Jar of Goodness 12.11.22: New Car!

. . . The weekly virtual “gratitude jar.”

This week, I’m expressing thanks for my new car! (Yeah, finally!)

I’ve talked about this already, but here it is in a nutshell: My 2003 Honda Civic gave up the ghost last June. At first, we considered getting a used car, at least to tide us over, but we discovered used cars are costing about as much as new ones, but with tens of thousands of miles, sketchy Carfax reports, and all kinds of signs of poor car care.

The problem with buying a new car is that they aren’t available. You have to order them, pay a deposit, and wait . . . for months.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Daniel Neman described his recent, 2022, pandemic-complicated car-buying experience, that was very similar to ours, though he started off looking for a new car and ended up shopping for used. Also, he was able to find more humor in his experience, which makes his editorial worth reading.

I won’t go into too much detail about what it’s like not having a car to drive around. I know it’s a “first world problem” and I’m not complaining. But it was mighty inconvenient, and a huge eye-opener, to not be able to just, well, go wherever I wanted whenever I wanted. Yes, we have another vehicle, but it’s Sue’s 1994 Ranger, and it has manual transmission (I mean, why should I learn now?), and we wanted to drive it only for short distances. So, Sue and I went everywhere together, and Sue drove. Usually, I’m the driver, because her truck is older, and I rather like driving, and the sedan is usually more pleasant that riding around in the big, bumpy pickup.

Anyway, I got the call from the dealer on December 1: the car had arrived! Yippee! And we drove to St. Louis (borrowing my mom and dad’s car) on Monday, December 5 to pick it up. Yay for Mungenast St. Louis Honda!

Fun fact: Mungenast Honda isn’t very far south of Kirkwood, where we go to get our international groceries and where we’ve been finding good wines recently. It’s even on the same road (Kirkwood/Lingbergh). My, how convenient for us!

The saga isn’t entirely over; I still need to transfer the license from the old car and get rid of the old car, get the deposit back from dealer 2, who was unable to fulfill the order before Mungenast St. Louis Honda did, and then, of course, pay off the new car.

But it’s really nice. I actually now have a car that is a trendy color—it’s not just the last/least desirable color that happens to be on the dealer’s lot. And after twenty years with my old car, it gradually became less attractive, especially after the semi-truck had rubbed against it, and after the hail damage; I did feel rather sheepish one time recently when I pulled into the lot of the local country club for a lunch meeting, parking beside shiny new Audis, Cadillacs, and Mercedeseses.

For now, though, I have a car I can feel pride in. I can drive around slowly, thinking, “Yeah, everyone, look at me!” For a change. I know this feeling will subside soon enough. But, you know; after years of driving around a car with 100,000 . . . 150,000 . . . 200,000 . . . 250,000 miles on it, the temporary thrill of owning a car with only 12 miles on it: Squeeee!

I mean, you know me. I’m not ostentatious. I don’t obsess about my looks, or the clothes I wear, or whatever. But every twenty years or so, when I do finally get a new car—which I hope to drive until the wheels practically fall off—I deeply enjoy the first few years of special newness. Sure, a Civic is hardly a “status” car, but it’s a smart, reliable, comfortable, practical car, and for me, that’s something I’m proud to own.

So for the record, it’s a 2023 Honda Civic Sport Sedan in Sonic Gray Pearl (a very trendy color) with black interior. I really like how the paint color (which at first seemed like a rather boring gray) looks dramatically different in different kinds of light.

This is my third Civic sedan, the others being a beige "almond cream" 1989 DX and a metallic-dirt-colored “shoreline mist metallic” 2003 LX. This is the first one for me that has an actually trendy, in-demand color.

It’s really interesting, and I think a testament to the Honda company’s enduring vision and tradition of excellence, that this new vehicle still feels like a Civic, in a very fundamental way. The controls are basically all in the same locations; the road feel, the seats, the fit, the way it drives . . . are clearly on a continuum with the other two. Compared to the various similar-type sedans I’ve rented in recent years, I can tell those couldn’t be Civics—but this one is clearly, well, a Honda Civic. I can see why people are Civic “enthusiasts.”

