AUSTIN, Texas, Mar. 4, 2005 — I am relieved that Dad is taking my sister and my aunt to the games and snacks fellowship at his churh. Gives me the morning. Part of the afternoon, probably, too since he said they would come over here 'after their naps.' Hope having company is not going to wear thin on Dad.

I get up, get the bed made, get some coffee, take care of a few computer things and go to the club. I have an hour's workout...mostly a long bike ride reading Jonathan Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude. I do a few weight things, not much.

When I get home, FFP isn't there but then he shows up. I think he parked where grackles assaulted his car last night and he's been to the car wash. I'm ready to jump in the shower but he wants me to wait for one of his column subjects to drop by and bring a picture to scan. Interesting guy. I do the scan, talk to the guy a bit and when he leaves I do get that shower and get dressed.

It's time to take a look at the February budget. I enter all the receipts appropriately, scan credit card statements online, the checkbook. It's a good exercise. It doesn't demand total accuracy but it does give me an idea how much money we spend, where it goes, how we could spend less. I also spend some time on a project I'm doing for my family...figuring out how to get everyone everyone else's addresses and keep it up to date.

Dad does bring my aunt and sister over. They arrive with games they like to play. I show them the address book project. We discuss, test it out and we make calls to my dad's other sisters about it, too. I go back and forth to the computer, helping Forrest with something, making address labels, entering and correcting information. I send an e-mail for my sister. We play some games.

A couple of my friends come over. We all go to the club and eat. It's enjoyable.

A not so funny thing happens while I park the van and FFP helps my sister and the old folks into the club. An acquaintance with two kids in tow came by. He apparently saw a resemblance between me and my sister and thought it was me. So, since she walks with a cane with that dragging of the right foot that comes from brain injury on th left, he said "What happened to you?" Needless to say, this took everyone aback. Fortunately she realized the mistaken identity and said, "I'm her sister." Of course, she was shocked and hurt. I guess she should have said, "I had an aneurysm explode in my brain followed by brain surgery, strokes, infections, drug reactions, therapies, broken bones from falls. What happened to you that you ended up sixty years old with two young kids and no wife in sight?" Now, I'm not always patient with my sister and her difficulties. We badger her to use her right hand more, we don't cater to her every whim because of her disability. But the world around us, people who don't know her can be excessively cruel. And in this case, the guy thought it was me. Admittedly, he must not know me well although he has introduced his geeky children to me in the gym. (They are nice enough kids, really, but kind of goofy-looking and, hey, we are just telling it like it is, aren't we?) I mean he thought I'd gained fifty pounds and had a stroke since he last saw me a few weeks ago so he's obviously not very in touch with our lives. But if he doesn't know me well then why say anything at all? My sister took it pretty well. I guess she's endured a lot of that behavior in the last six plus years. It always gives me pause to realize one can end up injured like that in a second. Perhaps from a time bomb waiting in your brain. Of course, most people die when it happens. Well over fifty percent I think.