Bribery goes to Gattiland

In the previous post, I rattled on and complained about going to a new podiatrist. It was a school holiday so I had to drag my grand children with me.

The office visit was longer than expected. Their reward for good behavior in the crowded waiting room was a trip to McDonald's. I would surprise them after McDonald's with a trip to Gattiland, an Austin arcade and pizza place, if I could find it. After we ate at McDonald's, I drove straight over to Gattiland. They were surprised and excited when they spotted the sign. They had been asking to go to the place for a while. This was a good time for a reward.



We arrived just before they opened and waited in the parking lot as more and more carloads of kids and mothers arrived. When we got inside, I was surprised to see that everybody who enters must buy a buffet ticket ($5.99 - $8.99) as well as buy tokens/tickets for games.

We had just eaten at McDonald's and were certainly not hungry. Plus they do not have gluten free pizza but I couldn't back down now. We got in the door for $42. They had a well-stocked though unimaginative salad bar and a buffet of many different pizzas. The kids got pizza and I got cottage cheese and fruit. There were plenty of seats and we could watch a movie, "Frozen" and eat. The kids didn't like the pizza sauce so we just left the dining room and went to play. Gattiland had a great selection of games - everything from bumper cars, stand-up and ride-in arcade games as well as carnival type things like the claw in the glass house diving for a stuffed animal.

Two hours later, when we left, the place was jam-packed with kids on school holiday and there wasn't a place to sit. Glad we got there early.

They enjoyed themselves. Any outing with my grands is always a good day for me.

Does Anybody Know a Good Podiatrist?

Feet - my weakness. They are narrow, long and flat. Women's size 12 AAAA shoes are generally not available in fun places like the mall. No, nor trendy boutique shoe shops. It's Zappos, Nordstroms, Amazon or special order for me. I got my flat feet from my father and the narrow bits from my mother. The length was just a bonus, I guess. Though my 5'4" mother wore a size 9 shoe. I used to kid my mother, "Just think of how tall you would be if you didn't have all that tucked up under you". My sons are so lucky to have inherited their father's arches and normal feet, size 12 and size 13. My mother insisted on buying good shoes for me even when we could not afford it. "Take care of your feet" was her slogan. I have always taken good care of my feet - always bought quality well-fitting shoes; aka ugly shoes.

Despite the care they have received, my feet have given me trouble for years. I've been in the Austin area for four months so I guess it is time to find a podiatrist. It's like a board game. Roll the dice and advance your tiny green plastic shoe token on the board. Oh, too bad, you landed on "The doctor is not taking new patients". Roll the dice again and advance to "Dr. Stinky Feet only sees diabetics" - not me. I am like Diogenes, in Athens, looking for an honest man. I think that he was really looking for an honest podiatrist. I have seen 6 or 8 podiatrists in the last 6 years. All but three of them have been charlatans wanting to sell me some $400 orthotics for my shoes, sell me diabetic shoe inserts even though I am not diabetic or try to "fix" my feet using surgery. I have two sets of orthotics that don't work with my diabetic shoe inserts so my surgically altered feet hurt all-the-time.

My last podiatrist was great but he works in San Diego and that doesn't help me now that I live in Austin. So I went looking for a new podiatrist. I found a podiatrist on Monday. It was Martin Luther King Jr holiday so I had to drag my grand kids with me to the appointment. I would pay for their good behavior with a trip to McDonald's after the appointment. It was a small crowded office with a small waiting room with lots of doors and only the doc and her receptionist/nurse working. Hmm. This was the "getting to know you" visit where the doctor asks lots of questions but doesn't do anything but wants me to come back in two weeks. So my feet still hurt.

It wasn't until we got to McDonald's that my grands told me that they could hear everything I said in the doctor's exam room. So much for privacy.

Charlatan or no, I'll keep you posted.

It's been a while

Yeah, a long while. My life has changed a lot since my last post. I lost my husband of 38 years to lung cancer. I hid for a year. I retired from long-arm quilting in December 2013. This is the story about starting over.

My eldest son, Jake, and his wife, Dana, wanted to buy a house. Housing in southern California is sky high - $400k for a 3-bedroom cracker box is the norm. So they decided to look into the Austin, Texas area. They reconnoitered Austin in April checking neighborhood, schools, work, shopping and the good people of Texas themselves. They came back and told me they wanted to go to Texas. And they wanted me to come along with them. I was raised in Texas so I was happy to return. I wrangled my other son, Ben, into a commitment to help me with the driving. I put my house on the market and we had a buyer within 45 days. Jake and Dana flew back to Austin for a serious home-buying trip. They found a 5 bedroom, 4 bath, 3200 sq ft house on a double lot in a culdesac. And now we had a closing date for the house in Texas. We're off to the races.

So I sold my house, packed up my stuff and left So-Cal as part of a 2 car, 1 truck and trailer caravan. The trip was not perfect. Circuses are better organized than we were. The trailer wobbled before we got 5 miles - fixed it. The truck's super turbo blew up 20 miles from home and had to be left with a mechanic. With no truck to pull the trailer, we decided to rent a U-Haul to carry the contents of the trailer and leave the trailer behind for friends to sell for us. We had already packed up our 2 homes using 1-800-PACKRAT. If you have never heard of them, they are endorsed by Lowe's and are really quite reliable. We needed four 16-ft Packrat vans for our stuff.

Once we got on the road, it took us about four days to get here. We got a late start on Day 1 so we only made it to Gila Bend, AZ and stayed at the Space Age Motel - clean rooms and reasonable prices plus it is the best you can get in Gila Bend. Great restaurant, too. Day 2: We made it to my brother's house in El Paso, TX. It was like a port in a storm. We left early on Day 3 and drove what seemed like forever (9 hours) and made it to tiny place named Sonara, TX. On Day 4, we made it to the Austin area.

There was a paperwork glitch (isn't there always?) and we ended up staying in the Springhill Suites in Round Rock, TX longer than we expected. That was a nice place, clean, pool, breakfast and right off the freeway I-35. One of the first days we stayed at Springhills, there was a bad wreck on I-35 and it was backed up for about 10 hours. That was our introduction to Austin traffic. The freeways are so different and better in Austin, in my opinion, than California. In California, exits are plentiful so if there is a wreck, you just take the next exit. In Austin, the freeways are surrounded by an extensive frontage road system that provides access to the freeway via on and off ramps that a spaced out. With fewer on and off ramps, traffic moves faster on the freeway itself. But when there is an accident, the next exit may be way down the road.

We had to do a walk-through of the house before closing so I finally got a chance to see the house. It's big and on a culdesac. I liked it immediately. We closed on the house a couple days later and now it is ours.

The kids each get a big bedroom plus there is a bonus room (family room), a full bathroom as well as I big master suite upstairs. Downstairs is a big living room with a gas fireplace, eat-in kitchen, office/sewing room, dining room, laundry room, a mother-in-laws bedroom, and another full bath. My room is quite a bit smaller than I am used to and it is a continuing struggle to downsize. But after many trips to church and Goodwill, I am trimming down to the necessities.

We've had some bumps. It is a change of lifestyle for me, for sure. In August, it was just me. And now, there are six of us. Many of my friends thought I was crazy; some actually tried to talk me out of moving to Texas. It's a new beginning and it has taken some adjusting. But I am a part of my grand children's lives. I can't wait to see what happens next.