Different ‘tunes’

Happy Saturday morning. For a while now, a few times a week, I’ve tapped into my Dutch roots. Alongside my morning coffee I’ve been enjoying a morning “beschuit met kaas” (rusk with cheese).

I have no idea why I hadn’t tapped into that source of pleasure for so long. Maybe I rediscovered this pleasure once I remembered that locally Jungle Jim’s International Marketplace carries this delight. In fact, they carry several variants, including whole wheat.

An Election – Ok, early this week we had an election. Marcia and I voted early at our County Board of Elections, which is headquartered in nearby Norwood. The facility is much more conducive to ease of entry and accommodation for Marcia.

Anyway, that’s not what I want to write about. I wanted to mention my viewpoint on the election results:

“Close the door, put out the light
You know they won’t be home tonight
The snow falls hard and don’t you know
The winds of Thor are blowing cold” Led Zeppelin, ‘No Quarter’

Riding the wave of politicians we’ve unleashed on our communities is akin to the reason we should ride a horse and shouldn’t ride a sparkling cute Zebra; i.e. their innate reflexes will kick you in the rear surprisingly fast and without warning.

Oh well, it’s a new beginning. Do it well:

Outages – Last week it was the electric outage, this week it was the internet. Here is how it started.

I’ve been looking for a new printer. Finally, Costco had the model I had on my list, and it was on sale. Tuesday, I pulled the handle and returned home with a box under my arm.

Wednesday, I began the installation. What promised to be a simple procedure went on and on. I checked the router, the modem, our connection, and all checked OK. But no communication between computer and printer.
Repeat!
Every time installation screens flashed by to then eventually pop up with a notice that the process could not be completed.

I quit and had some lunch followed by a well-deserved break. Near 2:00pm I felt ready to get-the-job-done.

It was Marcia who interrupted my ‘work’ with a quick; “did you get the Spectrum note stating hat there’d be intermittent internet disruptions?”

Thursday, started with renewed energy. The internet was back to normal and a short time later everything was running, printing, including the scanner and photo functions.

In fact, I felt so upbeat that I set out right after lunch on a 7.99-mile hike! An early prep for my Thanksgiving Day ‘Turky-Trot 5k’ starting next to our TQL Soccer stadium. All is good!

Creep – Wednesday Marcia and I were off to where granddaughter Vai and her 25-member school Steel Drum band, ‘Genesis’, performed for family, friend, and neighbors. They did several numbers including “Yellow Brick Road”, from the We’re off to See the Wizard.

As I expected these teenagers would zero in on one specific number and I hit the ‘bullseye’, it was “Creep”, by English rock-band Radiohead. I didn’t get a chance to record her playing it so here is a piece of the audio from the 1992 original performed by Radiohead.

Keep in mind that Steel Drums are tuned for every note on the scale, no matter what musical instrument, be it clarinet, violin, guitar, etc., can be replicated. So, what you hear on the track below is pretty well what we heard on their drums – very cool stuff! Very fun!

Remember the 2023 movie, Boys on the Boat – It focused on the Washington State rowing team. It describes a real event where this rowing team competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics. What we saw were rudimentary wooden boats, and where the Coxswain bellowed instructions through a handheld vintage megaphone.

Our Dinah, now rowing for Syracuse University rows and practices in a whole different world. On the Syracuse website I found this closeup of one of their Coxswains and all the electronics for her to track, strategize, and communicate with.

Comic – A strike, whether it’s a Congress, a government group, a Company, or even a school system, it usually all boils down to the same. Same old, same old, and mostly just a lot of same old losers.

Now get ready for some exercise hiking – it’s the last of the long list of great Fall days. Starting tomorrow there’ll be a serious temperature drop with rain and, possibly, the first snowflakes of the season, i.e. a ‘wintry mix’. So to celebrate, tomorrow I plan to head out for a bit of an intimate performance with the Jazz@First Chamber Jazz Series

We’ll explore the evolution of the alto saxophone in jazz with Jazz Alto Sax Legacy: Hodges, Bird and Cannonball – Johnny Hodges, Charlie “Bird” Parker and Cannonball Adderley. Showcasing Jazz through swing, bebop and soul-infused hard bop. It should be a fine time.

Life is AMAZING!

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

2 questions:
1st, who was the first U.S. president who spoke English as a second language. Name: ………
2nd part: What was his first language?

1) “Welsh”
2) “German”
3) “French”
4) “Danish”
5) “Dutch”
6) “Irish”