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Wednesday June 28, 2000 "It costs so much to be a full human being that there are very few who have the enlightenment, or the courage, to pay the price....One has to abandon altogether the search for security, and reach out to the risk of living with both arms. One has to embrace the world like a lover, and yet demand no easy return of love. One has to accept pain as a condition of existence. One has to court doubt and darkness as the cost of knowing. One needs a will stubborn in conflict, but apt always to the total acceptance of every consequence of living and dying." Morris L. West, Letter to The Shoes of the Fisherman
Honda Civic ouch!
young...and beutiful...and smart and creative
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price of a dent Another work day. I slog through it. By turns I feel good or bad or indifferent depending on what I'm working on. Some things in corporations go on and on and never get resolved. Other things make one cheerful and hopeful. Kind of like life in general. During lunch I go to two body shops and get two estimates to fix the damage I did to my car the other night in the encounter with the side of the garage . The good news? One is half the amount of the other. The bad news? That one is a little over $500. The fender needs replacing. It's not so much the fender (the second place has after market ones for $55) but it's the labor. Interesting. I think when you file an insurance claim that the adjustor gets lower prices from these places (so that the body shop gets the business). Just a thought, though. For an eight-year-old car, it hardly seems worth $500. But I plan to drive it for a couple of more years. Maybe. Even now the car isn't worth much as a trade-in. I'm not a fan of cars...I just like to get around. But I've enjoyed this one because it's gotten me around without many hiccups and it looks OK. A few dings and stuff, but OK barring this dented fender. It's a Honda Civic if you must know. I grab some food at Randall's and take it back to eat with SuRu. We are making a movie! Well, not really. We are talking to some young folks who may make a movie. They have grants and stuff. Celeste runs a Latino film festival. She went to Cuba to get films for it. Kisha (I'm not sure I'm spelling that correctly) has been working for Verbena (a florist with a flourish) but is going to break out to do something creative. But what? We pick Kisha up and go to the bar at Aquarelle. Aquarelle isn't set up for a bar business yet. But some of the waiters serve us in there. We are the only ones there (in the bar) the whole time we are there. We have a drink (vodka gimlet for me) while waiting for Celeste. The drinks hit hard without food so we order some appetizers. The gang from Four Seasons (the GM, the food and beverage manager and the exec. chef) are there dining. Lisa and Emmett Fox, too. Everybody checking out everyone else. The Four Seasons gang isn't very impressed, I don't think. The appetizers we order (smoked salmon, oysters, foie gras) work, though. Celeste arrives fresh from a photo shoot at Pedernales State Park or somewhere. We head over to Tocai to eat. While FFP excuses himself to the restroom, Celeste and Kisha and I wait in front. Celeste shows us the Polaroid test shots from the shoot. Beautiful girl. Shoot it while you've got it, we decide. At Tocai we are greeted by their friend who is owner? Maitre d'? There is a guitar player. He is playing the electric guitar but he has no less than fifty gadgets to 'enhance' his sound. I tell the girls it is clearly a case of a friend giving a friend a place to play. Kisha agrees. It detracts from the atmosphere which is way Austin casual but would be better with light, quiet jazz. They play old movies on the TV over the bar. The waiter sells us a chardonnay from Burgundy that's pretty good and I have some OK soup and tasty risotta and sausage. We discuss digital video cameras, film editing programs and creative ideas. It's fun. But it's a school night and when I get home I drop into bed. |
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