Weekend Update...

- yeah, I've probably used that title before once or twice, or three or four times. I couldn't think of anything catchy, though, so there it is.

- Wow, was I a week off on my vacation, or what? It was cloudy, goopy, and raining the week before last, when I was off and last week was gorgeous and sunny the WHOLE WEEK. Can't predict these things, though. I'm over it.

- Indian summer was in full effect this weekend. Sunny skies and temperatures approaching 80 degrees were the rule yesterday and today. I took advantage by raking 20 bags of leaves yesterday. And that was just from my back and side yards. This will occupy my Saturdays for the rest of the month.

- After a one-year hiatus the big BSF square dance returned last night. Over sixty young adults made the trek down winding Little Antire Road in the darkness to Rocking J Ranch. I had a great time seeing old friends and square dancing up a storm.

- The Verizon Wireless How Sweet The Sound national choir competition finals were last night. My dad's choir competed but alas, did not win. A Pentecostal church choir from Atlanta, GA took home the honors. I did not see their performance, but apparently they broke out in tongues, the Pentecostal secret weapon. My dad's church choir did their thing just as well as they did in St. Louis and my mom said the Detroit crowd reacted just as wildly as the St. Louis crowd did. (She attended a Verizon-sponsored watch party at their church.) My poor dad was a real trouper, performing despite being very much under the weather. Still, he said the choir had a generally good experience, all things considered. The P-D's religion writer Tim Townsend wrote about the choir's experience before, during, and after the national finals. Read his story here.

- My cousin J. and her husband welcomed their first child, a boy, into the world last night. He was born at Barnes-Jewish Hospital late last evening. I visited them this afternoon and I must say he is a handsome little guy.

Bang The Drum Slowly...

By now most Americans are inured to the almost-daily casualty reports that come in from the ongoing wars/conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. I admit, I let them flow in one ear and out the other, since they've been going on for so many years now. I don't have any friends or family serving over there so it's sometimes hard to feel a personal involvement.

Until now, that is. My third(?) cousin Spc. Robert Charlton died last week at a hospital in Germany of injuries suffered in a "non-combat-related accident" in Afghanistan. His body is arriving on Thursday in my hometown of Malden, MO. I was surprised to hear this news when talking to my mom Tuesday night. Surprised because I didn't even know he had joined the Army in 2007 and had deployed to Afghanistan in January after being initially stationed in Ft. Drum, NY. He was the grandson of my late grandfather's older brother and I can't remember the last time I saw him face to face or talked to him.

He was just 22 years old.

Man, I gotta keep in better touch with my extended family.

Little Miss Can't Be Wrong...

Ummm, can't you see I'm BUSY??

Okay, ONE picture!

...that's what her expressions seem to be saying. Her, of course is niece Lydia--22 months old in a few days. She was staying with grandma and grandpa for a couple days last week and I spent most of Friday afternoon and evening with her and them. She's wearing headphones and a pink bow in her hair while holding her 'blankie' in her arms with a half-eaten apple and a black ink pen in her hands. She's nothing if not busy (and cute!)

I was able to be there because I took my annual week of October vacation last week. I've started doing that in recent years because I love Fall weather and being out in it. This year the weather did NOT cooperate, with clouds and/or rain making for mostly dreary days. However, I did take it easy, raked leaves in the back yard, did a little shopping, took longer walks with the dog, etc...

(oh, and I picked out some spiffy new eyeglasses, too. After 6 years, I figured it was time. My eye guy gave me a new prescription at my recent annual exam. He swears I'll like it a lot!)

The sky cleared out nicely this weekend, though. Both days this weekend were picture-perfect. I got out and explored a couple of trails at Rockwoods Reservation yesterday. The air was crisp and the sun was bright. So. Nice. Today, the dog and I walked the length of the trail at Jefferson Barracks Park late in the afternoon. We stopped off at Cliff Cave Park on the way home so I could see how high the Mississippi River has gotten since the recent soaking rains have pushed it up over flood stage. It is indeed high.

MU vs. Texas, 'Horns Hooked 'Em!...

Ol' Mizzou had the misfortune of playing the Texas Longhorns for homecoming on Saturday night...the Tigers submitted to a predictable beatdown, losing 41-6. P-D sports writer Vahe Gregorian had a particularly amusing quote in his story for today's paper:

"You've got to give Missouri credit," Texas quarterback Colt McCoy said, though it was unclear why.

