AUSTIN, Texas, June 1, 2005 — It's hard to tell one day in my life from another. Is it leisure or not? I was thinking, today as I looked out into the beautiful yard of a few tasks I need to do to get things ready for Austin Lyric Opera to have their event here on Saturday. They probably won't get done today. Maybe my day will be mostly leisure. Whatever that is.

I call Dad's. He isn't there. I figure he has driven himself to the doctor's office (in my neighorhood). I decide to wait until he comes by here which he is sure to do.

I do a few things on my computer. I drink a couple of cups of coffee and start the machine on its every two hundred cup cleaning cycle. (Which, in this house, does come around quite often!) Sure enough, Dad shows up. He is struggling to get into the garage (which he opened with his opener) with his walker. I go help him.

"Why didn't your ring the doorbell?" I ask.

"I didn't think about it," he says. He's getting better, isn't he?

He has been to the doctor's office, had the blood drawn and then stopped at the Austin Diner on Burnet for breakfast. Now he's headed to Sun Harvest to buy a few things. He's a little out of breath. I figure he'll need to rest before his PT this afternoon! He decides he needs some money so I cash a check for him. I don't think he can handle a trip to the bank although I bet he could do drive through.

His errands are starting to make me tired. He leaves and I go to the gym. I just ride the bicycle a while, reading about hedge funds, executive compensation, failed venture capitalists and such in an old newpaper business section. A screw falls out of my glasses and when I leave I have to sit in the car and repair them, wearing my spares which need a nose piece. Time to get all the glasses in better shape!

On the way home the doctor's office calls wanting to schedule some kind of thyroid uptake nuclear medicine scan on Dad. We have to go two afternoons in a row starting tomorrow. I will have to cancel or reschedule his PT Friday. Keeping up with his schedule and mine is taxing. Not that I'm complaining. I guess it's all part of a leisurely life.

I get a shower and get some stuff out on the porch for Austin Freecycle pickup. (Some pots and pans and a SCSI scanner. I'm trying to tidy things up, get rid of things I don't use. Yes, I know, I always say that. And I'm always trying. Sort of.)

I head over to Satay for lunch. I have a salad with peanut sauce and tofu and such. I discuss my friend's play with him and his next projects and where he has shopped this one. This and that.

Then I head to Dad's. I get his garbage can in and we go to PT. We are early but Ben takes him right away and does several things on the table and then puts him in this harness that effectively takes sixty pounds off his feed and he walks the treadmill. Cool. I rearrange his next appointment for Friday morning so that he can make the other test in the afternoon.

I take him home by way of the Walgreen's where I get prescriptions and some hair gel for myself while he waits in the car. I take him home and go home.

We have a little while until we go to dinner with our friends. I read the paper and watch some quiz shows and some of the tennis. I should be doing the budget or planning our trip for later in the summer. But I'm being lazy. I eat some snacks, too. The Thai salad didn't fill me up.

We go to our friends with a bottle of wine as offering. We get some interesting juice and snacks and look at their deck. They serve a nice gazpacho. Then we grill some pizza dough and take it inside and spread it with tomato mixture, grilled vegies, chicken, cheese. We drink the wine we brought and the wine our other friends brought. We talk about music and kids and the article that FFP wrote about our hostess. "He found out things about my dad that I didn't know," she says.

We retire to the living room for coffee and dessert and more conversation about our lives. A nice time. These folks live on the opposite side of the creek from us. Lucky for them, I guess, the lot drops off into the creek. No giant yard for maintaining (or having charities invite themselves over to use as a venue).

As we leave, the other guests, friends of ours, hand us an envelope. At home we see it contains a cool card and a nice contribution to the capital campaign we are working on. We discuss how we wish we had more money to give away. I didn't wish it enough to keep working, however. Nope, I'm an woman of leisure.