I keep two suitcase, always packed

I keep two suitcase, always packed, always on the ready — I keep waiting for that big break, you know, some important talk show host calls me up (I’m not naming names, but Springer comes to mind), and then there’s the hectic travel schedule I keep, too. It never fails, though, at the last minute, there’s always something which I need to make sure I’ve got, so I have to shuffle the suitcase around, one last time. I was so looking forward to this coming weekend, my sister was going to join me for a weekend away from just about everything, and some time with the folks. She wimped out on me. Unbeknownst to me, she decided to work on some project instead. So I do get to go to west Texas, perhaps one of the more lovely spots on the planet, and I do get to stay in one of the highest hotels in Texas, but I’m going to be alone with my parents, bereft of the usual amenities that I desire, things like e-mail, voice mail, phones, and a chance to have an evening cigar while watching the bats feed on the bugs. I love my parents, but Ma Wetzel is a micro management specialist, and it looks like the whole weekend will be orchestrated. There’s a sign up in my trailer’s foyer, “Friends are always welcome, family by appointment only.”