Hectic Days and Nights

A week ago Saturday (7 May), after working that morning at the car rental branch, I was home to work on model kits on my workbench. Late that afternoon, I went to Smugala's Pizza Pub in Sunset Hills (http://smugalas.com/smugalassunsethills) for a beer, then to catch the Pub2Park shuttle bus to Worldwide Technology Soccer Park. I cheered on Saint Louis FC (http://saintlouisfc.com/landing/index) against Swope Park Rangers, a match the home side won by 3 goals to nil. It was such a fun time.

This past week was a busy one for us at the car rental branch, with Monday morning (9 May) being very busy, even by Monday morning standards. I wonder how we could get things done, but we did.

I spent much of my free time these past few days working on some model kits I wanted done in time for this Tuesday's IPMS/Gateway (http://www.ipms-gateway.com/) meeting, with the quarterly model contest. I had hopes to have up to three models to enter, but now I won't have any. One I had to set aside as being too complicated, a second has a ruined canopy (I have emailed the manufacturer for a replacement), and the third is now a no-go as a part has gone missing. Wow, I feel like such a chump.

Mom left town last Monday to visit my brother Doug and his family in Los Angeles for two weeks. I am taking care of things around the house in the meantime, such as mowing the lawns yesterday. For myself, I got a new battery for my laptop this past week. It has been nearly two years since I last bought a battery for the computer, and lately it has not been holding a charge. This new battery should work out very nice.

I worked yesterday morning at the car rental branch. Today, I spent the whole day at Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield (http://spiritairport.com/spiritairport/index.jsp), which this weekend hosted the Spirit of St. Louis Airshow and STEM Expo (http://spirit-airshow.com/). I helped staff the Missouri Aviation Historical Society's booth (https://moavhist.org/). We passed out MOAHS business cards with info on the club, and bookmarks promoting the book on Lambert Airport our members worked on that is scheduled for release this November. I didn't spent much time outside the booth, so I didn't get to view the static displays much and none of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Expo, but I did see the aerial displays. They included both the US Navy's Blue Angels (https://www.blueangels.navy.mil/) and the Canadian Forces Snowbirds (http://www.rcaf-arc.forces.gc.ca/en/snowbirds/index.page), plus the US Air Force's F-22 Raptor, the Royal Canadian Air Force's CF-18, and some World War II era aircraft. I understand that the cooler and windier than normal weather on Saturday did dampen some enthusiasm, but that today's balmier weather increased visitors to our booth.

By the way, MOAHS meets again this Thursday night (19 May) at 7:00 pm at Creve Coeur Airport (http://www.crevecoeurairport.com/).

Looks like I'll be in Louisville this weekend for the Military Modelers Club of Louisville contest. More on that in my next post.

Later.