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It’s now 2 weeks since I arrived in Wimberley and began my TX adventure. Where in the world does the time go??? Mercy. I had at a minimum planned to write up reviews for all the concerts I went too. Once I got here, I realized I should be documenting all of my experiences, and not just the concert ones. So here I am now, 14 days later, and I’ve written nothing. Oops. In my defense though we still don’t have internet at home. I hope that once we get it hooked up here it will be easier to keep up to date with this stuff.
So: here’s what’s gone down.
On Monday September 12, after a LONG road trip, we finally arrived at our cabin. The trip was really really long. If you ever decide to drive halfway across the country I highly recommend going 7 or so mph over the speed limit, and not just the speed limit, or below. Losing 7 miles an hour doesn’t seem like much on the surface, but in our case, that the trip is at least 21 hours, so that’s 3 extra hours added on. 3 hours is a lot. But we survived, and the GUS did great. The longest road trip the Gus had ever been on was 4 hours. This was a tad longer. We were worried about how he would do, so we talked to the vet, and we got some sedatives for him to ease the trip. We didn’t even need it. I was pretty proud of the little guy. He’d never even had a chance to ride in the truck before either, since we had just bought it a couple of days before the trip. But he liked it. Me? I love it. I love that truck.
The plan for the move was to buy a truck and load all of our stuff into it. The cabin we were to rent is furnished, so we didn’t need to haul furniture or things like that; just clothes, stereo, computer, etc. The plan was then to just have the truck and Mary’s motorcycle as our modes of transportation. Since the truck would be our primary transporter, we really wanted to find a truck that good gas mileage. Should be simple enough right? Right. We were pretty specific about what we wanted. Along w/ the mileage we also needed an extended cab. And we wanted a camper. And we didn’t have much money. The search took quite a while. We had lots of time to look for trucks so we weren’t too worried. In the process I learned quite a bit about trucks. I’ve never known much about vehicles, but by the end of the truck buying process I could pretty much look at a truck, and tell you what kind of engine it had, and the kind of mileage you could get. We looked a lot. We found nothing. There was absolutely nothing in our price range that matched our criteria. I had given up. Less than a week before we were scheduled to depart we found it. The perfect truck. A 1986 Mazda B2000 with an extended cab AND a camper. People tell me it’s an old man’s truck. I love it. The truck was located 2 or so hours from Charlottesville, but I researched it on the net, and it seemed perfect. Yes, it was old, but it only had 92000 miles on it. Research seemed to show that that model of truck should regularly get at least 200000 miles. So we drove the 2 hours, tried to haggle w/ the guy a little, got him to lower the price just a tad, and then bought it and drove it home. More about the truck later…I need to start getting my TX thoughts down.
So, after 4 years of wanting to move to TX, I was finally officially moving into my first TX residence at 3:30 on a Monday afternoon. I couldn’t find the owner of the cabin, so I just went to our house, ‘The Log Cabin’, and hoped it would be unlocked. It was. We were home.
My initial reaction was that the place was more “rustic” than I remembered. I had visited the place several times before, but now that it was mine, I noticed how un-modern it was. I was a little worried. We unloaded a couple things, and showed the Gus his new place. We let him explore the property. He dug it immediately. There’s hardly any traffic here. We live on a plot of land that has 15 or so cabins on it. The only traffic here is people that live here. And there’s not many that live here in the offseason (which is 9 months of the year). So… the Gus, who has always had to be on a leash, or in a fence, got to roam relatively free for the first time in his life. He loved it. I was a tad apprehensive about it, but let him go for a little bit. We took him down to the river then. The river is only a stone’s throw away, which is nice. Gus did not quite what to think of the water. He approached it with caution, and then decided to drink some of it. He did not want to get in it. We got back to the cabin and were greated by the sound of BASS.
Whoever lived next door was blasting The Beastie Boys, and throwing out curse words left and right. And the bass was almost shaking our front porch. What the heck? It’s supposed to be peaceful and tranquil out here. It always was before. This is like I’m still living in Cville. This is not what I signed up for. This is not good. This is making me discouraged. I think I need some food.
