Today I saw this meme that referenced Kamala Harris as the United States Vice President-elect. It was followed by the statement “All it takes is one woman to crack open the door, and the crowd behind her can come barging through.” (Nancy Armour, USA Today) Of course, other countries have had women heads of state for many years, but the United States is still largely a patriarchy.

My daughters and their peers might not realize how far women have come in the past 50-60 years, but I’ve seen a lot of change in attitudes toward women in my lifetime.

My elementary school had three classrooms and three teachers–one man and two women. Of course, the man was the principal. Good for our school board, though. When the man retired, they hired another woman and selected the senior woman teacher to be the principal. When the single woman teacher got married, she was allowed to keep teaching, but when she became pregnant, she had to resign. It was considered inappropriate for young children to have a pregnant teacher, even though we saw our pregnant moms at home.

When I was in high school, the “obvious” career choices for women were secretary, airline stewardess, or teacher. Of course, when you got married, you would probably quit your job to raise your family. I didn’t want to be a secretary and I wasn’t pretty enough to be an airline stewardess. At that time, you had to be a single female, look like Barbie, and not wear glasses. Very sexist by today’s standards. I’ve always loved school, so I probably would have chosen an educational path anyway, no matter how many choices I had, but my college roommate was one of a very few women in the School of Business at UW-Madison.

When I was in college, women were allowed to wear pants to classes. After all, it was a huge campus with 15-minute walks between classes, and it was Wisconsin in the winter before global warming was noticeable. For dinner, however, we were required to wear skirts. I’m proud to say I was part of the protest movement in my dorm to allow pants for dinner attire. We won. Another college memory of mine is avoiding construction sites (there was always a new building going up on campus) because it was uncomfortable for me to have to walk by and ignore the comments and wolf whistles from construction workers. It wasn’t flattering then, and it’s sexual harassment now.

When I got married, I was not allowed to get a credit card in my name. Ted and I still use the VISA card we took out when we got married because it has no annual fees. One card has my name on it, but the account is in Ted’s name and the card number is the same on both cards. I now have an additional credit card in my own name–something I qualified for many years later.

When Ted and I bought a house, the utilities had to be in Ted’s name because a woman could not be the head of the household and only the head of the household (i.e., the man) could be counted on to be financially responsible. We haven’t moved in 41 years, so our utilities are still in Ted’s name but it’s not worth changing. I simply pay the bills out of our joint checking account.

Like millions of women around the world, I’m still waiting to be judged first for qualities other than my gender. I think Joe Biden’s selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate and the vote to elect Joe and Kamala as President and Vice President has been a big step toward equality for women in the United States. Let’s see how far it goes.

Ted and I decided to vote by absentee ballot this year because we think there will be very long lines at the polls on November 3. The line was a lot longer than usual for the 2018 midterms when I counted 75 people ahead of us, and there are always long lines for Presidential elections. Maybe especially for this Presidential election. Besides, the weather could be crummy in November, so who wants to stand outside if they don’t have to?

We’ve never voted absentee or by mail before, but the process was very simple. We filled out our absentee ballot request online and then headed for the Election Authority office just a short distance from our house, where we received our ballots and cast them immediately. As it turned out, if we were appearing in person with a photo ID, we could pick up our ballots and vote without the application. Oh, well. It’s better to be prepared, right?

The roads near the Election Authority office were clearly marked with “Election Authority Office” signs at each corner along the way, but we already knew where it was–next door to where my SCC program used to provide a GED classroom site.

Our first surprise was the number of campaign signs posted along the road and around the parking lot. The signs added a colorful and–dare I say?–decorative touch to a dreary day and a blah parking lot. I didn’t read any of them because I already knew who I was voting for. Does anyone decide how they will vote when they arrive at the polling place parking lot and see those signs? “Oh, I was going to vote for Donald Duck, but the Mickey Mouse sign at least 25 feet from the polling place door caught my attention and changed my mind.”

Our second surprise was the steady stream of cars coming and going and filling the parking spaces. When we left, there were at least as many cars in the parking lot and at least as many people in the room as when we arrived. If there’s a steady stream of voters like this–a rainy Tuesday afternoon–every day, a lot of people are voting early. Maybe the polling place lines won’t be so long on November 3 after all.

Curbside voting was available for those who requested that their ballots be mailed to them in advance. For awhile, there was a long line of cars at the curbside, but not when I took this picture.

When we entered the building, the number-caller shouted “5!” These were our numbers. There were seven election judges working, so it took us less than 30 minutes to get our ballots and to cast our votes. We didn’t really keep track of the time, so that’s a guess, but the line kept moving. I asked the number-caller if she goes home hoarse at the end of the day and she said, “We all do.”

