WEEK END PASS!!

I feel like a Buck-Private in the US Army getting an 8 hour pass off base during basic training. I have two days off without any radiation or chemotherapy!! YEA! I took advantage of the beautiful day by boarding the metro-rail train into down town Houston and going to the Hardrock Cafe for a real meal. To be sure - just like the US Army, I did have the Master Sergent at my side supervising my every move, but I did manage to get in a 10 ounce beautiful hamburger with blue cheese spread across the top - yum, yum. It is the first food I have had that I really enjoyed. It is the first thing that has tasted good for awhile. A few french fries before I got my hands slapped and of course a handful of pills as an appetizer and a couple of pills as a desert. After all - they don't me to lose weight and I am working hard not to disappoint them.

It has been awhile since I have been down town in Houston. Quite a change. As you go down on the train you see buildings on both sides of the street including high rises which are probably 20 to 50 stories tall - boarded up and abandoned, many with graffiti painted all over them. Then just a few blocks away you see magnificent new buildings towering up into the clouds - like the old home of Enron Corp and the JP Getty /Chase bank building. When you get off the train you do have to kind of wade your way through skid row to get to the better parts of the downtown area, but they do have many museums, theaters and public buildings in addition to the huge skyscrapers. You also see many vacant lots in the downtown area. I remember one hurricane not too many years ago hit the downtown area as well as those areas closer to the coast. I don't know what Katrina did to the downtown area. It might have added to the condition of it.

I understand that Houston has not had any zoning laws in the past so you might see a great Church with a raunchy bar right next door. I think they have changed that some. I have to say the overall downtown areas of Dallas and Denver are nicer than Houston, but neither has buildings that compare to some of the skyscrapers of downtown Houston.

I mentioned I had a little trouble with directions. I do know, or at least I thought I did, the way to the supermarket. It is about a 10 minute drive from the apartment. I was sent on an errand to the supermarket today and 2 and 1/2 hours later I made it back to the apartment. This is hard to believe, but while I was in shopping - I wasn't there that long either - someday moved the streets around and I got totally lost. I came down a street that had these beautiful sculptures of animals created out of living trees in the island between the lanes of traffic on either side. I was stunned - I had never seen these before even though I have gone to the supermarket several times. I then noticed the street sign and I was on a street I had never seen before. I decided I should backtrack my way back to the supermarket and start all over. Guess what? They moved the supermarket too. I couldn't find the supermarket. I finally came upon the Katy Freeway and I did remember that Katy is a community way up north from downtown Houston. Hey wait a minute - I am supposed to be on the South end of Houston! It was raining and overcast and you couldn't have seen a landmark even if there was one. I realized I had forgotten to bring a map - after all I know how to get to the supermarket and back. Hey I have a cell phone. I called the Master Sergent who sent me on this mission and she had conveniently decided to go to the media center and didn't take her cell phone. What a way to spend the balance of my week-end pass. All for some salad stuff - lettuce, tomatoes, salad dressing. If it had been for beer or hamburgers or fried chicken it might have been worth while. What a waste.

My eldest son, J.L., came in from Dallas tonight and Mary leaves for Albuquerque tomorrow. They don't trust me by myself even for one minute. After giving me instructions on what to do and how to do it, she gave John Leslie all the same instructions - like I couldn't remember myself. (Maybe she was still thinking of my trip to the supermarket) It is like a relay team - when J.L. leaves, Andrew from Florida will be in the parking lot to pick up the baton. When Andrew leaves, Scott will be back to pick up what is left of me.

Gotta sign off now - have another day left on my weekend pass and have to make exciting plans for that.