Chilly GoPro Ride in the Park

Dave landed in Saint Louis on Wednesday night. It had been snowing that night, but he made it through fine just the same. Although, he did complain about his car’s traction. Dan wasn’t going to try to fly back from LA, so it was only going to be the three of us for Thanksgiving. Even Joanie had gotten a better offer. Later that night I got a frantic sounding text from Dan. He had been participating in the downtown LA #Ferguson demonstrations, the ones that the LAPD had cracked down on and arrested 150 people. I don’t know how close he was to that and I’m not sure that I really would want to know. Long story short, nothing happened and he made it back to his studio OK. On Thursday, Anne performed yeoman service in the kitchen and prepared a very delicious Thanksgiving meal that we all enjoyed. I did the dishes.

Actually, I’m still working on the roasting pan. I think that using a hammer and chisel is next on my list. I don’t blame Anne for this and in no way mean to impugn her culinary abilities. The problem you see is our stove. It is thirty years old and is the last man standing of the all new set of kitchen appliances that we bought when we purchased this house. It’s a gas stove and its electronic ignition is failing. It still works fine, when the stove is cold, but if it is warmed up it doesn’t work at all. This is fine for the burners, we can always light them by match, but the oven is another story. We use it so infrequently and generally only for single dish meals that this problem could have been around for a while. Anyway, for our safety, if for nothing else, it is time for this stove to go. At least Anne and I know what to get each other for Christmas this year.

I don’t usually shop on Black Friday, but this year I did. I didn’t go to the mall. Anyway, Galleria looks like it is being shut down today by Ferguson protests. I bought new tires for Dave’s car. The back tires looked OK, but the front ones were down to their tire wear strips. I decided to get four new tires. Hang the expense! When I called the auto shop this morning, they had just finished beating back the shoppers that had been camped outside their store all night.

It warmed up today, at least in a relative sense. It got above freezing. We went for a bike ride in the park. Near the end of it, as we were still riding into the wind and before we turned for home, I suggested stopping at the Boathouse again. Anne was in for that too. We partook of the raspberry liqueur flavored hot chocolate again, but instead of the bread pudding, we shared a much more sensibly sized slice of chocolate pudding cheese cake. At least it seemed more sensible at the time.