Tuesday 21 October

This has been a funny day of more problems with the electricity in the house.   I was holding forth in the chaplaincy office, updating Bill and Bruno, another chaplain, of the saga of washing machines and televisions that go bang simultaneously, of spare bedrooms with no light and power, finally mentioning that only one out of three lights on the porch was working; and I can't change the bulbs myself because of my terror of having a fall, so I won't get on a step ladder.  

 

Anyway, Bruno offers to come out this afternoon after he's picked up his children from school, and he changes the bulbs on the porch.   So far, so good.   But I think electricity is his hobby, he then offered to look at the bedroom with no power in it (except amazingly, for the light in the closet which works) then he asked to see the breaker box with all the switches and fuses, and started tinkering with them, and it all went downhill from there.   The computer started doing weird things I'd never seen before - but fortunately that has righted itself  -  however, all the lights and power have gone out in the living room and on the porch.   So Mark's lad, Tim, is coming out in the morning at 9 o'clock.

 

Sadly, I rang Mark and Mary at the worst possible time, Mary answered the phone sounding very strained - their daughter Joanna very recently had a baby, and the baby has just died.  I was so sorry, so sad, I told them not to worry about the house, I said I'd call an electrician, but they wouldn't hear of it.

 

Bruno of course is anxious to know what happens, so I promised to ring him.   I asked him if he was an electrician and he said he was, but I'm sceptical.    He is from Cameroon and he pastors a church of African Americans, who I think are also mostly from Cameroon.   His wife is a professor at St Gregory's.

 

So that's been my day, and I hope tomorrow to report that all is well with all the lights and power in the house.

Monday 20th October

It has been a lovely summer's day, warm, sunny, 78 degrees.     I don't know what they call that season in June and July when temperatures reach 103, and I just long for it to be cold and wet,  but the very pleasant weather of the last few days has been my idea of summer.

This morning I was just running round town on my errands.  Stopped by Emmanuel to lend a hand with packing the paper sacks for the homeless lunches.   The youngsters in the church yesterday thought they'd be helpful - bless - and they packed a lot.  While appreciating their effort we did think it would have been quicker to do them all ourselves, rather than going through, checking and adjusting all that had been done.   I'm not complaining though, they are the most polite, caring and helpful teenagers on the planet.

Today in history..................20th October

1805 - Admiral Lord Nelson wins his greatest victory in the Battle of Trafalgar, fought off Cape Trafalgar. Nelson is fatally wounded in the battle, but lives long enough to see victory, and to famously say “kiss me Hardy”.

1529 - The Pope names Henry VIII of England Defender of the Faith after defending the seven sacraments against Luther.

Two momentous events.

And two big events in US history

1803 - US Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase.    A land deal between the United States and France, in which the U.S. acquired approximately 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million dollars.  The area extends north, right through the Mid West to Montana and North Dakota.

1864 - US President Lincoln formally establishes Thanksgiving as a national holiday.

And finally.....1968 - Jacqueline Kennedy marries Aristotle Onassis on the island of Scorpios.   I remember that.   I remember wondering why.   She didn't need his money.

Sunday 19th October

I think I have been very tired lately.   I haven't been to church today, I just joined Pattisue's little study group this morning at University Baptist, then slept for most of the rest of the day.

 

Last Thursday our Kiwanis speaker was an ardent campaigner for water conservation, and gave us a few facts about water conservation.    Here are a couple I picked out (in italics)

 

There's as much water in the world today as there was thousands of years ago, it is actually the same water.   The water from our taps could contain molecules that the dinosaurs drank, and Columbus might have sailed across.    I am not quite sure I can figure all that out.

 

Every glass of water brought to your table in a restaurant requires another two glasses of water to wash and rinse the glass.   As nearly 70 million meals are served every day in US restaurants more than 26 million gallons of water could be saved if one person in four declined their complimentary glassful.     I've got a better idea.  Don't bring glasses of water to everybody in restaurants, it's not necessary, we don't do it in Britain, so think of all the water we are saving.

 

In spite of glasses of water to diners in restaurants  less than 1% of the treated water produced by water utilities is consumed.  The rest goes on lawns, in washing machines, and down toilets and drains. 

