The Festival of Nations, and a Hospital Visit

After much work at the auto rental branch last Friday (28 August) and Saturday morning, I was off to Tower Grove Park in St. Louis. There, I pulled the first of two volunteer shifts with the International Institute's Festival of Nations, a large multi-cultural fair. That Saturday, I staffed a drinks booth and was busy getting water, sodas, and beer to our customers, as well as taking customers' money (and getting them change as needed), and restocking the drinks at our booth. It was a rather busy stint of about three hours, but we got it done. I got some dinner from a Senegalese food booth, and toured the grounds before going to my car and going home.

The next morning, I was back at the Festival, where this time I helped staff a souvenir booth for some three hours. I helped with various Festival items--T-shirts, water cups, carry bags, cookbooks, and pins--that customers asked for. This also went well and I treated myself to lunch from Brazilian and Thai food booths. Overall, the Festival of Nations went very well as far as I was concerned. More info here: http://www.festivalofnationsstl.org/.

Also over the weekend, I accepted the position as editor of Middle Marker, the member newsletter of the Missouri Aviation Historical Society. I will be in charge of getting our newsletter back on track (not having published since early this year). It's quite a bit to do, but I believe I can do it. More on this group here: http://moavhist.org/.

Back to work on Monday morning (31 August), we had plenty of business--and plenty of vehicles to prep. Plus, the temperatures and the humidity had both risen over the week before, so it was a bit of a challenge to stay hydrated and cool. Still, I got through the work week just fine, and so did our branch.

After work Tuesday, I was at Mark Twain Hobby Center (http://www.hobby1.com/home.php) for the IPMS/St. Louis meeting. We had a fascinating demo on using pigments in armor modeling, as Brent Avants showed the products and techniques used for realistic weathered finishes. There were five others (including myself) at the meeting, and we all learned something useful from Avants' demo. More on the club here: http://www.ipms-stlouis.com/. By the way, the next club meeting will be Tue., 6 October at 7:00 pm at Mark Twain Hobby Center's meeting room.

The next morning (2 September), I began test preps in earnest for the colonoscopy I was scheduled to undergo today. (I began some early preps one week ago.) This was a procedure my primary care physician requested a few weeks ago. Yesterday, I went with a liquid diet all day, plus later in the day and night drinking a mix of laxative powder and sports drink. This did have the desired effect of loosening my bowels. Fortunately, my colleagues at work were most understanding and let me off early that day. (Besides, things were well in hand at my end of the business.)

I finished the prep early this morning and my Mom drove me to St. Anthony's Medical Center in south St. Louis County (http://stanthonysmedcenter.com/). After admission, I stripped down to the gown and I was prepared for the procedure before doing into the room. The doctor and his assistants had me put under anesthesia and I was soon asleep, before the procedure was performed. I woke up about one hour later, a bit groggy but fine. The doctor gave me most welcome news, in that he did not find any polyps associated with possible cancer in my colon. After a few minutes, I dressed and was taken to my Mom's car, where she drove me to a nearby Saint Louis Bread Co. (https://www.panerabread.com/en-us/home.html/) for lunch. I rested at home much of today (it was my off day from work, anyway), and feel better now. I'll be back to work bright and early tomorrow.

This Saturday, I co-host Writer's Block, the monthly online radio show from ANCA Radio Shows, which is returning after a summer break. Host Tim Pylypiuk and I will discuss using a different language in writing, such as in the works "A Clockwork Orange" and "Dune." The show airs live this Saturday at Noon, Central Time 910:00 am, Pacific Time; 1800 hours GMT), and will be immediately archived for download. You can get more info here: http://www.naturallyautistic.com/radiotv-oline/, and http://my.blogtalkradio.com/autistic-people-lat. Hope you can tune in.

A couple of reminders before I go. First, the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) will bring its CAF AirPower History Tour to Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield next week (9-13 September). This tour will include "Fifi," the world's only flying B-29 Superfortress, and other aircraft. Details here: http://www.airpowersquadron.org/#!st-louis-mo-/caf. More on this in my next post.

