When I was nine, the St. Louis Arch was completed. Not the whole she-bang (viewing room, elevator, greenway, museum) but the structure of The Arch. It took 2½ years from breaking ground until October 28, 1965, when the last piece was put in place.
Although my family was actually living in Jefferson City at the time of the completion, we were St. Louis folks through and through. The Arch was a big deal back then and we had been down to the site a couple of times during the build; it was exciting to see the two legs each inching up.
As a child it seemed impossible to me that they could build each leg separately and actually have them meet in the middle. The day that they put the last piece in place, joining up both legs, it was big news and as a family we watched it on television. Here’s a short version:
At the time there were a lot of folks who thought once they put the last piece in place, The Arch would just fall down. My father was not in that camp, asserting every time it came up in conversation that it would be an engineering marvel. I guess he’s right – it’s been standing 59 years now. Growing up mostly in St. Louis, I’ve actually been up in the Arch about a dozen times; it was always on the agenda when folks visited from out of town. Since it’s my “home-town” monument, I’m pretty proud that it’s still standing!
Any monument you think is particularly impressive? Or not?
Husband and I have rarely watched much TV the 40 years we have been married. Our TV has always been in the basement. We rarely hang out in the basement. The TV is currently completely disconnected from the cable because we had a basement remodel in the spring. The only news we hear is NPR and the local papers we get. I avoid any news that comes up on my phone regarding the election.
I am in Dallas right now at a conference. Husband is back at home. I have turned on the TV in the hotel room, and I am so glad we don’t watch much at home. I was struck by Jacque’s comment about a self imposed news desert during the election weeks right now. I am stressed enough by the election news, and if I was regularly watching TV I would be a complete mess. Self care is important. When our children were little, we would often say “Scary Bears! ” when something frightening happened. Self care actions like Jacque’s can reduce the Scary Bears in our lives.
How are you coping with the current election stresses? What do you do for self care?What will you and won’t you watch on TV?
I have a fair few number of favorite fictional characters but I know it won’t surprise anybody here that Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot are tops in my book. I have the movies Hound of the Baskervilles (Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce) as well as Murder on the Orient Express (Albert Finney) saved on my TV so it’s accurate to say I’ve seen them repeatedly.
Several years ago my BFF and I decided that for our birthdays we would do experiences together rather than do more “stuff”. She does Cantus tickets for us and I do a play for us each fall. I pick three options, write them up a bit and she chooses one.
This year, a production called Holmes/Poirot was finally scheduled at Park Square Theatre. There had been discussion of it during the summer of 2023, but it never materialized. When I presented BFF with the three choices this year, I had my fingers crossed that she would choose Holmes/Poirot. Luckily she’s a sleuth fan as well. We’ve done a couple of other Sherlock “knock-offs”s as well as doing the Science Museum exhibition a couple of years ago.
The expectation was that the play would be a mash-up with the detectives pitted against each other, even though you’d have to mess with the time continuum to do this. Considering I’ve read a book with Sherlock as a dog and another with a time traveling Miss Marple facsimile, I can handle a little time continuum disturbance. When we sat down with our programs, it was clear that it was going to be two different stories…. Holmes in Act One and Poirot in Act Two. The two main actors change roles for the second act. Sherlock Holmes becomes Colonel Hastings and John Watson becomes Hercule Poirot. The other seven actors switch up characters as well.
During intermission BFF and I wondered aloud how long it would take us to re-orient ourselves to the actors changing parts. We didn’t need to worry. Within just a couple of minutes, we were all in. It was an inspired juxtaposition; both actors were excellent and completely believable in their roles. The second act was played for more comedy, which was perfect because…. well… Poirot. It’s hard not to play him with a splash of silliness.
Absolutely no spoiler alerts here but suffice it to say that the writing was great and had BFF and I guessing to the end of each segment. It was an immediate standing ovation. I’m highly recommending this if you can stlll get tickets.
Do you have a preferred detective? Fictional or otherwise?
I see that the Badlands Opera Project, our local opera company, is putting on Amahl and the Night Visitors again this December. They staged it last year, with our church choir director and her 12 year old daughter as Amahl’s mother and Amahl. Both have wonderful voices. This year’s production will have a different Amahl and mother, this time a mom and son duo.
All the singers are local, except for the guy who sings the part of the tallest King with the deepest voice. He sings that part and other low, cameo roles such as Zarastro from The Magic Flute, all over the county. I am not sure where he is from, but he isn’t from ND. Imagine having a specialty voice like that. He’ll be back for this year’s production. I guess he really liked singing with our local company.
If I could magically have a voice other than the low alto voice I have, I would want to be a belter like Patti Lupone in Anything Goes. Of course I would also have to be able to dance, which would be a problem, I’m afraid. Oh well, I suppose I could magically make myself a dancer, too.
If you could magically get an operatc or musical theater voice, what roles would you want to perform?
Yesterday was Reformation Sunday, a big day in the Lutheran Church. At our Lutheran congregation it was also the day for the 9th graders to get confirmed. Husband and I are both choir members, and we sang at both services.
