Monday/Tuesday

Been a bit under the weather, probably because I woke up yesterday, Monday morning, to snow everywhere.   I posted a little piece about my silly antics trying to get into my iced up car, I am not sure how many of you caught it before I deleted it.    The doors and windows of said car however are still heavily iced up, so I am not about to go anywhere.

 

I embarked on a memory challenging exercise - listing all 17 places in which I've lived;   if I've worked it out right, that's an average of a move every 4.7 years.   The early years were quite easy to recall, the early 60s were a bit challenging, and I am still struggling to remember when I lived briefly at Stone Cross.

I was going to post some pictures but can't get the film card out of the camera, so will just hit 'publish' and be back tomorrow.

Sunday 27th

The weather has changed from warm, sunny, in the 70s, to chilly and very, very wet.   It just rained heavily for hours and hours.    I went to the 10.30 service at Emmanuel, and the church was only half full, I don't think I have ever seen such a sparse congregation.   I think quite a few families must still be away because there are usually a lot more children than there were this morning.

 

So there is not a lot to write about.   Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton are still hurling insults.  I think Ben Carson, who seemed to be a front runner for quite a while, now seems to be falling in the polls.   Part of me can't actually believe that Donald Trump could be President, occupying the Oval Office - anybody less Presidential would be hard to imagine, and yet he is still up there in the polls with Cruz and Rubio.  I think they are going to be the front runners and it won't be long before the others drop out, they're just hanging in, hoping for cabinet posts and ambassadorial appointments in the new administration.

 

I don't know if I am imagining it, but there seems to be even more tv adverts than usual, and there always were plenty.   I am sure they take up twenty minutes out of every sixty, one day when I am not knitting and crocheting I will do a survey.    

 

And speaking of adverts - there is a very curious one running at the moment.   It is for a home dryer/freezer, or it may be a freezer/dryer.  Anyway, it freeze dries food that then lasts for 25 years!!!  I can't get my head round that - who, who, wants to think of what they are going to be eating in 25 years time?????    It wouldn't surprise me though if Peter and Michael down at the monastery have got one.

 

 

 

Christmas Day

I hope you all, dear friends and loved ones, had a lovely Christmas Day.

Mine was very good.   I saw Tim and family on Skype, then I went to lunch with Chaplain Bill and his family - two of his three daughters, son in law and grandson Oliver, and it was all very pleasant, they are a lovely family and Oliver is a delightful toddler of 16 months.

 

I was somewhat astonished that none of the churches here have a Christmas Day service.  Emmanuel and the other mainstream churches had midnight masses and I had intended going, but unfortunately dozed off in front of the television and woke up too late.

 

They don't have Boxing Day here, so I guess tomorrow is a normal day.  I haven't actually spent many Christmases in Shawnee, I did the first year I was here because Larry died shortly before Christmas.  After that, if I wasn't in England, I went down to stay with Peter and Michael at the monastery in Beaumont, and I had an invite this year, but although  I'd l love to go I just can't manage a 500 plus mile drive any more, even with an overnight stop, I am just too old and stiff.    It is as far as the south coast to John O'Groats, and these days I wouldn't even make it to Watford Gap.   Old age hasn't so much crept up on me as taken me by surprise.

 

If I don't post anything next week, I wish you all the best for a Happy New Year.

Saturday/early Sunday

My word, I'm not keeping up very well with this lately, am I.

The weather was a bit milder today but it has been very cold, with a fairly thick layer of ice on the car in the mornings.   

I finished knitting a little stack of scarves for seniors and delivered them yesterday, Friday, to the Senior Centre where they were going to be given out at the Christmas lunch.    I was invited to the  lunch but preferred to have it with Bill at the hospital.   I did go back in the afternoon to ask if they liked them - not that anyone would have told me if they didn't - but Kate said they were very pleased.   There weren't enough to go round so they put their names in a hat to win one.

 

Kate gave me another big bag of oddments of wool which people, or someone, brings in to the Senior Centre, so I  have a never ending supply.

 

Apart from all this knitting I have just been watching the Presidential candidates bickering.  The three Democrats had a debate this evening, I would have liked to have seen it but my basic tv package doesn't give me the channel it was on.   Normally I don't need more than the two channels I regularly watch - the evil Fox News, and the Food Network, but occasionally, like today, I'd have liked the one I haven't got.   Mind you, I still have access to a lot.   There are some, like the History channel, or the National Geographic I would watch if I could tear myself away from Fox News.

Sunday 13th November

There has been a change in the weather, it has gone from summery to cold and wet.   I'd intended going to Emmanuel at 8 o'clock for a change, but not on such a dark, wet morning, I went to the 10.30 instead.   

