Where have the last two months (and I) gone?

Mid-November already? Big Game next week? The past two months have blown by...

Bay Area

The day after I returned from Italy, Brian and Kate arrived for a visit and some tourism. We had ideal weather in San Francisco. On Thursday, we started our excursion with a walk on the beach in Half Moon Bay, before driving up to San Francisco.

We toured Alcatraz, then explored the area along and above the waterfront, followed by dinner at the HMB Brewery. Friday we took further advantage of the beautiful San Francisco with a hike at Lands End, then lunch in the Mission.

On Saturday morning, we hiked among the redwoods at Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve, 5 miles south of HMB; the banana slugs were out in force. By the time we returned to my home, Darcy and Jeff had arrived. We enjoyed a great brunch, then dropped off Brian and Kate at the airport before heading to Stanford for tailgating and an evening football game versus San Jose State. (Tired yet?) On Sunday, we drove over to Redwood City for The Recordman's annual parking lot used record sale; among us, we spent about $70 for about 75 LPs, and we had fun. What better way to round out the day than a drive over to Pescadero for cream of artichoke soup at Duarte's Tavern? Then I rested.

Texas

On Wednesday, the 21st, I caught a flight to Houston, and I was able to give my Goddaughter a hug and a kiss on the occasion of her 17th birthday. The Illichs were still without electric power 10 days after Hurricane Ike, so we thought it better that I drive over to Austin that afternoon, and return to Houston on Monday, to do an overnighter then instead. My rental car had Sirius radio installed, so I was entertained by "E Street Radio" for the entire drive to Austin, listening to Springsteen's legendary 1978 show at Winterland in San Francisco. [The recent XM-Sirius merger has brought E Street Radio to my XM receiver as of this week (Channel 58).] It was so great to see Lisa, Erik, Brad, and Karl! I was fortunate enough to bring good weather with me, and it stayed through the weekend, with temperatures in the mid-80's and cold beverages never more than a couple of minutes away.

On Thursday, while all the responsible people were at work, I toured the State Capitol building and the UT campus.

On this day, I found Austin to be a very livable place. Having seen the Colosseum earlier in September, I observed that the UT football stadium appeared to dwarf it. Thursday evening, Erik and I went out for a beer, some barbecue, and some roadhouse music. Friday began the marathon that was the Austin City Limits Music Festival. After a lunch of barbecue and beer [see a pattern emerging?], we headed into the Festival, in Zilker Park. 8 stages, 130 acts, 3 days, $4 beer, $175 weekend pass, less dust than in past years, and a fun experience. The Friday highlights were David Byrne (performing the music of David Byrne and Brian Eno), Alejandro Escovedo, Vampire Weekend, and a late dinner of biscuits and gravy.

On Saturday, we started the day with Karl's soccer match (Erik coached), and I was pleased to witness his team's first goal of the season. We headed over to the Festival mid-afternoon, and we camped out at the AMD stage, where we saw three fantastic performances: Robert Earl Keen; John Fogerty; and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss.

My nephew Chris joined us on Sunday, and we got an earlier start over to the show. The first act we saw, The Kills, were very unhappy; both dressed in black leather, hung over, performing in the sunny, 85-degree weather, seemed better prepared to play at 1:30 AM than 1:30 PM, and were likely on the phone to their manager upon leaving the stage. We then checked out Gillian Welch for a little while, and I subsequently caught Joe Bonamassa’s set at the Austin Ventures Stage. We subsequently rendezvoused in time to catch the first part of Blues Traveler’s set (a pretty chaotic and large crowd scene) before crossing the park to set up camp ahead of the Raconteurs’ set, which was very good. We wrapped up our festival by catching Tegan and Sara, whom I had seen before only in an acoustic setting [Bridge School Benefits], and I was pleased to see a strong “plugged-in” performance. It having been a long weekend, we opted out of joining 64,995 of our closest friends for the festival-closing performance by the Foo Fighters. I look forward to attending again, especially as long as I have Lisa and Erik to be my leaders. On Monday, after breakfast and a dog walk, I drove back to Houston. Alyson and I did a dog walk in the neighborhood, which included a pass of the Mary Lou Retton house and the Roger Clemens compound. Houston was still cleaning up, and Alyson was still dealing with service providers and delivery people in trying to return order to the homestead. During my time in Houston, I was taken by the community spirit of people looking out for one another, and pitching in to get the community back on its feet. City Public Service of San Antonio had deployed labor and trucks to help Houston get its infrastructure back on line – impressive. On Tuesday, Alyson gave me a brief tour of the city of Houston before I flew out that afternoon.