Sometimes, no matter how disinterested you are in baseball personally, living in St. Louis has a way of making you identify it with the world you live in; it is a crucial block in the teetering Jenga stack that is our local psyche. So it is hard to make a good day out of a dank, gray morning that begins with the alarm clock saying,

In sports, the Cardinals lost very, very badly to the Astros last night, ending both the baseball season and the city’s dreams of going to the World Series. Last night’s loss also meant the last Cardinals broadcast ever on KMOX, which will now presumably fade into obscurity after 80 years, as well as the last game ever in Busch Stadium, which will now be blotted from the face of the earth brick by brick. It is only a matter of time before the players in last night’s game retire and die, many after suffering. For KWMU, I’m Tom Weber.

And then, after that, there was a pledge drive.

Yesterday, putting my car key into the ignition and turning it caused nothing to happen; I might as well have been trying to generate a charge by rubbing it with a balloon. That was new (I’ve killed a battery or two before, but they at least made halfhearted shrugging noises when I turned the key) so it was only a mild surprise when the mechanic said, “Yeah, see, it’s leaking acid all over your engine there. One good pull on the positive lead and it would pretty much come off in my hand.” Because my car wouldn’t start, I was home to see the cat vomit prodigiously all over my floor before being late to work. My point is this: yesterday morning, I was in a better mood after all that happened than I am today. I am as glum as one can be… without actually being the kind of person who watches the game in the first place. Behold the thrall of the Cardinal Nation, or maybe just the hypnotic power of public radio.

I mean, at least the AAA guy had an extra battery in his truck.