Bodacious Boomer

Hello from Austin, TX.

Doug and I got here at 3am and we’re finally going to crash.

I saw a bed last night, but for various and sundry reasons didn’t sleep.

But I guess before I go any further I should provide some backstory.

In addition to Doug and I trying to get Ecofabgifts off the ground right now, our son Brett decided that right now would be the perfect time to launch his own business- a food truck called Handshakes. Handshakes will be a gourmet milk shake truck.

Their signature shake is a Panshake- a shake that tastes just like a pancake. They’ll also have a shake that taste like oatmeal and one that’s vanilla bean with jalapeno. Of course in addition to all the bizzaro shakes they’ll also have shakes for the less adventurous- strawberries and cream and double dark chocolate.

Brett had been wanting to start his venture for awhile and when the opportunity came along to get an old Airstream truck at a great price he jumped on it; even though the timing could’ve been better. Since we are in start up mode for Ecofab, buying all kinds of tools, ecomerce sites and such, we weren’t in a position to just chuck over $5K to help him at this juncture.

But he found a partner and between the two of them they got the Airstream and secured a spot next to a popular club on the eastside of Austin- an up and coming area favored by hipsters.

As far as he knew the trailer was good to go- it’d been used as food truck before. But still it had to go through the City of Austin Health Dept. inspection.

Opening day for Handshakes is tomorrow.

He was taking the Airstream to be inspected TODAY.

And if it didn’t pass they were screwed. They only do inspections Tuesday and Thursdays.

Doug and I were planned to come up for the grand opening on Friday. But as of last night hadn’t started our preparations to leave. When I got home yesterday from a day of running about with Evelyn, Doug was in a foul mood. He had a headache.

And when he has a headache it’s the worse headache in the world.

Remember the man cold?

Doug took the bed and I loaded him up with every pain killer I could find, since what he’d taken before did no good. About 9pm, an hour or so into his coma Brett called.

“When are you coming?”

“Tomorrow. We’ll be there about 1pm or so.”

“I need you to come now.”

I told him that his dad was down with a bad headache and was deep asleep. Brett was really stressed. The hot water heater wasn’t working correctly, the truck was making some clunking noise and he was freaking out. We had to come right now.

So I woke up Prince Charming.

It was obvious at that moment that he needed a refresher course at charm school. He was being somewhat less than charming.

Actually he was doing a pretty good imitation of Rancor from Star Wars.

Not that he didn’t want to help Brett, he did; but he still had a headache- a man headache. And we were still hours away from being able to leave.

Doug had been cleaning the garage yesterday when his headache started; and he’d left a copious of amount of debris out on the driveway that had to be dealt with before we could leave. Not to mention I hadn’t lined up anyone to do the dog sitting.

As you know, procrastination runs in our family.

So at 10pm Doug starts reloading everything into the garage, I start to pack and can’t start calling around to find a dog sitter. So instead I install a dog door in our back door, all by myself. (I was quite proud of myself for that.)

Knowing that we’d be taking both Gizmo and Little Bit with us I grab Daisy’s crate, throw 2 leashes in it and put it in the car. Daisy’s crate is big enough for both of them; and with space being at a premium, since we were taking huge saws and all matter of tool in addition to the Ecofab stuff I’d need to work on South Congress on Saturday, I thought it was a good idea.

Rancor was quick to disagree so back inside Daisy’s crate went and out came two crates in it’s place.

Then I put down enough food and water for a herd of camels, checked that I had our meds and clothes for the trip and pronounced that I was ready to go. I load Gizmo and LB in their crates. It’s 12:15am and we hadn’t eaten dinner yet.

And since we’re running later than late we have to eat in the car and just keep going. We drive thru Jack-in-Box to enjoy their finest cuisine.

We even got the boys a bacon cheeseburger to split, so they wouldn’t feel left out.

Have you ever tried to feed dogs a cheeseburger through a grate while you’re on our knees facing backwards in your seat in a car going 70mph?

It wasn’t fabulous.

Then to top off my epicurean experience when  I take a big drink of my water it tastes like what I imagine would be a mix of nasty toilet water and Clorox would be. By this time we’re already outta town and miles away from anywhere else to get a drink.

But the fates smiled on us and we made it all the way to Austin in just under 2.5 hrs., pulling in at 3am. At this point I’d been up 20 hours.

Lots more to tell but all of a sudden I have a massive case of the I’ve never been so tireds, so I’m gonna crash for awhile.

More manana or maybe tonight if I wake up-ever.

BTW- You probably won’t be seeing me around much for the next few days. Tomorrow is the big opening of Handshakes and Sat. I have a booth on South Congress. If anyone is out and about please pop by and say hi.