Saturday, November 12, 2011

Windy Saturday

Slinky stayed outside last night. It got no colder then forty degrees last night. Missy stayed in the house. She woke me at 3:00 to go out. I did get right back to sleep.

Strangely, I forgot about the CRMC open house yesterday afternoon. Instead I went to the market and bought the makings for Thanksgiving dinner. I also went to Country Mart and bought four cake mixes for the cake project next time. They had Betty Crocker cake mixes for .99 each. Then I went by Arby's and had a sandwich. I read all afternoon and almost finished my book. It didn't occur to me that I had missed the open house until this morning. Old age is not for sissies.

Today, I will meet my brother-in-law for breakfast, do some house cleaning for tomorrow evening's Living the Questions group. Jack called day before yesterday and wanted to bring the dessert so I don't need to do my apple crisp after all. After that I will go out to see my sister at Windsor. The rest of the day is up for grabs.

More later....

I did see Phyllis and she was fairly lucid. I stayed about twenty minutes and then went to see Gerry. Gerry was pretty depressed but after I was there for awhile, she cheered up.

I got my house spic and span. Then I went out to the church and gave it a good cleaning. It fairly shines now. I never ate lunch because I had a good breakfast. Now I don't know what I want for dinner..if anything. I forgot to get yogurt yesterday. That's what I sometimes have. I guess I could either have a grilled cheese sandwich or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I don't need much.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Essential Government Services.. according to Clinton

Both animals slept in the house last night. It was 31 degrees and cold. They did pretty well. Missy woke me at 3:00 to go out and shortly after that, before I got back to sleep, Slinky wanted out to go pee. Then he slept the rest of the night.

I went with my brother-in-law to Bartlesville to his dermatoligist this morning and he had a few places that were frozen. They were keratosos. While I was there, I had him take a look at a place on my chin that has been there for months. It doesn't heal and it bleeds periodically. He took one look and said "Basil Cell Carcinoma". He cut it out and will have it biopsyed and will call me. It's a good thing I went.

Afterward, we walked the mall and then came on back home. Later this afternoon I will attend the CRMC, our hospital, open house for their new cancer center.

I have been reading the new book by Bill Clinton, "Back to Work". He does have some good insights. Here is a list of what he thinks are government's essential services.

Number One: National Security, including the military, intelligence agencies, diplomatic efforts and development assistance, homeland defence, federal law enforcement, border patrol, natural disaster response, and the area most recently added to the list by the Pentagon and the CIA, combating climate change.

Number Two: Assistance to those who are otherwise unable to fully support themselves. and to provide a decent retirement for seniors, including Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and aid for the disabled, food stamps, unemployment benefits, nutrition aid for newborns, and mothers, and public housing.

Number Three: Equal access to opportunity, including federal aid to education for low income and disabled students, and HOPE Scholarship tax credits for college tuition costs, the student loan program, Pell Grants, work-study programs and job training assistance.

Number Four: Economic Development: including trade agreements, financing for businesses to enter new markets, incentives to create new businesses, and jobs in advanced manufacturing, clean energy, energy efficiency, and other high growth areas, investments in basic research and incentives for private research and development to be done in the United States, an adequate minimum wage and support for work and child rearing, including the Family and Medical Leave law and the child tax credit Small Business Administration-guaranteed microcredit and community development loans, to promising businesses that would otherwise be shut out of credit markets, financing and other support to help companies sell products made in America in other countries, and incentives to invest in areas of high unemployment and low incomes.

Number Five: Oversight of financial markets and institutions to ensure transparency and honest dealing, competition, and consumer choice and to limit leverage to avoid future collapses and bailouts. :

Number Six: Protection and advancement of public interests the market can't fix, including clean air, clean water, safe food, safe transportation, safe workplaces, civil rights, access to affordable healthcare, and preservation of natural resources for the common good, including national parks, national monuments, and national forrests.

Number Seven: Providing investments through tax or fee revenue, for projects we all need when the costs are too great or the cost recovery period too long for the private sector to finance including highways, airports, rails, accelerated broadband connections, a national electric grid, and critical research and development in areas from space to advanced materials to nanotechnology and biotechnology to clean energy.

Number Eight: A revenue collection system to collect taxes and issue credits and deductions deemed by Congress to be in the national interest, including tax deductions for home-mortgage payments, charitable giving, health care payments, children and many business expenses and deductions.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Thursday Again

Yesterday turned out to be a little different then I thought. I did get my hair done but Juanita was busy getting a perm so she couldn't meet me for lunch. So I came back home after my hairdo.

I watched "Nature" on PBS last night and then went to bed. I left the animals in the house because it was to get down to 31 degrees and I knew they couldn't handle that kind of temp. Slinky woke me four times to go out to pee. He's old and evidently incontinent. I will probably be alright today but if that happens again I will be wiped out tomorrow.

I learned yesterday that the office will be closed on Friday for Veterans Day. So I will work Monday instead. Tomorrow my brother-in-law and I will go see the dermitalogist, Dr. Eslicker, in Bartlesville and next Thursday I will go with him back to Bartlesville to see his oncologist. He likes someone to go along to hear what the doctor has to say in case he misses something.

I work Tuesday too next week because of my evaluation with Aime. That will make up for my being off on Thursday. Confusing, isn't it? I may attend the Open House at CRMC after I get back home tomorrow. They moved the time to between 4:00 and 6:00.

