So I went into Subway yesterday to pick up a sandwich. I had one of those afterimages in my eyes, like when you stare at a light and then you still see it on your eyelids. Only this image didn’t go away. It was like a vertical line going down each eye, and each line was a multicolored star pattern.
I took the sandwich to eat at Mom’s and the lines still didn’t go away. It was a half hour later and I was freaking out at that point, wondering if I should try to get into the optometrist or something. Really, having my ears and eyes have problems all within one month is a little crazy. Like, please, no more existential crisis for a while.
The lines eventually went away but left blurry spots behind. So I had two lines that blurred everything behind it. I typed out a text message to the wife about what was going on, in a mild panic. It’s a good thing for autocorrect, or I would not have been able to type legible sentences.
Eventually the blurriness went away but there was still something wrong. I could barely read anything, like the letters were jumping around. And I had no depth perception.
About 40 minutes later everything was ok. But I’m still kinda in fear about this happening again, seemingly at random. I don’t know if I was having a migraine or small stroke or what.
It sucks to try to come up with a regular blog post when there’s these issues in my life. Like, I don’t want to type them out and commit them to posterity, but on the other hand I may need to look back and see exactly when all this stuff happened.
I feel fine right now and am loving life, very grateful for the health I do have. And very, very grateful that my family is healthy. Maybe that’s the purpose behind all of this nonsense.
I thought all my ear problems were finally behind me when they started reoccurring this week. It has really bummed me out. I thought that Clariton and/or Flonase was helping, but I had one day where nothing helped. So I took another Meclazine pill again, which I’m not sure if it helps or not. But it does make me drowsy and skittish. I hate taking it. Right now everything is ok and the beeping, when it occurs, seems to be lower in amplitude. So if it is something to do with my sinuses or allergies maybe that’s all subsiding. I am hopeful though! I have an audiologist appointment in a couple of weeks. That should tell me if there’s something wrong with my hearing functions or if it’s something else. If it’s something with my hearing, and irreparable, then I think I can manage it with cognitive behavioral therapy and/or meditation. I can most likely get around to ignoring the noise, just like I have no problem ignoring my “regular” tinnitus. If it’s something else then I’ll have to see an allergist or get a CT scan.
Otherwise, everything is good. The kids are doing well in cross-country, for the most part. I ordered a PRUSA MK4 3D Printer kit. That should be here in a month or so. It’s supposed to take two days to assemble. I don’t mind, they say that if you’re good with Legos then you can put this together. I’m anticipating having this thing up and running and then learning all the ins-and-outs of 3D printing. Maybe I can make a guitar or action figures, or maybe if I get really good with the slicing software I can create items for people around town.
Tomorrow is the Fall Fun Festival. I can’t wait to see Emma playing in the band. That’s always the highlight (for me) for any parade. Jack and Elsa will be in it too, for the cross country team. Maybe I’ll get some corn dogs. Maybe I’ll get a lemon shakeup. Maybe I’ll lose some weight. Maybe I’ll be just fine and dandy, Lord it’s like a hard candy Christmas.
I took the day off of work today. Just a small cold, nothing major, but enough that I didn’t feel like concentrating too hard today. I took and nap, and then Matt and I went to the Rushville courthouse to get married! Joking…I helped Matt drop off his passport application.
Knock on the proverbial wood…my ear has not been acting up all week. The other night I actually got a decent amount of sleep, for the first time in a week and a half.
The kids are all running in cross country meets now. Elsa didn’t run her best yesterday but Jack did great in Rushville. Emma is still behind her usual pace.
The NFL season has started. On a work call today the guys spent 10 minutes trash talking everyone’s team. I still don’t have a favorite NFL team and I doubt I ever will. I don’t care much for football except for the postseason, then I’m down to watch some games.
Ever since the Rams left St. Louis back in 2016 (the shit year) I haven’t followed football at all. Funny thing is that I listen to enough sports talk radio that I could carry on a good conversation with someone about football, while simultaneously not caring.
Growing up I didn’t root for the St. Louis football Cardinals because they were awful. I liked the Bears when they went and won the Super Bowl. I even had the 45 record of The Super Bowl shuffle. But then the Cardinals fled to Arizona and I didn’t follow football until the Rams moved from L.A. in 1995. They were terrible the first couple of years. But in 1999 they started winning every game. Trent Green, their stating QB, got injured and then a rando World Football League guy (and grocery store clerk) named Kurt Warner started and the rest was history, leading the Rams to win the Super Bowl in 2000.
This is such a great story that they made a movie out of it. It was also hard to continue being a lukewarm NFL fan after this, because what else could be better than this? This was the best NFL story and one of the best Super Bowls ever. I followed the team when they went to the SB again in 2001 but lost to the Patriots and some guy named Tom Brady. Then after that the dreaded owner (Stan Kroenke) let the team die on the vine. Attendance waned, and it was all but inevitable that the team would move back to L.A.
I’ve tried to find a team that I could root for again, but let’s see what the options are:
Falcons, Ravens, Panthers, Lions, Texans, Colts, Raiders, Chargers, Vikings, Giants, Jets, Eagles, Titans, Commanders (really the Redskins, but don’t call them that out loud lol). – Pass on all of these.
Arizona Cardinals – do I root for the team that used to be in St Louis. Nope.
Buffalo Bills – here’s a good team and a good small market town that would love to see the Bills finally win the Super Bowl more than anything. I feel for this team/town, after losing four straight Super Bowls before. Four! Straight! WTF!
Chicago Bears – eh, maybe. I would like to see them do well. Maybe I’ll bandwagon on this one.
Cincinnati Bengals – This team could be a contender for my love. The Bengals owner was the only one to veto the Rams moving to L.A. He thought that the team should stay in St. Louis. What a good guy. Plus I already have Bengals gear by default (It’s the same logo as our high school).
