I had a fish die today. He was a Tiger barb and they are sort of like background characters in my tanks. I have many of them. The last of the old guard three-year-old barbs died months ago, so I suspect that this corpse, with his eyes eaten out, was a victim of homicide (nurture or its lack) rather than nature. MB, Sebastian and I did a funeral at sea, but the dog was only really there for the whistling of Taps. I said a few words about the good fish, that he was a good fish as these things go, and then we commended his spirit to the great beneath; rather, the grate beneath the house.

It sometimes astounds me how much I can do in a weekend. It might exhaust me to tell you all of it. I helped my sister Vicky move out to St. Charles on Friday by taking a load of stuff to Kat’s charity, a load of stuff plus Vicky’s two dogs and their kennels to the new house, and I also (you’re going to love this) steam cleaned all her carpets in her three story condo. Once you tell people that you were a custodian and know how to work all the heavy equipment then they tend to impose, especially family. This is fine because I kept the equipment on her dime and steam cleaned all my carpets on Saturday.

Friday night I went to October Fest in St. Charles with Chris, Vanessa, and Beth. We watched several bands and ate cheap fabulous food. I had a huge, perfect brat with kraut and all the fixings for two dollars. They had fun drinking Schlafley beer while I had fun watching the eighties cover band, the German Polka band, and one of my favorite jam bands: Madahoochie. If you’ve been reading awhile you’ll remember that I used to go see them frequently on Monday nights at Cicero’s after bowling was over. I also ate a few bites of a funnel cake, a deep fried Snickers bar and a deep fried Twinkie. The Snickers bar was not that exciting, funnel cake is always good, but the Twinkie was orgasmic.

Saturday I cleaned everything, but I had to start by fixing the vacuum cleaner; which had eaten a belt (its own belt, not one of mine). I vacuumed all the carpets, worked at my online job for a few hours, did school work, steam cleaned all the rugs, rode Jes’ bike down to where she was working a booth at Taste of St. Louis and had lunch, took a nap, washed and waxed Jes' bike for her, returned the rented steam cleaner, met up with Kat and gave her a motorcycle ride down to the same festival, where Jes was putting in a fourteen hour day. While we were down there Aaron Neville started playing a free concert, you just have to love all the free music in St. Louis.

Today I went to the climbing gym and took a class in all the safety aspects of my new hobby. I learned how to belay properly, which is to hold the end of your rope while you climb and to catch you when you fall. I learned how to tie all kinds of cool knots and I got a workout by climbing several walls. I tried one that was way too hard for me and I fell like Icarus grasping at the sun or like a guy on a wall in a gym. Eric loaned me some rope to practice my knots on and I pity the next trailer that I have to tie off. Actually I pity whoever has to untie it.

After climbing, I took Eric up to the fair where Jes was again working and then went home to watch a few episodes of The West Wing. I went down on Jes’s bike in the late afternoon and we took a long trip out to St. Charles to see how Vicky was settling in. I took Jes back to the festival and I have been working at my online job for several hours now. Tomorrow will be all the school work I was avoiding with my many adventures.

Things I don’t have words for yet: the smell of the food at the festival, the bike roaring over the Missouri River on the Page Expansion bridge, when the bloom stays on the rose.