Saturday, January 12, 2013

It's Saturday!

I will meet Bob at Eggbert's in a little while for breakfast. He came over last night and we watched a very good Stephen Spielberg movie "War Horse". I rented it from V & S Variety for $2.12. I have to take it back at 9:00 this morning. If we want to watch a movie the same day we decide on it, we rent it from V & S Variety...otherwise we can get it free of charge from the local library by inner library lending.

I have been buying DVD movies from Amazon for a very low price. I may donate them to the library when I run out of storage space. I probably will not watch them again.

We had discussed going to Owasso at noontime for soup and salad at Olive Garden. Bob may have changed his mind about going. He has been doing most of the driving and uses a lot of gasoline. Every once in awhile he lets me take my car. We need to share the expense. For instance, he will rent "The Descendents" with George Clooney. They have that one at V & S Variety too. We will not have to return that one until Monday since we will be renting it on a Saturday. There is simply nothing worth watching on TV..except for PBS.

If we don't go to Owasso, I will pack some more non essentials into banker boxes. I have one box packed already. I will stack them in the garage. Since they have lids, the stuff packed stays clean. I am labeling the boxes with which room the contents were found. Some will be rummage. Some will simply have to be stored if I get into a duplex. I really need to clean out the garage before long. If it stays relatively warm I may get that done on the time I have off.

So far Carla hasn't shown my house again. It would be good if it could be shown once a week. We sold the house in Independence after a Sunday afternoon open house. She may have to do something like that to get it sold.

More later...

I stayed in today after 10:0. It drizzled and then iced and then snowed a little over that. When Bob left this evening, he had to scrape his windshield and it was solid ice. Luckily, I had some windshield defroster and I sprayed that on his windows to defrost them.

They called off church tomorrow.

Friday, January 11, 2013

It's Friday!

Thank goodness it's Friday. I don't work Fridays. I finally caught up after a week of working at it. However, since I don't work Fridays, when I go back in on Monday, I will have a full box. That's fine. At least I caught up before my weekend.

This morning I will go to Independence to have my hair done. After that, I will go to the bank and get my week's money. I will go out to church and begin taking down and putting away the Christmas decorations. Melissa, Karan and Bobby will join me at 9:00 and Bob will come out about 10:15 after his exercises. Eventually we will get everything cleaned up. It's always a huge job. Cyndi will then clean on Saturday.

We will probably eat lunch at Dearing cafe. Their special today is chicken and noodles and they are just three miles south of the church. I will be too tired to cook at noon.

I have been following the political gun control discussion. The most reasonable course would be to ban assault weapons and require folks to have background checks for ammunition. The NRA however is furious. They want no gun control of any kind. Oddly enough, we don't allow citizens to purchase land mines or cannons, yet the NRA has no problem with that. They see any regulation as an assault on the 2nd amendment. They evidently have no actually read the second amendment. It plainly says "militia". When one puts the second amendment in it's cultural venue, it is apparent there was no army or police force and that people in that day were in fear of their lives from attacks from Native Americans.

We now have a police force in communities and a national guard and army. We no longer need citizens to protect themselves with assault weapons. A hand gun should be plenty of protection in the home. Rifles and shotguns should be fine for hunters.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Thursday Again

Last night Bob and I watched my new DVD, "Forever Young". It's an old one but it was entertaining. Afterward he went home and I took my bath and went to bed. Again, I was exhausted. I worked my four hours of filing and then scanning. Again I still have a full box of scanning. That keeps me very busy and that's good. It's just that so much sitting makes me stiff.

I went to the PINCH meeting last night. It was my first evening of being president. The committee did a good job of planning the Martin Luther King service for January 19th. I am to read the scripture for the service. It is Ephesians 4: 1 - 6.

Luckily I have no meeting this evening. I am very tired of meetings. Tomorrow the Worship Committee will take down the Christmas decorations at church. That will be a big job for a small group. We want to be finished by noon and then clean the church a bit. Cyndi is supposed to clean it thoroughly and she may get it done on Saturday.

I don't know if there is a plan for Saturday. I haven't anything planned. I went over my budget this morning and printed it off for my checkbook. It's good I have my job. I almost break even each month. I have spent over $1,000 since November. Between my house taxes and insurance and car insurance, my savings are fast disappearing. That's why I have the house on the market. My taxes on my home just keep going up. I have protested them for three years and managed to get them lowered a bit...but not enough.

