Monday Meanderings - March 22

Well, after 48 days of wonderful relaxed retirement, I go back to work tomorrow. I have known all along that there was more to do - a lot more, but somehow I was hoping... As you might expect, this news brought on differing reactions between me and Barb. When my boss called, I told him to expect a check in the mail from Barb.

Note to self; skip Buffalo Wild Wings (our current favorite wings place) during NCAA playoffs. My ears are still ringing and I was there a very short time. It was, however, interesting to see the games being delivered by at least 3 different connections. On adjacent screens the same thing was playing but about 30 seconds delayed on each successive screen. With instant replay, you could see the same shot 6 different times.

After years of delay and millions of dollars of cost overrun, the Capital Metro Commuter Train is scheduled to begin operations today. No, really! For at least a couple of years the Chronicle has been raising and lowering a gate to reflect the progress - or lack thereof - in a weekly "Waiting for the train" cartoon. At one point, they showed the arm as fallen off.

Speaking of which, the current buzz around town is about the traffic arms coming down - and staying down - when there is no train coming. Cap Metro says "Two minutes, max." On the news the other evening, a TV cameraman stuck at a crossing, reported that after 10 minutes, a guy got out of his car, literally tore the arm off with his bare hands, and then drove on to the applause of his fellow detainees. The guy caught it on tape but refused to show it so the dude wouldn't get in trouble. Cap Metro was not amused. I'm pretty sure the Chronicle is going to start keeping a count of car/train accidents at this point. Mom gives it three days before the 1st accident.

The amazing thing about all of this is that this is not light rail, but a commuter train designed to get people from the Ceder Park area to the Convention Center. Wait! Shouldn't that be to downtown? No. To get to your downtown office from the Convention Center you will have to - - wait for it - - catch a bus!

Spring break, SXSW and I don't know what else is over and done. Go home! And I guess everyone is trying - yesterday afternoon it took me 40 minutes to drive from Braker Lane north on IH35 to Hwy 79 in Round Rock. I never got above 35 mph. Coming back an hour later I covered the distance in 10 minutes but the north-bound lane was still creeping along.

Good news. The Bluebonnets are here in abundance now.  And I leave you with a pun.