In December things got a bit crazy as Louise finished her job at the hospital in Sacramento, and Daniel “graduated” from day care, where he had been going daily since he was 5 months old–so that was a big change for little Daniel. December is already a bit nuts with the holidays and such, so packing a house and getting ready to move made it doubly crazy. Our house was scheduled to close (take note of that) on December 29, so I literally left Napa Christmas night with Lucy, one of our vehicles and the boat in tow.

Originally I thought this would be the road trip(like “Travels with Charley”)I had always wanted to make, but since I only had three days to get to Austin (somewhere between 1800 and 1900 miles), with LA in there too (so add another 1000 miles to the time calculation)), I had to jam. There was no time for stopping and chatting with the locals or seeing the real America, On the Road like, where ever that may be. It’s not between CA and Austin. In fact, there is not much between southern CA and Austin, at least not by the route I went. I don’t recommend this route. Actually, I don’t recommend driving. If I do it again, I will go a different way. Since this route takes you along the southern US border, you have the opportunity to tour many high-security “rehabilitation centers,” also known as penententries, or more appropriately, the slammer. Helpful little signs along the way would advise me “Don’t pick up hitchikers”. Good advice.

So I made it to Austin in time for the closing though the house wasn’t actually finished. I got a call about half way through my trip, from the builder saying the house wasn’t quite ready. In retrospect that was an understatement, and since to this day it’s still not done, well enough on that. Some minor details like water, heat, and many other things, unfinished. They promised to get most of it done before I got there, except for possibly, the heat? Yes, well that didn’t get done for a while, and though Austin is warm most of the year, this winter was unusually cold. More on that later. We ended up closing on December 29 as scheduled, but then I had to go back to CA to get Louise, Daniel, Ally the dog and the cats. Call me next time you consider traveling with a two-year old, a big whiny bouncing dog and two cats, and I promise to set you straight.We all got here and formally moved on January 8.

so, where are we anyway?

Austin is in south central TX, in what’s called the Hill Country, probably because it’s quite hilly. No, there are no hillbillies here, that’s not where the name came from. For the uninitiated, Austin is the capitol of Texas, but is better known as “The Live Music Capital of the World.”That is immediately clear after a trip down to the Warehouse District (or really almost anywhere downtown) on any given night. There’s even a cool statue of Stevie Ray Vaughn downtown (much better than a George Bush statue, don’t you think?) We haven’t seen enough live music though yet, because you know, we have a two-year old. Austin is also the technology hub of Austin Texas, particularly for semi-conductor companies, software and lately web start ups and gaming. We live in the northwest section of Austin, in the hills as I said, but also between a big lake (Lake Travis) and another lake that is actually the Colorado River, but they call it Lake Austin for some reason. That’s where the big spreads are. And no, it’s not THE Colorado River (as in Grand Canyon), though that had me confused for a while. Really, there should only be one name allowed per river per country. We moved into a relatively new area called Steiner Ranch, which is also home to the University of Texas Golf Club and some top ranking schools (which is a big reason we moved to this specific area, though the lakes (river) and hills were a big scenic draw. So the University is a big draw to the area, in addition to the political guys and the musicians.

BTW, the musicians and the politicians keep each other in check I think. In fact, they may have brought in the musicians just for that reason. It keeps Austin on the liberal side, despite former residents like the George Bushes (don’t forget Ann Richards though). It also keeps Austin a bit weird, and therefore theofficial slogan, which can be seen on many a t-shirt and bumper stickers is “Keep Austin Weird.” This probably helps make me feel a little bit at home, sort of like California. In fact, the Hill Country and the area we live in specifically looks a lot like the San Diego Coastal Hill area. We’re quite a bit further south than San Diego, which now explains our sub-tropical climate. We’re closer to the same latitude as Ensanada, Mexico (so certain people prone to jails in that latitude should use caution when entering the area). You know who you are.