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Travelogue: Texas (mostly)
April 2003
Part 2

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April 8 to 18 (Part 1) | 19th | 20th | 21st | 22nd | 23rd  | 24th  | 25th  
April 26 to May 2 (Part 3)

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Saturday April 19

On XM radio this morning, I heard one of their "This Day In History" reports that take the place of many commercials. Today in 1995 was the anniversary of the Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing. I remembered being in Chicago when that happened. I was visiting the Gurnee Mills outlet mall north of town that morning. I saw news reports of the bombing on a TV set in the mall. Later that day, I recall going to the Bahá'í House of Worship in Wilmette to offer prayers for the victims.

I took it easy this morning, for I would be leaving here by 11. I did my normal morning routine – breakfast, e-mail, paper, etc. But today, I had to finish packing. With the groceries and other purchases I'd made, I'd be leaving with more stuff than when I arrived. Most of the groceries could be used down in Nassau Bay at the hotel. But I decided to throw out the ham; although it tasted all right, some parts of it began to look a little strange. Best not to chance eating rotten meat, so into the trash it went. I had a bad experience with food poisoning on a previous trip down here, and I did not want a repeat. I ran the dishwasher for the one and only time this trip. I retrieved the luggage cart for two trips to the car to load all of my stuff. Then it was time for a final room check, and then I checked out. I was slightly concerned that the calls I'd been making for my Net access would show up on the bill, but they didn't. They were truly local calls. And so, at 10:06 AM, I left the Studio Plus hotel for the last time on this trip.

According to the Extended Stay America Website, I would not be able to check into the Nassau Bay hotel until 3. I had five hours to kill. I'd start by driving to the River Oaks shopping center and seeing how busy their Honey Baked Ham store was. But before I got there, I stopped at Rockin' Robin on S. Shepherd for some guitar strings for my 12-string guitar, which I'd brought along on this trip. That was my acoustic 12-string, which Mom and Dad got for me in 1980. It still sounds great, but the strings were in need of replacement. I picked up a set of D'Addario lights and tossed them onto the seat for use later. On to the ham store: you might think there would be a line outside the door, but there wasn't. There were only a few people there. That gave me the idea to get a pound of ham for myself. I could have genuine, honest-to-goodness Honey Baked Ham for Easter! It was quite expensive on a per-pound basis ($11 per pound), but what can you do when it doesn't make sense to get 5 or 6 pounds of it? I got my ham, found room in the cooler for it, then proceeded onward. There was no place else I wanted to visit there (I'd already been in the Kroger's), so I left. Lunchtime was nearing, so I thought, why not find something at the Galleria? While driving there, I was listening to KPFT, one of the public radio stations in town. One of the performers (Paul Thorne?) sang a song about Viagra and getting some before it falls (in case young ones are reading this, I won't explain further).

At the Galleria, I stopped at a newsstand for the early edition of the Sunday paper, then had lunch at Ninfa's. I didn't want Bennigans; I didn't want any other fast food; and though I thought about La Madeleine, I decided to go with Ninfa's and their El Henry combo. I ate my lunch while looking out over the skating rink and also while reading a couple of sections of the paper. When I was finished, I took the paper back to my car (no sense carrying that around everywhere), then walked around for a bit. By the time I got to the Macy's section, I was in dire need of a restroom. Fortunately, I found the men's room on the third floor of Macy's, and afterwards, I was very happy. I could afford to contemplate the $15,000 life-sized model of C3PO at the Sharper Image store (and contemplate was all I could afford to do with that!).

