Wednesday

I have had a bad cough for some time, and couldn't stop coughing this morning so called Bill at the hospital, I didn't feel too bad but I couldn't go round the floor mixing with patients and coughing away.

Last night I was working on cross stitching the wording on the wedding card, but when  I woke this morning and looked at it in daylight I saw I had mistakenly used two different shades of green - when I was using them I couldn't tell the difference in artificial light.   I had the usual conversation with myself, that we do in these situations -

"perhaps no one will notice".

"yes of course they will, it is blatantly obvious in daylight".

"perhaps I can make it look like it is supposed to be like that"

"yeah, right".

So I started again.   Which is what I have been doing most of the day, apart from knocking up chocolate chip cookies for the Wednesday meal, and the Kiwanis' bulletin for tomorrow.

In the news..............

Oklahoma is a death penalty state and a guy who had been on death row for 10 years  was executed today.   I wondered why it was suddenly decided, after ten years, that today would be a good day for him to die.   Anyway, I digress.   The point of this story is that they are executed here with a lethal injection (whatever happened to the electric chair I wondered) but for some reason the injection was botched, I think the drug itself was experimental and they didn't get it right, and it took 43 minutes for him to die, he convulsed and was suffering.      And you would not believe the outrage that caused.   This guy was sentenced to death  because he kidnapped a young girl who had just graduated high school, a lovely girl apparently with her whole life in front of her, and her parents' only child.   He first of all repeatedly raped her, then he shot her, but didn't kill her.  He told his two accomplices to dig her grave and made her watch them.   Then they buried her alive.   Goodness only knows how much suffering she went through, and how many hours it took for her to die in her shallow grave, and all the bleeding heart liberals here are up in arms, protesting, because it took 43 minutes for HIM to die!!!!!!!!!

Another news item is that Britain used to be the leading economy in the world but the US overtook us in 1872, and since that time it has been Top Dog on the world stage.   But - and herein lies the chagrin - China is catching up and it is predicted that some time this year China will be the leading world economy.

Tuesday 29th April

We have had some very severe weather across the Mid West the last couple of days.  Tornadoes in Oklahoma and Arkansas.

It is not a good picture but that is an 18 wheeler truck blown over on its side.

It is not usual to have fatalities in tornadoes because there is enough warning to get into a shelter, but I think these tornadoes came through in the night.

It is moving westwards, the severe weather, and at the moment there is very serious flooding in the area of the Florida panhandle and Alabama.   People are stranded in their cars out there on the state line,  twittering away like mad.

Meanwhile in Shawnee where we have had temperatures in the 80s, they dropped to 60 today and it feels really cold.

I, however have been beavering away at the needlework for the wedding present.  I finished the little decorative pillow.

I think I told you both families of the couple are into Irish dancing.   All of Mark and Mary's offspring are very good at it - all 9 of them - and I think it is the bride's mother who runs the Irish dancing school.

I bought a piece of emerald green satin for the backing, then had second thoughts - as is my wont - so went out and got a piece of neutral coloured fabric.   I don't have a sewing machine but one of the chaplains, who owns a local dry cleaners and alterations business in town, put me in touch with one of their seamstresses, and she made it up for me.   She thought the green fabric was best for the back, so that is what I went for.   And that is it on the right.   With the piece of neutral fabric she knocked up another cushion, so perhaps I need to stitch something else.......................

At the minute I am working on cross stitching an Irish Wedding Blessing which I am hoping - if my ambitious ideas work out - to use for the card to go with the gift.

Bruce and Rosalyn left today for England, visiting Rosalyn's son and his family, and whose baby is being baptised on Sunday.    I hope they had a comfortable flight and safe arrival.

Sunday 28th April

The weather has been warm the last couple of days, in the 80s, but there is some severe weather moving in.  Early this morning there was heavy rain and a thunderstorm, but it later cleared up.  I didn't go to Emmanuel, I'd promised Bruno - another hospital chaplain - that I would go to his church, and he seemed very pleased that I'd taken the trouble, he introduced me to the congregation and at the end of the service asked me to lead the prayer from the front - a bit of a challenge for a shrinking violet like me.

