Tuesday

I haven't done very much since posting my last blog on Sunday, I went out to dinner with Pattisue at the China Buffet Sunday evening.   I didn't make it to church at all, I was too tired still from driving.  As I've said before, I'm too old for these capers.

I have been watching the news on television and this caught my attention.  The obesity epidemic here, and the political correctness lobby, have reached new heights of absurdity.

 

We now have fat Barbie.  Whoever thought, back in the day, that Barbie would get fat.  But it is to help obese children feel better about themselves.   Now, don't get me wrong.  I am all in favour of making a child feel better - and I recognise that obesity here is largely a poverty issue - but this is not the answer.   Children should be given a healthier diet, not fat Barbies to play with.

 

Hundreds of new laws have been passed, coming into effect tomorrow.  I am still looking, but here is one to be getting on with.    In Oregon a law has been passed allowing new mothers to take home their baby's placenta.    Yew!!!    Can you see that being introduced in the House as a Private Member's Bill?   MP's would be rolling in the aisles.

Pictures from Beaumont

The Monastery cat.   In true fairy tale fashion this cat turned up at the patio door, 15 years ago, on a very wet, cold night, face pressed against the door, and Peter and Michael took her in.  And she's never looked back.  She is as well behaved as Bubbles.  At mealtimes she sits on the sideboard behind Michael, and when he lays his knife and fork on the plate and pushes the chair back, she knows she can jump in his lap.   He sometimes puts his plate down with a few morsels for her. At first I cringed at that....then I told myself that dishwashers get the water up to very high temperatures, it should be alright.

That television by the way is a lot more than a tv.  Michael gets the BBC and German news channels through the internet on it.   And when I arrived in the middle of an Oblates Meeting, it was being video conferenced to people in Colorado, and another state.

Someone said they thought monks lived in cells, they didn't have flat screen televisions and grand pianos in their living rooms.  Monastic life has obviously moved on from Bede and his monastery in Jarrow, writing the History of England.

The Gulf of Mexico.   The beach.  Peter and Michael thought I would jump out of the car and run along the beach.  I am not sure if they believed me, but it is like this all the way along.

Driving back along what I suppose is the coast road, through the oil refineries, I thought this was the best view of the ocean I was going to get, so pulled over, 

The menu was - caramelized carrot soup;  prime rib of beef au jus; mashed potatoes; roasted Brussels;  rolls;  white fruitcake, chocolate orange peels, vanilla ice cream, nut toffee.

All the time I was away I was plagued with the neck pain/headache at the base of my skull, Michael and Peter lent me something that is heated in the microwave, to put on my neck.   And now I am home I have been lying on a hot water bottle since I got back.   I might see the doctor again tomorrow, but I know she wants me to go to a neurosurgeon in Norman, but that road is paved with thousands of dollars worth of CT scans and MRI's.   I might ask her if she thinks I've just got arthritis there. 

Wednesday 18th December

My desktop pc is still functioning - just about.  Every time I click on something I get an error message.   But I found the downtown computer repair shop - with a new name, and a new location, (??) but still downtown, and am taking it in to them tomorrow, Thursday, and will pick it up when I get back from Beaumont.   In the meantime I managed - to my amazement - to set up Skype on my laptop.

I shouldn't have been so sarky yesterday about our self appointed neighbourhood sheriff.  I was grateful to her this morning.  I went out to the car early and left the keys dangling in the door;  it was fortunate that she noticed and retrieved them.  

I heard a bit more about the big black man leaping over the fence - he was stoned apparently.   He must have leapt back pretty sharp, Donna waved a 9mm handgun at him (which she called a pea shooter)  I don't know anything about handguns - obviously - so just did a quick internet search on them, and they are definitely deadly weapons.  Not really something to wave about at an intruder in your garden (or my garden).   I also learned that the two men living in the house behind me have just come out of the State Penitentiary (salubrious neighbourhood I live in), and that the barking pit bull had 13 puppies - can that be right?   Perhaps that is more than one litter.   Donna confirmed it was a puppy mill.  If I'd known that earlier I would have been on to Animal Welfare.