After I left the Galleria, I wanted to find the Houston Baha'i Center. I thought I remembered the address for it, and I knew where to find that address. Or I thought I did. I drove to where I thought it was, but I couldn't find it. I was disappointed, so I vowed to check their website to see where I went wrong. But now, it was time to head for Nassau Bay. Traffic on the freeways was just fine until the exit for Scarsdale Blvd. There, I could see a backup in the distance. Time to exit and travel down Highway 3 again. This time, I took Clear Lake City Boulevard over to El Camino and took that down to the new Kroger's (as opposed to the old Kroger's at El Camino and Nasa Road 1). This Kroger is less than 2 years old and is built on the former site of a Safeway store. I figured I'd stop here and do my grocery shopping, for it wouldn't be long before I would be in my room. My car was rather full with luggage and the groceries I was bringing from the other hotel, but I had enough room to put some more in there.

By the time I was done, it was after 3. I could now check in at the hotel. This would be my third stay at the hotel. I received room 215 – second floor, facing the south. This worked out well from a satellite radio perspective. It took me a while to unload the car, as the luggage carts were not available right then. Housekeeping was using them to take up the freshly cleaned towels and linen. Eventually, a cart became available, and I unloaded the car in short order.

I was familiar with the rooms here at Extended Stay, yet they seemed small to me after leaving the Studio Plus room. The TV channel selection was much smaller here than the other place, for here, they relied on a satellite connection rather than the city cable system. It was not long before I settled in. I listened to the Astros lose to the Brewers in 14 innings. I called my uncle Lloyd, and he told me about Detroit's reactions to the woes of the Wings and Tigers. I started to change the strings on my guitar, but I realized that I would need to get some wire cutters to do the job properly. I didn't have any with me; I had several, but they were all at home. So I traveled to the Super Target in Kemah to get some, for I'd never been there before. A Super Target is like a regular Target except that it has a grocery section. I found the cutters, and then I pulled some money to tide me over for a while. On the way back to the hotel, I passed by League City's second McDonald's (the first being at the freeway, fairly close to our old house) and got a McNuggets meal for supper. This was the meal I was to have had in Marshall last Saturday but was denied due to no Sprite. League City's really moving up in the world now – 2 McDonald's, 2 Kroger's, 2 Sonic's.

Once I got back to the hotel, I realized that I needed to get paper towels. Fortunately, I could just walk over to the nearby Eckerd drug store and get them, and that's what I did. Later, I finished changing the strings on my guitar, started breaking them in, and then I took it easy the rest of the evening.

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Sunday April 20

Today was Easter Sunday, and I had no real plans. I thought I'd have some Honey Baked Ham and some mashed potatoes for my Easter dinner. I needed to do laundry, and I took care of that in the morning. Later, I decided to take my video camera for a drive around the lake. More specifically, I was going to duplicate a trip from 1989, more or less, by videoing a trip from our old house to Kemah and Seabrook. I had the camera running nearly continuously during the trip. I swung by our old house; people were living there. George Mallios was out, reading his paper, but I didn't stop to see him. There would be time for that later.

I noticed that the Texaco station at FM 518 and the Gulf Freeway was now a Shell station. As Texaco, that station had been there as long as I could remember. I imagine it was there when the freeway first opened in the 1950's. Same with the Exxon station on the west side of the freeway. I remember when it was Enco, and it probably was Humble before that. West Main didn't look too different from last year – in fact, nothing looked very different from last year, except in Kemah, where there was even more construction near the new Target and Home Depot. I thought I saw an Office Depot being built there, as well as a Taco Cabana.

When I returned to the hotel, I had a call waiting for me. It was Keith. It seems I was invited to Easter dinner at his ex-wife's house. That was very nice of her to extend an invitation to me, and I accepted. I showered, then passed the time reading until it was time to leave. I got to his house around 1. I had expected that we'd go over in his car, but he asked if we could take my car instead, for he was extremely low on gas and did not trust his ability to get to a gas station in time. I agreed. Besides, he wanted to listen to my XM radio. As he got into my back seat (my front seat had a lot of stuff on it), I turned on the Soul Street channel as we drove off. I didn't know where his ex lived until I was told to turn down Calder Road. Might we be heading to your old house, I asked. Indeed we were, he replied.

