BEAUTIFUL BOOKFEST IN AUSTIN

The weather is perfect for this year's Texas Book Festival. I didn't see Laura Bush, but Kinky Friedman walked by me when I was eating standing by the fence near the food tents. He had his cigar and people were stopping him to shake his hand. He acknowledged me as he walked by. Last night I met a eHarmony match, Joan Knox, who had commented on this blog asking if I was for real. She drove me to the Domain area next to the hotel here on Mopac that is a new high dollar addition to Austin with Nieman-Marcus a street that looked like Saks Fifth Ave in NYC with high dollar high fashion in the windows. We found a restaurant new to both of us. McCormick and Schmicks Seafood. We asked our waiter and there are 103 of them with another in Austin and a new one coming to Dallas. The food and wine were great and moderately priced to be in such a high dollar location. We skipped Joe Dimaggio's Italian restaurant but it sounded good. I ate too much. Although the salmon stir fry was very good I should not have added the brownie with ice cream and cup of coffee. However with a couple of Tums I slept well and even woke up later than I planned.

I got to the Festival a little after 9 and went to work in the Texas Folklore Society booth with Lucy West and Meredith Abarca who sold the first couple of memberships to Latinos. They were very persuasive. Meredith is going to Tibet on a tour and they spotted two women walking by one wearing a Tibetan jacket that she had bought on a tour and told them all about. Another woman was wearing a specially carved stone in her necklace and they identified it a Tibetan. I was amazed.

I helped sell a few memberships and thought we did well during the day. I got to walk the tents and coming in got to talk to Judith Keeling at TTPress who said she was preparing a grant request to fund the Lou Rodenberger Literary Prize and was hopeful. I told her I was surprised with the lack of support after all of the distribution of notices of the prize. The Roundup had a back cover full page notice, but maybe friends will think about it during the season of giving. I got to visit with Judy Alter, who was signing her cookbook and wearing a chef's cap. Got to see L. D. Clark who always has his own table to sell his books. He even has a children's book out now. Bob Flynn walked by. He had a special book on a booth for a San Antonio press. Got to visit with Rue Judd who moved Bright Star Press from Albany to Houston. I told her I didn't appreciate Albany beating Cross Plains last night 53-0. Her husband explained to me that Albany trains their sixth graders to run the same plays as the varsity and brings them up through the ranks. That reminds me that the son of our preacher was injured in the junior varsity game Thursday night in CP that broke his knee cap and a leg bone. He will be in a cast for several weeks and miss his deer hunt. This being the start of the deer season.

I also visited with UNT and SMU press. I asked Mary Lynn Dixon with A&M Press to order 10 copies of LET'S HEAR IT. They will bring them tomorrow. The poor new representative had no idea about the book and I had to explain it to her. I still think it is the best short story book available. Carolyn Osborn came by to tell me that she will have her first novel out for the Festival next year. Later her husband Joe came by to visit. He has been retired for two years now. They are supporters of the Festival financially. This year they are supporting Sarah Bird.

I guess my Aggie son-in-law is happy. Haven't heard from him but they had tickets to the Aggie game and the Aggies won again in two weeks. Tech won a game and I am now watching two of my alumni teams battling in Stillwater. I remember sneaking into OAMC games when I was a youngster in Stillwater and now that they are funded by T. Boone Pickens they have a pretty good team. But Texas is whipping up on them to start.

I am going to get a good night's sleep work until noon tomorrow and head back home. Monday I will go to Abilene to hear Sherry McLeroy review her new book at the Abilene Public Library.

RAIN AND TURKEYS

I have been told that I haven't posted lately and they are wondering what is going on. Routine stuff. Charge Conference for the church Tuesday night after Kiwanis at noon. Wednesday I took a prescription request to my doctor's office and made a big recyle trip to get rid of 20 years of Architectural Digest and Reader's Digests that were stored in the garage store room that we cleaned out last Saturday. I took the opportunity to pick up some OTC drugs I can't get in CP. I also ate a China Garden. There was a large table of oriental older women visiting with the owner. When I asked she said it was a Japanese church group. I then found out that everyone in the restaurant that I had assumed were Chinese were all Okinawan Japanese. The women were all military wives brought to the US. One cook is from Taiwan but is also Japanese. The food was good. I love water chesnuts and got a lot of them. Lunch was $4.55 with tea for $0.80. Includes an egg roll.

This morning I looked out to see a flock of turkeys going through the yard. I love to see them because I have been seeing grasshoppers and turkeys wipe them out. A spike buck was eating in the front and took a rest for a while this afternoon. On my wildlife camera I saw a large horned buck eating at night, but don't see him during the day. Does come around night and day.

Tomorrow I am going to Austin to work at the Texas Folklore Society booth at the Texas Book Festival. I was afraid it was going to be wet, but the Austin forecast calls for dry and warming Saturday and Sunday for the Festival. I will be back Sunday afternoon.

WEEKEND WOOD WORK

The boys love to ride on the tractor.

Christopher moved all the wood from the wood pile to the front porch preparing for the winter weather load by load except for the last load.

Keith helped with the last load by putting it on the mower and letting Christopher and Brent ride while Christopher changed gears and used the steering wheel and then he helped unload and stack the last load.

GREAT GRANDKID HELP

As the weather cools it is time to bring firewood to the house. Today my greatgrandson, Christopher, with at little help from his brother Brent moved my firewood to the porch. Chris did most of it by himself but the last load was moved by his grandfather on the Ford tractor. Here is a video of them driving off.

COLD TONIGHT

Because I don't have anyone to warm my bed tonight and the weatherman says it will be 8 to 10 degrees above freezing I am tempted to heat a brick in the oven, wrap it in a newspaper and put it at the foot of the bed under the covers. That was what I did back in Oklahoma during the winter. We heated the brick on the wood stove for each of us boys and we had our beds warm to help sleep. Some people use hot water bottles and I remember that, but mostly we used hot bricks.

I got an inch of rain in my glass gauges but my automatic gauge read 0.78 in large numbers. I need to see if I can change the calibration on that device. My wildlife camera sees only deer. Last night one raccoon showed but I guess they are all feeding on the heavy acorn crop.

WALKING, WALKING

I thought that I was in good shape but found that not only do I need to work on my upper body strength but my legs need a little work. I walked with Arlene at the Cross Plains Cancer Fundraiser. I felt good walking and completed 3 1/2 miles but when I got home my legs started hurting from my ankles down. My right leg was hurting as I drove in the road. When I got ready for bed both legs were in pain. I took a Tylenol thinking that would help. I couldn't sleep so I took a large aspirin. Still couldn't sleep. Arlene had mentioned that she used Theragesic before walking so I put it on and it completely removed the pain and let me sleep. But I decided that I needed to beef up my walking. This morning I went back to my old habit of walking two miles every morning. I felt better after and the weather is great with the usual strong wind gusts that are always present in West Texas.

I took wildlife photos but had nothing but deer. No raccoons, hogs or anything else. A new buck showed up this afternoon with his first set of horns. He could see me in the house preparing the bed for night and was very cautious. Didn't stay around. The does have been coming up to the front porch to eat the last few days. I haven't seen them eating on the crepe myrtle, but the flowers are all gone. The finch haven't shown up yet but I expect them any time.

SUNDAY IN MUNDAY

Today I taught Sunday School and we discussed the first presentation of the Ten Commandments. They weren't chiseled in stone, but given to Moses and Aaron directly. I had forgotten that story so it is good to be working all the way through the Bible. Today the church has a problem believing that part about keeping the Sabbath because God created the universe in 6 days and rested on the seventh. We just can't believe that happened, but I am at the point that I can't prove He didn't do that and I accept it.

I skipped church to drive to Munday to meet a beautiful slender recently widowed lady. We had to ask where a restaurant was after driving the main street and not finding one. Given the road to Goree we found a DQ and ate at Mati's. We got there about 1 and they closed at 1:30. Like all west Texas restaurants the menu was half Mexican and half American. I asked the waitress and she liked the chicken quesadilla so I had that and the lady had grilled chicken salad. Both were good. She lives on Lake Kemp and her kids and grandkids like to come fish with her. They all live within an hour's drive so we decided we didn't have a lot in common other than we are both lonely after long marriages.

CROSS PLAINS CANCER WALK

It was a beautiful day for the cancer walk in Cross Plains. My first time to participate even though Lou's name has been on their list for years. I had funded Arlene Stephenson to walk five miles remembering Lou. When I saw her walking by herself I had to walk with her. I got in three and a half miles. I missed two laps with her. Her husband Tom walked one mile. The event starts with a march from the Dairy Queen to the high school. The remaining events occur on the football field where they walk around the race track. Booths to sell all kinds of food, bingo, silent and vocal auctions, oportunities to buy balloons with lights in them to release at the end when the lights are turned off plus other opportunities to give to the fund exist. I helped with the Library table that offered coffee or hot chocolate. We were next to the Masons selling hotdogs. At the end they gave them away. I ruined my diet by eating a Frito pie after walking the first two miles. It was pure grease. I ended up eating two hotdogs, drank a Dr. Pepper and a hot chocholate and ate cookies offered by friends. It helped a little to walk a lot. I decided that I fit right in as a cancer survivor after having the melanoma cut off of my head. The report was that this year's crowd was less than last year, but the weather couldn't have been any better.

GEESE AND TURKEY

This morning about 11 I heard geese honking. Finally saw the flock circling and waiting for two stragglers that were trying to catch up. One was really honking and when he got there I thought he would take the lead position. They waited for the last one, formed their V and took off to the south. Turkey was on the menu at the Cottonwood musical fund raiser tonight.

I mowed yesterday with the Ford tractor and when I got back I checked to see how much diesel was left and the plastic tubing was pulled loose from the top. Not leaving well enough alone I pulled the bottom off and had a stream of fuel squirting out. Tried unsuccessfully to push the tubing back on, finally put my thumb over the hole. I looked down and there was a little stick on the ground that just plugged the hole. This morning I called the tractor parts company. Not in stock so they ordered it. I told them not to FEDEX it and they will get it and mail it. When I don't know.

So today I mowed with the Deere to finish up at the Halsell House. Yesterday mowing outside I saw fire ant mounds so today I carried Over n' Out and treated fire ants while mowing. Sprinkled it all over the yard around the Air Conditioner at both houses. Treated one mound on the road coming back up to the house. For exercise I carried the portable air tank up to the compressor in the garage. Carried 65 pounds of air back to the tractor shed to air up a tire on the trailer that was collapsing.

Mark called tonight. He and Kathy found a good location and got to watch his first Pakistan F-16 production aircraft take off for a test flight that it exceeded the planned test. He could call the flight engineers to find out when it would go. While they were waiting they saw 8 F-16s for the Air National Guard at Carswell take off in several different formations. It is always fun to park at the end of the runway and watch aircraft. When Mark was about 6 we would do that in San Diego when I worked out there.

Tonight Cross Plains beat Miles there by one point. Cisco held on to their leadership position by defeating Clyde who beat them last year to ruin a perfect record.

Kathy Wilcox is in Tomball on a trip with two SA friends to show them the Quilt show in Houston. They did that this afternoon and she catching up with her Tomball friends.

I got an anonymous posting to this blog from a Joan Knox. I looked and there are 108 listed with a bunch in Texas but I don't know her. So maybe she will read this and contact me again.

BIG DAY

It was a big day for Mark, me and Kathy. Today Mark hosted the roll-out of the first new Pakistani F-16 model at Lockheed. He had the Pakistani Air Marshall, a four star general, a two-star USAF general, lots of colonels, Kay Granger, other Texas state congressmen and local dignitaries. He had moved into the hotel, picked them up from DFW Sunday. Then he and Kathy took the Pakistanis shopping in Fort Worth Monday, Mark with the men and Kathy with their wives. Monday night they had a formal dinner with them. Then today was the big roll-out and luncheon. Mark was given a pen and either a watch or clock, I am not sure and heart-felt thanks from the Pakistanis for his part in the production effort. TV cameras took video of the Air Marshall in the cockpit and Mark said it was broadcast on Pakistani TV right then. The Marshall called his wife in Pakistan and asked her if she had seen him on TV. This afternoon he returned them to DFW for their return flight, so it was a big day for him.

Kathy Wilcox's big day was going to see her future granddaughter in a sonogram picture with Mandi. It definately is a girl but she was turned so that they couldn't see the face. To me that is already too much to know but when the baby turns they are going to look at it again. Seems like intrusion of personal space to me, but what do I know.

For me I got to meet all three of the foriegn exchange students at Kiwanis and also got inducted as President-elect for the club. I was afraid I was going to jump to Pres but Bob Pipes said that his wife, Patsy, has elected to have her chemos in Abilene. The other option was to move to Houston to have them at M. D. Anderson. The Abilene oncologists trained at M. D. Anderson so she has made a good decision. After Kiwanis I went by the Library and Tom Rone and Tom Stephenson had already set up all the chairs for the Meet the Author program. The author, Al Pickett, who does an hour long radio sports show at 5 every afternoon, did his show by phone from the Library and gave us a lot of exposure. His program was on the Big 12 talking to the Lubbock sports director about all the great games that will be played this coming weekend after recapping the games played last Saturday. This weekend is a make or break game for most of the Big 12. Texas and OU lead the pack but A&M has to take on K State, Baylor has a critical game, etc. He reviewed his books about Texas sports and told some great stories. He was an excellent speaker and we had a good turnout for the event. Although it rained all day in Fort Worth on Mark's event, the sun actually came out for a brief showing here in Cross Plains.

NATURE AND LITERATURE

As I left this morning to go to the Library board meeting, I heard a squeal and a squirrel came running toward the liveoak with a fox right behind him. When the fox saw me he slowed and the squirrel kept chattering all the way up the tree. The board was busy getting ready to host the Meet the Author tomorrow with Al Pickett from Abilene doing his sports radio show by cell phone from the Cross Plains Library. They asked me if he is using a cell phone that works in CP. But we decided that we can back him up since we have a direct line to Abilene if necessary. We also have a fund raiser in November with a blind man who shows how modern technology lets blind men hunt deer. We have an amazing board who have great ideas on everything.

This morning started with a great email from Susan Hunter who has been with her daughter in Denton who was two weeks overdue, with the news that a 9# baby is here and everyone is now happy. I had her on my prayer list. Also Jimmy Dale Long who passed out when running his bath water and scalded his legs. He is doing better but will be in the hospital for a while. What was interesting was the rumor in SS class that he had been sent home because of the flu epidemic needing his room. I am always amazed how false rumors get started.

I finished a book that I was reviewing for the Library. It was ESCAPE FROM SADDAM by Lewis Alsamari who changed his name to Lewis when he escaped to England. It is a horrifying story about the brutality of Saddam who emulated Stalin in controlling the population by intimidation and brutality. The description of the prisons contrasts the situations in Islamic countries with the prison in England. The author spent a lot of time locked up. He went through all kinds of false passports both for his escape and to bring his family out of Iraq to England. You learn a lot about people smuggling. It makes you appreciate living in a free country.

I am enjoying the cold weather but sure miss having someone help me warm the bed. It is great to have my body back in normal situation with all the drugs cleaned out and having the ability to sleep all night and enjoy normality. I will admit that Saturday I watched the A&M OSU game being neutral because I have a degree from OSU and taught at A&M I broke my healthy eating routine, ate chips, dips, Shiner beer, popcorn and finished off the last of my Bluebell Rocky Road ice cream. My weight is down and I ought to stay on track with healthy foods.

NEW FRIENDS NEW EXPERIENCES

I had three new friends visit yesterday. My eHarmony match, Avis is a retired CFO from an radio station in Iowa, who now lives in Denton and she was accompanied by her friend Judith from Denton and her friend who she said was from Germany. I was looking forward to meeting a German citizen. Turns out he lives in Germany but was born in Plainview, went into the service and ended up stationed in Germany. His children grew up and continue to live in Europe. So he had a lot of stories of a career in the Field Artillery.

We did something I had never done. We ate dinner at Jean's Feed Barn in Cross Plains where I had learned that morning at Methodist Men's meeting that the room had western music every Thursday night. We enjoyed the food and the music. They were professional quality musicians who were enjoying themselves with traditional good ole western music. After I gave them a tour of our Library to brag about our success and show off the new addition.

Last night the rain finally came through. Had over 1.5" in the rain guages but my automatic radio controlled guage said 1.24" so I know that it reads low. The temperature dropped from the muggy 86 degree yesterday to 48 this morning. I made French toast using the French bread that Kathy had left. I completely forgot the blueberry coffee cake that Kathy had given me for this occasion. I found it in the fridge when I ate lunch. I didn't do a good job making the bacon crisp. They all drank coffee but I had my tea.

Avis and I walked in a still misty morning to get the mail. Then they decided to return to Denton. Avis was feeling under the weather. Hope it wasn't my cooking.

MEDICAL COMMENTARY

From my experience the past two weeks I am convinced that the major health problems are caused by too many prescription drugs, especially antibiotics. I resisted taking one prescribed for my urinary tract infection because I was convinced my immune system would take care of the problem as it had in the past, but I yielded to pressure from my medically oriented family members and started taking it. Immediately I felt some allergic reactions but because it is the time of the year I have allergies I ignored it. Well after taking two weeks of the stuff, Sunday when I drove back from San Antonio I felt welts and itches all over. Then when I went to bed after an hour I woke up with a swelling in the left side of my face. When I looked in the mirror the left side looked like a frog. I felt the swelling going to my tongue so I took two benadryls that I had for Mark and got a little sleep.

The next morning the swelling went down and I didn't take Kathy R's advice to go to the clinic in the morning. When I took my nap I felt my tongue beginning to swell and that worried me enough to go to the Cross Plains Clinic where Dr. Kincheloe decided I was allergic to the antibiotic, gave me a couple of steriod shots, a prescription for an antihistimine and Epipens in case I had swelling again in my throat. And he said to stop the antibiotic.

