“Let’s Roll”
I took Finn to look at apartments on Wednesday. He ended up liking the first place that we looked at, Hudson Ranch, the best. It’s a smaller community, easy walking distance to his work, and about 2.5 miles from our home. He was excited that his one bedroom comes with a washer and dryer. Move in date is sometime around October 9th. Here are some pictures of the model – looks pretty comfy.
Football was back on Thursday night, with the Cowboys kicking off the season against the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Cowboys played amazingly well, ultimately loosing 31-29 to a last second field goal. Had they made easy field goals that were missed earlier in the game, they would have pulled off a very impressive win. It was fun to get back to texting with Tim and Campbell during the game.
I managed to convince Finn to get his second COVID shot on Friday afternoon. There were no immediate reactions this time, although we had fun telling McD that he had fainted and taken down the CVS candy aisle. He went to work on Saturday morning and made it until 1pm before the body aches were too much. He’s back at work today (nice 6am Sunday start) and seemed to be feeling fine when I dropped him off.
Bob Schneider played an excellent show at the Kessler on Friday night. He performed both an early and a late show, and so we were home at a reasonable hour after a concert in Oak Cliff for a change. This was a good thing as my Saturday started at 7am with a Finn drop-off.
Schneider opened up the show with one of my favourites – “2002” from the “Lonelyland” album. I think that’s his best album – it’s one of his early ones from 2001.
He really is a unique singer songwriter, having the ability to switch from deep and moving to ribald humour, sometimes in the same verse of a song. His intra-song patter is just as entertaining as the music. Janelle and Steve joined us and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the show.
We’ve been enjoying watching the US Open tennis, and particularly the new youngsters that have been doing so well. There is clearly a new generation taking control of women’s tennis, with the amazing feat by Emma Raducanu of winning the final without dropping a set the entire tournament. She was ranked 150th going in.
The 20th anniversary of 9/11 made Saturday quite somber. My colleague was visiting his daughter in Baltimore and having a coffee by the harbor when this happened right at 8:46am – the time the first plane hit the World Trade Center.
I was talking to Finn about the events of 9/11. He didn’t know about Todd Beamer from Los Gatos – the guy who said “Let’s Roll” on flight 93, before leading a small group that over-powered the terrorists, and preventing the flight making it to Washington, DC. What a true hero.
I tried a new breakfast bake recipe on Sunday. This one is very healthy and vegetarian with quinoa, mushrooms, onion, spinach, cottage cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and egg whites. It turned out well but I think I would prefer some more egg and less quinoa. There’s plenty left for Finn to have for his very early morning breakfasts this week. We both ran 30 minutes early this morning and so were ready for breakfast when this came out of the oven.
I’ve read a couple of book since my last posting. “A Spool of Blue Thread” by Anne Tyler is described this way in a review:
“The Whitshanks are one of those families that radiate an indefinable kind of specialness, but like all families, their stories reveal only part of the picture: Abby and Red and their four grown children have accumulated not only tender moments, laughter, and celebrations, but also jealousies, disappointments, and carefully guarded secrets.
From Red’s parents, newly arrived in Baltimore in the 1920s, to the grandchildren carrying the Whitshank legacy boisterously into the twenty-first century, here are four generations of lives unfolding in and around the sprawling, lovingly worn house that has always been their anchor.”
Tyler has rapidly become one of my very favourite authors after learning of her earlier this year, and this is a classic example of her work – wonderful characters and a beautiful talent for writing about the mundane and ordinary details of family life. This one set against a backdrop of the home construction/remodeling business and the Depression.
