Washday Saturday

I have my laundry going now and I will later vacuum the house. It is raining now. In about an hour, I will meet my brother-in-law for breakfast. I slept pretty well last night. However, after Missy woke me up I had to take a pill to get back to sleep. I prefer not to do that very much.

Later, about 9:30, I went to visit my sister out at Windsor Place. I took her a birthday card. Tomorrow she will be 79. She was asleep so I stayed twenty minutes and then left the card on the chair.

Later after I got my house cleaned I called Bob A and asked him if he would like to go to Bartlesville with me. It was overcast and dreary and I thought we might enjoy a change of scenery. He wanted to go so I went over and picked him up in about 20 minutes. We walked the mall. I ended up getting Maia a bithday gift. Her second birthday is next month. He found a great sale in Dillards and bought a new dopp bag and a nice cap and later a leather winter coat. He looked real nice in it.

We went to Dinks and ate Bar B Q again. We just can't seem to get enough of Dink's Bar B Q.

We got home about 5:30 and I took him home and came home to Missy. She was hungry and cranky at being left alone all afternoon. Too bad.

Friday Again

My blood pressure is up some this morning. It is 128/72 in the left arm and 135/73 in the right arm. I imagine having my sleep interrupted last night was the reason....but who knows?

More later...

I talked to my brother-in-law this evening. He seemed depressed. He said he had a strange day. He had breakfast by himself this morning and then went out to visit an old friend. Then he intended to go see Phyllis. He thought it was 10:30. But when he looked at the clock again, he discovered it was really 11:30. So he didn't go today and he seemed depressed about it.

I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich yesterday noon and a grilled cheese today. I will have breakfast with my brother-in-law in the morning and then go see my sister after that. I have been having smoothies for supper.

Next Wednesday I turn in my time sheet. I should get my larger paycheck this next Thursday. It will be interesting to see what it will be.

Thursday Again

I slept well again last night. I miss Slinky terribly but the improved rest is very welcome. I forgot my PINCH meeting last night and went to bed at 8:30. I simply could not stay awake.

I took my blood pressure again this morning and again it was low. The left arm was 112/63 and 100/60. The right arm was 116/69 and 101/64. I am glad I am not taking that blood pressure med. I would be wiped out if it was any lower.

I have no plans either tonight or tomorrow. In fact, the only thing I have planned this weekend is to go see Phyllis after I have breakfast with Bob A.

Sunday evening I am to go out to Basham's for dinner and Living the Questions group...if I don't forget and if someone offers to pick me up. I don't intend to drive out into the country after dark in my car. There are too many deer out and around. I may just give the DVD to Marilyn and stay home. We are supposed to bring a pasta dish anyhow and I will have to look up a recipe if I go.

I am off Monday for President's Day.

My latest great granddaughter was born today. They named her Cheyenne Sky. Eight pounds and two ounces and twenty inches long.

Hard Wednesday

I worked very hard today. I came home very tired. Strangely, I took my first half pill for blood pressure this morning and then took my blood pressure before I went to work. On the left arm in was 144/76 and my right arm was 132/73. That was this morning. I took it again at noon and the left arm was 130/69 and the right arm was 128/72. I called the doctor and he said not to take the blood pressure med after all but to continue to check my blood pressure. This evening it was 127/72 on the left arm and 127/68 on the right arm. It's just as I thought...white coat syndrome.

It has misted or rained all day today and been chilly. When I came home for lunch I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I did not sleep well last night. I woke up in the middle of the night with foot and leg cramps. All I could do was get up and walk around to get rid of them. It happened three times. So I am tired already.

Tomorrow Lynnette and I will sort traffic tickets. There are some that we keep indefinately and some we can have shredded.

More later...

Back To Work

Today I go back to work. I had yesterday off to get my hair done, go to my doctor's appointment and hold the class reunion planning meeting as well as attend the church's Valentine dinner. It was a busy day.

Probably the most interesting part of all this was my doctor's appointment. My blood pressure was 168/83 and the doctor put me back on a blood pressure pill. Instead of 25 mg though, he is having me cut the pill in half. He wants me to drop into his office in two weeks to see how it is working. Then he wants me to come back to see him in one month so he can evaluate whether that is enough or if it does what it did before when Melissa had me on it and brought my blood pressure way down way too low.

He also wants me to have a mamography. The last one I had was 10 years ago. They hurt me so bad I swore I would never have another. He says they have changed the technology and they no longer hurt folks trying to get the breast flat. We'll see. My appointment at the hospital is March 9th at 11:00. Then he wants me to have a colonoscopy. The last one of those I had was without anesthetic and it hurt so badly that I swore never again for that too. I told him I'd wait to do that until I found out how "painless" the mamography was.

I got home in time to have my meeting.

Later Bob A. picked up Phyllis F. and me and we drove to Cherryvale to "Just Us" for the Valentine dinner. There were 17 of us. We had a very good dinner and got home about 8:30.

I missed the library board meeting because of the conflict in the schedule.

No Work Tuesday

I do not work today. I have a lot of other stuff to do. At 9:30, I have a hair appointment. Then at 11:30, I have the doctor's appointment here. The doctor will not refill my prescription for thyroid unless I come in to see him. I had my blood work done before my other doctor gave up her practice to be the doctor at the Cherokee Clinic in Nowata, Oklahoma so that should be sufficient but this doctor wants his share of my Medicare coverage. I've got news for him. I'm healthy and I don't go to the doctor unless I'm sick. There's no place more filled with illness then a waiting room at the doctor's office unless it's a hospital. Anyhow, I'll give him one shot at me. I'm just aggravated enough to raise my blood pressure. He'll probably want to medicate me for that.

