LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Lafayette resident Lois Lowry enjoyed some much needed relief from a hot Indiana summer day on Friday. Lowry has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and said she doesn't get out much, especially in the heat. A fan to help keep the cool air circulating was a much needed item.

"It will be more comfortable," Lowry said.

Lois was stop number one for employees from Lowe's delivering fans Friday morning. The store donated 50 fans to the Area IV Agency for Aging and Community Action Programs.

"The store itself, our store, has the ability to designate funds that are given to us, for what we consider to be a worthy cause," said Human Resources Manager Dennis Del Carlo.

That worthy cause was giving Area IV clients like Lowry a break from the hot weather.

Actually,  I am in Maine, not Indiana, and the weather is lovely...sunny and in the 70's...but I'm glad to hear that my namesake, or counterpart, or doppelganger, is being taken care of.

I am SO CLOSE to the end of a very lengthy manuscript...longest I've ever written. And though certainly it will need revision—this is its first draft—it always feels good, no matter what the length of the book, to type THE END. Not good in a "whew, glad that horrible task is done" sense....but good because I can stop wrestling with plot details. Next, after typing "the end"...which I expect to do in the next week....I will print it out, close to 450 pages, I expect, and then sit down and read it: first to myself, silently; then (still to myself) aloud. That allows me to hear glaring errors or even small lapses in fluidity. Then I'll make a batch of changes, print it out again, and send it to the editor. The next round of questions and comments will come from her.

I have a friend visiting who is also working—she's a professor (yes, they do work in the summer!)—and has often visited here. Our dogs play together and she and I work in separate rooms and meet for wine and dinner. Luckily her dog, a German Shepherd named Sophie, in comfortable with cats, so Lulu is just fine with this round of company.

I got a phone call a little while ago from grandson Rhys, age 10, on his way to the airport, headed for a long weekend in Washington DC with his family. "Just checking to see how Lulu is doing," he said.

Lulu is great, I assured him.

She seems to like windowsills.