08-17-2026 Walk

Travel day. I woke up in the night and read for a while before getting back to sleep. Got up a little after 5:00 and had some toast for breakfast. Emptied the dishwasher and dish rack, then checked my travel list to make sure I had everything packed. We left the house a little before 6:00, and Ann dropped me off at the airport right at 6:30. Through security and to the gate with no issues, the flight left a little early. I had a middle seat near the back of the airplane, wasn't terrible. Watched Crime 101, which was a decent airplane movie that occupied much of the flight time. I ate a sandwich I'd brought with me. We landed right around 1:00 Houston time. It took me about 40 minutes to get off the plane and over to the spot where I was to catch the shuttle to the rental car location. Only then did I realize I needed to request the shuttle by answering questions via WhatsApp. Successfully navigated, and then the shuttle thankfully arrived much earlier than expected. I got in, it was a short ride to the rental car office, and that's where the fun began. There was no live human interaction, I communicated with a remote agent by video over a terrible connection that kept dropping out. Very frustrating. They wantedots of insurance information that I didn't have, luckily an was able to send it to me over the phone. Eventually I don't think it mattered because I had to pay extra for a waiver associated with an "unsupported" auto insurance company. The entire process took over 30 minutes, way too long, then I had to take pics of the car to document any damage before driving it. Finally I was on the road and did t run into any heavy traffic, just normal stuff. I stopped at HEB on the way to pick up supplies for dinner and then got stuck behind a school bus on Foley Rd. So I didn't make it to the house until about 4:30. Ross pulled up at the same time, and he was in a manic mood, tough to negotiate without setting him off. Mom saw this, I guess, and she was pretty quiet when I made dinner. She ended up napping on the living room couch and then going back to her room without eating any dinner, which was mildly frustrating. Ross went out later, so after I ate dinner and cleaned the kitchen I went for a walk through the neighborhood. I went to unpack and get ready for sleep after that.