Monday Meanderings - 5.11.2015

We could see the handwriting on the wall, along with the graffiti. Fran's is no more. We stopped patronizing the place several weeks ago and the other day I noticed in passing that the signs were removed and the windows covered. We first wandered into Fran's in June of 2007, inspired by seeing the South Austin location (which closed a couple of years ago) featured on "Friday Night Lights." Well, there's still Dan's, the cafes started by Fran's ex husband.

The clasp on my watch broke the other day, so, as is my custom, I turned to Google to see what could be found for repair or replacement. When I located the watch and band, like so many things in my life now, they were listed as "Vintage" or "Discontinued." And no, being "Vintage" did not make my watch valuable, just hard to repair.

There's a grocery that caters to people from India (or people who like Indian food) next door to the place where I go for therapy on my shoulder. The other day, I'm standing there, staring out the window while I do endless reps of some painful exercise, when I notice a man get out of a car with a huge, green Macaw on his shoulder and go into the grocery. After a period, the pair emerged - the Macaw still on his shoulder and the man with a bag of groceries. I don't know if the man was shopping for himself or for the bird.

Received notification from Seton Medical that Barb's personal and medical information was among the 39,000 records recently stolen from that institution. The letter was very apologetic, guaranteed that it would not happen again, and included the phone numbers for the big 3 credit bureaus. Oh, and they also said in essence: "Good luck. You are on your own if anything bad comes from our carelessness."

Plans are afoot to honor the late Leslie Cochran. The life-size figure will be sculpted sitting on a bus-stop bench and placed at the corner of 6th and Congress, Leslie's locale the later part of his life as the bearded, bikini and tiara-wearing Ambassador of Austin Weirdness. I love this town.

Best sign on a pickup window this week: "United States Infantry - hooking up martyrs & virgins"

Best Facebook post this week: "Stop shaming people on the internet for grammar mistakes. It's not there fault."