Contented

Dear Brain, the cold weather is here.

It's here but its sort of standing around outside much in the same way I stand around at parties. I'm in attendence, but its way out of my comfort zone, one person looks at me crooked, and I'm leaving. So, yeah, the cold weather is here, but I wouldn't count on it staying yet. It needs a couple beers to give it some liquid courage. Still, tentative or not, I am excited about the temperature drop. Its finally cool enough in the house to warrant building a fire in the fireplace, which I did last night, and again this morning... (and as soon as that one burns out, probably another one this afternoon). I'm a fire addict. No, not a pyromaniac, I just love the idea that we are heating our house for free. I love the smell, and the crackle and the pop of the wood. The apartment we had last year had a gas fireplace but that was no where near as fun (though less messy I'm sure).I'm heading off to Orlando soon so I'll probably miss the rest of this mini cold snap, and when I get back it will be shorts weather again. Welcome to Central Texas where entire season changes take place overnight or three or four times a day!
News. Hmmmmm. I covered the Monsters Of Folk show on Friday night at Stubbs. Had a hard time getting good shots as I have, up to this point, stubbornly refused to start using a tripod. The light levels at this show were very low. Still, I think I got one or two acceptable shots (maybe). I really enjoyed the show, but B. (who I BEGGED to go with me, and who only went for the Bar B Que) got sick halfway through the show, and we had to leave early.

My job is wasted on me. I am too socially retarded and phobic to really enjoy all the cool places I get to go for free; Playboy parties, concerts, star studded charity events, theater shows, etc. I can't even take a friend for moral support. I don't have any friends in Austin that enjoy that kind of stuff anymore, so I always wind up going alone, and then running away as soon as my photography gig is done. See? Wasted on me. I have friends in other cities who would take much better advantage, but I am little ball of sickly tension when it comes to gatherings of people larger than two. Oh well.

Other news. We painted our second rain barrel. B. bought three, bright blue, food grade barrels off some guy who was selling them out of a van in S. Austin (hmmmmm). I insisted that we paint them to blend into the backyard a little better. I am the design part of the team and B. is the tech side of it, obviously. Anyway, we had to sand the outside of the barrel a bit and use a specific type of paint to make it stick. It turned out well and blends in much better than than I could have hoped. I will post more pics when we get all three barrels up. We have to build them some 3' platforms to raise them up so we can have a bit of water pressure when we hook up the hose. I am running around town collecting scrap wood these days for all of our various projects, pulling up behind groccerry stores like "a ninja in the night," and making off with their old, discarded pallets. My life of (semi) crime.

O.K. enough rambling! Done for now. I must go check on the fire!