Merciful Rain and Wasting Time

The last time the Captain was in town, I neglected to chronicle our escapades here. So, when he said he was going to be in town for business this past Thursday, I decided to detail it in a blog post.

Thursday. An unexpected day off, as Thursday is usually mired in things I don't want to do. But I pushed those things off until Friday, since my normal engagements for Friday were up in the air. With Thursday off, I headed downtown in an unexpected mindset.

By "unexpected mindset," I mean that one would think I would be swept up in the freshness of the autumn season, digging out my leaf garlands and candy corn lights, adorning every angle of the house with pumpkins. But it has been too hot, I've been too busy, and the house has been too much of a mess. I wasn't feeling fall. No, now my mindset was back to the glory of previous blog posts regarding gallivanting around the city with action movie scores, going stag.

The Dark Knight Rises weaned me off of my earlier bad mood, which allowed me to transition to Halo 5, in honor of the last time the Captain was here, for SXSW in March. And then, Bourne. Yes, a mindset very far from hot apple cider and garlands. Far from Halloween.

We met at Ten Oak at around 4pm. That place is fast becoming our "usual" meetup place. Indeed, it might be the only place downtown I've never been to without his company. That dude lives in St. Louis, but he has spent almost as much time as I have downtown by now.

Two beers later, we went to Fado Irish Pub, one of my favoritest lounging spots in the multiverse. There, however, I had coffee (to compensate for the lack of sleep the night before). More good conversation ensued.

Stepping out of Fado, getting hungry, the graying sky was starting to get just a bit dark. Evening was nearly upon us, and night was close behind. Standing there by the railing outside Fado, we discussed what we wanted to do next, but I just savored the moment, the combination of beer and coffee and increasingly pleasant weather, and realized that moment of anticipation of "anything goes" was the moment I wanted to capture in a bottle and put on a shelf. I wanted to stop time. Yearningly wanted. That tells me that I really need to get out more.

But. Thursday, more than anything else, I felt like a relaxed, in-control 30-something professional who can do whatever he wants. It was a rare moment where I felt like I was living in Austin, like it was my town. I was comfortable and familiar with all of these places, and I knew scores more places we could go. So, that acceptance of "I'm up for whatever" is the ultimate luxury.

Time is the ultimate luxury.

That is what I wanted to say on this blog. For my own benefit, reading this post later, I wanted to say what we did, as inconsequential as it may seem.

So, two stops down. What next?

Third, we went to the Iron Cactus, once again. A reminiscent conversation had me hankering for a peach frozen Margarita, as it had been a very long time since I've had such a thing. The Margarita cost as much as a meal, so I ate my weight in unlimited chips and salsa. (To my deep regret, as it would turn out).

There, we talked of creative projects we were working on. I confided in him the details of the sort-of-abandoned Halloween project from my previous blog post, shrugging off my perceived "failure" to meet the deadline, and saying that I could finish the second half by next year.

Then we walked up and down 6th Street for a while, in noncommittal voyeurism, unable to land anywhere. Each place was too loud to sit and talk. Having too much live music around is a good problem to have, I guess. We did stop in a couple places, but didn't order.

Eventually, we ended up at Halcyon Coffee, where I had a Left Hand Milk Stout, an old favorite beer of mine.

There, the conversation turned to music and movies that evoke a certain mindset for me, of having time to waste when I was a single guy, in college. In particular, Fall 2002/03. I have outlined this into a series of albums that I need to work on, but I didn't talk about the Truman Wanderings project so much. We just kind of listed all these movies... in a certain vein... around that time period. Capers, off-kilter dramedies. The Big Lebowski, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the Guy Ritchie films, Fight Club, Memento, the Wes Anderson collection. Those are movies I can watch over and over and over again, but we also talked about movies I've only seen once but left an impression on me, so I need to buy them again if only to put on the shelf of movies that evoke that mindset and time period for me. Three Kings, 3000 Miles to Graceland, Natural Born Killers, Ravenous, Heist, Reindeer Games. Some not-so-well-known, not-so-great-or-memorable movies.

There are others, of course.

Seeds were planted in my mind.

Friday passed without incident. I don't even remember it, and today is only the Tuesday after. It was just... filled with stuff.

Saturday. After piano lessons, and before a three-hour gig off of Bee Cave, my car battery died. I was at Walmart, and there are worse places to have your battery die. But the mechanic at Walmart said it was something more than the battery, so I could fix it then and there. I left it overnight, and borrowed my sister-in-law's minivan to make it to the party, where I was face painting and balloon twisting.

After the gig, knowing I had to return the minivan and get ready for an even earlier morning the next day, I didn't have time to stop. Once again, I didn't have the time to just slow down, take a moment, and smell the roses. I didn't get to take twenty minutes at a coffee shop or pub I normally drive past and say to myself, "Sometime I'm going to go there and relax." Once again.

Also, this was the Bee Cave, near where I used to work for three years as a night watchman. It's a bit of a drive from my current house, so I rarely just go there on a whim, but there are many places I want to visit, returning as a victor, not an underdog. For catharsis.

But not this time.

A massive storm had juuuuust barely missed the party. Outside, I watched a great wall of dark gray and thunder threaten to put the kibosh on the party, and a few times the wind got so bad that I almost had to call it, but the storm missed Bee Cave by a hair. Anyway, the temperature dropped. That's good, because it was in the mid-90s when my car died at 2pm that day. I was more than glad to have the change.

I was listening to some Lord of the Rings, which had been a while since being rotated into circulation. For about the fourth time in a month, our babysitter canceled, which thwarted my attempts to have a nice, uninterrupted viewing of The Fellowship of the Ring. But that is coming soon. It's been too long. We need a new babysitter.

Sunday morning gig for a company race, or something. It rained. And got cooler.

By this point, the cooling rain and last night's music gave me a surprising urge to sit down with a cup of coffee and start reading The Silmarillion. That would be so cozy on a cool, rainy day.

I also had, and still have, the inclination to start a new game on Chrono Trigger, for nostalgic purposes.

Sunday afternoon, I took Liam around town, Halloween shopping. Giving Juliet a day to relax without the baby in the way. Or, more realistically, to get work done.

I posted on Facebook:

It's been a long, busy, crummy weekend including having the car die before a gig yesterday, in 90+ degrees. But last night, some serious rain cooled things down a little, and at this point dreary skies are a reprieve to be savored. Fall hit me today in a rush. I went Halloween shopping on my way home. Now, Liam is going to bed and I have an evening cup of coffee ready to consume by scented candlelight, then Oktoberfest and/or pumpkin beer, Pinterest, party planning/daydreaming for 2017, and a couple of scary movies. This is a season for simple pleasures.

The moment I posted that, Liam returned with a vengeance. It took a lot of time to put him down for the night, but eventually my declared intentions became a reality. I watched The Cemetery, which I had been saving for an immersive Halloween mood, because I heard it was a decent homage to Evil Dead. It was not. But that's okay; I enjoy watching truly awful independent horror films. I just wish more movies could have some magic in their appeal. Too many of them don't even nail the tone or atmosphere they set out to achieve. Too many of them are disappointments even for expecting it to be a pile of shit, so that's saying something! And then I watched Wes Craven's Wishmaster, which had its merits.

Yes. Now I am in an autumnal state of mind. Now I am ready. Bring on the fall.

Monday, I had my usual responsibilities of babysitting from 2:45-5:00 and a piano lesson at 6:00, but I left the house with Liam at around 11:00am, to allow for some more leisurely Halloween shopping. I ended up just cruising around while Liam took a much-needed nap.

But it was dreary, and I was listening to Plunkett and Macleane, followed by Requiem for a Dream. Two movies mentioned in our Halcyon Coffee conversation. And these film scores take me back. To fall in Kirksville, dreary days of having no direction and too much alcohol lying around. Good times, if a little tainted with bleakness.

The weather and the music Monday provided a flood of relief and nostalgia, a state of mind planted at Halcyon on Thursday night, and fertilized over a rainy weekend. Interminable Texas Summer was finally over. The music transported me back to October 2002, a feeling that came on like cool water washing over a hot pan.

I have much more to say on "why October 2002 specifically," but this is rambling enough.

I have an intense desire to make White Russians and watch The Big Lebowski.

Monday night, taking Liam home, and during my errands today, I was listening to Tool in the car, also something I was really into back then.

I can't shake the feeling, now.

The feeling of being in my fourth year of college, living off campus, juxtaposing the hard work and pressures of the music program with the time-wasting shenanigans of friends who were in different fields. That feeling of having a whole weekend ahead of you, to be young and stupid. The social side of all those infinite possibilities in the night ahead, as you get your pre-drink on, listening to music.

I really want to be more coherent here, but I can't. I want to aptly, concisely, and poetically convey this feeling to you, but I can't. But the weather has a lot to do with it. Texas doesn't usually feel like this, so when it does happen, I want to drop everything and time travel to earlier chapters of my life in Missouri or Ohio.

Regarding Ohio, I am actively resisting the temptations of that chapter, at least for now. My mind can only be pulled in so many directions at once, but I want to say... that time is coming, soon. And it was just announced that Myles' Pizza is closing. I nearly screamed in horror at that, even though I haven't been there in years, and probably wouldn't ever again anyway. That place was one of a kind. One in a million.

As for autumns past, those Bowling Green Octobers of 2004 and 2005 will be addressed in due course.

Right now, I have to nurse this feeling of hanging out with Josh Gilman and company. All those years ago.

About a year and a half ago, in the blog post "Drinking With Ghosts," I talked about finding and listening to some microcassette recordings of our antics during that phase of my life. Maybe I'll get those tapes out and listen to them again.

Because time is the ultimate luxury.

My hat is off to the good Captain.