Here's my annual newsletter from January 2005, summarizing the first half of my 2004-05 bike trip.

[posted to the Wheeled Migration Yahoo Group on Dec 23, 2004]

Merry Christmas, everybody! And a happy belated solstice to those who prefer. Or vice versa, for that matter.

[posted to the Wheeled Migration Yahoo Group on December 13, 2004]

Hi, folks! I saw another chiropractor last week, and he helped tremendously... My joints are feeling much better, and I'm riding every day again, just running errands around the neighborhood. So any doubts about whether I'd be able to continue the tour can be put away now.

I had a follow-up appointment with the chiropractor this morning, and I stayed in town afterward to meet Brigitte for lunch.  Something I had eaten was disagreeing with me, so I was in a cranky mood and not very patient with her.

I mostly worked on WorksCited.Net today -- got two more pages up and running, only three more to go!  Rich & I also watched Run Lola Run, which was fun.

In the evening we drove down to the southern part of town to see Abi perform at Artz Rib House.  Gypsy met us there, and we all pigged out on barbecue.  We were seated behind Abi and so didn't get to see her charming stage presence, but we all enjoyed her music.

I met Abi Tapia this afternoon at a coffeehouse in the trendy party of town -- the same coffeehouse that Brigitte took me to yesterday.  Abi has been so busy promoting herself as a professional singer-songwriter that I felt privileged to meet her one-on-one, though no one asked for her autograph.  She even invited me to come bicycling with her and her girlfriend when I'm on my wheels again.

Aside from that, I just sat around and watched movies all day...

This morning I called Mom & Dad expecting their big news to be Grandpa's coming to stay with them, but the big news was that Mom has just been diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).  I took Kenny for a walk and we had a good long talk.

Today I stayed home and worked on the computers, downloading updates for Gloria's and writing Web pages on Rich's.  I got out briefly to mail some postcards, and again in the evening to shop with Rich.  I watched the "Hell House" documentary.

Rich had the day off today, so I went with him to run some errands.  One of the errands was to give blood, and lo and behold, I was able to give this time!  I guess those multivitamins are really doing the trick.

I made good progress installing and updating software on the second hard disk in Gloria's computer.  No luck in diagnosing the problem that's keeping Rich's laptop from recognizing its disk.

Photos sent with this message (and now available in this album) feature the alarmingly steep hill near the Bennetts' house in Austin, TX; the natural swimming pool at Barton Springs; the Texas capitol during the Aggie Day parade; the Texas School for the Blind and Vision Impaired where Gloria worked; and a day trip with Gypsy to Enchanted Rock State Park, the westmost point in my trip.