Forest Park

Last year I refused to run in Forest Park, opting to drive many miles 4 or 5 days a week to run on real trails. This year, with a slightly new perspective on life, Forest Park does not look so bad. The trails are truly bloody boring, no rocks, roots, downed trees and such, but it beats running along roads and on sidewalks. There are a wealth of options as far as lengths of run. Everyone is out getting ready for the St Louis Marathon in April. I am starting line coordinator for the second year in a row and I may actually recognize a few of the people who will be toeing the start line.

Forest Park is one of the largest urban parks in the United States. With 1,298 acres, it is 500 acres larger than Central Park in NYC. It is home to most of the city's cultural institutions. Forest Park hosted the 1904 World's Fair Louisiana Purchase Exposition as well as some events in the 1904 Summer Olympics. How St. Louis got to host both events is an interesting story. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1904_Summer_Olympics Two things the park has in spades are beautiful architecture and lots of grand old trees that make for great views as I run by. Not quite the same as running through a mountain meadow of the Cache Creek Trail or along a mountain stream like in Bozeman but I will take what I can get.

What follows is a series of photos of the sights along a 7 mile loop that starts from my house. To arrive at the park I try to go down different street each time since the neighborhoods between home and the park are kind of interesting. Mind you this is only a small part of the western portion of the park. My mileage is not up to making it to the eastern regions as of yet.

Washington University. In a few years this snapshot will be impossible because there are plans to build dorms or something where those cars are parked. I am told that not long ago that parking lot was green space. Ah, progress at its finest.
The Natural History Museum. Free Admission.
Nellie breaking the law off leash.

A bridge over one of the waterways in the park. As recent as 300,000 years ago the Mississipi River flowed through the eastern region of the park due to a glaciar that diverted water from the main flow of the river. When settlers arrived, this region was swampy, with a few small lakes. The area was subsequently drained and the water was tamed into polite, confined waterways. Although a majority of the River Des Peres flows underground, thanks to the good folks at the Metropolitan Sewer District, the section runnning through Forest Park has recently been restored to flow above ground and link the existing lakes.
A tree inside a tree along a trail just west of the Fine Art Museum.

The World's Fair Pavilion just got a face lift in 2007. When I first arrived in St. Louis and ran by here all the concrete on the stairs and fountains were crumbling and in an unfortunate state of disrepair. The entire hillside was torn up this past summer and remodeling began just about the time we returned. The building is used as an events and banquet center and goes for $1,400 for a weekend wedding reception.

The trail ahead winding along side the River Des Peres.

St Louis Art Museum. Free Admission. Front, west view. Note the desperate children on the hill trying to sled on 3/4 inch of snow. You can't help feeling a bit sorry for them.

This is one of the nation's leading comprehensive art museums with pieces representing almost every culture and time period. As well, at any one time there are usually 6-8 traveling exhibitions. My current favorite is the Frank Breuer Photographic Collection of Industrial Spaces of Holland, Germany and Belgium.

A view of the Art Museum from the east.

Fountains in the Grand Basin Lake lie at the foot of the hill leading up to the Art Museum. Both the museum and the basin were constructed for the 1904 World's Fair.

These trails run through stands of oak that are home to some urban wildlife. Since St. Louis is right smack dab in the middle of a migratory bird superhighway, sightings of an array of birds is the norm. You must click on this link I found of bird photos taken by a local. Each photo was taken at the park. From Kingfishers to Egrets to Kestrel, the variety is amazing. http://webster.edu/~corbetre/birds/park-bird-photos.html

OBFR turns 8 yrs. old!!!!

On February 21, 2008 at approximately 11:15 am we celebrated the anniversary of Owen's 8th year of life. As luck would have it his entire school was commemorating this event by taking the the entire week off. So Owen invited his good buddy Tate for a day of playing in the mud/snow, wrestling in the house and generally driving me batty. Since I was not about to bake a cake for both the actual day and for his party on Sunday, Owen opted that we go to the Cheesecake Factory, a least favorite of mine, for a post special birthday dinner treat.

The day before the party Owen and I baked his chosen cake. I was determined to attempt a pretty cake and not just settle for tasty. The pastry gods were with me. In my opinion. Owen did not allow me to put as much frosting as it needed to make it look like the Gourmet Magazine cover, but I don't care for lots of frosting either.

