Sunday 30th August

Still high summer here, in the 80s.  I was at Emmanuel this morning, and in the afternoon went to a pool party at a member's home.

I took this picture of the pool when I arrived, before anyone jumped in.

We have a lot of young teenagers and children in Emmanuel, and they had a wonderful time in the afternoon, splashing about and playing.

This is our host grilling the burgers.  As you can see they have a wonderful outdoor living set up there.    They provided the drink and burgers and guests each took a side dish.  I made some little chocolate cakes.   I decided a long time ago that as I am not familiar with American food I would provide desserts, and that is now what is expected of me.

On the subject of American food I tend to avoid anything I think might be spicy, which is most of it.  There was an interesting dish of beans I thought looked nice, and a child said it was very delicious so I thought it must be mild enough for me.  I had one mouthful.   I think the children are born with an immunity to spicy.  At least in these southern states, I've never had a problem in New York.

There's not so many in this picture, but there had been quite a few in the pool before I took this picture, and it was very pleasant watching the children playing.

Saturday 29th

Not done a lot today - apart from crocheting - so we'll run straight through the news and pics.

This was horrific, and heartbreakingly sad.  The Texas deputy was filling his squad car at a filling station and a gunman just came up from behind and shot him.   There doesn't seem to be a motive, other than the war that seems to be raging at the present time on law enforcement officers.

Six police officers have been shot and killed this month alone.   The police here carry guns all the time, they are not just issued to them if they are going out on a raid, or thought they'd be needed.    I know we don't arm our police because it is feared that the bandits might use their guns against them, and they do seem safer for it, our police aren't shot and killed on the scale that they are here.

And you thought Bubonic Plague was a thing of the past, in the history books!!!   I wonder how it came over here from Europe.



I know you have seen this picture before in a different context.  I am showing it again because someone at a campaign meeting said something about his 'toupee', so he invited her up on the stage to 'pull it off'.   She ran her fingers through it, pushing it all back, showing us that it was all growing out of his head.  I don't know about Hilary Clinton's $600 hairdo, I think he must spend that on his, keeping it growing and coloured.

We've heard about the migrants, mainly Christians, fleeing persecution in Syria and other places in the Middle East, and travelling through Europe, packed so tightly into vehicles they are suffocating.  It is a humanitarian crisis, why isn't the UN doing anything.

This poll from Iowa is pretty representative of all of them - Hilary's popularity is plummeting.  I can't, I just can't, see her being nominated.  Not with the FBI on her case, and everything else.

There has been a lot on television today about hurricane Katrina, looking back and remembering.  I remember it.  I remember I was doing the intercessions on the Sunday following it, and it took me a little while to find the right words of prayer for the victims and all those involved in it.   That's not a problem I'd have here because they  follow a set format every week, so that whatever is happening in the world, or in the US,  isn't taken into account - so that whoever reads them isn't required to write them.  

I don't know why that is because they are supposed to be - even in the Episcopal Church -  'the prayers of the people'.

Thursday 27th

Was out and about today.   Louise always made a ton of cakes for the Kiwanis bake sale which will be on Tuesday, so I called to see if it was still going ahead, which it is, so I'll be doing some baking this weekend.

It raises quite a bit of money and the proceeds benefit children's' charities.

 At noon had Communion, then six of us went to lunch at the Bricktown Brewery where I had a drunken onion burger, because it sounded so intriguing.

What I was supposed to have done was wrap my fingers around it, dunk it in the onion soup (which is out of the picture, behind it) then chomp down on it. That's what I was told to do, but as you'd imagine that wasn't what happened.  I'm too English and refined; I put aside the top part of the bun, picked up a knife and fork and proceeded as daintily as I could manage to carve it up, like I was eating Sunday lunch.   I don't know why I thought I needed the side dish of potato salad, or maybe they brought it anyway.

 

In the evening at the hospital there was a seminar on Suicide Awareness and Prevention, but I didn't learn anything I didn't already know.    It was held in the cafeteria and there was a very big turn out, Bill said over 70 people had responded to the invitation.

 

I got there in time to visit my friend Donna, who was just about ready to leave.   A mutual friend was coming to pick her up, so I helped her down to the lobby and was glad I'd got to see her before she left.

 

So that has been my rather - for me - eventful day.

Tuesday 25th August

Did my chaplaincy round this morning, then went to the cafeteria for lunch with Bill where I slipped on some mashed potato someone had spilled on the floor.  I didn't hurt myself, my dignity was more hurt than anything, but I was descended upon by officials with pens and papers - well, two of them, both requiring statements and signatures.  I wondered how much bureaucracy there would be if I really hurt myself and needed an ambulance.    