 

Apart from quite a long nap this afternoon (I went to sleep during a programme that is on between 1 and 2, and woke up during its repeat between 5 and 6) I spent the rest of the day watching tv and working on the latest project of knitting scarves for seniors which Kate requested.  She said they feel the cold, especially as quite a few are on blood thinners, and would like something warm around their shoulders.

 

I heard that in France thousands of firearms have been confiscated and mosques either closed, or under surveillance.   Well done President Hollande.   That wouldn't fly here though, you can't take  guns away from Americans, it is in their Constitution.  I think it dates back to when they were fighting us in the Revolutionary War and needed to defend themselves.

 

This incident is back in the news....

 

There have been mass protests today demanding the resignation of the mayor of Chicago because this incident took place over a year ago and the video has only just surfaced.    The reason being that the mayor was facing re-election and it was feared it would scupper his chances.  He has apologised but indicated that he is not resigning.

 

What no one seems to be asking though, and what blows my British mindset, is why the police officer who shot him is being charged with first degree murder.   There doesn't seem to be any indication either of when his trial is coming up, which surely must be soon, I would have thought.

 

The President is going to the Pentagon on Monday.   A rare visit, I understand, so there is conjecture as to the reason why.   I would think myself that it is because he keeps telling the nation that "ISIS is contained, no one has any need to worry.  But on the other hand high ranking military officials are appearing on television complaining that he is downplaying and minimising the danger.   So obviously the record needs to be put straight.   It is also being said that National Security is going to be the dominant issue in the Presidential election.

 

Concern is being expressed because Canada is taking in 25,000 refugees, so it is feared that ISIS supporters will start streaming across the northern border.   

 

It has also been discovered that ISIS are manufacturing fake Syrian passports, so those who aren't illegally crossing the borders are able to come in legally.  

 

 

 

 

Friday 11th December

The weather here is so summery, blue skies and 70 degrees, it is hard to believe it is so near to Christmas.   I never have been one for white Christmases so I am quite happy with it.

 

Bill greeted me cheerily as I walked in the chaplaincy office, but my response didn't pass the perspicacious test.  After a little gentle prodding I told him I was suffering from early onset Alzheimer's and he said something to the effect that wasn't a diagnosis a non professional should be making.   I confessed  that the purse I thought was stolen from my handbag last week - when I hid it under his desk - was in fact at home all the time.   He said his mother was becoming forgetful and was I going to see a doctor, but I think I can manage for the time being, with lots of reminders around the place.

 

He had been told about my missing purse and said they had looked at the video from the camera outside his office, but there wasn't anyone suspicious about.  

 

Anyway,I did my chaplaincy round this morning and we had lunch together which was very pleasant.

 

The rest of the day I was watching television, as WWIII between civilisation and barbarism seems to be drawing ever closer.   80% of Americans think another attack is imminent.  And Mohammad Ali's daughter has weighed in, and said among other things, that Islam is a "peaceful" religion.   A statement which always totally exasperates me whenever I hear it.   I KNOW there are billions of good, decent  Muslims all over the world, peacefully living their lives in civilised  societies, but Islam is not - and never has been - a peaceful religion. 

 

The Prophet told them -  "Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, harass them, lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war"   (Koran 9:5)  and

"So fight them until there is no more Fitnah (non Muslims) and all submit to the religion of Allah alone" (Koran 8:39).

 

I don't know why Obama, and other political leaders, don't take a basic course in Islam.  It would enable them to better understand what they are up against, I would have thought.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday 8th December

 I didn't post anything yesterday, I was feeling a bit under the weather, but it was the 74th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941.  

Some statistics........  

The base was attacked by 360 Japanese fighter planes, bombers, and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded.

 

Back in the 21st century there is a new war and a new enemy, and innocent Americans are being slaughtered by extremist followers of militant Islam - although President Obama has a problem calling it that because he doesn't want  to appear to be waging war on Islam.  He really needs to acknowledge that war is being waged on the US, there are plenty of generals around trying to get the point across to him, but he is in denial.  He was going to be the President who ended all the wars.

Donald Trump has been holding forth (as he does) saying emphatically over and over again that if he were President no Muslims at all would be allowed into the country, they will all be turned back until "we" (whoever "we" is) figures out what is going on here.   Like there is going to be a gate A at airports for Americans to go through, and  a gate B for Muslims to be turned back.

Saudi Arabia is a close ally of the US, and the king's son is at Georgetown, as someone said - who is going to tell him he has to turn back?

To the bemused foreign bystander here  neither of them seems to have any idea of how to govern the country, or in fact any grasp on reality.  