Here’s a partial view of the crowd. There were people (including us) standing along two walls, people seated, and people voting at the tables with the red and white and the black divider screens (right center) and at tables in a large room behind the staircase. We even saw someone we knew–Ed, from the bike shop where we bought our bikes and where we keep finding new bike gear to buy. Ed told me once he has five bicycles and uses them all for different kinds of biking. He’s retired so he works part-time for the Election Authority and part-time at the bike shop. Today, he was answering questions on the floor and directing human traffic in the room.

In less time than we stood in line in 2018, we had fulfilled our civic duty.

Last week, I received an Amazon catalog in the mail. I didn’t even know Amazon mailed catalogs! I’m not big on catalog shopping, so I quickly riffled through the pages before throwing it into the recycle bin.

During my riffle, I saw a Christmas tree maze. I couldn’t resist drawing my way through the maze. Then I saw another activity page. I finally checked the table of contents (yes, a table of contents, not an index like catalogs usually have), and found lots of fun activities. The promise on the catalog was true: It was “Joy Delivered” and it put an Amazon Prime smile on my face.

Here’s the catalog cover. With the “kid” appearance, it’s no surprise it was a toy catalog.

Here are the activity pages. There’s even a page of stickers (bottom right) to go with “A Winter’s tail Tale.”

The catalog included a page with a recipe for “sip, sip, hurray” hot chocolate and another page to “Make a list, check it twice” with the note that the list may include “anything, like hugs, hats, or talking mice.” Maybe I’ll use that page to make my Christmas list. Who do I know that wants a talking mouse for Christmas?

Kari generously shares the fruits of her garden with us, usually in one of her produce bags. She said she bought the bags at the grocery store and uses them when she buys produce, rather than putting it in a store-provided plastic bag. I thought it would be great to have bags of my own, but I couldn’t find them at the grocery stores. Enter online shopping. The bags just arrived and I’m a happy customer.

Picture it: It’s the Fourth of July, but Ted and I have no plans to do more than watch the neighborhood fireworks (legal in our jurisdiction). So dull. With fireworks being launched in the streets throughout the nearby subdivisions, taking a walk or a bike ride was out of the question. We’d spend far too much time waiting for a launch before we could pass and dodging falling bottle rockets, etc.

By 5:30 p.m., I was going crazy and wanted to do something. Aha! Brainstorm! I suggested to Ted that we load up our bikes and head for the Katy Trail. I listed reasons this would be a good idea: (1) We’d get out of our yard and the subdivision; (2) it was still several hours until sunset; (3) the trail would probably be deserted because everyone else had most likely already gone home for dinner and fireworks; and (4) the trail is not near subdivisions, so we wouldn’t have to listen to or dodge popping fireworks while we rode.

Ted was an easy sell for the idea. It took us very little time to put on shoes, fill some water bottles, and load the bikes on the car. We headed for the MO Research Park access point to the Katy Trail and found fewer than a half dozen cars in the parking lot. Yes! The last time we biked the Katy was the last beautiful day of October, and every trail was packed.

Everything we hoped for came true: the trail was beautiful, quiet, and deserted. The plan was to bike 20 miles, but we stopped at 18 because just past our nine-mile point, MO Hwy 94 crosses the Katy, and we had less than a mile to go to reach our ten-mile turnaround. After more than an hour-and-a-half of biking, we were filled with endorphins and looking forward to dinner.

We arrived at home around 8:00 p.m. and the locals were already launching their fireworks, even though the sun hadn’t yet set.

Here’s a closer look at our neighbor across the street–Will and Karen. Check out the table beside the driveway. It’s well-stocked with fireworks.

At 8:00 p.m., after biking 18 miles and with the sun still shining, Ted and I were more interested in dinner than fireworks. We cleaned the trail dust off our bikes and put together a quick meal. By the time we finished, the fireworks pops and bangs were so frequent, we decided to go outside to take a look at what was going on. This was not the usual neighborhood fireworks celebration. After standing in awe for about 15 minutes, we pulled up some lawn chairs and watched the show for two hours. It finally wound down after 10:30, and silence reigned by midnight.

From our driveway, with a 180-degree range of vision (the house was behind us), we could see at least ten sites where people were constantly launching fireworks, plus other occasional shots, where the residents had a smaller budget for the event. In our immediate neighborhood, four houses were providing a display for us. The orange arrow is our house; the four green arrows are the active neighbors’ sites. The side street at our house was also parked full of cars.

