Tuesday 30th June

Trivia question - how many rooms does Buckingham Palace have?      51 - 209 - 431 - 775?

I am sure most English people like myself will guess right.  Probably because we have grown up with the image of it engraved on our minds.                           

 

The big story here - unless you are interested in the New Jersey governor running for President -  is the talkative escaped convict.   My, has he been spilling the beans, and thrown everyone under the bus.  

 

I was wondering yesterday where the prison leadership was - the governor, the warders, those in charge.  They seemed conspicuous by their absence.    This afternoon it was announced that the  prison management have been suspended - all of them, every last corrupt one.   The entire prison was a corrupt shambles, and also a very active drug shambles.

 

The escaped convict was sentenced to life without parole, and nothing is going to change that, but he must have been offered some pretty good incentives to be this chatty and forthcoming.  He has virtually brought down this rotten prison.

 

Back to the big story, the New Jersey Governor running for President.  I am sorry this picture is a bit out of focus.   What I wanted to say is that these candidates bring their families along.  The little children are sweet, the adults gracious and smiling, but they really should leave the sulky teenagers at home.

I was here when this Governor was first elected - and he is now in his second term - he seemed so nice, so good.  I don't know if I have changed, or he has, but it seems to me he comes across as too brash and abrasive.   But it doesn't matter since I don't have a vote anyway.

 

As to me and my day, I was at the hospital this morning doing my chaplaincy round.  My partner in crime, Bruno, wasn't there so I went round both floors.   Bill asked if I would go in tomorrow as the usual Wednesday chaplain won't be there.  I don't mind, it gets me out of the house.

 

This evening I went round the water walkway,  which was very pleasant, but the jacuzzi is still closed, SIGH.    When I got home I rang Kevin to see if he knew anything about it, but he said that since the new Aquatic Centre, opposite Emmanuel, opened he has been there, rather than the YMCA.  Perhaps I will check it out, I can't see very much of it from the road.

 

Answer 775

29th June

New segment - A trivia question…..what is the age requirement to be President of the US, is it 30 – 35 – 40 or 45?    Answer at the bottom.

Very hot again.  A trip to the local drugstore involves turning on the air conditioning in the car a few minutes before leaving.

I like the way they say it is 93 but it feels like 99.  How do they get to that conclusion, I wonder, I didn't think it even felt like 93.

The escaped convict who was recaptured is in hospital and has been, surprisingly, very chatty, detailing his escape and how long they'd been planning it (which is making everyone back at the prison very nervous)   He split up from his cohort five days ago because he had blisters and was slowing him down, so wasn't in the vicinity when the guy was shot dead.  

 When he leaves hospital he will be going to a "supermax"  prison.  And there prisoners have to be looked at every 15 minutes.

The prison from which he escaped was a 'maximum security', I guess that is what we would call an 'open prison'.   That is where obliging guards show you the catwalks, so you can go down and fiddle with the electricity switches to enable you to use your hotplate in your cell to make hamburgers.  The meat for the hamburgers is also obligingly brought in for you (I wonder if anyone thought of the buns) and if you are lucky there are tools hidden in the ground beef to facilitate your getaway along the catwalks.

This evening someone said that the tools hidden in the ground beef would be totally inadequate to cut through the steel pipes and things, that they had to have had outside help.

I could just imagine if this happened in Britain, what a Field Day the cartoonists would be having.

What I just can't get my head around though is that they don't seem to have governors, or anyone in charge of the prisons.   No one claiming to be anything like a governor has come forward.   And what further baffles me is that no one is asking why, or where are they.

I guess I won't be heading off to any parades in New York, or elsewhere.  I'll just stay here in the quiet Mid West and mind my own business.

today in history…..2009.   Bernie Madoff, the notorious scam artist, was sentenced to 150 years in prison for ripping off his victims.   Today he is gainfully employed in prison wiping down computers and phones for $40 a month.   Some have said that is $39 too much. 

Sadly it has been said that there are many victims who lost more than money.  His son Mark committed suicide, but he was not the only one.  A French financier had slit his wrist with a box cutter and bled to death in his office. A British investor shot himself, and another Madoff victim hanged himself in a London hotel room, and it is believed there were even more than these suicides.  