Didn't You Just Know That...

- the Rams would somehow find a way to lose to a team that was as bad as they were?

- that the Balloon Boy saga would eventually end up being a hoax?

- that the sun would eventually re-appear, after a week of gloomy clouds?

Fall In Full Bloom...

Hope you'll enjoy these fall-ing trees from today's walk around Sylvan Springs Park....I'm so blessed to live so close to such great parks!

Hey, It (was) The Sun!!!...

- That big and blinding orange circle in the sky finally re-appeared this morning after taking the week off. It played peek-a-boo with the clouds most of the day, but I was happy to see it nonetheless.

- I took another hike this afternoon. This time the dog and I hiked the Al Foster trail (PDF) from the Glencoe trailhead. It's close enough to be easily accessible but far enough out that you feel unplugged from civilization--very quiet and serene, never crowded. Didn't make it all the way to Sherman Beach, though. Discovered a new asphalt feeder trail under construction. It branches off north from the main trail and heads through a quiet stretch of woods. The leaves on the trees were ablaze with fiery yellows and oranges. If there'd been any sun shining through it would have made for a spectacular light show. I checked it out for a while then headed back to the main trail. After I got home, I discovered that I was hiking on the Rock Hollow Trail--it's part of the larger Meramec Greenway, which itself is part of the Great Rivers Greenway District. I'll likely be back there soon.

(interesting fact about Rock Hollow - it's being built over an abandoned stretch of road once known as Lawler Ford, aka "Zombie Road." Some folks claim it's been the site of paranormal activity during particularly dark evenings. It's been the stuff of local legend for years.)

- Heard from the parents--they returned from their Maine vacation early this evening. My mom said they had a good week and had only one minor flight delay.

- Stuck on the Saturday night shift again....hate it when I have to cover two in a row, but that's the way the world goes 'round sometimes...sure hope I don't feel eyestrained tomorrow like I did last week.

- The falling leaves drift by my window....and remind me that I will soon be raking leaves every Saturday.

- Ol' Mizzou is getting schooled by Oklahoma State as I write this. They kept it close during the first half but the Cowboys look to be pulling away. Whither Furman and Illinois, Blaine Gabbert?

Nothin' But Gray Skies Do I See...

- Four days and counting since we've seen the sun 'round these parts. Weatherman says no sun until at least Sunday...blah.

- Folks have been Maine-ing all week. I'm told my dad was sailing on his 60th birthday Monday. That really warms the ol' heart to think he was doing something he really loves on such a significant date in his life. And he was with my mom while doing it, so I think it was a good day for him.

- It's tremendously disappointing to watch the DODGERS take on the Phillies in the NLCS. The Cardinals laid a giant egg and got swept out their division series with the boys in blue last week. They never won again after clinching the Central division in Denver and carried a 6-game losing streak into the offseason. I saw it coming a mile away and was not surprised at their postseason failure I felt especially bad for my good friend R. who is a die-hard Cardinals fan.

- Chili-dog suffered her first real health issue since I've owned her, recently. Her right ear got infected with ear mites (or at least, their eggs), The HSMO vet knew just what to do and now doggie's ear is almost healed.

- I could be blogging daily, as my pal Jim B. is doing but I find that I just don't have that much to say. Much of my life is made up of routine, mundane stuff.

- Will be babysitting niece Lydia most Wednesday nights for a while. Her mom and dad are doing a small-group bible study so they've asked me to step in while they step out. I enjoy our time together...she's a neat little girl.

- This time last week, I was: watching the Cardinals lose to the Dodgers, the Mizzou Tigers (eventually!) lose to Nebraska, and the Blues lose to the Thrashers in hockey. When the Rams lost on Sunday, it completed a horrific week for St. Louis sports. None of our local pro teams won a game during the week.

- I've been discovering lots of good music courtesy of my local library branch. It's not just about the books and magazines, folks. They have lots of great CDs of all genres available for loan...it's the ultimate try-before-you-buy experience if you're a music lover like me.

Great Perspective!...