I can’t imagine how many thousands of dollars went up in smoke within our sight distance alone. There was no such thing as hearing an individual bang for those two hours–the noise was constant, differentiated only by louder bangs for bigger fireworks. Litter and ash fell from the sky and landed on us as we watched. Normally, there are some nice, big fireworks in the neighborhood shows but, as Kari said, you could tell that everyone was at home this year. I think folks spent their unusable travel budgets on fireworks, because there was one big explosion of color after another.

Ted and I have traveled frequently over the Fourth of July holiday because I always had the day off from work. We’ve seen fireworks in many major U.S. cities (Washington, D.C., San Francisco, New Orleans, others), as well as overseas for Bastille Day and Swiss National Day, but none of those places offered a two-hour show with a sky full of color everywhere we looked. This was definitely among the best fireworks displays we’ve ever seen, and Will and Karen might have had the best display in the subdivision–about 150 feet away from our VIP driveway seating. The fireworks in the photos below were launched by Will and Karen. They had two launching sites, so something was always going off, and it was obviously choreographed to present different types of explosions in pleasing series. Will told me they made some notes to improve it next year.

There was no wind, so smoke lingered.

In the morning, even though we hadn’t purchased or launched any fireworks, Ted and I had a clean-up job to do. Our lawn, concrete, and pool were littered with debris. The litter was mostly cardboard-like pieces and doesn’t show well in the picture below, but I don’t think there was a square foot without litter. It looks very bio-degradable, so will probably decompose quickly, but we needed to sweep and use the leaf-blower to clear the concrete and the outdoor furniture. I hosed off the furniture and the concrete to remove the ash. Ted vacuumed the pool twice, but neither of us could keep ahead of the debris. We assumed there was litter in the trees that kept falling on our (we thought) cleaned-up areas.

If Will and Karen’s show is going to be even better next year, you might want to join us July 4, 2021.

Ted and I were running some errands (an excuse to get out of home quarantine) and I was driving on I-64 when a white car put itself right on my tail. I mentioned (sarcastically) to Ted that “I wish she’d get a little closer to me.” When we reached our exit, I moved into the exit lane–and so did the white car, still on my tail. I signaled for a right turn onto the cross street, slowed to look for traffic before merging, noticed the light had just changed and I’d have to wait for a break in the traffic, and came to a stop–and so did the white car, when she hit my car.

We both pulled into a parking lot around the corner. We had no injuries and both cars were still drivable, so that’s good. The 20-something driver, however, went into hysterical crying and said this was her first accident. She asked me what the upcoming process would be like. I told her and spent some time calming her down before I thought she’d be safe to re-enter traffic. Her car has the right front corner bashed in, so I assume she made a last-ditch effort to swerve to the left to avoid hitting me, but she had been following me too closely to avoid the accident.

All will be well–in time. Although auto insurance companies are giving refunds to customers because of reduced driving and accident rates during the lockdown, I couldn’t get an appointment for an estimate at the body shop until July 8, ten days after I called. Then I’ll find out how bad my damage is. A previous rear-end collision on my car cost more than $8,000 to repair. There was more damage that time, but the spike in cost was due to the fact that my electronic hardtop convertible top drops into the trunk where there are 32 sensors to guide the action. My parking assist sensor and rear-view camera were both damaged this time and the bumper, trunk cover, tailpipe, and driver’s side rear panel are all visibly out of alignment. I don’t know if any of the convertible top sensors are damaged now, because the hot weather hasn’t tempted me to put the top down since the accident and I don’t want to experiment, in case it goes partially down, then won’t come back up.

Update coming after July 8. Adventures happen, even in COVID times.

Today, Ted and I celebrated our 51st wedding anniversary. Last year, we celebrated with all of our children and grandchildren. This year, the celebration was more subdued.

We spent some time looking at our wedding album and enjoying the memories.

Our wedding cake was sour cream chocolate because neither of us likes white cake, the traditional wedding flavor.

Our first dance was awkward. We had never danced together before the wedding, and Ted didn’t know how to lead. We’re better dancers now.

According to one of the four local newspapers that reported our wedding, I was a “Hingham girl” whom Ted “claimed.”

We had a star-studded guest list according to the guest sign-ins.

We started our anniversary celebration by buying a hot tub yesterday afternoon. Picture it here in 2-3 months, after the manufacturer catches up on production. The tree needs to disappear.

This afternoon, we rolled last year’s anniversary gift–our e-bikes–out of the garage and took a 12-mile bike ride in the beautiful weather. We’ve ridden over 300 miles so far this spring. (Plus the 365 miles we rode last year.) After the ride, we needed a dip in the pool to cool down.

And, of course, we burned our anniversary candle. It’s an annual reminder of all the wonderful things we’ve shared since our wedding day.

