Not so Routine

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 29, 2004 — I expected to be back in a routine today but something about the day wouldn't yield to routine.

I had a tennis match. (Subbing for someone in a league.) There was the threat of rain. I thought I might get to the club early enough to say 'hi' to my dad and the gang in the water aerobics class. Or even work out before the match. As it was I was the last one to arrive before a pre-match workout.

My partner was pretty good and we won pretty easily. (6-1, 6-4) We watched the others play. All must have split sets. I left before they finished. Thought I might go to the gym but I didn't. Went home. Maybe later, I said to myself, knowing I wouldn't go.

At home I ate. The phone rang but the answering service was turned on. (FFP was out.) I fished out the message and it was the plumber's service saying Oscar was available. Oscar is our favorite plumber from this company. I phoned back. Oscar came and replaced a small piece of pipe and a couple of joints coming into the garage. A tiny crack had caused a slow leak. I tried to tidy up all the stuff on my computer and got into a lesson on Visual Basic. I'm trying to approach this stuff looking at it as a high level language in general rather than as something to memorize. If that makes any sense.

I had to take the dog to the vet to get her stitches out. They were backed up. I think they were putting some poor dog out of its misery. I waited about 45 minutes and then it was done and Chalow was pronounced healthy. She seemed pleased. He says she doesn't have to wear the big collar to keep her from licking any more.

At home, the bookkeeper is still at work. Balancing a bank account for FFP's business. So I do the family budget, going through a bunch of receipts, check book entries and online credit card statements and filling in my little custom spreadsheet. There are more sophisticated programs but I like the freedom of my set of spreadsheets.

Finally, later than usual, FFP decides to cook and we have a meal and some wine and I clean up a bit. We settle in to watch some TV and to read. Sleep comes.

Mom has a little fake tree

It's Good to Get Home

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 28, 2004 — There's just nothing like getting home after being away.

I get up at six and shower and dress and make coffee and write a little and pack. Dad and I drop our keys and are off around 7:30. We go to my aunt's apartment and have a little more coffee and breakfast. Then we hit the road. We stop once, to get my friend SuRu just out of Waco. We load up her and Zoey, the poodle and head home. In Austin we all go to Dad's and help him put out some stuff for large item pickup. Then SuRu takes me home.

At home, I unpack and talk to Forrest and the tech he has putting a new hard drive in his computer. I do some laundry, putter around unpacking. I watch some recorded shows. FFP suggests an outing.

We go to South Congress and just wander up and down the street. We see some friends inside at a bar and go in and talk to them and then to another friend who shows up and to a perfect stranger while having some snacks and refreshment.

We wander a little more after this and then go home. We settle in to read and watch TV. I'm so glad to be home. Soon...bed.

SoCo goes Deco

Pure Family Dreams

DALLAS, Texas, Nov. 27, 2004 — Life is messy. People die, marriages split up, children disappoint. But today I was immersed not in shopping but in families that tick along, skirting the mess. We can't stop death. My dad is a widower. One of his sisters in attendance was recently widowed, too. But the marriages are worked on and hang in. Til death do us part has been the story for most of them.

Started out with a shower then getting dressed nicely enough for a party but with hiking boots. Took my nice shoes along and also jeans and a sweater.

We went to my aunt's apartment and along with my cousin we went to IHOP and had breakfast. Senior breakfast for everyone except my cousin who is only (only??) forty-three. Family banter ensued, the usual fighting over the check.

Then Dad and I and my cousin head out to Restland, the city-sized Memorial Park where we buried Mom. That sounds so final. And is. My cousin wants to get out at the florist shop and help pick something. "Sure," I say. We decide on a little decorated fake Christmas tree. Much more Mom than the fake poinsettas. Sometimes I get real flowers but I won't be back for a while. She's buried here with no other family. No one will probably happen along. But I like the idea of the tree there. We take it over to her plot which, after a few visits now, we can find without getting lost.

We go to my cousin Bob's and prevail on him for another meal of leftovers. I torture the younger boys (17) asking about school and such.

Dad and I head out at 2:30 and go to a party he's been invited to...a birthday party for a friend who is 80. He knows a lot of people there. I only know the guest of honor. They have nice-looking homey food with a flair...nicely decorated deviled eggs and cucumber sandwiches, strawberries with chocolate. I can't eat anything. Dad has cake and punch. The cake because his friend wants him to taste it. We talk to a guy I've never met but someone my mom and dad told me a lot about. He does a lot of stuff with his computer and he tells me all about it after the opening he gets when Dad asks if I've talked to Forrest and I say he's having computer problems. I think this guy was responsible for my mother wanting a computer so badly.

We exit the party and go back to our family. The kids are planning a CD they are making, playing video games. People are watching football. Another meal materializes, a recipe of my aunt, dead for a decade. Games, jigsaw puzzles, drinks and finally Dad and I are tired and head back to the nondescript hotel rooms. I have a beer and fall asleep watching a little TV.

There are rough patches, worries. There are things that aren't as we'd wished growing up. But our family, all the families represented, do function. Kids are taught to hug each other, and Mom, and Dad and even Dad's cousin. People want to take care of each other, see the others do well just for its own sake. Not because they think they should inherit money. Dead people's money could have torn this family apart, on our own little middle-class scale. But we said no to that.

the kids practice

A Really Nice Day

DALLAS, Texas, Nov. 26, 2004 — Been through the turkey once and the pressure is kind of off. I get up and get ready and watch a little TV and gather Dad and we go to my aunt's apartment. She gives us coffee and something to eat and then we take off and take my cousin who stayed there to the other cousin's place. We hang around there a little while and then go to our lunch.

My friend LG set up a lunch with her relatives, our friend Pam and this WWII European theater Red Cross Donut Wagon vet. We actually met her in Normandy, but only briefly. She brought along her delightful son and daughter-in-law as well. This woman had the best stories from before, during and after the war. It made me seriously want to get her to write a book about her life. She demurred...lots of people had interesting lives. Well, yes. But.

After our pleasant lunch my dad and I went to my cousin Bob's and we hung out there. It was very after holiday and family stuff. We had food (some leftovers, some other stuff, desserts, drinks, coffee), we tried to put together a puzzle, we watched football, my cousin's wife modified a dress for her daughter, the children played piano and sang, we played games.

I took a walk around Synder Plaza at one point, watching shoppers and going through some stores but buying nothing.