Trivia answer - 35.

28th June

It has been a riveting afternoon of television while the second escaped convict was finally taken down.   The police officer who shot him saw him in a residential street, recognised him, shouted to him to stop, then shot him when he didn't.   As he was a firearms instructor he knew where to shoot without killing him.    And although injured and transported to hospital where he had surgery, he will get better and go to another prison where life won't be so cosy.  I don't think life is going to be cosy in any prisons from now on.  There'll be no television and hotplates in cells for cooking hamburgers, and no sex with civilian employees (!!)   And most importantly, there will be lots of questions as to how much help they had to escape.   It was said that as he is in prison for life without parole he has no incentive to answer any questions.   But he might change his mind when there are things that he wants.

 

Later in the afternoon the New York Governor held a Press Conference, and I couldn't understand why the Prison Governor - who has been conspicuous by his absence - wasn't there (in this country the prison governor is called the "warden" and the warders are "prison officers" - I think I've got that right).  Even more strange is that no one was asking where the Governor was.    Undoubtedly heads are going to be rolling, and in prisons across the nation, THERE WILL BE CHANGES. 

 

While watching all this I finished a crocheting project for Kate at the Senior Centre.   She is going to give it to someone whose company donated $7500 to the Senior Centre - she said these are their colours, black and gold.  If I'd had more gold yarn I'd have made it bigger, but Kate gave me the yarn and I can't get any more.

 

This evening Bruce and Rosalyn invited me to dinner at the Red Lobster, a popular seafood restaurant here, and it was a very pleasant, enjoyable evening.

 

Saturday 27th

It has been intensely hot today, the only place to be is in the air conditioned indoors, with a book and ice cream, so that has been my day.  Turning on the television from time to time to see if the escaped bandit has been shot or caught.   Preferably caught - because powers-that-be want to know all about these cat walks behind their cells, smuggled hamburger meat, and cook outs.

I did learn today that Indians are called 'Indian' or 'Native' .    Native American is not pc.

Anniversary of Custer's Last Stand - 1876 (Edited).

We have all heard of 'Custer's Last Stand' but I never really knew what it was about, so I looked it up, and for the benefit of any of you, dear readers, who didn't know it either, I have tried to paraphrase it for you.

Gen Custer’s troops hoped to capture an Indian village containing mostly women and children, and thus convince Indian warriors to return to the reservation where the US Army wanted them to be so that they could better monitor their movements.  Custer was supposed to wait at the mouth of the Little Bighorn River for reinforcements, but when his scouts spotted the Lakota Indian Chief, Sitting Bull nearby, he decided to mount an attack. 

It was a decisive Indian victory, with 268 US dead, including Custer and his two brothers, and 55 wounded.    After this decisive Indian victory at Little Bighorn the US Army poured troops into the Badlands, the homelands of many of the Indians who had fought against Custer, and in the ensuing skirmishes captured many of the Indians who had fought against Custer, but some, including a band led by Chief Sitting Bull, managed to flee across the border into Canada.  

I have not been sleeping well, but made up for it today, I woke up at 2.15 pm and Bubbles - bless her heart - was lying quietly beside the bed, but as soon as I woke she jumped up to go outside.  I think I suffer from Non 24 Circadian Rhythm Disorder.  And I got that diagnosis from television advertising, not the internet :-)  

Also widely advertised on television is a remedy for Toe Nail Fungus.   TOE NAIL FUNGUS.   I'd never heard of it, and just wonder how many people are suffering from it, that its remedy warrants massive advertising on prime time television.

In the news............One of the escaped convicts has been shot, but the other is still on the run,.  It has further  been revealed that another prison officer gave them access to the catwalk behind their cells so that they could do something tricky to the electric switches, which would enable them to cook in their cells.    They must have got down there, looked round  the catwalk and started plotting their escape.   And this is supposed to be a high maximum security prison!! 

Following the massacre in South Carolina the Confederate flag has become - or more likely,  I'm just becoming aware of it - a symbol of racial divide and hatred.  Never having learned American history to the extent that Americans are taught it, I thought it was simply an issue confined to history books, I did not appreciate that  it is a controversy still causing pain and distress, so if I have touched nerves with my ignorant and ill advised comments, I do sincerely apologise.

