“Spewing Volcano – Should We Be Concerned?”
This was my first busy work travel week in a long time. It’s been almost a year since I visited my team in Guatemala and I had not yet visited the team in Mexico – overdue for a visit. Damon and I flew to Guatemala City on Monday afternoon and were very pleased to find our driver waiting to take us to a much nicer hotel than the one I used on my last visit. The hotel was in a pedestrian outdoor shopping and dining district that was really lovely and very upscale for Guatemala. We met the team for dinner at Cafe Escobar and had a typically relaxed 3 hour meal – nothing seems to happen very quickly. It was really nice to get to chat with everyone in a relaxed setting. I heard they had been really nervous about presenting to us, and this allowed them to relax with us before the next day of work. The 5,000 foot altitude didn’t seem to have any real effects on me.
View from the hotel balconyTuesday was a full day of updates and presentations in the Guatemala City office – a big upgrade from the office that I visited a year ago. A very productive day with lots of great information shared. In the evening we drove to Antigua, a UNESCO world heritage town about an hour from Guatemala City. This is a truly beautiful town, surrounded by volcanoes, one of which is quite active, spurting every 10 minutes or so. Antigua was the capital of most of Latin America in colonial times, and hasn’t changed a great deal since then, with the original buildings still intact. It reminded me a lot of San Miguel de Allende, where we spent Denny’s 50th birthday.
We started at a rooftop deck above the Antigua Brewing Company and enjoyed the amazing views. Can you see the active volcano in the distance? The spiral staircase used to access the rooftop would never be allowed in the US. Then we walked through town to the El Convento boutique hotel for dinner. What a gorgeous setting with a small restaurant that only seats 24 people.
Wednesday was a long travel day, starting with a flight to Mexico City, and then a long 3 hour drive to Queretaro where our Mexican operation is headquartered. There was an interesting scene at the Mexico City airport with hundreds of policemen in riot gear, expecting to repel an attempted take over of the airport by protesters. I understand that the protest didn’t ultimately happen. We were tired on arrival at another lovely hotel, and ran into our colleague Issac, also visiting from Austin. He convinced us to join him for dinner outside the hotel, and Damon went all out with a cabrito. Do you know what that is or can you tell from the picture?
It’s a roasted goat kid leg. Damon claims it was delicious. For a smaller guy, he can certainly put away the meat, and actually complained that it was a pretty small cabrito. Poor guy.
Thursday was another busy day of meetings in the Queretaro office, followed by a delicious dinner hosted by our CEO for Latin America, Francisco. I enjoyed some delicious octopus and shrimp stuffed in a portobello mushroom with a yummy sauce.
I had intended to make the 3 hour drive back to Mexico City on Friday morning, and then catch a flight to Dallas. Come to find out there’s a direct flight from Queretaro – but only at 6am. The 4am start was worth it to avoid the long drive and get home much earlier. My immigration picture shows how early the start really was:
Interestingly, the PGA golf tour is in Mexico City this weekend. On TV they mentioned that Rory McIlroy’s 7 iron went 160 yards at the tournament last weekend and is going 220 yards at the almost 8,000 foot altitude. Must be a huge adjustment for the golfers.
After a relaxing Friday evening by myself in McKinney, it was time to make the drive down to Austin. Penelope did a good job on the drive with no issues at all. I ventured out to Antone’s on Saturday night to see Ike Stubblefield and Walter “Wolfman” Washington. I did make a stop at Mai Thai on the way to try their Thai fare. Very mediocre at best. Still haven’t found a good Thai place in Austin.
Antone’s was busy with a lot of folks in Mardi Gras garb. We’ve seen Wolfman in New Orleans a number of times, often in very small venues, and always enjoyed his performance. Ike Stubblefield is a world renowned Hammond B3 organ player, and he was fantastic. He’s played on hundreds of recordings and toured with Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones and many others.
Sunday was a relaxing day for me, with workout and good quiet reading time. I even was able to do my own laundry. Meanwhile, in California, McD was working her way through thousands of her Mum’s photos, and trying to put them into some kind of order. She’s been sending various pictures that she likes on texts. Here’s my favourite:
And my next favourite with 13 year old D helping people learn to swim:
Did you find her in the picture? I know, it’s hard to miss that smile.
I found myself without any new books backed up, and so reread an old favourite, “The Sun Also Rises” by Ernest Hemingway. I love the descriptions of 1920s Paris and the journey the group takes through Spain. And the classic ending:
“Oh, Jake,” Brett said, “we could have had such a damned good time together.”
Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly pressing Brett against me.
“Yes,” I said. “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”
After so many disappointing endings, it’s nice to revisit such an excellent closing.
I was listening to a Spotify playlist while reading this morning, and heard this excellent song from Uncle Lucius, the band that was fronted by Kevin Galloway before he got tired of touring and now plays solo in small venues around Austin.