So Mary and I went to my favorite BBQ place, The Salt Lick, to get some food. The Salt Lick is awesome. It’s in the middle of nowhere, and has a giant parking lot and long picnic tables scattered throughout (inside and out). It is not fancy, but it is good. AND, one of the best parts is: you bring your own beer. The Salt Lick is in a dry county, but you can bring your own, and that’s fun. So, before we went, we had to get beer. I called my friends M&L=== the only people who I know in town, and asked if there was a grocery store in town. L told me where it was-it was just down the road (everything is just down the road) so we headed there first. Holy crap. Traffic was terrible. It hadn’t been like this before when I was here, but it was totally congested. I was pretty frustrated. We arrived at the grocery store, and looked down each aisle. Couldn’t find the beer. Walked to the back. No beer. Now, we had been on the road quite a bit the previous days, and I knew there was a decent chance my brain was just too fried to find the beverages. So I went to customer service. “This may sound like a stupid question, but do you sell beer here?”. The guy informed me that they do not, and that the closest place to get any was “The Junction”, 4.5 miles up the road. What in the world? Where are we living? The supermarket doesn’t have beer?? I just sat in stupid congestion to get to a grocery store that doesn’t have beer? I wasn’t happy. We headed for the Junction. The Junction had beer. But now Lone Star. And no Pearl. I had kind of decided in my own mind that I would drink Lone Star and Pearl Light during my time in the Lone Star state. But no luck. So after way too much deliberation, we got a 30 pack of Miller High Life. You can never go wrong w/ High Life. AND, on the way to the cash register, passed by a cooler that had Lone Star tallboys. Woo Hoo! That made me happy. I bought 1 Tall Boy, and the 30 pack, and filled up with gas. The man in line behind me remarked that it didn’t seem right that gas now cost more than beer.
W/ the beer, we could proceed to the BBQ. We arrived and the place was empty. I was scared it was closed. It wasn’t. I was so exhausted from the trip, I just wanted some good food quick. We ordered a pound of chopped brisket. It came quick. Ahhh… I couldn’t wait. I bit in--- and it sucked. I hated it. It was pure fatty. And gross. I’m a tad neurotic, and have just a few issues with food, and fat is one of them. Couldn’t do it. It was gross. Disappointment abounds. We left about ¾ pounds of BBQ on the plate. I was so discouraged I thought I was going to cry. BUT we found out that you can order the chopped brisket “lean”. I had forgotten that. Every other time I’d been there, I’d gone w/ Hoss, and he’d done the ordering. Now here I was, on my own, doing the ordering by myself, just like a grown up. And I messed it up. But now I knew. That at least was a bit more encouraging.
When we got back home, the rap music had ended, which was nice. And it was tranquil. We tapped into the welcome bottle of champagne that M&L were nice enough to leave for us, and then went to bed.
The days after that are kind of a blur. For a while we really were living almost off of the grid. We didn’t have cable, we didn’t have internet, we didn’t even have a phone. All we had was Mary’s cell phone. The first couple days were a little stressful. We didn’t even have any movies to watch or anything. Before we left, I shipped myself 2 packages of cds and dvds. There wasn’t going to be room for them in the truck, so I figured that made the most sense. I allowed over a week for them to get here. They weren’t here.
The idea of TX living was to see as many cool concerts as possible, but also to live a simpler life. I guess this is what the simple life is all about. What does one do though without all those modern conveniences? I slept. A lot. The month leading up to the trip had been a total whirlwind---finishing up the job, cleaning out my office, packing up 7 years of junk in my house, cleaning 7 years of dirt in the house, etc. And then after 3 days of driving, I was beat. Beat down hard. I was in bed by 9 the first 2 nights I was here.
The first couple days I was actually stressed out because it was too peaceful. I needed stimulation. My first concert wasn’t until Thursday. What was I going to do until then?? I needed something happening. I needed TV! Silly as it sounds, I was stressed, but I survived.
I’ve come to realize that were lots of things stressing me out the first couple days. Even though I was finally seeing my TX dreams come to fruition, it was still a move. And moving is always an adjustment. Especially for me-the guy obsessed with routine. I HATE not having a routine. I had gotten into such a routine in Cville that life was easy. Now I was starting over. Nothing to compare to, nothing normal. Everything new. Included in the stressful newness was living together. Yikes. I naively thought it wouldn’t be that hard. It was hard. Mary and I are both very stubborn individuals. And both w/ strong mindsets and opinions. And we were both exhausted from everything that had happened in previous months. And as a result the first couple days of living together were pretty stressful.
But there were good things. Plenty of them. The river is awesome. It is pretty low right now, and you can walk through about all of it. The Gus loves it there now. He soon realized he could walk in the water. He routinely walks in the shallow part now. He likes it as long as the water isn’t above his knees. (Do dogs have knees??)
