A Quiet Day

This has been a quiet day. Bob and I went to a couple of garage sales this morning and then came back home and after the grass dried a little, Bob mowed and trimmed. I went to get him some gas and then blew off the patio. After that, I fixed us a light lunch.

Not much else going on.

Tonight we will probably go to The Tavern on the Plaza for dinner. I was going to cook but Bob likes to eat out on Saturday evening.

I have been surfing the net and reading the notebook my cousin, Sue, gave me on our family genealogy. There's an awful lot of information on the internet.

It's been a lovely day.

I have been having some trouble with my right leg aching. It has done it off and on for several years but it appears to be getting worse. I will probably call the doctor's office Monday if it doesn't clear up by then.

Ah...the joys of getting old.

An Unusual Day

I must have too much spare time. One of my daughter's good friends has developed a major problem from the dog bite she sustained three weeks ago. Now she will need physical therapy. There is no public transportation in this area so she has asked me to take her to Independence three times a week for her physical therapy.

I will do it. It is only for nine weeks and once upon a time, our aunt Mildred lived with us and when she broke her wrist, she needed physical therapy in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. I was working at the time and one of my friends volunteered to take aunt Mildred each week...three times a week.

This is my opportunity to pass it on.

I already go to Independence on Wednesdays for my hair appointment. This will only mean another two trips and it seems we go up there all the time anyhow.

Now, a new development today. After we got home from taking Leslie to lunch, Bob got a letter from a distant cousin of his....a Jon Robert Meek. Bob's aunt Osie's mother was a Meek. This man sent Bob photos of himself as a child. Then he called this afternoon to visit on the telephone. It was a very interesting conversation. He had been to visit Bob's cousin Robert in Phoenix. That's where he got Bob's address.

I sent him photos of Bob as a baby. I also sent him our wedding photo and a photo of Bob's aunt Osie with Bob some years back.

It's very interesting. Imagine a distant relative calling after all these years.

Big Day Thursday

Scott is here he came last night and we rented Gran Toreno and watched it. A little blasphemous but very entertaining. This morning I did my usual morning duties besides fixing breakfast for him and his dad.

We went out to the service station and filled his truck with gasoline. Then he washed his truck and stored it into our garage.

Later this morning we will go to Owasso and eat at Olive Garden and then shop awhile before going to the airport.

He will fly to LA and then drive from there to Tyler where they will pack all her belongings and furniture put them all in storage. Then they will drive back here where he will pick up his truck and go back to Fort Leonard together.

I hope this works.

Later:

We took Scott to the airport after lunch and some shopping.

Then we came back home and went to Independence to see Ivan. Sure enough he had fractured his pelvis following a fall. He is 89 so they will not do surgery. I went to the florist and ordered some flowers.

Then we went out to John and Leslie's to see what the place looked like with the double wide gone. John was working on his covered wagon doing some welding.

We visited with him awhile and then came home. We were very tired.

Another Busy and Violent Wednesday

I went to Independence this morning to get my hair done and afterward I met Juanita for breakfast. She has her airline tickets now for her trip to Chicago to visit her son. She wants me to take her to the airport July 2. Bob will go with us so we can park and walk her to security. It's quite an ordeal for her anymore. She always gets a wheelchair.

Nothing is easy when you're 87 years old.

Then I came on back home to clean house. I also needed to wash my towels and clean the bathrooms. Scott is coming tonight.

Tomorrow we will take him to catch his plane to LA where he will meet his ex-wife and drive with her to Tyler to put her furniture in storage.

Then they will drive back here and pick up his Jeep. From there she will follow him back to his place.

They will try to reconcile. It will be hard. I told Scott the only way it would work is if they just put the past in the past and go on from there. I hope they can do that.

The world is full of crazies. An 89 year old man took a rifle into the Holocaust Museum this afternoon and shot a security guard before they could shoot him. I believe the guard has died and the elderly man is in critical condition He is one of those dangerous radical survivalists.

He was James W. von Brunn, an 89 year old former WW2 PT Boat Captain, White Nationalist, and member of Mensa, the high-IQ society, owner of the web site www.holywesternempire.org. He just walked into the Holocaut Museum in Washington DC and shot a security guard before being shot in the head himself. This happened about 1:00 eastern time.