When we arrived, there were already many people there, including Renee (ex-wife), Hannah (daughter), Renee's sisters and mother, their spouses, some friends, etc, the vast majority of whom I'd never met before and might never meet again. I spent some time explaining what I do at Ford, listening to other conversations, enjoying the dinner and the cream soda that had a head worthy of a top beer, etc. Also enjoyable was the homemade strawberry ice cream that Keith made. All in all, I had a nice time there.

When we left, I had to perform an important duty: follow Keith as he drove his car to the gas station in case he couldn't make it. Fortunately, he did make it and gassed up. As I was around a half-tank, I decided to gas up as well. Off to Eckerd's for munchies and some medicines, then back to his place for a guy's night in – South Park, an old episode of Stargate, and some research into plasma-screen displays and their capabilities. Somebody was interested in buying one, and it wasn't me. Well, I'd be interested if I had the money....

It was fairly late when I returned to my hotel room, and I ended up having an Antone's po-boy sandwich along with chips and hot sauce. Man, that sauce (Nuevo Leon sauce from Austin by way of Central Market) was HOT! Speaking of Central Market, the next one in the area is going to be in the Woodlands, said Keith; he was hoping for one down this way. I can understand why he'd like one here, for it's a bit of a drive to get to the Westheimer location. I asked if he'd heard about Fry's Electronics building a store down this way, and he'd not heard of any plans. I thought I'd read something somewhere suggesting they would. That would be more convenient, as well. Unfortunately, neither the Central Market nor Fry's is coming to Detroit any time soon.

I never did get around to having that Honey Baked Ham and the pork and beans....

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Monday April 21

Today was a Holy Day, the first day of Ridván in the Bahá'í calendar, commemorating the day in 1863 (140 years ago) when Bahá'u'lláh first announced His station and ministry to the world. Bahá'ís around the world would be gathering to celebrate. If I were back in Detroit, I would be attending the celebration at the Detroit Bahá'í Center. If I knew where any celebrations were locally, I'd be attending those. But I didn't, so I didn't. Instead, I took it easy today, not doing much of anything. Most of the day, I stayed inside my room listening to Deep Tracks on XM 40, the successor to the old album-rock FM stations of the past. I read from some of the books that I had brought or bought, including one that contained a talk given by Bahá'u'lláh's son, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, on this day in 1912. I also read from the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov. I remember reading or attempting to read them when I was younger, though I didn't pick up on what he was trying to say at the time. I also did some work on this travelogue.

It was time to do dishes, but I didn't have a dishrag in the room. Perhaps the staff had forgotten to provide one. So I walked over to the Eckerd's next door and got a sponge, along with some aspirin. When walking back, I passed up the hotel and visited The Space Store next door. Perhaps they'd have some interesting merchandise, possibly some of the DVD sets from Spacecraft Films. They did have the Apollo 11 set, but I already had that one.

Supper tonight was pasta again, this time with jalapeńo pesto sauce. It wasn't as spicy as you might think. It actually turned out all right. I'd picked this up at the Central Market last week. Afterwards, I did the dishes. I didn't have any choice; the sink would be completely full if I didn't do them. Then I went out for a bit. First, I visited the new Best Buy at Bay Area and Gulf Freeway, a much larger store than their old one. I saw a nice HDTV from Samsung that I wouldn't mind getting, if I could afford it. Then I went over to the Casual Male store and got a new T-shirt, as well as the Barnes and Noble for the new TV Guide and yesterday's Sunday Times from London. The K-Mart sign was already down from the old store.

Back in the hotel room, I read the TV Guide and started to read the Sunday Times while listening to 60s on 6 on XM Radio. It was a decent way to end a slack day.

It wasn't completely a day of relaxation, though. As a result of new updates to Windows provided by Microsoft, my laptop began acting strangely, locking up to such an extent that I would have to hit the reset switch frequently. That did not help my mood. Also not helping were the many problems in dialing out; half of the time, I wouldn't get a dial tone. None of this is conducive to rest and relaxation. Boy, do I miss my high-speed connection at home!