Finally we went to the hotel. At some point in the day, I'd had a couple of trips across the street to Snyder Plaza and on one of those I'd gotten some coffee...caf for me and decaf for Dad. I gave Dad his coffee and we retired to our plain little rooms.

my friend's Dad and the ebullient, eighty-six-year-old Janet Blair

It's Fun Enough

DALLAS, Texas, Nov. 25, 2004 — I start the day with shower and grooming. I go down to the laundry room in this place. I've stayed here before and there was a vending item with a coffee pack for the coffee pot in the room. Only since I was last here someone apparently vandalized that machine. It sits empty in the laundry room with the lock area a gaping hole. You have to use your key to get into the laundry room but still that didn't stop someone. I tell my dad later that I guess maybe we ought to stay in a better class of place. He says, "These things happen in better places, too"

"Yeah," I say. "But they also usually give you some coffee in the better places!"

So, I sit and write on the computer and listen to the news without coffee. A little before nine we go to my aunts. She soothes me with some coffee. We eat. We look at some of the ads from the paper. I look at the paper. Then we heat my casserole, I sauté mushrooms and she makes her creamed onions. We load up all this and her pies and go to my cousin's house in Dallas.

We unload the food and watch the other final preparations. Dad and I wander next door to my aunt's apartment. We carry her dressing, rolls and pie back to the feed.

My cousin Bob carves turkey and we eat. After the meal, we sit around a bit and then a bunch of us go see The Incredibles. We started a tradition about a decade ago of going to a kid's movie on Thanksgiving Day. The youngest kids are seventeen now. Last year they went off to an adult movie and I wouldn't go. Eight of us go to this one.

Back at my cousin's house, we watch the Cowboys and play games. My cousin Bob has made some turkey chili stews. One green and one red. I don't really feel hungry but I eat some more, drink coffee. My cousins' kids are practicing singing to make a CD and my cousin Bob watches TV, flipping from Spiderman to Grinch and such.

Dad and I head back to our working class hotel and I relax with a Scotch and some TV and a little writing and reading. It was a reasonably fun day and good to see my cousins and families.

I hope I'm that well-preserved at 88

Sigh

DALLAS, Texas, Nov. 24, 2004 — I'm trying to be festive. To feel like I'm taking food and wine donations and all will be fun and games. I don't know what I'm thinking, actually. I mean I love seeing my relatives. Really. But it can also be tedious.

I get up and shower and put together stuff I'm taking. I put mushrooms, butter, and my partly-cooked casserole in the ice chest with ice chains and water bottles filled and frozen. I put in a spring of fresh rosemary and a clove of garlic to give the mushrooms a little kick, hoping such simple things won't put my relatives off sauteed mushrooms. I gather up reading material, a case of Clementines and some cheese straws I'm taking the relatives as well as my gear. I work on my journal entries for the last couple of days and then pack up my laptop. I make sure I have digital camera, cell phone accesssories, chargers. I get some books and magazines together for reading alone in my hotel room or when everyone else nods off. I put on a blazer and also grab my anorak. Weather supposed to turn colder.

I fill my soft-sided cooler with wine and a couple of beers.

My dad and my friend SuRu show up about ten. We pile my stuff in and take off. I drive and just south of Waco I drop SuRu off with her folks. We have a cup of coffee with them. Then we head to West. At exit 353 in the little town of West is a Czech bakery and convenience store. It is traditional to take some sausage rolls and sweets from here on the way up this road. I've never seen a line so long but I wait in it. I get us some rolls to eat as well as a pound cake and a couple of boxes of baked goods. And fill up my coffee cup.

Onward. We get to Mesquite and check into our cheap suite rooms. It is cheap and really the rooms aren't awful but the atomosphere of the place is a little disturbing. That down and out class, barely getting by frequents these places sometimes. I get our rooms and pay for it and we unpack some of our stuff.

Then we go to my aunts. On the way, Dad driving, I hear the stuff in the back (wine, cooler) shift. I should have paid more attention. After finding my aunt and uncle's apartment, I go to get out the casserole and stuff. When I open the back of the van, the soft cooler with the wine and beer, the Clementines and the can of cheese straws come crashing out. Two bottles of wine have shattered in the bag. I pick everything else up and go get paper towels. (I can't find the ones Dad usually keeps in the van. Turns out he forgot all his emergeny supplies on this trip!) I dump glass and wine in the dumpster, wiping off the unbroken bottles of beer and wine. I guess it's lucky...the two that broke were the cheaper ones. My uncle walks up and I hand him a bottle of Argyle Pinot, a present. "Fortunately, I didn't break the one that I bought for you!" I say cheerfully. It's not cosmic.

My aunt insists on taking the bag inside and putting it in the tub to wash it out after I've dumped the worst of the glass and wine. I stick the good bottles in the cooler, take the casserole and stuff in to the aunt's frig. My aunt's spare bathroom now looks like a crime scene with wine dripping down from the bag she's hung on the towel bar into the tub. We theorize that the insulation has been punctured and then received wine which is slowly leaking out. I'm for tossing the thing but she insists on leaving it there.

Soon it's cocktail hour and we have drinks. Then we head to Joe's Crab Shack. The aunt and uncle say that their postman has told them the food is good but that it is loud. I've never been to one. Dad went to a seminar at one where they gave out free shrimp if you would listen to their investment pitch. We get drinks and food and it's OK. It is loud. Especially if you count the staff climbing on chairs and dancing and yelling along with a loud Macarena.

We go back to their apartment and have coffee and tell each other stories. By nine, Dad and I are back at the hotel. In my room, I set up the laptop, the cell phone charger. I do a few exercises. I watch some TV, read a tiny bit, have a night cap, fall asleep. I'm ready to be home. But I'm staying four nights.

I hope I'm that well-preserved at 88

A Weird Edge

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 23, 2004 — The rain and the cold front that follows sort of define this day. But it has a weird edge all its own. I have to get to the club for a quick cardio workout and get home and shower. Forrest's mom has to testify at an estate hearing of her niece. Of course, we have to take her. Further, one of us needs to help her inside and one of us needs to drive because of the parking. I'm the driver.