So, that’s done: the car situation is resolved, and it was the last of the Big Things of 2022. The new second-floor refrigerator (ordering and waiting months for it); the second-floor air-conditioning conking out and us needing to get a new HVAC system for that floor (cha-chiiinng!); and (long delayed) finally getting the new roof, gutters, and new siding on the front and back dormers.

Sue and decided last summer, when it seemed everything was imploding but nothing was moving forward, that we should have some champagne on hand for whenever the last of these 2022 expensive, protracted inconveniences and frustrations were finally all over.

So when we got home from St. Louis with the new car, we did indeed celebrate!

Yep, sometimes gratitude has four wheels, a sporty ride, a 2.0-liter, 4-cylinder engine, a touchscreen infotainment system, a CVT transmission, a Sonic Gray Pearl paint job, and a 10/10 rating from Car and Driver.

Opening Day: Yay!

Hallelujah! Baseball is back! It’s a wonderful thing.

A few years ago, I didn’t follow it much, but in recent years I’ve made a point to listen to the Cardinals. My parents are lifelong fans, so I grew up hearing Jack Buck and Mike Shannon call the games, it seems, every summer night of my youth. I go back to being a kid, up to my elbows in suds at the kitchen sink, washing the dishes after supper. The windows would be open. The air would be humid and heavy, but blessedly a bit cooler. The sound of the ballgame formed an auditory tapestry with the sounds of katydids, whip-poor-wills, crickets, frogs, nighthawks, distant traffic on Mexico Gravel Road or Route B.

I grew up hearing stories about the great Cardinals of the 1940s, because they were the heroes of my Mom and Dad. Mom used to say she was named after Dizzy Dean, since her middle name was Dean. I heard about Marty Marion, Enos Slaughter, Mort and Walker Cooper, and Stan Musial. Whenever Mom needed to tell someone how to pronounce the “oe” in our name, she’d tell them, “It’s like Red Schoendienst.”

By the time I was old enough to start paying attention to the radio while we were driving home from Jeff City, I heard Buck and Shannon call out names like Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, and Keith Hernandez.

When I was in junior and senior high, everyone was excited about Willie McGee, Vince Coleman, Darrell Porter, John Tudor, Bruce Sutter, Bob Forsch, Jose Oquendo, and, of course, Ozzie Smith, the super-athletic 13-time Gold Glove-winning shortstop who always did back flips as the team dashed out onto the field at the start of the game. Of course we watched all the playoff and World Series games.

But I didn’t really follow the Cardinals. Not like my parents and my brother did.

There was a time when I was a kid that I used my mom’s old first-baseman glove (a Snag-Em model), or borrowed my brother’s glove, and played lots of catch in the backyard, mostly with my brother. I never got into it; I was not very good at catching, since my depth perception suffers from my amblyopia and alternating vision. Also, there were no teams for girls, so not really a way to get involved enough to improve. And with my growing sense of feminism, I started realizing that sportsball, at all levels, is all about boys and men, which is incredibly unfair.

I used to wonder why practically a third of every newspaper and every news broadcast is traditionally devoted to coverage of sports. Why not science? Why not the arts? Why sports, especially so much on professional sports? Why not include it in the business section?

But I’ve altered my opinion in recent years—hence my purposeful attention to the game. It’s a way for me to connect with my parents. It’s a way to connect with my past, and my region. And it’s just fun. I like to listen while I’m fixing dinner or doing the dishes, or (with ear buds) even mowing the lawn. We haven’t had a TV in ages, and I don’t miss it. Radio baseball fits my lifestyle better.

We've even made a point of driving to St. Louis or Kansas City at least once a year to catch a game, except for last year.

