We’re very busy on deadline, but Lenie and I did have time to take in Robby’s first soccer game of his high school career, which was played about a half mile from the office at the grammar school field. Gold Beach High won, of course. We beat Illinois Valley, whose team had to travel about three hours for the game from a town that’s even smaller than ours. They are in a higher division than we are so it was a big thrill for us to beat them 1 to 0.

We’ll work through the weekend on deadline for Issue No. 108, which is the Nov/Dec 2008 issue. Lot of work left to do. Lots and lots. I try and start off deadline for an issue by reading the letters from readers and arranging them for the Letters section. The letters pump me up and allow me to dive into the workload. I never fail to be utterly humbled by the nice things people say about the magazine.

Silveira has a great article that will lead the issue, and from which we’ll get our cover. Lenie emailed Don Childers a photo from the article so he’ll have a guide for his cover drawing.

While we’re on deadline tomorrow in our downtown Gold Beach office, a crafts fair will be taking place in our parking lot, a car wash to raise money for the soccer team will be taking place in the parking lot of the bank next door, and a multi-school cross-country meet that includes two of my sons will be taking place in a route that goes around the high school track, then out of the school grounds along the nearby beach, then back to the finish line at the school. It’s going to be a busy little town. My youngest son, Sammy, who will be running in the cross-country meet, will race back to the fair at the BHM parking lot to sell brownies and cookies.

The issue is strong, again. Annie finally got her computer running in North Carolina today so we sent articles to her to lay out. Deadline is Thursday, Sept. 13. A lot of things will come together by Tuesday. It will be like magic. I’ll be the master conductor once again. My symphony is all ready to go. Just a few chairs need to be put in place, a few strings tightened to the proper pitch. Everyone knows their part. It will be a wonderful symphony. I actually play a very limited role in the talent it takes to produce this symphony. My talent is to organize, then conduct it. Sometimes I get a tremendous feeling of power, but then I quickly remember my proper role after reading a brilliant article by the likes of Massad Ayoob.

I’m working Jackie Clay too hard on her new weblog, so I told her to treat it secondary to the print issue. It is the print issue that BHM is all about. The blogs are fun but the print issue is the real thing. So Jackie’s next blog entry may be delayed a bit. Silveira is far too busy to post into his blog so I’ve put a photo of him in this blog post.

It’s 11 pm. Good night!