Friday I went to my folks' house and first thing in the door my niece and nephew ran to me with hugs, excited to see me. That's the stuff. People have dogs so they can get that feeling every day.
Saturday morning we hit the river by 10:30. We tube the San Marcos River because the atmosphere in New Braunfels lost its appeal for me about 10 years ago, when it turned into a giant frat party. Much as I'm sure the 20-somethings enjoy watching naked drunks defecate on people's private riverfront property, I'm less entertained by that. And if I were, which again I am not, it's certainly not something I'd expose my brother's kids to. When I was in college, we used to tube the Guadalupe down there, and it was awesome. We had a cooler full of beer (and food), and we didn't generally have any beer left by the time we reached the pick-up area, but it was a relaxing, laid-back way to spend the day back then - not Spring Break, Central Texas style. MTV would've had no interest in us. Not so anymore. They could now make videos to sell on late-night television out there.
I had heard the Comal wasn't as bad as the Guadalupe, but from my friend Judy's comment on my last post, I guess it's getting bad out there, too. Hopefully the people who want that will keep to New Braunfels and leave San Marcos alone. The San Marcos River is still old school - it's the way New Braunfels used to be. And apparently, a lot of people like it that way, because it's more popular than ever now that they've done some renovations and created some chutes/rapids near Rio Vista Park. My nephew refers to them as the "rabbits" and he was very pleased with himself for shooting the third one, which is the most tame, despite the fact that he nearly had a panic attack. It's not the grace with which you accomplish the feat - it's the accomplishment. ;)
I didn't bring my camera since it's not waterproof, but here's a stock picture I found of people tubing and kayaking the San Marcos River (you can also rent canoes - we saw a lot of those this weekend):
The rest of the day was napping, reading, swimming in a neighbor's pool (the kids, not me - I'd had enough) and eating. We were all crashed by about 10:30 that night, and it was great.
Yesterday, Julia and I went to see "You, Me and Dupree." It was pretty funny. I like Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson. Matt Dillon is okay. Owen Wilson's hair is getting a bit out of hand, though.
He's done the shaggy thing for quite some time, and it works, but in this movie, it was a real mop. I kept wanting to reach up and push it out of his eyes and brush it out or something. He seems like he's smart, and clearly he's funny, which is enough to raise his attractiveness past the point where you fixate on his f-ed up nose, but the hair is starting to cause that to slip. Just puttin' that out there for ya, O.
2 comments:
You know that whole walking-into-the-house-and-being-greeted-excitedly thing? Yes, you're exactly right - that is precisely why I have dogs! It's truly wonderful.
So I might actually have to try the San Marcos river tubing sometime. I gave up on tubing in NB after college not only because of the frat-partyesque environment, as you so eloquently described, but also because of my propensity for injury - even in the lightest rapids! It seemed that I never went tubing down there without coming home with cuts, big scrapes, a bloody knee, or something else along those lines. So I hung my tube up. But maybe Sam Marcos is worth a try, as long as the rapids, if any, are angela-proof.
What? You don't think our little "ordinance them until they drown" campaign will "fix" the river problem here?
It will take much more than that. An uprising. An overthrow. Rockin' R may have to go down.
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