Good night, good morning.

This was a day that should have had a soundtrack. It did eventually get one.

***

I discovered only moments before leaving for class that we have no hot water. Ah cripes.

I woke Kelli up, broke the news, and hit the road for school.

***

We had a test today, and hoo boy was it a bear. 150 multiple choice questions, two essay questions.

And essay questions were no gift, let me tell you. Let's see... take the concepts of construct validity, concurrent validity, and convergent validity, and ask five or six questions about each, based on rhetorical scenarios. Each topic got hammered from a fistful of angles, and your knowledge had to be pretty water-tight. Those were only three of dozens of concepts on the test.

I'm taking a deep breath, hoping for a B on this one.

***

Got home and decided to have lunch with the family before even dealing with the water heater. Despite THEGIRL's grouchy disposition (which was rapidly spreading), we had a fine meal at Humperdink's in Arlington. Kids eat free there this month.

***

I spent this afternoon going through the usual rigamaroll that occurs when I work on repair project: Analyze problem, go to store, come home for better look, go back to store, come home and bust knuckles taking out old part, go BACK to store when new part doesn't work, call service center, order the RIGHT part that ships Monday, will be here in 2-3 business days.

Hmm... that's quite a stretch with no hot water.

***

So Kelli and THEKIDS will head to Corsicana tomorrow while I have some alone time. I'll jog, do some yard work,, that kinda thing.

And I'll shower at the rec center.

***

Went to the Angelika theater in Dallas with my friend Mike Llorca this evening. Kind soul that he is, he agreed to watch Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt. He barely knows of Van Zandt, but he's a film aficionado, always eager to see good work.

As an unexpected bonus, the film's director, Margaret Brown, was in attendance. She addressed us briefly, saying she'd undertaken the project to explore giving up everything for one's art, whether it's worth the cost. Six years later she says she still doesn't know.

***

And the film... it was quite good, and terrifically moving in places. Names, faces... at times it felt like a scrapbook from my past, as I heard the voice of Ausitn City Limits honcho Terry Lickona and saw Lyle Lovett, Kinky Friedman, Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson and a couple other folks I'd crossed paths with. Not to mention an ebullient Guy Clark, David Olney, Steve Earle, and more. Lots more.

Townes was as tortured and talented as they come, period. He dove headfirst into his addictions, paying the price with shock treatment, broken families, broken teeth, and eventually a broken hip just before he died.

What he got, what WE got, were songs. Not just any songs. Some of the footage is just priceless, like some from 1974 as a man sharing a porch with Townes breaks into tears during "Waiting Around to Die."

It's poignant and tragic, heartbreaking watching his daughter Katie Belle mime to one of his songs years after his passing...

***

Thanks for going with me, Mike.

***

Coming home, I got caught in traffic behind a wreck just south of the airport. I was in no hurry, and was wrapped up in thoughts of the film anyway. I'd been too deep in reverie to even want music; I just let the wind blow through the van as I wrestled with what the movie stirred in me. The hounds were really howling tonight.

In a lane over, a couple of young black men in a sharp-looking Hyndai Elantra seemed to be getting impatient in the traffic. As they horsed around, seeing how close they could get to the Cadillac in front of them, I wondered if that was tobacco smoke they were blowing out the windows.

No harm, no foul I guess.

And BOOM, a fender bender.

A van behind the Hyundai didn't stop soon enough. The doors to the Hyundai AND the Caddie opened, and 6-7 young black men poured out. I was immediately to their left. The Hyundai driver looked at his car, looked at the van and made some sort of gesture whose meaning was lost on me.

Then he spit on the van. That meaning registered quite clearly.

The driver of the van was a middle-aged man, and soon he was surrounded by these young men, not a one of whom was 21. I could hear them complaining about the scratch on the Hyundai's bumper, saying something about pulling over at the next exit.

My lane eased forward, and I was glad for it. What was happening beside me had the potential to get ugly in a hurry, and I was scared. I couldn't have gone anywhere, and I was right on top of the scene.

***

My fear pulled me out of my Townes spell, at least.

So I hit Wal Mart. In some sort of consumer stupor I picked up some treats for the kids to take on their trip tomorrow. Darth Vader stuff, a magic wand... maybe something to make them smile.

I hadn't totally shaken the film, and I could see Townes' son JT, now grown, honest about his father's drunken tyranny, and damaged himself.

And now it's almost 2am, and I'm beyond exhausted. I didn't have this day; this day had me.

Good night, good morning.