THE FLAME IS FINISHED BUT THE LAWN STILL NEEDS MOWING

I had a problem with priorities today. It is supposed to have a chance for rain tomorrow and I wanted to mow but I was also determined to finish the September FLAME in September. I would like to email it tonight but don't have all my approvals. Tomorrow is October!

Tuesday was an interesting day. I spent the morning at the Big Country Library System meeting as an alternate to see what goes on. Margaret Waring from Comanche was there. She is a long time veteran and knows all the librarians. She insisted I go to lunch at Cypress Street Station with Louise Ledoux, librarian at Ozona and her lay representative, Charlotte who has a ranch there as does Louise. So I engaged them in small talk about the Livestock Weekly. Another librarian was Linda from Big Lake, all towns three times as large as Cross Plains. Margaret also had Donna Chapman, her rep from Comanche to complete the table. I did learn the name of Monte Noelke's "pal" who is another rancher.

Today I got an email that another long time friend has died. Dawn Cox was the widow of Sid Cox who was the Folklore prof at A&M who hired Sylvia Grider. We started going to the Texas Folklore Society in the '60s and Sid and Dawn were always there. They had hippy kids who traveled in a van and sold South American clothes and trinkets from the van. After Sid died Dawn continued to operate their small ranch at Blanco where she will be buried next to Sid on Saturday. I plan to go right now.

My nature walk to the mailbox is seeing the fall flowers starting to bloom. Tall stem purple blossoms are coming out. I used to know the name but can't remember now. The mushrooms are drying up but maybe if we get some rain tomorrow afternoon they will stage a comeback. Kathy and Carol harvested a bunch of little peaches off of the tree but the animals are still getting some. I am expecting the finch to show up any day, but so far just the permanent Cardinals, tufted Titmouse, a couple of goldfinch and a few other birds around. I am taking down the hummingbird feeders to encourage them to go on south. Maybe the next cold front will help them decide.

TRAGEDY TRIBUTES AND GOSPEL SINGING

Thursday night when I left at 6 to go get Ike to go to the American Legion meeting a tragic accident occurred at the gate of the Spring Gap Ranch just a few yards west of my corner. A Cottonwood resident, Beth Bogue, living in the original Judge Robinson home was coming home from her job in Abilene when a teenager from Abilene going west at a high rate of speed hit her head on and killed her. He was flown to Hendrick and then to Lubbock, but if he lives will be charged with manslaughter. No word on whether drugs or alcohol were involved, but these wrecks shouldn't happen on FM 2228. That is my road. Now I am leery of every curve. Beth was related to Nancy Robinson Masters. I called Nancy to tell her. It wasn't in the newspaper until a story appeared in this morning's paper and her funeral was at 2.

I couldn't go to the funeral because Kathy, Mark, Kathy, along with two granddaughters, Ashley and Valerie and Lou's sister Sue with her daughter, Louann, were all going to the Books and Boots luncheon in Abilene where Lou and Elmer Kelton were remembered for their part in the West Texas Book Festival. We were joined at our table by Carol Thormer, Kathy Wilcox's friend and Margaret Waring the Comanche Librarian. Glenn Dromgoole did the remembrance and had our table stand for recognition. As usual we were entertained by the Hardin Simmons University cowboy band dressed in their chaps, hats and boots and really put on a show with some coming into the audience to serenade the ladies. They played tunes from the original 1923 band and they sounded very familiar. Featured authors, Nancy Masters told about writing books for children, Diane Gonzales Bertrand told about the problem of bilingual books when she was growing up and now she writes them. Gen. James Cross told about his life as Air Force One pilot for LBJ and run-ins with McNamara. Mike Renfro told about his book on Shiner Brewery that is celebrating its 100th anniversary. I helped celebrate by having a Shiner Bock with my Mexican food tonight. Then former Texan Bryan Burrough, now living in New Jersey, told about his book about the oil baron families of Texas. The luncheon concluded with the A. C. Greene award going to Kathi Appelt of College Station. I talked to her after and she knows Sylvia Grider. Didn't have time to make other connections.