This White Nationalist who served 6.5 years of a 11 year sentence in Federal Prison just had heart surgery in Maryland.

Our world has become such a violent place. What will it take to get it to be a world of peace?

Tuesday As Usual

This morning I got up early to feed the animals, water the plants and sit out on the patio with my one cup of coffee before leaving for my sister's house.

After her husband came back, he and I had a talk about her Alzheimers Disease. He hesitates to put the patch on her because of all the side effects. Also, there is no guarantee that it will help slow it down. I really don't know anyone it has helped.

After that, Bob and I went to Independence for my board meeting with the Montgomery County Medical Clinic. We had called Leslie, our daughter, to see if she wanted to go to lunch with us but we just got her answering machine so we thought she was probably in a meeting.

We asked Bill to go to lunch with us. While there we heard from Leslie. She had simply missed our call. By the time she realized she had a message, she was already at lunch.

We went to Bill's after lunch to see the damage they found by termites. Bill is rebuilding his basement doorway and staircase. He does a good job.

Leslie called to tell us that Ivan, one of our parishioners who lives in a nursing home is reported to be collecting water around his waist. Bob was out there to visit him while I was at my meeting. He said Ivan was feeling very bad. But after I went out to talk to the nursing home administrator, she assured me that there was nothing serious wrong with him. He had had x-rays and they saw nothing. I don't know who to believe. I will talk to Ivan's niece after awhile and see what she says. His stepson is in charge of his care (and also his bank account).

Next we went to their superstore for a few groceries.

Then we came back home and I dropped by Cyndi's home to run an errand for her.

Finally I got to come home.

To Quote Robert Reich on Health Care

You know why big insurance is against public option, of course. They don't want a public option that would compete with private insurers and use its bargaining power to negotiate better rates with drug companies. They argue that would be unfair. Unfair? Unfair to give more people better health care at lower cost? To Pharma and Insurance, "unfair" is anything that undermines their profits...

All this will be decided within days or weeks. And once those who want to kill the public option without their fingerprints on the murder weapon begin to agree on a proposal -- Snowe's "trigger" or any other -- the public option will be very hard to revive. The White House must now insist on a genuine public option. And you, dear reader, must insist as well.

This is it, folks. The concrete is being mixed and about to be poured. And after it's poured and hardens, universal health care will be with us for years to come in whatever form it now takes. Let your representative and senators know you want a public option without conditions or triggers -- one that gives the public insurer bargaining leverage over drug companies, and pushes insurers to do what they've promised to do. Don't wait until the concrete hardens and we've lost this battle.

Big Pharma revenues were US$ 534.8 Billion in 2005. Both AHIP and PhRMA are strong lobbies. And neither is a friend of a strong public option.

The health insurance sector is responsible for over 457K jobs. Another player, the pharmaceutical industry, had trillions of dollars [sales of $629bn in 2007.]

Busy Monday

Bob had a doctor's appointment for his diabetes this morning and the doctor was really pleased with the outcome. Then we went over to Caney to get my new contact lenses. But frst we stopped at Caney Kitchen and had breakfast.

I picked up my contacts and we came on home. We had to stop and get milk and then Bob started doing his trimming around the yard. After his nap this afternoon, he will mow again. It rained a little last night and the yard already needed mowing. Now it will really need it.

Not much else going on.

Slinky does not feel very good the past couple of days. I don't know what his problem is. His nose is cold so it can't be much more then just old age.

Laid Back Sunday

This is one of those Sundays that I didn't have much to do. I didn't have to cook anything for the light breakfast. My brother-in-law did the light breakfast. Several of us ate out at noon at Hong Kong Delight so I didn't even have to cook lunch.

Bob and I both got too much food so we took our take out over to my sister and brother-in-law. They can enjoy it for supper this evening.

I came home and did my Sunday letters to those who did not attend. Actually, this was Communion Sunday (which we traditionally only serve once a month on the first Sunday) so we had a nice turnout for us.

I posted some on a couple of boards I share my thoughts on and decided to update my blog with this very boring information. Sorry folks!