32. Analog Evenings
Today, I share about a slumber-interrupting coyote attack and discuss my reason for engaging in a life-expanding commitment to what I call 'analog evenings.'
Episode theme music ‘Buck Dance in Past Tense’ by Prophesy Playground
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TRANSCRIPT
Okay, so last night, I wake up to these two coyotes fighting with something. I can't see what it is they're fighting with. I can only see them going in for the attack and the scuffle they're making, and flipping up a bunch of rocks and dirt and leaves, and then they'd run back out from this tall eight-foot wooden fence.
They're fighting with something that has a decent ability to defend itself because it either swipes or bites one of them, and he yelps really loudly, and the other one goes in real swiftly after the victim of these coyotes and the one that's gotten bitten, I think probably by a raccoon, or he got slashed by raccoon claws, or I don't know what he, they were after, but he had much trepidation to go back in.
But the other one goes in full force, and then I guess whatever it was that was holding its own gave him a run for their money, and the two coyotes end up leaving and going up to the dog park in the condo complex. Ultimately, they went back into the preserve from where they came from.
Coyotes howling is a pretty common thing in this part of Austin, which is urban—it’s in the SoCo (South Congress) area of Austin, the 78704—which is kind of the cool area, but the preserve that I live next to makes is like living in the woods.
So my neighbor comes out, and I see this dark, tall shadow figure. And I'm like, “Oh God, no, it's coyotes. Don't go any further.”
And even though coyotes are afraid of humans are not gonna attack or eat us, they were in attack mode.
It was a bad scene, not something anybody wants to walk up on.
And so anyway, my neighbor Dave comes around the corner (it’s his condo that they're up against). So I get his attention from my window and, give him the warning “Don't go around the corner, it's coyotes.”
"And hey, by the way, is Ben okay?"
Ben is his cat that we all love. And he's like, “Oh yeah, Ben is fine.” Thankfully he's inside.
Long story short—at the end of a somewhat tense and nerve-wracking conversation between Dave and me, ‘cause he'd just gotten home and heard the scuffle—it was so loud, he said that he thought somebody was breaking in or burglarizing him. And so we talked through it and kind of like both breathing normally now and feeling relief because the coyotes are gone, and Ben’s okay…
Like that was my big thing. Like, “Oh God, please don't let them be attacking Ben."
Anyway, so I realized that I don't have Dave’s number and he doesn't have mine, so I'm going to go to sleep now.
And so I don't know what to say. And so for some dumb reason, I say, “Hey, okay, well I'm gonna sleep with my window open, so if you need anything.”
And I was like…I immediately heard how stupid that sounded and I thought, “What the hell? Like, what in the hell am I gonna do just cuz my windows open?”
Okay.
Sometimes, seriously, I say the dumbest things.For someone whom most people consider articulate, I really do say dumb things. And when I hear them I'm just like, “Oh my God, what is wrong with me?”
Then I had to, you know, in this moment, I realized how dumb it sounded, and I had to think of something to say.
So I say, “Oh yeah, we don't have each other's numbers. Right? Do we like?”
Do we? As if I don't know we don't have each other's numbers.
And he's like still probably trying to figure out how my sleeping with my window open is going to help him in case the coyotes come back. He's kind of looking at me awkwardly.
He's like, “Oh yeah, uh, I have my phone. Let me have your number.”
So we exchange phone numbers, and I say, “Well, goodnight. I hope you can sleep.”
“I hope you can sleep,” and he is walking away with this sideways look at me like, you know, thinking—trying to be nice, but probably thinking, “Gosh, what a weirdo.”
Anyway, I go lay back down in bed, and I start dying laughing. I'm like, “What the hell was I thinking?”
“Well, I'm gonna have my window open in case anything happens.”
Oh God, seriously.
So before I leave, I'm going to leave you with something that has a bit more merit than my stupidity of yelling dumb commentary out the window to my neighbors.
So I've engaged, and if you get my newsletter, you know this, I'm engaged in what I'm calling ‘analog evenings,’ and this was my attempt in the new year to step away from screens and less digital in my world.
So, I love things that are analog. I love being out in nature. I love listening to vinyl records. I love playing my guitar. I love writing, like pen-to-paper writing. I even have a typewriter. I bought a typewriter in the new year so that I could peck out the manuscript I'm working on, not on my laptop every night, but on a typewriter because it’s analog.
It's what?
It's analog.
I like a hybrid of things, right? I love to be involved in the digital world… doing what I do for a living, I can't not be involved in computer screens, but I also love to step away from them.
And so ‘analog evenings’ is my way of making certain that I do enough of that every day.
This way that I'm moving about in my evenings, I'm starting to love it.
And also, it was birthed out of wanting to cook more, right? My girlfriend is a marvelous chef. Many times I don't even have to cook for myself because she's cooking for parish priests and her father and her family, and I get to benefit.
So I wanted to like flex that muscle, and I think a lot about…oh God, here I go again. I'm talking about Barb again.
My best friend Barb, whom you hear about ad-nauseum—hated to cook more than I have ever hated to cook in my life. And at one point, she decided she was just gonna do it, and now she is, like my girlfriend, an amazing.
Anyway. There's a great story, a funny story, that I'll tell you about a time I had to cook for her because she hurt her back. Yeah, that was hysterical.
But anyway, these analog evenings have been a godsend for me because two reasons, and I'm sharing this with you, hoping that it can kind of inspire you to think about this, maybe think about doing the same or trying on portions of doing analog evenings.
The reason it's saving for me is I'm getting projects around my condo done, you know, things that have been on my to-do list, but when do I do 'em? I don't wanna do 'em on the weekends because I wanna play since I've been working all week. Analog evenings provide this opportunity, and I'm really, really loving it.
Now there are nights when I'm like, “Screw analog evenings. I'm gonna watch a movie,” but they're very few and far between. In the 10 days of the new year, I've only had two of those. Those are pretty good odds for me. If I'm gonna do something consistently and I only abandon that consistency twice in a 10 time, you know, 20%, that's pretty decent for me.
My plan is, my hope is, that I can every weeknight have screen-free, digital-free evenings and nighttimes, and so far, so good.
So try it on.
Write a letter to somebody. That's another thing. I love getting handwritten letters, and that's something that I'm doing in the new year because—well, again, it's analog.
I'm walking a lot more and pray that I do not encounter a coyote.
Okay, I'll see you tomorrow.