I was invited by a friend to attend Klownhouse 6, which she says is an opportunity for adults to dress up like "creepy, scary klowns" and give kids nightmares as they "earn their Halloween candy." She and her husband turn their garage into a wild place to give kids a terror-fest, which, as I recall, is a real treat for kids of a certain age (maybe 10-12?). Anyway, as much as I'd like to go, I'll be out of town, celebrating my own birthday and my niece's birthday. The idea of getting all dressed up like a psycho clown has a bizarre appeal to me.
Instead of the Klownhouse, we'll be living it up in Falba, Texas, which is actually a place in the country that used to be the site of a town called Falba. Now, it's a cemetary and the occasional doublewide or small farmhouse, hidden behind groves of trees. It's a very quiet spot and a place one can kick back and relax in the country. My wife and I will get a motel room in a nearby town, because there will be too many people at my brother's place for us to have a place to sleep.
We'll take several pounds of shrimp with us when we go to Falba. We just got the shrimp from a Louisiana shrimper...I read about the Mariah Jade Shrimp Company in an article in Business Week this summer and decided to do business with them; it's a family-owned business that's been working hard to be a successful fresh seafood business.
So, I ordered 20 pounds of shrimp. The company takes its boat into the Gulf of Mexico and brings in "wild caught" shrimp, sorts them by size, quick-freezes them, and ships them off in styrofoam containers kept cold with dry ice. Our box arrived just two days ago, the day after I ordered the shrimp via email and telephone. The lady I ordered from, Kim Chauvin, is one of the owners; she emailed me after I got off the phone with her to let me know the shrimp had been shipped via DHL and would arrive the next morning at my office, which they did. When I got it home, I opened the box to see that the shrimp were packed directly into the styrofoam container...no one-pound bags ready to be stuck in the freezer...so I spent quite some time filling freezer bags with a pound of shrimp so we could put them in the freezer and conveniently pull them out to thaw and cook. I think I got considerably more than 20 pounds...but 20 pounds is what I paid for. The box contained some recipes and a container of spice mix. I got a call from Kim the next day; she wanted to confirm that my shrimp had arrived and that I was satisfied. Her business was hurt pretty badly by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but their boat was repairable and they were able to get back to shrimping not long after the storms. We'll see how they taste when we have the Falba Shrimp-Fest.
Today, my wife and I are going to pretend we're tourists in our own town. We'll explore the light-rail train lines just to see where they go. We've ridden the light rail to downtown Dallas and have taken its big brother, the Trinity Railway Express, to downtown Fort Worth, but have never explored the other lines. Today we will.
One of the things I want to do today is find a copy of The Year of Magical Thinking, the book by Joan Didion that I wrote about in yesterday's post. So, as we wander about the city, we'll pop into some book stores to see what's of interest and to see if we can get an inexpensive copy of the book. As much as I like to read (though my eyesight makes it tough) and as much as I appreciate books, I think they're overpriced, in general.
Speaking of my eyesight making it tough to read, I'm finally getting my eyes checked again in early November and will get a new prescription (BADLY needed) and replace my glasses. The frames I wear now are in awful shape...they've been soldered back together where the bridge piece broke, painted (soldering ruined the gunmetal gray finish) with black paint that is peeling badly, etc. Most people ignore the frames, but someone will occasionally ask if I need their spare change...I look like a street person. I'm excited to be getting new glasses...I remember being able to read and if I recall correctly, it was fun...I want to do it again.
It's almost 7:30 am and I've only had one cup of coffee, so I'll finish this posting, drink another couple of cups of coffee, shower, wake my wife, and go explore the light rail. Happy Ides of October!
1 comment:
Sounds like a good day. I'll order some bugs when we are in Portland in Dec. West coast shrimp are puny, but tasty. Twenty pounds though - my god, that is a mess of shrimp. I remember the Point Isabel Volunteer Fire Department annual fund raiser, in which the Shrimpers donated the bugs, which were dipped in a cornmeal and spice batter - very firy - and deep fried, most likely in lard. Very delicious! But shrimp cocktails are still my favorite, although I'll have Juana e-mail you her recipe for "Camarones a la Diabla" which are great down here.
Have a good day on the light rail system. We never got around to doing an all-day sojour around Portland. Need to remedy that.
You might want to splurge on special glasses for use with your computer screen. I did that and loved them. The formula is adjusted for the distance you sit from the screen and the optics resolve the piktels a bit more crisply than normal lens glass or plastic.
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