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Tuesday April 22

The day started out as usual – breakfast, paper, e-mail, etc. Now what would I do today, on a day that had very little sun? I had some seven or eight pictures to take on the roll of film in my camera, so I decided to find some opportunities for taking those pictures. I started in Walter Hall Park, formerly Galveston County Park. The name change happened after I left, so I still think of it by its old name. I pulled in, parked the car, and went for a walk in a section of the park where vehicles were forbidden. I remembered going through this stretch of the park many years ago, the far southwest corner, and seeing what I thought might have been remnants of the old Interurban railroad just outside the park boundary. The far corner came very close to the high-voltage power lines that mark the old rail corridor, and there is a driveway just alongside. Remnants of an old station or powerhouse, maybe? Twenty-plus years of growth made it hard to see anything, though. I didn't feel like walking up to the fence, pushing my way through the underbrush and trying to see what I could see. Perhaps I could try finding a satellite view of the area when I get home. But I did find a rabbit that stood still for several moments. I took a picture of it with my normal lens but wanted to get another one with a longer length lens. I changed lenses quickly, but not quickly enough for the rabbit. I hadn't frightened him, but he had hopped off by the time I was ready.

When I left the park, I drove through the neighborhood just across Highway 3 from the park. And at the far end of the street (Byron Street, for those who care to know), a black cat was lying right in the middle of the street without a care in the world. Fortunately for him or her, it was not a busy street. I passed it by and said hello to it, then drove on. Then I got the idea to take a picture of it. So I turned around, put the longer-length lens on the camera, then took two pictures of the cat lying there. To paraphrase the old song, "there's a live cat in the middle of the road".

There was a new development going up at Perkins and Main – Station Square, I believe it was called – on the site of a former cement plant or some other plant. I had a heck of a time turning from Perkins Street onto Main Street due to traffic and hidden sight lines. But I eventually did turn, which led to more wandering through the historic part of town. I saw that the old Butler Building had been renovated into office space; when I was growing up and riding my bicycle in the area, it was an abandoned building. I drove down Kansas Street to its end, near a small cemetery. A long time ago, that was the old Galveston road. But no longer. Any bridge across the creek that had existed was long gone, and the short drive to the creek bank was gated off. I backed up, then used the cemetery driveway to turn around. I stopped for a while in Helen's Garden, a fairly new (dedicated 1999) garden and contemplative area along Main Street. It was named for Helen Hall, wife of Walter Hall, the one whom the park was named after. He owned the League City Bank & Trust (now MaximBank), and she helped found the library. It is a nice spot, and I took some pictures there. I even saw a gray cat roaming around. It was while I was there that I finished the roll of film and put in another.

It was nearing lunchtime, and I had a roll of film to develop. Solution: go to Baybrook. I dropped the film off at Ritz Camera and went wandering around. The place hadn't changed that much, not from last May. After having lunch at Luby's and picking up the new Speed Racer DVD at FYE, I went back for my pictures. The clerk thought that the last picture on the roll (part of the pool/waterfall at Helen's Garden) was a very good one. He couldn't believe that it was located in League City.

By this time, I was ready to leave; I was done with my business there. I took Bay Area heading west, passing by the future site of a Super Target, and then I took the old Friendswood Link Road (hadn't done that in a long time), which ultimately took me to Friendswood and FM 518. I drove back towards League City, taking a detour to drive through The Landing subdivision. I used to ride my bike out there while it was being constructed. It looks a lot different with houses than it did with bare streets. I encountered one street, Floyd Road, that used to go all the way up to 518, but it doesn't any more. I've found quite a few roads like that in the area.

When I got back to the hotel, I decided to watch the Speed Racer DVD. I ended up watching the first 2 episodes (out of 11 on the disc). Later on, after watching the channel 11 and CBS newscasts, I decided to try the Hot Wok restaurant for supper. But it wasn't quite what I expected. I thought it would be similar to Mongolian barbecue (though there is Hans Mongolian Barbecue nearby), but it wasn't, not really. The Kung Pao chicken I had was OK, but it wasn't anything really special.

