A lot of exciting stuff happened at the office today.

We got the new issue . Subscribers won’t get theirs (the Sept/Oct, No. 107) for a few more days. We’re always first because we get these half dozen issues FedExed to us. The cover looks beautiful. It’s very important to have a good looking cover for the sake of newsstand sales. It doesn’t matter what’s in the issue when it comes to percent sell-through on the newsstand. Bright cover equals good sales; dark cover equals low sales. Issue 16 (July/August 1992) had dynamite articles and a brilliant Don Childers’ cover drawing that showed a wolf howling at the moon at night and a cabin with glowing windows in the background. But the sales went through the floor because it was dark. Weird huh?

I love getting the new issue. It’s like Christmas. I wonder if other publishers get the same thrill I get. Work pretty much stops in the office when it arrives, and we all look through it to make sure everything looks good. If it doesn’t, of course, there’s nothing we can do about it at this point.

Also delivered to the office today were some new Trojan batteries for my GEM car, a tiny electric car I use only on the golf course, even though it’s legal on the road. I bought it used from another golfer about seven months ago when it became apparent that one of my knees would no longer reliably take me walking for nine holes.

Buying the GEM outweighed continuing to pay golf cart fees at my local course, Cedar Bend, which is 10 miles north of town and the best 9-hole course in the Northwest. I knew the batteries were nearly worn out when I bought it, so I expected to have to buy more. The cart takes six, each weighing 66 pounds. That’s 400 pounds in batteries. Wow! I’ll install them tomorrow.

Workers also broke ground on a new Subway franchise going into the front of our building. I brought in five sets of gun earmuffs for the ladies because workers were scheduled to do a lot of jackhammering on the concrete to put in the plumbing to the sewer. It was noisy all day. Thankfully, they used a concrete saw to do much of the work. A new Subway for Gold Beach is a big deal. This little town of 1500 is buzzing with excitement. The BHM building is located across the street from the 250-student high school, which has an open campus, meaning the students can leave campus and head to Subway to buy a sandwich at lunch time. That was a big plus for the franchise holder deciding to locate here. When my family travels we always stop at Subway. Now I don’t have to leave town to get one.

I also found a big spider on my propane tank near my woodpile today and have posted its picture here to see if someone can tell me what kind it is. It’s about an inch long and has white and brown stripes on its legs. If you know, maybe you can click the comments button below this post to let me know, or send me an email at editor at backwoodshome.com.

Annie and Erik also arrived in North Carolina today. They’ll sign the lease on their rental tomorrow. Thank God! I have to get Annie to show me how to get the captions for these photos to show up in Firefox. They show up in IE, but not Firefox. I’m a computer idiot.