 

 Sustainable Shawnee organised a competition in the local schools to produce a bumper sticker on the subject of water conservation, and this was the winner.

 

I have to confess to being somewhat resistant to campaigns to conserve water, recycle, save the planet, and Be A Good Citizen, and although I don't deliberately waste water I find myself feeling somewhat defiant, for example, when brushing my teeth under running water.   I think I resent the constant prodding at my conscience.   

Saturday 18th October

Oh!!! my failing memory.  I was supposed to co-host Family Promise this evening at Emmanuel from 5.30 - 8.00.  I wrote it down on my 'to do' list, but that is not a lot of good when one forgets to look at the to do list.

 

I spent literally hours this afternoon engrossed in the most time wasting, stupid activity. Half a skein of yard had become hopelessly knotted and tangled and I began unpicking it, knot by knot.  It took hours, and I kept questioning why I was doing it, why didn't I just throw away the half skein of yarn, I didn't need it - and clean my fridge.  But it eventually became a perseverance issue, and I had to finish it.

 

Anyway, at 7 o'clock while I was persevering away, there was a ring at the door and even seeing my friend Elizabeth standing there, the penny didn't drop.  I was horrified that I'd totally forgotten my Family Promise commitment, but she kept assuring me it was alright, someone else was there, they just wanted to make sure I was alright.   She told me forgetting has happened to lots of people.

 

I did remember to go to the monthly AARP meeting this morning, but didn't stay when I found Phyllis wasn't there, she had been ill with bronchitis, so I went home and rang her up.  We had a long chat, and she's feeling better.

 

Last night, Friday, Bruce and Rosalyn kindly invited me to the local theatre to see "On Golden Pond", which had been a hugely successful box office film in 1981, but I'd never seen it, so the play last night was all new to me and I enjoyed it very much indeed.   The theatre itself is in the round, and I love it that the audience and actors all mingle together, chatting, at the end.   It was a lovely evening and I was so grateful to them for including me.

 

I've been taking some pictures.

Someone on television a while ago put some fruit in a dish, then sprinkled over it a packet cake mix, then topped it with very cold butter.  And it was emphasised that the butter had to be cold and straight from the fridge.  I didn't see how this would work, but was intrigued enough this evening to try it.  And this was the result.............

I haven't tried it yet, it's still cooling, but it looks alright doesn't it.

 

There was a fish and chip shop in Shawnee which had been closed for a long time, then it was re-modelled, and that took a couple of years.  Finally, recently, it opened and I thought I'd get some for lunch today.

The place looks quite nice doesn't it.  And this is what I got.

I was asked if I wanted two fillets or three, and I imagined - in my naïveté - that they would be the size they are at home (even though the whole deal was only $2.99!)  And although I deep down, really knew better, I was so carried away with this 'fish and chips' lunch that I even expected the chips to be like ours.  I'd forgotten their 'chips' are deep fried crisps.   And coleslaw with it is a personal idiosyncrasy of mine.

 

Memo to my loved ones  - please take me to a chippie when I come over.  I'd love a real piece of fish from the North Sea, and proper chips.

 

But just before I leave this subject - I took this picture inside.

No messy bottle of ketchup on the table.  No, one takes a dinky little container and pumps out the tomato ketchup, tartar sauce, or any of the other sauces on the right of the picture.  Very sleek, very 21st century.

 

And in the news............

 

 

There are so many illegal immigrants - or rather, "undocumented persons" as they must now be called in this politically correct society - running amok in the country and breaking the law, the jails are overflowing with them, so they are all being turned loose back into society.  

 

You have all heard, I'm sure, of the Ebola crisis over here,  A Liberian, where the disease is rife, comes into the country feeling ill  and goes to the ER,  but because he is poor, black, and uninsured he is given short shrift and sent home with a prescription, whereupon he gets worse, is finally admitted to hospital and dies of Ebola.   And all hell has broken loose.   Everyone in contact with him, or in contact with hospital staff who - eventually - looked after him, has had to be traced and quarantined, including children of contacts, so entire schools are being closed down.  

