Dark Arch

The Arch has been dark this week in the evenings, and I could not remember why exactly, but knew that it had something to do with a migration of some creature. It turns out to be birds!

FYI from the Head Arch Dude:

Thank you for interest on lighting the Gateway Arch at night.

We are open to the public from 8am to 10 pm during the period of Memorial
Day through Labor Day. If the lights are turned on any earlier than 10 pm,
it would shine directly into the eyes of visitors at the top of the Arch
making it impossible to see or look out from the Arch observation deck.

As you may know, low clouds that hide the night sky that birds use to
navigate by, combined with artificial light, result in a halo effect that
can cause birds to fatally fly into artificially lit structures.
Therefore, for two weeks in the spring and again for two weeks in the fall,
the Arch is not lit due to spring and fall bird migrations.

Also, times of low cloud cover, during rain, or snow storms has effect on
the aesthetics of the lighting causing the 44 light beams themselves
becoming the focal point as opposed to the object beging lit. Hence, you
have 44 beams illuminating nothing which is an obvious distraction from the
Arch itself. To avoid illuminating nothing, a ceilometer automatically
shuts the lights off when such events occur, and conversely, turns them on
again when the situation changes. Otherwise, here is the Gateway Arch
Exterior Lighting schedule:

Oct through March 6pm - 12midnight
April through May 7pm - 12 midnight

May (beginning Memorial Day weekend) through September 10pm - 1am
September (beginning the day after labor Day) 6pm -
12midnight

And, if that is not sufficiently complicated, keep in mind that we permit
after hours events to be held during the evenings between Labor Day and
Memorial Day. Should a permitee request that the tram ride to the top of
the Arch be available, we cannot turn on the exterior lights until their
event has concluded which sometimes can be as late as midnight.

We do hope this sheds some light on the Arch and as always we appreciate
your interest.

Sincerely,

/s/Franklin D. Mares
Deputy Superintendent

Eating Disorder

I've become obsessed with food. Its not dangerous, not the type where I eat excessively, stop eating, or force my food back up after consumption. No, this is another kind of disorder. Its more of an I'm-not-single-anymore eating disorder. With a little we're-a-one-income-couple-who-enjoy-good-food axis II clarification. I am officially not single. After 1 year and 11.5 months of learning all about and falling in love with Robert, and after 4 months+ of living together, I'm really and truly not a single person anymore. I'm past the Fear of Commitment. I'm past the fear in general. Its all good now. Some things, though, are not part of the romatic, lovely picture of what life is like when you meat That Person. Most things are brilliantly working out, compromise is easy and fun and I'm so glad he's moved in. We get along despite all of my energetic bursts of conversation topic after midnight and his inability to sleep past 7am.
So its fortunate that our "issues" are minor ones. The one I'm thinking of at this posting is food. When I was single, I didn't think about food much. I love food- healthy, colorful, non-processed food. I don't need much food to fill me up. I'm very lucky in that regard, and also that I enjoy a wide palate of spiciness and ethnicities in my food. Leftover Indian can last me a week. If I didn't have a full "meal" by most people's standards in my bachelor pad, I could make a peanut butter sandwich, eat a couple of tortilla chips with a few slices of Mexican cheese, have half a bowl of frozen peas, a handful of blueberries and I was full. Broccoli and spinach could be a full meal, not just side dishes. I was not a great cook, but it was enough for me.
Then I met Rob, and learned what GOOD cooking was. Rob loves gourmet food. He can cook it and eat it like a pro. His tastes are diverse and can be expensive. Rob loves meat and fish and things that I've never bought in my life. He's also writing his dissertation which, if you've never tackled that joy before, entails sitting at a computer for 8-12 hours per day 7 days a week. Rob has recently decided that this lifestyle is not consistent with his love for all things rich and filling and has decided to lose weight.
So this brings me to my eating disorder. We have consciously been eating healthfully for 1 month. We are also intending to travel to Asia in early 2008, so we are working on saving funds for the big vacation.

to be continued...

