INTO THE WOODS

The apartment is over a garage, accessed by three decks, behind the house where I live with my dog, Winnie and my indoor cats-Mack, Jack & GC. I have an outdoor kitty, Clara, who walked out when I brought home foster kittens and refuses all attempts to bring her back inside.
The guest house has a coded, keyless entry.
Inside is a vaulted ceiling living/dining/work/kitchen area which is a colorful, art and light filled space.
The bedroom is art filled and restful and connects to the bathroom.
We are located in the Wilshire Woods subdivision, which was Austin’s first planned neighborhood. It is bounded by 38th St., Airport and IH 35. It remains a woods, even though we have lost many beautiful oaks to disease. I have a large deceased tree waiting to be turned into tree sculpture-waiting for me to decide what to put up there.
We are walking distance to buses, shopping, eateries and grocery shopping, going west. There are restaurants, a movie theater, Mueller Lake Park (lake is an exaggeration I will add-pond maybe) where there is a farmers market on weekends and movies in the park for families and children, music, and more. There are also Food Trucks! Austin is becoming known as a foodie city and a big part of that are the bounty of food trucks. And 5 or 6 are at Mueller just a short walk and a hop across Airport, or a very short drive for that matter. Short is the point.
Hospitals and physicians are also within a mile-3 minutes in traffic-15 minutes if you can walk-one minute if I’m driving, and I will be if you can’t walk.
The University of Texas is south about 2 miles and Downtown is less than 4 miles. You can hear the Longhorn band if the wind’s right. If the wind is just right you can hear the bands perform at ACL or SXSW.
AND you (I) can hear the freight trains that run behind us after 11. They are not allowed to blow the horn (but sometimes they do!) but if they have a heavy load, they can make some racket. I provide a room fan and ear plugs for light sleepers, like me. Most people tell me they haven’t heard the train. Young people! No fan or earplugs. Deaf by headphones or ear pods is all I can figure.
Any part of town is easily accessible-at least relatively so. Austin has outgrown its highways and streets, so rush hour is never easy going with the traffic into downtown, even close in it can take 15-20 minutes. That is just telling you the unvarnished truth. If someone says they are a 20 minute drive to downtown and they live more than 5 miles from Downtown, they mean at 4 AM on Tuesday. Not 7-9:30 AM on any given weekday. And not after 1 PM on a game day or any Friday.
I do my part for water conservation in Texas, also. So if it don’t rain, (and that is all summer every summer) the grass goes brown. That way we have plenty of water for a long bath or shower, or both, without guilt! The water is heated by a tankless water heater, so you also will never run out of hot water-not even if you are the last one to shower. Parents-please mind your children as the water is hot, so never allow small children to run their own bath!
The house and guest house are energy efficient and there are solar panels on top of the guest house. So you can stay up all night watching TV or reading, or playing bongos-naked-standing on furniture-with every light in the place turned on, and I won’t mind! Just keep that to yourself and inside...
I have a grill. Not a Bar-B-Que pit. Aaron Franklin is a neighbor, but he doesn’t live here. If you are a parent, I will light the grill for you, upon request. No parent is losing their face on my property. If you are a real man, and never let wimin light your fire, well then, you ain’t a real man are you? So hand me the matches and nobody gets hurt.