Cleveland Browns – Like Buffalo, another good city that deserves to have a good team. They’ve suffered enough.
Dallas Cowboys – the Yankees of the NFL. Hard pass.
Denver Broncos – I like the city of Denver and I like John Elway. Maybe I’ll root for them.
Green Bay Packers – one of those teams that has fans everywhere. We’ll see how good they do now that the Rodgers era is over.
Jacksonville Jaguars – owned by a guy that went to the U of I. Maybe I’ll start rooting for this team before they move to London lol.
Kansas City Chiefs – I’d like to root for them but it’s bittersweet rooting for a Missouri team that’s not in St. Louis.
Los Angeles Rams – I could root for them but they would have to get a new owner first.
Miami Dolphins – When I was little I liked Dan Marino. I actually had a Dolphins jersey with his name and number on it. Who doesn’t like the Dolphins? And a great logo to boot.
New England Patriots – a couple of cool logos, but pass
New Orleans Saints – I had a fleur-de-lis shirt once, people thought I was a Saint’s fan. I just like the logo. Pass.
Pittsburgh Steelers – maybe I could like this team. I like Pittsburgh. But they have enough fans already.
San Francisco 49ers – I like Joe Montana. Could be an easy team to root for.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers – This team was awful forever and then they weren’t for a while. But Tom Brady retired again.
If I really had to choose I’d go with the Seattle Seahawks. I like Seattle, Ted likes the Seahawks, I like the color scheme and the logo, I like Pete Carroll. My second choice would be the Dolphins.
On another note, I went to my uncle Jack’s (my dad’s brother) visitation on Wednesday. Mom and I ran over to Springfield that afternoon to see him. It was just his daugher, his grand-daughter and two of my cousins that showed up. I guess not many people show up for your funeral/visitation when you outlive everyone!
Jack was a great guy. I very very rarely saw my relatives from either side of my family, especially Jack. I don’t really remember meeting him until my dad had a stroke when I was in high school. Dad lay in the hospital bed, mostly sleeping due to the drugs they gave him. Jack showed up and I was amazed! He was like a bigger version of dad, like Super Dad. And he was so well versed in technology. I was frankly amazed that I was related to him. I could really relate to him (pun intended). He had the first digital camera I’d ever seen. I took one of those 3.25 inch floppy disks. He did all this computer and photoshop work, and even traced our genealogy back to ancestors in Holland. For everything dad didn’t know about technology, Jack did know.
When the wife was pregnant with our son we were picking out names. “Jack” was thrown around and I immediately latched onto it, because I have three Uncle Jack’s that have all left impression on my life. I’m glad that I took the kids to see this particular Uncle Jack a couple of years ago so they’ll at least have a small memory of him. He was a role model that I didn’t even know I needed at the time.
All three of the kids ran today in Rochester. We almost missed Elsa’s 8:30 start because I put directions for Riverton instead of Rochester in the GPS. Whoops! Elsa didn’t do as well as we all hoped she would, since Rochester is the race where everyone usually does well and gets PRs. Jack did well, even without his “steroids” (prednisone) he’s taking to clear up the poison ivy on his legs.
Elsa won medals at both of her earlier meets, at Orchard Hill in Lewiston and in Havana. She has a good chance of going to state. Jack continues to improve. Emma is doing better as well.
I hesitantly report that my hearing in my left ear is getting better, but about every other day it does this crazy thing where it starts beeping. I had to go to the clinic for it last week and they prescribed some OTC Meclizine for it. They think that my inner ear is inflamed and the beeping is my blood rushing by it. I want to say the Meclizine sort of helps. I’m not 100% sure what makes it come and go at this point. But I do know that it driving me insane last week when I couldn’t sleep because of it. There’s still some new noise floating around in that ear. I’m not so sure it’s from the recent concerts we’ve been too because I wore earplugs for the most part. Plus every so often I feel pressure in that ear, so it definitely could be swollen.
I just purchased tickets to see another Queen cover band, this time in Springfield. It should be a good time because the kids know all the Queen songs now, plus we’ll be home at a decent time on a weeknight.
I’m just about done with my book about Flow and optimal experience. It’s turning out to be an awesome book towards the end. It’s more of a manual for how to be a happy human being instead of a how-to for actually achieving flow. I know I feel better after reading it. And it’s not some typical self-help book, like the ones that give you five easy ways to do so-and-so, complete with some easy nemonic or trick to remembering the five ways. The Flow book is written more with a psychological bend to it. One of the eye-opening chapters I just finished was on how passive experiences (like watching TV) may keep our mind occupied but it doesn’t lead to personal growth. Really, like setting a goal and then working to achieve it is what leads to optimal experiences and growth. To that end I made it a point to do something creative tonight, which was work with Elsa on writing a song. I did the trick where you give yourselves a time limit to come up with a title, chorus, verse, etc. This is done so that there is some spark for creativity, knowing that you have a limit. So far the song is about air conditioning. Maybe we’ll finish it tomorrow.
Reading Flow also capped off a question I’ve had for a long time, which was “How can I properly motivate my kids to be engaged, enjoy and do well in school activities, clubs and sports, when I myself didn’t receive any push from my parents to do this when I was in school?” I mean, it’s obvious to me that my children are enjoying and thriving in sports and band and chorus and such, which is all due to the wife pushing them into it. I have always backed up her decisions for our kids even though I was unsure myself on how to properly motivate them.
