respublica

Friday

And we're off to visit the Bailey's for Jake's first birthday party. A long day on the road.

And It's Reformation!

October 31, 1517, Martin Luther set things in motion by hanging his 95 theses on the Castle church door in Wittenberg Germany. 

To Lutherans, and I'd hope many others, this day is of much more significance than Halloween.

And it's Halloween

At some point I stopped caring about Halloween, maybe it was when I realized I didn't have the same creativity in costume design as other mothers when my kids were young. Or we didn't have the money to spare to keep up with the cleverness of other parents. Since many years have passed I can confess without too much guilt that many years I just kept putting on layers and layers of odd clothing until they looked like they were in a costume.  In any event, it hasn't been my favorite day. I sort of feel like this:

Some years I am merely resigned to Halloween.

And yes, sometimes the fun of it rubs off.

I mean how often do we get to see a dog dressed as a racehorse?

What will tonight bring...other than lots and lots of rain? 

Da plane da plane

The opening of the tv show Fantasy Island always opened with Tattoo shouting out, "Da Plane, Da Plane". Well, last night Da Cardinals plane had mechanical problems and the team ended up sitting in it on the tarmac for 7 hours before finally being told they were going to be getting on a different plane. They finally got to Boston around midnight.

This episode brought out the humorists in many people as the hours dragged on. Two people did clever photoshops they named "obstruction".

This was the first to appear on Twitter by Nick Osterholt.

Then this shortly thereafter by joesportsfan.

What's funny about this particular image is that it comes from joesportsfan, a St. Louis sportsfan who has an award winning online sports humor site "for St. Louis by St. Louis. And whoever Joe is seeing his name at the top of the picture reminded me of this picture of Dale and I taken on the Eads Bridge at least 10 years ago.

See the top left corner? joesportsfan. Dale and I had been on the newly opened Eads on the 4th of July and were taking pictures. Someone asked if we would like them to use our camera to take a picture of both of us and we said sure. But someone else lurking, yes, joesportsfan, who also took our picture and then went home an added Fred Bird getting ready to jump into the river. What's funny about this is that we had no idea and this photo shows up periodically in various local baseball stories. It showed up this summer somewhere and one of Katie's friends saw it and sent it to her. I guess the lesson is, if you're in a public area, you're in the public domain and your image can be used by others. We don't mind, it's pretty funny, but we'd like to meet this joesportsfan some day.

Here's the original taken on July 5, 2003 when the newly redone Eads Bridge opened for foot traffic.

We also went down to the VP Fair to see a World War II LST ship of the type my father sailed on when he was a Marine in WWII.

We also watched the airshow

And stood at the state line

"Like" is an arbitrary term

We've heard the line, "if you like your insurance....." so many times in the past couple of years that it's become a mantra. But as bad as things have become with the Obamacare rollout, I often wonder about how many of us ever  "liked" our insurance plan. We were glad to have it, but let's face it, insurance has long been something we've been frustrated, but put up, with. And it looks like things will not change for the better.

Baby formula thefts

It was an eye opener for me this past June when we were out in the DC area visiting Katie, Charlie and the boys. I went out to the local grocery store to pick up baby formula and after searching the baby food aisle high and low without finding any, I finally asked one of the clerks. She told me they keep it locked up and I had to get a slip of paper in the aisle which had the name of the formula and pricing label on it and then give it to the check out clerk. She would then go to an iron gated display behind her and unlock it to get me the formula. 

All this because thefts of formula is a huge thing these days. It's expensive and many poorer people who need it can't afford it so they steal it. Also, it now appears that it's being stolen and resold in order to make money to buy drugs. 

Who knew? And, the problem has now hit St. Louis. I wonder how long before we have to wait for a locked cabinet to be opened before we can buy formula. Hasn't happened yet, but it may be just a matter of time.

Local Collinsville question

Does anyone know if Collinsville Ice and Fuel sells ice? Or have they gone to just hardscape materials?

It isn't over til it's over

Tweet this morning from Michael Calhoun of KMOX: "This series still isn't over. It seems that way. But it's not. It totally isn't." #WachaWachaWacha

Well, he's half right, it sure does feel like it's over. Tough to lay so much on the young pitcher Wacha when the lineup just isn't hitting. And, after the game last night did anyone ask why they keep pitching to David Ortiz who has a 900 something on base percentage in this World Series? Even with first base open like it was last night they still pitched to him and alas, that led to the Red Sox' first run. 

Love the Cardinals and would love to see them come back but boy, it sure looks bleak.

Actually relieved to have a night off from baseball.

Beer! What can't it do?

9 good reasons to drink a bit of beer each day. Not only are there great health benefits to beer, it also reduces frizzy hair (if you wash with it), helps your skin (if you bathe in it) and makes food taste better.

 

2013 the year of the scary beard

It seems that the one Halloween costume item which is sold out nearly everywhere are fake beards in the manner of Duck Dynasty and the Boston Red Sox players. That just goes to prove my own impression that these beards are frightening and creepy and have found their rightful place in Halloween.