Today is a wonderful day. We have guests. This morning I walked my two miles with my daughter, Kathy Wilcox, who was carrying my 2 year old great grandson, Brent. She said it helped with the weight she is suppossed to carry while walking. He is a big weight. Her husband, Keith, is mowing my yard using the John Deere riding mower that broke down with me yesterday. Keith and his son, Jim, Brent's father, fixed the broken steering. Jim is using the Ford tractor to mow the big areas around my house and the Halsell House. Jim and his family came in late last night and spent the night at the Halsell House. Jim and his sons, Chris and Brent came up for Jim to get his coffee at 6 this morning.

Our Texas Tech granddaughter, Vanessa Wilcox, came in for some R&R from all her studies. Kathy is fixing a big meal and we are expecting Bob and Carol Thormer from Conroe plus Lou's sister Sue and her husband, Ike for lunch.

Jim brought me a birthday gift in the form of a new basketball skirt, or whatever you call it, that he put on the old BB goal. While he had the ladder out I got him to put a new rope on one of my deer feeders. He and Keith filled both feeders. So I have gotten out of a lot of work this Saturday.

Charles

Today was a beautiful day. The temperature was perfect with a light breeze. When I got back from my two mile walk Lou had walked to the Halsell driveway and walked back with me. She is feeling a lot better today than yesterday. She feels like she is on the road to recovery. She worked on her email and I dug grassburrs in the yard. This afternoon we had an unexpected guest. Betty Weisepape of LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE RED SHOES fame stopped to visit on her way to TACWIT meeting in San Angelo. She and Lou discussed books. They are both judging books for contests.

Our daughter, Kathy Wilcox, is coming tomorrow night and has planned a big lunch Saturday inviting a bunch of people. Our oldest grandson, Jim, and his family will also be here. We are looking forward to a great visit.

Charles

I am trying to learn how to blog. I tried to link this site, but haven't figured out how to do it. I followed the instructions, but I didn't work. For ginger and ovarian cancer go to this site:http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2006/ginger.htm.

Charles

Today Lou was low on energy, but walked farther than she thought she could this morning. It was a beautiful day with the temperature in the upper 50s and clear sky. She walked pass the pond and almost to the road where I met her coming back from my 2 mile walk. The good news is that she doesn't have nausea.

I am in the process of trying to migrate my files to a new fast computer. It is a slow process.

Charles

The next scheduled medical procedure for Lou is a CAT Scan and the usual blood tests. Dr. Hancock's office called and have scheduled the CATScan at Hendrick Hospital in Abilene to save us a trip to Fort Worth. That will be Oct. 3. Yesterday we got several floral arrangements and one was special. From Richard Carl Schiller it just said HAPPY EVERYTHING. That covered anniversaries, birthdays and chemo treatments.

I sent the last email update on Lou's cancer progress today and will use this blog for more information.

Lou is planning to give a book review in Fort Worth October 11 to the Pink Bag club sponsored by TCU Press. She is looking forward to getting back to work.

Charles

Today is Lou's birthday and she has received a lot of cards and emails. Yesterday she completed the last chemo after having a birthday dinner hosted by our son and his family Tuesday night. She is feeling good today. Walked to the Halsell House driveway this morning and has felt good all day. She got two bouquets from Tim's Floral.

NOTE TO WOMEN 19 - 99.
If you have problems with your abdomen hurting that isn't related to normal causes, please ask your doctor to order a CA-125 blood test. This is to ovarian cancer what the PSA test is for prostate cancer in men. Lou was having trouble for over a year and had catscans, X-rays, sonograms, colonoscopy and even a virtual scan and nothing indicated ovarian cancer until the tumor pressed against the colon and caused an emergency trip to the hospital with surgery that found the cancer. Her first CA-125 test was 748. After the surgery. Please have the test before you have such problems.

Today I drove Lou to Fran Vick's condo in Dallas to attend a board meeting of the Texas Institute of Letters. They were talking about web sites for TIL and blogs and I decided to create this blog to reduce the emails I have been sending reporting on Lou's chemo battle against her ovarian cancer. Her CA 125 blood test that is used for ovarian cancer indication has come down from the initial value in May of 748 to the last test of 5 which is well below the minimum value of 21. Her final chemo treatment is September 20 (the day before her 80th birthday which the TIL board celebrated with a cake for both of us) and we will see what further treatment will be recommended by Dr. Hancock. He has said she would be a candidate for experimental evaluations. We don't know what he may have in mind.

My birthday is 9/11 and we have had a lot of cards and my chocolate cravings have been more than satisfied.

Lou will have a new book out of Texas Tech Press this year. Her biography of Jane Gilmore Rushing has been in work for several years and is looking great in what we have seen. She has been delayed on her book about her take on the Texas literary scene. It was due this October, but she got sidelined by the big C.

I would appreciate any comments on Chuck Etheridge's first novel, BORDER CANTO TRILOGY: BOOK 1. I commented on it on the Amazon site.

Charles