What I Read -- Challenger (and a bit about the Francis Scott Key Bridge)

When K and I were in the DC area recently, we popped into Wonderland Books in Bethesda on a rainy morning.  K, who is a teacher and so perhaps was not surprisingly plagued by the story of the Challenger explosion, which took the life of Christa McAuliffe, the first and only participant in the Teacher in Space Project, pointed out the book Challenger to me.

Not long after that, it came up as one of the available audio books in my library app, so I grabbed it and gave it a listen. 

The beginning of the book is a little slow.  We spend a lot of time meeting various administrators who were involved with the program at NASA, employees of the subcontractors, the astronauts, and their families.  Much of that comes back later, but it could have used a bit more editing. 

The rubber really meets the road in about the last quarter of the book.  The disaster has occurred, the investigation is underway.  And man, are the results of it horrifying.  I'll avoid providing too much detail, but the combination of learning about what the astronauts likely went through and learning that the cause of the disaster was known and ignored is simply appalling.

It's also a good reminder that the small things can sometimes have a huge impact.  Remember a couple years back when that cargo ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore?  Well, the NTSB has now issued the findings from their investigation.  The long and short of what they determined is that the ship lost power because a wire came loose in one of the many circuit breaker boxes.  The break in that circuit caused the system to believe that the engine cooling water level was low.  With that particular engine, the low cooling water warning causes the engine to shut down, which is why the ship lost propulsion and steering, and why it subsequently crashed into the bridge.  But what is the reason that the wire came loose?  Because the label that was affixed to it at the breaker box was affixed in the wrong place along the wire, which meant that it didn't quite seat properly, which allowed it to shake loose with all the engine vibration.  There is a great video animation of what went wrong here. 

Wild, right?  

Six people died, the ship and its cargo were damaged or lost, economic losses due to limited access to the Port of Baltimore for the 11 weeks following the crash are estimated at $1.2 billion, and bridge replacement costs are estimated to be $5 billion.  All because one label was glued to one wire in the wrong place. 

What I'm Reading Now -- A Guide to the Good Life

After some semi-existential frustrations in the last couple of years (mostly career-related), I've begun reading a bit about Stoic philosophy.  My current investigation is via A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy, by William B. Irvine.

I actually started out looking for a different book on Stoicism, but this one was available at my library, so I decided to grab it instead.  I'm about 40 pages in as I write this, and so far I like the concept: an investigation of Stoic principles together with their practical application to everyday life.

As I get a little farther along, I'll see if that concept holds up.  

What I'm Reading Now -- We Do the Damndest Things

As is tradition, I picked a book to read when we headed out west last month.  We were going to be in and out of Jackson, so I selected We Do the Damndest Things, by Gaspari "Gap" Pucci.  

Mr. Pucci, of Italian heritage (as you might have guessed), left behind his family in Pennsylvania to relocate to Wyoming after discovering the great wide open via Army postings during the Cold War. He fell in love with the area, and with his wife, Peggy, and they made their lives on a small ranch outside of Jackson.

The book is a miscellaneous collection of his memories and stories.  We're back from Jackson now and I haven't finished it yet, but I hope to keep plugging away at it in between my other reads. 

What I'm Reading Now -- Paris in the Present Tense

I picked up Paris in the Present Tense in the audio book section of the library one day while I was browsing.  There are a lot of Mark Helprin fans in my family, and I've read a couple of his tomes and short stories myself.  He has a really nice way of capturing the feeling of a place, even though most of what I've read of his is much more about people than places.

I don't know anything about what the story is in this one, but I bet I'm going to get a great sense of Paris! 

Some Things We've Done - 2025 Edition

Our around-town activities in 2025 were substantially curtailed by the fact that we were only "around town" for 7 months of 2025!  In early August, we headed off for our sailing semi-circumnavigation, the planning for which began several months earlier and took up loads of our time.  We did still manage a few things, but far less than usual.

