Happy 50th Anniversary, Parents

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted here, but I was real busy with work and family recently. I'll do my best to bring you all up to speed.

My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Sat., 6 April. That weekend, my three younger brothers--Rick, Brian, and Doug--came to town, Brian accompanied by his son Fischer and Doug by his fiancee Helen. I co-hosted Writer's Block that Saturday on Naturally Autistic Radio, and that night went to a house in Alton with the STL Screeners Meetup group to watch the 1972 movie "Cabaret" on DVD. The next morning, I refereed boys' soccer games at the Soccer Park in Fenton.

After work on Monday the 8th, I drove to Bartolino's South in south St. Louis County for my parents' anniversary dinner. In a private room, my parents, brothers, and close family friends celebrated Mom & Dad's 50 years as wife and husband. It was a great night for all. The next night, I joined my brothers and Helen at Busch Stadium for the Cardinals game vs. the Cincinnati Reds. Wonderful time there.

I worked all days that week at the car rental firm, as our other vehicle service agent was on vacation. Thus, I worked Monday through Friday (10 hours each day), plus the following Saturday morning (4 1/4 hours). Lots of work done, but I got it done and my paycheck will be rather richer. Plus, I think this impressed my supervisors with how much I like working there.

I refereed tournament soccer games last weekend at the Soccer Park, including a final in under 13 boys on Sunday afternoon. (That was an added game to my schedule; the referee scheduled to work that match didn't show up.) Overall, the games went fine.

Back to my regular work schedule this past week (3 days a week). Tuesday night (16 April), I went straight from work to Calvary Presbyterian Church, opening the place up for the IPMS/Gateway meeting that night.

Wednesday (17 April), I checked into several optical stores on eye exams and eyeglasses--both of which I really need. I made a decision based on my research and have an eye exam scheduled for next Friday (26 April).

I'm working at the car rental firm tomorrow (Saturday) morning, and refereeing soccer Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Before I go, next weekend I'm a volunteer at the Greater St. Louis Book Fair, held 25-28 April at West County Center in Town and Country, Mo. It's a used book/magazine, record/video sale, with proceeds going to Nursery Foundation of Greater St. Louis and to local literacy programs. I'm working on Thu., 25 April and Sat., 27 April. Hope to see you there. More info at www.stlouisbookfair.org.

Later.

Nice Nights on the Town

After a busy half day at the car rental firm last Friday (29 Mar.), I was in west St. Louis for Stress Free Fridays. Specifically, that week's happy hour was at Troy's Jazz Gallery, a jazz club and bar. I had a nice time there socializing some and listening to a fine performance of jazz. Since I had to work the next morning, I had to leave fairly early, but it was time well spent.

The next day (30 Mar.), I worked a morning shift at the car rental firm, came home to change, then was at the Scott Gallagher Complex for a pair of girls soccer games. I ran lines on these under 14 matches, which were played in the rain part of the time. No problems with the artificial turf, but I did get a bit wet. The games went well, then I had dinner at the Trainwreck Saloon in West Port Plaza.

Last Monday (1 Apr.) found me at work. I'm now pulling three full days a week, plus every other Saturday. Mondays are usually busy at the firm, and this week was no exception. Still, it's nice to have a stable schedule for work. The next day (2 Apr.), I took time off from work to get a cavity filled by the dentist. That work--after more extensive dental work done two weeks before--means my mouth's in good shape for a good while. Right after work Tuesday, I ran the IPMS/St. Louis meeting in Creve Coeur.

Wednesday night (2 Apr.), after an off day from work, I was at One 19 North Tapas and Wine Bar in Kirkwood for the Midtown Mingles Meetup group. About nine of us were there and we had a great time socializing, and munching on tapas dishes. It was my first time in that place and with tapas, and I liked it a lot. Very fine bunch of people to socialize with.

Back to work Thursday (4 Apr.), then off the next day. Early last night, I picked up Rick from the airport. He and my two other brothers will be in town this weekend to help my parents celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. It's a great milestone to reach in this age.

I'm co-hosting Writer's Block later today (10 am PT/Noon CT); here's a link to the show: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/autistic-people-/2013/04/06/writers-block-10am-pstradio-drama-11am-pst.

Later.

