I drove to a suburb of Fort Worth this morning. It took one and a half hours to get there, the worst of which was through the metrosprawl. Someone hasn't told the DFW civic planners that highways running through, across and over a town doesn't make for a pleasant urban environment. Visit Venice and see its famous 6 lane highway bisecting St. Mark's Square! said no tourist brochure ever.
Seriously, after a good few thousand years of Western civilization, you'd think we could do better than turn our cities into roads. Like, what's best to live in, a city or a road? Let's think about that; road, city, city, road, hmmmm... road?
Road trip over, I ended up at the cathedral, which is a good church, and went to a meeting. A bishop who I like very much was there and had a parrot on his shoulder. It's an aggressive beast and attacks people who try to pet it.
At the end of the meeting I drove back home through the 'sprawl to the countryside. Blue Exertion was there, taking it easy in the sun and I don't blame him.
Later on today I'll drive to another church and, by the end of it all, feel like a travelling salesman. But hey, all in a good cause.
If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill it.
LSP
The Pope is said to play with parrots too...
ReplyDeleteYou may need to acquire a parrot if you want to move up in the organization.
I drove through the mess that is Dallas during rush hour last year when I towed my 35' travel trailer for a week's 'glamping' in Fredricksburg, TX.
ReplyDeleteHeading back north after glamping, I avoided that mess like the plague. Lots of back roads to the west of DFW, life is too short fighting the mobs on those awful highways.
That's right. Look what happened to the Pope's behaviour when he started playing with parrots..
ReplyDeleteAsk the man - are you priest or pirate? Choose.
Doesn't look much like England, LSP.
ReplyDeleteThat's a very good point, LL. Horses and guns are all very well but for power, get a parrot.
ReplyDeleteYou definitely did the right thing, Fredd. Hope the glamping was fun.
ReplyDeleteJules, when the bird first sounded off I thought it was an errant cell phone. No, it was a parrot. The bishop did ask if he looked like a pirate, in fairness. Aggressive little customer, that bird.
ReplyDeleteWhen I had my first half of the cataract surgery a couple weeks ago, they told me I'd wear an eye patch for the first day after to protect it. I asked if I'd get a parrot and a hook hand too, to complete the whole pirate image. They said no. (And it wasn't much of a patch, more an eye shield, clear plastic, taped down to keep one from scratching or rubbing at the eye while it heals.)
ReplyDeleteThe parrot worked out very well for Blackbeard-the-Pirate as he sailed the Spanish Main, capturing treasure ships, sacking towns, and collecting beautiful princesses (if any of the old Erol Flynn movies are accurate). Could he have done it without a parrot? I doubt it.
ReplyDeleteEventually he was hung, drawn and quartered, so parrots do have a shelf life when it comes to value - at least in Blackbeard's case.
We know that Long John Silver had a peg leg and a parrot. I don't know whether he acquired the parrot before or after his leg was shot off. History is murky on that fact.
If I owned a parrot, I'd play this song over and over until he memorized it: https://youtu.be/3A19q7rysLs... then I'd rent him to Disney for the next Pirate movie. That's how I roll.
Hope the surgery went well, Mattexian.
ReplyDeleteMaximize revenue streams, LL. Good call, and thanks for the inspirational music vid. I'll forward it to my episcopal friend.
ReplyDeleteThe surgery went well, only on the table for about a half-hour. Seeing better by the end of the day (getting used to the new lens), and two weeks later I'm used to being able to see most everything afar again, up close needs work. I'm supposed to get some new glasses next week at my next checkup (at least, the right side; left still needs the other half of the surgery).
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