To The Couple...

...who found my cell phone somewhere in the grassy expanse of Forest Park yesterday, you have my most extreme gratitude and thanks for finding it and calling to inform me that you had it.

Chili and I drove up to Forest Park for the annual Great Forest Park Balloon Race yesterday afternoon. The sky was cloudy and generally overcast so my pictures weren't that great, but I enjoyed seeing the balloons nonetheless. Chili's behavior was disappointing, sadly. The lingering scents of the 1,000,000 dogs that have ever visited Forest Park really did a number on her. She was a jumpy and leash-pulling dog the whole time we were there. Several dogs caused her to lunge and bark, which was embarrassing to her owner.

(side note: I am participating in an owner-only "Dogs With Issues" class at HSMO as a prelude to a Reactive Dog class for Chili. She often reacts violently to other dogs that we encounter on our walks and it's getting to be too much.) I also hope we can address the awful noise she makes when we ride in the car together. It's anxiety-related, I think. Weims can have anxiety issues.)

When I packed up my bag and camping chair to leave, somehow my cell phone left my person and hit the ground somewhere. Unfortunately, I didn't realize it until I had already started the hike back to my car. I frantically returned to the area where I had been but had no luck finding it in the grass or in my backpack. I resignedly resumed the mile-plus hike back to my car. The periodic sprinkles of rain didn't do much to help my mood. When Chili and I finally made it back to my car, she was hot and tired and thirsty and I was hot, tired, thirsty, and really bummed out. I drove home in a steady rain, hoping and praying that the message light on my home phone would be blinking when I got home. (blinking with a message from someone who found my phone, that is.) To my great relief, it was. Some nice folks had found my phone and had it in their possession. They didn't live too far from me so I drove over and picked it up.

Never in 12 years of cell-phoning have I had that happen to me. I've heard horror stories from other people who've lost phones but didn't think about ever having that problem. You don't realize how much you miss it until you suddenly don't have it (much like Cardinals closer Ryan Franklin's recent control issues.) I was just sick when I realized the gravity of the situation and just as relieved when all's well that ended well. I will back up my contacts ASAP and keep a much better grip on my phone in the future.

............

before that happened, I had contemplated a trip up to the Touhill to catch jazz legend Sonny Rollins in concert. Rollins was on the scene during the golden age of jazz music in the 1950s and 1960s. He is still, at age 79, 'essential,' as Post-Dispatch jazz aficionado Calvin Wilson put it. Alas, I was mentally and physically spent from my afternoon ordeal so I just crashed for the rest of the evening.