The living room looks like a living room. I suppose I could take some photos of it now, along with my office. Both were finished yesterday. I am very pleased with how my office looks, but I need more books to fill the shelves. I will need to find a free/cheap book place and see if I can get some more stuffs.

Thursday I go to UNT and see my adviser to select the courses I will be taking this fall. I have decided to go to UNT (though TWU is still possible depending on what kind of offer they make me, if any). This fall I will take the mandatory courses and then build my program based on my own interests.

A mocking bird is sitting on our fence doing the car alarm call. The one where you set your alarm, and have a multiple set of tones. How's that for changing times. I am sitting on our cement pad in the back yard this morning. We have the possibility for rain, it is 78 going for 90, and it feels great. In fact it may be starting to rain so inside I go.

No license yet, but another step closer, I hope. It is a pain to go through all the paperwork and such like. gahhh I hate forms.

The Towers of TWU.

I left home as soon as there was enough light so that cars would not run over me while I was pushing my grocery cart back to the store. This was a walk I had been dreading since Saturday, but it was not too bad an experience. Bad being a relative word in this case. Anyway, no one run me down, no one pointed and laughed, though one guy did wave (driving an old rusty Ford). The walk itself was pleasant enough. The temperature was in the mid to high 70's, breezy, and a wee bit humid. I would have had fun if not for the rattly old cart.

On my way home I stopped at a specialty store and they have some of the things I need for survival (nutritional yeast with B-12, vital wheat gluten, braggs) that I cannot get at the usual store. That was a nice thing to discover.

From there I went over to a used book store. Big store, lots of books. Multi-level. Bigger than the two story one in Edmonton, bigger than the ones in Raleigh and Chapel Hill. They have a rare book section that I totally avoided. No way I am going in there, uh uh, nope.

I rode the DCTA (Denton County Transit Authority) bus home, and had no problems. The driver let me off at my intersection even though there is no stop labeled.

This afternoon I am going to be working in my office. Putting up shelves, moving my cpu under the desk, setting up a printer table, and putting things away. Should take me most of the afternoon.

I don't remember if I mentioned this yesterday (did I post yesterday?), but the living room is painted and I have the book shelves on the wall. That room feels warm and inviting already, and we have not finished with it.

Jinxed Saturdays

I woke at five, as is normal for me now that I have acclimated to central time. After a couple of quick coffees I headed off to see if I could find the local farmer's market. After getting one house down the road I turned back. I had forgotten to grab some bags and a hankie (for wiping sweat off me). Back on the road a minute later I headed off with few qualms. Heck, I had all my directions printed so I knew where to turn and how far to walk (3.4 miles). And the walk went well. I now know where the police hide, where the Denton County correctional facility is, where the courthouse is, where the bail bondsman are, and more. The town is clearly a mix between a county seat, a farming center, and a college town. It should be an interesting mix I think. I wonder if there are some great bar fights here. Not that I will ever know, but it might be worth putting in a story/poem don't you think?

Any way, from what I have seen Texas is not that much different from other parts of North America. Once you have seen one paved parking lot, you have seen them all. The blight of strip malls along major highways is also far to common to be able to say that it is interesting. The names change, but the ugliness remains the same.

The farmer's market is tiny, with only half a dozen people selling, though that might change as the day goes on. I did get some interesting foods (onions, tomatoes, potatoes, leeks, beets, Swiss chard, and a parsnip) that I will be eating for a few days.

After leaving the farmer's market, I decided to slip down to another store to get some of the things we needed but I could not get at the market. The store I was looking for kept avoiding me (it must have been sneaking around back alleys because I did not see it on the main streets). I knew I was not that far from the Kroger's I went to last Saturday (first day in Denton), so I decided to walk there. I took a few minutes to check out the Ace and bring home a bright bulb for the garage and a new hand cultivator for the front flower beds. The bulb in the garage was just 100 watts and the place was dark enough to ensure a spider's ecstasy.

Grocery shopping went smoothly, and I even bought some frozen stuff anticipating a quick return home. Last Saturday, the taxi picked me up 15 minutes after I called and I was home shortly there after.

