Soft Rain...07/13/11...4am...54°...Foggy

Went  to sleep last night with the smell of rain permeating our bedroom through the open window...This morning only slight evidence of rain but a fresh clean world awaits...Fog and clouds all around so it will take awhile for the mountains to show.

Awake early and feel rested, which is good as it is a busy day...Need to clean and straighten house as have spent most of my time either working or sitting outside...I have to take advantage of the warm, beautiful days whenever possible...Dinner will be leftovers again so that is easy...Spent time yesterday rewriting on my manuscript, some of it gets better, other parts just get more muddled...The "write Group" was canceled this week, which was okay, as we sometimes need a break from the weekly sessions.

Here is a scene from manuscript "Whistlin' Joe"


         Moonshine whiskey, cheap and available accompanied the cowboys, on trail rides, roundup’s, and branding’s and local dances.  At the dances, dressed in clean Levi’s, cowboy shirts with kerchief’s around their neck, moonshine, limbered cowboy legs after riding all day and they danced with pretty girls, late into the night.

I choose to believe that Joe met a certain girl, Blanche Parkin Fields, at one of those dances in 1929.  I know for a fact that he courted her, going to dances where they danced to songs like “The Tennessee Waltz” and “You are My Sunshine”.  Joe sang along as he held her tight.  Blanche had recently divorced and she and her two little girls moved home to her parents ranch.  On his days off he rode horseback to her parents ranch, where he was invited to stay for dinner and then played endless game of cards on cold winter evenings. Joe loved children and took special interest in Blanche’s two little girls, Loraine, age three, and Barbara only nine months.  Blanche at age twenty had a slim figure, dark hair, and a smile that lit up the room when she entered.  Joe fell in love with Blanche, but also with her two little girls. I’m not sure who stole his heart first, Blanche or the girls.  He loved babies and children of all ages: I can see him in the rocking chair, a girl in each arm rocking, singing them to sleep, after supper was finished and the women did the dishes in the kitchen. The girls soon started calling him “Daddy Joe”, and within a year, he and Blanche married, and Joe would claim the girls as his own.  Although It would be many years before they were legally adopted.

Pat and I volunteer at "Summer Fishtrap" tonight, doing dinner setup and then cleanup... Later we will attend the open mike session and listen to essays from other writers, hoping to get ideas as we compare our writing to theirs...Some will be seasoned writers and others "newbies" like us...It is always fun spending time with Pat!

White peony

I keep up with my scrabble games daily, spending too much time some days, but figure I'm using my brain so time is well spent...Also I enjoy the challenge of making the letters work.

Time to get moving, until tomorrow.
~OWAV:)