Tick tock tick tock tick tock

I've been home less than 24 hours and I am ready to leave. My parents' home is like a scene frozen in time, everything where they left it several weeks ago when they departed for New Mexico. I've not encountered any ghosts, but I did open all the drapes. The darkness was tomb-like. Fortunately, I did have my list of things to do, but having accomplished most of them in one morning, it is becoming apparent that I will have some serious free time in the next few weeks to fill.

The drive to Santa Fe was perfect. Most of the mileage was on the Navajo and Hopi reservations and provided an extended glimpse of daily life in rural eastern Arizona. So many of the towns' names were quite familiar to me, so it was fun to see them in person for the first time. And it was a reminder of how vast these two reservations are in square miles. From one mesa to the next might be 10 to 15 miles with nothing but a long, straight road in between. In Albuquerque and Santa, however, reality quickly set back in with afternoon rush hour traffic. I was ready to return to the tranquility of the North Rim sooner than I thought!

After a few days of rest, some great meals at my favorite spots and the planned maintenance of the Jeep, it was off to Abilene. It may be a dull place otherwise, but the bed at the Hampton Inn was one of the most comfortable I've slept in this year. I even went swimming in the pool and had a soak in the hot tub after a tasty BBQ dinner at Joe Allen's, a mainstay in Abilene's gastronomic scene. Then, on Sunday, the highlight of the trip home was only a few hundred miles to the southeast -- Austin!

If it wasn't so damn big and overcrowded, Austin would be my paradise. The weather never seems bad, the food is everything I love, from BBQ to burgers to beer gardens, and if you like the outdoors, this city is the perfect destination. From a run on the trails that stretch along the river downtown to an afternoon at Lake Travis on a sunny day, what more could anyone ask for. The friends I visited and stayed with are also a big part of what makes this place so special. The Marstons are nothing less than a second family and represent a friendship that goes back to the early 70s when we were at SMU. And Mark and Luann Glowacz, with their two little boys, are wonderful reminders of what my experience as a Sigma Chi chapter advisor at Drake University will always mean to me...even with kids in tow, the perfect "little brother."

Well, despite the title, there is no clock ticking away the minutes, simply the leaves falling and the sunlight fading on my first day home. The post office was still there, the Japanese restaurant was open for a quick lunch with my pal, Julia, who filled me in on the latest at my former employer, and best of all, my hair stylist was thrilled to shear off three months of grey hair. She even swept it into a big pile and exclaimed "that's you!" Shreveport, it would seem, is much the same as I left it. No wonder I miss that big "hole in the ground" in Arizona even more!