We have been busy all week with rain almost every day until today. Today started with Kiwanis at 7 in the morning, quick drive to the dermatologist in Abilene who cut and scraped a cancer in my ear lobe. He also drove a couple of nails in my skull with his nitrogen bottle. Only one time in the last many years he didn't squirt those liquid nails in my skull. I went by the hearing center to exchange some plastic parts I ordered by mail that didn't fit my hearing aids. They gave me some batteries for my trouble.
Tonight we had Bill Neal as the Meet the Author at the Cross Plains Public Library. I had the pleasure of introducing him. His wife had decorated the table with a small pair of spurs that were worn by him as a boy. I showed them and explained that his grandfather had him on a horse before he could walk. He has a ranch now but doesn't ride his horse. He reviewed his fourth and latest book about a sex and murder triangle of rich families living in Amarillo. They had grown up in Georgetown before and during the Civil War. They were Methodists and helped establish Southwestern University. During reconstruction they made their fortunes in driving longhorn cattle to California and Colorado markets, moved to run the XIT ranch in the Panhandle. There the children of the three rich families had married and got into a lover triangle. The wife, who had two children, told her husband she wanted a divorce to marry the other man. The husband has her committed to an insane asylum in FW, the lover helped her escape and they fled to Canada. The husband tracks them down, "rescues" his wife and recommits her, then kills her lover and his father, is tried for both murders, takes the stand and admits the murders, has a great lawyer and the jury finds him not guilty. To find out why they gave that verdict, we have to read the book, so I bought one.
I am reading RUDDER the story of Earl Rudder who was the president of A&M when I went to work there. He was a Methodist and most of the Deans and department heads as well as many profs were also members, so that I made a lot of friends from attending Sunday School and working with the Wesley Foundation. The biography tells about Earl's growing up in a home without electricity or plumbing with his mother cooking on a wood fire, much like the time I moved to a farm without plumbing. We did have electricity but had to carry water from a shallow well and heat it over an outdoor pot.
I just finished reading about his major military event, the capture of the German guns on Pointe du Hoc on D-Day. He had a bullet go through his thigh but left a clean hole that had a band aid put on and kept going. He had another blast that put shrapnel in his chest and head that kept coming out for years later. In spite of the wounds he continued to lead the troops as they fought through to the French country.
Carol Walt recommended a book SHIP OF GOLD IN THE DEEP BLUE WATER that her engineer relative read about a boat that sunk during the gold rush carrying a cargo of gold from SF to NY. I got it on Kindle and started reading it. Right now the ship is foundering off the Atlantic coast in a hurricane. Hasn't sunk yet, but things are hairy.
I also bought a new Kindle book that is the second one in Mobley series. I wrote about the first one some time ago. It was a great book about Texas during reconstruction and I expect this one to be a great follow-up.
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