Winter Stars, by June Winter, wildflowers
Work this week was in turmoil. There was the usual program politics, which level set the workplace angst. On top of all of this, was Friday, the final day in our open enrollment period for next year’s benefits. There’s no minute like the last minute. The angst can be fairly placed at the feet of Obamacare. As a Democrat I am entitled to say this. This year, we had a Cadillac healthcare program, or so it would have been judged, if the company hadn’t jacked-up our rates for next year. Like I said, there was a lot of angst this week at work.
A month ago, the previous paragraph would have been preamble to a mighty political rant. Today, I don’t really have the heart for it. I guess that the furor of this year’s election season has tamped down. All of our elected servants are back at work, doing what they do best, bickering. We’ve heard it all before and we will certainly hear it again, and again, and again, before it is finally all over. As we careen every closer to the looming fiscal cliff, I say let Toonces drive.
Although it was a little grayer than I had hoped, Saturday was way too unseasonably warm to spend all day railing against the Republican’ts. “Holy climate change Batman, to the bike cave!” Anne is still on the disabled list. She started PT for her injured knee this week. So, I’m riding solo today.
Afterwards, Anne and I returned to the park and went to the Missouri History Museum to view the Discover the Real George Washington exhibit. I’ll write about this show later, except to say that they had a pair of Washington’s false teeth on display and they weren’t wooden. The other main exhibit currently at the history museum is Missouri in the Civil War. We’ve already seen this show, but in the MacDermott Grand Hall separating these two shows, a museum intern put on a one woman dramatization of African-American history in Saint Louis, during the Civil War. After the show she took questions, but was quickly overwhelmed. Her boss stepped in and answered this question so thoroughly that no further questions were asked.
Except I saw the boss later and asked her about the Spirit of Saint Louis airplane that hangs in MacDermott Hall. She said that this replica of Lindbergh’s plane was built in 1928, the year after the famous transatlantic flight. It was built by Ryan Airlines, the same company that built the original plane. Our replica is quite special itself, having been featured in the movie “The Spirit of Saint Louis”, starring Jimmy Stewart. Both Stewart and his consultant, Charles Lindbergh, flew this iconic replica.
Jane Winter’s “Winter Stars” wreath is part of the collection on wreaths on display this Christmas season in the Ridgeway center at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. I like this wreath, but I really like the juxtaposition between the work’s tittle and its designer’s name. There are many other wreaths in this show and I’ll be doling them out, in this year’s run-up to Christmas.