 

The church he is establishing is a US Full Gospel Mission, and looking at it on the internet I see it has a large following in Cameroon where he comes from.   Bruno has a lovely family, and his wife teaches at the Catholic University of St Gregory's in Shawnee.

 

Pattisue came out of her service rather early and rang me - it's the first time my phone has gone off during a church service.   She suggested lunch and we went to the China Buffet.

 

They still have to get their dig into Camilla, even when the item is nothing to do with her.   Kate undoubtedly is dazzling, and she has all the best qualities Diana had - warmth, compassion, the common touch;  but in addition she is intelligent, educated, and possessing a great deal of common sense, I don't think anyone would disagree that she would be a great consort for William.

 

I have come out of the closet.  Now I am pushing 80 I am past caring.  Kiwanis were nominating their officials for the coming year and Louise informed me I was nominated to be on the audit committee.  So I had to confess I was innumerate.  She thought I just meant bad at maths and patted my hand, saying Dale and I could do it together.  I had to explain she wasn't getting it, giving me a sheet of figures was like expecting an illiterate person to be able to read something, and I couldn't possibly put my signature to any accounts saying I had looked them over.   Their reaction could best be described as 'stunned'.   I think they wondered how someone so normal looking could be so learning disabled. 

 

What puzzles me is that there is a lot of help for the illiterate.  There are classes at the moment in Shawnee library helping people to read, but no one has thought to help the innumerate, I would sign up like a shot.  I have occasionally looked at children's maths work books and wondered if I can teach myself.

My Birthday - my 3/4 century.

Had a very nice birthday yesterday.   Bruce and Rosalyn kindly invited me to lunch in Oklahoma City.   Rosalyn first had a quick dental check up at the OU Dental School then they took me to a Greek restaurant nearby, and it was lovely.  Although the dishes had Greek names I will refer to them by their Middle Eastern names.

As you see I had hummus, falafel, warm pitta  and pitta crisps, little pot of laban, stuffed vine leaves (which were nice, but not - loved ones - as good as your grandmother's) also, but not in the picture, a little pot of Father Shik Shik.  And when Rosalyn mentioned to the proprietor that it was my birthday he gave me some complementary baklava.   Wasn't that kind.

 I couldn't eat it all and took the rest in a to-go box for supper.    Afterwards they took me to Barnes and Noble next door, which as you know is my very favourite shop.   I bought a little book by Bill Bryson, a favourite American travel writer who spent twenty years in Britain, married an English wife and had four children, then they came back to the States because she loved the notion of being able to shop 24 hours a day.  And it is handy if you want to go to Walmart at midnight and find a parking space nearer than where the fat people go.

And they also had a Starbucks, like the store in Norman.  The only thing lacking in the store were the comfy little armchairs they have in Norman.

This is the card Rosalyn sent me, who said she couldn't see Bubbles decked out like that.  I don't think I can either.    I think it must be some trick photography, I can't see them piercing the cat's ears for the ear rings.       

They are coming over to London on Tuesday for the christening of Rosalyn's grand daughter in St Mary's, Barnes where I attended the christening of the last grand child.

Thursday

The Kiwanis speaker was more interesting than I expected.  A teacher from a local school teaches archery, and he was talking about, and showing us, the crossbows the children use.  Apparently archery is very popular in schools here, and there are competitions.    A lot of people hunt in Oklahoma, but whereas we use guns for shooting grouse, or deer, they use them for killing each other, and use bows and arrows for hunting.

Later in the morning I went on to the hospital, I thought I would attend the Thursday chapel service, and it was very good.   Bruno, another chaplain from Cameroon (but via North Dakota) who has fairly recently taken over a church here reminded me that I'd said I'd visit his church, but haven't been yet, so I promised to go on Sunday.   He told me to put my dancing shoes on, said they dance in his church and gave me a little demonstration.   I didn't ask if there were many pushing 80.