I want to say however, who  remembers the show, 'The Dukes of Hazzard'?  I remember the stars being dark haired young men, so I was stopped in my tracks to discover  they are now as old and white haired as I am.

By the way...........the anniversary of Custer's Last Stand was the 25th June, but I often post this after midnight of the day I'm writing about, and I can't do anything about the date at the top.

Wednesday 24th June

I really don't know what has happened to the last few days posts.  I know I did one yesterday, and have looked through the folders and drafts, but can't find it anywhere.

Anyway, let's see if I can keep on track from now on.

The weather here has been intensely hot....

and looks like being hot for the next few days.

I was woken up by a lawn mower at 7, Kevin came to cut my grass before it got hot.   I do appreciate him turning out like that, bless him.

 

This morning I was invited to coffee with Donna, she was a friend of Pattisue but I've known her since I've been here.  She's also a friend of Rosalyn and we both visited a week or so ago.   She has a lovely house in 13 acres, off the beaten track in the depths of Tecumseh.  She had invited another friend - the author of the book below - and we sat round her kitchen table and talked and laughed, and two hours just flew by.

She told me she was inviting someone else, and had obviously told him I was coming because he had brought the book with him to give me when we were leaving, and signed it inside.  He was a very nice man and I look forward to reading it.

 

I went water walking this evening, and it was lovely seeing the sun go down as I walked round the walkway.   Sadly, the jacuzzi isn't working.  The place doesn't seem to be very well run lately, the jacuzzi has been waiting a repair all this week.  I'll ask Kevin on Sunday if he knows what is going on, I think he is on the Board there as well as coaching swimmers in the early morning.

I know I have photographed this before, but it was such a lovely evening, I thought I'd take another picture.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday 16th June

Weather is cooler, in the 70s, and it has been wet.   I went water walking this evening at the YMCA pool, and watched the clouds get blacker and blacker as I walked round, then it just started raining as I left.

 

There were quite a few children in the pool but it was nice to see them enjoying themselves with their parents.   If I wake early I might try and go in the morning, it gets me out of bed.   The pool opens at 5,30 am, I could practically stay up and not bother to go to bed.

 

In the news it is day 11 of the manhunt, and the escaped convicts are still on the run.  800 law enforcement officers are searching for them, at a cost of over a $1 million a day.   The stupid accomplice has certainly got a lot to answer for.   She had a visit in prison today from her husband -  the husband the convicts were supposed to kill in exchange for her helping them escape.   That must have been interesting, the entire nation has been informed of the fact that she had an intimate relationship with one of them.    I was somewhat flabbergasted at that.  What kind of prison do they run here - I ask myself - when dangerous convicts can have sex with the civilian employees.   Furthermore, they go to bed at 10.30 and they are not even looked at until 5.30 the next morning, so they had quite a few hours start.   Time to cross over into Canada.

 

It is being said that it was so carefully planned and carried out they obviously had help from outside,  they can't still be running around in the wooded area near the prison.

 

 The other news story is the white woman who decided she was black.   She claims she has felt black since she was five years old, when she was drawing pictures of herself with a brown crayon.   Her parents and her adopted siblings are just shooting down in flames everything she says.

Oh yes, and the Presidential campaign.

He has to be the most irritating person on the face of the earth, I don't think I could stand it if he were elected.    And he has the answers to all the nation's problems.    Among them he is going to build a very solid wall along the southern border, and he will make Mexico pay for it.  The person interviewing him was, understandably, rather sceptical as to how he was going to be able to do that, but the short answer is that he will apply economic pressures.     And he will end the war in the Middle East, said the US will surround ISIS, bomb the hell out of them, and take back the oil fields so they will have nothing.    See what I mean by irritating.

14th June 2015 - Anniversary of Magna Carta.

This was reported - on the evil Fox News - that King John signed the Magna Carta 800 years ago today - like he thought it was a good idea to bring his oppressed populace freedom and democracy.

It wasn't even mentioned that he was surrounded by angry and determined barons, with their spears, and NO WAY would he have left Runnymede alive, had he not signed it.

