Alliteration always appeals, apparently, and an article and ascertainments about aforementioned awesome/awfulness are appropriate.

Let’s start with the awful. I had heard rumblings in the ceiling and then one day last week I saw the source: a rodent. Soon after I saw IT scurry from under the refrigerator to the oven. I put out some sticky traps provided by the landlord back when we had tree rats in the walls. (That’s my mother’s name for squirrels, which sometimes fellow cyclist Rhodney–who joined me for a quarter of my recent 60-mile ride–feeds by hand in his backyard.)

Anyway, I returned home from work and heard it squealing, stuck on the pad. I felt for IT, but roommates are not allowed without additional paperwork, plus it’s a small space and if IT is not helping with the rent, IT must move on. I wrangled IT outside with a broom and dustpan with a handle, flung it over the rail, and then went downstairs with a rusty hammer I found. There was no way to let it escape to the wild, and while I felt for IT, I quickly put it out of IT’S misery, and unceremoniously but with an apology to IT and my karma, I deposited it into the dumpster. Awful, amirite?

Drought, winds, a record high temperature of 93 F IN NOVEMBER, and did I mention no rain? added to the AQ — the Awfulness Quotient. Also, my cycling has sunk to new lows due to the pursuit of filthy lucre, aka working a job. How low? I had to ride 17 miles on Sunday just to make it a 70-mile week. It was inevitable, but I still don’t like it. Biking (and yoga, and walking) sort of feel like my job. Like the dead rat. they don’t pay the bills, and I owe, I owe, so it’s off to work I go.

But, things weren’t all bad. As the forest gratefulness of Thanksgiving approaches, here’s a partial list of positives for which I actually am thankful:

• Still alive amd somewhat able-bodied
• Basic needs are met, for now
• Music, film, televiaion, books
• People working for good causes and fighting the good fight (nonviolently) everyday
• Dogs and cats
• A nod, a smile, the kindness of strangers
• Breezes, clouds, trees, flowers, the sun, moon, and stars
• Halle Berry

Austin has many of the same disappointments many American cities do:

* lack of affordability especially re: housimg and services for unhoused people

* subpar public transit

* hard to get, low paying jobs

* hot, endless summers

* bad traffic

Meanwhile, the richest man on the planet and his cronies continue to consume resources, tax regressively and govern in a backward-thinking direction,

Austin still has some awesome people, places, and things. Even when one cannot afford the time or the money to attend events, there are free ones like the Texas Book Fair, East Austin Studio Tour, and many more too numerous to name.

How does a dude fit into all this? After a quarter of a century living here, plus three and a half years in the 90’s, I’m not sure I do. But then, where else? The Police had an angle on this back in 1980 on their album Zenyatta Mondatta: “When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around.”

If there is one thing a dude knows and does it’s to just keep spinning. May you do the same.

Perhaps some pictures may follow.