This evening I went to the movies downtown with Pattisue and we saw 'Frozen'.   It was very good, I enjoyed it, I thought the plot seemed rather complex for a Walt Disney film, but the effects, the photography was incredible.  There seem to be a lot of animated films about at the moment, all the trailers we saw were for animated films.

So that has basically been my day................

Tuesday 22 April

It has been a hot day today, in the 80s, and I had an outing, out of Shawnee., 107 miles away!!

Pattisue rang last night to say there was a spare seat on her church bus which was going to the Azalea Festival in Muskogee, which is towards the north east of the state, so I jumped at it.    Their pastor was driving and we left about 8.30.

The azaleas were rather late and not all out yet, and the tulips were on their way out, but it didn't matter, I was still happy to be having an outing.  And we stopped for lunch on the way back.

I only took one photo - these rather unusual tulips -

I

I didn't take one of the general landscape.   It looked just like Sheffield Park, and you know what that looks like.

When I got home Kevin, bless him, had cut the grass for me.  There was a pile of wood where dead branches had broken off the tree, and I saw he'd had a little bonfire.  

At first I thought he had taken a bit of a risk because wildfires are a very real danger here and I would never set fire to anything, but then I remembered that when I went out at 8 o'clock the grass was very, very wet, it had rained all night and he probably came shortly after I left.

I loved the way he mowed round this little clump of wood anemones.  They are very prolific here, they are over mine and the neighbouring gardens.

Easter Monday

Hope you have all been having a Happy Easter friends and loved ones, I thought of you all enjoying your roast lamb at lunchtime.

Our Easter services were a bit of a debacle.  Fr Bill seemed to have a streaming cold, I wasn't very happy at taking the Communion wafer from him yesterday.  Fr Clark might have taken over from him if he had been there, but at the moment he is filling in, conducting services in Spanish at a Hispanic church near Tulsa, which he seems to be enjoying.  

Tenebrae services (which we have on Maundy Thursday, but for some weird reason they have it here on Wednesday) are supposed to end very abruptly, with a loud bang - they got that right, I jumped - then the lights go out, and everyone scatters in the darkness in silence, as the disciples did on the day before Good Friday.   As I made my way out in the dark everyone was still sitting in their pews, looking at each other confused, and even as I pulled out of the car park no one was following me out.  I think they all filed into the parish room, chatting and visiting.  Which was totally missing the point of the Service.

Then on the Saturday evening Vigil, which starts in darkness and everyone has a candle, I think they ran out of candles, I didn't get one, I couldn't see the service sheet, and while I sat alone in the darkness in this foreign land, all the parishioners round me were holding their candles, sitting in the light,  and I thought "there is a sermon in here somewhere".

Anyway, moving on, there was an Easter egg hunt for the children on Sunday morning.

Although it is not so much a "hunt" as a run and grab.  Here the children are lining up.

 

 

 



There seemed to be plenty for everyone, there were quite full baskets.  I am glad that was something they got right.

I have already discovered, at 9.30 am, that today isn't promising.   Scattered thunderstorms, better make sure the closet door is open for Bubbles.

Good Friday

Last night I put my film card into the camera the wrong way, and it jammed, I just couldn't get it out.   I was very concerned that the camera might be irreparably damaged if I forced it too hard, it is the best camera I've ever had, and it was a present from Tim, which makes it doubly precious.   So I took it to the hospital with me this morning and Bill, the Chaplain, managed to ease it out.   So this is the photo I took to make sure it was working.

 

There are those women who would say, and there are plenty of them round here, "I wouldn't ask a man to do something for me" but I'm not proud, especially now I am old, confused and pushing 80, I am very grateful for all the help and moral support I get.

 

After I'd been round the floors visiting patients, I went to the Lenten lunch and service at the Presbyterian Church, then managed to have a nap before an evening service at University Baptist, which was just like a Church of England service I would have gone to at home.  I don't like the Good Friday liturgy and Stations of the Cross which they have at Emmanuel.

 

The weather has been very nice today, warm, sunny, and about 80.  I rather miss the detailed local weather I used to get with the cable television, this is what the Dish Network gives us.

 

 

I photographed this from the computer this evening.