I had to go back later in the afternoon to visit my friend Donna who had surgery in the morning, and Bill asked how I was.   I made a great drama of being really injured and felt I should go and see an attorney.   He said "you will see an attorney before the doctor?   that is the American Way".  And it is indeed, I didn't realise I was beginning to think like them.

Back home I am crocheting afghans for grand daughters and watching television.  Donald Trump continues to entertain.  His big issue is the 18 million illegal immigrants, and he is going to stop them pouring over the southern border.   His solution is to build a very big, very solid wall they won't be able to scale, and - get this - MEXICO WILL PAY FOR IT.

When pressed as to  how he is going to get the President of Mexico to agree to that, he just reiterates that he will.   That's because he is used to getting his way, but I think he will find in the political field that things just don't work like that.

This isn't very long but I think I'll hit publish and turn in.

Monday 24th August 2015

My episodes of feeling "off colour" seem to be getting more frequent, but not a great deal has happened in the past week.

Except my friend Louise died on Friday morning, she had been failing the last few days but still struggled to help out at the Senior Centre on the front desk.  I called to see her there at the beginning of last week.

Her funeral was this afternoon.  I can't get over the SPEED at which people are buried or cremated in this country.   They also have a very bizarre custom of having the casket open while everyone is filing in.  I find it a bit.........I don't quite know what the word is........ when I go into the church or chapel and the dear departed is lying there in the casket down the front.  And not only 'lying there' but propped up on a pillow, with her spectacles on - heaven knows why, she's not going to need them in Heaven.

It wasn't the best funeral I have ever been to.  It was held in the funeral home and conducted by the pastor of the little Methodist chapel she attended.   There didn't seem to be any format to it.  Several hymns were played on the piano, there was no singing;  no "I am the Resurrection and the Life" as clergy stride down the aisle, and family process to their seats;  just the pastor going on and on and on and on.  The  pastor was African American, not that there is anything wrong with that except that she had a very thick accent I found hard to understand.   After about an hour I got restive and turned on my C-Nook in my handbag.  Memo to my loved ones.  Please make sure that whoever conducts my funeral knows what they are doing, I don't want the congregation surreptitiously reading and waiting for it to finish.

I found this rather nice photo of her and Cecil on my computer taken a couple of years ago.

Bless her heart.  I'll take it to a photo lab and give her daughter a copy.

The news is all the Presidential campaign.  Or rather, it is Donald Trump, dominating the campaign which is actually rather entertaining.  

His slogan is "we have to take our country back" which means throwing out the 18 million illegal immigrants (sorry, 'undocumented' persons) already here.   TV anchors press him on how exactly he proposes to do that. Someone this evening gave him a scenario of a little family of illegal immigrant parents  and their two children living in their small home in the Midwest, and Trump was asked if ICE agents are really going to kick their door in and drag them out.  He looked a bit uncomfortable at the question but still insisted that "yes" it has to be done, the good ones will be able to come back in when they have gone through the proper procedures.  Then he went on to brag about how he has got a big heart really.   Yeah............

Someone else on another programme figured that for every illegal person deported there will have to be a Hearing, and an Appeal, and it will all take DECADES.    He didn't have a response to that.

Monday

I forgot to mention that I went to the AARP meeting on Saturday to catch up with my friend Phyllis who has just come back from her mission trip to South Dakota taking the gospel to children who didn't know Jesus.   She drove a van and trailer over 2000 miles, I think that is amazing, I couldn't do it and she is older than I am, 78 - really pushing 80.

The AARP speaker was the CEO of a company which is doing a lot of good work in Shawnee.  I couldn't hear her very well, but I was pleased to be sitting with Phyllis and Joe, and was reading my C-Nook while Phyllis sorted her photos.

I gather the trip was very successful.   The children were Indians on a Reservation, so unbelievable as it seems,  maybe it is possible that they didn't know Jesus.  Phyllis said they do now.

Kevin came and cut my grass this morning, bless him.  I was going to the Senior Centre and in negotiating my way out of the drive, round my wheelie bin and Kevin's trailer, I hit the mailbox opposite.

I'd just finished a little lap size afghan for a senior, and took it to Kate to use as a bingo prize or give to someone she thought would like it.   They were still serving breakfast and she asked if I'd like some.  I asked for a pancake, and you would not believe the look of incredulity I got when I asked for some lemon to squeeze over it.

