A Cold Saturday

I didn't sleep particularly well last night. I was achy all over. When I went to the bathroom I noticed I could feel my heartbeat. That's the second time this week that has happened. I must be tired. I still have the erysipelas. It may be a little bit better or it could be just wishful thinking. It has been six weeks since I developed it. If the doctor I go to had kept me on antibiotics the entire time, it would have been gone by now. I should have known better then not to have gone to a specialist right away, especially when he called it "slapped child syndrome". Live and learn, I guess. At least the emergency room doctor called it cellulitis.

I will meet Bob for breakfast this morning at 7:00. That's an hour away. I ran my vacuum sweeper yesterday and ran over a screw or a nail in the closet. That stopped my automatic drive and it began to be difficult to push the vacuum. I finished up the best I could and then took the sweeper in to Liebert Brothers for repair. I hope they can repair it. It's only 22 years old. :) It has been a great sweeper. It's a Hoover. I swear by Hoover.

We have a guest minister tomorrow and a basket dinner after the service. I will fix a meatloaf and a cake to take. I will also take some steamer veggies I can fix in the microwave there.

I don't know what is on the agenda for today. The entire next week is free except for my hair appointments. That feels good.

No Snow Last Night

We had been forecast for snow last night but it didn't develop. We miss a lot of the forecast. Here in southeast Kansas, we are in a hole. It's the lowest place in Kansas and a lot of the weather goes either above us or south of us. We are still forecast for snow on Sunday but I'm not going to hold my breath.

One of my classmates called yesterday afternoon and asked to have the planning group for our 60th class reunion to meet one more time to set the price for the reunion and then I should get the letter and registration form out. The reunion will be held May 24th and 25th. I want to give everyone about a month to get their registrations in. Any longer lead time is hard to plan at our age. I called four of the committee members and he called three. The two I couldn't reach and had to leave a message called back last evening. We will meet April 3rd. Only one couldn't make it.

I have a hair appointment this morning in Independence. Then I will come back home and start dinner. I don't know what I will have yet. I have a round steak I can thaw. We may have that.

More later....

I went to the exercise class at 9:00 and then home at 10:00. I did thaw that round steak and made it into swiss steak. It was very good. I read most of the afternoon, went over to the Country Time Mall and looked for some of the small Corning Ware dishes to put leftovers in. I have some small ones but had seen some even smaller earlier. As I thought, they were gone.

Later, around 5:30, Bob came over and we went over to Brahms and got the small hamburger. He was hungry again. The cold weather stimulated his appetite, I guess. He came back with me and we watched the news and then he left to go home. I read awhile and then took my bath and went to bed.

A Cold Thursday

I wish the weather would make up it's mind whether it's spring or winter. It has become cold again and is 31 degrees this morning. I didn't sleep well last night. My feet cramped and I got up periodically to walk off the cramps. And my left arm aches too. So that means both arms feel like someone punched them in the muscle. If it isn't one thing it's another. The erysipelas isn't any better this morning. I guess I expected a miracle. It will probably take several weeks and I will be on the cephalexin for thirty days anyhow.

I hope to just stay in today. It is supposed to be pretty nasty. It may rain. That was in the forecast. And before the week is out, it may snow.

I wonder about my cat, Missy. Yesterday she raced around the house and drove me nuts. I finally told her if she didn't settle down I would put her outside where she could run off some of that energy. She settled right down. This morning she began doing the same thing and once again, I went into the bedroom and got an afghan and put it on the sofa and told her if she didn't settle down I would put her outside. Then I missed her and looked in the living room and she was on the afghan on the sofa lying down. I wonder if she really knows what I am saying.

I attended my PINCH meeting last night. There were 17 there. I got four volunteers to plan the Juneteenth celebration. Many people, especially Caucasians, are not even aware of it's significance.

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.

Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation - which had become official January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new Executive Order. However, with the surrender of General Lee in April of 1865, and the arrival of General Granger’s regiment, the forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome the resistance.

Later attempts to explain this two and a half year delay in the receipt of this important news have yielded several versions that have been handed down through the years. Often told is the story of a messenger who was murdered on his way to Texas with the news of freedom. Another, is that the news was deliberately withheld by the enslavers to maintain the labor force on the plantations. And still another, is that federal troops actually waited for the slave owners to reap the benefits of one last cotton harvest before going to Texas to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation.

All of which, or neither of these version could be true. Certainly, for some, President Lincoln's authority over the rebellious states was in question For whatever the reasons, conditions in Texas remained status quo well beyond what was statutory.

General Order Number 3

One of General Granger’s first orders of business was to read to the people of Texas, General Order Number 3 which began most significantly with:

"The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer."

Of course that never really happened. In fact, while cleaning up after the meeting I asked one of our PINCH members, who has a phd, last night if things were better for African Americans nowadays then in the past. He replied, "Not really". That's a tragedy, isn't it?

