Monday Lou signed all of her books in stock at Texas Star in Abilene. We were getting groceries for Thanksgiving, She signed copies of JANE RUSHING, 31 BY LAWRENCE CLAYTON, QUOTABLE TEXAS WOMEN and the book on Women who went up the cattle trails that I can't remember the name of. She has an essay in that book. Glenn Dromgoole was in the store and we got to talk to him. He is leaving the book publishing business to focus on his two stores and work on his writing. We hated to hear that because he has been an innovative and aggressive book publisher for Texas and McMurry University.

All the Wilcox family came in yesterday to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. This morning Valerie walked the 2 miles with me and Lou met us on the highway. She got my cold and it is slowing her down a little but it is getting better.

This morning we called son, Mark, to wish him a Happy Birthday. They are packing for a short vacation trip to New York City with their daughter, Ashley, leaving Friday and coming back Wednesday.

This is a photo of Lou and me with Roger Corn, County Judge taken at the Johnny Boggs talk to the Meet The Authors event of the Cross Plains Public Library. This is my first attempt to use photos in the blog.

Yesterday was another day to remember. First we drove to Fort Worth in the wind and had a nice light rain shower to clean our awfully dirty windshield. Got to the Oncology clinic where our daughter-in-law, Mary Kathryn, met us with a mask to keep her cold germs to herself. I didn't recognize her and wondered who was sitting next to Lou. Lou had her blood tested. MK had to go to a luncheon and missed the Doctor's visit. He reported that the CT scan showed nothing except the scar from the operation. He then performed a visual and digital exam and said there were no problems and she is clear for maintenance checkups with the next one due in three months. We got to see the blood tests and her white cells are all in the normal range and the red cells are just a little below normal. Lou asked about removing the port and he said it was a simple clinic procedure, that he couldn't do it today, but we will call and schedule it after Thanksgiving. Lou asked about getting a flu shot and they gave her one then. He told her that her hair would grow about one centimeter (one quarter-inch to me) a month. So by next March she should have a good head of hair.

We had a 12:30 luncheon date in Denton, left TX Oncology at 11:45, got on I-35 expecting a parking lot and the Lord was with us. We had no traffic problems and got to the luncheon at the TWU Library at 12:35 in plenty of time. After the lunch we toured the Library to see the new arrangement on 2nd floor, rode to the Joyce Thompson Lecture with the new Librarian. Phyllis Bridges introduced Jane Roberts Wood, this year's lecturer with the announcement that Lou would have a book signing March 26, 2007 for her book JANE RUSHING. Wood's lecture was directed to the large student audience and was excellent. In the audience was Joyce Roach, last year's lecturer, Fran Vick, president of TIL, and we were surprized to see Jack and Elizabeth Duncan there. They are old Texas Folklore Society Friends.

We left about 4:30 to drive back to Fort Worth to help celebrate Mark's BD by eating at the Railhead BBQ restaurant with his wife, daughter, Ashley, and his mother-in-law, Mary Carleton. Now yesterday was his sister, Kathy's birthday. I had called her in the morning to wish her a Happy Birthday and

Yesterday was another day to remember. First we drove to Fort Worth in the wind and had a nice light rain shower to clean our awfully dirty windshield. Got to the Oncology clinic where our daughter-in-law, Mary Kathryn, met us with a mask to keep her cold germs to herself. I didn't recognize her and wondered who was sitting next to Lou. Lou had her blood tested. MK had to go to a luncheon and missed the Doctor's visit. He reported that the CT scan showed nothing except the scar from the operation. He then performed a visual and digital exam and said there were no problems and she is clear for maintenance checkups with the next one due in three months. We got to see the blood tests and her white cells are all in the normal range and the red cells are just a little below normal. Lou asked about removing the port and he said it was a simple clinic procedure, that he couldn't do it today, but we will call and schedule it after Thanksgiving. Lou asked about getting a flu shot and they gave her one then. He told her that her hair would grow about one centimeter (one quarter-inch to me) a month. So by next March she should have a good head of hair.

We had a 12:30 luncheon date in Denton, left TX Oncology at 11:45, got on I-35 expecting a parking lot and the Lord was with us. We had no traffic problems and got to the luncheon at the TWU Library at 12:35 in plenty of time. After the lunch we toured the Library to see the new arrangement on 2nd floor, rode to the Joyce Thompson Lecture with the new Librarian. Phyllis Bridges introduced Jane Roberts Wood, this year's lecturer with the announcement that Lou would have a book signing March 26, 2007 for her book JANE RUSHING. Wood's lecture was directed to the large student audience and was excellent. In the audience was Joyce Roach, last year's lecturer, Fran Vick, president of TIL, and we were surprized to see Jack and Elizabeth Duncan there. They are old Texas Folklore Society Friends.

We left about 4:30 to drive back to Fort Worth to help celebrate Mark's BD by eating at the Railhead BBQ restaurant with his wife, daughter, Ashley, and his mother-in-law, Mary Carleton. Now yesterday was his sister, Kathy's birthday. I had called her in the morning to wish her a Happy Birthday and told her we would celebrate it with Mark. She said that was OK as long as I ate something chocolate. MK had made a BD cake of double fudge brownies so we celebrated both. Mark's BD is Thanksgiving day and they will be in New York City with Ashley for a vacation trip. That was why we were celebrating Nov. 15.