Sometime during the day, Chris Mallios had called and left a message. He was going to take me to the ballgame next week and wanted to know what preferences I had for seats. I called him back and said, try the club level. Those seats sound interesting.

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Wednesday April 23

I had a dream this morning: I was at work, part of a team giving a presentation. On what, I don't know, but as the presentation began, I was told to turn off the radio. But no matter what I did, I could not turn off the radio. I unplugged things, tossed them out, but still it kept playing. When I woke up, the radio in my room was indeed playing; it was playing the 60's on 6 channel from XM. I'd fallen asleep to it.

I showered, read the paper and had breakfast. Then I called our old next-door neighbor, George Mallios. I asked if it would be convenient for me to come over and visit right then, and it was. Half an hour later, I was over there in his driveway, sitting and talking with him. He's doing OK for someone who's 81. He was telling me about some refurbishing work he's had done on the house – new tiles throughout, foundation leveled, cracks sealed, drywall replaced where necessary. While I was there, son Jeff called, and I spoke to him briefly. It had been a few years since I'd seen him. When I told him about the ballgame I'd be attending with his brother next Tuesday, he sounded like he wanted to get in on it.

When I left, I headed out to Alvin for a visit to Joe's Barbecue. Although I had planned on just having a BBQ sandwich, tradition got the better of me, and I had a BBQ baked potato with everything on it. Man, those taters are BIG! Definitely bigger than Goode Co. taters! I could not fnish it, although I came close. Over at the next table, a baby was looking at me eat my supper whenever he could see me. I was wearing a bright red Hawaiian shirt, and his parents explained that Junior likes red. One, perhaps both parents work there (at least they wore Joe's BBQ shirts), and I think that owner Joe may have been the grandfather. When I left, I visited the nearby Wal-Mart for a time then came on back to the hotel. Later, I felt like taking my guitar to the Nassau Bay park, so I did. Last year, it was a small Backpacker guitar; this year, it was my acoustic 12-string. I didn't play very loudly so as not to disturb anyone. All of a sudden, I started yawning. I was getting sleepy for some reason, so I went back to the hotel. I didn't have much for supper, just a ham sandwich. I watched the new episode of "Enterprise", then put on the ballgame. While I had the game on, I noticed that I was getting chilly. The air conditioning was turned higher than it had been, yet I was definitely chilled. I put on a sweatshirt, pants and socks before going to bed. I'd also taken some echinacea capsules to bolster my immune system. I remembered the last time I had a chill during vacation; it turned into food poisoning. The bolstering worked; when I woke up in the middle of the night, I was warm. Another bug bites the dust, I hope.

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Thursday April 24

As the third week of my vacation began, I thought things were beginning to slow down for me. The word "boredom" began to creep into my thoughts. But I dismissed it. After my normal morning routine, I made another visit to Nassau Bay's main park. This portion of it was at the end of Point Lookout. Until yesterday, I didn't even know this part of the park existed. There was a small turnaround in the park and a small fishing dock in the lake. A nearby marker explained that this was Lake Nassau, formerly Pearson Lake. At one time, Pearson Lake was the private lake on Colonel Pearson's ranch, which covered the land we know today as Nassau Bay. He or his descendants sold the ranch in 1962 to the developers who turned it into Nassau Bay. There was a path that went around the shore; I followed it for a bit. There was a stretch where the lake was on one side and Clear Creek was on the other, with no more than 20 feet separating them. As I continued, I saw Nassau Bay's sewage treatment facility, along with some of the buildings in the main park. I knew then that the path went all the way around. But I turned around and went back to my car at this point.

My next destination was the H-E-B store on El Camino. This had been an Albertson's at one time. I got a few things here, such as Stewart's Cherries & Cream pop (2 bottles) and a pack of freshly made flour tortillas. I also got some hummus, which would make good dipping material for the tortillas. Then I went back to the hotel to put the hummus in the refrigerator.

