Wednesday 26th February

Not a lot has happened today except that I had to stay in all day waiting for the cable company's technician, and he didn't come until 5 o'clock.   When he came - as is usually the case - the signal was quite good and the picture was fine.  However he wasn't surprised, he said this is happening all over the place, the signal is just coming and going and there is little they can do about it.  He was a very forthcoming young man and we had an extremely enlightening discussion on the subject.   Apparently the cable company were just not prepared at all for the changeover to digital, and basically they do not really know how to put right the difficulties customers are having.   I suppose that being at the end of the line, as it were, there's nothing else he can tell me now except the truth.

 

I imagined there were lots of highly skilled technicians at the headquarters in Shawnee, all beavering away to put things right, get the system working, but no, there is just one technician there working on all the equipment that provides our television, and two people like him running round - and not just in Shawnee, I was aghast when he told me the places the two of them are covering, they are way out, some of them at least a couple of hours away.  No wonder I was having to wait so long for someone to come.  

 

I asked how many people had decided on satellite or dish television, and they are leaving in droves.  I commented that it will not be long before his company is out of business, and he smiled.   I'm sure he must be looking for another job.

 

After he left I went to the dish network office in town, and they have got signs proclaiming their deals, the welcome mats are out, and free iPads, and a big discount for a year for signing up now.  BUT  - and this is a big BUT - their internet and phone service would be no good for me.  There are restrictions on the use of the internet, they haven't got the equipment of the cable company, and I wouldn't be able to Skype.   Restrictions on the internet!!!!!!!  Not being able to Skype.   That's a fate worse than death, I can't even contemplate it.  I'd rather live without television.  If the cable company goes out of business and I can't have unrestricted use of the internet, I think I will just DIE.  So I am going to the cable company in the morning to see if I can separate my services.

 

The dish network company  told me I could have a DVR recorder, where I can record up to six programmes at once while watching something else, but I had to tell him I was too technologically challenged to be able to deal with that.  I can't even set up my DVD player due to my cognitive difficulties.

 

Afterwards I went on to Emmanuel for the Wednesday meal.  I didn't need to provide a dessert, team Mexican were doing the meal and like to do their own dessert.

On the subject of said cognitive difficulties I spent the rest of the evening on the internet researching traumatic brain injuries. 

 

Tuesday 25th February

I was reading a fascinating article today in a magazine and discovered that I have not only got ADHD, but could also have PABI - Paediatric Acquired Brain Injury -  like ADHD it accounts for a lot of what is wrong with me - impaired judgement;  difficulty concentrating;  organising myself;  finding it hard to take in information just by listening, I won't list it all.  

At this point my loved ones are probably rolling their eyes and wondering when I had a brain injury because it is not something that has been talked about, and was certainly never diagnosed.

I think I must have been 8 or 9 because I am sure Pat wasn't more than 2, she was sitting on Mum's lap in the car, and we were on a family outing.  My granddad was in the front passenger seat, Mum, Pat and I were in the back, and Dad pulled out to overtake the car in front.  I must have hit my head and lost consciousness immediately, because I have no memory of the subsequent events, only of the oncoming car. 

My Grandad was seriously injured because he was thrown through the windscreen, and he had been taken away by the time I recovered consciousness. When he got better and came home he had a deep scar on his face.    Dad, I assume, broke his sternum on the steering column, he did later have to go to hospital for surgery on his chest.  So me and my little head injury weren't exactly priority at the time. 

Mum and Pat were alright because Mum would have seen it coming and braced herself for the impact, if there was in fact any impact.  I never heard of anyone else, or another vehicle, being involved, but then the accident itself was never talked about, it never entered the annals of family history.      It might have just been Dad braking very hard that knocked me out and threw Grandad through the windscreen.   I think nowadays if one is concussed, or loses consciousness for a time, it is taken more seriously because brain injuries are now being researched and clinical trials are going on, especially since US soldiers have been coming home with traumatic brain injuries.    Apparently changes in behavior come on so gradually that it never used to occur to anybody, 60 odd years ago, that someone had suffered a traumatic brain injury.

