“A Different Kind of Birthday”
Monday was an exciting day for me. The 2 week leg surgery follow up appointment went very well. Dr. Haslam was pleased to see good signs of the bones healing – apparently unusual at this juncture. He removed the staples from the incision and it’ll be much smoother for me to shower now. Next appointment is a month from now and I can put 25% weight on the leg until then.
Whew – it was good to get that behind me and feel that I’m on the mend again. Since I was over in Frisco I decided to try a visit to Taco Deli for lunch. I was the only person at a typically very packed restaurant. The only 
option was to park and order online for delivery to the parking space – so I worked through that seemingly overly complicated process. When my lunch was delivered to Penelope (enjoying her first outing in weeks) I learned that I could eat on the nice outdoor patio. What a treat this was – the tacos tasted much better than I remember – amazing what deprivation does to desire. The menu was a subset of normal and the “Space Cowboy” mushroom taco was not available. Not to worry, lots of other good options. All the tacos are very simple but quality, fresh ingredients really make these outstanding.
Tuesday was shaping up to be another exciting day – I had a haircut scheduled in the afternoon. After an all morning work strategy session – you know how those can be – Penelope and I headed over to the Boardroom at Watters Creek. We were foiled – the folks inside told me that they didn’t open until Wednesday and some appointments had been accepted in error online.
We repeated the process on Wednesday with success. The Boardroom had a good system down – temperature check on arrival, followed by mandatory hand washing and then utilizing every other chair. Check out these before and after shots – I might have lost a couple of inches.
While I was messing around with my haircut, Diana was undergoing a root canal. It seems to have gone very well and she got the permanent crown installed on Thursday. Such a process in the best of times.
Diana surprised me with an early Birthday gift on Wednesday evening – an excellent John Prine piano music book. I’ve been working my way through a couple of his classics during extended conference calls.
I believe it was on Wednesday night when Diana came across this camo moth on the patio. A bit intimidating with its 4 inch wingspan and coloring. A quick search reveals this to be Eumorpha pandorus, the Pandora sphinx moth, first discovered in America in 1821. Thank goodness it’s harmless and not some new strain of dangerous bug.
Diana had been telling me for several days to be ready for virtual Happy Hour with her girlfriends at 6pm on Friday. I was a bit confused about why it was necessary for me to be there, but we have to compromise to keep the peace in these times, so I was ready to go on time. This is the Zoom screen that greeted me – not the girlfriends.
What a lovely surprise – a collection of our friends from around the country AND Gordy and Ed from the Band of Heathens. From left to right and top to bottom we have: Damon and daughters in Philadelphia, Alicia in Arroyo Grande, D and K in McKinney, Ed in Austin, Anne in New Orleans, Vince and Lori at their cabin in the Adirondacks (with a huge Moose head behind), Patty and Brent in Corning, NY, Gordy in Austin, Kris and Cat in Del Mar, Adamo, Amy, Frankie , Massimo and Luciano in Pacifica, and Brad and Jocelyn in Austin.
We were all treated to 45 minutes of excellent music. This was a birthday gift to Alicia and me from Diana. What a treat! I enjoyed watching Alicia discussing the first time she saw the band with Gordy and explaining that she went straight home and learned “Hurricane”. That was a risk I took that paid off – I took Diana and Alicia on a surprise outing to see the Band of Heathens at Love and War in Texas. It was over 100 degrees on a Sunday afternoon and I wasn’t sure that Alicia would appreciate either the heat or the music. Fortunately she loved the music and bought a t-shirt at the end of the show as a souvenir. Whew! Here’s a video of the Zoom screen as Gordy and Ed shared “Abraham, Mark and John” – an excellent song from their cover of Ray Charles “A Message From the People” album. The hand off from Gordy to Ed is very smooth.
We hadn’t had much time to chat during the private concert and so jumped on another Zoom after that. We were able to introduce some of our friends to others that they hadn’t met before – always fun.
Birthday Saturday rolled around like another day at home on crutches does. I did take McD out to Taco Deli in the morning and we enjoyed our first meal out in over 2 months on their patio. Lots of fun FaceTime calls started coming in during the afternoon. We had a nice chat with Campbell as he organized his new apartment, and had video chats with Marco, Adamo and crew, Denny and Alex with cameos from Anne and Laura, Alicia, and others that I’m likely forgetting. Massimo was quite energetic during his call – that’s a “Tacosaurus” taco holder that he’s brandishing.
Clorinda wasn’t able to get out for a card so called to describe the art that she was creating for me on her new cabinet doors. Adamo went down and took a picture for me.
Not to be left out, Phoebe (Amy and Adamo’s pup) sent me a greeting:
Alicia had asked several friends and family to submit short videos to her and she played the compiled result for me on Saturday evening – what an excellent surprise.
Diana spoiled me all afternoon with New Orleans meat pies, a Bloody Mary, meat and cheese appetizer platter, and then a delicious salad, scallops, and grilled vegetables. And then the piece de resistance – a perfectly cooked pavlova with grapes that had been soaking in sherry for 2 days – all delicious.
Denny shared this picture of the High School graduation in New Orleans, with his friend Derek Houston playing Pomp and Circumstance as graduates drove through to receive their diplomas. New Orleanians always come up with a special twist.
I tested out my new double insulated french press cafetiere (thanks Mum and Dad) on Sunday morning with great results. It looks very cool, makes good tasting coffee, and keeps it warm on the patio for over an hour. I ordered up a kettle so that I can pour in water at the perfect temperature. This has given Diana an opportunity to reorganize the coffee station area in the kitchen. I think that activity is still in progress as I write this post.
Sunday afternoon is a good time to relax with the New Yorker magazine, and I enjoyed a couple of the cartoons this week. This one felt close to home as one of us has been enjoying the time to do deep organizing:
And I enjoyed this one – crosswords have been a good distraction for me in my less than mobile state:
I heard these two songs on an excellent playlist that Diana had going by the pool. Way too long since I heard Joan Armatrading’s unique vocal sound:
Sitting in the shade of the Magnolia trees I heard this version of J.J. Cale’s classic rumination on missing New Orleans by Poco. I never heard this version before. What do you think? Not too bad?: