Saturday, August 18, 2018

Saturday and a Mess

I got up at 3:00AM this morning to go to the bathroom and noticed Missy was not on the bed. I walked into the hall and she had not made it to the litter box and there was feces on the carpet. It was hard little marbles though so I just got some toilet tissue and picked it up and put it in the bag I use to clean up the litter box. Then I got out my Resolve and a clean white washcloth and sprayed the Resolve on the places where I had cleaned up the feces and used a damp white washcloth to wash the carpet there. It's always something with this cat anymore. Life has really gotten complicated. First the broken TV antenna wire and then the cat feces problem. After all that, I just stayed up. It is 4:20AM  now.

I think I will go out to Walmart later this morning and see if I can buy a new TV antenna box. I might be able to get a new antenna box and reconnect to the Tivo with it. Then I could once again get a nice clear TV picture like it was until this spring. It's always something.

I also need to get gas for the car today. I am very low on gas now.

More later...

I went to get gas and then I went out to Walmart to look for another power supply for the antenna in the attic, They no longer carry the one that goes with my antenna.  I will just watch the CBS news and Channel 6 on my notebook computer. I can still get Amazon Prime by streaming it through the Tivo.  When Keith comes in November, he may be able to put up a pole with an antenna on the outside. Betty offered to buy Merrell's across the street but she wanted him to move it over to my apartment and he didn't want to have to do that.

I went up to Independence and went to Schauble's TV and Mr. Schauble tried to put another connection on it. He warned me I would have to be very careful screwing that back on that so I get the wire into the hole for it without bending it.  I tried my best and then had to re-screw the other three connections onto the antenna power supply. I couldn't get the connections on that all the way screwed in and one or the other thing kept it from working so I will still have to stream the TV to my notebook computer. At least I still have my Amazon Prime on the TV and that part works fine.

Here is the TV that tries to work but doesn't. As you can see, the picture tears constantly....worse even then it used to. It's unusable. 

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I had goulash for lunch and one of my ice cream bars too. In a little while I will try to stream the Channel 6 news and then the CBS news after that. Hopefully I can get that taken care of. I have wasted a lot of time today.

At 7:00PM, I will take my bath, put my PJs on and watch some Amazon Prime with Missy. I will try to get to bed at 9:00PM. I have been up a long time.

Weird...it's working tonight

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I don't expect it to work tomorrow morning....we will see.

In the meantime....goodnight.



Friday, August 17, 2018

Friday and a Poor Night's Sleep

I never should have eaten that trail mix. My stomach rolled all night. I woke up several times during the night...not because of the mattress this time but because I had so much on my mind...and my stomach.

I also thought about that meal we will be fixing for Mike and Laura on Monday. Sue told me that they took their Wednesday meal over at 6:00 PM, evidently because Laura would be home from work by then. I know the day will be still be light by then, but I will need to find their home. I have never been there. If we go over to Cherryvale to "Just Us" for lunch on Sunday, I may look it up then.. just so I will know where they live early. I must also remember to put that ground beef for their hamburger pie casserole in the frig to thaw for Monday's meal. I am fixing that and Karan is fixing a salad and Phyllis is doing dessert. I will see if I can get Karan to go with me to take the food over Monday evening. Melissa and Leslie will  be taking tonight's meal to them. They are taking spaghetti, garlic toast and salad for their meal.

It's almost 4:00AM now. I may go back and lay down in bed. So...more later...

Well, I did just that and slept until 6:00 so I feel better.

I fed myself and Missy and dressed for the day.  I guess I will go to exercise class. The rain has stopped  now. I did the crossword puzzle and then took the Reporter over to Marilyn.

I will get back to this later...

I went on to exercise class but was careful what exercises I did so as to not hurt my right  rotater cuff.  Afterward Karan and I went to Utopia and got our Utopiachenos and cinnamon rolls. None of the rest of the exercise class was there...neither Marilyn  or Darlene had saved the large table and they were not there either.

Now I will not eat lunch until much later.....I am full.

I finally ate lunch about 3:00. I had my meatloaf and mashed potatoes Walmart frozen dinner.  I received John's birthday gift in today's mail and got it wrapped. Now I am ready! His birthday is September 14th so I have almost a month.

I have watched the news on CBS streaming today. My antenna seldom works anymore. The Tivo  Keith and Esther brought me allows me to use my router streaming to get my Amazon Prime movies and TV shows.  So I have plenty of entertainment. It's after 4:00 now so at 5:00 I will watch Channel 6 on the notebook computer.