 

One of the contacts was a nurse who looked after him - and unbelievably - flew from Dallas to a bridal shop in Cincinnati, Ohio,(don't they have bridal shops in Dallas, I wondered) and she has been confirmed to have Ebola.    So her little shopping expedition has left a trail of hundreds more contacts and widespread panic.

 

I have just had a little bit of that pudding/dessert, and it works, it was quite nice.

 

 

Thursday 16th October

The weather early in the morning is a bit chilly, I went to Kiwanis with two layers of sweaters.  A little later in the morning, when I was trundling my cart out to Walmart's car park it was in the 80s.

 

Driving out of said car park I stopped to take this photo of a new eating place about to open.  You can see from the photo what a lovely summer's day it was.

I think I saw somewhere that it was 'gourmet' Chinese, I look forward to it opening.  I didn't think there was a significant Chinese population here, but heard that Oklahoma Baptist University has been expanding with new buildings, and I understand they now have a large body of Chinese students.  Perhaps that is who this restaurant is hoping to cater to.

 

I think I am going to call this little segment 'US Justice' and will leave you to form your own conclusions.

A home invader is what they call a burglar who breaks into a house when the owner is inside and asleep.   And this is such a stupid thing to do on so many levels.  In a state where 99% of the population has a gun and takes no prisoners, what - I asked myself - was this idiot thinking.   He would have had more success, and less chance of fatal injuries, trying to rob a bank.  And the returns would have been higher.   And the guy who shot him is facing no repercussions whatever.

This spoiled kid  ran amok with his (wealthy) grandmother's credit card, racking up thousands of dollars in debt, then went to a loan shark to try and pay it off.  When that didn't solve his problems he - as it says - killed his parents and his sister to inherit the family money. 

We all know that in Britain he would at least have a psychological evaluation, but in this country, in this state, there's no such thing.  There will be no ifs and buts and maybes, he will get the death sentence.

Our Kiwanis speaker this morning was from the Water Department, talking mainly about how much water is wasted in Oklahoma.   I threw in my two pennorth when the subject was opened up for debate, saying that in Britain where water is so scarce that if we have more than a week of dry weather a hose pipe ban is enforced, and no one can water their gardens, so we have taken to hard landscaping our gardens.   They were certainly doing that in my neighbourhood in Seaford.   He just muttered something about the US being "behind the times".

This evening Pattisue rang to suggest the movies, she wanted to see "The Good Lie".   I wasn't over excited, but I came round.   It was a lovely film, and am so glad she suggested it and I went along.
Rather than try and tell you what it was about I've copied this review of it.

The Good Lie is essentially three films in one. The opening act is set in South Sudan, where a group of children are left to their own devices when civil war ravages the area in the early 1990s. They embark on a perilous journey to safety, which will see their ranks shrink to four by the time they reach the refugee camp that becomes their home.

Act 2 takes place a decade later, when the four young adults win the lottery – the prize being a flight to the U.S., the cost of which they will have to reimburse the American government.
Abital (Kuoth Wiel) is sent to Boston while her brother Mamere (Arnold Oceng), Jeremiah (Ger Duany) and Paul (Emmanuel Jal) end up in Kansas, where they are met by employment agency counsellor Carrie Davis (Witherspoon).

Hilarity ensues as the three adapt to their new surroundings. But Falardeau never loses sight of his goal, using the humour to highlight poignant truths about the vulnerable humanity of his central characters.

When the guys lay their mattresses side by side on the living room floor, or laugh hysterically at the oldest joke in the book (why did the chicken cross the road)  it’s both funny and moving, revealing the deep affection that bonds them together and which has helped them survive great hardship.
Things get convoluted in the homestretch, as the movie tries to tie up every loose end in overly tidy fashion; a good 15 minutes could have been shaved off the nearly two-hour running time. That said, try not to shed a tear as these gentle souls struggle to find their place in the world.
Falardeau’s heart, as always, is in the right place. And he impresses by weaving together such a tonally complex narrative without making any major missteps.

As I said, it was very good.

Tuesday 14th October

The weather has calmed down.  It's been chilly though, and I kept reminding myself I was looking forward to this when it was searingly hot.

