Saturday, November 7, 2009

Beautiful Day

It's a lovely day and I was going to clean house but just couldn't work myself up to it.

Instead, we went out to Leslie's this morning and she gave us a lot of their meat. She was cleaning house and we hated to interrupt her work but she was ready for a break anyhow. She gave us some ice tea and some trail mix and we had a good visit.

Bob mowed the leaves this afternoon. Jeff, a good friend of ours, has the flu and is in the hospital. We were going to send him flowers but the florists are both closed. We would go visit him but Bob shouldn't be around anyone with flu. He's an at risk person. I could be a carrier and have been told it is just as bad to be a carrier as to actually have the flu as far as spreading it is concerned. I made him up a card and will have everyone at church sign it tomorrow.

I sold three books on Amazon today and have them all packed and ready to go in the mail on Monday. I have twelve more listed that are for sale. If I could sell all those, I would have some room on my bookshelves.

We will eat dinner out tonight. We haven't done that this week.

Friday, November 6, 2009

A Mad World

The world seems to have gone mad. After yesterday's catastrophe at Fort Hood, today in Orlando, Florida, a man who had lost his job two years ago, gunned down several of his former co-workers in an office building. They have captured him so he cannot do any more harm but he has already done plenty. Something has got to be done about guns in this country. The USA is the most violent country in the world. Our prisons are full.

Whatever happened to the world I grew up in? In all of my youth, I can only remember two murders in our hometown. Nowadays, it isn't safe to walk down a street.

Last week a girl was gang raped in front of 22 people who egged the rapists on. No one reported the rape to the police until a neighbor heard the commotion and called it in.

It's something new and violent every day or so. Perhaps we have become so warlike that all we think of as an answer to our wants is using violence.

I wonder how much the fact that the younger generation is being reared by "day care" has to do with the seeming lack of morals and ethics in our world. Nearly every family now has a child born out of wedlock.

Every day, I wake up in culture shock.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Twelve Killed so far and 31 injured.

Twelve soldiers have been killed at Fort Hood Texas and 31 have been injured.

Read the entire story here.

http://ww2.cox.com/myconnection/kansas/today/news/national/article.cox?articleId=D9BPL6J02&moduleType=apNews

FORT HOOD, Texas (Associated Press) --

A soldier opened fire at a U.S. Army base in Fort Hood, Texas on Thursday, unleashing a stream of gunfire that left 12 people dead and 31 wounded. Authorities killed the gunman, and apprehended two other soldiers suspected in the attack.

The shooting began around 1:30 p.m., Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said at a news conference. He said all the casualties took place at the base's Soldier Readiness Center, where soldiers who are about to be deployed or who are returning undergo medical screening.

"It's a terrible tragedy. It's stunning," Cone said.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Another Wild Month

This will be another wild one. My hair appointment is at 7:15 this morning and then I have breakfast with Juanita. After that, I need to stop by Calvert's and get my makeup and then stop by the church on my way home and run off the bulletins for Sunday and make copies of the agenda and the minutes for this Thursday's ministerial alliance meeting. After that meeting then at 6:30, I have a Mary Kay party to attend at Leslie's.

What I had hoped would be a quiet month looks like it's going to be very busy. This Friday Bob has a meeting of the Creative Conversations group that is trying to solve the race problems in our schools and community. Since he is the member of PINCH, I decided to have him go to the next two meetings of this group. So Friday is his first meeting. Saturday, Scott will be here at least part of the day.

We have the guest minister coming for church this Sunday so I will have to fix a dish or two for the basket dinner. I also preside at the service.

At 8:20 on Monday the 9th, Bob has a dental appointment to have his teeth cleaned and examined. Then at 4:30 that day he has his regular doctor's appointment for his diabetes.

Tuesday the 10th, I have my MC3 board meeting in Independence. Then Wednesday we have the Independence Ministerial Association meeting in Independence at noon. We have an in service at the hospital here on that following Thursday. Then on Friday, the 13th Bob has his surgery for his squamous cell carcinoma. I hope that's not a bad sign. I am not superstitious but ....

On Saturday the 14th, there is a workday at the campgrounds and if Bob is up to it, we should go. (They canceled that this afternoon!)

On the 16th, he has his second Creative Conversations meeting at 7:45 at the elementary school. They will serve breakfast. That class goes till 4:00. He has a Red Cross class in Tulsa on Tuesday the 17th and Wednesday the 18th. That's most of the activity for the month.

