t.t.f.n., Texas!

The Besser’s Do Austin.
Chapter 5. Short and Sweet

Late. Overdue. This update. So late that Kathy has started sending out
brief updates while I was on a literary sabbatical. [Kathy: Mostly about
the boys; our second son, Tate, arrived the same day as the minivan for
those of you who were wondering.] Worry no more. Update #5 is in your hot
little box of a PC or Mac, sitting as ones and zeros, transformed by some
software package, and in front of you for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!
And send us an update on your adventures!

Moved. Officially moved. 3407 Rosefinch Trail. This is our new address in
Austin – but you most likely knew this. We moved in at the end of March.
Our previous (psycho) landlord was dumped by her Bubba fiancé and wanted
her house back. The first few weeks were tough, since the kitchen was
being remodeled, but we are settling in now. I am happy to report that
there is only one box that has yet to be unpacked – a personal best! That
is the good news. The bad news is that the box in question is kept in the
garage and will not be opened till Christmas. Perhaps I should explain a
little, with some background. See when we rented the house we knew that it
was smaller than our house in CA as well as our first house in TX. We
figured that two things compensated for the lack of floor space – location
and location. The house is right across the street from our daycare
provider – Carrie. Starbuck’s, Amy’s Ice Cream, a grocery store and
lots of other shops and restaurants are within walking distance. The
street is quiet. The lot backs into one of those things Texans call a
creek [Translation, when it rains 4 inches in 4 hours (common occurrence
here), it is a raging river- otherwise it is dry]. Lots of wildlife are
supported by this “creek”. Dane and I have watched the deer walk
through our backyard (and picked up the accompanying deer pellets) and
have seen lots of birds (blue jays and cardinals are common). The
drawbacks to the house – small and overgrown yard, small floor plan, poor
lighting, and located 20’ below street level – are not so bad.

We have spent lots of time on the front yard, with the help of Kathy’s
parents. We cut back some plants that have probably not been pruned in 15
years. We also planted flowering annuals (lantana, Mexican heather,
geraniums and gardenias), and added mulch and a stone border. After these
projects and after killing the monster weeds in the yard, the place
actually looks presentable. We have tried to compensate for the poor
interior lighting by painting some rooms bright white and by remodeling
the kitchen. This worked well. But trying to compensate for the lack of
floor space by turning the garage into a play area was a bad idea. It
worked well for the first month. But as the temperature crept into the
90s, the play area officially turned into a sauna! It is now our little
time capsule and is off-limits until November! We have converted the
dining room into a play area for the kids and only send them to the garage
when they are bad! Oh well, it is only for a year, then we will likely go
back to our own house in Sunnyvale.

Crawling and crazy. Officially. TATE. He is crawling in his unique way.
His left leg remains straight, which is convenient when he wants to sit up
after a short crawling distance but it is funny to watch. He looks like a
wounded soldier because he kind of crawls with his right leg, then swings
his straight, left leg over and crawls again with his right leg.
Entertaining to say the least. He also has some cute sounds right now. He
is not talking yet (he is just 9 months old) but he has a cute scream that
we swear sounds like a baby Pterodactyl. He also has an affinity for
destroying the train villages that Dane creates. He storms in like
Godzilla and starts ripping up track and going savage on it with his 6
little teeth. So we started calling him “Tatezilla.” Tate is a great
kid. Even the other weekend when he had a double ear infection, a cold,
and hives from an allergic reaction to the 3rd antibiotic, he was still
not THAT fussy. But he is picky. He has weaned himself off creamed baby
food and wants to eat what we eat. Now he is already weaning himself off
formula.

Three years old. This June. And changing all the time. DANE. What a
fun-loving kid, and a great big brother. He is awesome and great with Tate
for the most part. He has had some fun experiences recently. He loved a
day alone with Daddy at the Texas State Fair and Rodeo. The rodeo was lost
on him, simply because it was slow moving and late in the evening. But the
fair was a big hit. Dane got to see cows, goats, horses, chickens, bulls,
pigs, deer, llama and more. He was laughing so hard when he actually heard
a real heifer moooo! He just cracked up and pointed and laughed some more!
Same thing when the sheep went baaaa! And of course the farmers were
laughing at him. Dane also got to climb on some huge farm loaders,
tractors, and combine harvesters! He pet lots of animals at the petting
zoo and laughed at the nursing piglets. He was licked by a snake, and best
of all, he held a 3-foot baby alligator! No kidding! After the alligator
demonstration show, kids got to hold a baby alligator and have a picture
taken. Dane bravely held this gator for 5 minutes while the guy tried
unsuccessfully to take an instamatic picture. He was so brave and talked
about his experience for a few days. That is one thing neat about being in
Texas. You get to do some things that litigation-happy California would
not allow, such as climbing all over huge pieces of farm equipment,
holding baby alligators and boa constrictors, and a crawling around Bevo
the longhorn!

Visitors. Lots of them. Kathy’s parents; Brian and Ed; Dave and C.C.;
Todd; Brett, Larisa and Aiden; Corinne; Jeff, Lori, David and Justin; the
Petersons; Winston and Millie; and more. These visitors make the time fly
by. Plus it is a great opportunity to show off our favorite Austin digs.
Coupled with all of the traveling by Paul along with Besser family trips
to Sacramento (Kathy’s family) and Maryland (Paul’s family which
included a bonus visit to the Air and Space Museum – heaven for Dane!)
has kept us quite busy over the past 8 months. Oh yeah, and 2 kids fill
any spare time we have!

