10/22
Nothing is better than sitting around with Sister (my younger sibling) —
"Yes, Kramer, your jokes failed miserably with everyone except me, but
I'm an easy laugh." I did rejoin my family and their friends after spending
a morning in Ft. Worth, I just had to get out of town for a little while. Besides,
Paris Cafe is the best little breakfast spot know. Seems like there were a lot
of TCU fans, something about a football game. (Texas Christian University —
the TCU Horned Frogs, as I recall.) I may love my family, but they can be a
little exhausting to take for too much at one time. Trailer
ghosts? Stage swords.
Back on the road to Austin this morning....
10/21
"Never do today what can be put off until next week" is a good watchword
for my family. And so it goes for party preparations. "Can't you use astrology
to find good jokes?" [Attributed to a Taurus player.]
10/20
I met about fourteen of Sister's troop of performers, folks imported from the
Left Coast to help entertain at Pa Wetzel's big party tonight. Sure, all female
except for one token male. Me and him? We bonded right away. As the day wore
on, I was sent on an interminable errand to find "gaffer's tape" which,
for all the world, looks like duck tape to me. Black Duct Tape, right? Wrong.
It's a different critter altogether. But I did score it, and then I asked if
there was anything else? Now, to my Austin trained ears, "A White Mocha
Latté made with Soy Milk" is not such an odd thing. I know several
places, some right around the corner from where I live, places which don't find
such an order too tall. Or even the slightest bit weird. But in Dallas? I spent
a lot of time getting looks from folks behind the counters, looking at me like
I was a little crazy. "White mocha latté made with soy milk? Around
here? What, you from Austin or something?" Well, as a matter of fact, we
are attuned to the gentler, more healthy vibes down there — but this is
Dallas. Those poor folks from the Left coast — Sister's
Troop — will have to suffer some.
10/19
Maybe southern leanings feels good because I'm going back to that place called
sweet home Dallas, mostly Southern, mostly refined (or so the press likes to
suggest). Tickets?
Right, didn't get them in time for that Scottish play. I did have revelation
in the Austin Airport — does your airport have Stevie Ray Vaughn's guitar
moaning and singing over the Muzak? Not some adulterated, watered down version,
but the real thing? Does my heart right to hear this one (I took a cab to the
airport): "Will the owner of the Ford F-150 please return to your truck,
it's about to be towed," as a half dozen guys sprinted for the door. Wonder
whose truck it was? Both Ma and Pa Wetzel showed up at the airport to pick me
up, but they arrived in different cars, and then the hilarity ensued. Or, my
original plan was to escape part of the weekend to Ft. Worth, and now three
different family members have asked to go with me. [The reason I was going to
be running over there was to get away from the family.] "It's okay, I can
do what I want, it's your Father's birthday." [Ma Wetzel, direct quote]
Oh yes, it's good to be back under one roof again. I was having a family type
of drink late last night with a Virgo, and the place was familiar — but
the recent redo makeover had added a special touch — there was a row of
bathrooms, three marked "women's" and one marked "handicapped/boy's."
Nice to see a place where I'm treated fairly — fairly accurate.
10/18
Afternoon flight to Dallas
today. Books which are too big to travel with would include what I'm reading
right now, a "Tart Noir" novel called Strawberry
Tattoo by Lauren Henderson. I love British Literature, even if it's just
a trashy romantic whodunit. But I also know enough about idiom to realize that
this is a British writer, and while this one seems to be set in New York City,
some of the dialogue is strictly British — not that I mind — just
an observation — which doesn't make the novel any less stylish or chic
— expecting the British to truly grasp the way English dialogue should
be written is an unrealistic expectation. Not that I could do any better, I'm
just playing critic, not author. I stopped by the one Virgo's place, and we
had some mighty fine breakfast at the Mag, then on over towards Amy's only we
got side tracked and this one girl was raised in Louisiana, so we wound up with
Begniets instead. First it's crayfish, then it's Community Coffee (strictly
LA brew), then it's Begneits. I feel so Southern now.
10/17
Sex
at work? Perish the thought around here. Monday morning was not happy: some
unenlightened soul had posted an advertisement
in the message boards. Push the delete button on that one, in fact, I got in
and wiped it off the server. And from the volume and tone of the calls received,
it seems like a lot of boyfriends are not doing what is expected of them. "Men:
you can't live with them, and there's just such a narrow set of circumstances
where it's legal to kill them." T-shirt slogans under consideration: "Once
a month is not enough" and "21st Century Astrology for good old boys
and girls." I got rescued from the computer by the Capricorn — again.
No words of wisdom, just a long hike around the lake. The Cap is learning about
writing web page code, and she was looking at some of the code buried on this
site. I pointed out that some of the original ascii is still in place, stuff
I coded up, by hand, back in 1994. The remnants are few, but it's stuff I'm
still attached to. Ran into a Cancer, a Sagittarius, and a Virgo. Then, later
last night, I was coming home from a canceled acting class when I ran into the
Virgo who used to live here but moved away but now has moved back (confused?
so am I.) "Acting class? Are you going to learn to act like an adult?"
We both laughed loud and long at that idea.
10/16
Tackled a little web site maintenance.
I was thinking about breaking all the scopes out into individual files again,
instead of one, long screen, but that's a problem. The web guy suggests I give
him 12 times as much money in order to get this done. Sure, that'll happen any
day now. One of the most appealing aspects of living on the edge of the Hill
Country, in Central Texas, is the subtropical climate. It's the middle of October,
and I was out on the trail with no shirt. I was tooling along with the red headed
Capricorn, since neither of us were getting any work done, we took a hike around
the trail, trying a different route. Yes, when she got a cramp, it looked nice
while she stretched. We had one plan, then another, and finally arrived at The
Boiling Pot for lunch. Dinner. Something. And while we had great, steaming table
full of shrimp, crab, and crawfish, the crawfish was tough, small, and full
of roe. Something was wrong with the mud bugs, and after inquiring of the Gemini
server, we were informed that the mud bugs came from Wisconsin. What? If I were
a Louisiana native, I'd be upset that some other state was trying their hands
at raising crawfish. Wisconsin, I mean, how can they even produce crawdads?
After dessert, we toddled back up the street, with alternating clouds and sun,
the weather remarkably weird. Cool in one moment, hot in the next. We did ample
past Waterloo, ostensibly to go to Amy's, but we were really both too full to
even think about ice cream. Last stop was a new coffee shop, called CC's Coffee.
I had to find out what the CC stood for. Community Coffee, thick as Mississippi
River mud. And now they're branching out into coffee shops. Looked an awful
lot like a certain chain, virtually indistinguishable from the place across
the street. That takes some balls to open up, but hey, never underestimate them
folks from Louisiana.
Best observation for the day, attributed to that Capricorn? "I know guys
go to work in their 30's and don't come home until their mid 40's."
10/15
Dell batteries seem to catch fire. Talk about a hot
product. I didn't go to the office. I didn't meet that Virgo for breakfast
like she suggested. I did harass the web guy and change up the web
cam page because I found a new
link to it. Took enough time to get caught up on the weekly
scopes. I was supposed to attend a play with a Pisces last night, but we
missed the curtain call while driving around in the northern reaches of Austin,
searching for the theater. "I thought you knew where it was." "But
I thought you knew where it was — you're driving." So we had some
South Austin fare at Suzi's Chinese Kitchen, some coffee at Bouldin Creek Coffee
[highly recommended], and considered the philosophical question for the evening,
cold the Texas School for the Deaf complain about how loud the party was, across
the street? Short–short story for the day: I got a call on my cell, not
a number I recognize, so I flip the phone open, and say, "Oh my darling"
expecting either Bubba or some female on the other end — that number is
not listed, nor is it in wide distribution. No answer. Now, what it really was?
Fiction: some woman had messaged me about a reading, I responded from my cell,
we couldn't set a time, so I dismissed it, but my cell number was trapped on
her phone. Then her boyfriend doesn't recognize the number, and he hits redial.
I answer with "oh my darling." I always try to make everyone's day
a little more surreal, when possible. Besides, we can all blame Mercury in Scorpio
right now — from late night TV: "Code 347." [courtesy of the
Neighbor]
10/14
Friday morning, there was a heavy fog, a thick mist drifting up from the river's
edge, and I was going to be worried about the other drivers on the road, but
I had this thought: the morning drive time, it's not like the folks don't already
drive like they're in fog, so what's it matter? I fished a note out of the mail
at the office, and I've got to get on the web guy because the credit card transaction
stuff needs to be updated. Yes, honey, you can watch the Gourd's video online
here, and hear
the song. I did do things backwards again yesterday, and I had a chance to introduce
a particular Sagittarius to the delights of Turnip Greens — goes by many
names — and this wonderful food made her curl her lip. "You like this?"
Yes, with the right amount of lemon juice, tastes great. From breakfast, I hooked
it around the lake trail — backwards — and all but skipped the office
for the day. To heck with work. Rather a cavalier attitude, now isn't it. Got
the nicest note in the message
board, too.
>TalkToKramer: You have the uncanny ability to speak to me as though you
>were my BEST friend. You have no idea how exact you are, scary.
Now that's what I strive for. And that's why writing a good horoscope takes
so long. Too bad some of my masters
don't understand this.
10/13
Friday the Thirteenth? What better way to celebrate than seeing a scary movie?
I saw "Love and Sex" [at least I think that was the title] last night,
sort of long ending to a long day. Worked well for me, though, sort of a chick
flick, but not quite? I don't know how long it's been out, or if it's a general
release, or just one of those art movies, or what. I got up and got dressed
for a hard day at the office, then because my ride was leaving early —
she was going fishing this coming weekend, and had to sneak out an hour early,
I got home an hour early, and I jumped into some shorts and took a quick hike.
Then the unbroken Pisces called me for a dinner idea, and we wound up at Hoover's,
and then off for the art movies at the Dobie. I was extolling the virtues of
preferring art movies to the usual cinematic fare which segued into a musical
trivia question, the line in question was the lyrical strains of "You're
nothing but an art fag." Begs the answer, The
Dead Milkmen's "Instant Club Hit" from their Bucky Fellini album,
1987. Their collection,
Death Rides a Pale Cow, is an all–time classic for a generation —
highly recommended, great music, and very funny. As a fitting conclusion, and
hearing that there's some big convention in town, I got the "VOTE, BUBBA
VOTE!" sign up in the
trailer.
10/12
In reference to
a pervious comment. Surprise surprise, I was standing in the laundry room,
and what do mine eyes behold but yet another Virgo, risen from the land of —
that place where all good Virgo's go? Sure, that'll work. I was dashing back
to my trailer, "I've got to be in the office by 2:00 PM, got a series of
incoming..." So I was a slave to the phone all afternoon, and it turned
into a lovely afternoon, too, not quite in the 70's, but almost. Here's a a
thought: Kosher Squirrel Meat — I mean, is there such a thing? Southern
Jews need to know. I'm off to the office today. Off site work on site, I suppose,
pack up a power book, and cruise on out the trailer's door. Hot
new product to install today:
>MS Linux is released under the provisions of the Gates Private License,
>which means you can freely use this Software on a single machine without
>warranty after having paid the purchase price and annual renewal fees.
10/11
Got to find about ten lines of Shakespeare's text which are cool enough to work
with. And how I thoroughly dislike having to deal with bureaucracies —
especially when the subject is copyrights on my work. Or the business end of
editors. All I wanted to do was remind them that I am underpaid for what they
ask for, time and again. Unrelated, but equally appalling on a personal
level, I'm amazed at the number of people on the joke
list who don't sign up for the monthly
astrology news. I was rescued, kidnapped or otherwise disturbed from my
rest when a Virgo girl from Lockhart rang me up in the afternoon, wanted to
have some lunch or something. I got together with her after a reading, and we
spent the afternoon basically doing a lot of nothing. Breakfast at Magnolia
at 4 in the afternoon, coffee with Bubba and his broken heart at 5, out at the
lake. Dinner with a non–broken Pisces. The late movie at Alamo Draft House
— finally saw the X-Men. Glad I waited until two dollar night at the draft
house, that's about all I could say. Coming out into the wee hours of the evening,
the Virgo was complaining about the ending. I kind of liked it — for that
price.
10/10
I did find that Gourds
album I was looking for, around at the friendly, helpful and always independent
record store — Waterloo. First cut, first side, and it's about going to
El Paso. Which reminded me of an embarrassing incident, moments before, I was
trying to impress a Gemini and Leo, "See? The girl behind the counter?
She's a Scorpio." The counter person greets us, "Hey, how's your Mom?
She's so cute." Right. That's impressive. A few weeks ago, I took Ma Wetzel
over to Amy's, and looks like I was remembered for this. But that wasn't the
point of today's discussion. Why are collections of songs on a CD called an
"album"? Why did I call it the first cut on the first side? Does a
CD have a B side? And why is Waterloo called a record store? I know they have
a few records, tucked away in the back, but better than 90% of the stuff is
on CD now. Old ways die hard? I got ahold of the Neighbor, due to the cold weather,
a dragged him out for Texas Chili Parlor chili. I got the Triple X (ask for
it by strength), tossed fresh copped onions and sliced jalapeñoes in
on top, and started to sweat. His poor tasted buds reacted a little badly —
as he gulped down two glasses of tea and two glasses of cold water, he couldn't
decide if he was hot or cold. It was cold outside. "Man, I'm going to feel
this tomorrow." Not me, I live for this stuff. Not for the faint of heart.
10/9
AUSTIN, TEXAS: "Yeah, Kramer has half the women in Austin chasing him...."
Mac, the Aura Camera Guy was explaining — more like making up stories —
I think he just forgot to mention that most of those women chasing me have loaded
weapons, lawyers and other implements which can cause harm... but it sounds
good. Any press is good press. After working with a bunch of psychics, I've
discovered a lot them are curiously clueless about their own — often immediate
— future. Must go with the terrain. The big football loss seemed to serve
as a deterrent to Sunday's event. Might have been other things, too, like freezing
rain. Good thing I had my Diet Dr. Pepper and Butterfinger. Playing poker with
psychics — particularly bored psychics — ain't such a hot idea. "Great.
Maybe I should all get all guns and sharp objects out of the house." [Bubba]
I left the fair with an interesting pair of young ladies — either I was
in tow — or I had them in them in tow, but you can call it what you want.
Dinner, served up by a Virgo at Magnolia, and then a comment about my picture
on the charge card I used — I appear topless on my card, and don't ask,
it's a long story, but the ever observant Virgo did notice it. From there, it
was some ice cream, then I went home — too tired to pursue a Leo and a
Gemini. Not that I didn't want to, but let's face facts, after a grueling 12
hour shift, I'm not worth a lot. But I'll bet the stories I hear back are pretty
good. Nothing to do with reality — I really, really do live like
a monk. No, really I do.
10/8
"Texas: the 'Get Out of My Way' state." And Texas-OU weekend? If you're
not from around here, you wouldn't understand. I lived in Dallas long enough
to get used to it. Mere madness which descended every year, during the State
Fair. The long faces yesterday afternoon foretold of the bad numbers —
the home team lost — by a whole
lot. I had dinner and almost fell in bed when Bubba called up because his schedule
had shifted around and he needed a companion for dinner. I was still running
on endorphins from working all day.... "Dude," he whispered across
the table, "I wish you wouldn't say that when it's just you and me at a
table alone." I was relating the joke about my greeting for the cat, "Who's
your daddy?" Which, in turn, launched Bubba into a series of tales about
his dating advice [probably should be things not to say]: "Baby, you look
so good, I'll let you Super size that combo meal," or "My 8:00 o'clock
canceled, let's get some BBQ and get busy," or "Reminds me a pamphlet
I saw in the Doctor's office: Dating outside your family...." My response?
quote a little bit from the Comedy of Errors: "We come into this world
like brother and brother: And now let's go hand in hand, not one before the
other." [V.i.425] Oh yeah, who's yo' daddy! Sheesh, been a long wekend
so far.
10/7
I was just getting around to posting the morning journal, and hustling Bird
off the couch and out to the airport, when it hit. The cold front which was
predicted for Thursday afternoon finally arrived Friday morning. When it was
all over with, there wasn't much rain, but the temperature dropped close to
20 degrees. I'd suggest "Ah, Fall is here," but I know enough about
Texas weather to be sure that this won't last. I'll be back in shorts in no
time. Under the cooler weather, I changed up the splash
page. Web guys can be so funny, "Dude, it looked good the way it was,
why do you need a new picture?" Humor
me. Off to spin tales at the Psychic
Fair in Austin. Are
they stars or planets, off the San Jose wire feed. Yesterday afternoon,
the Neighbor (too lazy? too Cancer?) calls me from his trailer and I ask about
lunch. I shower up, pull on some boots, slam a hat down on my wet hair and shamble
on over to his place. We sit around while one guy waits to hear from his roommate
so the first guy can pick the second guy up. Then there's this guy, in a band,
who's waiting to go to NYC for the week, and we all decide, "Yeah, lunch."
The Neighbor insists that we have to take in this place Geno's, way down on
the south side, so sure. All pile in a car. Get the roommate, stop off at Big
John's place, decide to wait on him, and then get stranded there — it's
not like this is a far distance, but between the beer and hungry stomachs, it
was getting late. Dinner — when we finally arrived — I had the enchilada
plate (Manicotti), then dessert enchilada (Cannelloni). It took us five or six
hours and tour of some of the more fashionable neighborhoods in South Austin
before it was all said and done. Good food, but I still think it looked suspiciously
Mexican for an Italian place. Might be my bias.
10/6
One nice aspect of really practicing astrology is I get new examples from clients
every day. For the Aries file: I got a voice mail from an Aries, "Hey,
sign me up for your monthly
thing. I don't have time to hit the web site to get signed up." Typical,
oh so typical, got to love them Aries. I was looking at the pile of stuff on
my desk, I get more promotional material from my own family than I send out
myself. Sister's Bay Area Show, Pa Wetzel's
birthday,
& etc. There are two or three weird things which I need to write about but
can't find the time. 1] I was at a postal place to drop package in the mail,
and the kid working there graduated from the same school I did —
Roswell, NM. 2] Why it is better to date women who have been married, and
already have a couple of kids, "In Praise of Older Women." 3] Why
I get so many writers/artists/poets as regular readers. Never did quite figure
that last one out. It was prompted by an exchange of e-mail, and regular mail,
too, with a guy from NYC — a copy writer — and it came with a book,
as well. In fact, yesterday turned into a book day, bookstore, books in the
mail, then Bird: My friend Birdie popped through town, and she brought a book
as a gift. Bubba calls me up, and asks what I'm doing for dinner. The sweet
Pisces calls. [She knows I'm single — therefore a good chance on being
available for dinner.] What started out as a lonely night in front of the tube
turned into a wild evening at the dinner table. "Look, it's in the Irish
DNA — genetically encoded — if you're Irish — you are incapable
of learning Spanish" [Bubba Sean].
10/5
Bumpersticker idea got me thinking...
I wonder if either of the candidates thought to check with an astrologer before
the debate? Just a thought. though. I still think the local bumper
snicker says it best: "Vote Republican — it's easier than thinking."
Bear in mind, this is just a personal opinion. Mercury is in Scorpio, and as
I was traversing Austin's Hike and Bike Trail, going underneath the "Bat
Bridge" [Congress Avenue], I remembered a sign: "DO NOT HANDLE GROUNDED
BATS." Got the image? I was thinking about it in respect to a reading,
and the question had to do with old girlfriends. Wait, no, I'm not suggesting
any of my old girlfriends are like furry rodents with leathery wings. or worse,
I'm not suggesting that any of my former loves are like blood sucking vampires
who only come out at night. Furthest thing from my mind. My favorite Bat Bridge
image was a painting I saw in Magnolia — there was mouse with a hang glider
on its back, looking up in the sky, under the bridge.... But as Mercury starts
to slow down in Scorpio, you know what that means? Remember, it's Fredlet's
wisodm, "They're an EX for a reason. Do not forget this." Don't
handle grounded bats. "Oh you beastly East Texans, you!" [she giggled
the comment] Did I ever mention I hate coding by hand? Of course, I've been
using computers so long, I remember when we had to bang two rocks together to
make binary code. Then again, I heard a lyric about El Paso on the radio
last night, but I didn't catch the artist, Steve
Earle, maybe?
10/4
I was about to switch on the web cam yesterday morning, and I realized I had
no shirt on. It's the local weather, it's October, and yes, it's still hot.
Why I like it here. More like a tropical climate, although, I've been promised
a cold front before the week is up. Like I trust the weather predictions. One
night, I attend a class, the next night, I teach a class. I guess that's about
right for the oddities in my life. Now this caught my attention in a big way
—
>Passed shiny black pickup with camper on Galveston Isle, had your www on
>glass in back.
I took that as a come on of some kind, a pleasantry to get my attention, which
it did. As usual, I responded. This is part of what came back:
>Had been following your site for
>past few months (caught by writing style & wit ~ which is why the web
>address on the back of the black truck caught my attention on past
>weekend).
So someone in Galveston is driving around with my "astrofish.net"
address as a bumpersticker.
Cool. But who is it? And where did that sticker come from?
10/3
I have to admit, I'm starting to like Ft.
Worth a lot. Nice, weird, strange town. Texas through and through. It's
part "good old boy" and part modern village. Which part is which?
Depends on how you look at it. But looks like I might have to drop it from the
list of contenders as it will be too thoroughly modern before I'd get a chance
to leave my most favorite place — which is always wherever I am. There
was a problem, though: I signed up for a cell service when my Virgo friend was
working at that company. All I wanted, and what I thought was sold to me —
according to their advertising — was a state–wide service. I'm an
understanding guy, when my mobile - digital - wireless - cellular phone doesn't
work in a remote canyon in the rugged Big Bend area, I'll forgive it. When the
phone drops a signal in a really remote deer blind, I'll be forgiving. As a
simple guideline, no AM radio station, then no mobile phone — usually.
Problem? Last time I checked, Tarrant County is in Texas. "Tarrant County?"
That's Ft. Worth. Home of Radio
Shack? American
Airlines? Billy Bob's? And yet my state–wide coverage doesn't seem
to include Ft. Worth. This is a problem. For the first time in years, I had
to stop a waitress, and beg quarters for the pay phone. Then, local calls are
$0.35, so that's roughly fifty cents per call. But I was back in Austin, and
I had delightful afternoon with the Capricorn again — Monday is the day
she's off work, and she fetched me up from the computer for a change up in the
routine, first we ate at Hut's, then we hiked around the lake and discussed
some business plans. Then was I was off to class — Gemini teacher, Virgo
classmate. Then I hoofed it up to Amy's and met the Cap again for the dessert
portion of our day. Since Amy's is next to Waterloo Records, we got hung up
at the record store buying music. I still haven't found a definitive collection
of opera stuff to even out the country, punk and techno.
10/2
I went cruising around the web, looking at some astrology web sites, hunting
for some ideas. "On the web since 1995," claimed one site. By that
standard, then I can legitimately claim I've been on the web since 1994. Then
I looked at the various
reports for sale. Either that's one busy writer, or there's a ghost or two.
Around here, there's one guy in charge of the content of the reports —
that's me. While it's still a little uneven, it's actual insight, from a real
astrologer, who spends a lot of time looking
at charts, and then culls his information from the real world. Makes a difference,
I figure. Real astrology or ghost writing? Of course, I do some stuff under
an assumed name, but that's a different story, besides, the money's good. Or
has been. Late last night, after spending four hours on a train, and a few hours
slamming copious quantities of coffee with Capricorn friend [yes, you know who],
I got around to looking at the web dude's handiwork. The hexadecimal code is
6$E and 6$F. The ASCII number is 108 and 109 — this means the two letters
are close together. That was the only mistake I could find. If you ain't got
it figured out by now, next place I'm going to move to would have to be Ft.
Worth. Nice place. Nice folks. Still a sleepy town. And still looks a little
beat up, but it's not fair to judge a town by one tornado.
10/1
I've written eloquent words praising the Paris Cafe — just south of
downtown Ft. Worth, on Hemphill street. Yesterday started there, a plateful
of biscuits and gravy, bacon, eggs, and even a pancake, or part of one. And
a lot of coffee. But I'd be worried,just a little, tucked back in the corner,
on the outside of the building, there's a sign: for sale. I'll bet this is the
beginning of the end for a another great town. It's surrounded by sleepy little
bedroom communities, folks are genuinely nice, and I get a lot of the "you
ain't from around here" vibe, even though I grew up just a few miles east
of Ft. Worth. Like my time in Austin, though, it's nice not to have an agenda,
a place I have to be, a thing I have to do, and I got to tool around the area
all afternoon. Not much in the treasure area, not much turned up. But I'm seriously
thinking about a tattoo, Pleasure and Pain [piercing & tattoo] is such a
cool place. And there's that one lyric which haunted me for 20 years or more,
"On the muscle of my arm, there's a read and blue tattoo, says, 'Ft. Worth,
I love you.' " I just think it would look good above my big motorcycle
scar. Charlie Daniel's and Band closed out a good night, but in an interesting
twist, now imagine this, it's dutifully recorded else where — I've got
Wagner's Opera back to back with come CDB. Now, taking this one step further,
the live set last night was introduced with some strains from what sounded like
Wagnerian Opera as the opening music, while the band walked out. Spooky coincidence?
Surely.
9/30
Ft. Worth: pronounced "foet wuth." Rolling north on the train, abandoned
Bosque County Feed & Supply which so effectively echoes "Texas
Trilogy" by Steve Fromholtz. It amazes me how a piece of music from
youth can come back and haunt me like that one series of songs. I was doing
a reading for someone in the publishing business, and I joked about the publishing
my book. "What book is that?" For the last year, I've done two point
five weekly columns, and that's close to 200,000 words — the size of one
mammoth book, or about 4 of Kinky Friedman's books. The biggest obstacle with
writing horoscopes is there are 12 signs, but folks only read their sign, and
therefore, the vast quantity of my work is missed. I get an insistent page on
my beeper last night, Sister's message: "Ma and Pa Wetzel are out here,
and I don't know what the current reason for worry is, but we are very worried
about you." Maybe it was because I was searching for chili cheese fries
in downtown Ft. Worth, and while the drinks at the 8.0 Bar are good, the chili
cheese fries with jalepeñoes, left a lot to be desired.