In 1992, the United States Postal Service offered Americans the opportunity to vote for the Elvis picture they preferred to see on a new commemorative stamp: “young Elvis” at the age of 19-20, or “old Elvis” as a Las Vegas entertainer. The voters chose “young Elvis” and the stamp was issued January 1, 1993 at Graceland with Priscilla Presley on hand for the unveiling. According to the National Postal Museum, this is the most popular commemorative stamp ever issued.

Another commemorative Elvis stamp was issued in August 2019 as the “Forever Elvis Collection.”

Guess who bought a set. The sheet of stamps is double-sided and printed to look like a 45 rpm record jacket. The front of the sheet represents the album cover and you can see the top of the “record” sticking out above the stamps on the back side of the sheet .

The King lives. And so does the King impersonator. Awhile back, Kari re-texted me this photo of her when she dressed as Elvis for a private party at the skating rink. Maybe someday we’ll see this picture on a stamp.

The article that accompanied this picture reminded readers that lots of people rent their houses to vacationers. It was suggested to readers that, with the contagion threat of COVID-19, people who are hesitant to travel long distances or to stay at resorts might be willing to drive twenty minutes to swim for an hour in your pool. The CDC has stated that the threat of spreading COVID-19 is very low in a properly maintained swimming pool. The news article reminds homeowners that, between guest groups, it will be necessary to clean surfaces like deck chairs, railings, and ladders, as well as any pool toys provided by the owner. It’s also important to verify whether or not your homeowners’ insurance will cover liability for paying guests.

What do you think? Shall we put our pool on the rental market?

Maybe not.

I have always loved to read, and buying books is my guilty pleasure (a figure of speech because it doesn’t make me feel guilty). When I was a child, I saved my meager allowance money to buy books. I still have more than 30 of those childhood purchases–The Bobbsey Twins, Cherry Ames, Trixie Belden, and (my favorite) more–because of course, you never throw books away. (Except once. I had such an awful professor in one of my graduate literature classes that I wanted nothing to remind me of him, so I threw away the books I’d bought for his class. I mentioned that to one of the kids and the message was quickly relayed to the others: “Mom threw out books!”)

The blue book that says “Children’s Classics” is Little Women.

I re-read books–some of them more times than I can count. I still re-read my children’s classics every few years–Little House on the Prairie, Heidi, Little Women–and I still enjoy them. My inventory says I have somewhere around 1,700 books and I keep buying more. Over the past few months, I decided it’s time to cull the herd. Instead of choosing my favorites to read repeatedly, I vowed to choose books I rarely–if ever–select to re-read. If the premise was that all saved books were worth re-reading, I better do it for a change, right? Well, I might have enjoyed them at the time but years later, some of them have become less interesting. I’ve been donating those to Goodwill (because you never throw away books) and last week, James Michener’s The Source became the 164th book I put into the Goodwill box. It showed me how books have changed.

I didn’t have much extra money in college, so I bought thick paperbacks. They were inexpensive and took longer to read than thin books, so my money lasted longer. That spoiled my taste for quick reads and made it essential for my books to have a good plot and strong character development. The Source, like all of Michener’s books, has those qualities. Michener wrote The Source in 1965, it’s 1,088 pages long in paperback, and it only cost $1.65! Those were the days. That one took a long time to read, but I’m not going to do it again. It’s time for someone else to enjoy it.

Today, my gas gauge told me I have a range of 47 miles. It was time to fill the tank. With the COVID-19 lockdowns, I haven’t driven very much, and my last fill-up was on March 9. I don’t think I’ve ever gone that long without refilling my gas tank.

I made a grocery run today–wearing my face mask, of course, and by myself because only one household member is allowed in the grocery stores. When I entered the first aisle, I thought I was back in January.

The entire store looked like this with mostly full shelves–except the aisle with toilet paper, hand sanitizers, soap, Lysol, and bleach. I think the hoarders must have their cupboards full. The latest shortage is yeast. A store employee told me they haven’t had any for a week, but are expecting some this weekend. Will I be a lucky shopper who finds yeast?

Ted and I are retired and have no need to conduct business via Zoom or other platforms, but I’ve marked the Video Chat Bingo squares representing home-based workers we’ve seen on TV. To be honest, we did not see the pantsless spouse–we exceeded that. Trevor Noah’s Daily [Social Distancing] Show shared a moment of Zen that featured a female California news reporter.

Melinda Meza, a correspondent for KCRA 3 in Sacramento was filing a live report from her bathroom, demonstrating how to give yourself a DIY lockdown haircut. She could be seen cutting her own hair while her naked husband was in the glass-doored shower and clearly visible in the mirror behind her.

Do you think the shipping community is running out of small boxes? FedEx left this box at our door. The box is a 13-inch cube, so it has 1,728 cubic inches of space inside.