I love the new album from The Highwomen (Brandi Carlisle, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris, and Amanda Shires), a new collaboration last year. There’s an excellent cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” on the album, but this is my pick:
And finally a solo song from Kevin Galloway of Uncle Lucius fame. I really like his voice and arrangements.
A break in my schedule on Thursday allowed me to enjoy a decadent lunch at Bayou Jack’s in downtown McKinney. I do love their red pepper crawfish bisque, and it’s been too long since I enjoyed a cup.
“The Truants” by Kate Weinberg was my book this week. Here’s what a review said:
A work happy hour had me stopping by the Gibson Street bar on the way home. It’s right next to the Odd Duck and we had been wondering how it was – the verdict: a very nice bar with good service, comfy booths and a good patio.
Red Young and his Hot Horns were playing, and I loved that they started out with a number of songs by Allan Toussaint, the legendary New Orleans piano player, composer, and producer. Here are a couple of those. Red’s piano skills are top notch, with a mixed quality in the horns.
If you know my musical taste, you can hear that this is very appealing to me. Disappointingly, the live sound did not match up, with overdriven, blurry vocals and none of the nuanced guitar playing and drumming in the set above. I lasted a couple of songs before suggesting that we head across the street to III Forks for a drink before Big Head Todd started. The smoke infused negronis were delicious.
We went straight home after the show to avoid any more injuries. The last time we visited the Moody theater was when I broke my finger. Interestingly, as a complete aside, my fingerprint has changed after the surgery. The gym uses a combination of phone number and index fingerprint to sign in, and my right one doesn’t work – have to use the left hand index. Who would have thought that? I’m sitting here wondering if Global Entry at the airport uses finger prints – I don’t think so and hope not.
Elton John’s “Me” was my literary companion this week. The book is well written and is a fast, page-turning read. I enjoyed the earlier chapters, more focused on Elton’s musical experiences, than the later sections covering all his addictions and excesses. Ultimately I found this book pretty sad overall – such a troubled relationship with his parents that was never overcome, and so much wasted time and money. Not to take away from the $450 million raised for his AIDS foundation and the music that I’ll always treasure.
The somewhat frustrating optical visit was followed by a delicious dinner at June’s All Day. I opted for the taste bud delight that they call “Bone Marrow Bolognese”. It was an easy downhill stroll back to our apartment from this South Congress dining institution, and a rare McD planned evening drew to a close. Thanks for the date D!
The guys were surprisingly hungry (I thought Loro would sate them longer) and so we stopped in next door to Guero’s for a Mexican dinner. That was followed by a leisurely stroll down to C-Boy’s Heart and Soul for the Jimmy Vaughan 10pm show. It’s always a huge treat to see him in such a small venue and we were lucky to get a booth right in front of the stage. What a great show, besides the Dutch sounding guy that didn’t understand the rules about getting in other folks personal space, even after a demonstration of where he should be standing. Even the cocktail waitress was getting frustrated with him.
walking, with a quick stop into Carpenter Hall, followed by a walk along the river trail and past the Stevie Ray Vaughan memorial. It’s sad to imagine what great music the Vaughan brothers would be making today, had Stevie not died in that tragic helicopter crash so many years ago.
After a short regroup at the apartment, we walked on the other side of the river to Rainey street, and stopped into the patio at the Half Step. We followed that with a quick stop into Geraldine’s at the Van Zandt hotel, unfortunately with no music going. Then the group splintered, with Diana and I heading back to the apartment to rest, and the boys heading off to meet various sets of friends. The two of us were so tired that we slept through several phone calls from poor Mr. Denny, attempting to get up to the apartment. We had neglected to tell him that he was on the list to be let into our apartment whenever he wanted, and so he ended up crashing with the other two at the Hyatt across the parking lot.
Denny and Diana met up with us on the fancy El Comedor patio for brunch. I loved the TX mushroom quesadilla, the corn tortilla had an amazing flavour – right up there with Suerte. Poor Diana did have to try three times before getting a poached egg that didn’t have a yoke that was too hard – part of the problem is that with her dish they serve the poached egg cold, and it’s hard to get a runny yoke with that approach.
A short Uber ride took us to the totally different neighborhood feel of East Austin and the patio at Whislers. From there, some excellent research from Denny took us to Central Machine Works, a new massive brewery and outdoor patio space in an old industrial machine shop building. This will be a good place to visit on warm Spring evenings. I like that they “rescued” one of the old machines to be mounted above the bar.
With all that activity, I was still able to get some quiet reading time in, finishing up “Such a Fun Age” by Kiley Reid. This book is on all the “Best of the Year So Far” lists, and so I thought I’d try it out. Here’s a typically effusive review: