Austin

Austin is so nice in the springtime, with just a hint of cooling breeze in the air and blue skies above. I got to swing through Austin today, and eat an early dinner at Guero's with several good friends. We got there at just the right time I guess, just before they got busy. We were so *right on time* that we all got parking spaces in the teeny tiny rear parking lot of Guero's, and that's the first time that's ever happened in a whole lot of visits to that establishment over a long number of years.

I had the El Presidente and of course it was excellent as always. Service was excellent as well as the company. We talked of old times and of the future. It was good.

I wanted to but really couldn't work in going across the street from Guere's on South Congress to the Continental Club for the always-excellent Tuesday night Toni Price "Hippy Hour" extravaganza and sets of her great music. It's always a surprise as to what she might play or who might show up on stage. The Continental Club has always been "my kind of place".

But since I wasn't staying overnight in Austin (and taking a taxi to the Continental) and since had to drive quite a ways to get home, I abstained from the behavior that would likely accompany a visit to the Continental Club, as I'm highly likely to run into some musician that I know from here or there in Houston or Austin over the past near 30 years of playing and listening to music in those towns. And that's gonna make me wanna stay and hang out.

I know a group of Austin drummers who have met for years on a semi-monthly basis at the Toni show, as a meeting point to start the evening and have a meal and go around town hearing various other drummer friends. I also know several groups of just regular working folk (non-musicians) who have for years attended the Toni show on a semi-regular basis as a get together, always followed by dinner at Guero's. It's a great combination.

In any event, I'm back home now, comfortably resting within my own four walls again. As much as I like traveling, and particularly to a place like Port A or Rockport or Port Isabel where I always have such a good time, it's good to be home.