 

 

 

Maundy Thursday

We had a very interesting speaker this morning at Kiwanis talking about the parks and gardens in Shawnee, there are 23.   I think I might take a trip round them.  

Had to rush home for the  Dish Network's technicians I had to call out because I couldn't watch my television yesterday, but I won't bore you with any more of the television saga.    Just to add that I also had to have a computer technician out as well because I had lost the sound on the computer - which would be a major disaster if a loved one were trying to Skype - also had a few other problems on it that had been building up, but he seems to have cleared them up.

Later in the morning I went to the hospital chapel where Chaplain Bill was holding a "come and go" Communion service between 11 and 1. 

 This is a little present Pattisue gave me the other day, wasn't it kind of her.   At home we take it for granted - if we go into a restaurant - that we can have hot tea made with boiling water, and served with milk, but in this country we have to carry around with us the teabags and sachets of dried milk, and beg for some boiling water, "please, pretty please, can I have it boiling, not from the hot tap".   I can't tell you how vile tea is when it comes tepid, from the hot tap.

    I don't know what kind of monarchy Americans think we have, where the wicked queen, or  evil stepmother can grab power and reign in the kingdom, it's pure Grimms Fairy Tales.   And I am more than a little hacked off at their vilification of Camilla.  

In the news........There is an extraordinary item that has been in the news for the past few days.  I don't fully comprehend all the details, but my understanding is that a rancher in Nevada objects to paying fees to graze his cattle to the Federal Government.  He said he didn't mind paying the fees to the state of Nevada, because he claims they own the land, not the Federal Government.   I heard someone say that since the American Mexican war all land has belonged to the Federal Government.

But whatever the ins and outs are, there have been ranchers and armed protesters, and a major stand-off.    There was even a lone cowboy on horseback, silhouetted on a hillside, waving the Stars and Stripes.  All that was missing from the scenario was John Wayne.

Tuesday 15th April

You won't believe what hard work it is in this country to set yourself up with an internet and television provider.  I finally decided I had had enough of the Cable Company and the television picture that keeps breaking up.   I thought if I hung on long enough it had to get better, but the last couple of weeks it has been bad and last night my patience ran out.

So today I have been out and about looking at all the deals, and for someone as easily confused as I am it has all been very tiring and complicated.

I went first to the Dish Network and their tv deal was quite reasonable, as they have got a special offer going trying to attract all the disillusioned Cable Company customers.   Their total monthly price for two televisions is normally $61.99, but for 12 months I can have it for $36.99.   

I told them my reservations at having a dish was that I know I can lose transmission in bad weather,  and I have this obsession about tornadoes, I want to know exactly where they are, especially when they are bearing down on Shawnee.    So it was suggested I buy an antennae for about $30, and if the transmission is knocked out I could switch to the antennae, which will pick up the local channels and let me know what the weather/tornadoes are doing.    So I decided to sign up with Dish, and then went to the appropriate shop and purchased an antennae.

The Dish Network recommended an internet company, one I knew because they provide my cell phone and minutes.  So I went off there (you see what a lot of running around it all was), and I thought their monthly price of $45 a month was quite reasonable.   BUT, their internet speed was 3.0 (whatever that is, but I deduced it was half the speed of 6.0, which is what the Cable Company provides) so I wasn't sure.   

At this point I felt I could probably benefit from some advice and went on Skype to look for a loved one, but no one was around.     So I then went to the Cable Company to find out how much they would charge me for the internet alone, when it is not part of a special deal with the tv.   And that was a bit steep at $112 a month (with the television as well I was paying about $148).

To  summarise - I signed up for Dish Network  and that was installed this afternoon, together with the antennae.      And the Cable Company - for the moment at least - is providing the internet.   Tomorrow, en route to the hospital I will take the Cable Company's tv paraphernalia back to them, and apprise them of the situation.

This evening I went out for a meal with Pattisue.   We used to have a Korean restaurant in town  run by a very nice couple, but it closed down and has been closed quite a while, but they reopened this evening, and I was pleased they had quite a lot of people in.

