Morning all. I might as well confess, today I am but a smidgen away from joining the local throngs screaming; “Who Dey”! The hype in this town has reached new heights. This afternoon the Bengals on the playoff road to the Super Bowl are playing the Las Vegas Raiders. Sitting in prime, field level, seats will be Tevita and Vili – too cool!

In the meantime I’m sitting back with a nice mug of morning coffee. I could also be playing a quick word game of ‘Wordle’ to see if I can beat Kirstin, but those three or four of my faithful readers come first (you know who you are).

Prayers for Tonga – During our night Tonga experienced a massive volcanic eruption. The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha?apai volcano – 65-miles away from the capital of Nuku’alofa sent both shock waves and Tsunami waves throughout the region. The plume reached up 55,000feet and the 8-minute eruption was heard as far away as Fiji – more than 800Km away. Also reports of people hearing the sonic booms across New Zealand – 2,300Km distant.

Winter comfort – Mid January and we’re finally expecting a couple of weeks of below average temperatures. Marcia has begun hibernation under an afghan blanket. She suggested that I’d be wise to put on two pair of socks to manage better. Apparently I misunderstood a portion of the ‘how to’.

I did update her on early childhood normality – the concept of taking a hot water bottle to bed. That was both normal and welcome in a home with no upstairs heat. The ‘bottle’ was metal and to avoid burns was filled and dropped into a very large woolen sock. The top of the sock was then tied in a knot.

Her reaction made it seem that I was the only one who remembered this trick. Personally, there are days where I wouldn’t be averse to testing it once more. Apparently she thought that all we did was slide a pan of hot coals under the sheets. The coal thing was done by an earlier generation, we were modern.

The Un-Frozen 5 / 10k – which I did mid-summer gets money to the Cyclones (our minor league hockey team) Foundation. With it I got a game coupon for free admission this past Thursday – which was also $1.00 beer night. Since I couldn’t cajole anyone into coming along I went downtown solo. Had a great night! Had a great seat! Watched a well-played game against Atlanta’s Gladiators; winning by a score of 4 to 1!

Trompe-l’œil – The latest news is that the U. S. producer price inflation jumped to 9.7% in December from a year ago. This is the highest year-to-year increase on record. How obvious that the Administration trying to push us a conceptual illusion, a ‘trompe-l’œil’, touting that this is merely a ‘short lived’ spike, an ordinary (necessary) part of a growing economy. Give me a break!

CDC – Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, MD discussed a new study on the severity of those infected with the Omicron variant compared to the Delta variant:
* 53% less risk of symptomatic hospitalization
* 74% less risk of ICU admission
* 91% less risk of death
* 0 Omicron patients required mechanical ventilation.
Yet, it’s almost impossible to not hear each and every newscast kick start with a swath of doom and gloom Covid gibberish. Yet, many states and provinces continue with their draconian lockdowns and shutdowns.

Quote of the week –

”One idiot is one idiot. Two idiots are two idiots. Ten thousand idiots are a political party” ~ Franz Kafka

Fini –
• Based on a mail received a while back; who is John Galt? The note’s author perceived himself to be a ‘mocker’ of the stupid. Read Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged (1957)

• Remember this name – A&P? There was a time when the great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company ruled the nation’s grocery business. This photo was taken during the height of the Great Depression – 1936, and it appears that the shelves are full. And the reason today’s stores are struggling to keep product is available is?

• Empty shelves caused me to take special note of this quip; “Grandmas everywhere have been living off their ziplocks filled with straws, napkins, condiments, and Splenda and are now laughing at us. My, my, how tables have turned.”

• My daily walks take me round and about the ‘hood. Every one of these walks is an adventure; every one of them explores something different. This truck was spotted about mid-week. Can anyone tell me what gauge caused this ‘little’ ping?

• There was a time when the selling of liquors was prohibited; however, for a penny a machine would dispense anyone a lighted cigarette. Do you get the idea that every generation has its own ‘boogeymen’? Also, it would appear that then as now, reality played little part; it was mostly a way to wield power, a way for some groups to strike a fortune. Do we have a ‘boogeyman’ today? If so can you name it? Please mask up while you reflect.