The rap music was never heard again. Turns out it was the neighbor’s son, who was just visiting. Things were looking up.
We soon discovered the public library. It just down the road, and pretty nice. That’s where I’ve done all my emailing and internet activities. It’s cool to have it there, but not as convenient as having it right in front of you. The library also has a pretty nice collection of DVDs and VHS. I tried to get a library card, but that was a hassle. I had no proof that I lived here. I did have 1 piece of mail that had come to my PO Box, but they said PO Boxes don’t count. Oh yeah—see, I had to get a PO Box for the first time in my life. Mail doesn’t get delivered to the cabins, so now I have one. So, I had to go find the cabin owner. She gave me some proof that I lived here, I took it back to the library. It was still a hassle, but I eventually got the card, and now I check out lots of movies. I even checked out a few books. I can’t read.
We discovered the Thrift Store the same day we discovered the library. The thrift store rules. We’d heard talk of it, and how cool it was. It is pretty cool. The cabin was furnished, but was lacking lots of things (we only had 1 bowl and 1 spoon). So we bought 2 more bowls and 2 more spoons. We’re all set now! We bought a couple other little things too like a dish towel, some pitchers for water and tea, and some other stuff.
We eventually got cable and phone hooked up. We just got basic plans of both. We called about getting a ‘bundle’ plan of internet, phone, and tv. Bundle plan was going to be $124. Yikes. That’s a lot. We went a simpler route. We got basic basic tv package for $12. We got phone service for $15. Then we’re hoping to get dialup internet for $10 or less. $38 fits our budget a lot better. And while the cable is totally basic, somehow HBO comes in. That makes me happy. I don’t know how long it will stay on. Hopefully forever.
We discovered the wildlife. Primarily deer. LOTS of deer. People had warned me about the deer at night. They were kidding. Deer everywhere. First couple of times out at night only saw a couple deer. One night coming home there were 8 on the property. That’s a lot.
I started going to shows. I like shows.
I’ll put some reviews of the shows here:
I’m establishing some routines here. People wonder how I spend all my time since I’m not working. I don’t really know. The days and hours just seem to go by though. And I like it. I usually get up around 7.30 or so. I feed the Gus, and eat some breakfast out on the balcony or on the porch swing. Then we take a walk down by the river each morning. Usually Mary joins us, but occasionally she is still sleeping. Then I come back and sit on the couch for a little. I usually head into town to go the post office at about 9.45. The library opens at 10, so that way I can do both things on the same trip. I like going to the Post Office. I’ve run into M&L at the post office at least 3 times so far. I love small towns. Then I head on to the library and do some emailing and internet surfing. Sometimes mary comes along. Then I come home at 11.30 or 12 and eat some lunch. Then I rest. I usually take another walk after lunch, and then I don’t know what happens in the afternoon. Sometimes we go to the Thrift store, sometimes we go to San Marcos (the closest ‘big’ town), sometimes we watch movies. Sometimes we nap. It’s a hard life.
Mary wanted to buy a couch. I didn’t want to spend the money, but I agreed- the couch in the cabin was nasty. It was the most uncomfortable thing I’ve ever sat on in my life. Of all of the free and $10 couches I sat and slept on in college, this was by far the worst. It was an old sleeper sofa that was shot to hell. There was not a comfortable spot to sit anywhere on it-just a spot or 2 that were slightly less bad than the other terrible spots. Once you sat on it, you couldn’t get out b/c you sunk down too far. This was not ideal. Since we didn’t really have any other furniture, this sofa would probably be the only thing to sit on when watching TV. And it stunk. Seriously. Mary said it smelled like kitty litter. It was gross. We trying not to spend $ though, so I didn’t know what to do.
After a week of sitting there though, we found a pretty nice looking red couch at a church yard sale. It was only $20, but I didn’t really want to spend it.
Mary talked the landlord into trashing our couch, and letting us get the red one, and she agreed to take $20 off the final months rent.
We got the red couch.
It is much better
Here’s what I love about this town: I have been checking the internet for months trying to start lining up shows for myself. I had quite a list put together, and you would think it was comprehensive. Not even close. There is SO much stuff that goes on here that you can never find all the information in one place. So when the Austin Chronicle came out on Thursday, I found a great event that had flown below the radar. (For anyone reading at home in Charlottesville, The Chronicle is like the Hook or the Cville Weekly, but with thousands more listings of things to do I’m not even exaggerating. Thousands).