9/29
I realize heavily disjointed entries are less along the lines of a true journal,
and certainly more web log in style, but that was what the temperament was yesterday,
a frenetic, hectic pace — under the waning influence of a New Libra Moon,
but today, the moon shifts in her course, and slips into Scorpio. I wonder who
else is stealing my material? It worries me from time to time, and that's the
problem with the web. I've dutifully recorded it here before, about how embarrassed
I've been to be standing in line at the counter, once at a coffee shop, once
at a sandwich counter, and someone's cell phone kept ringing — only to
discover that it was mine. It's not like I'm used to my pocket ringing. When
I'm lakeside, I can pretty much figure it out. But when I'm in crowded environment,
shoot, it could be anyone's. At dinner the other night, there were four of us,
four phones [maybe more] and whenever something would ring, buzz or beep, there
was mad scramble while we all tried to figure out who was ringing. No, it gets
weirder. My friendly Gemini [blond hair, blue eyes] was passing through town,
complaining about her frantic lifestyle. Sitting on the couch in the trailer,
she rang me up. Sitting right in front of me, she accidentally called me. And
where does cell phone etiquette get covered in a modern manual? This gets back
to the idea about my stuff getting stolen — I first posed this question
a long time ago. Off to points further north today, Fort Worth is my next destination.
And it's okay to use phones on the train — that's acceptable behavior.
And I will get to see the Charlie
Daniel's Band at Billy Bob's. Now that's cool. But here, the phone madness
gets better; here's really cool tech stuff: Visor
Phone [coming soon]. Which got me thinking, back several years ago, I had
an Apple Newton 2000 [which came after a Newton 110, which I dearly loved],
and this device had its audio speaker at one end, and situated at the other
end was a microphone. The question in the handheld community was, "Is this
so it could be used as a wireless phone?" Don't know, that model line got
killed, and the Palm took over. In fact, while the sky was gradually leaking
its light at sundown, while I was on Congress Ave., I started to jot down a
note in my Visor, "The colors of the sunset, so beautiful, so vivid, clearly
shades which don't occur in Nature." Wait, it was a sunset — nature's
daily light show. I almost got run over, twice, while I was crossing Congress,
as a matter of fact. I thought it was because I was jotting a note until I realized
I was wearing "Houston Texans" T-shirt. [New NFL Team, and judging
by the near misses, probably not a local favorite as Football is holy in Texas.]
Unrelated link: Sister's reviews.
[This entry, for what it's worth, weighs in at the same length as some of my
early undergraduate term papers — whoa.]
9/28
2 months, that's all we've got, two more months. I've used this quote before,
but it's back to haunt us all, as the weather cools off, "Why Kramer, you
look so much better with clothes on...." Heard it from a Scorpio yesterday
afternoon, while waiting on a Pisces for dinner. Cerviché. I wonder if
the joke was missed. Then again, maybe not. [Beastie Boys] "you get out
of my home if you don't cut that hair" [I wonder if the Beastie Boys count
as a Shakespeare definition of music being the food love.] Shady Acres backs
up to the Colorado River (actually, Town Lake, same thing, really), and when
I wander into the kitchen, I can see the waterfront. When I'm at my desk, I
can lean back, and look out the window and see the water. Tuesday night, I was
having dinner with some Gemini friends — one of them was complaining about
being stuck in his office for hours at a time. "But that's what I do,"
I suggested, "yeah, but you like what you do." That's true. Sounds
like James [Capricorn, most excellent humor] is on a morning
slot on the radio. Fixed the little CGI
thing, and we have now determined that I am definitely not a computer programmer.
You should see the webmaster grind his teeth. Too bad we don't all have dental
coverage. I counted seventeen panic phone calls yesterday, folks wondering what's
up. A few more than the day before. It's Mars, see, and if you read
the scopes....
>about 12:00 AM, ya'll suggested:
>
>>sign: Libra
>>
>>TalkToKramer: I'm a Libra with Scorpio rising. Your comments for Libra
>>and Scorpio for the weeks of 9/11 and 9/18 were spookily accurate !!
9/27
"Me, an over fed, long haired leaping gnome...." is still stuck [like
Georgia?] on my mind. Hasn't that song been covered lately by some other band?
Despite my best efforts, I haven't gotten hung up on the opera stuff yet, but
I'll keep trying. It's a little harder to just hum an aria, you know. I might
run that first lyric as a trivia question, but I guess I should come up with
the answer before I pose the question. I was trailing along the north east section
of the Town Lake hike and bike path, yesterday afternoon, and there was a skinny
guy with a shaved head, deep tan, baggy pants, and wife beater tank top [don't
complain, that's what the girls tell me it's called], and he was playing with
two dogs, one of which was a wet German Shepherd looking critter with a very
soggy tennis ball in his mouth. The guy took one look at me, and hollered out
a question, "You going to jump?" "What?" "The new bridge,
you going to jump?" All I could reply was a laugh. Just when skyrocketing
real estate prices, just when 20 something attitude Internet moguls, just when
insolent Virgo's with attitude, just when it seems like that old time feeling
is lost, I get saved. No, I wasn't even thinking about jumping. But it was kind
of him to ask. Later, same trip, I was tooling back down Riverside, and I saw
the most amazing thing: a guy stopped to help another stranded car. There still
are some nice people here. Thinking about moving here? Don't.
