I left wonderful Chicago this morning, escaping the snow and the cold. The check-in and security took longer than last time (though still a tolerable 25 minutes), but the flight left on-time and arrived in Austin almost 30 minutes early. Thank you, Southwest. You may be a cattle car, but your on-time record can’t be beat.

Luckily, unlike my last flight, this one was only about 2/3rds full, so I had a row of seats to myself. I normally like to go all the way to the back to escape the freaks and children, but I ended up being stuck about two rows from two kids — aged baby and three. So much for my quiet flight.

The toddler shut up after takeoff (probably after shitting his pants) and the baby was mostly okay, but went berzerk around Dallas (1/2 hour from Austin by air). This would have been horrible except for one thing: The parent actually cared about her fellow passengers and tried her best to quiet the baby.

This was an amazing thing for me, as many parents these days seem so self-involved as to care two-shits about fellow humans. This parent, however, actually tried to quiet the baby down and even apologized to the people around her once we landed. Thank god there are still people with manners! Kudos to this mom.

A bit later Evelyn arrived and we headed back to the apartment, which is a disaster area — but in a good way. Evelyn has been packing like mad, getting things in boxes, bins, bringing down drapes, and on and on. Even patching the holes in the walls we made.

Around 2 we got an unexpected call from the AT&T lineman, who was at the house. By happy chance our new landlord was also there, so we headed over. 

This was the first time I had seen the house in person, and I was very pleasantly surprised. The bedrooms are bigger than I expected, the garage, while small, is perfect for a workshop. The yard is great, with a nice covered seating area. All in all, I think Evelyn did a really great job finding and locking in the place.

We did our walkthrough, and signed the lease today. Horray! More space. More privacy. More quiet (I hope). Less money in my pocket, but I think it’s a good move.

Toward the end of our visit Evelyn spotted our neighbors to the west. The lady was peeking around her house to see who it was. Evelyn went over and introduced herself, and I followed. The couple are retired and have been living in their house since it was built, over 40 years ago. We sensed that they were a little nervous about the new renters (since the houses on both sides of them are rentals). After a tour of their garden, and about an hour of just talking, I think that they are happy with the new people — us!

Later on we went back to the apartment and loaded up the car with boxes of books and cleaning supplies and other stuff. The great migration has begun.

And so we now have a house, albeit a rental. We have a nice sized master bedroom, an office for me, and a bright and cheery south-facing guest bedroom. Now we can, finally, host guests in comfort. I’m taking reservations.