(Phaysis)

It’s funny to me that I was raving about Kasbah and how neat it is a month and a half ago. Funny that. I mean, it is a nifty place, and it has its charm. Yet as much as I was a regular there, it just didn’t have any staying power with me. I felt home there for a brief spell, but the little “inconveniences” built up. Funny how shifting prices, bathroom keys, cruddy wireless, crowded and spartan porch seating, and slow service can change attitudes. Funny, that.

So I discovered something a few weeks ago. For the past few months, my knees have been popping every time I climb the stairs to my apartment or step up onto something. This is the same thing they did the last time I rode my bicycle – every step on the pedal would cause a knee (at that time, my left) to pop loudly; the next few days, I was sore.

Well, so here’s my knees doing the popping thing. A few weeks ago, I went to Eeyore’s Birthday down at Pease Park; the whole day was spent just kinda drifting and walking lazily, sitting for a while, walking some more, meeting friends, people-watching, walking some more. Typical Eeyore’s stuff.

Two days later, after a little soreness, I came home from work and ascended the stairs to my apartment — no popping. I stopped halfway up and tried to figure if I was going deaf. No deafness. I stepped. Nothing. Went the rest of the way up. Nothing. And it was then that I learned something: the popping goes away with exercise, something I’ve known, but it’s now brought home to me. Walking will lubricate cartilage, make it supple, and remove any little spurs on the bone ends.

Consider me schooled.

Old news: The coffee shop known as Mojo’s Daily Grind has changed owners and is under new management. Gone is the owner who bought the place from Wade and ran it into the ground. New owners. So there’s hope.

New news: Tonight I knew I didn’t want to spend the entire evening at home. Again. So I left the house and went to Spiderhouse. The place was crowded as usual, and tonight I’m fuckin’ tired of crowds. I knew Mojo’s would be mostly dead, so I decided to give it a try again. And now I’m here.

I ordered an iced tea. What I got was a pint glass full of the murkiest, cloudiest, harshest black tea I’ve ever seen. Ever. And I’ve had some bad teas. I took one look at it as the barrista handed it to me and went, “woah, what the hell is that?” And he responded, “yeah, it’s strong.” And I said, “No, somebody squeezed the teabags after brewing.” He gave me a dumbfounded look as the other barrista rang me up for $2.25, to which I was like “‘scuse me?” So I ponied up the money for the bad tea and sought out a table.

This place is sparse, barren. There are people here talking, people on laptops, people reading, people doing stuff, but the place is lifeless. It is an empty shell of what it once was. Almost no art on the wall. The lighting is harsh and direct. All the funky second-hand furniture that Wade had accumulated to cram into this space with the intent of cramming this space with people is all gone. Every stick of weird painted chair, every tiled table, every oven door welded to a table stand – gone. What is left (thanks to the previous owner) is a sparse collection of wood and wire chairs, small tables, end tables, and couches. Pretty institutional. Sparse minimalism is best when used for the theatrical stage and for New York loft apartments, not for places where you’re trying to rebuild a lost community. We need to see less floor; these empty spaces reek of emptiness.

The new owners of Mojo’s have a long, long way to go if they’re aiming to bring this place back to prominence. It has decayed like an old amusement park, like a dead mall. The place I spent so many evenings and days between 2000 and 2004, the place in my memories, is not here. Hints are around, but it’s not here.

Last night I got a wild hare and was inspired to ride my bicycle. After packing up my laptop and prepping the bike, I headed off to the new “LJS/KFC” combo location just two blocks away, uphill. Had a decent dinner, noted that the interior design of the place was done by a gay board of trustees who had too much Ikea and a love for The Container Store and old Kentucky Fried Chicken commercials. Yeah, the decor looked that bad. Funny how the introduction of false “historical images” as murals can really subconsciously affect our perceptions; at least that’s what Yum! Brands (a.k.a. PepsiCo) is hoping.

So, dinner eaten, I continue to Flight Path Cafe for some post-dinner coffee and some laptop time. Made it there in short time and short breath; some good uphill on the way. Spent some time helping a friend work on the CSS for his site; we got it mostly right, but a touch more work and polish would help it look good. At 11pm, Flight Path closed, and I opted to ride to Mojo’s, about 2 miles away, for some company with friends of mine who were there. More uphill.

Got to Mojo’s, and several friends of mine were there hanging out on IRC on the porch. Nice breeze, easy mood, quiet night, what with the UT kids leaving the town in droves for the summer. Hung out until 1:30am and was given a ride home to save me from bar-rush traffic.

When I got home, I still had the urge to ride some more, but I had to belay that and head to bed. Decided that this morning I would ride my bike to work for the first time. Sounded fair. This morning, as I woke up, I remembered that resolution, almost turned it down on account of time, but decided to push forward with it anyway. Glad I did. Took a shower, got dressed, packed what I had of snacks, and headed off to work. Uphill. Through the Department of Public Safety headquarters, the quickest route to work. Made it in decent time. Arrived to work with racing heart and much sweating. Great way to start the workday.

Went out for lunch, too. Getting there was downhill, thankfully, but coming back, with the full stomach — uphill. Serious uphill. Oh hell. Ah well. Finished the day and headed home. Almost got into some traffic trouble when I rode out into Lamar after misjudging a driver’s intentions. Thankfully nothing happened. I rode downhill through the DPS headquarters, through the neighborhood, across Koenig, and back home with little other trouble. Perfect way to get home after work.

