23 July 2016

The Heat is (Still) On

This past week saw a heat wave hit the St. Louis area. Daytime highs reached at least 95 degrees F (35 degrees C), with heat indices getting up towards 110 degrees F (43 degrees C). It's not fun to be outside or in the wash bay at work, so I stayed inside the air conditioned lobby as much as possible, drinking as much water or thirst quencher as I can. Fortunately, I am fine, though tired at the end of the work day.

I flexed out Tuesday afternoon (19 July), and came home to chill out (literally). That night, I helped run the IPMS/Gateway (http://www.ipms-gateway.com/) meeting at Calvary Presbyterian Church (http://calvarypresbyterianchurch.org/). We had a good turnout for our beauty contest, plus a nice demo on attaching windshields and other clear parts to models. All of us attending stayed cool inside Calvary's Fellowship Hall.

After taking care of some personal affairs on my off day Thursday (21 July), I drove to Creve Coeur Airport (http://www.crevecoeurairport.com/) for this month's meeting of the Missouri Aviation Historical Society (https://moavhist.org/). This meeting featured a tribute to former McDonnell Aircraft lead test pilot Bob Little, including the debut of two new documentaries on him. One was about Little's life and career, which included service in the US Army Air Forces during World War II, and the McDonnell aircraft he piloted on its first flights (F2H Banshee, F3H Demon, F-101 Voodoo, and F4H [later F-4] Phantom II). The documentary climaxed with Little's meeting last May with Col. Ronald "Elvis" King, the last USAF F-4 pilot at the Spirit of St. Louis Air Show and STEM Expo. A second video screened for us was an extended version of the interview with Little and King. The Bob Little documentary began airing today on HEC-TV (http://www.hectv.org/watch/hec-tv-live/legendary-wwii-and-test-pilot-bob-little/24325/).

Jacqui Poor, the Society's vice president, produced the Little program for HEC-TV, and she was helping screen the program for our meeting. Because of that, I was asked to man the membership table in her place, and I made sure attendees signed in and also accepted some membership forms (both new and renewal memberships), plus directing members to their name tags on the nearby table. We had a very good turnout at the meeting, despite the heat outside. (Due to that heat, the Society asked Little--who's in his early 90s--to stay home; we'll have him at a later meeting.)

Yesterday, my high school and church friend Susan Shrum appeared on KHOU TV's program "Good Day Houston." She has lived in Houston for some years now and helps run a casual dining restaurant there, Happy Fatz (http://happyfatz.com/). Today is National Hot Dog Day and Susan and her colleague Rebecca Hernandez Sanders showed off their hot dogs and desserts to the host. The segment video is here: http://www.khou.com/entertainment/television/programs/great-day-houston/celebrate-national-hot-dog-today-07222016/279768573

I worked at the rental branch this morning. It was a busy one, but we got our customers taken care of with our usual dispatch. Our manager Liz will be leaving after this Tuesday, as she has been promoted to manager our Cape Girardeau branch. Best wishes to you, Liz, and thank you for your service at Ellisville.

Chilling out at home, then brazing the heat to attend tonight's Saint Louis FC (http://saintlouisfc.com/landing/index) match against Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC. More on that in my next post.

Later.

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