A Texas Monday

Kayak Morning: 4/20/25

It's 7:25, and Beth has already left for school. I was up around 6:30 to find both Rami and Beth already awake. The day looks cloudy here in Dallas, with a high near 70° expected later. It's our last full day with Beth and Rami — tomorrow we drive halfway to our son Tom's place in Lee's Summit, MO. I'm still fighting this cough, especially at night, and I'm afraid I'll have to live with it a while longer.

Biking Webb's Trail: 4/20/25

On Sunday, Beth and I were both up early and decided to get the week's shopping done at Central Market to beat the crowd — though it's always crowded regardless. We left around 8:30, and at least traffic was light at that hour. Central Market is a culinary delight: a vast store carrying virtually anything you could want, staffed by a seemingly endless number of employees, even on a Sunday morning. We easily piled Beth's cart high with food and were lucky to find an open checkout lane. The scones are to die for, and I'm enjoying one as I write. I've never seen so many ready-made dinners available for takeout — a genuine godsend for a busy working family. We stopped at Walgreens on the way home to pick up some prescriptions and were back by 10:00.

Evie was up when we returned, wishing she'd come along. I had a scone with blueberry jam and a coffee for breakfast — delicious. By noon, Evie had started on dinner: short ribs in the pressure cooker. The first NBA playoff game was just getting underway, and I drifted in and out of watching it whenever I wasn't needed to help hang a painting or tackle something around the house. That set the rhythm for most of the afternoon — the four of us getting things done, then pausing to relax, check our phones, watch the game, and then getting back at it. The biggest project was running an electrical cord under the living room carpet, which meant moving the couches. Around 6:00, the doorbell rang: a neighbor stopping by to welcome Beth and Rami to the neighborhood with a bottle of wine. They apparently have a wonderfully active neighborhood group that gathers a couple of times a year. After a warm chat, we sat down to dinner — short ribs over mashed potatoes with gravy, even better than Brazil's in Westfield. Rami and I both went back for seconds. Dessert was cherry pie, enjoyed as we finished the first season of Landman over dinner and into the evening. Once it ended, everyone was ready for bed — though I stayed up to watch the first half of the Trail Blazers/Spurs game.