1. I spent much of the day with my nose in James Lee Burke's novel, The Neon Rain. I finished it. My favorite aspect of this book was the way Burke immersed me in the world of New Orleans and places nearby. His descriptions of everything from the heat to the streetcars, from the flora to the sunscapes of the bottom of New Orleans often stopped me, moved me to leave the book for a few minutes, and gaze far away, imagining being in the Garden district or fishing for bass in the bayou, drinking a bottle of Jax -- even though the Jax brand is now defunct.
More interesting to me than his police work was the character of Dave Robicheaux, a Vietnam veteran, a deeply troubled alcoholic, wavering between being on and falling off the wagon, and a philosophically sophisticated guy who ruminates in solitary moments upon beauty, the meaning of time, and the knotty ethical problems of his work and his approach. I don't know if there is an archetype in the world of detective fiction of the deeply flawed, maverick cop who rarely goes by the book and thereby uncovers truths untouched by more straight arrow cops, but if there is, Dave Robicheaux is that guy. The actual investigative work Dave Robicheaux was doing in this novel was of secondary interest to me. I don't think I ever really understood why the woman whose murder the local sheriff tried to cover up was murdered. I will probably go back and reread sections of the book and try to get the case straight -- but maybe Burke obscured the details of the case on purpose and as Robicheaux got more deeply involved in the world of organized criminals, gun runners to Nicaragua, and former thugs of Nicaragua's anti-Communist Somoza regime, the original reason for his digging into this world didn't matter much.
2. Christy and Everett invited the Deke and me out to dinner. We met at Best Shots. The food was a little slow coming out and our server was very friendly and earnest, but inexperienced, mistake prone, and a little slow, but, in the end, the dinner worked out beautifully. We had fun getting together. Ed called me as we were waiting for our food and joined us. The food itself was awesome. My cheeseburger on a pretzel bun and fries were very tasty and everyone else had fish tacos and spoke very highly of how delicious they were. In the Sube after dinner, the Deke and I blabbed on and on with each other about how much we enjoyed our dinner.
3. I knew both Byrdman and Don Knott were at the Lounge a couple of hours ago as we left Best Shots; Ed went to the Lounge when he left Best Shots. So, I wanted to join Ed and see if my other friends were still there. They sure were. It was a Hall of Fame night at the Lounge: Byrdman, Don Knott, Harley, Riles, Martha, and Ed were all there and later Abby popped in and so did Eddie Joe. I got in some high quality yakkin' with Byrdman, Harley, Don, and Eddie Joe. The Deke camped out on down the bar and made friends with a couple from CdA and she, too, got in some high level yakkin' with Byrdman and Don and later came down our way for a visit with Martha. I got caught up on news about the Byrd family, goings on at the Elks in the next few months, golf out at Pinehurst, and had some great nostalgia yakkin' about major league baseball and the 1970 Spokane Indians with Don and Abby. At just the right moment, the Deke and I decided to call it a night and we provided Uber service for Eddie Joe, helping him get home safe and sound.
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