• I’ve not seen any explanation as to why a new wall is being built around the White House. Seems like some walls can be funded and built – it just matters where.

• After asserting this deeply philosophical insight we can now quote our noble Vice President, Kamala Harris with this gem; “It is time for us to do what we have been doing and that time is every day.”

• From the Metropolitan Museum of Art comes this writing board dated from the Middle Kingdom period in ancient Egypt (circa 1981 – 1802 BCE). The teacher’s corrections can be seen as red marks. Some things never change.

That’s all folks. A bit of this and a bit of that. Somethings new and some old.
Have a wonderful new week and stay positive, be healthy, and continue to be connected.

Best till next weekend.

Dirk – the ‘who dey’ guy

Morning all, well into January and our first real taste of winter – mornings around ten yesterday and this morning. However, friends in Canada have it ‘better’. But first a bit about coffee; this week we’ll finish up our coffee test batch number two. The previous Mayan stays in 1st. #6023

Back to weather, I guess that the best way to explain what exactly it is that they (our Canadian friends) are dealing with. Well, just watch this one minute clip, you’ll understand:

Quote of the week –

”You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.” ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; Russian novelist, philosopher, historian, dissident, Nobel Prize winner, and political prisoner. 1918 – 2008

First of all – This list of individuals, all of whom Solzhenitsyn would have termed; Honey Badgers.

Each of them have been cancelled, silenced, or marginalized in the media and on Social Media for disseminating Covid19 ‘disinformation’. These aren’t just ordinary ‘blokes’ such as yours truly. These are people who are operating in their field of expertise and understanding. Nevertheless, since their views are at odds with the currently accepted ones, therefore they’ve been cancelled.

Dr. Michael Yeadon, British and served as the chief scientist and vice-president of the allergy and respiratory research division of Pfizer. Dr. Peter McCullough; internist, cardiologist, epidemiologist, a full professor of medicine at Texas A&M. known for being one of the top five most-published medical researchers in the United States and is the editor of two medical journals. Dr. Robert Malone; the primary innovator of mRNA vaccines and one of world’s foremost experts on messenger mRNA therapeutics – having invented the field in 1988. Dr. Karry Mullins (1944 – 2019); the inventor of the PCR test (Polymerase Chain Reaction) who won in 1993 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Dr. Luc Montagnier; 2008, was jointly awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Françoise Barré-Sinoussi for their discovery of the HIV virus. 

Alongside these folk we’ve watched similar actions taken on a, then, sitting President as well as members of Congress. Are these individuals correct in their assertions? Maybe, maybe not, but in a nation which touts and lives by its Constitution, then places FIRST on a list of Amendments one touting Free Speech; the Freedom to discuss and be heard should be paramount.

Cancel culture is real. I see it on line, in national and local political discourse, even down into the neighborhood scuttlebutt and within families.

Now that the New Year is here, possibly add a couple of New Year’s Resolutions.

1st. – Push back whenever you encounter ‘group think’ and what Dr. Malone terms; “mass formation psychosis”.
2nd. – Then grab a coffee to discuss with someone you deem knowledgeable and who opines views differing from your own fast held beliefs. Open doors to insights you’ve not seen before. Live on.

Built around 1927 – When I was 7 or 8 my dad took me on a flight around my hometown of Enschede in The Netherlands on a Ford Tri-Motor airplane (built around 1928). I remember my mother saying she was afraid and didn’t care to go.

The Ford Tri-Motor was the first all metal passenger airplane. I remember the one I rode on had seven seats, which were made out of rattan. As a kid what struck me was climbing the aisle up-hill to make it to my seat. I don’t really remember much more of the flight other than the ‘climb’ and the ‘rattan’. That was my very first airplane ride, funny what sticks in one’s memory banks.

The embedded video is of a short flight over the Long Beach, CA harbor in one of the 7 or 8 still certified to fly Ford Tri-Motors out of the just over 190 made.

