I look forward to seeing my friends in Texas too and a couple are coming in to say hi, though most my time in the 8 days there will be with family - adults only this time coming from East, West, and in between.

I ain't takin' no laptop. Just one bag - a backpack suitcase with handles and roller and zip-offable smaller pack. It's a prize possession. Something I might put a few smaller prize possessions in if I had to pack up and leave everything else behind.

I think about that. That's why I archive - to get rid of it all. Once it's on disk or has hard copies here and there, I can forget it - but there's so much to do - interviews to conduct, old ones to get in the archive and a ton of other stuff I've enumerated here before. I'm reminded of Marco Polo's comment on his deathbed that there were so many stories he hadn't told.

Of course, we know better - we're Buddhists or fellow travelers or free-thinkers who know that nothing lasts - it's all made of bubbles that pop in a second or two. And those bubbles are made of even tinier bubbles that are popping every somethingth of a second. A dream, a mouse darting through the grass. But anyway, it's all something to do to pass the bubbles and it's bad form to not do ones best. There's a time for form and a time for emptiness. With the folks down South now I'd concentrate on the form and leave the emptiness up to them.

I have lots of thoughts about what's happening in Louisiana and Mississippi, but I'll spare you that except to say I pray for them all.

Back here on the 15th or so - unless mom needs me for something more which is not out of the question.

Prayers for you too.

DC