Shelter in Place

Today on one of our many walks on the street there were more neighbors than usual, given we are all sheltering in place. One was dog-walking, one on a bike, several just walking, and one on horseback. Other neighbors enjoying the weather in their yard. The smell of pot in the air. Riverside Farms Road is already off-the-beaten-path in an honest, old-fashioned (hippie) way and so is well-suited to hosting a real-life quarantine-to-save-your-life peaceful surrealism. Not sure that made sense but I trust you get me.

So far we’re doing fine here—almost never leaving unless for groceries or liquor store. Mostly, we’re fine with that but it is extra strange on the weekends! Today is April Fool’s Day but not a lot of joking around. Things are way too somber for that, as you know. Ever wonder what it feels like to watch history in the making….in a bad way? Not anymore!

We are still on schedule to close the house April 14. We will rent a U-Haul on the 15th and move a bunch of our stuff ourselves starting on the 15th and through the rest of April. The week of the 20th we are arranging for two guys to move our furniture.

My parents sent me a book about raising chickens which we both read already. Besides that, we hope we will learn the specific way these hens are maintained so we can just continue where the previous owners left off.

I also have been browsing the dog shelter sites, which can literally take hours. I just heart my favorites and show them to Rob. It’s one of my hobbies besides reading comments on NY Times articles, Boing Boing, and Austin’s reddit. Also I religiously view Dr. Campbell’s daily updates on COVID19 on youtube.

Today we needed to stretch our legs and Rob & I took a loop through the yard and as usually happens, there was something interesting. Today, it was a click beetle.

We’ve done a little packing but I don’t think we have many more free boxes. We will probably just move all this stuff and then unpack some at the next place and re-use the boxes for the rest of our things. We will sure be busy those last two weeks of April!

Including a few pics which are mostly self-explanatory. The “art” was a whim because I found a large piece of drywall on the street so I collaged some papers into a prickly pear shape. Added a face and prickly thorns. It was fun time.

Succulents seem very happy!

Tuna MELT

Finished this "art"

largest earthworm I've ever seen

Cute lizard dropping dewlap

Things to consider while washing your hands

I slept very little last night. How to sleep with life topsy-turvy?

Topics that kept me awake:

1. Pandemic, obviously. Short-term implications for our family and

2. We are 95% certain we are buying a house.

Per previous post, I’m keen on watching pandemic news…until I’m not anymore! Large gatherings cancelled, schools cancelled, then you realize what may be coming with shortages of treatment facilities. It’s gonna be BAD BAD BAD. I am wondering when Boingboing will have a post about DIY Ventilators.

Last week, Rob and I noticed a couple of odd occurrences that felt like a bad-pandemic-omen. We were leaving the post office and I noticed that the guy who had been ahead of us in line was throwing up on the side of the building. And just a couple days later, we were driving in our neighborhood (not late at night or near bars) and someone had to jump out of the car to throw up. I know people throw up for lots of reasons, but twice in a week like that out in public is….creepy. And I know with coronavirus you can start out with vomiting/diarrhea.

Also, seen at least two pictures of workers overseas that were spraying disinfectant in the city. How come they are always spraying THE GROUND?! Shouldn’t they be spraying places we put our hands, like railings? Who cares if there are germs on the ground/actually seems terrible for the environment—may as well dump that stuff right into the river.

Hoping my parents, out in California, are staying home. (Doesn’t pose any kind of challenge for my Dad, who already stays at home and eschews as many cocktail parties as possible ;)

Paige’s college has asked all students to not return to campus after spring break—classes will be on-line only! For now, Paige will stay with friends that live near her school in Massachusetts and then she plans to come here by early April. Hopefully domestic travel will still be possible at that time!!

With that backdrop, we have been actively shopping for a home as if things were normal. We visited a home two days ago which fit the bill…and we made an offer! After short negotiation of price, we are now progressing along and will have our inspection Saturday! So 95% sure that will be our new home!

Closing supposedly will be “on or before April 15.”

This home is west of downtown Austin but still in the city of Austin, barely. It’s about a 25-minute or so drive to city neighborhoods where we may go for dinner and stuff on the weekends, so that’s nice as we didn’t want to give that up.

The house is a one-story home with plenty of room for the kids to visit (or friends). It was only built about 4 years ago so it is in fine condition. The layout does have a great room layout where kitchen is open to living is open to dining, which I generally don’t prefer, but we decided with just two of us it’ll be fine. With some large windows, the house is very bright which I love. And the best part of the house interior? The kitchen!! Amazing, attractive, and large! Mega counter space! We’re going to love that.

The front “yard” has loads of old oak trees which is AWESOME. In the back, which is fenced, there are raised garden beds, a pool, and a HEN HOUSE! Also trees along the back so feels very private.

On the pool, we are happy it exists (wasn’t something we were seeking tho), but it is a bit odd looking as it is somewhat above-ground. There’s a wooden deck built around it and some stonework around the edge, but still kind of strange. There must have been a reason not to get it fully below ground. These owners don’t seem like the types to skimp on expense so it remains a mystery to me. Anyway, it’s all a bonus for us!

There are residents in the hen house and I’ve already asked if human homeowners are leaving us the chickens (please). Don’t know yet for sure. So already thinking about post-move-in-to-do’s:

1. Learn: How to keep chickens alive

2. Learn: How to have dogs + chickens and keep them all alive. Get dog(s)

3. Learn: Tortoise adoption. Get tortoise from Central Texas Tortoise Rescue (requires a lot of setup so this is definitely last. there’s also a waiting list)

4. Learn: how to keep all the animals from hurting each other or falling prey to snakes, foxes, etc.

Cat’s always around the house

Not sure why Cheech seems to prefer napping with hose on his face

At Louise & John’s! They are moving soon too!!

Flies matter too

Our new favorite game, Wingspan.

We are trying to grow some succulents and herbs

The kitchen in the house we are likely buying

The chicken coop at the house we are likely buying

Pandemic Preparation: Perchance Pertinent per our Persons

The home search is ongoing but I am even more consumed with the coronavirus threat right now. I am morbidly fascinated with this, even though I know this concerns REAL PEOPLE and is a REAL THREAT, I nevertheless enjoy reading the news stories, comments, and analysis about the virus’ spread. Comments on news articles get more attention from me than the articles themselves—probably not wise, but far more entertaining.

So today we went pandemic shopping, a first for me! We decided to buy things we normally buy….but more of them. So we have cans of tomatoes and various pasta boxes. A couple bags of frozen peas, extra cereal, and last, but not least, pedialyte! I was relieved that there was still some on the shelf and even blue flavor! My only concern is that the stores seem to be out of my preferred chocolate, and as Rob pointed out, if I run out of chocolate during quarantine, I may just run outside and offer myself to the zombies. Just kidding.

If we do endure quarantine we surely will want to watch all of the spooky pandemic-apocalypse movies on Netflix and if the power goes out we can turn to the board game “Pandemic”.