I didn't need to make a dessert for this evening's meal, team Mexican - who were cooking - like to do their own.  

I am not sure I will be able to write this up while I am away.  I know I can't access itsyourturn.  The Catholic Diocese of Beaumont have blocked such websites on the monastery's computers.  Michael has had words with them about it because he thinks guests should not be restricted.   I might go into Beaumont and look for a Starbucks.

Tuesday 17th December.

Had to go to the dentist this morning for a check up, and a session with the hygienist.   Made an appointment for some fillings in January.   Was also warned that the  work that needs to be done involving crowns and bridges, really can't be put off much longer.  That's going to be about $5000.   Are dentists still seeing NHS patients in Britain, it would be cheaper to come home?  Told myself to calm down, it won't look so bad once I've put it through the currency converter.  

It was a lovely bright day for bowling along Highway 9 to Norman.   I didn't make my customary stop though at Barnes & Noble, and the Starbucks in the middle.  Got too much to do getting ready to go away on Friday.

Yesterday morning I was out early, and while I was scraping the ice off the windscreen a police car pulls up opposite.   My next door neighbour, Donna - the self appointed sheriff of this neighbourhood - called him out because 'a big black man' jumped over the fence at the back (and actually into my garden)  Now, call me a bleeding heart liberal, but my first thought was to wonder if she would have bothered if he had been white.   I suggested he was probably taking a short cut, and she walked off when she saw we were just not on the same page over this.

Chaplain Bill roared with laughter when I told him about my neighbour, racially profiling.  Said she was giving a description.

Going out this afternoon I thought I'd see if the local computer shop downtown could give my laptop a little tune up, and install Skype, and I was surprised to see it had gone out of business.  I never saw its going.  Perhaps too many people, like me, started going to Staples.

Memo to my loved ones - perhaps one of you on Skype can talk me through setting up Skype on my laptop.  I am pretty sure I have an inbuilt webcam.

This evening was the joint Christmas party of the Shawnee Peace Fellowship, and Sustainable Shawnee.   Last year it was tapas in the Art Gallery and quite nice.   Tonight it was in a rather drab sandwich shop downtown.   Talk about sublime to the gor blimey.  I didn't bother.   I might have done if I didn't still have 101 things to do.

3rd in Advent - 'Stir Up Sunday'

The term 'Stir up Sunday' comes from the collect for the 3rd in Advent, the first line of which is 'Stir up O Lord.....'   It is also the day, in the Victorian and Edwardian kitchens of the well-to-do, that the Christmas puddings were made, which was an all day job.   Before the era of Peek Freans Christmas puddings, and Sainsburys.

The bitter weather I mentioned this morning warmed up, the ice disappeared off the car, and it was about 67 at one point when I was driving through town.

My friend Sandra, who is a member of Emmanuel, plays the organ at another church and this evening I went to a concert she had organised at that church, she was playing the piano and it was lovely.

And finally, the weather.....

 

 

 

Harking back to yesterday morning......there was another competition at the Democrat's Christmas breakfast, which I won, I think because of the novelty, being a stranger etc.  Everyone brings a favourite coffee mug...

 



Mine shows all the fishing grounds around the British Isles.   But I don't drink out of it, it is a cherished reminder of home.  I am sure fishermen nowadays have all the latest in high tech communication systems, but when I was child they had to listen to the shipping forecast on the radio.  And I loved that.   Bailey; Rockhall;  Malin;  Hebrides; Faroes; Fair Isle.........................I learned them all.