I am a lifelong Lutheran, but I have never liked the Lutheran penchant for singing every single verse of every hymn. Even though I am a church musician, singing verse after verse is annoying and exhausting. Yesterday was particularly annoying, since many of the hymns had five verses. We barreled through A Mighty Fortress and Built On A Rock. I was thankful, that the slow, emotionally expressive organist had the day off. When she plays, she takes us slower and slower through each verse and song. She has no understanding of the difficulty of breath support for singers during slow hymns. I was also thankful that for the second service when confirmation was held, they cut all the hymn verses to three to save time. What a relief! Husband and I came home and took three hour naps.
What do you find annoying about the organizations you belong to? What songs do you like to sing?
We got some rain on Thursday. Lots of thunder and lightning, and 0.12”. Well, better than nothing.
As I write this on Friday morning, I’m getting the big garage door in my shop! Twelve feet tall and twenty feet wide.
I am positively giddy about this! The main tractor I expect to put in here is about 8 feet tall. When I add a loader bucket to it the the front and a rear blade to the back, it’s about 23 feet long. The shop is only about 24 feet deep, so not a lot of room for error. And I may have to park kitty corner some days. So now I have heat, and the big Garage Door and I’m almost ready to install the double walk-through door, and then it’s just the small garage door that will be here in November. Of course I can’t really call the shop ‘heated’ until I get the rest of the steel up and the insulation done. And then steel on the outside to finish it. The steel goes pretty fast. I do have to finish the west wall, which is a little harder because it’s got two windows with angled tops, an odd corner, and working over the workbench, and the first thing I have to do is finish the jams and the trim on the windows. Again, not really hard, just something I’m not proficient at, and a couple of angles, and so I find myself avoiding it because I’m afraid it’s gonna be hard. Another one of Robert Pirsig’s gumption trips. Fear that makes us afraid to start.
I found myself doing that at the college this past week, I decided I should build a window that would move inside a wall just for a sight gag, the window would be too tall for a person to climb through at first and then they could just lower it to a height that worked. Although I made some sketches and knew what I wanted to do, I had a real hard time starting. I called Kelly and told her I needed a motivational pep talk. (Remember the old window weights inside the walls? I picked up some of them for counter weights for this window.)
I’m hopeful they’re gonna start picking my corn soon. They’re working on their ground right next-door so it’s certainly convenient, but that’s not how it always works, it just depends on their schedules. I don’t know if they’ll be able to finish, but they might get a start this weekend.
We might be down to three ducks. I took this photo a couple days ago, and now I haven’t seen the black duck in two days. Dang it.
Soil compaction is a big deal in the agronomy world. Really big tires, called ‘LSW’s, meaning Low Side Wall are the latest and greatest. They’re supposed to reduce the ground pressure of pounds / square inch. Same reason a lot of things have tracks these days. Better traction is part of it, but less ground pressure is the main reason.
Saw this tractor being unloaded at my local John Deere dealer the other day.
Luna loves her frisbee.
In this photo she’s shaking it like Renee’s wubba. We can play frisbee for 20 minutes before she tires out.
We did hayrides for daughters group on Tuesday. Two groups. Each got about a 35 minute ride. It was a beautiful day for it.
I parked next to a retaining wall and they could walk right into the wagon without having to climb steps. Two clients in wheel chairs could walk enough to manage that. Half way through the ride, I’d stop and let daughter talk about the farm. It’s always interesting to put a kid on the spot like that and see what they come up with. Anytime she says, “Well Mom and Dad….” My heart always skips a beat because one never knows what’s coming next…
Kelly has spent the last two summers cutting buckthorn. She’s got maybe 2/3rds of this area done and it looks fantastic!
You couldn’t even see through this area anymore, it was so thick. I’ve been cutting out the old fence between the trees. Course lately, by the time she finishes work and gets out there, it’s almost dark, and it’s … more of an adventure.
I am attending a conference next week in Dallas, TX for psychology regulatory boards. I attend two of them a year, one in the spring and one in the fall. These conferences are rather dull, given the topics we deal with. The organization that sponsors these conferences always tries to spice up the week with a big party on the Friday night. There is always a theme for the party, and it is no big surprise that the theme for this party is Cowboy Chic.
We have been encouraged to come in costume, such as classic western wear, fringe and leather, dresses with western twist, clunky and chunky jewelry or outsized belt buckles, and sequined cowboy hats. I own neither a cowboy hat nor cowboy boots. I have very little jewelry, and hardly anything that is sequined. No gingham or leather or fringe, either. I have no intention of buying any of the above, either. I can hardly wait to see what the folks from the Canadian Maritimes wear!
The party is on November 1, which is also All Saints Day. I would prefer to dress up like my favorite saint or martyr than dress up in western wear. I suppose, living where I do with real cowboys, that Cowboy Chic isn’t that fun or alluring. Joseph Gabriel of the Rosary, also known as the Gaucho Priest, is the patron saint of cowboys, He had leprosy, so the makeup for that would be rather challenging. I may just show up in jeans and a sweatshirt.