Second, next Saturday (12 September) is the IPMS Region 5 Contest, hosted by IPMS/Gateway at the Holiday Inn St. Louis SW--Route66 in Sunset Hills. It opens at 9:00 am, with contest entries accepted until 1:00 pm, and awards announced around 3:00 pm. Admission is $3 for touring the show, and $10 to also enter the model contest. Children 14 and under are free with an adult. More info here: http://www.ipms-gateway.com/2015-Region5/IPMS-region5-2015contest.html.

Later.

Not a Bad Week

It was rather pleasant this week, with mild (for August) temperatures making the days go easier. Plenty of work so far at the car rental branch, with many vehicles to prep for rental.

Off early on Tuesday (25 August), as I'm working this Saturday morning, I chilled out at home. After supper, I traveled with two clubmates to Doug Barton's house in Foristell for this month's IPMS/Gateway business meeting. We planned the September general meeting and discussed the upcoming Region 5 Contest on 12 September. Preparations for that show are going well. I am looking forward to that event. More on the club and the regional here: http://ipms-gateway.com.

Off work today, I got my hair cut and did a bit of shopping. The latter included a nice new external hard drive for my computer. That will make it easier with all the images I have and will have. I was also put in contact with a local newspaper reporter wanting to do a story on the IPMS Regional Contest next month. It will be great to get some more publicity for this event.

I also spent some time this week editing a few more items for the Fall issue of Naturally Autistic magazine, due out in early October. I had some glitches in getting some stories downloaded from email to edit, but once that was overcome, the editing went well. More on the magazine here: http://www.naturallyautistic.com.

This weekend after work, I'll be a volunteer at the International Institute's Festival of Nations, a multi-cultural celebration in St. Louis' Tower Grove Park. I'll help staff a drinks booth on Saturday and a souvenir stand on Sunday. Hope to see you there! More at: http://www.festivalofnationsstl.org/.

Later.

Work, Meetings, and A Thrilling Match

Work continues to go well, and keeping me busy. A week ago Saturday (15 August), I stayed nearly an hour over our closing time to help our assistant manager get some last minute customers into vehicles. It was a lot of effort with only two of us in the branch that day, but we got the customers taken care of, and that's the important part.

After that, I grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed to Creve Coeur Airport for the Missouri Aviation Historical Society's meeting, held on a special day. This was to accommodate the guest speaker, John Roper, co-author of the book "Kansas City B-25 Factory." It tells of the factory in Kansas City that produced B-25 Mitchell medium bombers during World War II. I missed Roper's presentation, due to being held over at work, but I did catch the screening of the movie "Catch-22" that followed the talk. I had never seen that movie before in its entirety and thought it was pretty good. More on that meeting and the group here: http://moavhist.org/.

After work Tuesday (18 August), I headed right for Calvary Presbyterian Church in Mehlville for the IPMS/Gateway meeting. I opened the fellowship hall up and helped get it set up for the meeting, which featured a demo on judging ships and figures. We also had another very nice turnout for the Model of the Month "Beauty Contest," plus one more plug for the Region 5 Convention we're hosting on 12 September. More on the club here: http://www.ipms-gateway.com/.

Two days later, I was off work and headed for Lambert-St. Louis International Airport to pick up my Mom, who was flying back from Los Angeles. She spent two weeks with my brother Doug, his wife Helen, and their twin boys born over four months ago. Before arriving at the airport, I said hello to a colleague now working at our firm's Airport location and shopped at the Boeing Store near the airport. After arriving at the airport, I read on the monitors that Mom's flight was delayed, so I headed to lunch at a fast food restaurant and visited some stores before returning to Lambert. Mom's flight arrived and she was there for me to welcome her home. After getting her baggage, I drove Mom home.

