No bunny knows the trouble I’ve seen
No bunny knows my sorrow
No bunny knows the trouble I’ve seen
Glory hallelujah!
Sometimes I’m up, sometimes I’m down
Oh, yes, Lord
Sometimes I’m almost to the ground
Oh, yes, Lord
Bunny Butt Shot – Cottontail
Anne and I got our NPR nerd on today. Not content to just listen to public radio all Saturday, like we usually do, we attended the grand opening of Saint Louis Public Radio’s new radio station in Grand Center. KWMU is moving to midtown from the UMSL campus. They’ve set up shop next to the local PBS affiliate, KETC, channel 9. Renee Montagne, co-host of NPR’s Morning Edition headlined the new studios grand opening. Ms. Montagne broadcasts weekday mornings from LA. This means that in order to be on the air at 6 AM Eastern, she comes to work at midnight, much to the pity of her social life. “That’s not true. This is my social life.” She looked tired. The live broadcast also featured the musical stylings of St. Louis favorites Erin Bode and Brian Owens. The new radio facilities look rather nice, but I suspect that their cost was not cheap. I predict an especially aggressive public radio pledge drive this fall. 😉
When I shop for clothes, I do what the boys’ Uncle Carl always does. I shop at Men’s Warehouse. I only bought a sports coat, well actually two, but I’ll get to that later. So, I didn’t have to parade around in my skivvies among smirking salesmen, but I did have to endure one snarking wife. I’m sure that Carl knows about that too. Just as I was about ready to bolt, we reached a consensus, the green jacket. Then the salesman hit us in the solar plexus. Our $300 sports coat was really only $200, so we could afford the second jacket for $100 that he had been pushing since we walked in the door. We relented and bought the blue sports coat too. Their tailor was way too backed up, so we took their recommendation and drove over to the Chinese tailor on Brentwood. Two nice ladies there promise to meet our tight schedule, for a price. Our motto: there is no minute like the last minute.
All this and then a late lunch, we then turned it around and launched at 4:30 towards the park. On the way, we saw our neighbor Kathy and discussed the day’s ballooning possibilities. Today they held the Great Forest Park Balloon Race. The winds looked particularly auspicious; the flight was forecasted to flyover the house. We put pedals to the medal, but no ribbons were won. We did arrive at the launch point just as the Energizer hare was lifting off. The hounds followed suit and for a while it looked like this year’s race would degenerate into another of those all too common faux races. I thought I spied the hare going to ground in the park, but as it turns out, I was wrong.
With the pack rising, we mounted our steeds with full intent to corral this ballooning stampede. My weather App said that the wind was only 5 MPH. I thought that with this wind speed we could catch the pack, but I was wrong again. They never waivered for traffic and flew as the crows and the lead elements dropped us. Still, we made it home before the last of them flew over. Kathy was there and she had counted 42 at that point. It looked as though a few balloons were attempting a landing at the old A.B. Green ball field. We remounted and rode to the sound of the burners. Two balloons made a risky landing on a vacant lot adjacent to the New I-64. Their attractive nuisance combined with a hundred kids snarled local traffic on Laclede Station Rd. Today was a great day in Saint Louis!