In spite of the weather prediction of a continuing warming trend for the party day, we woke to a fresh blanket (more like a sheet) of snow and colder temps than the previous day. Since the plans were a rain or shine hike on the Chubb Trail, all the kids showed up at 10 am dressed for a polar expedition: snow boots, face masks, snow pants, thick mittens and hats. It was obvious that these kid's parents do not hike and are clueless to the concept of layering and the BTUs generating by walking uphill. Within the first 1/16th of a mile Tony and I were loaded down with all categories of winter clothing.

There was some definite whining and complaining by some about being tired but good times were had by all. We came back to the house and the kids went wild while I rolled out the dough for calzones and each kid built their own from a table full of ingredients. Then cake, presents and due to the volume that 8 kids can generate I sent them up to the park to play until parents arrive at 4 pm. Upon arrival at the park Tate immediately fell into the icy pond up to his neck even though the water is only 2 1/2 feet or so. Owen valiantly jumped in after him and got wet 2 1/2 feet up his body. True friendship.

Aw, how sweet

My husband took a moment out of his 10 + hours per day sitting at his computer, rushing to classes, seminars, meeting or colloquials to send me (by email, of course) this poetic little ditty. Sigh.....

I asked him to post it on his site but he declined.


Grad School
Grind Stone, keyboard, coffee, me
Computers, sensors, robots, dream....
Mountains, valleys, meadows, trees
running, cycling, floating free.

Before and After

It never fails. Every year around February I look at Nellie and think, "Is she getting a little chubby under all that fluff?" I decrease her food a little figuring that if she is, that will take care of it. Inevitably when I get her shaved for the warm weather, I experience guilt and self recrimination because, in fact, it is only I who has gained winter weight. I wish someone would starve me and make it easy. But no......

Wait. Back up a few lines. "...shaved for warm weather..." Yes, it is a little premature. Even in St. Louis. But since I have to run with Nellie on roads to get to Forest Park, all the road sludge gets deeply embedded in her long fur. I was having to bath her too often. So she suffers to make my life easier. Very selfish of me, I admit.
But she truly does not seem to mind. She is just sooo happy to be back to running on a regular basis.

We have been driving once a week to do our longer run/frolic on trails. The east end of the Chubb Trail that includes a loop around Castlewood State Park is my second favorite trail destination. It is an easy 6-8 mile run with little elevation gain but great bluff and river views. I usually have a chance to see some wildlife and in the past have seen deer, coyote, turkey, eagles and always many hawks. It is a verdant, lush landscape starting in spring and stark and bare this time of year. Come April I will begin referring to it as the Tick Run because Nellie has picked up as many as 15 of those nasty, creepy crawlies in a single run.

I tried to get a photo of the bluffs without the offensive houses but it was impossible. This, of course, gave me something to obsess about as I ran. Will someone please tell me why masses of people feel the need to ruin any and all god-given, spectacular views by plopping their ugly, gigantic friggin houses right smack dab in the epicenter of the breathtaking scenery. Don't they realize that it is beautiful and awe-inspiring right up until that moment that they bulldoze the shit out of it to erect their odious symbols of self-congratulatory, self-grandeur? Have some humility people. Why is every one out to trump god's gift of beauty? ("Because we can", I hear as a not-too-distant echo.) What ever happened to tucking away one's abode in a discreet and organic manner? Christ, surely I can't be the only freak who feels affronted by this crap?

Okay, I'm finished. Sorry.

The Feminist Controvesy

Our local newspaper has been stirring things up in its readers' opinion section. I love small town newspapers. People get all fired up and step on each other's toes with their opinions. With the Mormon Factor at play in this region of the country, the role of women is bound to be controversial.

I certainly don't believe that deciding to stay home instead of working precludes one from wearing the feminist mantle. Feminism has evolved way beyond the old defining question of whether or not to enter the work force. I contend that a true feminist can, and in many cases does, stay home with her kids.

Thanks to the hard work of the founders of the movement, these days, a feminist lifestyle is a multi-faceted endeavor. An obvious way to fight the entrenched patriarchal system is from within. By raising my sons in a family system that has a strong matriarchal figure, I am nurturing their formative conceptions on the role of a strong woman.

I see the Battle of Equality as having two fronts: the professional front and the home front. Not all women have the desire to "do battle" in the work force and have the luxury to choose not to. Does this mean they abdicate their feminist duties? I think not.

It is not by chance that the feminist concept gained rapid ground among educated, college campus women. These are NOT the women who tend to be running our nation's daycares. And these ARE the daycares that are raising our nation's future men and feminist women. By putting our kids in these daycares we miss an important opportunity to mold them.

