I can never stand to stay home on the afternoon of Super Bowl Sunday so I always try to find something to do and try to arrive home just before the football game kicks off. Yesterday it was a visit to one of Lakeway's Art in Public Places exhibits and a concert of Chamber music at the community's Activity Center

Saturday's Astronomy lecture at UT's Applied Computation Engineering & Science Department was a lot better than I expected. I did not know much about the subject Dark Matter and Dark Energy but I soon found out the subject matter is related to Black Holes. Black Holes I understand so I was able to follow the professor's lecture. It was my first visit to the University's Avaya Auditorium. I knew the auditorium was small but it was even smaller than I expected, seating only around 175. I got there 45 minutes before the start of the lecture and was able to get a seat to the event. After the lecture I stopped at the Blanton Museum of Art for a late afternoon coffee break before making the drive home to Spicewood. When I pulled into the neighborhood one of the neighbors flagged me down and invited me to a BBQ. 12 people turned out for the BBQ.

The day has not started well at all. I overslept, giving me only 30 minutes to get out of the house. That extra hour of sleep caused me to miss the early morning pancake breakfast in south Austin. My coffee pot did not work and when I went to try and fix it I spilt coffee all over myself and the kitchen. On the way in to downtown Austin a jogger not paying attention and with her I pod glued to her head stepped right in front of my car causing me to slam on the breaks. I was on my way to the LBJ Library to view a copy of the Declaration of Independence when I found the entrance of the Library blocked by construction. I thought for sure there would be a long line to view the document since it was only going to be in Austin for five hours but I was wrong. I had no problem and seemed to have the document to my self. The easy in and out viewing of the Library exhibit let me get to Congress Ave just as the Boy Scout parade's first entry was approaching the south gates of the Capital. I watched the parade for about 45 minutes then decided I would try the pancake breakfast further down Congress Ave. I thought maybe instead of the 8 AM pancakes that the 10 AM pancakes would be better. That was a mistake. Not only was there a real long line to get into the breakfast, they seemed to have run out of food and it was taking them a very long time to cook more. I could tell it was going to take me at least at least an hour and a half to get in and out so I left and went to UT. At the present time I am in the computer lab at UT's Perry Castaneda Library killing a little time before I walk across Campus to attend an Astronomy lecture.

Another 48 hours of rain gave my neighborhood 2 inches of the wet stuff but by 6 pm the sky had started to clear. Saturday is suppose to be sunny and not a minute too soon. There is a parade in downtown Austin Saturday morning and although the temperature will be in the mid 40's when the parade starts I'll be on the curb watching the marchers go by. Today I attended one of Lakeway's Brown Bag concert during the lunch hour. The music for the concert was jazz.

Right place at the right time! That's how my day started. On the way into Austin I stopped at the Bee Caves Library and while at the library the owner of the local Chick-fil-A walked in and passed out coupons for free chicken sandwiches. Looks like I'll be having several lunches at the local Chick-fil-A. During today's lunch hour I met friends at the South Austin AA club then later spent time in Southwest Austin doing some scheduled work. On the way home I stopped once again in Bee Caves, this time at Panera Bread for coffee and got in a little computer time on their network.

The rain of 2.7 inches we had on Friday night and Saturday morning along with the temperature never getting out of the 30's on Saturday kept me at home and inside most of the weekend. By Sunday afternoon the weather had softened a little so I decided to drive to Marble Falls and attend a play at the Marble Falls High School. I got to the play just before the curtain rose so I had to set well back in the Auditorium. I did not expect the crowd to be as large as it was but I guess the weather over the last several days kept people from attending on Saturday night. The performance of My Fair Lady was not very good. Only a few actors had lines and there were too many people on the stage. I did not like it at all. This week does not look to be any better. The only free week day I have is Wednesday and it's suppose to be raining all day so I guess the Wednesday's poetry secession at the Ransom Center is out of the question.

