Let's talk about Austin, TX

i prefer sweating over freezing

 

Same, except it hits below 60 now a days and Im freezing.

 

german in SC here, used to walk out in a shirt when it was snowing. now i wear my thick parka when temps drop <60 LOL

 

There is nothing funnier than going out when it hits 40 degrees and seeing locals dressed like they are going to McMurdo Station in the dead of winter.

 

Upside is most everyone in Austin has AC. Downside is they like it cold, as in ~70 or less.And they leave it on, even when it's cooler and breezy outside.

Fair warning, Alex: if you have any allergies to Cedar pollen, be prepared. They call it "cedar fever", and it's brutal.

-jim

 

It did get down to 17, with 35mph winds added on top in January. That was cold.

-jim

 

70 inside is not cold. 75 inside is unbearably hot.

 

I don't have any allergies except spinach. My wife on the other hand has pretty bad pollen allergies. She lives on Claritin and Benadryl.


Our temp office AC sucks when we are all in it. Ordering a proper swamp cooler to use until we move it. But what everywhere else has AC. Nice change of pace from SoCal.

 

Me either, and I still feel it on bad days. Its BAD here. Might want to investigate prescription strength stuff for the wife when it gets to that season. People are not lying with how bad the allergies can be here.

 

Story time. I've arrived officially in Texas as of yesterday evening. Trip was easy but my truck definitely cracked an exhaust manifold and was getting 13mpg. But my living situation is an odd one. TL;dr version not available.



So I rent this room off Craigslist. Couldn't see it when I was out here the last 3-4 times. So I just paid for it via surepay last month. I end up back out here after I paid and she was "out of town" so I couldn't even stay for the week I was here last time. Ok so whatever. Moving on.

Saturday morning I roll. I get to El Paso, TX that night and the whole city was filled with what I can only assume to be people who got rejected from burning man and there's no hotel rooms available. So I drive another 1.5 hours to some random 1/2 horse town that had a single motel right off the freeway. That knocked out about 8-900 miles of the trip though.

Get up Sunday morning and start the drive to Austin. Eventually for the last 3 hours I take some sweet back roads through some little towns and through the country. Super cool and that was the most enjoyable part of my trip. But I get a text from my buddy Craig who tells me to make sure I fill up before I get to Austin because everyone is hoarding gas.

100 miles outside of Austin I stop at 3 gas stations and all of them are out of gas. It's god damn apocalypse. Finally find a station that only has 93 left and I fill up both tanks in the truck 17/19 gallons, my 5 gallon VP jug and the desert tank on my KTM.

Back on the road I finally get to my first stop to drop off the KTM at Craig's. I roll up just as his wife is getting back from dropping him off at the airport. No big deal, I unload it and move on. I had texted the lady I was renting from much earlier in be day telling her I would be arriving around 6. She says ok. So I text her again. No response. And again. About 15 minutes later she says she's not home. Ok....

So I go grab dinner and I'm done an hour later. I drive over to the house. I text her again. She ONLY answers texts. Don't try and call this lady. No response. I'm out front sorting the donations for Hurricane Harvey waiting. She calls me and tells me she wants to meet me in a minute then she has to go back to work but the other guy moving in is also from California. She hangs up on me while I'm talking.

The other guy Ed is moving his stuff in so I follow him into the house (first mistake). I stand in the front hall waiting. There's a curtain that blocks the back half of the house. I hear her on the phone behind the curtain. It's like the wizard of fucking OZ around here. I hear her hang up the phone and I say "hi Jennifer it's alex" and I get no response. She ignores me and makes 4 other phone calls. 10-15 minutes later she comes out and shit gets even weirder.

I get pretty much scolded for and I quote "yelling to her behind the curtain" and that I should "NEVER do that EVER" and "I can't believe you just walked into the house". Ok. I apologized and asked if we could just move on, I've been in my truck for 20+hours. Already she's complaining that the new guy left the seat up and she's trying to make sure I didn't do that. (No, you lunatic I didn't use your bathroom and I live with a woman I don't leave the seat up). She brings me to the room (right next to the front door) and starts going through the room. Showing me how to use light switches, closet doors and fans. She then shows me the "smart tv" (it's a furnished room) which is an 8 year old 27" Sony tv with rabbit ears and a VHS/DVD combo connected to it. She mentions a "DVD closet" that I can borrow dvds. I also get told that I'm getting "the best deal in the house because it's the 2nd master suite" (it's not, but it is a good deal).

She then shows me the laundry room, bathroom, etc. crazy signs saying DO NOT TOUCH ANYONES STUFF IN WASHER OR DRYER. Ok fine. Next up is the "kitchen" she takes me into the 2 car garage and shows me a counter with a hot plate (she called it a stove), a microwave, a coffee maker that looks like it belongs in a shitty old gas station and an "oven" (its a toaster oven). She also says this is the "lounge" but to try and not hang out in it.

Then we go back to the hallway and she wants to talk money. So I mention to her that I would like to work out $$ because I was forced to stay somewhere else when I came last time. She wants to argue that it was just $$ to hold the room. I told her absolutely not. So she shuffles me back into the room and then realizes that she fucked up. So she works with me and takes a week off rent. So I'm doing the math and she's now talking to me like I'm a complete moron who doesn't understand basic math at all. Ok lady. Thanks for the prorate.

I tell her that most of the stuff in my truck is hurricane harvey relief donations and that it won't be that much stuff come next week. She opens the curtain a little and looks at me with a disgusted face "you drove THAT here??"and I just look at her and say "yeah, the whole way too". She gives me the confused dog head tilt look and just says "oookkkkk".

Then she texts me asking me for a copy of my ID and to leave it in the "communication book" in the hall. Then kind of freaks out at my Georgia drivers license and doesn't understand how I can be from California and have a Georgia license. So I point out my Georgia phone number and explain to her that I lived there for 3.5 years and never changed it. So then after that she says she leaving an "info sheet" in the book as well and to fill it out.

This lady wants all my info including emergency contact and my social security number. LOL. Fuck that. I make up a fake social and put it back in the book. I've been laying here for the entire morning trying to decide if I'm being completely irrational in not wanting to live here.

 

I assume you will only be staying there long enough to find somewhere not owned by a Bates....

 

I told @crashman if he doesn't hear from me because this lady ate my still beating heathen heart to avenge me.

And it was suppose to be either til November 1st or December 1st but I doubt I'll last that long.

 

Welcome to Austin!

 

Can you pay for weekly? Gotta be somewhere, ANYWHERE else....

 

I would start looking, she was probably on her "best behavior", Just wait till she lets her guard down.

 

Just, yikes. You and that other guy standing post? I would be...

 

And don't eat any of her food...shudder...

 

I'd go find one of those long-term hotel suite things. May be a chance to write it off, too.