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