I make these afghans to use up all the balls of yarn I've accumulated, and then the last time I was in the Senior Centre they gave me a great big bag full.   Mercy.


In  the news..........

They wouldn't even be asking this question if they thought Hilary's Presidential run  was an absolute certainty.

Speaking of which...........

 



This is getting a bit hard to follow.  I did pick up the fact though that she didn't sit at her computer and delete her e-mails with her fingers, like we would do.  No, the server was professionally scrubbed clean, which is very BAD.  In fact it is a federal offence.   I don't know how she sleeps at night, if she does.

And Donald Trump was called for jury duty in New York.

However when he got there, he wasn't picked.  I assume they have the same system as us, whereby a defendant can object to a juror, and I can't imagine any attorneys wanting Donald Trump and his circus in their courtroom.  Had he been picked I bet he would have appointed himself  the foreman.

And...I haven't finished with him yet..

I have to say Fox News has some excellent four star generals, and other high ranking military personnel giving their insights and analyses of events in the Middle East, which is fine for the likes of me, but if you're President of the United States in the Oval Office, are you really going to tune into the journalists of Fox News, in the hope that they have a high ranking general on their programme, who will tell you how to handle the situation!

Sunday 16th August

Let's have a catch-up shall we.

Yes, Hilary is on her way out.

She could pass it off as a joke when it was just her and the media, and her e-mails, and no one much was paying attention, but when the Department of Justice and the FBI move in, it is a whole different ball game.  I think that serene smile is wiped off her face behind the scenes.

Lovely picture of the Queen, bless her, celebrating VJ Day.  I see Prince Phillip is SMILING!! It must be the first picture of him doing so since his wedding.  Has he had a personality transplant?

Egyptologists believe Queen Nefertiti might be walled up behind Tutunkamum (sp?) but they are reluctant to break the wall.  New advances in technology put a whole different aspect on things.

Friday 14th August

I've been feeling a bit off colour lately.   I went to the hospital this morning but didn't even feel like lunch with Bill - which is so not me - as normally I really enjoy chatting with him over lunch, but just took lunch to go, and went home.   Have been busy crocheting this afternoon and watching tv, as Hilary Clinton sinks further and further down in the polls and Bernie Sanders, her main rival, is climbing up......................  

I just don't see how Hilary Clinton can climb out of all these scandals swirling around her,

It seems to be generally agreed that Carly Fiorina gave the best performance at the Presidential Debate last week.   I think people would rather see her be the first woman President rather than Hilary.  Or perhaps it is just me because I don't have any political axes to grind, so it doesn't worry me that she is a Republican.

I guess he thinks this is going to get him the 'women' vote.  Didn't he get the memo that women want equality, not cherished.   But he is going to do so much for women, and women's health, "they are all going to love President Trump".

He was being interviewed this evening and was boasting about the fact that Rand Paul - who is an ophthalmologist when he is not running for President - asked him for money for an eye centre, which he gave him.   How embarrassing is that.   I don't know what Rand Paul was thinking of - of all the billionaires he could have approached, Trump should have been his last choice.

And to finish on a lighter note -

This is the world's oldest cat, he is 27.   His owner puts it down to the fact that he lives on her 160 acre ranch in Oregon, and gets plenty of exercise.

I had a call from my friend Phyllis this evening.  She is back from her mission trip to South Dakota, taking the gospel to children who didn't know Jesus.   They were Indians on a reservation.   She had a great time and loved it.

Wednesday 12th August

I'm not normally at the hospital on Wednesdays now, but I noticed yesterday that there wasn't going to be a volunteer there today, so I rang Bill this morning, and he seemed pleased to accept the offer of my services;  I went round both floors then we had a long lunch, chatting, and that was very nice.

In the afternoon I knocked up some shortbread to take to a pool party an Emmanuel member was having this evening.   We're gradually getting back to normal at Emmanuel; tomorrow, Thursday there will be Communion, and normal Wednesday nights will resume next week.

So that has been my day.................and in the news...............

Mrs Clinton is in serious trouble.   She handed over her e-mail server - she didn't have a choice and didn't want the spectacle of agents marching into her house and grabbing it, which is what would have happened.

Apparently there are different levels of security markings on sensitive documents, "Top Secret" is the highest level - that is information which could seriously threaten the security of the US.  "Classified" is the lowest level, and there are two or three in between.    Late this evening it was found that someone on her staff tried to remove a "top secret" classification on an e-mail.   It is all a bit shrouded in mystery at the moment,  and it is going to take quite some time to get to the bottom of it all.
    

One hopes he can keep it going...........

