AUSTIN, Texas, May 1, 2005 — Well, Dad is in the hospital. That will change my plans for the day. Also I was up until three in the morning.

Dad calls at seven. To tell me to 'go on with my day' that he is fine. He wakes me and I have trouble going back to sleep.

I finally get up around eight. I get some coffee. He calls again. They tell him he will have to stay another night. Probably because they can't get the tests they want on a Sunday.

I construct an e-mail to tell people what has happened. I find his neighbors phone numbers so that I can call them later.

After a while I manage to stumble over to the hospital and take him the newspaper. He's sitting up in the easy chair. They say he's supposed to have assistance to use the walker. He uses it to go to the bathroom with me watching out. He does fine. He stands on both feet and washes his hands. His lunch comes and I help him with that. He's going to get in bed and go to sleep. I leave for the club.

I only do a little over thirty minutes on the bike and a set of assisted chin ups. (A weight helps you chin if you put your feet on it. I use just one less than the maximum assistance available. I'm such a wimp.)

I go home. I do some more work on the computers, eat some leftovers, take a shower.

FFP and I go to Dad's. Just as he said there is a pill bottle on the floor of the bathroom, his hearing aid on a table where he got a portable phone that he couldn't figure out. It is tossed in his easy chair with the TV and the TV is in a weird state like he might have confused it with the phone. He says he finally made the phone in the kitchen work with his vision problem.

We get him some clothes (they seem to have misplaced his belongings although he saw them put the bag on the gurney last night) and lock up.

We go to Barnes and Noble and buy a couple of bargain books and a Texas Trivia book for Dad.

We go home and I go almost immediately to the hospital. He gets his dinner and I help him with that. Then he reads the book for a while which he says 'makes him sleepy.' That's the idea, I say. I finally go home.

I eat some leftovers and some salad, watch some TV, take care of laundry. I'm glad I'm not in the hospital.

Must. Get. Sleep. I haven't even had a nap today.