Last year’s lack of baseball was revealing. There was a huge empty space in the summer evenings. It was as if the crickets had stopped chirping. It was so quiet. Also, we needed the diversion. With all that happened with the pandemic, and all that stress—we really needed it for its entertainment value. It didn’t matter who won or lost—we just needed the diversion. It was a blessing when it returned, even if just for a brief, weird season.

I just makes me appreciate baseball even more. It’s a challenging, complicated, unpredictable, and generally nonviolent game. Those players are like our friends. Their success is our success. Their struggles, frustrations, and losses are ours, but fleeting. It can be so symbolic and uplifting. It can reflect a lot of what’s great about the human spirit, including our sense of fairness and sportsmanship.

I’m so glad it’s back!

Go Cards!

Sunshine Inn Menu

Greetings, friends! It’s so dreary today, I decided to share a little “sunshine” with you—in this case, an old to-go menu from the Sunshine Inn, a wonderful vegetarian (well, mostly vegetarian) restaurant that used to be one of the best reasons in the world to visit St. Louis’s Central West End. It opened in 1972 and quickly became a landmark. Plants in the windows. And rather plain, but somehow quite elegant decor. Cloth napkins.

Ahhhh . . . the Garden of Eden Salad; the house Creamy Sesame dressing. The quiches. The Great Harvest dinner rolls. Cream Cheese on Date Nut Bread. I used to like their egg salad sandwich, served open-faced, with cheese. Let’s not forget “RZOJ,” iced Red Zinger (Celestial Seasonings’ hibiscus blend tea) with orange juice, and the Viennese coffee (they were serving that waaaay before there was a Starbuck’s on every corner). And, joy of joys, the Golden Lion—the Sunshine Inn’s signature vegetarian burger.

It closed in 1998, and ever since then, the earth has always been a little off-kilter. Losing restaurants like this are a prime reason I needed to learn how to cook.

This to-go menu was printed on both sides of a single sheet of paper, and I’m pretty sure it dates to the late 1990s—I wish I had one from the late eighties, which was when I went there the most. (Alas.)

I’m posting this because I know there are other people out there who pine for the Sunshine Inn perhaps more than I do. Of course, I mean no copyright infringement. I’m keeping the files kind of big so you can hopefully read the type better. (Remember: you can click on the images to see them larger.)

I see value in old menus like this—what were the main ingredients of a dish you liked so much. What things went well with other things. Ideas for reconstruction and inspiration for new construction. I’ll bet there are restaurants you miss like crazy, too.

If you’re someone who misses the Sunshine Inn, I hope you’ll leave a comment and tell me which menu items you loved the most.

Enjoy.

Dear Cleveland

St. Louis Orchid Show—There’s Still Time to Go!

But don’t delay—it ends on Sunday, March 25!




Last year (remember?), I was gypped out it due to inclement weather and a busted ankle, and I all I could do was point you to our friend’s Flickr site full of her beautiful floral photographs. (Indeed, this year, she took more gorgeous photos—and yup, I’m still telling you to see her Flickr page—click here!)

But this year is different—we got to go last week! And I took a few little pictures, myself.






But you really ought to go yourself, because pictures never equal the immediate experience—of flowers, or anything else. The annual orchid show takes place at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Here’s the official website of the show.

And here’s a YouTube advertising it.



The theme this year is “Flora of China,” which is an ongoing project of the research branch of the Missouri Botanical Garden, a multi-multi-multi-volume description of every plant in China. (But the orchids in the show hailed from all over the world.)


Visitors enter the orchid show through a Chinese-style moon gate similar to the gateway to the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Chinese Garden, built to celebrate St. Louis’s sister city Nanjing. (That garden, by the way, is my favorite place at the MBG.)


The use of Chinese lanterns in the orchid show provides a tiny taste of the Missouri Botanical Garden’s big Lantern Festival that it will have this summer. Click here for more on that.


