Saturday, May 25, 2013

A Successful Evening

Yesterday evening was a successful evening. All but eight registered persons made the picnic last night and everyone seemed to have a good time. My only problem with it was my usual problem with those things. At cleanup time, the committee disappeared. It was Bob and me, the wife of one of the committee members, and our friends Bobby and Karan that cleaned most of it up at the last. Everyone did pitch in to get the food out of the kitchen and onto the serving table and afterward they brought everything in and refrigerated it but for the actual cleanup, they disappeared. Well, this is the last one so I guess I can handle that this last time. Tonight at the country club the meal will be served buffet style and cleaned up by the staff.

We got away about 8:30 and were home by 9:00. I took my bath and went to bed. I slept until midnight and went to the bathroom and again at 3:00 AM woke up with my arms aching. I went back to bed after taking two more Tylenol and slept until 7:00...unusual for me. We met Bobby and Karan for breakfast at Eggberts shortly after that.

This afternoon Bob and I may go up to the Midland Theater at 2:00 to see how the progress on the renovation is going.

Then we may got over to Mayfest at Caney. We will play it by ear.

This is some of my classmates at the picnic reunion party last night.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Class Reunion Evening

Tonight is the Bar B Q evening of the class reunion I have been working on for months. I will go out this afternoon about 3:00 and put the plastic tablecloths on the picnic tables in the lodge and lay out the name tags on a table in alphabetical order so they will be easy to find. I also want to check that everything is clean. Bob says he will go with me. We are having the Bar B Q brisket and the rest of the dinner catered by Hog Heaven. I hope it doesn't rain this evening. We are planning for smores after dark at the fire pit. Phyllis is bringing the makings.

Tomorrow evening is the banquet. We tried to have something for everyone. Some liked the idea of a Bar B Q at the lodge and others thought we should have a dress up banquet. So we are having both. This will be our last class reunion. It is the 60th. There are fewer and fewer of us to work on these things and fewer and fewer of us to clean up afterward. John and Larry and I did all the footwork for this one. Phyllis and Ron each live out of town.

Missy seems a lot better this morning. She laid around all day yesterday and seemed to be crippled in one of her rear legs. She was on my bed though when I awoke this morning. I wasn't sure she could jump up there when I went to bed. She is lying here in the doorway to the living room now. I slept fine but my arms were both aching badly when I woke up. I took a couple of Tylenol when I made up my face and brushed my teeth. They are better now.

Bob and I went to Dee's graduation last night. It began at 7:00 and lasted until almost 9:00. Dee is Bob's granddaughter. After Terry and Denise's children were nearly raised, they had Dee. Terry had had lymphoma when he was young and was told he couldn't father any more children so they certainly didn't expect Dee. Life is full of surprises.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Thursday Again

It's Thursday again and I haven't got a lot done. I went to the market and got a few things I needed (and some I didn't). Then I went out to church after that to see what Jim had done about getting the roof covered. He hadn't been there. Karan called after awhile and said he had gone out at 8:00 and replaced the plastic vents that were broken up on the roof and would have leaked into the church. We will still need a roof if the church ever sends an adjuster. I hope the ceiling doesn't leak in the meantime.

Then I read awhile and after that I started lunch/dinner. I made that hamburger pie we liked so well last month. I also fixed a salad out of Bob's makings and now we are ready for lunch whenever he gets home from delivering Meals on Wheels. He will come on over then. It appears to have about ten minutes left to cook but it's smelling good. Tonight we will attend his granddaughter's graduation from High School at 7:00.

Missy went out about 4:00 AM this morning and when she didn't come right back in, I began to get worried. Finally I heard a terrific cat fight. I went out with the broom and swept under my car and she came running in. She was bleeding from a scratch on her nose and also from one front paw and one back paw. She's been pretty subdued all day. I tried to wipe it off with a damp gauze cotton square but she hissed at me and didn't want me to touch her. So I left her to clean herself up. She's a little too old to fight anymore. (ten years old)

Missy has still lain around all day and not eaten anything nor drunk any water. She hasn't even used her litter box. She obviously does not feel good and she limps a little when she walks. I tried to tempt her into the kitchen with her treats but she wasn't particularly interested and that's amazing in itself. Finally though, she limped in and ate her four treats. Now she's back lying down on the living room floor.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

A Quiet Wednesday

Today should be relatively quiet although I do need to check back on the businesses I talked to about sponsoring the Juneteenth Celebration June 15th. That's Country Mart and the Coffeyville State Bank. I also need to see Carla, my realtor, about the same thing. I also need to talk to Sleep Inn and the Sav A Lot store about a sponsorship. The rest is up to the rest of the committee. I hope this thing goes off alright. It sounds like we've bit off quite a lot.