It isn't raining when I drop them off. I find a parking place nearby and decide to plug the meter with quarters and go for a coffee. I have my jacket but I foolishly don't take it. No umbrella either. At Little City, I watch a deluge on Congress Avenue while having coffee and a bagel. Soon it lets up a little and I skirt along the avenue under awnings and up Ninth until there is no more shelter. The rain picks up again a bit. I still don't have a call from FFP so I stand there under the last bit of shelter, reading my book, hoping for a break. He calls me. I tell him I have to dash back to the car. I do that and skirt around the one-ways and get to the curb by the court house. I'm soaking but it has stopped raining.

After we drop off his mom, it rains some more. I decide that I really must get a present off to my sister. It's a joke gift with some time with computer and glue required. Why do I make things hard on myself? Why not just send a check? Anyway, I do it, finish it, have lunch and take off to the Pack and Mail stopping on the way to make a bank deposit.

I get that errand done. The sun is actually shining.

Then the front moves in. On our calendar it says we are going to a concert at someone's house. We dress up and take off. We are a couple of minutes early but we immediately think maybe I've screwed up the date or time. There are a few lights on at the house, no cars. Then the lights go off! It looks like a power failure, really. A couple of other houses have lights off. We sit there. I figure FFP is steamed because I handled this event (RSVP, putting on calendar). Another car pulls up. But when someone gets out it is a guy delivering Chinese to another house. The wind has kicked up and the car is peppered with things falling off the trees in this swank neighborhood. A flashlight swiings through the darkened house. I bet they are glad the are not having a party!

We go home. On the way back there are people directing traffic around a tree that has fallen into 45th Street. The wind, the rain? We check and, sure enough, the concert is next Tuesday. I'm an idiot. Anyway, we are dressed up so we decide to go see our friend Rebecca who is playing at the Four Seasons. It is her last week. We go down there. The place is desserted. We have some food and drink and she says she is leaving Sunday. So...this is my last chance to see her before she leaves.

We go home. I finish my novel, watch some TV. And sleep.

I hope I'm that well-preserved at 88

Who'll Stop the Rain?

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 22, 2004 — The rain is starting to define everyone's life. Dad and I call off water aerobics (which, it turns out is also called off by the club). My friend SuRu calls and e-mails and wants to lunch. We are considering a trip to the warehouse clubs. I go off to the club and get a little exercise.

I do a few things and then take the dog to have her bandage removed. This takes some time, waiting for the vet while you can hear him talk to a cat owner in the next room. We get a cervical collar for her. Turns out it will restrict movement enough to keep her from licking her wound.

SuRu comes by a little before one. We talk about going to Dirty's but the parking lot is full and we go to BurgerTex. I have taken a jacket along but left it in the car. It's raining again when we dash back to the car. We decide to skip the shopping. She drops me off and I go in and look at the weather channel. A red spot is moving over the house. I remember my dad was going to visit friends. I call them and tell his friend Maja that he shouldn't go home until this bit of weather passes. She says she was going to get out to the warehouse club. I say she should look at the weather channel.

I sit out the weather until there is a break and run to the grocery store for some supplies for us and some things for my Thanksgiving contribution.

When I'm home again, of course, it rains some more. I read, watch TV, waste time. And to sleep.

I hope I'm that well-preserved at 88

Where Does the Time Go?

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 21, 2004 — It could have been a day to clear a few things off my plate. But, in the end, it was a day to entertain the parents and myself.

We went to the gym together, FFP and I, and early enough that we had an OK workout and plenty of time to shower up and get ready before joining our parents back at the club for brunch. We were celebrating FFP's Dad's birthday a little early (it's while my dad and I will be gone for Thanksgiving).

After the brunch, we went back home and I did things on my computer and then read newspapers, ate snacks, drank coffee, drank beer and watched TV. We were still catching TV shows around one in the morning when thunder cracked and lightning flashed all around.

my little family: FFP, his dad, his mom, my dad

Do As You Please

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 20, 2004 — Today I feel like doing as I please. Not accomplishing anything and not worrying about it. It's a rainy Saturday. That's what other people will do, yes?

I get around to the gym for a short workout. I leave when I please to give myself plenty of time to mess around with backups before meeting my friend SuRu at the Courtyard tennis club. Unfortunately, it's raining. But they move the event to their indoor courts and we watch pros play tennis at close range for several hours.

Finally I'm hungry. Very. And I'm tired of sitting and watching tennis.

At home I stuff my face and then go out with FFP to a nearby Mexican restaurant. At home again I don't bother to update my journal or do anything constructive. Instead I dig through a few newspapers. FFP and begin to watch and reject a number of TV programs, live and DVR recorded. Finally we settle on a DVD and enjoy it. Then I run across an amazing tennis match from the Masters in Houston. I have to stay awake long enough to watch it to it's dramatic finish. (Federer beats Safin in a tie-breaker that went 18-16 or some such.)

While we were watching TV I called my dad and he had been asleep and thought it was morning and he was late. "But it's Saturday night, Dad. Isn't it?" I say.

Finally to sleep.

a subway poster from a trip to Berlin

Unaccustomed

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 19, 2004 — Today seems odd and different while, at the same time, being extremely familar.

I start out with the intention of getting a workout pretty early but it is not to be. I do stuff on my computer and then I finish the holiday card job by stuffing fliers for The Nutcracker in some of the Austin area addressees envelopes and sealing all those. Finally, I'm off with two hundred envelopes to the post office. Over 150 were to the Austin area, about five went to foreign addresses and the rest to other parts of the U.S. A few to New York, a few to California, a number to other parts of Texas, a few other states. I have over 350 people in my address list and I probably know twice that many people but don't have a snail mail in my list. I hand addressed three or four because they weren't in my list when I printed or because they were wrong. I feel a momentary release after putting them in the care of the post box. But then I'm overcome by thinking of the next project and wondering what the purpose of any of it can be.

I get a workout and get home and do a few more things like make a card and gift bag for my father-in-law's birthday and fuss a bit thinking about my sister's birthday. I print a couple more family calendars for members of my dad's clan.

We are going out early, for a pre-performance dinner, so I have to shower and put on nice clothes and we are off a little before five. We get to the Four Seasons and keep a watch for the people we are dining with. A pleasant meal and wine follows and then we dash to the Performing Arts Center to see a mixed rep performed by American Ballet Theater.

We have been hosted by some nice people from New York associated with the theater and, after the performance, we say our goodbyes and head home. It's late. And we sleep.

a now lost mural reflecting a lost time in Austin

Concentrate

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 18, 2004 — I have a tennis workout I've agreed to sub for and I think I'll get some other exercise. The weather has cleared up a bit. But the one thing I must do is finish these cards and mail them.