Monday 14th April

The last few days have been very nice and warm, in the high 70s and 80s, I even thought - silly me - that winter might be over and summer is now here.   I don't know how long it is going to take me to learn that there aren't any seasons here, it is all hot or cold days.   Today has been very cold.  A street thermometer said 53 as I drove through town, but it was lying, it was much colder than that, it was BITTER.

Yesterday, Sunday, I rolled out of bed in time to get the donuts to Emmanuel by 7.30, so the 8 o'clock congregation can enjoy them while waiting for the service.    As I pulled into the car park someone else pulled in as well and offered to carry the boxes in for me, so I took that as sign to jump back in the car, and go back to bed.   I did in fact go back to sleep and intended to go to an evening service somewhere - they don't have one at Emmanuel - but when it was time to leave there was a thunderstorm.   I think it was the first time in years, and years, I have not been to church on Palm Sunday.

 

 

The attractive young woman in these pictures is Mohammad Ali's daughter, his ninth child, competing in a competition on the Food Network.  All the contestants were stars in their own fields, competing in the finale, and she is the Womens' Boxing Champion.   She's very pleasant, not mouthy like him.  She said he was very worried when she went into boxing until she explained that she would be boxing women, not men.

 

Oklahoma is a very bad place for allergy sufferers, due to all the cedar trees.  I think local authorities try to cut them down but there are too many of them, and at the moment every second person one bumps into is suffering from the effects of them.   I cough and sneeze a bit, but nothing like as bad as some people suffer.

I can't believe there are three other places in the nation that suffer more than Oklahomans.  I don't think they have got that right.

 

I had planned on going out this evening to see the lunar eclipse, the blood red moon, and Mars, all lined up.   I feel very annoyed with myself for forgetting.

 

Tonight will be cold, but tomorrow looks better.

 



Saturday

I haven't done a lot today.   Yesterday, Friday, I was at the hospital and went round both floors.  I told you I don't go in the rooms with precaution notices outside, and the hospital management have now decided that we must understand the nasty bugs lurking inside, so have produced this little guide for us.

MRSA and C-DIFF are two infections which are very, very difficult to treat.

I also spent quite a bit of time hanging out in the office with Chaplain Bill.  He seems interested in my English perspective on the American scene, and I appreciate that I get a more balanced viewpoint of America than I do from Fr Clark, who believes all Republicans are "greedy capitalists" and the Religious Right are very wrong.   Bless him.

Thursday morning our Kiwanis speaker was the Director of the Emergency Management Team, giving us timely advice - as the tornado season is upon us - of the preparations we need to make.  I think I have got them all nailed down.  

One thing though, I did some time ago buy a weather radio which gives us all the information we need on an approaching emergency, and it also sends out a very high pitched signal to wake us up if we should have a tornado, or other emergency, at 2 in the morning.   However I haven't been able to programme it, so he gave me his card and said he will come out and do it for me.   I'll give him a ring next week, and I'll show him my 'safe room' in the middle bathroom.  He actually thinks that safe rooms - in the middle of the house, with no outside walls - are quite good, and said they have often been standing when all the rest of the house has been demolished.   And I'll put myself on the register of 'safe rooms' so that the emergency services will check I am alright if my neighbourhood has been hit.

My neighbour goes off to a public shelter when the sirens go off, but he said that is too late, because then there are hundreds trying to get in, and there isn't much room, they're very crowded.  I knew there was some reason I stay at home - the thought of being in a tight, confined space with my neighbours, no thank you.  I prefer my bathroom with my toys, and my weather radio.

His advice in an earthquake is to go underneath a table or something, and hold tight.  Or get in bed and pull the covers over.   I was actually in bed last time we had an earthquake bad enough for the pictures to fall off the walls, and the bed was shaking so much that Bubbles - who was standing on it - was swaying backwards and forwards.  I was so fascinated, and riveted, watching her swaying I didn't think to get under the covers.

 

 

 





You know, kids in this country take their lives in their hands trying to get an education, I am not surprised that a significant number of parents, certainly many more than us, are home schooling them.