We visited with other authors before and after the luncheon. My kids bought a lot of books. TTPress were featuring Lou's books. I made a round of the entire Hall of Authors and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of chocolates being passed out by the authors. I did go back and buy Bob Lapham's latest book. I enjoyed his first one about his career singing with Buddy Holly. His son who had a rock band in England is now mostly back in the US making a living as a graphics designer. Rock bands are a hard way to make a living. Lapham's book Ethan's Keys has a religious theme about men in powerful positions. A lot of books in the hall were religious as one would expect with all of the authors in McMurry, Hardin Simmons and Abilene Christian Universities. One author plied me with handouts to support his book the Christ will return in 2012 and it will be nothing like other authors have said. I haven't read all of it but we had an interesting exchange. He claimed he believed in God and Christ but was not religious. His wife had gone to the Church of Christ in Cross Plains as a girl.

NATURE REPORT When we get rain for three days as we did recently, immediately the whole place here produces mushrooms. Little bitty ones, larger and baseball size. Haven't seen the football size yet, but they may come yet. They are prolific everywhere you look. I read a few years ago that deer make up to 25% of their diet of mushrooms but I can't confirm that from my observations. They sure haven't any to pick from up until it rained.

Tomorrow I get my stitches out and my SS class learns how Pharoah's heart is as black as basalt. Despite plagues of blood, frogs, gnats, flies, fleas, hail and locusts. Things will change next week. Kathy says that she would like to stay here all week and I wish she could. Fall is nice weather out here on Halsell Hill. I have to get the mowers running this week.

WT BOOK FESTIVAL AUTHORS

Fall didn't come until 4:18 today, but the cold weather got here this morning. I got 0.20" of rain this morning. I drove to the Abilene Public Library to hear three great local authors tell about their books and I now have 3 books I haven't read. There was a good crowd but a lot of Abilineans are involved in the Festival. Lead off speaker was my friend from the Cross Plains FUMC who lives near Pioneer on a ranch. You can envision local characters in her book set in the mythical town of Brangus, TX. She took off on the UFO sightings around Stephenville for inspiration and the stories are have a lot of local characters.

The next two authors grew up a barbed wire apart on ranches at Clyde. Edward Murray, A&M '73, writes fascinating short stories and when he reads them they are like the actress reading LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE RED SHOES. He is a real performer and you feel like you are in the conversations.

The other speaker from Clyde, Bob Favor, has a bunch of stories that he didn't make up, although he may have embellished them since noone was there to contradict him. He was a Highway Patrolman who became a Texas Ranger where he went to the Mexico and Canada borders and even to Florida on assignments. His book is a bunch of his exploits, but he told the crowd about an incident that wasn't in the book when he offered to help the Brady Sheriff, who had no deputies. He drove during the gas rationing days in a gas guzzler car that broke down on him in Fort Hancock, got help getting to Las Cruses and picked up a LSD crazed prisoner. They would give him some kind of pills to calm him down and that got to be a problem when he was alone with him in Iraan. But he got back to Brady and reported "no problem".

Janis Trish, doing publicity for the Library took photos of me talking to the authors. I got the tape on my bandage on a little crooked this morning and it looks like it in the photos.

WEEKEND ROUNDUP

Yesterday I worked at the Library and one of the visitors was Evelyn Williams who teaches English at Tarrant County College. I asked her if she was familiar with LET'S HEAR IT. She said she was and had a student who wanted to do a paper on the author. I told her about Lou's files being archived at TWU and then had to explain it wasn't Texas Wesleyan but Texas Woman's University. She appreciated the info and I was glad to know that LHI was being used like it should be.

