Friday, August 9, thru Monday, August 12

Adam’s birthday is the time for the annual pilgrimage to Indian Beach Resort at Clear Lake.  I think this event is adequately covered on social media.  There is kind of a lull in gossip-worthy behavior when people are in stable relationships, before the next generation is old enough to get in real trouble.  I personally made one bad social call, presuming that a wine tasting which came at the tail end of eight hours of Coors Light and chemically processed Cheet-ohs was an elaborate joke, when the perpetrator thought it was a psychological experiment.  I therefore made comments (which I’ve forgotten) that should have been jokes but were actually rude.  My interpretation was defensible, but you don’t go to parties to defend yourself.  This is why we should all only text.  Wouldn’t it be swell if there were some recognizable way to evoke emojis, live, only just using facial expressions and easily identifiable objects?  The Unicode Consortium should look into this. 

We took some rides out on the Brown Squall and watched the athletic people wakeboard.  Also went to the appalling bar on the other side of the lake, because it’s cool to go somewhere on a boat that’s faster than driving to it.  Every time this group goes to that bar, they order something with flames in it, that is supposed to taste really horrible, but serves as a bonding experience I think.  I have never personally understood hazing, at all, but it seems to be important to some people.

I had one off-campus discussion with the proprietor of a thrift store who likes post cards (but her inventory is at home and not in the shop, because nobody buys them).  She told me she had lately closed up the shop for an hour so she could walk across the street and watch vultures eating a carcass.  I like her.