Tuesday

I haven't done very much since posting my last blog on Sunday, I went out to dinner with Pattisue at the China Buffet Sunday evening.   I didn't make it to church at all, I was too tired still from driving.  As I've said before, I'm too old for these capers.

I have been watching the news on television and this caught my attention.  The obesity epidemic here, and the political correctness lobby, have reached new heights of absurdity.

 

We now have fat Barbie.  Whoever thought, back in the day, that Barbie would get fat.  But it is to help obese children feel better about themselves.   Now, don't get me wrong.  I am all in favour of making a child feel better - and I recognise that obesity here is largely a poverty issue - but this is not the answer.   Children should be given a healthier diet, not fat Barbies to play with.

 

Hundreds of new laws have been passed, coming into effect tomorrow.  I am still looking, but here is one to be getting on with.    In Oregon a law has been passed allowing new mothers to take home their baby's placenta.    Yew!!!    Can you see that being introduced in the House as a Private Member's Bill?   MP's would be rolling in the aisles.

Pictures from Beaumont

The Monastery cat.   In true fairy tale fashion this cat turned up at the patio door, 15 years ago, on a very wet, cold night, face pressed against the door, and Peter and Michael took her in.  And she's never looked back.  She is as well behaved as Bubbles.  At mealtimes she sits on the sideboard behind Michael, and when he lays his knife and fork on the plate and pushes the chair back, she knows she can jump in his lap.   He sometimes puts his plate down with a few morsels for her. At first I cringed at that....then I told myself that dishwashers get the water up to very high temperatures, it should be alright.

That television by the way is a lot more than a tv.  Michael gets the BBC and German news channels through the internet on it.   And when I arrived in the middle of an Oblates Meeting, it was being video conferenced to people in Colorado, and another state.

Someone said they thought monks lived in cells, they didn't have flat screen televisions and grand pianos in their living rooms.  Monastic life has obviously moved on from Bede and his monastery in Jarrow, writing the History of England.

The Gulf of Mexico.   The beach.  Peter and Michael thought I would jump out of the car and run along the beach.  I am not sure if they believed me, but it is like this all the way along.

Driving back along what I suppose is the coast road, through the oil refineries, I thought this was the best view of the ocean I was going to get, so pulled over, 

The menu was - caramelized carrot soup;  prime rib of beef au jus; mashed potatoes; roasted Brussels;  rolls;  white fruitcake, chocolate orange peels, vanilla ice cream, nut toffee.

All the time I was away I was plagued with the neck pain/headache at the base of my skull, Michael and Peter lent me something that is heated in the microwave, to put on my neck.   And now I am home I have been lying on a hot water bottle since I got back.   I might see the doctor again tomorrow, but I know she wants me to go to a neurosurgeon in Norman, but that road is paved with thousands of dollars worth of CT scans and MRI's.   I might ask her if she thinks I've just got arthritis there. 

Wednesday 18th December

My desktop pc is still functioning - just about.  Every time I click on something I get an error message.   But I found the downtown computer repair shop - with a new name, and a new location, (??) but still downtown, and am taking it in to them tomorrow, Thursday, and will pick it up when I get back from Beaumont.   In the meantime I managed - to my amazement - to set up Skype on my laptop.

I shouldn't have been so sarky yesterday about our self appointed neighbourhood sheriff.  I was grateful to her this morning.  I went out to the car early and left the keys dangling in the door;  it was fortunate that she noticed and retrieved them.  

I heard a bit more about the big black man leaping over the fence - he was stoned apparently.   He must have leapt back pretty sharp, Donna waved a 9mm handgun at him (which she called a pea shooter)  I don't know anything about handguns - obviously - so just did a quick internet search on them, and they are definitely deadly weapons.  Not really something to wave about at an intruder in your garden (or my garden).   I also learned that the two men living in the house behind me have just come out of the State Penitentiary (salubrious neighbourhood I live in), and that the barking pit bull had 13 puppies - can that be right?   Perhaps that is more than one litter.   Donna confirmed it was a puppy mill.  If I'd known that earlier I would have been on to Animal Welfare.