I don't get to the club before or after the tennis.

I tell myself...no journal, no reading papers (except while eating lunch), nothing distracting from stamping, addressing, writing personal notes, confirming addresses. I make pacts with myself that I can get up for a cup of coffee at certain times. There are interruptions, of course. FFP asks me things, I answer the phone while he does errands. But I don't do any other activities. It takes a long time to complete but by about six I have done it except for a few I'd like FFP to do (or decide not to send). Also I've left a bunch of Austin ones open so he can insert a flyer for Ballet Austin's The Nutcracker if he wishes.

Our young friend, Kevin Ahart, calls and asks if we have had dinner. Well, no. Getting out sounds good. So we go back to 34th Street and meet him and have a pleasant dinner.

When we get home, we watch some TV, not in real time but on the DVR and go to bed quite early for us.

for sale on ebay once

Comfort Zone

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 17, 2004 — It will not stop raining. Acceptance has set in. Dad and I agree on the phone that water aerobics are out. He says he will work with his weights. He has some plastic three pound weights my mother had. It's better than nothing.

I think I've caught a break in the rain but it picks up while I'm headed to the vet with the dog. She's having a surgery on a benign tumor. I carrry her inside as the rain pelts down. I agree to pay $40 for a blood test just for starters to make sure she can withstand the anesthesia. She's had liver problems in the past. Hopefully her expensive special food and pills and her weight loss have fixed that.

I head to the club. Rain, rain. The pool is overfull, murky and closed. As expected. I get a double shot from the coffee bar and then have a workout.

I'm home at a reasonable hour. Should be able to 'get a lot done.' I actually sit down and redo my 'to do' list in anticipation of that.

So where did I go astray? Oh, I read some WEB pages. And I do some of the things on the list, too. I phone my aunt, trying to arrange a visit of Dad's three sisters down here between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I decide that I should call Delta and see if I can get a Frequent Flyer ticket for next year to go to Cape Town. That takes forever but, at the end, I have a ticket. Another trip in its planning stage.

I install Norton Ghost on my machine. My idea is to have a backup of the C: drive when I finally decide to go to XP SP2. Also, I'm considering putting the software on FFP's machine. I think I'll get a lot of the holiday cards done while the software installs and I make the backup. And yeah, I do get some done.

I end up doing a Visual Basic lesson, taking the (short) quiz, doing the assignment, going through some vocabulary words, reading someone else's journal. Oh, I worked on my cards all right, taking my own good time with them.

And I ate some lunch and showered, of course, and while back in the bedroom zoomed through some junky TV. (I've recorded some good movies on the DVR but I haven't found time to watch them just like I haven't found time to watch many Netflix lately or found time to go to the movies.)

We don't have anything to do tonight. I hope I can finish my cards. Then FFP suggests going out to dinner. We go to 34th Street and have a nice dinner while reading our books. I suggest we swing by Central Market as long as we are on Lamar. When we get home and unpack groceries, it seems odd. Chalow stayed overnight at the vet and she isn't with us. When I walk in the house I always go let her out. I think she's OK, but it's weird.

So...I should finish my project. But I don't. No. I watch a bunch of junk TV while reading a bunch of newspapers. Well, it's important to know that they've discovered bacteria that can live in toxic waste. Good in that it can render the waste harmless. But oh so scary. This is the kind of thing you have to read the papers so that you will know. Also, you have to keep up with terror, war and the cabinet turnovers. I stay up too late but finally sleep.

Deluge

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 16, 2004 — It just keeps raining. Rains makes mud. It's sloppy. But Austin cancels outdoor activities and continues.

I get up and organize a little. I'm finally at the club around noon, doing mostly aerobic but a good workout.

When I get home I eat and shower and work on my Thanksgiving cards. I'm taking time with them, thinking about the people I'm sending them to that I haven't taken time to see of late. That's the fun of cards to me, sending my wishes out to friends and relatives and, sometimes, getting something back.

The maid comes and I retreat with my cards to my office. After a bit I go run an errand and then go to a reception for a group calling themselves 'notable women for the Long Center.' It's at a large and stylish west Austin home. I've agreed to get some photos for one of the society sections of local papers. So I get there early, have a glass of champagne, greet people, have a couple of the snacks, drink a Perrier and line up a few pictures of the people.

I stay until the end to get the pictures lined up and then I go home to read and eat and watch TV with FFP. I should work on a few things but I just goof off until time for sleep. Outside it pours.

new Executive director of the Long Center, Cliff Redd, and mover and shaker for fund-raising, Vickie Roan

Rainy

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 15, 2004 — Rain marks the day. First it wants to rivet me to the bed with its patter. Then it causes the water aerobics to cancel. My dad shows up anyway. I give him things he left at my house and he goes off on errands.

I do a pretty good workout in the gym. I forgot my book so I read magazines and get stuck into a Travel and Leisure reading about eating in Paris and hunting remnants of the the destroyed Jewish community in Vilnius.

I get home and, after checking my mail and reviewing the week's calendar, I eat, get a shower and run out to Dad's and the grocery store.

When I get home, I snack again and I work on my holiday (Thanksgiving) cards while watching episodes of The Simpsons and Dallas on the DVR, recorded from cable. You can consume a lot of this junk while doing something else and fast forwarding through commercials.

Soon, it's time to get dressed for a Red Ribbon dinner (benefiting Aids Services of Austin) at Fonda San Miguel. We stand up greeting people and then sit down and have a long and leisurely meal with wine matched by Glazer's. It's late when we get home. I watch a little TV and fall asleep.

Across the Spectrum

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 14, 2004 — On any given day in Austin, people are off to events...sports or arts, parties or get togethers.

When I am at one of these events, I think, at least for a moment or two, about reporting it here.

Today, it was raining and raining in the morning. And that is my excuse for not getting off to the club for a much needed workout.

FFP and I got ready and, around 11:30, we went to Erwin center. Two women's basketball games, LSU vs. Baylor and Texas vs. Penn State.

We are always a little shocked in this atmosphere.

"I'm trying to figure out which shade of burnt orange I hate the most," I say.

"It's hard to decide," he says. (He does want to fit in when we go to such events, I think. More than I do. He admitted he's thinking about a tasteful white shirt with a small Longhorn.)