The orchid family is one of the largest families of plants in the world (you couldn’t tell it from Missouri, since most are tropical, and our temperate flora is dominated by composites, grasses, and grasslike plants). Orchids, however, are many and varied. There are about 600 genera, with about 15,000 species, worldwide (plus loads of cultivars).

Honestly, I don’t know what else to say, but GO!


I didn’t write down the names of the orchids I photographed, but many of the people taking pictures there were also photographing the name tags, for later identification. I just know this as “those freakishly bright orange orchids!”


See this little orchid bud? Well, it’s probably blooming right now! Just for you to see! Don’t miss it!

You Say Tomato, I Say . . . Tornado

Let’s talk about last Friday, Good Friday—or “Bad Friday” as they’ve dubbed it in St. Louis: Friday, April 22, 2011. They’ll be remembering that date for a long time in St. Louis!

But here in Central Missouri, we really lucked out. It was one of those cases where the sirens went off right as the skies grew dark and green—the sirens make that eerie, ominous moan that opens into an ear-splitting wail, shrinks back into a moan, and rises again into a wail. Over and over. And then it goes silent (which is even worse).

For me, here’s the drill: Firefox > Bookmarks > News > TV > ABC 17 – KMIZ TV – The Spirit of Missouri > Weather > Interactive Radar. Then, I click on “Live Storm Tracking” to get the up-to-the-minute stuff they’re saying on the TV.

The first task is to determine which direction the evil red blob with rotation was heading.




Just so you can appreciate what we went through (and what we go through), here are some excerpts from KMIZ’s live storm tracking chat that evening. I’m omitting a lot of stuff—many reports on hail and wall clouds, notifications of tornado warnings expiring in western counties as the storm moved east, miscellaneous questions from the public, etc.

4:53 Comment From Scared:
Is the cell tracking to Jeff City?? Sirens going off

4:54 Met. Jeff Huffman:
Supercell capable of a tornado will move slightly north of US HWY 50 and threaten California, Jamestown, Centertown, and the northwest side of Jefferson City.

4:55 Comment From Ryan
Is the cell tracking to Columbia?

4:55 Comment From Sandy
Are tornadoes expected for Columbia tonight?

4:45 Met. Jeff Huffman
At its present course, the biggest threat from this storm in Columbia would be large hail around 5:20 . . . mainly on south side of the city.

. . . . . . . . .

5:11 Forecaster Justin Abraham:
STORM REPORT: LSX: 4 W Centertown [Moniteau Co., MO] trained spotter reports FUNNEL CLOUD at 05:09 PM CDT – spotter located in Centertown observes a funnel cloud just to the west.

. . . . . . . . .

5:14 ABC17Stormtrack:
Tornado Warning issued for Boone, Cole & Callaway Counties until 6:00pm.


. . . . . . . . .

5:15 Forecaster Justin Abraham:
NO THREAT FOR A TORNADO IN COLUMBIA EVEN IF YOU HEAR THE SIRENS RIGHT NOW.

5:15 Forecaster Justin Abraham:
SAME FOR JEFFERSON CITY.

. . . . . . . . .

5:25 Forecaster Justin Abraham:
TORNADIC STORM PASSING SOUTH OF ASHLAND RIGHT NOW AND MOVING EAST AT 40 MPH. WILL BE MOVING NEAR NEW BLOOMFIELD THEN JUST TO THE SOUTH OF FULTON. IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH (SOUTHERN BOONE, WESTERN/SOUTHERN CALLAWAY), TAKE SHELTER IMMEDIATELY.

. . . . . . . . .

5:39 Forecaster Justin Abraham:
STORM REPORT: LSX: 1 N Holts Summit [Callaway Co., MO] trained spotter reports FUNNEL CLOUD at 5:37 PM CDT –

5:39 Forecaster Justin Abraham:
IF YOU ARE IN NEW BLOOMFIELD ALONG HWY 54 UP TO FULTON, TAKE SHELTER IMMEDIATELY.

. . . . . . . .

