Nice Party

I enjoyed the party last night at my cousin's house. Everyone was very solicitous because of my loss of Bob. That was sweet. I ate some of everyone's dish. The food was really good.

The conversation was also very good except for the last one. This very nice Christian woman, who shall remain unnamed, was determined that all Muslims are terrorists who really want to kill us. She says they are infiltrating every country and it is their intention to take over them and then kill all the Christians because we are "infidels". I told her about my friend Mona, who teaches at the local community college and who brought food in the week Bob was sick and dying. She said, "does she wear the burka?" I said "no, she dresses just like us. She is Egyptian". She was still determined that because it says in the Koran somewhere that all infidels should be killed, that that is their intention. This was an educated and smart and otherwise very nice woman. I told her there was a place in the Bible where the writer said that God told the Israelites who were moving into Canaan to kill every man, woman and child in the land and to dash the heads of the babies against the wall. She had never run onto that passage. I told her that such customs, if you can call them customs, are cultural. I also told her that the God I know would not instruct anyone to kill babies and to dash them headfirst against a wall. The writer of that particular part of scripture believed God had told them to do that and justified their killing the people in that land by attributing the instruction to God.

Her pastor had instructed her well though. I also told her that in the Bible, until the time of Paul at least, women were considered property and it was quite common for fathers to give their twelve year old daughters to some old geezer king of another tribe as a wife..to keep peace with that tribe. It was also common to have widow cleansing like in the story of Ruth, Naomi and Boaz.

In the Old Testament, it plainly says if your children do not obey you, you should take them before the village elders and have them stoned to death. There's a lot of that cultural nonsense in the Bible and rather then following such instructions as to not wear two kinds of cloth at the same time and not to boil the calf in it's mother's milk, we should just consider the culture in which such stuff was written and not consider it "the word of God" applicable for today too.

I don't think I convinced her though. People get these weird ideas and turn off their common sense when it comes to the Bible. The Bible approves of slavery. In fact, those who owned slaves could quote chapter and verse approving it. Later writings, attributed to Paul, said women should keep quiet in the church and if they wanted to learn anything, they should ask their husbands. There are still churches today that believe that nonsense. Women cannot even vote in those churches. Now mind you, they set aside that instruction when it comes to teaching children..especially small children. But otherwise, women should take a back seat. :)

Anyhow, soon after that, I decided it was time to leave so I took my leave of the party, thanked the host and hostess and came home to let Slinky out of the garage. And was he glad!

Very Busy Friday

I went to the market this morning and bought the few things I need for the week.

Ater that Bob A. called me to talk about putting Phyllis under hospice care. Her doctor had suggested it. I guess he will do it Monday. He talked to his daughter about it and she agreed it was the only thing to do under the circumstances.

Then I e-mailed the ministers in our alliance that I would not be able to be at the Thursday meeting. I got Fr. Jerry to take notes for me but he needed me to make the copies of the last meetings minutes, the agenda and the roll form. So I did that on my new computer. It took me awhile to find out how to use Windows 7. Then I printed off the necessary forms and took them to him.

I dropped by Cyndi's because she had some boxes for me. I was going to bring my stuff home from the mall. Starting tomorrow, they are going to add 10% to their charge for using the booth. I am not going to pay any more. I have only made money one month. The rest of the time, they have made all the money from the sale of my possessions.

Next I made a fast run home because Karan was going to pick me up at 2:00 to go out to church so we could take down all the Christmas decorations and put them away for the year. We started at 2:00 and finished at 3:30. Whew! What a job. There were five of us doing the work. No one else showed up.

Then I ran to the mall just in time to learn they were closing early this evening....at 4:00 instead of 5:00. So I quickly packed up some boxes of my stuff and then left. They wanted to close. I will run back up tomorrow to get the rest.

I stopped by Braums and bought a milk shake. I had not had time to eat anything all day.

I will go to my cousin's New Years Eve dinner/party tonight. I will have to put Slinky in the garage. I don't trust leaving him in the kitchen. I will probably come home fairly early since I am tired already. Then I will let Slinky back into the kitchen/utility room area for the night. It started out 60 degrees this morning and now it is 37 degrees. How I dread winter!

Out of Town Trip

Today, after Bob A. gets out of the doctor's office, he will come by and pick me up and we will drive over to Joplin, a trip of about 75 miles. We both want to get away from it all for the day. We will walk the mall there and have lunch somewhere good. He is good company and a good friend.

Then after we get back, I will just watch TV until bedtime.

Last night, for some reason, I was exhausted. I fell asleep in the chair mid afternoon and was ready to go to bed about 8:00. I just took my bath and went to bed.

Tomorrow night is the New Years Eve dinner/party at my cousin Sue and her husband, Dick's home. They have that every year and my Bob and I always attended. Last year, he wasn't up to the entire evening so we left about 10:30. We didn't know his body was fighting cancer at that time. We just knew he had lymphedema in his left arm and it was sore a good deal of the time. This year, my brother-in-law, Bob, is going to attend too. It's been a couple of years since he has attended. Phyllis had the newly broken hip two years ago and last year she had Alzheimer's Disease too bad to attend and was only able to walk with a walker anyhow. This year she is out at Windsor Place in the Winston unit and he will attend the party. The poor man has very little joy in his life anymore. He needs to do some of these things even if he feels bad about Phyllis' situation. As I have learned this year myself, life goes on. At least I have closure.

Late afternoon.....

The trip was very successful and we had a good time. We walked the mall and he bought new underwear and a shirt all on 70%. I went to Christopher and Banks and bought a jacket for $23.67 that had formerly been $55.00. We were both very pleased with our purchases.

