Mark and Bob’s Play Day

Posted on October 30, 2008 by RegenAxe

Bob flew into town yesterday. He arrived about five minutes after the power came back on last night. Bob, Joanie and I made a Ted Drews run for concretes and then went over to Andrew’s dorm to drop off his. We visited for a while and then Bob dropped Joanie and I off and went to his hotel. Anne was asleep so Dan ended up eating her concrete. I didn’t get to bed until after one.

Today, I took a vacation day. I watched Obama’s infomercial as I was waiting for Bob to show up. He arrived and we set off by bike for the Park. We did once around and then doubled back to the Boathouse for lunch. We both had salmon BLTs, with bleu cheese coleslaw. Yummy! We got 13 miles. Returning home we changed out of our bike duds and drove south to Jefferson Barrack County Park.

This park has a Frisbee golf course. The course was a lot bigger and the rough was a lot rougher then either Bob or I were used to. I don’t play it all that often, as my game reflects, but Bob and Chris do. They get quite competitive about it in Rochester. I couldn’t rise to Bob’s level of play, but the course did. It challenged him. It even ate one of his discs on the eighteenth hole.

We returned home in time to greet Anne returning home from school. Over beer, cheese and crackers she regaled us with her trials and tribulations from the fourth grade. Afterwards, Bob and I started our favorite wargame, Victory In The Pacific, World War II naval combat in the pacific. Bob usually wins, but a run of luck has left me in a good position at mid-game. Bob has gone to take Andrew out to diner. I am taking a breather and blogging. He is spending the night, so he’ll be back. A good day. Tomorrow is work and Friday.

Cycling Highway 40 Before It Opens

Posted on October 28, 2008 by RegenAxe

The first half of the Highway 40 The New I-64 construction project, is scheduled to be completed early, that is before the end of the year. MODOT plans on opening the reconstructed section earlier then scheduled. The St. Louis Regional Bicycle Federation is planing a bicycling event before this section on highway is opened to the cars. Thanks to Gary & Linda of Team Kaldis for the following news:

A festival to celebrate the reopening of this section of Interstate 64 could happen as early as Sunday, November 23, and as late as Sunday, December 28. This event definitely will be on a Sunday afternoon. Dates not being considered because of the Thanksgiving & Christmas holidays are Nov. 30 and Dec. 21

The St. Louis Regional Bicycle Federation is hosting the bicycle ride on the interstate. The ride will be on the eastbound lanes from from McKnight to Ballas, and/or Ballas to McKnight, as far as we can tell at this point.

We are working feverishly on preparations and have another meeting with MoDOT and some folks from the running community tomorrow. We should have further details after that meeting. The only thing that’s definite at this point is we are planning on having as much fun as possible on 66 ft x 4.9 miles of perfectly smooth pavement. There will be a t-shirt … we know you want one…

We hope that this ride will raise funds for the St. Louis Bike Fed. We intend to use the money to install more of our fabulous bike racks designed by Justin Gerard of St. Louis. Designs of the rack may be seen below:

We want this to be a party! It’s the holiday season, so we plan to have a “Homemade Cookie Stop” on the interstate. We also are working on categories in which to offer prizes to people who dress their bikes in their “holiday best.” Here are some that came up at today’s meeting:

Best holiday lighting
Best matching outfit
Biggest Turkey on a Bike
Best Santa on a Bike
Best “Bike Farty”

Now about the photo at the top of this post. It was posted by Bob Foster on STL Biking. I am the one over the red arrow. It is almost fifteen five years old (December 1993 2003) * and represents my one and only race event. It is a photo from the Page Extension Time Trial. As you can see from the photo the weather was a little too white for biking. The time trial race had the participents starting at thirty second intervals. The three mile race course started off going up hill for a mile followed by a mile of downhill and then a mile of flats. I got passed by the guy starting after me. I still did better then most of my friends. I won’t mention any names, but you know who you are. I hope for better weather this year.

* Thanks, James

A Night Out on the Town

Posted on October 26, 2008 by RegenAxe

Anne went to an art fair yesterday afternoon and bought the vest that she is seen wearing above. She is squinting into the sun, but this angle gives the best view of the vest. It shows some of the complexity of its weave. We went out to dinner with Joanie last night, the Pasta House Company, in the central west end. There was a Halloween party going on in the streets, so a lot of the patron’s of the restaurant and all of the help were in costume. Anne and Joanie dropped me off at the near by MetroLink stop and headed north to UMSL, to see a dance version of Dracula.

What with all of the construction going on around the MetroLink station, I stumbled around in the dark for a while. I even let one train get by, before I made it to the platform. I caught the next train and still made it to the Scottrade Center before the game started. My seat was in a luxury sky box. There were a dozen of us there. Mainly the guys from work, plus a few wives. Having just finished dinner, I couldn’t really enjoy the free spread. We socialized and watched the game. The Blues won, beating the Florida Panthers four to nothing. What with the game well in hand, I left a little early in order to beat the MetroLink crush.

The first train to arrive was the one I wanted, the blue line. I got off at Washington University’s Big Bend stop and hiked the mile home. I made it home in time to watch most of Saturday Night Live and before Anne made it home. Getting out on a Saturday night was fun. It sure beats surfing the web all night.

OBTW, as I’m sure you all know, Michigan State beat Michigan. Go Green!

