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March 4, 2000
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a beautiful day in the neighborhood I love Saturday. I slept too late, though. The eXtreme dog walking team went to the S. Congress area while Forrest gardened. We parked in front of the car dealer, walked up the sleepy weird shopping strip, looking in the windows. We wandered east to Stacy Park. The day was bright and beautiful with redbuds fat and gleaming in the clear cool air. When we headed back to the street, there was a huge crowd at Jo's. So we passed it up. The San José Motel is open, it seems, although work and landscaping continues. It looks cool. I'd link to their WEB page but it appears a bit unfinished. The shopping was waking up and merchandise was being placed on the sidewalk to attract folks. This is good weird shopping, but I'm not nearly as interested since ebay. Texas French Bread wasn't crowded so we perched at the sidewalk tables in front and had a snack and coffee. As we headed to the CR/V at the end of our walk, two (apparently) homeless men strolled along behind us, one singing a very jazzy 'Blue Suede Shoes.' His companion was silent. He stopped and spoke. "See St. Vincent de Paul over there? They give you vouchers for that." His companion was still silent. "I got these shoes over there for $2. I got a good deal on these shoes. I need some socks. I'll bet they have some socks for 25 cents." I glanced around. They looked like suede tennis shoes. Not blue, though. Helped my friend Nancy draft a WEB page for the work of her husband, blacksmith Frank Paradox Lilly. Not finished by a long shot but she was pleased with the progress of getting things scanned. If anyone has been to the Iron Cactus up north, you have seen examples of his work. In fact, it's hard to go around Austin without seeing examples of his work. My friend Al called to thank me for his birthday present. I sent him a couple of the pastis pitchers I collected for the party. It was his 65th birthday. He was surprised I remembered it. Well, I didn't really. My friend LG mentioned it when I mentioned my friend Beattie's milestone of 60 was coming. And I knew he liked advertising logo stuff from France and Germany so.... Later I wonder if he noticed the handmade card. Had fun making it. That's Al in the picture with all the women. We were in Berlin in 1995. Hard to believe it was almost five years ago. We took some advertising glasses home that night, gifts from our hostess. She made us drink something from each one, however. Which Al and I happily did. I remember walking to the U-Bahn, joyously tipsy. Christo wrapped the Reichstag and that was our excuse for visiting Berlin. Al advises that we should have foie gras and caviar from Petrossian when we visit New York. He also mentioned that he might try to come to the Texas Hill Country Wine and Food festival this year. Cool. I'd love to see him and his wife. We've kept up a casual friendship for thirty years because we both love travel. I count everyone in the picture a close or casual friend. (See below for amazing friendship facts.) Forrest gardened a lot today. Getting in some beautiful plants. Means I'll be shooting more pictures with the scene changing every day what with things budding and constant additions.Yesterday's "Wall Street Journal" had an article in the weekend section about friendship. They had some amazing facts. The average adult has 1 or 2 best friends (that's kind of hard, but anyway), 4-6 close friends and 10-20 casual friends. What? Excuse me? I must have a few hundred casual friends. Sure it's hard to keep up with them, but we do try. Over 200 people actually showed up for my birthday party. Yeah, it was free food and drink, but surely people who didn't feel they were my friends wouldn't actually come? The article went on to cite the health benefits of friends, the more friends the healthier. I'm going to live forever, I guess. It also asserted that it take around three years to form a lasting friendship. Surely not. Dinner at Zoot with cousin Robert and Anne and Les. The place was packed. The special soup (a seafood creation) and the duck were both delicious. The company was great. We saw a couple of other friends there. We went to Four Seasons bar afterward and heard Rebecca play. Saw a few people we knew including Gene and Amy. Heck...I saw or talked to ten or twelve friends today. A total of 28 friends? Please. I'm way off the charts here.
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"Dame Fortune
is a fickle gipsy, Winthrop Mackworth Praed, The Haunted Tree |
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happily imbibing in Berlin |
