An AirBnB...plus complications

Okay, last time I was having a major hissy fit about the Fort Worth Water Gardens and who I felt they were as deadly as all get out. And when I say “major,” I mean MAJOR. In fact, come right down to it, maybe “major” doesn’t begin to do it justice. Maybe we’re talking more like Colonel. Or maybe General. Maybe even Field Marshal. Maybe Generalissimo. With a side order of Flying Frigate and a sprinkling of Air Commodore au gratin.

Well, anyway, I was not a happy camper.

I wish I could say that from there everything went just ducky. But, alas, I can’t. There was one final little hiccup to our stay in Fort Worth in 2024. And that was the AirBnB. Martha had found it. She handles most of our travel arrangements, which is good because I’m a bit disorganized. There was the time, for instance, that I was trying to buy plane tickets on an online travel site and ended up getting a return flight that was scheduled for *before* our actual departure. Which would have been fine...if we were antimatter and time ran backwards for us. But, we’re not. And it doesn’t. So...oh, phooey.

Anyway, the price was good, the location was excellent, and the photographs of the interior looked inviting. So, she booked it.

About the photos: Three today. First, the hallway at our AirBnB. Looks a bit like something from the Leavenworth Bar and Grill. Second, the interior of our apartment, which was actually quite nice. Third, a photo I took of a Victor Ostrovsky painting on the wall of the living room. Honestly, he’s not to my taste, but you can see why he has his fans. (No violation of copyright intended.)

But...once we left the Water Gardens, we plugged the AirBnB address into our cellphones and headed off. There was much going this way and then that...then there was a lane that suddenly ended with no warning and I thought we’re going to impact a truck (Yikes!), but after some dodging here and there, and a couple of unexpected U-turns, we arrived...

...to find that the AirBnB was an apartment in a large building circled by a high fence and the only access was via an automatic gate that would only open if you had a special app on your phone that we...eventually...found and managed to download and then discovered that it worked...sort of...sometimes. Now and then. But not so often as to let you take it for granted.

Then, after we finally got the gate, we discovered that parking was ...uh...complicated. You had to be very careful to park only in special, non-resident, designated spaces...because if you parked in a WRONG space they’d come and tow your car away and sell it to scrap dealers who’d crush it down to a nice shiny cube and export it to Illicit Chinese arms manufacturers who’d use it to make machine guns to sell to drug cartels and people who take the Second Amendment a little too seriously.

Oh, and, also, just to keep you on your toes, even if you did get into the RIGHT space, you had to take a photo of your license plate and text it to a special number “in the main management office” to let them you know you’d be there and weren’t intruder and if you didn’t get juuuuust right, they’d come and tow your car away (again, cue the shiny cube, the scrap dealers, and the machine guns).

Okay, so we finally got a “designated” parking place. We then set about finding our room. First, we had to find the right building (there were several and none of them were clearly marked). Then we had figure out which floor our room was actually on (turned out it was the second floor. That wasn’t mentioned in the promotional materials). Then, we had to find the elevator (not easy) to get to the second floor. Then we had to find our room on that floor (also not easy). And *then* we had to figure out how to get the key out of the lockbox so that we... could open...the...damn...door. Dang it!

Once we finally had that done, the room proved very nice. Which was a relief because the hallway out front had been gray and featureless. It looked just about as inviting as Alcatraz but without as many giggles. (I’ll post a picture.)

But, as I say, the *room* itself was comfortable...albeit a little odd. The individual who owned the place, and who was subletting it as an AirBnB, is an artist and aspiring interior designer. That meant there were some interesting aspects to the place. Like, some of the furniture was great to look at, but almost impossible to, you know, *sit* in. And the bed was in a nook rather than a separate room, but you could divide it from the rest of the apartment with a heavy drape. It was okay, but sometimes I felt a little like I was in a Victorian bed with bed curtains, and that at any moment Jacob Marley’s ghost was going to show up and drag me off to Xmas Past. Which, in my case, really, wasn’t such a bad place. So, maybe not so bad after all. Just so long as it isn’t a Disney version. All those singing cadavers. Gets on my nerves.*

Anyway, then we had our obligatory dinner of wine, bread, and cheese, and--after an equally obligatory couple of mysteries on the TV-- headed off to bed.

In the morning? Well, that’s when everything gets a whole lot better.

Because that’s when we see...the Gardens.

And this time, they really are an oasis.

More to come.

Footnotes:

*The other thing about the apartment was that there was a large print of a Victor Ostrovsky painting on one wall. If you’re not familiar with Mr. Ostrovsky, then he’s an interesting character to say the least. He was an Israeli who became a case officer for Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service. He was fired from Mossad some reason (just why remains under debate). He then wrote two books about his time in the service, By Way of Deception, and The Other Side of Deception--neither of which is flattering of Mossad.

Moving to the United States, he became an artist and a gallerist. His paintings and prints are popular and you may have even seen them already. Frankly, I don’t like them. I find them a little creepy. But, they *do* contain a lot of images of women falling out of minimal clothing. So, that’s a plus. At least if you’re straight guy. Which I am. Oh, and stay *away* from my browser caches. You don’t want to know. Believe me.

Anyway, here’s Mr. Ostrovsky’s Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Ostrovsky. You can also see some of his works at this gallery page: https://www.exposuresfineart.com/art-category/artists/victor-ostrovsky/

Care to help out?

I provide these blog postings for free. That’s fine and I’m happy to do so. But, long ago and far away, I was told that if you give away your material, that means you don’t really think it has any value.

So, to get beyond that, I’ve decided to make it possible for you to leave me a “tip” for my posts.

If you like what I write or the videos I produce, and feel you could make a small contribution to support my efforts, please go here:

https://michaeljaytucker.gumroad.com/l/lzumj

That will take you to a Gumroad page where you’ll have the option of leaving me a few pence by way of encouragement.

Again, I don’t mind if you don’t. I just want to provide you with the option so that I won’t feel quite so much like I’m just tossing my works into the wind.

Either way, thanks hugely for dropping by the blog :-)

~mjt

#StampOutEnnui #MichaelJayTucker #MarthaTucker #MarthaAndMichaelChronicles #StompEnnuiLikeItWasABug #explosive_cargo #Xcargo #StampOutEnnui #MichaelJayTucker #MarthaTucker #MarthaAndMichaelChronicles #StompEnnuiLikeItWasABug #explosive_cargo #Xcargo #FortWorth #Fort_Worth #WaterGardens #Victor_Ostrovsky