My stay-at-home lifestyle has allowed me to take my sons to peace rallies and political events, travel with them to third world countries, bike 6 miles round trip to school daily, teach them to grow their own food in a garden, play soccer and climb trees with them after school. These are things we surely would not have time for if both my husband and I worked.

Since current studies seem to show that both a working and stay-home woman's role in the family is essentially the same as it was before the Feminist Movement, in that she still does a majority of the housework and child rearing, I suggest that perhaps the woman's role in family life warrents closer scrutiny and is also a meritable indicator of feminism.

Save the World. Ride a Bike.

(This is a post I did for the Idaho Drinking Liberally Website http://idahofalls.drinkingliberally.org/ )

This blog entry title may sound trite but it is something I honestly believe. Hear my case please. There are a few issues that most progressive liberals care deeply about. We pay attention to the candidates' stands and voting records on these issues: energy independence (that would negate the need to declare war on oil-rich nations), health care, the environment.

Energy independence First some facts. All gas stations in America have Middle East oil as a significant proportion of their source crude. According to the Dept. of Transporation, the average fuel efficiency of our US automotive fleet is 22.9 MPG for a passenger car and 16.2 for a 4X4. A barrel of oil contains 42 gallons and makes about 19.5 gallons of gasoline. US gasoline consumption of 320,500,000 PER DAY, which works out to be 3,700 gallons per second 24/7. Every year America's oil consumption increases. US has 5% of world population yet we consume approximtely 45% of the world's gasoline. Most amazing of all is that in spite of all these readily available statistics and the ever-increasing price per gallon (which, by the way, adjusted for inflation is dirt cheap, so quit complaining) US demand increases every year. These statistics are a bit dated (2005) and were found on http://www.gravmag.com/oil.html

Save the world, you say? Yes. Every time you ride your bike or walk in leiu of driving you deprive Exxon of a portion of your portion of its $1,300 per second profit. As well, you relieve the US of the need to purchase approximately one barrel of oil for every 20 miles you ride. This is no small hill of beans, so to speak. If every able person in the US walked or rode his/her bike once per week instead of drive it would be a substinative effort and the effects would be apparent in the oil industry's bottom line.

Health Care An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is an appropriate metaphorical adage when talking about America's health in light of the fact that obesity is at an all time high. The dire health issues related to being over weight are constantly in the news and there is no denying them. It is also a fact that a higher percentage of people without health care are over weight. This is related to poverty and lack of education, of course. 1 out of 4 adults and 1 out of 5 children in the US are obese. We diet, swear-off, give-up, binge and purge, make resolutions, fast, obsess, lipo-suck our colletcive thighs, join gyms and are still miserably fat. Hmmm. How can this be? I could not find any statistics that can directly supports my notion that riding a bike instead of driving will absolutely, positively keep you thinner. BUT on my recent trip to Belgium where about 75% of the population walk, ride bikes and don't own cars I saw nary an obese person. Even plump was scarce. Go figure.
.
Environment This should be a no-brainer, yet people, even liberals, are not changing their habits en masse when it comes to driving. Sorry, more facts. I see a lot of Honda Accords on the road so I will pick on this car. A 2006 Accord gets about 26 MPG and produces about 6.5 tons of CO2, based on 12,000 miles per year. We Idahoans tend to drive a lot more than that; no light rail lines or bike paths to speak of, everything is far away. Another environmental disaster that does not get nearly as much press is the hundreds of thousands of miles of petroleum based pavement laid down each year for the infrastructure needed to support our auto habit. Not to mention the accompanying habitat destruction inherant in the process. Hey, bike paths don't even need pavement, crushed stone will suffice. AND one of the many environmental bonuses of riding your bike is that you will buy ( i.e. consume) less stuff (since it is more difficult to carry and it is likely miles out of the way) , thus you will produce less garbage, thus you will be more environmentally sound.

It just so happens that these are all what I would deem quality-of-life-issues. What could improve the peace and harmony of the world more than the cessation of the constant whine of the combustion engine? I suggest that the time is now to make other arrangements for the future of our transportation needs and that the humble bicycle should play a crucial role. I am attaching the link of a video that shows that it is not a far-fetched, unrealistic dream I have. There is a bicycle culture alive and thriving in other parts of the world. They've got a good thing going and so can we. http://www.vimeo.com/472819

(Disclaimer: I vouch for none of my statistics. I simply googled the subject and picked what looked like the most objective sources. In other words I ignored the "green facts" presented on General Motors and Exxon sponsored websites. Call me paranoid, but they seemed like dubious sources.)