Austin is an odd town. The contrasts are profound.

A couple on their horses waiting for the traffic signal to change so they can cross at 

Sixth St. and Congress Ave. The barkers for The Nature Conservancy asked if they could 

pet the horses. Yes. They could.

I finished typing an earlier blog; the one about Moriyama and Kerouac. I'm sure you've read it by now...

Anyway, I was tired of sitting in a chair typing (project duration: 1 hour 30 minutes) using a conventional keyboard and thrilling to the fan noise of my little air conditioner. I was ready to go outside and channel my own, inner Moriyama. It was hot. My phone told me that it was 101° where I was parked and the "feels like" temperature was about 105°. Just right for a nice walk --- if you stay in the shadows of tall buildings and you don't move too fast. 

I'm on a real rangefinder jag these days and couldn't think of a better hot temperature walking companion than a Leica M 240 coupled with a Carl Zeiss 35mm f2.0 ZM lens. On bright days the rear screen is mostly worthless for reviewing images. I chose to use the camera in film camera mode even though it's digital. Let me explain. To go film camera mode you turn off all the stuff you would not have available on a film camera. No live view. No post shot review on the rear screen. No raw-ness. I figured ISO 200 should work for most outdoor stuff and if it's too bright for ISO 200 at 1/4,000th of second at f11 then the rays of the sun would surely fry us all and I should be in a climate controlled bunker somewhere. To put the exercise over the top I opted for shooting Jpeg in the monochrome setting and enabling an in-camera orange filter option in the menu. And then, I was off to the races. So to speak.

 

Rush hour on West 6th St. on the day after a national holiday.

I guess I would have had to move out of the center of a four lane street---eventually.

Tree care at its bleakest. Nothing left but a stump. 

Movie still from a  bleak and dystopian science fiction movie set in the near future.

Or an over filtered sun shot processed to depress.

Really? This is their idea of a pedestrian walkway?

Some saggy nylon nets held up by rubber cones. In the middle lane of a busy street.

One Karen on a cellphone and ... disaster.

un-horses.

I dropped by REI at the end of my walk to pick up yet another pair of Birkenstock sandals. The Arizona Ruggeds. Bigger, thicker tread. Longer wearability. The perfect footwear for a roasty-toasty Summer. 

I love them. Y'all should all run out and get some. Just maybe don't wear them with black knee socks and white Bermuda shorts. And you might want to break the sandals in for a few days before you do the long, multi-mile walks in them. So much to tell you about these sandals. 

I said above, in the title, that Austin is an odd town with profound contrasts. A flurry of giant, high rise businesses continues to grow unabated by short term, bad financial news. While some of the lower middle class and resolutely middle class neighbors have seen house prices fall (and this is gleefully reported by the national media...) the prices in the very affluent  satellite neighborhoods in platinum level school district actually kept rising and are 5% higher than last year. Average sale price for houses in the Eanes School District? One point nine million for a 3:2 with nice trees and a decent sized lot. 

Framing the tony downtown high rises are small, older buildings that are sorely in need of either renovation or demolition. In several areas both in the middle of Austin and also to the West of the city are enclaves of centi-millionaires and billionaires. In the morning entire flocks of Bentleys and Aston Martins roar down the streets of Westlake Hills heading for tech HQs or into the bank and law buildings of downtown. A few miles away people struggle to keep the air conditioning on. 

There's still a middle class and it's big enough. But it mostly acts as a buffer between the extremes. The rich and lucky ones have already decamped for the Summer to their second homes in Montana or near small clean lakes in places like Minnesota. The real modern robber barons fled to New Zealand and Patagonia at the mere threat of the first 100 degree day. 

Me? I'm heading to the pool every morning and sticking with my usual routines. No contrast here. It's a good time to try the snootier restaurants in town as many of their patrons have fled. And lines are shorter everywhere. Sales abound. And those knuckleheads at the Patagonia store are already starting to stock in their Fall merch. Wanna buy a down jacket on a 103° day? Who does that? Oh...my friend reminded me that if you happen to be heading to New Zealand or maybe a ski trip in the Andes you'll need some warm weather gear. How could I have been so clueless?

The favorite taunt of the Summer: A friend complains about flight delays, flight disturbances, flight cancellations and spending hours on the tarmac. His friend responds: "Oh Goodness! You still fly commercial?"  How does one craft a come back for that one?