The article does go on to say that if one thinks one has had a brain injury, or knows someone who has, one should contact the Brain Injury Association of America.   I might think about it, or I might contact the doctor who diagnosed my ADHD.  The article goes on to say that the only way to diagnose a traumatic brain injury is to assess a person's cognitive function, so therapists spend hours testing everything from reasoning ability to recall of random numbers.   Something taking hours would be a very expensive procedure in this country.   Unless - as this is such a new area of research - they are looking for guinea pigs.............



Well, I am sure that it more than you ever wanted to know about PABI.   I will write on more general subjects tomorrow.

    

Weekend

Saturday was a lovely sunny day, in the 70s with a warm breeze and I wished all the summer days could be like that, instead of being as hot as they are, in triple digits.    Philomena, a movie I had been looking forward to, just opened and it was every bit as good, better even, than I expected.  As it has just opened there were four performances and Pattisue and I went in the early afternoon.   It certainly made a change to come out of a movie and drive home in daylight.  I think what made it exceptional was Dame Judi Dench's acting, and the many twists and turns in the plot.

It was based on a true story and I did come out  angrily feeling that the Catholic church in Ireland has an awful lot to answer for.   In Philomena's youth, nuns took in expectant mothers who had been thrown out on the street and used them as slave labour, they were only allowed to see their children for one hour a day, and worked seven days a week.  When the children were five or six they were sold to adoptive parents in America.

The temperatures dropped overnight and Sunday felt very cold when I woke up, and I just didn't have any energy.  I don't think I can take these changes in temperature.  I filled a hot water bottle and went back to bed with a book.   I didn't even make it to church.

This morning I was a bit busy.   Pattisue - after the movie - was coming back from Tecumseh with her daughter,  and a drunk driver - going very fast in a restricted area - rammed into her from behind.   He was taken into custody at the scene, and an ambulance took her to the Emergency Room, where she had a CT scan on her head.  She said her back hurts a bit but mostly she suffered head injuries, and her face is almost completely covered in bruises.  It looks horrendous, but she says it looks a lot worse than it feels.   

She rang me this morning to ask for a lift  because she had to go to what they call a Walk-in Clinic at the hospital for, I think, a prescription.  I am a bit hazy about American medicine and insurance, so I don't understand why she wasn't given a prescription in the ER, but I can't get my head round American healthcare, or its lack thereof.

Thankfully the drunk driver who ran into her was insured, so I picked her up at the hospital and took her back to my house to make phone calls, so that if she was told she could have a rental car I would be able to drive her there.    As the drunk driver is still in prison he hadn't contacted his insurance company, but there isn't much doubt about his liability, and I took her home while the insurances companies concerned sorted it out.   

And the weather....

Friday 21 February

I haven't been able to watch television for the last two or three days, the signal has gone again and the picture is very bad.  The staff in the cable company office are all extremely hacked off at me stomping in there, demanding to know if I am PAYING for all the television I can't get.  And they are not sending someone out until the 28th.  I think they are giving up on me.

Went on to the hospital for my chaplaincy round.   I'm the only volunteer there on Fridays so go round both floors, and they were both full this morning.   There's a high incidence of pneumonia.  I'd never heard of patients going into hospital with pneumonia, I thought they just got better at home.   I don't go in the rooms with precaution notices, not even with gown and gloves and mask.  I told Bill that being uninsured I can't take chances, and he said that is fine, he totally understands.    

This evening I unplugged the television for a while, and that seems to improve the signal, but it doesn't last, it will be bad again tomorrow.

I love the way Bubbles sits and watches television.  Here she is looking at all the abused animals on an advert for the ASPCA, no doubt thinking how lucky she is.