2025

SLSO - the 2024-2025 season wrapped up in the spring, and had featured Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and Violin Concerto in D Major, Prokofiev's Suite No. 2 from Romeo and Juliet, Mahler's Symphony No. 1, and Mozart's Requiem Mass in D Minor. 

Chicago - S and I took a quick weekend trip up to Chicago to do our Safety at Sea course at the Jackson Park Yacht Club.  I really like Chicago.  I frequently forget that, but every time I go - for any reason - I am reminded what a fun city it is.

OTSL - the 2025 season's shows were Die Fledermaus, This House, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Don Pasquale.  Because of the timing of the shows (K and E visited on different weekends), we were able to have a meal inspired by each show!  Some of the deliciousness included: 

Die Fledermaus: kasespaetzle, goulash, and sachertorte, with weisbier to drink 
This House: chicken and waffles, pizza, and New York cheesecake, with Manhattans to drink
A Midsummer Night's Dream: a charcuterie board and pastitsio, with wine to drink
Don Pasquale: Margherita pizza, cacio e pepe, and tiramisu, with Roman punch to drink

A year on, the show that is sticking with me is This House.  If you get a chance to see it, I would recommend jumping at it.  

Montana - our Christmas in July trip was to a ranch in Montana.  Though they nominally had other available activities, horseback riding was their big thing - but they were great at it!  The horses were well trained and clearly well looked after.  This ranch stuck to more of a schedule than some of the others that we had been to, but it was a family-run place with a relatively small staff, so that made some sense.  

K, J, S, and me had our usual pre-holiday holiday, which took us up to Calgary to see the Calgary Stampede!  It was an eating, drinking, rodeo adventure if ever there was one!

Sailing - in early August, we left St. Louis to start our sailing trip.  There's a whole separate blog about that, and all the crazy stuff we saw and did.  

And that brings us to the end of 2025. 

What I Read -- In The Woods

I got on a kick of mysteries several years ago now - which has waxed and waned over time - but Tana French's In The Woods has always been on the list.  I finally got to it as an audio book, now that I'm back to having a regular commute.  It really does make the drive so much more enjoyable! 

I wasn't actually super taken in by the mystery of this one, but I very much enjoyed the main character, Adam Ryan.  He's a detective on the Dublin murder squad, and gets tasked with investigating the murder of a pre-teen girl in the same woods where two of his friends disappeared when they were twelve.  The two incidents are, not surprisingly, tied together.  Investigating the murder dredges up all sorts of things that Ryan would have otherwise left buried forever.

The story was good enough, but it was really Ryan himself who engaged me.  I'm not even quite sure why.  He was reasonably believable - a bit of a worn-out policeman who has a good partner but drinks too much - but not astonishingly so. I just liked the character.  Which may actually mean that I liked the audio book narrator.  Something to interrogate if I listen to more of the series.... 

Cutting For Stone -- Take 2

I can see why Cutting For Stone was so wildly popular upon its release.  What's not to like?  It's easy to read (or in my case, listen to), it educates on medicine while simultaneously entertaining with language, there's a mystery, there's a frustrated love interest, and on top of it all, it's just a good yarn.

I wondered, after I finished this, if Abraham Verghese had written anything since then.  I've gotten out of the professional book business, so I don't see the new releases the way I used to.  Then, just a couple of weeks after I finished this, I stopped in at The Book House and happened to turn around only to find The Covenant of Water looking right at me!  I haven't bought it yet, but it's now on my list.

But, as far as Cutting for Stone goes, it's the story of twin brothers abandoned as infants by their father, who fled when their mother died in childbirth.  They were raised in a rural hospital in Ethiopia by some of the other medical staff their, and made a good life for themselves through their teenage years. Things go sideways between the brothers for reasons I will not spoil, and, though they part ways, it is not the end.  As time passes and they each continue making their way in the world, the secrets of their past, and the secrets of their parents, come to light. 

Some Things We've Done - 2024 Edition

By 2024, two things had happened: first, since I had long ago stopped blogging about my fun outings, I mostly stopped keeping the ticket stubs, Playbills, and other mementos that would allow me to recreate this information later.  Second, I did fewer fun things; work was a disaster, S and I were going out on the town less frequently, and there is just generally less to recollect.  Regardless, here we go ... 

