Saturday, March 30, 2013

A Rainy Saturday

I awoke to the sound of thunder and rain this morning. We need the rain that's for sure! I didn't sleep all that well again last night. Finally I took an Aleve and my shoulders stopped hurting and I got some restless sleep. I woke up about 4:45 and just got up. I drank some leftover coffee and worked on my budget. Scott had sent some money for his airline tickets for Ashley who is going to go back to Hawaii to spend the two weeks between semesters. I transferred some of it into his money market account and put the rest on the credit card he used for her last tickets.

I will go to breakfast with Bob in about a half hour. He will pull over next to my carport and pick me up. Since he now lives right across the street we no longer need to take both cars to the restaurant. I will not cook dinner today since we have both been invited out to John and Leslie's for an early Easter dinner this evening at 5:30. Jeff and Cyndi will be there too. Jeromy and Marlene will not. They probably went to Topeka to her folks. Bob is baking a frozen pie he has in his freezer. We will take that.

I might do some cleaning today since it is raining. I didn't clean earlier since I helped Bob with his move. I need to run the vacuum. Maybe I can read on my book too today. I finished the one about the past presidents.

Friday, March 29, 2013

Friday Again

It's Friday again. I went to Independence earlier today to have my hair done and then came back home to attend the exercise class. It was called off because it was Good Friday. Since we were not there on Wednesday, the day Bob moved, we did not know. Anyhow, we went on to Bartlesville. Bob wanted to get a couple of those mats that fit under the office chairs. And his last valance finally was in at Penneys. We picked that up and then we ate at McAlisters. After that, we walked around Wal Mart and Bob bought a second coverlet for the bed in the second bedroom. He also bought a couple of pillows. I bought an outdoor thermometer and a rain gauge.

Then we walked around Lowe's. After that we came on back home. I took a nap and he probably did too.

More later...

Later on this evening he came over to watch the news with me and we also watched most of American Masters before we both got too tired and he went home.

I took my bath, caught the last minutes of the program and Missy and I went to bed.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

The Kitchen Unpacking

This morning Bob and I will unpack his kitchen stuff. He doesn't have near enough space for everything he wanted to keep. We will just prioritize things then. We will start with his dishes and glasses and Corning ware. We will keep his mixing bowls and measuring cups since he uses them to bake his cakes for the Christian Church in Independence. We will keep some of his baking stuff. But he has many more glasses then he will ever need so some of those will have to go into rummage boxes. The church is having a huge rummage sale on May 4th. The week prior to that, we will need to go to the church everyday and price stuff.

He got his furniture placed yesterday afternoon. Now he will need to unpack stuff and bring the rest of his things from the house he has sold. There is still some stuff over there and his clothing and pictures to hang on the wall.

Friday he wants to go back over and clean the house.

Today we will eat our leftover meatloaf. We were so tired at noon yesterday that we just ate at Eggberts.

More later...

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Bob's Moved!

Bob moved into his rental house today. I went over this morning and helped him pack his kitchen. He'll have an awful lot of rummage. He simply won't have room for everything in that small house. We took a dozen and a half boxes of rummage and kitchen stuff to the house. Then Bobby and Karan called and came over and offered to help. We asked them to take the rummage to the church so they got their truck and took it out there. That gave Bob a lot of storage in his shed. His kitchen is full of kitchen stuff but we will have to put it away by priority. He simply won't have room for everything he wanted to keep.

I went up to Independence to pick up his granddaughter Dee when he had to wait for the people from Cox to come and put his TV together again.

He went over to his house to get his shaving stuff and toothbrush and then we will go to Brahm's and get some chili.

More later...

After Bob left I had some stomach cramps and was sick. It might have been the chili but whatever it was it was gone after one episode. I slept pretty well until 1:15 when I got up to go to the bathroom. Then I had to take a benedril to get back to sleep. But that worked. I slept well until almost 6:00.

Article From A Friend

THE POLITICAL SCENE

Members of Congress should pay more attention to what police officers have to say rather than the NRA. Jon Barney points out that governments don’t want to spend money on hospitalization for the mentally ill and too many end up in prison, costing us more in many cases. Not that money is the most important factor.

Jon does suggest that the kinds of incidents we have experienced such as Newtown two weeks ago occur around the world. That is true, but in the past decade eleven of the 20 worst mass murders have occurred in the USA. We have only 6% of the world’s population.

Some of you know Rick Sarre, an Australian who teaches criminal law at the University of South Australia. He points out that before 1996, Australia had 13 multiple shootings in the preceding 18 years. After a tragic incident in 1996, they outlawed the ownership or sales of semi-automatic firearms. In the 16 years since, there have been no multiple shootings in Australia.