This advert is followed by one for vision testing and spectacles.  Someone is at her patio door in her nightdress, calling her cat indoors, and because she can't see properly a racoon trots in and settles down on the bottom of the bed (I hope my eyes never get that bad).   That's where Bubbles gets her ideas from.

Looks like quite a nice day tomorrow.

Thursday - posted Friday

Cecil was back at the Kiwanis' meeting this morning, Thursday.  He was in a wheelchair prior to his severe stroke, so physically he appears normal.  He is able to recognise and greet people too, but sadly that is where normality ends because he is so intellectually impaired he doesn't understand what people are saying, and he is not coherent enough for them to understand him.  It is very sad but one has to admire his determination to carry on as normal.  Louise is now taking him to all the meetings he used to go to.

The Kiwanis speaker who was booked cancelled at the last minute, but Louise managed to find a speaker at the last minute.   She had taken Cecil to his Masonic Lodge meeting, and while there asked someone to talk to Kiwanis about their vision testing programme; the Masons have bought special cameras which test the vision of all the elementary school children in Shawnee.

Are Freemasons less secretive than they were, or are they just more open in America?  I know in Britain their activities are all very shrouded in secrecy, but here they are out and about in the community doing good works.

After Kiwanis I put the finishing touches to some of my cakes, frosting and decorating, then was off to the bake sale at the posh retirement home.  I think I heard someone say it cost $4000 a month to live there.  I knew I couldn't afford it.   I haven't heard yet how we did but I'm sure we didn't make as much as we do on the first Tuesday at the Senior Centre where there are more people.

My contributions are in the foreground.  Triple chocolate chip muffins (with white, dark and milk chocolate chips) apple pie cakes, lemon crunch, chocolate orange, and ginger cakes.

The firemen are having lunch in the background.  Unfortunately they were called away before they could buy any cakes.    I love the way the residents can display a photograph on a table to share with others.  It is these little touches that set this place apart from other assisted living places in Shawnee.

Pauline and Mary, two Kiwani members who were helping.  Mary also volunteers in the hospital gift shop, Pauline is treasurer of the local AARP.  In this small town one has a sense that everyone is swimming around in a very small pool.   They are outside the newly dedicated Veterans' Lounge.  I had a look round all the memorabilia on the walls, it was very interesting.

In the news......the Ukraine of course.

 

My understanding is that Ukraine want to join the EU, while the former KGB thug, President Putin, is trying to drag them back into the former Soviet Union.  Would someone politically savvy explain to me why we in the west seem to be backing Russia, why the Olympic Games are being held there?



 

A minor news item.............Because of the bad weather on the east coast the state of New Jersey has run out of salt to put on the roads (they've resorted to pickle juice) whereas up in Maine, a port on the Canadian border, they have plenty but they can't send it down the coast to NJ because the crazy laws here won't allow a US ship to travel from one port to another.

 

Another bit of trivia.  Emmanuel hands out about 50 packed lunches a day to the homeless and each month Fr Bill requests certain items for them.  This month it is bottled water and apple sauce.  Apple sauce!!   You can imagine how that mystifies me.  Are the homeless really lacking apple sauce on their pork chops???

 

 



Wednesday - final day of baking

I hesitate to give credence to anything published in this rubbish supermarket tabloid, but is the Duchess of Cambridge actually pregnant?

In spite of the bake sale tomorrow in the posh retirement community, life goes on, there's a meal at Emmanuel this evening.  I hauled out a Betty Crocker cake mix and threw some milk, dark and white chocolate chips into the mixture.   They look almost good enough for tomorrow's bake sale, but would never pass the taste test, although they will be alright for the youth of Emmanuel who want something sweet after their lasagna this evening.  The Food Police would give them fruit, and someone might bring some.   But with me they get unhealthy cakes full of fat and sugar and chocolate, preservatives and chemicals.   yum, yum.

Americans have very discerning palates, I think they cook better than we do, certainly better than I do, and I attribute it to a lifetime of the Food Network Channel.  I have learned more about cooking in the last five years than I ever learned in the previous 70.   

