“Whew! Glad that’s all over.”
I drove down to Lower Greenville Avenue (just north of downtown Dallas) for lunch with my boss on Monday. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the Blue Goose patio. The sour-cream chicken enchiladas were just how I remembered them – best in Dallas for sure. It was very sad to see the empty building that used to house the fantastic Grape restaurant across the street. The Lushers sold it just prior to 
COVID. Diana and I (and many others with us) have enjoyed so many fabulous meals at this French bistro, including our first dinner together in Dallas. The chicken liver pate, homemade Boursin cheese, charcuterie, lamb tartines, mushroom soup, best burger in Dallas at Sunday brunch, steak frites, mussels, and so many more delicious flavours are no more.
There was a loud blowing noise overhead as I sat on the patio on Tuesday that had me a bit spooked. Then I realized there was a hot-air balloon trying to land in the back yard.
We were warned that election results could take a while (maybe weeks) and things were certainly too close to call in many states when we went to bed on election day (Tuesday). On Saturday I went out for a walk with Diana in the morning, then we worked in the front garden, gathering leaves from our massive oak tree. By the time we headed back inside the result had been declared with Joe Biden as President-elect. This is certainly not a political blog at all but I can’t help sharing a few artifacts from this week. First, here’s James Corden recapping the four years of Trump in 3 minutes. I think this is exceptionally well done:
This poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, San Francisco beat poet, owner of the excellent City Lights Bookstore in North Beach, and father-in-law to an interesting character that worked for me at AIG, has a direct and timely message:
And finally a cartoon that I couldn’t resist posting:
That’s the last of the political content. My only other comment is that I’m relieved that Diana isn’t moving us off to the Virgin Islands for a few months to avoid the fall out from a different result.
Saturday continued with the removal of the family room curtains and rods. We’ve never really liked them and decided to see what the room looks like without them – very bright and open but lacking something at the top of the windows. The sconces look even more ornate and outdated without the curtains – that’ll be the next project. I was just informed about the best website to shop for replacements.
Meanwhile, in California, Will was celebrating his 32nd birthday. Is it even possible that he could be that age? What would you guess would be his chosen way to celebrate? If you’ve listened to him wax on about his racing BMW then you’ll have a good idea. Yes, he took the race car to the racetrack. Seems to know what he’s doing as he posted the fastest laps of the group he was with. Of course if you’re going to the track you have to look the part – including a custom made helmet that matches the colour scheme of your car (shown here in a photo shoot in some fancy video recording studio).
Sunday started with hanging all the art and pictures that we brought back from the Austin apartment. You are correct – it has taken us just over 3 months to get around to this project – we had ruminate on all the possible locations for the pictures. We found a good home for all the pieces and they are all perfectly level. Diana had some excellent mounting tools that made the task quiet pleasant.
The wind picked up in the afternoon, blowing mountains of leaves from the tree in our neighbours’ yard into the pool . Not to worry – pool girl D has been busy scooping out leaves and emptying the skimmer baskets all day.
As I post this, the Cowboys (2-6) are beating the undefeated Pittsburg Steelers (7-0) with their fourth string quarterback who is playing his first NFL game. Hard to believe and likely won’t last – but one can dream.
I watched a BBC documentary on the original Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield. This was really enjoyable with Oldfield demonstrating various bass, guitar and keyboard parts. Tubular Bells was the album that started Richard Branson on his way to creating the Virgin empire.
The commentary on how the initial theme changes from 7 beats to 8 beats per bar in alternating bars, capturing our brains as they work to figure out the difference versus a constant 7 or 8 beats per bar which would become monotonous, was quite interesting. I can remember listening to this album in high school and being sucked in right away – something completely different and original.
I haven’t quite finished “Anxious People” by Fredrik Backman yet. Last week I raved about how much I was enjoying this creative book. This week I’m not quite as enthusiastic – still really enjoying the writing and the development of the crazy cast of characters, but things are starting to drag a tiny bit. I’m looking forward to the ending and will have more to say about this next week.
In the music department here’s a tune from Tubular Bells III that I enjoyed revisiting this week – really good guitar that sounds great in the new shower:
I watched the first episode of “Long Way Up”, a new documentary where Ewan McGregor plans an electric motorcycle expedition from the southern tip of South America to Los Angeles. The trip is expected to take 3 months and I’m interested to see how things unfold with brand new model electric Harley Davidson motorcycles and all that could wrong with that. The show started with this song from the Stereophonics – a very underappreciated band:
And finally, a Dylan song from the “Infidels” album, produced by Mark Knopfler in 1983 (apparently one of Joni Mitchell’s top 15 songs):