In Montrose: this is a pretty neighborhood

Today I decided I had better just stop playing Stardew Valley and get back to blogging. I was surprised to see that I had never finished this post. So I am going to get it done now, though it should have been finished a month ago. I will expand it to include the days since it should have been finished.

What follows is a post that proves that I will write about anything rather than finish writing my current novel. Living trapped inside most of the time because of Covid19, leaves me with little to write about, so I am just sharing the photos of my incarceration, and making snarky remarks.

When I first got to Houston, I was comfortable getting out and walking around because, for the most part, the streets were empty. I did a lot of walking around in the neighborhood. The parks were filled with people who seemed to think that not wearing masks in open space was okay, no matter how close they got to you. Later people not only were everywhere, they were not wearing masks in the stores.

Above and below are photos of a local building that has some real medieval pretensions. A lot of the new buildings in this area have been built with an eye to uniqueness. Some of the older ones are just boring Bauhaus white cubes.

On a walk to Trader Joes (were I was finally able to shop without a power outage), I noticed that this condo was built with the lower levels as a large parking garage. I thought it was very nicely done. It did look weird standing all alone with lots of empty space around it.

Though I kept telling myself that the park was no place to be, I found that one end there were very few people, and I was able to keep my distance from them as I stared balefully over my mask.

The next time I went for a walk, I just scouted out the streets near where I was living.

When it got to the point that I knew I wasn’t going to be able to head down to Mexico in June, as I had hoped. I contacted the host of my Bnb and asked if I could book the place for two more months. By the time he got around to getting back to me, I had already booked a place less than a mile away. Not much happened during the remaining weeks at the first place. Sleeping, eating, and playing my video game, pretty much took up all my time.

The poor lighting in the kitchen cast shadows on my food porn shots, which let me get artistic. Some of things I was eating were experiments. Below is a a scone-style biscuit topped with a breakfast sausage patty, covered with melted cheese.

For dessert I unpeeled a handful of chocolates, and noticed that the shadows were interesting. When you are sheltering in place, the most odd things become entertaining.

As I got down to the last few days, I didn’t want to accumulate any more food than I had to, to be transported to the new place. I got my Grubhub app going again. I had never ordered from the Biryani Factory before, and was quite surprised at how large the servings were. The containers the main dishes came in where so good that I have kept them to store food in.

When I was all packed up and ready to go, I was astounded at how much gear I had. I had retrieved the yellow bag I had stored at my friend’s house in Friendswood, and was moving all the things I normally leave behind at Bnbs with me. I normally only travel with one backpack and an over the shoulder bag.

My friend loaned me his truck again. I drove down to Pearland to get the case with all the documents I will need to file for social security next month. I thought I would do some shopping before heading up to the new Bnb, but when I got to Target, the store was filled with folks not wearing masks. I was way too uncomfortable being around them. Back in the truck, I took a chance and texted my friend to see if she were home and awake. Her work schedule often has her working at night. I lucked out. She was at home and ready for a visitor.

After a nice visit of several hours, with her, her son, and the dog. I made my way back to Midtown, and my new digs. I was very pleased with the place. Here is the listing on Airbnb. The only thing I found disappointing about it is that the window in the room is gone, as there has been some construction on the place and behind that wall is now a staircase to the attic apartment.

Not much as gone on since I have moved. I like this place much better than the last. It is much quieter. Or I should say I was quieter until someone moved in next door who makes late night calls to a distant time zone. Not that he is anywhere as noisy as my last neighbor. Earplugs are enough to combat him when I am sleeping. There is just enough noise to remind me that there are people around, which is okay. If folks voices get to be loud enough for me to make our their words I put in my earbuds and turn on son brown noise.

Above and below, an good drink came to a sad end when it was swept off the table by my iPad cord.

Hopefully one day this Covid19 thing will be over and I can start blogging again about travel. I just might have to break down and start working on the novel again.