In the Merry Merry Month of May

Sometimes I think the happenings on the Town Lake Hike & Bike would make an excellent vignette musical.

For a walking trail, it's pretty musical to begin with. I walk it every day during lunch, from our offices at Riverside and Congress to the footbridge over Barton Creek (and back - though I'm always terribly tempted to keep going). As I leave the parking lot at work there's a guy playing guitar or sometimes banjo on the tailgate of his pickup truck, and sometimes there are one or two more people - another guitarist, a fiddler - playing bluegrass.

By the South First bridge there's always Woode Wood playing and singing, or just chitchatting with people; sometimes he stops me and has me listen to a song he's just written. I have a floating appointment to stop by sometime later this week or next week to hear a new one. He always invites me to sing along, but unfortunately I'm never drunk that early in the day.

Somebody plays the trumpet under the creek bridge at Riverside, underneath the railroad bridge. I've never seen this person, but he or she really enjoys the acoustics. I've heard everything from Schubert to Souza to the cantina music from Star Wars coming from down there. Does anybody ever stop on the bridge and lean over and shout, "Good show!"

Well, somebody should.

And of course - of course - there's Stevie. I am so planning to incorporate him into one of my Fish O'Thwacking photos, when the fishy comes to visit me (probably in only about two more weeks!). I have this (I think) rather clever and amusing idea for a storyline behind one of the photos for my entry in the fish's blog, but I'll need to enlist help. Ready?

Of course the characters in the musical, in addition to everyone listed above, would include approximately 1.5 million bats; the trio of geese who hang out near the Lamar Bridge, waiting for handouts or just people-watching; the dogs fetching sticks in the river near the South First Bridge; the really hardcore runners who wear expressions of agony even on the sunniest and happiest of days; the guy sleeping on a bench by the water, a fishing pole stuck in the ground next to him; dads and moms pushing their little ones in baby joggers; the lovers and the fighters and the homeless guys and the Hyatt conference attendees; and the bikers trying really really hard to dodge them all.

I think the script will pretty much write itself.