Sleeplessness

All week I've been waking up in the middle of night, with no idea why. I think this was all in preparation for what I experienced last night -- a 4 AM FIRE ALARM!

Don't panic, there was no fire. The alarms simply went off, and off, and off. Even though the fire department is only 2 minutes away, it took them over 20 to show up. Apparently the company that monitors our alarm system did not notify the fire department when the alarm went off. They didn't have a clue that anything was happening until a neighbor called them. Good thing it wasn't a real fire, eh?

After about an hour of standing around outside, talking to my neighbors, the firemen, and the police, the alarms finally got turned off and we all got to go back to bed. But my mind wasn't ready to forget about the false alarm. I dreamed I was still outside, waiting. But it was okay because David Tennant was there to entertain me.

Wildlife on the River

Yesterday Mark and I took a stroll along the Riverwalk. People say that the Riverwalk is a major tourist attraction, but we disagree. We think its a convenient place for tourists because part of it is downtown amid the hotels and restaurants and the mall. So its something nice for out-of-towners, but its not something that people travel here for specifically, like Sea World or the Alamo.

We started at the mall and went north for a couple of miles and then circled around and went south, ending up in the King William district, before we headed back to our starting point. We saw several birds that we could not identify. One was crane-like, with a long body and legs, but black with a shorter bill. The other was red, with a face like a cardinal, but with black wings. Unfortunately, neither one of us remembered to bring a camera.

Other spotted "wildlife" included a cat, two dogs, multiple pigeons, sparrows and grackles, and, my favorite, a river snake. Which was actually swimming.