perspective

My sister visited a few weeks ago and studied the calendar on my refrigerator. “Wow, you took a lot of trips this year,” she said.

No, I didn’t, I countered. I think I only had one international flight in all of 2016.

“Come look at this,” she said.

She pointed to about one domestic trip a month – so she was right. I explored a number of U.S. cities for the first time, including Houston, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. This is one of the great things about living near Atlanta: there’s a direct flight to just about any American city. Atlanta is a pretty great destination in its own right!

been a long time since they scored a goal

AUSTIN, Texas — The agenda for Austin is simple:  see live music, drink beer, eat Tex-Mex food.  Simple instructions, pick any order.

So on the first full day, after walkabout, it was off to the pub in early afternoon.  The first choice was not yet open for business, so we quickly chose another nearby that held the promise of soccer football.

Into the dark we went, and two men were seated at the bar and riveted to, of course, the football. One had a leonine mane of wavy hair and bright eyes and was the spitting image of Robert Plant.

It was Robert Plant. JMM is from Scotland and knowledgeable about football, so he sidled up to chat about the game while I stood, starstruck into paralysis, about five feet away.

Showco2JMM also is knowledgeable about All Things Rock and happened to be wearing the very Showco Sound T-shirt that apparently John Bonham made famous, and which Robert Plant remarked upon. Robert Plant’s only comment to me was to say it was nice to meet me, which was courteous but untrue since he so obviously wanted to watch the match.

We took our leave and moved to a nearby table.

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