If things get really dire, and food is scarce, we do have Larry Bird who would make a nice meal, not to mention all the farm animals next door. Surely our neighbors would share! I guess if I had to I’d eat the pigs but I don’t want to think about that right now.

It may not seem like it, but I am taking this coronavirus very seriously. Just so you know.

I thought this looked like birch trees. It’s what was left behind after baking fish for fish tacos! This has nothing to do with pandemic preparation.

Quarantine Cocktail Recipe

1 Part Balcones Rye

1 Part Blue-flavored Pedialyte

Ice

Kindling Country

Per the last post, I did share the most-liked Montopolis image with the guy at Callahan’s who vets new products for the store. He said he would share the t-shirt idea with his co-workers and get back to me…that was over a week ago :)

In other news, we hosted a small superbowl party and also hosted dinner for a co-worker (and her spouse) of Rob’s who were in Austin for the weekend. We’ve been using the sous-vide regularly which yields amazing results and those pickled blueberries were a cool touch to cocktails and as a salad topping!

The octopus on this t-shirt matches the color of my new jacket!

Beyond that, we have spent our remaining psychic energy on home searching.

Most homes-for-sale we view on-line in Zillow or the MLS, but we have seen several in-person as well either at open houses or with the realtor. We have defined our budget and we have also decided that we will be a bit further from central Austin than we had originally intended. We want more space, both inside and especially outside!

Most homes, however, are in new developments that are not attractive to us: country-club-style homes, suburban-type lots.

But we did see one place in Driftwood which would have worked for us, so we were scrambling to submit an offer but before we had a chance, someone else made the first offer. So we probably missed our chance with that one. Still, it was a good thing to experience as we settle in for what will likely be a long home-search journey.

These types of properties have a bit of land, so we are likely going to encounter more snakes. Our realtor helpfully explained that when there’s a snake in her garage, she calls for her husband who dispatches it with a hoe/machete combo. OK.

The area we gravitate toward is “hill country” which is south and west of Austin downtown. This is a popular area dotted with breweries, distilleries, and wineries. Higher risk for wildfire too, which concerns me. Sometimes when we are driving out there I call it “kindling country” which, by the way, is out past Slaughter Lane which I now substitute for Drury Lane in the Muffin Man song.

We are open to all sorts of home-styles, but we do have some criteria that need to be satisfied and some aspects that just matter to us a lot, like a good kitchen. It is clear that we will have to act with lightning speed when the right house comes around in this hot market.

We plan to have two dogs and a tortoise by the way. Conceivably, down the road, a few chickens. We’ll try to grow a few herbs and handful of vegetables.

This winter has been frankly too cold for me. It’s also on the rainy side. I was heartened today, though, when I saw a cute little lizard on the porch. I haven’t seen a living one of those for months!

PIca9 has me on temporary-or-longer? hold so I have been doing other things like: the Montopolis t-shirt design, Valentine’s origami, planning a painting for a large, rectangular piece of drywall we found at the side of the road, and writing a short story connecting some creepy-looking photos I found from historic New Zealand. The drywall painting likely will involve a chimera or the like. I also learned how to clean stainless-steel appliances: vinegar followed by olive oil.

Channeling Montopolis

We were both out-of-town for December holidays and then we were on a 10-day trip earlier in January, so I didn’t have anything to say here given that this is supposed to be about living in Austin!

But recently we did explore a new hillwalk at Wild Basin Trail. Of course there was a creek with a little waterfall!

Not a lot else new on our street—Freckles is a concern given she is off-leash and frequently runs in front of or alongside cars. We feel it is a matter of time before she is struck or the city takes her away.

Going to try to pickle blueberries soon. We also have a sous vide now which is amazing!!

Oh and also we started to look at houses for sale which will likely be a prolonged process. First we have yet to determine our budget. Also we have to sort out the conflicting desires to be nearby cool restaurants/bars/breweries/urban neighborhoods with the urge for more space (to do projects and have pets and have quiet). We like the strange and unique and get turned off by country-club type large homes. Then of course we’d have to consider the natural environment: risk of flooding, wildfire, and soft soil.

While out-of town I was playing around with ideas for a Montopolis t-shirt which I’ll share here. Please comment if there’s any you think are on the right track. Themes include power lines, surveillance (Tokyo Electron), and the contour of the neighborhood of Montopolis. Also thinking on the sleeve it could say “Est. 1830”. Did my Wikipedia research!

Concept 1

Concept 2

Concept 3

Concept 4

Concept 5

Concept 6

Concept 7

Concept 8

Notorious Speaks

Notorious P.I.G. Riverside Farms Road Austin, TX 78741 19th December 2019 Human-Americans Anytown, ST 12345 Please pardon any breach of decorum. I am not accustomed to formal missives. Sound Nap. Elapsed time: 1 hour, 25 minutes Yes, I am literate-SURPRISE! And I have extra-sensory abilities beyond the olfactory.

Ho-Ho-Hosting Hoppy Holiday Happenings

For my birthday, Rob got me a spiralizer. We’ve already had several successful forays which involved wrapping spiralized vegetables in fresh tortillas, pouring sauce over them, topping with a dollop of cheese, and baking. I took special care on the batch pictured here to include a sweet potato “umbilical cord”. Rob didn’t need an explanation so you shouldn’t either.

Ask Rob about the sauce. I think it was molé?

Not camoflauged, just dead.

Origami decorated house - part of East Austin Studio Tour.

We spent time on two weekends in November exploring the East Austin Studio Tour. A little like Minneapolis’ Art-a-Whirl, it seemed to have endless locations, many of which were small homes. On the second weekend of this event, Raine arrived to spend Thanksgiving week! We took a couple of local hikes and enjoyed some of our favorite bar/restaurants. And there was the jigsaw puzzle which incredibly we finished before the holiday week ended. Raine became the cat-whisperer, having the ability to connect where none of the rest of us have, with the cats that linger around our decks.

Whip In!

So many fun local beer options!

Rob’s apple galette was one of the highlights of Thanksgiving.

‘Tis the season to see Sam Greyhouse heading out as Santa to do the rounds downtown.

Raine and I visited the public library downtown which was astounding architecturally as well as technologically. Full of people, it was equipped with loads of computers, meeting rooms, and clearly was utilized as a working space for many people. I didn’t get a good picture of it—best to see in person. The one picture I’ll share is when we suffered several moments of shock. We were on the top floor on the outdoor patio (with a great view) and lots of people again, when we saw a door that, were it to be opened, leads to open air several stories up (no floor on the other side). FALL PROTECTION REQUIRED WHEN OPERATION DOOR seems a bit understated!

Paper-marbling with Raine’s instruction!! Extra fun. Dear Reader, We Need to Do This Together!

Itty bitty snake! His tongue seemed to be stuck on the road so I unstuck it.

Rob and I spent time in Iowa because his Dad passed away unexpectedly over Thanksgiving week. That is out of scope of this blog, but I would recommend the Happy Trails diner which is located somewhere between Iowa and Texas.