There were lots of fun things listed in the Chronicle, but the one that struck my eye (thank goodness they had an advertisement for it or I might have missed it), was taking place at an art gallery called Yard Dog Folk Art. Now, art is okay, but music is more my thing. This one caught my eye though, because it was art that I actually recognized. It was Jon Langford’s, and the ad was for the opening of his new exhibit, and the 10 year anniversary of Yard Dog, and Jon Langford was going to be there. Jon Langford of the Mekons, and the Waco Brothers, and the Pine Valley Cosmonauts. I like his music. I don't know lots of it, but everything I've heard, I like, and he's a pretty seminal figure in the Chicago scene. I like his art. Mary likes art. This seemed like the perfect even to mix our 2 interests. We got there early. Yard Dog is a really cool gallery (www.yarddog.com). We looked at art. We at a free moonpie. We ate some cookies. Then we were done. We didn’t want to appear to not know what we were doing, so we just kinda stood around. We noticed people heading out the back door. After I saw 4 people go out there, I decided we should go out there too. Ah-ha! That’s where the party was! Free beer and wine, and workers assembling a PA system and speakers. Good signs for fun to come.
Now, I’ve been a fan of Langford’s solo music and side projects for a year or two but it never cracked my top 20, which means I only have a couple cds. While there at Yard Dog I realized I had no idea what Jon Langford, or Rico Bell, or any of his sidekicks looked like. It was a very bizarre feeling for me. I saw a postcard in the store w/ Langford’s photo, so I recognized him. I didn’t recognize anyone else. In Austin everyone looks like a musician. (Probably because everyone is a musician!). We were fortunate enough to snag seats. There were a couple outdoor furniture pieces set up in the parking lot in front of the mics and PA system, and we sat on glider type thing. opening band was billed as Michael Hall and the Woodpeckers, but also featured the owner of Yard Dog, and they said it was the first time they’d ever played together. They played 5 or so songs. Pretty good.
Rico Bell was up next. I have one of his CDs. I bought it on chance one time, out of the deep discount used cd bin. It was only 25 cents I think. What a bargain. I love that cd. He only played 3 songs. He forgot words and chords to 2 of the 3, and was kind of embarrassed by it. He said he hadn’t played in a long time, and was only doing it for Sally. It was then that I figured Sally Timms was there, but of course I had no idea what she looked like. I had a sinking feeling though that she had been the lady sitting next to me on the glider earlier (by this time I was standing up).
Langford and band were up next and put on an incredibly fun set. It was a blast seeing him live. There was violin, and mandolin, and of course guitars. Rico came up and played on a couple numbers, and Sally Timms did as well. Of course, it was the same woman that was sitting next to me on the glider earlier. I’m such an idiot. They did some great covers: “Tiger by the Tale”, “Big River”, and “Wild and Blue”, and Langford was hilarious with his in between song banter.
I wish I could have spoken to some of the performers afterwards, but Mary was ready to go. She swears that I tricked her and told it was just an art opening. I’m pretty sure I told her there might be music. Oops. I did get to talk to Chuck Prophet on the way out. He was in attendance, and so I told him that I had just seen him in Charlottesville. I think that was my last Charlottesville concert before I moved, seeing him w/ Bill T at the Gravity Lounge. I talked to Chuck a little about that, and he immediately apologized and said he’d been cranky that night. Very cool. (I could definitely tell he was flustered with the sound, but still enjoyed his set immensely by the way).
As I sat on the glider earlier in the evening, and as I reflected on the evening later, it makes me happy that I’m here. I was so glad to be a part of that event. It was such a fun time, and to me, that was THE place to be on Saturday night. I can’t think of anything more perfect than that. A free art opening and “reception” with free drinks and apps, and tremendous music in the parking lot behind the building. The entire evening was totally laid back, and everyone just hanging out and having fun. The performers would ask the crowd how the sound was, and the crowd would respond, and let them know if there were problems. It was really cool. It almost felt like we were crashing someone’s private party. But we weren’t. Things like that just happen in Austin. We were just lucky to be a part of it.
