It’s Sunday morning and we just stepped out to our screened in porch with a sudden tropical-style downpour in progress.
Tuna melt and a yummy beer!
Let’s start with a little summary of our forays out for dinner. Rob discovered a local blogger who has a list of favored East Austin restaurants. This has been our guide and it has not yet disappointed. We are keeping a spreadsheet to keep track of where we go and a rating. Among the places we’ve eaten: PItchfork Pretty, El Méson, Sawyer & Co, Tuk Tuk Thai, Stella Public House, East Side Tavern Yellow Jacket Social Club, Grizzelda’s, and Sour Duck. The restaurant landscape, not to mention food trucks, seems endless.
Just had my haircut and I don’t care for the styling so pls ignore that. This is Sour Duck where Rob spotted a minor celebrity :)
Last night at the Sour Duck we were sitting outside (I started with a Turmeric infused cocktail which was superb) and Rob recognized Ali Khan, a Food Network host! He was in a large group of people who clearly know where to go in Austin!
Got to see Jeff, a friend from college this week! I missed the reunion but this made up for it!
Oh and I went to an “art” meeting of Extinction Rebellion this week which was real chill. I had to paint between the lines. Small group of young folk who had a lot of sage advice on how to cope with allergies which I have tried to share with Rob. Everyone in Austin groans when topic of allergies comes up. Anyway, look for this banner, pictured below, at the next local protest!
Now try to open up your mind a little bit and just consider the following observations. I am providing a satellite map for your reference.
Our street is lined by a dense bit of wood and on the other side of that is a place called Tokyo Electron. I Googled this real quick and viewed the images that come along with that search. Rather than electronics or other industrial images, you’ll find exhibits of African animals (taxidermy styled) and X-mas trees and random outdoor meat barbecues.
Tokyo Electron?
Besides a lot of laughter, this activated my conspiracy-oriented brain. I have since observed that next to Tokyo Electron, if you drive along that road, there are massive structures that appear to be related to the power grid and are owned by “Austin Energy”. It just seems kind of strange that Tokyo Electron, who is clearly trying to obfuscate their identity, is abutting this gigantic compound of electronics out in the middle of humble Montopolis. What could they be up to?
Once your sensors are awakened, you start to see other oddities in the neighborhood. For example, Rob and I were taking a walk on our road, which a neighbor informed us is 1/2 mile long, and a UPS truck drove by us. Our road is a dead end. So we walked the length of the road and back and that UPS TRUCK NEVER WENT BY US AGAIN. I have studied the satellite map and there’s no other way out! Where did it go?? Is the UPS truck somehow conspiring with Tokyo Electron?
Another lead I have is a very suspicious truck full of watermelons that’s about 1/2 mile away that NEVER leaves its location on the side of a busy road. The truck sits on the side of a bridge over the Colorado river which is lined with unnecessarily large, hulking metal towers linked with wire which reminds me of the Austin Energy compound. The permanence of the watermelon truck, next to the out-of-proportion electronics feels like a gigantic espionage operation. The watermelons: never require replenishing… are they even real? What are they concealing? Don’t worry, I’ll keep you updated on any developments.
So back on the home front, as usual, more updates. This week, as advised by our landlord, Rob sprayed deadly wasp spray on the outdoor wasp nests that startup on the outdoor eaves of our house. There was a sizable one on the side where the cat hangs out and the pigs are often spotted. So he sprayed it and then after it was on the ground., stepped on it a couple times.
It was a couple days later I commented that I hadn’t seen Chich, the black pig, for a couple of days. Then Rob threw out the upsetting idea that the poison-riddled wasp nest was possibly found and eaten by the pig —with fatal results! Possibly he meant this as a joke (I have trouble differentiating jokes from non-jokes) but in any case I was terribly worried after that. And also I hadn’t seen Freckles either! Fortunately I ran into Freckles (no, to be accurate, Freckles RAN into me) soon later but until this morning, NO SIGN OF Chich!!
Yesterday I was talking to a farm resident (human being) who assured me that even if Chich ate the wasp nest, which he felt was quite likely, and it was riddled with poison, the pig would be fine as those “odd” pigs are like “tanks”.
I was ecstatic this morning when around 7:30 or so we heard loud “I’m awake now groans” from under the dining room. I rand outside to see Notorious and I thew out a few asparagus bottoms: crunchy and well-liked. I peeked under the house and YES THERE WAS Chich! Coming out to join in the asparagus-fest. Note that Chich head-butted Notorious during this feeding frenzy so I think Chich is the dominant one.
Finally, we have joyfully been hanging pictures from our storage that haven’t seen the light of day for literally years. Actually, we are not quite done yet but here are examples. Just going to include a couple but trust me, there are many, many more.
