Update...

Jackie and I were given about two cords of dry firewood by our next door neighbor (a lovely lady named Phyllis), so I spent the last couple of mornings taking the wheelbarrow over and "fetching" it. It was quite the workout!

We still need more wood -- free, if at all possible. We're going to borrow John Adams truck in a few weeks and go cut up three fallen trees that are also on Phyllis's property, but I don't think that will be enough to get us through the winter. The stuff I just hauled over had been laying in a wood stack for ten or twenty years so it's either very, very dry (feels almost as light as balsa wood!) and will burn pretty much like paper (quickly) or it's been lying at the bottom of the stack atop and in wet ground and needs to dry out before it'll burn -- at which time it, too, will probably burn pretty fast. I just don't know how long it will take to dry out now that it's above ground in a major way and sitting in an open shed with a waterproof roof.

Last weekend I taught PR writing at church to the Writer's Edge gang; today we were back again to hear Christian singer/songwriter Kim Walling (formerly from Tacoma but now living outside Nashville, where her career carried her almost seven years ago). She told us about her writers' journey and gave us some pointers on writing songs. Great stuff!

Kim has three terrific CD's of songs she has written or co-written. Her newest is "Where Do We Go From Here?" Her earlier CDs are "A Dream and a Prayer" and "Beyond What I Can See." You can get the CDs at www.kimwalling.com or at Amazon (but why pay a middleman?).

Kim's music spans different genres -- contemporary, chorale, southern gospel, contemporary Christian, and Country. She's very talented and a very kind soul. She just got married in April and is expecting her first child in late March or early April next year. She'll find out on Thursday whether it's a boy or a girl...

I gave my clunker Saturn to a friend to find a home for, which he did (with a dealer he knows; I think they'll be parting it out since the transmission is hosed). He also got me $100 for the almost-brand-new tires that are on it. He made out pretty well and I did okay, too...

What else? I've been watching Dr Oz and trying out some of his ideas for getting healthier. Of course, I've been walking all along -- 32 to 62 blocks daily. Yesterday I took Jackie's wee dog (and I mean WEE -- she can't weigh two pounds) on the walk using a GUINEA PIG -sized halter and lead. She had an absolute blast, so I'll probably do it again sometime. That was a first. I didn't know if she was even trained to walk -- and she wasn't -- but she caught on immediately.

I gave all my leftover garage sale stuff to Jackie for her Altrusa Int'l charity sale, which they're having today. What doesn't go will be given to a women's shelter so they can offer it at their upcoming garage sale and make some money. No, I didn't give up any of my STAR TREK stuff. I still have it. I think Daryl Frazetti and a few of his friends are going to get what I have left (of what I'm willing to give up, that is). We had to clean out the garage because we need to start parking the vehicles in there again. It's getting fall-ish/wintery around here...

I tweaked my right elbow somehow-- don't know if it happened yesterday while I was transporting firewood or last night when I slept on it, but it feels arthritic today, a bit swollen. Weird.

I got a flu shot yesterday (in the other arm). It isn't even remotely sore today.

What else? Guess that's about all for now. Guess I'll jump back into the Mark Twain book I bought (by Ron Powers) and see if I can finish it off by this evening. I'm a little more than halfway through.

Ciao for now!