Blue Boat Home

This morning I called Mom & Dad expecting their big news to be Grandpa's coming to stay with them, but the big news was that Mom has just been diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).  I took Kenny for a walk and we had a good long talk.

Today I stayed home and worked on the computers, downloading updates for Gloria's and writing Web pages on Rich's.  I got out briefly to mail some postcards, and again in the evening to shop with Rich.  I watched the "Hell House" documentary.

Rich had the day off today, so I went with him to run some errands.  One of the errands was to give blood, and lo and behold, I was able to give this time!  I guess those multivitamins are really doing the trick.

I made good progress installing and updating software on the second hard disk in Gloria's computer.  No luck in diagnosing the problem that's keeping Rich's laptop from recognizing its disk.

Photos sent with this message (and now available in this album) feature the alarmingly steep hill near the Bennetts' house in Austin, TX; the natural swimming pool at Barton Springs; the Texas capitol during the Aggie Day parade; the Texas School for the Blind and Vision Impaired where Gloria worked; and a day trip with Gypsy to Enchanted Rock State Park, the westmost point in my trip.

I got up this morning after 9:00, but Gypsy didn't get up until around noon, so I watched Ranma 1/2 episodes from her housemates' DVDs.  We went to lunch at Waffle house and then drove more than 2 hours to Enchanted Rock, a giant granite hill in the middle of the sandstone hill country.  It's definitely worth seeing!

We stopped for dinner in the tourist town of Fredericksburg on our way back to Austin.

This morning we exchanged the laptop hard disk for some memory, and I was able to get Rich's laptop fully functional in Knoppix -- but it still couldn't see it's hard disk.  Next step is to see if this is a documented problem.

Gypsy picked me up in the afternoon, and we drove to her house in a southwest neighborhood called Oak Hill.  Then we picked up some dinner and had a picnic -- it was a beautiful day -- at a little waterfall near where she used to work.  Then we caught the last matinee of "The Incredibles" and got some Lammes candies.

This morning Gloria took me into downtown to see the Aggie cadets parade down Congress on their way to the UT / A&M football game.  We ran so many errands along the way that we didn't get home for lunch until 2:30!

We bought hard disks for both Rich & Gloria's computers, and I made some progress with them in the aternoon.  We also stopped at Central Market, a sort of cross between the Wedge and Lunds, heavy on the customer service and free samples.

Today was spent mostly in getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner.  I made creamed onions using Velveeta as the sauce base, and Marisa's brother Sean -- whom I had consulted about how to melt cheddar -- didn't identify it as counterfeit, so I guess I disguised the Velveeta flavor well.  I also made egg nog.  Rich made devilled eggs, Gloria brought a low-carb pumpkin cheesecake, and they baked a turkey for leftovers (not to bring).

Today I mostly cleaned and dried my gear.  I went with Rich to get ingredients for tomorrow, but aside from that I just hung around the house.  Feels good!

I made it! I'm safe and sound in Austin, Texas, my home for the winter.

[posted to the Wheeled Migration Yahoo Group on November 23, 2004]