When we were all dining in a Cuban restaurant while on vacation in Miami, my oldest daughter, my brother and myself had a great time going through our laundry lists of neuroses that were the result of how we were raised. I thought it was comforting to know where some of our behaviors originated and it was therapeutic. But when we got home I got to thinking about this conversation and how it really solve anything. It’s just empty reassurance that could actually be harmful, in the sense that it could make someone feel like they’re not totally responsible for their behavior. And also it could reinforce negativity, thinking that we don’t have total ability to change ourselves and how we act. And finally, all this introspection into mental health can actually be bad for mental health. This is when I realized what structured activities do for a child – they give them something to focus on so skills can be learned and refined, and character is built. By focusing on external events we keep our mind healthy. It’s when we feel the need to go inside our selves and only think about our mental health that bad things can happen. So armed with this discovery I realized why Elsa should be in cross country despite her complaining about it during the summer. And I’m able to articulate why she and the other kids should be active, without having to say “because mom said so” or some vague “because it’s good for you” type of answer.
So back to the Flow book, what I just read capped this off. It said that, for most people, if they don’t have a structured activity with a goal and feedback, then their mind will be in a passive state. And it’s in this passive state that intrusive thoughts and negativity creep in and consume our consciousness. This is a problem unless you have found a way to control your consciousness, through something like meditation or yoga. Then it’s ok to be alone with your thoughts.
There’s not much going on right now. Just thought I should post something in between major events. I’ve been reading Flow (a book about mental flow) and it has a part that talks about journaling your life for a sense of flow. I think this is true. Whenever I compose these posts my mind gets totally involved in the writing. It’s also a good way to compose, analyze and compartmentalize my thoughts. So it’s therapeutic.
The wife and Elsa are watching Big Brother. Jack is finishing up playing Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Emma is doing her diamond art. I should finish my Lego Jazzclub tonight. Then I’ll start on either the bookstore or the assembly square. It’s literally 100 degrees outside, so I’m stuck doing inside things. School has started, so cross-country meets, football and halftime dances will soon be in full swing. Meets were supposed to start this week but were postponed due to the heat. But our traveling adventures are done for the summer and fall, so I’ll have more time on the weekends to putter around the house. First off I need to fix the wheels on the sliding door. It’s about impossible to open it now. Then we have to clean out the gutters. Before I know it, it will be leaf season. I’ll be cleaning up leaves until next May.
I’m thinking of buying a new baseball cap. I don’t really need one but I’ve discovered stylish hats exist. I wear a hat every time I go out, so I feel a little justified in spending good money on a good hat. The search for the perfect hat is ongoing and probably never ends. It’s like the search for the perfect guitar tone. It’s a perpetual journey with no end.
The kids are in school and I am tearing it up at work. I work from about 8am to about 6pm now and I’m working through my backlog of items. I love working from home. I don’t know what I would do if I had to drive into an office everyday and be around people.
We got two cooler bags for the Tesla frunk today. Whenever we go to sporting events we can just load up the bags, cover with ice, and we’ll be good to go.
Cryptocurrency has tanked of late. I thinking that it will rebound and shoot up next year after the next Bitcoin halving. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the halving is already built into the price. Oh well.
I was looking at airBNBs for Seward Alaska for next July/August. I know now that we cannot vacation during the last weeks of summer musical practice. So early August is our best bet to get away. I didn’t see the house that we stayed at last summer. I would love to get that house again. But I’d also like to sneak away to Quebec City for a couple days next summer. If I can find cheap flights then that’s a possibility, that we could go a few days during the week.
I’m on a 54 day streak in Duolingo for French. I figure that if I could finish the French course and finish the Rosetta Stone French course then I would be nearly fluent for next summer. I’ve been listening to Quebec radio stations here and there and I don’t really follow what they’re saying. But then I listen to Paris online radio stations and I understand way more. Quebecois is a unique accent.
Next year will be the 25th anniversary of my studies in Quebec City. I would like to take my family there but I think they would enjoy Alaska more.
I need to get Matt to a place to take his passport photos, so I can get his application sent out. He will need a passport for our Disney cruise in June, because we go to the Bahamas.
There’s really not more I have to say. It is nice to put thoughts to paper (or screen). It clears the mind.
The wife is on week 3 of her diet and she is smoking hot. I need to start working out again too. Not that I’m going to lose much weight, but I would look and feel better if I toned up. I’ve done such a good job keeping our finances in order the past 10 years; I really need to focus on my health in the same way. Like, I have a notebook where I wright down every single purchase, weekly. I should be mindful of every single item I put in my mouth.
I’m still obsessed with Ween. I thought I would be burnt on on their songs by now, but they have so many songs that I haven’t heard, I’m still working through them.
I’ve been floating around the idea of going to see Metallica in St Louis this November. I figure that Jack, Matt and myself would go. I was taking Emma to school this morning and there was a Metallica song on the radio. I asked her if she would want to see them. She said that RT has never been to a concert before. So maybe I’ll take him too. And then maybe we’ll go see Taylor Swift in concert. Hell I’d like to go just to see what all the hype is about.
Last Wednesday I went to see Living Colour in Bloomington. It was an okay show. I mean, the band was great, but the Castle Theater removed all the seats and just had a few rows of barstools and tables. I was expecting to plop my butt down and sit for the night. Instead I felt like I was at a bar, which was not any type of experience I wanted.
I also didn’t know that a local band would be playing for over an hour before LC took the stage. So it was already 9:30 when LC started playing. Being a weeknight I really didn’t feel like staying out too late so I left after 4 or 5 songs. I didn’t get to see them play “Type” or “Cult of Personality” but they did play “Leave It Alone”, which was pretty cool. I remember the tabs for that being in an old Guitar for the Practicing Musician magazine about 30 years ago. It was super cool to see Vernon Reid up there playing about 20 feet away from me. The rest of the band sounded great. For a moment I felt like I was 15 again, shooting hoops at my friend’s house, then going inside to listen to Living Colour and watch In Living Color on TV (starring Jim Carrey).
