Friday 29th January

I haven’t been up to much lately, the weather has been cold although bright and sunny, but has turned quite warm today.

I’ve been told – although it is not new – that I shouldn’t be watching Fox News.  It is EVIL but no one ever actually tells me what is wrong with it (apart from being right wing, if that counts) or gives me any fact based accounts of where they have misled the public.  The journalists reporting the news seem to me to give a pretty unbiased account of events, and when there is something contentious being reported or discussed, there is always a representative from both sides putting forward their respective viewpoints.   What else can one ask for?

Of course they don’t like Hilary Clinton getting a bad press, but it is nothing she hasn’t brought upon herself, like deliberately lying about Benghazi to the families of the four Americans killed there.  She knew from the outset that the Embassy had been attacked by terrorists, but had tried to put out a story that it was a ‘protest’ over a video, a story which has now been blown apart. 

I heard tonight that there are 18 e-mails between herself and Obama that are so top, top, top, secret they cannot EVER see the light of day.  One’s imagination runs riot  wondering what on earth is in them, like the CIA was planning to assassinate Putin (that’s the most way out scenario I could come up with).  

And Chris Christie, the NJ governor and Presidential candidate, who is also a Federal Prosecutor, was saying tonight he was going to prosecute HC when the time comes.  He looked as though he was almost relishing the prospect.

There’s a rumour that the lovely governor of South Carolina, Nicky Haley, might be Vice President in a Republican win for the Presidency.   She won my admiration after a crazy individual, a young white supremacist, shot nine people in an African American church, and she dealt with the situation very well.  She ordered the removal of all Confederate flags from Federal buildings in her state.  I always thought the Confederacy and its paraphernalia belonged in history, but they have become very real symbols of hate and division.

Since we buried the hatchets in our Civil War at the Restoration, I sometimes find it hard to get my head round the fact that over here they are still fighting theirs, 200 odd years down the line.

 

Tuesday

The weather here is so bright and sunny, looking out of the window it could be summer, but outside it is really, cold.    I had to run the car for a while to get the ice off before I could go out.    I didn't go far though, just to the hospital.    There seemed to be a lot of elderly patients in with pneumonia, which always somewhat surprises me, I don't think we admit patients to hospital with pneumonia, or do we?

 

Television coverage has moved from the weather back to the Presidential campaign, and the breaking news this evening is that Donald Trump is not attending the Debate on Thursday.   Back in August at the first debate, he objected to a question the moderator, Megan Kelly of Fox News, asked him, I think she questioned him about past comments denigrating women, and he doesn't like being put in a bad light.   He thinks he is wonderful and everyone loves him - he is always saying so - so he doesn't take kindly to any suggestion that anyone might find him less than wonderful.

 

Fox News is responsible for the debate on Thursday, Megan Kelly is again one of the moderators and Trump demanded that she be removed.   But the boss of Fox News is not going to be told what to do by Donald Trump.   So he has pulled out saying "let's see how much money Fox is going to make on the debate without me".    I just hope the sponsors don't pull their advertising, otherwise he will be crowing.   And Megan Kelly is one of the best, most professional journalists on Fox News, I am a big fan.

 

The debate is on the Fox Business channel which I don't get.   Sigh.   But they do replay the highlights.

Saturday 24th January

You have probably seen pictures of the major news story here which is the weather up and down the east coast.   It has broken all records;  state governors have declared states of emergency and ordered everyone off the roads and indoors, and there has been very heavy snowfall.

Here it is still bitterly cold, but so bright and sunny that looking out of the window you would think it was June.   I just ventured to the shop along the road but didn't stay out long.   And all the news coverage has been the weather, which makes a change from Donald Trump and the Presidential campaign.

So there isn't much to write about - perhaps tomorrow.

Friday 22nd January

You've probably seen pictures of the weather on the east coast here which look pretty grim, and cold.  Streets and supermarket shelves are all totally empty.   Down here in the south it is very cold, but we don't have snow.

There was a Reception this evening at the Art Gallery being the first day of their Exhibition on "Wounaan Baskets from the Rainforests of Panama"  (we're an erudite lot here).   I'd intended going (but more for the cheese and wine and possibility of seeing people I knew, rather than the Wounaan Baskets)  but when it came to stepping outside it was too cold.

I'd already been out this morning for my chaplaincy round at the hospital, then had lunch with Bill which was very pleasant.   He's going to be away next week so I said I'd see him in a fortnight.  He asked me what a fortnight was.  I stood there feeling, and obviously looking,  confused, and he said it is not a word they have in their vocabulary.