After I rebooted both the router and the modem, I was able to watch not only CBS News but also PBS News on my notebook computer.

It's 6:00PM now and I think I will take my bath and put my PJs on and watch some Amazon Prime.

Every day, I thank both Keith and Esther for giving me the Tivo that I can use to log onto Amazon Prime. It's been a real blessing. The antenna that Betty had put in the attic doesn't work well at all anymore but since I can stream the networks and get Amazon Prime on the computers with the router, who cares. I am not missing anything important. There are really no shows I care anything about on today's TV. It's mostly murders and violence.

My TV told me to check my internet connection this evening. I have plenty of internet yet I cannot access TV.  Strange. The antenna wire is broken and I have no antenna now. That must be why my TV screen tears so much.

I contacted Keith and he had me reboot the antenna and the Tivo. With the broken wire though now I cannot get any TV through the antenna.  I can stream TV CBS news on my computer and stream the Amazon Prime on the TV so I will just deal with it that way until Keith and Esther come in November. 

More later...I plan to go to bed at 9:00 or so.


Thursday, August 16, 2018

Thursday and Apartment Cleaning Day

I slept pretty well last night. This new mattress is not so firm as to hurt my shoulder. I got up once in the night and went to the bathroom and cleaned out Missy's litter. Then I got back to sleep. I got up at 5:00AM as usual. As soon as I got ready for the day and fed myself and Missy she wanted to go outside...as usual. I took my Chai and we went out and I started deadheading the flowers. In a little bit, Bob came over and he stayed and visited awhile. I showed him my new mattress.

While we were visiting, the TV screen began tearing again so I turned it off.  After he left, I turned on the CBS Morning News on my computer by streaming it. That seems to be my only alternative and a way to get the news live.

The TV still works fine to get my Amazon Prime. I use that every evening for myself and Missy.

I went back out for awhile and finished deadheading the flowers.Then I had to pick Missy up to get her back in. She loves to lie in the sun out there but it was getting hot and I have stuff to do. In just a little while, I will begin my vacuuming and cleaning the bathroom and kitchen floors.

More later....

I got all the vacuuming and mopping finished except the dining room but I am played out now. I will do that later...I will also wipe off the cabinets in the bathroom and kitchen and dust later too. I am really tired. I vacuum with my left arm to save the right arm rotater cuff from the strain. My left arm is not all that strong. So I am very tired. It's only 10:11AM so I have plenty of time to finish later in the day.I stopped by Cantrell's and got a new battery for my watch.  My watch had stopped at 7:05 AM. I had moved it forward to 8:10AM  when I noticed that and then the second hand stopped altogether. After Mrs. Cantrell put the new battery in it, it worked just fine.

About 11:00 I called Nancy to see how she was doing. She asked me to come over for lunch and stay the afternoon so I did.

Just before we left to go get a sandwich for lunch, she got a phone call from the Montgomery County Driver's License Bureau saying she needed to send them a copy of her insurance card. We stopped by the insurance company office on our way to eat and they said there had been some scams about that and she should call the driver's license office in Independence to check if the call was legitimate. Debby there in the office gave Nancy a telephone number and we went on to eat lunch.  Both Nancy and I just ate half our sandwich and took the other half to her home and put it in the frig there.

Then we called the number Debby had giving Nancy. Nancy asked me to handle that while she looked for her current insurance cards. It was the wrong number and that office at the court house gave me the correct number.  I then called it and got my friend, Laura, who works in that office. She looked on Patty's desk (Patty was at lunch) and found the check Nancy had sent in and she said there was no insurance card. Finally after going through a number of files, Nancy found the two insurance cards she needed. One to send to that office in Independence and one for her car  glove box. I addressed the envelope and Nancy put it out on her mailbox for the mailman to pick up.

Then we visited the rest of the afternoon.

About 5:00 it looked like rain and I picked up my half sandwich that I had  saved from lunch, and started home. I got home before the rains started but when they started , they started with a vengeance! I ate my sandwich and one of my Schwan's ice cream bars.

I cleaned out Missy's litter box and sat down to enjoy the storm. Nancy called to be sure I got home all right. That was good of her.

