Saturday, February 7, 2009

Current Gin Rummy Score: Phil 870, Elaine 795

Bags of Trail Mix left: 17

Things I've had to explain to Elaine:

"Careful where you step; that's not just a log with a grin on its face."

"Patting you on the butt is just their way of saying Howdy. Don't
make a scene."

Bob & Jake Tuminski came to Austin trying to get away from Vinalhaven
for a few days. They didn't get far enough away. We found them at a
shopping center here in the company of Eric and Rhoda Silverberg and
made them have lunch with us

Elaine has become kind of distant. After agonizing hours of indecision at one boot and paraphernalia shop after another, each full of equally deliberative and, of course, hot and dusty Texas cowboys and cowgirls, Elaine has finally settled on a pair of suitable boots. She also has a University of Texas T shirt with the likeness of a bull on the front, is acquiring similar regalia with singular determination and is settling into the landscape with frightening speed and determination. She now rides shotgun with one boot propped up on the dashboard, has become dry and laconic, and seems to be chewing something, the residue of which she now and then spits into an empty coffee container. Yesterday we were in a rib joint and when I came out of the rest room she was at a stand up bar with one foot up on the brass rail, drinking a Bud Lite and asking a weatherbeaten companion "Where'd y'all shop for chaps?" I joined them, plaintively striking a similar pose, doing what I could given the sandals and my Defenders of Wildlife T Shirt with a picture of Sarah Palin with a big red line through it but was apparently unconvincing. "Who's the dude", he asked? I couldn't make out what she said. She talks funny now.

1 comment:

  1. Dad gum all, I knew that girl liked to set a spell, but with ever' dad gummed feller with a dusty pickup?

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