Home for a Moment

I'm back home, and oh, soooooo tired. Yesterday morning when I was whimpering about having to get out of bed and drive for about four hours, I was thinking that teleportation was sounding really, really good. I desperately wanted to be home, but I didn't want to do all that driving to get there.

But I tried to make the best of it. I had honey Wheat Thins (mmmmmm!) and Dr Pepper. I had some good music. I even had something to liven up my car interior. They used yellow roses as centerpieces at the Saturday-night banquet, and one of the con committee members handed me a small bouquet (a nosegay, really) of the roses afterward when they were cleaning up. I had a Taco Cabana cup in my hotel room, so I filled it with water, enlarged the straw hole in the lid and voila, instant travel vase. I stuck it in my cup holder for the drive. It made shifting gears a little more interesting, but the smell helped when I got stuck behind a cattle truck.

I also livened up the drive home by taking a side trip I'd always been curious about. The map shows a town named "Fairy" on a farm-to-market road that runs alongside the main highway, but I've never gone that way. This time, I did, and the interesting stuff about that trip will have to wait until I get the pictures developed. That was a fun road to drive because of the topography of that part of the country. In central Texas, there are these odd limestone ridges that run randomly across the landscape. They don't seem to fit in with anything else in that part of the world. There will be flat land or gently rolling hills, and then suddenly this big ridge. The main road has been sort of cut through the ridges (there's still a big rise, but the road doesn't climb all the way to the top), but this side road had to wind around and between ridges. That was fun to drive with my stick shift, even if I did have to work around the roses, and the views were incredible.

I also experienced the vagaries of Texas weather. When I loaded my car in Austin, it was hot and muggy. When I got out to take pictures after about two hours of driving, it was so cold I had to put on my coat to be outside even for a few minutes. In Dallas, it was just slightly chilly but sunny.

I would have loved to lie around in bed half the day today, but I had a dentist appointment this morning, so I had to get up and go out. Then I had library books due, which was convenient because the polling place was in the library. I walked over because I knew parking would be a nightmare. It was the perfect fall afternoon, just barely warm in sunlight and a little chilly in shade, clear blue sky, the leaves just starting to turn colors. At the library, the line to check in to vote ran by the new books shelf, and there were two I'd been wanting to get my hands on, so I grabbed them. And now I'm utterly exhausted from the walking. I must be out of shape. Or else still tired from the past couple of weeks. And guess what? I have to leave town again on Friday. I've got an event in Tyler on Saturday. I thought about driving over on Saturday morning, so I'd at least get Friday night at home, but I'd worry about feeling rushed on Saturday, and I need to spend some quality time with the parents, anyway.

But next week? I may not leave the house.