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It’s been a busy month. Tonight I’m off to Northern Vermont to re-qualify for my Wilderness First Responder (WFR) certification. It’s not like I’m planning to become an Outward Bound leader any time soon, but it’s a great program and it makes sense to stay current.

This photo from Hamilton Pool Park near Austin. It felt great to take a couple hours walking around in the woods after seven very full days of training. It’s a beautiful place.

So far I’m enjoying Austin. It’s smaller downtown than I expected. It kind of reminds me of Nashville. Yesterday I saw an exhibit of Christo and Jean-Claude’s work at the Austin Museum of Art. No, they didn’t have the Reichstag museum, just a model and a number of sketches and preliminary drawings which I kind of liked better than the installations themselves. Take a look at this sketch from The Gates of Central Park project, and here’s a sketch from The Umbrellas. The preliminary sketches of this were great. I also snuck a couple of photos, but these are better.

Last night I had a nice piece of tilapia in a seafood ragu at Doña Emilia’s South American restaurant, and then went to see Buddy Guy play at Stubb’s. He was great. He had Pinetop Perkins with him for three songs. Pinetop was the keyboard player from Muddy Waters’ band and and at 92 still has quite a groove. It was funny to hear him singing about how he used to have so many customers that it took him all week to serve all.

Today I went to the Harry Ransom Center and saw exhibits of historical photography and writing technologies. They have a Gutenberg Bible and the first photograph ever taken.

I’ve just gotten to my hotel for the class which starts tomorrow. I’m not sure that my suite is up to my usual standards for accommodation—there are no roosters, dogs or pigs making noise outside. How will I sleep? The class will be a long seven days, but hopefully I’ll get quite a bit out of it.