When lunchtime rolled around, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I was entertaining thoughts of Hans Mongolian Barbecue. But first, I was going to stop by a stockbroker's office. No, not my stockbroker, but a friend of the family: David Coney, whom I've known since he was born. I used to take piano lessons from his mother, and my mom babysat him and his older sister. After graduating from Trinity University, where he played on their always-contending Division III football team (and made Division III All-American, if I recall correctly), he became a stockbroker with Edward T. Jones. He's built up quite a clientele in the two years he's been in the business. He also just became a father last week (a baby girl). When I mentioned lunch, he suggested I try La Centinela in League City, on Highway 3 just north of 518. I took his suggestion. The restaurant was in the old Willis Drug building, which used to be one of the two pharmacies in town at one time; Smith Pharmacy was the other, though we preferred Willis's. They had a genuine soda fountain, and I remember enjoying many drinks there. Today was the first time I'd been inside in who knows how many years – not since the drug store closed down, in fact. The building was smaller than I'd remembered it. I sat down and had one of their combination plates: an enchilada, two tacos, rice and beans. It was all right, and the price wasn't bad. Still, I think Laredo's in Seabrook is better.

I then went up to the CompUSA and Barnes and Noble stores on Bay Area to kill some time. Was there anything at the computer store I desparately needed? No, not counting the restroom facilities. I took a look at their wireless networking hardware, thinking of ways I could employ it at home. But I didn't get anything today. I went to the Barnes and Noble and looked for a birthday card for my sister, but nothing I saw impressed me. After looking around a bit, and also visiting their restroom facilities, I returned to the hotel. I got the impression that lunch didn't agree with me, so I took some generic Pepto-Bismol and rested for a while. Perhaps I'd indulged my liking for Mexican food a little too much lately.

Later on, I felt well enough to take a drive down to Texas City and the end of the Texas City Dike. Why? Because I wanted to see what I could see. I went down 146 to 1764 (the Palmer Highway) and took that all the way across town to the Dike. This portion of it is a 5-mile long structure that sticks out into Galveston Bay. Wave action was heaver on the right side (the side closer to the outlet into the Gulf) than on the left. A boat ramp on the south side was closed until further notice by order of the Coast Guard. It was too close to the Port of Texas City. After 5 miles came the end of the road. From there, you could see vessels pass by on the Intracoastal Waterway. You could see the Bolivar Ferry boats passing in both directions. I even saw a cruise vessel pull out from Galveston and head off into the Gulf, destination unknown (by me; I'm sure the captain knew where he was going). I saw towers that I thought were petrochemical facilities, but the location was wrong; they had to be on Galveston or on Pelican Island.

After spending some time and taking some video here, I drove back the way I came, then took Skyline Drive up a ways. I saw some people swimming in the bay; one seemed to have a kite they were flying – or I'd suppose a parasail would be more accurate. Then I left Texas City by way of Loop 197, passing through the chemical plant area. My destination was Galveston. Tonight, as supper approached, I decided to take the highway that would lead to the port area and the Strand district. I parked near Pier 21, visited the Old Strand Emporium, bought a jar of hot-flavored peanuts, took those back to the car, then visited Willie G.'s for supper. Why there? One, they validated parking, and two, I'd never been there. I had one of the evening specials, shrimp fresca, which consisted of five jumbo Gulf shrimp served with angel hair pasta and tomato and basil sauce. For appetizers, I had clam chowder soup and a dinner salad. The chowder was good, the salad less so, and the main course was delicious. Unfortunately, I couldn't finish it. I had no room for dessert. Which was just as well after I saw the bill. I had not bothered to ask the price of the special before ordering it, but I estimated based on what I thought was a similar price in the menu. It turned out to be double that price, so this ended up being a $42 meal for me (pre-tip). I don't think I had ever paid that much for a meal for myself before. Still, it was good. And I did have a view of the Galveston Channel, which meant I got to see some vessels pass, including at least one barge. And I was sitting directly across from those structures I'd seen from the Dike; they were offshore oil drilling rigs. So I was paying for the view, no doubt. At least I didn't have to pay for the parking on top of that.

