Clowning Around

King William

King William: the awesome neighborhood in which I used to live; the neighborhood that has more character than words or pictures can capture; a place you must live to understand.

My home.

 The neighbors.

Nature.

Restaurants, restaurants, restaurants.

My homing beacon, the Tower of the Americas.

Sights seen via a short bike ride.

Cheers King William!  Thank you for so many great memories!

Before and After

This is where I used to live.  It was beautiful with or without all of my treasures.  

Showers of Blessings

Today makes two weeks that Chris and I have lived in our new house in our new hometown.  Getting here was no small feat.  There were uncertainties about work and a home purchase.  On Tuesday, October 12, we packed our final possessions into a moving truck with no place to take them.  This was a low point - the kind that tests a marriage and patience and short tempers.  Then, this week happened.  I started my new job, Chris and I closed on our house, and Chris found work in our new hometown

Chris attributed our good fortune to the Dallas Cowboys win last Sunday.  His reasoning: He always has a good week after the Dallas Cowboys win.  I respectfully disagree.  There is someone greater than the Dallas Cowboys watching over us, guiding us, and blessing us.  Thankfully, His blessings do not depend on the Dallas Cowboys.

Moving - The End

Chris and I arrived at our new home four days ago.  We unpacked the final boxes last night, and we are already feeling quite settled.  Getting to this point, however, was nothing short of eventful...

1.  Chris was summoned for jury duty six days before we had to vacate our apartment in San Antonio.  He was subsequently selected to serve on the jury and was unavailable for three days.  Perfect timing.

2.  I rented a U-Haul truck for our move.  When Chris and I picked up the truck at the rental facility, I noticed that a lot of the trucks displayed messages about using the truck for "Your Moving Adventure" underneath happy pictures of animals and nature.  While the slogan and images evoked ideas of fun and pleasant memories, the act of moving does not actually create very many fun or pleasant memories.

3.  Moving is a beast when you have appliances and big furniture.  I now know that moving a couple of appliances and a few big pieces of furniture is a lot more work than moving twice as many boxes and small pieces of furniture.   Thank you so much to Ed, Felipe, and Justin for helping Chris and I load everything.  

4.  I loved my apartment in San Antonio so much that I became emotional when it was time to say good-bye and shut the door one last time.  In my defense, I believe that my emotional state was also affected by the temporary homelessness that followed.

5.  Regarding temporary homelessness, moving is a lot less stressful if you know when you can move into your new home before you have to leave your old home.  Praise God for good friends who shared their home for a few days and an enterprising young man who gave Chris and I a "cash payment discount" of 50% on late charges when we returned our moving truck two days late. 

6.  Renting a 26-foot moving truck with an auto transport trailer should probably be against the law, or at least against U-Haul company policy.  After four days with an oversized truck and trailer, I give you the "Top Ten Reasons Why You Should Never Rent a 26-Foot Moving Truck with Auto Transport Trailer":

(10) A 26 foot truck is the biggest truck you can rent from U-Haul and therefore costs the most money.

(9) Renting a 26 foot truck means that you have enough treasures to fill it, which is entirely too many treasures.

(8) Parking on the street is really your only option, and it requires half a block of empty space and no overhanging trees.

(7) Buying gas requires multiple transactions because most gas stations impose a $100 limit on each transaction.

(6) While driving, (a) the truck may leak fuel, (b) a chain on the trailer may drag the ground and create a never ending stream of sparks, and (c) these two events may occur at the same time. 

(5) The truck comes with a disclaimer that it is not waterproof, but the truck is too deep to examine for possible leaks after it is filled and it starts raining.  

(4) Backing up: The sheer size of the truck and trailer combination make it humanly impossible to simultaneously monitor both sides of the truck and remain close enough to yell directions at the driver attempting to back up  

(3) Backing up in public: Everyone offers to help, including a doped-out homeless person who stands behind the truck, yells confusing directions, and then exclaims halfway through the process that he "didn't know there was a trailer attached."

(2) Missing your exit on the freeway requires rerouting your trip instead of turning around and risking additional situations that require backing up in public.

(1) Driving the truck while towing the trailer will exhaust you mentally and physically, which leaves you in no state to unload the truck at your new home.  

Praise God for watching over Chris and I throughout our move and bringing us to our new home safe and sound.  I look forward to making new friends and memories in our new home.

Moving - Part 2

All the boxes, popping bubble wrap, and noisy rolls of packing tape have caused Doug visible anxiety.  I think he was beginning to worry that we might not take him with us.

Chris hypothesized that Doug was separated from his first family during a move, which has resulted in his current moving anxiety.  I don't know if that's true, but I do know that this has been a very stressful move for me (more on that later).  If a bad moving experience causes future anxiety, I will be a nervous wreck the next time I move.   

Apps

I'm not one to seek out the newest or coolest apps for my iPhone, but a friend recently showed me a really cool app for stitching photos together to form panoramic pictures.  My first attempt at using the app was at a women's NBA basketball game:

While this picture captures the atmosphere in an arena, all the movement going on caused my friend's head to look a bit Picasso like.  After more practice stitching photos, however, I was able to capture this pretty awesome picture of the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth:

Special thanks to Fred for showing me this cool app!  I'm lovin' it (that's a shout out to the McDonald's where I'm typing this)!

Moving - Part 1

Chris and I are in the process of moving.  The first step in our move was finding a new place to move to.  A few weeks ago, we made a last minute trip to the Valley, our future home, to look at housing options.  Because the trip was last minute, we had no choice but to take Doug with us.

We left our apartment early in the morning.  Doug was very excited when I asked him if he wanted to go for a ride as we were preparing to leave.  Doug was also very excited to be in the car with us as we traveled over 200 miles to our destination.  Doug was even more excited once we arrived in the Valley and stopped at a park to play ball.  Doug was not so happy, however, when we left him in the car as we began looking for our new home.  At first, Doug cried as we walked away from the car without him.  After a couple of stops, he realized what was going on and tried with all his might to sneak out of the car as we shut the doors.   I felt sorry for Doug, but we always made sure to crack the car windows, park in the shade, keep our stops as short as possible, and give Doug plenty of time between stops to recover from the increased anxiety he appeared to be experiencing.

Toward the end of our house hunting day, we stopped at a house and left Doug in the car.  I cracked my window and squeezed out my door while holding Doug at bay.  Chris and I entered the house with our real estate agent and began looking at the living space on the main floor.  After three or four minutes, we heard the front door open.  Chris, the real estate agent, and myself turned around at the same moment and were surprised to see the door opening by itself.  When we looked down, we saw Doug running toward us with his ears back, tongue out, and whole body wagging as if to say, "Hey guys, you forgot me in the car but aren't you proud of me for finding you."  Chris and I looked at our real estate agent in disbelief and then walked to the car.  The car doors were securely shut.  That's when we noticed the smear marks on the passenger side window likely caused by dog paws and a wet nose, and we realized that Doug squeezed his way through the crack in the passenger side window.  I imagine it looked something like this picture I took one time while I pumped gas, only with a much smaller crack in the window:

Silly Doug.  Next time we'll plan better and leave you at doggy day care.