Mostly True Tales

Well the Lake and St. Louis got hit hard today, mostly by freezing ice, but supposedly it is going to turn to snow overnight. Here is a shot (courtesy of Transporter) taken from my balcony at the lake early this afternoon.

A lot of people have been calling me about the conditions at the lake, and the highways. I’ll know more tomorrow as I will try to make the drive in the morning.

Well, it’s here, and a little early, the cold. It’s currently 36 degrees outside and dropping fast, by noon it will be well below freezing. To make it worse, it’s raining. This means, it will be utter chaos in St. Louis today.

There is construction going on everywhere in town and the traffic is already a mess, add freezing rain and you have total gridlock. I have found most people in St. Louis have no idea how to drive in bad weather and the stupidity runs a muck on a day like today.

What is bad about this weather, is that fact that it will remain below freezing several days, in fact, there is no end in sight.

I have to drive Sarah to school this morning and pick her up this afternoon, but that will probably be the extent of my driving today.

I’ve got the fire going and it will probably stay going all week, with me and my laptop sitting right here.

They got the shapely bods
They got the Steely Dan T-shirt
And for the coup-de-gras
They’re outrageous

This picture was taken by a friend at a neighborhood birthday party. The girls are performing Karaoke. Can you spot the next American Idol? My money’s on the one in the middle.

Our local elementary school has a few elective after school classes in the fall and then again in the spring. The primary purpose of these classes is to give the working parents more time to be at work, but the secondary purpose is to provide a safe and productive environment, with activities that interest the children and hopefully broaden their horizons.

These classes can range from Tae Kwon Do, to jewelry making, and take place once a week for a 6 or 8 week period, twice a year.

This fall, Sarah wanted to take, Circus Skills. I didn’t really know what to make of it, but, I figured it was show business, anything, that helps her do anything, in front of a crowd, builds self-confidence. I’m OK with that.

The night before the last session of Circus Skills, Sarah informs / asks Marcia and I, the class is planning to perform a demonstration of what they have learned. Would we like to attend?

There are so many of these events I can’t attend, so whenever something like this comes up and I can do it, it’s a no brain-er.

“Of course Darling, I wouldn’t miss it for the World.”

I don’t know why I was surprised or impressed. It’s always the same with my kids, I should know better by now, they are Superstars, they are Warriors, they conquer everything in their path.

The teacher talked a little about each kid, but when he came to Sarah, he made the comment, “One person in a hundred will have a natural skill and ability for Juggling, in this group, Sarah is the one.”

I don’t know how I got so lucky. I have good kids, beyond good, great kids. Not only are they good, they’re good at being good.

So, the Circus Skills demonstration was a lot more enjoyable than I expected. I had my camera and shot my usual 4 or 5 hundreds pictures.

You can view the pictures on my fickr account here, or watch a quick movie I made from the pictures set to music.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-394893879494335922&hl=en]

Enjoy!

If you’re reading this, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. The Amazings went over to Mama Amazing’s house for our Thanksgiving lunch, followed by my Brother-in-law’s house for Thanksgiving dinner.

Unfortunatly, lunch was a little late due to some technical issues, but fortunatly, so was dinner. There is no doubt in my mind, I ate more on Thanksgiving day, than any other day so far this year.

I’m thankful for a lot of things, I hope you are too. I think it’s good to reflect a little on the many things we have to be thankful for and yet, often take for granted.

Thanksgiving always kicks off what I call the “golden hour” of the year, if that makes any sense. The golden hour, is the last push in the annual marathon of life, the final sprint. It’s a time to try harder, work harder, re-evaluate, self-evaluate, and re-commit. The end of the year is running at you, and it will be here faster than you can imagine. How fast? Well, that depends on how old you are. The older you are, the faster it will be here. Sometimes it can be a little depressing, but the secret to managing that feeling is, work harder.

Decide what you are NOT thankful for, perhaps even a little resentful of, and change it. Now is the time to finish off your old goals and plan next years accomplishments.

Good luck to you, and enjoy the “golden hour.”