We ate lunch at Crackerbarrel. We had their turkey and dressing dinner for $6.95. It was very good! Then we came on back home. We were home by 2:30. The weather was fantastic. It was windy but it got up to 60 degrees. We were both very glad we went.

Wednesday Mail Day

As I said yesterday, I finally got the call yesterday afternoon to pick up the classmates' newsletter. After I got it, I stuffed the envelopes but got to the post office at 4:35, just after it closed.

I will take them with me to Independence when I get my hair cut. Then I will take them to the post office and mail them off. With that off my schedule, I will have a free day. I am going to take my Kindle with me to the beauty shop and read my book.

When I get back in town I want to go visit Gerry in the hospital. I will have to find out what room she is in. On Christmas Day her blood pressure bottomed out. They rushed her to the hospital where they wanted to put her on life support. Chuck, her son, did not allow that because he knew Gerry did not want that. But they resuscitated her anyhow. She called last night and sounded pretty good under the circumstances. It was 7:00 and I had had my bath and was in my pjs so I told her I would come this afternoon.

More later...

Gerry was doing pretty well when I went to see her. I got my hair done and came right back home to go see her. They had done another test yesterday to discover why she is having problems swallowing. Her food sticks about halfway down. She was in room 238.

Then I went out to buy gas. The gas here in town is $2.99.9 per gallon but three miles away in South Coffeyville, which is in Oklahoma, it is $2.85.9 so I buy my gas down there.

Tomorrow, as soon as Bob A. gets out of the doctor's office, we will go to Joplin. We both need a break to get out of town before the bad weather hits here. It was 50 degrees here today, but overcast.

Quiet Tuesday

This should be another quiet day. I want to go see Phyllis and Gerry this morning. It will be interesting to see if Phyllis is more alert now that she had all that company. At least she was alert when Diana, her older daughter, went in to see her. They had her in a wheelchair and they took her to her room where there wasn't so much confusion from the other patients. That was wonderful. The past two weeks, every time I've been in to see her, she's been sleeping in her chair and I've been unable to wake her.

I read my Kindle most of the afternoon yesterday. The book is not as interesting so far as I had hoped. But I am plowing through it anyhow. I may have mentioned that I downloaded the "Autobiography of Mark Twain". It is over a thousand pages.

I may go to Bartlesville today if it warms up enough for Slinky to be outside. He spent yesterday afternoon out in the sunshine and he loved it. The poor animal must hate being cooped up in the kitchen/utility area. It got up to 40 degrees yesterday.

I'll wait to see what the temperature does before I make my decision.

More later....

About 10:00 I went to see Phyllis. I stayed until 10:45. She had slept in. They got her up and into a wheelchair and I had a fairly decent visit with her.

It warmed up enough in late afternoon for Slinky to go outside but too late for me to go to Bartlesville. I read all afternoon and then finally the office supply called and I picked up the newsletter. Unfortunately, it was too late to get it stuffed and mailed. I'll mail them tomorrow.

I let the dog in about 5:30, fed the three animals and took my bath.

Bob A. and I will go to Joplin on Thursday. We both need a break out of town.

Christmas All Gone

I spent the morning putting away the Christmas decorations and taking down the tree. Everything is back to normal again...whatever that is. I finished up the classmates newsletter too and took it in to Service Office and Supplies to have it run off and folded. So, really I got quite a bit done.

I'm having 160 of them run off. About a dozen people wanted it by e-mail attachment. We have 181 classmates on the list. I will need to get envelopes and have Martha get stamps. I don't know how long it will take Brandon to get it finished.

It's about 40 degrees outside. I'd like to run down to Bartlesville if I thought it would stay this way awhile. Slinky has been outside all morning. When he saw the sunshine, he wanted to go out.

I'd better get the envelopes and get them addressed. It may get very cold again and that poor dog would be outside in it.

More later...

Well I got all the envelopes addressed and the newsletter taken to the printer. It should be finished Tuesday and if Martha gets down there to pay for it and picks it up and then brings me the 160 stamps, I may get it mailed out then. I've had about 19 classmates now that wanted it by e-mail attachment to I will have that many fewer to mail.

Church Today

Today I will preach at church. In our church we have several elders and we rotate the preaching/presiding responsibilities. It is my turn now. We each preach three times in a quarter.

Yesterday's Christmas dinner went off seamlessly. The casserole of chicken, rice and veggies was very good. Bob A. brought the rolls and my carrot raisin salad turned out well. Leslie had a surprise pie. It was a chocolate/pecan pie. She got the recipe off the internet. It was mildly received. She and I were the only ones who liked it.

We sat around and watched "Scrooged" on TV after dinner. I was happy the kids stayed awhile. Bob A. stayed half way through the movie but with his cold, he was ready to go home earlier then the rest of us. His daughter, the one traveling here from Wisconsin, called him in the evening and said they were running late and would be in too late for him and would just get a motel. They told him to go ahead and go to church and they would find Dennis, Bob's son who lives here locally but who never comes around, and invite him for chili too. They are fixing a pot of chili and I am invited over to share in that too. I assume it will be at noon. That was nice of them.

(No, it was at 5:30 this evening. I fell asleep in my chair and got up at 5:00 and went to Wal Mart and bought dog food for Slinky. Then I went to Bob A's house for the chili. So I did not watch 60 Minutes after all.)

Later I will do my letters and watch 60 Minutes tonight and relax. The only thing I have to look forward to now is the eyelid surgery. I dread it...not the surgery itself, but the recuperative period afterward. I have these animals to look after and they may be a real trial while I'm trying to sleep three nights in the recliner and keep ice on the eye. I told Leslie, if it snows next week, or the week of the surgery, I will cancel.