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.