9/26
Dot
com blues? What an intriguing column heading. Yesterday morning was brutally
cold. Terribly cold. Awfully cold. Chilled to the bone. It was below 60¼ —
too cold for my tastes, I pulled on some long pants. Winter clothes, if only
for a day, sort of a dress rehearsal: jeans, boots, jacket. Royal Shakespeare
Company gimme hat. Brutally cold temperatures. Nice post from Ellen at cliché
ideas. [But I was quoted in her online
web log — and I'm not sure whether it was nice or not.] When I was
meandering back from a canceled class last night, I was wondering what I looked
like, hat, jeans, a bag of coffee beans hanging out of one pocket, and a bottle
of diet Dr. Pepper in the other pocket, a cell phone, Handspring PDA, and, of
course, a set texts for the class, notes, with everything stuffed into jacket
pockets. Weave a little, and I'm sure I appeared like another one of Austin's
Homeless. After way too much tweaking, I finally got a simple
CGI script to work with today's birthdays on it. Search, depending on coffee
and social obligations, comes next. "I was strolling along, one summer's
day.... I dreamed I was in Hollywood movie, and I was the star... me, an over
fed, long haired leaping gnome...." [Spill the wine dig that girl, uh huh....]
<— late night music on the radio.
9/25
It started yesterday morning, the Hockey Guy (big fan of ice hockey) showed
up at the Neighbor's trailer with a box of donuts. But see: he's a SF fan, too,
and the Neighbor is a die hard Cowboy fan. The sugar
from the donuts hadn't even started to kick in when the voices were getting
raised. It got pretty ugly, but I excused myself before it turned to blood shed.
At 1545 Hours yesterday afternoon, I was sitting on the dock bar at the Hula
Hut with the Capricorn, and the weather changed. There was actually a cheer
from the crowd gathered at the pier, as the temperature plummeted a full ten
degrees. The rain followed a few minutes later, but yes, Fall has arrived. Don't
know if he'll stick around, but I'll start thinking about long pants now. Had
to toss an extra blanket onto the bed, and the cat is suddenly very affectionate.
Go figure.
9 /24
Lockhart, Texas: This might come as some surprise, but down the road
from the big place called "Kreuz's [pronounced "Krites" —
same location for 99 years]," around the corner from Black's [oldest family
owned BBQ in Texas], there's a place called Floyd's — so the original name
is "Chisolm Trail BBQ," but if you're in the know, it's called Floyd's
because Floyd makes it happen. Bubba drug me over there, yesterday, away from
my engagement in Lockhart. Imagine a delicious, fully cooked, fully serviceable
sandwich for a mere $1.50? Chopped BBQ Chicken sandwich, $1.50. No wonder Bubba
was buying. After we ate, and I had my fill of, "you don't want to come
here on Tuesday night, the line goes out the door, and the driveway stops traffic
back up the highway for a mile or more...." Chisolm Trail BBQ on Highway
183 going through Lockhart. Muy Good-o. From when I got home until I
went out last night, I was working on a little astrology writing project, having
the sun move into Libra is always good me. Then late last night,the red headed
Capricorn calls me up, "Want to go look at Sixth Street tonight?"
Sure, I think, sure. Texas
won a football game, should be a little crazy. No more crazy than standing in
a Lockhart BBQ place while wearing a shirt covered with pink
flamingos.
9/23
So what if Libra really started yesterday, around noon? Local weather turned
coolish and gloomy–like, quite the change, and quite the nice change. Then
again, it was hot and cloud free by time I got away from the persistent phone.
I was going to the train station to get ticket, I'm off for music and fun in
fashionable Ft. Worth next weekend (not this one). I've got an early schedule
which whisks me out to Lockhart for the day — I'm looking forward to that
today. I like it. Home of two, old BBQ places, places which have been grilling
up farm animals for years and years, one for over 50, another for over 100.
The train station in Austin,
is about a block and half from the Sixth Street Amy's,
so I figured it was sign from the heavens that I was supposed to go there, yesterday
afternoon. I tried their new "Malt Crunch" ice cream. Cool, it had
grape nuts in it — I'm getting my fiber. Then, ice cream in hand, I had
to make sure I picked up a some Shakespeare plays, as I've got to memorize a
few speeches. Off towards
Book People. Stay tuned, but I already know I'll do something from King
Lear, and another bit from Troilus and Cressida, both of those have a lot to
do with, oh, now this is curious, astrology. Who'd a thunk it?