It’s such an abrupt turn

I could’ve told you that. It’s such an abrupt turn, I was cruising along in East Austin, on the hike and bike trail, just digging on the day and grooving along, watching a rap star shoot a video…. Wait, if it’s shot with reel film, not a camcorder, can it be called a video? Loping along at a sedentary pace, sort of feeling good. When I wandered back into the Shady Acres compound, though, there was turn for the worse. Maybe before, as the sandwich maker called me “ma’am.” Hey, it happens, didn’t ruffle my feathers. Might have called me “man,” for all I know. I ran into another resident, and he was muttering foul things about the management. A column was sent back for a rewrite. Exactly 43 people wanted my attention focused on their problems, just as soon as I hit the door. 14 phone calls later, I finally got a break as fredlet called to let me know that 1] Washington State is beautiful, and 2] she and her honey would be passing through Austin Town. I was holding forth in loud voice about the workload around here, and I quoted my hourly rate. She laughed and said that’s what she charged for multimedia development, “If it wiggles, it’s a $120/hour.”