“4,948 miles later”
It seems just completely crazy that we were able to drive almost 5,000 miles over the last few weeks. How did we do that? One long day at a time. Monday: Las Vegas to Albuquerque. Tuesday: Albuquerque to McKinney. Wednesday: “Rest Day”. Thursday: McKinney to New Orleans. Sunday: New Orleans to McKinney (and the reason this post is late again).
The drive home from California was uneventful overall. Diana suggested having Ray and Amy over for “Happy Hour” on Wednesday night – I agreed as long as there was a stop time of around 6pm. How do you think that worked out? You are correct – didn’t finish up until around 10pm and then had an intended early start for the drive to New Orleans on Thursday.
Driving to NOLA on New Year’s Eve was a bit more work. Things started badly with pouring rain and multiple accidents and lane closures before we ever left Dallas. There were some brief respites but I was mostly driving in rain and truck spray all day. It was lovely to see Denny and Anne on arrival and they really spoiled us with some yummy snacks – an amazing cheese board, crab fingers from Tableaux, and some amazing Denny oyster and sauce combinations.
The ladies (with a little help from Denny) were able to polish off the magnum of good champagne that D received from Kris and Cat as a birthday gift.
We did manage to stay awake to usher in the New Year but were asleep in the wonderful guest cottage soon after.
The weather on New Year’s Day was perfect for me – high 60s, sunny, with zero humidity. We had a very pleasant morning walk and run in Audubon park – one of the best city parks in America. The energizer bunny enjoyed the warmer weather and the scenery.
Various groups of friends stopped by for a mostly socially distanced afternoon gathering. Denny cooked up oysters four different ways – much to the delight of McD.
She especially enjoys the freshly shucked and handed directly to her variety:
You can see the lovely day from this picture of the front porch and Mr. Jack’s house across Webster Street.
We rounded out the evening watching a livestream of Jason Isbell and his band from Nashville that was excellent. Kenny and I had a friendly Old Fashioned contest. I think the new wood chip drink smoker that I got from Diana for Christmas pushed mine ahead in the competition.
If it’s 01/02/21, then the Ogan twins must be 18. They were born on 01/02/03 at 7:33 and 7:38am, and it has become traditional for us to join them for lunch at Commander’s Palace. Before lunch I had arranged for Laura to take the energizer bunny out for a run – she did a good job running McD down to the levee for a total of 3.5 miles – one of Diana’s longer outings. A good appetite had been worked up for the jazz brunch at Commander’s. The only trouble with brunch versus a regular week day lunch is that the 25 cent martinis are not available. We started with the crazy good turtle soup. Then Diana enjoyed short ribs with a perfectly cooked poached egg and I couldn’t resist the boudin stuffed and lacquered TX quail. Both were delicious and also made for great leftovers. The festivities finished up with the ridiculous bread pudding soufflé and whiskey sauce and toques for the birthday boys.
The drive home on Sunday was very smooth with mostly light traffic and an arrival just after 5pm and before dark. We are now home to stay for quite a while, with no more road trips on the calendar.
I have nothing much to report on the reading front this week – too much time behind the wheel and enjoying friends. We did listen to “The Last Days of John Lennon” by James Patterson on the drive. This is mostly a very detailed and interesting history of Lennon and the Beatles, with small sections interspersed about Mark Chapman planning his assassination. I would recommend this to anyone looking to learn more about the Beatles and their interactions over the years.
Michael Drapkin worked with me about a year ago and is currently working on his PhD. He is a wonderful clarinet player and his thesis is around making orchestras more economically viable by rescoring pieces originally scored for massive ensembles for smaller groups. Here’s his version of Richard Strauss – Salome’s Dance of the Seven Veils – from 108 piece full symphony orchestra to 24 piece chamber orchestra. Michael told me that the biggest challenge for a conductor will be to make sure the violins aren’t overwhelmed by the woodwind and percussion sections. I think he did a great job and can only imagine how time consuming and detailed this work ends up being.
Changing gears completely, I’ve been on a bit of a jazz funk music kick this week. Let’s start with the always fantastic Jaco Pastorius and band from his “Birthday Concert” doing “Chicken”:
Even funkier is Herbie Hancock’s “Chameleon”. I love those keyboard sounds he lays down for the bass groove:
And finally something a bit more current from the reigning jazz funk masters, Snarky Puppy:
Stay calm and patient and at home (easy for me to say after 4,948 miles).