A NORMAL DAY, JUNE 27TH

A NORMAL DAY, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27
     A normal day, wonderful! We have had way too much fun in June, most of it away from home. We unpacked yesterday and today is a just a plain old good day. Breakfast was a little late since we could sleep until we wanted to get up. As a special treat, we saw our resident baby deer waiting at the side of the woods. Soon, mama deer came out onto the back lawn and assessed the area. As we were sitting in front of the big window, we were as quiet as we could be. She nibbled and walked on. Baby, still with spots, slowly followed her and stopped to nibble on the same grass mom did. When she reached the woods on the other side, he ran like ahh a deer to catch up, and they both disappeared.

     Charles puts out bird feed every morning so we can watch the birds at breakfast. We have been gone so much they were scarce, but I am sure they will find their way back to breakfast every morning. We have two very fat squirrels who are regulars.  They are fat because they have first call on the birdseed.  The water level is low right now and the squirrels drink out of a hole in one of the trees that holds water.  It is a favorite spot for all the animals including two snakes several years ago.

     One of our peach trees died during the heat last year so we have no peaches.  However, our fig tree by the front door looks good.  Last year some critter beat us to the fruit.  Charles has lots of grapes at his in-law’s house.  I am a little lazy about spending a whole day making jam, but it would be good.  We stocked up on Sur-Jell just incase I have a spurt of ambition.

       Sue had fresh peaches one day last week.  We sat on the front porch and ate them.  So good and juicy.  Weatherford will have their peach festival in a couple of weeks.  Maybe I will have two onsets of ambition.

     Bobbe and Yvonne are back from their trip to South Dakota. Yvonne has a new camera that takes thousands of pictures on a disc.  I have lived next door to Mt Rushmore and never visited.  Maybe next year, this year has used us all up right now.  We had lunch together and caught up on our family news.  We love Chinese food, and Charles fasted yesterday so just another good thing.

     Bless you all.

GRANBURY WRITERS MEETING

Tonight we enjoyed meeting with the Granbury writers for presentation of papers and the critiques. Nancy read her blog that summarized our WWA trip. She then gave a presentation of the remarks she heard at the WWA about what publishers want from writers, especially how writers have the responsibility to market their book. We heard some good papers from all of those present. One young granddaughter, (I am guessing 12-14) has some good stories written in the voice of young women. The president, Robert, had an excellent story about his falling in love with his second wife. Others had segments from their novels that we enjoyed.
While in the meeting I got phone calls from Sue who said she was going home from Dallas where she got a good report from her doctor on her cancer being gone. She was going through Granbury and called. She really didn't have time to stop so being in the meeting kept her going home. My housekeeper called. She had called during the last meeting to say she might not clean house tomorrow but sometime this week.
We started the day in Weatherford for a doctor's visit by Nancy. I enjoyed visiting with a man who was on the Cutting Horse association board. I asked if he knew Helen Groves and he said he sold her her first 4 cutting horses and held classes to teach her and her friends how to work them. He was also a close friend of Barney Welch and told stories of their working with cutting horses. I failed to get his last name but he referred to himself as Lynn.
We got to see Clifferd, Nancy's grandson who had his car destroyed when a pickup truck crashed into him when he was stopped at an intersection. He is still sore but is recovering and having problems with the insurance companies involved with the driver that hit him in a "borrowed" pickup. He will go back to work tomorrow. The accident happened on the first day of a one week vacation that gave him time to recover.

WEEK ENDING JUNE 17TH

     This was an awesome week. Hundreds of authors, historians, publishers, one lone agent, University Presses representatives were in attendance. There were a few unpublished hanger-ons like me, Nancy. We went to our room one afternoon and Charles walked over to his computer and said, "Now I want to sit down and write."

     The panel of publishers and agents was informative. They each spoke on several questions and all asked for manuscripts. The panel was followed by evaluations of writers as they signed up and had a sample of their work.