These are said Betty Crocker cakes.

I will eat the funny little one in the top row which didn't even make the grade to Emmanuel this evening.

As you see, I have set myself up with a temporary work station for all this baking I've been doing.

I delivered the cakes to Emmanuel but didn't stay for the meal, I had too much to do at home returning the house to half way normal.

I rang Rachel today and everything is good to go for tomorrow. They took my little notices and flyers round, delivered them to all the residents.   And it will be day 3, the final day, of a police/fire service appreciation, so while these police officers and firemen are being appreciated they might also buy our cakes.  

 

Back on Line

After a weekend of no tv or internet connection I am back!!   I wanted to be ressasured someone was coming today so went off to the cable company at 8.30.    I was told someone is booked to come on the 25th, but she would try to make it sooner.  So I was OVERJOYED when a technician turned up just after 11.    I am now wondering if there is an organisation for addicts, like 'Users Anonymous'.   "My name's Valerie and I'm an internet addict".

After the visit comes the clean-up.  This is what I have to drag out of my closet for the technician to get into the roof.   I was thinking of my Dad, who always made loft access very convenient, and installed  pull down ladders, making it so easy to get into our lofts, and use them for storage.

Trying to remember what I have been doing the last few days, but with my failing memory I am hard pressed to remember the last meal I had.  One highlight was seeing the play "Steel Magnolias" to which Bruce and Rosalyn invited me on Saturday evening, which was very enjoyable.

I went this evening to see the movie 'Monuments Men' with Pattisue and her grandson, and that was very good indeed, it was a good story and a lot happening.   I left home in plenty of time to be able to park easily, and avoid getting stressed out, like I did the other day, I took something to read and waited for them in the Food Court outside the box office.

The weather has been very good today, we are having a little summery spell.  I can't believe it was snow and ice last week.

Happy Valentine's Day (belatedly)

All day yesterday, Friday, everyone was wishing everyone else a happy Valentine's Day, like it was Christmas.

I need to organise myself to find a better time to post the blog, I leave until I am almost ready for bed then I am too tired, like I was last night.   But Friday morning I was out as usual at the hospital doing my chaplaincy round, then had my weekly hamburger at the cafeteria.  The food there is actually very good, but I like a hot, freshly cooked hamburger.

The rest of the day I was trying to sort out some 'publicity' for the bake sale on Thursday, not a subject I have much experience of, but came up with this flyer.

 

We are also hoping to try and recruit more members so I went on to put together a letter of invitation, and something on what we are about.



 

Louise is the one with all the contacts so I took my efforts to the Senior Centre, where she volunteers at the front desk on Friday afternoons, and she will distribute them.

Last night I set off to see 'Monuments Men' with Pattisue and her grandson, and it was a total debacle, not the film but the getting in.   We would have preferred, ourselves, to go to the afternoon performance but her grandson works so we decided on the 7.20 performance.   I don't think I have ever been out in the Mall and Movie Theatre Complex on a Friday evening, I think everybody in Shawnee was out there, I've never seen the like, it was busier than Christmas.

I  knew I wouldn't be able to park anywhere near the movie theatre, so pulled into a restaurant parking lot at the front of the Mall area, and hiked across the vast parking area and through the Mall, I caught up with them outside the box office where there was a very long queue.   By this time I have totally gone off the idea of seeing the film.  As her grandson was with her I started to bail out, suggesting they go in and I'll see it another time, but Pattisue seized on the chance to bail out too, she'd gone off the idea as well, so we are going to see it another day. She drove me back to my car - she has a permit to park in the handicapped area nearby - and we all went home thankful to get away from the crowds.

The previous day - Thursday - our Kiwanis speaker was one of our members, originally Iranian and Ba'hai, who gave a talk - as this is International Year of Women of the World - on significant women.   He spoke on Queen Esther of Persia, and a prominent American who became one of the first American women to become Ba'hai.   The talk wasn't about the Ba'hai, but just to let you know who they are I copied this from a Canadian website.

"The Bahá'í teachings promote the elimination of all forms of prejudice and uphold equal dignity and respect for all peoples, regardless of their racial, ethnic, religious or national background. Equality of men and women, the elimination of extremes of poverty and wealth and economic justice for all peoples, universal education, and the dignity of the individual are central Bahá'í principles."

It was an interesting talk, I think he plans more.  He distributed notelets and asked us to write down names of two prominent women.   Just off the top of my head I came up with Golda Meyer and Boadicea.  Afterwards I thought that although we all know who Boadicea was,  an Iranian American  probably hasn't heard of her.   And goodness knows how Golda Meyer popped into my head, but I think he approved of that, and she will probably be a future topic because the Ba'hai have strong links with Israel.

At the end of the meeting someone from the Red Cross came in and asked for volunteers to help pack disaster kits.   There seemed to be quite a few volunteers there as Fr Clark and I waltzed out through the front door to the rest of our Thursday morning activities, however looking at Friday's paper there seems to be only two, of which Louise - bless her heart - was one.

Louise is on the right of the picture.  

Wednesday 12th February

Today I have been mostly engaged in ancestry.com.   I signed up for a 14 day free trial, so it is a bit of a race against time to see how many ancestors I can find in a fortnight.   Just when I thought my Dad's ancestors - prior to migrating to the ship yards in the north east - had been in Norfolk since Adam was a lad, one James Bell turns up in Southampton in 1804.  So I am not just going back to the century before last, but practically the one before that.

 

Pat has been helping and turned up some very interesting research.   She found that our father's cousin was the principal soprano for the Intimate Opera company, and also sang leading roles at Sadler’s Wells Opera.  Also that another ancestor, also on our father's side of the family, took over the ownership of a Music Hall in Middlesbrough in 1866.

 

When you go back 210 years to 1804, that's an awful lot of ancestors, so we are focusing in on two of particular interest.  Pat is interested in a great grandmother, whose Bible she has, and my particular interest is the great great grandad, who legend has it was from Ulster, and an Orangeman.   He left Ulster and went to Scotland, then to the ship yards in England, but I don't know what part of Ulster, or exactly when.    A lot of Irish records were lost in a big fire in Dublin, but with all the advances in genealogy I think a lot of research has been done.

 

So what else have I been up to today.  Well, another big thing on my mind and agenda is the Bake Sale on the 20th, so I've been baking in between sessions on the computer.   And this evening there was desserts for the Wednesday meal.  I took the brownies I bought at yesterday's Senior Centre bake sale, which I buy to support Kiwanis and the sale.   I also pulled out a bowl of frosting from the back of my fridge and conceived the idea of spreading it on the bases of some cookies from the dollar store (I am catering for young people here, cakes for the residents at the retirement home will be a bit more sophisticated)   They were actually smaller than I thought, so I tipped them out on a plate and put the frosting beside them, like a dip.

 

Today was the last day of the Westminster Dog Show in New York, the greatest, most prestigious dog show in the world (I actually thought that was Crufts), and the winner - a wire haired terrier - was adorable.

 

 

 

It has done the rounds of all the news shows today.

 

 

Tuesday 11th February

There's very severe weather forecast over the south, and almost inevitable power failures with ice bringing down trees and power lines.  It seemed to be a bit in Oklahoma, that blue area north of Dallas, but actually I think it is going to be alright here.

Certainly looks better by the end of the week when it starts to get into the 70s.  That would be a heatwave in Britain.

The Kiwanis bake sale was postponed from last week, and held this morning.   I didn't sleep well last night and didn't wake early enough to get to the Senior Centre to help set up, but there's usually plenty of people helping.