Keith, our older son, will start his trip home for Thanksgiving on the 19th. It will probably take him two days to get here since he's coming from Phoenix. He will be with us Thanksgiving week.

On the 22nd, we will attend the Community Thanksgiving service. I am the treasurer for the CMA so I should attend and it will be good for Keith to attend too. He has been attending his church regularly. That has been a huge help in his accepting his life problem.

I will make two pies, sweet potatoes, a green bean casserole and Bob's Waldorf salad for the Thanksgiving dinner at Leslie's. There will be eight of us if Keith's daughter, Christina, and her daughter, Mia, come. Thanksgiving Day is Christina's 32nd birthday too. We will need to have a card party for her.

Scott's birthday is the 29th and hopefully he will be here for that occasion too. He will be 49.

Ah, you see why I cannot die. I am much too busy to bother.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Well Dog and Better Day

Well, it appears Slinky has recovered from whatever he had yesterday. I thought sure he was on his last legs. This morning though he wanted into the kitchen with me and he definitely wanted his cinnamon toast. He ate nearly all his dog food too. He began drinking water yesterday evening so I knew he was feeling better then. He slept out on the patio on his chaise lounge. If he had still been sick, I would have let him sleep in the kitchen.

I will go to my sister's this morning for a couple of hours. She called last night at supper time and visited awhile on the phone. She seemed more rational. Mornings are sometimes best. Although ordinarily when I go, it's in the morning and she tells me the same things she has told me every Tuesday when I go there...over and over again.

Maybe later we will go to Independence and take Leslie to lunch. I need to go to Calvert's and get some makeup and an eyeliner pencil.

Scott latest problem worked out too. Over the weekend, XM Radio took $426. out of his account to pay for his XM radio. It was supposed to have taken $42.60 out. He had paid his bills so everything began to bounce. His bank is covering his overdrafts while he worked all weekend to get his money back. Finally the bank put it back in and Master Card, his debit card company, will work to recover the money. In the meanwhile, I sent him his $200 money market savings and found that I could not overnight it anymore. So I put it in the regular mail. Even that cost an extra .11 in postage and it was in just a card. But he should have that tomorrow. I told the woman at the post office, "Do you wonder that we use e-mail anymore? Stamps have gone up and services have gone down." I know that woman can't help it but I needed to say that to someone that works at the post office. It was so frustrating.

Scott has a date with a woman in our area Friday night so he will come stay and visit with us this weekend. I haven't seen him in two months but he has come here twice while I was out of town for the weekend. He visited with Bob those times.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Sick Dog


Well Slinky is sick. He hasn't eaten since yesterday afternoon and doesn't even drink his water. He doesn't appear to have fever but he is just barely walking and pants hard. He acts like it is hard on him to lie down.

Bob took him on a short walk because he loves his walk and Bob thought it might pick him up but he played out after half a block so Bob brought him back in the yard through the back gate. He is not drinking his water and his food just sits. I don't know what to do. He is so large we cannot get him into the car in this shape. He is dead weight.

I guess we'll wait and see what the morning brings. He has been sick before once and quit eating but he usually gets over whatever it is that's bothering him. Poor baby!

I've been keeping Scott advised.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Back From Branson


We had a great time in Branson. I got a lot of my Christmas shopping finished. We ate way too much food and slept too little but we had a good time.

In the evenings, instead of going to shows, we just stayed in and watched TV. We watched the old "Young Frankenstein" on Friday night. We just enjoyed one another's company.

The photo above was taken at breakfast on Saturday morning. This restaurant there in Branson is an old 50's - 60's style restaurant with a good breakfast buffet. The taller woman is my daughter and the shorter one is Sheri.

On the way home, Joyce Wanzer called and asked me to take the Living the Questions group. When I got home, I read my e-mail and made my cherry pie cake for the dessert this evening. I also balanced my checkbook. There were nine of us. Jack and Marilyn had company. Bobbie and Karan were still in Colorado. Bredesen's were still in Branson.

We had a good discussion about how our belief systems have evolved over our lifetimes.

After everyone left, Bob told me he was in pain from pulling a muscle under his left arm. I checked it out and it did appear to be a large knot under his arm. He took a couple of Aleve and went to bed.

After everyone left, I took my bath and put my PJs on and watched TV until time to go to bed.