Our Saturday started out pretty quiet, with us driving around the east side of Austin looking at neighborhoods. Later, we stopped for lunch at a place we’d been to before.

Before I know it, I’m hearing parametics say that they can’t transport me because my blood pressure was too low. Too low was an understatement: 53/31 … then 49/41. That’s right: forty-nine over forty-one. This delight brought to you by a food allergy. After two bags of IV Benedryl and .3 mg of epinephrine I was up to a robust 88/44.

Since I don’t remember most of what happed, check out Evelyn’s entry. She did a great write up:

Scary Moment

(The last thing I remember saying was “I don’t feel well” — I only recall bits and pieces after that — I don’t remember anything about wanting to sit in the chair. I didn’t gain full conciousness until the epinephrine was injected.)

I ended up in the hospital for a couple of hours, where they monitored my condition (not much they can do after the epinephrine is injected). The biggest problem was my BP, which continued to be quite low. By about 4 PM it was up enough for me to go home. The drive back was okay, but I almost blacked out on one turn, and pretty much couldn’t see anything (my eyes were likely dilated).

After we got home, I mainly rested. I started to feel a bit of a rebound (which happens) and took more Benedryl and Evelyn got the Prednisone (an immunosuppressant) from the CVS, and that helped a lot.

Today I’ve mainly been resting, though I was able to take a short walk outside. The medicines have me a bit zonked out, and I have to take the Benedryl until tomorrow and the immunosuppressant for the next couple days.

This wasn’t the first time I’ve had such a reaction, I had a much milder one in the early 1990s, and a major one after eating that bad doughnut at Ameritech in the late 1990s. However, this was the worst I’ve had. It really hit me like a ton of bricks and I was lucky to be in the city at the time. I carry an Epipen, but didn’t have it on me. Though, even if I did it wouldn’t have done me any good. It took no more than about 10 seconds between the point I started feeling weird to when I blacked out.

The paramedics and crew of Austin Station 23 did a great job on me. Super professional, quick, well trained, friendly, and capable. Want to see teams that work well together in times of crisis? Look at the medics. I was very impressed by them. An amazing job, and they even checked up on me later in the hospital to make sure I was okay.

Also, I was glad to be carrying my MedicAlert card, which had all my vital info. Once the paramedics saw that they knew that it wasn’t a heart attack but instead anaphylaxis. That one card meant that the epinephrine went in sooner, and that was a good thing for sure.

Finally, thanks to Evelyn for being there through what I know must have been a very stressful experience.  She kept it together even though her chulo was on the floor unresponsive. Te amo mucho mi amore.

Got back from Dallas yesterday. Lucky for me the traffic was pretty smooth flowing all the way. (We got out early, so I was able to beat the Labor Day weekend traffic.) The class was good, the hotel sucked–pretty much like last time, though less exhausting overall.

This weekend we’re going to stick around Austin, driving around the east side to see if there are any reasonably priced homes around. Generally, stuff east of I-35 is cheaper — and poorer. More crime, too, but a lot of that is relative. Crime by Austin standardds, not Chicago standards.

Back up in Irving, TX again for another week of training. Actually four days. The traffic was better this time, even though it was raining in Austin. I got to do a little hydroplaning on I-35, but that was about it for major adventure. About 3.5 hours door to door, with the only real slowdown being some Dallas rushhour traffic.

This time I came prepared, with a selection of packaged foods, so no exciting WalMart stories–unless I get really bored. I did get a different room, this one has a hot tub. Living large in the Microtel! Hopefully it will be quieter than the last. But, if it isn’t, I brought earplugs. It’s still better staying here given the huge cost difference. (The stuff in the Las Colinas area starts at $150 a night. Most everything is closer to $200.)

I think the same instructor is training this class (on OLAP) and I know where I’m going, so it should be pretty stress-free. Or, at least, it’s all expected stress (driving in Dallas can be a treat). Once this class is over, I’ll have one more in two weeks. That one starts on 9/8 and lasts 5 days–and it’s supposed to be the most grueling of all.

During our endless circles through New Braunfels yesterday, we started noticing street names. You had the Tree section (Willow, Sycamore, Walnut, Hickory, Chestnut) and the Fruits (Peach, Grape, Plum).

As so often happens in America, the ethnic areas are also roughly outlined. Things get more hispanic south of Hidalgo, with Concepcion and Zamora avenues. (Sometimes I think that streets are named MLK as a warning. It’s pretty crappy when you associate King Drive [as it's called almost everywhere] as a poor area. But, based on our travels at least, it’s almost always true.)