This is what was inside the box–two small boxes that were 4 x 3 x 3 inches each for a total of 72 cubic inches. No filler material included. I hope we didn’t have to pay shipping for the extra 1,656 cubic inches of air inside.

We scored today at Wal-Mart.

There was a limit of one each, but it wasn’t clear if a package of one roll of paper towels and a package of six rolls of paper towels were equally counted as one item. A small-size package of each item was sufficient for us.

P.S. I saw an article yesterday that many stores are already notifying customers that they will not give credit for critical items purchased during the COVID 19 crisis period. Those hoarders will be well-supplied with toilet paper and hand sanitizers for awhile.

Speaking of misleading health information, Barbara Delinsky has a gem in her book Sweet Salt Air. A woman in the story asks an overworked man, “When do you sleep?”

“When I’m tired,” he replies.

“Studies show that the less sleep you get, the greater your chance of stroke,” she warns.

“Studies get it backward,” he counters. “Insomnia is caused by stress, which causes high blood pressure, which causes stroke. I’m not stressed.”

This is another example of health information that “everyone knows,” but it’s not completely accurate. Even though a large percentage of people who have strokes might also have insomnia, the relationship between the two conditions is a correlation, not a cause-and-effect finding. The same is true of the studies that report people with more education have more migraine headaches. Education does not cause migraines, but it can provide a pathway to more stressful jobs, and stress causes migraines.

One of my great and useful take-aways from grad school was learning to be aware of the difference between correlation and cause-and-effect. All that tuition money wasn’t wasted.

So you think working for the federal government is boring? Ted saw an article in Fedsmith.com titled “The 9 Coolest Federal Government Jobs.” The author states that there are federal employees around the world doing work that “would put the most fascinating private sector jobs to shame.” He lists the following coolest federal government positions.

Park Ranger (National Park Service) Locate your office in Yosemite National Park, the Appalachian Trail, or Independence Hall and choose from firefighting, security, search and rescue, etc.

Aerospace Engineer (NASA) Research, design, and test systems that go into spacecraft.

Foreign Service Officer (Department of State) Represent the U.S. in Nassau, the Bahamas, or other unique locales.

Archivist (Smithsonian Institute) Collect, care for, and organize historic artifacts, photographs, documents, etc.

FBI Agent (Federal Bureau of Investigation) Investigate, prevent, and put an end to illegal activity to uphold the Constitution and protect the American public.

Meteorologist (National Weather Service) Forecast weather, collect data, and work with natural disasters, climate change, and saving lives while studying the complex inner workings of Earth’s atmosphere.

Pararescue Airman (USAF) Make dramatic rescues in a variety of unique scenarios such as evacuating sinking planes or retrieving astronauts after a water landing.

Fish and Wildlife Biologist (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service) Protect and manage native animals, especially those that are endangered or threatened.

Securities Compliance Examiner (SEC) Keep Bernie Madoffs and Enrons from undermining the U.S. financial system through interviews and investigations to prevent fraudulent activities.

Recent pop-up ads on my tablet have shown “challenging” sudoku games. I like to do sudoku puzzles, so I took some screen shots and printed them just to see if the puzzles in the ads are actually solvable. Good news! They are.

A “normal” sudoku puzzle looks like this.

The rules are that each 9-square block must include the numerals 1-9. The same is true for each 9-square row and for each 9-square column. Within a 9-square block, row, or column, the numerals 1-9 cannot be repeated. The puzzles I printed from the online ads were structured a little differently, but the same rules applied.

This was one of the two puzzles. I added the colored lines to make the three puzzles obvious. It helped keep my eyes focused on the nine blocks I was solving. I quickly noticed that the center 9-square block is shared by all three puzzles, so the center puzzle must be solved first. After that, you solve the other two, but you cannot change any of the numbers entered in the center puzzle.

The second printout was a larger puzzle, apparently only solvable by “real sudoku master.” Again, I figured out that the center square needed to be solved first because it shares its corner squares with each of the other four puzzles. This puzzle was a more challenging level–harder than I enjoy doing–so it took me some time to solve the center puzzle. After that, the other four were pretty simple, maybe because I already had one corner of each already solved.

If the ads are to be believed, I’m a real sudoku master, since I solved both puzzles. Now, back to my real life.

Ted and I usually record Jeopardy! so we can watch it at the end of the day. Fast forwarding the ads also brings the show down to about 13 minutes instead of half an hour. One day, there was a category called “Websites” and this clue came up.

Answer: What is a blog? I knew the answer (question?) immediately because wordpress.com is the blog format I use.