I suppose the background doesn't really matter here to Americans, they are simply celebrating the fact and they are not concerned with the detail,  How was it reported in Britain?   Has our history become more forgiving since I was at school 70 odd years ago?

 

John has always been considered an unlucky name in our Royal family, and I wonder if he is the reason.   I think Edward VII thought he would break with tradition and called one of his children John, and there was something wrong with him.   I know we will never have another King John.

 

Also in the news.............The President of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (who you would expect to be a person of colour, and I think she was expected to be but it is not mandatory) has falsely claimed to be African American, but it has just been revealed that in actual fact she is as white as I am.   

 

Her biological parents are of German and Czech descent, and they are pretty hacked off about her and it was they who spilled the beans.      I never imagined it would be possible to be anything other than from the race you are born into,  but it seems one just needs to acquire a little suntan and an Afro hairdo, and one can claim to be African American.  She has resigned as President of the NAACP but is not enlightening anyone as to why she wants to be black.

 

The dangerous escaped convicts are still on the run, and although no one is saying so I can't see them being caught now, they're probably in Mexico or Canada.   Canada was the nearest border, but I would think the border guards there would have been alerted and on the look out for them.

 

 

The NY governor is taking some heat because he went to visit the headquarters and everything came to a halt while he was there, including the manhunt.  But I can't really see why.  Perhaps that is just a rumour.

 

It is being alleged that the convicts' stupid accomplice wanted them to kill her husband, and she was meeting them at the manhole from which they escaped and they were going to drive somewhere seven hours away.   But the more likely scenario is that they would have got shot of her once they were a safe distance away, and just in time she realised that,  or maybe she confided in someone who pointed out the likelihood of that, so she checked herself into a hospital with a 'panic attack'.

 

She appeared in court today and so far has been charged with helping the convicts escape, but if anyone is shot and killed - if and when they find them - she will be in a lot more trouble.   It is also being widely rumoured that the convicts must have had other accomplices, it was so well planned and executed, it can't have all been down to her.

 







The weather here has been cooler, in the 70s, and we have had some heavy rain.    I tried to dodge the rain but still got caught in it, and took a couple of lap size afghans to the Senior Centre.  When I got home I realised I hadn't photographed them, and one of them in a black and gold yarn I thought was rather pretty.

 

Flag Day

Went to the 9.30 service at Emmanuel this morning, there are people away on holiday but there were still quite a few there.

Later we had some TORRENTIAL rain.  Bubbles was out on the porch and I jumped up to let her in, but I was too late, and she'd dived underneath the house.   When she emerged several hours later, when it was dry and sunny, she looked so bedraggled, her little face and whiskers all covered in debris.

 

This evening I went to the movies, and saw 'Spy'.   It didn't have much of a story line, it was all stunts, it wasn't bad, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.   So damned by that faint praise, I don't expect any of you to go rushing off to see it, unless stunts are what you like.

 

A few days ago I mentioned the family in the reality tv show 19 Kids and Counting and ............I know, shame on me.......I picked up this bit of gutter press all about them.   I know I need to get a life.

The scandal was supposed to be 'all taken care of' but this son is a serious child molester, worse than they thought.  If it weren't for the fact that the Statute of Limitations has run out - this was more than ten years ago - the parents would be arrested for allowing this child molestation to go on in their home.  I still can't get my head round their naiveté in thinking they could make a reality tv programme, and it would never come out.   If they'd stayed under the radar it might not have come out, but now the world and his dog know all about their guilty secret. 

 

And what else is in the news.................oh yes, the escaped convicts with nothing to lose.   They are still on the run and don't look - a week later - as if they are going to be arrested anytime soon.  And no one has a clue as to where they can be.   Their accomplice in the tailoring shop has appeared in court, hand cuffed and miserable, and doesn't seem to be able to shed any light on their whereabouts.  Apparently she was in a 'relationship' with one of them, and the plan was that she would escape with them in an SUV when they emerged from the manhole.   On one level one can't help feeling sorry for the circumstances of her life, that she was taken in, conned,  by someone who made her feel important.   I think others feel that too, and she is just going to be charged with the minimum, they're not throwing the book at her, but she is still looking at a seven year sentence.

