AUSTIN, Texas, September 13, 2005 —I was fuzzy this morning. The wine might be to blame. I felt fine playing tennis, but a little wrung out after like I got too hot. I didn't take a shower or drink enough water or take an Advil or anything after. I had a wee headache but it wasn't really bad.

Before I went to play tennis, I read Jette's post about her feelings of loss of home. That's how I'd feel if Austin were swept away. Austin is home to me. Hmm. I guess I knew that. But I did adopt it as home after I moved here almost thirty years ago.

Tennis with the, um, older ladies was amusing. One arrived saying she had brought a skirt for another who had called her and told her to do it. When the skirtless one arrived (she had wind pants over her tennis briefs), she also needed a racket so I got an extra one out of my car. She wasn't driving her usual car and didn't have all her stuff. She used my cell phone later to call her mother (who must be 100) to remind her to go to an exercise class at her assisted living. We had fun playing, lots of games going deuce/ad/deuce/ad. I wasn't very good, but it was fun. But hot. After I didn't want to do anything in the gym.

At home I continued work on getting stuff in order for my trip. I wrote some e-mails. I called and checked on my dad. FFP had to drive his parents to a doctor because his dad injured his shoulder or something. He said the paperwork was a nightmare. Don't I know it. I showed him where to find my Dad's drug list just in case anything happens to him while I'm gone. We ate soup and sandwiches for lunch.

Someone from the city called and said that they aren't liable if the water that leaked for weeks damaged anything. They also said the order was in to fix the drive but the lady said that she didn't know about the sod because she "didn't know what they actually damaged." Maybe I should have sent this picture. It looks pretty clear to me. She said there was a fifteen week backup to fix the driveway. But for some reason (because we wrote a letter?) she was trying to expedite it to two weeks. That's nice of her. She gave her name and number, too, so we would have someone to complain to.

FFP has gotten a guy to agree to come over and fix the tiny bit of the Ecocrete near the house that the plumber destroyed before we realized that the leak wasn't there. And so it goes. At least the AC unfroze. And the AC guy put some freon in yesterday so that they units wouldn't do that so easily. It's always something. And you could live in New Orleans. (Or have lived there although some soldier on without electricity and services.)

Anyway, it's almost five before I take a shower. The maid has come and gone. I need to go over all this stuff with FFP but decide to take that shower first. I ask FFP what he wants for dinner and he says he wants Molé enchiladas but we can eat at home. I say I was hankering after sushi but I didn't want to go get it. He decides to go to Central Market and get what suits his fancy. Maybe sushi.

I read some papers while FFP was at the store. I did start the laundry though.When he got back, I helped put the extra stuff away and we ate sushi, some risotto cakes, a chilled fruit soup and some edamame salad. I drank a short glass of Superfood to finish up the jug. Later I'll snack on some cheese and chips and onions and a bit of dip. But I didn't drink any alcohol.

I cleaned up (mostly throwing the empty take-out containers away) and we went over some of the emergency stuff and maintenance stuff on the computer. It always makes me realize how hard it is to show someone how to do something. (Or even remember how you got it done yourself.) Even my written instructions failed me at one point. And later he was convinced that I had affected his incoming mail somehow in showing him how to read it elsewhere. We'd had enough at eight and I read papers and watched TV. After House I couldn't find anything to watch and I put it on the music station for jazz and read. FFP feel asleep in his chair. I feel TV is having an adverse affect on me just now. Weird.

In other neighborhood destruction news, some city panel decided last night to recommend that they remove the Frankencurbs and replaces them with something else. I feel speed bumps or roundabouts or other travesties coming. This guy thinks we should take away parking on one or both sides of the street to make a bikes only lane. Stay tuned. However, the good news is it takes a long, long time for these things to get done. Just like it takes a long time to fix a water leak and repair the damage done thereby. There was a newspaper article asserting that 'none of the things seemed to have met a bumper' lately but that picture I published yesterday says otherwise. And the other good news is that we built our driveway so we have some parking of our own and can pull out of our drive going forward and hopefully avoiding an unfortunate collision with a biker in spite of our neighbors' penchant for having vegetation in the easement. Our street has long stretches with no side streets (on our side streets don't cut through to cross the creek except where there are bridges). This means that it would be very inconvenient for people to find a place to park if the driveway wasn't adequate. I have an idea they will eventually make it no parking on one side. I'm pretty sure it won't be safer for bikes, though. I sure wish they'd spent the half a million for curby things on sidewalks, too. It's a very discouraging street for walkers since it is so busy.