After the Snow, Spring (I Hope)

After the big snowfall last Sunday (24 Mar.)--approximately 12 inches (30.5 cm) fell--it was an interesting start to the work week. I was at the auto rental firm branch early on Monday helping remove snow from the vehicles' windows and dealing with a reduced maneuvering space on our lot due to the snow piles. It was most hectic in business to start that day, but we got through it fine. I also worked Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, and having a better time of things as the snow melted.(Is spring really here?) Also on Wednesday, I received my 90-day review from my supervisor and it was very positive. My reliability, hard work, sociability with colleagues, and customer service were cited. Just a bit to work on improving in traffic management, but they are most happy to have me, as I as most happy to be there.

I was in north St. Louis County last night (27 Mar.) for a get together of the Sex Positive St. Louis Meetup, where there was a demonstration of kinky sex items and techniques. I didn't have much interest in this, so I left after about an hour.

I was off work today, and spent some of that time getting my computer tuned up. The technician at Office Depot added memory to my computer, giving it double the previous memory, which is already helping it run faster. Also, he got rid of a few old files, so this computer should be running much smoother from now on.

Back to work tomorrow morning, and I have games on Saturday afternoon-evening. Plus, Easter this Sunday.

Later.

It's Snowing (This Late in March)!

Quite a day here in St. Louis. Since mid-morning, we've had snow falling all day. It looks like we will get up to 6 inches (15.2 cm) by the time this storm ends tonight. My soccer games for late this afternoon have been called off (no repeat of the USA-Costa Rica match last Friday night in Denver), and it will be quite a cleanup job at the car rental firm tomorrow morning.

Speaking of that firm, work has been pretty good of late. Been rather busy, so I'm not sitting around a lot, which is good. I'd rather be busy. It makes the day go faster and I feel more of a sense of worth. A week ago yesterday (16 Mar.), I took a safe driving course at the firm's request, to ensure I would have a good driving record. The four-hour course went well.

That weekend, I officiated games on the Saturday (16 Mar.) and Sunday (17 Mar.). The three games Saturday went well, with no real hitches. The Sunday games were played in the rain (on artificial turf), which really felt cold. The second game was cut short due to lightning in the vicinity. Other than that, no major incidents in those matches.

I was at the dentist's office last Tuesday afternoon (19 Feb.) to get some filings put in and a gap caused by a tooth partially breaking loose filled. I was in the chair for over 1 1/2 hours, but glad to get this taken care of that day. I have an appointment early next month to follow up on this and to fill in one more cavity, and that should take care of things with my teeth.

That night, IPMS/Gateway met at Calvary Presbyterian Church. We had a good turnout for the meeting, which included a demo on seam filling. I had the fellowship hall prepared beforehand and cleaned up afterward.

The next day (20 Mar.), I had to deal with diarrhea at work. I was able to finish up my work schedule and come home, but I had a flight touch of stomach flu that afternoon. Fortunately, I was off the next day and was able to rest up and return for work that Friday morning. Thursday night (21 Mar.) found me at the Missouri Aviation Historical Society's meeting at Creve Coeur Airport, where the 1970 movie "Airport" was screened. I hadn't seen that film in a few years, but I liked it.

Later.

Good Week at Work

I'm off today, but I worked the four previous days (Mon., 11 March through Thu., 14 March) at the car rental firm. This included an all-day session on Monday, plus half days the other three days. Fortunately, there was plenty to do, between cleaning and prepping rental vehicles, picking up and dropping off customers, and getting vehicles to and from our satellite locations. I could have done without the cold weather much of this week, but at least the work days went well.

Earlier today, I watched on TV the Saint Louis University Billikens win their first game in the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament in Brooklyn, New York. SLU beat Charlotte 72-55 in the quarterfinals today, and play in tomorrow's semifinal against the Butler-LaSalle winner. Go Billikens!

Later.

Drawing Blood and Blowing the Whistle

I'm pretty much recovered now from the loss of an hour early this morning with the switch to Daylight Savings Time.

A week ago Thursday (28 Feb.), I was at the Missouri Aviation Historical Society meeting at Creve Coeur Airport, where I took in an interesting presentation on the history of aircraft instruments. I also turned in my article with photos for the society's newsletter. No firm idea when the article will run, though.

