Friday morning and I'm off to Louisville this afternoon with Goldman as soon as he gets out of school. Rose has been helping me pack so I'll be ready and waiting when he gets here. Brayden and Jalen are excited about our coming and so are me and Goldman about out going.

I had a newsy email from brother Joe this week. They had a much needed rain on the third and I think they've have had quite a bit since. August was the second driest month on record. The big three (Lisa, Beth and Lydia) had been to Kansas City recently to see an American Idol Concert and had stayed in Kansas City overnight.

David had gone to a car race in Kansas, must have been near Topeka. Mike Madden had been to a meeting at Big Cedar Lodge at Tablerock and Sean was supposed to meet him and bring his truck to pull the boat......he forgot. They went to races at Bolivar instead. Mike didn't tell me they were car races and I asked if they were horse races. He replied theat they were stock car races. The only thing horses do in Bolivar is pull farm implements.

Chris and Shelly and 'Shelly's clan' are going to the lake this weekend. The weather isn't supposed to be so hot as it has been but still very nice. I hope they have a good time.

I'm going to stay in Louisville until Thursday of next week. Then Scott will bring me half way back and Goldman will meet us. Goldman and I plan on going to the lake then on next week Friday after school and I hope some of my Kansas relatives join us for the weekend.

Rose leaves tomorrow for her hike in Yosemite. Mike Madden has hiked there several times and says it is awesome. Mike has a photo he took of Bridal Veil Falls he'll post when he gets his laptop fixed. I think this Falls is higher than Niagra Falls. Rose is taking her camera. She'll camp overnight with a group for a week and hike during the day. I hiked down the Grand Canyon once a long time ago and the best part of that hike was the helicopter that took us out.

Donald just called me. He and Vita are in Birmingham and have had no after effects from the storms down their way. They had been to Florida over the weekend and things were fine there, too, but they were keeping their eye on Ike. Donald's birthday is the 7th and he, Rose and I will be 63, 64 and 65 for a short while (until October 23).

The Abbotts had some bad news this week. Norm's sister, Emma, has terminal stomach cancer. The doctors have given her 3 to 6 months. Margaret and Norm are leaving in the morning to go down there. She lives near Winston-Salem, North Carolina, which isn't and hasn't been in any of the storm paths.

I saw Mary Lenihan yesterday. She's the healing touch therapist that I used to see. I'm going to have some more sessions with her and do some hand therapy also and she's going to teach me some other exercises I can do myself and we're going to do some more healing touch sessions.