We have a diet Coke and popcorn and a coffee. I'm always amazed at the snack consumption. Everything is so expensive. I mean for what you get. A couple of sausage wraps and some sodas and I could get a beautiful and delicate appetizer somewhere in town. Add a pretzel, some ice cream and popcorn and you could make it foie gras. And it would be healthier, too.

People are into the game. And the routines.

"Watch it," says himself while I have my nose in a book during a time out. "They are throwing things." Indeed. They were throwing little toy basketballs and firing T-Shirts from a shoulder-mounted cannon. One of the balls hit me on the knee. I don't need shirts or toy balls.

We did enjoy the basketball. Baylor fought to within two points after trailing about eighteen or nineteen. Texas stayed in front most of the way but Penn State put up a pretty good fight.

After the game, we rushed home and let the dog out, changed shoes, picked up a bottle of wine and headed to a party.

Ah, yes. A different crowd. Arts and literary types. A woman who has a role (albeit small) in the next opera that Austin Lyric Opera will present. (Elektra). Another woman who has written for magazines and has now written a novel and who organizes literary gatherings. (She actually talked John Updike into doing a reading in Corpus Christi.) An artist who does amazing whimsical ceramic things. FFP has written about some of these people. Hopes to write about others. No one has any burnt orange clothing. There is good food and good wine and fantastic conversations. The house has wonderful furnishings including a collection of Eiffel Tower memorabilia. Not just little late twentieth century kitschy souvenir towers. But amazing and quite old representations. I understand she limits her collecting to objects from 1889 now (the year of construction).

Forrest has written about several of the people at the party including the hostess and the caterer and the woman performing in Elecktra. The party is over at eight but we are some of the lingering guests. It was such a great party.

Around nine we get home. I intended to get out my holiday cards this weekend (they have a Thanksgiving theme) but it can wait. I feel like watching some tube and reading some Sunday papers. I actually end up doing one of my Visual Basic lessons and then watching the end of some movie with FFP. Then to bed.

old Eiffel Tower poster

It's all Relative

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 13, 2004 — Relatives are people you make time for. Go out of your way for if necessary. Today my cousin and aunt were just making a quick trip down here so my cousin could go to a reception at the new Austin city hall.

I want to visit with them as much as possible. We have agreed to go to some party tonight.

I should have gotten up earlier and gotten a better start on the workout. As it is I carry my cell phone around the club and wait for them to call. I've had a pretty good workout when the phone rings in the midst of some dead lifts.

I rush home and take world's shortest shower and then my cousin and aunt arrive and my dad comes over and we visit, eat rolls they brought from the Czech Stop in West and watch some of the UT football game. Then I take my relatives for a drive and to eat at Threadgill's. My cousin wants to see the Tech and Aggie game and we watch and visit and I read the papers in between as does my cousin, Bob. Bob goes off to his event and we go off to ours.

Our event is out near the lake. I hope we can get back to say goodbye to the relatives. My dad and aunt are going to visit until my cousin comes to get her.

But the event we go to traps us. FFP says it would look bad if we left when I wanted to. I get captured by someone who hears I was in computers before I retired and then harrangues me about her law firm's problems finding good IT help. Her husband is a conversative syndicated columnist who acts insulted when FFP asks if he is a lawyer. If guys like that expect me to recognize them and be impressed, they should read the Sandra Bullock story.

So when we get home the relatives are gone and I feel bad, wishing I had skipped the event.

We watch some TV and go to sleep.

Chalow on a fall day some other year

Shopping

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 12, 2004 — Sometimes I need a box of paper. But I go to four stores, buy something in each of them, get a card for a new discount place and, finally, at the last store, buy the exact paper I want.

All I accomplished in the morning was to update the journal and have a workout.

FFP had indicated he would go shopping with me. But he changed his mind and decided to be productive. First on my itinerary was Fry's. I thought they might have the paper I wanted although I was really pretty sure I got it at Office Depot. There was a store nearby called Big Lots. I'd never been in this place so I decided to check it out. I ended up buying a pair of those one size fits all disposable gloves, a polartec ear thing, and two little children's Christmas books. Nothing over a buck. Coming out of Fry's was a west Austin couple I see at social events and the club. They were empty-handed. I thought I wouldn't buy anything either. I ended up buying a couple of software packages. A copy of Norton Ghost and one of the latest version of Calendar Creator. (I'm using version 9 and while it works I, probably foolishly, think I might be better off with the latest.) I also pick up two copies of a DVD of a fireplace with a choice of Christmas music or some other sound track. This will be part of my birthday present to my sister plus I thought one would be good for our own celebration.

So, still without the paper I need to finish a project I go to Costco. Everyone has been excoriating me for shopping at Sam's because it is the evil empire. I guess I'm not so sure that Costco is less evil, but people have also been telling me that they have better stuff, especially food. So I figure it might be worth it to have a card. Since, after all, I'm trying to save money, right? I haven't had a card here since they first opened and gave me a free membership for a year. I almost balk at the $45. Will I really save that much in a year shopping here. Especially since I have a Sam's card. But I get the card and look around. I don't look at everything. They don't have paper suitable for my project. There office supplies seem thinner than Sam's. I look at food and decide to buy some cheese. I see some ahi tuna that looks like a good bargain. I also see some values in wine. Still I'm not convinced that it's a better deal than the alleged evil empire. And, given my proclivity for avoiding shopping, I shoould probably abandon all hope of playing off all the stores by comparison shopping Sam's, Costco and the regular stores.

But I still didn't have the paper for my project. So I slipped around the corner and into Office Depot. I got my $10 box of 25% cotton 24-pound gray paper. Shopping accomplished.

When I got home, I found a friend visiting. I sat down and visited with her and FFP went to get the dog at the vet.

When our friend left, we had some dinner, I had a drink and we watched TV and stayed home. Fairly early to bed.

Chalow back in the days when she got walkies

Time Goes By

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 11, 2004 — Time really races away, doesn't it? I was thinking today that we really needed to get our holiday mailers out. (We decided to send a sort of Thanksgiving theme one this year so yeah we are ahead of the curve. The idea for me is just to mail something. To reach out and touch a couple of hundred people to let them know we are still here. Note the illustration, from our 2001 card, where we simply said that. "We're still here.")