2024

SLSO - The 2023-2024 season included classical music such as Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4, Prokofiev's Classical Symphony, Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5, Brahms' Symphony No. 2, and Verdi's Requiem and Kyrie, plus popular shows like E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Rhapsody in Blue.  One of my favorite shows of the season was called "Operatic Favorites," which included selections from L'Orfeo, The Marriage of Figaro, The Barber of Seville, Manon Lescaut, Norma, La Gioconda, Mignon, Carmen, The Tales of Hoffman, and Orpheus in the Underworld.

Paintings by Jim Weidle - Mom came to visit in the spring of 2024, and we headed up to Fairfield, Iowa, for a show at the Icon. Mom has known Jim Weidle since college, and I have a lot of his work in my house (as does my whole family).  We saw his show, spent the day with him, toured around Fairfield, and generally had a good time.

And, I found a painting that I liked so much that I bought it when the show was over. The particular one I bought is no longer on his website, but it is in the "Bike" series.  It has a prominent spot in my living room and I still love it!

Wave: Ripple Effects - Also while Mom was in town, we went to the Matisse exhibit at SLAM, and it just so happened that they were hosting an art-inspired chamber music concert, which we also attended (along with P, of the Hamilton tickets). 

OTSL - the summer's opera season was a great one: Rossini's The Barber of Seville, Puccini's La Boheme, Handel's Julius Caesar, and Glass's Galileo Galilei. All good shows, but Galileo was the surprise hit! 

Our themed meals were for Barber and La Boheme.  For the former, we had spinach and chickpeas, salmorejo, and almond cake, plus Spanish wine.  For the latter, we had ratatouille, coq au vin (the all-around favorite!), and tarte tatin.  

Head of the Charles - C and I took our double to HOCR in Boston in October.  It was a really fun weekend - Boston in good weather is such a wonderful city! - even though our performance wasn't great.  I felt pretty good, but I think our fitness just wasn't where it needed to be, and we were heavily penalized for crossing the buoy line a couple of times.  Oh, well - we had a good time!

One of the non-regatta highlights was our brunch at the Boston Public Library.  Did you know they have a restaurant in there? (Two, actually!)  I didn't, but thankfully C did.  We four (C and his wife, plus S and me) ate at the Map Room Lounge.  The setting was fantastic, and the food was good too!  Definitely something to repeat. 

Ambassadors of Harmony - my sister-in-law and I, for our now-standard Christmas tradition, were treated by our mother-in-law to the AOH holiday show at UMSL.  This year's first-half theme was "Christmas in Space," plus we had the Vocal Spectrum halftime show, and the Christmas standards in the second half.  Lunch was at Maggiano's; I've been there a couple of times in the last couple of years, and each time I'm surprised by how good it is; better than your average Italian chain, for sure! 

Florida - S and I took an extended work-from-Florida holiday for Thanksgiving, which gave us lots of time with K, J, and mom.   

Cyprus - again finding ourselves nearing Christmas with no travel plans, S and I looked at a map, looked at flight prices, and decided to head to Cyprus for the holidays.  We didn't know much about it other than that it had Greek heritage and part of the island was taken over (and remains held) by Turkey, with the UN keeping the peace between the two.

Similar to our trip to Ireland in 2024, we rented a car and took ourselves on a driving tour.  We landed in Larnaca, then traveled to Pano Lefkara, Agros, Omodos, Paphos, Polis, Nicosia, Agia Napa, and back to Larnaca.  The Christmas markets were great fun (especially the one in Agros, where we rode on the tractor-pulled train through town - possibly slightly intoxicated, as it was meant for children), and the Christmas Eve dinner spread at the Elysium hotel was truly astonishing! 

As with Ireland, we both really loved Cyprus and this is definitely a trip worth repeating! 

