AUSTIN, Texas, September 15, 2005 — It's time to be serious about packing. But first I have to play tennis. I was going to go lift a few weights first but I got interested in something on my computer. Isn't it always the way? Still, I was early for the tennis and had time to go to the toilet and look at the stuff on sale in the pro shop. There was a white Men's medium polo I should have bought to replace the one I got free from some company and which is starting to wear out. I forgot to go back afterward and buy it, though. I seem to really worry about spending tiny amount of money sometimes,

while casually drinking a ten dollar plus glass of wine or an expensive meal or giving away hundreds of dollars without a thought. I think that I'm especially cautious these days when I buy some physical thing. Because not only will I have spent monney, but I'll have to keep up with the thing. Deal with it in the future. I did, however, recently buy this and I believe it is on the way to me. Who could resist that? Now I can toss copies of The New Yorker from the first eighty years with impunity.

After tennis I go do a couple of weight things. Just a couple of exercises I haven't done lately and feel I should. Then I head home.

I eat a bunch of salad and some chips and cheese and read the papers a bit when I get home. I shower up and talk FFP into going to Half Price Books. I'm looking for a book to give my dad for his birthday. I finally buy some thriller novel which I have no idea if he will like or not. But they are having a 20 percent off sale and we buy several dollar books (at eighty cents) and FFP gets some audio tapes for his dad and a book about the Enron debacle. We never seem to stop ourselves when it comes to books.

I decide that I really, really need to pack. Or work on it. First I decide to launder a pair of slacks I'm taking and after I put them in I sit down with the newspaper and a cup of coffee. I have my checklist which I adapt for each trip from a master list that I keep on my computer. I add things to the master list that I might need on some trip. For each trip I make a copy and throw out things that won't be necessary for the trip at hand.

FFP and I go down to Scholz's around 5:30. It's another rally for No Nonsense in November and we've donated a little money. We see a friend going in but we don't recognize anyone else which seems strange. There is a group of kids entertaining with rock and roll and a bunch of people seem to be family or fans of theirs. They are twelve or thirteen and not bad considering. We drink a beer (most of one, we both left some) and leave. We've been sitting there discussing where to eat. We could eat something there or go to El Mercado, Mars, Clay Pit nearby. We finally decide to go to 34th Street. I have a nice Caesar salad and roast pork with kale (a smallish serving, one their 'small plates' but very filling). We don't drink anything.

At home I think I'll do some packing but I don't. I get the pants I'm going to take out of the dryer. I decide they don't need pressing. I read papers and watch the president.

Me:

Is he in Jackson Square? It looks like Jackson Square.

He:

It does look like it.

Except for the location, it was all purely predictable political pap. Bush didn't seem to smirk as much as usual. We start watching CSI but it's a rerun. We flip around on the TV. I read the papers. Until sleep. I didn't really get that much packing done. But I thought about it a lot.