Stan "The Man" Musial--Let's Name a Bridge

I love Stan Musial even though his Cardinals career was long over long before I became part of Cardinals Nation.  Yet, I love him.  I can't remember who said it, but this is the reason.  He played in St. Louis and he stayed in St. Louis.  He didn't thumb his nose at the city and fans that adored him, like some well-known Cardinals have done.  Even Ozzie, who played here and stayed here, let his squabble with Tony LaRussa come between him and the fans.  One of the local sportscasters told a story yesterday about one time when Stan and his partner in their restaurant were in the back room and the phone rang.  The partner answered it and it was Lil and she was clearly NOT happy.  The partner handed the phone to Stan and only heard that half of the conversation, which was all, "Yes Dear, yes dear, yes dear."  Stan hung up and told his partner, "I guess I told her, didn't I?"  What a guy.

You may or may not know that "they" are building a new bridge across the Mississippi River that will be the I-70 bridge through St. Louis, crossing a few miles north of where I-70 crosses now.  There's been a lot of posturing and blah-blah-blahing about what to name the bridge.  (God forbid it's called the I-70 bridge!)  It has to be named AFTER someone.  Most of the names already suggested have been politicians' names, surprise surprise.  Adding to the kerfuffle is that the bridge is being built with money from Illinois AND Missouri, so both governments have to agree on a name.  You can guess how smoothly THAT's going.  So, what about naming it after one of the most beloved baseball players from ANY team?  Who could argue with that?  (Rhetorical question, don't tell me if you think of someone.)

There's a petition going around, I think started by the media monster KMOX, to go to the governors of each state, requesting that the new bridge be named for Stan the Man.  Please consider going to the website and casting your opinion.  If you're, as they say, not from around here, please feel free to pass along the information to baseball fans you know where you are.

Stan Musial not only united both sides of St. Louis Metro area but united the nation with his respect for all and kindness to others.  He is a role model for all.  Daily commuters and occasional travelers would do well to remember these values (honesty, integrity, respect) that Stan lived his life by as these drivers traverse this bridge.  It's right that this honor should be given to someone who earned it by living his life the right way and not due to political reasons or merely because someone is a politician.  Mr. Musial will be remembered long after most politicians are long forgotten.

Let's all sign this petition for the new bridge:
http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/kmox-petition-to-name-new-mississippi-bridge-in-stan-musials-honor/

KMOX Petition to Name New Mississippi Bridge in Stan Musial’s Honor - CBS St. Louis

stlouis.cbslocal.com

The new Mississippi River Bridge is still nameless, although much of Cardinal Nation agrees naming it after Stan Musial would be a great way to honor the beloved baseball player. READ MORE > Do you [...]

or
www.kmox.com/stan

And just added via the Cardinals Rally Squirrel Facebook page:

http://blues.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=652401
Blues to Honor Musial at Sunday's Game

Players will wear Musial 6 jerseys during warmups, which will be auctioned

Friday, 01.25.2013 / 10:57 AM /

The St. Louis Blues will honor Stan "The Man" Musial before the Jan. 27 game at Scottrade Center.

All players will be wearing Blues jerseys with "Musial" and "No. 6" during pregame warmups. Jerseys will be autographed by each player and auctioned.

Proceeds from the auction will benefit Cardinals Care and the St. Louis Blues 14 Fund.

The Blues will host the Minnesota Wild at Scottrade Center on Sunday at 7 p.m. Warmups begin at 6:30 p.m. All fans in attendance will also receive a Magnet Schedule courtesy of Pepsi.

Bucket List

First of all, I hate that term, bucket list.  How did that become so popular?  Things to do before you "kick the bucket."  Please.  I mean really.

I subscribed to Rachel Ray's magazine mostly because I had some bonus points from something else I bought.  It's mostly too frou-frou for me; I mean, who keeps oak bark twigs or eggplant root just lying around the pantry?  Or else every recipe involves about 256 steps.  Who has time for that?  Well, maybe Martha Stewart.

But the most recent issue has a bucket list challenge.  I've actually done a lot of these things and other interesting things in my life.  Get wet at Niagra.  Check.  Jumped out of an airplane.  Check.  Driven through a redwood.  Check.  What else is on Rachel's list?  See Alaska's Northern Lights.  I would check except it was overcast every night I was in Alaska.  And Manitoba.  Eat a fish you've caught yourself.  Visit North Pole, Alaska.  Take a bite out of Route 66.  Have a drink at a hidden bar.  Check check check and check.  Go on a pot sticker crawl in San Francisco's Chinatown.  Semi-check.  Rachel Ray recommends three restaurants for awesome pot stickers in San Francisco's Chinatown.  I love pot stickers and I love San Francisco's Chinatown.  I may have to make a trip to combine both.  I've been to or through all 50 states, visited eight foreign countries on three continents.  I've had awesome corn soup at a Chinese restaurant in Winnepeg.  I've see polar bears close up in Churchill, Manitoba.  I've stood at the highest point in North America in Barrow, Alaska.  I've stood at the westernmost point of England in Lizard and the southernmost point in Land's End.  I've straddled the prime meridian in Greenwich, England.  I rode a camel in Africa.  I got sunburned in Spain, where I also rode a burrow.  I've swum in the Pacific Ocean (Hawaiian side) and both sides of the Atlantic.