Then, of course, I also have the class reunion this weekend and the church camp in July from the 6th till the 12th. I keep losing teachers and having to find replacements. Now I am looking for a Junior teacher. Then I also have my MRI on Tuesday to try to find out what is making my neck and shoulders hurt. I have a lot on my plate right now. I'll be glad when all this is over. It's been stressful.

I took a couple of extra strength Tylenol before I went to bed at 9:30 last night but I still woke up at 2:15 with my neck and both shoulders hurting. I also was thinking about my need for the Junior teacher for camp so I got up and e-mailed another prospect. I haven't heard back from her yet but it's only 7:00 AM. But that kept me awake until I e-mailed her. I finally got back to sleep and awoke at 5:30.

I will fix our leftover tuna casserole for lunch. We'll have Bob's salad and a veggie and call it good. I have cupcakes or cookies for a dessert.

More later...

I called on my list of proposed sponsorships for the Juneteenth Celebration this morning and out of five tries, I got one positive and two I need to get back with on Tuesday. The one I have is for a business card sized ad on the poster.

Karan called a little bit ago and said her son-in-law had been out to the church with Bobby, her husband, and he said the roof was ruined. not only ruined but there were four holes in it and if it wasn't leaking already, it soon would. He said we need to get it covered before the next rain that is coming this weekend. I drove out there to look and there is a leak in the foyer and one ceiling tile is ruined. I called Karan back after talking to Bob and told her to have Jim get it covered as soon as he could. We are still waiting for an adjuster from the church to come and meet with a couple of contractors we have talked to. I have no idea when he will come. I am no longer pastor and Leslie is swamped at work evidently. Melissa, is working at the clinic in Nowata so she can't take care of it and Johnna is at work in Neodesha. So it is up to Leslie to get to it when she can. Maybe I shouldn't have given up the pastorate because I am free to get things done quickly.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Hate Map

Dr. Monica Stevens has mapped the hate remarks make by people on Twitter to show where they originate. It's a very interesting map but I'm not all that surprised.

See the map here.

http://users.humboldt.edu/mstephens/hate/hate_map.html#

Interesting idea. I'm not sure what it means. Take a look:

"Dr. Monica Stevens, assistant professor of geography at Humboldt State University in California, has turned her academic focus in an interesting direction. Working with a team of undergrads, Dr. Stevens has sorted through over 150,000 tweets containing racial or sexual slurs and produced a map of America showing the distribution of their origin." - from www.patheos.com/blogs/unreasonablefaith/2013/05/mapping-hate/

The result is a "hate map" that shows which areas of the United States produced the most tweets, which can be filtered for various types of slur.

More Storms

We had another bad storm yesterday afternoon. All we got was hail although that was bad enough. Leslie called Bob to go out to the church and check for damage. Dearing, a small community three miles south of the church, had major hail damage. He found most of the damage on the south side of the church.There is major damage on that south side of the church. The gable end's vinyl siding has holes all over it. The furnace vents are all beat up from the hail and the attic vents all have hail damage, and the spiral light is knocked off. The gutters and downspouts are all beat up with hail damage. Probably the roof too but Bob could not see that without climbing up there but with all the other damage we have, the roof is probably damaged too. It would be good if we could wait to get Blair Edwards to do the work or at least the inspection since he was the only one who was able to finally stop the roof leak that caused the stain there in the sanctuary ceiling. Jeff finally fixed the ceiling. It also got our church sign. What a mess!

Tragically, that storm system hit Oklahoma City area, Moore, New Castle, and Shawnee. 51 people in Moore were killed and 20 of them were very young children. 240 were injured. It was a mile wide and the winds were 200 miles per hour. It was terrible. Moore had been hit before in 1999.

We had a hailstorm late night before last and then the second one hit yesterday afternoon. I kind of enjoy storms but that's because I've never been in a serious one, I know. Bob, on the other hand, was in the Clay Center tornado in the 70's. It makes all the difference. I stood out in the carport and watched the wind blow and then rain and then finally hail. The storm warning sirens went off several times.