And if you are lucky enough not to be stabbed in school, you might still be shot by a trigger happy motorist driving by.

Wednesday 9th April

I had expressed a willingness to do a bit more at the hospital and Chaplain Bill asked last week if I would come in on Wednesdays, as well as Fridays, so I did that this morning.  Someone else was there as well so I just went round one floor.

After lunch there was a little event at the Senior Centre.  Two staff members who run the volunteer programmes there, had all their funding cut, but they sort of re-branded themselves and managed to get some funding from elsewhere, so hopefully can carry on for a while longer.   Today was their re-launch.

Phyllis was there, and we were joined by Douglas, a Glaswegian, who is quite well known round Shawnee.  We were talking about all the things we miss - pork pies, sausage rolls, and in Phyllis' case Liquorice Allsorts and Twiglets.   Phyllis and I were also reminiscing about growing up in an air raid shelter, mine was at the bottom of my grandma's garden, but in the East End they went down into the Underground.   And we both had Mickey Mouse gas masks.   She said to this day she can't really stand having a mask over her mouth.

This evening I went to the movies to see 'God's not Dead'.   I hadn't thought of seeing it, I didn't know anything about it, but Rosalyn and Bruce had seen it and aroused my interest.      I thought it was going to be about the Religious Right, but if it was, it wasn't my understanding of it.   It came across to me simply as a faith based film and I loved it.  I wished I'd asked Pattisue to come, she would have liked it too.                  

So that has been my day............

Sunday/Monday

I didn't go out yesterday morning, Sunday, I just didn't feel up to it.   In the afternoon I felt I should really make an effort, and I went to the evening service at University Baptist.   It was rather nice, the newish pastor introduced himself, and the congregation were friendly.  I told the pastor I had met his wife - she was the lovely, gifted teacher in charge of STEM Education at the local technical college, who spoke at our Kiwanis group a few weeks ago.

Afterwards Pattisue and I went to the nearby ice cream parlour.

Today I tried to go out to pick up a few things I needed, and couldn't start the car.  By then it was just after 4 o'clock and Terry said he will be out in the morning.   I'm just praying it is nothing serious, I can't be doing with another big car repair bill.   I turned the ignition on, and it sounded alright, but won't turn the engine over.   Looking anxiously through the manual I latched on to the fact that it might be an electrical fault, not sending fuel to the pump, because a fuse has blown.   So I'm hoping that is what it is.

In the news..............

The tornado season is coming upon us.  I'm thinking it is time to turn my windowless middle bathroom  into a tornado shelter.   Throw the duvets and pillows into the bath.  Assemble the toys and the lanterns, some soft drinks and snacks.

There was a tornado this morning in Mississippi.

This is what it does. I am looking at this picture thinking I am not going to stand much chance underneath the duvets in my bath if the house is shredded like this.   Actually, I think I need a cycle helmet, that's on the list of what the emergency teams advise.  

I was intrigued at the name of the town 'Hot Coffee' and looked it up.   It is at the cross roads of two travel routes, and in 1870 a store and an inn was built.  The owner hung a coffee pot over his door advertising the "best hot coffee" around.  It was made from pure spring water and New Orleans beans, and molasses drippings for sweetener.    The popularity of the coffee led to the name of the community.

Back to drug smuggling.    This tunnel is actually 700 feet long, I imagined it would be a few miles.  The reporter demonstrated that the rock is very soft, so it didn't need explosives, it can just be scraped away.   I wondered how the little old lady running the drug cartel was caught.   I'm guessing the gang was infiltrated, especially as no one is saying anything.

 

 

People nowadays walk along the pavements, the sidewalks, and round the malls, not looking where they are going because they are all busy texting on their cell phones, and they are having accidents; serious accidents where they have to go to hospital.   Now, when I was young we didn't have cell phones, and it was taken for granted that when walking along the street, or anywhere outside, we need to look where we are going otherwise we will bump into things, or get knocked down, or run over, by traffic.  We didn't need doctors coming on television warning us of the necessity to look where we are going.            Whatever happened to common sense??

