Anyway *ahem*, The Biker Code appears to have been abandoned here in the Austin area. We borrowed Brian's Harley and went for a ride this afternoon - and yes we had his permission - out of ten bikes we passed, here is how it broke down more or less. Mike sweeps his hand down with the fingers out and...
- 3 bikers did the same
- 1 biker flipped us off... which I may have imagined since I still don't have my Rx sunglasses (and hate FedEx about now)... but it seemed that his hand was upturned with one finger extended
- 2 bikers gave us the peace sign
- 4 were oblivious to our presence or did not deign to return the greeting
Honestly there was a time when I might have given my eye-teeth to live here in Austin. It was gorgeous and spacious and somewhat untouched. Today you couldn't pay me to live here unless there is some remote area that I'm not aware of, and that payment covers someone to run my errands for me. There are too many people here, and they seem to have been raised with no manners or concern for anyone else.
The tooth thing is a nice segue for something I saw along the way that I also wanted to comment on... There was a billboard for a dentist, and it had a cartoon boy with a missing tooth, holding said tooth up with a huge smile on his face, pleased as punch at the gap in his smile.
- I don't remember ever feeling overjoyed to lose a tooth. Ask my parents and they will tell you it was such an ordeal to pull my baby teeth that they eventually gave up and left it to me to pull them... which usually meant they fell out on their own, or they accidentally came out when I chewed gum.
- Dentists are supposed to save teeth... so an advertisement where someone has just lost their tooth seems counterintuitive.
- Dentists make smiles pretty. Missing teeth aren't pretty. They are cute in children, but generally, it's bad advertising.
- Losing your baby teeth has little to do with dentistry... it just happens.
The ride was nice, we went from Georgetown and made it almost to Llano. There is a cute little town that looks like an old west ghost town, and is damn near as empty as one. There are several antique shops. Ranches. Our favorite stores... country feed stores. Lots of scrubby little trees and cactii. It's pretty but dry. We stopped at a little Mexican restaurant because my butt hurt, and it reminded us of Tennessee... but not in a good way... thank goodness we weren't there to eat. Now we're home, considering what to do tonight... go to an Italian restaurant then to a movie, or order pizza in... ordering in almost seems appealing (and since Mike is in his jammies already, maybe it's movie/date night for us).
