Move: to Madison, WI (Day 200)

This blog post is long enough that in-post links are a good idea.

Part 1: Intro.

Part 2: The economics of flying back to Houston. Repeatedly.

Part 3: Learning to Hunt Raccoons.

Part 4: Lessons Learned.

Part 1.

After more than six months, the vacation mode had run its course. One or two visits to downtown Madison, just to wander around, were sufficient. When I was in downtown most recently, the best moment was tracking two mice that lived in a planter bed on State Street. Those rodents were about as interesting as the best pieces of art in the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.

Summer has ended, and with it the tornado warnings and the sultry 90-degree days. Even with those highs, night temps dipped well into the 70s. Cool enough to sleep with the windows open. I had to use the air conditioner only once. Temperatures have gently drifted down since August. October in Madison is like January in Houston. Lows in the 40s, highs in the 60s. Later this week, lows will move into the 30s.

When it came to increasing the amount of weight that I could lift, progress stalled at 70 lbs by mid-August. In late August, I had to head back to Houston to move furniture, and drive the moving truck to Jefferson City, Missouri, in time to see the total eclipse of the sun. After totality ended, I finished the drive to Madison.

The eclipse was awesome. This eclipse picture is not.

Part 2.

Less than a month after moving furniture, I had to go back after Hurricane Harvey to survey the old house. The house came through apparently unscathed.

Southwest Airlines was charging the highest prices I had ever seen for flights from Milwaukee or Chicago to Houston. The cost was about the same as what Delta charged for “Comfort Plus” from Madison to San Antonio. I chose Delta.

Earlier in the year, I redeemed some Rapid Rewards points to get a cheap flight from Chicago to Houston for early October. That worked great. Until I missed the bus to Chicago. The next one would have arrived much too close to boarding time. So, I called Southwest Airlines to re-schedule the flight for the following day. Despite getting a refund (in points), I still paid $550 for the remaining Business Select seat. So, the free (except for Early Bird check-in and government-mandated fees) flight became the $550 flight. If there was any good news in this, it was that the more you pay Southwest Airlines, the more points you earn. This $550 flight will eventually pay for at least one free flight in 2018, reducing the cost-per-flight to a more reasonable $225.

For all the complaining about the decline in the air travel experience, some of it might be due to the race to the bottom to offer customers the lowest possible fare. There are analyses that compare seat widths and overall room to what was available in prior decades.

Paying about in the neighborhood of $400 to $800 for Delta’s “Comfort Plus,” or $500 to $600 for Southwest Airline’s “Business Select,” brings a clear improvement in the passenger experience. Delta’s “Comfort Plus” offers somewhat larger seats, and additional four inches of leg room (as of 2017). Southwest Airline’s “Business Select” puts the passenger in the first 15 boarding positions, and you get a free drink coupon. No difference in seating; just much better odds at sitting near the front, and drinking one free shot of vodka.

In other words, if you want a 1980s flight experience, then you’re probably going to have to pay adjusted-for-inflation 1980s prices for it. Sony Walkman not included.

Part 3.

Far, far cheaper experiences have been Learn to Hunt events, as well as Carnivore Tracking and Wolf Ecology classes. The DNR hosts these events.

In late September/early October, I learned to hunt raccoons at the Mackenzie Education Center. Hunting raccoons is done at night, and involves dogs chasing the scent of raccoons. The dogs let out a particular bark or yell after they “tree” a raccoon. When the hunters hear this kind of barking, they use GPS to find their dog. At the tree, the hunters use bright lights to shine up into trees to look for the raccoon. This proves tricky when the trees still have most of their leaves.

After riding in a truck, waiting for dogs to bark, walking and walking through forests and cornfields to look for the dogs, shining lights up into trees, and wondering if the raccoons went to an adjacent tree, our crew got only one raccoon.

Despite this, there were several notable outcomes:

1) The one raccoon our team got was a rare cinnamon-colored raccoon. How rare? Comments from fellow hunters included "I've never seen one before" or "People spend decades hunting before they see one." One of the instructors said that cinnamon raccoons are so rare that their skins are not worth as much as the more common raccoons. "It takes three raccoons to make a hat." One cinnamon raccoon is two too few.

2) I shot a real gun for the first time. No, I did not shoot any raccoons. My first time shooting was during target practice. The gun was a 0.22LR (“twenty two long rifle”), and targets were 25 to 30 yards away.

Yours truly shooting for the first time.

Just hitting the target sheet four out of five times impressed the instructors.

3) The lead instructor made more than one reference to the book Where the Red Fern Grows. In fact, upon arriving, the lead asked me if I was familiar with the book. After responding in the negative, she offered a free copy (there were stacks on the stable). She also said that the movie version of it was playing in the classroom.

