55

Happy Saturday morning. Last evening it was a quiet dinner at Marcia’s favorite neighborhood pub, Gordo’s Pub & Grill. While there we both clinked our glass of ice cold Grolsch Lager. Aside from this Lager being our favorite, it’s brewed in my birth-city of Enschede. It was last evening at Gordo’s we ‘clinked’ in our 55th anniversary!

This also means that we’ve been married 5-years longer than the Rocky Horror Picture Show movie which turns 50 today. Locally once a month, on a Friday starting at midnight, it’s still being shown. I’ve seen it twice, both without a costume, and seeing it, it’s still a hoot.

Today is a new day and an early one at that. I’m holding off making coffee till it’s a bit closer to Marcia’s getting-up-time. What I should do is make a quick mug of instant/fresh coffee Kirstin brought with her to Canada last weekend. Coffee that’s in a teabag like baggie with folded ‘wings’ on each side. Unfold the ‘wings’ and they grab the sides of a coffee mug, open the baggie and add boiling water. And that quick it’s great coffee.

4 Active Days – Kirstin and I had a marvelous few days at Northern Comfort. We (she) worked hard giving the place a major cleaning while I worked on the grounds. Then I had fun showing her the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of getting the place set for its winter hiatus.

Over afternoon coffee with our new neighbors, we were told that last year he went over to look at our place and that the snow was about 18” high on the roof. It’s hard to imagine.

Donn and Marlene took us on a boat ride around the lake on their new Bombardier Sea-Doo pontoon; wow, what a machine! Then, Marlene must have felt sorry for us, we were invited for dinner. It was so good to catch up.

On the final afternoon at the cabin, I pulled a Kayak and the Canoe Marcia won at Vai & Vili’s school’s auction. We circled the cove and heard a Beaver tail slap as we approached their lodge. This was followed by a pizza done on the grill.

All of the above was to keep the kitchen clean and have the place ready to pull the water the next morning.

So that morning we were at it by seven and at 10:30 were on the road. Two hours to the border, through border control, and a coffee at the Soo’s new Biggby Coffee shop (which I like better than Starbucks). Dropped Kirstin off at the little local airport (4 in/out flights a day) and set sail for the ‘Nati. At a fuel stop just past Flint Michigan my GPS said I’d arrive home at 10:16PM. Pulling off I-75 and waiting at the light a half mile from home, my car clock clicked 10:16. I am still blown away at just how accurate the technology is.

At home I dragged a large bag of garbage from the truck to our dumpster. This was trash from the cabin. Question to Paul, is it legal to bring your own trash from Canada into the USA? Asking for a friend.

Another Town Hall – Yesterday afternoon I spent with the next Governor of Ohio, Vivek Ramaswamy. Also, there was Cory Bowman (stepbrother of our Veep) who’ll be our next Mayor. Add to this group Independent Chris Smitherman and Gary Favors as candidates for City Council.

Finally, answers to questions that were based on COMMON SENSE!

A major part of the afternoon was spent on how best to deal with the crazy crime wave we’re experiencing. Several people who’d been affected were introduced. One lady, Holly, who was pounded on and kicked in the head at a bashing she received while leaving a restaurant as she tried to assist someone who was being pounded on. Still requiring a chair on stage, it was a powerful moment.

Cory Bowman stated that once he’s mayor he’ll hold a weekly Press Conference listing any perps and the name of the Judge who’s released that individual on one of those crazily minimal bonds. Great idea.

From friends and acquaintances, the answers are all the same, after years of being known as “The Queen City of the Midwest”, we’re now on a decade long downward slope and its high time for a clean sweep of our local government.

As an aside, our current “mayor” has yet to reach out to any of the victims and not yet made a substantive statement.

Did it again – Volunteering that is. In a couple of weeks, we’re holding something called; “America’s River Roots” festival. It’ll bring the largest national collection of Tall Stack Riverboats to the city along with a variety of cruises, music, cuisine, and the piece I’ll be involved in; The Kentucky “Bourbon Experience”. This is a 90-minute-deep dive into everything Kentucky Bourbon. Monday I’ll start learning all my duties to assist that it’s a great experience for all the attendees.

Quotation by Albert Einstein: “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”

Life is AMAZING!

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

When Erika Kirk said she had forgiven the man who allegedly shot and killed her husband, Charlie Kirk, it caused actor Tim Allen to:

1) “begin reading through the entire Bible for the first time in his life”
2) “caused him to fall away from God”
3) “leave him cold”
4) “forgive the man who killed his father”
5) “acknowledge that he had a pound of cocaine while at the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport”