Trip to El Paso

I headed out to El Paso on a Friday and returned to Brownwood on the next day. It was a long but quick trip full of CD listening, the occasional store stop, and a couple of observations along the way. Traveling requires a few breaks now and then, but I wonder if there is a clean restroom between Brownwood and El Paso. I am not necessarily a neat, compulsively fastidious person and do prefer a little randomness and clutter in my life at least to an extent, yet my mother taught me to respect cleanliness and to avoid germs when possible. So it is rather disconcerting to walk into a public restroom in a convenient store and find filth on the floor, walls, and various fixtures.

On the one hand, I want to direct some righteous anger at people who use the restroom and are unable to find the garbage cans, or enjoy spitting gum in the urinals, or insist on writing creative sayings on the wall, which in and of itself could be another diatribe of examination over what some of these things really mean, yet for now let's skirt that subject rather judiciously. But I also wonder about the quality control of such situations particularly as I see workers in the store talking on cell phones or reading a magazine in the corner. So I took care of personal business rather quickly and avoided stores when possible.

I ate some delicious and filling barbecue in the town of Monahans and was tempted to finish my late lunch with some peach cobbler but decided against it in favor of a nice meal in El Paso on Friday evening. I drove onward listening to jazz pianist hyper-talent Oscar Peterson play his amazingly smooth improvisations on various jazz tunes and found myself laughing once again at the jazz standard "Mumbles," a nonsensical chart of pure jazz guaranteed to bring a smile. After the musical bath of great jazz, I gravitated to some Philip Glass with an early effort called "The Civil warS, a tree is best measured when it is down." This early corroborative effort of Glass and Robert Wilson was recently recorded and contains the engaging and energetic sounds of Philip Glass who is now one of the most successful Hollywood film score composers today.

By the time the Glass CD was over, I had arrived in Van Horn and had to make my usual stop at Ran Horn's Van Gogh Art Gallery. Of course, "usual" does not describe this experience. It is a fascinating warehouse of art works, books, videos, and lots of odds and ends. I sifted through the thousands of books and ended up buying two older books that mean something to me. An old John D. MacDonald and a Kenneth Roberts. I regretted not allowing more time to look for I suspect there are many other books of great interest. I had a quick but directed conversation with Mr. Horn related to purchasing these books and his goal of "going out of business." He reminded me that he could go out of business tomorrow or in 25 years. I elected not to pursue this line of conversation and chose instead to return to my vehicle and press onward to El Paso.

After checking in at the motel and setting up my computer, I knew it was time to check on my grandmother at the nursing home. I arrived, made the familiar walk through the wheelchairs, listened to the occasional strange comment from the clients, and went to my grandmother's room. Alas, she was asleep. Her nurse and I made a weak attempt to awaken her but to no avail. I hid my disappointment and peripherally wondered how often she could be considered awake and left to seek out a steak and perhaps a little lobster. I stopped at Cattle Baron, ate too much food which I enjoyed greatly, and returned back to my motel room for some reading and computer work.

The next day I woke up early, drank some coffee, read some more of my new John D. MacDonald book, made sure I was prepared and headed to the church now called Exciting Immanuel for the Howard Payne University recognition ceremony for the new graduates. I spoke with my usual mediocre flair, shook many hands, and headed home. The trip home was uneventful other than my quest for a decent sized tree, and listening to some more CDs. I had purchased a new Lionel Richie CD, a Maynard Ferguson collection, and the most enjoyable and gripping musical, Oliver. I arrived home in the evening and after hugging everyone, putting my things away, and relaxing for a minute or two, I headed to bed for a good night's sleep. And that, my friends, was my quick trip to El Paso and back.