It was the item about our anti-mosquito device that prompted an editor for the local daily to ask whether I would talk to a reporter about life without air-conditioning. I declined. But some people didn’t. The feature is a front-page item in today’s “Living” section, and sign-in is required to view it.

In Austin, I’ve always been fortunate to work and live where the windows open. As the article reports, windows, shade, and fans make the difference. Since everything above 80 degrees is unpleasant and since the house interior rarely goes above 80, we’ve saved a lot of money over the years, both on utility bills and on property-tax appraisals. And we’ve never suffered from respiratory allergies, either in this habitation or in the one before it.

The headline is: “No AC? That’s cool: these Austinites live without central air. On purpose.”

Because our shade pavilion and anti-mosquito device would be improved with some additional shade against the sun in the west, we turned to The Fabric Shop at the little Twin Oaks shopping center, where the namesake oaks still stand, right in the corner by this mother-and-daughter shop. A little bit of muslin yardage met the requirements. We’re using an improvised arrangement involving binder clips and string to (a) hold the fabric shade in place, and (b) raise and lower it. It was difficult to resist the buttons encrusted with “diamond jewels” and some of the embroidered sew-on patches, though.