The funniest thing came when we encountered the Presidents. I could find only two: Roosevelt and McKinley. They are hard to find because they are barely a block long. Compare that to Lee Street (14 blocks), Stonewall (12 blocks). To hell with the damn yankees!

On our way out of New Braunfels last night, we decided to take a ride out to Canyon Lake. It’s about 20 miles north west of the town. We took FM 306 to get out there, then FM 2673 toward the south end of the lake, then an access road called Access Road. That leads up to the face of the huge earthen dam area. It’s quite nice, with a big lake. Here’s a video of the dam area.

It was starting to get dark (around 8:15) so we headed out. We back-tracked out to FM 306 again, this time headed north west a bit to see Canyon City, which appeared to consist of a bar and some tubing places. Ahead of me I saw what appeared to be another face of the dam. Holy shit, I thought, this thing is gigantic. As I turned, I realized I’d made a big circle and was back on Access Road again. We had a big laugh over that (check out a Google Map, it will make sense).

Now that we had driven on Access Road twice, we decided to go straight south east out from FM 2673. The road becomes River Road, a 16 mile stretch of road that follows the Guadalupe River. It’s really an interesting ride, with some parts looking like Puerto Rico and other parts looking like Wears Valley, TN.

There are quiet parts, but near the river crossings (you cross over the river four times) there are a ton of tubers, campers, RV sites, and so on. There were are TON of people out there, camping out along the river. A very busy vacation / weekend spot, for sure. (It was dark by now, so we couldn’t take any video.) We both came to realize why the Canyon Lake area is so popular. It’s very hilly, very green, and has a nice fast flowing river (with no motorboats) going through it. No dusty scrubland here, for sure.

Yesterday we went down to New Braunfels again to check out some rental properties, mostly apartments. We mostly struck out, with many of the buildings being sucky and/or section 8. There were two nicer ones, and another that was okay, but none of those were very close to the downtown area (and we aren’t sure if there are any available apartments).

We swung by a duplex, but it was too far out. Closer in, we went by a really nice little rental we found in the classifieds, only to find it was rented already. While drive around we did spot another rental, a bit run-down, so we’ll have to call and see (it’s also right next to a smokehouse, so I’m not sure of the noise level there.

Up and down the streets we drove, pretty much covering the entire section we’re focused on. Not much in the way of rentals, but there are a decent number for sale. During the drive we did confirm our original suspicions about the area–our boundary lines are holding pretty true. Anything close the I-35 isn’t any good, and the futher you go south of Walnut the sadder it gets. Once you go north of the river it’s too busy with the tube and waterpark traffic (like living near Great America).

It did pour during our first 2 hours there, which was good, as it showed where the flood areas are. There’s not much in the way of storm sewers, especially as you get further out of mainstreet, so it’s obvious that you have to be careful where you buy. Close to the river is iffy, too, as we saw a lot of those houses on stilts. (For Chicagoans, think of the houses along the Des Plaines river, and how it floods every so often.)

After the rains stopped, we walked around the downtown strip a bit. Pretty quiet, but there are a couple of good antique stores. A couple of sports bars, one coffee shop, and a handful of restaurants (some pricey, some not). One of our hopes was to find a second-floor place over a store, but most of those seem to have been converted to offices, so that shoots down that idea. (Lots of lawyers in town–it’s a county seat.)

At this point it looks like we’re going to talk to some real estate people in the area, checking to see if there are any house rentals. (I’m coming to the conclusion that rental an apartment would be pointless, and I’m really really tired of being in apartments.)

New Braunfels or not, I think we’ll be moving soon. The current place isn’t getting any quieter, and it’s just way too small for our needs. We don’t have room to work and we don’t have room for guests, so it’s no longer viable (plus, the rent is going up, again–in a market where occupancy is declining).

So I’ve been having these really weird dreams recently; more like nightmares. They all have a common theme: a lot of stuff. In the most recent dream, there were bikes, shelves of computer parts, monitors, books, gizmos, and everything in between. For some reason it was necessary to move these objects around.

Unlike some dreams, this one seems firmly footed in reality. We’re planning on moving in the coming months. That brings with it the happiness of new environments and the dread of packing up all this crap. Even in a tiny one bedroom apartment there’s a lot to pack, and there’s the furniture to move, which is always a treat.

We’re planning on overlapping our leases, at least for a week or two. It will cost me some money, but it’s easier than doing one of those “mad dash” weekend moves. And it’s really a matter of logistics, too. New Braunfels is 55 miles away and you can only handle so many trips a day along delightful I-35.

This weekend we’ll be scoping out the area some more. We’ve a general idea of the part of town we’d like to be in (as close to old “downtown” as possible). The challenge is finding a place in that area, as most of it is single family homes. (We figure that it’s best to rent as close to the place we’d like to buy as possible. No point in renting cheap along I-35 when that’s not where we want to end up. It wouldn’t give us an accurate “flavor” of the neighborhood.)

