releases and tandoori

Friday the rain fell well into the morning. My breakfast was a bowl of Trix cereal and skim milk.

I felt grateful, as ever, for my little Columbia wind-breaker/rain-jacket. The temperature stayed blissfully pleasant.

At lunch, I drove to Breckinridge Park. The park soccer fields are surrounded by a little paved loop drive. In good weather, this road attracts bicycle riders. In rainy weather, birds flock to the fields to hunt insects. Several perch on the little posts and wires along the roadway.

I drove that little road to see Eastern Bluebirds, an American Kestrel, migrating Scissor-Tailed Flycatchers, and Canadian Geese. On my way from the park, I took lots of pictures of two playful Eastern Phoebes. Then I went for a lunch of soft chicken tacos.

After work, I walked on the Chisholm Trail near dark, listening to Radio New Zealand. The station featured a story on the higher incidence of mental health issues among professional musicians. One Kiwi song-writer, apparently famous there but unknown to me, told of the mismatch between the apparent carnival fun-time of a stage performance and the day-to-day reality of coping with one's anxieties as one performs one's chosen craft.

By the time I arrived home, the news media featured lots of stories about the recently-released audio tape of presidential Donald J. Trump saying some disreputable, some inexcusable and some vile things about women and his behavior towards women. I hoped the story would badly damage Mr. Trump's presidential campaign. I thought to myself how this was a classic campaign "October Surprise", and one that easily drowned out an opposing "October Surprise" of the leaks by
Julian Assange's Wikileaks organization of Secretary Clinton's campaign emails.

My wife and I went to Iravat in Plano, an Indian restaurant, for dinner. We ordered an order of tandoori chicken and an order of aloo gobi, the potato and cauliflower dish. We really enjoyed this dinner, though I ate too much of the Naan bread which accompanied it. The waiter who assisted us served us admirably. He forgot my soft drink at first, but remedied that and apologized. I never mind imperfect service when the server makes an effort and remedies any minor oversights.

I read the next few pages of one of the two novels I am currently tackling--"Midnight Taxi Tango" by Daniel Jose Older, the second novel in his "Bone Street Rumba" series. I like this one a great deal so far.

Back at home, we watched an episode of NCIS: Los Angeles and headed off to sleep.
I slept a bit fitfully, but am up now. It's a cool October morning. I plan to take a walk, to take Beatrice to the vet, and to get some household chores done today.

flat tire blues

Saturday started with a bowl of Kix cereal and skim milk. I took Beatrice for a walk, in weather sufficiently cool to justify wearing my red fleece. I saw some birds in the park. In my front yard, there were indications that a Bobcat [or perhaps Coyote or Red-Tailed Hawk] feasted on a bunny.

I packed up Beatrice at 10:45 to take her to a vet appointment. When I started to drive, I realized I had a flat rear passenger tire. I pulled back into my driveway, and called the vet to tell them I would be 15 minutes delayed. I did not have time to change the tire, so I got out my bicycle pump and pumped it up sufficiently to drive.

The folks at the Allen Vet Centre were great. Though our lateness made it hard and inconvenient to fit us in, they did fit us in. Beatrice was over her ear infection. Her blood work has one odd reading. The vet explained to me several options on how to deal with this one, in clear and useful terms. We selected a strategy, got a medication, and made a follow-up appointment. Beatrice behaved admirably the entire time, saying hello to other people there with or for their pets, and being patient with vet and vet assistant notwithstanding various medical indignities.

I drove to a nearby air dispensary, and Beatrice and I got out together while I
aired up the low-air tire. I dropped Beatrice off at home, and then drove to Discount Tire. It was closing early and was swamped with personnel, so I drove one block over to Goodyear. After a bit of a wait, a nice man did the in-take on my Equinox. He gave me the good news that they could handle the problem in 45 minutes.

I walked to a nearby Subway sandwich shop, amid heavy traffic. I ate a delicious Black Forest Ham on wheat, with baked chips. I took a less traffic-bound route back to the Goodyear, under a bridge. When I got to the store, I picked up a voice mail that said "your car is ready". They had removed a nail and patched the tire. They did not charge me. I was pleased.

In the early afternoon, I downloaded two continuing legal education seminars to meet my annual obligations to take seminars. I watched one good ethics seminar about 10 ways to avoid anyone making an ethical complaint to the bar. This seminar included the unfortunate statistic that 36.8 % of lawyers report having issues with heavy drinking. I am glad I do not face that demon. I began another about the ethical implications of being retirement age. This video had an odd passage in which an audience member seemed to raise the virtues of euthanasia in a place in which it only tangentially fit.

I had only 5,000 or so steps, so I went for a walk on the Watters Branch trail. I wanted to stay close to home, so as to avoid losing time to driving. I walked 11,000 steps, from my house to Ridgeview Drive to DaySpring Nature Preserve to Green Park through Glendover Park and then home. I saw only 10 species, but one was my first sighting of a Winter bird, a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker.

My wife had gotten home from lunch with a former co-worker and from shopping. We went to Whichwich for turkey sandwiches and baked chips. When we arrived home, my rear passenger tire was flat again. I spent 40 minutes putting on the spare tonight. Now I am resting with some television after a day that felt both productive and not productive enough. Chores are often that way.