Monday Meandering - 3.19.2018

Bluebonnets have appeared in significant numbers this week. Earlier, we had seen just a few scattered plants in St Mark's Wildflower Meadow. That's what the church up the street calls their expansive front lawn. I think it's really just an excuse for not mowing the area much of the year. Designate it a Wildflower Meadow and nobody cares that it's overgrown.

We are taking the appearance of the bluebonnets as a sign that spring is full-on in ATX, so all the plants got moved outside today, including Fred the Avocado plant/tree (and yes, Fred did a severe branch-ectomy - that's what happens when you over achieve). We trust that we (and they) will not get surprised, though I remember the April 1st that it sleeted on us.

When you eat at Chuy's as often as we do, it's not unexpected that we get to know the staff and management. One manager that has lasted a while is Marty from Duluth - a guy that moved south to avoid the Minnesota winters. We talk about Texas and kids and religion and life in general. This week we were chatting about favorite authors and I asked if he read John Sanford, an author whose stories play out in Minneapolis and the Minnesota area and he said that he did not because he didn't want to be reminded of the weather in that part of the country!

After he moved away, our very new, very nervous waitress came over to our table and hesitantly inquired if everything was okay. She had seen us talking to Marty the Manager and hoped that it was not about her service or something she had done. We assured her it was a non-Chuy's-related conversation, and she was doing just fine. Felt obliged to leave her a big tip to let her know that all was well.

Friday we were making our shopping rounds, which usually includes a trip to Central Market, where it is often hard to find a parking place. There was an open space, but there were a couple of grocery carts left in the way. I decided that if I nudged them just a wee, tiny bit, I would have enough room to park. The rule of unintended consequences reared its ugly head, though, and instead of moving the carts just a wee, tiny bit, I managed to disentangle them and one took off straight into the side of an adjacent pickup (to be sure it struck the step bar, and not the actual side) and the other took off for open territory.

I was cringing about how fast and far that cart was going to go, when it veered into a woman walking toward the store in the next aisle over. She snagged the cart without incident, but really gave me the stink eye. From my standpoint, I was helping her by putting a cart at her disposal. From the nasty look she gave me, she viewed it differently, however.