I was grateful for the get-away, mostly because I have been going stark raving mad for the last month or so; this is the most "time-off" I've had in my entire life, and I have not taken well to it. They say a change is as good as a rest, and, in this case, it was true. Having a place to take some lovely photographs, somewhere to walk and enjoy the greenery -- something we really don't have where we live -- certainly perked me up a bit.
Would you like to hear some trip highlights?
Well, can you pretend?
Reginald Kitty is not amused.
*First off, I want to know who plans what time to do these meeting things that my dad has to travel down there for in the first ruddy place. Remember the Two Weeks Nightmare? It continues; not only are we going to miss Frank Turner on the next one we have to go to (by one day, no less), but we missed Warped Tour by five days.
Five. Days.
Also -- slightly connected rant -- why do we have such terrible Internet here in the middle of nowhere? I tried to watch some of the Warped sets that Fuse was streaming on YouTube, but it decided to stop working for the one set I actually waited eight hours to see.
I'll bet we could have streamed it if we were still in Austin, or San Antonio.
*Of all the times we have gone down to the Austin/San Antonio area, we have never gone in the summer. And, I suppose, there's a good reason for that.
Let's just put it this way: I almost died.
I don't tolerate heat well. Like, at all. I did really well, considering we were walking three to four mile stretches at one time, with temperatures in the mid-90s, and a matching humidity. Hell, I was dandy until I had to walk into the sun; we went for about a ten minute span smack dab in the middle of the death star's relentless rays, and similar conditions to the ones described. They later told me that if I had been in that sun for a single minute longer, I would probably have gone down.
Apparently, I get a little delirious in direct sunlight. Go figure.
Heat and death star aside, the crape myrtle trees were drop dead gorgeous this time of year. It also happened to be the prime blackberry season; needless to say, we've been eating blackberries for the last two days now.
*Are you wondering where we went on those three and four mile treks?
The first morning, we walked along the river in downtown Austin; we had never done it before, and it was well worth getting up early to do. That afternoon, we drove into San Antonio, and walked the River Walk both in the evening, and the next morning. What I found to be most strange was how many runners/joggers there were; maybe it's because I'm from The Internet, but I see absolutely no draw to running in the heat, or taking the chance of encountering the sun.
*We were nearly plowed into by four rogue squirrels. They bounded up a small set of stairs that we were just about to walk down. All four of them stopped so abruptly that you probably could have seen a cloud of dust gather behind their little haunches as they hastily ended their game; they looked at us, we looked at them, and they ran off at double speed. One little feller was very obliging, however, and ran up a tree to strike a pose before catching up with his friends.
I am the squirrel whisperer.
*If you didn't know, we come from a very isolated part of the state; or, more accurately, a very isolated part of the country. We heathens had never been to an IKEA before. Like, ever. Sure, we'd heard about it...
...but never been.
I'm also really annoying when I go to places like IKEA, much in the same way I'm practically intolerable with home improvement shows. I had outfitted an entire imaginary house: sinks, cabinets, counter tops, oven/stove, soft furnishings, you name it. My imaginary house was awesome.
It's time to put on a fun song to play in the Hill Country...
...and look at some holiday slides!
Oh, come on, I'm proud of these! They're in focus and everything!