Many dates can be palindromes, but they usually have seven or fewer digits, such as 1-10-2011 or 9-10-19. Today, however, is a rare eight-digit, international palindrome date. Whether you write it month/day/year like we do in the U.S. or day/month/year as many other countries do, it is still a palindrome. The last time this happened was more than 900 years ago on 11-11-1111 and the next time it will happen will be 12-12-2121, 101 years from now. After that, we’ll have to wait 1,919 years for 03-03-3030.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

Ted and I will be celebrating Christmas near Brisbane, Australia this year so we had to finish our holiday preparations early. We have gifts purchased, wrapped, and ready to ship. The shopping bags will be hand-delivered to Kari’s house.

We hung a few holiday lights outside so the house will look “lived in” while we’re away. Kari will unplug them after New Year’s for us. That should really make it look like someone’s home, right? Note: It took me about 30 minutes to unpack, unravel, and hang these lights. Whew!

The Christmas cards and letters are ready to mail just before we leave town.

And the indoor decorating is finished. We weren’t planning to do any indoor decorating because we’ll only be able to enjoy it for a few days, and the Christmas look will be totally out of season by the time we return. However, . . . I found a cute Lego minifigure holiday set and couldn’t resist it. After I bought it, I had to build it. After I built it, I wanted to set it out and enjoy it. So . . . we have some indoor holiday decorations after all. Isn’t it cute?

Now, to give some perspective to the five minutes I spent decorating with Lego, here’s an overview of our holiday decorating this year. Can you see Santa and his sign in front of the TV?

Merry Christmas to all–wherever you celebrate.

In my recent reading, I came across photos of an unusual and captivating pedestrian bridge. It is near Da Nang, Vietnam and is called the Golden Bridge. The nearly 500-foot golden walkway rises above the trees, and seems to be held in two giant concrete hands called the “hands of gods.” The bridge loops nearly back on itself and creates a feeling of being guided along by a giant stone god.

A unique Hard Rock Hotel recently opened in Hollywood, FL. It is shaped like an acoustic guitar and can be seen from the air when taking off or landing at the Ft. Lauderdale airport. The door handles in the hotel are shaped like–what else?–electric guitars. The Oasis wing of the hotel includes swim-up suites.

The Noah’s Ark restaurant and hotel, a former St. Charles, MO landmark, was similarly unique. It was shaped like an ark with a white-haired “Noah” and animals on the ship’s deck / roof, and elephant-head doorknobs with the trunk forming the handle. Noah’s Ark was modest compared to what Hard Rock has done, but maybe Hard Rock got the idea from Noah’s Ark.

I think Ted is beginning to understand why I enjoy having a “birthday season” each year. Earlier this week, he suggested that we go to Bentley’s at the Lake of the Ozarks for his traditional birthday dinner on Friday night. Since this was seven weeks ahead of his December 20 birthday, he seemed to feel he had to justify it. (Why? I don’t justify my birthday season–I revel in it!) He pointed out that the trees are turning color; the weather forecast for Friday was for clear, sunny skies; we’d be out of the country on his birthday; and Bentley’s closes for the month of January–meaning he’d have to wait almost until my March birthday dinner at Bentley’s to have his December birthday dinner.

I didn’t need convincing, so we drove to the Lake in the sunshine, admired the colorful trees along the way, and had a delicious dinner. Happy birthday, Ted–and may you have as happy a birthday season as I always do.

Our window-side table view of the sunset over the Lake of the Ozarks.

Ted and I want to take a St. Louis-themed hostess gift to our Australian friends when we visit them in January 2020. Of course, the iconic symbol of St. Louis is the Gateway Arch, and the Gateway Arch gift shop has the best selection of model arches, so we spent the afternoon exploring the new visitors’ center.

The Gateway Arch underwent a five-year makeover from 2013-2018 at a cost of $380 million. The tram and parts of the visitors’ center were open during construction and could be accessed by temporary paths bordered by plywood walls. The entire facility re-opened on July 3, 2018. Over 100 acres of the grounds were updated and now include more access paths to the Arch; a viewing platform overlooking the Arch grounds and the Mississippi River was added; and a land bridge was built over I-44 to provide safer pedestrian access to the Arch from the downtown area. The makeover also added 46,000 additional square feet of space for the visitors’ center, including a major expansion and update of the Arch museum. The Gateway Arch was upgraded from a National Memorial to a National Park in 2018. Woo-ee! Ted and I have not been to the Arch since the work was completed, so we explored it today.

We approached the Arch from the north, which gave us the opportunity to check out the Arch and the river from the new viewing platform.
From the viewing platform, we could see the Eads Bridge, a National Historic Landmark.* We could also see how unusually high the Mississippi River is for this time of year. There’s a parking lot beside the visible street all along the downtown riverfront, but it’s entirely under water now.

