RAIN AND BOOKS
Yesterday we had 0.5" of rain that means I have to mow again. Lou is being zapped by her oral chemotherapy but it didn't stop her from finishing reading HOW PERFECT IS THAT by Sarah Bird that is a morality tale about high rollers in Austin and the ups and downs of the dotcom business. I read a couple of pages in a doctor's office and the woman protagonist has a failing business and can't pay her employees. As with most of Bird's books it was hilarious and Lou had to keep reading excerpts to me. She doesn't agree with Bird's politics but the shallowness of the women in Austin trying to keep up with the trends is apparent. Lou is also reading a couple of manuscripts for TTPress that she wants to finish soon. She stays busy in spite of the chemo.

Lou's chemotherapy is doing a job on her energy and she said one of the side effects is supposed to be lethargy and she is feeling it. She walked Friday morning to the creek with me. It took all of her energy to make it but she hung in there. We fed the gold fish and checked the water lilies. Yesterday a fox showed up on the terrace, but it isn't mama fox and we haven't seen her for weeks.

When I shopped Clyde coming back from getting my new glasses, Lou asked me to buy bread and I got a loaf of French bread. This morning she suggested I slice some up and make French toast and even if I do say so I did a good job. It was tasty. For lunch I picked up meals at Jean's. I had to substitute as Worship Leader at church after teaching SS. Lou wanted to go but her energy just wasn't up to the trip.

HEIGH HO IT'S OFF TO THE DOC WE GO
This week we will make three trips to Abilene to doctor's offices. Dale Bishop, fellow Kiwanian, stated that when you retire be sure and buy a new car because you will wear it out going to the doctor's offices. He was right. The problem with this week is that I am gaining weight also. We eat out every time we go to Abilene. This week isn't Lou's appointments it is mine. Yesterday I went in for a followup on the cataract surgery and Dr. Teague wrote a new prescription for that eye which requires a new set of glasses which requires me to go back tomorrow to pick them up. Today it was both of us going to the dermatologist for our annual checkups. Lou was clean of anything but I got the usual nails pounded into my head. Three this time. The same as last year. He squirts liguid nitrogen on the spots and it feels like a nail being pounded into the brain. To balance things off he squirted on each temple also this time.

Yesterday we got in early and after the appointment Lou shopped at Texas Star in downtown Abilene. It was too early to eat in town, but we had to stop in Clyde for some groceries (Lou is feeling a little nausea and I was getting some small Sprite cans) and it got to 11:30 so Lou suggested the DQ in Clyde. I had grilled chicken sandwich, but Lou got a chicken basket with the greasy french fries and I had to help her finish that off. Then this morning we went in early so after the dermotologist got through with us we ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel and I had too much including biscuits and gravy plus grits with two eggs but the sausage was turkey. Isn't that less fattening? So we had small open face sandwiches for lunch late after I mowed for an hour down the road and the Halsell House yard.

BACK ON CHEMOTHERAPY
Saturday, August 23, Lou started taking her oral chemo. Yesterday we got the CA125 results from last Wednesday's test. So the starting number for this round of chemo is 137. It wasn't up much from the last test that she took, so the tamoxifen must have been doing some good. She isn't having bad side effects, but some slight stomach upset. She walked about a half mile yesterday but didn't walk today.

I am doing my usual goofy things. Yesterday at the request of my daughter-in-law and daughter I sent out the following invitation, but in my haste failed to recognize that in the subject line I had put Sept 5 in place of Sept 6. Hopefully everyone will read the invitation:


You Are Invited
To our parents’
Lou and Charles Rodenberger
82nd Birthdays and 59th Anniversary
Celebration
Please join us on
Saturday
September 6, 2008
2:00 PM until 4:00 PM
First United Methodist Church
Cross Plains, Texas
Given by:
Mark and Mary Kathryn Rodenberger
Keith and Kathy Wilcox
And families
Please no gifts – just your “presence” to celebrate these joyous occasions!
No RSVP necessary
For questions or directions please email:
Mary Kathryn at mkathryn@att.net
Or call at 817-917-8161
Kathy Wilcox at kandkwilcox@yahoo.com
Or call at 210-887-9016

It didn't copy too well here. It was a much more beautiful presentation in the Word document.