 

Saturday

Pattisue picked me up this morning and took me with her to the local Democrats breakfast Christmas party.   It was quite a novelty going to a party at breakfast time, but everyone brought a dish and there was some very good food.   And we started with a party game.   Everyone was given the name on their back of a prominent Democrat, and the object of the game was to guess who it was, so the idea was to ask people for clues.  Mine was Woodrow Wilson.   Woodrow Wilson!!!!!!   I would have got Elizabeth Warren - who briefly entertained hopes of running for President, but I think she has been told to leave the field clear for Hilary Clinton to be the first woman President - before I thought of Woodrow Wilson.  I think the guy who stuck it on my back thought that I might know he was President in WW1 before knowing anyone modern. 

Most people there, predictably, were elderly, but there was a lively young man from the Young Democrats, obviously passionate about politics and the Democrats.   Although their politics were different he reminded me of the young William Hague, who first spoke at the Conservative Party Conference when he was 16, and his passion for politics was so evident I thought then he would go far.   Twenty years later when he was 36 he became leader of the Conservative Party - the first leader who never became Prime Minister.

The rest of the day, the weekend in fact, is focused on getting ready to go down to Beaumont on Friday.  I keep anxiously looking at the long range weather forecasts.   It is Sunday morning now, have looked outside and the car it so totally iced up I decided I wasn't going anywhere soon.

Friday 13th December

The Kiwanis speaker yesterday was the very popular owner of the local flour mill, the largest business in Shawnee, started by his grandfather in 1891.    He talked a little of the history of the business but most people are familiar with it, even I have read up about it.   He also talked a little about his philosophy on life, how important it is to reconnect with people, and that what lasts is what we share with one another.  He served in the Korean War and recently organised a reunion of his comrades in Shawnee.  He and Cecil are good friends, they are both very active in Veteran affairs and instrumental in establishing an impressive memorial in the (re-named) Veterans Park, and he was able to show his comrades their names on the memorial.

I live fairly near the railway tracks and sometimes hear the mournful whistle of the train in the early hours of the morning, when it is delivering wheat from Kansas.  It sounds like something out of a Johnny Cash movie.

I went to Communion, then out to lunch.  Fr Bill had to go somewhere, so the usual four of us went to a Mexican restaurant.  Mexican restaurants are a bit of a minefield for me, avoiding the spicy.  I point to a dish, ask the waiter if it is spicy, but they never say yes or no, it is always "not really, just a bit".  Surely 'just a bit' means yes?   Someone told the waiter I want ultra bland, and I said YES, that's it, ultra bland.  And what I'd really like is rice and beans with guacamole and sour cream, and a big dollop of each, not half a spoonful (well, I might not have added the last bit).   Coming out someone said that was very entertaining, they like watching Valerie order.  I'm not just putting on pantomimes in the Cable Company.

I woke up this morning, Friday, to some very heavy rain which has seen off most of the snow that was around.    I did my hospital chaplaincy round and had a long lunch with Chaplain Bill, getting to know each other.

I needed to go to my pharmacy for a refill of a prescription I take every day.  He was looking at the computer and said it would be alright, but really I am going too soon for it.  I told him I knocked the container off the nightstand and a lot of them rolled about on my dusty bedroom floor.  He laughed and asked if I couldn't dust them down.   Now - as this is all in the public domain - everyone knows what a slovenly housewife I am.

This is the Nativity Scene I took outside the hospital this morning.    This is fine, and acceptable, it is on private property, not funded by taxpayers.

This however in the Senior Centre is an entirely different matter, it is promoting religion in a public place funded by tax payers, a heinous breach of the Constitution, and as I walked out of the Centre the person I was with expressed disapproval.

There were 57 shootings in schools in a year - I am not sure if it was last year, or this one.  And there was another this morning in Colorado.   One student is seriously injured, another less so, and the student with the gun shot himself.   After Dunblane we banned hand guns and there hasn't been a school shooting since, but here the carnage goes on................

  When the children come out of the school they have to run out with their hands raised, and are then frisked to be sure no one else is carrying a gun.