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May 2, 2000
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driving rain I wished it wouldn't rain today for my drive to Houston. When I got up, I just rushed into the shower without paying attention. When I pulled out of my garage, with two cups of Capresso elixir in my commuter cup, I said, "Darn, it's raining." I set up this meeting to try to get some stuff rolling that I was working on so it was my own fault. Then I got some other work and my vacation is coming soon so my plan is to drive over and have this meeting and drive back. But, in the rain! It rained. And rained. And rained. Harder and not so hard. I kept my distance from other cars. I stopped in La Grange for coffee and kolaches. I was almost a little early But then I had to drive to the roof of the garage to park. And run through the rain. And then my badge didn't work at the Houston office and I had to go back to the guard station. Then the person I was meeting with wasn't on the floor where I thought she was (she'd moved). But I was only a minute or two late. It was a good meeting. I learned a lot and got a commitment for the other person to help me out a little with one of my projects. Probably not worth the driving, buy hey. I stopped for junk food and had my audio tapes ( Charles Scribner, Jr.'s "Web of Ideas.") but still I felt my eyes drooping. And to make it worse, I was on a stretch of road without the weird singing pavement at the shoulder. (I think that road trips have changed dramatically with the advent of cruise control, cup holders, singing shoulders, radial tires, pay the pump and cell phones. Don't you?) Anyway, I stopped again in Bastrop for more junk food and soda to occupy me and stave off sleep. I got back to town around the end of my normal workday. I swung by Central Market to catch the end of 'early voting.' (It used to be absentee voting and you had to swear you were going to be gone or something. We are. But now anyone can vote early during early voting, without any particular reason.) It was a City Council election. And some other stuff like voting to allow the school board to comply with Robin Hood in various ways. (Don't get me started after seeing my property tax estimate.) Back home. I hooked up my laptop to check in to work and hooked up my digital camera to my personal PC to download pictures. As I've mentioned before, I believe there are certain pictures that would not get made but for on-line journals and digital cameras. But they do have a certain odd beauty. Anne and Les came by to bring us something and pick up something we'd borrowed. And SuRu joined us and we ate dinner at Fonda. (I was so full of junk food and soda that I just had salad and an avocado soup they had as a special.) Packing is interesting. I always do some things the same but I never do a pack the exact same way as another. Not even close. Because every trip is different and my head is in a different place. You are planning to go to nice places or stay casual. Take long hikes or be in the city, in a cab. You are staying a day or two or weeks. Or something at the travel store (or ebags) has caught your fancy as the perfect accessory and you just know that with this along, you will have a perfect trip. Except, really, it doesn't matter what you take along as long as you have a black blazer, some comfy shoes and lots of money or credit cards. Sure clean underwear, shirts, pants, toothbrush, your favorite remedies are all fine. But you can always just buy that stuff if you have lots of money. I hope my new career of traveling with Forrest ("Travels with Forrest?") doesn't hang up on the packing part. I thought I was all done and then there were more shirts and pants. My mistake...I knew that couldn't be it. I wanted to fill the bags with the things that I didn't need. Still, LB, you're taking twice as many bags! Can you tell I haven't packed with someone else for a serious trip in years? Ever? Long weekends, sure. And, even then, sometimes we met for the weekend after some business thing and still packed our own stuff. Why do I fret? It's not like I ever remember what I packed when I'm recalling a trip. |
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"I know Sir John will go, though he was sure it would rain cats and dogs." Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation
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behemoths on the dark, rainy highway
kolache stop
uncovered parking
day brighter at end
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