snapshots from my fabulous life
This is the google satellite of my office, my apartment, my neighborhood:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=29.784846,-95.613070&spn=0.007094,0.013485&t=k&hl=en
The seven triangular buildings in the northeast corner have my office in there. My apartment is about 2000 m to the southwest. If a pedestrian could go across the interstate with heavy construction I could easily walk to work. Pedestrians are prohibited, unfortunately. In fact being a pedestrian for any distance in my neighborhood is rather impossible. There is a park about three miles north of here where walking ifsgrand, but you have to go through crappy traffic if you want to walk at the wrong time of the day.
In spite of that there is much open space and all kinds of wildlife. A couple days ago there was an owl on my balcony railing right after sundown. He looked a lot like this guy:
http://www.umich.edu/~archive/msdos/info/birds/owl-face.gif
Have also seen coons, possums, bats, vultures, hawks, squirrels, crows, starlings, doves, bluejays, mockingbirds, sparrows, and magpies.
Yesterday I went to Katy, TX to a huge shopping mall:
http://www.houstoncl.com/shopping/katymills.htm
This is about ten miles to the west of here and it is almost unbelievable how huge everything is. Like a Ford dealer next to the interstate with three thousand cars on the lot. Apartment complexes with thousands of units. Within a couple miles of the Katy Mills mall they have three fancy country clubs with mansions all around. Well to me they are mansions. The billboards outside the developments say the prices start at 120K.
God what a country!
I wanted to buy some clothes at the mall but I did not find much. I like to wear plain gap polos 100% cotton and they have a large gap store at that mall but they had no plain polos and no 100% cotton polos. They had hundreds of polyester striped polos for 15$. I think the last time I bought one I paid 30 so maybe there is no market for what I want any more and I have evolved into old fogeyhood.
Today's houston chronicle had an article on Katrina refugee crime in Houston:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3549099.html
So sad. They did not mention the riot in the high school a couple weeks ago where 30 people got arrested and it was a katrina refugee v. houston gang battle. It is a shame many of the folks have worn out their welcome here and there isn't anyplace for them to return to. The headlines from New Orleans remain truly horrible instead of just miserable as the Woody Allen character said to the Diane Keaton character in "Annie Hall".
Sent my poem into poet leader for the katrina collection. If you want to go to the best poetry show in New Orleans, this is where you go:
http://www.17poets.com/default.html
If my poem makes the cut I will post the information here. If it doesn't I probably will ignore that.
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obiwon_keneally's journal