Working maniac. KATHY. New clients abound and work is challenging. But she
loves it. We both struggle with balancing careers, health and kids, but
Kathy is better at multitasking than I. She is doing lots of reading, too.
Books appear at the house on child development, religion, and history all
the time. I don’t know where she finds the time! We both have found lots
of insight from one book in particular- “Raising Cain.”

25 pounds lighter. And much happier. ME. Since Jan. 1, 2000. The weight
was lost through a low carb diet and lots of exercise. I did the Lance
Armstrong Ride for the Roses (100-mile ride) in April. It was a lot of
fun. As preparation for that ride, I rode about 150 miles per week, but I
have cut back to <100 now. I usually ride at lunch two days per week with
3 other Motorolans, but it is getting tougher to ride in > 90° weather at
lunch, shower, return to my desk and actually cool off. I’ll probably
switch to early morning rides. As part of the RftR, there was a downtown
criterium the day before. Dane really enjoyed it. He especially enjoyed
routing for Stacy, a pro women’s rider I met in the Rosedale Ride – a
100km race benefiting handicapped kids that I also did. Stacy and I were
part of a paceline of 6 riders. At the time, I knew she was strong, but
not a CAT-2 racer!

Decided. Mark down the date. Memorial Day, 2000. I have made THE decision.
Contemplation took 5 years. It started with marriage, then the addition of
a dog, then kids, two kids. All were sewing the seeds. I fought back with
my Ford Probe GT, a Honda 650 Nighthawk, and finally a Ducati 750SS. About
a year ago, on the day the moving truck was taking us to Texas, I sold the
Ducati. No regrets. Five months later went the sports car. Replaced both
with a Minivan and a second child. Don’t get me wrong, I DO love the
minivan and would not trade fatherhood for anything, but I am now
preoccupied with my mid-life crisis. I know it will hit me hard. Too much
change in too little time. So I spend my drives to and from work listening
to NPR and looking at cars for my mid-life crisis. Yeah, I guess I have
pretty much settled on a car over an affair… I figure the car will last
longer and give me more satisfaction over the long run! I favor the sports
car variety. My brother-in-law already bought a Defender (a jeep on
steroids) – which would be the SUV of my mid-life crisis. I like the
Mustang Cobra convertible and the new Camaro SS, and periodically I see a
new Carrera turbo or a Corvette (they are just too expensive!). Then there
are the late model muscle cars that are always beautiful.

But I think I have made my decision – or at least narrowed the field a
bit. See, my friend Chris has two bikes and he needed someone to take one
around the block with him. “I only ride the new one, and the other is
just not getting any exercise,” he says. I guess you could call 145
miles “around the block” to stretch its legs (this is Texas after
all). Just my luck that they are both Harleys. ? Mine happened to be the
1998 Fat Boy – 95th Anniversary edition. And the bike is in its prime –
broken in nicely, LOTS of added chrome, and leather all around. All we had
to do was remove the windshield, and Ahh, that is the feel that I need. I
had seen many a Harley in my life. I grew up in a town with a Harley
factory. Most of my cousins and even one Aunt worked for Harley Davidson.
I went to the museum, toured the plant, had an H-D key chain, watched the
Harleys race at Laguna Seca, etc, etc. But I never experienced one – ever.

Surprisingly, not a lot of people are willing to let you take one out for
a spin. It would be like a friend asking you to baby sit his Porsche while
he is out of town. Just does not happen often. Anyway, my favorite Harley
has ALWAYS been the Fat boy. I love the look, the power, the SOUND. You
can guess that I was just a little excited for this ride. Even with all
this excitement, the ride lived up to it in spades! A Harley is so
different from a Ducati. I mean it is obvious by the physical differences
in appearance, stigma, speed, cornering, wheelies, etc. But what captured
me was the mental difference. On a sport bike, you are always carving
corners, picking lines, anticipating, passing cars at any chance, jumping
on the throttle, and in general, pushing the envelope. The Harley is fast,
sure, but you can’t corner it like a Duc. Nor does it want to. The first
corner I leaned into produced sparks as I drug the muffler around the
corner and put me in my place. My mental place. I could hear the bike
telling me, “Besser, you may think so, but you are not Arnold in the
Terminator! RELAX, man!” No wonder Harley tried to patent the sound of
the engine. It is downright therapeutic to be on this bike.

So you slow yourself down, enjoy the view of the sky reflecting in the
chrome headlight, smell the fresh cut alfalfa in this field, the corn in
that field, and the dark musty smell of a creek area, and feel the air
rushing in your face. Let the sights and sounds take you back to some lost
memory from your past. Therapeutic is the first word that came to mind. I
enjoyed riding at 40 mph more than 60. I was enjoying the ride, not
thinking about where I had to be or when. We rode along the rolling vistas
of the Texas hill country, a section along the Guadalupe River and lots of
two lane roads. About 2/3 of the way into this long ride I realized that
this just might be my mid-life crisis toy. So what I really need to know
is – when is mid-life? The average life expectancy is only 70 years. So I
am wondering why most men wait until they are 50 to have a mid-life
crisis. 35 is looking pretty good to me! Why not get a nice toy when you
are young enough to enjoy it? So if you know of anyone fresh out of gift
ideas for my 35th this year, send them an H-D catalog on my behalf!

We will close by mentioning Dane’s 3rd birthday party. He had 2 cakes –
one at daycare and one at the Holland’s house. He requested a pink
birthday cake with construction vehicles and a giant bulldozer (present).
He had a wonderful day! We hope that you, too, have a wonderful day!

[Editor’s Note: We moved back to California in April 2001 and promptly
left for a 5-week trip to Italy in celebration of Paul’s first paid
sabbatical.]