Marcel, Dad Help Create Part of Ozark Trail

In 2005, a massive reservoir collapse wiped out a section of the Ozark Trail and closed down Johnson Shutins, a popular Missouri state park. The rebuild of the park is almost complete.

W and M donated a Saturday to help with the re-routing of the trail, carving out their own little section of the 700 mile, work-in-progress Ozark trail. Weather was perfect and the event was well organized with over 180 participants. A large number of rocks were excised and trail smoothed.

"Throwing Knife"

 

R demonstrates the art of throwing a knife on a recent trip to the Smokies. No snakes were harmed in this picture. But luckily, trees can't talk.

Renny Shoots, Kills Cottonmouth

While staying at a friend's cabin, R and his friends noticed a venomous water moccasin snake at the edge of a pond. Despite having a brand new throwing knife, R used a pellet gun to shoot the snake. The snake is seen draped over some antlers.

WNR Conquer Black Mountain, KY

 

A recent vacation to the Smoky Mountains resulted in a side trip to Kentucky, where the highest point was conquered on a 3 mile walk. The actual highpoint was decidedly unpicturesque, but the walk to it was pleasant. A red spotted newt was discovered, along with 3 dead moles. Then W managed to leave his backpack at the trailhead, a fact not discovered until they had driven 100 miles away. After a short discussion, the family decided to make the long return trip to get the backpack, which was still there over 5 hours after W had left it.

No More Braces Or Broken Eyeglasses

Renny underwent a dramatic makeover over the past week as he nearly simultaneously got his braces off and replaced his eyeglasses with contact lenses. He rejected the additional suggestion from his hip, "au courant" father to get an Afro style perm to make things match.

Marcel, Dad Run 10.1 Mile Castlewood Trail Race

M and W, together with M's good friend Tim Hebel tackled the 10.1 mile Castlewood Trail Run along with approximately 300 other runners from around Missouri. The course was tortuous, hilly, and rocky. Fortunately, the predicted snowfall did not occur, but temperature was still a factor at 30 degrees Fahrenheit. If you look closely on picture (click on it), you can see frost that formed on W's cap over course of race. The final mile featured a frigid stream crossing in ankle deep water. W finished in 1:28:25, good enough for 3rd place in the 50-54 age group, a respectable time that left him quite exhausted. M and Tim ran a little easier and stopped short of the finish, as Tim was running non-registered. Hot dogs and free drinks rounded out the race around a smoky fire.

W Smashes Two Records in 4 Mile Race

Running in the St Louis Track Club Frostbite Series 4 mile run, W ran to a new 4 mile record of 29:17, easily eclipsing his previous best of 31:07. He also set a record for coldest running weather, running in 15 degrees Fahrenheit (previous record was 18 degrees). He finished with serious icicles on his mustache, frost on his head, and no feeling in his toes.
Renny and Marcel slept in.

Celebrate Obama Victory

Ben Stokes has generously shared some rare Obama footage captured moments after he won the nomination:
Click here --> Obama plays the drums

Walter Surprised on 50th

 
Yes. It's true. I was surprised. There was also a nice video made by N. In a nice touch of synchronicity, cousin Thomas sent a youTube video that all my share in by clicking on the link.

Stereotaxis Team Places 3rd In Marathon Relay

 
The Stereotaxis team of Chris Hayen, Rob Holtman, Walter Blume, and Jim Hulsey ran to a third place finish in the corporate division of the St Louis Track Club annual marathon relay. Temperatures were well below freezing at 18 degrees when the race started to about 28 degrees at race end (3 hours 19 minutes later). W ran about 2 minutes faster than last years time and had icicles in his mustache and sweat-frost on his head.

Official time: 3:19:27 (a 7:37 mile pace)
Link to official results here.

Scandal! N Caught In Arms of Gumby

 
Last sighted with WGHS football fan Gumby and Bill Beggs, N continues her free spirited ways. Webster Groves High School won the traditional football game against Kirkwood, restoring the world to its natural order. Besides the Beggs brunch, Turkey Day also included a superb Thanksgiving dinner at Maria Canella's house.