My Diner with Andre…w

Posted on October 24, 2008 by RegenAxe

The diner consisted of a conversation between Andrew, Mark and Anne, all of whom are residents of St. Louis. Pictured above is Andrew, who was celebrating his nineteenth birthday yesterday with us. Andrew is the son of our good friends Bob and Noreen, former St. Louis residents. They now live in Rochester, New York. Andrew is attending Fontbonne University for his first semester. He and Dave make up the St. Louis/Rochester student exchange program. Andrew is studying advertising. He seems to really like school. His father, Bob will be in town on Thursday. I plan on taking that day off to hang out with them.

I am no longer just a mere blogger folks, I am now a political analyst or pundit if you will. Yesterday’s post was about the Tour of Missouri bike race and how it has become an issue in this election year’s race for Lieutenant Governor. Today a Team Kaldis teammate, Sandi, emailed me a response she had gotten from the Sam Page (D) campaign. In the emailed response, Bret Bender, the Communications Director for Sam Page tried to answer her question about Sam Page’s position on the Tour of Missouri by refering her to this website. I don’t think he knew we knew each other. She forward me the email. Thank you, Sandi! You’ve made my day.

Fact follows fiction, Wednesday’s edition of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, asked the question what qualifies a person to be a political analyst. This question is posed seven minutes into the show, or right after the first comercial break. Check it out. As Jon puts it my naivety has been converted to gravitas. Or as he better put it, “Who the F@#k is That Guy?” 😉

Falling for Cycling in the Autumn

Posted on October 21, 2008 by RegenAxe

The picture for today’s post shows the Continental Life Building as seen from the dolphin fountain on St. Louis University’s campus in midtown. This picture and today’s header were taken a couple of weeks ago. It was a Saturday and it was the last day warm enough to still feel like summer. Since then and now the weather has gotten cooler. I’ve had to turn on the heat. And this morning’s bike ride in the Park was down right chilly.

It was fifty, foggy and dark when I left the house and forty-eight with just the first hint of dawn when I returned. I was a little under dressed for the weather, which is probably why I am whining now. I stuck mainly to the streets, they are better lit then the bike path and what with the Hampton highway interchange being closed there are fewer vehicles in the Park now.

I did have two encounters of the vehicular kind. The first was heading to the roundabout above the Zoo’s Bird Cage. A car came up behind me, but wouldn’t pass. At the roundabout I went counterclockwise, the way you are suppose to go. The car went clockwise and beat me to the turnoff. Alright then, at least we didn’t tie.

The second encounter was around Pagoda Circle. I was going around the circle and while passing over one of the bridges, I heard either frogs croaking or ducks quacking, but I couldn’t tell which. So I decided to go around again to try to hear better. On the second time around, I came upon a pair of runners who were crossing the road and then a city bus comes wheeling around the bend. The runners scattered left, I scattered right, the bus slowed and the frogs or ducks were silent.

I only saw five other cyclists this morning, which is one below par. I did see the Washington University’s ROTC doing push ups in the cold wet grass. I also saw a smaller, but dedicate group of women doing crunches on the granite around Art Hill’s statue of St. Louis. Wet grass, cold granite, maybe I shouldn’t whine about the weather, but embrace the change of seasons? Anyway, I got twenty miles today.

McCain’s Plane

Posted on October 20, 2008 by RegenAxe

It was another combative day in the battleground state of Missouri. As I was turning into the plant gate this morning I saw McCain’s plane (Boeing 737) parked across the tarmac. The picture above is from the Internet. He had a rally planed at New Town in St. Chuck county. New Town is a planned community that has been built out near the floodplain. It survived this years floods, but I doubt that it is high enough to survive another 1993. Local news had him speaking in front of a ticketed crowd of 3,000.

At lunch time Barbara and I did our usual walk around the parking lots. On the way back we noticed a lot of activity around McCain’s plane. One of the engines was running, I’m guessing to provide internal power. The St. Louis County Police’s helicopter was circling. A police car had blocked the intersection up the street and the plant guard had closed the gate.

Sure enough McCain’s caravan came down the road and pulled out on to the tarmac and surrounded the jet. There was one large bus, I guess for the press, eight plain white vans, a couple of black SUVs and a limo, plus a few cop cars. The plane had front and back staircases. Most of the people got on through the back.

At this time the cop up the road had opened up his intersection and come down the road to the plane. The plant guard opened the gate and cars started coming in and out. Also, the smokers walked out the gate. As of this last summer smoking on company property has been banned. So the die hard smokers walk out the gate and smoke on the curb. Today one smoker decided to walk down the road to get a closer look at McCain. The cop from up the road came back to shoo him back to the curb. Eventually, after most of the other people had boarded, what looked like McCain went up the front stairs. At this point we decided it was time for lunch.

On the news today, I heard Dick Cheney was also in town for a private fund raising luncheon, in Clayton, for one of the local congressmen. I missed seeing his Death Star though. Tonight, Bill Clinton is due in town at Kirkwood High School, where Anne did her student teaching. I think we’ll pass.

There are no more scheduled visits to St. Louis, but that may will change. Come tomorrow we have only two more weeks to go until the election. Oh Lord, please deliver us until then.

OBTW, today’s header is from Dulles airport in Virgina, from two weeks ago. Oh boy, airport art!