*The Eads Bridge was a construction marvel when it opened in 1874. It was the first bridge to cross the Mississippi River south of the Missouri River; its central arch was the longest rigid span ever built (520 feet); it had the deepest underwater foundations of any bridge in the world (100 feet below the water surface); and it was the first large-scale application of steel as a structural material.

All of the park grounds had a makeover. It’s a pretty park with lots of shade for the summer.
From the viewing platform, we approached the visitors’ center from behind. It’s underneath the Arch (not visible here) beneath the grassy hill in the photo foreground.
Here’s the visitors’ center from the front. Seating is abundant–maybe not for the summer crowds, but there’s lots of grass to sit on when the benches are full. There’s also a walkway that goes around and over the visitor’s center, with nice views of the river and the city skyline. Check out that good-looking guy on the bench.
Getting into the Arch is now just like passing through airport security except we could keep our shoes on–no belts or jackets, empty pockets, all electronics in the bin, etc. It’s not the heavy tourist season, but we had to weave back and forth six times to get through the line. Our goal is the far background of the photo.
The inside view from the lobby windows nicely frames the Old Courthouse–the site of the Dred Scott decision in 1857.
The terrazzo floor of the mezzanine is covered with a map of the United States, showing major rivers (blue lines) and the westward exploration trails (dotted lines) that began in St. Louis (yellow circle) and literally made the city the “Gateway to the West.” The map is the mezzanine floor so, yes, you can walk on it.
Before leaving, I took a picture of the Poplar Street Bridge, which has a flood gauge (white painted rectangle) on one of its piles. The bottom of the white rectangle is flood level. Notice how close the river is to flood level this year, when it’s usually very low in fall and winter.
I found this picture of the Arch visitors’ center online. Isn’t it pretty from above?

It was fun to spend a sunny fall day exploring the “new” Gateway Arch, and yes, we found a model Arch to take to our Australian friends.

It was a dark and rainy night. . . . Ted and I went out for dinner and this is what we saw at the table beside ours.

Who would have an umbrella like this? Why, a lady with flowered pink pants and a pink band on her hat, of course.

The flamingo turned around. I think it’s hungry and ready to eat.

I needed some spices from the Spice Shop on Historic Main Street in St. Charles. What a pleasant surprise to find the street and stores decorated for the Legends and Lanterns Hallowe’en celebrations this month. Every weekend in October features Hallowe’en-themed entertainment and activities.

After walking down the street and enjoying the decorations, we stopped at Kilwin’s and bought some chocolate. Yum!

When I was a junior in high school, I was selected to represent the local American Legion Auxiliary post at Badger Girls State, a week-long experience of faux government at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. (A concurrent Badger Boys State met in Ripon, WI.)

At Girls State, we learned how government works and we ran for state offices, including nominations, campaigning, and mock elections. I enjoyed the experience, from living in the dorm to participating in the activities, and the week went by too quickly. Except for one thing.

As we stood in line for meals in the dorm cafeteria (especially for dinner), someone in the line inevitably started singing “Kumbaya,” and then everyone else joined in. Long before the week and the impromptu songfests were over, I knew I never wanted to hear or sing “Kumbaya” again. When I saw this cartoon in the newspaper, it took me right back to Girls State.

Following our anniversary weekend with our family, Ted brought me a beautiful bouquet of a dozen roses. He said it was a thank you for all the work I did to coordinate the weekend activities and venues–restaurants, caterer, Innsbrook houses, photographer, etc. The bouquet is beautiful and his appreciation made all the work worthwhile.

This and so many other reasons are why I still love this man after 50 years of marriage to him.

Last week, Dean, my favorite son-in-law, asked me if I had time for him to treat me to a birthday lunch. Talk about irony! Dean is the one who teases me about having a “birthday season,” and now he’s contributing to the concept! Of course I said “yes,” and we agreed to meet at Pizza Hut. We had a good lunch and a great time together. Since it’s nearly his birthday (May 3), I suggested that he have a birthday season as well, and that I treat him to lunch in a few weeks. I can see this as a twice-a-year opportunity for the two of us to spend some enjoyable one-on-one time with each other.

I still have one more birthday celebration coming this year. Kari gave me a gift certificate for a birthday lunch, so when she finishes the SCC semester, we’ll have to schedule that. I’m having a good run and lots of good times in my 2019 birthday season.

Here’s the site of my good time with Dean last week.

Ted and I went to lunch at St. Louis Bread Co. this week. A number of years ago, when we were in the Seattle area visiting Thom, Ted and I went to lunch at Panera Bread while Thom was at work, and we remarked on how similar to St. Louis Bread Co. it was. A little research at the time taught me that Panera Bread bought St. Louis Bread Co., which explained the similarity. The original company, founded in Kirkwood, MO (a western suburb of St. Louis) continues to operate over 100 sites in the St. Louis area under its original name of St. Louis Bread Co.