     We did find time to explore Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Santa Fe is not the little New Mexico village that I remembered from the 60s when I lived in Albuquerque. The new buildings, and the old, must follow a strict building code since all were adobe in the same terracotta color. We saw lush patios and potted plants everywhere; charming, and yet we could almost see how Santa Fe would have looked a hundred years ago. I know, I know it would not have been so clean and there would have been horses. We visited the New Mexico History Museum Campus and attended another panel after a tour of The Press at the Palace of the Governors. The old press tour was a taste of the work involved with printing books and notices years ago.  Our guide was a professor, Thomas Leach who still uses the presses to publish as he printed us bookmarks with the exhibit’s hand press.  His commented that the difficulty of the presses and obtaining type influenced the way writers wrote.  Sometimes, words had to be changed, as the original could not be set since the required type was not available.

    We had lunch at the La Fonda where we shared a huge plate of Mexican food, and visited the old Loretto Chapel just off the square with the miracle circular staircase and some very life like statues at the Stations of the Cross.

     After a short break at the museum with tea and cookies, we had an extra hour on the square where we stocked up on refrigerator magnets. We lost most all of our pictures and magnets awhile back and it is beginning to look nice and cluttered again. Charles bought a huge, wiggly crab magnet in Port Arkansas and it looks a little scary. I call it a diet aid.

     Back in Albuquerque, we had one afternoon free so Charles drove me around my old neighborhood to look for my house. I could not remember much except the big lotus tree in the front yard. Since that was about 50 years ago, the tree would have to be really huge now or dead and gone. I thought I remembered the address, but it was not there. My kids were in kindergarten or so about then. On the way, we found the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History and had to stop and browse. I found a nuclear hat (no it was not radioactive, just a red ball cap) and he got a math cup with the formula for mass, velocity, time, and energy. It was interesting. It is no longer a Sandia Corp venture and has other funding now.

     We did try to find Old Town but it seemed to be lost in a canyon of building towers. Saturday, before the final meeting we armed ourselves with maps and directions and found Old Town right where it always was. I did not find the cooking in the square with mutton stew and fry bread. We ate at the La Fiesta. When our sopapillas were served, I commented that I missed finding the fry bread they used to make outside. Our waitress said, "But that is the sopapillas you have here." Well, and I have been eating them all the time.

     We drove to Albuquerque from Charles' house at the beginning of the week and found it an easy drive, which we shared, and drove back Sunday, Father's Day. As we were driving through Lubbock, we called Vanessa, Charles' granddaughter who works in hospice, to invite her to lunch to help us celebrate the Day. Our GPS found a good China Star. We drove the rest of the way home on full.  We were home before dark even after stopping to pick up a few fresh things and material for two prayer quilts at church.

     We had a good trip and thank you God for keeping us safe. My grandson Clifferd was also blessed as he had a bad accident Saturday when he was stopped for a light.  A truck tail ended him going about 50 miles an hour and knocked him into another lane where another car hit him in the side. He has a concussion and is stiff, sore, and safe. No car left, it was totaled.  He had only two more payments, and was starting a week of vacation at the shore with friends. So, he is stuck at home, hurting and bored, with no car, and following the doctor's orders.  About the only fun thing is looking for a new car on the internet.

      It is good to be home.

EASY WATER UPDATE

I installed my Easy Water system on March 12. Now more than three months later I can report that it is working great. I examined the screen on the lavatory faucet with absolutely no calcium buildup on the screen or the other parts in the nozzle. We find no buildup in the bottom of the plastic glass I use with pills in the bathroom. The glasses and cups show no calcium buildup as in the past.

I hope it continues to keep the lime deposits from forming. I don't plan to pull one of the elements in the new hot water heater, but I hope it is preventing that buildup also.

WESTERN WRITERS 2012 MEETING

Here are some photos of our Western Writers of America meeting in Albuquerque June 12-16, 2012.

Here we are dressed for the Spur Banquet. Nancy wanted me to wear my new black onyx bolo with my black suit, shirt and hat.

We asked Cheryl and Leon Metz to take our photo and I reciprocated with this one.

At our table at the business breakfast we had a new member from Japan. Duke Hiroi on the right is an expert on guns and was with his mentor, Western novelist Charles Whipple, who lives in Japan.