My other read was “The Eternal Audience of One” by Remy Ngamije, a writer from Namibia. The story follows Seraphin as he escapes Rwanda, then Namibia, and tries to make a life in Cape Town. Here’s a summary from a review:
“Seraphin Turihamwe is a young man whose life is characterised by movement. After leaving Rwanda under duress and never feeling at rest in Namibia, which he believes is slow and boring, he finds himself fighting to fit in in Cape Town. So much about the city is designed to push people like him out. Through his interactions with a few reluctant mentors, loyal friends and the women he carries on relationships with, he explores and performs different parts of his identity while dealing with other issues of family, race, immigrant life and love.Seraphin and his pursuit and struggle for inner peace and identity effortlessly meld together geography, history and how one’s experience of a place can be perceived as a relatable journey. The themes of movement or displacement, life as an immigrant or refugee and the life of a black youth are neatly unpacked. His relationships with women become markers of the passing of time and lessons learnt and provide insight into who he is and who he wants to be. Whether he ever finds rest and truly comes to know himself is up to the reader to decide.”
I didn’t love this book but did enjoy learning something about life in Rwanda and Namibia.
I really enjoy the “Funky Friday” radio show on 91.7 KXT. Here are a few great songs from last week:
The amazing Grupo Fantasma from Austin:
The amazing voice of Clinton Clegg fronting the nonet Commonheart:
The Kashmere Stage Band – check out the wonderful documentary about this fantastic high school band reuniting later in life.
The always great Etta James, with help from Steve Winwood:
And finally this classic from Jimmy Hughes:
These songs form the base of a playlist that I could listen to every day.
Stay safe and kind to everyone!
The airport was eerily quiet – we were the only folks at all in terminal D security – very unusual. Even Heathrow was relatively quiet and a pretty painless experience. We’re always impressed with the service on the 1 hour flight from London to Glasgow – drinks, full meal, coffee or tea, with no fuss or rush. If only all flights were like those ones. Diana captured the view from the window as we came in to land in Glasgow. That’s the river Clyde in the second picture – where so many famous ships were built in years past.
Monday began with a run around Stewarton – I think we covered most of the highlights including Main Street, Avenue Square and a couple of different sections of park. In the evening we walked around the neighborhood – checking out some of the new developments since we last visited, and admiring the sunset behind Ravenscraig castle.
On Tuesday we tried out a new running destination – Elspeth had mentioned the new Lainshaw Woods trail along the Annick River was very nice. This was indeed a great running spot with nice views and a good path. Quite different than what the area was like when I grew up – quite seedy indeed. The trail follows the river for several miles and is really well done. Some calves had escaped their field and were enjoying the river also.
After that morning exercise we drove down to Culzean castle with a stop in Dunure on the way. Our attempt to show Diana the Electric Brae – an optical illusion where the road appears to be sloping in one direction but is really going in the other – was foiled by a ball that had seen much better days (maybe 40 years ago). Dunure is a very picturesque fishing village.
We had to wait on a reservation at Nardini’s and so had a nice wander along the front. This sign about the Vanduara house being used by Lord Mountbatten during World War II to plot the Normandy invasions was very interesting.
We skipped our run on Saturday and instead drove into Glasgow to get our U.S. reentry COVID tests. This was a very efficient and well organized process and we just beat Elspeth and David back to Stewarton. Heather and Michael arrived later in the afternoon and we gave Dad his presents and cake. It was such a shame that Struan and Emily could join us – both getting over the virus. The living room had been “Bramble proofed” on Friday night, and we were able to measure and see that Diana was in fact a bit taller than Geoffrey the giraffe.
Dinner was excellent – I enjoyed chicken liver pate and sole meuniere. Diana said that the mussels she had were perhaps the best she’s tasted. Here are some more pictures from the 85th celebration:
Elspeth, David and Bramble spent the night in a local hotel, and joined us again for most of the day on Sunday. We got to take Bramble for a run through Lainshaw Woods – risking off the leash as we were assured she was very good that way. She was mostly fine with only a minor incident when she wanted to join right in with another very similar dog who was waiting for her owner to throw a tennis ball. “But why can’t I play too?” Poor bramble was quite tired out by the time McD had her running up the final set of stairs.
Diana tried out the old school clothes drying technique with her running suit. Not something you see much of around Texas cities.