AUSTIN, Texas, September 6, 2005 — We have reached a point in the Katrina tragedy where things are settling out and people will lose interest in donating and volunteering. I should probably do something but instead I'm going to play tennis. And watch tennis. I'm bad. I could try to go register to volunteer or go to Freescale and see if I could sort stuff. But, no, tennis. And tonight I'll go to some little wine and food gathering as the Ballet Austin Guild kicks off their season. It will be the exact opposite of volunteering to help stranded, homeless, helpless people. Further, I doubt I willbe helping tomorrow or the rest of the week either. Unless

there is a call out for certain kinds of donations. I'd heard school supplies but now it seems they have too much of everything and need sorting. Maybe next week when others have really lost interest, but then I'll be planning my trip to Cape Town unless something really funky happens with the airlines. But the arts have to go on, too. And I feel guilty every time I get in the car and drive somewhere now because of wasting gas. When they need more stuff for the evacuees, I think we should collect in neighborhoods and deliver more efficiently. Maybe the Freecylce movement can pinpoint help. Or something. The whole thing is making me anxious so...I'll just immerse myself in tennis. Hey, Bush gets his mind off things my riding his bike.

I go play with the, um, older set this morning. We play a long (one hour) first set with me paired with the lady with macular degeneration. She's having a good day. We have fun and get down 1-5 only to come back and lose 7-5. We switch partners and my team pounces for a 5-0 lead before they, wisely, call it a (too hot) day.

I should go to the gym, but I go home and get a shower and have a big bunch of spinach, carrots, onions, cheese, and dressing with a bit of smoked turkey and salmon. Healthy (sort of) anyway. I figure the maid is coming, but they call and the regular person is sick. FFP tells me that he ran into a city worker in the front yard who was measuring to prepare to fix our concrete and sod. Hey, that's progress...at least they know they are 'supposed' to come back and fix it up. The city guy said that he didn't know how long before they'd fix the sprinkler so we decided we are definitely paying for that ourselves.

I do watch some tennis. I do a couple of simple tasks for FFP and work on our social calendar. His is filling up for the time I'm gone. That's good because it distracts him and he doesn't miss me so much. We vacillate about what social event to do tomorrow. It's embarrassing. Do we do a neat wine tasting with jazz? A free fund-raiser (auction and raffle) with jazz? Go to a (free) opera season intro lecture. (We failed to RSVP this one due to my negligence. But FFP thinks we could still go.) I'm at the point where I'm glad to see a blank on the calendar. Not that I get anything done. But it's nice to hope. And I wonder...should I volunteer to do something for the evacuees? They say volunteers are needed for donation sorting.

I decide to go buy the two things on my list to buy for my trip: (1) camera battery; (I have two but if I had three I think I could take a lot of shots without having a charger making my gear smaller and eliminating the need for charger, transformer, plub adapter.) (2) Texas Chewies (a locally made praline-like candy that is a nice gift). I go to the center at 38th and Lamar and into Precision Camera. I finally get someone to wait on me. They always seem to be busy, harried even, although there are lots of employees. I talk a guy who can't sell me anything into looking to see if they have the battery so I won't be waiting to buy something they don't have. They have the Nikon one and two replacement batteries. The guy who sold me the camera trots over. "Ah, he has the same camera," I say to the first guy who was friendly even though he isn't a salesperson. "I just sold it," he says. When he sold me the camera, he'd told me he owned it. Now he wants a Casio and also a newer Nikon with six megapixels and 5X optical zoom that hasn't come out yet. The store is out of cameras like mine. He gets the specs and shows me the new camera and we discuus. "I guess I'll buy a new one every six months." (I think he has an SLR-type as well.) I only buy one every couple of years. I pay for the replacement battery (five bucks cheaper) that he recommends. I go to Lamme's and ask if they will have a sale on Chewies soon. She checks and says November. I buy nine little boxes with two Chewies each as little tastes of Austin for people in SA. That completes the gifts I'll take. A third of my big suitcase if full of T-Shirts, tote bags, magnets with my logo. If my plans fall through, I guess I'll ship this stuff to Cape Town. That takes forever, but in the past my packages have finally arrived.

I go home, watch a little tennis. FFP calls me to go pick up pants at the cleaners. He's been to a meeting at the ballet building downtown and he is stuck on Mopac. He had asked for a rush and will be embarrassed if he doesn't pick the pants up. I can't imagine he needed a particular pair of trousers for tonight because, um, he has a lot of clothes. As do I.

But I go pick up the pants. We arrive home at the same time. We get ready for a Ballet Austin season kickoff for Board and Guild. A house off Harris in Pemberton (I guess that's the neighborhood) is the venue. Valet parkers take our car. We are early so things are calm. We get name tags and talk to people and have a glass of water. We talk to the guy representing some Chilean wines. They are a ballet sponsor and have provided lots of wine for the folks. Eddie V's has prepared food. It is very crowded. We have a tiny bit of the wine to taste it. (Not bad, not stunning, but free.) I have a few bites of the tuna apps. (Very good.) We hear the speeches, talk to friends and go home.

I watch more tennis. Maria wins, Venus loses. I'm sleepy. So sleepy.