Day 3 - They Don't Think Small in Texas

Before I forget, I have to give a shout-out to Gretchen. In the time I've been hanging out with her and Jim, she's taught me three new tricks with WordPress and smartphones. I've probably spent hours today just messing around with them. Vacation time well spent.

Today we went to the Beer Can House. This gets kind of deep, so let me explain: it is a house. It is coated with beer cans. With me?

John Milkovisch retired from Southern Pacific Railroad and puttered in his workshop. He spent three decades and change cutting up cans (some self-made, some donated), flattening them, and attaching them to his own home. He made a sign that says "Bad Cat" on it to counter the "Bad Dog" sign a neighbor put up to dissuade tourists, neither of them having pets. He turned his leftover concrete into garden art. Why? Because he was bored. I may have a new hero.

Afterward we went to Goode's Texas Bar-B-Q, which was some of the best I've ever had. I had brisket with sausage, all with a sweet and delayed-spicy sauce, and the most delicious chocolate pie every created. I think someone found a way to make chocolate bars and the clouds over sugar factories breed.

At 5 PM local time, I got to watch Jim run our weekly Dresden Files game. He doesn't use anything that he can't get through his laptop, so either he's overclocking that thing into the grave, or he does a lot of the detail-heavy GM work in his head. Since I'm still in his house, he's sitting right next to me, and he's one of those quietly intelligent people, I'm ready to say it's the latter.

We're watching dumb movies on network cable right now, closing up the night before an early start tomorrow: he to his regular job, me to a nine-hour road trip to Carlsbad, NM.