In a recent email Rick wrote, “The research evidence shows a highly significant association between firearm availability and homicide rates in the USA….The sad reality is that the USA, many years ago, went past the point of no return. Americans will have to live with the ever-present threat of mass shootings for at least another twenty or thirty years until such time as a future generation, of its own accord, exercises the responsible stewardship that is so desperately needed.”

Rick notes that in Australia there are 0.1% gun homicides per 100,000 population, while in the USA there are 3.3 gun homicides per 100,000 population. We have 33 times the rate of gun homicides!

One Connecticut man, James N. Rascati of Woodbridge, Connecticut, suggested six policies that would help:

There should be a waiting period to purchase any gun or rifle.

There should be a background check on all potential gun purchasers. (Meaning, an end to the loophole in the law which allows people to buy guns at gun shows without a background check. This makes it easy for criminals and the mentally ill to obtain guns.)

The mentally ill and convicted criminals should not be allowed to purchase or have weapons.

AK-47s and other automatic weapons should not be sold (with exceptions for the military and law enforcement). High-capacity magazines and Teflon bullets should not be sold.

Guns should not be bought over the Internet.

I would add that we should have a gun buy-back option, which was very successful in Australia in 1996 and is being used in some communities in the USA now.

One of my heroes is Carolyn McCarthy. In 1993 her husband and others were killed in a New York subway. She was a registered Republican at the time. Soon she was involved in lobbying for gun safety at the state level in New York. (I don’t like the term “gun control,” because NRA type people make it sound like we are trying to take away their freedom. What we are trying to protect is our freedom from being shot by some lunatic.

Soon she got a call from Dick Gephardt, the leader of the U. S. House Democrats, asking her to run for Congress. She had never heard of him. Then she got a call from Emily’s List – she had never heard of this organization – offering help if she decided to run. Finally someone asked her directly to run for Congress, and she immediately said “Okay.”

She had no expectation of winning. Some people choose to run for office knowing they will not win, but use the campaign to promote an issue they feel strongly about. She wanted to campaign on gun safety. To her surprise, she won and has been in Congress ever since.

I saw her interviewed about twelve hours after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. These tragic events hit her especially hard. “I have been crying all day,” she told her interviewer.

It has often been pointed out that while the NRA takes extreme positions, about three-fourths of their members support measures like those Mr. Rascoti proposed. After any gun control measure is proposed, inevitably they cry, “They want to take away all of your guns.” But that’s a lie.

Majorities of NRA members support many of these proposals that their leaders oppose. But in the early 1990s the elite leadership of the organization has been taken over by a radical wing of the organization, with the position that “no gun restrictions should be allowed, no matter how reasonable.”

Political science research has concluded that often the elites that lead a pressure group (interest group) take positions that a majority of their members disagree with. I assume this has become more true for the NRA in the last couple of decades since the leadership became so extreme. As former U. S. Senator David Durenburger (R-Minnesota) has said, before about 1990 you could work with the NRA in finding reasonable solutions. But then they became extreme and opposed all regulations, no matter how reasonable.

One recent example of the extreme positions the NRA has taken comes from Florida. Medical doctors, especially pediatricians, were asking patients with children if they had guns in the house, and if they were keeping them safe from the reach of their children. This is clearly a health issue. It is certainly unhealthy for your child when he accidentally kills a friend or himself. Well, some NRA guy was asked that question and he was offended, and told the NRA. So they used their power to get the Florida legislature to pass a bill banning doctors from asking their patients that question! I don’t know how any legislator or executive could be so foolish as to legislate what a doctor can ask their patients. But the legislature passed their absolutely crazy bill and Republican Governor Rick Scott signed it. Doesn’t a highly trained professional have a free speech right to ask a patient a question that is relevant to the health of the patient and his or her family?

Will this kind of insanity cease in the wake of twenty children – all six and seven-year olds murdered in a few minutes by a madman who had the capability of killing more than one-hundred children?

Let us hope that in the wake of the madness in Connecticut, President Obama and Congress will summon the courage to ignore the NRA and pass the kind of measures that of policies that Mr. Rascati proposed.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

A Better Tuesday

Today may be a better day. I slept well last night and although I woke up twice, I got back to sleep and slept until 6:00. That's a record for me lately.

I got my two cakes baked last evening and Bob M. and Phyllis F. brought by theirs by last night. Then Bob A. brought his over. It was still warm so he did not ice it. I will ice it this morning. He stayed and we watched the old movie on DVD called The Shoes of the Fisherman. I consider it a classic. He seemed to enjoy it too. It starred Anthony Quinn. I checked and it was a 1969 movie.