Then at 2:00 I have scheduled a class reunion planning meeting. I don't know how many will show up. It won't break my heart if no one does. I can use the down time. Tonight Bob A. and Phyllis F. and I will go to Cherryvale to have our church's Valentine dinner at Just Us. Now that I'm working more hours, I will not schedule so much in my weeks.

Since I had Slinky put asleep I have been sleeping like a baby. Last night at 4:00 Missy woke me up to go out. I left her out until 5:00 when I got out of bed. She has a litter box in the utility area of my kitchen. It was very cold outside but I wanted to try to teach her a lesson.

I told my supervisor yesterday that eventually I want to make Friday my regular day off. The first week of each month it will have to be Thursday because of Ministerial Alliance but otherwise I want Friday off to make a long weekend. Bob and I want to go to Silver Dollar City four times this year. We bought season tickets. Having a long weekend will keep us from missing church. I also will have Restoration Studies Symposium in April and John Whitmer Historical Association in September.

Snow Again

Last night it snowed. It doesn't look like it's too deep...maybe an inch but it could get deeper if it continues. The photos are the front yard and the back yard and at 7:00 AM it still looks dark. But you get the picture.

I will need to be careful driving to work...not so much for my driving as to watch "the other guy". I hope it doesn't continue to snow because I have a very busy day tomorrow and we have the Valentine dinner tomorrow evening. I am hoping it will warm up a bit and melt the snow. We'll see.

It seems strange without Slinky. I am so use to coming in here, climbing over the barrier and feeding him in the mornings. I ate all my oatmeal this morning since I didn't have to share it with Slinky. I miss him. My kitchen floor is still clean since he isn't here to slobber all over it and even Missy didn't drag in dirt from the flowerbeds that I had to wipe up with paper towels. I have washed his bedding and put it in the den on the floor and she has appropriated it already. She's in there now.

More later....

Another Busy Day

It will be another busy Monday. I will work all day tomorrow and then be off Tuesday because of a tight schedule.

I will have my hair appointment at 9:30 and the doctor appointment at 11:30. I will grab a quick lunch somewhere and get back home in time for my class reunion meeting at 2:00. Then at 5:30 Bob A., Phyllis F. and I will leave for the Valentine dinner at Just Us. I wil have to miss the library board meeting this month because it is the same night.

Wednesday after work I will have the PINCH meeting at the Church of God in Christ.

More later....

A Health Care Flap

The President has stepped into a mess on this one, and there is some conflict between religious freedom and human rights here. But there is also too much misinformation going on, particularly in these two areas:

1. A majority of states already have some form of prescription equality legislation that applies to the public operations of churches (like schools and hospitals that employ or serve non-members). In addition, since the early days of the Bush administration, there have been federal equal access rules, and indeed several Republican senators, like Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe were co-sponsors on legislation to require prescription equity across sexes (e.g., if you cover Viagra, you cannot deny women equal access to birth control).

Many large Catholic universities currently cover birth control for staff in their plans, and if they don't they are already likely in violation of existing rules. In short, since the churches have not shut down operations or terminate coverage in these situations, they are not likely to do so now, except to cut off their nose to spite their face.

2. The new rules do require zero co-pay rules to apply to many preventative medical treatments, and birth control is one of them. This gives equal access to poor people and saves $20,000 to $100,000 or more per prevented pregnancy, and likely prevents many abortions (isn't this the goal?).

The argument that, if no co-pay is required, the institution is subsidizing birth control reveals nothing more than an ignorance of how private health care is currently being funded, and will continue to be funded under the Affordable Care Act.

Institutions even as small as community colleges and small universities usually save a lot of money on health care costs by putting all university and employee contributions into a shared pool, from which claims are disbursed. The insurance company's role is as an administrator and negotiator with the health care providers. There is an insurance policy written, but ONLY for the event that the shared pool is depleted in a given year. Good insurance companies, however, know how to set the contribution level so that this rarely happens.

Since almost no employer contributes the full cost of health care anymore, the shared pool is this mix of what individual employees put in and what the institution puts in. The co-pay does not cover the full cost of the birth control, but it usually DOES fall beneath the level of the employee's contribution. All the rules say is that a woman's access to birth control (over 98% of childbearing-age Catholic women) is as important a health decision as the zero co-pay blood screening a man might get. It is no more the right of the church to deny a non-member's (or even a member's) access to birth control as it is to deny me access to blood screening. If I contributed to the health plan, then I have a stake in its application.

So if I work for a Jehovah's Witness employer, can he deny me access to blood screening on religious grounds? If I work for Brigham Young University, can they deny me coverage for an alcohol-related accident? I don't think so.

This simply has become a political football for the Republicans.

A Quiet Sunday

I had a very good night's sleep last night with no interruptions. Missy slept with me right at my side. She did not wake me up. I guess she knew it was very cold outside and wanted to stay in the house. I guess Getting a good night's sleep is the payoff for what I did yesterday morning with Slinky. I sure miss the old critter. About 5:00, I awoke hearing what I thought was his yelp. It must have been a dream. I went right back to sleep until 5:30.

Today I will have church and then we will eat out as a group afterward. Bob and I and Denise have the support group at Windsor at 2:30 this afternoon. Then I will have a quiet evening at home. If there's nothing on TV, I have a video to watch.

More later....

I went to the support group and Bob A. was there. There were a couple of new people. I came home about 4:00 and finished my letters. Now I will watch TV this evening and then probably go to bed early again. I work tomorrow.