Ten Years

Ten years ago this evening, at about this time, we were leaving a Bible Study at Nathan Huey's apartment. A certain young man was giving me a ride home and stammered out that he thought that there was a new movie out that he thought someone might like to see and I grinned back that I thought that would be fun.

We headed to the wrong movie theater in south Austin, then made it to the right one a little late, but hoping to squeeze in. This didn't happen, though, because his bank card was denied and they mentioned that it hadn't really been working all night.

We headed off to find a bank, but we missed the entrance and parked in the next driveway. After climbing a hill in the dark, we found the ATM and the angry man standing before it with a receipt in hand stating he'd withdrawn $400 but no money in that hand. Deciding that was not the ATM for us, we slipped and skidded back down the hill in the moonlight and headed off.

Realizing we were low on gas, Dowlan stopped in at a gas station, only to find out that their pay-at-pump was working no better than their down ATM. At the next gas station, the attendant said that the recent flooding in Houston seemed to have downed the electronic banking networks in the area and so we dug out four dollars and got at least enough gas to end up not stranded.

A quick stop at HEB showed their debit/ATMs were faring no better, so we decided to give up and go get a drink at Jack-In-The-Box and try again another night. We passed another theater on the way, though, and thought we'd try one more time. Their ATM went through and we had about 20 minutes before the next showing of The Tigger Movie started, so we stood in line for popcorn

Behind us was a four-year-old boy who was Very Excited as this was his first time to go to The Big Movies. Dowlan was crouched down talking to him, matching his excitement and wide eyes.

During the movie, there's this part where Tigger is momentarily unbounced and free-falling into an icy ravine. I remember feeling the arm around my neck relax when he was spared from death at the last moment. That's right--Dowlan was scared for Tigger.

Tonight we got out for a nice dinner of Meat, Shiner and More Meat at the Saltgrass and now we sit, all five of us on the same couch, snuggled up and watching The Tigger Movie. What a crazy ten years it's been!