There's a lot of tv advertising of ancestry.com, and I don't quite know how I wandered into their site today, but I was amazed at the resources they have now.   I did quite a bit of family history a few years ago, I don't know if my research is still around somewhere, but there is so much more information available now online.   One can access all the census returns up to 1911; when I was doing it there was only the 1881 available.   I even have hopes I might find my Irish great grandfather, there are a lot more Irish records now.   Memo to my loved ones.   I have e-mailed you a copy of what I have done today, and I hope it makes sense, I haven't got all confused and stupid.

Monday 10th February

It is still brutally cold, it has to be the coldest winter I have ever known, certainly the coldest in Oklahoma.   But then it is exceptionally cold all over the States at the moment.

The icicles here fascinate me.  Although these look as if they are hanging straight down, in actual fact  the wind blew the water back, and then they froze.  And look how long some of them are.  As I'm driving round town I'm looking at the icicles on everyone else's house, seeing if theirs are as long as mine.

I was running round town this morning on my errands.  I needed to see Louise for a few minutes about the Kiwani's bulletin and caught up with her at a diner.

A diner which has just introduced fresh baked buns!!   Fancy.   Presumably they have hitherto been serving old stale ones.  

Valentine's Day is certainly a big deal here, we just get a little card - if we're lucky.   And on the subject of Valentine's, I bumped into my new friend from the posh retirement home in the checkout line.   She was buying gifts for the single men there, a pair of socks each and confectionary.   It wasn't until I got outside I wondered about the single women.

Saturday 8th February

Weather still very cold, I am still very lethargic - or at least I am busy crocheting but not doing much else.   Just went out and picked up two or three things I needed, then picked up a takeout for supper.

Do we ever have icicles like this in England?   I don't ever remember seeing anything like them.

The morning doesn't look too promising, and I have to be out picking up donuts at 7.20.

In the news...........          It has just been announced, but last April there was a terrorist attack on an electrical substation in Silicon Valley, California.  Someone slipped into an underground vault and cut telephone cables.   Within half an hour snipers opened fire on the substation and were shooting for 19 minutes, they knocked out 17 giant transformers, but just a minute before a police car arrived the gunmen disappeared into the night.   It took utility workers 27 days to carry out repairs to restore the substation.

 

Now there is widespread concern that terrorists could bring down the power grid and it will be the end of civilisation as we know it, I don't scare easily but I am feeling a little uneasy.

    

I am sure you have heard all about the debacle at the Olympic Games.  Hotels not finished etc. But get this.   A Russian official was complaining because they had fitted surveillance cameras in the shower  and the occupant of a room turned on the shower and left it running all day.   

 

And did you know that the runner up to Sochi to host the Games was Salzburg.    SALZBURG!!!   Did the Olympic Committee take leave of their senses??   Who would think that Sochi would be a better place than Salzburg.

While I was doing this I heard a crash outside, I think the icicles have just dropped off the roof.  One wouldn't want to be underneath them.

6th February - Accession of Elizabeth II

It is said, isn't it, that we always remember where we were at the pivotal moments of history, and I remember being in my classroom at Gregg School when the headmaster, Mr Lewis (I'm surprised I still remember his name) came round to tell us George VI had died.   Needless to say our jaws hit the floor, I don't think we had  been told he was ill. 

George VI was a popular monarch and I also remember the following days of overwhelming national sadness at his death.

The Queen has another year and 126 days before she catches up with Queen Victoria's record of the longest reign.  I hadn't realised she has already overtaken George III, who came to the throne at 14 and reigned 59 years and 96 days.

Well, we got the 30% chance of snow last night, and this is what I woke up to this morning -

the snow had almost gone last night, and what there was was very crunchy underfoot, and there was nothing on the car.

Obviously there was no question of getting out anyway to Kiwanis, but the Senior Centre was closed  - as it does if the weather is bad enough for the schools to close.

So I put the kettle on, filled a hot water bottle, made tea, and settled down with the crocheting to watch the news.   And faithful companion settled down too.