Lou continues to read the Bible every morning and she announced that when she finishes the Old Testament that she isn't going to read it any more because of all of the violence and killing. I told her that she still had to read Proverbs and Psalms. She says she reads a Psalm every day and likes Isaiah so maybe she won't completely abandon the OT. I am slowing down her work on her memoir because I started taking the Wall Street Journal again and she reads the Abilene Reporter-News and WSJ everyday and that takes up a lot of her time. She continues to read her files and plans to write more of her current chapter on the 1980s.

Oh, that phone call from my brother, Robert. It was a misdialed call. He has too many C. Rodenbergers in his cell addresses.

REGENTS MEETING IN DENTON

I found out that it is 322 miles roundtrip to Denton and was 324 miles roundtrip to Dallas Presbyterian campus of TWU. In two weeks Lou has attended two Regents meetings at the two campi. Today was a full regents meeting to approve the budget, etc. Lou did well and was worn out but not hurting much when we got home.

I spent my time at the Library as I generally do and got to talk to the new Librarian Shirleen Bird, the former librarian, Elizabeth Snapp who is still teaching history courses online, Ann Barton, who told me she is retiring in January and devasted Lou with the news. I used my laptop to write the minutes of the church meeting last night. The wifi I was used to wasn't up but they let me use a TWU computer that was online and I emailed the minutes to the committee.

The regents let me eat lunch with them. After lunch Ann Stuart, the chancellor, gave a tour of the newly revamped first ladies gown display on the second floor of the conference center. I went back to the Library to read and get a short nap. Lou called at 2:30 to say they were having their ice cream. I got there and it was amusing to see all the regents and university officials sitting in a circle munching on ice cream bars. I joined them to get some calories to keep me awake driving. We got to leave by 3 and were home by 5:45. Somewhere I missed a cell phone call from my brother, Robert and haven't been able to get him. Hope nothing is wrong at his house.

CHANGE IN LOU'S TREATMENT
Wednesday we met with Dr. Hancock, Lou's oncologist, who was concerned that the CA125 increased meaning that the tamoxifen wasn't working. He prescribed etopside that is a chemo medicine that can be intravenous or taken orally. She will take the capsules once a day for 21 days and lay off a week to check her blood. She asked and Dr. Hancock that she would probably again lose her hair in about 6 weeks, which is not what Lou wanted to hear, but has resigned herself. She said that she will just go bald and not worry about covering up. She hopes that this chemo will work without having to go back to the carboplatin routine.

Mary Kathryn drove us from her house to the doctor's office. We got to have lunch with her and our son, Mark at Hedary's where we could eat the buffet so that Mark could get back to work at 1. MK then drove us to Cokesbury in the same shopping center where I picked up Sunday School literature. She then drove us to 4113 Fairmount to look at the house that Ashley and Ross have bought and will be moving to soon. It is a very attractive white brick front with at nice porch and deck in the back. It has a circular drive in front and the only drawback is a carport in place of a garage.

It was raining when we left home and we drove in and out of showers. When we got back home at 3:30 we had 0.25" in the gauge. We have had about a total of 5" for the last several days and most soaked in. The spring is still dry when we walked this morning. The last rain did immediately have runoff so the ground is fairly saturated and future rain soon may reactivate the spring.

Tomorrow we go to Denton for a long day while Lou attends the TWU Regents meeting. I will take my laptop and write up the minutes of the meeting at church that I chaired tonight.

BOOK REPORT & TRAVELOGUE
I took advantage of the trip to Dallas for the Regent's Finance committee that Lou had to attend to start reading PALACE COUNCIL by Stephen Carter. It is amazing how fast the trip goes when Val is driving and I am reading a book. We ran thru a little rain but not raining at Dallas Presbyterian where the meeting was. I always enjoy that TWU campus because I get DSL internet. Didn't take long to read email. Val called a friend to have lunch with and I read more of the book. Carter's books are different. They all have some of the same characters. They give you a new insight into the negro culture. Carter is a black law professor at Yale and he always has scenes at universities, this time at Ithaca, NY at Cornell. He always has a law professor that plays a role. This time he was one of the bad guys. The story focuses on the black impact on politics with the Palace Council being a group of blacks and whites who decide that the country needs to change if it requires violent action by young people. He covers the unrest of the 50's and 60's. The protagonist is a writer who is the son of a prominent Baptist preacher in Boston active in black politics. His sister is the first black law student at Harvard and when she graduates she disappears. The rest of the story is about his search for her and reports or her going underground in the violent groups of the time.

