The Transporter Couch

How does time evaporate? One minute it’s 10 PM and the next it’s 3 AM and it happens in a heartbeat. It’s all about the company. Thank you Brian

That was the card I wrote to Len White after an evening of delight at his establishment, Cuvee. Present were he, Julie, Lance, Deborah, and myself. And in the space of those five hours we all consumed two glasses of wine (each). Gone are the days when it’s necessary or even an appetizing notion to just get shitfaced, just to get loose enough in our own skin that we can make friends. It was an eclectic group.

Deborah lives in Houston. Fredericksburg is sort of the halfway point between there and Abilene, where her mother lives, and Deborah visits Abilene frequently. So we get to see her every other week or so. I was, as Julie put it, “ON” last night (this morning) and I was being very flirtatious with Deborah, who is a strikingly beautiful woman. And she was responding. But then I fucked it all up by saying, “OK I just HAVE to ask your age.” Then I caught the blunder and said, “45?” That pretty much deactivated the bomb but she will never again have faith in my ability to be gracious. And you know, I caught it in her eyes…. You hear all the time, never ask a woman her age, and I saw it the INSTANT I asked, and I immediately regretted it.

Gentlemen, never ask a grown woman her age.

Now if she’s clearly 12 and trying to buy rum, you might want to card her.

Julie and Lance ….. now there’s something different. They’re from California. Well I think Lance is originally from Oklahoma. Nice people. Young. Sort of in the 2nd or 3rd phase of their lives. A handsome couple. I like them very much and wish to publish it that they have added a joyful dimension to my life. But now is not the time to be effusive.

And Len, he owns the restaurant, and I’ve seen him RIDE HERD on the crew (for those of you who are southern vernacular challenged, it means he’s the BOSSa and everybody knows it) but I mostly see him be gracious, graceful and gentle. In fact, I’ve seen him be all that TO ME, on numerous occasions. It was to him that I wrote the thank you note with which I opened this post.

These are some of my friends.

OTTER

Our Time To Enjoy Reading

On Mondays and Wednesdays I read at the primary school (which is what they call Kindergarten, now). It’s designed for kids who for one reason or another aren’t learning to read, and those reasons can be anything from an attention disorder to an incapacity to connect letters into words, or to recognize words as whole units, or sometimes they just don’t have books in their homes and the notion of reading is alien to them. Regardless, in that time when we read, we look at letters and words and illustrations, and a story unfolds, which makes it fun for the student.

It is joy in my life. For 20 minutes or so I read to one kid at a time. It’s important that it be a one on one experience. He selects a book and we sit together and look at the illustrations and read the words and sometimes I have him spell things out and try to read it or sometimes I just read and ask questions, engaging him in conversation, encouraging him to open his mind to the story. Every session introduces its obstacles and so there is challenge in my giving. “Damn,” I think, “I am doing this when I could be home watching The View!” And I pat myself on the back and say “Yes, you are.”