Manuscript mailed...07/01/11...40°...6am...Sunny

Yesterday was the due date for the "We 3" team to email their first manuscript to Katey... Now she will critique, make suggestions and return to us in fifteen days...in the meantime we will be working on another 15 pages due the end of this month--on and on...email zipping back and forth until the end of November, when we will all take a break and decide if we want to continue.

It was windy and cold late afternoon yesterday but I decided to brave the cold and go to the weekly music and Farmers Market in Enterprise (Herb opted to stay home)...quite a few people there, but many froze out to seek the warmth of their cars..I joined Pam and Nancy in their car and had an enjoyable visit, while we listened from car windows.

This morning I'm going with Pat and another friend Angie to the Lostine Flea Market, held every year for the past 35 years on the 4th of July weekend...maybe we will hit a yardsale or two...Then back home to water gardens and sit, with Herb, on the deck and soak up the sun... supposed to be in the 80'a this week...nothing special planned for the big weekend, just peace and quite and warm temperatures.

The following is an excerpt from the manuscript sent yesterday.

Mom and Daddy 1940's

Mom related the following story to us many years later, after Daddy’s death.  “In the middle of the night before Daddy was supposed to have a meeting with company officials, Billy Ball, a company official himself, knocked on the bedroom window and indicated that he needed to talk with Daddy.  He first stressed that no one was to know about his visit or he would loose his job.  He advised Daddy not to sign any papers that the officials would present to him the next day, no matter what they told him, because if he signed, Daddy would get nothing from the company.  Also he said they would try to get him to take a job, raking and picking up around the mine that very day and he shouldn’t do that either.”   Then Billy Ball said, “I had to come here tonight, because you are a good man and a hard worker and I can’t let them do this to you and your family.”  Daddy didn’t sign any papers or pick up a rake the next day at the meeting, and then he hired a lawyer to advise him further.  Finally a settlement was awarded from the mine company, thanks to a man who dared to speak out.