Today I will take the cakes to Independence about 9:00. My hair appointment is at 10:00. Then I will come home and fix potatoes and veggies for dinner. Bob will bring his chicken. He bought that for Sunday's dinner at church...the one that was cancelled because of the snow and ice. So we will eat some of it today and then have our leftover meatloaf tomorrow before his move.

We had our chicken and it was good. I watched a TV movie in the afternoon and then discovered Bob was packing by himself. Denise evidently forgot she told him she would help. I volunteered to pack the kitchen and I spent the next two hours doing that. He packed the bedroom and guest room. movie Then he came over and we watched the DVD that Karan and Bobby loaned us. He went home about 8:30. Tomorrow night he will spend in the rental house. The mover comes tomorrow afternoon. He will come over in the morning about 7:00 for biscuits and coffee and afterward we will go finish packing before the mover comes. I still have about a third of the kitchen to do.

We will have leftover meatloaf and fried potatoes tomorrow noon before the mover comes at 1:30.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Another Monday

Today is very cold. The weather just can't seem to make up it's mind about spring.

I will go to exercise class today since I have Bobby's birthday cake. I am very tired. I didn't sleep well at all last night. I finally took a Benedril at 2:00 this morning and was finally able to get to sleep.

After I get home from the class, I will fix my meatloaf for lunch. I will fix some potatoes and may fry them for a change. Then I'll fix a veggie. Tomorrow Bob and I will have his chicken. I will bake my two cakes this evening and get them iced for the trip to Independence tomorrow. Later I will need to call Phyllis F. and Karan to remind them that this is our week for cakes.

Otherwise this is a fairly calm week...thank goodness.

More later...

I called both Karan and Phyllis and they will get their cakes to me this evening. I went on to the exercise class and afterward we had cake to celebrate Bobby's birthday again. Then I came home and fixed dinner for Bob and me. My meatloaf turned out fine and we had fried potatoes and veggies and his coleslaw. I didn't fix a dessert because we had Bobby's cake earlier this morning.

I should go ahead and fix my two cakes too. Then I would have that over with in case Bob decides to watch a DVD with me this evening. He may be too tired. He did get his hand surgery cancelled for tomorrow and Dustin will move him on Wednesday afternoon. He will reschedule it for after our trip to Branson the first Friday and Saturday in April when Phyllis F is going with us.

He has to go pick up his granddaughter Dee at school at 3:30. I hope he remembers that. He was going to go pack some more after he dusted down the walls of the house across the street.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

An Early Spring Snow

Wouldn't you know it! We have a guest minister coming and a basket dinner following church and it snowed. Furthermore, I received a text message from the Montgomery County Sheriff's department warning of very slick roads. Our guest is coming from Pittsburg, Kansas, and that area is probably even worse. I wonder what our pastors will decide to do? I have e-mailed them all the warning and forwarded the one I received on my computer to them. They may not get Nexis, the program they use at the sheriff's department.

I will go ahead and make my meatloaf. If they cancel church, I can always use it for lunch today or even tomorrow. I will wait to bake the cake though. Karan brought me two cakes yesterday afternoon, one for today's dinner, to celebrate Bobby's 77th birthday tomorrow and one for the exercise class tomorrow for the same reason. I sure don't need another cake to munch on.

I opened my cedar chest and dug out my sweaters this morning and went to my den closet for my slacks. It's sure too cold to wear a blouse and cotton pants. There in the cedar chest I found my two bath mats and Scott's arrow. He bought a couple of items from John's store a couple of years ago and wanted me to mail them to him. I couldn't find a tube long enough to do that so I have just kept them here.

I am fixing a warmed up biscuit for breakfast. That and a cup of warmed up coffee should do it for this morning.

More later...

The pastors called off church. It was just too treacherous out there that early. About 10:00 Karan called and invited Bob and me to come over for dinner. She too had fixed food for the services. We took one of Bobby's birthday cakes and had a real good meal and visit afterward. Karan came over and brought Bobby after I got home and they looked at my little wicker chair and took it. Karan had given me Judy's large decorative chickens and I set them in that place.

We will have my meatloaf on Monday and Tuesday we will have Bob's chicken for lunch. He has a call in to the nurse at the hospital to postpone his surgery on his hand a couple of weeks....or at least one. He needs to get past his move which is supposed to be this week...either Wednesday or Thursday. He also has yet to hear from the mover about exactly which day he will move him.