Saturday, October 20, 2012

A Successful Celebration

Last night was a huge success. Everyone seemed delighted with the reunion. They continued to press cash on me. I stuffed it into my pocket. Following the reunion, after the football game, Bob and I stayed to help John clean up and take all the pop coolers down to his truck. I asked him how he came out on his part and he said he had spent $97 of his own money on the refreshments. Two people had given him $10 each. I remembered the cash several had pressed on me so I started digging into my pocket. I pulled out a handful of cash and we counted it. There was $60 there. Then I remembered someone at the dinner had put an envelope in my purse. I finally found it and we opened it. There was another $40. He was reimbursed with three dollars left over. That was a blessing! Furthermore, our hometown team won the ballgame big time. I forget the final score but it was something like 52 - 31. Anyhow it was a huge success. I used 78 name tags and there were about 8 - 10 who came up to the stadium later who did not have name tags because they did not eat dinner with us at Lannings. It was a nice turnout for some 77 and 78 year olds, some of whom had flown in from across the country or driven up from Texas.

This morning we will meet a group of them for breakfast at Sirloin Stockade. Then we will go back at 11:30 for a lunch. This evening, Bob and I will attend his class's dinner there too so we will eat light at lunch.

In the morning, I have the sermon at church.

More later...

I just returned from the breakfast with a dozen or so classmates that needed to leave early. Bob and I will return in a little while for the lunch. For us it will be a salad bar since we both had large breakfasts. We had a great visit with that small group. They are a very congenial group of people.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Friday Class Reunion

I have been up since 4:00 AM. I awoke about 3:30 and began thinking about tonight and tomorrow's class reunion. Then I began being concerned about next week and the Peace Colloquy. I had intended to ask my boss about working full days on today and Tuesday so I could take Wednesday and Thursday off for the Peace Colloquy next week. Her brother died suddenly last week and she has been off work ever since. He was only 46. So I am in a quandary about what to do about Wednesday and Thursday next week.

On top of all this, Brown Shoe Fit Company called me yesterday about a job interview on Monday at 10:00 AM. If this is a permanent job, I should probably take it but if it is strictly Christmas and I would be laid off after the first of the year, I had better stay where I am. However, I like the flexibility of this training job and I would probably not get time off for church camp (reunion) and World Conference of my church next year at a regular job.

I will just have to play it by ear. My feeling at this time is not to take the job if it is offered.

Dean, from my class reunion, called last night and wants to buy my dinner tonight. I would rather pay for my own dinner so I can be free to circulate among the classmates. That's another quandary. He also wants to pay for the postage on the classmate's Christmas newsletter. That would be good because I send some out online but we have 103 classmates who are not online and they will need a hard copy. I can buy the envelopes and paper but the postage cost would be a stretch.

I got my hair done this morning so I am ready for the day. If the office calls and wants me to work today, I can do that. Bob and I are just having leftover tuna noodle casserole at noon today. I have some green beans leftover and some of his coleslaw so we would have enough for a light lunch. That's all we need since we are having a larger dinner tonight.

After dinner this evening we will all congregate at the third floor of the stadium and watch the football game and visit.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Thursday Again

I am so glad it's Thursday again. It has been an exhausting week. Tomorrow evening is the first evening of our class reunion. It looks like we have about 75 coming. Not all of that 75 is class members...some are spouses or significant others. The restaurant will fix us a buffet and then after we eat, we will go out to the stadium and visit and watch the high school football game between the Golden Tornado and Columbus. We will have pop and snacks there but mostly we will visit and catch up.

Saturday we will have both a breakfast (for those who have to leave early to catch a plane) and lunch for those who can stay longer and don't want to get up early on Saturday. Hopefully enough of us will be ready for a 60th reunion next year.

I speak at church on Sunday. Karan, who is presiding, called earlier this week to say she was going to have some testimonies from representatives of the charities we support. So my remarks will not need to be as long as usual.

More later....

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Split Shift

Today Bob and I wanted to go to eat lunch at "Just Us" so I worked two hours this morning and two hours this afternoon and split the day up. I finally finished all my filing and scanning today.

