Flamingos in Houston

I love mornings when the air is crisp, the skies are clear blue, and the city’s traffic has yet to drown the song of the solo bird singing its song from on top a telephone poll. I might not sell many books, but the morning was perfect for sitting curbside with a good friend. Morning waxed to midday, she knitted a pray shawl and I struck up an interesting conversation with a gentleman who had bought shrimp from Mexican fisherman in international waters for a dollar a pound and shipped garlic to the US/Mexican border only to find them infested with nematodes.

Thanks to the generosity of Half Price Books in Houston I had such an opportunity and I sold one more book. I can’t mention the purchaser's name because he is being sued by the Mexican government. He does have one of those nice Irish names and it ain't Bill O'Reilly.

She parked her late model Mercedes in front of Half Price Books. When she got out wearing a modest house coat, Nancy tried to entice the driver to purchased my book. (The modest house coat would have prevented me from attempting this - forget the car.) She listened to Nancy’s tale about Valerie Perez’s journey across the ocean in the Cosmic Muffin. When Nancy paused, the lady remarked, “My, what beautiful teeth you have.” It was a perfect sale’s deflection. Like the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood, Nancy should have said, “Better to eat you with if you don’t buy a copy of The Last Voyage of the Cosmic Muffin", but threatening a customer is never a good idea.

And that was my last appearance in Houston for 2006.