I didn't need to make a dessert for this evening's meal, team Mexican - who were cooking - like to do their own.  

I am not sure I will be able to write this up while I am away.  I know I can't access itsyourturn.  The Catholic Diocese of Beaumont have blocked such websites on the monastery's computers.  Michael has had words with them about it because he thinks guests should not be restricted.   I might go into Beaumont and look for a Starbucks.

Tuesday 17th December.

Had to go to the dentist this morning for a check up, and a session with the hygienist.   Made an appointment for some fillings in January.   Was also warned that the  work that needs to be done involving crowns and bridges, really can't be put off much longer.  That's going to be about $5000.   Are dentists still seeing NHS patients in Britain, it would be cheaper to come home?  Told myself to calm down, it won't look so bad once I've put it through the currency converter.  

It was a lovely bright day for bowling along Highway 9 to Norman.   I didn't make my customary stop though at Barnes & Noble, and the Starbucks in the middle.  Got too much to do getting ready to go away on Friday.

Yesterday morning I was out early, and while I was scraping the ice off the windscreen a police car pulls up opposite.   My next door neighbour, Donna - the self appointed sheriff of this neighbourhood - called him out because 'a big black man' jumped over the fence at the back (and actually into my garden)  Now, call me a bleeding heart liberal, but my first thought was to wonder if she would have bothered if he had been white.   I suggested he was probably taking a short cut, and she walked off when she saw we were just not on the same page over this.

Chaplain Bill roared with laughter when I told him about my neighbour, racially profiling.  Said she was giving a description.

Going out this afternoon I thought I'd see if the local computer shop downtown could give my laptop a little tune up, and install Skype, and I was surprised to see it had gone out of business.  I never saw its going.  Perhaps too many people, like me, started going to Staples.

Memo to my loved ones - perhaps one of you on Skype can talk me through setting up Skype on my laptop.  I am pretty sure I have an inbuilt webcam.

This evening was the joint Christmas party of the Shawnee Peace Fellowship, and Sustainable Shawnee.   Last year it was tapas in the Art Gallery and quite nice.   Tonight it was in a rather drab sandwich shop downtown.   Talk about sublime to the gor blimey.  I didn't bother.   I might have done if I didn't still have 101 things to do.

3rd in Advent - 'Stir Up Sunday'

The term 'Stir up Sunday' comes from the collect for the 3rd in Advent, the first line of which is 'Stir up O Lord.....'   It is also the day, in the Victorian and Edwardian kitchens of the well-to-do, that the Christmas puddings were made, which was an all day job.   Before the era of Peek Freans Christmas puddings, and Sainsburys.

The bitter weather I mentioned this morning warmed up, the ice disappeared off the car, and it was about 67 at one point when I was driving through town.

My friend Sandra, who is a member of Emmanuel, plays the organ at another church and this evening I went to a concert she had organised at that church, she was playing the piano and it was lovely.

And finally, the weather.....

 

 

 

Harking back to yesterday morning......there was another competition at the Democrat's Christmas breakfast, which I won, I think because of the novelty, being a stranger etc.  Everyone brings a favourite coffee mug...

 



Mine shows all the fishing grounds around the British Isles.   But I don't drink out of it, it is a cherished reminder of home.  I am sure fishermen nowadays have all the latest in high tech communication systems, but when I was child they had to listen to the shipping forecast on the radio.  And I loved that.   Bailey; Rockhall;  Malin;  Hebrides; Faroes; Fair Isle.........................I learned them all.

 

Saturday

Pattisue picked me up this morning and took me with her to the local Democrats breakfast Christmas party.   It was quite a novelty going to a party at breakfast time, but everyone brought a dish and there was some very good food.   And we started with a party game.   Everyone was given the name on their back of a prominent Democrat, and the object of the game was to guess who it was, so the idea was to ask people for clues.  Mine was Woodrow Wilson.   Woodrow Wilson!!!!!!   I would have got Elizabeth Warren - who briefly entertained hopes of running for President, but I think she has been told to leave the field clear for Hilary Clinton to be the first woman President - before I thought of Woodrow Wilson.  I think the guy who stuck it on my back thought that I might know he was President in WW1 before knowing anyone modern. 

Most people there, predictably, were elderly, but there was a lively young man from the Young Democrats, obviously passionate about politics and the Democrats.   Although their politics were different he reminded me of the young William Hague, who first spoke at the Conservative Party Conference when he was 16, and his passion for politics was so evident I thought then he would go far.   Twenty years later when he was 36 he became leader of the Conservative Party - the first leader who never became Prime Minister.

The rest of the day, the weekend in fact, is focused on getting ready to go down to Beaumont on Friday.  I keep anxiously looking at the long range weather forecasts.   It is Sunday morning now, have looked outside and the car it so totally iced up I decided I wasn't going anywhere soon.

Friday 13th December

The Kiwanis speaker yesterday was the very popular owner of the local flour mill, the largest business in Shawnee, started by his grandfather in 1891.    He talked a little of the history of the business but most people are familiar with it, even I have read up about it.   He also talked a little about his philosophy on life, how important it is to reconnect with people, and that what lasts is what we share with one another.  He served in the Korean War and recently organised a reunion of his comrades in Shawnee.  He and Cecil are good friends, they are both very active in Veteran affairs and instrumental in establishing an impressive memorial in the (re-named) Veterans Park, and he was able to show his comrades their names on the memorial.

I live fairly near the railway tracks and sometimes hear the mournful whistle of the train in the early hours of the morning, when it is delivering wheat from Kansas.  It sounds like something out of a Johnny Cash movie.

I went to Communion, then out to lunch.  Fr Bill had to go somewhere, so the usual four of us went to a Mexican restaurant.  Mexican restaurants are a bit of a minefield for me, avoiding the spicy.  I point to a dish, ask the waiter if it is spicy, but they never say yes or no, it is always "not really, just a bit".  Surely 'just a bit' means yes?   Someone told the waiter I want ultra bland, and I said YES, that's it, ultra bland.  And what I'd really like is rice and beans with guacamole and sour cream, and a big dollop of each, not half a spoonful (well, I might not have added the last bit).   Coming out someone said that was very entertaining, they like watching Valerie order.  I'm not just putting on pantomimes in the Cable Company.

I woke up this morning, Friday, to some very heavy rain which has seen off most of the snow that was around.    I did my hospital chaplaincy round and had a long lunch with Chaplain Bill, getting to know each other.

I needed to go to my pharmacy for a refill of a prescription I take every day.  He was looking at the computer and said it would be alright, but really I am going too soon for it.  I told him I knocked the container off the nightstand and a lot of them rolled about on my dusty bedroom floor.  He laughed and asked if I couldn't dust them down.   Now - as this is all in the public domain - everyone knows what a slovenly housewife I am.

This is the Nativity Scene I took outside the hospital this morning.    This is fine, and acceptable, it is on private property, not funded by taxpayers.

This however in the Senior Centre is an entirely different matter, it is promoting religion in a public place funded by tax payers, a heinous breach of the Constitution, and as I walked out of the Centre the person I was with expressed disapproval.

There were 57 shootings in schools in a year - I am not sure if it was last year, or this one.  And there was another this morning in Colorado.   One student is seriously injured, another less so, and the student with the gun shot himself.   After Dunblane we banned hand guns and there hasn't been a school shooting since, but here the carnage goes on................

  When the children come out of the school they have to run out with their hands raised, and are then frisked to be sure no one else is carrying a gun.  

                                                   
      

Wednesday 11th December

The snow is going, I went out yesterday and today while the going was good.    Not a lot to write about.   I realised it is just next week I am going away for Christmas, and haven't done much to prepare for it, so I rang my friend Jay, who is going to see to Bubbles, then went to Walmart to stock up on cat litter and bags of food.   A trip I made in the middle of the night while the store was quiet, and I could park near the entrance and avoid the slippery places.

This afternoon I was ringing my little hand bell with Phyllis, collecting for the Salvation Army.  I was surprised that a lot of people are paid to collect - I would have thought that would defeat the object of the exercise.   We weren't paid though, Phyllis was asked, as President of the AARP, if she would send some volunteers.     I got a bit cold as I left the house rather hurriedly without wrapping myself up as well as I could have done.

Afterwards had supper at Emmanuel.   I didn't need to make any cakes for dessert.   There was a party on Sunday morning after the 10.30 service - which I didn't attend because it was too icy to get out -  and there was lots of cake left over.

Bubbles puts her herself to bed, she has even cottoned on to which side is hers - ie not the side next to the nightstand - but if she wakes up and I am not there she comes and settles down in the computer room.   I don't know why she doesn't just turn over and go back to sleep.
              

Monday 9th December

Emerging from hibernation yesterday meant standing on the front porch taking pictures.  I got a bit further today, putting on boots and brushing snow and ice off the car and going to the hospital.  Once I left my own street, which was a bit slippy, the main roads were alright, but I still crawled along.   The  hospital's car park was clear and I parked near the entrance anyway.    The schools and Senior Centre are still closed.

I went to see Cecil.  Louise and all the family were with him.  The first stroke he had two or three weeks ago was devastating, but the one he had on Sunday evening was minor in comparison, he smiled and recognised me when I went in, but doesn't seem able to talk.    I spent a little while talking to the family then went to find Bill, the new senior chaplain.   Another chaplaincy volunteer wasn't able to get there, so I said as I was there I would go round a floor.   Notched up some brownie points.

Afterwards had lunch there, then went to Walmart, but there was too much car park that looked icy, so I didn't get out.    I got what I needed at another smaller supermarket on the way home.

Just took these pictures.   It's the middle of the night, but I'm not needing to be up early.

Looks above freezing about noon.

Sunday 8th December

Emerging from hibernation.    Took this picture earlier this afternoon.

As you can see, the road is not too bad and I should be able to get out in the morning.   And I need to get to the hospital.   I had a call from Louise this afternoon that Cecil has had another stroke.   I have been in since Thursday though, with the hatches battened down.

Wednesday doesn't look too bad, Phyllis has got me down bell ringing with her outside the post office, collecting for the Salvation Army.   The Salvation Army here can collect money, but they can't set up their band and sing carols like they do at home.   That is a breach of Federal Law and a terrible offence, no one can promote any religion in a public place, and singing carols - even children singing 'Joy to the World' in the Senior Centre, is a BAD THING and cause for complaint by those ever watchful for breaches of the separation of church and state.

And after that little diatribe I think I'll have my watchdogs reminding me that my blog is in the public domain.   

Tampa looks like the place to be.    I wondered how long it would take me to get there.   It is 1213 miles, and would take a normal person 18.5 hours to drive.   It would take me a fortnight.

Thursday - The Weather

Although the weather was alright when I woke up it had been decided that schools were going to close today because of the weather, so the Senior Centre was closed too, and there was no Kiwanis.

As forecast though, the weather got bad as the day wore on.

The storm was moving from Dallas through to Connecticut.   Arkansas had it quite bad.

 

 

We haven't had any power failures here yet.   I keep my thermos filled up with hot water.

My television woes continue, although it has been alright today.   I had a technician out Tuesday and Wednesday evening because the reception has been so bad.  He said it was probably due to the fact that they were working, but they would not be working today and tomorrow due to the weather, and the picture has been alright.