Also at our table at the business meeting were new friends, Ollie Reed who was a newspaper writer until the paper closed in 2008. He writes stories with Johnny Boggs for True West and specializes in non-fiction. At the table they were discussing Billy the Kid. Ollie had interviewed persons who knew him and swear they saw him dead in Fort Sumpter. Next to Ollie is Francine Roark Robison, who writes cowboy poetry and is from Tecumseh, OK. I lived in Prague for three years near there. The person on the right is Thomas Cobb, novelist from Foster, RI.

We were honored to have Eli Paul at our table also. We met him on the bus from Santa Fe. He told us he hasn't written any books for seven years. He wrote about the American Indians in Nebraska. He is a librarian in Kansas City but for WWA he has one of the hardest jobs. He was the Spur Chair. He had to get judges for all of the categories, pick the winners and finalists and chaired the presentation program at the Spur Banquet that is the most important part of the program as well as the Finalist luncheon the day before. He recruited Wes Studi, the actor who played Geronimo, as well as other Indian roles in movies, to present many of the Spur awards. All of the women had to have their photo made with him.

CHURCH DAY

Sunday, June 10, 2012
     We planned nothing today.  God does know we need a day of rest.  Charles was Worship Leader for a most strange service.  Strange because we didn't have anyone to play the piano.  Bobbi Jo Simms was not able to attend and we were lost.,  Somehow, someone had made recordings of the music we were to use and we did have that, but we just sounded very strange and disjointed.  Kevin said to stay flexible.
     We were dismissed early since we we didn't try to have special music in our service without a piano.  Jean's Feed Barn is always busy on Sunday.;  This seemed like the day we would beat everyone to the tables, but the other churches were all out before us.  How do they do that?  We shared a table with the Millers, Dixion, and a new friend from Cottonwood I had not gotten to know yet.
      Gardens are doing well this year.  We had bags of squash at the church that were given away for the members.  Granddaughter, Amy, was on facebook with her husband, Clint, holding a huge armload of different kinds of squash.  She is looking for recipes.
     We have one lonely tomato plant on the front porch and some pots of flowers.  They are alive so I know Charles is taking care of them.  My thumb is brown.  The wild flowers were so nice this year.  It has been a wonderful spring and not to dry.  It is never just wet here I believe.
    
     There is free time here.  The TV is not running an will not until we receive a new "box", probably tomorrow.  Charles is having trouble with his email and my mouse turned belly up.  I'm using the old fashioned touch pad and is it slow!!!  My cell phone has too much static and the clocks all have different times.  Sigh!  We have our books and will just talk to each other.  Unusual evening.

BARBARIAN UPDATE

Today is the annual Barbarian Festival in Cross Plains. Last night we attended the annual Robert E. Howard dinner where the REHUPA folks come in from all over the world. The last several years we have had a group from Scotland and they were here this year. They didn't announce other countries. We did see two Calif license plates in the parking lot. The room was sold out. Sue joined us because someone had cancelled. The table decorations were rocks from Caddo Peak ranch. Could have been from Halsell Hill. We are all built from limestone fossils. Yesterday I took the noon shift at the Library where we display REH papers and magazines he published in. I met some interesting people who were visiting.

Today is the Festival day and I will again work the noon shift at the Library. They have panel discussions on Howard in the Library and at his museum. Tonight they will have a barbarque on Caddo Peak. Many other events like car shows, music, eats, etc. are going on and I will miss. I will also miss going to the CANSAT rocket launching contest that has about 30 college teams from all over the world competing in launching a rocket and recovering a can with data. One Texas team is from Tarleton and has a local boy on the team.

We spent Sunday thru Wednesday noon in Waco at the Central Texas Annual Conference of the Methodist Church. I was lay member from Cross Plains. Nancy was alternate in case I got sick. She attended many of the sessions. We attended the church services where the guest preacher this year was Dr. Joy Moore, from Duke University and an excellent preacher. Nancy got to meet and talk to her. One of the highlights was seeing Mike Love being ordained as an elder. I worked with him at General Dynamics where he was in the same group as my son, Mark, working on CAD/CAM software. About 10 years ago he decided to go into the ministry and just now completed all the education and training requirements to become an Elder.  At that service we sat next to a pastor from Valley View who is a reserve chaplain and spent 3 tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. Interesting to talk to him.

We have been blessed with rain both in Granbury and here on Halsell Hill. Had two inches in my rain gauge when we came in Thursday. And I need to mow.