Austin, TEXAS, December 27, 2005 — It's back to the regular program. Errands, obligations, people getting back into a regular routine.

The older ladies who play tennis have put together a foursome for today. I've become perilously close to a 'regular' in this Tuesday game. I agreed to take over for someone having arthroscopic surgery on her knee for the recovery period. Today I heard that she was going to have a knee replacement. Another lady dropped out but vows to come back...after a hip replacement. Meanwhile they don't really have a foursome. I don't want to get into

having to be a regular fourth and needing to find a replacement for when I'm gone. I'll happily play all the time when I'm available. Just no phoning. I make too many of my retirement activities work. Tennis isn't going to become another, I vow.

Things were closed for a few days and people (including me) have put things off. I need to schedule my car and myself for a checkup, for example. I get a call before tennis and my friend wants to know if I can pick her up at the Honda dealership. I have plenty of time since it is in our neighborhood as is her house.

"I need to take my car for maintenance but I am waiting until January because then it will need inspection and I can get it all done." I assert. I'm delaying the return to normal errands, too, I fear.

I head over to her place to take her home. But she's left her key at the dealer.

"You can take me to tennis and go get your key," I say.

We go back to my house and FFP is taking Chalow to the vet. We haven't been successful enough draining her wound and the vet will be back in the office today.

After tennis, I wander down to the gym. I intend to work out a little, get back into exercise. I figure I'll call my friend to come get me in thirty or forty-five minutes and work up a sweat. Then I see FFP, going at it on the elliptical. He says he is nearly ready to go so I figure that will be easier than having my friend come to the club. So I'm back to my old excuses for not exercising: tennis and convenience. I call my friend and she says her car is ready. I tell her I'll call when I get home and we can go get it. We get everyone reunited with their own car. Life is so full.

So the end of the year looms. There is another weird weekend of holidays followed by suspended animation. I want normalcy to return. But with it comes taxes and doctors (Dad needs to see a couple in the new year for checks and I need a check up) and social events. I spend some time on some financial worksheets that will help us plan. FFP goes over some tax things. I start to worry (ineffectively) about an event we are hosting in February.

Our old dog comes back from the vet. We are reschooled in draining the wound so maybe we can do better. We hear the pathology on the tumors. There is good news and bad news. Of course, the dog will be fifteen in April. The world keeps turning. And at seven X for dogs. We pay a bunch for her surgery and drugs and care. And take her home.

The evening unwinds with the usual scrounging in the fridge and pantry for dinner (salad and soup wins). Fortunately we don't have a bunch of leftovers. That was good planning. (My mother-in-law reports she is still working her way through the stuff she made.) Unfortunately we haven't wiped away all the sweets hanging around. I've almost consumed my real fruit pectin Fruit Gems. And I give them another run. I've almost consumed the delicous pound cake (and I succumb to 'one more piece') and we receive some chocolate in the mail. Fortunately, I don't like chocolate. We'll give this away.

We work on the dog. We work out a procedure where I hold the dog and FFP does a good job of opening the little wound that wants to close and getting the drainage out. He's better at the 'surgery' than me. Our front bath becomes a dog jail with water pan and alcohol wipes and towels and such. But soon she will be back to normal, too.

The papers are thin today, exhausted from holiday consumption themselves. And I get them all read. I watch a bunch of Jeopardy off the DVR. We watch the Kennedy Center honors program. I read one of my Christmas books. I try to watch a movie called Strings starring puppets. I like the conceits of the strings (and the result of them getting cut) but I wish the story was less of a fantasy world. I'm not one of the Lord of the Rings fans. I like the regular program. I even wish these puppets were doing something ordinary. They honored Robert Redford on the Kennedy Center show. They showed that clip of Ordinary People where Mary Tyler Moore's character gets a hug from her son and stares blankly into the mid-distance both before and after the embrace. Ordinary life is amazingly twisted. Who needs fantasy or holidays?