Adventures Part 4: Austin

I lived in Austin for 10 years when I was at university. The Austin of the 1980's is long gone but it still retains a lot of charm and atmosphere.

Kim lives in south Austin, an area I gravitated to during grad school. Not anywhere near as pretentious as Austin north of the river, south Austin has a subculture of its own: more rebellious, more independent, less worried about fitting in, more concerned about having a good time.

The morning after our Waco adventure, Kim and I managed to get up by 10am, load up her kayak and her JRT Trixi, and head to Town Lake to meet a friend for an afternoon of paddling. Duwain rowed his wooden dorry with his red BC Eris as his "bow princess." I rented a kayak, which did not come with a dog. Paddling around Town Lake (as the part of the Colorado River that runs through the center of town is called) is a fine Austin tradition. So is gathering for barbecued ribs and locally brewed beer afterwards. Mmm. That was a tasty lunch indeed.

Duwain and Kim were the first two people I told about the Aramco job offer. I was certainly pretty desperate at that point. I hadn't worked in months. Worry about money and finding a job was eating me up mentally and emotionally. After the first shock of simply having an offer in hand began to pass, I started to consider what taking this job would mean. I realized that I needed some perspective so I turned to them. As expected, both of them had plenty of interesting and rational things to say.

That evening, I headed over to Kathy and David's house for another fine tradition, a Dogz Rule! flyball club party. Good food and laughs as always. It was so wonderful to see my friends again. The club pulled me through some very difficult times in 2009--it's rare to find oneself in the middle of a group of such generous and kind people (money can never repay what you folks did for me, time and again. I can only say, thank you). Plus, Dogz Rule! is a rockin' flyball club!

I got to play some flyball at practice the next afternoon. The club has been through some rough times in the past couple of years but they seem to have a fairly solid, if small, membership, some really nice young dogs coming up, and a new, indoor, air-conditioned place to practice each week. I didn't tell Harry that I ran Eris a few times--he'd be very jealous.

Austin isn't my home any longer either but I have so many good friends there that my ties there are strong.