Jay Kersting's Blog

Alright, where to begin.  Yes, it has been a while since I have posted.

I will skip some of the comments on the stupidity of culture and the obsession with pop culture...save this one comment.

I did travel six hours to see The Police at Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY.  First, I have wanted to see them since the Synchronicity tour in 1983-1984, but was too young to do so.  Second, it was a chance to see some of my friends and former co-workers that I did not really get to see much before I moved.  And third, as it turned out, I got to see my niece Zari and his parents (Sorry T & S, you are simply Zari's parents now.  Get used to it!).  It was worth the trip, worth money, etc.

Since that time, back at home here in Jefferson City it has been and continues to be HOT!!!  That has caused a bit of a problem with our yard.

We have an automatic sprinkler system.  The system has six zones and timers and setting for all kinds of different things.  Well, it is HOT and HUMID, but not wet..as in no rain.  So, I struggled to figure out the proper way to set up the sprinkler system.  Thought I had it right.  And again.  And again.  And again.  Never did.  So, I did some things to run it manually.

Then I got the $87 water bill.

The grass is brown and the sprinkler is off.  Didn't want to cut the grass anyway.

I will figure it out and get it running properly.  Oh, and YES, I did read the book.  It does a fine job explaining the thing......if you understand JapLish.

In other news, August 1st gave a scare to our household.  That bridge collapse in Minneapolis.  For those of you just tuning in, Kathy and I met in St. Paul, Minnesota, and lived in that metro area for three years.  We worked in the northern suburb of Roseville and lived in the southern suburb of Burnsville.  If you look at a map you could see several ways for us to commute.  The most common one took us over that I-35W bridge.  We knew that bridge.  I remember Kathy driving me home on that bridge after a dentist's appointment.  (This is a vivid memory because my lips were numb and she told me to shut up because I sounded like some idiot cartoon character....or something to that effect.  Now that we have been married for 12 years, she doesn't feel the need to qualify those requests.)

In any case, we followed that story closely and called all of the friends up there we could.  Finally heard back from one.  Everyone that we know is OK.  I still spent days scouring the websites for the names.....just to be sure.

Registering the boys for school was an interesting task.  For Ben, so far it has been seamless.  For Alex, a funny little thing happened on the way to the Nurse's office.  You see, Alex was born in 1995.  Apparently, the shot record shows that he had his MMR and Chickenpox vaccines in December 1986.  Modern medicine is amazing, but not that good.  Not only did his mother and not meet by then, we were in different states with NO overlap in our lifetimes.  Not even at the same place for vacation at the same time.  Yes, it was an error, but since the records are now in STORAGE in Knoxville, this was a bit of a problem.  The doctor's office has YET to get this corrected and back to us, but we had enough information to get through this problem. 

The rest of the process was long and tedious...sort of the way I recall Freshman Orientation at CMSU.  Actually, it wasn't bad at Thomas Jefferson Middle School.  Everything in Warrensburg, Missouri, is long and tedious.  Even IF it involves beer.  It was long because we are new to the district and I have no damned clue what the hell we are doing.  Who is his doctor?  Right now, the attending at the ER qualifies.  We will pick one soon enough.  You know, stuff like that.

What else....Kathy and I had birthdays.  Yippie....whatever.  We bought me a bike.  Went for a ride, got eight houses away and the chain snapped.  Returned it for a different model...to the tune of SIXTY bucks more.  Screwed up the brakes once, but fixed that easily.  So far, so good since that point.  Need to ride some.  I volunteered for a media race to coincide with the Tour of Missouri bike race.  I know I will lose since I have not ridden a bike on a regular basis since I was a sophomore in high school.  Don't care, just want to have fun.  Sort of like my media hockey appearances.  I can't skate, but I had fun flopping and falling on the ice.

Kathy finally got something she has apparently wanted for a long time (but only told me late last year).  A jewelry armoire.  I told her that she will now have room for stuff of NO value on her dresser.  It is a neat little furniture piece and I think she is happy with it.  She might have gotten it years ago....had I known.  But she thinks I am hard to buy for.  I drop hints ALL THE TIME. She only remembers the EXPENSIVE ones. 

Who doesn't want all of the new stuff in Popular Mechanics?  Let me rephrase that, what man doesn't want all of the new stuff in Popular Mechanics. 

Ben's birthday will be TEN on the 13th!!!  Hard to believe that our youngest is getting into the double digits.  Doesn't seem that long ago that I drove 90+ MPH down I-75 in a non-air conditioned 1990 Ford Festiva wearing a wool suit.  How I made it to Erlanger Hospital from the Cedar Bluff area in an hour and ten minutes with a closed interstate (that Dave Foulk told me about on the newly renamed WNOX AM 990) due to a diesel tanker being overturned at Lovell Road, when I didn't know my way around town yet is still amazing to me.  Nope, I will never forget that day. 

I will possibly be able to make more updates once the boys start school on the 20th.  In the mean time, I will let Dean Morgan call me out on the air for how horrible I am about updating.  (He updates his nearly daily....show off!!)

Take care and keep in touch....if you want.