HB2M, HB2M, HBDM, HB2M
I had a most pleasant birthday yesterday. I got up at seven a.m., took a quick swim, did a little yoga, then, as is my birthday tradition (starting yesterday), took a two-hour walkabout. I parked at 360 and MoPac and walked upstream along a mostly dry Barton Creek. I'd intended to walk about an hour, then turn around and walk back. But then I decided it would be more fun to walk the whole way to the Scottish Woods Trail access point if Lyn were willing to meet me and drive me back to the starting point. She were and did.
Highlights of the walkabout:
- The Beehive Rock Climbing Wall. There is an actual beehive at the top of one of the routes and it is plenty lively. The hive is next to one of the bolts and has grown halfway over another. I won't be attempting that route any time soon.
- Dogs. The dog-to-human ratio was close to one-to-one.
- Water. There was still a little water in a few of the pools upstream. None at Twin Falls, which was beautiful nonetheless. Not much at the next pool--just enough to dip a dog. There may have been enough to dip a human just below Sculpture Falls. And at the swimming hole near the Scottish Woods Trail access point, there were two humans dipping themselves, a little girl and her mother.
- The scenery. I should have taken a real camera. We'll see how well my new cell-phone camera is.
- Thinkin'. Thinkin' 'bout stuff.
After Lyn collected me and drove me to my car, we went home via the Westlake La Madeleine for madeleines, French Toast, and coffee. Back home, I had birthday conversations with my parents (free with Skype), one of my sisters and her husband (free with Verizon), and a good friend in California (free with Skype). This left just enough time to catch the 1:15 showing of X-Men 3, an acceptably fine movie, better than the second, not as good as the first. I discovered that I just never get tired of watching Rebecca Romijn doing her acrobatics wearing nothing but blue paint. The rest of the movie was good too.
After the movie, we changed into beach wear and drove out to the lake for a quick swim out to the buouys and a bit of sunning and reading. There was a pleasant breeze and a threat of rain. The rain never came, but the breeze finally cooled us to the point of wanting to get dressed and go home. Which we did.
The day concluded with dinner and dancing.
And presents! Don't forget presents! Presents included Tank Girl, the DVD version, a 1-gig memory card that will hopefully turn my phone into a respectable MP3 player, some Almond Roca, and the promise of a DVD copy of Freaks, a classic movie that has been referenced in the movie The Dreamers, an episode of South Park, and more than one Zippy the Pinhead comic strip. Clearly a significant part of our cultural heritage and required viewing. Speaking of presents, on Saturday T&D gave me a DVD of Repo Man, also required viewing. If you haven't yet seen this fine piece of cult cinema, I may try to subject you to it in the near future.
Thank you, Lyn, for a wonderful birthday.