Weekend wrap-up, and an easy Monday.
Slept in Saturday, till about 11:30, and then zipped over to Belton.
My buddy David from Gatesville, his cousin (forgot the name - sorry),
and another Civil War reenactor buddy of Dave's, Joe Walker from Waco,
all met me at the Bell County Expo center at Belton at about noon or
noon-thirty.
I walked in and went right up to Joe and almost past him, not seein'
him at all. If he hadn't spoken up I would have probably run right
over him. You see, he's about belly hight to me, below the radar. He's
a great guy, and didn't take it personally. When we met originally we
were both happy to learn that we'd spent time on the same aircraft
carrier. He was in the Navy, stationed on the USS Ranger back in the
early 1970s, and I taught college classes on the same ship 20 years
later.
We paid our $5 and started the walk up and down the isles, looking for
anything that might strike a fancy. This Belton show isn't usually a
great show, being very small, but it's too damn close and handy to
pass up. Plus, some times the local folks will bring in interesting
stuff and rent a table. You never really know what or who you'll see.
Turns out I did find myself a new little toy.
It's a little pocket knife/bottle opener, made from something that
looks and feels like titanium. Remember when that shit was a strategic
metal, and they made F-15s out of it?
Now they make every kind of crap out of it you can imagine. Anyway,
It's got a locking blade and a thumb/one hand action, which is such
the rage these days. OK, I had an impulse. Just glad it wasn't a new
Kalashnikov. It should come in handy at some point.
So, after the show, I went over to the folks house for a short visit.
Mom fixed me a sandwich and some chips, and then I was off to Big "D".
I headed up I-35 towards Ft. Worth and then cut off on 67, so I could
head to Duncanville, where my buddy Jim lives. As I took the exit from
the highway, guess what I saw sitting on a little shoulder of grass on
the East side of the access road?
Of course, for Bruno's sake, I had to do a drive-by.
Turns out it was late, about 5:30 PM, and they were already shutting
it down, but it looked like they'd had quite a tractor show. I got a
few shots as I rolled by, and made plans to hit it on the way home
Sunday afternoon. However, events conspired against me, and I ended up
blowing that little detour off. Hold it together man, there'll be
another day.
I got to Jim's place by 6PM. I chatted up his wife while he showered
(he'd just returned from an overnight trip to Abeline), and then we
headed out to pick up a buddy of his at his house in Oak Lawn. We did
Mexican food at a local joint there, sitting outside because of the
nice weather. All these guys wanted to talk about was this one
homeless lady that they've seen walking up and down this road for
years, and how enormous her breasts were.
They drifted back and forth from wonder to sympathy, until I noted
that if she'd been homeless for that long, and wasn't in rags and
emaciated, then obviously she'd figured something out and found a way
to make those titties pay. I mean, I'm NOT the fountain of experience
here, but another name for a "homeless" lady who is known for walking
the streets and seems to be well fed... help me guys... IS A HOOKER!
Jesus, Liberals amaze me.
Anyway, after dinner we headed over to Mockingbird Station to see a
flick at the Angelica theater. We saw the 8PM showing of "In the
Valley of Elah", starring Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize Theron, along
with Susan Sarandon and Jason Patric. It's a very sad and depressing
(read artfully told) tale of an excessively strait laced ex Army
MP/father trying to figure out what's happened to his son, a recently
returned Iraq War vet, who has disappeared soon after coming back from
the war. Of course, it's meant to be an indictment of the Army, the
war, and those that support it. It has all the signs of being a broad
brush hatchet job telling us that all our returning vets are now so
scarred by their experiences that they will never be able to function
in society as they did before they left. It smells like the same story
we heard for years about all Vietnam Vets.
On another level, it is a very moving story about official stupidity,
human frailty, and the sort of things that do change in a person when
they go through those searing war time experiences. I do recommend it,
but it's not for those who ether can't extract themselves from the
obvious political bullshit that is being laid on them, or those with
their own war time issues, who may not want to go there. It's worth
seeing. Tommy Lee is the king, and that's enough to say about that.
After the movie, we went out onto the patio in front of the theater
and decided to sit down and drink a beer. Out front and to the side of
the theater entrance is the Trinity Hall Irish Pub. My friends all
decided to try a Black and Tan, but I figured it was time for a
Guinness or two off the tap. I'd tried the bottles, and found it
wanting. The pub was full to the brim with lots of Irish looking dudes
(lots of sweaters and dark clothes) and pretty young girls that looked
like they were drifting up from SMU. Across from the pub, towering
over the square, are these amazing loft apartments that go for about a
grand a month. The top floor places looked like they had 20 foot
ceilings, and all of them have huge glass windows and balconies that
allow the occupants to see everything going on beneath them. Thing is,
if I lived there, I think I'd invest in some curtains. It's a
beautiful place, I wanna tell ya. ALL the scenery was prime.
