For a few days this past week, we’ve had some newcomers loitering in the geraniums, munching on some rabid parsley that had grown there from an adjacent miniature pot. So, I called Kim over to check ’em out, she’s never seen anything like it here in Rosenberg. She did a quick Google search and discovered they’re caterpillars that will develop into swallowtail butterflies.
Swallowtail caterpillars. Everywhere. I counted (and highlighted) six.
But our friends didn’t stick around for long. By Monday, they had checked out, leaving destruction in their wake. Where did they go? Kim thinks the mockingbirds got them. Maybe the frog who lives in my shoe gobbled them. Maybe, they wandered elsewhere. But nothing else on the porch has been eaten like they left the parsley.
The parsley is gone.
Wherever you are, you cuddly fat lepidopteras, here’s hoping you return one day in a much more attractive form.
I just paid a speeding ticket I got on the way back from my summer vacation in Colorado County (where? – exactly … somewhere on I-10 where it’s OK to pull over the guy who’s just trying to get out of the way of some tailgating redneck in a pickup truck). Clocked at 84 miles per hour. Speed limit: 70. I must have been in a hurry to get back to town to pick up my car, which was in the shop, just waiting me to pay a lot of money for its return.
Yeah, I was driving Kim’s car. She said, “I never drive it over 80.”
There were two of them, hiding on the blind side of the hill. It didn’t take longer than 10 minutes before I was on my way. I am thankful there were no stupid human tricks involved in the ticket issuing process. And I’m just paying the ticket – like a man – this time, for the first time ever. No wrestling with an online defensive driving course or twiddling my thumbs somewhere during class. No. Screw it.
For my next trick, I will devour a bowl of ice cream.
Here's a bunch of dead red sun sunflowers I deadheaded last week. Deadheaded about as many this past weekend, too. Sigh.
Looks like I didn’t care enough to get a post out last night after hanging out with my friend(s), meaning the daily (as in, workday) blog streak has ended. Oh, well.
To make up for it, I’ve posted twice today. So there.
An african daisy in Kim's bed - one of many I have planted in various spots around the yard - finally bloomed. This is a Photoshopped version of the shot.
Corina visits with Bibleman at The Crossing Church in The Woodlands.On Saturday, Corina won a reading trophy for her participation in the Summer Reading Program in the Fort Bend County library system. She's "read" 22 books so far. Then, we went to the pool. The rain made us leave early. I'll take the rain when I can get it.
It’s Friday, and it’s been a long week, and so here’s a collection of random links I’ve found this week that you might find interesting. This week, I’ve the courtesy to break ’em up into subject areas.
“Them Navasota troopers ran me down / Escorted me right out of town / For cherry pickin squirrels and feedin dogs / And dreamin of Jamaica in a fog” -from “Cracklins,” by The Gourds
That’s the feeling I was trying to convey by attending Saturday night’s Buxton 7″ release show at Mango’s on Westheimer.
Proof I'm a scenester: Look at all my summertime scene loot ... Two Buxton 7-inches (Kim joined me for the show), Buxton's A Family Light (up top), and the ArtStorm Summer Exposure compilation.
For those who may not know what Mango’s is, let’s just say it’s that bar next to Helios – the two-story which used to be called The Mausoleum – and Mango’s has it’s own sordid and at times vacant-real-estate history. Mango’s used to be called The Oven, a name that’s a little more apt for all the sweat that poured out of me in the crowded-past-capacity-bursting-at-the-seems-someone-for-the-love-of-god-call-the-freaking-fire-marshall Buxton show.
I didn’t know who the hell Buxton was before the summer started, and then one day – around June 10 to be exact – there I was, poring over my RSS feeds, minding my own business, when all of a sudden out of the blue IndieHouston.org celebrated some new compilation coming out of some local outfit called ArtStorm. The original IndieHouston.org post, which had four embedded songs included with it, has since been removed – replaced later with a post that looks identical on July 8.
The compilation was advertised as super cheap ($4), and so I went to the ArtStorm site, put it in my cart, realized I also needed to cough up shipping ($3), flinched but didn’t yield, and then more than a week later, the CD finally arrived.
Note to ArtStorm, or whoever handles your orders for you: I’m on to you. I send CDs through the mail – a lot – and one CD plus a little bit of packaging (the comp comes in a paper sleeve) costs less than $2. Hope you enjoy handling my extra $1.50, and thanks for the speedy service.
But I digress. It’s an awesome compilation, and I’m really glad ArtStorm cares enough about us Houston scenesters to enlighten us with it. “Doctor” by Buxton has to be one of the catchiest and funnest song I’ve heard all year. And I listen to a lot of songs.
The compilation got me interested in Buxton. So, I checked out their gig (though a mistake for listening to music, I couldn’t really hear what the hell anybody was saying in that place! See my comments on this review here). While waiting for them to come on, I heard Wild Moccasins (read more and download three tracks here and one more track here), and they were freaking awesome. After listening to the aforementioned tracks I downloaded after the show, their lyrics ain’t bad, either. Couldn’t really hear them at the show, though. Maybe I’m old.
But the show allowed me to walk away with Buxton’s new 7″ – including “Feathers” and “Flint” (including a download URL so I can snag the tunes without dusting off a record player that, uh, I actually don’t own) – and I agree with those calling for “Feathers” to be song of the year. Also snagged their 2008 release A Family Light and it’s very impressive. Compared to the new 7″, though, it’s like Summerteeth meets A Ghost is Born. Look at me. Fitting in so well with this whole scene thing.
But we’ll never return to Mango’s for a big show. Maybe lunch. Or a drink. But never something as big as Buxton.
On July 1, 2009, Kim and I visited historic Gruene Hall outside of New Braunfels. Standing outside, a biker saw us and offered to take our photo. We obliged — who wouldn’t? — he was a biker.
The biker took our photo, though I'm pretty sure his bike stole the frame.
Then, Kim took my picture outside of the historic building.
Some guy in front of Gruene Hall.
Then, I took her photo.
Kim at Gruene Hall.
And later, using Adobe Photoshop, I combined the two individual photos to create an image of us together, in front of a full view of Gruene Hall.
Grune Hall: We were there, together.
Then, later the combined photo was printed in a Shutterfly book I made for Kim.
The Shutterfly book I made for Kim to remember our 2009 summer vacation across central Texas. Here is the adjusted photo as published in the Shutterfly book.
Of course, the gallery of the photos I took during our Summer 2009 vacation can be seen here: day one and day two.