The black ocean liner with the three yellow and black smokestacks seen in the video of the Ford Tri-Motor flight is the old Queen Mary – now a museum in Long Beach, CA. The reason I mention it is that years ago I met up with a customer from Taiwan and took the group out for dinner at the Winston Churchill room, a restaurant on that Ocean liner. The restaurant was a very fitting setting as the liner itself dated near the end of the Edwardian era. Then afterwards took the whole group on a tour of the old Cold War Russian submarine docked adjacent the Queen Mary’s bow as part of the museum’s collection. 

U.S. Holocaust Museum – “Light is in us, even if we have no eyes” were words written by Jacques Lusseyran (1924 -1971). Born I and living in Paris he was blinded in a school accident at age 7. During the 1930s he began to study German from radio listening as a way to better understand what was happening in Germany. As the war began he formed a Resistance group in Paris. In 1943 he was sent to Buchewald concentration camp where he continued his resistance efforts while a prisoner. Of the 2,000 French and German similarly sentenced individuals only 30 were liberated 15-months later in 1945.

What made him this week’s focus? To display that whatever life has dealt you, there is always opportunity to make the world a better place. 

Tooting – May I toot my own horn a bit? A couple of days ago Strava (an App I use with my west coast family to track my walks and workouts) sent me the accumulated totals for 2021. TOOT TOOT 

Fini –
• Can you figure out whose grave this is? Hint; it’s located in the NY area. Answer can be found at the very bottom of this ‘Ramblings’. 

• German Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke: “A technology that leaves behind dangerous waste…..cannot be sustainable”. Ms. Lempke, please note that the photo shows a disposal (read: burial) site of discarded wind-farm turbine blades; thought you’d be interested. 

• It’s been a long time since I saw the first Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope movie. It wasn’t so much the scene as it was the soundtrack accompanying Darth Vader’s inspection of the amassed Stormtroopers which added to the visual. Glad that our 28th Secretary of Defense, Lloyd J. Austin III reminded me just how powerful that scene was: 

• I came close to performing another ‘faceplant’ when I hooked up to the kid’s new Oculus Quest 2 over Christmas. A 3-D exploration of the International Space Station module was right up my alley. When the alternate reality really kicked in I quickly became a confused panic ridden mess teetering on my feet. This week I spotted a photo which proves that I am not the only adult severely affected by Oculus. 

• Part of Marcia’s Birthday celebration was the renewal of her driver’s license. She passed! She will also be setting up an appointment with our favorite vision center. 

• This week at our nearby bookstore I spotted a couple with whom Marcia had worked years ago. I showed Marcia the photo I snapped of them and asked her who those people were, she had NO idea. Oh how we age! 

• This week Tevita saw one of the best NFL games of the season, the Kansas City Chiefs against our Bengals. The Bengals won with a field goal with 1 second on the clock, and thus secured their division’s First place. Lucky you Tevita!

And so ends a week of 1sts.
Have a wonderful new week and stay positive, be healthy, and continue to be connected.
Best till next weekend.

Dirk – a rattan memory man

Answer: Glenn Hughes was ‘Bikerman’ [aka ‘Leather Daddy’] 
of the group The Village People

Morning all, and are we ready for this New Year? 2021 was somewhat of a mess for many of us. With some purpose and perseverance I believe that 2022 can be much better.

The past week had the whole family together except for Marin who had to self-quarantine (due to a house-mate’s positive test). The week was glorious and fun; lots of laughter, chatting, and sharing (with a drink now and then). And, as a bonus, I even got to drive my “Duck” around the block.

Time does fly doesn’t it? – 2022 is now here and the ‘80s weren’t just 20-years ago, the time of Disco and long hair was 40 years back. People born in the year 2000 are now 21. There are millennials walking the street who at age 40 are parents and possibly soon to be grandparents.

In movies, the original epic movie, Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope written and directed by George Lucas is now ‘graying’ at 45 years of age. Even the, then, state of the art James Cameron movie, Avatar, has been around for 12 years.

First of all – I’ve declared the pandemic over. Sure a few cases here and there (mostly mild and with a 99.85% survival rate), but it’s over. The trick is to get the politicos and vast bureaucracies on board. That will be the trickiest part.

The constant focus by (mostly Democratic but also a number of Republicans) Governors, the main media, and our very own self-sacrificing Dr. Fauci on the infection rate has become meaningless malarkey. Focus on the low death rates. We really don’t need this “fear’ game to continue.

