AUSTIN, Texas, Mar. 7, 2006 — It's amazing all the choices people can make about how to live their lives, particularly when they have the unprecedented (in the history of mankind) kind of leisure and assets that we have in the 'first' world of the twenty-first century. And I don't just mean retired folks like me. You working folk are making lots of lifestyle choices, too.

The mayor of our fair city was saying, last night, that choosing to live downtown in a high rise was a choice that would save one money and the planet, too. He was pretty enthusiastic about it. Because houses are, in effect, stacked, beside and on top of each other, they insulate one another and save energy. And because one can walk to things, car trips can be eliminated to some degree.

I might be less convinced than the mayor, but I'm still pretty convinced. He was also enthusiastic about the twenty-four hour concierge concept. Arranging for that kind of help en masse is obviously an interesting idea.

Of course, I need to live in fewer square feet to make my downtown vision work. This isn't going too smashingly. I've been looking critically at things around here and have identified a lot of things that won't make the transition to our retirement lifestyle, but I haven't done much to really get rid of stuff.

FFP has, though, been going through old files from his business and collections of reference magazines (adverstising design magazines) and recycling, giving away, trashing stuff. Someone in the family is making progress.

It seems that I have to go through stages. I move stuff around, box it up, rearrange it and, finally, get rid of it. Oh, there are things that for now enhance the house and that we might as well keep until we do move. I envision a big estate sale one day. Maybe it's enough to simply decide that stuff is going to be left behind.