In the St. Louis area, we call it “BreadCo.”

I went out to lunch with my group of retired SCC friends today and enjoyed more birthday wishes at a new restaurant across the street from the college: the Mellow Mushroom (pizza). It was pretty good, and I would definitely go back.

The redbuds, dogwoods, and Bradford pear trees are all blooming now, so Ted and I planned to have my birthday dinner at Bentley’s tomorrow. When I got home from lunch, Ted mentioned that it’s supposed to rain tomorrow, but the weather and the blooming trees were perfect for a drive to Bentley’s at the Lake of the Ozarks today. We’re retired, so we changed our plans. Ted filled the car with gas and we set out on the 2.5-hour drive.

We had a beautiful drive and a delicious dinner, with a surprising conversational thread. When the waitress brought our entrĂ©es, she asked if we wanted extra butter for the baked potatoes. We said “yes” and I was remarking to Ted how much I enjoy lots of butter on a hot, baked potato when I overheard a man at the table on our right ask for more butter. The waitress’s response was, “You can never have too much butter.” Within moments, the people at the table on our left also asked for more butter. The man told the waitress to “just bring the cow.”

As Julie says in the movie Julie and Julia, “Is there anything better than butter?”

I think I’m almost finished celebrating my 2019 birthday.

While the girls were here, someone looked at the kitchen floor and said, “Is that a puzzle piece?” It was! It was the missing piece from the tiny puzzle I put together about a week ago. Ted and I swept and scrubbed the kitchen floor just a few days ago and didn’t see a puzzle piece. My best guess is that it was stuck between the seat cushion and the chair frame and finally worked its way out.

It took sharp eyes to see this one-quarter-inch puzzle piece. If you didn’t know it was there, you might not even notice it in this picture.

As I was scrolling through the pictures in my camera, I came to this one and couldn’t figure out what it was.

It finally occurred to me: While I was working outside yesterday, I was wearing my red jacket and I had my phone in my jacket pocket. This is literally a “pocket photo.”

In June 2014, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA–pronounced “NIT-sah” according to Google), issued a recall of Takata airbags that were installed by 19 different automakers, including Lexus. The airbags exploded spontaneously, resulting in injury or death to the drivers and/or passengers in the vehicles. In fact, owners of the affected vehicles were warned not to drive their cars at all unless they were on their way to the dealer for a replacement airbag. For owners who were afraid to drive their cars, dealers offered car pick-up service.

The recall is currently estimated to affect more than 41.6 million vehicles–including mine–and is the largest recall in U.S. history. Naturally, there weren’t enough replacement parts for all the cars that needed new airbags, so cars were prioritized by risk factors. The greatest risk of explosion seems to result from humidity, high temperatures, and age of the vehicle. My turn for an airbag replacement came this spring–almost five years after the original recall–so I guess my risk level was low.

Ted took my car to the dealer and came home with a 2019 Lexus RX 350 as a loaner. Wow! No wonder there are so many of those on the road! It was unbelievably smooth to drive and had an even smoother ride. Just to tease Ted about his car, I told him it made my current Lexus feel like a Honda. My car is a sporty model–the IS-C, which stands for Intelligent Sport-Convertible. It has a “sporty” ride, which lets me “feel the road” a little more. Translation: It’s not as smooth as the Lexus RX crossover or the Lexus sedans. (But even so, Ted admits that it rides much smoother than his Honda.)

It was a dream to drive the RX for 48 hours, but it’s too big for me. I’ve got my eye on a Lexus RC (Racing Coupe) when I get tired of my IS-C. The problem: I looked at one in the showroom when I picked up my car today, and the base price was $64K. The one on display had lots of extras and hit $84K. I better start saving my pennies.

The RX-350 is almost exactly the size of Ted’s Honda CR-V.
Two cars this size really filled the garage. I’m going to stick with driving something smaller.

What can one do on a cold, rainy Saturday afternoon? When I was cleaning out our game closet, I found “the world’s smallest jigsaw puzzle” (read the box). I decided this was a good day to solve the puzzle. The pastel Easter m&ms Kari gave me for my birthday provide a scale model for the size of the puzzle pieces. The tweezer was included with the puzzle. The box says there are 234 pieces that form a 4″ x 6″ finished picture. Thank goodness it didn’t have 12,000 tiny pieces as described on the prank puzzle box we gave La for Christmas!

Four hours later, there were still 5 m&ms, but I discovered there were only 233 pieces in the box. I must have lost one (second row from the top, right center) the last time I put the puzzle together.