Rachel eases the pain

of withdrawal from “green beer” for 6 months.

Dogs

always accompany owners to Austin bars. After lounging on top of an outdoor picnic table with the humans, this dog later sidled up to the bar.

Most recently, Rob’s friend, Steve, visited for a weekend. Steve was unaware of this trip until the day he left as it was a surprise gift from his wife! Besides having BBQ and tacos, we also visited Rainey street for the first time. We had been a bit wary of this street that is back-to-back bars and restaurants, but it turned out to be lots of fun and I left the guys to conquer the place well into the night so I could go to bed by 9. Weekend was extra fun given beautiful, warm, sunny weather (upper 70’s), and lots of quality time to bond with the pigs. We also all witnessed Freckles run across our yard with a skull in his jaws. Seemed like a coyote jaw.

Jester King!

Meals, Maggots, and Massage

Now that we’ve had some actual rain I realized that those parched cracks in the yard must have become sodden and muddied at some point so that our holstered bamboo is now forever stuck in several inches of soil! In truth, they are really an eyesore so if Carrie were to reasonably ask us to dismantle them, at this point, um, we’d have to saw them off at ground level!

Eat, doze

Doze.

Run to Allison. Eat!

Doze

Doze

Doze.

Do you ever get frustrated by the injustice of having a cocktail just out-of-reach when you are relaxing with an automated back-massager? Same. Fortunately, Rob handed me my cocktail so I didn’t have to compromise the massage-action. Rob gave me the massager for my birthday.

He also got me a spiralizer kitchen tool so we made some meals with it already. We basically created a couple of casseroles involving veggies wrapped in tortillas. First was italian-style, and the second was more like enchiladas and they were AMAZING! We also have Mexican créma in a squeeze bottle so that we can finish off the plate with artful lines!! As I write this Rob is in the kitchen make molé for this week’s spiraladas!

During the week of Halloween there were literally 13 black vultures congregating at the end of our street. I also heard what sounded like an owl the other morning and I stepped outside (and recorded the sound) and even saw it for a second before he flew off as I think I startled him. He was atop a tree with no leaves and it was still dark out but I saw his profile which was….perfect owl! Maybe a great-horned? Had those tall ears. Also recently spotted a peregrine falcon on our street.

Black vultures

Seemed like there was a convention the week of Halloween

Also last week I was walking on our deck and saw a gecko on the ground. It was in seemingly flawless condition, but dead. Almost seems like he got too cold?? Anyway, I tried to take some good pictures and I considered posing it somehow as a joke but I don’t have mini-furniture or doll clothes and it would be kinda morbid. So instead I left it on the porch rail where it sat for a day or two. Then I noticed one of the stray cats was up there and sniffed it and then ignored it which seemed weird so I went out and looked at the gecko and it was MOVING! Totally freaky and so then I saw that it was full up with maggots and it was so gross so I took a quick film capture and photo. I reported this to Rob who was inside eating breakfast. He mentioned that we ought to get it off the railing but I predicted that because it was MOVING SO MUCH due to the maggot activity, it would fall off and indeed it did! Rob also mentioned to me at dinner that day that I talked about the maggots during both his breakfast and dinner that day. :)

The thing is that in Minnesota you might see a dead mouse or something but it would be HARD AS A ROCK and frozen so you wouldn’t likely see that maggot action.

When I tried to gently prod the gecko, it would not move at all because these pads on his fingers and toes would stick so well to the surface it was on! I had to lift him off the ground to shift his position.

Still image is easier to take than the video where you see the action of the maggots.

I was telling Rob about how wouldn’t it be cool to have a restaurant where you make your favorite dishes from the various cookbooks you’ve used in your life. And the menu would indicate whose recipe it is. (I have no ambition to start a restaurant, just suggesting it as an idea for anyone who has accumulated good recipes). So like a week or two later we were downtown and Rob was getting fitted with new glasses so I was looking at the magazines and in the Austin one it described a new café within the public library downtown that featured RECIPES FROM COOKBOOKS… and I was like Hey that was MY IDEA! And so then we left the glasses store and literally across the street we saw the actual café right there at the base of the public library. Next thing you know there will be cars with customized car horns.

Larry, the guinea hen on our street, has some very sweet caretakers. As the weather has cooled, we frequently see Larry standing in the yard where he has a mirror AND a heat lamp right above! It is the cutest thing.

We recently had the opportunity to vote for some local issues and you can rest easy because thanks to people like us, retired police canines can now retire in the homes of their police handlers!

Not sure if I have mentioned that the area near us that currently has a few apartment complexes on it will be transformed into a second-of-its-kind development called the Domain, which will have more retail and more apartments and generally make this area busier (and gentrified I guess). So it has met with a lot of resistance. I was thinking that back in ancient times (or in a game like Settlers of Catan) you’d probably name your newly conquered territory “DOMAIN” after you finish pillaging and razing the villages.

One of the highlights of the last couple of weeks was attending the Not Dead Yet party the weekend after Halloween. Pat & Bob explained to us that Dave, who owns the farm next door, hosts it every year at his place which is situated on the other side of the river from us (which means he lives close). We spent several hours there and soaked up the cool-Austin-vibes with a variety of types of people, all ages of people, and many people standing outside on his deck which overlooked the river.

It had a bit of an alternative feel to it, which was cool to me, with pot-smoking smell wafting and an extra fun live band called Wild Bill and the Lost Knobs. At one point a guy strode outside on the deck naked which was notable but clearly not the first time that kind of thing went down at that party. We left early too so I bet it gets more interesting later!

Wild Bill and the Lost Knobs at the party

Pat followed up by sharing an article from the newspaper that was written about Dave (the party’s host) and his counter-culture past! {Perhaps that link won’t work for you. Dave moved to San Francisco in his youth and co-founded Rip Off Press which was the whole beginnings of underground comix like R. Crumb.} So anyway, this week I emailed Dave to thank him for hosting us (after all, we are total strangers to him) and he wrote back an interesting bit about our street:

You have lucked into a unique neighborhood. Most of the houses were built before the Civil War and moved there from downtown in 1963 to make way for Superior Dairies, which later moved to make way for the convention center.

Unfortunately they sit on a perched aquifer, friable clay seabed over blue hardpan pyroclastic flow from an ancient volcano. You should be able to find fossilized oysters in your backyard. This geology makes the buildings very unstable.

I may be searching for those oysters soon but I really don’t know if I’d recognize one if I saw it!

A couple clips for you:

Fall Updates

I was talking to Mateo recently, who works at the farm next door, and he had to correct me when I was referring to the pigs as females. I originally assumed they were males until I saw their teats, which certainly look functional to me, but I mistook guy-teats for female ones. Whoops!

A neighbor of ours took this picture.

Lots of animals around here but sometimes tragic things like the sickly coyote many of us saw on the street. And then a bird struck our porch and died, and the usual toad roadkills.