5:51 ABC17Stormtrack:
TORNADO WARNING ISSUED FOR CALLAWAY, GASCONADE AND MONTGOMERY COUNTIES UNTIL 6:30.

. . . . . . . .

5:54 Forecaster Justin Abraham:
STORM REPORT: LSX: 8 E Holts Summit [Callaway Co., MO] trained spotter reports FUNNEL CLOUD at 05:51 PM CDT – spotter 2 miles north of Tebbetts reports a funnel cloud 3 miles north of his location going up and down.

. . . . . . . .

6:03 Forecaster Justin Abraham:
STORM REPORT: LSX: Mokane [Callaway Co., MO] trained spotter reports FUNNEL CLOUD at 06:01 PM CDT – spotter in Mokane looking north reports a funnel cloud.

. . . . . . . .

6:04 Forecaster Justin Abraham:
STORM REPORT: LSX: Portland [Callaway Co., MO] trained spotter reports FUNNEL CLOUD at 06:02 PM CDT – several funnel clouds . . . strong rotation in base of meso[cyclone]

. . . . . . .

6:21 Forecaster Justin Abraham:
READERS, THE TORNADIC STORM IS MOVING INTO FAVORABLE AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT. IF YOU ARE IN MONTGOMERY AND GASCONADE COUNTIES, TAKE COVER.

. . . . . . .

6:32 Forecaster Justin Abraham:
STORM REPORT: LSX: Rhineland [Montgomery Co., MO] trained spotter reports WALL CLOUD at -6:30 PM CDT – large . . . low . . . rotating wall cloud. No funnels spotted at this time.

So this worrisome supercell passed eastward through Central Missouri, from Centertown to Hartsburg, south of Fulton, through Tebbetts, Mokane, Portland, and Rhineland, at forty miles per hour, dumping large hail and showing people what “wall clouds” and “funnel clouds” look like.

Here is a picture I took from our third-floor dormer, looking north toward the beast as it passed over southern Boone County, pelting it with hail. That’s the Capitol Plaza Hotel, by the way, for reference.




Thus it slipped rather cleanly between the cities of Columbia and Jefferson City, sparing us from the fright that the folks in rural areas along Highway 94 were experiencing.

But then it turned wicked, dropped its funnel around 8 pm, and that tornado plowed through the north St. Louis metro area in a path twenty-two miles long and almost a half-mile wide. It caused major damage to Lambert–St. Louis International Airport, closing it, and in the community of Bridgeton, it reached an intensity of EH4, essentially destroying everything in its path.

I’m not sure anyone can say why the tornado zapped St. Louis and not us. We were incredibly lucky.

Here, you can see a nifty animated radar of that supercell as it travels from Callaway County into the St. Louis area. (Special thanks to Chief Meteorologist Sharon Ray of ABC 17 Stormtrack Weather for sharing this link with me!)

Here’s a link to NOAA’s official report of the “Good Friday Tornadic Event” of April 22, 2011.

Below, as I did with the two radar images above, I shamelessly copy pictures from the KMIZ Web story on the St. Louis tornado. This is one of Columbia’s Mo-X shuttle vans—familiar to anyone who drives I-70 between Kansas City and St. Louis.*






Wow!

Boy, were we lucky here in Central Missouri.

_________________________


* Note: Mo-X has some of the most blatantly sexist advertising in Central Missouri. (Well? I'm just sayin’ what everybody knows.) I sure wish they’d find a more dignified way to sell their services.

Orchids Vicariously

Hi there! Remember a while back when I told you about the Missouri Botanical Garden's annual Orchid Show (which is going on now)? (Click here to see that post.)

Well, as I mentioned then (it was before that big snow we had), our plan was to drive to St. Louis to see the show once the roads were clear--and we were intending to drive there with two good friends from Boonville, who are very interested in photography.

What a great day it was gonna be! Great conversation during the drive; a chance for photography of both the orchids and the garden's wintertime grounds; and of course, any trip to the Missouri Botanical Garden is a treat.