 

Saturday 5th April

Well I have been busy the last couple of days.  Yesterday, Friday, Bruce and Rosalyn invited me to the Shawnee Little Theatre which was putting on the musical "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying", and it was very good indeed, all the characters played their parts very well.    As they have season tickets to the theatre they were invited to the little pre-performance party beforehand in the foyer.   That was good too because I saw lots of people there I know.

This afternoon I went to the movies and saw 'Sabotage' which, for a change, I managed to   follow and understand.   It was about a DEA team busting a Mexican drug cartel, Arnold Schwarzenegger was the team leader.  His Austrian accent was toned down a little, I noticed it wasn't as pronounced as when he was governor of California.   I have mixed feelings about the film, it had far too much sex, violence, and F words, but it had plenty of action.

 

And on the subject of Mexican drug cartels...........

 

The woman charged in this case is 73.   73!!!!!!!!!!   I thought little old ladies of 73 were busy with their grandchildren, or their pastimes and their communities.   When did 73 year olds start driving white Cadillacs and directing drug cartels?   Next time I am on the I-35 - which is the main corridor for drugs from Mexico - I will look out for little old ladies driving big cars.

 

Going back to the movies.......or more precisely the concession stand............

the bucket on the counter here is what they fill with popcorn, it is what people sit and eat while watching the movie.   Do you wonder at the obesity!!  I would have taken a picture of someone carrying in a full bucket but I get self conscious of photographing people at a fairly short distance.  

I had a hot dog.

 

And this is an interesting murder trial going on at the moment, the Prosecution has just rested its case.

This woman stabbed her boyfriend 25 times in the face with her shoe.  She's pleading self defence, and says he was on  top of her, holding her down, so she grabbed her stiletto and  was waving it behind her back, she couldn't see where she was hitting.   I would have thought that he could have wrenched it out of her hand, but maybe it was the first blow that killed him, and she was just making sure with the following 24.

 

At first I was inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt, then a prosecution witness, a woman taxi driver who picked them up at a bar and took them to the boyfriend's luxury home gave her evidence.

Andersson was the victim, Trujillo the defendant. 



 

"Rosemary Gomez, a cab driver who drove Trujillo and Andersson back to his condominium on the night of the slaying told jurors she had picked up the couple from a Houston bar.
Gomez said that during the short drive home, Trujillo was belligerent toward her, cursing as she tried to tell Gomez what streets to take. Gomez said Andersson was embarrassed by Trujillo's behavior and that "he never cursed. He never got out of line."
Gomez said she told Andersson, "You need to be careful. Your friend is out of control."
"He got my hand and squeezed it and said, 'l'll be OK,'" Gomez said.
Gomez testified she was so worried for Andersson that she got out of her cab, held Andersson's hands and prayed for him".

I wondered what the angry girl friend was doing while the taxi driver was holding the boyfriend's hands and praying for him.   I'd have thought that would wind her up even more.

Thursday 3rd April

It was nice not going out at the crack of dawn to pick up the donuts from Tecumseh, it's someone else's turn this month.

Kiwanis' speaker was very interesting, a clinical therapist and director of the Youth and Family Resource Centre.   She was hoping to recruit volunteers to be advocates for abused children, speaking up for them in court, and generally being the one stable person they can rely on until they are adopted.   I would have loved to have done something like that, if I had known about it when I first came here, but I am too near the end of my life to embark on anything like that now.

The Lenten lunch and service today was at the Catholic church.  I arrived barely 5 minutes late, but they were well into the Stations of the Cross when I got there - which isn't really my thing anyway - I scanned the congregation but couldn't see any pals, so I backed out.

I set off for Barnes and Noble in Norman to buy a birthday present.   I was bowling along Highway 9, playing some of Larry's Bluegrass Gospel, and on the way, right in the middle of the prairies, miles from anywhere, there is a Sonic - a fast food drive through - so I picked up one of their strawberry milk shakes, which I absolutely love, and some deep fried mozzarella sticks, and that was my lunch.