As you can see it was the ‘Nati’s own, Procter & Gamble, the parent company of Vicks brand’s NyQuil which has provided the much sought solution. This is a simple over the counter item. It’ll ensure that we’ll not have to get on our knees to beg for early symptom medicines such as Ivermectin or even Monoclonal antibody treatments.

Couple that with all the Etsy style ‘Ma-‘n-Pa’ businesses which came out with a vast array of their own answers and responses.

Phony Baloney – is the constant stream of anti-science nonsense pushed at us via ads and news. Me? I am going to sit back and watch the showdown between the hot debates raging with the dozen or so versions of Dr. Fauci (satire from The Bee). Really, these are a hoot.

While that debate rages on, Social Media promotes their flavor of the day drivel. This past week Twitter suspended the account of Dr. Robert W. Malone. Who is Dr. Malone, so easily canceled by some nerdy corporate geek? Dr. Robert W. Malone just happens to be the inventor of mRNA technology. Why cancelled? Twitter felt he was spreading “misinformation” about Covid19 vaccines. What exactly did he tweet? This is the piece:

Dirk’s advice – If you’re able and willing to stand for hours in winter weather just to get a Covid19 test to see if you’re sick and therefore are a proper ‘dues-paying’ member of our noble pandemic world, then you’re probably not sick; at least not with Covid19.

The U.N. in a steep dive – Today, Saturday January 1st, the 2022 U.N. Human Rights Council is starting with an array of member nations:
10. Pakistan
9. Mauritania
8. Qatar
7. Somalia
6. Russia
5. Libya
4. Cuba
3. Eritrea
2. Venezuela
1. China

I think I know which nation, and which nation only, will get hammered throughout 2022 by the ‘Council’ for supposed Civil and Human Rights abuses; Israel. Anyone placing bets?

108 Sun Salutations – Today Kirstin is participating with a large group of Yoga instructors to provide 108 Sun Salutations as an entry into the New Year. These are done 108 times to bring luck for special occasions such as New Year.

Why 108? In numerology, 108 equals 9, which symbolizes universal love, eternity and awakening. In Ayurveda, there are 108 sacred points on the body. In astronomy, the distance between the Sun and Earth is roughly 108 times the Sun’s diameter. Mala bead necklaces have 108 beads, which are used to count during meditation. Here is the sequence for each repetation:

Fini –
• As a final ‘kick in the pants’ by the ‘Old’ year, yesterday it was announced that at the wonderful age of 99, the ‘ageless’ and iconic Betty White passed. Did you know that during World War II she served in the American Women’s Voluntary Services?

• Capitalism has only been around a short while. Systems prior to the “Big C” had most folk stay in forced poverty while a few could amass fortunes through theft, family, looting, plundering, and enslavement or servitude. With Capitalism it’s possible to also gain wealth by serving our fellow man.

• I had been moving around and about through some historical sites and came across the Tollund Man. Found in a peat bog in Denmark, where he had lain for 2,500 years. So perfectly preserved that this Iron Age man’s fingerprints were still preserved and stubble on his chin totally visible. Based on what was found, the assumption is that he was sacrificed in a ritual, and honored after his death. The short video shows how he was transformed into what he looked like in life. Very informational:

• Tomorrow Marcia will be entering a new year as she celebrates her Birthday. Happy Birthday Marcia and as we ‘march’ on life’s path, no matter how old we get, always remember to stay young at heart and make every year count. Love you.

Have a wonderful week and stay positive. Make 2022 a great New Year

Best till next weekend.

Dirk – packer and storer of much Christmas decorations

Morning all, this getting ready for Christmas week.

Yesterday, about mid-afternoon the rains began and will stop this afternoon. Trouble is, during this time I will be part of a large group of folk doing a 5K around the hills of our Mt Adams – the ‘Egg Nog Jog’ 2021. In fact I’ll be round and about the hills about the time you read this.

