AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 8, 2005 — I have lots of things I should be doing, want to do in Austin. But my dad and I feel like we should go visit his sisters. One has broken her leg badly and is in rehab. To save money we are going to stay in her apartment and with my cousin next door. A motel would be more comfortable, perhaps, but this is free. Dad's other sister only lives in the Dallas area during the winter and will leave the end of March.

I told Dad to get to the house at nine. About seven-thirty I get up and shower and dress and I'm putting on my shoes when Dad comes. I make him wait while I finish getting ready and getting my stuff together and drinking more coffee.

Dad drives to West. I drive to Baylor Rehab. It's an uneventful drive. A bit of fog, a bit of conversation. Dad helps me navigate to this rehab place where my aunt will be only one more day.

My aunt isn't actually there when we arrive. She's been taken to a doctor's appointment at another facility. My other aunt shows up. Her husband is ill and she has had to take him to the doctor and to get drugs.

My broken leg aunt shows up with her daughter-in-law. Good news about her healing. They show off xrays of her leg. Full of metal. My aunt has her lunch. We aren't too hungry because we grabbed a sausage roll in West on the way up. (West is a little Czech town at exit 353 on IH35 where a 24-hour bakery gas station and convenience store called The Czech Stop operates. We always stop. We go to a conference for my aunt about her status and transfer to another facility. They take her off to a rehab session and a water aerobics session looms so we decide we should go.

Now we are hungry. We simultaneously think of Cafe Brasil a joint on Central near my cousin's house. We eat too much. (I get their spinach crêpe which has a cream sauce and add insult to injury with bacon. It's served with toast and jelly, which I eat and potatoes and I eat some of those, too.) That's what happens when you wait until three to eat.

We go to my cousin's house and get the keys to the apartment my aunt lives in. Dad will sleep there. We relax a little while there and then go over and visit with my cousin's wife, her son (he's home from high school, he's a Senior) and her niece who is crashing in the daughters' room (they are both gone from home, one in the working world, one in college). The niece is controlling the remote, watching mindless stuff on the tube. It's amazing how much mindless stuff there is. My cousin's wife fixes pizza for the kids but I'm too full for it and Dad only eats a tiny piece. We all have a bit of sweets from West...maple twists. I read my book, mindless TV continues. The niece says that a Friends episode is a rerun. "Well, of course, since it isn't on anymore." I say. She professes to 'never watch it' although that beggars the idea of a rerun anyway. This will be my only comment on the niece who is crashing here apparently while looking for a job. But she is careful to only look for jobs that will be pleasing to her. Hrumph. Ah, well, not my niece, not my problem. And perhaps there is no problem. After all, I'm sleeping in that daughters' room, too, to save renting a hotel room.

Dad bails and goes back to the apartment. I go along for a while and then go over and go to sleep.

I sleep OK in the little bed that I've denuded of stuffed animals and throw pillows. My cousin's wife says she will go to the Baylor Rehab tomorrow and supervise the move of my aunt to a retirement rehab at The Forum. Dad and I will just wait for her to get there to go visit.