Well, today is the last day of our first full month
down in Texas. Officially we’ve been down here 47 days, and let me tell you,
the longer I’m here, the faster things seem to be going.
How are things going?
Glad you asked!
The house is in a good place. We’re about 99 percent
unpacked, with about 90 percent of everything in its right place. We bought a
sofa and two swivel chairs from a neighbor for our living room. We bought two
new bed sets for our daughters, and a new bed frame for ourselves. A table and pictures
for the foyer. Everything seems well with the place. The girls have their own “apartment”
upstairs, but we all gather from time to time to watch a TV show together after
dinner.
Oh, I just had an ADT alarm installed, and can control
everything – a doorbell camera, a rear driveway camera, video recordings from
both, the alarm itself and the panic button – all from my phone. So we feel
safe. Not that we didn’t before: it’s a safe neighborhood. However, that safe
neighborhood comes at a price, as we just got a letter from the HOA to replace
two dead bushes at the side of our home or be fined. Oh well.
The girls are slowly but steadily adapting to their
schools and schedules. We met all their teachers on two separate nights. Little
One is taking an astronomy class, and they have star parties every Monday after
a New Moon. Guess where I’m taking her next Monday! In the evenings when I’m
cleaning up the kitchen they like to take out their bike and electric scooter
and zip up and down our quiet streets. We do have two community pools, one of
which has a volleyball court, Patch’s latest obsession now that she’s on her
middle school team, though we only have been there once. Patch’s first volleyball
game is tomorrow night.
Me, I’m getting by. Applied to thirteen jobs to date –
lucky thirteen! – and have spoken with two recruiters. Had two interviews with
a major soft drink manufacturer down here, but despite me following up, they haven’t
reached back out to me. I think I might be overqualified – that’s the message I
picked up during the second interview. I am waiting to schedule a phone
interview with another company I reached out to, this one in health care, which
is more aligned with what I was doing up north. They emailed me stating they
were very impressed with my resume, but we’ll see.
To keep from going stir crazy I think I’m going to resume
work on my space opera novel. I started outlining it last fall (up to 16 pages
worth) and worked on it off and on until the logistics of the move in April took
everything over. It’s calling out to me, so I think I’ll break out that
outline, fatten it out some more, and start composing some sections in no
particular order (ever ambitious, I wrote seven story lines into this novel,
so, similar to how movies are filmed, I see no particular importance to write
the novel in exact chronological order).
I started off walking and working out religiously, but
may have overdone it. I’m not a kid anymore. Indeed, sadly enough, it seems
half my daughters’ teachers are young enough to be my children. I took
yesterday and today off, but tomorrow I think I should resume walking, maybe a
mile or a mile and a half, instead of my usual 2.5, and maybe do some
stretching instead of lifting the dumbbells. It helps with the attitude, the
mindset.
Speaking of religion, we joined a local church down
here. It’s actually a huge church, perhaps three times the size of the church
we left up north. But we’re happy with it. We were actually selected to bring
up the gifts to the altar two weeks ago, in front of a congregation of probably
five or six hundred people. The church itself is new but retains a very
reverent vibe, mixing traditional sacred art and design with the southwestern
architecture so prevalent down here. Patch is looking to be confirmed this
year, so we’ll have to investigate that now that we’re members.
The wife has been steadily growing in her new job. She’s
making great coin, so money’s not a worry. She’s been out bonding with her team as well
as her boss, and everything seems to be going well for her. Actually, we haven’t
had a bad experience down here. The neighbors we’ve met have all been
wonderful. Everyone’s been so nice. I think in 47 days I’ve only been honked at
once on the roadway – a daily occurrence back north up in Jersey.
Book-wise, I wrapped up Frankenstein a few days ago and am finishing Keegan’s WW2 book on
naval warfare this afternoon. I’m still adhering to my reading plan of a few
weeks ago (now halfway done, by the way), but I think I’ll supersede Symond’s World War II at Sea with a book about
Texas history I picked up for a dollar in a thrift store I went to with the
little ones. And maybe chase that with the Asimov book, The Stars Like Dust, I picked up last Saturday.
More to come …
Patch’s room making a cameo on the second floor.
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