Good news about Junior! His PSI number, when we first visited the onocologist on September 23, was 1427. On October 22, the reading had dropped to 82, and I can only surmise that it is even better now because he acts better and gets around better every day.

I am re-reading a book by Ann Rule, who is probably the best in the world at writing and telling the stories of the crimes and investigations that we see headlined in the news on a daily basis. I know this is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I definitely think it is good for all to know that every person you meet is not necessarily the person that he appears to be. Never forget that Ted Bundy and the BTK Killer were not isolated cases. There are others just like them, and they move and live among us. I believe people of that bent are usually referred to as sadistic sociopaths. The first book I ever read by Ann Rule was about Ted Bundy, with whom whe worked night shift on a volunteer hot-line for suicidal callers; in a big old, otherwise empty, house. As you well might know, long before Ted became a suspect in a series of horrendous murders, Ann had become very good friends with him. She trusted him implicitly as he always walked her to her car in the wee, dark hours of the morning. He made sure Sshe was safely locked in before he left in his own car. Ironically, about this time at the suggestion of the local authorities, who knew the police-woman turned crime-writer was raising her kids by herself and needed all the assignments she could get, suggested that Ann start gathering information on the unknown killer and put together a story that hopefully might help unmask and identify him.

Besides being drawn to Ann Rule’s books, I like her as a person. She kicked off the particular book that I am reading now by saying “On the day after Thanksgiving, 1998, I was cleaning my kitchen. Like many mom’s with big families, who spent the day before, cooking, this seemed like a good time to try to create some kind of order in my drawers and cabinets.” Further on into her story she mentioned the “gully-washing rains” that Seattle was prone to have in the fall of the year. Now, to tell the truth, I would never have supposed that anybody, anywhere except south-east Missouri would know what a “gully washer” was, but Ann did. It is always encouraging to me to find ordinary people, that I can identify with, who become successful and well-known, but yet retain their focus on the real stuff of life, much of which is spent cleaning up the kitchen and sitting at the computer while the ditches fill and you wonder if the roof can withstand such a torrent without leaking.