Some Things We've Done - 2023 Edition

Three years into the after-times, and live had gotten pretty much back to normal.  Isn't is amazing how quickly that happened?  Here's what we did in....

2023

SLSO - another season wrapped up, and we had seen some great shows, including Holst's The Planets, Handel's Messiah, selections from Beethoven's Egmont, Jurassic Park, Elgar's Enigma Variations, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, The Princess Bride, and the Indigo Girls!

Act Two Theater - I had never heard of the Act Two Theater until a friend's brother was helping produce a performance of Sandy Toes & Salty Kisses that was being performed there.  I'll take any excuse to get together with my friend E; seeing her parents and supporting her brother were just bonuses!

Caribbean - we were invited to go sailing with a guy we had met in St. Lucia in the spring.  He had his boat in St. John and wanted to get it down to Trinidad.  We wanted to put our new sailing skills to use, so we joined him as far as St. Lucia, where his girlfriend then swapped out with us to finish the trip to Trinidad. 

Wicked - I had never seen or read Wicked until 2023, when some friends - appalled to discover the hole in my pop cultural education - invited me to go with them to see it performed at the Fox Theater.  It was a good show.  Though I generally enjoy musical theater, I don't find it life-changing in the way some people do.  Regardless, I had a lovely time and would see it again if it were offered.

OTSL - the season's opera selections included Susannah, Tosca (which was the very first opera I ever went to see with Grandpa), Treemonisha, and Cosi Fan Tutte.  

England and Scotland - our beloved St. Louis Cardinals had two games against the Chicago Cubs scheduled in London.  Our stalwart travelin' buddies, K and J, packed up and went with us on a stupendous trip to my favorite city!  

K's trip planning was in perhaps its finest form (with a bit of an assist from S and me), and we jammed three weeks' worth of activities into about a third of that time in London.  

Idaho - for our second annual "Christmas in July" trip, we repeated the western ranch experience, this time in Idaho.  S and I flew rather than drove, so we didn't have the interesting stops along the way.  We headed to Boise a day or two early to meet up with K and J (as per usual), but due to flight cancellations for them, S and I ended up riding scooters all over town on our own. 

Beeperball - later that summer, the Beep Baseball World Series took place in St. Louis.  S had discovered that this was a thing a few years before but, as with everything, it had been disrupted by COVID. We only saw a couple of games, but it was brilliant to watch.  Also free.  Bring your own lawn chairs, snacks, and beer, and feel free to stay all day.

Hamilton - my longtime second mom P got us tickets to Hamilton at the Fox Theater!  She's been a long-time season ticket holder, so we snagged some great seats.  It was the first time either of us had seen it live, and I really did enjoy it!  It wasn't the life-changing experience that some people had, but it is a darn good show.  I am glad, though, that I had prepped for the outing by watching it ahead of time (twice!), or I know I would have missed a lot of the lyrics. 

DC and Baltimore - my cousin K was getting married in Washington, DC in the fall of 2023.  I hadn't been back there since I had lived there nearly 20 years before, so we took the opportunity to go, see some family, and see the city.  K and Mom were there too.  We went to the Air and Space Museum, visited the Washington Monument, the WWII, Korean (my personal favorite, and sad memorials go), and Vietnam memorials, the Lincoln Memorial, and passed by the White House (though only along the side to avoid the crowds).  After K and Mom left, S and I ventured to Silver Spring to see the National Museum of Health and Medicine. We also managed to squeeze in a dinner with my dear friend M and her husband T, who have lived there since they both were in college.

Since we were both still working primarily remotely, S and I opted to head up to Baltimore for the following week.  We worked during most of the day, but also saw the sights.  We took in an Orioles game at the iconic Camden Yards, toured the USS Constellation, USS Torsk, and USCG Cutter 37, celebrated S's birthday with dinner at the Thames Street Oyster House, and smelled the bread being baked daily at the H&S Bakery in Fells Point. 