Wednesday Again

I am hoping today will be a quieter day. Yesterday was exhausting. Dr. Eslicker cleared up the name of the bacterial disease I am suffering. He consulted with a colleague and they agreed what I have is Erysipelas, an acute streptococcus bacterial infection. He put me on a month's regimen of cephalexin three times a day and then told me to refill the prescription and keep it on hand since once you've had this bacterial disease, you easily can get it again and again. He said if there was any sign of redness or swelling after this clears up, to immediately start the antibiotic again. What a mess! He also said my doctor should have kept me on the antibiotic until it cleared up completely. I should never have messed around with a GP and gone directly to a specialist. I would have been through with this by now. Live and learn. I have always been so healthy, I have little experience with doctors and since my lifelong experience with Dr. Smithson in Dewey, I have had a difficult time finding a doctor I find competent. Melissa was my choice but she gave up her practice to be the doctor at the Cherokee Clinic in Nowata.

Bob came over last night to watch a movie with me. It was "Ted"...supposedly a comedy. We found it entirely unsuitable and turned it off. I will take it back today. That was a waste.

He went with me to Bartlesville to the doctor. We stopped at Penney's to pick up his last valence for the living room of his house and it had been damaged in transit. It has been reordered. That has been another run around for him. He will be moving into the house next Wednesday...right after surgery on his hand on Tuesday. He has what people call "trigger finger", a painful stiff finger on his right hand. Personally I think he should have waited to have the surgery until he got moved and settled in. I don't know how he's going to carry boxes, unpack and put things away with one hand. He also has curtains to hang in his bedrooms. He has never had any kind of surgery before and doesn't realize there is a time of healing when you cannot use the affected hand.

Bob came over for lunch today. Afterward, we hung his bedroom curtains and those for his guest room. I am going to rest awhile now. I have that PINCH meeting this evening at 5:30.

Yesterday...An Exhausting Day

I went to exercise class yesterday morning at 9:00. Then at 10:00 on to Utopia for coffee with Marilyn and Bobby and Karan until 10:30, then to the bank to get my address changed on my accounts, and finally home to meet Bill. I gave him the tour of the apartment and then we went to lunch. We came back and visited until 2:30 when Bob came and showed us his car. Then I went with him to pick up his Corolla at Quality and he took it back and washed it and filled it with gas and took it to Denise. She gave him a down payment and will pay him a payment every month for three years. I will try to get a photo of it later if I have a chance. Then I will post it here.

Then I got home about 4:00. I watched a little TV until 6:00 then Bob came and wanted me to go with him to Eggberts for a light dinner. He had not eaten much of anything all day. He had a western omelet and I had the fruit parfait. I got home about 7:30 and took a bath and put my PJs on and watched a little TV before I went to bed.

Not too restful a day.

I'm glad Leslie enjoyed her first day back at work and didn't overdo (which I thought she might do).

I haven't heard much from the boys lately. Keith called earlier in the week. But Scott has been strangely silent. Ashley left him Friday to go back to Savannah.

I will see Dr. Eslicker at 1:10 about my cellulitis. I didn't put any makeup on so he could see it as it is.

Monday At Last

What a wild week last week was. Just about everything that could have gone wrong with the proposed closing..did. I am ready for a new week. Today, my friend, Bill, is coming down from Independence about 10:30 or so to see the apartment and we will later go to lunch. He is the one who hung my blinds. On moving day he called and was willing to come down and help. Of course, I had hired a mover so I thanked him but did not ask him to come down.

Tomorrow I will go get my hair done in Independence and then I have a doctor's appointment with Dr. Eslicker in Bartlesville at 1:10. Hopefully, he can do something about the cellulitis. I am so tired of dealing with it.

Wednesday I have a PINCH meeting at 5:30 at the Presbyterian Church. That's all for this week. I am ready for a quiet week. In fact, I may go to exercise class this morning. Two of my new neighbors go there. Bob also attends if he has time. Right now he is packing to move as soon as he can. So I don't know if he will attend or not.

This little house is the one Bob rented to move into after his closing. It's right across the street from the fourplex.

More later... See that car in Bob's drive? He has sold it to his daughter whose car blew the motor over the weekend. Then he brought a beautiful 2007 Camry. It's the fanciest model Camry they make with Bluetooth and everything. Now the daughter has reliable transportation which takes a load off his mind.

Sunday Once Again

Bob came over at 9:00 to pick me up for church. Things are looking better but I won't have real peace of mind until the house closes. After church we all ate at Eggberts.

John and Leslie came over after dinner and John put up my new cabinet for the bathroom. That gives me some additional bathroom storage. I needed that badly. I got on the scale this morning and I have lost another two pounds. If I don't stop losing weight, I won't be able to wear any of my clothes. I am dressing up a little more for church now...wearing my dress slacks and jackets while I still can.

I wish I had rented a DVD for this evening. After 60 Minutes, there's nothing of interest on TV. I will probably read my Kindle book.

I got word a couple of days ago that Bob's last cousin, Robert Knox, had died. He was 96. He was a doctor and lived in assisted living in Arizona. That's really sad. His family were all lovely people.

More later in the day...Oh yes, I said I would post a photo of the fourplex where I am living. Here it is. That's my little green Honda in the carport. It's too dark to see it very well. I have the apartment on the left. There are two smaller ones behind me and another like mine (only flipped over) on the right. The glass windows you see are to a storage unit for the smaller apartment behind me.