 

And ISIS of course.   Still winning the War on Terror   Obama said he will send in 450 troops to 'train' the Iraqis   What is needed is a sustained bombing campaign, but he is not going to do that.   He was elected to Office on the promise that all troops would be withdrawn, and all wars in the Middle East would be won.   I can see the bind he is in.

 

Saturday 13th June

I went to a funeral this afternoon of a long standing member of Emmanuel, I think almost all of the church membership were there.   There was Communion with it, which I like, then there was a short committal when her cremated remains were interred in the wall of the Lady Chapel

 

Memo, or reminder to loved ones, I want my ashes scattered on Seaford Head - like Roy's were.   To paraphrase Rupert Brooks - there won't be a corner of Oklahoma that is forever England.  

 

Looking at her date of birth I reflected on the fact that she was only three years old the year I was first married, which makes her far too young to die.

 

In the news......the hunt continues for the two escaped convicts, and American taxpayers are informed it is costing $1 million a day to hunt for them, there are 800 police combing the wooded area where they are believed to be.   And the stupid woman who was conned into helping them escape has been charged and appeared in court last night looking very worried at the prospect of seven years behind bars herself.  

 

All the residents in the vicinity of the search area are very worried, as well they might be.

 

 

And while ISIS is winning the War on Terror  Obama admits he has no idea how to fight them, and win the war.

 

 

Thursday 11th June

Weather is still hot.   97 in Tulsa.  They don't often name a place in Oklahoma. 

I just went out at lunchtime.  Fr Bill has discontinued Thursday Communions for the summer, but he still has a class and I joined them for lunch at a sandwich bar downtown.   Although it is just a sandwich bar the food there is extremely good.   I afterwards scurried home to the air conditioning, watched television and crocheted.

In the news the two dangerous, escaped prisoners are still on the run. Every house in the vicinity of the prison has been searched, and a car hasn't been stolen, so it is believed they are hiding in a heavily wooded area, and there are hundreds and hundreds of police and dogs out looking.  It is being said that the police are closing in.  If that is so, it shouldn't be long now before they are picked up.

The news story here isn't that the woman was murdered, but that she was waiting so long for her gun permit in NJ - which takes several weeks - she was unable to defend herself.

I see stories like that and wonder if I should get a gun and take myself to a range for practice, perhaps I am being naïve in expecting law enforcement to keep me safe.   It was pointed out that the victim here was murdered outside, and even if she'd had the gun NJ's gun laws don't allow it to be loaded outside the house, whereas here in Oklahoma I can stroll around with it, or keep it in the car, fully loaded.   I think it has to be concealed though.  My next door neighbour, when delivering pizzas, kept hers tucked down her jeans.

 

I have been looking at the statistics of my blog since May 2010.

United Kingdom	4247
United States	3513
Malaysia	971
Romania	369
Russia	312
Canada	230
Germany	142
France	116
Jordan	48
Ireland	36

 There are several figures here which hit me as startling.   I know of course that anybody, anywhere, can access the internet, not just friends and loved ones to whom I have given the link,  but it surprises me that there are nearly as many (the difference is 734) people in the US who have looked at it, as in the UK.   And I don't know a SINGLE person in Malaysia, but nearly a thousand people there have read it.  Romania and Canada I understand, I have a friend in each of those countries to whom I gave the link, but all the rest mystify me.

I don't mind, you understand, I am just intrigued.   And I do get it that I am just writing about me and my cat, and it is all pretty mundane and routine so I don't have much expectation of interest.  The main point of it is that my loved ones can look at it and satisfy themselves that I am still functioning here, and they are not wondering what I'm doing.

 

Wednesday 10th June

My readership yesterday plummeted to 3.   If you have any feedback, feel free to express it.   Too much personal detail on what I've been doing?   Or perhaps you have been busy yourselves and prefer to read a few days entries at a time rather than looking each day.    For myself I find it helpful in  reviewing my day, so I'll press on for a little while, see how it goes.

Today I went with Rosalyn to celebrate a friend's birthday at lunchtime, and it was a very pleasant . enjoyable, occasion.  Our mutual friend was also a friend of Pattisue, and very active in the local Democrats.

I had planned on going to an Emmanuel member's pool party this evening, but felt I'd had enough excitement for one day, so had a nap this afternoon, and slept very soundly.