I had agreed to join some ladies playing a casual game of tennis on the clay courts. One of their foursome had to go to a funeral. I show up at nine and find one of the ladies in the pro shop. We assemble and then we begin a very slow couple of sets with breaks for discussions of HRT, high cholesterol and drug therapies, macular degeneration, Andy Roddick (one lady hasn't seen him around the club yet and says she and her friend Jewel are the only ones who haven't seen him.). In spite of the slow pace (I consider it almost anti-exercise...I'd get more activity knocking around the house) I enjoy these ladies and the few balls I can knock by them or over them as they stay planted in one place, tracking down any ball near them and sending it back although usually without a lot of pace.

After the tennis FFP and I go to NeWorlDeli and have lunch with a friend who runs the Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

At home, I work on answering some e-mails, doing some planning for scheduling things and help FFP resolve a few things in his altered environment. I start on a project for Christmas presents...printing family birthday and anniversary calendars for various relatives. Then it's time to shower for a reception in Westlake at six o'clock. A fundraiser for Lesbian and Gay Rights Lobby, it is at the strikingly beautiful home of a couple we know. We know a number of the people there, too.

We move from there to the house for a few minutes and then get reved up to go toast the tenth anniversary of Central Market. In a way, it seems that Central Market has always been there. In another way, it seems like it's just been a moment since the place was the talk of the town. Heck, people still take their out of town guests there to ogle the meat and fish and vegies. There was a benefit before the party we are going to and we walk through that and greet some of the people we know who were attending that one.

Upstairs we work the crowd, talking food and local issues. Right before we leave we hear the mayor out as he practices what he has to say in a tough meeting in the morning. At least that's my impression. We appreciate his confidences. I don't agree with him on everything but he is no nonsense and clear in his thoughts. That's so rare in a politician. Wonder if he would run for president?

We go home, catch a little tube on the DVR and go to sleep.

part of our Holiday card, 2001

Acceptance

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 10, 2004 — They say that acceptance is one stage of grief or something. So today I'm accepting the fact that FFP's old machine, as we knew it, will never really exist again exactly. We are re-installing sofware and moving things around. Nothing much (if anything) will really be lost. Even if it were, one gets over it.

Our techie is due to show up with an up-to-date WIN2K and the office software installed. He will help me install other things. But first: exercise.

FFP gets up at five o'clock. Oh, no, I think, too early. But I get up a little after six and by seven I'm at the gym. I do a workout and then shower and get into my bathing suit. I do water aerobics and shower again and get into my jeans. All that makes me feel a lot better. That and a bunch of coffee.

At home I find out the techie will be there at 1:30. I have a lunch date with an old pal at 11:30. Cool.

My pal and I go to Ichiban on Burnet. Great place if you like a lot of Japanese food and... they have this cool Koi pond outside.

At home I wait for the techie guy and soon I am trying to put the software and stuff back together.

We have dinner and the evening winds on. I sit up in FFP's office, installing things and testing things. While waiting for things to run I work on some of my own projects. There is still more that I need to do but, I get the thing back in a usable condition and I get a backup of the important data files.

We sit in front of the tube for a while after that, watching some random stuff. I snack and have a drink and try to read a little. And to bed.

please note the bit of clean desk

Computerus Interuptus

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 9, 2004 — I was enjoying some beautiful bed time at about seven. I got up and let the dog out and then went to the bathroom and then got back in bed. Good, I thought, just a little more sleep.

At that precise moment FFP told me his computer wouldn't boot. And all my attempts were for naught as well. So we called around looking for someone smarter and in between I tried to get our laptop up running some stuff he needed with some backups from night before last. We had someone coming in the early afternoon to try to fix it.

Of course, that sets me to worrying about all my backups and so forth. None of it is really cosmic, is it? In between, while waiting for things to copy here and there, I work the crossword puzzle in The New York Times and start reading Science Times from same. Ah, well, in a world of stars and super novas, what difference is a computer document or two? Well, yes, I know. It's all we know.

In the midst of all the computer stuff, we were having the electricial stuff in the yard fixed up...part of the the on-going entropy known as home ownership.

And so goes the whole day. A long a painful CHKDSK that seems to repair things but doesn't actually get anywhere. The computer guru here and here again.

We put FFP back in service, sort of, with a laptop and his backups from night before last. He hates typing on the laptop. When he wants to print something it can't go to the laser in his office (hooked to the down machine) and I get garbage when I try the ink jet hooked to the bookkeeper's machine and my laser printer prints stripes on it so I finally print on another ink jet. Then the laser warms up and works better. And that was the sort of day it was. Around two or three the maid appeared to knock around among the other drifty inhabitants here.

We never got the computer to boot...the OS is too corrupted so the guru took it to save off the data so he could reinstall WIN2K. Sigh.

I didn't get a workout, but I did a lot of thorough perusal of some newspaper articles while waiting for things to run on the computer.

When we'd given up on the machine and sent it off with the guru, we settled in front of the TV with a drink and the DVR remote. We watched some taped things and some real TV. We considered watching a DVD but didn't. I read a little bit of the newspapers piled by my chair.

And to bed. A wasted day, without a doubt.

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Nothing to Do

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 8, 2004 — It's really a pretty open day, I know that. I have water aerobics and we've scheduled a lunch.

I wake up and feel very happy and comfortable in my bed. It's 5:30. So I go back to sleep and stay in bed until 7:30. I wouldn't have gotten up then except for water aerobics. I go to class and afterwards ride the exercise bike a bit. I rush home and I'm going for the shower to get ready for lunch when FFP says our lunch date is delayed until tomorrow.

Then the day is completely open. I've already started for the shower so I go on and wash out my bathing suit and rash shirt and get in the shower. I take my time over my shower and grooming.

I spend the rest of the day finishing my Visual Basic lesson, reading papers, watching stuff I taped on video and generally goofing off. FFP has suggested that we go to Fonda tonight, early. So I exchange my swimming pool slides for loafers and socks and put on a belt and a leather jacket over my polo and we go. We spend a good long time eating our meal and then the owner comes by to talk so we spend a good long time over coffee, too. But we went early so we are home by eight or so.

TV watching and newspaper reading. I have trouble going to sleep so I sit in my office, messing with different things on the computer and looking at magazines and books.

Finally to sleep.

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Snapping Back For Sure

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 7, 2004 — I am up early. I'm not real happy about it. But it's OK once I get into some sweats and have some coffee. We are downtown at the new ballet building around seven-thirty to take some shots of the people who are participating in the Race for the Cure (of Breast Cancer) with a ballet team. No, we are running. Just shooting some pix.