Distracted flying—hit the wood not even the glass.

The tongue made this one a standout.

Recently John & Louise came over for dinner and we took a few minutes to engage in the new sport we created, “drought jousting”, where we spar with the 30-or-so-foot-long dead bamboo stalks. There are no rules, but we agreed protective eyewear would be a good idea.

Some outings we’ve had recently included Wimberly Market Days, and just today the Texas Book Festival (in lieu of Dachshund Races which was a hard decision) and we ran into the Day of the Dead festival and saw some of the parade.

Bamboo holstered

waiting for next round of drought jousting!

No, that would look cheesy

But I want to use these dried-out pods for something

Cheech often sleeps in this spot. Oblivious to the hose on his nose I guess.

On another creek walk we saw bundles of sticks and mud that were clearly from time where the creek had flooded much higher, but it was up SO HIGH that we were in complete amazement as we estimate they were around 30 feet up in the trees (easily 20 feet). It just was very very hard to imagine the low-level placid creek getting so HIGH!!

At Yellow Jacket Social Club, one of our tippy top favorite spots.

It was extra triple fun having Matthew, Rachel, and Dylan visit last weekend! We went to McKinney Park, hit some breweries, walked around Barton springs, had Franklin Barbeque, listened to music … fed the pigs, checked out the farm next door… all the good stuff. No matter what we were doing, we found frequent evidence of the sinister Tokyo Electron conspiracy cloaking East Riverside in fuzzy dark webbing. Dots connected.

Pair skating?

At Hi Brewery. Also just visited Skull Mechanix brewery.

Cold front moved in recently! Had setup a couple pails in the living room to catch water from leaks.

Haven’t seen an armadillo yet in real life

I always have a lot of pics from our hillwalking so I’ll put those in a gallery at the end. We also had some fun hanging out with Pat & Bob and Pat was pretty close to organizing a neighborhood reading of one of Rob’s plays, but she backed out in case some neighbors would be turned off by the content which includes a serial killer. Anyway, stay tuned! We have also been invited again to the weekly neighborhood music-making session on Monday nights so maybe soon we’ll actually try that out. Rob could bring his guitar!

Street Smarts

The Extinction Rebellion group uses Keybase to communicate. I guess encryption is v important so no one anticipates our next “ACTION”! Anyhow, I joined Keybase right away but I’ve been terrible about keeping up and for that lame reason alone, I haven’t been going to meetings. However, Rob and I did show up to Austin’s Climate Strike at the Capitol. I even made a sign! Joined in some chants and signed some petitions.

The surprising part about that excursion was actually on our way home as we were driving over the Colorado River on a 4-lane busy road. The traffic was stopped on the other side due to 3 horses in the way! Sure enough, the leader who was getting a horse back in line was Sam, our next-door neighbor! Quite a sight. He’s often out taking people on rides around town. This is Texas so I believe stopping traffic due to horse is OK.

We’ve seen a couple of cute little geckos inside the house. I worry for them. So I’ve setup several watering stations (like a used sardine container) throughout the house.

There’s a spider web that is reliably spun every day on our front porch. You’ll see it first thing in the morning with the spider in the middle. But by 10:00a.m. or so, it is completely gone. I learned from the interwebs (webs!) that each day these kinds of “barn spiders” will undo their webs because they get a bit tattered and eat much of the silk which is re-used in the next day’s web. I have been hoping to catch our spider in the act but I keep missing it. One time when I was set on watching her timing was delayed since she was feasting on a large insect she had caught. Also, how we always refer to spiders as female due to, I presume, Charlotte’s Web.

Learned a bit more about the guinea hen that roams the street. First, Paige reported that when she was here it chased after her when she was jogging. In order to replicate, we tried sprinting past the hen (Paige runs a lot faster than me) but he never chased me (or Rob)—in fact, he’d usually run away in fear. My theory at first was that rather than chasing her, Paige’s running triggered an instinct in the hen that caused him to join in the “flight”. Paige explained that this can’t be right—it was definitely pursuing HER! Her claim was confirmed when I briefly met the overseers of the hen (who were walking their dogs). The hen will chase people, but “nothing to worry about”. The hen is named Larry….so that’s Larry Bird! Haha seriously Larry Bird does look like a guinea hen! Also, the hen hangs out on their lawn often next to a mirror that is setup for him. I know there used to be a flock of hens but now there’s just Larry so the mirror must be comforting.

Our most recent “hike” which I now refer to has “hill walking” as Paige told me that’s how the Scottish refer to them, was to St. Edwards Park and it was so fun because it goes along a creek where there’s always a new section to explore. There’s tons of minnows of different species and sizes as well as lots of frogs. There’s swimming holes and a few other folks were swimming and of course their dogs. A lot of people have dogs in Austin which I’me sure I’ve mentioned but it deserves mentioning again. At bottom of this post there’s a “Gallery” of images from this walk.

I also spotted a baby catfish in shallow muck and I grabbed it to see it in my hand (and take a pic) but of course duh it’s whiskers pronged me and I flung it back on the rocks which was awful because I think I damaged his brain. Rob got him back swimming but I don’t think he’ll ever be the same.

Also, my pocket-guide to Texas wildlife includes Pronghorns so the fact that I call University of Texas’ mascot Pronghorns instead of Longhorns is not as silly as you might think.

I’m sitting outside writing this when it’s like perfect warm temperature with a breeze and birds and I saw in Mpls it’s like 50-something and rainy and you know this isn’t even bad yet. I’m so over that place.

We finally got rain but it’s been crazy hot and dry in August/September. The “yard” is crunchy with large cracks. The cracks interest me because they are quite deep. I’ve been taking dead bamboo trunks and sticking them down in there to see how far they go. They go far. Also, what would happen if I stuck something in there like a message in a bottle? Would it re-appear next summer or turn up in Korea in 10 years?

Also, I send pictures of roadkill to Paige quite often (and she sends them to me). It’s a thing we do. And Rob and I walk on our street often so we see a lot of roadkill. Mostly toads. I was thinking between me and Paige, we could make a picture book of roadkill. And bonus: we could make it scratch ‘n sniff!

I’ve seen more coyote on our street in the last 2 weeks than deer. These are living animals I mean.

This weekend Heather-face was in town for a family reunion and we got together, along with 2 of her cousins, on Sunday afternoon. After hanging out at a brewery, Facial got to meet Cheech before heading to the airport to make her trip complete!

Cheech not in this picture. You’ve seen her enough!

Catfish

Frog!

Golly Grunt Gallery

I had an extremely emotional shower a couple of weeks ago. I popped in as usual but as I adjusted the temperature, I noticed a small brownish thing moving around near the handle. When I shower, mind you, I am not wearing my glasses so everything is out of focus. I figured it was a spider so I tensely showered while periodically verifying the spider was still there (i.e., NOT crawling on me). With extended arm, I shut off the shower, stepped out, and grabbed my glasses.

