Sunday, May 2, 2010

Day 138

It was a picture postcard day with blue skies dotted with small white clouds that looked like cotton balls. This is the time of year when people like to be outside in Texas and the park was filled with a cacophony of sounds during our walk. An ice cream truck circulated through the park playing exactly the same music I remember hearing coming from ice cream truck loudspeakers as a child. There was the distinctive sound of Harley Davidson exhausts as people paraded their bikes up and down the access roads at five miles an hour. From one corner of the park came the sounds of tribal drumming and from another corner was a local rock band playing old Eagles tunes. I imagine there were birds chirping as well, but I couldn't hear them over the din of human noises.

We took the dogs over to the annual British and European car show that was also taking place in the park today. This wasn't one of those fancy car show where people truck in their priceless vehicles with special transport vans. It was more of a neighborhood show where people just drove their own cars to the show, parked them on the grass, ate a little barbecue and then drove them home again.  Robert and Cindy, who take their German Shepherds to the same obedience class that Dot and Dash attend every Wednesday are always at this show with one of their project cars. They also own Shade Tree Enginetrics and are probably the only people in Texas who can still repair my aging Citroën Maserati. I love old sports cars and it was fun to walk the dogs through fields filled with Morgans, Alfa Romeos and the ocassional Jensen Interceptor. If I had Dr. Who's magic blue box, I would take it straight back to a time where everything was mechanical. I understand mechanical things and even though I make my living from the computers that suround me, the digital world remains somewhat of a mystery to me.

When I took Dash to get his weekly bath at Vheas Laundromutt, I overheard someone saying "is that the dog that makes bird noises?" "Yes it is," I said, "and you'll get to hear them very shortly." Someday I need to make a video of Dash taking his bath. It would be a hit on YouTube. I've never heard noises coming out of a dog like that before. He's fine when I shampoo him, but he definitely doesn't like being rinsed off.

Dalmatian of the Day
    Watch of the Day