The next show I had on my concert calendar was Son Volt at Stubbs. It was Friday, Sept 25, the day after Hayes. 2 problems: it wasn’t free, and I knew Mary wasn’t going to this one. I had planned to go, but as Friday morning hit, I was totally on the fence. I figured I’d just kinda play it by ear. My friends M&L were going, and said I could go w/ them if I wanted. That was good enough. I decided one of the main reasons I was here was to experience great live music, and I have always loved Son Volt, so I decided to go. On the way to the show we had to stop to round up Alejandro Escovedo’s chickens. No foolin. True story. This is a wacky town where things like that happen…
As for Son Volt, I really had no idea what to expect. There was a time when SonVolt was one of my favorite bands. Son Volt’s first 2 albums ‘Trace” and ‘Straightaways’ are still 2 of my favorite albums. The songs hold up well, and Trace in particular evokes all kinds of feelings and memories of times gone by. I like that. When Trace came out it was really unlike anything I’d ever heard before. Steve Earle and The Jayhawks were the only two ‘alt-country’ bands that I knew at that time. I was mostly listening to alt rock, and some old country. Trace was a sort of a mix of the two. And it was awesome. From there I was totally hooked on this “Alt Country” genre, which has since been called No Depression, or Americana, our OKOM, or whatever you want to call it. Whatever it is, that’s what I love most these days. Most of my time is spent listening to THAT kind of music. These days, it seems most people around me have very different tastes in music than I do. Somehow, all of my friends in college loved Trace too. Countless hours were spent at our apt at Mad Manor drinking beers, grilling, and playing horseshoes with Trace on the stereo. Trace became the constant soundtrack to those summer months. I originally bought the album for “Drown” but it didn’t take long to become instantly obsessed with “Tear Stained Eye” and “Windfall”, two of the best songs written in the last 10 years without a doubt. One of the concert highlights of my young, still musically inexperienced adventures was when a handful of friends and I drove from college to my hometown of Charlottesville to see Son Volt at the now defunct Trax in 1996. We stopped by my mom’s house and she fed all us poor college kids heaping helpings of her killer lasagna. We ate so much lasagna that our bellies were so full that we were barely able to force down any beer at all. My friend Adrock to this day still thinks that my Mennonite mom sabotaged us on purpose, cunningly knowing that if we ate it all up we would be too full to drink. The show was awesome was regardless, and was the only time I ever saw the original lineup. The new Son Volt is not the same as the old Son Volt. The old Son Volt broke up quite a while ago, and Jay embarked on a solo career and the Boquist Brothers played with all kinds of people. When it was announced that SV was reuniting, there was great excitement amongst fans. But it’s not the original lineup. It’s Jay and 3 new guys. I was still excited. The chance to hear the old songs again live was too much to pass up. When Jay announced that they were going to tour, I got tix to one of their first, if not their first, US gigs—playing a radio conference in Philly along with My Morning Jacket and Bob Mould in June. I left with mixed feelings about that performance. I think they only played 1 song, and I wasn’t sure what I thought of the new songs. So, I was nervous about seeing them.
On Friday night in Austin it was hot. But we trudged out there and were treated to a mighty fine show. Jay and the band sounded great. Jay, who has never been known as being very talkative, actually said more than 25 words that night. He’ll never be a master showman onstage, but maybe he’s working on it. Jay has always been about the music. And it’s the music that drew me out there. I was a little discouraged and worried during the first hour or so. The first hour was comprised of almost new songs. The new ones sounded good, but I realized as I was standing there, that as much as ever, I was there searching for a feeling. I wanted the feeling again that I had when I first heard the old songs. I wanted to be reminded of that. I didn’t know if I could or not, but I the new ones were totally doin it for me. Then the second hour came, and it was almost all old stuff. And it was excellent. There was a triple shot that was “Tear Stained Eye”, “Windfall”, and then “Drown”. Holy Crap. I don’t think a better triple shot exists. (FYI, one of my favorite triple shots on record has always been on Waylon’s box set: Rainy Woman, Amanda, and Are you sure Hank Done it This Way). For the encore they pulled out a blistering version of the old Uncle Tupelo song “Chickamungua”, which was totally unexpected and really sounded great.
A couple thoughts about the show: I missed the steel guitar which used to be with them in the old band. There’s no steel guitar now, and I miss that twang. The new SV is a little more rockin and a little less country. I think I like the country a little better, but maybe that’s just me. The band sounded a lot tighter than when I saw them in June. They’re a good, rockin band. All in all it was a fine night of music. I didn’t ever quite recapture the old feelings, but I came close. During Windfall and Tear Stained Eye, and even during a couple others, I found myself totally caught up in the song, drifting away, being taken to some place else. For awhile I forgot about the heat, and the horde of people, and the drunk guy in front of me that kept invading my limited personal space as he danced wildly and threw buckets of sweat off of his long hair as I tried desperately to avoid him. Yes, for a while, I was almost back at Madison Manor, hanging with Brad, and Jon, and G, and Sid and Adrock. That’s the power of music I guess. That’s why I like it. It woulda been cool to see the show with all or some of those guys. Brad actually lives in Austin now, but I haven’t seen him yet. Hopefully soon. I did get to see Son Volt though. And they were good.
