Views of the Monkeynut

Peter

Louise

Madeleine

Toni

The Academic Seal of Rice University The Monkeynut arrives in Austin, July 7, 2011. Louise left first, on June 26, by car. She motored west and south, stopping at friends and family along the way. But however you slice it, it is an awfully long drive, approaching 2,000 miles. After five days on the road, her morale sustained by a music mix thoughtfully provided by Madeleine, she entered Austin. Austin was, of course, hot. Unfortunately for her, it was also hot in the house because the a/c had broken. There is one room upstairs which has its own separate cooling unit, so she sequestered herself up there while she arranged for help to arrive. She managed to locate the outfit that installed the unit and has been maintaining it, and the head guy came out to look at it. He pronounced it dead in an expensive sort of way, but then remembered that the part which had died was actually still under warranty. He was able to secure a replacement part the next day which got things cooled down for quite a reasonable fee. Next, Louise encountered the legendary Texas hospitality from the neighborhood. The most dramatic way this was revealed to me was when I arrived and she and I went for little walk. Turned out that everyone we ran into had already met Louise and was her best friend. And they were all really nice, outgoing, interesting people. This contrasts sharply with our move from Larchmont to Stamford; after living in Stamford for a year, we knew fewer people that Louise knew in Austin after a week. While Louise was bursting into Austin society, Madeleine and I were packing back in Stamford. We also looked for a way to get rid of the Ford Focus; Toni was hoping to inherit it, but when we looked into the cost of getting it down to Texas, it just didn't make sense. Ultimately, our agent at the moving company took it off our hands for a modest price. To make my life a little more difficult, on June 29 I went in for outpatient surgery on my sinus. For six months I have been doing battle with recurring infections, no sense of smell and with everything I eat tasting of mold. Finally, I had a CT scan which showed my right sphenoid sinus was totally socked in, so my ENT guy offered to stick a rod up my nose, slip a balloon into the opening of the sinus, inflate it and then hose everything out. Why not, I replied. The operation went smoothly enough, although I'm still not quite feeling up to snuff. On June 1, the truck came to clear out our storage unit. On June 5, the truck came to clear out the townhouse. The movers complained that we had left too much stuff (mainly clothes) in the furniture and insisted that it be removed and boxed. I wanted to say - you feeble, pathetic weaklings! You should have seen the magnificent guys who moved us into the townhouse, balancing two, three boxes on the end of each finger! But I didn't. When they left, there remained Madeleine, me, two cats with carriers and two suitcases, along with bits of left-over food in the refrigerator. No beds, no chairs, no TV, no internet. Our flight wasn't until the 7th, so we spent two excruciating nights lying on the floor pretending to sleep. But on Thursday, we headed for the airport, dropping off the cats, checking our bags and we were off to Austin on a one-way ticket. Louise met us at the baggage claim and we had a joyous reunion. We went to the cargo shed to pick up the cats - the guy said "We have two cats here. One is really friendly. The other less so." That definitely sounded like our pair, so we picked them up and headed for our new home. I need to mention one other part of our leaving which made us realize why we had loved our years in Larchmont. Paul and Monica Turovsky held a farewell party in our honor just before Louise hit the road. The Roques were there, the Simmons, the Ciprianos, the LoBues, the Baade/Tanners and Joanne Fortune who came down for the weekend. Tears were shed, people hugged, vows made. The Monkeynut prepares to head south, late February 2011. Louise and I had visited Charlottesville last fall, but were only able to spend a day there, so we decided to make another trip to look it over. This time we spent some time with Louise's cousin Beth and family while looking at houses both in and out of the city. My own heart was stolen by houses in the neighboring rural areas of Earlysville and Ivy - we saw some spectacular houses with amazing views of the mountains. Louise was more concerned about being in a community. But nothing appeared to suit us both. We then flew to Austin to check out opportunities there. We had a very hectic stay; I had a client (coincidentally located in Austin) needing all kinds of stuff from me, so I was toiling late into the night. Then, during the day, Louise and I were looking at houses in every corner of town. Finally, on Monday February 28, we saw a house that spoke to us both, located in South Austin, close to the heart of town but near Zilker Park and not too urban for me. Everything then proceeded at breakneck speed. We put in an offer and the owners came back with a couple of minor changes in the contract, which we agreed to. We then had 10 days to do the inspection (which was fine) and we closed on March 24th. Phew! We are now certified home-owning Texans, although we are currently renting the house back to the previous owners for a month or two and do not expect to make our move until June or July. Here are some pictures. It is smaller than our old house and there is almost no usable land beyond what the house is sitting on – if you walk more than five steps from the back of the house, you fall down a ravine, although I think we would own all the rocks you would bounce off on the way down. But the views are great and easy to enjoy from the deck. There are four bedrooms, all rather small, and we are thinking of doing a little remodeling to make the master bigger. Definitely room for guests, though. Not a blade of grass in sight, so no need for mowers. New from the Monkeynut - The real winter 2011. Following our idyllic romp on the beaches of Puerto Rico, we returned to especially cold and snowy conditions back in Stamford, CT. The icicles from our roof were picturesque, but turned into deadly daggers when they started to melt. Our Ford Focus became snowed in and spent a couple of weeks locked into a fortress of ice. Here are a few pictures. New from the Monkeynut - Winter 2011. The Monkeynut decided to flee the winter and take refuge in a tropical island paradise. Accordingly, we flew out of JFK on the morning of January 1, leaving our car in long-term parking along with a large number of identical white lumps, and landing at San Juan Puerto Rico, where our friend Joanne was waiting to greet us. Suddenly it was summer, with highs in the 80ies and sand in our hair. Bliss! We stayed in Rincon, on the far western shore of the island. Rincon is a small village, far away from the urban center of San Juan. It is known principally as a hang-out for surfer dudes and grizzled expats who are willing to tell you their life stories over a couple of rum punches. There are some beaches that I guess are well-known to the international surfer community, and the 1968 World Championships of Surfing were held in Rincon, although we didn't see a lot of surf or surfer action. There is a snorkeling/diving scene, especially around the island of Desecheo, which is a 45 minute boat ride from town. You can go parasailing; you can rent a boat and go deep-sea fishing. Inland, there are some parks with rain forest and lakes and some steep hills that offer E-ticket rides if you're brave enough to drive them. There is also the Río Camuy Cave Park, which features one of the largest cave systems in the world. And for the scientifically inclined, there is the Arecibo radio telescope, still the largest single reflector in the world, nestled into a hollow in the hills. The coolest place we went to was the southwest corner of the island, where we encountered the perfect beach, nestled in perfect little arc. And the best thing about it was that it was by no means crowded, presumably because of its distance from San Juan and the difficulties getting there. More pictures here.

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