As I am not going anywhere - doing anything - today, I thought I would regale you with said news.

The main lead item is a scandal involving the IRS - the hearings are going on at the moment - and as with all scandals the cover-up tends to be worse than the scandal.    Now, in this country they have a very nifty "Get out of Gaol Free" card.   It's called the 5th Amendment (to the Constitution) and it says -

The Fifth Amendment's right against self-incrimination permits an individual to refuse to disclose information that could be used against him or her in a criminal prosecution. The purpose of this right is to inhibit the government from compelling a confession through force, coercion, or deception

Isn't that handy?   The head culprit just has to sit down, which she did, invoke the 5th Amendment, clam up, and HEY PRESTO, she is off the hook.

Moving on - there is controversy because a fat woman participated in a competition called 'The Biggest Loser' and lost a vast amount of weight - as you see

now people are saying she is "too skinny".    Too Skinny!!!!  that was the idea.  My thought was "there's hope for me".   I believe it was the late Duchess of Windsor who said a woman can't be too thin, or too rich.  A sentiment with which I fervently agree.

Subway is a sandwich chain.  You go in, they pick up a foot long baguette, and you choose whatever you want on it - meat, cheese, salad, veg, there is a tremendous variety.  I quite like it but it is too much for me to eat.   And as you see, chemicals have been found in the bread, chemicals used in yoga mats, and running shoes, to give them elasticity.    Who knew.    I wondered how they came to that conclusion.  Was someone munching away on their sub and thought, hmmn,  hmmn, this tastes like my yoga mat.

The rest of the day I was sorting and filing, and made some cakes which I'm freezing for the bake sale later this month.    All day I've kept looking outside in the hope that the snow has gone.   There is less of it on the car.   I should be able to go out tomorrow, Louise said the main roads are clear, she has been out today to take Cecil to the dentist.

Wednesday 5th February

We didn't get the 70% forecast of snow I thought would come this morning.  I had rung the church yesterday to say I didn't think I would be able to do the desserts for tonight's meal, but actually there was no problem in getting out, and I picked up the flowers from Emmanuel and took them to the hospital.    Other than that I haven't done a lot today. 

Pattisue rang and I think we have given up on "12 years a slave", it is too bitingly cold to go out.   I don't mind as I wasn't terribly keen.   We are both very keen however on seeing "Monuments Men" a WWII movie in which an Allied platoon comprising seven museum directors, curators and art historians enter Germany with the Allied forces to rescue artworks plundered by the Nazis.    Pattisue laughed when I said I was longing to hear the clipped  British accents of the British officers in the film, asked if I was tired of the Oklahoma twang.

In the news....there is a disorder - or maybe it is just a legal defence - called "affluenza".   It affects kids from wealthy parents who have been spoiled rotten and don't know right from wrong.  One of these kids, a 16 year old, got drunk, got behind the wheel of a truck and killed four people, and very seriously injured two others.  He was sentenced to ten years probation.   In most states death from drunken driving carries a sentence of life imprisonment without parole, but this kid was tried in a Juvenile Court.   The parents - quite rightly - are going to lose everything they've got; the victims' relatives are all filing lawsuits against them.   I think the parents should have known what their 16 year old was up to, where he was going, what he doing.

The weather is not about to get any better - I hope I can make it to Kiwanis in the morning.

A Wind Chill Advisory is issued by the National Weather Service when the wind chill is low enough that it is a threat if adequate protection is not taken against hypothermia and frostbite.   Areas prone to colder temperatures often require the wind chill to be lower before issuing an advisory.

Winter Weather Advisory is when snow, freezing rain or sleet presents a hazard but does not constitute a warning.   And that varies from state to state.  A few flakes of snow in Florida would constitute a weather advisory, but in other states it would have to be several feet deep (almost).

As you see, it is pretty chilly right now, and I am feeling cold.   I am going to ring the Energy Company in the morning, tell them to stop monitoring and turning down my thermostat.   Sometimes I think there is just too much technology.

