Laredo

So here I am once again in Laredo. Laredo is a nice city, larger than McAllen, and way larger than Edinburg, where I live. I usually come here with my wife, who does workshops for the two different school districts here. Usually they’re workshops for librarians, and most of the time I just drop her off and then get lost for a few hours. This time I actually noticed things I had never paid attention to before.

One is internet access. The hotel where we have stayed the last few times has free internet access. But it’s not wireless, and there is no cable to connect to your computer. Fortunately, we carry one, so we don’t have any problem there. But if we didn’t have one with us, I wonder what we’re supposed to do. Do we have to request one from the desk and leave some type of deposit? The Drury Inn in Austin has everything in the room, unlike here.

Libraries. I love libraries. In San Antonio, I love going to the main library on Navarro, I believe that’s the street. Anyway, I usually walk or if the weather isn’t nice, I drive, and once in the library, I have access to the internet there. Here in Laredo, I just did a random turn somewhere and found the library. I sure was happy. I walked in and checked the place out; once again, I found a place where if I need to I can get online for free, though it’s not a wireless network, so I need to sign up and wait in line.

I’ve never seen so many Jack in the Box restaurants as here in Laredo. I thought Austin had fast food places all over the place, but I believe Laredo has it beat. But I love going to a Dairy Queen here sometimes while I wait and having a Blizzard while I read. I usually can kill a couple of hours there reading, and very importantly, have a bathroom nearby. What I like about this one particular DQ is that every time I’ve been there, the blizzards are on special. I end up having a medium sized Blizzard for less than two bucks.

This time I was reading The Time Traveler’s Wife, which my son-in-law gave me for Christmas. I’d heard about it so I had wanted to check it out, and what I’ve read so far is interesting. It’s not classic science fiction, so far it’s more of a disjointed love story, I believe, than anything else. But it is interesting reading, about a couple who first meet when the wife is 6 and the husband is 26, I believe. So far the story concerns how the man meets his future wife and himself at various times when he inadvertently travels back in time.

I went back to the building to wait at the parking lot and continued reading while I listened to the radio, a soft rock radio station I found over there. I really can’t find a good hard rock radio station I like in Laredo. That reminds me, Laredo must be the only city its size that doesn’t have its any home town TV stations. The only ones I’ve ever seen at the hotels are stations from San Antonio. I wonder why that is; it’s a pretty well sized city that should be able to support several stations, but…

Well, I’ve been thinking of posting another short story, one that came to me in a dream. Maybe tomorrow.