The big surprise: IT WAS A BABY GECKO! He was desperately trying to free his back-end from underneath the handle. No matter how I moved the handle, I could not free him, and I feared I was only MUSHING HIM MORE! It was TERRIBLE! So I ran and grabbed Rob who miraculously was able to free him, although he did lose a tail in the ordeal (the gecko, not Rob).

I set her free on a cycad plant

Now whenever I shower I think about her tail forever stuck, rotting, inside the handle

I recently was playing around with Microsoft OneNote, which I seem to have access to through work. I made a collage for this blog which I am including today. Let me know if this is easy to view or not, and perhaps I will do this more often. My first collage is restricted to Food & Drink Recently.

Don’t be fooled…

We’re well aware of the dark side of Tokyo Electron.

Speed Limit: 85 mph

It went by so fast I couldn’t get a picture of the speed limit sign

The last 4 or 5 times I’ve fed the pigs, I decided to incorporate some Pavlovian conditioning. While they eat, I play a particular sound, which happens to be a recording of Amy Lucas making a signature trumpeting sound.

Soon I will test out my plan by stepping outside, playing the sound, which should summon the pigs!

The most beautiful roadkill I’ve ever seen.

The best time to rub Cheech’s belly is after a snack.

Kitchen not exactly perfect

But we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else!

Below here are a few video clips and last is an image gallery!

Gallery below of recent hikes in the area.

Imagining Flash Floods

We’re having a hard time imagining water levels getting this high. At Pedernales the river was very low and we saw evidence of its flow about 16 FEET up in the trees (debris stuck in tree limbs from water flow).

I think this was an error but I kind of like the shot

The cheesiest prickly pear heart

FROGS AND TOADS!

I’ve seen so many frogs, toads, and lizards!

I DARED TO

enter the dark hole, crawl through underground, and come out on another rockface! Realized later that normally it would all be UNDERWATER.

It's like 103 degrees every day and WE'RE LOVING IT!

We have yet to attend the weekly Monday evening gathering of neighbors (to play music) but even so we meet someone now and then when we take one of our frequent walks on the street. We recently had the good fortune to meet the Mystical Magical Michael, a traveling magician who lives two-doors down. I say good fortune because he’s on the road once again for a couple of months to perform!

My reserved food area for the pigs has grown from a single leftover yogurt container, to two or three containers, to 3 containers in the door and the entire left-side drawer of the fridge. Rob hasn’t said a thing as I’ve slowly co-opted a larger and larger area for random animals.

The other evening I noticed Cheech scratching her side on a tree so I went inside and grabbed a scrub brush and scratched her, petted her, and she proceeded to lie down on her side and bask in the scrub rub. Then she fell asleep for a few minutes! WOW!

Look in the center area and zoom in

We recently attended a free talk at the botanical garden about growing your own herbs in Austin. I was kind of in awe when I learned how many attendees were “master gardeners”. I didn’t even know there was such a designation! I think everywhere we go there’s expert musicians hiding in plain sight, and if not, they are magicians, artists, or secret agents for Tokyo Electron.

So we cut out early and walked through some of the garden and saw a dainty little snake in a watery zone. Then we cut across a busy road to take a peek at Barton Springs, which is an incredibly popular spot to cool off in the summer.

Roman ruins? Actually, no. I think there was a sign about how there are blind salamanders here or something? Ask Rob about that. I didn’t stop to read it all. Halfway want to snorkel in there.

As I write, I’m waiting for Paige to wake up as she just arrived yesterday for a short visit. I saw Notorious in the back eating the fruit from the tree back there. If she gets up and looks out her window now she’d see her! Later today we are hosting a gathering of new Williams students sourced from Austin and their families.

Birthday dinner! Paige turned 21!

We’ve gone out a couple of times with Louise & John, who we were lucky enough to meet via Sarah H’s long-distance introduction! I was just bragging to my landlord that we have made friends beyond Riverside Farms Road!

I didn’t even notice the naked lady prominently featured here when I took this pic. Well maybe I did? Can’t recall.

Speaking of our landlord, she invited us to another 50th birthday party of hers at another one of her homes out in New Braunfels, which is about an hour away, almost into San Antonio. We were blown away by her location which overlooks the Guadalupe River where loads of people come to go tubing. Her party featured several tube floating rides so we watched a group depart as we sipped cocktails.

Endless cool bars with outdoor seating. Note that often more people are sitting outside than inside in the heat of the summer!

One of the best beers in town!

YUMMY sandwiches at Yellow Jacket Social Club! Notice Rob’s new haircut too.

Pickled okra. We are going to wait a week or two before tasting! Not sure the random coriander seeds and stuff we threw in there will be palatable…

This insect seems to prefer to hang out on the road where inevitably it gets squished by a car (or a horse). I happened to find one pre-smushed. And then I realized it is actually TWO of them!

Last thought: why don’t shops sell pre-stamped postcards? How many times have you purchased postcards but end up bringing them home with you because you don’t get around to buying stamps for them? I bet they’d sell exponentially more postcards if they pre-stamped ‘em for the tourists.

Peppers Pecans Pronghorns & Pigs

Sorry that I left things so secretive last time. I have perfectly good reasons for that! Some new stuff to relate today.

Our landlord is often out-of-town as she manages many properties out of state as well as in Texas. So anyway, her main residence is right here on the other end of this property. Since she was back-in-town yesterday we invited her over for dinner. It was fun to learn about yet more restaurants/music places to check out here… but the funniest part of the evening was when I referenced a couple of pictures I had texted to her. Here is one of them:

So the background is the kitchen counters which she is obviously quite familiar with as she picked it out. The first text was accompanied with “Hey I can’t find my pepper” which for some reason I found hilariously funny. And as Rob points out, it’s not as if this pepper is hard to find. But in fact, last night Carrie was like, oh wait is there actually a pepper in those pictures? And then we were totally cracking up…to think she thought I was just sharing pictures of her kitchen counter…the whole thing is just silly to begin with and anyway whatever I’m sure YOU’RE not laughing but we were.

There’s loads of cool places to take walks along waterways and trails. We see lots of animals too.

Just this morning we took a walk along a trail over by the University. I call the UTexas mascot the Pronghorns but actually it’s the Longhorns. Similarly, the big local grocery chain is “H-E-B” and we have heard our landlord refer to it as “Heb’s” but other people say “H-E-B” so we were a bit on the fence on how we would refer to it but after I saw that the founder’s name is “H. E. Butt” then I decided that I will call it “H. E. Butt’s” or simply “Mr. Butt’s”.

There seem to be a lot of dog owners in Austin.

Just in case you forgot where you live

His ‘n Hers

I was blown away recently when I saw the similarity of two recent purchases: one, a bag of pecan smoking chips for grilling and the other, some specially puffed kamut for my breakfast cereal mix. They strike me as quite similar like what if they swapped roles? Pecan chips might be good for b-fast and also it would be neat to see the kamut catch fire.

