It was an incredibly gorgeous day and I had just arrived at a corvette autocross event.

As I walked to the parking lot where the course was marked off with orange cones, I passed a blue canopy next to the fence which provided a bit of a safety barrier with the autocross course.

The canopy provided shade for its only occupant—a young man around 20 years old, who sat in a chair, facing away from where the course would take place.

“Hi, how are you? Your shirt looks nice. Are you having a good day?” he said to everyone who went by, even if it was their second or third time.

In late morning, I ended up placing my chair on the blacktop on the same side of the fence as the parking lot where the autocross took place (on the opposite side of the fence where the young man was sitting).

Since he had not seemed to be watching the race, I was surprised when the young man, I’ll call him Kevin, started talking to me.

“Are you looking forward to Thanksgiving?” he asked.

“Yes. Are you?”

“Well, I was, but my grandpa broke his hip and he is in North Carolina. My mom went to help him and won’t be back until Friday. I really miss her. She’s really nice.”

“I have a twin sister. She lives in Boston. I was the first one born and my parents chose me to adopt because they chose the very best one.”

“When were you adopted?”

“When I was a baby.”

At one point, one of the men (who drove a very fast Porsche) walked over special to say hello to Kevin. He obviously knew him and Kevin must have been at other races.

“Do you ever ride in the cars on the track?” I asked.

“On, no, I might have a seizure and that wouldn’t be good.”

“When did your seizures start?”

“When I was about 11 months old.”

Kevin’s dad came over to tell him that after the next run they would be going and they had a short delightful father-son conversation.

I was so impressed with the young man and his father who obviously was caring and loving for his (adopted) son. I don’t know if Kevin was somewhat brain damaged before or after adoption; but his parents loved and cared for him (their son), even though he would never be in the limelight, nor be able to race or even ride in a race in his dad’s corvette.

What a super example of doing what is really important, even though there will never be any accolades for this young man or his parents.

Scenery near Tucson, Oct. 9, 2011.

It has been some time since I have posted on this site. Finally, Echo Hill and Mountain Grove has been published. I have archived a year’s worth of material onto 5 DVDs. I am in the process now of reorganizing my computer files (and then the files scattered about my office) to get ready to work on book 3, sometime in the future.

But today was a WONDERFUL day and Hero and I took a drive out past Tucson. The photos above are from the drive we took.

If you were to assume that I have been working on my book 24/7; and that Book 2 is not done yet, you would be correct.

There is a cover to my book. The acknowledgement page, introduction, and 12 chapters are mostly done. Maps and Appendix are up front and center now. I’m hoping the book will be ready to print by the end of the month (August 2011).

The Scottish Bear (fresh from Scotland via 2 of 4) has been added to my collection.

Nine and a half years ago, a chicken hatched in our laundry room. It’s parents were a bantam rooster and a silky hen.

Three of 4 named the chick, Chicken Little, and it wasn’t long before we knew we had a rooster.

Chicken Little got along with only one of our hens, Ethel, a large Araucana, twice his size. But years ago, Ethel died, and then the other chickens died, but Chicken Little, the energizer rooster, the rooster-too-mean-to-die kept on crowing…until yesterday.

He has crowed his last. It looked like some animal was able to get through the chicken coop, and the remains of CL were on the ground when I went out to feed him this morning.

I wanted to write an Ode to Chicken Little, but this will have to do as my creative energies are being employed to try and complete Book 2 of my series on Eldred where my grandparents grew up, which is why there have not been any new posts.

So back to writing the book…

None of the windows had been left open and there was no way to get into the house without doing some damage.

I sat in the shade with a cool breeze blowing, listening to the birds singing while they guarded their nests (there are at least 3 different birds and nests in our back yard), while Hero tried to no avail to get into the house through a door or window.

To the rescue came 2 of 4 after grocery shopping. But that was 45 minutes away.

Hero and I were hungry and fortunately one of the keys was for the old truck which was outside the garage, so we headed out for a fish taco.

On our return, 2 of 4 was in the house enjoying some zucchini bread.

“There is laundry scattered in four places in the house.”

And it is in several stages, folded, not folded, or waiting to be hung on hangers.

This isn’t laundry that has only been there a few days or a week.

I have NO Excuses.

The queen bed is in the new guest room (my old computer room/everything closet). It has been there since Christmas time. And there is no phone connection problem if I want to fold clothes and talk on the phone.

I have my own table in my office so the dining table is mostly free (only a few leftover sticky notes).

Our computers are working, so they aren’t on the kitchen table

They say, “A man does what he wants to do.”

Perhaps that is true of a woman and perhaps that is why I am writing this post rather than take care of the clothes.

Was Hero guilty of not yielding on red to the police officer who was not at the intersection when we turned right after stopping?

The police officer had made a U-turn before the intersection and hit us, but wrote on his form that Hero had hit him; and said the light was green so we were at fault.

“It is really, really close,” the judge said; and then repeated himself after hearing Hero’s 9 page presentation that included the turning radius of a Crown Vic and other details.

Finally, those wonderful words, “Case dismissed.” Hero was not guilty.

Nine days later we got a letter in the mail from the Police Insurance Company saying Hero owed them $3700 damages.

The insurance companies are battling it out now.

I’ve been busily working every spare minute on the 5th time through Echo Hill and Mountain Grove.

But I took some time out to finish up an apron for a friend’s birthday. The lace was leftover from a doll’s dress made many years ago.

Back to Chapter 6. The goal is getting through the book (Intro, 12 chapters, and the appendix) by the end of April.

I went to Store S (which is 25 minutes away) because the meat prices are better and their health items such as vitamins are usually less expensive.

Also, their tea (I am very low on tea) and the salad dressings are much cheaper.

So now that I am home, I can not find the carton of eggs, vitamin bottles, box of white oolong peach tea, and 3 bottles of salad dressing that I thought I had put in my cart.

They were not on the register tape. So I didn’t pay for them. But where are they?

1. I never put the items mentioned in the cart. I just thought I did.

2. I had a brain fade half way through shopping and put the new items in another cart and left the “lost” items somewhere in a cart in the store.

3. The checkout clerk did not check out all the items I had placed on the counter.

Where are they???