Austin, TEXAS, December 24, 2005 — Some people invited my dad to breakfast today. I don't really know who. Some neighbors or some people from church. I'm always happy when he has these social outings of his own. Because I worry about him being lonely but I can't spend all my time with him. Last night he went to a neighbor's house. They have young kids and they order pizza on Friday night and sometimes he goes. He had me buy gifts for the kids.

He's had a lot of social things this week. Everyone wanted to make a widower less lonely at Christmas for one thing.

I told him to come over in the 'early

afternoon' to our house. We had planned an outing to Threadgill's for an early dinner with the in-laws.

I wasn't surprised when I came back from the gym at about 11:30 and he was already here.

"Morning is early afternoon, I guess." I said. He didn't answer that directly. He said that he'd had a big breakfast at his breakfast thing. "I told them that the days drag on sometimes, no one invites you anywhere or feeds you, you have nothing to do. But the years fly by. I can't believe Mom has been gone so many years."

"This is the fourth Christmas without her."

I felt a little sorry for him. But he's been lucky this week. He's had some place to go almost every meal. And he's lucky to have a comfortable place he can manage to live where he can watch his birds, his TV, read his books, make his own meals when he has to.

I haven't reached this point yet I realize. My whole life is on fast forward. The days spin by, full of must dos, want tos, have tos, would be nices. And the years are a blur, too, of course. When the days start dragging I'll know that I'm old. Meanwhile, I feel young except when I try to cadge a senior discount at the movies. And the kid at the box office doesn't blink.