After riding my bike and disdaining my car since last night, I decided to not break the chain and go to Flightpath tonight on my bike as well. Kind of my own “National Don’t Drive Your Car Day”. And so far, so good.

It feels good to have a bike again. My knees, thighs, and chest are all telling me to the contrary, but they’ll adjust. I just need to be consistent about riding when the distances are short and time is long, and driving when the time is short and the distance is long. Sounds like a fair policy to me. Heh. Policies. Promises. Pah.

So, yeah, I’m at Flightpath. Considering working on some code. Dunno. Most of my IRC friends are offline or away doing other fun stuff, so chatting isn’t much good tonight. Just caffeinate, listen to some Slowdive, and hammer out some Perl.

Wish me luck.

I had a good ol’ long session up at Mojo’s today. Spent about 12 hours up there, just a programmin’, lookin’ at the photos I got developed, an’ chattin’ with any of my friends who was just passin’ through. Was a good time. An’ today I actually made a chunk a’ headway in my programmin’ duties.

But anyways, several hours after most a’ my people done left, this woman comes up to me (I got my laptop, see) and she asks me if I got any geeky skills, for you see she’s got some problems with her laptop. I says “Sure” an’ she sits down with me an’ I help her out. Hell, didn’t have much better ta do but play good Samar’tin. Well, after tryin’ ta fix her “com port” thang, which didn’t work out, I move on ta fixin’ her wireless connection. I get that fixed, and she was so ‘preciative. We sat an’ shot the shit fer a while, I intra’duced myself, an’ she was so thankful she asked if I wanted ta go fer a ride, y’know, ta take care a’ me. She was gonna smoke me out! Heh!

Now, don’t get me wrong here, I get stoned maybe once a year er so, but I figgered ta-night jus’ wadn’t the night, so I turned her down. She was cool with that. I was cool with that.

So we kept on chattin’ an’ whatnot, playin’ with her dawg (a well-b’haved nine-year-ol’ rottweiler, I might add), pokin’ ’round on her laptop and such, and then this gal asks me if’n I got a girl! Heh! I says “no, I don’t really,” then I point ta my laptop an’ say, “An’ this is prolly why.” She got a good laugh off’a that. An’ then, a few minutes later, she asks me if’n I’d like for us ta get to know each other better, y’know, non-computer stuff. She pro-po-zishins me! HEH!

Well I tell you what, it ain’t often I get hit on by a 41-year-old woman. Now, don’t get me wrong, she was good lookin’ for a woman her age – thin build, long curly hair, had kinda a Janis Joplin / Hippy thang goin’, but I jus’ wadn’t in the mood I guess, bein’ all shy and such (I figger I’m kinda “passive-agressive” with girls), so I turned her down again. And she was cool with that, and I was cool with that.

She asked me if I hung out there often, an’ I told her “Just about every day” an’ she laughed. Sumphin tells me perhaps that I’ll be seein’ her again. Y’know, I hate ta be the “woman” in this sitiation, playin’ coy like that, but if she comes back ’round, I think I might jus’ take ‘er up on her offers.

An’ lemme tellya, it’s women like that who keep this town cool. Gawdamn do I love this place. God bless Austin.

Y’all stay tuned now, y’hear?

Groovy. Groovin. Grooved.

Had an entertaining evening at Mojo’s. Went earlier than usual, and ran into two of my buddies, Bart and Kate. We hung out and had a meaty chat. Was good. Later, Sarah (Bart’s girlfriend) showed up and hung out with us. Around 9:45, we all simultaneously got hungry (an oddity to be sure). We make a sudden plan for Olive Garden and caravan up there.

Luck would have it that OG closes at 10. Crap. Luckily for us, though, Chili’s was across the street and closed later at 11. Yay, pricey corporate food! It’s odd that earlier today I was thinking of eating corporate tonight, just didn’t think Chili’s. Who knew? And who knew Chili’s late-night would be a sports bar, eh? Could barely hear each other over the game. Hmph. But we pig out anyway, adding more fat to our asses because gawddamn it’s our raht! Whatever. Dinner was really, really good.

So, anyway, we split off from there and Kate and I came back to Mojo’s to hang out a little more, then decide to split off from there and go to our homes for the night. An evening well-spent.

I decided to take the long way home, just kind of meandering through east-side for a while, checking out Manor road and finding myself on 183. Took that north to 290 which, oddly enough, takes me right to the front step of my apartment building. I now realize that the new LED traffic lights they’re installing all over town are fucking bright at night and sometimes make it muy dificil to see the damned road. Grr.

So, home at last, I decide that if I couldn’t work on my main programming project this evening I could at least make a few stylistic changes on the stuff already posted here. Some changes may be imperceptible, but the major change was to my journal viewer code. Not completely what I’m looking for, but it looks a lot better. Take a [look].

So, the evening started off in the forest of taking care of business (read: bills and groceries), traversed through the field of serendipity, crossed the hills of happenstance, and stopped to rest at productivity creek (man, I should be writing corporate team-motivational memos). All-in-all, it’s been a decent night.

And now, Good Night. :) Keep in touch, y’all. Much luv.