“Same Old Routine”
Another week in the books and nothing very exciting to report – working from home on Teams video calls from my office most of the day every day. Auntie D did get invited to join Luciano’s Zoom school call before we left Pacifica. The forty degree temperatures on arrival in Dallas were a bit of a shock after the gorgeous California weather. The puffer jackets are out again.
Our major non-work activity was swapping out internet providers and ditching cable television. We made the switch to all internet with YouTube TV and should have done it a while ago – much better speed and quality at a lower price, and available on any device anywhere there’s internet. I know I sound like a commercial but we have a great picture on our outside television for the first time. Diana wrestled with getting the new internet service set up and I handled switching the older televisions over to Amazon firesticks. The thing that irritated her most was the $10 fee that Spectrum tried to charge us for doing a “self-installation”. That is a bit nuts.
Our only outing was to downtown McKinney for coffee on Saturday morning. Filtered coffee shop has a new outdoor seating area that’s set up to look like a beer garden – I think they plan to serve beer outside from a new counter area. There’s a new Cuban restaurant next door that we’re looking forward to trying – I’m hoping they have good empanadas. Diana commented that she doesn’t expect to see the kiddie seesaws that were set up on the concrete next time we visit. They’re just waiting for a kid to tumble off and bump their head on the unforgiving concrete.
Our friends Wash and Zoe, the Irish wolfhounds, made a trip to Colorado for Wash to have some specialized surgery. Here they are seeing snow for the first time:
And here’s Zoe bouncing through the snow at high speed:
Wash’s surgery went well and he should be back home to Austin soon.
Halloween was a non-event and we didn’t see any kids out at all. Coal Porter did make an appearance in New Orleans.
I started reading “Anxious People” by Fredrik Backman and am loving it so far. Such creative story telling and a unique approach to language. Backman became famous a few years ago with “A Man Called Ove” and I think I’m enjoying this book even more. The humour and clever language are all the more impressive when you consider that everything is translated from Swedish.
The story starts with a bank robbery gone awry and police interviews with each of the witnesses. Jim and Jack are father and son on the local police force who get frustrated when a special hostage negotiator from Stockholm is engaged:
“After talking to the negotiator Jack was even angrier than he’d been the last time he’d had to speak to a customer service representative at his Internet provider.”
I think Diana and most of you can probably relate to that feeling.
Two icons of the Texas music scene passed away this week – Jerry Jeff Walker and Billy Joe Shaver. Born Ronald Clyde Crosby and raised in Oneonta, New York, Walker cut his teeth busking and hitchhiking through the American South after going AWOL from the National Guard. He took the stage name Jerry Jeff Walker in 1966, and released 36 albums through his career, including his best known, “Mr. Bojangles”.
Jerry Jeff is considered a Texas musician although he originally hailed from New York and was a big part of the Austin music scene that centered around the Armadillo World Headquarters. Here’s one of my favourites:
Billy Joe Shaver is known as the grandfather of “outlaw country music” and his songs were covered by the Allman Brothers, Bobby Bare, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Willie Nelson, Elvis Presley and, of course, Waylon Jennings.
Here’s the late great Bugs Henderson singing “Why Can’t I Write Like Billy Joe” – I remember him playing that at Dan’s Silverleaf many years ago.
And here’s my favourite Shaver cover – Joe Ely doing “Live Forever”.
I discovered a new band that I like very much – The Greyboy Allstars. What a great rhythmic feel – similar to The Meters. I read that they were formed in San Diego and include the amazing Karl Denson on saxophone – once saw him in the tiny back room of Le Bons Temps bar in New Orleans. I’m looking forward to listening to much more of their music.
Stay calm and patient whatever this crazy week ahead brings us.