That night, I was at Worldwide Technology Soccer Park for Saint Louis FC's match against Charleston Battery. This was the return fixture, as both teams played to a 1-1 draw in Charleston the previous Saturday. Charleston went up 2-0 scoring in the first 18 minutes of the match before Saint Louis FC pulled one back later in the first half. Saint Louis FC leveled it seven minutes from time, and won it in second half stoppage time off a free kick. I was seated as usual near the St. Louigans supporters group and we went nuts over that winning goal at the death. Right after the match, I joined other fans on the pitch celebrating the win before walking over to catch the shuttle bus back to Smugala's Pizza Pub. Quite a game. You can read more here: http://saintlouisfc.com/landing/index. Also, http://stlouligans.com/.

Next weekend, I'll be at Tower Grove Park in St. Louis to help out at the Festival of Nations, a multicultural celebration. Hope you can come. Here's their website: http://www.festivalofnationsstl.org/.

Later.

Good Week So Far

This week has going well for me. Work has been busy at the car rental firm, but we're working hard to keep our customers satisfied.

Mom is doing well in Los Angeles, visiting my brother Doug and his twin boys. I'm keeping things running here at home. Just mowed the front lawn.

Earlier tonight, I went to dinner at Katie's Pizza & Pasta Osteria, in Rock Hill, Missouri. I've long been wanting to try this restaurant, and am very glad I did. I enjoyed a Kup's Egg Pizza, which features egg, sausage, and mushrooms. A very tasty meal, washed down with a fine local beer. As I left the restaurant, I chatted briefly with the owner, Katie Lee Collier, and her husband, Ted Collier. I let Katie know how much I enjoyed the meal and she was most appreciative of my kind words. I definitely recommend this restaurant. You can read more on it on their website: http://www.katiespizzaandpasta.com/.

After I work this Saturday morning, I head to Creve Coeur Airport for the Missouri Aviation Historical Society's meeting. They will have a speaker talking about production of B-25 Mitchell medium bombers in Kansas City during World War II, followed by a screening of the movie "Catch-22." More on this group here: http://moavhist.org/.

Later.

Work, Scale Modeling, Soccer, and Seeing Mom Off

The weather is typical for St. Louis this time of year--hot and humid. Still, I carry on with everything. That includes work at the car rental branch, which has been steady busy of late with vacation travelers and business customers in the mix (along with those needing loaner cars). This past week our branch said goodbye to two management trainees: Nick, who's off to help manage the Cape Girardeau branch, and Mel, who's going up the street to our Kirkwood branch. I wished them all the best in their new positions.

Following work last Saturday morning (1 Aug.), I drove to Bridgeton for a working meeting of the St. Louis Space Frontier Meetup group. I was late, but got into the meeting as members discussed some business. This included membership rates and structure, a website for our group, and upcoming events. I found it very interesting, and hope to contribute to this group in the coming months. This group is on Meetup here: http://www.meetup.com/Saint-Louis-Space-Frontier-Meetup/.

After work last Tuesday (4 Aug.), I went to Mark Twain Hobby Center in St. Charles for the IPMS/St. Louis meeting. I gave my colleagues a report on the IPMS/USA National Convention in Columbus. One of the attendees offered to give a demonstration on using pigments to weather models and will do so at next month's meeting (1 Sept.). More info on this group here: http://www.ipms-stlouis.com/.

My mother departed for Los Angeles this past Wednesday, visiting my brother Doug, his wife Helen, and their twin sons. She's be with them for about two weeks. I'm sure mom is so excited seeing her latest grandchildren.

Last night, I went to Smugala's Pizza Pub in Sunset Hills for a beer before hopping on the Pub2Park bus for Worldwide Technology Soccer Park in Fenton. There, I cheered on Saint Louis FC against FC Montreal. Despite several good chances in front of a record crowd of 5,321 fans, Saint Louis went down to defeat, 3-1. Before the match, I did stop by the Mission Taco Truck in the tailgate area for dinner (which was good). Saint Louis FC has some great support. I just wished the team would be doing better on the pitch. We'll see with their upcoming fixtures against Charleston Battery (away this Saturday, home five days later). More on the club here: http://saintlouisfc.com/landing/index.

