January 24

This morning I got off to work later than normal, after quashing two, yes 2, telemarketers! Since when do they call in the morning? Credit cards and books they were selling... I'm afraid I was a bit rude to the book lady, "I don't want any more books. I've GOT to leave for work! G'bye!"*click*

So the fuel oil man called me at work to tell me that he couldn't deliver for $1.02 as promised. It's $1.30 a gallon now, and will be $1.50 at least, when he gets his next delivery. It appears that the big oil refiners are going hog-wild, jacking up prices to the independent retail dealers. Possibly, that's because they are locked into contracts with the larger institutional buyers, but I have me doubts. Their track record is bad.

I work for a small weekly newspaper, sort of a "Gal Friday," in that I answer the phone, deal with the public, do the bookkeeping, and assist the editor, Lea. She and I are the only paid staff. Two advertizing salesmen work on commission, one graphics worker is an independent contractor (that's the new term for a journeyman typesetter). He creates the ads and sets up the pages on a computer. Everything else is done by volunteers! And thereby hangs a tale...

The Town Line, our 'paper, used to be a regular newspaper, with an owner/publisher and so forth. The founders decided to retire, sold the paper to a pair of fellows who ran it for ten months and shut it down because they were losing money. A group of the local townspeople were so upset at losing "their" paper that they started a fund-raising drive to buy the physical assets and begin publishing again. The lawyer who got the paper incorporated as a non-profit became our "angel" by loaning us money and space in her office building. So, now we serve the six towns under a Board of Directors drawn from the membership. The paper's organization is still evolving; the Board is working on Bylaws, and we intend to get 501(c)3 status (so people's donations will be tax-deductible). March will mark our first anniversary under this arrangement.

It's a slow process, building the business back up. We're a good team, though. Lea has been the editor for over ten years, so she knows the business and the area we cover very well. The sales manager, Carl, is full of enthusiasm and ideas for building advertisement sales. He had retired from being sales manager for a large insurance company, but you just can't put a good salesman out to pasture.

Our volunteer coordinator, Faith, is an human dynamo in her 70's who also writes a column for the paper. She's not the oldest columnist, though. A retired newspaperwoman in her 80's writes for us regularly. Beatrice grew up in our area and likes to "keep her hand in." Marie and Gladys donate 4 hours on Tuesdays typing news stories into computers. Marge comes in every Wednesday to proofread and do drawings to go with stories and ads. Sandy, a mother who home-schools, is an experienced layout person, and donates her Thursdays to create the "mechanicals" that we send to the printer. Fridays, a varying crew, led by Faith and Larry, prepare our bulk mailing (450 subscribers), and Priscilla and Fred deliver the 3,500 free copies to stores and other public places in the six towns. Larry and Nancy also help me with filing and organizing things in the office. All in all, a grand crew with which to work!!!

January 23, 2000

My parents (who are in their 80's) and I chatted by phone last night. They are getting thru the flu season with only minor sniffles. They traded the grey Cherokee for a wine-red minivan, which is easier to get into. It's front-wheel drive and Dad finds that it takes a bit of getting used to, but he really likes it (the way it "pulls" thru snow rather than doing the "hoochy-coochy.")

Kate and I delivered the papers to the stores this Fri./Sat. as Priscilla and Fred went to Florida for 2 weeks. They were well out of this very cold weather we've been having. Friday, it was a "pocket blizzard," not much snow but blowing hard, gusts to 60 mph, and 12 degrees F. while it was snowing. When it passed by, it pulled in arctic air behind it and temps dropped to -24 F. at night and single numbers Sat. Winds slowed to 25 mph, gusting to 35. I bundled up and did the deliveries, listening to cancellation announcements on my van's radio and getting concerned comments from storekeepers. It was a nasty little storm, only a couple inches {5 cm.} of snow, though. Coming south by the broad fields of French's market gardens, the snow was swirling like surf, 10 meters in the air. When I drove into it, I was driving by memory, not by eye. Visibility was about 3 meters or ten feet. The wind was so strong that it was tearing up the snow deposited 3 days before and mixing it into what was falling at the time. I got most of the route done Friday, but held off on Albion and the east side of China Lake to do on Sat.

I had my copilot with me. Kate looked rather tense, hunched forward, and glancing at me whenever the wind buffeted the van. Kate hasn't been out in anything like that before.

Sat., stopped in to visit with San on the way to Albion. She was just pulling cookies out of the oven!!! We had coffee and cookies, and gabbed for an hour or so. She resigned her job Fri after driving home in the bliz, with a paycheck she described as "one week's pay for two weeks' work.". She had been working at the Digital plant in Augusta. She gave me Nana Butler's date-filled cookie recipe, and I'm going to post it to my website.