Increasing Your Odds

And here I am again, glued to this machine when I should be sleeping. But... I've got a couple things on my mind...

***

Leaving the train depot tonight, I saw a family with a baby leaving the parking lot on foot. I made the block wondering if those people were really headed somewhere in the cold with no car. I went back and asked them if they needed a ride. Heck, I told them, I even have a baby seat in the van.

It was a young couple with a two-year-old, and they have no car. He was saying he hoped his income tax return would allow them to get one.

As they gave me directions, they seemed uncertain. Turns out they moved out to the mid-cities from Dallas proper not long ago, and they don't know their way around yet. Along the way he made a couple of tired attempts at small talk about football and such, and I didn't push him much. He said they hoped to leave the state soon, to move out to Tampa near his brother. The baby has asthma, and they hoped the weather there would be better for her. She's on a nebulizer too.

We found their apartment, and though it wasn't a bad drive, it would have been a hell of a walk. Young couple barely getting by. I'm glad I went back.

***

I'm not trying to pat myself on the back. I've done this sort of thing very few times. Some of the ones I refused to help still bother me a bit. Caught me on the wrong day, in a bad mood, in a hurry. But with the baby in the cold and all I just had to go back.

***

Statistics is murder. 30-odd questions for homework, but each requires we answer questions a through c, or a through g. And when I was almost done I found the worst of them all: 11 answers for one word problem! Pie charts, histographs, frequency distributions... This one assignment easily has over 100 answers. I have no idea how he's going to grade all of this junk. I hope he takes a look at it and has a change of heart about our homework.

***

Jason Falkner, my favorite musician of about the last 18 months, is playing the South by Southwest Music Fest this year in March. Exciting--yes! But the festival is during the exact days I'll be in Arizona for Rangers spring training. Consarn it. Maybe he'll swing through Dallas for a gig the night before SXSW or something.

***

Dad tells me he has a rat story too. Curious to see what this is all about. Reactions to the nutria story varied. It's always been popular for sure. Danny Henley went so far as to write a Douglas Adams-inspired... well, novella I guess. It's been years now. Quite a crafty piece of work. Some told me the rat was my guardian angel, some dismissed it all as pure chance.

Oh, I don't know for sure. I really was crazy for Kelli from our first date, despite its resounding thud on the love-o-meter. Quite possibly I'd have ditched Chris or any current fling for Kelli anyway.

***

Probably more tomorrow. I haven't had coffee in two days, and after loading up on Starbucks and a scone in the morn, I'm likely to walk into work quite wired and full of myself.

***

Good night, sweet night.