Monday news

Today, Brendon went to school, Katie had Tales and Tunes at the Shutesbury Library in the morning, and Savanna had a drawing class in Florence in the afternoon, and I stayed home all day. I slept late (making up for a poor night's sleep Saturday night), had a late breakfast of smoothie and cereal, checked email, and then got started on a project I brought with me - updating my "end of life" plans. I have a file on the computer titled, "When I Die" - which lists all the things Ellen and/or John will need to do after my death, where things are located, etc. Sort of a comprehensive check-list, including an Executor of Estate check-list. All of this was last done in 2015, so four years later, there is a need to update information. I have been procrastinating this for some time (not a favorite task) so I decided this would be a good time to get a start, and I did. I have a new "To Do" list. Now that I am off dead center, I feel I have some momentum.

Last night before trying to go to sleep, I read the first two chapters of Lamb in his bosom, which I now have twelve chapters of on my computer. I can tell I will like it. I found I can buy a copy from Abe Books for $4.00 plus shipping. But that book led me to another. It reminded me of a book I have known about for decades, a book which I think my parents also liked, titled The Shepherd of the Hills, by Harold Bell Wright. This book, and Wright himself, have quite a story. Wright, who started out as a Disciple of Christ minister, later became an extremely popular author who is hardly known today. The Shepherd of the Hills sold a million copies, the first American novel to do so. Wright is one of the top-selling American authors of all time. Four movies were made of The Shepherd of the Hills, and it is performed annually as a stage play at Branson, MO.  Indeed, the novel helped put Branson on the map, long before its fame as a country music mecca. The novel is set near Branson, in the Ozark mountains. I found an audio version of the novel on Librivox (a free, online, amateur audio book app), and I've been listening to that. It is pretty gripping, actually.

Author, Harold Bell Wright

Poster from 1941 film of The Shepherd of the Hills

Later:
Ellen has returned safe and sound! Yay! No adverse driving conditions. We will spend the  night here and return home tomorrow so we can get the house warm again before going to River Singers.