I should have listened to more LC songs on the way up to the show but I was (and still am) enamored with Ween. My god, I listened again to Quebec and La Cucaracha albums again and there are some songs on there that are just genius. They sound just like a older, more mature Ween should sound like. I’m really itching to see them in concert again.
Saturday the wife and I headed out to Kansas City, by ourselves. We stopped at her grandmother’s house along the way, to fix a chair. Then we got on the highway and begin our trek. Once again, I love driving our Tesla. The only downside of long trips was range anxiety, and that is being alleviated more and more with the continued construction of charging stations. Heck even Springfield has two new stations, and I very rarely have to charge there anyway. But just having the car with it’s acceleration, comfort, navigation and space, it’s easy to drive.
We didn’t have to charge until we hit Columbia Missouri, which is the furthest I’d ever went in a Tesla on one charge. The navigation led us to a supercharger on the east side of town but there weren’t any restaurants around so we headed in town to the SC by HyVee. The food at HyVee was ok but I did a double take at all the middle age white guys working there. I remarked to the wife that they must pay pretty well, because a middle age white guy like me, all we need to do is shave, put on a long sleeve shirt, and we can pretty much get a decent job anywhere. Maybe it had something to do with Columbia having the University of Missouri in town. College towns (at least with D1 schools) tend to be more liberal, so maybe the town has a higher minimum wage or something like that. I know that Lawrence Kansas was a pretty cool college town. It was the only thing good in Kansas when I lived there, like some cultural oasis. Not that I’m big on liberal-leaning towns but I do like to have my options wafered. It’s like on a cold night, in the middle of the winter. It’s cold outside, right? But the inside of the house is warm; we have the heat on. But our bedroom is cold; we have the fans on. But then I have blankets on me to keep me warm. It’s like that with political philosophies – I like to live in a country that has a strong national defense and encourages wealth-building and prosperity, but also has neo-liberal markets that mean an individual can choose who/what to invest in, and even which other countries to do business with. We don’t have economic edicts doled out to us by an all-encompassing government. We as individuals are free to make our own choices. So within this country I like (for the time being) living in a liberal state. Then within this liberal state I like living in a conservative part of the state. And then we have some liberal friends and some conservative friends around us. That’s really all there is to my type of libertarianism – Economically conservative, socially liberal. I like to have all this different wafers to exist in because I believe they all keep other in check, more or less. It’s why I like gridlock in our national government; it keeps politicians from really doing anything. If I feel like things start to get out of balance then I’ll vote the other way to right the ship. But that’s also the mindset of where I’m at as a middle age white dude – I don’t want things to change. I feel like I’ve payed my dues, worked my share of crappy jobs, been god-smacked around enough and have learned from my mistakes that, hey, I’m comfortable now. Don’t change anything! This is wrong, of course, as plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose (the more things change, the more they stay the same) and also “constant change is here to stay” (and other stuff that Rush said in their songs). I’m hoping that nothing changes and then I can retire, and then….the sweet embrace of the grave lol.
So after eating chicken tenders and pondering the philosophy of our country, we headed back out on the road. We made it to our Holiday Inn Express in Independence MO. I don’t know why I chose to stay in the cheapest name-brand hotel I could find. But that is still my default, to be cheap. We could have afforded to stay in somewhere fancier, but really, how many non-sleeping hours does a person spend in a hotel? As long as the hotel is clean and in a decent neighborhood I’m happy.
I wanted to charge the car some more, just because. The SC next to the hotel was packed and I actually had to wait 15 minutes for a spot to open up. I don’t know if this was due to traffic (there was the concert plus an air show this weekend) or if it’s because there were only six stalls. But I finally got in and started charging then joined the wife in the Bass Pro Shop nearby. Also, by this time is was over 100 degrees out. I was roasting.
Since it was getting close to concert time we had to get something fairly quick to eat, so we put in the mobile order for Chik-Fil-A. I love mobile ordering. Anything to not have to talk to a strange human lol. I’m sure there’s already a good science-fiction story for this, but I imagine that one day a human could live a whole fruitful life on Earth, cradle to grave, and not really be sure if they ever interacted with another living person their whole life. Would it be sad if he didn’t have this interaction but he never knew the difference?
While eating/driving we headed to the clusterf*k that was Arrowhead Stadium parking. We waited in traffic for an hour before we saw the stadium. After we got on the grounds it wasn’t too bad, with people directing us where to go. But there really should have been some police before that to guide people.
The actual layout inside Arrowhead was pretty good. It was easy to get around and to get in line for drinks. Then we made it to our seats which were thankfully in the shade. We had pretty good seats in the lower bowl, not far from the stage. Stevie Nicks came out and sang all her hits. She was awesome. I mean, she has an awesome presence on stage. I think it’s just knowing who she is and what she’s been through, she can still sing and perform. She’s far and away the most successful solo artist out of Fleetwood Mac. I think Lindsey Buckingham is the most underrated guitarist ever. But it all comes down to the songwriting aspect and Stevie has that. I like her synth-heavy songs from the early 80’s; they take me back to a time of childhood innocence. It was also great that she had a full band with her. Two guitarists, two keyboards, etc. So all her songs sounded just like the original recordings. I was afraid that she’d have a pared-down band and that the live songs would sound more like “re-interpretations” than the actual music. But nope, she delivered what the fans wanted. And I think what the fans want, at our age, is to be validated. Like, Stevie is saying “Yes, here are all the songs you remember, just how you remember them, performed by a person you’ve read about your whole life. You didn’t dream all this stuff up.” Whereas when I was young and went to concerts, I didn’t need validation. I just wanted to move around and listen to all this music from relevant artists/bands.
So after Stevie was done they set up for Billy Joel’s band. They played the theme from “The Natural” beforehand, and then he started playing “My Life” with Ode to Joy thrown into the intro.
