Hemingway

There's a popular quote: "Write drunk; edit sober." It's often attributed to Ernest Hemingway, but there's no direct evidence he ever said it. In fact, it wasn't his style. He was serious about his writing and worked on it every morning. Here's a quote that has been linked to him: “I have spent all my life drinking, but since writing is my true love I never get the two things mixed up.”

I'm kind of that way about riding. I love beer, and I love motorcycles, but I also don't mix them up.

That "Write drunk; edit sober" quote, though – it's very popular. I guess people like the idea of having a muse sweep them away, even a chemical one, if necessary. And, since it's likely that their readers will be sober, a rewrite by a sober author is probably well-advised.

For the record, I've had two drinks tonight.

The Waterwall

I'm still in Houston, still enjoying the proximity of my coworkers and being productive. My leg, sore from that crash last Friday, is well enough now to walk the mile back from the office to the hotel. Tonight, as I left the building, I walked across Post Oak Boulevard to a small park across the street.
Gerald D. Hines Waterwall Park

At one end of the park is the Williams Tower, one of the tallest and most distinctive skyscrapers in Houston. At the other end is the Waterwall.

(Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

The wall is semicircular and 64 feet tall. When you stand inside that court and the water rushes down from every visible direction, it quietly blows your mind.

Let's Go Shopping

In the next block over from the Waterwall – well, starting in the next block, and then spreading out for many blocks – is the Houston Galleria, "the largest shopping destination in Texas." And that's saying a lot.The Galleria skews toward the upper crust, with a Tesla showroom, every high-end designer and jewelry store you can name, tax-free shopping enclaves, and a currency exchange.

I went there today for lunch with a couple of coworkers. The food court is at the bottom level of the multi-level indoor mall, but even that level has its perks. There's an ice-skating rink adjacent to the restaurants and we sat and watched the skaters, some ordinary, some talented figure skaters. A pleasant way to pass lunch.

New, But Old, Transit

Houston, like Los Angeles, is heavily committed to the automobile. When I approached the city from the direction of College Station on Sunday afternoon, I took the frontage road alongside the sparkling new 249 freeway. Farther in, an even newer freeway, under construction and not yet open, crossed the 249. Elsewhere there were other roads being expanded or constructed. All for cars. Houston has some light rail, but it's even more pitiful than the network in Los Angeles. It doesn't go anywhere that people want to go. And I guess people aren't willing to pay for any more. More roads, more cars; it's a dead end, but no one sees that yet.

In Texas, the epicenter of the petroleum industry, big ol' pickup trucks are the default vehicle. They look big, until you see them hooked up as the tow vehicles behind RVs the size of Greyhound buses. It would be fun to show folks the alternative – motorcycles slipping between lanes of nearly-stopped cars – but that's illegal in Texas. Further proof of California's natural superiority.

OK, three drinks now. Signing off.