Work, Booze, and Whataburger

Work was kind of fun this week. Not a lot going on in my district, hopefully the burglar found a better neighborhood to hit in another city, maybe closer to home, gas prices are a bitch. Not a lot of report calls to speak of. A lot of old people dying of natural causes like old people do. We still have to go and check the bodies and get the information to make sure nothing bad happened, administrative state law stuff so not all horrible. Last night though an 89 year old man passed away with his wife in a separate bed next to him. That was a little awkward since he laid there dead for almost two hours before the coroner came. I can't say I want to do that again in my life; death doesn't bother me but I can't read how a family will react when I start moving around their dead parent or spouse. Some people laugh and some people cry and some people like that guys wife just said 61 years of a good marriage. That was a great way to end the mid point of my week.

Then off to the bar. The wife went out with friends from school last night and I met them at Rudyards in midtown. We sat, we laughed, we poked fun at each other and made way more noise than the bar probably would have liked us to, but who cares because we're paying customers. I see the appeal of why my brother lives where he lives. He can work, play, shop, and live all within a relatively small circle. That seems to be the wave of the future, or should I say the rebirth of the city. That's how it used to be before the 70's and 80's when everyone left the city for the burbs. The commuter was the way of the future. Strip malls and blocks and blocks and blocks of nothing but homes were the new tenement. I'm noticing a new trend though where the space between downtown and burbs is filling in with bars, restaurants, condos, town homes, high rise living kingdoms, and green trails and parks. Work, live, eat and play in your own small community. Go back to that pub "where everyone knows your name" and shop at the market, not the HEB/Kroger/Walmart/Target Megaopolis super store. Pay a little more for all of it but have the feeling that your part of a community and not an ant running through the maze of a warehouse full of stuff you didn't need in the first place; found at rock bottom prices because it was imported from a country that has made slaves of its people to supply you with 10 dollars t-shirts and 100 dollar electronics. Businesses like that don't survive in small communities near real cites because the tax base is to expensive and no one cuts them a break; the bottom line is more important than customer service and ethical business practice. I'll get off the soapbox for now but these are the reasons I want to move and can't possibly settle in the burbs like so many people do.

Back to the fun of the bar; Whataburger was the choice of the drunks last night so being the only sober person I drove. You would have thought I was drunk though after turning down a one way street to pull into the parking lot. In my defense I've never been there and there wasn't a big do not enter sign like there are in so many places. Even better the second I pull in there's an HPD officer in the parking lot just shaking his head. Nothing better than the rent a cop/security guy who can't cut it as a real cop giving me the stink eye the entire time. Sometimes I can't believe the people the state entrust with a gun. I do remember now though why we don't go to eat after bars; there is always that guy who is a little to loud and little to racy to sit next to at 3 AM. If your that guy you know who you are and you know exactly what I'm talking about so tone it down a bit. All in all a good night of work and good night of fun. I really enjoy doing stuff like that and should do it more often while it's still socially acceptable behavior for someone my age.