We had a good lunch too. Tomorrow noon I will fix a tuna noodle casserole. We will have Bob's salad and also green beans. Then I have fruit (pears) for dessert. I may make cookies.

Then we stopped by our church to see if the electricians and the furnace people had been out to church and left Bob's key. They hadn't. They are taking their time getting that work done.

I had my PINCH meeting this evening. There were not as many there as usual but we did get our business finished. Our next large project is the Martin Luther King celebration in January.

Tomorrow afternoon I will work four hours. I should be paid tonight and have the money in my account by morning.

I've had my bath and have my p.j.'s and robe on and am settled in to watch PBS this evening.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

The Town Hall Debate

Tonight I will watch the second presidential debate. So I will get back with you later.

Following the debate...

David Brooks and Mark Shields both felt the president won this round. Romney's numbers did not add up. You can't cut taxes and try to make it up with cutting entitlements and deductions. The numbers just don't add up.

It was very unfriendly though. They almost came to blows at one point. The president was the most civil of the two. The president continued to call Romney on his wrong facts. They must have really studied.

This is what Politifact.com says.

President Barack Obama made this charge at the first presidential debate: "Gov. Romney’s central economic plan calls for a $5 trillion tax cut, on top of the extension of the Bush tax cuts."

Not so, Mitt Romney said, repeatedly: "First of all, I don’t have a $5 trillion tax cut. … I’m not looking to cut massive taxes and to reduce the revenues going to the government. … I’m not looking for a $5 trillion tax cut."

So which is it?

Romney wants a 20-percent across-the-board tax cut for all taxpayers, which on its own would total $5 trillion over 10 years. But Romney says the cuts won’t add to the deficit because he’ll make up for it by eliminating some of the tax code’s deductions, exemptions and exclusions.

Which tax breaks does he want to get rid of? He won’t say.

And this is from factcheck.org:

Obama challenged Romney to “get the transcript” when Romney questioned the president’s claim to have spoken of an “act of terror” the day after the slaying of four Americans in Libya. The president indeed referred to “acts of terror” that day, but then refrained from using such terms for weeks.

Obama claimed Romney once called Arizona’s “papers, please” immigration law a “model” for the nation. He didn’t. Romney said that of an earlier Arizona law requiring employers to check the immigration status of employees.

Obama falsely claimed Romney once referred to wind-power jobs as “imaginary.” Not true. Romney actually spoke of “an imaginary world” where “windmills and solar panels could power the economy.”

Romney said repeatedly he won’t cut taxes for the wealthy, a switch from his position during the GOP primaries, when he said the top 1 percent would be among those to benefit.

Romney said “a recent study has shown” that taxes “will” rise on the middle class by $4,000 as a result of federal debt increases since Obama took office. Not true. That’s just one possible way debt service could be financed.

Romney claimed 580,000 women have lost jobs under Obama. The true figure is closer to 93,000.

Romney claimed the automakers’ bankruptcy that Obama implemented was “precisely what I recommend.” Romney did favor a bankruptcy followed by federal loan guarantees, but not the direct federal aid that Obama insists was essential.

Romney said he would keep Pell Grants for low-income college students “growing.” That’s a change. Both Romney and his running mate, Ryan, have previously said they’d limit eligibility.

I do think that Romney has made impressive gains. His debate style has improved dramatically, but he has made gains largely by shifting positions on issues to appeal to more centrist and liberal voters. I think he sincerely wants to fix the economy, but I doubt those shifts in position are sincere, and I think he is hiding the reality of the severe cuts he plans to introduce to balance the budget while keeping taxes low for the "job creators." His approach to making failing companies productive was draconian slash-and-burn in which he positioned himself to make money even when the companies failed ... which some 22% eventually did ... including some of his top 10 money makers.

How quickly the public forgets the rhetoric prior to the republican nomination.

The president won this one and I hope he gets a bounce out of it.

Another Cake Tuesday

Today I will take our cakes to Independence. Bob will go with me and we will eat at Big Cheese again. He brought his cake over last evening and asked me to frost it. Then he stayed the evening and we watched an old DVD movie he brought. It was "The Stalking Moon" starring Gregory Peck. It was quite good and I had not seen it before.

