More of a vacation post card than a book review

Spent about a week in Waco and it felt like a farewell tour.  No, since I never expected to be back there after my son's graduation, it was an unexpected reunion with a town I like a lot.  But this time really feeling it would be the last, I did all the town's highlights:  the Dr Pepper museum (okay ... how many bottles are too many); the Texas Ranger museum (a bit better but ... how many guns are too many); the science and history museum on campus (way too many kids on free admission day); and the best of the lot, the zoo.  That was the week's best weather as well and enjoyed strolling in the sun.  Some animals took my breath away, like the jaguars, others were too reminiscent of the back yard (white tail deer and turkeys).

Speaking about taking my breath away, landing in Austin did that as the fields between the runaways were awash in bluebonnets, with dabs of Indian paint brushes for accent.  Sure the blues were out for the wedding a couple of years ago, but Houston was so rainy that week, the sun shining in the heart of Texas reminded me to bless Lady Bird.  And speaking about deer, I had the best ever chicken fried variation with venison at Diamondbacks ... and wonderful BBQ oysters, and sushi with a sash of Bearnaise sauce, returning several times since it is a short walk from the hotel.

Buzzard Billy's must have been taken by eminent domain as it has relocated to the other side of the Brazos near where the school is building the new football stadium.  The seedy, western unique ambiance of the old place is sorely missing, most notably in there being NO POOL TABLES!  However, the deep fried alligator and the crayfish etouffee is still wonderful and the porch overlooking the river is a nice touch, however, being next to a major forest of electrical transformers is not attractive.

The CAMWS panels were great and I am much more savvy now in picking topics that I can relate to, most of them what the experts call "reception" which translates into how Roman and Greek myths weave their ways into other works of non-classical art.  What struck me this time as markedly different from the time it was held in St Louis is many attendees look like reenactors from a Nero orgy in modern, too modern, garb:  one guy with enough blond dreadlocks on his head that it looked like a young lion cub was resting there, straining his neck somewhat backward and doing the typical teenage girl effect of hair in a pony tail too long ... shearing out the new hair around his forehead.  There were two other people there, sort of mirror images of each other, with similar hair cuts, one side shaved military length, and the other a mass of bed head curls.  Naomi wore tailored suits and sneakers, a la DeGeneris (degenerate?) and her unnamed male counterpart wore tights and a micro mini skirt as he asked questions in a beautiful baritone.  Even some of the professors seemed a bit visually extreme.

But anyway, I love these conferences' content and raw brain power.  Must have attended a good dozen presentations, each with three to five papers read therein, and read myself four books.  Blessed free time.

So this entry is in part at least a record of what I read last week:  The Paris Wife, The Wild Things, 12 Years a Slave, and Gilead.  Also half way through a rereading of Machiavelli's Prince, required refresher for work.