Austin

It has been a long time since Austin was "home". I was surprised at how few people at Meg's wedding I knew. There were a few I hadn't seen in years, but for the most part the faces were unknown. In a way it was relieving to not be feeling homesick over old friends. There are plenty of them that I wish lived closer, but life goes on. Besides as we've all gotten older, we've hit the point where going to bed on time is more appealing than hanging out until the wee hours.

This trip has me feeling even more like a tourist. The local coffee sucks, and although the Tex-Mex is great I'm happy to have it as a treat rather a core of my diet. I am noticing things about the town that I had forgotten or perhaps was never quite aware of. The number of half-naked girls about dressed for the heat for one. In Seattle everyone is sporting REI outerwear instead of short shorts, tank tops, and showing off their tattoos.

It is also humid as hell. Compared to Houston it's not so bad, but I live on the Pacific Ocean and it is less muggy.

The attempt at getting in a game while I'm in town didn't work out, so instead I am just wandering some downtown shops (well, almost downtown) and people watching. I think I'm going to go find a park with a nice stream to put my feet in.

Mid-life Crisis Car

So my rental car is a classic mid-life crisis car. It's a shiny red 2-door sports car complete with racing instrument package (complete with tachometer) and rear spoiler. It is also an automatic!

It reminds me of appleang's father defense for owning three cars. Basically he loved his red sports car, but the clutch hurt his hip so he didn't drive it often. Seriously.

I mean, an automatic? As someone at dinner put it: "Feel the power as you shift into 'D'"

Maybe it was built under the premise that chicks don't notice the fact that it isn't a manual transmission from the outside. Still, you'd think if you were to actually try to get a blowjob from a girl who is impressed by red sports cars (especially ones made by Pontiac for christsakes) that she would in fact notice the shift reads "P R N D" rather than "1 2 3 4 5" and would realize the man's virility remains in question. Clearly this limits you to car-fetishists who are severely farsighted and wear glasses you can take off quickly.

Update: Thanks to mouser for the perfect (if not work safe) visual to accompany my little rant.

"These links don't find themselves"