After the ‘face-plant’ fiasco I masterminded a few weeks ago I promised sis-in-law Jolene that I’d pay attention to proper hydration. Hence, last Thursday I started a program leading up to this morning’s event. Such a regimen also causes one to get up during the middle of the night. In addition there will be NO coffee for me this morning, just herbal tea. The latter is a first for me.

I’m Confused – Mind you, my sentiment only, written by someone anonymous:

“They’re telling the unjabbed to take the jab because the jab works.

And telling the jabbed to get a booster because the jab doesn’t work

All while telling everyone that the unjabbed are putting the jabbed in danger by not getting a jab that didn’t protect the jabbed.”

And so we plod on.

Steel Drums – Earlier in the week Marcia and I were off the Vai’s school – Clark Montessori High School. With almost 700 students it’s part of the city’s public school system. It’s also the nation’s first public Montessori high school and is nationally recognized for academic excellence.

Part of their music program is the fact that they have several Steel Drum bands.

Now back to Vai, she and nearly 30 other new middle students made it into the beginning Steel band, and a performance of her band is what brought the two of us to the school. Two audio bits I’ve attached; first is the band director describing the capabilities of the instruments. Second is the band playing one of several pieces performed – Baja. Keep in mind these kids were all ‘newbies’ last August – most having never seen a Steel Drum before.

Sorrento’s – Italian restaurant is a place Marcia and I wander to every so often. This week we took Adrianne and the kids, none had ever been to the place (even though it’s been around since 1956). They loved it, especially the authentic homemade Canolis for desert. Over our table hung a large photo of Dean Martin (born: Dino Paul Crocetti – now you know why he decorates the wall of an Italian place). Only Marcia and I knew who ‘Dino’ was, the rest of the group – not a clue.

Neighborhood Luminaries – was last Sunday. And it was a perfect evening for this (almost) annual event. Enjoy the photos.

Tuba Skinny – It’s funny how things go in spurts. This past week I’ve listened to more of Tuba Skinny than I had for a long time, and I love that band. In case you don’t know about the group it’s a bunch of authentic New Orleans jazz musicians who still prefer to be viewed as just a group of buskers. I view them as wonderful talent.

Word of the Day – for this week actually a non-word but a brainchild of Jim Salveson. However it could be a word, it’s; “binfluencer” (bin-flu-enc-er). It describes the person on your street who always puts their wheelie bin out first on collection day and thus causes the rest of the neighborhood to follow.

Fini –
• This week Henry Orenstein passed at age 98. Orenstein was a Holocaust survivor, Polish-American, a toymaker, and inventor (held over 100 patents including the Transformer toyline).

• As of December 15, 2021 the space probe ‘Voyager 1’ is still ‘alive’ after traveling for 44 years and passing out of our solar system. At over 14.5-billion miles distance from Earth it still communicates with the Deep Space Network to receive routine commands and send data. It has 70.47% of the Plutonium-238 it had at launch remaining. All made possible thanks to nuclear energy!

•Dr. Wei Zhang PhD, MIT and Benjamin Pierce Fellow at Harvard, is an Atmospheric Scientist who recently posted; “people often claim “but the climate is changing much faster than ever before”. When you look at Paleoclimatology, you realize that we live in an era of remarkably stable climate. You can even argue that the natural changes in the early 20th century were way more dramatic than now.” I thought you’d want to know.

• The craziness and reversal of progress made with the WOKE push and the whole CRT nonsense is beyond horrible. These two photos best describe what’s happening. The first picture was from the early ‘60s, the second from this year. Really? We call that progress? Sad indeed.

• This week a Happy Birthday to Jeanne Z

• For almost a year now, thanks to brother Art we’ve all gathered and Zoomed twice a week for 45-minutes of pretty rigorous exercise. I believe it’s begun to pay dividends; however, a photo such as this proves we’ve got a long way to go!

• In a few days Kirstin and the boys will be coming to town. We are totally excited!

• Last Wednesday the central bank acknowledged that inflation is no longer “transitory”. The consumer price index rose 6.8% in November, and it could be ‘hot’ again this month. Next year, watch the rates rise; thank you Joe.

Have a great week, and a beautiful Christmas. Be safe, watch the drink, stay happy.

Best till next weekend.

Dirk – rain wanderer