 I was asking why we had to have all this inconvenience and chaos, and he told me that the Federal Government had told all the cable companies that they had to change from analogue to digital before June 2014.   The technicians working on it are all subcontractors who have come from other states, they're not from round these parts.    I think it is a government scheme to get people working, and the employment figures looking better.

I finished my little crocheting project I was working on, I'll take a picture of it tomorrow.   As it is now Advent I'll be changing my decorations - putting away the autumn things and getting out the Christmas.

I rang Phyllis this evening for a natter, she lives outside Shawnee and surprisingly had been out and about, visiting the sick and needy, but is staying in tomorrow.

Wednesday afternoon

My back is a lot better, I went to Walmart and bought a lumbar support cushion but I think the problem has been the worn down seat of my computer chair.  I notice now I have twinges of pain whenever I sit in it, so it has been pensioned off.

The headache - which was worse than the back pain, is also better, and there is a tremendous relief in being painfree after several days of discomfort.

I heard a disturbing report on the cause of headaches.   It is that they can be triggered by Bisphenol A which is in plastics - water bottles, frozen meals.   I don't know though how one lives in the modern world without contact with plastics.   Anyone interested can Google Bisphenol A.

The last few days I've been engaged in Kiwanis.   Made some cakes for the Bake Sale yesterday morning.   Louise always brings loads but I think she doubled her output yesterday, making herself busy during her sleepless nights.   Also working on the weekly bulletin which members get at the Thursday meeting.   Louise used to fill up spaces on the sheet with inspirational sayings, or jokes, so I've been trawling through the internet, and came up with this little story.

Cecil is definitely making progress, Louise got a lot of heat because she wouldn't take him to the Bake Sale, he had to have his physical therapy.   But I understand he made it to his Masonic Lodge last night.

Miracles in the Red Sea (Joke)

A newly converted hippie was very interestedly reading the Bible while waiting for transportation and every now and then would exclaim, “Alleluia, Praise the Lord, Amen” and on and on as he read on.

A skeptic (I feel I have to use American spellings when writing for Americans) heard him and came and asked what he was reading. He answered” I am reading how God parted the Red Sea and let the Israelites go through–- that is a miracle!”

The skeptic explained “Do not believe everything the Bible tells you. The truth of the matter is that that body of water was only really 6 inches deep–- so it was not miracle.”

The hippie nodded in disappointment but kept on reading as the skeptic was walking away feeling proud that he had set the hippie straight. All of a sudden the skeptic heard the hippie let out a big “Alleluia, Praise the Lord!”.

At this the skeptic came back to him and asked, “What is it this time?”   The hippie said excitedly in one breath, “This one is a real miracle, God drowned the whole Egyptian army in 6 inches of water!!!”

This morning, Wednesday, I was out early.   I dropped into Cecil's nursing home at 8 o'clock with the bulletin so that Louise could print it off on her church printer.  His stroke was very severe so I was pleased he recognised me.  He is certainly making good progress, I sat with them both for a time while he was having physical therapy on his right hand - learning how to use it so that he will be able to feed himself.

The weather here is forecast to be dire, with an ice storm moving in, which is the worst kind of weather to have here, it brings down the power lines.

I went on to Walmart to stock up on some bread and milk.   At the checkout I am watching, like a hawk, while the cashier was packing my bags.   They don't move things along like we do, they scan each thing and drop it into a bag, I'm saying "don't put all the tins in one bag, it's too heavy for me to carry, I'll put my back out".

I think I'll publish this and move on to doing something else.

Sunday 1st December

Not a lot to say, except that I felt a bit better when I woke up this morning, and I went to the 10.30 service at Emmanuel, and as the day went on the pain and discomfort gradually lessened.   Rosalyn dropped by this afternoon with a present - she had read my blog (she is the only American with permission to do so) and she bought me a spare hot water bottle;  there is a place here apparently that sells a few.   Wasn't that kind.   I am overwhelmed sometimes at how kind people are to me here.

As I said, there's not a lot to say, but I thought a few words on my current state of health was better than nothing.