Well, we've been in Austin six months now. Cliché I know, but in some ways it feels like we just got here, in other ways it feels like we've been here an eternity. We spent the first five months in a very average rental house that we found out, after the fact, was being foreclosed. I'm no lawyer (see post below) and I don't claim to play one on TV but I'm fairly certain not disclosing this small fact before we signed the lease was illegal. (The Property Society gets zero stars on Yelp). Fortunately, everything worked out and we didn't get the boot from the bank before our new house was done.
The week we moved into our new house we also filmed our episode of HGTV's "House Hunters." As I said, I don't play an attorney on TV but I can act like a dumb, skinny guy from Utah moving to Austin pretending to be surprised walking into his new "big kid" house for the first time that he's built from the ground up and already visited about 200 times. Reality TV = more TV, less reality. In retrospect it was fun and I'm glad we did it but at the time with work, packing, moving, wrapping up mortgage loans, swapping utilities, etc. it was kind of nuts. For a 23 minute show it was pretty much a full time job for the week. Our episode is scheduled to air in April or May. You know how they say everyone hates their voice on tape? Well, I really hate mine and feel like a giant grapefruit sized head on a toothpick whenever I see myself on film.
Bike racing is the real deal here. If you race cyclocross in the fall and winter then you can definitely race year round if you like. I jumped into the last few "Thursday Night Worlds" crits last fall and made my debut at two road races (more like circuit races) this season. The Driveway crit series is a P/1/2/3 race so I've had a chance to rub elbows with the Elbowz team, Bissell, Lance's Junior LiveStrong team and the Garmin Chipotle Junior team. "Rub elbows" is really hang on for dear life and stay out of the way. Good fun though for an old guy.
Speaking of cycling, I've already had more road rage encounters on the bike in six months than I had the past five years in Utah. Austin is a hip, progressive, healthy, athletic town for the most part but, man, watch out for the redneck and his Texas-sized truck. One such redneck, for no apparent reason other than perhaps being jealous of my girlish figure, decided to lay on his horn right behind me. I responded with my favorite junior high, one-fingered salute. I kept riding, around the bend, only to see him out of his truck waiting for me on the side of the road. Fortunately he was about my size, my age, and equally as lame. We both swung our manhood around a few times, impressed each other with our monosyllabic vocabularies, and he got in his truck and drove off. No harm, no foul – but maybe I need to learn to keep my finger to myself?
Anyway, in a nutshell that's it for our first six months in Austin. No Jesse James sightings. No Lance Armstrong sightings. Holly and I saw Pennywise at SXSW this week which totally rocked. Can't say I miss snow or winter at all. I'm happy to be here and really like Austin. I'm withholding judgement on Texas as a whole for now but our house, neighborhood and Austin are great. Adios.
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