Povey Prattle

I was in Austin, Texas on March 15th and 16th. Austin was not at its best.  It was overcast and downright chilly.  The wedding guests from Cambridge/Boston MA said that it was warmer in Boston than in Austin. I believed them. We were in the final two days of the West by Southwest Festival, a two week event which attracts up to 300,000 visitors. (Hotel prices were sky high!) Here is a bit about the music part of the festival. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_by_Southwest Now I will get a bit "old codger snarky". The city was filled with thousands of young people  (20's and 30's), black, brown and white who wandered around (noses in their smart 'phones to find the nearest gig).  Many streets were blocked to traffic. Man buns in abundance. Women and men dressed down to the max. Eating Food Truck barbecue of dubious provenance (and sad to say, leaving paper plates and plastic forks on the ground). And riding those instantly rent-able electric scoo...

I had been  invited to a wedding celebration there (more about this tomorrow), but I could not be in the area without visiting my dear and good friends Sam Gillen, Libby Jones Gillen, and their children Gigi (16) and Theo (13) who live there. I'd officiated at Sam and Libby's wedding way back when in Pittsfield MA, and I baptised the two children. Pittsfield friends -  Libby is the daughter of the late Chauncey Jones and Dr. Grace Jones. Others - Grace Jones is one of my dearest friends. Hamming it up with Libby Libby (with "Winnie"), Sam and Theo I cheated on Zion with Winnie. 10?lbs of sheer joy, intelligence and affection. Champion Squirrel chaser. I took this horribly out of focus photo' in a hurry. GiGi and Libby were leaving on Friday evening for a Volleyball tourney in Denver. I knew in advance that my visit with them would be brief. I Here is a much better photo'. taken a few years ago. I could not be in Austin witho...

Last Thursday (March 14th) I set off on my flights to San Antonio TX from Sarasota FL. My good neighbour Barbara B met me at 4:45 a.m. and drove me to the airport for a 6:00 a.m. flight. I decided to be marvelously modern and check in using my smart 'phone.  All well and good  except that.. ..after checking in, I immediately forgot the PIN I use to open my 'phone many time a day. Clearly forgot a PIN I use many times each day .  Utterly forgot it.  Forgot it within five minutes of using it,  Go figure. So much so, that having  tried many alternatives, I was warned that I had two more chances before my 'phone would revert to factory settings. (A safety feature to thwart access by unauthorised users of the phone, i.e.  thieves. ) As if that were not bad enough,  I also forgot which car rental firm I had used for the car I had reserved in San Antonio. I'd booked the car via Delta Airlines so I tried to access my De...

  Back at home after my five day trip to Texas.  (Austin and San Antonio)  More about my adventures in a day or two. Today my flight from San Antonio arrived in Atlanta thirty five minutes early.  My arrival gate from San Antonio was two gates away from my departure gate to Sarasota.    Arrived in Sarasota on time.  My good friend Ashley met me at SRQ and drove me to the wonderful Bayside Pet Resort (10 minutes from the airport) where Zion had been since last Wednesday. Did I ever get an over the top, enthusiastic, joyful welcome from Z!  Made me all teary eyed. More soon. Gratefully, JMP