Stomping Ennui: From the Martha Plus Michael Chronicles

Martha and I are a sort of semi-retired couple living in Georgetown, Texas, at the moment. We moved here from our previous homes -- in New England and New Mexico -- to be “close to the kids,” as the saying goes. It wasn’t the easiest transition we’ve ever had. Just after we got here, Covid arrived in all its dreadful fury. Then, just as the pandemic lifted, Martha took a serious fall out in front of our house. She was lucky. She didn’t suffer lasting damage, but she was in real pain, and had to rely on a wheelchair for three months.

During that time, I wrote about our adventures together (particularly my fumbling attempts at taking care of her) and posted them to social media so that her friends would know what was going on. One of them suggested I gather all the posts together into a book and publish it under the name “The Martha Chronicles.” And I’ve done that, by the way. You can buy the book as a PDF file on this site.

But, after she recovered, we decided to make up for lost time by traveling around Texas and elsewhere. Frankly, we were bored. We’d been in lockdown and then recovery for a long time. So, we decided to stomp our ennui like it was a bug and hit the road for parts known and unknown. I wrote about those trips, too, on social media. And, yet another friend suggested that I collect my travel writings and do them as books as well. Which, I thought, was a very cool idea.

So...here’s the first of my travelblog collections. I’m calling it “Stomping Ennui,” and it is the first volume of the “Martha Plus Michael Chronicles.” This particular collection of travel pieces dates from April though June of 2022, and contains reports of our visits to Fort Worth, Taylor, Austin (two of them, actually, one to a cooking class, one to the LBJ library), and even a couple of jaunts in our own hometown. There’s steak and barbecue involved (yum). Plus some art. And there are a few enormous long-horned cattle in the middle of a city street who could stomp you without raising as sweat (yikes). A couple of brass angels. And a really, really bad concert that was as much fun as rubbing your teeth on the sidewalk but without as many giggles.

So, everyone, fasten your seatbelts and let’s get started. We got lots of places to go, and lots of ennui to stomp.