Welcome to Wimberley 

Welcome to Wimberley

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