Well - there are words that were not in my vocabulary until I came here.  Words like 'erectile dysfunction'.   I kid you not - in every tv commercial break, along with all the adverts for cars and insurance etc are remedies for erectile dysfunction.   And for those of you who don't know what that is, I'll leave you to figure it out, like I had to.   Another very common complaint they have here - judging by all the tv adverts for its remedy is 'toe nail fungus'.   I'd dearly love to know just how many people there are walking around Shawnee with toe nail fungus.

There isn't much in the rest of the news.  The FBI are still relentlessly pursuing Hilary Clinton and her e-mails, but it was pointed out that the two people who would have to sign off on indicting her - like the Attorney General and Head of the FBI, are unlikely to do so.   In other words, she seems pretty fireproof.

Tuesday 19th January

Weather still bright and sunny but very cold, although not - I gather - as cold as it is over there.

I did venture out though and went to the Senior Centre to see how many more scarves for seniors they needed.  Kate's response was something along the lines of "as many as I am prepared to keep knitting".  She did anxiously ask if I had enough wool, but she fairly recently gave me two great sackfuls, and I already had plenty of my own stash.    I did start on a crocheting project this evening though, as I prefer to crochet than knit, but I'll get back to the scarves tomorrow.   Time is of the essence, as they say, because the weather is so cold NOW.

I do like live music so I stayed and listened to the Country and Western band they have twice a week but  I had my knitting in my bag - I didn't want to sit like a wallflower among the little paunchy men in their stetsons.   I might be wrong but I think I've come to the conclusion that men in stetsons used to work outside, on their farms and ranches.  And those in baseball caps all had indoor jobs.  Of course they all wear blue jeans.  They even wear them to get married in.

 

The news is all about the Presidential Campaign, mostly Donald Trump's part in it, as he is the most entertaining.    But it did hit a very serious note - the news that is - this evening with more revelations about Hilary Clinton and her e-mails.   Apparently, there is something even more secret than "Top Secret" and it has been revealed that a large number of Hilary's e-mails which were sent on an unsecured server,  are in this TOP, TOP, Secret bracket.  And there is great consternation in the FBI, and talk that "lives are at risk".   I'm guessing that the identities of CIA agents have been compromised.  I can't imagine what else could be so serious.    With everything stacking up against her I really can't see her as the next President.

Martin Luther King Day

Today has been a holiday, but not what I would call a "big deal holiday" - banks and Federal offices are closed, but not much else, even some schools are open.

 

I once commented to Terry on an MLK Day, that everyone seemed to be on holiday yet he was working, and he was very dismissive of it, so I figured there are two kinds of holidays here.   There are those which are IMPORTANT, like the 4th July, which everyone looks forward to, and really celebrates, buying in the crates of beer and dusting off the barbeque - then there are the holidays like today, with bank clerks having a day off, but life is pretty much going on as normal for everyone else.

 

MLK was born on the 15th January - maybe if his birthday had been the middle of summer, it might be celebrated a bit more enthusiastically.

 

We don't have this problem do we.  Perhaps because we have the fewest holidays of any nation in the EU, we can't afford to be dismissive of those we do have, so are more excited about them.

 

So I have just been watching television and pressing on with the scarves for seniors.   I'm beginning to feel though I have knitted enough and want to move on to something else.

Saturday/Sunday morning

I haven't been out and about much lately, the weather - although bright and sunny - has been cold.  On Wednesday Beth gave me some tubes of cookie dough to make biscuits for dessert after the meal.  It is the first time I cooked anything in Emmanuel's ovens, and it will be the last.  Everything cooking at the back of the ovens was burned, and those at the front, barely done.   But no one was surprised - it is just accepted.   I was too surprised to say much, but I think I will suggest they get someone out to calibrate the ovens asap. 

 

Yesterday, Friday, I was at the hospital and had lunch with Bill.   And just went out today for a little weekend shopping.   So nothing of wild excitement going on.

 

The Republicans have had another Presidential debate.   And Trump, Cruz and Rubio are emerging as the front runners.  John Kasich is doing well.   I think he might be the candidate I'd go for if I had a vote.   At the rate the FBI are stepping up their investigations into Hilary Clinton, I am not reckoning her chances at all, otherwise she is going to be to-ing and fro-ing between the White House and the Court House.   And I don't think Americans are ready just yet for a socialist candidate, and that just leaves Republicans.    Perhaps next time.   I thought it was just Benghazi they were looking at, but it is the Foundation she and Bill set up, and which has been receiving monies from foreign donors - that seems to be their main focus, but of course we're not told much, and she is swanning around, campaigning, all smiles, like she hasn't a care in the world.  I don't know how she does it.

