Sitting here and staring out of the window, watching the temperature rise to 99 degrees and wondering if today is the day when it reaches 100, I came to the conclusion that I don’t really like the heat anymore.

Used to be that it didn’t bother me as I spent a lot of my working life out in it for eight or more hours a day at least in the early part of my career here in America. It wasn’t until I grew smart around the year of 1981 when I moved into a desk job at the University of Texas at Austin as a Manager of Planning and Scheduling that I was able to pretty much pick and choose when I went out in the heat on inspections and such and it stayed that way for the next 22 years when I retired.

It is not just the heat. As I grow older, I am quite naturally slowing down not only on my physical ability but also the desire to perform many of the outside tasks in owning a house especially with the three ponds that I built over the preceding years. At one time, that was up to five ponds but I have since closed down two of them albeit that one still requires dismantling and filling back in. I will probably get Derrick, the guy that trims my trees, to take on that task. Incidentally, the rocks surrounding that particular pond have not only grown in size and number but they are also now twice as heavy as when I installed them a few years back. Must be magic that happens with age.

Growing older also does disturbing things with the brain and I am not talking about just forgetfulness although that is one of them. Apart from the fore mentioned rocks that grow in size and weight, there is also the problem of a restless spirit. You would think that being old would have satisfied any desires in roaming around the country or in my case, a small portion of the world but no, I have a wander bug and it is beginning to really work on me.

To be truthful, it is all a part of my long term planning which incidentally, grows shorter by the day. I have the urge to travel which in order to do, I will need to sell this house that I have lived in for the past 35 years. Again, the ponds are the reason for this decision as they need tending to all of the time primarily because of the Koi, Goldfish and Turtles that both need feeding and the ponds themselves need maintaining. I can’t do that and travel and basically, it is all a part of my retirement plan to buy an Airstream, drive around the countryside for as long as I am able, then park it at one of the campgrounds for whatever is the duration of my life.

Maybe, I am just a dreamer and none of this will never happen but I have started to look at travel trailers specifically, the Airstream models. They are the last word in luxury camper travel. Some of the other trailers are also very nice and each offers something different but I have my heart set on an Airstream.

Funnily enough, houses are still selling at a pretty good clip at least around Austin as so to are travel trailers. Many of the dealerships are advertising to purchase used trailers and sales have gone through the roof. With the current lock down here in Texas, I have a lot of time to do research and besides, it is a lot cooler indoors. Of course, my two little dogs still insist that we go walking late in the afternoons heat or no heat. I leave it as late as I can to walk but it is only a few degrees cooler by 7:30 pm which is usually the time we go out. Our walk is a little over 2 miles most of the time. I have to thank the dogs for if they weren’t so insistent, I would not get any exercise at all.

Maybe in the future, these blogs will be coming from anywhere USA. I hope so.

Damn Texas heat.

7/5/2020