I thought I knew humidity, I was sure of it staying in Austin a few times over the last 10 years, I was wrong…
It has been almost 30 years since I’ve been to the south, well at least past Texas, I guess Texas is more or less considered the south. Nonetheless it’s been 30 years, but it looks just as I remember it and feels the same. Humidity aside, there is a certain feeling down here. Not cause of the people or the accents or the food or the weather, there’s just a feeling it gives off. The ground is so flat here and it seems most all the trees are the same height, when you’re driving at street level or passing over a cannel, they all look to be about the same height. And the streets are wide, bleached concrete roads with very little curb and gutter. All the yards and highway grasses are neatly manicured, like that of Texas and pretty much everywhere in the plain’s states. And it’s so green here, whether it’s the weather or lack of buildings, I can’t quite call it. I think you’d have to have been here to understand what I am fumbling to say.
I got to Houston around noon and boy is downtown Houston cool. The skyscrapers are stacked damn near one on top of the other and 90% of them are covered in mirrored glass. It’s like they’re these reflective giants growing out of the concrete, with spiked tops, like shards of glass cutting though the sky. But the humidity, Jesus Christ, talk about sticky. I feel like one of those hands that stick to anything, the ones you get for a quarter out of the toy machines in front of grocery stores. I mean seriously, I if could get a thin stiff edged piece of plastic right now I could scrape a layer of I don’t know what off me. It’s nasty and annoying, but I guess you’d get used to it if you lived here.
I went to NASA’s Johnson Space Center while I was there, it was seriously interesting, I watched a short movie on a few of the space flights, the first time we reached the moon, the tragic explosion of Challanger and a few other missions. The excitement that reaching the stars brings to someone in those movie clips was inspiring; it makes a person think anything is possible. And I guess if you get to thinking about it, reaching outer space has been no easy task and still to this day they are pushing the boundaries and going further than ever before. They said by 2023 we will be putting manned crafts into deep space, how deep is deep space I’ve no idea but I do know that when you are in space you grow by 2 inches cause gravity isn’t weighing you down. Also, the international space station moves at over 17,000 mph and catches something like 16 sunrises and sunsets in a 24 hour period – I’m hard of hearing and these masks muffle everyone’s voices.
I spent a good 3 hours there, actually surprised myself that I stayed that long. I took a guided tour to a building where they are working on robots and the next space capsule that will go unmanned into deep space come November of 21’. The robot was dope, they named her Valkyrie (very progressive). She can turn a page, crush a grape and a car door too I think (again the masks), but her legs can’t hold her weight yet. In time they will figure that out and there are talks of using these robots in combat. Also got to see a rocket ship that had gone to the moon, it’s 376 feet tall, it was laying on its side in a very long building. As I write this I feel like a 5th grader, ‘and there was a spaceship and a real life astronaut suit and I got a freeze dried ice cream samich!’
I’m glad I stopped off for sure, it gave me some hope for a brighter future, more than we are looking at with all the issues of today. A virus that is changing the way we interact and work, global warming bringing horrific drought, floods and tornados and click and buy shopping shutting down all the small mom and pop stores and making rich people richer. You might not agree with the first two statements and maybe you agree with the third, and that brings me to the biggest issue we face today, the division of the people that are supposed to be united.
I don’t have the mustard to go into that right now, it’s still early and I’m quite sticky. Adding in that with the shakes that are annoying me. I was diagnosed with essential tremors about 5 months back, they’ve been here for about a year. Most people get them in their late 50’s and into their 60’s, mine came early. There are meds I can take that help out a lot, but I don’t really care for medications. I’ve also been hopped up on Benadryl, Zertec and prednisone due to an allergic reaction to something, maybe it was the Tamsulosin for the prostatitis, maybe it was something else? Either way my body is 5 different ways of fucked off right now. My insides are all jittery like I’ve been doing coke, yet I don’t have the drips. I guess this is just part of getting older or my lot in life, in all reality though, this ain’t that bad, I can still walk and breath on my own. Hopefully that sticks around for a while.
In a little bit I’ll be off to Lafayette, La., going to check out St. John’s cathedral and a village that has been recreated from the 1850’s. I’m pretty excited about it, like I said, there is a feeling you get when you’re in the south, it’s kind of indescribable, the history, the weather, the architecture – it creates an openness in me.
Comments