 

 

Tuesday

I duly presented myself at 9 o'clock this morning for my ear cleaning appointment.   The audiologist in fact was Kevin's brother, Kurt, although I had been told on the phone that he wouldn't be able to see me until next week, and an underling would be doing them.   I wouldn't have been fussed if an underling had done them, but in fact Kurt did them himself.   I think maybe the underling panicked when I mentioned that someone else had spent three days last week trying to do them, and had to give up.  

But unlike Cleda, Kurt had all the necessary 21st century technology.  He situated me beside a monitor so I could it see it all coming out, and it was GROSS!!!   And instead of a syringe he had a little power driven thingy, which made it all very quick and easy.   And now I am walking about, hearing, and talking to people like I am NORMAL.   The first thing I did when I got home was turn the television on, and it was DEAFENING.  No wonder poor Bubbles bolted from the room.

At one point in the procedure I mentioned Kevin, and Kurt said that he recognised me from somewhere, and he was wracking his brains trying to think where.    When Kevin's taken me to the family home there is always a lot of people around, at least 15 to 20 having a meal, and afterwards the guys all go off on their motor bikes round the estate, so it is not surprising Kurt couldn't place me.

That has really been my excitement for the day, when I got back home I got on with the scarves for seniors.

Monday 11th January

Tried to think what I have been doing since last Wednesday, but it has just passed me by in a cocoon of deafness, which has got worse.   When I went last Friday hoping Cleda would finally be able to finish clearing my ears she said after looking, that I really need to see an audiologist, so I have an appointment at 9 o'clock tomorrow, Tuesday.   Apparently they have more up to date equipment than simply a syringe, so I am hopeful.

 

I really haven't been out at all, I didn't even go to church on Sunday as I knew I wouldn't hear anything.   The weather has been very bright and sunny, but cold.   I am still engaging myself on knitting scarves for the seniors.  Kate likes to use them for bingo prizes, but I'm thinking of trying to suggest that it is NOW that they need them, when it is so cold out.  But once I hand them over I feel it is up to her, and I don't like to interfere.

 

I haven't even been looking at television because it is too much for Bubbles, with the volume on maximum - she bolts out of the room.

 

So hope to come back tomorrow a bit more cheerful.

ps I think when I don't write for a few days people give up looking - and I don't blame them.  Only two people looked yesterday.    But I will still carry on for the two.   I will just give up when no one looks.

 

Epiphany

And Day Three of the ears saga, yawn, yawn.  I was there again today, and if anything my hearing is worse than it has ever been.  I can't even hear the television turned up to its maximum setting.   Cleda is getting some stuff out, but it is still very impacted on the ear drum.   I will be so glad to be able to hear again.   And all this is probably far too much information, more than you want.   Let us hope when I go back tomorrow there is some break through.

 

I went out to the car this morning for my appointment at the hospital, and the battery was absolutely, totally dead.  I'd left the lights on.   I think I am getting too old and confused to look after myself, I should be in an assisted living facility.   Anyway, Terry sorted it out for me, got the car going then I followed him back to his shop where I waited for about an hour while he charged it up.   And he didn't charge me, bless him.   I got to the hospital and ear syringing this afternoon.

 

I was in two minds about going to Emmanuel for the meal this evening as it is difficult hearing what people are saying to me, so I arrived late when everyone was eating, and as there wasn't a spare seat at a table I sat by myself on the sofa, and Kevin came to see if I was alright.   There was a candlelit service afterwards for Epiphany, but I thought that as I wouldn't hear anything anyway I came home.

 

The news is pretty much dominated by the Presidential campaign.   Trump is getting desperate and suggesting Cruz should drop out of the race because - although a US citizen of an American mother - he was born in Canada, and that apparently should disqualify him, according to Trump.  Never mind that he has been a Florida senator for goodness knows how long, and no one has ever worried.

Obama is stirring up controversy, tightening up gun control, so everyone is rushing to appear on television protesting it is their Second Amendment right under the Constitution  to bear arms, "to protect their families".   I don't know why they bother with a police force, quite frankly.  Maybe they need a few around to help old ladies cross the road and tell the time, but they could save trillions of dollars by drastically cutting back the police force, just let everyone have their gun and get on with it, and protect themselves.

Obama became emotional at a recent meeting on the subject, actually dashing away the tears.  The mothers in the audience were holding up pictures of their dead children.   We didn't actually see that though, the camera was focused entirely on Obama.

