Early morning Barton Springs swim report
Windy. A tree by the path down to the pool creaks like an old barn. Like a haunted house, I guess, as Abbott & Costello push the door open. In the past year Austin has taught me to be frightened of waterfowl and trees, two things that previously ranked pretty low on the things that kept me up at night.
In one of the most unexpected moments of my graduate fiction workshop yesterday, I confessed my childhood obsession with Abbott & Costello—we were talking childhood obsessions—and one of my beloved students said, genuinely, “Yessss!” That this level of enthusiasm for Abbott & Costello is possible in Austin in 2023 gives me hope for the future. I mean that very sincerely.
Love how hope for the future balances out the new fears in this one. I can relate from over here on the West Coast: growing up in New Mexico, I was in love with wind as a child, it was basically a playmate. But the winds have gotten so dramatic and potentially dangerous in San Francisco that I find myself terrified when they're ramping up.
So strange to fear aspects of nature that were never causes of anxiety until now.