Although I love bookshops, especially Barnes and Noble, I wasn't in there very long, I didn't even go to the Starbucks in the middle of the store, I wanted to get back and press on with my cross stitch project for the wedding present.   I took a picture of what it is supposed to look like -

I took some red and blue threads with me to the Senior Centre, and was holding them up against the US flag.  I strive for authenticity!

It has been a lovely warm day again today, I think this is the first time - since I don't know when - that I didn't have to get dressed in several layers, then gradually peel them off.  I was all day in the same short sleeved tee shirt and skirt I put on in the morning.  

but tomorrow will be a cooler 65.

Tuesday 2nd April

It has been a lovely warm day, it was 83 as I drove through town.  I can't believe that only last week the car windscreen was iced up.  And tomorrow looks even warmer ..

 

 



   I was going to the cinema this evening, downtown, to see 'Lone Survivor' but an hour before it was time to leave there was the shooting at Fort Hood.  Well, why go to the cinema when there's all this drama unfolding before you on television.  TV channels suspended their normal programmes to cover it.

It is emerging that the gunman had mental health issues, and was about to be evaluated for PTSD,   There is something seriously wrong with the mental health care here, I think serious issues go undetected for too long, and when they surface they are catastrophic.

And it is not just on television I see drama unfolding before me.  I had to go out for something this afternoon and there were two police cars parked diagonally across the middle of one of the main roads, and there seemed to be a bandit somewhere in the mix.   I would be all for pulling in and gawking, but I think I might be moved along.   And this is a fairly common sight, I wonder sometimes if our bad guys just get away with their nefarious activities. 

I might get to the movies tomorrow.

April Fool's Day

Isn't this a nifty little gadget.   You put your Special K - or whatever - in the bowl, then just suck up the little pool of milk left at the bottom.

Was running round town this morning.  I had hoped to make some cakes yesterday for the Kiwani bake sale this morning, but had a violently upset stomach and they didn't get done.  I did however stop by the Senior Centre to support them, and purchased some brownies for tomorrow's dessert at Emmanuel. 

I picked up the flowers at Emmanuel to take to the chapel.   Normally, we don't have flowers on the altar during Lent, but as I told Chaplain Bill, Episcopalians can't observe Lent for six long weeks, they need a break on the 4th Sunday, which they call Rose Sunday, they have roses on the altar, and the clergy dress up in pretty pink vestments.   Being a Baptist pastor he looked a little bemused.  I am sure our Church of England clergy would be bemused too.

I mentioned to him that the 4th in Lent is Mother's Day in England.  It originated in the Middle Ages when attendance at church was compulsory, and on the 4th in Lent everyone had to attend their home church, I am not sure why, perhaps it was a census thing. Then in Victorian times when all the live-in servants went back to their home church their employers gave them a basket of goodies for their mothers, and that's how it became a gift giving day.     One of the things I miss, apart from my family of course, is the fact that in our churches - as the daffodils are out this time of year - little posies are made up for the children to give their mothers.  And people like me in the congregation, who doesn't have a kid there, gets one if we are lucky and there are some left over, which there usually are.   I find this year, for some reason, I am really missing the daffodils. There are a few about in Shawnee but nothing like the masses we have.

I made a new friend walking round Walmart, although she is someone I already knew.   She is English (but has been here 60 years, even longer than Phyllis) and is a member of Emmanuel, Fr Clark introduced us shortly after I joined, but we never got to chatting, she usually comes straight in and out of church

Anyway, we must have been talking for about an hour, fortunately we were stopped in a wide aisle so people were able to get round us, we were just dodging about a little bit.   It transpires that she is keen on needlework and belongs to a little group in Shawnee which meet once a month, on the 4th Monday.   I told her I am keen on needlework, but my skill level is very basic.    We talked about what we do, and I am going to their next meeting at the end of April, which is preceded by a meal in a local restaurant, so I will look forward to that.

I thought this was an interesting robbery in Walmart.  It happened about 6am, which I suppose must be the quietest time there.  Guy takes a screwdriver to a glass display case, sets it aside, and then helps himself to the jewellery, but not all at once.   Took a few items, walks around, then walks back.  What amazing nerve.