Carter's books remind me of Clancey's books with the presidential candidates in place of the military in Clancey's books. There are murders, intrigues and convolutions to keep you wondering what will happen next. The protagonist interacts with Nixon, and the CIA, FBI, including meetings with Hoover who threatens him. He goes to Vietnam and almost gets killed a couple of times there. There are hired guns and intrigue to keep you reading to the last page. It is a good history lesson of that time period. I kept wondering how he feels about Obama and what his next novel will cover. He primarily shows how multimillionaire blacks work to affect politics in that time. The implication is that they still have an input and power.

Lou made the trip to Dallas and felt pretty good. She has been feeling better but still has back problems occasionally. Yesterday she felt pretty good and strongly considered going to church but because I had to deposit the offering and would be late she decided to stay home. This morning she said that her back had a small pain in the lower back, but we are thankful that another disk hasn't collapsed. In the afternoon I went back to a funeral for one of our church members, Sharon Koenig who was 70 and her death devastated Lou. She was such a vital person just a few weeks ago. I had to stand because our new church was overwhelmed by the crowd and in a light rain.

We have had 4" of rain the last three days with temperatures in the 60s and 70s and I am no longer jealous of Mary Ann Chaffin on her trip in Washington state. Here is her latest report from her travels:
Saturday, August 16, 2008 - Forks, Washington (Rialto Beach)

Enjoying our very large suite in Forks, we started the morning lazily and visiting with Ruth before going to the Pizza Factory for lunch. We have eaten there often before when we were up here. Disappointed mostly - but that's irrelevant to our day.

We drove through the Highway 101 RV Park which had charged us $25 cancellation fee for cancelling our reservation with them 6 weeks earlier "just to get even". Their landscaping is really pretty with the orange and yellow nasturtiums that I remember - and then headed out to Mora and Rialto Beach. Rialto Beach is a favorite of Richard and me - and Ruth and was a destination we didn't intend to miss.

Located within the Olympic National Park, this approximately 73 acres of wild coastline has as its "claim to fame" for us, the humongous "bleached bones" (beached logs of massive trees) caused by the erosion of the sea cliffs. There just are no words for the eerie sight of driving up to suddenly seeing the beach lined with giant "bones" strewn around on the rocky beach.

A heavy mist hovered over the massive sea stacks that were once a part of the ocean floor and some of the most impressive in the Pacific Ocean of the Northwest. But as Ruth and I walked around on the beach collecting wonderful rocks to take home with us and Richard sat up on one of the huge logs taking photos - the mist began to lift - thankfully. Then we could see them clearly with their trees miraculously jutting and sprouting out of the rock.

The last time we were there with Ruth & Tommy and Mary & Cecil, we had remembered walking on a beach covered 100% with the smooth, round colorful rocks, stones and pebbles (which are called cobbles). So I had brought our two walking sticks with us all the way from Texas to be prepared for difficult walks. This particular visit, the waves of the ocean were almost fierce and very high which caused more sand near the water's edge. This made for easier walking, but the tide was coming in so we didn't get to take the 2 mile hike down to hole in the rock formation and its tide pools which usually is filled with sea stars, sea urchins and lots of sea anemones. Of course there were the usual sea palms that had washed up. I coerced Richard to pose for a picture with one.

A very touching sight caught my attention as a woman walked by with an obviously blind man holding on to her arm. He had the white stick which indicated he was totally blind. They were negotiating the logs and cobbles quite well actually - and he had the most blissful smile on his face! We just closed our own eyes to try to "see" what he was experiencing and realized that he still could enjoy the sound of those waves crashing and the giggles of a few brave children who would stick their feet in to the cold water and jump back out immediately. I believe we all said a silent prayer for eyesight at that moment in our day!

Myth or fact has it that a creepy guy named Alexander Conlin (Alexander Knows All) psychic and magician and friend to many of the old famous movie stars had a beautiful home on the edge of the cliff behind Rialto Beach and that the remains of his estate are still there. We looked for it, but if it's there, it is overgrown with vines and trees and bushes.