We’re always pushing the limits on those pre-brewery hikes.

Look how I climbed up like 30 feet in this tree!

Just off the beaten path…

I was asked to get a selfie with Notorious

The pigs do take advantage of me. I may offer up some healthy green which they will spurn so then I’ll run in for something “better”. After they eat the good stuff…they will ultimately eat the healthy thing I first brought. Also Cheech often approaches at a fast pace as I exit the side door with some food scraps, and she starts to climb up the stairs! I have to race out there and get her back to the ground as I don’t know if she could really climb stairs without some kind of disaster like getting stuck or falling or busting right through them?

You are Not Fully Updated

A lot is going undocumented here just so you know. In this video clip, Rob sat so still for me that I just made a simple loop which sure looks like a cinemagraph which is one of the things I’d like to be good at. Also, as I predicted, he looks very good in a cowboy hat.

You’ve missed so much stuff, I will just jump over all that OK? Rest assured, it’s all very, very good.

This image is placeholder for a lot of things you haven’t seen.

We typically go on a “hike” and then hit up nearest brewery on the weekends

Brewery after a hike. You gettin’ it?

This 'n That

For a few days I was seeing new animals on our street every day! Turns out there are two cats that frequent the yard and I only realized this since I saw them both at the same time the other day. They are both tabby. But one makes it very clear it wants to be IN THE HOUSE whereas the other is real scarce.

I also stepped out of the house once and looked down to see a VERY large TOAD peeking out of a drainpipe! I think a Texas toad. I took picture of the pipe and I could hear it splashing around inside but I guess it hid so far back you can’t see it in my picture.

We’ve also encountered several snack-size toads around the yard.

On the grassy side next to the road I saw a good-sized turtle which looked like it had recently been in water as it had a bunch of that little green stuff you see in marshes. Not sure what kind. It was hiding inside itself but I could see yellow accents do I’d say a friendly kind. Also spotted a black vulture eating a dead animal.

Rob has seen our neighbor riding his horses a few times, and somehow I have NEVER seen him! I am annoyed I keep missing them.

Also normally see the lone guinea hen. We learned there used to be a bunch of them but apparently down to one, which seems like a metaphor for this little road in general- could be the road’s last gasp before it gets built up like everywhere else. Other interesting observations about this hen is that she NEVER roams past like 50 yards from the sign that says “Guinea Hen” — as if she is tethered to it! And just today, Rob heard her screeching an alarm call, which spurred many questions including but not limited to: What was causing the alarm call- Rob’s intimidating jogging stride or something else? And who is the hen trying to protect? We listened to guineafowl calls on-line and interestingly Rob identified this as a female because the male’s alarm call is distinctly different (I infer that Rob is very good at bird-call-identification).

We had an evening out to Wimberly, about an hour’s drive from here, to attend our landlord’s birthday party which was quite nice and we met some of her friends. It’s kind of in “hill country” with what seemed to be ranch-like estates in the area. Not sure what the draw is out there as the hills are fine but not necessarily unique from what I could see. Some scrub and stuff although in less wet years I gather it would not be so lush.

I stole the image of Austin Craft Beers from the facebook group of fans so now we are keeping track of how many breweries’ beers we’ve tasted. We’re off to a good start.

Meanwhile, did I mention that the internet service provider, Spectrum, is having serious problems getting the service setup properly here? Confusion about who’s house is A or B or Main House or whatever. So basically about every 2 weeks either our internet is shut off or our landlord’s, then we have to get on the phone with Spectrum for 1.5 hours to resolve it but they just ping pong it back and forth. So frustrating.

We had to share some other unfortunate news with our landlord when we were attempting to maintain the hot tub yesterday by pouring in chemicals and turning on the jets, and we stepped away to let it gurgle for awhile and when we stepped back we found most of the water had leaked out of the side! Coming out of a place water shouldn’t be able to (it seems to have a leak) so looks like no hot tub for awhile. We won’t miss it as we hadn’t intended to use it anyhow.

I’m putting all the pics at the end as getting them into this blogging platform (squarespace) is a huge pain so chunking them like this is easiest for me. I have more pics of the pigs but I think you’ve gotten the idea by now. Leftover corn cobs are a new favorite I’ve discovered. We also see a lot of Freckles and I sometimes play wiffle ball with her. However, she does jump up constantly which causes large scratches and she also seems to be suffering from some kind of bug infestation so she is scratching herself a lot and it seems irritating for her.

St. Elmo's Brewery

Saw VERY LARGE toad hide in here

I just missed the horses....again

This cat wants IN!!

Let me know if you know what kind of bug this is

We're keeping track of our beer journey using this as the master list

Not dead, just sleeping

Find the COOL BUG!!

As little beetle went by, big beetle "followed" it with its left antennae

I've seen this a couple of times. iNaturalist says it is in genus Acanthocephala.

Roadkill images are just as interesting as other images in my opinion

Rob installing outdoor speakers!

We took a hike in a neat park very near us

Can you find the black vulture?

The Pot Thickens

It’s Sunday morning and we just stepped out to our screened in porch with a sudden tropical-style downpour in progress.

Tuna melt and a yummy beer!

Let’s start with a little summary of our forays out for dinner. Rob discovered a local blogger who has a list of favored East Austin restaurants. This has been our guide and it has not yet disappointed. We are keeping a spreadsheet to keep track of where we go and a rating. Among the places we’ve eaten: PItchfork Pretty, El Méson, Sawyer & Co, Tuk Tuk Thai, Stella Public House, East Side Tavern Yellow Jacket Social Club, Grizzelda’s, and Sour Duck. The restaurant landscape, not to mention food trucks, seems endless.

Just had my haircut and I don’t care for the styling so pls ignore that. This is Sour Duck where Rob spotted a minor celebrity :)

Last night at the Sour Duck we were sitting outside (I started with a Turmeric infused cocktail which was superb) and Rob recognized Ali Khan, a Food Network host! He was in a large group of people who clearly know where to go in Austin!

Got to see Jeff, a friend from college this week! I missed the reunion but this made up for it!

Oh and I went to an “art” meeting of Extinction Rebellion this week which was real chill. I had to paint between the lines. Small group of young folk who had a lot of sage advice on how to cope with allergies which I have tried to share with Rob. Everyone in Austin groans when topic of allergies comes up. Anyway, look for this banner, pictured below, at the next local protest!

Now try to open up your mind a little bit and just consider the following observations. I am providing a satellite map for your reference.

Our street is lined by a dense bit of wood and on the other side of that is a place called Tokyo Electron. I Googled this real quick and viewed the images that come along with that search. Rather than electronics or other industrial images, you’ll find exhibits of African animals (taxidermy styled) and X-mas trees and random outdoor meat barbecues.

Tokyo Electron?