The following Saturday (2 March), I co-hosted the monthly program Writer's Block from Naturally Autistic Radio, which is streamed through blogtalkradio.com. Host Tim Pylypiuk and I talked about the writing behind video games--rather out of my depth, but I did my best to go along. We'll have a new episode on Sat., 6 April at 10 am pacific Time (12 pm Central Time; 1800 hrs GMT). I was at the Scott Gallagher Complex in Maryland Heights the next day (3 Mar.) to officiate under 14 boys' soccer games. I was scheduled to run lines on both games, but I was asked to referee the second match, which I did. The games went fine and I really didn't feel as fusty as I feared in my first outdoor matches since last November.

Busy week of work this past week, including pulling in all-day shifts (with a lunch break) on two days. We're had a change in personnel in my branch, so the manager is trying to figure out for myself and my colleagues our schedules. Still, I don't mind the work; a few extra hours means a few extra dollars in my account.

Last Wednesday morning (6 Mar.), I went to a lab to have some blood drawn for tests ordered by my doctor the week before. I don't know the results yet, but I did not have any ill effects from the test.

Yesterday (9 Mar.), after working at the car rental branch that morning, I was at The World Cafe in south St. Louis for the Human Sexuality and Relationships in the 21st Century (HSR21) Meetup. They had a discussion focused on answering questions about sexuality. I could only stay about an hour, as I had to get home and get ready for work that night. At the Soccer Park, I officiated three boys under 12 8v8 games (including one middle). All games went well.

This afternoon, I attended the visitation for Steven Hunsicker, Sr., who died three days ago. His son Steve was my Saint Louis University classmate, and the elder Hunsicker was my dad's colleague at Southwestern Bell Telephone. Steve was very happy to see me and others from our SLU days who came to express their condolences.

Later.

Futsal, Meetups, Work, and Checkup

Last Saturday night (23 Feb.), I refereed three high school boys futsal matches at Christian Academy of Greater St. Louis. The games went well, and were a good end for me to the winter futsal season. I'm back outdoors this Sunday.

The next day found me taking in a pair of Meetups. First was the International Festival at the Maryland Heights Centre, with the Saint Louis Friends Meetup. We took in ethnic food, music and dance, and crafts from several ethnic groups in the area. It was nice, a smaller-scale version of the Festival of Nations every August in St. Louis. That night, I was in Maplewood with several other STL Screeners members watching the Oscars on TV. We shared out opinions of the show, the host, and the Oscar winners. Guessing correctly on one of the categories in the pre-ceremony pool earned me a gift bag that included candy and a DVD.

Back to work on Monday (25 Feb.), and I pulled a full day. (The supervisor asked me late last week if I would, and I said I could.) A bit frantic at times, with plenty of vehicles to prep and customers to pick up or drop off. Somehow, I got through all that OK. Then, I was at Grand Glaize Library for the monthly soccer referee clinic, where I took in presentations on "Why do referees make mistakes" and "Pre-game for assistant referees." Always informative and several referees comments on their experiences (good and bad) in these areas.

On my day off, I wrote an article that is to go into Missouri Aviation Historical Society's newsletter. I'll let you know more once this article is published. I hope to turn that in, with the photos I took two months ago of the subject, to the newsletter editor at the MAHS meeting tomorrow (Thursday) night. I was at the IPMS/Gateway business meeting that night at Marion Morris' house, to plan the March meetings and to discuss our Invitational in September.

Work today was fine. It wasn't too busy, but it sure was depressing to see the snow coming down under the gray sky. I'm glad it's not accumulating; that would be a considerable problem. After getting off work today, I went to a doctor by St. Anthony's Medical Center for a checkup. It went fine; the doctor examined me and said I was in good shape, his assistant cleared out some wax in one ear, and the doctor prescribed some pain reliever for my sore knees. He also asked me to get some blood work done soon, which I plan to do early next week.

I should be co-hosting Writer's Block from Naturally Autistic Radio this Saturday (2 Mar.) at noon Central Time (10 am Pacific Time; 1800 GMT). I haven't received the script yet; I'll send my hosting partner a reminder in a moment. Anyway, I hope you can tune in (live or the archive); details at www.naturallyautistic.com/radio-show.

Later.