I’ve seen BJ four times and this was my favorite show, not counting the very first time. I don’t know if it was the setlist or acoustics or what, but I felt like this was a guy at the very very top of his game. It all sounded great.
The first time I saw him I was 11 years old. My uncle (mom’s twin brother) took mom and I to see him in St. Louis. It was the first concert I’d been to. It was my first time to St. Louis. This is the trip that changed my life forever. We went to a ballgame, which changed me from being a passive Cubs fan to an active Cardinals fan and baseball aficionado. It gave me a love of St. Louis and the Arch. It gave me a love of music and Billy Joel in particular. Later that year at Christmas I got a little Yamaha keyboard. The demo song was “Just the Way You Are”, which I took as a sign that I should play piano like Billy Joel. I got a songbook for his songs, thinking that I’d soon be tickling the ivories. But the book was just a simplified sheet showing how to play the vocal melodies, not the underlying piano parts. So I didn’t follow that trail too much farther. But it did lead to my friends and I eventually starting a band around the time I was 13-14 years old. Even after all these years if I have to sit down and write a song it’s going to end up sounding like some 80’s pop hit. As much as I’d love to create irreverent ditties like Ween, or awesome metal like Slayer, that’s just not what is going to come out of me. And that’s kind of the curse of getting older. You get to know yourself better and better, and you feel more at ease and comfortable with yourself. You better know which actions to take. But you also see doors of opportunity shutting themselves. Don’t get me wrong, I love being old. I love being this age, with the life that I have surrounding me. I would not trade it for anything, ever. I love my wife and my children dearly. I love the wisdom and maturity that I’ve gained over the years. I would never want to be again in the mindset I had when I was young. I sure would like to have my young body back though! I am confident that I went through some great doors to get to where I am today.
After the show we headed back to the hotel, slept in, got crappy hotel breakfast, then set out to do some shopping before heading home. We went to the “good” mall, in Overland Park. It seems like every city has two or three “dead” malls and only one “good” mall left. It’s probably natural selection, or survival of the fittest. There can only be one!
The entrance to the mall was a two-level Barnes and Noble. I figured out that B&N aren’t selling books – they’re selling impulse items. It just so happens that these items here are books, kids toys, and Legos. There would be no point from B&N to go back to the old days of quiet, baroque music playing in the background, of big comfy chairs to sit in and read. There’s no point of them going back to being a traditional bookstore because there are plenty of small independent bookstores that have this sort of thing covered. B&N can sell a place to hang out for an hour, and hopefully for them you end up buying something you didn’t think about before.
There was also a Lego Store in this mall. We went in there and I wasn’t surprised by any new items. I think I’ve already fallen down the Lego rabbit hole far enough that I know what they sell and what they’ve retired.
On the way home we skipped the KC and Independence super chargers and headed for Concorida MO, which I don’t think had SC the last time we came through. But we pulled off to the small town and they had six stalls behind a Casey’s. It was perfect because there was a BBQ place next door, and one of our goals for this trip was to eat great BBQ. And great it was. I knew it was going to be great when I saw the stack of wood in the back. And when we walked in it smelled like BBQ smoke, and it covered us, and we were one with the BBQ, and it was a mom-and-pop place, and there was a whole roll of paper towels on the table, and it was great. The food was so good that I could have kept eating and eating, well past the point of being full. Just like some cartoonish man, sitting there for hours eating pulled pork and brisket. The hot sauce was so good that we bought a jar just to bring home. God I’m getting hungry just typing all of this.
I charged the car up to 97%, because that’s when we got done eating. That allowed us to skip Columbia and Hannibal super charging and get home a little sooner. I was glad to be home and see the kids. I didn’t see them at all on Wednesday, and it was a hectic week. The kids are growing up so fast. You try to capture time in a bottle, like lighting, but you can’t. The days are long but the years are short.
On July 29th we went to the Brick Fest in St Louis. It was cool to see all the buildings and art that people had created with Lego™ bricks. I, like 99% of people around the world, just call them Legos. But you can’t use the trademarked word in a convention like this so everything was labeled “Brick this” or “Brick that”. Even the IP characters were verbotten. So instead of Pikachu, they advertised “Electric Cat”. Or instead of Mario it was “Italian Plumber”.
I looked around for some of the Creative sets I don’t have, like the buildings that are made for adults. I’ve decided that Legos, for me, are what puzzles were for my dad – a zen-like pastime designed to consume time and money lol. But I love Lego sets. I love and appreciate the design and artistry that goes into a preconfigured set. Elsa will build her own stuff in the basement using all the loose Lego pieces. That’s awesome too. I used to build my own stuff all the time growing up. But I have no creativity now. There’s no room for creativity when you’re the type of person that can’t be interrupted when trying to create something. Someday the kids will be grown, I’ll be retired, and then I’ll put on the blinders and delve into some creative endeavor again. Maybe I’ll build another guitar. That was my dream for the longest time, to be some type of Paul Reed Smith luthier with my own business. The problem is that I don’t have the patience or skill for woodworking. I learned that what I really wanted wasn’t so much the crafting part but the business end of it. I think I’ll just design guitars I like, farm it out to some shop in Indonesia, and then sell them myself.
The convention was in a part of St Louis I’ve never been too. There are some really ritzy neighborhoods on the west end, where we went. It’s still kind of amazing to me that there exist large cities where there are lavish multimillion dollar estates, and then five miles away there are run downed sections that look like a poverty bomb detonated. Why are there disparities like this? Obliviously a lot depends on what you’re born into. It’s very hard to escape the cycle of poverty in a sense that it’s hard to change any situation you’re in when it’s all you know. I look back at the mindset I had growing up, in my teens, in my 20’s, and in my 30’s, and cringe at some of the stuff I believed. I knew that other ways of living and other worldviews existed but I didn’t think any of it was truly attainable for myself.
