I played the record backwards but all I got back was a cat

And why the long silence this time, you ask?  Well, here’s the deal: you know that truck I got?  Of course you do, that’s its picture right there in the entry before last.  Well, in spite of what I may or may not have told the loan company, I didn’t get it to do no once-a-month recreational trip.  Nope, I’m leaving Austin at the end of May and heading – actually, I’m not sure where ultimately at this point.  I do plan on touring the country for the summer, or until the money runs out, whichever comes first.

Becoming a road-bum, in other words.  You always knew I had it in me.

This of course entails quitting my job at UT, which is just fine because since at least 2008 it’s been the only thing holding me to Austin and around the turn of this year I realized it’s a dead-end professionally and generally just not worth staying for in a town I don’t really like all that much.  So adios, Bat City.  It’s been real, though rarely as weird as all the Austin-boosters would have you believe.  (Whatever “weird” could possibly mean in the center of a middle-America state like Texas to begin with.)

I’m more than ready to go.  Since buying the truck I’ve outfitted it with a camper shell and a bed/storage platform inside and now it looks like this:

Taken the rig on a test-run too, a week in Big Bend and the Guadalupe Mountains during which I slept in it every night.  (Though I got some practice putting up my tent anyway just to see if I remember how.)  Took my cat Sadie with me to see how she likes the road and she seems to fine, especially when she’s watching it roll away from the center armrest:

No, you're right, we're not actually in motion at the moment

So now all I have to do is finish selling my stuff, collect whatever other money is owed me, and drive away.  I decided to leave Austin back in mid-February and a week later my landlords, completely unaware of the decision, informed me I’d need to give up my apartment soon to make room for baby they’re expecting.  So everything works out for everybody, including the people I work with.  I haven’t been exactly cheery since realizing I’m in a dead-end job and haven’t done much to conceal it.

Anyway, it’s the end of an era.  Or at least nine and a half years in Austin.  Take your pick.  I’ve got a birthday coming up, one of the 10-year ones, and starting a new phase of life is my present to myself.  A damn good one, I’m pretty sure.

Santa Elena Canyon, Big Bend

Sadie wants to go exploring in the evening, Marathon TX