Last night, I caught the tail-end of Jeffery Brown's interview of LA Dodgers baseball broadcaster Vin Scully for the Newshour with Jim Lehrer on PBS. Scully is a sports broadcasting legend and Dodgers institution, having broadcast their games since their Brooklyn days of the 1950's. He could retire any time he wants to but will be in the broadcast booth calling the upcoming playoff series between the Dodgers and Cardinals.

I started watching just as Brown asked Scully about possible retirement plans, as he is 81 years old. Here's that bit of the conversation:

VIN SCULLY: I've told several writers this, and, again, I get back to it, but if you want to make God smile, tell him your plans. And I've always been very, very respectful of that sentence. All I know is, I'm working this year, and God willing, I plan to work next year. Somewhere over that year, my next step will come about. And that's about as all I can determine right now.

JEFFREY BROWN: But you're still enjoying what you're doing?

VIN SCULLY: I love it. And you know how I know I love it? Because when there's a great play on the field and the crowd roars, I still get goose bumps. I'm just like that little kid under the radio.

Read the entire interview here.

Love that perspective! He's one of the all-time greats.

Early Fall....

Wow, what a gorgeous fall weekend we just had! The outside air temperature was just about perfect both Saturday and Sunday. The Dog and I took the opportunity to re-explore the back side of Castlewood State Park via Sherman Beach County Park near the Meramec River. It's a rather remote, isolated area of bottomland forest that is popular with mountain bikers and hikers alike. I'd last been out there in 2004, I think. It was an enjoyable few hours for me and I think The Dog liked it too. I gave her a good scrubbing after we got back home, to get rid of excess mud and any bugs that hung on for the ride home.

Speaking of The Dog, her right ear is suddenly having issues. Constantly dirty and causing her to shake her head at random. She'll see an HSMO vet on Wednesday...

I've been limping along with my spare pair of glasses for the past couple of weeks. My usual pair suffered a broken right temple and had to go in for repair. This has happened twice before (over six years) and usually it's a week's worth of inconvenience but this time they went missing for a few days so I've had to endure a while longer. Thankfully, they arrived at the repair lab today and will get fixed quickly, I hope.

The way the Cardinals limped to the finish line the past couple of weeks, I don't like their chances against the Dodgers. They either got bored and went into cruise control after running away with the division or are just plain tired...I hope they've just been waiting for the postseason to roll around to turn it up again.

Niece Lydia has started calling me 'ya-ya' or -yuh-yuh' lately. At least she knows who I am...I've been fortunate to have had the past couple of Tuesdays off so i could accompany her on her outings with my mom and dad when they kept her on those days so I think that has helped.

I finally was able to pick up a copy of "In The President's Secret Service," by Ronald Kessler. (At Borders yesterday, 20% off PLUS $5 in Borders Bucks, thank you very much!) Its first printing sold out quickly so it's been unavailable until recently. The book is basically a behind-the-scenes look at the Secret Service as told by former agents who have protected former Presidents. I just started it last night and it looks to be a very fascinating read.

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!....

...to my pal Jim Barnard (pictured above, in front of his lovely wife Alisha)!!! He was surprised with a birthday bash at a local Chick-Fil-A tonight. I was in attendance along with other family and friends. He's a pretty swell guy, for a Packers fan! : )

Jim produced an awesome movie to recap the events of the evening. View it via his blog here: good o'72 (something very cool happens at the 3:45 mark!)

Some Pictures My Phone's Camera Took...

Peggy wants to make something VERY clear!
taken at Record Exchange....

doggie in the doorway!
taken at home...

must hide doggie on this day!
taken at work...

pasta sauce, anyone?
taken at work...

the road ahead
taken during Chili-dog's Friday evening walk...

Who Knew?...

...that you can use a Q-Tip to clean doggie ears, too??? Chili-dog got to shaking her head and pawing at her ears last night so I knew it was time to clean them. I bought a jar of ear-cleaning pads (which smell suspiciously like those Oxy-Clean pads teens use to obliterate their acne) from Petsmart this afternoon and they did a great job. I got the idea to try a Q-Tip or two to hit the crannies and crevices of her ears and they worked like a charm!

Further Proof...

The OFFICIAL video:

How Sweet The Sound St. Louis Regional Winner

Proof....

of what went down last night:



just a short clip, but you get the picture....

if you're on Facebook, I can provide you a complete performance video that someone posted there.

and it should be noted for the record that this style of performing is not the norm for that church. They worked up this number for competition purposes.