But then I busted my ankle and had surgery the day before we were going to go, so I had to bow out of the plan. Thankfully, though, our friends went ahead without us, and one of them has been posting her pictures from that day on her Flickr page, under the name "Shotaku."

She takes incredible pictures of flowers, perfectly focused, and with an excellent sense of composition. I almost drool over them.

Below, I show you a few samples of her photos from the orchid show.

To see her many other tasty photos of orchids and other flowers, brilliant shots of birds and other wildlife, plus many neat photos of Boonville and Central Missouri subjects (and much, much more), click here to visit her Flickr page.


Here is one labeled Cymbidium Red Beauty 'Carmen':




And here is Brassolaeliocattleya Liese Pigors:





. . . I would love to show you lots more of her photographs, but then you might not actually go visit her Flickr page. So: leave my blog right now and go look at her pictures!

Here's the link to Shotako's Photostream again.

Another reminder: The Orchid Show at the Missouri Botanical Garden runs through March 27. For more information, here's a link to their Web page. (Hmm. Maybe we can still make it to the show, even if I am on crutches for another month . . .)

Jewel Orchids: Blooming!

If you don’t think you can grow orchids, guess again. There’s hope for you! But don’t get too excited—the types that produce large blossoms of intense pinks and yellows, say, the cattleyas and phalaenopsises, still require special substrates, special moisture, and special temperatures. I’ve tried growing them, and the humidity requirements were always more than I could fulfill.

But you can still grow orchids, if you choose an easy terrestrial type such as the “jewel orchid” (Ludisia discolor). I guess it’s named for the remarkable leaves, which are velvety deep green with pink veins above, and burgundy-rust on the bottom. The flowers, however, are smallish and white—fortunately they form in clusters.






The reason these are “doable,” even for a lackadaisical houseplant grower like myself, is that they are terrestrial, as opposed to epiphytic. (The epiphytes don’t grow in soil like the terrestrial types do—instead they have adapted to life perched on a tree branch or some such, in a tropical situation—which is why I have such trouble with them. They need humidity. And this time of year, especially, the house gets so dry, my sinuses just—well, you don’t want to know.)

If you’ve ever grown a “wandering jew” (Tradescantia pallada or T. zebrina)—these are very popular houseplants—you can grow a jewel orchid. Like them, the jewel orchid roots easily from cuttings and is attractive year-round because of the colorful leaves. We put ours in the backyard in the summer.




Anyway—I’m telling you about this now for two reasons. First, it’s January and they’ve started their annual bloom, so, Huzzah! It might not be spring, but we’ve got flowers anyway!




And second, I wanted to remind everyone that the annual orchid show at the Missouri Botanical Garden starts today. This is your chance to see some of the huge variety of tropical orchids in the Garden’s permanent collection. Here is a link to MoBot’s Orchid Show page.

Each year they have a “theme”; this year it’s “Flora Maya”—thus the Orthwein display hall has been transformed into a Mayan jungle, with decorations evoking Mayan and Aztec ruins:

The Garden’s annual orchid show will feature 800 blooming orchids in lush, tropical display infused with an eclectic mix of Maya-themed accents.

The Garden maintains one of the world’s premier orchid collections and this is the only time of year when a vast, rotating selection from our historic collection is available for public viewing.

Now, doesn’t this look like a perfect way to spit in the face of nasty old bone-chilling winter? We’re planning a trip to St. Louis to see this—well, once the roads are cleared of this next big dump of snow they’re predicting . . .

I’m even thinking of bringing a change of clothes—shorts and a tee shirt—so I can luxuriate for a few hours in the hot and humid Climatron!

The orchid show lasts from January 29 through March 27; here are the show’s hours:

Monday through Friday
9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (last weekday entry at 2 p.m.)
Saturday and Sunday
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Admission is $5, on top of the general admission to the garden. (Yes, it’s totally worth it. Bring a camera.)