Don’t mind telling you, I’m pretty happy about how my reading year has gone so far. I’ve finished 14 books, well on my way to reaching my goal of 25 books and 100 short stories by the end of the year. AND, since every book I’ve read so far was written by a female...
Keeping Score
I recently read Wait ‘Til Next Year, a memoir by Doris Kearns Goodwin about her life growing up as a Brooklyn Dodgers fan. An interesting part of her childhood was that her father taught her how to keep score during baseball games, so that she could listen to the day games, keep score, and...
The Hoot
One week ago tonight, I was privileged to attend The Hoover Hootenanny in Asbury Park, N.J.. This was the sixth go-round for the Hootenanny, but, for one reason or another—mostly because they’re in Asbury Park and I live a thousand miles away in St. Louis—I was never able to attend before. But this year, with...
A Fantasy Virgin
In this, my 58th year on the planet, I’m doing something for the very first time. Yesterday I drafted a team for a fantasy baseball league. Yes, I’ve managed to avoid taking part in fantasy leagues until now, even though a lot of friends and family members participate. I figured I never had time...
Reading List: My Last (And Next) Five Books, March 2017
The election of our first woman president was a momentous occasion, and I decided to commemorate the milestone by reading a lot of books by female authors this year. Oh, wait… Turns out, we didn’t elect a woman president. (Well, WE did, but the Electoral College chose someone else, but that’s another story…) I’m...
Old Trees, New Trees
These pictures were taken from the same spot on the Gateway Arch grounds, looking north toward the Arch. The top photo was taken in October 2014, just before workers started removing all of the rosehill ash trees that lined the walkways. The ash trees were threatened by the emerald ash borer, and for that and other...
Checking In
Just checking in here. I know it’s been a while since I’ve written. There have been any number of posts I’ve thought about writing, some of which I’ve actually started, but they all just fell by the wayside. This has been a difficult year for my psyche. It’s still hard to wrap my head...
16 In ’16
Many people I know would say that 2016 was the worst year ever. For me, personally, though, it was a pretty darn good year. Here are 16 things I did in 2016: And yes, like two years ago, there’s one extra thing on this list, one that I didn’t actually do. But I’m not telling...
End Of An Era
For 20+ years and through three kids, we’ve had a minivan in our family. I can’t remember when we got our first one, but it was probably back in the early 1990s—a Plymouth Voyager, I think. One of the old ones, with a passenger door only on the right side. We went through a...
Back To The Arch
They’re making some progress on the Arch grounds. More than a year ago, contractors for CityArchRiver project started cutting down all of the ash trees, and when they did that, they closed off all of the sidewalks that criss-crossed the park. Just in the last couple of weeks, they reopened some of the sidewalks, and...