Tonight the president will do his best to regain lost ground with the town hall debate. Frankly, I don't think he can do it. We will see. I would like him to come forth and say "I don't like these hateful type campaigns. I would like to just state my plan and you state yours and leave the attacks to others." But he won't. It seems some people actually like those hostile attacks. I hate them. I also hate the lies and half truths. I wish the USA would do what some other countries have done and limit the time of a campaign to six weeks only. This campaign has limited what the president can do with his last year of the first term. He has spent months away from his job doing this terrible campaigning.

Romney is not privy to all the information the president has access to. He doesn't relate well to the ordinary voter. And that became very apparent when he said the poor could always find free health care at the emergency room. The man doesn't even know the emergency room is not free to anyone. The hospital expects to be paid and will turn the victim over to a collection agency for collection and they will hound the victim the rest of their lives or until they take medical bankruptcy. He doesn't live in our world.

Yesterday I worked hard all afternoon but was never able to catch up. I wanted to stay late and try to get all that scanning finished but was told that wasn't allowed. So today, I will have to work the best I can and get as much done as I can but I doubt I can get it all done in just four hours.

Yesterday morning I checked out the restaurant where we will be meeting Friday evening. I told them we have 75 coming. Later yesterday afternoon, four days before the reunion, the owner called me back to say serving all of us from the menu would take hours since they are having huge Friday evening regular crowds. I suggested a buffet. It's too late to change restaurants now. So we will have ham and chicken, scalloped potatoes, salad, veggies and rolls and dessert. I hope everyone will be o.k. with that. I did not have enough time to run it by anyone so I just made an executive decision and agreed. I really didn't have another option on such short notice. The cost will include gratuity and tax for $10.50. When I got home from work, I called John and told him what I had done. He was fine with it.

A friend of mine posted this on my church's web board. "Yesterday the mailman brought me an announcement from my Medicare supplemental insurance plan, that my premium would go up every three months for the next year. Medicare has a similar schedule of increases. I am certain this increase is based on demographics. Eventually, my social security monthly check will be less than the automatically deducted Medicare part B payment. At that point I guess I become one of those who ignore symptoms until an ambulance takes me to the emergency room."

Already between my $300 house payment and my Blue Cross/Blue Shield supplement, it takes almost half my social security. That's why I work. The government says there is no rate of inflation. They obviously do not live in southeast Kansas where groceries and gas costs are higher every month.

Monday, October 15, 2012

What A Weekend!

I haven't been here in two days...with good reason. Saturday morning we left at 6:00 AM. I had baked a small coffeecake for our on the road breakfast. The Conference lasted all day with only a break for lunch. We left Springfield at 4:00 and got back home at 7:00...however twenty miles away we ran into a hard rain...so hard Leslie could not even see the road. We crept along as the rain thinned from time to time for her to see the road. I was exhausted when I got home and took my bath and went to bed.

Sunday morning I got up at the regular time...5:00. I did some laundry, got myself ready for church and waited for Bob to pick me up. Church School was good although we did not have a lot of people in attendance. Church was just as sparse. After church Bob and I ate out by ourselves. Phyllis F. was not there and the kids went to Bartlesville for something. Karan and Bobby had a dinner at his church.

I worked all afternoon on the staffing of the 2013 camp and got most of it finished. I did not get my newsletters finished. I sent out the online letter but never got the hard copies for those offline done.

Then at 5:45, Bob came by to pick me up for the Living the Questions group. We ate at Barbara's house and afterward tried to figure out what direction the group will take. All but two wanted to continue the DVD study. The others wanted to read material and discuss it. We voted to continue the DVD material. When I got home at 9:30, I took my bath and went straight to bed.

This morning I fed the cats, fixed myself a bit of oatmeal and ate the rest of my coffeecake. I had given half of what was left to Bob.

This weekend is my class reunion. Yesterday I went to Wal Mart and bought a few groceries and got the name tags. Today I will call the restaurant to firm up our reservation for dinner Friday night. I will also call John and check to see if he has talked to the college about stocking their pop machine. There's a lot to do.