Besides a lot of laughter, this activated my conspiracy-oriented brain. I have since observed that next to Tokyo Electron, if you drive along that road, there are massive structures that appear to be related to the power grid and are owned by “Austin Energy”. It just seems kind of strange that Tokyo Electron, who is clearly trying to obfuscate their identity, is abutting this gigantic compound of electronics out in the middle of humble Montopolis. What could they be up to?

Once your sensors are awakened, you start to see other oddities in the neighborhood. For example, Rob and I were taking a walk on our road, which a neighbor informed us is 1/2 mile long, and a UPS truck drove by us. Our road is a dead end. So we walked the length of the road and back and that UPS TRUCK NEVER WENT BY US AGAIN. I have studied the satellite map and there’s no other way out! Where did it go?? Is the UPS truck somehow conspiring with Tokyo Electron?

Another lead I have is a very suspicious truck full of watermelons that’s about 1/2 mile away that NEVER leaves its location on the side of a busy road. The truck sits on the side of a bridge over the Colorado river which is lined with unnecessarily large, hulking metal towers linked with wire which reminds me of the Austin Energy compound. The permanence of the watermelon truck, next to the out-of-proportion electronics feels like a gigantic espionage operation. The watermelons: never require replenishing… are they even real? What are they concealing? Don’t worry, I’ll keep you updated on any developments.

So back on the home front, as usual, more updates. This week, as advised by our landlord, Rob sprayed deadly wasp spray on the outdoor wasp nests that startup on the outdoor eaves of our house. There was a sizable one on the side where the cat hangs out and the pigs are often spotted. So he sprayed it and then after it was on the ground., stepped on it a couple times.

It was a couple days later I commented that I hadn’t seen Chich, the black pig, for a couple of days. Then Rob threw out the upsetting idea that the poison-riddled wasp nest was possibly found and eaten by the pig —with fatal results! Possibly he meant this as a joke (I have trouble differentiating jokes from non-jokes) but in any case I was terribly worried after that. And also I hadn’t seen Freckles either! Fortunately I ran into Freckles (no, to be accurate, Freckles RAN into me) soon later but until this morning, NO SIGN OF Chich!!

Yesterday I was talking to a farm resident (human being) who assured me that even if Chich ate the wasp nest, which he felt was quite likely, and it was riddled with poison, the pig would be fine as those “odd” pigs are like “tanks”.

I was ecstatic this morning when around 7:30 or so we heard loud “I’m awake now groans” from under the dining room. I rand outside to see Notorious and I thew out a few asparagus bottoms: crunchy and well-liked. I peeked under the house and YES THERE WAS Chich! Coming out to join in the asparagus-fest. Note that Chich head-butted Notorious during this feeding frenzy so I think Chich is the dominant one.

Finally, we have joyfully been hanging pictures from our storage that haven’t seen the light of day for literally years. Actually, we are not quite done yet but here are examples. Just going to include a couple but trust me, there are many, many more.

Posters from Rob’s theater productions including the album/cover they gave him as a going-away gift.

Besides collecting cephalopods, I have a budding boxing kangaroo collection with 2 pictures and a wind-up toy.

First Degree of Separation

We have gotten out some, by the way, and already enjoyed several meals out at fun restaurants.

Yesterday we were in and out getting things from storage in the garage and I heard some kind of trippy music playing and snapping sounds like a fire. So I ran inside and told Rob this may be a good time to meet the neighbors with the farm!

The rapper, Notorious B.I.G.

We found three men working in the yard shoveling mulch with a nice fire going in the yard. Immediately one of them came over and introduced himself as Sam… Sam Grey Horse! He’s the semi-famous 6th Street Cowboy! He was incredibly friendly and gave us a little summary of the farm situation with different areas housing horses, goats, chickens, etc. He said that this street is like the last bastion of the old Austin and he also described his brush with death a few years ago.. and his persona he’s created. We were invited to Wednesday night prayer sessions in the sweat lodge involving tobacco smoke etc.

Then we met the other two men, Brenton and Matteo. All of these men seemed happy to meet us and we learned they are heavily in the music scene.

The gate between our yards was stuck in the dirt but Sam fixed that as we spoke so now we can take the short cut between our yards anytime we want.

We also learned what we have been dying to know: the names of the pigs!!

The light-colored one is named Notorious P.I.G., named after the rapper Notorious B.I.G. When this was mentioned I could see the recognition on Rob’s face but I had to ask him after who that actually is.

Chicharrón picture stolen from interwebs.

The black-colored pig is phonetically referred to as “Cheech” which is short for Chicharrón.

They didn’t seem to have any concerns about what we feed the pigs but I still intend to reduce the fruit by-products and replace with less sugary foods from vegetables as I read it is better for them.

The farm residents hadn’t yet met Freckles. Freckles gets very skittish outside of her immediate property so she had never ventured that far. Speaking of Freckles, as we returned to our house she was in our yard carrying a little lizard by the tail. She gradually pulled it into her mouth and ate it nonchalantly as she stood there. I was sad for the lizard, of course.

Where the Roosters crow all day

We’ve managed to unpack our primary stuff - finding some things damaged from the move (expected) and a few things unaccounted for yet but overall we are in good shape.

Animals are still my main focal point surrounding our place. The second morning in our new home I woke up early and saw a huge cockroach on my bedroom wall. Length of my cell phone. Antenna moving around busily. Accordingly, the next day on our Home Depot run we picked up 3 kinds of roach killing traps (borax tablets we put in kitchen, some nest-killing plastic things we put in living room, and 2 roach motels for my bed/bath upstairs).

So that evening as I was going to bed (9:30 as you know) I heard some banging around and it was my cockroach who had discovered the motel in the bathroom! Fortunately, I had put one other roach-killing thing in our cart that day which was a SPRAY-CAN-TO-KILL-INDIVIDUALS and I called out for Rob to save me and he sprayed the roach. But then a few minutes later it started reanimating and Rob slayed it and took it away in a plastic bag. A few days later Rob dispatched with another one in our dining room. I knew we’d likely deal with bugs, including cockroaches, but I didn’t expect they’d be waiting for us when we moved in!!

Our landlord, Carrie, has given us a bit more information about our neighbors. The farm next door has, in addition to the 2 pigs, an assortment of chickens & roosters, horses, mules, and goats. The goats used to wander in our yard when Carrie had the gate open that separates us but more recently they shifted goat location so they haven’t been in our yard. We plan to meet the farm people soon. Sounds like they do sustainable techniques and stuff. They are also into music. Rob has already seen a young man riding a horse on our street the other day. I need to find out the names of the pigs and if it is OK to feed them things such as melon rinds, mango skins, banana peels. I try green things on them too, like scallion tops and brussels sprout leaves but those aren’t as well liked. Yesterday the black pig practically ran toward me in a rush to see what scraps I had to offer. Carrie said it loves to be rubbed on its belly if you reach under there and then it will lay on its back! I haven’t tried that yet as they look so intimidating but I will.