Later.

Back to High Heat After My Columbus Trip

Last Friday (24 July) was a busy day and night for me at the International Plastic Modelers' Society/USA (IPMS/USA) National Convention in Columbus, Ohio. After waking up early in my hotel (Red Roof Inn in Grove City), I drove to the parking garage at the Columbus Convention Center, when walked to the Hyatt Regency next door where the convention was held. I pulled a two hour volunteer stint as a vendor room checkpoint, making sure only registrants and paid visitors entered the room. No problems here. Then, I attended a seminar for On the Job Trainee (OJT) contest judges. There were about 20 of us there learning about judging contest entries, and I felt that I could be an effective judge.

After grabbing lunch in the Convention Center's food court and browsing in the contest room, I then pulled another vendor room checkpoint stint, followed by attending a seminar on advanced concepts for US Army Air Corps (USAAC)/US Army Air Forces (USAAF) aircraft of the late 1930s and early 1940s. I found that most interesting, as I found out about concepts I had never heard of before.

I browsed some more among the vendors and got a dinner at the food court, then I reported to the judges' meeting. There were at least 150 judges in the room, as the head of IPMS/USA's national contest committee briefed us on what to look for in the contest entries and how to record the results for each category. Afterward, I waited with other aircraft judges to hear my name called to join a judging team as an OJT. My name was called and joined the other three judges on a team as we walked to the contest room. Whatever nerves I felt going in soon went away as our team found the category we were to judge (157: Civil, Sport, Racing, and Air Taxis, 1/144 and 1/72. There were 15 contest entries we judged, one by one, and I recorded our assessments of the strong and weak points of each entry, plus contributing my thoughts about each model. We decided after much careful thought on the first, second, and third places and I recorded those on the sheet that was turned into the contest registrar. It took us about 2.25 hours for us to judge this category.

After that, we waiting until all the aircraft categories were judged and then we considered the candidates for Best Aircraft. After examining several candidates, we decided on a exquisite P-47 Thunderbolt. We left the contest room just over four hours after I entered it to help judge. It was a good experience and I would very much like to judge again at future IPMS/USA National Conventions. I drove back to the hotel and turned in for the night.

The next morning, I returned to the convention, where I did one more visit of the contest and vendor rooms, ran one more checkpoint stint, and took in a seminar on real space modeling run by my friend and former IPMS/Gateway colleague Mike Mackowski. I went to eat dinner in the food court while the banquet took place, chatting with two modelers from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Then, I went to the banquet room for the announcements. The contest chairman thanked his staff for all their hard work, and several national honors were announced. The folks from Columbia, South Carolina pitched the 2016 National Convention they are hosting, and Omaha, Nebraska was announced as 2017's host. The contest results were announced, with photos of the models shown on screens in the hall.

After the ceremony, the attendees headed to the contest room to look over the contest winners and to pick up your models. I packed up my four contest entries (neither of which won), and chatted with a few people I knew before I left the contest room and went to my car.

By the way, there were 847 registrants at this year's convention and 2431 contest entries. (With multiple models in a few entries, the total models present was 2780.) More on the convention and IPMS/USA here: http://ipmsusa.org/.

I woke up early Sunday morning (26 July, packed up my things in my rental car, and checked out of the hotel. I then drove into Columbus for breakfast at a Panera Bread Co. restaurant with my high school classmate Mike Anderson, who lives in nearby Pickrington. We chatted for over an hour, getting caught up on things. Then, I began my long trip back to St. Louis. After stops for fuel, lunch, and personal breaks, I got into Ellisville late that afternoon. I drove to the car rental branch, where my car was parked, took my things from the rental car and loaded them into my car, then parked the rental car by the branch and put the keys in the drop box before driving home to unpack.