 

Was running about town this morning doing my errands.   Had lunch today with my friend Sandra - goodness me, I can go months without 'doing lunch' then go two days in a row.  We went to a sandwich shop, I enjoyed having lunch with Sandra, and the place had a good selection of sandwiches, but no hot drinks.  None at all, not even coffee.  An eating establishment that doesn't provide a hot drink!!

 

Sandra passed on to me a couple of books.  I started the first this afternoon and it is very good, I've nearly finished it.  It's a fictionalised account of life in a Devon village during World War II, written in the form of letters to a soldier, a childhood friend in the British Expeditionary Force in 1939/40.   Although Sandra enjoyed the books, she said parts of them were difficult for her to understand.   I guess one has to be British to recognise the stereotypical village characters, and the foibles, or nuances, of the British upper middle class during the war.

 

And speaking of war.   ISIS is advancing on Baghdad, they are within 15 miles of the airport, Khobani is about to fall, and when it does thousands will be massacred, Obama's bombing campaign is having no effect whatever - and it won't until he sends in ground forces - but he is confidently asserting that his strategy (whatever that may be) is working, and the US is winning.  His popularity, his credibility, is plummeting.   What is the war looking like from over there?

 

 

Columbus Day

I wanted to write this up last night but the thunderstorms were so severe, and lasted hours, I didn't even try and turn on the computer.   And I can't begin to describe how the rain comes down, literally in sheets.   We had some more this morning, so I thought I would try and do this while I can.

 

This is a bank holiday weekend, not that you'd notice unless you wanted a bank, because banks and Federal offices are closed but for everyone else it is business as usual.

 

This is the day Columbus discovered America, but for the politically correct that was a very BAD thing, he should have stayed away, because he brought into this Utopia all the white man's diseases and bad habits, and everything else you don't want in the Garden of Eden.

 

Some people had the bright idea of calling it 'Indigenous Peoples' Day' but that is not going down too well with Italian Americans, who feel 'disrespected' and say America wouldn't be America without Christopher Columbus.  Of course it wouldn't, it wouldn't have all the nasty diseases etc. that ravage the country, for which Christopher Columbus is apparently responsible.

 

Furthermore.........and it gets worse............Christopher Columbus wrote in his journal... that when he initiated trade with the Tainos people he decided "they would make fine servants, and with fifty men they could subjugate them all and make them do whatever they wanted".   SHOCK, HORROR!!!

 

And before I leave the subject of political correctness here are a few examples plucked from the internet -

 

1.The governor of California has signed a bill into law which will allow transgendered students to use whatever bathrooms and gym facilities that they would like…

Transgendered students in California will now have the right to use whichever bathrooms they prefer and join either the boys’ or girls’ sports teams, thanks to landmark legislation signed by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday.

The law stipulates that each student will have access to facilities, sports teams, and programs that are “consistent with his or her gender identity,” rather than the student’s actual biological composition. A male student who self-identifies as female could therefore use the girls’ bathroom, even if he is anatomically male.

 

2.  According to a new Army manual, U.S. soldiers will now be instructed to avoid “any criticism of pedophilia” (when did paedophilia become acceptable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

 

3 The Obama administration has banned all U.S. government agencies from producing any training materials that link Islam with terrorism.  In fact, the FBI has gone back and purged references to Islam and terrorism from hundreds of old documents.

 

4. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, it is illegal for employers to discriminate against criminals because it has a “disproportionate" impact on minorities.

There are loads more examples, I have just picked out a few.

And to change the subject...what have I been up to lately.   Not a lot.  Yesterday, Sunday, I had to pick up the donuts for Emmanuel and read at the 8 o'clock.   In the evening, and prior to the thunderstorms it was quite a pleasant evening and I was feeling fidgety, so I drove out to the evening service at the Chapel near the Lake, of which Larry (the former hospital chaplain) is now officially the pastor.   He and Vicki warmly welcomed me, and it is good to keep in touch.

 

Today, Monday, I went out to lunch with Mary, Mark's wife.   We went to a high-end deli, which also has a popular restaurant attached to it.   And that was very pleasant.

 

So I have managed to beat the thunderstorms  before they shut down the computer.  There is a "severe weather advisory" popped up on my computer, so I guess there's more on the way.