After downing three mugs, and not feeling much more than normally
happy, I decided that this crap about Guinness was just that. Well, I
guess the stuff you get in Britain may have more fire power, but I've
about exhausted my interest in the version I can get here. We sat
around for about an hour, drinking and talking about the movie, and
our women. It was a cool evening, doing guy shit that I really don't
have much experience with. They wanted to know about Denise, and they
wanted to tell me about all their issues with their lady friends. It
was hilarious to listen to.
One guy is married to a harpie that makes his life miserable a lot of
the time, all because he got her pregnant 11 years ago. The other guy
was celebrating his second divorce, which became official last
Wednesday, and the third guy was talking about how he's allowed his
girlfriend to take greater and greater control his life. She's talked
him into taking a job at her law firm (he used to be a public
defender), and that she and his teenage daughter can't stand one
another. So, he's stuck in a rut, between a very pretty rock and a
hard place, and wonders how he allowed himself to get there. And then
they all wanted to know if I was "serious" about Denise, and if not,
why not.
I was like "Dudes, we like each other, and we're having a good time,
and that's as far as it's gonna go. " They laughed, and insinuated
that I needed to be careful, and that I had a lot to learn. OK, that's
a given, but I don't think I want to learn what I need to learn from
these assholes, necessarily. I just watch and learn, and try to glean
from this person and that, little tid bits of wisdom along the way. My
days of blindly strolling through life are long over, and I'm NOT
gonna ever let anyone or anything run my shit, if I can do anything
about it.
On the movie, we had the typical discussion about the acting, and how
the movie turned out, and then the lawyer, recognizing that I live in
Killeen, wanted to know if these returning soldiers are really turning
into a bunch of crazed killers. His question was a perfect
illustration of the impact of the message of the film, which most
ignorant people and/or knee-jerk liberals will easily extract from it.
The film is an indictment of the war, and the "Love it or friggin'
leave it" conservative pro-war AM radio culture, all disguised as
sympathy for what the war is supposedly doing to all these young men
and women who've served in it. I'm not saying that there aren't
problems with some returning vets, but there have ALWAYS been problems
with returning vets, from every war. Meanwhile, the vast majority suck
it up, go back to their normal lives, go to school, and keep their war
time traumas to themselves. If you're lucky, you get to hear about
what they did when they get old enough, and sentimental enough, to
want to tell you, but they don't become tower shooters. What a bunch
of stupid, insulting bullshit!
I spent the night on Jim's couch (very plush and comfy), and then
Sunday we went up to Dallas with his daughter to check out CDs and
Bookstores and to screw around. Then they talked me into going to his
Mother-in-laws place for Sunday dinner. We're talkin' roast beef,
squash casserole, taters and carrots, biscuits, and everything else
you can think of. It was topped of with slices of Lemon Chess and
Apple pie. Mmmmmm.
I headed home down I-35 East after that, with the Cowboys comfortably
ahead of the... what losers did they play? Anyway, I headed home,
gassing up in Waco, and stopping for another feed in Temple. That's
right, a few hours after eating all that food in Duncanville, I had
steak (a thick bastard) and a baked potato and peas with the folks in
Temple.
Here's dad, cutting his steak. He loves to eat there in the little
nook by the garage door, sitting in front of the TV and enjoying the
heat from the kitchen. He gets cold easily.
And here's what mine looked like. I tell ya, my mom cooks the best
steak anywhere. We don't even bother to order steak anywhere else.
Best cook in Bell county, fer sure.
And then there was Jello, topped with Mandarin Oranges. Love this
stuff. Yes, I'm a diabetic. Why do you ask? Oh hell, my blood is fine,
and I'm still losing weight. Steady at 290. Must be doin' somethin'
right.
On the way home to Killeen, there was an onlooker slowdown at
Nolanville, where a car had gone over a railing and rolled down to the
access road below. They had a fire truck and a care flight there, and
I took a shot. God bless those folks. Hope all is well.
When I got home, I sat down in front of this thing, to read emails and
try to ketch up on a few blogs, and before I knew it it was time to
shower and go pick up Denise and the airport. She flew in at 9:30, and
then we retreated to her place, watched some of "The War" on PBS, and
the rest of the evening is history. Piss off. Need-to-know only.
This morning I got to my classes in Florence and found out that most
of my students had ether gone on a field trip to the State Fair in
Dallas, which recently opened, or they had just blown off school. So,
I blew off school. I sat there and surfed the web, to the extent that
I can on their silly assed censored version of the web, and listened
to the tunes that I've uploaded to the computer. Every once and a
while a kid will give me this look and ask me "Who is that?" Teachin'
never stops. Payin' it forward.
Anyway, I'm gonna take a nap, and then I have to go give my last final
exam on Ft. Hood at 4:45. I'll average all the grades and load them in
the computer tonight, and then I'll be coolin' my jets for two weeks
(only having to deal with Florence in the morning) until the next
No comments:
Post a Comment