I was back at work early the next morning, and didn't miss a beat. I helped keep things going well, despite the heat early this week. It got up to 100 degrees F (38 degrees C), with the heat index making it feel like 115 degrees F (46 degrees C). I did my best to stay cool and hydrated, with the encouragement of the branch management. At least it got a bit cooler the past couple of days, so that's an improvement.

Since I am working this Saturday, I flexed out Tuesday afternoon (28 July), but returned to the area after business hours to join in a happy hour celebrating the departure of our intern Kate, who's heading back to college this fall. Power outage at the original venue meant we headed to another one, but it was crowded. Then, we found the power was back on at the original venue, so we headed back there. However, I had to leave to head to the IPMS/Gateway business meeting, so I had to say goodbye to Kate then and there. The business meeting was a bust, though, as only four of us were there and that was not a quorum.

Off work today, I cut the grass at my mother's house, shopped for some new work shoes, and ran off some flyers for the Region 5 Convention IPMS/Gateway hosts on 12 September in Sunset Hills. More info here: http://www.ipms-gateway.com/.

Later.

In Columbus for Scale Modeling's Big Show

After working 1 1/2 days early in the week, I flexed out early on Tuesday (21 July), got my rental car from the branch, and made final preparations for my trip to this year's International Plastic Modelers' Society/USA (IPMS/USA) National Convention in Columbus, Ohio. First, I opened up the fellowship hall at Calvary Presbyterian Church for the IPMS/Gateway meeting. It was a nice meeting with another great turnout of models for the monthly beauty contest (38 total), plus a car model judging seminar. Nice meeting. For more on this club, visit: http://ipms-gateway.com.

Early the next morning, I got into my rental car and hit the road for Columbus. It was about 7 hours of driving time, not counting stops for fuel and lunch when I arrived at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Columbus, near the Convention Center. I got registered for the convention, entered my four models in the contest, and began making the rounds of the vendors set up for this year's convention. I saw a few people I know from St. Louis and from elsewhere. I then checked into my hotel, located south of the Hyatt Regency, then went to dinner at Schmidt's Sausage Haus und Restaurant, a Columbus institution. It was a long wait to get a table (over an hour), but once I was seated, I had a great dinner. After a cup of potato salad, I enjoyed Sauerbraten with kraut, applesauce, small potato pancakes, and a roll. All washed down with a glass of good German beer. To top that off, I had a chocolate creme puff. One of the best dinners I have ever had anywhere (outside home, of course). Definitely check out Schmidt's when your in Columbus. Their website is: http://www.schmidthaus.com.

This morning, after a light complementary breakfast at the hotel, I drove to the Hyatt Regency for the big tour today. I joined with others aboard two motor coaches for a trip west to the National Museum of the US Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. Our group first went to the Presidential and Research & Development hangars, which are separate from the museum complex, to see the aircraft and other artifacts there. After about an hour, we went back on the buses to the museum itself, and spent nearly 5 hours going through the three display hangars full of aircraft and other artifacts. I snapped away with my cellphone camera, taking over 900 images at the museum. Good thing I had a larger in my phone, plus a generous battery pack to recharge my phone. I also took up an offer and signed up as a Friend of the museum, and got discounts on merchandise in the souvenir shop and a snack in the cafe. A great time. I had last visited this museum 39 years ago, on a family trip, but this museum has changed beyond all recognition. A must see for aerospace fans. The museum's website is: http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/.

We got back on the coaches for the trip back to the Hyatt Regency in Columbus--tired, but very happy. Back at the convention site, I visited a few more vendors that had set up after I had left yesterday, plus spent time in the contest room. It was filling up with more contest models. I also volunteered to be an On the Job Trainee (OJT) judge for the contest, when judging occurs tomorrow (Friday) night. I'm working as a vendor room checkpoint in the morning, then can attend the OJT seminar. I may take in other seminars that afternoon. More info on the convention here: http://ipmsusa2015.com/.

Later.