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.