Monday 4th January

There is nothing wrong with Bubbles but she seems to have entered a new phase in life.   Apart from about half an hour in the middle of the day, she sleeps all the rest of the time, on my bed or a sofa.  Of course I don't know how awake she is at night when I'm asleep.  She is usually asleep when I drop off.

Here she was last night, tuckered out after her day gone AWOL.

 

I have lately become increasingly hard of hearing, it is due to a build up of wax in my ears which I periodically have syringed out.   Nurses in England are not keen on doing it anymore - due to the danger of perforating the ear drum if one is not careful - so I am very grateful that the occupational health nurse at the hospital is prepared to do it for me.   It is not the first time she has done it, and she is very, very careful.   It took her an hour this morning, and I still need to go back tomorrow after putting more drops in today.

 

While I was out I stopped by the Senior Centre to pick up a calendar of their events this month - although I don't participate in anything I like to know what I'm missing. And Kate gave me this.......

 

This is for making afghans for the seniors and knitting scarves to keep their little necks warm, ha ha. 

 

I noticed on the calendar of events that it is the Kiwanis bake sale tomorrow, and although I don't go to their meetings any more (8.30 is too early for me on these chilly mornings, and it is even earlier when picking up donuts from Tecumseh) I like to contribute in a very small way to the good work they do, so this evening I knocked up some moist fruit cakes.   And I might do some shortbread.

I've just taken this and it is something else she is finding harder to do, climb on to the arm of the sofa beside the computer desk.   You'd think, wouldn't you, that she would jump on the sofa then on to the arm, but she doesn't, she struggles to jump up on to the arm from the floor.

 

 

She's back!!!!!!!!

I'd just hit 'publish' and wandered to the front door, looked out, and there is she was, sitting on a chair on the porch - which is unusual - normally when it is as cold as this, she would be sitting outside the front door, waiting to come in.  I even had to go over to the chair and urge her to come in.   So goodness knows what she has been up to.  

Later Sunday - Bubbles

I fear she has gone.   Still no sign of her.  She's never done this before......even when she goes outside she doesn't prowl round the neighbourhood, she never goes further than the porch, or underneath the house, so I am suspecting she is under the house.  

 

I am wracking my brains because I can't remember letting her out -  because it is so cold out I wouldn't usually go back to bed, or settle down to anything else, I'd give her a few minutes then see if she wanted to come in again, so I spent most of the day thinking she was curled up indoors, and would soon appear, but  realistically I have had to give up the notion that she is hiding somewhere in the house.  There isn't a single corner left I haven't looked in. .   So I'm baffled and confused, as well as missing her.

 

When I asked Donna is she could remember how old she is, she said she thought she was born when her daughter - who is now 22 - was about 5.   So I know she is old for a cat, and I have been mentally preparing myself for this.  Increasingly she has spent longer and longer periods sleeping.

Sunday afternoon

This is a bit earlier in the day than I normally post, but just wanted to get it off my chest.  

Bubbles has gone missing.  She wasn't outside, it is too cold, but I haven't seen her since about 5.30 this morning and it is the middle of the afternoon.   I keep going round and round the house every half hour, looking in every closet, behind every piece of furniture, and of course I open the front door as well, just to make sure she is not outside.

It is beyond bewildering, beyond belief.  I know I thought she was a gift from God, but it is a bit of a stretch to think He has taken her back, she's been resurrected and gone straight to kitty Heaven.

I hope with the next post I will have some good news.

New Year's Day

It has been cold but very bright and sunny, which has melted the snow away, and I can now unlock my car door.  Not that I went anywhere.   

 

I think this must be the first year since I don't know when, that I haven't seen the New Year in.  I fell asleep in front of the television.   I was thinking wistfully of Andy Stewart who was always on television on New Year's Eve.  Is he still around?

 

New laws come into effect today, and it is a big deal that in Texas handguns no longer have to be concealed - one can swagger about with it on one's hip.  Coming from a country where even the ownership of a hand gun is illegal I have a problem getting my head around this.   Road rage incidents are bad enough without adding hand guns to the mix.

 

So not done a lot today.  I've got two books on the go.  One is about the Profumo affair.  Remember that?  You would if you're English, my age, or a historian.  The book is very badly written, the author - irritatingly - obviously delights in throwing in the most obscure words I've never heard of, and I have got a fairly reasonable vocabulary.   But I will persist until the bitter end, I always feel I have to

finish a book, and I like that it is taking me back to the 60s and all the politicians in Macmillan's government who used to be household names.

 

But I did start another one I picked up at the Dollar Tree (all my books come from the Dollar Tree) it's called "What Happened"   Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception.  That is more promising.

 

So wishing you all, friends and loved ones, a Happy New Year!