My desk is a wreck. Actually it isn't my desk (yes it is) but my area. I have stack upon stack of papers to be filed. Oh well, maybe tomorrow they will be my priorities.

Nothing major in my world. Just minor subject matter today.

Author Sidney Sheldon has died at 89. I was reading his biography earlier in the night and he was a pretty remarkable man. He began writing novels as a sideline, never labored over a typewriter, but dictated fifty pages a day to a secretary. He wrote for television shows and eventually became a producer. He claimed his success writing was because he used the television show mentality. At the end of each chapter you had to make the reader want to continue, very similar to making the watcher want to join in next episode. I've read some of his work and would never have imagined he was in his late eighties.

During the night I was channel surfing and as sometimes happens I arrived at the Encore Westerns channel. I have decided I grew up in an "excellent" era. I think back to our childhood games and compare them to a child now sitting with a gameboy. Hhmm. We may not have been politically correct because we played cowboys and Indians. But the way we played it was a great tribute to the ferocious warrior!

My Mom tells me I was a weird child. For Christmas I always wanted something that she would never fathom. Usually this included camping gear. I loved a tent and would often put one up until the seasonal winds demolished it. I don't know what happened to all my accessories. I had the full camp out cooking set, backpack, (yeah, I was a trend setter before my time) and canteens. I had it all. Last remembrance I have, it was all in the top of my closet. More than likely it has gone through numerous nieces and nephews and slowly disappeared. Who knows, it may never have returned after the fire at Mom and Dad's house in 1974. That would also explain where my four finger baseball glove went along with all the baseball cards Uncle Wade had given Fred and I.

Out at the farm we had a fort. This was the result of Uncle Wade's vision and labor. It was buried deep in the heavy mesquite trees about a hundred yards from the house. It was a secured perimeter complete with a sliding gate, a prominent cross located in the right back of the area and the center featured a cooking pit. I can remember several escapades camping, finding just the right limb and cooking a chicken "rotisierre style" over the open camp fire. I can even remember one particular night when Uncle Wade enlisted the help of a friend who came to scare us. Later on the small pasture that held the fort was used when first time mother cows (or heifers) were giving birth. The small area made it possible to easily find an active birthing and spot potential problems. It was very common for my Grand Dad and Grandmother to make late night trips to check on the small pasture's residents and sometimes spend countless hours sitting and waiting, ready to help deliver if the mother became distressed. It was a very cold night when need of fire and heat led to the dismantling and burning of many of the pickets of the fort's perimeter fence. Several years ago I went in the pasture and I could still visualize several of the familiar landmarks. Best part of camping here was when Mema and Gan Gan still lived on the farm if was only a short walk for breakfast!

Aren't memories wonderful?

Probably the most puzzling thing in the news for me revolves around pennies. I heard and then read an article saying they are considering making a penny worth five cents. I'm trying to decide how this would impact us. First of all, I am sure there are banks and jars sitting around filled with pennies. All the sudden these would be worth five times their face amount. How does the government handle this? To me it would appear to be an accounting nightmare. Would a five cent penny remain our smallest money denomination? These people are fixing to confuse a life long habit of mine!

Actually, they are saying that the possible change is because of metal shortages. Seems to me it might make more sense to change to a more abundant cheaper metal. I couldn't stand it if my pennies increased five fold, it might put me in a tax bracket.

Cute cute story in the Reporter News Sports yesterday. It said that a Snow storm was headed to Miami for Sunday's Super Bowl. Huh? A closer read revealed an article about Justin Snow, an Abilene native who is playing in the game and the large family contingent of "Snows" attending the game from Abilene. Justin graduated with Rian from Cooper in 1995.

Today's ARN's article was about Dominic Rhodes another cooper standout playing for the Colts. Tomorrow's article is going to be on Daniel Manning, an ACU alumni playing for the Bears.

I wonder if there are other cities and towns that can boast of multiple participants.

Well, I'm hopeful just a short day at the desk and then maybe a quick trip to the West, if K.O. can get loose and the weather is good.

Winter is coming back! Stay warm. Have a day!

FATHER thank YOU for precious memories!