Met an art director/friend for lunch at Maudie's Tex-Mex restaurant today. We almost froze!

 Texas might not always be good for things like education, healthcare, power grids and fair government but man --- we seem to have air conditioning down to a rocket science. I'm not talking about the environment I have control over; my house or my office, nope, I'm talking about public spaces like restaurants and offices.

I'm trying to be a good conservationist by keeping my thermostat set to 78° during the heat of the day. If the power overlords ask me to voluntarily cut back during an unexpected shortage I'm complicit. I understand. I'll risk 80 or even 82° for the greater good. But all bets are off when I'm on someone else's turf.

Today Greg and I went to Maudie's. It's an Austin restaurant chain with six locations. They serve straight up Tex-Mex cuisine. I wouldn't call it healthy. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But it's familiar comfort food to anyone who grew up in Texas. Lots of yellow cheese. Lots of rice and beans. Baskets full of hot, greasy, delicious chips. Hot sauce for dipping and generally clearing out sinuses. 

We go to the location that's right between our home offices. It's just north of Lady Bird Lake on Seventh St. and it's very popular at lunch. Today we got our signals crossed. I was right on time at 11:45 and I secured a table in the far back corner of the restaurant. Greg plugged in our lunch time in his calendar as noon and arrived, un-punctually at noon but at the same time punctually at noon. He picked up the check. He is forgiven.

Trastevere. Rome. Cards with friends.

We were both wearing shorts and short sleeve shirts and we had the same initial reaction when we walked in ---- albeit fifteen minutes apart. When I got to the location I had to park at the far fringes of the parking lot. A walk across a shade free black top expanse with the sun beating down and then stepping through the glass door and encountering a temperature drop of dramatic enough proportions to fog my glasses. I went from 103° to about 70° instantaneously. As I followed the hostess back to the corner table embedded deepest into the dining room I noticed a gradual but real decline in the temp. By the time I got seated in a booth I'm guessing we were right at about 60°. 

When Greg walked in you could see him shake off the heat and then break out into a smile. So nice for a change to be too cold. If there is such a thing.

This is not an unusual occurrence. It's pervasive across the most of the Central Texas dining industry. Nobody orders nearly as much food when they are sweaty hot as they do when there's a chill in the air. I guess the cost of power is part of a trade-off for upselling the food tickets. 

I notice the same thing when I duck into the chain hotels in downtown Austin. My favorite and most humorous "drop by" hotel has got to be the W. Not only is their air conditioning noteworthy for its intensity and chill factor but even on the hottest day in the hottest Summer they have a gas fire in their big fireplace in one of the downstairs public rooms just off the main bar. 

If you are so disposed you can settle in on a couch across from the flickering flames and soak up the warm ambiance while feeling a delightful chill on your back. It's really quite bizarre. 

I opted for the chicken enchiladas with a tomatillo sauce. Delicious. Almost overwhelmed with melted Mexican white cheese on top. Greg had the cheese enchiladas with a rojas sauce on them. And lots of fresh onions. We split a large bowl of queso. Since it was early we washed it all down with ice tea. Better to pass over the beer or margaritas when instant outdoor dehydration is a valid concern...

He mentioned a new project which needs photos coming up in August. I mentioned the new camera. We both thought we could make it all work out. 

One thing we were on the same page about was Summer travel. He suggested that anyone trying to get on a plane and go somewhere in the dead of Summer must be crazy. It's all a crap shoot. Texas sounded hot until we got the news about Spain, France, Italy and Greece. Dramatic! It's hot here too but Texans do one thing really, really well --- it's air conditioning. Staying close to a favorite pools doesn't suck either. And don't even get me talking about the wildfires and the worker strikes...

Explaining the benefits of a new camera to a lifelong art director is always vague and a bit frustrating. They really, really don't care about all the technical stuff. They just want your assurance that the photographs will be really nice and they depend on you to bring along the right stuff. 

Get two photographers together at lunch and it's a whole different story. We could argue over something as vague as what's the best material to use to make shutter releases. And that's before we move on the the huge issues of lens design --- and don't even bring up dynamic range. As if we could measure it at all..... 

But the "art director" approach is nice. Less stress/impetus to bring something insanely different and better to each encounter. 

When I got back to the house the temperature felt less delicious. I was temporarily seduced by the icy allure of the restaurant and its brief antidote to the heat wave. The house felt quire warm by comparison. But I had a ready solution. I walked into the backyard, turned on a small sprinkler, kicked off my shoes and ran gleefully through the spray a few times. When I walked back into the 78° house, clothes soaked and the ceiling fans spinning the chill felt just right. Evaporative cooling at its best.

Errata: I'm sending good thoughts to my swimmer friend, Scott, who chose this week to show his family Rome, Italy. He's been there since Monday. They booked two weeks. In raging heat. With two teenagers. My idea of hell. I hope he survives.