In FSX, I've always had problems landing the dang Cub in a crosswind, which is probably not a real shocker to anybody in the know.  It's like saying that I've always had problems riding a bicycle on snow.  However, while in Austin and bereft of FSX I entertained myself by reading the archive of articles on avweb.com, and I read an interesting article about landing tailwheel aircraft.  It seemed that the author had a student who had a runway excursion mishap and was taking some dual prior to sitting for a flight competency exam.  The author spent most of their time convincing the student that this guy's main problem was carrying too much speed into crosswind landings, combined with the bad habit of transitioning into "rolling control mode" from "flying control mode" as soon as the wheels touched.  You don't actually have much rolling friction right after touchdown because you're still carrying all that speed.  Anyway, one of the first things I did this week was fire up FSX and try some crosswind landings in the Cub using this knowledge, and guess what?  No more groundlooping right after touchdown!  Whee!

My parents are doing very well.  I was frankly pretty worried about seeing Mom when they got home based on Dad's request that I stay an extra week so there would be somebody to look after her while he ran errands.  However, by the time they actually got home, she had improved dramatically, to the point where she could take care of herself for the most part.  She's still a ways away from being able to drive and go back to work, but she's mobile around the house.  I still stuck around the extra week, to see them, and for other various reasons.  I wouldn't have minded sticking around for two additional weeks after that (until choirs crank up) if there hadn't been work reasons why I needed to come back to the home office.

I'm trying hard to maintain the "Austin lifestyle" here, which for me basically means shifting my work hours earlier, and also walking about five and a half miles per day.  The walking route here is nowhere near as pleasant as it is in Austin (well, Round Rock, technically), but I've got my iPod and I'm still working my way through my backlog of This American Life.  (As an aside, Ira Glass has got to be the most depressed person in this country.)  Of course, the other part of the Austin lifestyle, which is all the fishing I can handle, is not an option here (well, I could go fishing all the time, but it would be on the side of an ugly man-made lake with screaming kids all around me asking me what I'm doing, instead of standing in a cool, beautiful spring-fed river between the walls of a picturesque limestone canyon, so....no).

I made two pizzas for folks Sunday night after getting back into town on Saturday.  This was the now-annual Houston G&S End of Summer Kids' Party, which I thought I wouldn't be able to attend because of my travel, but it ended up being scheduled later than initially planned and I was glad to be there.  Of course, because it was scheduled later, we had exactly one "kid" from the cast show up; everybody else had gone back to school or was busy packing and moving.  Ooops.  Better luck next year.  It was more a fun party than a sad party.  I remember the week after last year's party was for me a very rough time.  The high of the show, making so many new friends, and then nothing.

Every year around this time it seems that a friend of mine is leaving town.

August is just about the worst month of the year for me since about 2002.  The show is done, there are no choirs yet, my friends are leaving, and oh yes, it's bloody hot and I want it to be cold again.

As Alistair said at the cast party, "here's to the Tower of London".  But first, here's to Halloween getting here as fast as possible.