There are still things that I want to do before I die, though.  I've wanted to do these things for a very long time.  (I refuse to call it a bucket list.)  And I've told very few people.  Before now.  I don't know why--probably from some misplaced sense of fear of mockery leftover from high school.

I remember having four significant things on my "Someday List".  That's what I call it.  As in, "Someday, I'm going to..."  I can't remember one of them now, so I guess it wasn't so important.

1.  Learn to blow glass.  I've always liked those frilly, fancy knick-knacks that they sell at the mall and tourist-y places like Old Tucson.  I had almost given up on this dream/goal because blowing glass is very hot work, and heat is not friends with multiple sclerosis.  But I've found out there are sort of at-home kits that use propane that maybe I can look into.  And there's a glass gallery right here in River City and a friend of mine blows there.  Maybe I'll get to do some yet!

2.  Play the marimba.  When I was a preschooler, my babysitter was my "third grandmother."  I even called her Grandma Olsen.  She had a marimba, and when she played it, it was like an angel choir.  It was even more special because we kids (her real grandchildren and I) knew it was not a toy and we were not allowed to touch it.  That same marimba belongs to Grandma Olsen's daughter now, who still plays it in church some day.  I've offered to buy it from her when she doesn't want it anymore.  She will entertain the idea if none of her children or grandchildren wants it.  I'm counting on them not wanting it.

3.  Have a wax portrait of myself at Madame Tussaud's.  (They don't call them statues.)  I LOVE wax museums, ever since we went to one in Washington, DC, in 1965 as part of our World's Fair vacation.  Madame Tussaud's is the best, and it's on my must-do list every time I go to London.  Or New York.  Okay, so haven't done anything splashy enough to warrant a likeness in wax in the best museum ev-ah.  Yet. 

I'm Baaaack!!

I've been neglecting you, my dear blog.  Well, that has to change.  I'm reminded, however, about a friend of mine.  I guess former friend since I haven't heard from him in a very long time and my calls, emails, and letters have gone unanswered. 

When I first moved here, I went to some kind of hangar party to meet some of the aviation community.  I met another pilot that I became friends with before I knew he was a big-time, well-known, local radio personality.  We had an on-again, off-again relationship for many years.  (I guess we're in the off-again stage.)  It came as a big shock to me and bigger shock to him when his contract was not renewed one year.  He became the program director at an oldies station until that station changed format and he was again out of a job.  He eventually ended up in talk radio.  I remember the time I talked to him not long after that gig started and he revealed that "to be in talk radio, it turns out you have to have something to talk about." 

I have a blog; it turns out I have to have something to blog about.

Judging by my grade school teachers' reports to my parents, talking was never my problem.  Having something to talk about, that is.  It was a problem because I did so much of it in class. 

Talking, blogging.  Shouldn't be a problem.  So here I go.  (I still can't figure out how to add a picture, though.)

It's a new year; it's a traditional time to make a resolutions.  I don’t want to make it a resolution, but it's a new year, a new start, and a good time to start doing new things.

Speaking of new year, new start, and start doing things right, this is what happened last year right about this time:

I'd been working part time at the airport administrative office for about a year.  My primary duty is mind-numbling boring, so I welcome any change of scenery.  One such change is amassing the monthly operations report, which includes information on aircraft movements and aviation fuel bought and sold at the airport.  The services on the airport that vend fuel report (to me) how many gallons they bought during the month and how many gallons they sold to the public.  Last January, the report for December from one company indicated zero gallons of regular (non-jet) fuel sold.  That seemed highly unlikely to me, so I emailed the office manager of the operator to question it.  His answer was that there was fuel in the tank left from November, so they didn't buy any during December.  Okay.  I emailed him again.  Same result.  We emailed back and forth a couple times (it IS the 21st century method of communication after all) before I finally picked up the phone.  We had the same conversation until he finally said, "I was told the numbers are always the same."  In a flash, I glanced at the "fuel purchased" column (which is not a number I deal with) and flipped through the previous few months' reports.  Sure enough, the number in the "fuel purchased" column was always the same as the number in the "fuel sold" column.  Now, I realize that the coincidence of selling EXACTLY the same amount of fuel that was purchased might happen one month in a decade, don't you think anyone in about third grade would know that it doesn't make sense for these amounts to be the same?  I explained the difference between "buying" a supply and "selling" gallons at a time to customers and why it's unlikely to be the same every month.  He got really defensive, pointing out that he was told to do it that way four years ago when he started the job and he's "always done it that way."  Squelching a heavy sigh, I said, "Well, it's a new year, new management [there], a new administrative assistant [me], so let's just draw the line and start right now with doing it the right way."   A new year is a good time to make everything fresh and new.  I guess the new management felt the same way because there was a new office manager sending me the numbers the following month!

This new year, someone put a picture on Facebook (I have no idea where it originated) of a Mason jar filled with scraps of paper and the caption of, "This January, why not start the year with an empty jar and fill it with notes about good things that happen.  Then, on New Years Eve, empty it and see what awesome stuff happened that year."  And this new year, we're going to do this at our house.  I don't know about the guys, but I've already put THREE things in the jar!  J  I think this is very cool.  Plus, it'll give us something good to do while we're waiting for midnight so we can take our sip of champagne before heading to bed at 12:01. 

Oh, and according to Firestone, it's also time for new struts and new anti-sway bar and timing belt in my little orange car, new shocks in the truck, and new brakes in the HHR.  At least our new house has a garage where Gary can do the work

Happy NEW year to us.