of the Mighty Ohio a ways east of the ‘Nati. A couple of years ago Marcia and I, on our way home from a B&B stay in West Virginia, had a lovely lunch in the place. But now it’s getting HUGE notice for something else as thousands of folks keep flooding the place – specifically, flooding Brookie’s bar.

See, they’re looking for raffle tickets, specifically it’s for a single raffle ticket which will earn them $$$, i.e. that’s 1 million dollars at the Brookie’s Queen of Hearts drawing this coming Wednesday.

Heat – Two weeks of mid-nineties plus temperatures, a feels-like index hovering around 100 and after a slight reprieve right back to it. It’s on the hot side, but not unlike anything we haven’t had before – hottest actual temperature (without considering humidity) ever recorded in Ohio was 113 degrees near Gallipolis Ohio, on July 21, 1934. So, the real question is, how do we cope?

How do we keep a constant 98.6 °F (37 °C)? How come that other than sweating we really are unaware of us actively working to stay on temperature? We’re mammals, i.e. warm-blooded animals, and we have to keep our temperature constant whether to cold or too hot or we’re done for.

That question was enough to get me to do a bit of reading (and remembering bits and pieces from way back school days). So, luckily, we have a little bundle of cells tucked in our brain, the hypothalamus. This little ‘item’ transmitting through our labyrinth of nerves, dealing with stuff such as shivering, perspiration, the blood flowing near the skin, sugar level, breathing, and metabolism. Our amazing nervous system relaying details almost instantly. All this is working seamlessly in the background to keep us going in our ‘normal’ temperature range. OK, all except for clothing, protection, and heating/cooling – all this regulation is managed in the background, seamlessly and effortlessly!

Life is AMAZING!

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

Who was the forgotten Founding Father who authored the Constitution?

1) “James Rivington”
2) “Baron von Steuben”
3) “Robert Hunter Morris”
4) “Committee of Detail”
5) “Gouverneur Morris”
6) “John Jay”