Hunger pangs set in and we drove over to the Indian village of LaPush where we remembered delicious food from previous trips also...specifically, the fresh halibut caught right there. After an extremely long wait, the buxom little waitress came over and asked us what we had ordered! We told her, later she returned to say she had forgot to turn the order in and could she bring us a bowl of seafood chowder? The answer was "yes". Ruth and Richard enjoyed it. I passed. Again the long wait for our food - but in the meantime, it was such fun sitting looking out over the water with the boats coming in for the day; the rotting, moss laden old dock outside our window; a pier lined solidly with seagulls - along with their antics - and I saw two birds which on first sight appeared to be eagles. I have later discovered that they were some kind of falcon. [Oh, Ruth and Richard ordered the halibut and were disappointed for their $25 meal. I ordered cod fish and chips with cole slaw and was very happy for $6.99!!]

We returned to our nice suite at Pacific Inn for the evening and watched the television program with Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church fame interview presidential candidates, Barak Obama and John McCain. We thought it was quite well done.

Oh, and Ruth just reminded me to write about our walk around downtown Forks last evening where we window shopped and enjoyed the full moon over the mountains. Forks is hosting a huge Biker Rally and Races this weekend with thousands of roaring Harleys and other such noisy animals, so it was a busy place for this normally sleepy little town - where it rains a lot. Ruth did not abandon us by taking off with one of the biker dudes!

LITERARY COMMENT

Judith Keeling brought us the latest Stephen Carter book PALACE COUNCIL and told me I wouldn't be able to put it down once I started. So I haven't started it yet. Tomorrow we take Lou to a meeting of a TWU Regent's committee in Dallas so I will start it while we wait on Lou.

I finished both of Marc Otte's books under the pen name Mark Henry and enjoyed them. The first book was really timely because the action took place in 1908 when there were forest fires all over the west and the federal government authorized unlimited funds to fight them. They were using soldiers and drafting civilians. The US Marshalls were tracking bad guys into the fire zone and both escaped one group in an old gold mine and the Marshalls blasted a hole in a stream with a stick of dynamite and got under water. I am not sure how their horse did that, but it was a good story. The second book took place during a long train ride where the history of the characters was explained in flash backs. More tracking by the Indian descendants of Scot/Indian marraige. One scene I appreciated because I have had that experience with dogs was when the Indian girl was escaping and being tracked by dogs. She found a porcupine and set a trap for the dogs where their noses were full of quills. After being pulled out the dogs then tracked the porcupine and the girl went the other way.

Lou's literary effort is reading two manuscripts for TT Press. She is enjoying that. Our granddaughter Val is here with us until Saturday and this morning we walked. Val and I picked up five bags of trash on the highway. Lou walked to the front gate. She is feeling a little better today. She is switching back and forth from the Ranger game for her and the Olympics for Val. We just watched the beach volleyball championship. Val was a high school volleyball player at Tomball. She has thought about coaching at her school in San Antonio, but teaching math doesn't leave enough time for that.

LITERARY DAY
Today was a day for literature. Driving in from Lubbock was Noel Parsons, retiring director of Texas Tech Press, his wife Kristi, with Managing Editor Judith Keeling. Janet Neugebauer was supposed to come but had a called meeting at the last minute and couldn't make it. They stopped in Abilene to pick up BBQ at Harlold's and came in a little after noon. We had a great meal followed by an afternoon of talking Texas literature.

We also got to talk a little baseball because one of Judith's sons is a star baseball player. She shared a news article about him that you can look at: http://www.kansas.com/sports/nbc_baseball/story/486341.html
Lou also got to discuss her memoir with Judith who is her editor. Lou recalled her working with Noel Parsons when he was with Texas A&M Press when she published TEXAS WOMEN WRITERS. Of course they also discussed Larry McMurtry and many other Texas writers and the Literary heyday of the 1980s and where the literary future is going. Noel is optimistic that books will still be published and things are continuing to look good for the literary future.

EARLY BIRTHDAY GIFT FOR LOU
Today our daughter and son-in-law came back through from their trip to Lubbock to help their daughter Vanessa move from an apartment to a house she shares with other girls. They bought her a chair and while they were shopping found an ergonomic chair that they thought Lou could use. Keith took it out of the box and assembled it and Lou was very pleased with how it fits with her computer upstairs. We tried to pay them but they insisted it was an early birthday gift for her. When they left Lou said we have some wonderful children and I agreed. We are blessed.