If the refinery manages to get their real estate taxes declared personal property, our property taxes will go up over 40%. That would pretty much eliminate my savings.

I am hoping to get the house sold before March 1st when that decision will be made. Kansas favors big business so I won't be surprised if that happens. Our governor has already eliminated the food sales tax refund for low income families. He is a rich man and hasn't a clue about the way low income and seniors struggle.

I called about an empty duplex in Independence yesterday. The renter wants $850. rent per month and also that much deposit. It's lovely of course, but way too lovely for my budget.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Another Busy Day

This will be another busy day. Already I have stuffed and stamped 100 envelopes with the class of '53 newsletter in them. I sent out 88 by e-mail earlier. Then I took them to the post office and got them mailed off.

I also got the library foundation minutes off to Jennifer. Then I remembered, I had not yet put my roast in the slow cooker and its frozen solid. I quickly got it out and into the cooker but it's only two hours until dinner/lunch so I don't know if it will get done or not.

I had stopped by the market and bought some potatoes and an onion for my roast. All that made me late getting dinner/lunch started.

I was swamped at work yesterday. I filed first and then started scanning. The more I scanned the more there was put into the scanning box so I didn't get finished with either job. I will work on it again this afternoon. I still have not finished moving all the files to a different file cabinet. I will do that if I ever get caught up.

Tonight I have the PINCH meeting at 5:30. It will be held at St. James United Methodist Church.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Busy Tuesday

This will be a busy day. I will pick up the newsletters for my class this morning and get them in the mail today. This is also the day of my haircut and color and hairdo at 10:00. Bob will go with me to Independence for his haircut. After that we will have lunch at Big Cheese. When we get back to Coffeyville, I will take Bob home and go to work.

After work, I have the library board meeting and the foundation meeting. I hope to get home slightly after 7:00 where Bob will already be and has already started the PBS American Experience program we want to watch.

I e-mailed both newspapers Sunday to change the names on their pastor's list for their church pages. Later that afternoon, Ursula e-mailed me and said she had been asked by the editor to write a story about me and the new pastors. I sent her some information and a photo of the church and will take some photos of the pastors Sunday at church. That should be interesting.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Back to Work

It's back to work today. I will go to the market this morning and get a few things for dinner at noon and cook lunch/dinner for Bob and me at 11:00. Then after that, I will go to work. I will do my scanning and filing today because I never finished it on Thursday. So I will have a bunch to do.

My Blue Cross/Blue Shield supplement insurance came out of my account today. What really gripes me is that I seldom use my medicare or my insurance and yet my premium jumped $20 a month in one year. That more then wiped out the $17 increase I got for my social security. That happened last time too. Every year it goes up and I could understand a dollar or two but $20 each year? That's too much...especially for someone that only goes to the doctor twice a year and then only so she can get her two prescriptions filled. I take a little thyroid and also a small blood pressure med. My blood pressure is not that big a deal but it isn't where the doctor thinks it should be.

Baloney!

The realtor showed my house on Saturday. It didn't sell although she said the showing went well. The client was looking for a larger house. Mine was at their low end. If the house sells (and she seems to think it will sell fairly easily---I will wait and see) I will give up my job. I will put the home equity in my money market account and supplement my social security with it.

I will be staying out at my daughter's until I can find an opening in the duplex I am interested in renting. I only work 16 hours a week and that trip would eat up my extra money with gasoline expense. I will have to store my furniture at that time. And unfortunately, I will have to leave Missy , my cat, with Leslie. I doubt any landlord will tolerate a cat although Missy isn't any problem.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Sunday Again

It's Sunday again and I will be assisting with the setting apart of the three new pastors this morning. Our group leader from our Mission Center will be our guest minister. We will take her to lunch after church.

We still do not have a schedule for preaching and presiding. The three of them have not been able to get together to put one together. It should have been out a week or two ago. Most of us cannot just throw together a sermon without spending some time on it. I guess eventually they will get it all together. I shouldn't complain. After all, I chose to give up being pastor.

Leslie told me yesterday that they want me to continue doing the communication. I have been doing it for years. Bob and I are also supposed to do the visiting. We need to get together and go see both George and Isabell and also Gerry. They are all shut-ins.

More later....

Following the service today, the doctor who is one of the new pastors, took 13 of us to dinner. That was nice!

Bob will be over this evening to watch 60 Minutes with me.