Monday/Tuesday morning

Monday
I wasn't prepared for the bad weather coming in and was anxious about stocking up, particularly on goats milk from Walmart.  It wasn't going to be easy going out today, but it was my only 'window of opportunity' as they say.   It meant grabbing a broom and brushing 6" of snow off my car....

I know I took this on Sunday but it was all still there on Monday morning.   I swept all the snow off, and cleared it a bit behind the car (I should have waited until the afternoon, by then it had melted anyway from some rain) and I set off up the north/south road nearest to me.   The drive was a total nightmare.  The road was so icy I was doing about 10 miles an hour all the way, and even then I felt the wheels slide a couple of times.   I broke a record shopping.  Normally I pile everything into the child's seat in the trolley, but today it spilled over into the trolley itself, that's how much I got.  The bill at the checkout was a record too.

Coming back down the other north/south road was a lot easier, it had cleared quite a bit by then.

Tuesday morning

A severe weather front is moving in.   I took this this morning at 4.58, I've been up with the lark.

 

 

Going round Walmart I couldn't find any gloves and asked an assistant.  She brought me these,

 

of course I wanted to know what those marks were on the fingers.  I was told it was so people could text without taking the gloves off.  Why can't they take them off???????   This is Oklahoma for crying out loud, it's not Antarctica, it's not even Minnesota.

Also going round Walmart I saw this.

It is a wonderful scooter and it totally folds up.  Ever since I've walked with Roy and his grandson on a scooter alongside the Cuckmere it has been my heart's desire to have a scooter.  In Denton I used to fantasise about whizzing along the seafront (I would have put a woolly hat on, and dark glasses) but in this country there isn't anywhere for people to even walk, far less for demented old ladies in woolly hats and dark glasses to ride scooters.

 

I've just seen this on the morning's television.  It is for people who can't remember their passwords.  They swallow it and sensors home in on where their passwords are stored, and unlock them.   I'd liketo know how they get it down.  I can't even swallow a regular Ibuprofen cut in half.   One would think an easier solution would be write down the passwords, but that is very DANGEROUS,    bandits might access them.   Of course they would, if one is stupid enough to leave them lying around where bandits can access them. 





Groundhog Day

In 1866 German immigrants in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania established February 2nd as Groundhog Day.   Old men dressed up in 19th century gear drag a groundhog out of its burrow, and if it sees its shadow - which it did this morning - there is going to be six more weeks of winter.

The legend is based on the European custom of predicting the winter by the weather conditions on Candlemas.    Candlemas is the day on which Mary is believed to have presented Jesus to Simeon in the Temple, following the forty day period of purification of mothers after childbirth.

When I looked outside this morning about 5.30 there was just a thin layer of snow and ice, but by 9.30 it was snowing heavily, so I haven't been out at all.



 

 

 

Yesterday, Saturday, which feels like a week ago, I went round the nursing home with Phyllis.  I didn't realise until I got there that this was an annual event under the auspices of the AARP, of which she is President and I am an occasional member.   She asked me to bring 26 bananas - they are only 50 cents a lb at the moment so that was no big deal - she brought a couple of bags of oranges, and a couple of boxes of little gifts collected by the AARP during the year.   We loaded them on to a cart which I pushed while she dispensed the largesse and was very sweet and kind to all the residents.   She knew quite a few of the residents because she visits for the Hospice.

In the evening I had planned to see '12 Years a Slave' with Pattisue, but I had a raging toothache (which has now subsided) so had to call it off.  And looking at the weather for the rest of the week I don't think we are going to make it.

Someone was asking this afternoon how Bubbles is, so I've just taken this picture of her lying beside the drawer which came crashing down yesterday.    It is not just alarm clocks and gloves which are shoddy imports from China, but the furniture is as well.  And I didn't buy it in Walmart.  It comes from a proper furniture shop in Main Street.  My nightstand is just as bad.