COOL TRAVELS
I want to share some cool news with you from our friends Richard and Mary Ann Chaffin who are inveterate travelers and are now in Washington on the west coast. Richard was the pastor of Cross Plains FUMC for five years and their home burned in the fires of December 2005 that burned the parsonage and church building. Enjoy her latest travelogue:

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Now THIS is a Washington state morning! Sitting upstairs in the "third floor" loft of this condo, the windows open, I am watching clouds/mist float by outside the windows. It is a gray kind of morning and much more typical of the seacoast weather than the bright sunny days we've had for a week. The natives up here were excited that a cool front was coming in from the ocean to beak "the heat wave" they were experiencing! Everything is relative.

Monday was a really good day spent visiting with Uncle Dave and Aunt Esther in Poulsbo. Cousin Phil rode his motorcycle over and met us at the big casino for lunch. I am so relieved to see how very good Aunt Esther is progressing from her broken hip/wrist surgery. Remarkable people who I care so much about.

Tuesday was spent wandering the downtown streets of Port Townsend. It was crowded and I don't remember so many tourists the times we have visited here before. The old Victorian style buildings are so pretty and makes this a unique town that never turned out to be the prosperous place they intended. But thanks to tourism - it's thriving.


Wednesday, August 6, 2008

[I've been using Richard's computer since after several days on the road, my laptop totally stopped working. We took it in to a computer shop yesterday where they deemed that the hard drive had crashed and they could replace one for $250. Much to Richard's surprise, I said "no thank you" and we left with my useless laptop. I wish I not even brought it!! We will see what can be determined when we return to Lubbock. In the meantime, I will be doing what corresponding I do from a "borrowed" computer, so it'll be a once a day occasion for me.]

Wednesday we drove the 7 or 8 miles from our condo in to Port Townsend to catch the Washington Ferry over to the mainland. The attendant at the terminal asked if we had reservations. We did not, but he assured us he could get us on the 12:45 ferry - only one and a half hours away! No problem. We parked the car in line and walked over to the downtown area where we once again walked the main street (for our daily exercise) and had lunch at the cute little diner where we usually eat. . . out on the deck in the sunshine as we watched the sea gulls cavort, the ships and boats come and go and a few people searching for shells and such down on the beach below us.

{If this has become boring by now - the following story is one very interesting occurrence!} Just the experience of driving our vehicle on to a ferry and crossing Puget Sound or the Strait of Juan de Fuca or whatever is part of our thrill in being up here. There was one and only one other motor home loaded on this particular ferry - and believe it or not, it was a 2002 Pace Arrow gray/cream motor home EXACTLY like ours! How ironic is that? It gave me goose bumps as I continue to miss traveling in ours! But this is not the interesting bit -

Settling back for a semi nap in our car, windows down and cool air blowing across - a handsome man walked by our car. Nothing unusual about this since people wander around on deck of the ferry in transit. He looked in. I smiled. Richard nodded and the man smiled as he walked on. Shortly he came back to the window on my side of the car, and handed me a beautiful pint Mason jar filled with jam! The homemade typed label on top called it "Blueberry, Loganberry, and Strawberry Jam with a hint of Lavender and unbleached, sugar.... picked and made the same day on August 7, 2008" !!!!!!!!!!!!!! This smiling stranger began to explain that he owns a little farm over near Sequim. He belongs to a group of widows/widowers who like to do this. Further, he explained, "I went down and worked after the Katrina catastrophe and the people of Texas were so WONDERFUL to us, that I like to try to do some little something in return for Texas people!"

Richard offered to pay him and he said, "oh no, this is just something I like to do for Texas folks!' Stunned is the word for us. This more than pleasant looking stranger with the warm brown eyes, salt & pepper curly gray hair walked away with that same big smile on his face. Now isn't this an UNUSUAL story? It was so good to know that someone out there actually LIKES Texas people.

We knew where we were going, of course, but we "tested" OnStar turn by turn directions. The operator began chuckling and said she hated to tell us but we were showing up as a dot out on the water! We would have to ask for directions after we were back on land again.

