“We can’t be afraid of change. You may feel very secure in the pond that you are in, but if you never venture out of it, you will never know that there is such a thing as an ocean, a sea. Holding onto something that is good for you now, may be the very reason why you don’t have something better.”
―
Pond at the end of my block, Huffhines Park, Richardson, Texas
“I’ve been making a list of the things they don’t teach you at school. They don’t teach you how to love somebody. They don’t teach you how to be famous. They don’t teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don’t teach you how to walk away from someone you don’t love any longer. They don’t teach you how to know what’s going on in someone else’s mind. They don’t teach you what to say to someone who’s dying. They don’t teach you anything worth knowing.”
― The Kindly Ones
Graffiti on the wall across the street from Lee Harvey’s, Dallas, Texas
“If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.”
― Immaturity
Huffhines Creek, Richardson, Texas
I live in the Duck Creek neighborhood – near the confluence of Huffhines and Duck Creek. The sure sign of spring are the clutches of baby ducks waddling along with their parents. There are a lot of them – it’s a dangerous world to be a duck.
Light the candle
Put the lock upon the door
You have sent the maid home early
Like a thousand times before
Like the castle in its corner
In a medieval game
I foresee terrible trouble
And I stay here just the same—-Steely Dan, Dirty Work
Singers for Naked Lunch, a Steely Dan cover band, at Lee Harvey’s, Dallas, Texas
Time flies – it was six years ago that I wrote about Naked Lunch – the Steely Dan Cover Band at Lee Harvey’s. We saw them a time or too there after that, but the last time, two years ago, they said they couldn’t play at Lee Harvey’s anymore. They simply didn’t make enough money to pay all those musicians (it takes about a dozen to do Steely Dan justice).
But, wonder of wonders, they are back. Lee Harvey’s never used to charge a cover, but now, sometimes, they do. It was only ten bucks to see greatness, so we went. As always Naked Lunch sounds more like Steely Dan than Steely Dan does. Awesome.
One man’s wildflowers are another man’s weeds.
—-Antonio Vitalis, From Hell’s Heart I Stab At Thee
Wildflowers, Huffhines Park, Richardson, Texas
The City allows patches, often in vegetated medians or along the borders of parks, to grow unattended, unmowed, into patches of wildflowers. I stopped along one such patch on my bike ride and took a few photos. Mostly the ubiquitous Texas Bluebonnets, but also other, similar, wildflowers of various colors. On this patch there was a singular clump of these which stood out and above the others. I have no idea what these are (Black Eye’d Susans?) but they drew the eye. And the camera.
Yesterday, I wrote about riding my bike and drinking coffee. I really like my little thermos that I bought years ago at a gift shop called Plum (now sadly gone) off Magazine Street in New Orleans. It is small and has a cool leather wrap printed with graphics inspired by The Shining.
It’s pretty cool and keeps the coffee pretty hot.
My coffee thermos.
“Even bad coffee is better than no coffee at all.”
―
My Xootr Swift Folding Bike, Huffhines Park, Richardson, Texas
I had a tough winter – my allergies, despite my best efforts, knocked me out. The worst part of it was I have not been able to ride my bike as much as I wanted to and have lost a lot of fitness. So now I’m working on the long road back.
One thing that I have found is that I especially enjoy riding my bike if I have a destination. It’s no good to always be riding to a store or a restaurant or a brewery… so sometimes I create my own destination. For the three day holiday weekend I decided to get up as early as I can (which is not always particularly early), pack up what I need, and then ride out to some spot where I can stop for coffee, breakfast, read my Kindle, and maybe write a bit. I decided to ride my Xootr Swift folding bike – it is perfect for short rides.
I didn’t plan on riding very far, maybe five miles or so around the ‘hood, the weather is already getting hot, the wind hard from the south – but otherwise it was a beautiful day.
The only problem with this plan is the amount of stuff that I have to put together for such a simple thing.
And it goes on and on. It took a long time to get everything ready… too long… and I forgot some things. So now, I make a checklist, make a pack with what I can put some stuff together ahead of time. The best part, though, is to plan where I’m going tomorrow morning.
Stuff on a picnic table in Huffhines Park, Richardson Texas.
“I see a red door and I want it painted black.”
―
Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
There’s a darkness upon me that’s flooded in light
In the fine print they tell me what’s wrong and what’s right
And it flies by day and it flies by night
And I’m frightened by those who don’t see it—-The Avett Brothers, Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise
at DFW Airport
“Philosophy [nature] is written in that great book which ever is before our eyes — I mean the universe — but we cannot understand it if we do not first learn the language and grasp the symbols in which it is written. The book is written in mathematical language, and the symbols are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without whose help it is impossible to comprehend a single word of it; without which one wanders in vain through a dark labyrinth.”
―
Richardson, Texas
Bill Chance 