Well, the inevitable happened - our failing air conditioner finally stopped working. Oh, the motor still goes and goes but we have no cool air. And, of course, it went down on a weekend.....a rather warm September weekend. I have the three house fans blowing and the attic fan going full blast and so at least the air is moving around in the house. It also cools off very nicely at night so a comfortable sleep is attainable. I am calling the HVAC company tomorrow....
The week started with Labor Day and a backyard pancake breakfast with our next-door neighbors, Sergio, Enedina and their three children; Edwin (18), Sergio Jr. (14), and Giselle (10). Both Sergio and Enedina work at the same restaurant so getting them off together is practically impossible. Happily, they both had Labor Day off. They are a lovely family and a great example of hard workers. After lunch and a nap, Steve and I drove to Ballwin to join the Southerlands at their neighborhood pool for one last swim of the summer. Then we returned to their house for a cookout. Beckie and Micah joined us for that.
I managed to sneak in quick piano lessons with the three oldest (poor Quinn was under the impression that he had only one song to practice so I needed to fix that!). Our friend, Elizabeth Crippen, joined us for the cookout because she and Steve and I had an appointment at the temple the next morning at 11:00 so she stayed with us overnight so she wouldn't have to wake up so early and drive all the way from Columbia on Tuesday. After our temple visit, we grabbed lunch at a nearby McAlisters Deli, took care of my St. Louis Civic Orchestra mail duties (collect from P.O. Box and deliver to the treasurer), and we were back home by about 2:30. Elizabeth left for home shortly thereafter. Beckie came for dinner (wow, two nights in a row) and then we three (Steve, Beckie, and I) piled ourselves, our overnight luggage, and the doggies into her car and we also drove to Columbia. We took the dogs to Melanie to watch and then we went to Steven and Tamara's because Wednesday was.......Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony day! Waaaay back when Derek Jeter retired, Steve, Beckie, Steven, and Elise all agreed that we needed to drive to Cooperstown for his induction ceremony year. Only, that year was 2020 when no one was having any kind of ceremonies. Fast forward to this year and initially, the ceremony was just going to be virtual...until about six weeks ago when they decided to allow the public to attend. By then, however, there was no way that our family could muster the funds, the time off, the rental car, the hotel to drive to the real thing. So, we all gathered in Steven's basement and watched the ceremony on television. Elise and Steven took the day off. Beckie, who works remotely, was able to log in and work for most of the day. I even managed to go down to Ethan Barner's home to give him an in-person cello lesson. But, the main event was the ceremony. And, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it even though I am not the baseball buff like most of the family. We ate ballpark type food for lunch and Elise baked a batch of gluten free sugar cookies and decorated them appropriately.
Thursday and Friday we played catch-up (grocery shopping, cleaning, yard work, and two random Zoom meetings Thursday night) since we were completely out of our routine for the first three days of the week. These last few days have been a bonus for seeing our children. Elise came into town Thursday night to dog-sit for Kyle and Micah over the weekend. Beckie and the boys caught the train to Chicago Friday morning to attend a friend's wedding and they will arrive home this evening. So, Elise has joined us for dinner Friday and Saturday and hopefully tonight as we will be eating out on our shady deck which is much cooler than the house right now.
Saturday morning, after two mulch site runs, Steve and I finished filling in the back gate driveway (see last blog). We also took a longer-than-usual bike ride to explore some of the bike trails around our part of town. Saint Louis Greenway extends all around the city and eventually we hope to try out many of the routes when the weather becomes more favorable. I glazed my fired pottery in the afternoon and then went to a quartet rehearsal. We have joined forces with a local saxophonist (Elke) on a quintet and the performance is a week from today (Sunday). It is kind of an ugly musical work, very contemporary, and quite challenging for the saxophonist so I will be glad to be over it. Our rehearsal location on Saturday was at Elke's husband's saxophone shop called SaxQuest located in the heart of the Cherokee Street Antique district and it was an amazing venue. Her husband buys, restores, repairs everything saxophone. The building itself is over a hundred years old. All the display cabinets are beautiful antiques. And he has a museum upstairs filled with more saxophones than I have ever seen. He has one gorgeous cabinet filled with original instruments made by Adolph Sax himself! Incredible. I am sorry I didn't take a photo! But, I will go back soon and drag Beckie with me since she used to play the also saxophone.
So, that about wraps up the week.
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