Cave People

I am back from the fun time at Inks Lake State Park, which is quite near the scary bar I vowed never to return to a couple of months ago, but a much better place by far. It is rainy, so the first place the Dear Partner was supposed to play, at the park, got canceled. Still, they let us have the cool little mini-cabin to stay in overnight for free. The cabins have two sets of bunk beds, a table, and four chairs, but most important, heat and A/C. I think I could manage to camp if I had one of these! We were the closest one to the restroom, which was nice, since one of us got up about 6 times in the night to visit it. Man, old dudes and their “issues.”

Anyway, once we were settled in a really nice park ranger gave us a tour of the place, to entice DP to come back in the spring and play a gig there. I was all for it, if I got a vote. I always liked that park, the few times we got to go on church campouts there back when XH was around. (Speaking of him, he was here to see the boys this weekend and dog-sat, and stayed at our house with the kids over the weekend—it saved him big bucks for a hotel, and me dog kennel fees. Isn’t that civilized??) This park is in the part of Hill Country where all the pink granite is everywhere, and it is so lovely, covered in many colors of lichen. It’s just spectacular in the spring, too—height of wildflower country as well.

The cave is called Longhorn Caverns, and we headed out there after a while. The gig was so much fun. Lots of natural reverb, perfect temperature, and a nice audience. They had just been fed a lovely dinner, went down in the cave for the show, and then came back up for coffee, hot chocolate and cookies. The cave used to host dances, and was improved by the CCC during the Great Depression. A very interesting place. DP did a good job, and even sang the song he wrote for me, which was sweet (it’s a piano song, so it took him a while to figure out a way to do it on guitar—no way we were gonna take a keyboard down into a cave.

Other than traffic noise (darn those diesel pickup trucks) and DP’s restroom visits, it was a lovely, quiet night, not too cold and not to hot. I was pretty refreshed, even by such a short visit and no chance to go hiking (it started to rain as we were leaving, so there went the little hike I wanted to go on). But, we drove home the long way, so I got to see a lot of hills, lakes and scenery, through the drizzle.

I spent the rest of the day at work, because I had gotten behind due to those things last week I was dealing with. I finished the thing I was working on and need to start another one to get back on schedule. Just me and the Work Guy (and Mrs. Work Guy, who I met and is very nice) are up here. So, I played loud music and enjoyed the OT pay.

translation: There was no relationship other than friendship at this point. None whatsoever. Genuinely glad to meet Mrs. Work Guy. Spent the day...working. With a bit of chatting. Well, I would have chatted with whoever was there, anyway.

April 2007: I also want to add that it was nice to have this final pleasant respite with Jeff. It's a good memory for both of us. I am SO glad we can be friends and still care about each other, even as we move on.

Comments

Sam said...
I loved reading about your weekend. Sounds like you had some much deserved time away and a chance to relax in a beautiful setting.Take care
Sam
Sunday, October 15, 2006 7:35:00 PM

Anonymous said...
Sounds like a lovely weekend! I'm glad you enjoyed it.Jody gave me Tarot Art Nouveau! I'm so excited!Other than that and the news about my friend moving here, I've been having a pretty "meh" week. I've had an upset stomach all week, and it also appears that I might be developing arthritis.I'm waiting on insurance cards to come in the mail so I can go to a doctor about it.
Tina
Sunday, October 15, 2006 10:47:00 PM