After a short drive around town, I was heading to the hotel up the freeway, listening to 60's on 6 and their Sweet 16 Music Machine, which tonight was playing the top 16 from April 24, 1966. Back at the hotel, I turned on the ballgame and read for a bit. I also visited the restroom a few times; it seemed that my problems from earlier in the day had returned. Not fun. I eventually had to take some generic Imodium before I could settle down to a comfortable sleep.

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Friday April 25

I woke up later than usual today; I was up for good after 8. Must have made up for a less than ideal night a day ago. After my usual morning routine, I went to the Nassau Bay park and proceeded to walk all the way around it – well, to the other side of it, anyway. Half of the lake is bordered by private property, so it's not possible to walk all the way around it. I did pass by the old and new tennis courts, the soccer goals with no nets in them, the softball and baseball diamonds (recalling the time my 7th grade English class played a game here in the summertime). When I left the park, I drove to the Kemah Boardwalk, my first visit on this trip. It wasn't much different than in times past, though it wasn't very busy today as it was a school weekday. Although there were many fine restaurants there, I wasn't really hungry for anything. Well, I did have a very good strawberry malt from the Marble Slab Creamery, but other than that I didn't eat anything. As I left there and returned to the hotel, I entertained thoughts about stopping somewhere to get a birthday card for my sister. But during the drive, I felt like I should get back to the room without delay.

My feelings were right; the generic Imodium had not yet done its job. So after taking another dose, I augmented it with two aspirin. Perhaps the combination would work. I passed the time by checking my e-mail, most of which was absolute garbage. However, I did hear from the Coneys: be over for dinner around 7. They had not arranged a time until then, so I was planning on 5:30. But 7 would be fine.

As 6 rolled around, I left the hotel and planned to pass the time by visiting the new Best Buy, marveling at the nice HDTV's, considering the merits of DVD players (not for myself, but for family members so that they could play my DVD's), and eventually getting a couple of DVD sets, one a bargain set on vintage TV commercials, and the other being South Park's first season. Then it was off to Wal-Mart to look for Key Maps.

Now I should explain Key Maps. They are locally-produced maps and atlases of the area. I had not bought them in the past because they seemed rather high in price. But they seemed to be more up to date (and more accurate, frankly) than the Rand McNally atlases of the Houston-Galveston area, so I thought I should bite the bullet and pick them up. I found the one for Galveston and Brazoria counties, but they didn't have the Harris County one. So I contented myself with the one and proceeded to head for the Coneys. I had to do some scurrying through the parking lots on that corner, trying to find an exit that put me right on the feeder road rather than the ramps going to El Dorado. It wasn't easy, but I found such an exit. Then it was smooth driving down to League City. It should have been, for it was the drive I'd make to get home. In fact, while going down Hobbs Road, I almost signaled for the turn at Fairfield Ct. South, where I would have turned if I were going home. But I caught myself in time and kept on going to Savanna Ct. South, where I needed to turn and did turn.

Dinner tonight was a bean soup, with some vegetables and pork, along with biscuits. We had to be careful lest Rocky the poodle (short for Rachmaninoff – and should that be "Rachy"?) decide to grab something from the table. He was really eyeing those cookies on the coffee table later on, although they were chocolate chip and thus bad for him. Their other poodle was there, fumbling his way along because he's gone blind in his old age. Later on, Shiraz the cat turned up; she had been outside in the backyard. We watched an Elton John music video, "Original Sin"; the reason for our watching it was that their daughter Diana had a part in it. She was a Bette Midler lookalike (the video was set in the '70s, and there were lookalikes for Liza Minelli and for Sonny and Cher as well). She was part of the production staff for the video, as well. Kinda hard to believe that we were babysitting her so long ago.

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