We used to have costume parties when we were in graduate school in Winnipeg. The most memorable was when I dressed like a large strawberry for a Halloween party. I wore tights, and the two sided pink costume went down to my knees. I got a call in the middle of the party that one of my clients was in the ER with suicidal ideation and needed to see me ASAP. It was a little hard to get the ER staff to take me seriously in that getup. My client, despite their distress, though it was hilarious.
What would you wear for Cowboy Chic? What was the last costume party you went to?
Monday afternoon I saw our neighbor across the street mowing his perfectly manicured lawn and removing every single leaf that had landed on the grass. When he was finished, there wasn’t a single leaf on the lawn. He loaded the leaves into the back of his pickup and hauled them to the city bins. He can’t tolerate anything that takes away from the green.
Most of our front yard is a vegetable garden, so we don’t rake there or in the back yard. I swept the leaves that landed on the front stoep and sidewalk into the garden so we could go out in our socks and not get them full of dried leaves. During the night we had a very strong wind, and in the morning there were as many if not more leaves on the stoep and sidewalk. Neighbor’s lawn looked like it did on Monday afternoon before he had mowed. It was covered with leaves! He was out there again on Tuesday repeating what he did on Monday. There are still lots of leaves on the trees around his property and the neighborhood. He’s going to have a busy time until the leaves are all fallen.
I suppose our neighbor thinks our yard is a mess because we leave the leaves in the flower beds and garden, we leave the perennials uncut to promote pollinator hatching, and only cut back the peonies, daylilies, and irises. Sometimes our next door neighbor comes over and rakes in the flower beds on the north side of our property because she feels guilty that our flower beds are full of the leaves from her ash trees. We tell her that the leaves will decompose and insulate the garden, but she can’t let leaves lie, either.
Rakers in your neighborhood? Did you jump in leaf piles as a kid? How do you prepare your lawn or garden for winter?
As psychologists, Husband and I are familiar with behavior modification. We are both pretty adept at changing the behaviors of others. It dawned on me yesterday, however, that we have met our match in our Cesky Terrier and the finesse with which he has modified our behaviors and what a creature of habit he is.
Every morning, Kyrill wakes up when Husband’s alarm goes off. He then jumps on me to make sure I know that the alarm went off, and then he waits on the bed in great anticipation for Husband to get dressed and take him for his morning stroll. I stay in bed. When they return, he jumps back into bed with me and won’t get out of bed until I get up. He barks at me if I stay in bed too long and he wants his breakfast. After our breakfast, Husband and I sit in the livingroom and read aloud some short devotionals and drink our coffee. That is the cue for Kyrill to have vicious and vigorous tugs with his Wubbas. He accompanies me anytime I go into the bathroom, and brings the same pink ball with him every time. He tosses it at my feet and expects me to try to grab it no matter what I am doing. I am never fast enough to grab it. Certain whines mean different things. One means he wants a share of the ice in Husband’s glass. Another means he has lost his pink ball, and to please help him find it. Whenever I step out of the bathroom in the morning, ready for the day, I get a glance from him, while he waits in anticipation for me to say “Go outside”, after which he runs to the back door to be let outside.
We go along with all of these and countless other expectations that our dog seems to have for us. Whenever I sit on the sofa he insists he has to sit in my lap. He expects to do the pre-rinse on our ice cream bowls and sits at our feet while we eat. He whines if he thinks we take too long to finish. We don’t cater to his expectation that all socks are his to steal and chew up, however.
Who modifies your behavior? How have animals changed the way you do things and live your life?
Continuing with a Halloween theme today. I notice that the people around town who are really into Halloween have their yards decorated, their inflatables inflated, and their pumpkins carved. Then there are the houses like ours that sport no pumpkins or decorations of any kind, We typically don’t do much for Halloween. In any event, I will be away in Dallas on the 31st, Husband will be home with the dog, and we have decided that he will close the blinds, leave the lights off, and not hand out any candy. It would be too hard with only one person at home to hand out candy and manage a hysterical terrier whenever someone came to the door. We will be Halloween Scrooges. This weekend I plan to bake frosted pumpkin cookies and brown-butter maple muffins for the children next door. They always come over to trick or treat, and we will give them the goodies on Sunday.
Last weekend we saw the most gruesome, yet remarkable Halloween decoration in the parking lot at the grocery store. A really rugged looking guy drove up in a red pickup with an enormous skeleton taking up the whole bed of the vehicle. The skeleton was seated, and yet its head and shoulders towered at least five feet over the roof of the truck. The feet stuck out over the back gate of the pickup bed, and there were dog skeletons lying across the main figure’s ankles, looking as though they were leaping. A smaller, human skeleton lay draped over the big skeleton’s arms. The whole tableau was held in place by thick orange straps. The guy was driving all around town with this. It could have been a float in a parade, if there was a Halloween parade in town. I would love to know what prompted him to do this.
What sorts of Halloween decorations are you seeing? Do you decorate for Halloween? What kind of tableau would you imagine constructing in the back of a pickup?
Trail Baboon 