Tuesday 11th

I haven't felt too well lately, had very intense pain at the side of my face and went to the doctor, but she was fully booked.  She's not there tomorrow, but I'll go on Thursday if it is still bothering me.  Also got some back pain which is making me walk around as if I'm 90.   Instead of pushing 80.

 

I wasn't so bad this morning, managed my chaplaincy round, it didn't take too long as at least  half the rooms had precaution notices outside, which I bypass because I can't afford to pick up anything infectious.

 

Have been looking at the news...............

This is a big deal actually.   The FBI actually marching into her home and seizing her computer server, and they don't do that unless they have serious cause for concern.  But she is still swanning around pretending she is a Presidential candidate, and not worried.  I don't know  how long she can keep it up.  Probably until she is formally indicted on criminal charges.

 

I don't know if I've mentioned that there is another Democrat in the race, Bernie Sanders, who is a decent, straightforward guy.  Unfortunately, from an American point of view he is a Socialist, and over here that is a very BAD thing.  Americans traditionally have always rejected socialism, but it is being said that they are coming round to it, particularly younger people and Bernie Sanders seems to be picking up quite a bit of support.

 

Also still in the Presidential race, SIGH, is the insufferable Trump, full of himself,  gabbling away, constantly saying how wonderful, how rich, how generous, how everyone loves him (yeah, right).  Last week Mexicans were the lowest form of life, they were "criminals" and "rapists" and it must have been pointed out to him that is not going to win him the Hispanic vote, so this week they are wonderful, they love him, and he employs thousands, thousands of them - probably in his hotels, paying them the minimum wage. 

 

One other item in the news..........

Just when you think political correctness can't reach any further heights - or is it depths - of absurdity.

If you are looking for boys, or girls, items you have just got to wander the aisles until you find what you are looking for, because it is just not pc to label them 'boys' or 'girls'.

 

I think I'll wrap this up, stretch my aching back and go to bed.

 

 

Saturday

It is hot...............................

Look at that....105 in OKC, 108 in Tulsa.    

Way too hot for me to go out, do anything, I did however go out for a few minutes to buy a box of wine from the off licence.   I was served by a bubbly young woman and I think I was the first foreigner she has ever encountered, she was going on about my accent, then she  wanted to see my ID, heaven knows why, surely I look old enough.   I fished my UK driving licence out of my purse and she thought that was AWESOME!!

Now it is the evening and has cooled down Bubbles is sitting out on the porch.  It's too hot for her during the day.  I'd sit out there myself but there are too many bugs flying about.

Thursday/Friday 7th and 8th

But I don't know what happened to Wednesday.

 

Anyway, yesterday a busload of us from Emmanuel went to this event in the City and enjoyed it very much.

We did two sessions and I opted for making a memory collage, and the last one called 'sharing your story' which was about communicating.

 

I liked the idea of the memory collage but have handed over all the family photographs, so looked online and found  a painting of a German aircraft flying over and bombing Croydon airport in 1940, and as I spent my early childhood in my Grandma's air raid shelter - a mile from the airport - I took that as my theme.  All the Battle of Britain aircraft of the 15 August 1940 took off from Croydon airport.  Most children were evacuated to places of safety, school children were evacuated with their teachers to safe rural areas.  I reflected on the fact that I couldn't have been anywhere more dangerous, but my aunties always said that when the sirens went off getting me to the air raid shelter was their first priority.  When I was a baby I was put into something like a gas mask, but then as I grew older I got a Mickey Mouse gas mask. 

 

To my memory collage I added another couple of online pictures of bomb sites with children hanging round them, and a picture of the clock tower in Croydon, a familiar landmark. We just had a sheet of A4 paper, so there really wasn't room for much more.  I did put in a couple of little pictures of Tim and Jeremy and the grand daughters, to show how life  works out 'happily ever after' in the end.

 

Last night was the BIG DEBATE with all the Republican Presidential candidates.  As the politics don't have anything to do with me I just noted that the candidates are all good, decent people - mostly senators and governors, and being the news addict I am I knew them all.   The only one I don't like is the insufferable, bombastic Donald Trump, but it has to be said that he seems a basically decent guy who loves his family.

 

Dr Ben Carson - my favourite - and a highly respected paediatric neurosurgeon, closed with a little bit of humour that went down well.  He said that most of the other candidates had pointed out some accomplishment they had that no rival could match, and he said he wanted to try that as well.

 

"I'm the only one to separate Siamese twins, the only one to operate on babies while they're still in their mother's womb," he said. "The only one to take out half of a brain, although you would think if you go to Washington that someone had beat me to it."