It’s now 2 weeks since I arrived in Wimberley and began my TX adventure. Where in the world does the time go??? Mercy. I had at a minimum planned to write up reviews for all the concerts I went too. Once I got here, I realized I should be documenting all of my experiences, and not just the concert ones. So here I am now, 14 days later, and I’ve written nothing. Oops. In my defense though we still don’t have internet at home. I hope that once we get it hooked up here it will be easier to keep up to date with this stuff.
So: here’s what’s gone down.
On Monday September 12, after a LONG road trip, we finally arrived at our cabin. The trip was really really long. If you ever decide to drive halfway across the country I highly recommend going 7 or so mph over the speed limit, and not just the speed limit, or below. Losing 7 miles an hour doesn’t seem like much on the surface, but in our case, that the trip is at least 21 hours, so that’s 3 extra hours added on. 3 hours is a lot. But we survived, and the GUS did great. The longest road trip the Gus had ever been on was 4 hours. This was a tad longer. We were worried about how he would do, so we talked to the vet, and we got some sedatives for him to ease the trip. We didn’t even need it. I was pretty proud of the little guy. He’d never even had a chance to ride in the truck before either, since we had just bought it a couple of days before the trip. But he liked it. Me? I love it. I love that truck.
The plan for the move was to buy a truck and load all of our stuff into it. The cabin we were to rent is furnished, so we didn’t need to haul furniture or things like that; just clothes, stereo, computer, etc. The plan was then to just have the truck and Mary’s motorcycle as our modes of transportation. Since the truck would be our primary transporter, we really wanted to find a truck that good gas mileage. Should be simple enough right? Right. We were pretty specific about what we wanted. Along w/ the mileage we also needed an extended cab. And we wanted a camper. And we didn’t have much money. The search took quite a while. We had lots of time to look for trucks so we weren’t too worried. In the process I learned quite a bit about trucks. I’ve never known much about vehicles, but by the end of the truck buying process I could pretty much look at a truck, and tell you what kind of engine it had, and the kind of mileage you could get. We looked a lot. We found nothing. There was absolutely nothing in our price range that matched our criteria. I had given up. Less than a week before we were scheduled to depart we found it. The perfect truck. A 1986 Mazda B2000 with an extended cab AND a camper. People tell me it’s an old man’s truck. I love it. The truck was located 2 or so hours from Charlottesville, but I researched it on the net, and it seemed perfect. Yes, it was old, but it only had 92000 miles on it. Research seemed to show that that model of truck should regularly get at least 200000 miles. So we drove the 2 hours, tried to haggle w/ the guy a little, got him to lower the price just a tad, and then bought it and drove it home. More about the truck later…I need to start getting my TX thoughts down.
So, after 4 years of wanting to move to TX, I was finally officially moving into my first TX residence at 3:30 on a Monday afternoon. I couldn’t find the owner of the cabin, so I just went to our house, ‘The Log Cabin’, and hoped it would be unlocked. It was. We were home.
My initial reaction was that the place was more “rustic” than I remembered. I had visited the place several times before, but now that it was mine, I noticed how un-modern it was. I was a little worried. We unloaded a couple things, and showed the Gus his new place. We let him explore the property. He dug it immediately. There’s hardly any traffic here. We live on a plot of land that has 15 or so cabins on it. The only traffic here is people that live here. And there’s not many that live here in the offseason (which is 9 months of the year). So… the Gus, who has always had to be on a leash, or in a fence, got to roam relatively free for the first time in his life. He loved it. I was a tad apprehensive about it, but let him go for a little bit. We took him down to the river then. The river is only a stone’s throw away, which is nice. Gus did not quite what to think of the water. He approached it with caution, and then decided to drink some of it. He did not want to get in it. We got back to the cabin and were greated by the sound of BASS.
Whoever lived next door was blasting The Beastie Boys, and throwing out curse words left and right. And the bass was almost shaking our front porch. What the heck? It’s supposed to be peaceful and tranquil out here. It always was before. This is like I’m still living in Cville. This is not what I signed up for. This is not good. This is making me discouraged. I think I need some food.