But you can also look at any town of any size, even small towns that are only one race, and you’ll see the spectrum of upper class, middle class and lower class. I think in these cases you see that different people have different levels of ambition and we ultimately settle in to where we’re comfortable. I’ve had bouts of extreme ambition before and discovered that it’s hard work to think like this and follow a dream or vision. If my parents and grandparents had been highly ambitious and successful, wealthy people of vision, then it would be easier for me to be that way as well. I would have lots of role models to choose from and I wouldn’t have to put so much mental energy into it. I would just model my behavior after what I’ve seen before, what I’ve seen work. It was hard enough, mentally, to move myself out of a lower middle-class mindset into an upper middle-class one. I hope that I’m a good role model for my children so that they can be successful in life without having to go through too much mental anguish.
Last Thursday Ed, Matt, Elsa, Jack and myself went to a Cardinals game. We got the coveted Green Seats again, the best seats in the whole place, right behind home plate. I wish my wife could have went but she had to work. Elsa isn’t really into ballgames but I knew the lure of the Green Seat experience would have a lasting impression on her. For Ed and Matt, I sold them on the idea of paying more for these seats after I described the pre-game buffet and free food and drink delivery right to your seat.
We drove down to the game, waited for a bit, then entered via the special gate reserved for Green Seat occupants. Then we were seated at the restaurant inside the stadium. It was an embarrassment of riches for me last year when Jack and myself went to a green seated game. This time I knew what to expect. The buffet was great and dessert was awesome. Elsa really like the setting and food, and this is a cool thing about having kids: You get to relive memories through your children’s eyes.
Jack ate and bolted, Sharpie and ball in hand, over to the dugout to get autographs. Last year he struck gold when he got Goldschmidt’s, Knizner’s, Naughton’s and even Jim Hayes’ autographs. Players would sign the green-seat kids’ balls first, then move on to the other kids. O-la-la! But this time no players signed nothing for nobody. I don’t know if it’s just the Cardinal’s terrible season or what, but there was no fan interaction at all. Jack came back to sit down, visibly upset. I hadn’t thought about the possibility of getting no autographs; last year’s experience made it seem like getting multiple signatures was a foregone conclusion. But it’s like they say, “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.”
The game was pretty good. The Cardinals lost. This is the third time I’ve seen them this year and they lost every time. But sitting this close to the action is a thrill. Even Elsa payed attention to the whole game. Most other games we’re sitting up in the clouds, looking at our phones about half the time. We’ll see a batter hit the ball, then a second later you hear the sound. It’s a much cooler experience (at either a ballgame or a concert) when you sit close enough that the sights and sound sync up.
Saturday we had a yard sale. I didn’t think we had a lot of items to sale but I was amazed at just how much we had, once everything was spread out in the garage. We ended up making $153 too, which is real money.
Last night the wife and I sent to St Louis Music Center to see Ween in concert. I left the show thinking, “Perfect.” It was a perfect kind of show; they played a ton of songs, many of our favorite ones that I just assumed they weren’t going to play, due to looking at previous set lists. I mean, they played “Japanese Cowboy” and ended the show with “Buenas Tardes Amigo” for chrissake!
I love Ween because I love Ween-type bands, like Primus, Meat Puppets, Dead Milkmen, etc. They share a certain aesthetic of adding humor to their songs. Some people would call this novelty, but really? Comedy is hard. If you don’t believe me, just try to make someone genuinely laugh. It’s not easy. Being a musician for so long, I see a depth and cleverness in Ween’s songs that aren’t readily apparent. What they create looks easy but it’s hard to do. The wife really likes Ween as well which may seem odd at first glance but the band’s latter songs included some more accessible work that acts as a gateway to discover their earlier material.
This was a venue I’ve never been to before, right next to the casino. It was nice and clean, newer looking. It held about 4,500 people. There were lots of dedicated fans with out of state license plates, probably following the band everywhere they go.
It was a great date night for us. We get to do it again in two weeks when we see Billy Joel and Steve Nicks in Kansas City. After Rush, I’d say Billy Joel is my second favorite artist. His was the first concert I’ve ever been to, when my uncle took mom and myself to St Louis for the first time back in 1987 on a trip that is forever burned into my psyche. I’m going to try to see Living Colour in Bloomington here soon as well. That will make my 15 year-old self very happy lol. I missed out on seeing Steve Vai in Peoria last week. There’s too much going on but wow, it’s a good time to be alive and have some disposable income to see all these artists that there was no way of ever seeing when I was growing up. Metallica plays on a Friday night in November in St Louis. I’m going to try to get tickets for Jack and Matt if there’s no school events going on. I figure that Jack is never going to see the Beatles in concert but he could see Metallica. They are both cultural icons and have outsized influence on the world of music. I saw Metallica in Peoria back in 1991, on the first stop of their Black Album tour. Anything on that album or later, I can take it or leave it. But the first four Metallica albums left an indelible impression on my youth. A lot of the integrity I strive for (both as a musician and in my individual life) could be traced back to this band. They didn’t have music videos for their songs (“One” was their first video) because they wanted the listener to create their own visuals and meaning. They didn’t have (visible) tattoos. They didn’t (visibly) use drugs. They created music for themselves first and foremost, and if other people liked it then hey, that was cool too. But trying to please others was not their end-goal. That’s part of what made them so good.
