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”