AUSTIN, Texas to ATLANTA, Georgia, September 21, 2005 — I've been retired three years. This is the anniversary of my retirement day, I think.

I will spend the afternoon and evening on the first leg of a long journey to South Africa. It is getting harder and harder to leave FFP and go on journeys. I've done it our whole marriage. He is retired now, though, and that makes it harder. He will also take a trip of his own while I'm gone.

I had a few computer glitches to deal with

as I was getting ready to leave for the airport. Still, I managed to arrive in a calm frame of mind.

At the airport I see one couple I know. I used to see people I knew all over the airport. Austin has grown so much.

My flight to Atlanta is uneventful. I can't find a van to my hotel. (Tomorrow, I will see a board with call buttons I miss this evening.) I take a short cab ride to the hotel.

The hotel is under construction. The hallway I'm on is full of sheetrock dust. The door numbers are propped up on the floor. But the room is fine. Cool, clean, everything works. They have Internet access in the business center in the lobby (I don't have a computer along). They have a place to buy snacks as well as the vending machine. I get yogurt, cheese crackers and V8. I read and watch news of Rita and a Jet Blue plane flying around waiting to make an emergency landing with a messed up nose gear. There is also some tornado activity somewhere and the news channels are beside themselves about which thing to fret over. Sitting in my hotel room trying to rest up for the long flight to South Africa, disconnected from everything except the TV, it feels weird.

FFP and I exchanged a few e-mails about the hurricane and how he should be prepared should we have storms spawned from it.

I feel asleep with the alarm set, confident I wouldn't need it to get up, shower, eat, pack and get an early start for my flight.