There are a couple of homes for rent, so those will be our first choices (if we can afford them). If not, then possibly a converted space along mainstreet (second floor apartment over a business). Last choice would be a traditional apartment building. (We didn’t see much in the way of duplexes, at least not in the area we want to be.)

For those following along with their maps, this is the general area we’re looking at:

We received the memorial for Guy today. We’ll be sending it to Puerto Rico, where he’s buried.

Guy Memorial Plaque

We hope it will be a nice memorial for a dearly loved cat.

Yesterday we took a drive down to New Braunfels, a town of about 55,000 people (up from 36,000 in 2000–quite some growth). It’s located between Austin and San Antonio, though closer to the San Antonio side.

The reason for our visit was to check out smaller towns to live in. The cost of Austin housing has been skyrocketing, even during the “downturn”, and it’s too expensive to buy here. Well, let me re-state that. It’s still ok compared to much of Chicago, IF you have two full-time incomes. Making the money we made in Chicago, it would be very do-able. But starting a business and not having full-time high-paying jobs? Forget about it.

That’s a shame, really, and will affect the whole feel of Austin. You see, a lot of the music and art scene is here because it was inexpensive to live. An artist could make a couple hundred bucks and pay his rent, often not needing a full-time office job. But now rents and housing are up-up-up, making it hard for the starving artists out there to make it.

Anyhow, the business that Evelyn and I are starting up doesn’t require us to be close to a major metro area, so we are very fortunate to be flexible in our location. (Thank god for computers, UPS, and high speed internet.) This has led us to search out a possible new place to live.

We had looked in places like Fort Davis and Alpine, which are beautiful areas, but are so far away from anything (the nearest Walmart is over an hour distant) that they become impossible. Retirement, maybe. Running a business, probably not. Bastrop was, and still is, on our short list. It has a nice state park nearby, but it’s a little too flat and a little too disconnected (not nearby an interstate). Though, it is pretty close to Austin.

We liked the idea of New Braunfels for a couple of reasons. For one, it’s on I-35, between Austin and San Antonio. Besides the cities, you have places like Kyle and Buda and San Marcos with all sorts of outlet malls and stuff. They are all sitting on that section of I-35. You have to pay attention to stuff like that, as we found during our time in PR, where it took an hour to get to a Home Depot.

Second, it’s a tourist town. During the summer, you have the water parks and the tubing. It’s a big draw to the area and brings in a lot of money. The downside, of course, is tourists. The upside is critical, though: business opportunities. I’d rather live in a lively town than a dead one, that’s for sure.

The power of tourism is made clear when you visit the nearby town of Seguin (pronounced se-GEEN), which has an utterly dead mainstreet, few people walking around, and feels generally sad. It may be a perfectly good place to live, but Seguin feels locked in the past while New Braunfels feels like it’s moving forward.

Third, we like rivers. New Braunfels has two rivers going through it. The Comal and the Guadalupe (gwad-a-loop). The Comal is the shortest navigable river in Texas and runs only in the city limits. It’s quite amazing, as it begins within Landa Park, emerging at the Comal Springs within the park. You sit there watching thousands of gallons of crystal clear water come up from nowhere, rushing downriver to the Guadalupe. On these two rivers you can canoe, paddleboat, fish, or (the most popular) tube. Neat stuff.

The old main street (San Antonio–because the Old San Antonio road ran through the town) was quieter than I hoped for. It has a good deal of antique stores, but I didn’t see much in the way of cafes or such. This is good and bad. Bad because the old street is a bit dead, but good because it means, again, possibilities.

While main street is quiet, the areas north and east of the old town (along 35) are full of the usual interstate fast food joints. There’s a brand new Target (they opened a larger one) and a Walmart Supercenter and a Kohls and a bunch of other stuff. A fifteen minute drive north brings you to the gigantic outlet malls in San Marcos, where you can find just about any of the usual crap (shoes, clothes, house stuff, etc). “Third best place to shop in the world” according to “The View”. LOL. Thank god I can get my Gucci bags nearby.

Anyhow, based on our initial sneak-and-peek, things look positive. So, we’ll go down there again, this time with apartment rental information and a camera. Our intention is to buy a house soon, but our rule of thumb is to live somewhere for a year before committing to it. It takes that much time to get a real flavor and understanding for an area. After a year, if things look good (money and otherwise), we’ll buy something.

Here’s the fourth and final installment of the gift opening. Thanks to Dave, Tiff, Glenn, and Lisy.