Thursday, October 28, 2004

Cards lose it

Well, I knew it would be hard for the Cards to beat the Sox in the World Series, but I didn't think it would be THAT hard. I mean, a game or two at home.

But after their performance against the Yanks, I guess there was no stopping them. They were hitting everything and pitching very stingily. A sweep. Oh well. I feel good for the Sox -- 86 years is a long time.

Fall is falling. It's subtle around here -- the native trees aren't maples -- mostly oaks, willows, hornbeams, hickory. Not the flashy stuff.

Went out to Dad's new place. Pretty. Nice house, nice setting. Quiet. Temporarily, I have pictures out here.

But, I gotta get going now.

Friday, October 22, 2004

Guitars Strings and Redbirds

Whoooo hooooo!!!!! Cardinals goin' to the series! First time since I got out of College.

Put new strings on the Alvarez yesterday. I splurged and went for the Exilir Phosphor-Bronze. Very bright. Nice sound. The "G" string had been buzzing, though I'm not sure why. It wasn't buzzing on a fret. But something on the guitar would buzz when I plucked it. The strings had been on there since last winter, at least.

Going out to Dad's new place tomorrow to help out with some chicken coop doors and the like so he can move his animules out there.

Election is coming up. This is not a political blog -- but I'm going to let you know, in case you need more input. I'm votin' for Bush. Here's the biggest of the many reasons why, if you're interested.

Have a great weekend!

Monday, October 18, 2004

Happy Birthday to Joel

Ok, it was Joel's birthday last week, and we got together at Joel and Dawn's last weekend for a party for him. Had Joel's famous BBQ wings, chili, potato salad, beer, cosmos, and lots of other stuff -- and the German's Chocolate Cake for the big finale.

I brought a football, and Jeff, Joel, and I spent quite a bit of time in the back yard tossing it around and acting silly. Like we used to when we were kids, except the subjects of the silliness were updated and Joel and I tried cigars and had 'em hanging out of our mouths for a while throwing and catching the football. Felt quite manly ;-)

Betty showed up with her neice Sally -- who tolerated the adult silliness rather well. Tom showed up later and we all got to talk about Mom and Dad's new news... which is....

They're moving.

Wierd. This relatively wealthy guy who goes to their church bought two farms in Osage County. He wants Mom and Dad to go live on one of them in a pre-furnished earth contact home, so dad can oversee the farms. Later, this guy will build a house on the other farm and move out there. There's something about an old church out there on one of the properties, and some talk the possibility of an independent priest..... sounds odd to me. Mom & Dad's place is paid off. I'm not sure what the draw is for Dad. Although that particular part of Missouri is very pretty -- Mom and Dad's place doesn't suck, either. And its theirs.

It'll cut the distance between our place and "theirs" by about 1/2.

We got the killer fiber-optic jack-o-lanterns out... and last night hung out with Ryan and Kristie. The fed us jambalaya, we brought over leftover cake and veggies. We're headed to Eureka Springs in a couple of weeks with them for a 4 day weekend. That'll be fun.

Let's see, Kevin's getting his car fixed this week. Brian's looking for a second job to make ends meet.

Fall is here, the leaves are turning, and it's pretty pretty. Hopefully Eureka Springs will be a little later turning the leaves than here and we'll see some pretty colors when we're down there.

Monday, October 11, 2004

Weekend edition

And a week later...

Nice weekend. The weather's been beautiful. Hung out with the neighbors for a while Friday evening, then went in and watched the debate. Played the guitar....

Saturday I ran errands, then we had a big neighborhood powow with the chiminea, beer, even cigars -- the Cardinal baseball game (which we lost 4-0 -- but we won yesterday so that's ok) and the Tigers football game.... the one that didn't start until 9:00pm!!!!! TV. Anyway, the Tigers started slowly, but a late second-quarter interception that gave the ball to the Missouri offense inside the 10 for the third time apparently embarrassed the offense into actually scoring a touchdown this time... and that seemed to spark them on to victory. Their first Big 12 road victory since 2002 sometime. Aggies, it was that time. Baylor this time.

The chiminea fire was amazing -- a mass of pink-hot coals and massive amount of flames, lots of blue ones. I had to back my chair away from the fire.

Vicki did LOTS of laundry the whole weekend.

Sunday was pretty laid back. Read the paper, played guitar a bit. Went to lunch at Huer's with the Williams'. Later I got the mineral deposits off of the showerhead and kitchen faucet and ran a couple more errands. Just one of those nice fall days.

Monday, October 04, 2004

Hitchin' a ride

Got to work, pulled into the parking lot -- looked at the bills to be mailed. I was halfway out of the car. Got back in to go to the post . As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I heard what sounded like my antenna hitting something. I kinda glanced around... no, couldn't have hit anything... went to the post office and mailed the letters (had to stuff them in, the mailbox was very full). Got back to the parking lot, and I was looking around for... my coffee. Not there. Got out of the car, and there it was, resting against the antenna on top of the car.

Had a very nice weekend with the Groves. We went to CJ's for hot wings on Saturday, then up to the MKT trail by Rocheport and went through it -- kids love stuff like that, and some of us are still kids inside. Cassie & Q had fun making echo noises. Q is such a little boy. He does everything with such bravado, yelling "Echo" so loud you could hardly hear the echo. We went up over the top of the tunnel on a very steep trail as well.

Mark and I sat by the chiminea on the deck and got the brisket going for sunday (18 hour smoke!) Had a pipe or two and talked about whatever. You know how it goes. Got a few chances to play together on the guitar and mando.

Sunday we made the traditional Snoopy Waffles (no overnight trip to Aunt Vicki & Uncle Phil's could be complete without them) and had the smoked brisket for a noon dinner.

Got my bike out after they left yesterday afternoon. Kristie wanted to go for a ride. She managed to talk Ryan into it, and I wanted to go. So I aired up my tires on my bike that hasn't been ridden in years -- and took off with them. At the bottom of the hill in 7 Oaks I heard what sounded like a gunshot. My front tire blew out. So they went on, Vicki came and got me. I went home and replaced the inner tube and struck out again. Ryan and Kristie were just pulling into the neighborhood as I was pulling out. I made the trip down the relatively new trail starting at the Hinkson Creek recreation area and wound through some pretty country... fields and woods. Several places in the woods I was riding through a tunnel of trees covering the trail -- which was obviously an old dirt driveway or service road in the past in many places. Two ruts with white gravel in them. There are several iron framed wood-planked bridges down there -- you cross Hinkson Creek about 5 times. Go under Rock Quarry Road and end up over by old 63. Nice ride.

I'm definitely out of cardiovascular shape, though. The hill back up out of 7 Oaks is by no means an easy one, but four or five years ago I would've powered right out up it without stopping.

Ok, well -- that's all for today.