AUSTIN, Texas, August 29, 2005 — When there is something going on in the world, but it is pretty far removed from you it is sort of surreal. It is hot and relatively calm out as things break loose on the southern Gulf Coast. The U.S. Open Tennis tournament starts today. I'll probably start catching up with what's up there. Austin doesn't feel like where it is happening. And that's good. Lake Preece/Ball is still fed by a dribble.

I wake up from a dream where I've been having arguments with people including, I think, Forrest and at the same time trying

to run a race uphill in the mud. When I get up, I'm still a little irritated at Forrest until I realize it was a dream where we were arguing. Of course, I don't know about what.

I get into my bathing suit and pull shorts and a T-Shirt over it and we make the bed. I have coffee, post my journal and finally get away to the pool for water aerobics. I'm a couple of minutes late. I realize when I hear the instructor talking that her daughter was at Tulane. She says the daughter and two of her volleyball teammates have come to wait it out here. Katrina is hitting Gulfport hard, too, and I mention it to Dad because his friend was talking last night about how his brother who lives there evacuated.

After the class I ride the bike for fifteen minutes and get warm and then do some weight exercises.

At home I have a shower, breakfast (cereal and nonfat yogurt) and switch the TV on, alternatively looking at tennis and Katrina. The DVR has PIP so I can put pictures of flood waters over John McEnroe's head if I want to. Of coures, I'm not really looking at Katrina but looking at such sketchy information as the TV gives when sane people are hiding from the high winds and water.

I work a little on our financial affairs. I read through our current wills which we are thinking of altering a little. But that's all. I also start packing for Cape Town. Well, not really. I put all the T-Shirts and stuff I bought as gifts into the bag I'm going to check to get them out of the way.

I also read all the day's papers and work the crossword puzzles in The Statesman and The New York Times. I feel sleepy because I didn't get enough sleep last night. I should nap before I go to my film meeting. But I don't.

I leave early for the film meeting. I stop for gas and spend twenty-four dollars to fill up my Civic. A record. It was completely empty, of course. With the warning light on.

I go by Central Market and get some cookies and some cheese straws to donate to the movie food cause. I pick up some tortilla chips for our home supply and a small bottle of Orangina soda for myself.

I check in the last movies I watched at home. I watch a couple of shorts with another guy who is there early.

We separate and I'm with a group that watches docs. I can't really talk about the movies. But I will say that I'm sometimes amazed at the kids who have been to film school. At the things they know, the things they don't know. And, of course, at how impossibly young they are. I have to remind myself of this. I feel young inside. Really, I do.

I eat pizza, cheese straws, cookies and drink Diet Coke after the Orangina is gone. There is cake, too, but I don't have any.

At home, after nine, I actually snack some more on some cheese and have part of a nonalcoholic beer. None of us are wondering why I'm not losing weight, are we? We watch some flood footage over and over. I watch some tennis.

I go to sleep too late. But it is before midnight.