Nov. 13 was the fiftieth anniversary of the first flight of the B-58, built by General Dynamics and son, Mark, sent me a photo of that flight aircraft by email from Lockheed. That brought back memories of the first large application of my engineering design. I designed the lower center wing panel from the center line out to the wheel well. I also worked with Charles Samson, who later retired from GD as a director, on one of the outer wing panels. I was also responsible for all of the some 18,000 titanium bolts holding the wing panels to the understructure. To save weight each bolt had to be as short as possible to do its job. I followed the construction of ship one through each phase of construction in the plant, including one black Sunday when ship #1 was being assembled in the wing bucks and I found that my wing panels interfered with the wheel well bulkhead requiring some trimming of the bulkhead due to an error I had made in the drawing. That next Monday was a terrible ordeal until Stess agreed that the buldhead could be trimmed. When that first aircraft took off we all sweated whether the wing would hold together and be able to fly at the design speed of Mach 2. It did and we were all proud of our design.

Lou had another great day today because she had her daughter and grand-daughter-in-law with her at the dedication of the new TWU building in Houston at the Texas Medical Center. Lou and I were here for the ground-breaking ceremonies over a year ago where she was in a photo with a shovel. She gave a contribution to honor Mandi Wilcox, Jim's wife, because Mandi got her Master's degree from the Houston branch of TWU here. They got to pose before the plaque where Lou's donation is insribed with Mandi's name. Of course I forgot to bring my camera, but Kathy was shooting 35mm film and Mandi had her digital so I may be able to post some photos later. If you read Judy Alter's comment, she wanted to know where my photos were and I will start adding some.

It was a hectic drive yesterday. Coming down I-45 thru the middle of Houston, I went down under an overpass and in my lane was the ugliest looking tangle of metal about 3' high and 4' wide that I could only run straight over because of the traffic in the other lanes. I just knew that it had wiped out the entire underside of my car, but everything kept working. I kept waiting for the brakes to quit, or the transmission to go out, but it kept running. We got to the hotel and parked. Today I went to check on it. Nothing was leaking. I moved it to a more convenient spot and it is running OK, so I guess our guardian angel was again on the job taking care of us. I always pray for such protection before a trip, and it works.

Last night at the reception, her friends and fellow regents had trouble recognizing Lou in her turban. They were all glad to see her. I met Dr. Terry Bevers (the chair of the Regents) father. His name is Bartholomew. My best friend in the first grade in Stillwater, OK was named Bartholomew, but they weren't kin. The father is named James Lewis Bartholomew and he was an engineer who graduated in the first AFA class.

Today at the ceremony, the President of Texas Medical Center is Dick Wainerdi, who I worked with in the engineering college at A&M. He was wearing a Sigma Tau tie clasp today, so I got to greet him as a fraternity brother. It is an honorary engineering fraternity.

Kathy and Mandi drove me back to the hotel and Lou attended the Regent's meeting to among other things approve a new Ph.D. degree in nursing. They need them to teach nursing. The meeting was scheduled from 1 to 6, but Lou was out by 4, much to my amazement. She was hungry so we opened the restaurant at 5:30 and she had a big Cobb salad with shrimp and loved it.

We will head out into the traffic in the morning back home. Hopefully the traffic will all be coming in as we are going out.

More good news today. I called Nancy Saunders, Dr. Hancock's nurse in Fort Worth to ask if she had gotten the results from the CT scan and blood tests taken October 3 at Hendrick Hospital in Abilene. She called back to report that the CA 125 test was 3! That is way down in the normal range. She was pleased and we are also. Yesterday Lou rubbed her bald head and said she believes the hair is starting to grow.

This morning she walked down 2228 a ways to meet me coming back. She said she feels some stronger today. Our son, Mark, and his wife, Kathy, came today and loaded his 1965 Mustang on a trailer to take back to his garage to work on it there. And Kathy fixed us a great meal that was enjoyed by Lou's sister, Sue, and her husband, Ike.

So life is good!

I appreciate your comments.

November 1 Lou made her first shopping trip to Abilene. She had two priorities, one to purchase a new kitchen stove and microwave and the other to deliver an autographed copy of JANE RUSHING to Pat and Shay Bennett at the Wednesday Club meeting at McKay's Bakery. This is the writers and artists club that meets every Wednesday even if no one comes. Linda Murray was there along with Bill Dulin and his wife who are both retired professors from McMurry. Linda is a local artist who left early to go teach a class at McM. She regaled us with her stories of practising being a trapeze artist at a traveling group that teaches such artistry in Austin. She was working on being caught in the air and was successful this last trip. You have to understand that Linda is also a grandmother. Lou wanted Pat and Shay to have their copy of JANE RUSHING because they are in the acknowledgements due to their help in her research on Jane.

She continues to puff but is walking each morning to the front gate. This morning she was having some slight vertigo problems and still has some metallic taste, but she is enjoying food more and gaining a little strength each day. She is still looking unsuccessfully for some sign of hair growth.