This ferry goes through Oak Harbor, past beautiful Deception Pass, Anacortes and the San Juan Islands and over to the very familiar - to us - towns of Mt. Vernon and Burlington. Situated in the lush bottom lands of the Skagit Valley, this has always been a favorite spot for us. Our Mission of the Day was to drive up Highway 20 (the Northern Cascades scenic byway) and find a new Thousand Trails Resort which has recently been purchased called "Grandy Creek." Through the little town of Sedro-Woolley and toward Concrete - we found the Thousand Trails (after a couple of scenic drives up the wrong roads).

Grandy Creek may be located in the most beautiful and scenic of all the Thousand Trails resorts in Washington. Located near Baker Lake, Mt. Baker, and many other scenic vistas, VERY tall Cascade mountains surround it and it is situated among, what else but, tall trees. The ranger on duty told us that one half the sites (yellow meters) belonged to KOA and the other ones (green meters) belong to Thousand Trails!! A most unusual set up - and the place was full. (It is also a Leisure Time for those of you receiving this who are in to the Thousand Trails system.) This ranger told us that it fills up early in the week and apparently is difficult to get a site. She also told us she would be spending the winter in Lake Whitney Thousand Trails, Texas, and we told her we expected to see her there!

Unfortunately, we didn't have time to go on up to the wonderful little Dutch town of Linden - in and of itself worth the trip for its delicious food stuffs and the 100% Dutch style buildings - but from there one gets the most perfect view of Mt. Baker!! Speaking of Mt. Baker, I got my "fix" of gazing at its majesty from Port Townsend over to and through the Skagit Valley's lush farmlands. Can I mention again that out of the seven trips we've made up here, I have never seen Mt. Baker so totally topped with white snowy glaciers? Apparently global warming hasn't affected Mt. Baker yet.

Back to the ferry and Port Townsend - the sight of the clock tower and the magnificent court house buildings high up on the cliffs as one approaches land is always exciting. Driving off on to the dock, my mind was swept away with the picture of our first time coming in at this dock. Ruth and Tommy were waiting to meet us - and as we drove off the ferry they were both running after us trying to "hop in" the motor home! So many precious memories in this place!

NOW for the romantic part: We stopped by Safeway's deli and bought our dinner to take back with us to the condo. Settled in and watched "America's Got Talent" to end a really wonderful day.

MORE DR. APPOINTMENTS
Dr. Hancock looked at the CA125 results and asked Lou to come in August 20. He is considering oral chemo so that she won't have to drive to FW so often. Thank all of you for your comments and prayers.

I published a letter to the editor in the United Methodist Reporter today at http://www.umportal.org/. I wanted to respond to a written article in the last Reporter and they published it on the web site instead of in the paper. It has a link to the article in question. I doubt that anyone will see it.

GOOD AND NOT SO GOOD NEWS
The good news is that we got 0.9" of rain that all soaked in. A slow steady rain for several hours this afternoon with no runoff. The cottonwood trees loved it and may put some leaves back on.

The not so good news was the CA125 count. It has increased to 114. Dr. Hancock will look at it tomorrow and decide if he wants to see Lou before her scheduled visit in September. You might want to put her back on your prayer list. She has been feeling better the last couple of days. She is working on writing her memoir and I helped her set up the manuscript on her computer and backed up the files. She is working on the 1980s chapter.

IT AIN'T GOING TO RAIN NO MO
How in the heck can I wash my neck if it ain't gonna rain no mo? We did get about .1 to.2" two days ago and were hoping for rain today. The Hughes Net technician came from Keller and said it rained all night there. Reports of storms causing damage in FW came across the radio. This afternoon clouds formed and rained all around us. Abilene got floods and a two story apartment building that was framed with the roof on collapsed as the wind picked up the roof like an airplane wing. It sprinkled here and built up our hopes but didn't happen.

I am learning how to put eyedrops in my cataract surgery eye four time a day. What is aggravating is having to wear an aluminum eyepatch at night because I have to sleep on my right side. I am seeing better out of the eye and colors are brighter.

Lou was doing better every day this week until last night and today. She didn't sleep well and hurt today to the extent that she took a prescription pain pill for the first time in weeks.

HughesNet adjusted the satellite and said it was getting a much better signal and should solve our problems. We will see. I am still considering WildBlue.