Things & Phases

Happy Saturday Morning – After a week where you, my readers, had a breather from these Ramblings, for me it was an unwanted interruption. Starting last Friday, I lost my WiFi connection. Both the modem and router were fine; the problem was with my laptop.

Late Friday I got back to try and figure out what was going on. It didn’t take that long to find the culprit; in the Device Manager, I found that the “Killer Wireless Network Adaptor” driver had a malfunction.

Easy fix.

‘Easy fix’, except for the fact that it was now well into World Cup2026 matches and Father’s Day weekend. All that was required was for me to download a fresh driver.

Monday, after getting Marcia settled, I shot up to Micro Center to buy the dongle I required to connect a RJ-45 cable to the laptop and gain wired connectivity.

So, no worry, all is good! All good, except for the fact I now need to pause one more time; this time to pour my morning coffee.

Simplicity – Have you ever taken note of something we all have lived with since childhood? ‘Something’ such as those great bits of childhood fun that caused excitement, comradery, arguing and making up, got new friendships, and kept us out till dusk and moms with the old battle cry; “DINNER”, rang out?

We called it a variety of things, races, battles, teams or whatever; but whatever we called, they were games. Simplistic fun games.

This past week I heard an advertisement on the radio which offered more than just playing backyard “Beanbag-Toss”. With great background music the radio pushed all to join up with some national Beanbag-Toss federation. I suspect that by ‘joining’ you’d be eligible for properly sanctioned boards, bean bags, and of course specific team clothing and the like.

You’d get everything while simultaneously losing out on fun. Why? Well, just think, a Federation needs authority at the top alongside lawyers and marketing folk, not to forget training of referees etc. Whoops, can’t forget the rules, new rules, added rules every year.

Give me the fun I received playing the simplistic games of my youth alongside a ton of learning.

Phases – Life continues non-stop. For ease of pointing out where we are along that continuum, we’ve cleverly organized into a series of groupings. The common groupings are, infant, toddler, child, grade schooler, high school, etc. Then things like newlyweds, the working years, and retirement.

There is a phase which I call the wedding years. That period where we ourselves might jump into that fray. In any case, for a while it appears that barely a month or so passes by without someone, we’re close to, expecting us to show up at their wedding. It’s a time when your dancing shoes wear out and the champagne flows freely.

And then it stops.

Mostly. There are a few ’round two’ events.

Now I’ve entered the season of the loss! Since the New Year I’ve lost two family members Marin and Carolyn. Add to that the loss of my college roommate, Gary V, and the project partner for my Graduate school Comparative Study project, Detlef M.

Then this past weekend I received word that my dear friend, Ron S. had passed after a brief but vicious illness. To Ron I owe the amazing position I held until my retirement; this came after he urged the President of the Company I ended up working for to sit down for dinner with me. ‘The rest is history’ as that old and trite saying goes.

RIP all.

It was as our Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin, who wrote this witticism in 1789; “In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.”

Neither are easy, both are painful.

Burial – Dave Allen (David Tynan O’Mahony, 1936-2005) Irish comedian/satirist/actor mentioned that in old Irish Catholic tradition, on each day the first burial had the deceased head straight for Heaven. Here is how it would play out:

WC2026 – It’s been a week of soakings, soaking on soccer that is; World Cup 2026. Last evening Marcia even got ready for another round, (Uruguay vs Spain) by downing a dish of Fluffermutter ice cream before the game even started.

Having said that, even I think that watching three games per day is over the top. When I finally got to bed a little after midnight Friday morning I promised myself that this needed to stop. So, last evening I did not watch the scheduled 11:00pm game — New Zealand – Belgium.

Other than a ‘love’ for coffee I have minimal patience for those hooked on stuff, including soccer. Even worse is watching a game with pranksters.

This week’s Interlude – Every so often we all have a moment here and there where we want something to tap our toes to. Tap your toes without resorting to some old tune we loved long ago. So, here is something probably new to you. This band started and is still based in Birmingham, UK.

And, as a hint, they founded and starred in the ‘Swingamajic’ music festival.

Good luck, remember to match both the group and the title piece to be correct. Make your guess a good one!

I hope you guess the band’s name. Check if you’re correct, the group’s name and song title are found below. Complete songs can be found on Spotify and others.

Enjoy!
Life is AMAZING!

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

Just about 160 years ago the Russian Empire was hurting for cash after their Crimean War. They had a chunk of remote land, a frozen chunk. Not only that, but by location it is awfully difficult to defend. Hence, under the stewardship of Secretary of State William H. Seward Alaska was purchased. The price was a pittance, even though opposition to the purchase termed it as “Seward’s Folly”. We had now acquired a slab landmass twice the size of Texas. Question, how much did we pay per acre for purchasing Alaska?

1. $1.25
2. $0.95
3. $2.73
4. $0.55
5. $0.12
6. $0.02
7. $1.02

Last week Bonus Points answer – # 7
Answer this week’s Interlude: Electric Swing Orchestra, “Empire”