Gardening at Night

As I work on my 97 year old house, I usually document projects with "before and after" photos. One of my biggest projects this year has been my garden, and I have to admit that the "after" photos on that project are far more interesting and attractive than my newly installed pantry shelving system or the freshly sealed and repaired crack in my top step.













This year, I hauled in over 2500 lbs of dirt, skimmed the top layer of soil off and filled my raised bed garden with new, clean fill dirt and a small amount of store-bought manure and planted basil, rosemary, thyme, and sage that I'd grown from seed. I added some red-a-million tomatoes from Home Depot, a few basil plants (because I was impatient!) , tarragon, and purple sage from Soulard Market, and a butternut squash, 3 jalepeno plants, 2 eggplant plants, and a few striped zebra tomato plants from Steph and Bob. I also got some mint, chocolate plain, and planted them in a back corner of my yard as I knew in my last house, some mint plants had taken over the existing garden. Alas, my plain mint died and the chocolate mint, while thriving, has not proliferated like the mint at my old place.
The progress was slow at first, but then the basil took off. The photo below is all basil, one lemon and the rest standard basil. It was taken after a storm a few weeks ago so there was some separation the branches and some "settling" but they are truly still basil bushes.In the last month, Rob and I have really started to reap the rewards of this mess o' green! We've made lots and lots of pesto (with more to come. Pesto, anyone?), had lots of tiny little red tomatoes while still waiting for the green zebras to grow, eaten one giant butternut squash with sage for seasoning, and just yesterday we picked this beautiful eggplant for this coming week's menu. Here it is in its natural habitat, and then about a week later with Rob to give size perspective.

















The squash was wonderful, and its really a rewarding feeling to have a meal that is comprised by half or more of things that I grew myself. I'm learning as I go, this is the largest garden I've ever had but another of my undertakings will certainly help my gardening efforts next year. That project is my compost pile!! Yep, that's it on the left, and it is one of the very first things I built after I moved in one year ago. It should have some really quality compost right about now, so my current garden did not benefit from this pile. From what I've heard and read, one year is prime time for compost. So next year, when I (hopefully) expand my garden, it will be rich with composted nutrients. Most of what I know about gardening, I learned from Pat and Bea, our dear family friends who had more of a hand in raising us than anyone besides our parents. Bea and Pat always had the most incredible garden. The vegetable and fruit garden filled both sides of their big yard, and the back of the yard was a flower garden with a bird bath. On the left were neat rows of peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, carrots, onions, a bunch of other things that I've not forgotten, and asparagus. On the right were strawberry plants, lettuce, spinach, mint, and a variety of other herbs that must have grown well in the shade of Mr. G's giant oak tree. The garden always seemed to be perfectly symmetrically planted, weed-free, and carefully watered. I loved that yard, we spent hours out there in the summer caring for the plants and drinking water with lemon juice just like Bea liked it. Pat had potted plants ALL over the inside and outside of their house too, and as she became too sick with cancer in the last year, she gave me lots of her plants. Many of them needed replanting, a sign of just how sick Pat was because in years past she meticulously cared for her greenery, repotting as needed. Even the last time I saw Pat, as she was directing me to take more plants from her bed where she was confined, there were still a few that she was hanging onto. I'm sure Pat was attached to a few of them, or at least to the idea that no one could care for her plants the way that she can. She's right. I haven't killed one yet, but I've had some close calls with the potted plants. Here is one that has thrived and probably already needs to be repotted.
I don't know how she kept up with everything, but I'll always attribute my gardening interests and skills to Pat, who died on August 12. Bea, at 20+ years older and nearing 90, was always healthy as a horse until a week before Pat's death when she broke her hip and now this week she has gotten word that she, too, is filled with cancer. A big part of my childhood is slippping away, but I get to carry some of them with me. My garden and my dog are both loves heavily influenced by Pat and Bea, as they shared their lovely garden and beloved mutt Buffy with my siblings and I.
As I look around my yard, I see my spider wort and catnip growing around my birdbath and then my humble vegetable garden, and I know that Bea and Pat will always be with me. Every time I smell a tomato plant, give my pup a bath in the backyard, or sip water with lemon juice, there they are.