Circus Flora, Pride Parade, Festa Junina--and My Car Has a New Bumper

Last Saturday night (24 June), I volunteered once more for Circus Flora (http://circusflora.org/), on the next to last night of this year's run. I served as an usher for the performance of "Time Flies," which drew a nice crowd for a Saturday night. After turning in my volunteer apron and badge, I told the house manager, Harald Boerstler, how much I enjoyed helping out for the fourth year, and he greatly appreciated my help again this year. I added that God willing, I will be back as a volunteer in 2018.

I was in downtown St. Louis late the next morning, assembling with other Enterprise Holdings (https://www.enterpriseholdings.com/en/index.html) employees and family members to march in the St. Louis Pride Fest Parade (https://pridestl.org/). About 400 of us, joined by three cars from Enterprise Car Sales (https://www.enterprisecarsales.com/) and a truck from Enterprise Truck Rental (https://www.enterprise.com/en/trucks.html), walked the parade west on Market Street. A very good crowd lined the parade route and cheered us and the other parade participants. This was a sunny day, but not too hot and humid. It was such a good thing for me to do, knowing some Lesbian-Bisexual-Gay-Transgendered (LBGT) people I have run across in my life.

Right after the parade, I headed to the Kirkwood Community Center (http://www.kirkwoodmo.org/content/City-Departments/1856/community-center.aspx) to help out at Festa Junina, a Brazilian folk festival presented by Viva Brasil STL (http://www.e.vivabrasilstl.org/). I was put to work clearing dining tables as guests finished eating, and being able to step in where and when needed. I was able to walk around the rest of the festival, which included food and drink booths, information on Viva Brasil STL and its Portuguese language classes, children's game booths, a photo booth, and Quadrilha (square dancing). Right after the Festa ended, I helped to tear down the tables and booths and to clean up the center. It was a lot of fun to take part in this event.

Back to work Monday morning (26 June), it was busy for me most of the day. This was not easy with the heat and humidity we had this week. Still, I did my best to help our branch exceed customer expectations.

Midday Tuesday, the Dave Sinclair Ford Body Shop (http://www.davesinclairford.com/bodyshop/index.htm) called me to say my Corolla's rear bumper was replaced and that my car was ready for me to pick up. I was able to get off work a bit early to drive from Ellisville to Mehlville, dropped off the Ford F-150 pickup loaner vehicle by Enterprise's satellite office at Dave Sinclair, then went to the body shop. There, I settled my account with them, dropped off the pickup's keys, and drove off in my Corolla. It was nice having the F-150 for a few days, but I really like having my regular car again.

After that, I drove to Bill Wagner's house in Oakville for this month's IPMS/Gateway (http://www.ipms-gateway.com/) business meeting. I was first to arrive, well in advance of everyone, and Bill and I talked while he started grilling pork steaks for dinner. Those of us attending the meeting enjoyed the dinner before we got down to business. We planned next month's general meeting and discussed other club business.

Off work today, I did my laundry and mowed the front lawn. I bought some doughnuts at Krispy Kreme (http://krispykreme.com/), then took them to the Enterprise branch in Mehlville. It was to thank them for doing such a great job on my recent rental, and to thank Kevin, the branch manager, who I knew when he was at Ellisville with me. I then got my hair cut at Great Clips https://www.greatclips.com/).

Later.