Today, Friday, was the inquest with experts analysing the body language, and the pundits deciding who put up the best performance.  It seems to be generally agreed that Marco Rubio, the junior senator from Florida did well, and was applauded at the end for saying he would not take any lectures from Hilary Clinton on living paycheck to paycheck, he was raised by parents living paycheck to paycheck. 

Hilary Clinton is running on working for the middle classes, and it has been said that is not very convincing with a $600 hairdo.

I wondered if this was the $600 hairdo.   I also wondered how any hairdresser could justify charging that much for a hairdo, never mind her affording it.

There was also a debate earlier in the evening of the "also rans" those who didn't make the top tier in the opinion polls, and Carly Fiorina - the former CEO of Hewlett Packard - seemed to come out top in that. But I didn't see that debate, I needed to sort myself out after my day in the City.

Today, Friday I did my chaplaincy round at the hospital and had lunch with Bill.  In the afternoon my lovely neighbour, Dale, over the road came in for a cup of tea and a natter.   Then in the evening I went to a cheese and wine do at the Art Gallery promoting the current Exhibition, that was very pleasant, I saw lots of people there that I knew.  I didn't care very much for the modern art though.

After leaving the Art Gallery I went to Walmart for my goats' milk......

These are the buggies that the fat people have to use because they are too obese to walk round.  I can imagine someone suggesting that to Waitrose or Sainsburys, I'm sure they'd get very short shrift and be told to lose weight.  I thought at first they were for the disabled, but they're all used by the fat people, the clinically obese. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





Tuesday 4th (or it might be the 5th when I hit publish)

Still very hot, 88 as I went through town, so am not doing very much, finishing crochet projects and watching television   Every now and again I trot into the computer room, see if anyone is around or left a message.

So ...... in the news .........

There was this little gem all the way from West Yorkshire -

He made the point of wanting to press charges against the cat as well as the girlfriend.  I am sure by now she is his ex-girl friend, and she's well shot of him.

10,000 firefighters have been fighting about 40 wild fires, the largest of which is 93 square miles. I knew there was a reason I never want to go to California.

This is the Democrat challenging Hilary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.  He seems a very good guy, I'd vote for him were it not for the fact that I'm in love with the Republican, Dr Ben Carson.  And I don't have a vote anyway.

Actually, I noticed that  "socialism" in this country seems to be a rather dirty word, and socialists are like hens teeth.

And speaking of Hilary Clinton - 

She is falling in the polls, and being overtaken by Joe Biden - who hasn't officially announced he is running yet.   I think everyone is waking up to the fact that she is not trustworthy.  I don't think she will actually ever be the Democrat candidate - by then she will be 'toast'  as they say here.  But  she still thinks she is in with a chance.

I am not quite sure what to comment on that.  Yes, Biden is more honest and trustworthy than Clinton.  But then so is every other candidate in the race.

Sunday

There was a change in the weather overnight, cooler with rain, but it didn't last very long and by this afternoon it was hot and sunny again.

And Oklahoma seems to be staying hot for the foreseeable future, sandwiched there between 101 in Wichita,Kansas and 99 in Dallas.

I went to Emmanuel this morning, where things are getting back to normal with two services at 8.00 and 10.30.   The Wednesday meal will start again when the children go back to school on the 19th.

So I have just been crocheting and watching television, which is mainly at the moment about Hilary Clinton dropping in the polls.   What with e-mails and servers she has been reluctant to hand over, Benghazi she doesn't want to talk about, she now has problems with donations and campaign funds - one of which is taxable and the other isn't, and therein lies the problem.

She has been maintaining an incredible façade of serenity, of   "I have nothing at all to worry about, my time has come, I will be the first woman President".    But there is unrest and trouble brewing.

It has been reported that Joe Biden, the Vice President, has been asked to consider running.   It is not a good time for him, his son's death is still very recent.   Apparently though, before he died he encouraged his father to think of running.

There are now 17 candidates in the race, all having a turn on the interview programmes.   Also there doesn't seem any to be any restrictions here on party political broadcasts, they seem able to buy as much air time as they want, so they are all appearing among the adverts, getting their messages across.

I haven't seen very much of Bruce and Rosalyn lately.  They have been looking for a second home about 80 miles away, so that Rosalyn's grandson can go to a much better school than in Shawnee.

Saturday

Just to let you know I am still about, but the weather is too hot to go out, so I haven't been anywhere, done anything.

Perhaps tomorrow I will find something to write about.