So Mary and I went to my favorite BBQ place, The Salt Lick, to get some food. The Salt Lick is awesome. It’s in the middle of nowhere, and has a giant parking lot and long picnic tables scattered throughout (inside and out). It is not fancy, but it is good. AND, one of the best parts is: you bring your own beer. The Salt Lick is in a dry county, but you can bring your own, and that’s fun. So, before we went, we had to get beer. I called my friends M&L=== the only people who I know in town, and asked if there was a grocery store in town. L told me where it was-it was just down the road (everything is just down the road) so we headed there first. Holy crap. Traffic was terrible. It hadn’t been like this before when I was here, but it was totally congested. I was pretty frustrated. We arrived at the grocery store, and looked down each aisle. Couldn’t find the beer. Walked to the back. No beer. Now, we had been on the road quite a bit the previous days, and I knew there was a decent chance my brain was just too fried to find the beverages. So I went to customer service. “This may sound like a stupid question, but do you sell beer here?”. The guy informed me that they do not, and that the closest place to get any was “The Junction”, 4.5 miles up the road. What in the world? Where are we living? The supermarket doesn’t have beer?? I just sat in stupid congestion to get to a grocery store that doesn’t have beer? I wasn’t happy. We headed for the Junction. The Junction had beer. But now Lone Star. And no Pearl. I had kind of decided in my own mind that I would drink Lone Star and Pearl Light during my time in the Lone Star state. But no luck. So after way too much deliberation, we got a 30 pack of Miller High Life. You can never go wrong w/ High Life. AND, on the way to the cash register, passed by a cooler that had Lone Star tallboys. Woo Hoo! That made me happy. I bought 1 Tall Boy, and the 30 pack, and filled up with gas. The man in line behind me remarked that it didn’t seem right that gas now cost more than beer.
W/ the beer, we could proceed to the BBQ. We arrived and the place was empty. I was scared it was closed. It wasn’t. I was so exhausted from the trip, I just wanted some good food quick. We ordered a pound of chopped brisket. It came quick. Ahhh… I couldn’t wait. I bit in--- and it sucked. I hated it. It was pure fatty. And gross. I’m a tad neurotic, and have just a few issues with food, and fat is one of them. Couldn’t do it. It was gross. Disappointment abounds. We left about ¾ pounds of BBQ on the plate. I was so discouraged I thought I was going to cry. BUT we found out that you can order the chopped brisket “lean”. I had forgotten that. Every other time I’d been there, I’d gone w/ Hoss, and he’d done the ordering. Now here I was, on my own, doing the ordering by myself, just like a grown up. And I messed it up. But now I knew. That at least was a bit more encouraging.
When we got back home, the rap music had ended, which was nice. And it was tranquil. We tapped into the welcome bottle of champagne that M&L were nice enough to leave for us, and then went to bed.
The days after that are kind of a blur. For a while we really were living almost off of the grid. We didn’t have cable, we didn’t have internet, we didn’t even have a phone. All we had was Mary’s cell phone. The first couple days were a little stressful. We didn’t even have any movies to watch or anything. Before we left, I shipped myself 2 packages of cds and dvds. There wasn’t going to be room for them in the truck, so I figured that made the most sense. I allowed over a week for them to get here. They weren’t here.
The idea of TX living was to see as many cool concerts as possible, but also to live a simpler life. I guess this is what the simple life is all about. What does one do though without all those modern conveniences? I slept. A lot. The month leading up to the trip had been a total whirlwind---finishing up the job, cleaning out my office, packing up 7 years of junk in my house, cleaning 7 years of dirt in the house, etc. And then after 3 days of driving, I was beat. Beat down hard. I was in bed by 9 the first 2 nights I was here.
The first couple days I was actually stressed out because it was too peaceful. I needed stimulation. My first concert wasn’t until Thursday. What was I going to do until then?? I needed something happening. I needed TV! Silly as it sounds, I was stressed, but I survived.
I’ve come to realize that were lots of things stressing me out the first couple days. Even though I was finally seeing my TX dreams come to fruition, it was still a move. And moving is always an adjustment. Especially for me-the guy obsessed with routine. I HATE not having a routine. I had gotten into such a routine in Cville that life was easy. Now I was starting over. Nothing to compare to, nothing normal. Everything new. Included in the stressful newness was living together. Yikes. I naively thought it wouldn’t be that hard. It was hard. Mary and I are both very stubborn individuals. And both w/ strong mindsets and opinions. And we were both exhausted from everything that had happened in previous months. And as a result the first couple days of living together were pretty stressful.