So, after that we go home and scoop up the newspapers and go to Aranda's Taqueria for a Mexican breakfast.

After that, it is a given that we will have to take a break and digest before we can work out.

I get to the gym and back. Not my greatest workout, not my worst. Andy Roddick is there doing situps when I leave. Honest. I nod at him as I clumsily put up the twelve-pound weights from my bicep curls. I try to give the impression that I am not so stupid as to not know who he is but that I just wouldn't dream of making a big deal out of it.

At home, I read my friend's novel. Why will I give more time to this than writing my own stuff? Maybe I really want to be an editor.

FFP fixes some lunch and I eat some of it and clean up the kitchen a little.

I finish my buddy's novel and make some notes in it. I read some of the Sunday papers, burn a CD off Rhapsody for FFP, watch some TV, work a little on learning Visual Basic, take a shower and FFP and I go see a cabarat show: Amanda McBroom. She does sing The Rose, her one hit. But she sings a lot of other original stuff including songs from a show she is writing with her musical director wherein women from Shakespeare speak to the one character, a woman who is her.

It's a good show and a homecoming for Amanda who went to UT.

We are home early. We watch some stuff we recorded and read and have some snacks.

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Snapping Back

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 6, 2004 — I've no patience with illness. I tell my Dad that as we stand in the driveway, loading plants in the back of the van. I have had a workout. Not the longest one on record, but still. I've had a shower and a good lunch. I feel better than yesterday. I have a little energy. I guess I didn't realize that I didn't have much energy yesterday until I had more today.

Still, this plant transfer is the biggest accomplishment of the day, sadly.

We load up some of the potted plants that have dotted the backyard and front porch for the spring and summer. FFP helps pick and carry. Dad has his handtruck and we have a wheelbarrow. I have to crawl inside the van, lay the tarp, scoot the plants around. Dad ropes the first row to the second seats. I drive over to his house and we make a spot for the plants and unload.

After this I decide to do a little shopping even though it's Saturday. I maneuver to the Gateway Center. I check out Container Store and don't buy anything but I pick up a book and some small toys at Learning Express. The book is a cool Christmas one for the little boys in Colorado. Have to send another box!

Without changing parking places I go to Whole Foods and pick up some dip, chips, yogurt and grapefruit juice.

I get home and realize that I have the rest of the day to myself to read, work on the computer, watch whatever. FFP will watch football. (I admit I watched a bit of that exciting Oklahoma vs. A&M one.)

And so I do it. I read the day's papers. I read old papers. I update my journal. I read my friend's novel. I work on learning Visual Basic. I watch some TV live and some stuff off the DVR.

I find myself tired kind of early. Bed looks good.

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Under the Weather

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 5, 2004 — The weather is doing better than I am. I'm not exactly sick but not exactly well. I think I'm meeting someone at 9:30 at the club but when she calls and says she can't make it, I decide to not go to the club until 'later.' I fool around with my computer, do some writing, and drink coffee. The handyman comes by and I pay him and talk to him. I write a long e-mail to a friend, call and make reservations for a charity event, update our calendar.

Suddenly it's almost noon. I've barely stepped outside but it's beautiful. Still I tell myself I'm going to the club later, maybe like three o'clock. I decide I'll get my journal caught up and I'll read the papers and I'll do a lesson for this online class I'm taking.

Well, three o'clock passes. Forrest is in and out. I'm answering the phone, messing with my stuff. I don't feel all that well.

Forrest suggests we see a movie. I go along with it but he realizes I don't feel perfect and he says we will stay in. He orders a pizza from Mangia.

I finish the papers, watch mindless TV, have some of the pizza. I go on a coughing jag or two. I take some cold medicine. And fall asleep with the DVR playing some old Dallas episode.

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Glorious Weather

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 4, 2004 — I lost this day in editing. That always makes me unreasonably sad. It doesn't happen too often but I got careless.

I played tennis in the sunny cool day (a sub in a team workout) and it was glorious and I barely sweated. I didn't do any other working out and I came home to goof around with whatever on the computer and such I guess.

In the evening we dressed up for a dinner given at UT in honor of our friends who have given a few million to the University. A lot of people we know were there.

I'm sure I had more to say before I lost the pixels. I feel like that guy in Memento.

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Feels Right

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 3, 2004 — I didn't accomplish much today but the day felt right. Maybe that's because I read a lot of newspapers, pondered my latest book, did my water aerobics class, read some of my friend's novel, worked a bit on my on self-education projects. Maybe it's because FFP and I went down to campus and went to a reception and a Women's Basketball game and wandered the bit of campus between, marveling at how things change when you aren't looking. It's the sort of day I thought I'd have when I retired. With more accomplishments, of course.

I didn't think the day would amount to much. I had felt bad in the night, stayed up too late because I didn't feel good. (The election had entered stasis so that wasn't it. It had reached a game of chicken vs. concession.)

So I woke up, feeling better but needing to sleep more. I got up and got into a bathing suit and a rash shirt, threw shorts and a T-Shirt over that and put socks and underwear and my book in my bag. I was only a couple of minutes late to the class which starts at 8:15 on Wednesdays. The pool felt fine, heated, and I did the class. I never know if moving through the water, making the body resist it in various ways, is really doing me any good. When we get out the gusts of cool wind feel pretty bad. I suggest to bad that he go to the gym locker room but he just has be help him off with his rash shirt (which he says is too tight but is the biggest size I could find) and he goes to the pool showers.

I went into the gym and got some coffee. I tried to get a double shot of espresso but the attendant put milk in it while I was listening, fascinated, to her story of being accused by a member of lifting her wallet from her Gucci bag. (The member later found her wallet at home.) "Donna [the other coffee bar attendant] and I were at the registration desk. We hadn't noticed her put her purse on the counter behind us. Then Donna noticed it and said, 'That is a real Gucci bag like the one I can't afford.' [This didn't sound like Donna to me. Donna usually looks all fab in stuff she gets on sale or something. She is a younger and hipper black woman than the attendant putting milk in my coffee.]"