For those of you who grew up in Texas, have you heard of Where the Red Fern Grows?

Part 4.

While I don’t yet have a “review” of the Madison area, I do have some lessons learned:

1) Wisconsin is known overall for cheese, beer, and bratwurst. If you don’t like any one of those food items, then you’ll miss out on social experiences. When asked how one can socially integrate with others, a predominant answer was “Drink with others.” Learn the difference between good cheese and great cheese.

2) There are more bars here than grocery stores. If you avoid bars, then you’re really missing out. The diversity of bars is noteworthy. Your best bet is to sample a whole bunch bars all over the county. When you’ve found “your bar,” you’ll know it.

3) Cross-country relocation (especially outside your “nation”) is a prime opportunity to do random things that you never did before. Two good sources are Meetup.com, and the events listing in your local free newspaper. In the Madison-area, that would be the Isthmus. Doing that has led to an introduction to Sheepshead.

The one exception to this lesson is all of the interaction with the Wisconsin DNR. The shortest version of the story is that I e-mailed someone at the DNR about learning how to hunt. They put me on an e-mail list. They send out the occasional e-mail, and I poke around the DNR website. One thing leads to another...

It leads to the occasional group photo.

4) Yes, it is possible to get a sunburn at this latitude. Especially during the months of May, June, and July. It may require a couple of hours, but it is possible. Normal protection techniques (Fedora hat, long-sleeved shirt) are not enough. The sun hangs lower in the sky for longer periods of time. You may not get burned at 1:00 pm, but instead at 3:00 pm. The simplest solution is to just put on sunblock every two hours, and keep wearing a hat and long-sleeved shirt.

5) When it comes to flights, compare prices from Madison, Milwaukee, and Chicago airports. Buses will take you from Madison to Milwaukee and Chicago. You have may to create a matrix of airfare plus busfare. However you do it, you must plan ahead. If you plan on taking a bus to Milwaukee or Chicago, then be prepared to walk around looking for the bus stop. The buses will not linger, waiting for late passengers.

6) If you’re going by yourself to a downtown Madison event, then there is no reason to pay for parking. With enough circling, you can find a free spot. If bringing along family or friends, then you’ll have to negotiate with them.

Outside the specific-to-Madison context, there is another lesson learned:

Regarding AAA, it may be worth it for renting a moving truck from Penske. Paying $40 - $60 for the lowest-tier AAA service may save well over $100 on a truck rental.

As for towing and roadside service, your auto insurance may already offer it, for $10 to $30 per six months. Cheaper than AAA? Maybe, maybe not. Check the terms of your auto insurance to see what they offer. If you don’t have towing and roadside service from anyone, then consider getting it if your think your car is likely to break down. Or, if you often ride with friends, and they drive old or unreliable cars. I’ve not used AAA for roadside service ever since I began driving newer, more reliable cars.

As for car rental discounts, AAA is almost worth it...unless you’re a Costco member. For example, the price for a given Hertz car for a given time period would have been about $170, without AAA. With AAA, the cost would have been about $100. Worth it.

With Costco, a similar car at Alamo was about $53. Even more worth it. If you are a Costco member, then reserve cars through them, and let the AAA membership expire. Heck, if you rent cars for more than one or two days per year, getting a Costco membership just for the travel benefits alone may be worth it.

In real estate news, the sub-$1000 one-bedroom apartments have all but disappeared within biking distance of the office. At the moment, one is better off sharing a two-bedroom apartment for $1400ish per month ($700ish per bedroom).

The cheapest condos that are not on a through street start at about $130,000 plus $220 monthly fee. I would have to stay in one of those condos for at least five years before the cost of buying that condo was less than renting over the same time period. Since I've been in this town for just over six months, buying does not seem like a good idea right now.

Final note, regarding assimilation: Go Packers.

Move: to Madison, WI (Day 100)

Believe it or not, the logistics of moving to Madison are still not complete. Most of my stuff is still in Houston. Naturally, I miss people more than stuff, but it sure would be nice to have a couch.

Eventually, the logistics will be complete, and cultural adaptation will dominate. While Wisconsin is not completely foreign from Texas, it is different (enough) in terms of local cuisine, events, and so forth. As the locals like to bring up during our conversations, I still haven’t experienced winter. Readers of this blog can look forward to moment-by-moment commentary about snow.

One of the things that I’ve done to blend in is...buy grid-patterned shirts that are appropriate for the office. Male Houston office workers tend towards solid-colored shirts, polos, or shirts with otherwise simple patterns. Many folks in the Madison office have similar taste. However, there are enough men wearing a wide variety of plaid and grid-patterned shirts that it became clear that I was missing something. One web search later, with some price comparisons, two shirts arrived at the PO Box. Total cost was under $80; shipping was free.

Speaking of the PO Box, if you have one, then you should consider getting a street address for it. It’s free, and you get something that resembles a normal address. If you allow the Post Office to have your signature on file, then FedEx and UPS had ought to hand over your purchased items to the Post Office. Commentary on the web isn’t clear on the overall effectiveness of this, but since it costs no more to have those features after you pay for the PO Box, it is a free experiment (minus losses from items being...lost).

In other news, I’ve joined a gym to achieve the goal of safely lifting 100 lbs. That means lifting 100 lbs multiple times without too much straining or effort. Currently, I can lift 50 lbs safely. Why do this, especially so far from New Year’s? Two reasons:

1) Moving

2) Volunteering at District 1 EMS.

When I helped a co-worker move, it became clear that my upper body strength was inadequate for many tasks. After decades of similar embarrassment, it was time for change. Plus, when it comes time to move my own stuff, having any extra strength will obviously make the job easier.

As for District 1 EMS, they ask point-blank on the form if you can lift 100 lbs. While they will accept you if you can’t lift that much, it is the kind of question to which I would really like to say “yes.” This is really about safety.

Aside from work and chores, major ongoing tasks include: playing Sheepshead at Laurel Tavern, learning Mandarin, reading more about Wisconsin history, walking more segments of the Ice Age Trail, volunteering for the DNR or similar groups, and Monitoring an Aquatic Ecosystem Using a Raspberry Pi and Sensors from Atlas Scientific.

Time management is a good skill to have, along with budgeting, cooking, and writing in cursive.

In real estate news, the landlord offered to renew the lease for one year, raising the monthly rent by less than 2%. Meanwhile, Madison-area real estate went up by more than twice that amount. That sends a strong signal to keep renting.

But, let’s say that the landlord did not offer to renew the lease. What then?

Well, within a few miles of the office (biking distance), Zillow reports 12 one-bedroom apartments available for no more than $1,000 per month. In the same region, there are three one-bedroom condos available for the same price. There are no townhouses or single-family houses available in the area for that price.

For the equivalent price of a property, a visit to the New York Times Buy vs Rent Calculator is in order. With the $1,000 per month ceiling, and some assumptions about certain numbers, the Calculator showed the following purchase prices at at given condo fee. The condo fees below are taken from actual listings; they're not made up:

$104,000 for a place with a condo fee of $193/month

$108,000 at a condo fee of $164/month

$131,000 without a condo fee.

In other words, if there is a condo selling for $104,000, and has a monthly fee of $193/month, then that is equivalent to paying $1,000 per month in rent, at certain values of down payment, duration of residence, property taxes, etc.

At a max price of $104,000, there are four places for sale in the same region that has 15 places to rent at no more than $1,000 per month. Increasing the max price to $108,000, a total of five places are for sale. Increasing the max price to $131,000, and excluding all condos and townhouses and properties that face busy roads, that number is zero. Remember, there are a total of 15 places to rent for at or below $1,000 per month in this part of town. 

Yep. For the moment, I’m still better off renting. It makes little sense to leave a quiet neighborhood to pay more to live in a louder, more polluted neighborhood with a longer commute.

Compare: the Histories of Texas and Wisconsin (Intro)

This analysis uses Lone Star: a History of Texas and the Texans (updated edition), by T.R. Fehrenbach as the (troublesome) source for Texas history. For Wisconsin history, the analysis uses Wisconsin: a History (second edition), by Robert C. Nesbit (revised and updated by William F. Thompson). 

This analysis will not only compare the two states’ respective histories, but also effectively be reviews of the two sources.

The format of this analysis will be as follows. A topic will be stated, followed by three entries: Both, Texas, and Wisconsin. The “Both” entry will summarize what both books say about their respective states, if what they say is essentially the same. The “Texas” and “Wisconsin” entries will cover information that is unique to each state. Exceptions will be noted.

As topics are posted, each of the below entries will be a hyperlink to that blog post.

Topics:

The Ice Age

The Land

The First Settlers

The Spanish

The French

The Missions

The Fur Trade

The British

The Consequences of the American Revolution

The Americans

The Southerners

The Yankees

The Consequences of the French Revolution

The Settlements after 1830

What happened in 1836

Statehood

What happened by 1848

Civil War

Post-Civil War Agriculture

Reconstruction

Industrialization

The Meaning of Government

The Rise of Economics

The End of the Frontier

La Follete

The Social Organism

The 20^th Century

Globalization

Relatively Current Trends

Walk: the Ice Age Trail

Upon moving to Wisconsin, I sought out history books to help explain the cultural background of the state; to understand where people were coming from. As it happens, the history of Wisconsin begins with the Ice Age. At least, the Ice Age is mentioned in Chapter 1 in each of two history books.

The first is Wisconsin: The Story of the Badger State, by Norman K. Risjord. The second is Wisconsin: A History, by Robert C. Nesbit (2^nd edition, revised and updated by William F. Thompson).

Risjord describes the Ice Age dramatically: “The story of modern Wisconsin begins with the ice, a moving mountain of ice that scoured the countryside and rearranged the hills and valleys. It is called the Wisconsin glacier because of the profound impact it had on the Badger State, and it was the last of four glaciers that had overrrun North America in the last million years” (1).

Nesbit / Thompson puts it more soberly: “As the glaciers retreated northward for the last time around 7000 B.C., the character of the land and ecology changed. The land warped upward, relieved of the tremendous weight of the glaciers, changing lake levels, contours, and drainage patterns. As the climate warmed, spruce forests were replaced by pines” (10).

The Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey Ice Age geology web page has a wonderful image that shows the extent of the last glaciation (the Laurentide Ice Sheet) that occurred over Wisconsin:

They state: “The Laurentide Ice Sheet and the large volume of meltwater flowing from it greatly altered the landscape of Wisconsin. As a result, the landscape of the area glaciated during the last part of the Wisconsin Glaciation is notably different than that of areas glaciated earlier in the Ice Age (where erosion has destroyed most earlier glacial landforms) and areas that were never glaciated. For example, the outermost limit of the last glacier is marked by a conspicuous ridge of glacially deposited debris. The many lakes and wetlands and the irregular landscape that characterize so many areas of eastern and northern Wisconsin are also a direct result of the last glacier.”

It turns out that I’ve been walking segments of the Ice Age Trail in my hikes around Devil’s Lake State Park. The IAT roughly traces the extent of the last glaciation. Curious to experience more of natural Wisconsin, I looked up a nearby trail segment of the IAT. The nearest one appeared to the Table Bluff Segment, near Cross Plains.

It was a hike that I took this morning, when the weather was partly cloudy, breezy, and temperatures were in the 70s. Getting there took about as half as long as the drive to Devil’s Lake. Also, parking is free, but there is no ranger station nor any facilities of any kind, except for signposts, and the occasional bench. While hiking boots weren’t strictly necessary, sturdy shoes are a must.

Unlike Devil’s Lake State Park's rocky trails leading towards cliffs, the Table Bluff Segment trail is through a mixture of open prairie and woods. The trail itself is kind of hard to photograph. 

 The trailhead

 

 Looking back at the parking lot

Into the woods

Onto the prairie

At the other end of the trail

Even photographing the signs is awkward, due to the tall grass

 

 See? I told you it was 2.5 miles!

While there are no scenic vistas of water, there is a charm to the rolling prairie and occasional grouping of trees. There is only the sound of birds, insects, and the wind through the trees, until you get within a few hundred feet of U.S. Highway 14. It brought back the pleasant memories of traipsing through a similar landscape, looking for baby deer.

The Table Segment is 2.5 miles one-way, so I walked five miles in about two hours. There is no loop; you reach the end (or any stopping point), and turn around. The trail is only one “lane” wide. If you are by yourself, then step aside to let all larger parties through.

Overall, a good experience. Reading about Wisconsin history and geography, and experiencing its ecology and geography is fun.

Move: To Madison, WI (Day 50)

This blog entry is two days late due to ongoing moving obligations.

The most significant moving-related accomplishments in the past month have been the following:

1) Getting a Wisconsin driver’s license

2) Registering to vote in Dane County

3) Acquiring auto and rental insurance

4) Getting Wisconsin license plates for the car

Of the four, number 1 was the most convoluted, 2 was the easiest, 3 took up the most amount of time, and 4 was surprisingly easy. What made number 1 relatively complex was the required documentation. Essentially, if you’re moving to Wisconsin, and you need a driver’s license (in 2017), then you need to have at least the following:

1) Driver’s license from current (old) state

2) Birth certificate OR passport

3) Proof of local residency (lease contract, name and address page from your house title paperwork, etc.)

In situations (other than border crossings) requiring either the birth certificate or the passport, I usually bring both, as well as the Social Security card. It never hurts to bring all of them, and it sometimes helps. After you fill out the form(s) and get your picture taken, the clerk will scan the relevant proof-of-citizenship and -residency documents into the computer system. The clerk will then void your current (old) license, and issue a paper copy of your new permanent one. The permanent one will arrive in the mail in about a week.

With the new permanent driver’s license (the one that came in the mail) in hand, one is able to register online to vote. It only takes a few minutes.

Getting quotes for auto and renter’s insurance is always time-consuming. If you haven’t been through that process, what you do is look up a bunch of local insurance agents and brokers. Start making phone calls. You will answer many questions, having to tell the agent/broker/clerk that you don’t know the answer to at least some of the questions. You’ll write down the combinations of deductibles, coverage amounts, multi-policy discounts, and so forth. You’ll mull over the options. You’ll wait to hear back from agents that never call back. You’ll wonder if having one insurance company cover both the apartment and the car is worth paying an extra $20 or so per year. The alternative might be going with the cheapest auto and renter insurance quotes, but at respectively different companies. I cannot tell you what to do in this situation. Everyone will have different experiences, and likely go with different companies or plans.

What is remarkable is that most quotes for car insurance in Madison are less than half of what I paid in Houston.

Getting the license plates requires proof of residency (your driver’s license) and the title or registration paperwork for your car. The clerk didn’t ask for proof of insurance. Since my car still has a lien on it, all I had was the registration renewal paper that you get in the mail in Texas. The paper has the car’s VIN, weight, my name, and my old address, among other information. You fill out a short form, and hand that form and the registration renewal paper to the clerk. You never see your old state’s registration paper again. The clerk returns with the Wisconsin equivalent of the registration paper, and your new license plates. You pay a total amount of fees well over $100, and walk out with your new plates. I managed to receive one of the remaining six-digit Wisconsin plates. My car is now registered in America’s Dairyland. Yeehaw.

Volunteer: for your state's DNR

Whichever state you live in, there is likely a Department of Natural Resources that could use your assistance in helping scientists and technicians monitor and understand the environment. If you would like to be (or are) a “citizen scientist,” and like the great outdoors, then definitely look up opportunities. I have already walked around Devil’s Lake State Park, and was looking for way to get more involved with the Wisconsin State Park system or the Wisconsin DNR in general.

On one rainy Saturday, I volunteered for the Wisconsin DNR in their effort to monitor Chronic Wasting Disease in deer. The name of their project is The Southwest Wisconsin CWD, Deer and Predator Study. You sign up online or by calling them. Contact details are in the link.

There are two shifts: morning and evening. I volunteered for both, deciding that if I was going to drive 45 minutes or so from the apartment to Dodgeville, I should stay for the whole day. One of the goals of this move is to do things I’ve not done before, with only a minimum of preparation. This is the second new thing; the first is playing Sheepshead.

Volunteering for the CWD, Deer, and Predatory Study is hands-on ecological work. It looks something you might have seen on 3-2-1 Contact. With hiking boots, rain jacket, black nitrile gloves, and not-a-paid-employee-of-DNR orange vest, one walks with the crew in lines, either straight ahead or in a large spiral. Trees, slippery rocks, creeks, and nettle bushes make this tricky. This goes for an hour or so. If you’re lucky, you’ll find a fawn.

Most of the time, the fawn will lay still even as the DNR staffer lays their hands on it. The first step is to blindfold the fawn. For reasons that I don’t understand, blindfolding deer calms them down a great deal. After they calm down, you and the staffer determine its weight, sex, age, put a GPS collar on its neck, and attach ID tags on its ears.

Perhaps the most dramatic aspect is attaching the ID tags. Punching a hole in an ear seems painful. But, the staffer is careful to avoid the major blood vessels. The fawn appears to not notice. In the two fawns that I held in position, the animal seemed calm. It was as if it were asleep. I focused on its breathing and pulse. Knowing nothing about deer physiology or psychology, the breathing and heart rate seemed steady.

Most of the time, you’re riding around the Wisconsin countryside in a van or truck with wildlife technologists and biologists. The hills, prairie, and farms seem exotic to this guy from Texas. Even in the rain. Walking for hours in such terrain (along with the aforementioned slippery rocks and creeks) provides a great workout. Especially for whichever muscles control the lifting of your leg, and positioning of your foot. I apparently spent a lot of time trying to figure out which rock was the least slippery.

If you are a former Boy Scout, this activity might bring back memories of hiking on ambiguous trails through an endless countryside.

The staff at the DNR is great. They are funny, and passionate about the work they do. Hiking with them, and riding around in trucks and vans, was an honor and a privilege. I look forward to volunteering with the DNR again.

Go: to the (Mini) Maker Faire

 

Forward! To Mini Maker Faire!

What? I can’t see or hear you.

As member of Sector 67, I volunteered at the Madison Mini Maker Faire. It was a lot fun to help the group set up their stuff, and help several dozen people make simple fidget spinners. I even managed to park for free, relatively close to Monona Center.

To get free parking, find a spot near the event area really early.

If you have never been to a (Mini) Maker Faire, it is a nerdy gathering of do-it-yourself technologists. It is the electronic or mechanical (or both) extension of crafting, taking to elaborate and sometimes expensive extremes. If you volunteer as part of an organization, you usually get in for free. However, even in relatively small cities like Madison, parking at the event is almost never for free.