Speechless...

did the emcee at the How Sweet The Sound event at Scottrade Center tonight really announce that Faith Baptist Church's Celebration Choir won the large church choir division? And did that same choir really win the award for best overall choir of the entire competition? And did that same choir really win the people's choice award, voted via text message? This is my parents' church choir, a conservative Southern Baptist church choir from Festus, MO. Competing in a field of mostly black gospel choirs, no less.

Yeah, it really happened that way. The roof at Scottrade Center was raised a few feet tonight due to the massive amount of praise lifted to God tonight. The atmosphere was positively electric all night long. Black gospel music was in full, full effect and it was beyond uplifting.

I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my four eyes. My dad's (all-Caucasian) church choir really took home the gold tonight. God did a miracle right before my very shocked eyes. Just speechless am I tonight. They were the very last choir to perform and when they launched slowly into Andrae Crouch's classic anthem, "Soon And Very Soon," something came over the crowd. That song is practically the black gospel music national anthem, after all! As the song developed into a faster rhythmic tempo, something akin to a moving of the Spirit took over. Director Michael Nickelson ripped off his tailed-tuxedo jacket and the crowd went wild. The choir fed off the crowd and just went for broke. The arrangement of the song included the rarely-performed verses of the song, which moved one of the judges to his feet in appreciation. The audience ate it up and just went wild when the song was done.

I knew they'd done well and would have been pleased if their night ended right there. But then the awards were handed out at the end of the show. When the emcee announced their win of the people's choice award, I really wasn't too surprised. The audience really loved them. But then they were announced as the best large church choir winner for the St. Louis region. And then they were announced as the overall winner of the competition.

And I stood there next to my mom, with my mouth hanging open. I couldn't believe what I had just witnessed. Every choir there was outstanding. I've always had a great appreciation for the African-American style of praise singing. My hat is off to the choir for turning in a grand whopper of a performance tonight. Mom and I made our way over the dasher boards to hug my dad afterward And by the way, I'm really, really proud of him right now.

The best part is, God was praised. Loudly and continually throughout the evening. The performing choirs did nothing of their own volition, but all were Spirit-inspired and their praises were directed upwards.

They now will head to Detroit's Joe Louis Arena for the national competition in November.

And I can't believe I just wrote that.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that each choir director was brought, American Idol-style before the 3 judges to have their performance critiqued. This made me very nervous at first, until I saw that the judges only said positive things about each choir.

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.

Labor(ious) Day 2009...

Happy Labor Day, folks....hope yours was whatever you wanted it to be!

I labored a bit on Labor Day. It started with me cutting the grass and just ended with a bit of home repair. The metal door guide that the sliding closet doors slide in in my office room came out of the doorframe and I had to re-anchor it into the plaster. Thank goodness Home Depot is nearby and open on Labor Day. I dare say I broke a sweat trying to wrangle the doors back into the guide.

In between those jobs, I spent the day in Festus. My parents cooked up lunch for my me, my bro/sis-in-law/adorable 20-month old niece Lydia, and my visiting cousin J from Malden. Of course, Chili had a happy day just being her doggie self with all of us. The above picture shows her happily en route to Festus in the back seat of my car.

On a side note, I picked up a great new book on Saturday. Grant Wahl's The Beckham Experiment tells the fascinating behind-the-scenes story of soccer player David Beckham's grand entrance into the American soccer scene back in 2007. Oh, my, an obscene amount of money changed hands to get him here. Oh, my.

A Bit Of Fall...

Since the weather has been decidedly fall-like lately, I picked up this "fall flower hanging planter" at my local Home Depot yesterday. It hangs from the lamp post in my front yard.

New Necklace....

Chili's Christmas-gift collar from Earthdog finally wore out so I ordered another and it came in the mail today! This is the "Kody II" design, made of 100% natural hemp fiber. I think it looks pretty fancy on her. She seems to approve.

I ordered it on Wednesday night and it still arrived quicker than the replacement shoe laces I ordered from Clarks two weeks ago! Bleh...

beautiful August weather we're having, eh? I took the afternoon to wash windows. I'm going out now to walk Chili.