So, yeah, I sip my double shot with milk, cafe au lait I guess it would be if she heated the milk, I didn't notice. Instead I'm thinking about the incident. Realizing that this is why there is a sign about leaving purses and bags behind the counter. The sign purports to want people to get a locker because of the recent robberies. Indeed, there have been robberies. Car windows bashed for purses and a wallet and, curiously, the Q-Tip holders and such, taken from the Ladies locker room. But there weren't any thefts in plain site from the bags on the counter. No. There was just no way to insure the employees wouldn't be accused.

So I rode the bike and read my book about the brain and memory and then did some weight work and felt satisfied that I'd done enough.

Boy the air is cool. I go home in my sweaty shorts and T-Shirt. A couple of Forrest's cousins are in the driveway when we get home. They are going to fix a pad for the electrical junction box and fix the wiring and then we will put a sculpture on the pad. They have just been plotting the steps. The handyman cousin and his wife will first fill the stump hole.

I go inside and do things like post my journal, read today's newspapers, study VB a little, eat a couple of times, review stuff the DVR has recorded, send and receive e-mails. Soon it is time to shower and go to a five o'clock reception.

We are actually early. Yep. There isn't much traffic. Not a lot going on, I guess. Travis Country Democrats home licking their wounds? The reception is an odd deal, in my view. UT and community leaders gathering under UT auspices to greet the new director of the Long Center, the performing arts center that may never be since the city can only float money for convention centers and centers suitable for gun and knife shows and the entire responsibility for this is on individuals. Yeah, we can have taxes and bond issues to pay for just about anything but ballet, opera and symphony. But I digress.

We talk to various people we know from arts committees and such and our time in the community. We know almost everyone. We have some wine and some of the food. We listen to the speeches.

Then we go to our car, get our books, and walk over to the Erwin Center. We watch most of a blowout against Trinity. We don't sit in the seats we've been given which are near the floor but in folding chairs. Instead we select some of the many empty seats up the way from the corner where our seats are. We watch the game, the first exhibition of the season, and I notice there are lots more electronic signs since I was last there. I notice the restrooms have been renovated, too, and 'sky box suites' have been added at the top of the first tier. Behind us a bunch of young people act like they are cool, watching the game from the suite. I guess we haven't been here in a while.

We leave a little before the game is over. The score was something like 80-30. We walk a different way back across campus talking about how, if we lived in Cambridge Towers, we could use the campus as our personal backyard and park.

At home I sort of watch Law and Order and then sort of watch CSI: NY (which was recorded). I read old newspapers, having disposed of today's earlier. So I'm reading stuff leading up to the election that is now history. I have gotten more tolerant of reading about politics this year. The electoral college 'game' had gotten kind of fun. Sick. I snack even though I snacked at the reception and had a chopped beef barbeque sandwich at the game. (That concession stand is something else new at the center.)

I didn't sleep much last night so I turn in pretty early. I have a dry cough and my throat feels funny so I take some Echinecea.

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Just Doing It

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 2, 2004 — If you want to do things and do them a certain way, then you have to just get up and do it.

That's why I was up before seven.

I worked on getting some of Forrest's backups straightened out and studied Visual Basic. I spent an hour reading the papers. (And still didn't finish them.) I went to the gym and did pretty much what I consider a good workout. I mailed a package to my niece.

When I get home, Forrest says my dad came by and waited around for an hour for me to come home. OK, he's bored. He was hiding from his maid, I'll bet. And Forrest said he'd been to pick up a vacuum cleaner he had repaired.

I mess around a while, decide to eat (at two o'clock for the first time) and before I can finish eating our maid comes. So I hole up in my office and talk on the phone, fool around with my computer and finish reading the day's newspapers. Yes! It's terrible that this makes me feel so accomplished. You may ask why I can't just read the papers on the exercise bicycle. Well, this would interfere with getting books read. The real reason, though, is that it is hard to handle newspapers on the bike.

By the time the maid leaves I just have time to take a shower and flip through some TV and our friends come over. She is cooking for us. We drag out wine and cooking 'basics' like flour, olive oil and butter. We snack on cheese and bread, then eat roasted rutabaga, spinach salad with baby hothouse tomatoes and black drum with wine and caper sauce. Drinking wine all the while. Then coffee, mini scones. We watch the election results. Ho. Hum. Our friends go home and we finish clean up and go to various corners of the house to check our e-mail and such. I notice online that Florida gets 'called' for Bush. I wonder if this whole thing will get decided or if we will go through the agony of 2000. I remember being in Australia on a business trip. In a lonely hotel room at night I watched the two big stories: a shark had eaten someone and the U.S. couldn't elect a president. It seemed bad. But after 9/11 it seemed innocuous in the scheme of things, I guess, the whole election fiasco. In the end after the legal wrangling we didn't have an armed coup or anything. Unless you think it was Bush's fault that the attack happened which I don't really think.

It gets later and later. It is tomorrow. It isn't really the election that keeps me up. It is stalled on Ohio and seems like it will be for days. Interesting scenario. If the Dems could win Ohio by litigating to change the vote or get enough provisional and absentee ballots they could have the presidency without a popular vote victory. Amazing. I end up watching The Last Picture Show off the video recorder.

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A Day of Nothing

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 1, 2004 — It's been raining all night. I'm surprisingly tired given that there is that extra hour. I'm supposed to play tennis at 9:30. I doubt the weather will clear but you never know. And, well, it actually does clear but not soon enough to get the courts clear for the match. So around nine I find out that I have the rest of the day to do what I will.

Dad stops by after water aerobics class. We have a cup of coffee and I give him things I've gathered for him. We talk a bit. He agrees to take the leftover Halloween candy to his church.

I should at that point in the day, go to the gym. It's 10:30 and I should get on with it.

But I don't. I fool around and eat lunch. I go shopping and finish getting stuff for the box I'm sending to Colorado. Christmas stuff, believe it or not. I seem to have this obsession to dismiss Christmas from my agenda. I hate shopping, I decide.

I intend to go after that to the gym. But I don't. I'm on Anderson and I just turn down Shoal Creek and go home.

At home I play with my computer. I finish arranging the stuff in the box and writing my niece a note about it. FFP makes some food and I eat some of it. I read a little bit of the newpaper and speed watch a few things off the DVR and erase them. Then I go back to my office to continue the organizing, studying, writing. For some reason I feel compelled to go sit in the bedroom and watch TV and read newspapers at night. I could write or study, though. I'm starting to feel disconnected from my life.

Finally I do succumb to the video chair and then, fairly early, bed.

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