After about three hours of standing outside, helping families make their spinners, I ate lunch at Merchant Madison on Pinckney Street. For $10, you get a Mexican Pozole. It tasted good, especially after adding jalapenos, onions, cabbage, and tortilla strips.

It’s recommended.

Overall, a great day. While my Fedora was effective in shading most of my head from the sun, it was not so effective on my neck. The solution is a hat that has a flap on the back to shade the neck. Also, work gloves. Not only would this have made more comfortable the handling of the hot metal of the fresh, in-progress spinners, it would have shaded my hands from the sun.

 

Meanwhile, inside Monona Center, members of Sector 67 sold stuff.

Despite the hot sun, and the hot metal, we still had fun.

Our fearless leader, riding his Penny Farthing bicycle.

Visit: Devil's Lake State Park, in Wisconsin

As time goes by in the new town, the novelty of the move wears off. The necessary changes become further apart in time. Blog posts such as today's are intended to keep family and friends knowledgeable of events not otherwise specific to moving. Now, without further delay:

About an hour northwest of Madison is Devil’s Lake State Park. To get there, get on Beltline headed towards Middleton, and stay on it. The freeway ends, but U.S. Highway 12 continues towards Sauk City. You drive through pristine farm land and hills. After crossing the bridge over the Wisconsin River, you drive through Sauk City, and past it. The Highway widens and narrows as U.S. Highways do.

About four miles north a significant S-curve on Highway 12, turn right on Ski Hi Road to get to the Visitor Center South Shore. The road will end at a T-intersection. Turn right to continue to the South Shore. Turn left to go to the North Shore.

Headed towards the South Shore, you’ll drive on a narrow, twisty road, then pass a boat dock, and eventually towards the Visitor Center. You’ll have to pay for admission, and the price depends on whether you have Wisconsin plates, and whether you want a one-day pass, or an annual. A one-day pass for this Texan’s vehicle cost $11.

After parking, you can walk towards the lake, and around the pavilions. Eventually, you’ll see maps or signs for various trails. Ideally, you’ve seen the map beforehand.

I walked three trails: the Grottos, the CCC, and the Potholes Trails. Walking those trails, I unintentionally managed to avoid six major geological attractions as indicated on the map. Despite that error, the views were wonderful.

Click on any to enlarge:

If you can make out the hat near the center, it gives the picture a sense of scale

No hiking shoes were necessary, but may have come in handy on slippery rocks. I wore a broad-rimmed hat, and a long-sleeve shirt. If the temperature was above 60 degrees, I would have considered wearing a short-sleeve shirt and sunblock, or hiking earlier in the morning, or later in the afternoon.

The crowds were civil, even polite. Lots of incidental campers. One group was rappelling off one of the rock faces. Temps were in the 50s, and the sky was clear. A perfect day for a hike.

Move: to Madison, WI (Day 20)

After 20 days, you’ve settled into a routine. Ideally, you have a very good idea of how to do your job. Also, you may have paid (off) the credit card bill(s) from your move.

But, your furniture is still at your old place, or in storage, and you’re still in the sublet. On the other hand, after 20 days, you may not miss your stuff. For now.

Indeed, the only thing (not person) that I miss is my garden, and compost bin.

O 'Yukon Gold' potato cultivar, you will be missed

While having a container garden on a balcony is feasible, composting in an apartment setting is not. In Houston, I had to keep a bale of hay in the garage, so that there was some anti-smell components to add to the compost when the need arose. With a balcony, a composting system (bin plus hay plus room to maneuver) may take anywhere from one-third to two-thirds of your balcony or patio.

As the Wired guide suggests, you’ll be buying dirt every season. The economics of apartment gardening lean heavily towards that of a money-sinking hobby, versus a money-saving task.

In more prosaic news, yesterday I checked the PO box, and there was mail! It’s taken more than two weeks, but Houston mail is making its way to Madison. Mail is also starting to arrive in the sublet mail box. Mostly fliers, but some sublet-specific stuff.

In other relocation news, I’ve visited several neighborhoods, and compared them to the neighborhood where the sublet is. While some neighborhoods have more people outside, walking their dogs, etc., they’re further from the office than the sublet is. Some neighborhoods have no highway or airplane noise whatsoever, but they’re much, much further from the office. Some neighborhoods have high-quality housing, but the neighborhood itself is monolithic and dull. One gets the feeling that it may be a ghetto in about ten or 20 years. Some neighborhoods have a decent-sized grocery store (something bigger than an Aldi) within five minutes' walking distance. But, you clearly hear the major road that is adjacent to the grocery store.

Overall, no neighborhood stands out as being really better in more than one way than the one I’m currently living. The sublet is close to work, and in a reasonably active, but quiet neighborhood. The build quality of the sublet is pretty good as far as apartments go. There are worse houses out there. But, the neighborhood is kind of pricey, and far from major grocery stores.

Right now, I’m unwilling to pay more than the mortgage payment equivalent-of-rent to live further away from the office. Only one neighborhood seems worth it, and it is the one within five minutes of a grocery store. It also has some the cheapest real estate in the area. I have yet to see the inside of house that is for sale there, so build quality is not yet fully known.

In other words, I may just stay in the sublet. Yeah, that means missing out on not owning real estate in Madison. But, I already own real estate in Houston. That house is being rented out. Selling the house there, to buy a house up here, is not an obvious good decision. At least, on a five-year planning scale.

In community events news, I’ve gone to a total of three library events: the John Scalzi reading, a performance by Forward Theater, and a discussion lead by Dan Egan on his new book. Forward Theater was salaciously funny. Egan’s talk gave some ideas that could be useful for my ecology hobby. However, it has become clear that I should go to community events that take place somewhere other than a library. This is not to avoid burn-out, but to avoid becoming accidentally complacent or dependent on library events.

But, the Middleton Library has indoor agriculture (sort-of), too!

 

Move: To Madison, WI (Day 10)

Settled into the sublet today. After 10 days of AirBnB, it’s nice to have one’s own kitchen and bathroom. It’s not-so-nice to sleep on the floor. We’ll see how my back feels, and determine from there whether an air mattress is necessary.

If you’ve never moved into your own apartment or house before, be prepared to buy at least the following things:

Shower curtain + rings

Soap

Toilet paper

Bathmat

Floor lamps + light bulbs

The sublet doesn’t have ceiling-mounted lights, making floor lamps a necessity.

Since this sublet has coin-operated laundry, I need to stop by a bank or credit union, and exchange bills for quarters. May also buy a sturdier laundry basket.

If you’ve lived your entire life near I-10, note that places north may not have central air conditioning. Especially where the winters are more brutal than the summers. In the case of the sublet, there is a wall-mounted unit in the living room, but not in the bedroom. Fortunately, summer nights in Madison seem to have lows in the 60s. Compare that to lows as high as 78 or 79 degrees in Houston. How humid Madison feels compared to Houston remains thus far not-yet-experienced.

On Friday, I went on a tour of Sector 67. Sector 67 is one the local maker-spaces in Madison. If you’re in town, you should definitely check them out. The size of their facility, and the amount and variety of their machinery, would compete very well in the Houston area.

This is just the lobby. 

Click to see a larger version of the photo.

On Saturday, I attended a show by the Monkey Business Institute, at the east Madison location of the Glass Nickel Pizza company. MBI is an improv-comedy troupe, which may or may not be your cup of tea. MBI offers three levels of shows. I saw the Adult show, versus All-Ages or one of Imprompt2, the Merge, and so forth (they rotate which will be the third offering).

I laughed, sometimes hard, which is all you need to know about how funny they are.

Parking was free at both Sector 67 and Glass Nickel Pizza.

On Sunday, Aldi and Target reminded would-be shoppers that it was Easter, and that people looking for food or general merchandise had better go to Pick ‘n Save and Wal-Mart, respectively. Good thing those last two were open; I might have had to find a church at which to confess the sin of trying to buy food and a shower curtain on Easter.

As for other community events, there are at least two places in Madison offering Krav Maga lessons:

Urban Krav Maga Madison
FightPrime Training Center

There are also two local community theaters:

Madison Theatre Guild
Verona Area Community Theatre

Now, for real estate analysis and empirical research:

Before buying a house, it may be a good idea to drive to the neighborhood where the house is located, and answer the following questions:

1) Do you feel safe parking your car here, and walking away?

2) Do you feel safe walking around the neighborhood?

3) What do you hear or see that you like or don’t like?

Remember that you’re not buying just a house, but also a neighborhood.

I’ve walked around two neighborhoods so far, and found that each has their pros and cons. The first is closer to work than the second. The first also has a townhouse that the realtor showed me, and the townhouse looked very nice.

However, the first neighborhood felt sterile. If you’ve read Jane Jacobs, then you will know what I mean when I write that this neighborhood may suffer the suburban version of the “great blight of dullness.” This, despite the neighborhood having a diversity in residential building types: single-family houses, townhouses, and apartments. However, the buildings have not aged enough to show whether they will age well or not. This is despite the fact that the townhouse that the realtor showed me was built in the 1980s. It appears to be the newest building in the immediate vicinity.

The second neighborhood is more established, with more people outside. The housing is either single-family or duplexes, and there is an elementary school within the neighborhood. It’s not all residential. The only problem that I experienced right in the neighborhood was traffic noise. A nearby US Highway is indeed very close. You could see and hear cars and trucks whizzing by. Once I heard a motorcycle engine rev, I knew this neighborhood wasn’t going to work out. Were it not for the noise, this second neighborhood would be worth the commute.

Overall, neither neighborhood is significantly better than the one in which the sublet is located. As I type, the window is open, and all I can hear is the drone of a distant air conditioner, if that is what it is. As far as noise goes, it’s steady and subtle. Only one airplane has passed over this neighborhood, since I opened the windows this afternoon.

Move: To Madison, WI (Day 5)

The biggest news is that an apartment management company approved my lease application. The next step is to sign some paperwork, pay the deposit, and get the keys. The scheduling of those steps is tricky. Their office has business hours, and I work during those business hours. We’ll get there eventually.

I have completed two days of work at the new job. Everything is going well. Not sure yet when I’ll have time to return to Houston to move my furniture, but...we’ll get there eventually.

Checked the PO Box. Got some junk mail. Nothing personal yet.

Ate dinner at Saigon Noodle on Odana Road. It’s recommended. While the Chicken Soup was very good, the hot tea was excellent. The sense of fullness from the soup and the tea really took off after about five minutes had passed after eating. The sense of fullness reached its peak about fifteen minutes later at the Aldi. Bought some frozen dinners and lunches for the week ahead. The credit card bills look huge.

When it comes to thinking about Madison, there’s many comparisons that appear attractive to make, but also do not feel fair to make as of right now. While comparing Madison to Houston seems obvious and inevitable, it’s also unfair. The size difference alone drives many other noticeable patterns and trends.

If size was the primary controlling factor, then the only towns I could personally compare Madison to are Huntsville, Alabama, and Beaumont, Texas. While these three towns are not exactly the same size, there are in the same rough order magnitude (city-only non-metro populations between 100,000 and 600,000). Houston might be better compared to Chicago, but I’ve not yet been to Chicago.

So, how does Madison compare to Huntsville and Beaumont? For starters, it’s a northern city, while Huntsville and Beaumont are southern. There’s no ambiguity there. Madison and Huntsville have economies largely driven by government, education, or the military. Beaumont’s economy is largely oil and gas, though there’s a university in Beaumont as well.

Really, though, comparing Beaumont and Huntsville to each other is more interesting than either to Madison. While both Beaumont and Huntsville are southern, they represent different aspects of the South. Beaumont is Deep South, or Gulf Coast South, or Cajun, or something like that. Huntsville is the Tennessee Valley, or southern Appalachia, or the foot hills of Appalachia, or something like that. Beaumont gets hurricanes. Huntsville gets blizzards and tornadoes. Beaumont is like a mini-Houston, with few-if-any of Houston’s good features. Huntsville does not appear to be a mini-version of anything else near by. Birmingham and Chattanooga seem sufficiently different from Huntsville, and sufficiently similar in size.

Given a choice, I would rather live in Huntsville than Beaumont. Huntsville has the more beautiful countryside and cleaner air. But, if Beaumont has got you down, you can always drive to Houston, which is an hour-and-a-half away-ish. The nearest cities to Huntsville are about two hours away. Even then, the really big city that is nearest to Huntsville is Atlanta, which is about 6-or-so hours away, via mountain roads. Beaumont connects to Houston via I-10, which really has only one significant curve, near Winnie.

So, what about Madison? Even though I enjoy the short commutes, the light traffic, the very-good-to-excellent dining options, and the urban and suburban areas, nothing really stands out that says, “Ah! This is Madison!”

For people who live in or know much about Houston, imagine a city consisting only of the Clear Lake neighborhoods of Houston, plus Webster and League City. Surround it by several dozen miles of countryside. It’s just Clear Lake-Webster-League City. Interstate 45 largely bypasses it, yet both Webster and League City technically straddle I-45. The town hall and city government in League City is bigger, if it had to represent Clear Lake and Webster. The University of Houston – Clear Lake campus might be larger, as there is no longer a much larger U of H main campus 25 miles up the freeway. The hospitals might be larger, and more numerous, as there is no Texas Medical Center 28ish miles up the freeway. Johnson Space Center remains in place, at its current size. Ellington Field becomes a full-fledged airport, but still smaller than Hobby Airport,12 miles up the road currently. You get the idea.

What town in Texas is actually like this, today? Brian-College Station? A bit small. Its metro population is the same as Madison’s city population. Among Texas cities that aren’t part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, the ones closest in size to Madison are Laredo and Lubbock. I don’t recall ever visiting Laredo, and I’ve only ever driven through Lubbock. Reading through Wikipedia, Laredo appears known for being almost entirely Hispanic, and having its economy largely based on trade with Mexico. Lubbock is a “hub city,” being a center of trade and services in an otherwise empty part of the country. Just like all the other western cities: Amarillo, Denver…

So, there you have it. Madison eludes comparison because there is nothing currently in Texas like it enough to draw a comparison.