But before I hit 'submit' I do want to say here that personally, in my own little world here, I am very grateful and appreciative of all the kindness I receive, and it is the little things in life that make it worth living;    the neighbour over the road with the cheery wave,  the friend who says 'bring me your camera on Wednesday, I'll sort it out for you', the kind friends who invite me to the theatre, or their home for coffee.

Sunday 6th December

I went to Emmanuel this morning, but the weather is so cold I was glad to stay indoors for the rest of the day.  

The television has been dominated by the news you have probably heard  about the horrific mass shooting in California by terrorist extremists.   Even Obama came on television to address the nation about it this afternoon.   When I heard that he was going to make this broadcast I was expecting something rather Churchillian, along the lines of  "fighting them on the beaches etc" but it wasn't.

When these terrorists were being pursued the husband was driving and the wife was shooting out the rear window, and apparently it is extremely difficult - and takes a lot of training - to shoot from a moving vehicle, so this couple, and certainly the wife, were no amateurs.

And while we are on the subject of shooting, you may remember this from a previous post, and I was reading an update on it while having a little coffee break in the hospital waiting room.......

The guy running down the street waving a knife was high on hallucinogens, and he had been using the knife to scratch all the cars parked along the street.   As I think I've said before there seems to be no facilities here for treating the mentally ill, or criminally insane.    And the policeman who shot him was  charged straight away with first degree murder, so his  career was immediately over.  What a tragedy this is.  Instead of shooting him they should have done what our police force would probably have done - boxed him in with their cars, ordered him to drop the knife, and taken him into custody.  

But who am I to tell them what to do - I think I am getting a bit too uppity.   So I think on that note I'll sign off.

Friday 4th December

I was astonished to see just now, that 23 people viewed yesterday's blog.  I usually have about half a dozen, if that. 

This has been a very trying day.   Bill was not at the hospital today, so when I got there I 'hid' my handbag under his desk - and when I got back from my chaplaincy round I found my purse had been taken out of it.    Usually, when he is there it is safe enough under my own desk, but I think in future I will keep it locked in the car.

There was very little money in it, but all my cards and UK driving licence.   I went to my bank and stopped that card, then had to go home and put a stop on my Lloyds card.  Finally I went to the police station to report its loss because of my driving licence, and the fact that it will take a little while to get a new one from Swansea.  I never exceed the speed limit here so I'm not likely to be pulled over and asked for it, but I wanted it placed on record that I am driving round Shawnee without one until its replacement comes.

Thinking about it this evening I have to say I was touched by all the kindness I had.   The customer service rep in my local bank; the person I spoke to at Lloyds who said it would take a few days for a new one to arrive and would I be alright; and the sympathetic police officer I spoke to.

That is really what my day has been about, so there isn't really anything to add to this.

Thursday 3rd December

Goodness, the last post was Sunday, I am slipping, although I see I started one on Tuesday and didn't post it.

Yesterday, Wednesday, I was riveted to the television all day watching the events, the terrorist attack, as it went down in California.  And do you know, even this morning, the President is saying that we can't be sure it is terrorism, and not 'work place violence'.   GIVE ME STRENGTH.   Far be it for me to tell the President of the United States how to run his country, but would someone like to send him a Memo and point out that if someone is dressed in black tactical gear, with a camera strapped to their chest, and in possession of masks, assault weapons and handguns, it can safely be assumed it is not work place violence.

And while we are on the subject of hapless leaders would someone tell Jeremy Corbyn that issues like going to war, is not one on which you call out the Party Whips.   I am glad common sense prevailed among the rebels, and there was a majority of 174 in a free vote.

 

Still on the subject of the terrorist attack.  The next door neighbour of the terrorists was aware of lots of packages being delivered to them lately, and of their working until late at night in their garage, but she didn't want to report this suspicious activity for fear of being accused of 'profiling'.   This is what political correctness does to you......................

Coming from a country where our police force is highly respected and trusted, I have a problem here where the police, generally, seem to be rubbished, and get a very bad press - although I have never heard anything adverse about the Shawnee Police Chief, Russell Frantz, whom I like very much.  So I was heartened tonight to see the video of a police officer leading people out of the building under attack in California, telling them to stay behind him, he would take the bullet before them. 

http://ramacgregor.blogspot.ca/2015/12/proud-to-be-quebecer-today-new-gun.html    This is from my Canadian friend who is proud to be a Quebecer today because of their new gun legislation.   As I am sure you know, guns are a big deal in this country too.  I have to say, coming from a country where the ownership of hand guns is illegal, and the only people who have guns are those who hunt - even our police force isn't armed unless they are going out on a raid, and even then they have to be signed off by a Justice of the Peace - I do believe, as most of us do in Britain, that violence breeds violence and one only has to look around this nation to know how true that is.