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

It has been hot.

Oklahoma is there between 96 in Dallas, 95 in Kansas and 93 in Memphis, Tennessee.

The news is full of a major prison breakout in New York State.   Two very dangerous criminals were working, sewing some sort of uniforms (I thought prisoners sewed mailbags) and they conned the woman in charge to smuggle in power tools, then managed to hack their way out.   I wondered why the noise of these power tools didn't alert the guards, but apparently there was reconstruction work going on at the prison at the time, which was convenient for them.    Anyway, the stupid woman was supposed to meet them when they emerged from a manhole cover, but she got cold feet and they took off without her.   As they haven't yet been captured I should think they are way off into Canada by now.

73 workers in airports across the nation were found to be on the Terror Watchlist.   How reassuring is that??   I am glad I am not frequently flying around, as some people do.   The TSA also carried out another operation in airports across the country in which people were fitted with fake bombs, and the failure to detect them was 96%.    I think, somewhere, heads must be rolling.

 

And finally............as I think I have said before, the US, or Coalition Forces, are not winning the war against ISIS.

I get it that Obama doesn't want to go to war, his heart is not in it, he wanted to end his Presidency declaring that he had ended all wars in the Middle East, but what is happening in the Middle East is on a par with the situation in Europe, in the Holocaust.   And it is an oft quoted statement that "for evil to succeed it is only necessary for good people to do nothing".   Or words to that effect, and I think it was Martin Luther King who said that.

Monday 8th June

Was out fairly early at the Senior Centre with an afghan I'd finished crocheting for Kate - to dispose of as she thought best - to give to someone, or raffle and raise funds for the Centre.  It's not very big, but she asked for it lap size, so someone in a chair, or wheelchair, could just have it over their lap.

On the way over there I remembered I hadn't photographed it, which I like to do before parting with them.  So asked Kate to hold it up while I did so.

I had done quite a few of those small red and blue squares and intended joining them all into a full size afghan for myself.  But I lost interest in them - it happens.  I moved on to other things, and have just gone back to them, and made this instead.   I'm also working on completing another one because I have still got more of those little squares.

Kate made a thing about them being red, white and blue and is planning to do something with it for the 4th July holiday.   I'll have another one finished for her by then, that's the current project.

So that has mainly been my activity for the day.   It has been a lovely summer day, and what a novelist would call a "golden" evening because of the beautiful way the sun shines and everything looks "gold".   

I took myself to the YMCA Pool this evening.   There were quite a few children there, and the splashy things were going, but I had the walkway more or less or myself, and it was lovely walking round it and watching the sun beginning to set.

Saturday 6th June.........Anniversary of D Day Landings.

I haven't had much exercise lately so got up fairly early, and totally forgetting that boring 10 o'clock appointment with the cell phone company I took myself off to the YMCA pool.   Saw Kevin there who was coaching, it's his home from home, that's where he is when not at home, or doing kindly deeds for little old ladies. 

 

 Sunday 7th June

Have been a bit lethargic today too.  I did however have lunch with Bruce and Rosalyn at the China Buffet, and that was a very pleasant couple of hours.

I didn't make it to Emmanuel this morning; in my old age I am getting less eager to listen to sermons, or more picky at those I will listen to.   I intended going this evening to Larry's church near the Lake, but dozed off at just about the time I should have left.    I have however been crocheting for the Senior Centre, so have done something productive.

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

There hasn't been much about it, but I understand ISIS is winning the War on Terror, at least they are over here, I don't know how they are getting on in the rest of the world.  And Hilary Clinton is looking increasingly unlikely to be President - if she even gets to run - and that is becoming more debatable each day that she is dodging questions from the media.

So the news is dominated.  Dominated I tell you, by a  SCANDAL concerning a reality tv programme.  I've never seen the programme, my remote only knows its way to the evil Fox News.   But this programme is called something like 19 Kids and Counting, and it is all about this blissful, perfect family upholding sound Christian values.   But it has emerged that ten years ago (before the reality tv programme) the eldest son in the family groped (but I think they called it something else) four of his sisters while they were asleep in bed, but they never knew about it until it all came out when the kid confessed to his parents, and they marched him off to a State Trooper, and the father said "it was all taken care of", and the son had "counselling".  

