Tuesday, January 24, 1984

Love is not in the hospital after all! He went to the VA hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana, but the doctors had forgotten to call him back yesterday to tell him that they couldn't do the surgery on Thursday. He made the four-hundred mile trip and lost a day's work for nothing. The told him originally to take aspirin every day, but the wouldn't do the surgery because he is taking the aspirin, as prescribed. He must stop taking aspirin two weeks before surgery, but they don't know when they can reschedule surgery again. Everything about Love's medical condition has had a 'catch 22'. He's 'between a rock and a hard place'. Everyday he's alive is a miracle. He feels he is going to die before surgery is rescheduled, at least another two weeks away. He is terribly upset! I, too, now feel so utterly helpless about my own future, and every aspect of my life as well, Love included.

Mom's repairman stopped by. He had looked at Mom's kitchen counter tops that need to be replaced in her house. I told him to buy whatever he needs and replace them. She also needs a light over her sink, and the wallpaper between the counter top and the upper cabinets. He said he could replace the counter top, put up a light fixture and put two shut-off valves on the water lines under the sink for $317.00, which includes labor. Mom has not done anything to her house since Dad died in 1976, and everything is n a state of disrepair. Last month I made her spend $240.00 to fix her bathroom. There's still about$2,000.00 more repairs in the main house to go and $5,000.00 in the breezeway addition to fix it the way Dad envisioned and designed it. Unfortunately, Dad died before he finished everything.

I've been checking into the cost of publishing today. An initial investment to try to sell just one copy of a manual would be about $110.00 for copyright, advertisement, and postage and handling. It it didn't sell thirty-three copies at $15.98 each, it wouldn't break even. To be able to afford another advertisement next week, another forty-three copies would have to be sold. The difference in publishing prices is phenomenal! In the above instance, each copy, including postage, handling, mailing envelope and covering letter costs $12.75. With bank financing with collateral, the cost are much lower, and the selling price could be much lower, but I can't picture a bank loaning any money to anyone on unemployment. To print one-thousand copies, only $1,550.00. Each copy would cost about $2.15, including all of the expenses, and it could sell for $4.98 and make about $1.85. Each additional fifteen hundred copies would cost less still, about $1.20. Publishing must be a mind-boggling, profitable business. I always thought I would like to be Road Commissioner for a year, but now, considering, I think I would like to be a publisher. If I did nothing else for one year, but counted the toes on both feet and all my fingers and thumbs, I don't think I would be able to count the net profit a publisher must make in a year.