With the weather changing to rain and 30 degrees colder tomorrow, I decided to go to Marble Fall today instead of the Thursday and Friday trips I had planned. Looks like I may cancel most of my weekend plans, leaving only a Sunday afternoon performance of My Fair Lady at the Marble Falls High School on my schedule. I sure wanted to go to the UT Alumni baseball game Saturday morning but the temperature will be in the 30s when the gates open and the high Saturday will only be 50s so no baseball for me.

My morning started with coffee at the Blanton Museum of Art and a visit to The University of Texas's main library to read the American Statesman, NY Times and Wall Street Journal. Attended two Longhorn sports events today starting with the Lady Horns defeating the ladies from Rice University 6-1 in tennis. The Longhorn tennis team won 5 of 6 single matches and 2 of 3 double matches. This match opened the season for the Lady Horns tennis team. The second contest did not have the same ending. The Lady Horns basketball team was defeated in overtime 73-71 by Iowa State University. I went from sports to civics with a civics class at downtown Austin Faulk Library. The class was given by the C-Span television network. While at the library I also did some research on Austin's most famous tree. I will be writing a LL piece on the tree in a few weeks and was able to get some great photos of the tree from the Library's database. Before leaving downtown I went to the actual tree's location and shot some present day photos of the tree. The last stop of the day was in south Austin where I joined friends for an AA meeting.

During the months of January and February Lakeway has noon concerts every Thursday. Todays concert was a band called Second Line Jazz. I did not know what kind of jazz would be played, it turned out to be Dixie Land Jazz. That's not my favorite kind of jazz but any concert during a lunch break is nice. As I was leaving Lakeway this afternoon someone who knows me flagged me down to tell me of a electrical problem at one of houses I take care of. I fixed the problem and headed for Spicewood. Tonight, neighbor Carlos came over to borrow some spices for the supper his wife was cooking.

A crew with tractors and trucks worked a good part of the day replacing several of the septic tanks in the RV Park. It took almost three months to secure the proper permits from the Lower Colorado River Authority. Being only a few hundred yards from Lake Travis I guess the work had to be checked more closely. Maybe that's why the work took three months to complete. I gathered with neighbors Jim, Bill, Dave and J to set in the yard and watch as the replacement of the tanks progressed during the day.

I visited the Lady Bird Wildflower Center today. There are two sculpture exhibits at the center. One was inside the McDermott Learning Center and the other sculpture exhibit is scattered among the Wildflower Center's grounds. While in South Austin I made an AA meeting and got my auto inspected. It was kind of ironic but when I got home there was a letter in the mailbox from a customer who is living in Chile. The letter contained registration tags for the wife's Mercedes which I will install on Thursday and then take the Mercedes into the shop for an inspection on Friday.

Thirteen people were at the neighborhood dinner party last night. Five of the thirteen were from out of the neighborhood. While the party was going on one of the neighbors brought his new boat by to show the group. Today I decided not to drive into Austin for the Martian Luther King festivities.

The Capital's Dome will be surrounded with scaffolding this month so it can be repaired. The project will take over six months and the scaffolding will be in place most of that time. I was at the Capital to view a western art collection. We got 1.6 inches of rain over the last 36 hours but the sun finally came out. One of the neighbors came over and invited me to dinner tomorrow night. I think the menu will be BBQ pork loin and pinto beans.

Seems like everyone came out of hibernation after the deep freeze. The neighborhood was full of people today, everybody scurrying around. I visited with neighbors Bill, AJ, Jay, Hermon, Moon and Carlos. Carlos and myself completed the last detail of the repair to the frozen pipes in the room housing the washers and dryers and now the neighborhood has it's laundromat back in service. Two of the neighbors lost their water heaters during the deep freeze. Both neighbors ran out of propane so the water heaters did not heat up, causing the water heaters to freeze and burst. Also, in the last few days one of the neighbors had a stroke and in now in a nursing home in Oak Hill