“Let’s do sprints!”
Monday started with a very enjoyable run. What made it fun? The 62 degree weather – perfect for running and such a nice change. We can both move faster and further when the temperatures are 20 degrees cooler than we’re used to.
After a quick shower, I made a trip to the hand surgeon to see about a small cyst on the palm of my hand. He informed me it is minor “dupuytrens” – a genetic condition common to Northern Europeans and more likely to be found after a hand has been operated on (as mine was 2 years ago). Nothing to worry about but it can ultimately pull your pinky down to where it’s permanently bent. We plan to get it removed on November 9th in a quick outpatient surgery. The J.W. Marriott in Austin, with its faulty door, has more to answer for!
After work we relaxed with the latest episode of Billions – by far my favourite current TV series. The dialogue is so quick and good that I usually watch twice to pick up all the subtle pop-culture references. McD did ask if I wanted to watch Monday Night Football, but I decided to give her a break from that.
I had another enjoyable run on Wednesday morning. This time below 60 degrees – perfect. After that, it was a busy day of packing and shipping. First, we loaded the Passat for shipping to Alicia in San Jose, CA. It should arrive early Monday. Sorry to see such a good car go. It served us well on multiple road trips to Austin and California.
Car shipped, it was time to turn attention to the storage unit and unearthing the furniture that Finn will use in his new apartment. You can see that boxes were stacked in a very higgledy piggledy way, and so the only option was to unpack everything and then repack with the furniture needed at the front. This was not something that Finn or I thought our backs would be able to endure, and so hired a few helpers to do the hard work. They had things unpacked and reorganized for the official move in no time and I didn’t even break a sweat supervising.
We relaxed on Wednesday evening with a movie called “The Starling”. The stars are Mellissa McCarthy, Kevin Kline, and Chris O’Dowd. It took us a few evenings to finish, but this is a great film. Understated, funny, and very poignant. Highly recommended!
We made two tries to get Finn his Texas drivers license on Friday. One at 7am – already more than 100 people in line so we didn’t stop and again at 3pm to see if they would take walk-ins later in the day – again a hard no. 
We did take advantage of being close to downtown McKinney in the morning to stop in for coffees and quiches at Filtered. They have finished the sidewalk expansion and put in new flower planters. Very pretty view for our coffee talk. We’ll try a more remote location next week. Appointments for new licenses are booking out in February of next year, so we need to figure out a walk-in alternative.
The keys to Finn’s new apartment were picked up on Saturday afternoon. The unit looks great with new carpet in the bedroom and wood floors in the living and kitchen areas. We dropped off a bed frame and the internet set up kit, and will be back on Tuesday for the official move in. Finn seems excited.
Penelope has been enjoying having the entire garage to herself – parking sideways to flaunt it – silly girl. That will be coming to a quick end as we put a deposit down on a VW Atlas Cross Sport on Saturday morning. It’s black with burgundy and black seats. I was quite surprised that McD agreed to two tone seats – but she seems genuinely fine with it. The car should arrive in a few days – maybe we’ll have it by next weekend to finish moving Finn. Here’s an old but funny commercial for the Atlas:
I tried to take Diana to a new place for lunch after car shopping. Stix Icehouse looked really fun when I drove by it, but didn’t open until 3pm – weird since it was TX vs OU college football day. They play every year in the Cotton Bowl, and it’s a huge deal around here. My boss invited me to go with him on Saturday morning, but we had already planned car shopping. The game ended up being an absolute doozie with a huge number of points scored and a very exciting finish. Oh well. Getting down there with the State Fair in progress would have been a nightmare – and getting out perhaps even worse. Better to watch on TV.
We went for a long run on Saturday morning, and in a weak moment I agreed to go for a walk with “sprints” on Sunday morning. Diana kept changing the rules about how long the sprints would be, how frequent they would be, and how many we were doing. On arriving home, she told me that’s what Amy would do to her when she was her trainer. Amy and Ray just rented a house in Santa Fe – so we have a place to stay if we want to go skiing there in the New Year. If my legs recover from sprints this morning.
I just watched the New Orleans Saints (with a depleted roster) defeat Washington. Very nice as they are in the same division as the Cowboys. The Cowboys are now playing the New York Giants and are off to a dubious start – but it’s still the first quarter. They can taking a commanding lead in their division with a win today.
I finished up “Away with the Penguins” by Hazel Prior this week. I was disheartened to find that the book has been renamed to “How the Penguins saved Veronica” for the American market. I don’t like that title anywhere near as much. Either way, I highly recommend this book. Veronica is one of my favourite characters in a while – particularly in her initial interactions with Eileen (her housekeeper) in her home in Ayrshire (the county in Scotland where I grew up). The latter third of the book dragged a bit and started to get a bit trite, but don’t let that put you off what is overall a very enjoyable read.
I loved the opening quote:
“I find penguins at present the only comfort in life…one can’t be angry when one looks at a penguin.” John Ruskin
A perfect description of a mean Scottish wind:
“The wind cuts through me. It is that damp, feral variety of wind one finds only in Scotland. I huddle in my coat and pick my way northward along the coast path. I have always believed in the efficacy of a daily walk and I refuse to be put off by inclement weather. To my left the sea churns in slate-grey patterns and spits a wild, white froth out into the air.”
Some local Scottish information that made me smile. Mum and Dad used to book holidays through a travel office in Kilmarnock:
“My tickets were ordered by phone from the travel office in Kilmarnock. They confirmed them by email via Eileen and sent the tickets also by email via Eileen, who has printed them out and given them to me. Why they have to make everything so complicated I will never understand.”
One of the key plot elements is Veronica discovering her grandson, Patrick:
“As we are in good time Eileen insists that we stop to have a coffee together in one of the noisy café areas. I have just selected the only table that is free from other people’s detritus when, to my shock, I discover a tall, scruffy young man is standing right in front of me.
‘Hello, Granny!'”
A typical email from Eileen to Veronica and her mental response:
“I saw some Penguin biscuits in Kilmarnock Stores yesterday and thought of you. I didn’t buy any, though. I haven’t got through the lovely marshmallow chocolate biscuits you left yet. I’m trying not to eat too many at once. Doug (my husband) says it won’t do my figure any favours. I know he’s right, but I do like sweet things so much.”
“I cannot think why she bothers to send these emails when she has nothing of any interest to say.”
On introducing Pip, the baby penguin that Veronica insisted on rescuing, back into the group:
“Sometimes we leave him in the ‘creche’, which is the name they give to a bunch of kiddo penguins left together while their penguin parents go out fishing. Pip’s getting braver and braver. He trundles around with the other chicks, plays chase and hop-the-puddle and so on.”
Every time I paste the picture above in to the blog I dream of building a bookcase unit like that to store albums.
I love the slide guitar on this song that we heard on the soundtrack to the new Clint Eastwood film, “Cry Macho”. We fell asleep and still need to finish the movie.
Here’s a new video from my latest find, Houndmouth. Such a good sound and the musicians are in such a good groove together:
Here are a couple of really good songs from “The Starling” soundtrack. Great movie and a very pleasant soundtrack:
And finally, a classic from Allison Moorer with an excellent guitar solo from Joe McMahan at 3:00 mins in:
Stay safe, kind and patient!