By the time the weekend rolled around, we were ready for TrawlerFest, which was the reason we had opted to stick around.  Since we had gotten our captain's licenses the year prior, we had been thinking about how and when we could put them to use.  We were falling a little short on good ideas, given that we live here in the Midwest and a long way from an ocean.  S had happened onto the idea of the Great Loop, a trip around the eastern half of the United States typically done in power boats.  So we decided to see what we could learn about the Great Loop and boats in general at TrawlerFest.  

I am not, it turns out, particularly keen on trawlers as anything other than commercial fishing boats.  But there were a few tugboats there and, boy, didn't they just steal my heart!  The one in particular that was tucked in with all the other boat show boats was cherry red and it looked just like an oversized bath toy.  It doesn't get much cuter than that!  

Phoenix - we had another Phoenix adventure for basically the entire month of November that year.  We headed out early in the month, were there through Thanksgiving, and returned to St. Louis early in December.  It was another driving trip, so we had lots of great stops along the way: Carlsbad Caverns National Park, White Sands National Park, Saguaro National Park, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, and the Titan Missile Museum.  It was a bit of a bummer of a trip for me, from a work perspective, but overall it was great fun to be with T and L for so long. We also had the pleasure of seeing Dad and D for thanksgiving, since they were coming down to visit E and family.  It was great!

Ambassadors of Harmony - my mother-in-law took me and my sister-in-law to the annual Ambassadors of Harmony holiday show, which is always a fun time. This year's first-half gambit was "The Great Christmas Caper," which involved such goofy elves as Sloopy, Slurpy, and Slushy.  We had lunch beforehand at La Bonne Bouchee.  A good time was had by all. 

Ireland - our last trip of the year was a bit of a last-minute jaunt to Ireland.  S had never been, and we hadn't made any plans for the Christmas holidays, so in early December we took a look at where we could get reasonably-priced flights.   We rented a car and took ourselves on an absolutely fantastic driving tour through Dublin, Kilbeggan, Galway, Inishnee, Westport, Derry/Londonderry, Armagh, Belfast, and back to Dublin - stopping in used bookstores and pubs along the way.  Absolutely would do this whole trip again!

Some Things We've Done - 2022 Edition

The years roll on!  Before we know it, we're into...

2022 

Sea of Cortez - A & L, longtime friends and mentors, needed a couple of extra bodies for a sailing trip out of La Paz, Mexico.  We didn't have much else going on, so off we went to explore the Sea of Cortez with them for a week, along with their longtime friend M, and A's nephew and nephew's girlfriend.  It was a bit of a motley crew, but we had a wonderful time.  S got to ride a whale shark, and it was the last time I got to spend quality time with A before his death in 2025.

SLSO - a new symphony season began in the fall of 2021. We saw loads of shows, including Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, a symphonic performance of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Sibelius' En saga, op. 9, and loads of other gems.

Colorado - our annual ski trip was its usual success. Dad and D had to scoot on another adventure when we had a night or two left, so we took ourselves out on a super-great date night to the Office Spiritorium that we still talk about!

Florida - it had been a long time since we had visited K and J in Florida.  We had a springtime visit, which included seeing Pippin - a show I had never seen before! - performed by the Indian River State College theater department. 

Turks & Caicos - we certainly hadn't planned to spend the year traveling the world, but when S's best friend found round-trip tickets to Turks & Caicos for $200 per person, how could we not? It was truly silly that it was so cheap!  So we spent a week there with Z and L, touring, beaching, and generally getting away from it all.

OTSL - the annual summer opera season was back to its regular old self.  Shows were Harvey Milk (which was better than I expected), Awakenings, Carmen (a classic), and The Magic Flute.

Germany and Azerbaijan - since Morocco didn't work out, it turned out that our first big post-COVID trip was to see the Formula 1 race in Baku, Azerbaijan.  S had gotten very into F1 several years prior, and we were watching all the races (when they weren't cancelled).  The Baku race goes, in part, through the old town area.  "That looks cool," we thought; "we should go there."  S's friend J, also a huge F1 fan, was totally into the idea and scoped out an epic apartment in Baku right on the race course.