On the other side is Freckles, the cute puppy, and her owner is rarely seen. But we met a man who rents a smaller home on the same plot and he was nice, but also seemed like he keeps to himself.

The cat loves to hang out by our side door and scratch at the screen and pretend it is aloof but I’m realizing it really wants to be inside and be a spoiled house cat. And the pigs like to sleep under our dining room and sometimes you’ll hear a low rumble turn into a looooooong deep sound which is a pig perhaps groaning after a long nap? Rob likens it to how we might imagine prehistoric animals sounded in the days of the dinosaurs.

On top of this, our street has a dense wooded area all around which harbors who knows what all including coyotes. Another neighbor a couple doors down is slightly famous here. The “6th Street Cowboy” has an interesting story, and I have learned from it that you can’t be arrested for DWI while riding a horse.

We already had our cars emission tested and registered our vehicles. Our cars now have Texas license plates!

I’m also fixated on the puzzle of the local grocery store monopoly, H-E-B. There seem to be virtually no other competing grocery stores! We have also attended one meeting of the Extinction Rebellion group but I feel like that topic may just be its own entry in the future.

Dramatic garden sculpture. That empty plastic carton was left by Freckles who uses it as a toy.

Finally, we find that many destinations are west of our place. When we return home, the exit we take is Montopolis Drive. Mark my words, someday that will be as familiar as “Mulholland Drive”. I don’t know exactly why, whether it be earned by the culture, the weird, or a movie-set, but it’s going to be the vortex of all the coolest things.

Sometimes this cat is on the 2nd floor deck or even the roof.

Animals speak for themselves

Freckles!

We met Freckles as soon as we arrived at our place! She’s the CUTEST puppy ever!!

The pigs have enjoyed banana peels, mango peels, strawberry, white part of scallion only.

June

Guinea hen on the right

Don't know cat's name if it has a name

but it likes to sit outside our kitchen and scratch at the screen

LIZARD!

I have petted the pigs

And their hair is really coarse. They still intimidate me a bit though even though they are friendly. They like to hang out under our house.

Deer

Freckles not sure what to make of pig

Little Toad!

I've got scratched up legs

from Freckles who is constantly jumping up on us, puppy-biting us, etc.

Toad in Freckle's water dish

actually it seemed to have drowned in there :(

I Wear my Sunglasses at Night*

A lot to catch you up on. I can summarize the last few days for you.

Quick! Before the porch collapses!

MOVERS DAY: Movers started later than planned due to some last-minute shuffling of their teams/vehicles. As we waited at Rob’s, the co-owner of his house (the man) was literally building the front porch and the city was LOUDLY breaking holes in the street and digging holes all around. The moving truck parked next to a pair of busy construction vehicles. The owner was laying down boards within a foot or two of where the movers proceeded to remove all the furniture.

So anyway the movers came to both our places and got all our stuff outta’ there. The lead guy claimed that we had done the best “non-professional” job of packing he’d ever seen and had specific details of things we had done right! You betcha’ we did and also I take pride in the effort I spent to collect a hundred or so boxes from the recycle bin in my apartment building over the last 2 years: worth it!

Then we stayed at a hotel in downtown Minneapolis overnight and guess what the room number was? 612, which is the Minneapolis area code!

MOVE-OUT DAY: Rob got a nice surprise when the owner of the cleaning service he hired met the other homeowner (the woman). They were like two peas in a pod as they both knew the ins and outs of how to get a place clean. I’m sure they bonded over the pitfalls of self-cleaning ovens and the how to clean baseboards. It was a relief since he had been worried that the cleaners may not pass the incredibly high standards set by the homeowner. Rather, she was asking for her card!!

At my place I found it ironic that the only thing that didn’t readily exit the apartment was the Comcast cable which required the maintenance guy to use a wrench on to disconnect it from the wall. Comcast causing trouble until the end! Resistance is futile: I cancel my subscription!!

One thing that got way too much attention was my chocolate. I had a box of many bars of my favorite (88%) dark chocolate and I feared that if it wasn’t kept cool it may melt in the car! So we setup a little cooler just for my chocolate. We had a few beers left that I threw in there and some carrots. More on that later.

DRIVING DAY ONE: We left after lunch as soon as our “walkthroughs” were over. It went OK except that I happened to drive ahead of Rob (in leader position) and my GPS inexplicably spoke incorrect directions - completely not matching the route we were supposed to drive!! I had to call him when traffic lightened up to ask him if I was on the right road. I was, but later on I exited when the sign said “35” to the right but that was Business 35 not the Freeway 35 so of course I messed that up. Naturally, I nominated Rob to lead the way on the rest of our trip. We stopped in Osceola, Iowa for the night and I was thrilled with my dinner which was a baked potato with toppings, asparagus, and a couple of Toppling Goliath Pseudo Sues which are made in Iowa and are AMAZING.

By the way, the previous weekend we had an overnight drive to Iowa and I kid you not, there was a lake or broad river with a whole bunch of pelicans in it. I saw them on the trip out and the trip back and they were pelicans!

DRIVING DAY TWO: I was too tense and tired to plan ahead on podcasts and just kind of played radio on the drive. The whole country seems to want to hear Sweet Child ‘O Mine a lot. We stopped for lunch in the most desolate place you can imagine in the middle of Kansas which apparently was TallGrass Prairie. We had a fast food chicken sandwich and just marveled at how weird it all was. I dropped a couple of my carrot sticks in the parking lot and I bet they are still there and will be forever? Unless a tornado whisks them away there’s nothing to eat them and but let’s say there are birds they probably wouldn’t recognize them as it’s not an Arby’s Buffalo Chicken Sandwich & fries.

There were some severe thunderstorm warnings around, we did see lightning, we did have high winds, but we stuck with it and basically remained on the fringe of these storms. Phew.

South of Oklahoma City we called it quits for the day and had dinner at a Buffalo Wild Wings. What a shock to discover that the ENTIRE BAR was SMOKING and the sub-par remaining part of the restaurant was for the NON-SMOKERS. Yikes!! Also a guy was wearing a cowboy hat just like regular.

In general hotels were OK but neither of us slept great. Just too pooped out, stressed, wound up, and all that stuff. I wore my noise reduction headphones to sleep with which was good but very uncomfortable. I am still getting up at 4:15 so until that stops I’m still going to be fuzzy.

Seen before starting our 3rd, and last, driving day. YES!

DRIVING DAY THREE: Can we just get there? I had accumulated 3 hotel apples by now. Note that hotels always have raisin bran as a cereal option. Finally, I was mourning the loss of ALL MY CHOCOLATE! Somehow, despite putting ice in a ziploc bag and all the chocolate bars in ziploc bags, water had seeped into the ziplocs and I had to throw it all away. (Rob gently pointed out I had put the top of the cooler on wrong. Classic.) Profound sadness.

That was all boring, I realize now, because what comes next is ****THE BEST****! That’ll be the next post.

* Why in the world are people listening to this song still? U.S. Radio stations seems to like it.