January 9, 2000

beautiful day

Cool, sunny. This is the kind of day that keeps people in Austin. The kind that makes one forget the horrible heat of August or the occasional ugly gray winter day spitting rain, never snow, nothing pretty about it.

I start out fuzzy-headed. I didn't even drink last night. I just haven't been sleeping well.

The day sucks all that out of me and makes me an energetic observer in the blinding Austin light. We take the dogs to Walsh Landing. The eXtreme team and Forrest. People are running there dogs around the (closed) landing and sending them into the chilly lake for tennis balls. Zoey runs with the dogs as if they are chasing her.

We strike out in the neighborhood. The 'Take One' on a modest house with no garage and a big deck out back but no backyard asserts a price of $539,000 without embarrassment.

There is an ancient Old English sheepdog with unbobbed tail. Her rather old owner is gardening. Says Gigi has been taught to stay in the yard. But she follows Forrest into the street after he pats her. "I call her double G, my wife calls her Gigi." He threatens to tie her up if she doesn't go back. She does.

Among the expensive makeovers and remodels and infills and such there is one house with an entire front yard of bamboo, kept at bay only for the walk to the front door. The side of the house has a stairway to the second floor (another residence?). Paint peels. I cheer this house for preserving the integrity of the neighborhood. Our neighborhood has scary house. I'll be sad when some yuppie bulldozes it. Sure I'm glad for the general gentrification. Glad people with means to fix things up want to live close to downtown. Although mostly the increased values in my neighborhood are just sending my property taxes skyward. But I like the variety, too. Even when it means some things look a little seedy.

We had coffee on our walk at Mozart's. First time I'd been there. Nice place. Huge deck. Forrest discarded a couple of scraps of ham and cheese croissant on the water. The ducks squawked and sped. One lucky one was dive-bombed by a gull.

Forrest was sleeping in front of the Cowboys game. I changed the channel to an old Spencer Tracy 'Father of the Bride' with a young Elizabeth Taylor. He wakes up and asks if I'm watching it. We discuss seeing a movie later. Then we decide to leave the Cowboys and the old movies on TV and go back to the Arbor Theater and see 'Being John Malkovich.' It is buried in the back warrens of the Arbor. It is almost as good at 'American Beauty.' It would be, really, if it didn't have to take away all belief in the possible to let the characters exhibit the same kind of humanity. I loved the puppets.

I'm finishing this on Monday morning. I've just learned that the threatened business trip has been cancelled. I'm happy. It's a beautiful Monday in Austin!

Today's picture is an image of a cover being sold on ebay. I love old postage, especially covers. Not to collect, just to look at. I'm a sucker for artists who use real or imagined postage in their work.

I'm thinking that me and my things have finally made peace. My stuff and my self are in balance. But more on that later.

"Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity."

Thomas Caryle