The Homecoming parade had the Homecoming King of Wallace Bennett and Queen Betty Browning both FUMC members. Homecoming devastated Sunday School and church. But it was better than one time when I was the only student at my class. I enjoyed eating at the potluck although I was chagrined because I forgot about it and didn't bring anything. They let me eat anyhow.

I told Dr. Amy Morris I liked her TV ad. She said it made her look 10# heavier and I disagreed. I asked if she had another dentist on the staff because she calls it Morris and Associates. She doesn't have another one. I asked what she was going to do when the baby comes and she has a friend who will cover for her for a week and she will have Thanksgiving off and back to work. I told her she had it planned well. Mark and I agreed on his removing my sutures on 9/27 when my daughter will be here to supervise. Because we have a table for 10 on Saturday for the Books and Boots luncheon that will have a tribute to Elmer Kelton and Lou. We will have Mark, his Kathy, Kathy and two granddaughters there. And other friends to fill the table.

Mark Morris told the Warlick's about being stationed on Cypress. They are leaving this week for 21 day trip to Ephesus, Cypress, and other Mediterranean cities. James Warlick said he wanted to visit the art museums in Spain and part of their trip will join an art group.

ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER DOCTOR

Today I finally met the doctor who accepted half of Dr. Estes patients when he retired. That was two years ago. We had good service from an excellent PA Sharon Palone(?). Dr. N. Keith Robinson had a citation on his wall related to Iraq. I asked him and he said he was from Iran, with a Jewish/German mother who was from Iran. Didn't find out about his dad. He checked me over and got all the medical history since the annual checkup by Sharon. He told me to quit aspirin for two weeks to help get my urinary tract back to normal since the scope damage. He also had an excellent nurse give me a flu shot. She said it would hurt. I told her that she didn't give me the shot because I felt nothing. She said that was the greatest compliment a nurse can have.

Yesterday morning started early with the Methodist Men and Mark Morris adjusted my loose bandage and told me he was an expert at removing sutures so I may let him. I posted all of my Blood Pressure readings for the last two months to take to doc today. After looking at the record he let me go back to Lotrel. In the afternoon I wrote the AC minutes and sent them for correction. Then Sue and Ike came by on their way back from Abilene doctors. We had a good visit. She planned to spend the weekend working on her back taxes but going to the Boots and Books Luncheon where there will be a tribute to Elmer Kelton and Lou messes up her schedule. She also has a problem with Sunday's schedule so may revise. Kathy, Val and Carol Thormer plan to come as well as Mark, Kathy and Ashley. I am ordering a table for 10 so we should take care of everyone.

Tomorrow is homecoming for Cross Plains and I volunteered to be at the Library for any visitors who haven't seen our new addition and great looking library for a town our size. I have been on the Library board through it all.

This afternoon I printed the photo of Mark and me at Kiwanis for the newspaper.

BUSY WEDNESDAY

This morning I went to town and got a new bandage at the Clinic. The nurse said it looked good and thought once a day would be good enough for changing. I then bought groceries and while I was putting them up, Dr. Len Ainsworth from Lubbock, who is a TT prof and a used book dealer came to look at our book collection. Several years ago when both Lou and I were feeling poorly and thinking about selling the house, I had asked him to look at buying our books. He wanted to see what we had so he took advantage of his wife visiting a friend in an Abilene nursing home to come by. He found a few books that he will send me a bid on. I also gave him a printout of the books we gave to TWU and he said he would appraise that for me.

Tonight I got to FUMC Administrative Council early. We had agreed to meet at 7 p.m., but the choir and other things ended up with us meeting at the usual time of 7:30. I took the minutes so I will have something to do tomorrow.

I got a note in the mail from Jody, Marsha Jacobson's daughter, reporting that Marsha died September 9. She didn't know that Lou died in April, so I will have to write her and ask for her email address so that we can communicate faster. Stan and Marsha were Jewish. We met them back around 1963 when Stan and I were both in a short course at MIT and Marsha took Lou under her wing and took her shopping at Filene's basement in Boston. We stayed in touch with them through their divorce and kept up with their family. They came to Kathy and Keith's wedding and we visited them in Los Angeles and later visited Marsha not too many years ago in Tucson. Jody became a pharmacist and I think her husband is an electrical engineer.

Today I called Ted Meiller. He and I formed Meiller Research company in College Station in 1964 to make and sell Torqheels that we had invented. He had a patent on a different design, I patented mine and we sold them all over the world but failed to market them well in the US. We sold most to a German company that sold them in Europe and South America. In the US we tried to sell them as a prescription item and that was a big mistake. Anyhow the company went bust but Ted kept making and selling Torqheels until last month, he said. He was a true inventor with several great inventions but we weren't able to market them. He had a dysfunctional family of boys who apparently had an alcoholic problem. His wife died a couple of years ago and I should have kept up with Ted better. He is planning a trip to Chicago to visit his 98 year old older brother.

GREAT KIWANIS TALK BY MARK

With a lot of cooperation from Rev. Harris Worcester Mark was able to use his laptop to give the Kiwanis a professional briefing on Lockheed as a company as well as the Fort Worth Division. Sue and Ike Neal and Wallace Bennett came. Wallace has always had an interest in aviation. His father left operating a filling station in Baird to go work at "the bomber plant" in Fort Worth during WWII. His brother Frenchy became a top pilot in the USAF and set a speed record in a Lockheed aircraft the SR-71 I think.

My 22 stitches look good. Kathy took the old bandage off and there was very little blood. She put a new one on and taught me how to use my washing machine. I got a nap and checked my outside rain gauge that agreed with my automatic. More than 3.5" for the week. Then today the sun came out.

TWENTY TWO STITCHES

When Dr. Maberry finished stitching up my head I asked how many stitches he had put in and joking said 22. He said that was correct 7 underneath and 15 on top. He didn't do any hair transplant. Just worked with the skin that he had and cut some out and pulled it all together. In two weeks he will take them out. Then they put a heavy bandage on, but said it shouldn't bleed as much as the first operation because it had some openings that are now closed.

It was misting when I went to the Library board meeting this morning and I ran the wipers all the way to Weatherford and then into FW to the doctor's office. But not much additional rain in my gauge for the last 24 hours, but I have had over 3 inches for this month. It all soaked in, no runoff at my house.

Mark is working on his presentation for Kiwanis in Cross Plains tomorrow at noon.

RAINY SUNDAY AND GENESIS

It has rained all day and soaked in. 3"so far according to my remote raingauge. I think it reads a little less but I haven't checked the glass gauge. No runoff to help the creek run. For literature you can't beat the stories in Genesis. We finished it in SS this morning. We got Jacob or Israel, they use both names interchangeably, into Egypt with a 70 family members who we will learn later will grow to scare the heck out of the Egyptians. What was interesting was how Joseph as prime minister ran Egypt during the famine years. The first year he took all of the money. The second year he took all of the livestock and the third year he took all of the land for the Pharaoh. The next year he gave them grain to plant and even though they were still in the drought, he imposed a 20% income tax. The only land he couldn't confiscate was the priests land. They had special status in Egypt. So he made the entire country slaves to the Pharaoh. The class was concerned that Joseph died before his older brothers. My answer is that he hadn't eaten the multi grain diet of his brothers but had been living on the rich diet of the Egyptians for too many years and his cholesterol got him. But the Bible doesn't give that explanation.

Today I got to SS class and realized that I had forgotten to put my hearing aids in. I really missed them although I could understand most everything. I got my bandage replaced by Susan Hunter with help from Jimmy Dale who came in at the right time. She put the bandage on and Jimmy taped it down. Should last until I get back to Dr. Maberry's knife and skin graft. He said he was going to move some loose skin with hair in it to the hole in my head. So after the Library board meeting in the morning I will drive to FW, spend the night and Mark and Kathy will both come with me back to CP so that he can give the Kiwanis program Tuesday noon.

LORD'S BLESSING OF RAIN AND A NEW BLOG

It has been raining all day as a light rain but appreciated and I looked at the radar and there is more showers on the way. Leighton Railsbak, a former Levelland student of Lou when she first started teaching called me and said he now has stage 3 cancer and wanted to document his journey through the treatment. I told him how to start a blog and he has: http://leightonsramblings.blogspot.com/

WAFFLE JUSTIN BOOTS AND AUSTRALIAN RANCHING

This morning for breakfast at LaQuinta I made myself a Texas shaped waffle, with a cold boiled egg and apple for dessert. I then checked my email and went to the National Cowboy Symposium and attended a couple of the paper sessions. That is where Phyllis Bridges gave a paper on Enid Justin the woman who ran Justin and then Nocona Boots when her brothers moved the Justin Boots to Fort Worth. Phyllis being the penultimate prof handed out a sheet of photographs of Enid and some of her boot designs. Her father was the inventor of the cowboy boot. Before him the cowboys wore moccasins, brogans or military boots, none that were good in stirrups. Another paper was on the Warner Ranch in California that had a hot spring spa on it. It was the result of a Spanish land grant and had an interesting history. In the afternoon Jim Hoy who teaches and ranches at Emporia, KS told about his trip to a 1.9 million acre ranch in Australia where they herd the cattle with helicopters for branding and ear tags with RFID chips in them. Otherwise they don't doctor or mess with the cattle they run on huge ranges, one cow to 125 acres. They are rounded up and sold but have no vet bills. If they die they believe in the survival of the fittest. Braham cattle. The program ended with a musical presentation of the history of Doones Crossing on the Red River by a couple who take the parts of the man and his wife and they include songs. Interesting session.

I had a problem with the bandage that I had the urologist's nurse put on. It kept coming loose and hanging down. Phyllis Bridges gave me a luncheon ticket and after I stopped by the car, picked up some tape and got a nice young lady working for the Southwest Collection table to add tape and it is still sticking. Tonight I will wash my hair and attempt to put a clean bandage on by myself.

The lunch is a BBQ sandwich and beans out in the area where all of the chuck wagons are competing. Wandering around I ran into one from Muskogee, OK and sure enough they lived near the Muskogee Rodenbergers. We had a good chat. There was too much to see, but I decided to come on home and try to catch up here. I drove through several rain showers and then the road would be dry for a ways. As I came into Abilene I ran into light rain all the way home and even had to use an umbrella to unload the car. I rarely have that happen. Val called from SA to wish me happy birthday and said they got 2.5" yesterday and 1.5 today. I would love to get 4" in two days here. It would start my creek flowing. I had a total of 1.5" since I have been gone. .48" today.

The weather came on. The Rangers game was rained out as were some local foorball games. Tomorrow I am going to get that haircut Kathy R said I am overdue on. The melanoma doctor called this afternoon saying that the pathologist said the surgery was successful so I will get the final cosmetic surgery Monday at 2:30 to finish that episode in my life.

ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER DOCTOR AND BD PARTY

This morning Kathy Rodenberger had to clean the blood out of my hair and put a new dressing on it. I ruined a pillowcase, but she had anticipated it and put an old one on the pillow. But she did a good job and it is getting better. I drove by the house to pick up the mail and run a fast check of my email and then headed for Lubbock. I stopped at Sonic in Clyde and as I was leaving I looked at the car next to me and it looked a lot like Carol Walt with a lot of hanging clothes in the car and I wondered if she was headed for the Cowboy Symposium to sell her books there.

I got to Lubbock in time for my appointment. I drove thru a heavy rainstorm on the south side of Post. It wasn't raining on the north side. Then I ran thru a shower in Lubbock, but the sun was shining at the doctor's office. Dr. Reynolds did a scope check and said except for a little scar tissue I was clear in my prostate and bladder but he wanted to make sure there was nothing in the kidneys so he had me go for sonigrams of them. Got that done right at 5 p.m. so I got to play in the TT traffic to get to the hotel at the Civic Center.

Richard and Mary Ann Chaffin, former CP Pastor now living in Lubbock, picked me up at the hotel and drove me all the way across town to a seafood restaurant to celebrate my birthday again. We had a great time reminising and when I told them I had filled out the eHarmony form, Mary Ann said she knew someone who had tried it but gave up. We went back to the hotel room and Richard added some tape to the bandage that I had had Dr. Reynolds nurse put on the back of my head. It is a terrible place to make tape stick because it is in the hair. Mary Ann suggested running the tape up to my bald spot but Richard rejected the idea. I called Sue to tell her about the Dr's appointment and when she asked if my head hurt and I told her no, she was disappointed that it wasn't hurting after that much surgery. I just hope I can sleep better. I don't think it will bleed too much tonight. And I need the sleep because I haven't had my afternoon naps for two days.

DEER FED, GRASS MOWED AND MELANOMA REMOVED

This was a full day. I filled the deer feeders and put a newly charged battery in the automatic feeder and mowed the lawn around the house. I drove to Mark and Kathy's house. Kathy loaded the car with food and Dotty and we were stopped by a bad wreck on I-30 but got to her mother's apartment, the food unloaded and met Mark and still got to the doctor's office by 3:30. Got in at 4:30 and by 6 he had taken a quarter sized plug both in diameter and thickness off of the back of my head, cauterized it and pulled it back together with some skin but will need to pull a little more loose skin over it if the biopsy indicates that he got all of the melanoma cells. He took off 1/2 centimeter outside of the main location to insure that he got it all. I am glad he didn't go 1/2 cm deep. But I want all of it gone. He sends the whole thing off for biopsy and will know Friday or Monday what needs to be done next. Kathy took photos but you don't want to see them. Hopefully one more trip to complete the skin grafting. So far there has been no pain until the lidocaine wears off.

We then went back to Mommy Carleton's apartment to be joined by Ashley and Ross and I was treated to a birthday party with spaghetti, salad and my favorite chocolate cake with eight and three candles to blow out. Ashley and Ross thought I needed to keep my brain working so they gave me two crossword books. Kathy and Mark gave me chocolate from Europe (Swiss chocolate purchased in France) plus two short sleeve shirts, one in chocolate color. So it was a perfect day.

MEMORABLE MEMORIAL WEEKEND

I returned home from a great weekend with my daughter and her offspring. We started in San Antonio where I got to see for the first time Kathy and Keith's home. We then journeyed to Bryan/College Station first to leave a coffee table with Vanessa who was hosting Jon-Marc who later went to the first Aggie game with Keith. Vanessa acted as their taxi to take them early to watch the Corps march in before the game and picked them up so that they got back earlier than I expected after the game. We were hosted by long time friend and Lou's co-author Sylvia Grider who generously let us sleep all over the house. I got the fold out sofa bed. Kathy and Keith slept on a air mattress.

A big event was the visit Kathy set up to look at the home we lived in for 21 years and the kids grew up in. We sold it to Dr. Ralph Young who grew up around the block and wanted to live in the area when he returned to practice Urology. He was concerned about our approval of his modifications to the house, but we were delighted with the full front porch on the front and the extra rooms added to the back as well as the three car garage on the back of the lot. We spent a couple of hours discussing all of our mutual friends. He recently had breakfast with Ted Meiller and reported he is doing well although his wife and three of his sons are deceased. I need to call Ted. Ralph was 10 years older than Kathy and got out the old high school year books and Kathy recalled a lot of friends. Ralph even gave me advice on my prostate for free.

We had eaten lunch with Sylvia at a BBQ place and that night Kathy had brought a lot of special treats of nuts, fruit, and muffins she made.

Sunday morning we left early and got to the Cowboy Church in Devine just before the service started and enjoyed singing the well known and a new hymn before my grandson, Jim Wilcox, gave a sermon based on Ephesians. He did a great job and Kathy is going to send all of us copies of the sermon. Although the church had food after church we opted to eat at the steak house in Devine. Greatgrandson Brent and I had steaks while the others browsed the buffet and Kathy ate salad. We then visited Jim and Mandi's new house which is her parents old house that they are fixing up. I fussed at Mandi about her having Jim and Christopher haul off all of the potential beautiful rocks collected for years by her grandmother. A lot of petrified wood, large crystalline rocks, white lava like rocks that look like animal skulls as well as others. I told her that a lot of them can be polished into jewelry and other uses.

Sunday afternoon after our naps, Kathy took me to Valerie's new house that I hadn't seen. It was a home that Keith had remodeled and that was how she found out about it. The remodeled cabinets were impressive but what was really interesting was a large cabinet in the dining room that Val could turn the lights inside on by running her hand over the hinge. The people let her buy it along with the living room furniture when they sold it to her. What really impressed me was the wall decorations. She was putting together a shadow box of a poem that Lou wrote with some other memorabilia. I hadn't seen the poem. Kathy had found it on her desk in her things. Another special frame held photos of Val as a baby and growing up that had been put together by Vanessa.

Coming home today, I got to Santa Anna at noon at at at Double H family restaurant that I almost missed because it is back behind some storage buildings. And tomorrow back to trips to the doctor office starting with hearing aid doc then Wednesday to talk to the melanoma surgeon. Don't know if he will remove it that day or schedule it. I may try to make an appointment with my urologist in Lubbock and attend the National Cowboy Symposium Friday and Saturday. Should be an interesting week. I got my laundry done by coming back early today.

TRIP TO SAN ANTONIO BY FREDRICKSBURG

I called ahead to see if Kathy Shearer would have lunch with me a little late. She was available and we ate at Hondos. As in Hondo Crouch. It was good food, but the conversation was better. We caught up on all of our kids and grandkids, her book retail business and her book publishing business that is now concentrating on cookbooks. She has a new business model. Chefs and restaurants that want to publicize their food come to her because of the great books she has published and in place of using royalties she has them put up the cost of publication plus a percentage for her work and then they get all the profits from the book and she isn't out any up front money. I told her she was the smartest business woman I know.

I fussed at her because her book distributing business doesn't have any Quotable Texas Women and she said that they drop titles that don't sell a minimum quantity at inventory time at the end of the year and I guess it didn't make the cut last year. That is the book business. She distributes books for small publishers that only publish only two or three titles a year.

I was interested in her son Travis who works for KBG and lives in Dhrain? and covers all of the Middle East countries for the company. He started out in Iraq and now has projects all over.
We discussed the economy and she is worried about small business in the current environment as I am.

I got to SA and Kathy and Keith have a nice home and we enjoyed eating with Bob and Carol Thormer at an Italian cafeteria and I am full. Tomorrow we go to Bryan and the Aggie game with two going to the game and the rest of us watching on HDTV. Keith being an old Aggie has to go early enough to see the march in. The Corps is holding its own in Aggieland.

GOOD AND BAD NEWS AND BOOK REVIEW

The good news is that Mark said it was raining at his house, and the weatherman says rain is moving our way tonight. The bad news is that the biopsy was positive for melanoma on the back of my head. It is a shallow one and I have contacted a surgeon in FW to operated so that I can have Kathy Rodenberger take care of me. She is a great nurse according to her mother who has had several operations recently. I am waiting for the biopsy results to be read by Dr. Maberry to schedule the surgery.

I finally tonight finished a great novel HEART OF STONES by Lanna Richards. For some reason I had never thought of Irishmen owning plantations in Mississippi. I always thought of English or Scotch owning ranches and plantations. This novel is about an Irish family who fled Ireland due to the potato famine and operating a cotton plantation. And I never thought of Mississippi having drought problems but thinking about the last few years of drought in the South, that is reasonable. Tension exists all the way through the book and you keep expecting the worse. I won't spill the beans but it was a satisfying read about a complex family and their relationships on the plantation, the social part of a small town and university scenes. Lanna is like Preston Lewis, the book publisher went out of business after publishing her first novel so she is looking for another publisher to reprint and look at other manuscripts she has. I suggested she republish it with a different name like Grace because the main character is named Grace and it should sell in Christian bookstores for the faith seen in the story. She lives in Plano and we met at Macaroni Grill in FW for lunch that I mentioned earlier.

MORE RECOGNITION OF LOU

Today I made a fast trip to Abilene to UPS my deerfeeder I am returning. I ate at Chinese Kitchen because they were back from vacation. My audiologist was eating there as was Glenn Dromgoole. Glenn left then came back in to tell me that they are having a special recognition of Lou and Elmer Kelton at the West Texas Book and Music Festival luncheon on Saturday September 26.

And Margaret Waring has been bugging me about when they are going to formally dedicate the Women's Collection in Lou's name. Today we got official notice from Ann Stuart, TWU Chancellor that there will not be a formal service for that but that they will make the announcement at the Joyce Thompson lecture on November 4 because Lou was a long-time supporter of that lecture series and would be an appropriate place to make the announcement. She also sent an email to all of the faculty and staff telling them about the name change and inviting them to view the display of Lou. The Board of Regents visited the display last week when they met.

GREAT LIBRARY CELEBRATION

I have never seen more creativity than that of the CP Library board. Mostly the women. They had the Library decorated perfectly. One wall was painted a beautiful blue (after some disagreement among them). I spent almost an hour looking at a quilt that had been auctioned off a few years ago and donated to the Library. It had squares that had been painted, appliqued, needle-pointed, and included a lot of families. One square was particularly poignant. It was a clock face pointing at nine saying a stitch in time saves nine and was signed by Helen Walker who was buried last Saturday. The John Adams family had their family tree as did many others including the Bonner/McWilliams family. Judge Rolan Jones had a square showing CP in relation to all of the old forts in the area. A wall display plus two photo albums had the names and photos of veterans.

The food, paid for by Texas Heritage Bank, was great. The little wieners were cooked in grape jelly. The stuffed mushrooms were my favorite but there were dips and chips, nuts, punch and to add lagniappe, a chocolate fountain. But the special was the 30th anniversary cake with the top layer an open book with the two pages reading the history of the Library with the final line saying "to be continued". That was a great finale. We were busy from 3 to 7 with a lot of visitors. Margaret Waring came from Comanche, the director of the Big Country Library System came from Abilene, plus a lot of others, including Ike and Sue Neal.

I took the REH columns for the month of September to the Review office. Vanda came to take photos at the Library opening. I went in to help at 10 this morning and had time to visit with Carl Edington who told about his aunt who was a cousin of Lyndon Johnson having Lyndon spend the night with them occasionally. He wasn't a fan of Lyndon, but tolerated him. Also at the Library I met Ginny Hoskins sister-in-law from Kansas near Emporia. When I asked her if she knew Don Coldsmith she said she took a creative writing course from him. She said Eddie Coldsmith would know her father who was in Don's SS class at the Methodist church. When I got home I called Eddie and we talked for 30 minutes about Don and how he spent his last few weeks. They came to WWA in OK City for two days, but Kathy and I missed them. We both ate breakfast at the hotel and still missed them. They went home and in a couple of weeks, he had a pacemaker battery replacement that didn't heal well. Later he had a stroke and didn't last long after that. She is in good shape and is planning to substitute teach and offered to beat me in a foot race. Sounds like she could do it easily.

I am looking forward to the weekend in San Antonio to see Kathy and Val's homes, then to Bryan for Aggie football Saturday and Sunday to hear my grandson, Jim, give the sermon at his church plus a Monday off back in SA.