how's life at the corner, they asked me at the lab, knowing full well i'm obsessed by the crossing of this seven-lane road with cars going every which direction, many of whose drivers tend not to see or care about bikers or pedestrians. in fact it's been a pretty mellow week, four days almost without incident, maybe it's the cold weather, everyone's on their best behavior.

in fact there had been a big accident about a week ago, and then on saturday they blocked the street off between here and there, and on sunday i decided to take advantage; since it was an art studio tour, and the big huge house on the corner was showing art, it was my opportunity to go see the place, and i did. this house is one of many north-facing mansions on 19th street and it takes up maybe four or five lots, but that's not unusual for 19th street, and i happened to know that everyone was mad at the owners for remodeling or something, but it wasn't quite clear to me, and still isn't, what they had done, or how it had changed.

the place was so opulent that to some degree i couldn't adjust my eyes. the owner, ddr, was allowing five different artists to show work in there; it wasn't clear to me if she was one of them, or was just a benevolent collector. she was definitely a collector; she had tons of statues, fancy bookshelves, pieces of art, etc., many of which were from peru and south america. being south american, in many cases they featured the virgin mary.

but in fact i crossed my line of opulence very early on, when the very first room i steeped into had about a dozen finely-made, shapely glass decorative sculptures, and they happened to all be in the afternoon light on an old, fancy table. right on that table there was more art and high-class stuff than i could focus my eyes on, and it just got worse from there. one guy had carved elaborate crosses out of twisted wood, but had also made, by hand, two harps and a hammered-dulcimer; the dulcimer had a cross in it as well. with south american art, one can argue that everything good and south american was religious, as it all tended to go toward the church, but, with this cross-making dude, i think it was more pure lubbock. he made 'em, and people bought 'em, and it was working.

there was a lot of traffic tonight, right outside the house; we live on a busy street and now that traffic's not blocked, they come right on through here, often not worried about a speed limit. we hear a lot of ambulances and there have been a number of accidents in the neighborhood. it's definitely a city; one can walk out on the park, or around the park, and see stars, and have a nice stiff texas breeze, then it's the busy street to get home and the fireplace's gentle crackle against the sound of the cars outside. the animals pace and start in various shades of excitement, depending on what they think they'll get. people look forward to the coming break. the tennis coach said, next week this time, you'll all be eating turkey and watching the cowboys beat the redskins.