Since then I have felt a whole lot better. I had been eating Activia to try to keep my digestive system working against the antibiotic. I drank prune juice in place of my OJ yesterday morning and I am in a lot better shape today. I am finally back to normal eating and working. I walked twice to the mail box to mail letters and to get the mail and exercised with rock weights both times.

The mail brought copies of New Texas, the literary journal published by Laura Payne Butler at Sul Ross State University, that is dedicated to Lou and contains the poem by Susan Cummings Miller.

I also recieved this invitation from Ann Stuart, Chancellor of TWU:

Mark, Kathy, Sue and Ike, Kathy and Vanessa Wilcox will all be there and Kathy Wilcox has been asked to say a few words for the family. We will attend a luncheon and then listen to the Joyce Thompson lecture that Lou never missed.

I am looking forward to having company tomorrow when three new friends from Denton will visit for a couple of days. One is coming from Germany so it should be an interesting conversation.

BUSY WEEKEND

Friday I ate lunch at the Senior Citizens Center and talked computers to the elders at my table. One old timer said she was too old, another said she loved her computer and used it for her correspondence and banking. Fodder for my column in the Livestock Weekly.

Saturday morning I got up early because I needed to leave at 8:30. I wanted to print copies of the church newsletter for distribution Sunday so I turned on my computer and started printing while I ate breakfast. I was able the print 9 copies, 2 for me and 7 for the church and drop them off as I drove to Blanco for Dawn Cox's funeral. Drove thru a few rainshowers and got to Blanco on time. I ate at DQ and went to the Funeral home to visit with several other Texas Folklore members who knew Dawn. Her husband Sid Cox was an English prof and folklorist and we had known them and watched their kids grow up since the 1960s. The funeral service at the chapel had a folklore content with a guitarist leading the hymns from TFS meetings. Then the procession went way out in the country to the Cox ranch located on Cox road. Sid was buried on the ranch and Dawn was buried next to him. I have to apologize for leaving the graveside service early. We got there about 2:20 and my experience with graveside services is that they didn't last long. It began to rain and we all got under the tent. A number of family members and friends had comments. There were three guitarists, a woman neighbor who sang solos and other songs including a Beatle song "Let It Go". I needed to leave at 3 so another TFS member and I left because it looked like the folk celebration was not going to end soon.

I drove through rain showers, some heavy to Fair Oaks where I had an appointment with a new eHarmony match who agreed to meet me. It is amazing how many things we all have in common. Her name was Kathryn, like my mother, daughter and daughter-in-law, her husband was named Charles. She graduated from Alamo Heights and had an English degree from UT Austin. She has sons living in Fredricksburg and I asked her if she knew about Shearer books and she had been there with a friend who picked up book to sell. She also knew the owners of Clark Printing company. We had a good visit until her son picked her up for another family meeting.

I drove into San Antonio. Valerie meets with three girl friends every Saturday and she invited me to their party. I had to drive in the rain all the way across SA trying to read street signs to turn left and right. I got there but it wasn't easy. They fed me pizza, beer and brownies. I was amused. Val and a third grade teacher were both grading papers. The home belonged to a new Pediatrician who said her favorite thing to do was removing pus. Doctor humor.

Kathy and Keith had gone to a wedding of Mandi's brother where Brent was the ring bearer and did a good job. They came by after and Kathy drove me back to their house. Remind me not to eat pizza and beer for supper. Even after two Tums I had a hard time getting to sleep until I got up and took three more. Then I got a good night's sleep and even slept late.

This morning Jim, Mandi and their children came for one of Kathy's gourmet breakfasts. We got to visiting about the problems that the Cowboy Church was having. Then Kathy started planning a baby shower for Mandi. Mandi said she had filed a wish list with Walmart. I knew Dillard's etc. had that service so shouldn't have been surprised by Walmart.

I left at noon to drive home. I would have gotten there in four hours but I decided to take a side trip. I had seen the Cherry Mountain Loop road every time I drove from Mason to Fredricksburg so this time I decided to take the loop. It was an interesting drive, but if you plan to take it, always take it going south. I was going north and at the top of the mountain the road went straight and I missed a split. But it was interesting. I ended up on the road to Temple Gypsum plant. There were blasting signs in the fields and a huge processing plant. I finally figured out I was on the wrong road, came back to the split and followed the Cherry Mountain road. I passed the Cherry Mountain school that looked like it was straight out of the Waltons. I drove thru small rain showers and sunshine. Clouds thickened as I got closer to home. My rain guage said I had only gotten 0.14". But there are still clouds around and the weatherman has rain in the forecast for all week. Hope remains eternal.