It’s ironic then that another Bay area band, Faith No More, would be my next musical crush. Ironic, because they introduced me to a sense of dis-integrity. No one in the band looked like they belonged with anyone else in the group. Their music was crazy good and humorous. Their videos were psychedelic. It’s around this time that I took to heart the “If you can’t convince them, confuse them” mentality, that if I couldn’t be physically strong or a good conversationalist, that I could at least confuse people and have them leave me alone. Mainly, having long hair, playing guitar, and hanging out with stoners in high school while never having done any type of drugs myself. It kinds of throws people off. But, as I learned later, going through life trying to not have a coherent, integrated worldview is itself a worldview. Like the late, great Neil Peart said, “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”
My friends and I got to see Faith No More and Helmet at Western Illinois University back in ’92 or ’93. Thinking back to just the joy of being young, this is one of those moments. Just part of having a close group of friends that did everything together. I got to talk to FNM guitarist Jim Martin after the show when he was out signing autographs. My friend’s now-wife got a kiss on the cheek from him, for her birthday. After the tour he was out of the band lol. But not before he was in the movie Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, playing himself. Music, love it.
This weekend was Shrek: The Musical at the school, to benefit the Grand Opera House restoration. At this point I’m not too keen on restoring the old opera house with its small stage and limited seating. The auditorium at the high school is much bigger, has more curtains and lighting, better sound, much more room backstage, better climate control, etc. I’d rather just keep putting on shows there.
But the show itself was great. It had more laughs and fewer dull spots than last year’s show. The Shrek, Fiona and Donkey actors were pretty good. The ensemble was excellent. This was really a great show for ensemble work, with all the different fairy tale creatures and costumes. Emma was great as the fairy godmother. The highlight for me though was Elsa’s solo in “I Know It’s Today.” I’d been waiting four long years to hear her sing again in a musical, and she didn’t disappoint. She has the grace, poise, and voice of a person 20 years older than herself.
Jack and I ran backstage duties. Jack was put in control of the back black curtains and he took that job seriously. He made his own notes on the stage directions sheet and did great. I knew that we were going to miss a lot of practices so I didn’t sign up for any acting parts. I don’t know if I would have acted anyway; it’s so much work (for me) just to get to a level to match the other, better actors on stage. I did enjoy being on stage and having a few lines though. But this year there were so fewer adult actors compared to last year. This year was mostly high school age and little kids. I’m afraid if I tried out for a spot in next year’s show that I’d be given some huge adult role.
Like I said in my last post, I felt bad that we took so many vacations and missed so many practices, just because I felt like I was letting down all the other backstage folks. The two people I worked with did all the work. I just basically held the curtains open for them. I didn’t have a clue what the stage directions were. I did hold up the Shrek house from falling over a second time, on the last show. So I guess that’s good lol.
The third and final of our Summer ’23 Inspirational Vacations ended on Wednesday when we returned from Denver. When Mr. Smith suddenly passed away earlier this year we kind of freaked out and decided to take as many vacations as possible, know that not only is life short, but sometimes it’s drastically short. Mr. Smith was big on unapologetically using all your vacation time, and that’s what we tried to do. But I came home from Denver feeling vacationed-out. It was too soon after our Miami trip and I personally didn’t feel like I had enough time at home to recharge between vacations. First-world problems, I know. Hell, these are 1%-er problems; “Help, I’ve taken too many vacations! Boo hoo!”.
Regardless, we had a great time in Denver. We left home Saturday morning, did the airport thing, had short flight to Denver, and took the shuttle to get the rental car. Last time in Denver we had to take the metro train to parking garage, which was like a 20 minute ride. You see, Denver’s airport was built faaaaar away from the city. It’s actually located in Missouri, two states over from Denver. Not really, but it feels that way.
We got stuck with a Hyundai Sante Fe, probably the worst rental vehicle I’ve ever had. It was uncomfortable for all five of us, the buttons on the console were in bad positions, and the little screen had the worst user-interface and GPS I’ve ever seen. It couldn’t find the address of our AirBnB. Plus it had no engine power at all. It was hard to merge on the highways due to lack of acceleration. I’m going to have to start renting Teslas on these trips.
We ate at In n Out in Aurora while we waited for the AirBnB to open up. It was ok food. There’s a lot of Spanish speak in Aurora. I really didn’t feel like speaking Spanish here like I wanted to do in Miami. I just don’t think of Denver as a Spanish sort of place. But the name Colorado is Spanish, so I shouldn’t be surprised. I still have Spanish as a language to learn on my Duolingo account but I’ll probably drop it, like I dropped Romanian, Latin, and German. There’s just not enough time to learn everything properly. I’ll just stick to boning up on French in anticipation of a hopeful Quebec City vacation next summer.
We went to our rental, which was the basement of an older lady’s house. Lucky for us she was gone the whole time of our vacation. The neighborhood was nice.
We drove downtown and walked around the 16th Street shops until the people thinned out, then we turned around and walked back to the parking garage. We got some ice cream and chocolate, staples of any good vacation. Then we drove to Larimer Square and checked out some shops. We went into a cool vintage clothing shop where the girls got some earrings and rings. We went home and ordered the largest pizza I’ve ever seen with my own eyes. We tore into it but still only ate half. Huge, I’m telling you.
Sunday we didn’t have anything on the itinerary. After doing a bad job creating the itinerary for the last Denver trip two years ago, I was hesitant about cramming too much into this trip. I didn’t plan enough though, as it turns out. We went to the Molly Brown house downtown, which was cool. Going into mansions/cool building is always on the itinerary. Then we drove out to the west end to go to Lair O’ the Bear trail for some easy hiking, but the cars were backed up two miles going up the turn off in the mountains. So we skipped that and headed south to Castle Rock to hike up the namesake rock there.
It was fun hiking up to Castle Rock. It was short too, it probably only took 20 minutes to wind our way up. It was hot as all get out too, which was acceptable for a short hike. You don’t actually get to go up on top of the Rock but it’s still pretty far up to get to the base. You’re right by the interstate, so it’s not too picturesque. But it’s still nice.
