gunfire

So I came to Houston to get some time away, have some fun. Why do such simple things not quite work?

We went to play laser tag and that was indeed fun. Running around in the maze listening to KMFDM like silly teen age kids. I got 6th place, and was only tagged twice. Afterwards, we drove a few blocks down Westheimer and stopped in a 24 hour pool hall. I watched my friends play and pondered the geometry of balls knocking about on a felt covered table. A smokey way to end the evening. By the time my eyes were burning, we moved back over near the bar to pay the tab.

Which is where everything started to go wrong. I say the beginning of a confrontation between a couple guys, and anxiously asked my friends to hurry it up. The guys seperated with their friends, and as I dragged my friends out the door I breathed a sigh of relief thinking that things were okay.

Wrong. Inside the confrontation apparently escalated, and when I saw one of the guys come dashing out towards his car, swearing, I started to panic. Go go go, let's go now and we started walking fast to Melynda's car. Behind us, the people were spilling out of the pool hall, yelling. The guy in the car sped up to the front and jumped out. I started shouting "Get in the car! Drive now!" Slamming doors, we pulled out and behind us... gunfire. Repeated gunfire.

I am okay, my friends are okay. Hopefully the people involved in the fight are okay too. I just want to go home right now.

(no subject)

UNITED STATES: RATTLESNAKE ROUND-UP

First conceived as a way to rid Sweetwater, Texas, of its abundance
of rattlers, the Rattlesnake Round-up has grown into a big event.
Held annually the second weekend in March, the round-up's annual
average catch is 12,000 pounds of Western Diamondback Rattlesnake.
There are snake hunts as well as demonstrations of snake handling and
snake milking (extracting the venom).

The round-up began in 1958:
http://www.rattlesnakeroundup.com