However, I don't know who was supposed to have "taken care of it" because now, ten years down the line, someone has just blown the whistle - SHOCK, HORROR, and two of the sisters concerned have appeared on television to defend their brother and their family.

Of course what is making everyone riled up is the hypocrisy of the "sound Christian values".   The son even leads an anti-gay movement (but I understand he has just resigned from that).

I think what bemuses most people, including myself, is WHY on earth, with a skeleton like that rattling around in the family cupboard did they think it was a good idea to portray their family on a reality tv programme.   I believe they are into the ninth series of the programme.

Another twist in the story is that the State Trooper at the time didn't turn in a properly documented report of the story, and he is now serving 56 years in prison for looking at pornography.   And the "counselling" the son was supposed to have had has been questionable.   So it is all an ongoing saga...........

 

Friday 5th June

Where has this week gone, I ask myself.   I haven't written anything for the last few days.   I haven't been feeling awfully bright, so haven't really been anywhere, done anything, nothing exciting anyway.

Went to the hospital this morning, then had lunch with Bill.  We talked - among other things - about paper napkins and transport cafes;  loved ones out there will remember how Grandad abhorred paper napkins, I was telling Bill he would never dine in a restaurant that used them    Bill had never heard of transport cafes, they are called 'truck stops' here, so we both added to our English/American vocabulary today.

I have a cell phone dilemma.  Last time I looked - like yesterday - I had about $44 in credit on my cell phone, but today it disappeared.   I just have a very basic cell phone, in case of emergency, if I break down and need to call roadside assistance, for example.   With a desktop pc, two laptops and an i-Pad I don't need a fancy phone with apps on, do I.  No, of course I don't.   There - I've just talked myself out of getting one.   For a little while I was tempted, and wavering.   But I have an appointment in the morning at the cell phone shop to buy more minutes (honestly, I kid you not, you need appointments in this country if you go into a cell phone shop, you are met at the door and given an appointment to see a sales assistant, so I've got one at 10 in the morning.  It was 45 minutes to closing time when I was there -  there were seven people in front of me, and the sales staff can't leave until everyone with appointments is served, so I thought I'd do the decent thing.  

And I've got all night to decide how many minutes I need.    Last time I bought $100 worth which lasts a year, and that is what has just expired, leaving $44 unused - to my chagrin.  

Monday 1st June

Uneventful day - was running round town, dropped the book I'd just finished on the East End Childhood in the 50s, into the Senior Centre and was pleased that Phyllis was there too, coincidentally she had just dropped in.   Although she comes from the East End she knows Streatham, Brixton, Croydon, Surrey Street, all these places.   When we'd finished  reminiscing and I was leaving, Kate the Centre Director said we'd seemed to have had a very good visit. 

 

Another reason I was at the Senior Centre was because I had cleared out the bottom shelf of my bookcase of all the novels I'd bought when I first came here, which were in good condition.   Kate was appealing for bingo prizes, so I got bags, mugs and biscuits from the dollar store, made up about four bags each containing a book, mug, biscuits, tea or coffee sachets, each one being a prize.  I'd done it before and  Kate said they liked them.  And she still has a lot of books if she wants to make up more bags. 

 

I no longer buy pristine new novels, I have discovered Barnes and Noble's secondhand bookstore online (so I no longer need to go to Norman, which is just as well as it is under water, as is a good part of Highway 9) so now I buy books for 99cents, or $1.99.

 

This evening I have been making little cakes.  Although I am feeling too old to get to Kiwanis for 8 o'clock, I still support them and made cakes for their bake sale tomorrow morning.

 

The Presidential Campaign.........

 

Hilary Clinton has competition for the Democrat nomination. 

And this is the latest Democrat to jump in...

 

 

 

The rest of the news........



 

Joe Biden's son, who was 46, died this weekend from brain cancer, leaving a wife and  two young children.  How heartbreaking is that, I can't imagine his grief.  He also lost his first wife and a daughter in a road accident some years ago.  

 

This is the first Apple computer, worth $250,000.   Golly me.   Although it looks ancient, it can't be THAT old, how can it be worth that much.