Ritual Pumpkin Burning Completed

 
Almost a month after Halloween, the grisly remains of the pumpkins were finally given their proper cremation, with R as master of ceremonies.

Autumn Chunk-a-sonic Spectacular

The first major leaf raking of the season featured some spectacular acrobatics by the astounding dog Chunk, who was able to leap from tall trees with a single bound in his single-minded pursuit of the elusive frisbee. Amidst the distraction of flying dogs, the side yard and front yard were for an all too ephemeral moment devoid of leaves.
See web album for larger size action shots.

Marcel, Renny Finish XC Season Strong

M with Coach Dan Sebben
R and M finished out the Webster Groves High School cross country season this week.  M had an injury riddled season, with a sore knee and two twisted ankles.   The varsity team made the sectionals (sort of like the playoffs) this year for the first time.  In the final race of his high school career, he managed his best time of the year 17:50.  Unfortunately, he missed qualifying for the state championships by a slim margin. M finished as a four year cross country athlete with the last two years being at varsity level. M was MVP of the team last season, but due to injuries was not his usual self in his senior year.

R completed a successful second season, coming back from a broken toe to run a 20:06 in his final race.

Blume, Barbercheck, Bag Taum Sauk!

Paul and W attempt to escape gravity at Highpoint #4

Together with Paul Barbercheck, W traveled to the Claybaugh Creek trail head for an attempt on the imposing Taum Sauk mountain. The ascent began at 9 a.m. and wound its way along the Ozark Trail up and down through hills for an impressive 4000 feet cumulative up/down of climbing. Although it was possible to drive directly to the summit, W preferred the hike, as the actual journey matters as much as the destination. There was absolutely nobody on the trail, and W was glad that he had brought a GPS and compass, as the trail was very faint in places. W & Paul lost the trail twice on their way, once due to a larger trail that was taken mistakenly, and the second time due to a tree that had fallen in an area where the trail was already very faint. Hiking conditions were perfect, with beautiful fall foliage and abundant broccoli-green moss lining the trail.   More photos here.  Eventually after 7 miles, state highpoint #4 was history.  This was actually the second time to Taum Sauk for W, the first time was five or six years before, when WNMR and Grandpa Mark drove there.

Paul & W also took a side hike to Mina Sauk Falls, which are the highest waterfalls in Missouri, but the water flow was a mere trickle. Owing to the superb views, it was still worth visiting.

Hours later, Paul and W returned to the car, completing a 16 mile day hike.

Daniel Trounces Walter in Hotly Contested 20K

Uncle Daniel and W raced to a 1:49:46 and 1:50:16 finish, respectively in a highly crowded 20 km race through the streets of Paris and the Bois de Boulogne. It was an exciting time and the weather was perfect. W finished 6th out of 33 Americans, while Daniel finished approximately 10000th out of 20000 french people. It is unknown why Daniel registered his nationality as French, otherwise W would have finished 7th out of 34 Americans.

Nichole's Left Hand In Action !!!

Messing around in W's secret lab, N desired an x-ray of her hand. Here it is:

Billy the Cat Finally Runs Out of Lives

Billy, the persevering 18 year old cat of the Blume's died today (September 19th). She was given about a month to live by the vet in August of 2006, but managed to overcome the naysayers and last two more years than expected. Finally in her last week, she was unable to eat, and slowly wasted away. She was best known for her sneakiness, though had grown rather less sneaky in the past year. Her well honed sneaking skills included stealing socks, depositing them in odd places at odd times of the night while making demented cat noises and jumping up onto kitchen counters to eat tomatoes. Deaf and blind, she was still able to smell, and even managed to kill a rabbit in her last month of life.
Billy had always seemed to have a survivor knack. She had been picked up at a pet store in Albany, California in 1990 as a follow up to Cathead the cat, who met her demise in Boston and is interred at Walden Pond, Massachusetts. Billy's tail looked as if it might have been severed in an accident, though it could also have been a birth defect. It was oddly krinkly and referred to as a "Cheetoh" tail by N. Why "Cheetos" you may ask. It felt like several cheetos crudely glued together and looked as much in an X-ray once taken for tumorous reasons. In any case, W & N believed that it might have been cut off by a sliding van door, because Billy reacted pretty strongly to the sound of a sliding van door on Irwin Ct, leaving tread marks up and down N's arms and chest and face. N was just happy Billy didn't manage to hook her sharp little claws in an eye or two while strongly reacting to closing of a VW bus door. But the point was, she had survived it.
Later the same year that Billy was acquired, she managed to get lost in the roof while the chimney was being repaired. She emerged from the attic with a broken hind leg, N thought the vets in Oakland weren't up to snuff when they said using pins wouldn't work, they would simply put the ball back in the socket and it would work again naturally. N called UC Davis veterinarian school experts to see if they could somehow rebuild her. Davis vets concurred with Oakland vets reporting that pins would hamper her growth plates, Billy being the ripe young age of 6 months. The surgery did work, and she was soon able to leap up on counters again.
Later she was attacked by some kind of animal and bitten in the eye. She again managed to survive, though lost sight in the bitten eye. Her most recent brush with death was in the driveway of the Blume home on Oak St. N yelled desparately to W, who was backing down the driveway, to stop as Billy was cutely sitting just behind the front passenger wheel to keep cool. W didn't hear N's yelling and did not stop. Billy jumped clear just in the knick of time. Despite these handicaps, she was still able to jump up on counters up to the last month of her life. Her predilection for ice cream, tomatoes and cantaloupe were well known.

Mt Elbert - 14,433 feet - Highpoint #3

W reached the highest point in Colorado and second highest in the contiguous US, taking a 9 mile solo hike while M rested in the car with altitude sickness. W had wanted to climb Mt Elbert while doing a college visit to Colorado College with M, but had decided with some disappointment that the climb probably wouldn't happen because 1) it looked like a lot of snow, and 2) M was not enthusiastic with very sore calves from a recent cross country race. Despite this, W decided to at least check out the trailhead before heading down to Colorado Springs. The trailhead could be accessed by driving up a 4WD road that was full of huge rocks. At this point, in addition to M's sore calves, M appeared to be showing some minor altitude sickness, with headache and some fatigue, making it certain that he did not want to hike. W left M to sleep in the car and headed up the trail with a cell phone so that he could keep in contact with M. It was very late for a peak attempt, as it was already about 9:30, so nobody was on the trail. W did not take his trekking poles, as he didn't actually intend to climb the mountain at this point. The trail started at 10400 feet and wound up through an amber grove of aspen, just beginning to turn yellow in anticipation of autumn. Intending to turn around, W hiked about 45 minutes up the trail, but always the next ridge beckoned and he couldn't seem to stop himself. W decided, ok, he would just hike to get above treeline so that he could see the mountains. Of course, when he reached treeline, he saw that there was a small promontory just a little further. So on it went to the promontory, which was apparently at 12600 feet. At this point, W checked his map and noted that it was only 1.5 miles to the summit. This didn't seem very far, and W could see many hikers ahead of him, slowly trudging to the summit, so he checked in with M, who was feeling tired but otherwise ok, and told him he was going to go a little further. Feeling very energetic, W overtook several groups of hikers, including a couple with whom he had conversed with at the motel earlier the same day at 6:00 a.m. At 13700 feet W felt a little dizzy and briefly considered turning around, but after a minute rest felt better again and continued upwards. The trail had surprisingly little snow, and soon the summit was attained. The peak was crowded with perhaps 15 people and one dog. At 14,433 feet, W was quite certain that he had the honor of meeting the highest dog in the contiguous United States, as there was little chance that any dog was presently atop Mt Whitney. W texted M that he was at the top, and feeling guilty, decided to really hurry his way down. Half running and half walking W raced down, noting at around 11000 feet that his legs were turning to rubber. Two days later, the effects of the rapid descent can still be felt, as W has great difficulty going up/down stairs.

See Walter's Heart

Walter volunteered for an MRI study at Washington University. Heart appears to be healthy.