Find the Blipper, Texas Version

My plane departs Austin at 6:30pm local time, so we will be leaving my sister's house at 3:30pm to ensure that I'm in the airport the requisite two hours ahead to comply with the complicated steps that air travel now requires.

I'm writing this half an hour before we leave, after a very pleasant last day here, most of which was spent in a leisurely three-hour stroll through the international blue and yellow flat-pack store familiar to many of you. Here in Austin, the lunch menu choices include corn muffins and barbequed ribs, but we opted for Greek salads, as well as soup for M and almond cake for me.

It was delightful to wander unencumbered through the room "sets" and aisles of clever, bright, useful items. We restrained ourselves admirably, purchasing only a handful of small things, but the pleasure we had together cannot be measured.

I'm very glad that I'll be coming back in April for a family reunion here, which will bring all six cousins -- M's daughter and sons, my daughter and son, and our deceased sister E's daughter -- and their spouses and partners together for the first time in nearly eight years.

M and I have been talking about taking a trip together sometime in the next few years -- perhaps to Barcelona and the small villages in the south of France that I love so much, or to Nova Scotia, Canada, where she could eat her fill of lobster and I could photograph colorful fishing villages.

It's time to transform some of our dreams into reality.