After this hike we hit the famed Outlet Malls at Castle Rock. The wife and Elsa got some Kate Spade purses, Jack and I walked around looking for something to drink, and I got a cool looking shirt at Norrona, some Norwegian clothing brand store.
After this we went to the Aurora Reservoir so that we could swim and cool off. Apparently half of the USA had the same idea as us – fly to Denver, go to the Aurora Reservoir – because the line of cars was a mile long and not moving at the entrance. So we turned around and tried Lair O’ the Bear again, which was easy to get to this time. It was an easy 1-mile flat hike, and very pretty. We all took our shoes off and stood in the cold creek water. It was great and created a core memory for me lol.
Monday morning we headed south to Colorado Springs for our Garden of the Gods e-bike tour. After learning our lesson on our “leisurely” Maine biking trip, we wisely chose the e-bike option here. It also turned out to be 94 degrees, like the hottest day of the year for the area. Lucky for us there was no humidity, so that plus the breezed coming down from the mountains made the weather passable.
It was funny to see all of us learn to operate the electric bikes since none of us had done that before. There’s a slight learning curve on how to get started and change speeds but we got the hang of it and had a great time riding around and getting pictures.
After that we went into town there and went to Scheels to check out what another one looked like. I think the one in Springfield is designed nicer. We ate Whataburger…What a Let Down! It was ok food but nothing magical like Jack and I had in Dallas in 2020.
We hung around home that night and watched The Office. I have grown to like that show since I watched all the episodes available on Southwest flights. Elsa likes it. We also watched old Looney Tunes on the Boomerang channel. Life is good!
I was feeling sort of down about missing out on the practices for the musical back home. You don’t think about this sort of thing in January when planning trips, but after hanging out with the cast for a week I felt bad for leaving them, when I had no clue of what to do backstage. Next summer I don’t want to miss too many practices and definitely none during the week of the show. So we have the Disney Cruise planned in early June. That might be the only(!) vacation we take, between ball games and the musical. We actually cut this Denver vacation short by a day to give the girls an extra day to practice the show. We had nothing planned for Wednesday and were going to fly out early Thursday. We rebooked the flight for 5:20AM Wednesday morning and saved some money. So we did this rebooking and then found out that there was no practice on Wednesday. D’oh!
Tuesday we went up into the mountains again, this time to Georgetown to ride a steam locomotive that took us to a sliver mine. We learned all about how the miners worked 100 years ago. Then we put on hard hats and headed into the mines, which were a chilly 42 degrees. The ceilings were so low; I had to duck the whole time while walking. It was a great experience and the train ride went through beautiful countryside/mountain landscapes. We also got to pan for gold. Everyone’s kit had sand with a few flakes of gold in it, so that was nice.
After that we went home and rested for a couple of hours, then got ready to go see Killer Queen at the Red Rocks Amphitheater. We parked a couple of hours before the show but there was still a long line waiting to get into the seating area. We went to Red Rocks two years ago but didn’t get to see the stage or seats because a band was doing their soundcheck. So it was nice for everyone to see the actual amphitheater part.
The band was about ready to come out when they stopped the show due to imminent weather. Then it started raining. Then the rainbow came out. Then it stopped raining. Then the band came out, playing One Vision as the first song. The Freddy Mercury guy did a great job of singing and dressing and looking like Freddy, and he did even better at getting the crowd up and on their feet and into the music. It was a great show! And loud too! But my hearing is already shot so it’s not like it’s going to get any better at this point.
There was a second stoppage for rain halfway through the show. Me and the kids got drenched. I got so wet that it kind of drained all the energy out of me. Plus the thought of getting up at 2:30AM to go back to the airport was weighing heavily on my mind. Everybody else wanted to stay for the rest of the show so I dealt with it. I’m glad we stayed. The rest of the songs were amazing. It’s not like we’ll get to see Queen with Freddy ever again, and I’d rather see this tribute band than the original Queen with Adam Lambert. I guess I’d pay to see Brian May. He’s such an underrated guitarist. He is such a great songwriter that I don’t think people pay enough attention to his memorable solos and phrasing.
So we went home. I got to take the first shower then went to bed for two hours of sleep. We got up, packed the car, and made it to the rental return place at 3AM. The shuttle took us back to the airport – the OMG Everyone and their Dog is Flying Southwest this Morning airport. We had to wait 20 minutes just for a self-check kiosk to open. Then we headed down to security and it’s looooooooooooooong line. I was kinda freaking out, because I usually like to get to security two hours before our flight, and this time we only had an hour to spare. But they opened the security area at 4AM and the line started moving fast. It still took us a half hour to shuffle through the line and through the checkpoint.
The flight home was only 40% full, so we weren’t in a hurry to get good seats. We all slept on the 2 hour flight home. We got into the Tesla (our home away from home) and headed into Alton to get something to eat. Whereas when we got home from Miami and there was nothing open to eat, this time we were too early and there was nothing open to eat. Except McDonalds. That’s how we ended our trip. Good ol’ McDonalds.
Probably one of the luckiest times I’ve ever had was in 2007, I was driving around in Colorado for a short vacation. I was living in Kansas at the time and had a three day weekend free. So I was driving south of Denver towards Colorado Springs along the highway, many miles from home.
About halfway through the trip I stopped at a gas station to fill up. When I was done I noticed that I’d locked my keys in the car. I was freaking out because there was only this gas station and a fire station around, nothing else. This was before AAA, before smartphones.
I asked the gas station attendant if they could help in some way. He said I could try the fire station next door.
I went to the fire station to see if they could help. As luck would have it, there was an instructor there showing a group of fireman how to unlock locked cars. So they came over to the gas station to use my car as an example.
10 digit 