I have nothing else planned for today but to work....but that could change on a dime.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

A Bigger Day

Yesterday turned out to be an even bigger day. When I went to the library board meeting last night, the secretary couldn't be there so I was asked to take notes. So I ended up being the secretary pro tem. Then I was asked to serve on the library foundation too. Since they meet only every two months and also meet right after the board meeting, I accepted. So I stayed for that meeting too. Then I came home, had a bowl of ice cream and watched TV. I went to bed about 9:30. Slinky barked about 4:00. He thinks it's still day light saving time so he thought it was 5:00. The dog has a built in clock. I ignored him but the damage was done. I couldn't get back to sleep and finally got up about 4:45, dressed and made up my face. It was 35 degrees last night and I debated whether to let Slinky in in the middle of the night and decided against it. It's supposed to be 31 degrees tonight so he will sleep in the kitchen. I hope he sleeps well. I dread having to get up in the night for both him and Missy.

I will work today and then afterward go to Independence again to have my hair done. If I can get hold of Juanita, I will ask her if she wants to have lunch before my 1:30 appointment. I may be able to leave work a little early today. I have nothing on the calendar for tomorrow and Friday there's just the Open House for CRMC, our hospital. There's nothing on Saturday. But I do need to clean the church. It's my month.

We are having a "healing service" on Sunday morning and I am asked to give a pastoral prayer as the benediction.

Sunday evening I have the Living the Question group here at 7:00. I will make my apple crisp for the dessert and put vanilla ice cream on it. I have iced tea and can make coffee. That's the week.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

A Bigger Day

Today will be a bigger day. Yesterday besides making my cakes, I read the manual for board members of the library. I was supposed to get it read before tonight's meeting at 5:00. It was a challenge but since I had nothing much else going, I got it finished. I have some ideas. I may not share them tonight...my first meeting...but I will in future meetings.

This library doesn't get enough publicity. They need to make up a nice brochure, listing all their services and get a booth in the Home Show in the spring and hand them out, along with bookmarks or something. I had no idea what all they offered. I would be happy to man the booth. I did that two years in a row for MC3. That got the word out.

They could also have the Good News carry a column for Jennifer to write weekly. I believe she has one in the Journal occasionally but the circulation of the Journal is terrible. The Good News is free and many people read it. It's thrown to 36,000 homes. Even if half of them are left on the drive or thrown in the trash, that's still 18,000 homes that read it.

That's just a couple of ideas.

So Bob Avery and I will take the cakes to Independence this morning, possibly stay for lunch with Leslie and then tonight I have that board meeting. I already have four of the five cakes I take. Karan is supposed to bring me hers later this morning.

It rained all afternoon yesterday and all night too. We needed the rain terribly. I think it's also supposed to rain today. Slinky and Missy slept out on the patio last night. It was only 60 degrees. They are both in the kitchen this morning. I am still cleaning Slinky's ears with olive oil in hopes of smothering the ear mites. He's pretty good about letting me do that. I don't think he has ear mites now because he's no longer shaking his head but he still digs his ears and licks his paw afterward. I think that's habit.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Quiet Monday

This should be a quiet Monday. All I really have to do is bake my two cakes for the dinner tomorrow at the Christian Church in Independence. I will do that this afternoon. When they are cool I will ice them. This morning I will probably do some cleaning. I haven't done any cleaning since last Tuesday. I am scheduled to have Living the Questions group here next Sunday evening. I am thinking of making an apple crisp for dessert that evening. I will buy some vanilla ice cream to put on top. But that's a ways off.

Tomorrow I will take the ten cakes from Coffeyville to Independence. Cyndi wants to go with me. She wants to have lunch with Leslie and me. It's supposed to rain tomorrow so I'm not sure how the taking of the cakes will go. I'll worry about that when I see the rain.

Then tomorrow evening at 5:00, I have my first library board meeting. That should be interesting. Also, the Schwan's man is supposed to come sometime tomorrow. I have ordered three dinners.

My hair appointment is Wednesday afternoon at 1:30 after work. Then the only other event this week is the CRMC Open House from 2:00pm to 4:00pm on Friday.

Next week is a horse of a different color and very busy.

I haven't heard a word from my eldest son. He was supposed to have left Iraq Thursday night. That would have put him back in the states by now.

Post Script:

I did hear from him and he is still in Iraq. He's hoping to get out on Thursday.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Busy Yesterday

Yesterday turned out to be even busier then I thought. I decided to do some Christmas shopping while I had my SER money. I am buying for only my immediate family and Jeromy Marlene, Maia and Sage and of course, Juanita. Primarily I bought for those who will be here for Christmas. I cannot afford to buy for all the others, grandchildren and great grandchildren. I will send cards to my other grandchildren who live away. I also bought for my brother-in-law. He will probably have Christmas with us. So I was in Dewey and Bartlesville all afternoon. They had a great Christmas bazaar at Dewey and I stopped and went through it before going on to Bartlesville. But I didn't buy anything there.

After leaving Bartlesville, I drove on to Independence just in time to eat dinner there. I had not eaten since breakfast with my brother-in-law. John, my son-in-law, has cooked the meat and it was delicious. There was also baked beans and macaroni salad and lots of desserts. I had warm apple pie. I sat with a couple of friends that I saw there and Cyndi and Jeff showed up too. I couldn't stay for the auction. I had been gone all day and was really tired. I took my bath and watched my favorite TV show, Harry's Law. It is the exception to the rule of nothing but trash on TV except for PBS. (in my opinion)

Anyhow, it was a huge day for me. I got everyone's gift except for Sage and Scott. I will get her's and Juanita's next payday. I usually get Juanita something she can eat or a clothing gift certificate. Now that Nanny La Rose (the Independence clothing store) is gone, I can't do that. I may get a gift certificate for her hairdo. She has her hair done every week.

This morning will be the usual. I will go to church and eat out afterward. Then come home and do my letters. Tonight I will watch Sixty Minutes. It isn't as good as it used to be but I still watch it...for awhile yet. Andy Rooney died day before yesterday. He was 92.