1992-07-02 Woozle writes to Grandparents

Dear Grandma & Granddad,

Honestly, I had intended to write you in response to the birthday card. I'm not sure what happened. Things have been very hectic, though -- constant to-ing & fro-ing and always something desperately in need of doing. If it's not finishing the kitchen cabinet, then it's weeding the yard or something -- and then there's the stuff we actually want to do, which we do occasionally get to.

Livia has just started working full-time at The Athens Observer, the local weekly community paper. It's a bit of an underdog. The dailies, which are both owned by somebody in Augusta, are trying to compete with the national newspapers and don't carry much of strictly local interest. The Observer, on the other hand, has (for instance) an answering machine which anyone can call and speak to; their comments are published, unless they are more or less totally incoherent. Unfortunately, such civic-mindedness is not terribly profitable, and about 2 weeks after Livia first signed on part-time as a typesetter it looked as if the paper was going to fold (being many thousands of dollars in debt). New investors were found at the last minute, and we're told there is now a slim (increasing, we hope) profit margin. I've even been helping out with some computer things, and the publisher has expressed an interest in my services. So we'll just have to see.

In other news, we've acquired a stray cat with 4 kittens, all black (all of them... except the mother has a faint white patch on her chest). The mother was obviously abandoned (she was very friendly and very thin), but the kittens are still undomesticated as yet. We're just getting to the stage where they will come in through the cat window; they still won't let either of us near enough to touch them. (For that matter, we only confirmed their existence, I think, last week.) Our other 2 cats are adapting to this with great reluctance.

As for other ongoing projects -- I believe JERS mentioned about one of my songs being played on the local weird-college-radio station. It's no great distinction, really; they will play almost anything. They only played it the second time because a friend of ours called them and requested it. But I've been playing keyboards with a group of other musicians, and that seems likely to turn into something. (What and when remain to be seen.)

Again, sorry I've been so lax. It really was not deliberate (I haven't told you about delivering the puppy to Livia's mother up in Chapel Hill, or the 2 whole days I recently spent solving computer problems at the Observer, or the many ongoing carpentry projects -- not just the cabinets! -- we're involved in).

Hope you all are feeling well. Take care, and stay in touch.

Your faithful servant,