Road Trip to Kansas City for 2024 KC CON

Early yesterday morning (9 March), my IPMS/Gateway colleague Don Will arrived at my house. He got in my car, and we drove to Marion Morris' house in Maplewood. The three of us, plus Dave Thomas, got into Morris' minivan and we drove to St. Peters to pick up Jim Triola and Tom Aldred before we headed west to Kansas City, Missouri. We were bound for KC CON, a scale modeling contest hosted by IPMS/Great Plains.

Our westbound trip included a stop at McDonald's in Boonville to get breakfast to go. We arrived in mid-morning at First Church of the Nazarene, the show venue. I brought along two entries in the model contest; Will, Thomas, and Triola also entered models. My entries were in Armor: a Bren Gun Carrier and a 6 pounder Anti-Tank Gun, both in 1:72 scale. These models were built for last month's IPMS/Gateway Modeler of the Year Contest.

After placing my contest entries, I began to walk among the contest tables to see what was also entered to that point. I also bought some raffle tickets and browsed among the vendors. Among the latter was another IPMS/Gateway mate, Gary Chambers. Additionally, I said hello and chatted briefly with fellow scale modelers I know. Seeing fellow scale modelers and admiring their work is one of the great attractions to these shows for me.

I got lucky in the raffle, winning two kits (one of which had photo etched metal detail parts included). Shopping among the vendors yielded another kit from one vendor and some finishing supplies from another.

Late in the morning, I attended the contest judges meeting, where pizza was served for lunch. They had plenty of judges, which is always good. I joined four others in helping judge aircraft entries, with Bill Pettyjohn and I forming one of two teams to help judge the categories more efficiently. The teams judged all the aircraft entries in good time. I was then asked to help judge entries in mecha (science fiction giant walking machines or robots). Although I have had a little experience with these models, it's not something I have built yet. Fortunately, my two fellow judges were more familiar with mecha, and we got these entries judged.

I took some more photos of contest entries for the IPMS/Gateway Facebook page and chatted with IPMS/USA Second Vice President Scott Hackney for a while before the contest results were announced. Both my entries took Third Place in their respective categories: The Bren Gun Carrier in 1:72 Allied tracked vehicles to 1945, the 6pdr Anti-Tank Gun in 1:72 Ordnance. Neither was a terrific model, but it was entered in categories with little competition.

Triola took a First Place for his F-4C Phantom II, and Will's Joker and Harley Quinn placed Second in Fantasy Figures. I was happy for them.

After the show ended, I packed up my things and got into Morris' minivan. Our party then began the journey home, stopping for dinner at a Culver's in Columbia. After we got back to Morris' house, Will and I entered my car and I drove home, where I let Will out to get back into his truck to return home. It was definitely a good day.

Later.

Websites of Entities Mentioned in this Post:

IPMS/Gateway: IPMS Gateway Chapter (google.com)

IPMS/Great Plains: IPMS Great Plains

McDonald's: McDonald's: Burgers, Fries & More. Quality Ingredients. (mcdonalds.com)

First Church of the Nazarene: KC First Church of the Nazarene | Welcome (kcfc.org)

IPMS/USA: IPMS/USA | IPMS/USA Home Page (ipmsusa.org)

Culver's: Culver's Restaurant | Frozen Custard, Butterburgers & Cheese Curds (culvers.com)

Tablet Training and Soccer Refereeing

One week ago tonight (26 September) found me at the Centene Center for Arts (https://keeparthappening.org/centene-center-arts) in midtown St. Louis. I went to a volunteer training session from Cinema St. Louis (https://www.cinemastlouis.org/) in advance of the St. Louis International Film Festival (SLIFF) in early November. Along with a handful of others, I learned how to use tablet computers to ring up sales of film tickets, SLIFF merchandise, and Cinema St. Louis memberships. I had never used an Apple iPad before, but it was very simple to understand, and I feel I can get this done well when I volunteer at SLIFF. Volunteer assignment requests will be accepted from mid-October.

Work went well late last week. I chilled out at home on Saturday (29 September), and was back refereeing soccer the next morning at Sportport International (http://www.sportportintl.com/) in Maryland Heights. It was a set of three St. Louis Youth Soccer Association (SLYSA) (https://www.slysa.org/) under-13 matches. Our crew worked a girls contest, then two boys games. I had the middle on the last match of the set, a rather close affair.

After the matches, I grabbed lunch at a Subway (https://www.subway.com/en-US) restaurant, then drove to Mark Twain Hobby Center (https://www.hobby1.com/) in St. Charles. There, I found and bought some paints for the model I am working on next. I also browsed around the shop. There is always plenty to browse through at hobby shops.

Back to work Monday (1 October) and our new vehicle prep, Brandon, was with us on his first full day. (He worked the previous Saturday morning.) I think he will do well for us, and his presence is most welcome.

Off today, I delivered some treats to colleagues at corporate headquarters in Clayton and the rental branches in Ladue and South County. They were most welcome by the recipients, who I briefly chatted with before going on. I also took care of my laundry, and went to dinner with mom at Culver's (https://www.culvers.com/) in South County.

Later.

A Wet End to 2015

We got a lot of rain in St. Louis since last weekend. At least 8 inches (20.3 cm) of rain fell the previous weekend. That caused rivers to rise and flooding to occur. The upshot for our rental branch has been that busy Manchester Road became even more crowded, as westbound traffic diverted around the flooded portions of I-44 spilled onto our street. That made it a longer drive for customer pick ups and drop offs, and for just going down the street to put fuel into the vehicle.

The flood waters also altered my commute, as the I-44 and Route 141 interchange was flooded. This made my trip to and from work longer each way. Wednesday night (30 December) was especially bad, as I-55 was blocked due to Meramce River flooding. I had to drive down I-255 all the way to Telegraph Road to get home.

At least the weather is dry for the next few days and the flood seems to have crested, so it should get better in the coming days. There was slight seepage of water into the basement of our house, but no real damage.

Last night (31 December), I was home with Mom, watching TV while the last hours of 2015 ticked away. At midnight, we stepped out onto the front porch to make some noise for a minute in welcoming the new year of 2016. After waking up this morning, we just stayed around the house, going out to Culver's (http://www.culvers.com/) in Mehlville for lunch.

Tomorrow morning (2 January), I co-host the first Writer's Block of 2016 with Tim Pylypiuk on Blog Talk Radio (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/autistic-people-). We'll talk about Miguel de Cervantes' classic story Don Quixote. The show airs live at Noon, Central Time (10 am, Pacific Time; 1800 GMT), and will be immediately archived for reairing from 2 pm, Central Time. I hope you can tune in.

Best wishes to everyone in the New Year. May we all find peace, happiness, and success.

Later.