But there were good things. Plenty of them. The river is awesome. It is pretty low right now, and you can walk through about all of it. The Gus loves it there now. He soon realized he could walk in the water. He routinely walks in the shallow part now. He likes it as long as the water isn’t above his knees. (Do dogs have knees??)
The rap music was never heard again. Turns out it was the neighbor’s son, who was just visiting. Things were looking up.
We soon discovered the public library. It just down the road, and pretty nice. That’s where I’ve done all my emailing and internet activities. It’s cool to have it there, but not as convenient as having it right in front of you. The library also has a pretty nice collection of DVDs and VHS. I tried to get a library card, but that was a hassle. I had no proof that I lived here. I did have 1 piece of mail that had come to my PO Box, but they said PO Boxes don’t count. Oh yeah—see, I had to get a PO Box for the first time in my life. Mail doesn’t get delivered to the cabins, so now I have one. So, I had to go find the cabin owner. She gave me some proof that I lived here, I took it back to the library. It was still a hassle, but I eventually got the card, and now I check out lots of movies. I even checked out a few books. I can’t read.
We discovered the Thrift Store the same day we discovered the library. The thrift store rules. We’d heard talk of it, and how cool it was. It is pretty cool. The cabin was furnished, but was lacking lots of things (we only had 1 bowl and 1 spoon). So we bought 2 more bowls and 2 more spoons. We’re all set now! We bought a couple other little things too like a dish towel, some pitchers for water and tea, and some other stuff.
We eventually got cable and phone hooked up. We just got basic plans of both. We called about getting a ‘bundle’ plan of internet, phone, and tv. Bundle plan was going to be $124. Yikes. That’s a lot. We went a simpler route. We got basic basic tv package for $12. We got phone service for $15. Then we’re hoping to get dialup internet for $10 or less. $38 fits our budget a lot better. And while the cable is totally basic, somehow HBO comes in. That makes me happy. I don’t know how long it will stay on. Hopefully forever.
We discovered the wildlife. Primarily deer. LOTS of deer. People had warned me about the deer at night. They were kidding. Deer everywhere. First couple of times out at night only saw a couple deer. One night coming home there were 8 on the property. That’s a lot.
I started going to shows. I like shows.
I’ll put some reviews of the shows here:
I’m establishing some routines here. People wonder how I spend all my time since I’m not working. I don’t really know. The days and hours just seem to go by though. And I like it. I usually get up around 7.30 or so. I feed the Gus, and eat some breakfast out on the balcony or on the porch swing. Then we take a walk down by the river each morning. Usually Mary joins us, but occasionally she is still sleeping. Then I come back and sit on the couch for a little. I usually head into town to go the post office at about 9.45. The library opens at 10, so that way I can do both things on the same trip. I like going to the Post Office. I’ve run into M&L at the post office at least 3 times so far. I love small towns. Then I head on to the library and do some emailing and internet surfing. Sometimes mary comes along. Then I come home at 11.30 or 12 and eat some lunch. Then I rest. I usually take another walk after lunch, and then I don’t know what happens in the afternoon. Sometimes we go to the Thrift store, sometimes we go to San Marcos (the closest ‘big’ town), sometimes we watch movies. Sometimes we nap. It’s a hard life.
Mary wanted to buy a couch. I didn’t want to spend the money, but I agreed- the couch in the cabin was nasty. It was the most uncomfortable thing I’ve ever sat on in my life. Of all of the free and $10 couches I sat and slept on in college, this was by far the worst. It was an old sleeper sofa that was shot to hell. There was not a comfortable spot to sit anywhere on it-just a spot or 2 that were slightly less bad than the other terrible spots. Once you sat on it, you couldn’t get out b/c you sunk down too far. This was not ideal. Since we didn’t really have any other furniture, this sofa would probably be the only thing to sit on when watching TV. And it stunk. Seriously. Mary said it smelled like kitty litter. It was gross. We trying not to spend $ though, so I didn’t know what to do.
After a week of sitting there though, we found a pretty nice looking red couch at a church yard sale. It was only $20, but I didn’t really want to spend it.
Mary talked the landlord into trashing our couch, and letting us get the red one, and she agreed to take $20 off the final months rent.
We got the red couch.
It is much better
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