This morning, however, was a different story. I called, the taxi man says, sorry, we only have one cab on duty (the dispatcher driving that one), it is doing a round trip, and there is another pick up after that (no idea where it is going). The best I can say is it will take an hour (or more), do you want to be put on the list? I grumbled, but from previous experience with the cab company (AA Taxi)it would be much more than that. I said no. I thought about lugging the bags home by hand, but figured that was impossible (big can of cat litter among other things) and began pushing the cart home.

3.1 miles later, and a little grumpy cussing (the local bus service does not start running until after 10 am on Saturdays) I return home wet from sweat and with rather sore feet. I put the cart up to the front door, open it, drag in one bag, turn around and the cart is rumbling down the front lawn heading for the street. I lunge and skippy trot to catch it before it gets too far (cussing at Carol for not coming to the door when I arrived), and get the cart back to the front door. This time I wedge the cart securely into the door before beginning to unload once more.

A knock knock comes from the garage. Carol had seen the garage door open, stepped into the garage looking for kitties closed the door to keep the one in the house in the house, and locked her self in. She had been sitting there for at least half an hour (needing to use the bathroom and considering possibilities) waiting for me to come home.

So, now we have a grocery cart in our garage (I will have to push that back Monday). After getting everything stored and a bit to eat, I had a long hot bath. My feet thanked me for that (they still do). I am feeling mostly recovered now, and am almost prepared to laugh.

We bought the car, a 2001 Kia, and in a few days I will be on the road again. Look out Texas!

I am reluctant to open the freezer and investigate the popsicles. I suspect they will be rather interestingly shaped.

If anyone is looking for a business opportunity, I think you could do quite well by opening a taxi company in Denton. One cab for a town of 80, 000, ridiculous.

Next Day

I was going to go down town this morning, but I have decided I would rather stay home and paint. Actually, I need to go to Kroger's for some of the other things and the necessity for two or three taxi rides was not all that appealing. I will have time to do the down town exploration some other day.

I did not finish painting yesterday, though I did get one coat of the Gothic gold on the walls. I will do another coat this morning, and decide then if I need to do anything else.

We may be getting a car. An old beater, but it should do us for awhile, allow us to get our licenses, and putter about in the mornings. It is almost as hard to get around Denton as it is Cold Lake if one does not have a car. More on that in the future.

Evening

I had to throw two coats of paint on the wall, but it is not looking half bad now. I still have some touch up to do, but the job is essentially done.

After supper I went out into the back yard and rooted through two raised beds pulling weeds and prickly vines. Then I went out front and picked up a pile of leaves left over from the shrubbery fixing that occurred not long before we arrived. I also dug out the weeds in the little flower beds that are around our mail box. I have one more bed to dig up out front. It has some kind of vine in it, but it is not doing well and needs ripped out and replaced. I will likely work on that later this coming week.

Right now, I am going to finish drinking my glass of pink stuff and then go have a bath and sleep really really good. I have not done this much physical work in years. I am pleased with what I have done.

One week in Texas!

Painting Denton Gold

Gothic Gold actually. I was going to go to the farmer's market this morning, but decided to work at finishing the painting as quickly as possible. I want to get the shelves up, the books unboxed and out of the way so that the living room is finished.

It is a beautiful morning. The sun is up, the birds are singing, and I am enjoying our new place.

11:08 Two coats of Killz is on the wall, the painting tools are cleaned and drying, and I am getting ready to cook a quick lunch. Already, the living room is 100 times brighter and looking more spacious. I am still learning to paint, but the second coat looks a lot better than the first one did.

Tuesday

Just a quick update. I went to Lowes today (it is about 2.5 miles away, but on a nasty road so I taxied both ways) and picked up most of what I need to get the place looking nice again. I felt sick when I heard the total for the purchases, but most of it is long lasting, and will keep the house in decent shape.

I will be painting a little bit this week/weekend. I do hope to be done by Friday night, but that may not happen. It will depend on how much trouble I have getting ready and finishing things off.

Thursday I hope to get down to the farmer's market and get some fresh veggies. I am craving a tasty tomato.

Other than that, I have been busy unpacking and moving things around and making small repairs here and there.

It is feeling more and more like home.