I got my car back before the storm hit yesterday afternoon. It was less then I thought. $185. I didn't have to transfer money out of my savings after all. I had enough in my checking account to cover it. I was at the collision center to ask about a repair to my trunk area that is causing the leak of water into my truck when the wind began and instead I just came on home and got my car under the carport.

We discovered the leak when I had that flat a couple of weeks ago. The jack was rusted and the doughnut tire was rusted onto the big screw that holds it in place. There was some water standing in that area of the trunk too. Gary discovered that it came from the repair to the driver's side after the wreck that occurred before I bought the car. So it's been leaking there for a long time. I've had the car since 2003. Eventually it will rust out the underside of the trunk if I don't get it repaired. I need to find out what that would cost though. Maybe I can get that done this afternoon. It's always something, it seems.

Today, I take the cakes to Independence and then get my hair done. With all the rain and moisture in the air, it's a mess. After the storm, I baked my two cakes and got them iced before bedtime last night. All but Bob's are in the car now. It's only 6:00 and he will be bringing his over soon.

Again, I slept well last night and didn't even wake up until after 4:30 AM.

Monday, May 20, 2013

Monday for My Car

I am taking my car in to the shop this morning for brakes. It's a twelve year old Honda Civic and it's never needed a brake job. It doesn't need one quite yet but it's close. No sense waiting until the noise starts. I have no idea what a brake job costs anymore. Its been years since I've needed one. I will need to ask Gary for an estimate so I can transfer some funds into my checking account.

Our meeting last night was great fun. The rain bypassed us and we had nine out for the meeting. Karan fixed sis kabobs in her fire pit and the rest of us brought all kinds of snacks. We ate outside on her lovely patio. I brought some of my dip home. Bob had a little of his summer sausage left but all his cheese was gone. We watched the video Marilyn brought from the big Connections meeting in Texas that she and I missed because it was too far to drive. She ordered the video anyhow. Jack is getting more and more fragile and always needs help getting around but he is determined not to give up on going places so he does the best he can with the help of others and his walker.

I slept pretty well until 3:30 and then awoke with my arms aching. I got up and took a couple of extra strength Tylenol. I went back to bed but couldn't get back to sleep. I got up shortly after 4:00. I did strip my bed and did what laundry I had. It is all drying now. I sure don't like this washer in the apartment. It is hard on the clothes since it agitates. My washer over at the house was a front loading tumble washer and dryer and held a lot more clothes too. I miss it.

We have had rain for several days now and it is forecast for most of the week again. I think Wednesday is the only day without rain in the forecast. I am tired of it and the wind. Between the humidity and the wind my hair doesn't hold up at all.

I will bake my two cakes this afternoon and get them iced after they cool. I will take them up in the morning to Independence. I will have Bob's, Karan's and Phyllis' then too. My pans are a little small so I will make four or five cupcakes out of them too. I can share them with Bob.

We must have had a heck of a hailstorm last night. There are leaves everywhere. Luckily both Bob and I had our cars under our carports. There was no hail damage to them although our neighbor next door to Bob did get hail damage on his car.

More later....

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Stormy Sunday

I woke up a half hour ago to the sound of a thunderstorm. The lightning scared Missy and she climbed up under my covers and scratched me on the leg. It was 5:22 anyhow and time to get up. I got dressed and made some coffee and warmed up some biscuits in the skillet. I had a cup of coffee and listened to the storm. There were several tornadoes here in Kansas last night but so far at least, none around here.

I will ask Bob to let me drive to church this morning. In case of hail, I don't want his nice car to get hit. My car is twelve years old.

More later...

The rain stopped after we got to church and the sun came out. For how long I don't know. The storm is supposed to come back tonight with hail. We'll see.

We went to Sirloin Stockade for lunch. There were seven of us. The food was good and it included dessert. That was good too.

We are to go to Bobby and Karan's tonight and take snacks. I hope it doesn't hail where we're there. In the meantime, I will do my Sunday letters.

More later.

I got my Sunday letters finished about 2:10 and I have the rest of the afternoon to do what I want. I do need to go to Country Mart and get the makings for a dip and some chips. Then at 6:00 we will go to Bobby and Karan's house for the group meeting.