At 7:00 I took my bath and lay down with Missy to watch Amazon Prime TV. We watched a couple of episodes of Perry Mason before going on to bed. I ate a small bag of trail mix before bedtime and also took a Tums...just in case that was a bad idea.
At 9:15, Missy and I went on to bed.

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Wednesday and Exercises and then Birthday Treats

I slept wonderfully last night! I woke up once when the storm started but then went right back to sleep and slept until 5:00, my usual "get up" time.

That was quite a storm! There is even flooding in Independence. I sleep like a log when it rains and storms.

I have dressed and fed myself and Missy and cleaned out her litter box. Once again, she mostly missed the litter box and wet on the mat under her litter box so I have two mats in the laundry.

I will go on to exercise class this morning but  I will  just have to be careful not to hurt my rotater cuff.

More later...I want to see how much rain we got. Independence got 12 inches according to Tulsa TV and they have flooding..

I went on to exercise class this morning and while there, Leslie, my daughter, called me. She wanted me to meet her at Messenger's Furniture at noon and see  if we could find a box springs and mattress there. She and John, her husband, will buy it for me. I have had a hard time sleeping with my old mattress and box springs and my rotater cuff is constantly hurting when I lie on my right side. When Lie on my left side, my ear bleeds along the rim.  I can't breathe when I lie on my back. I have allergies. We found one that looks and feels wonderful. It's a Sealy. I will give it a try tonight  and hope Missy can get up on it from the footstool like she did the old one. This one is quite a bit taller though.

They delivered it about 4:20. Here it is.

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I can hardly wait to go to bed to try it out.

Here's where she is now.

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My camera has a foggy lens, I notice. But here is her favorite place to lie.

About 6:30, I took my bath and Missy and I watched Perry Mason shows on Amazon Prime until afte r9:00, when we went on to bed. She had a little trouble getting up on this taller bed.

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Tuesday and Hair Day

I didn't sleep all that well last night. I woke up at 2:00 and it was off and on after that..mostly off. I finally just got up at 4:00AM.

I also have off and on TV this morning...mostly off...badly tearing. 

I have fed both Missy and myself. It's only 5:15 now and she thinks we ought to go outside and it's pitch dark out there. Of course, we will wait until it's light out there. 

I am running a load of dishes this morning. When I run out of cereal bowls and glasses, I run the load. I also have that coffeecake dish in there.

Missy is still wanting to go outside. But it's still dark out so that isn't going to happen yet.  And, we have a 90% chance of rain today.

More later...

About 7:00 I took Missy out for awhile while I deadheaded the flowers and swept off the patio and carport. Finally she was ready to come back in to eat and have some water. She is in on my bed now napping. She sleeps a lot anymore.

I got the clean dishes put away and have watched the news . The picture is doing a little better but still tears every once in awhile. 

I went out to Walmart and bought my groceries for the week. I came home and put them away. Then I went over to Caney to have lunch out with Nancy after that. I told her I had a hair appointment at 12:30 and could not stay to visit more this time but she seemed to think that was just fine. I also am to give the invocation at the city commission meeting this evening at 6:30 at city hall. So it was a very busy day already. Again, Nancy insisted on buying my lunch. If she ever comes to Coffeyville, I want to buy hers. She keeps saying she is going to come but so far I have gone over there. I like Nancy very much. She is such a sweet person.

I got back just in time for my hair appointment. It looks much better now.

More later...

Three of us from the Ministerial Alliance write Minister's Messages for the newspaper except that the one other woman minister doesn't write hers unless I  remind her. I have a life too. I send out a schedule but she evidently doesn't post it anywhere and follow it.  She has missed her week on two occasions. I am sending an extra from time to time so Jennifer at the newspaper will have something to put in the column. I also send in a Coffeyville Church Brief every week to tell who is speaking at Crossroads, the time, and invite people to attend.

I have to be at city hall at 6:30 to do the invocation for the city commission meeting.

So, more later... 

I stayed for the meeting and didn't get home until 8:00. I quickly took my bath and then Missy and I watched Amazon Prime until 9:30 and then we went to bed.



Monday, August 13, 2018

Monday and No Particular Plan

I slept fitfully last night and finally just got up at 4:30AM. I am not sure I am going to exercise class this morning. My right shoulder hurt most of the night. If I sleep on my right side, the shoulder eventually hurts.  If I sleep on my left side, the rim of that ear on the left eventually bleeds on the pillow. I have a hard time sleeping on my back. I have trouble breathing while on my back. Heck of a mess!   Growing old is not for sissies.

