“Ouch, that really hurt!”
Thanks to all of my faithful readers who reached out with concern about the missing post last week. I suffered a wee accident that will be revealed later in this post. That will also explain the somewhat terse nature of this post. I’m going to rely on pictures more than words. D and I did watch a good movie this weekend – “Words and Pictures” starring Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche – an artist and a writer competing on whether words or pictures were more powerful. I recommend this movie very much. Clive Owen quoting Ian McEwan’s “Saturday” to his class is worth the price of admission.
Cat was in town again last Wednesday night and joined us for a night of jazz at the Parker Club. We really like this venue and Julie Slim was playing some French cafe style jazz, complete with accordion. She put on a great show with her band and we stayed longer than expected. Here she is doing some Cabaret:
We visited a bar across the street to watch a little bit of the World Series baseball and took this silly picture for Cat to send to Kristina. He had a splint on his finger due to arthritis – more on that later.
Next door the regular Wednesday night 80s band, the Spazmatics were playing and we couldn’t resist – a very fun band as evidenced in this video – wait for the classic D moves:
Thursday night brought the much anticipated Austin City Limits Hall of Fame Induction ceremony at the Moody Theater.
The show started with the Austin Samba Club performing in front of the stage – very New Orleans style, marching in with drums and dancing. Then Jackson Browne (one of our favourites) inducted Shawn Colvin. It was interesting to see such a seasoned performer get nervous talking to the crowd. Each of the three inductees performed 4 or 5 songs with special guests, and the musicianship was superb.
Then Jimmie Vaughan inducted and played with the amazing Buddy Guy – 83 years old and very spry and energetic. Sean Penn (also surprisingly nervous to start) inducted Lyle Lovett. Lyle won over Diana with his story telling and humour during his acceptance speech. I enjoyed Edie Brickell covering one of his songs very much. Then it was time for the grand finale with everyone on stage.
The excellent show finished after 11 and we were both hungry. It was raining outside as evidenced by Wet Willie, and 2nd bar and kitchen was closed, so we went across the street to the JW Marriott. That turned out to be a mistake.
We got seated and I headed for the restroom. On the way back the door slammed on my finger, breaking and lacerating the tip. It was dangling and looking pretty nasty. Diana very expeditiously ordered an Uber, and we headed for a night at Dell Seton Emergency Room.
Things moved slowly to reinsert my right index finger nail and stitch me up, with us ultimately discharged after 4am. What a long, frustrating night. I tried to leave a couple of times, with my wonderful wife handling me well. You’ll have to ask her for some of the more entertaining details. Also good stories about our fellow patients, and the paramedic who stopped in just to hang out with some sane folks for a bit.
My finger was numb all Thursday and so I was able to go into work in the afternoon. Not so much on Friday, woke up with some pain and then flew to California in the evening for Clorinda’s 88th birthday celebration. We enjoyed the Fairmont hotel all lit up for Halloween in downtown Austin.
I made Clorinda one of my special omelets to kick off the celebration and then we had dinner in Redwood City with friends and family. In classic form, Grammie had to get a picture of her 88 (piano birthday) candles.
While we were enjoying dinner, the power was proactively shut off in Pacifica. The old, above ground equipment had caused several massive fires and the winds were high, so while very inconvenient, also understandable.
On Sunday morning, I headed down to San Jose to meet Will, Finn and Christine for a car show at Santana Row, followed by lunch at Sino. I’ve never seen so many Lamborghinis and McClarens in one place. And then there was a classic Austin Healey among them.
It was really nice to see Finn after so long. He’s finally looking good again after all he’s been through.
And great to see him with an appetite for the yummy Sino dim sum.
Back in Pacifica, we celebrated our nephew, Massimo’s, 3rd birthday. We’re hoping he quickly grows out of his current behavior phase.
Still no power on Monday morning. Will welcomed us to his place for hot showers and power to work. It was typical Will when we dropped off the key at his office, and he brought his entire team out to meet us.
Sometimes challenges are fortuitous – the power still out meant Adamo had to cook up all his lobster tails that had defrosted – absolutely delicious.
I always enjoy the views from the Campagna property. Here are some pictures from this visit:
We flew back to Austin on Tuesday and chuckled at the wifi password in the Admiral’s Club. We’re looking forward to our Scottish trip.
Back in Austin, I visited the hand specialist on Wednesday and was scheduled for surgery on Thursday early – 5 am back at Dell Seton. All went smoothly and we were at the Carpenter for breakfast by 10am. Here’s a before (bottom left) and after picture. The wires come out on December 3rd.
We drove back to McKinney on Saturday and have been enjoying a lazy weekend.
I was able to finish three books with all the flying and downtime. “The Last Days of California” by Mary Miller is an interesting tale of a family driving cross country to California before the Rapture. The book is told through the eyes of the 15 year old, younger sister of the family.
I didn’t enjoy this as much as “Biloxi” but it was still a pleasant read, with many interesting characters and exploration of fundamentalist religious beliefs.
Next up was the Steve Forbert biography from his show. This was a joyous read with so many great music stories. He was raving about Shawn Colvin, who we saw inducted at the ACL show. His writing is very engaging and personal and really communicated the struggle of a singer songwriter.
Last was a short read from the amazing Stewart O’Nan – “Last Night at the Lobster”. I loved his “Henry, Himself” a few months ago.
This story is about the last day of a Red Lobster that is closing due to poor performance, and is told through the eyes of the manager. Having been to Red Lobster many times for kids birthday parties, and having spent a few months in the restaurant business, this resonated with me quite a bit. The characters who work there and the various parties – the office celebration, Moms with an out of control kid, and old ladies lunch group were covered perfectly.
My hand is tired, and so I’ll skip the music section this week. Should be back to weekly updates next week. Be careful out there with your digits.