Get my Drift

A hyperactive thunderstorm visited us late this afternoon, bringing gale winds, torrential rains, brilliant lightening, and horrific peals of thunder that shook the foundations of mankind. It lasted just a short while, probably less than 20 minutes, but it was a welcome respite from day after day after day of drought conditions and temperatures that cook a person who tries to take a morning walk. I wish I could see what the outside world looks like now, after the deluge, but it's too dark. I hope the hanging baskets in the back yard survived. If so, they should drain quickly. There have been times, though, that our rain did not let up for day upon day upon day, drowning the poor plants, which crave well-drained soil.

I have a deep and abiding fascination with lightening, thunder, black storm clouds, high winds, and other signs of nature's furious power. If I could do it safely, I would stand in the middle of violent thunderstorms, watching the manifestations of every massive burst of energy. At heart, I'm one of those crazy people who tracks storms, videotapes them, and glories in their power; I've never done it, but I want to.

This morning, after a shorter-than-intended walk (I only did the loop around my subdivision...I haven't walked hard in several days), I drove to one of the dozen-or-so neighborhood Starbucks and got a mid-sized black coffee. It was still early when I got home, but my wife was already up making her first cup of tea. We jointly planned a morning run to the grocery store...after some slow and leisurely preparation...and zipped over to Albertson's, a store we have both decided is well on its way to oblivion. For now, though, we will continue to shop there as they continue their pointless attempts to stay in business by cutting their prices to below their cost.

After loading up on "stuff" that they are willing to sell below cost, we packed the pantry and the refrigerator and conferred on lunch. The options my wife suggested were: La Calle Doce (our favorite Mexican seafood spot, in the heart of Oak Cliff); Big Shucks (a big, old-fashioned seafood place [mostly fried, but with good seafood coctails]); or Fish Bone Grill, a place that serves cocteles similar to La Calle Doce. I opted for La Calle Doce on the basis that it is in an area I like to visit, while the other places are closer and, consequently, lacking in character and neighborhood "feel."

We wandered through the Bishop Arts District after a nice lunch (coctele de camarones (shrimp coctail) for my wife, coctele de siete mares (shrimp, raw oyster, octopus, scallops, etc.) for me). I succumbed to an iced coffee at the Nodding Dog coffee shop, but we managed to keep our money from leaving our hands otherwise, despite a brush with some nice leaded glass windows that I thought would look good hung on our fence. I decided against spending $175 for something that I believed should be worth no more than $25.

Most of the rest of our day was spent shopping, stopping at a bookstore (we thought about buying Bats at the Beach, which I wrote about recently, but opted not to spend $16 on a book we would glance at once), and generally being unproductive but serving our mental health well. My wife had been saving a coupon for Blockbuster Video that offered any movie for $0.99; we use Netflix now, but the coupon was too appealing to pass up, so we wandered in to a Blockbuster and ultimately selected a movie called Milwaukee, Minnesota. It's worth watching, but the critics' positive reviews seemed to overlook some significant flaws...but we enjoyed the movie, despite being ticked at some rather exceptional screw-ups in logic and editing.

During the course of the day, after the leaded glass experience I believe, we decided we really wanted to visit an architectural salvage place we visited years ago when we lived in Arlington. At the time, I bought 3 commercial fixed windows for $90 total to use as clerestory windows in a storage shed I built. It was a great place...anything and everything from old homes. But we cannot remember the name, nor the location...and cannot find it in the telephone directory nor online. We have found similar places, but not the same place...we will keep trying.

Now, we're home. I'm waiting to get more news from around the world. My wife is sleeping. I picked up an Al Dia fin de Semana newspaper (Spanish language weekend newspaper) during our forays into Oak Cliff and will try to read something about the Mexican elections being held tomorrow. The English language media in this country are almost ignoring the Mexican elections; short-sighted assholes! I'll try to improve my language skills while getting another perspective on Mexican politics. I am afraid I won't learn much, because I won't be able to read much. But I will try.