I have fed myself and Missy and emptied her litter box.

Scott called this morning and we talked quite awhile. He is having a struggle with trying to get everything done to start the new job. I won't go into all that here. 

More later..

I ended up going to exercise class. At lunchtime I had a coupon for a free Arby's roast beef sandwich so I took it up there and ate at...for free.  .

More later...

Leslie texted me about helping Laura and Mike with their meals while Mike recuperates from his major surgery. Phyllis and Karan and I will take Mondays since Phyllis doesn't work on Mondays. Johnna and Sue will take Wednesdays and Melissa and Leslie will take Fridays. Sue will coordinate the menus so we don't all fix the same things. Laura had a terrible back surgery not too long ago and has had a hard time recuperating. She only went back to work because she was out of sick leave. We will start by doing this for three weeks and see how Mike's situation goes. He has to have another major surgery after this heals so we may be doing this again for awhile. They are such nice kids. I am glad we can help.

 When I got home I began trying to help Marilyn with her computer...to save some old pictures from her floppy disk to a CD. Actually she has this old floppy disk and wondered if my old computer had a floppy drive. It doesn't....  but I just happen to have a exterior floppy drive so I took it over and we saved her old 17 year old photos on her hard drive.

Then I received Bob's coffees from Amazon so I texted him and he came over to pick them up. After he left, I took Missy back out for awhile.

Then I ate my yogurt while I watched the news.

More later....

At 7:00 I will take my bath and lie on the sofa with Missy and watch TV or Amazon Prime. It depends on how well the TV reception holds up.

We wil go to bed around 9:00PM.


Sunday, August 12, 2018

Sunday and Church

I slept fairly well last night although I woke up with both ears sore from sleeping on my side.

I have dressed for church, fed myself and have the coffeecake in the oven. Missy wants to go outside. So I will finish this in a little while.

More later....

Well, we went out for awhile but Missy chose to try to run off so I picked her up and brought her back in the house.She hissed and spit at me all the way.  Ornery cat!  Anyhow, I got the coffeecake out of the oven and when it cooled, I iced it.

I watched a little news but in a little while I will call Phyllis and tell her I have the coffeecake and I will drive this morning. We try to take just one car instead of three separate ones  to park at the church.  I imagine we will go to "Just Us" for lunch. It has been a couple of weeks since we ate there.

When I get home, I will get the congregation's newsletter out and then the afternoon is free until 60 Minutes comes on at 6:00.

They are planning to repeat that episode with Oprah that features the new museum in Atlanta that shows a few thousand  blocks of wood hanging from the ceiling with the names of a few thousand blacks who were lynched in the past.

In that day, if they couldn't find the man to hang, they hung his wife or his children. It's one of the terrible events of our history here in America.  I think of it as the American Holocaust. Just as the German people would like to forget their holocaust, many of our citizens would like to forget ours.

I imagine most people would like to forget that history but it is very personal to the black population. We have never, as a nation, apologized for what many of our ancestors did in our past. History has shown however, if a people don't study their history and be aware of the mistakes of their past, chances are they could repeat those events. I hope I will be able to get a picture that doesn't tear this evening. If not, I can watch it tomorrow evening on Amazon Prime.

As another example, during the great depression, the then president, Hoover, put tariffs on imported goods from Europe. Europe rebutted by putting their own tariffs on our goods and that only deepened the depression. It is obvious the present generation of politicians have not studied their history because we are in the process of repeating that mistake. It is already hurting our farm population and I predict that it will soon influence the cost of everything. The cost of an imported automobile is going up $2,000.

I have called Phyllis and I will pick up Bob and then her about 9:00AM.

More later...

Church went well. Leslie did a neat sermon called "The Bread of Life" and illustrated it with a selection of real bread. Chris, our latest guest, came back after Leslie texted him an invitation.  That was neat! I sent him another newsletter today today even though he was there today.

We did go to "Just Us" for lunch today. It had been two or three weeks since we were there.

More later...

I got the newsletters finished pretty quickly and put them out on the mailbox to be mailed.  Then I watched the PGA Golf championships. I had a hard time getting a decent picture so I logged on to it on my notebook computer.  Finally, it cleared up and I watched 60 Minutes.

After that, I took my bath and Missy and I watched a couple of episodes of Perry Mason on Amazon Prime. Then at 9:30PM, we both went on to bed.