Now that we’ve had some actual rain I realized that those parched cracks in the yard must have become sodden and muddied at some point so that our holstered bamboo is now forever stuck in several inches of soil! In truth, they are really an eyesore so if Carrie were to reasonably ask us to dismantle them, at this point, um, we’d have to saw them off at ground level!
Eat, doze
Doze.
Run to Allison. Eat!
Doze
Doze
Doze.
Do you ever get frustrated by the injustice of having a cocktail just out-of-reach when you are relaxing with an automated back-massager? Same. Fortunately, Rob handed me my cocktail so I didn’t have to compromise the massage-action. Rob gave me the massager for my birthday.
He also got me a spiralizer kitchen tool so we made some meals with it already. We basically created a couple of casseroles involving veggies wrapped in tortillas. First was italian-style, and the second was more like enchiladas and they were AMAZING! We also have Mexican créma in a squeeze bottle so that we can finish off the plate with artful lines!! As I write this Rob is in the kitchen make molé for this week’s spiraladas!
During the week of Halloween there were literally 13 black vultures congregating at the end of our street. I also heard what sounded like an owl the other morning and I stepped outside (and recorded the sound) and even saw it for a second before he flew off as I think I startled him. He was atop a tree with no leaves and it was still dark out but I saw his profile which was….perfect owl! Maybe a great-horned? Had those tall ears. Also recently spotted a peregrine falcon on our street.
Black vultures
Seemed like there was a convention the week of Halloween
Also last week I was walking on our deck and saw a gecko on the ground. It was in seemingly flawless condition, but dead. Almost seems like he got too cold?? Anyway, I tried to take some good pictures and I considered posing it somehow as a joke but I don’t have mini-furniture or doll clothes and it would be kinda morbid. So instead I left it on the porch rail where it sat for a day or two. Then I noticed one of the stray cats was up there and sniffed it and then ignored it which seemed weird so I went out and looked at the gecko and it was MOVING! Totally freaky and so then I saw that it was full up with maggots and it was so gross so I took a quick film capture and photo. I reported this to Rob who was inside eating breakfast. He mentioned that we ought to get it off the railing but I predicted that because it was MOVING SO MUCH due to the maggot activity, it would fall off and indeed it did! Rob also mentioned to me at dinner that day that I talked about the maggots during both his breakfast and dinner that day. :)
The thing is that in Minnesota you might see a dead mouse or something but it would be HARD AS A ROCK and frozen so you wouldn’t likely see that maggot action.
When I tried to gently prod the gecko, it would not move at all because these pads on his fingers and toes would stick so well to the surface it was on! I had to lift him off the ground to shift his position.
Still image is easier to take than the video where you see the action of the maggots.
I was telling Rob about how wouldn’t it be cool to have a restaurant where you make your favorite dishes from the various cookbooks you’ve used in your life. And the menu would indicate whose recipe it is. (I have no ambition to start a restaurant, just suggesting it as an idea for anyone who has accumulated good recipes). So like a week or two later we were downtown and Rob was getting fitted with new glasses so I was looking at the magazines and in the Austin one it described a new café within the public library downtown that featured RECIPES FROM COOKBOOKS… and I was like Hey that was MY IDEA! And so then we left the glasses store and literally across the street we saw the actual café right there at the base of the public library. Next thing you know there will be cars with customized car horns.
Larry, the guinea hen on our street, has some very sweet caretakers. As the weather has cooled, we frequently see Larry standing in the yard where he has a mirror AND a heat lamp right above! It is the cutest thing.
We recently had the opportunity to vote for some local issues and you can rest easy because thanks to people like us, retired police canines can now retire in the homes of their police handlers!
Not sure if I have mentioned that the area near us that currently has a few apartment complexes on it will be transformed into a second-of-its-kind development called the Domain, which will have more retail and more apartments and generally make this area busier (and gentrified I guess). So it has met with a lot of resistance. I was thinking that back in ancient times (or in a game like Settlers of Catan) you’d probably name your newly conquered territory “DOMAIN” after you finish pillaging and razing the villages.
One of the highlights of the last couple of weeks was attending the Not Dead Yet party the weekend after Halloween. Pat & Bob explained to us that Dave, who owns the farm next door, hosts it every year at his place which is situated on the other side of the river from us (which means he lives close). We spent several hours there and soaked up the cool-Austin-vibes with a variety of types of people, all ages of people, and many people standing outside on his deck which overlooked the river.
It had a bit of an alternative feel to it, which was cool to me, with pot-smoking smell wafting and an extra fun live band called Wild Bill and the Lost Knobs. At one point a guy strode outside on the deck naked which was notable but clearly not the first time that kind of thing went down at that party. We left early too so I bet it gets more interesting later!
Wild Bill and the Lost Knobs at the party
Pat followed up by sharing an article from the newspaper that was written about Dave (the party’s host) and his counter-culture past! {Perhaps that link won’t work for you. Dave moved to San Francisco in his youth and co-founded Rip Off Press which was the whole beginnings of underground comix like R. Crumb.} So anyway, this week I emailed Dave to thank him for hosting us (after all, we are total strangers to him) and he wrote back an interesting bit about our street:
You have lucked into a unique neighborhood. Most of the houses were built before the Civil War and moved there from downtown in 1963 to make way for Superior Dairies, which later moved to make way for the convention center.
Unfortunately they sit on a perched aquifer, friable clay seabed over blue hardpan pyroclastic flow from an ancient volcano. You should be able to find fossilized oysters in your backyard. This geology makes the buildings very unstable.
I may be searching for those oysters soon but I really don’t know if I’d recognize one if I saw it!
A couple clips for you:
