If You Can't Stand The Heat...

Yeah, it's hot. 100 degrees today.

Our Texas pals are crying me a river, I know, but bear with me here: our house is so straight-up righteous that we don't have any air conditioning. It's so hard core that there aren't even any ceiling fans. I believe we are the only house on the street -- the block! -- with no air conditioner. Even the house next door, that has had only three owners in its 100 years, has air. They can all be that way. If people lived in this house for 120 years without air conditioning, we can tough it out too. There's no school like the old school, know what I'm sayin'?

None of yer new-fangled technology here, young man!

We can get some nice air flow going when there's air worth flowing, but today we opted to shut up everything to retain the nighttime coolness throughout the day. It worked, mostly: it never hit 90 in the house. The children didn't cry too much, perhaps because they sat in a daze, flushed and perspiring.

I KID.

Now that it's 11 pm, it's cool enough to open the windows. Eleanor is sleeping on the floor with a fan pointed at her head. Julia is sprawled on her bed with a fan pointed at her head. Diana and Isabel are both in the crib, with a fan pointed at their feet, but it's hitting their heads too. Jack is on the couch, with a fan pointed at his head, talking up a storm to me at 11 pm because it's too hot to sleep. And I'm letting him, because it's too hot to touch him long enough to drag him upstairs.

Glancing back through the archives, I see we complained about the heat when we were in Texas as well -- understandable as our air conditioner broke down twice a year, May and August, regular. And now as then, I say: it's too darn hot.

They're coming to take us away...

Today is it: they're packing us up for the Great Journey North. Never has the house been so clean. Never before has all the laundry been folded. Two years after we laid the floors and week before the move out, all the baseboards and transitions and shoe molding were nailed up. It's looking good here -- can't wait to see the pix after the house is painted and new carpet and faucets installed. Anyone want to buy a house near Austin, TX?

We lose home internet today or tomorrow, so posting may be light. That's all right, because all we'd be saying anyway is either, "Are we mad?" or "Are all the people mad?"

But before we go dark, let us call out a few of the fine Texas bloggers that we'll miss:

Jen of Conversion Diary
Dorian of Scrutinies
Opinionated Homeschooler
Brandon of Siris
Julie of Happy Catholic
Nicole of Words, Words
Tito and John Henry, contributors to The American Catholic
Kyle of Journeys in Alterity
Christopher of Sanctus Christopher

This place, right now

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Yesterday I was driving in a part of Austin I've never visited, coming up 1st St. from the south. We crested a hill and the city lay before us, steel and glass framed by trees. And I was overwhelmed by a sense of place -- this city, right now, our city; this, our view.

Later we approached I-35 and were confronted with the choice: north to Waco, south to San Antonio, exit only. Once again we were oriented in space, and possibilities opened up. I was seized with a desire to drive to San Antonio in response to the invitation of the south-bound sign. But we turned left and headed resolutely north.