Tag Archives: Forest Park

Muddy Waters

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Arch Riverfront Flooding
Anne Stands on the Step That Was the 1993 High Water Mark
Top of the Hat of the Lewis and Clark Statue


We were feeling a bit fatigued this morning, after yesterday’s Paducah quilt adventure. So, it wasn’t until after noon that we got out of the house and drove downtown to the Arch. We wanted take pictures of the flooding and also to walk the Arch grounds. If you scroll backwards a couple of days, you’ll see a photo of the Lewis and Clark statue on the Saint Louis Riverfront. It is partially submerged. I took that picture a couple of years ago. If you look closely at the photograph with this post, the one with the stop sign in it, you’ll see that only the top of the hat is still above the water now. The river crested a couple of days ago and has already receded a few steps, leaving behind mud everywhere. At its height, this year’s flood water likely completely covered the Lewis and Clark statue. Another photograph shows Anne standing on the twelfth step from the top, on the staircase in front of the Arch. I’m standing on the top step. At the height of the 1993 flood the water came up to where Anne is seen standing, some fifty feet above flood stage.

Look at Me Girls, Look at Me

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Male Yellow-Shafted Northern Flicker

Male Yellow-Shafted Northern Flicker

Saturday afternoon, when I was bicycling in the park, I came upon the above pictured flicker. He was perched atop a street light and was easy to find. (You can tell that he is a male, because of the black malar coming off his beak.) First, he would call out, wicka-wicka-wicka, then he would pound his beak against the aluminum street light housing, rat-a-tat-tat. Then he would pause and I could hear another male flicker, not too far off, repeating his message, wicka-wicka-wicka and then rat-a-tat-tat. After the other bird was done, this little guy would begin the call and response again. It wasn’t until after several rounds of this that I realized that the other male flicker was at the adjacent street lamp, just fifty yards down the road. I never saw nor heard any female flickers, but they had to be there, because why else would these two dudes be strutting their stuff?

A spring or two ago, Anne was in the classroom, but the window was open and it was a beautiful spring day. Just outside, a male cardinal was perched on a tree branch, singing his heart out. It sounded like who-it cheer, who-it cheer, cheer-cheer-cheer; cheer, who-it-who-it-who-it-who-it; wheat-wheat-wheat-wheat. Anne whistled back to the bird and then interpreted for the class, look-at-me-girls, look-at-me-girls, look-at-me-girls, look-look-look. One sad individual asked her, “Where did you learn to speak pigeon?” I say sad, because not only was he unable to distinguish between a cardinal and a pigeon, but he failed in his hometown, which is also the home of the Saint Louis Cardinals.

One last spring story, this one is from the plant kingdom. I got up and out of bed this morning early enough to beat today’s rain and go for another bicycle ride in the park. There were no wildlife encounters on this ride, but I did hear a number of interesting, if unidentifiable bird calls. This spring story comes down to what I saw, while climbing the last hill on the way home. There was a green sheen on the raised tread of my bicycle tire. The green was from the pollen that all of the plants and trees have been busily pumping out. Today’s rain ought to give some momentary relief to all of the allergy suffers in town. Oh by the way, they are also forecasting snow for tonight.

Happy Earth Day!

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Forest Park Earth Day Festival

Forest Park Earth Day Festival

Our Saturday was a full day and night. By the end of it, I was sore, tired and sunburned, my bad. To make matters worse, I didn’t sleep well, when I finally did make it to bed, too much caffeine during Saturday night’s trivia contest. So, it shouldn’t have been too surprising that on Sunday morning, we both rolled over and went back to sleep and missing our planned Trailnet group bicycle ride. This old saying comes to mind, “If you want to soar with the eagles you can’t hoot with the owls”. After sheltering in place all morning, we finally launched on our bikes at the butt-crack of noon.

Our destination was the Earth Day Festival in Forest Park. We’ve been attending this festival for years now. Trailnet was there, operating not one, but two valet bicycle parking lots. That was our first stop. We quickly bumped into Susan, our across the street neighbor, and fellow Team Kaldis member. Next we met Kitty, one of Dan’s friend. Anne recognized her from the back, because of her rather distinctive hairdo. She is married now and they are soon visiting LA.

Year’s ago Anne (Citizen of the Year) and I were driving Kitty and Dan to the bus station. They were on their way to either Philly or Alabama; I can’t remember which trip this was. Kitty’s cell phone rang. It was her mother with some last minute detail. Afterwards Kitty told her mom that her python had escaped its cage, but not to worry, just leave the bedroom door closed. A minute later her mom called back with the news that Kitty’s bedroom door was open.

Anne and I had some nachos and then went in search of Pat from Saturday night. She had gotten up early and led the Earth Day parade. Joanie arrived then too. Leaving Anne in good company, I headed for home. I managed to stay up until Anne made it home too, but I was already in bed by the time she stepped out of the shower. I guess the weekend had finally caught up with me.

Citizen of the Year

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Anne is Awarded MRH Citizen of the Year

Anne is Awarded MRH Citizen of the Year

Last night was a big night in the RegenAxe household. We went to the school district’s annual awards banquet that was held at the golf clubhouse in Forest Park. Anne was named Citizen of the Year by the Maplewood-Richmond Heights School District. She was awarded this honor for personal dedication to the school district and the community at least that is what her plaque says. Actually, I can’t count the number of teachers and administrators that told me how great she is, like I really didn’t already know it and they were telling me something new. Our longtime friend, Nelson, and now school board member presented the award. He extolled the years that she has substitute taught in the district, the years of long-range planning committee work that she has done and her tireless campaigning for numerous school bond issues and tax propositions.

Anne had prepared an acceptance speech that had an Academy Awards theme to it, “Thank you members of the Academy, I mean school district.” This opening line was paired with a closing one that after enumerating her many school accomplishments ended with, “I think that I hear the music, so I’ll get off the stage now.” That was her rehearsed speech, instead she went ad-lib and successfully joked, “I was a street-walker for MRH”, referring to her many tax and bond issue campaigns. She got a lot of laughs with this line.

There were a couple of hundred attendees there. They were all district stakeholders, or like me spouses. Most of them were her fellow teachers. After dinner, the first awards that were handed out were the service awards, for five, ten and fifteen years of district service. Most of the people who received awards, received one of these. Then it was on to the main event, which was followed by recognition of the retiring faculty. 

Anne was first up among these main awards. Next came the Volunteer of the Year, Family of the Year and an award for the Spirit of MRH. Each school named their Teacher of the Year, ending with the overall District Teacher of the Year. Her acceptance speech really did need some move along music, like in the Academy Awards, but she ended with a funny story. When she learned of this honor, she told her young daughter about it. The daughter seemed rather nonplussed about the award. The next day, the daughter asked her mother, “Who is going to be Teacher of the Year today?”

The Glass Forest

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The Glass Forest, by Dale Chihuly

The Glass Forest, by Dale Chihuly

The photo with this post is of a Dale Chihuly artwork entitled, the Glass Forest. We saw it on display last fall at Chihuly Garden and Glass, located in the shadow of the Space Needle. The following is part of the museum’s write-up:

The Glass Forest elements were crafted by simultaneously blowing and pouring molten glass from the top of a stepladder to the floor, where the deflated bubbles solidify. The glass stalks or stems are arranged in an enclosed space and illuminated with electrically charged neon and argon lamps. With their globular collapsed bases and gracefully ascending stalks, they are both shaped by and also seem to defy gravity.

After work today, I went for another bike ride in Forest Park, for the fourth day in a row. It was just a short little out and back. The weather was warm and windy. There was a lot of debris in the streets, from last night’s downpour.