We bought the necessary t-shirts and were planning the trip.  It turned out that most of our airfare options took us through Germany, a place neither of us had been.  So we decided to tour there as well!  We flew into and out of Frankfurt, and spent two days each in Heidelberg (including its stunning Church of the Holy Spirit and castle), Baden-Baden (which included a trip to the famous Friedrichsbad Spa and Casino), Freiberg (whose gorgeous church bells were right outside our hotel room window, and where the Black Forest mountain biking was quite the uphill-downhill adventure), and Frankfurt (highlights including the Communication Museum and the bar at our hotel overlooking the city in the evening).

I haven't yet mentioned that our luggage was lost by United/Lufthansa on our way to Germany.  It hadn't been found in the eight days we were there, so we spent an unfortunate amount of time in each city we visited shopping for a new socks or clean underwear.  By the time we got back to Frankfurt, I was feeling very much like a bag lady with no actual suitcase, and we shortly had to get onto an airplane on the way to Azerbaijan.  So we stopped in at a luggage store and I bought a large, aluminum, rolling suitcase to hold all our new purchases.  (S also picked up an unnecessary but to this day quite useful Deuter duffel bag - which he liked so much that he has since bought another!)

We loved Germany.  It was clean and felt safe and the trains were (apparently surprisingly!?) on time.

Azerbaijan was another world.  We liked it too, but it was something entirely different!  It was one of few places we have been where they truly do not cater to English speakers.  Some folks may speak English, but it's certainly not a guarantee.  It's a Muslim country but -- at least in Baku; we didn't go elsewhere -- you see everything from women in full hijab to those in miniskirts and tube tops.  We went to the Azerbaijani National Carpet Museum, Maiden Tower, and the Daniz shopping mall (where we lived out our own F1 race on their indoor karting track).  Despite three attempts, we never were able to catch the Museum of Miniature Books when it was open.  I'll have to go back just for that, if nothing else!

Wyoming - Dad's parents both passed away in 2021, and that year we began a family tradition of taking a summer trip together in lieu of Christmas gifts.  2022 was our first year.  We went to a lodge in Wyoming, which was preceded by a visit on the part of S, K, J, and me to Grand Teton National Park for a few days.  This has, in the years since, proved to be a wonderful annual tradition.  S and I drove our campervan out and back so we had a few additional stops along the way (the Crazy Horse Memorial where we saw a performance of traditional hoop dancing, scenic drives through Custer State Park, Jewel Cave National Monument, Yellowstone, and others).  

Memphis - for S's birthday, we took a trip to Memphis for the weekend.  The weather was beautiful.  We visited the Fire Museum, saw the ducks at the Peabody, took in some live music, and got the still-frequently-used 1-gallon bucket from Silky O'Sullivan's on Beale Street.

Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site - I've been in St. Louis for a long time to have never been to White Haven, the common name of the U.S. Grant National Historic Site.  So when the Campbell House Museum, where I had been a longtime member, had a "Farm Table to Gilded Table" event with food and drink served at both places, I simply couldn't resist.  It was a wonderful event and a wonderful date night!

SCUBA Diving - S had spent a lot of time SCUBA diving when he lived in Florida.  I had never done it.  So one weekend, we hopped in the car and drove to Panama City, where he did a refresher course and I got my Open Water certification!  I had done all the online work ahead of time, but that stuff really doesn't sink in for me.  Once we got in the pool, though, it really started to make more sense. 

St. Lucia - S had always harbored (pun intended) a secret interest in sailing.  When he decided he wanted to get his captain's license, I figured that I might as well do it too.  So off we went to St. Lucia, where we could get not only licenses which were good in the U.S., but also the necessary certification to charter a boat in the Mediterranean, should we want to go there. 

St. Lucia was a strange place.  There were little restaurants and tucked-away places that were fantastic, but as a whole the people seemed largely annoyed that we were there.  They were a bit rude and put off by the fact that we might need anything, even the hotel staff!  It was an odd attitude.

But we left with shiny new licenses, so it was a success!