37 Orbits of the Sun

Thanks to all my Facebook friends who wrote all over my wall yesterday reminding me that I'm old, grey, fogey-ish, worn-down, 1/2 way done (in life), geezerly, etc. I feel my age creeping into my bones and I can only wonder, "If this is how I feel at 37, then 70 is going to suck". Fingers crossed I can make it to 70.



All-in-all I had a fine day. Beautiful sunny Texas weather (HOT!!!). I went to work at 7:00 am, had lunch with almost all my co-workers at Freebirds, sitting outside under the shade of enormous oak trees, then got home to see Nada and Faris after they'd been in Houston for the past week.

I like Freebirds. The "bad-ass" bar-b-que sauce is delicious. It wasn't my first choice. But when you consider the culture of my company (truck drivin', huntin' N fishin', tobacco chewin' rednecks), and that I was trying to exclude as few people as possible, it was the logical choice as it is about the only ubiquitously enamored place of all 20 employees. If I left the decision up to a majority vote, we would have eaten at Rudy's, Fudrucker's, or even - dare I say it - Taco Bell. And I wasn't gonna let that happen on my birthday. It is all about me for a day and what I say, goes. There can be no other way. You give people the freedom of choice and you get anarchy. Better to rule with an iron fist and swiftly crush all opposition.

I swear your children grow every day. But you don't really notice it until you've been away from them for a few days. The changes are too incremental to really notice when you're around them on a day-to-day basis. But his sentences were maybe a word or two longer, his vocabulary had a few new words, and his reportoire of silly mannerisms included new faces, gestures, sayings, etc. Its those fractional, nearly imperceptible changes that you really notice after a period of separation.

I capped the day off with a ride through my neighborhood on my mountain bike with Faris in the Burley Solo trailer. It was questionable how long he'd last in 100 degree heat. But he's a born Texan and I guess heat tolerance is in his blood. His face was beet red after 5 minutes and he was complaining about the sweat in his eyes, but we managed 45 minutes of non-stop riding (we ususally do ~20 minutes, then hit the neighborhood park for 30 minutes, then cap it off with another ~25 minutes of riding). He "did his daddy proud" as they say in these here parts.

To finish the evening, we dined at one of my favorite Austin eateries, Manuel's. There are few deserts that make my eyes roll back in my head, and Manuel's old-fashioned Mexican vanilla bean ice cream, topped with a small dollop of whipped cream and a sopapilla, is one of them. It is to die for.