Saturday, December 29, 2018

Saturday and Breakfast at Home.

I got up well before 5:00AM this morning. I made myself some bacon and eggs for a change. I used the plastic microwave covered bacon crisper and it works well. I scrambled the eggs in my small fry pan that nothing sticks to. It was all good. All I needed was toast but I was full without it.

I don't have a plan for today. But I am almost out of Chai so wherever I go, I had better buy that.

I heard from Gay. She had driven to the Oklahoma City area to spend Christmas with Steven and his family and had a good visit.  She got home in time to open gifts with Adele and Stan and also Janet. The family gave her a digital picture frame for Christmas and she has her family photos rotating on that. That is a neat gift. I have looked at them at Walmart some time ago but did not buy one.

It is 28 degrees this morning. So more later...

I went over to the hardware  store after it opened and bought a new filter for my furnace.  The other one I had put in in September was filthy. Not only was it filthy but it was covered in what appeared to be black soot but with electric heat  soot was not a possibility. We finally figured that Keith in the attic last November must have bumped the duct work and all that filth came from the duct work up there.  I put the new filter in and I hope that's the last of the black stuff from the duct work up there.

I mostly stayed in since it was in the 20's and very cold. I did go out twice and sweep up the leaves from the carport. But it was very cold.

I did go over to the antique mall on eighth street and look around but didn't see anything I couldn't live without. Besides, I am very low on storage in this apartment anymore. 

I lay down on the sofa to watch some Amazon Prime in the afternoon but ended up falling asleep and took a nap instead. I had been awake quite a bit in the night so I probably needed that.

At 6:00PM, I took my bath and lay back down to watch the CBS news. At 9:00PM, I went on to bed.


Friday, December 28, 2018

A Meeting with the Journal Editor

I slept well last night again and got up close to 5:00AM.

I thought more about taking Betty's cat last evening and decided against it. I don't miss having a cat, I miss Missy. No other cat, no matter how much she looks like Missy, she would not be Missy..with all her funny eccentricities..., this other cat would simply not be Missy. And once again I would have the responsibility of a sick cat throwing up on my carpet when she was ill and keeping that carpet clean. Also, she might sharpen her claws on my furniture. I have that new recliner that I replaced the one Missy ruined for me over the years. I had finally taught Missy to stay out of my velvet chairs by putting a pillow in each of the two chairs.  I would have to deal with things like that again. And then when I wanted to go see my sons, Bob A. would have to come feed her and empty her litter box. It just wouldn't be the same advantages as having Missy but it would be all the disadvantages of having another cat. I am just not up to it.

I am meeting the new editor of the Journal, Kim Avery, at Utopia this morning at 8:00AM for coffee. She wants to visit with me about the Minister's Messages. She wants to put one in the Wednesday Journal too. I want to discuss with her perhaps having a column called "Little Locals" again. When I read proof for the Journal back in 1953-1954 there was such a column. It was news that people called in about their activities...usually visitors for the holidays or friends that were visiting. ...anything short and local..very concise. We took that information over the telephone, made notes, and composed a short blurb story and put it all in a column just for that sort of thing. It had a lot of readability at that time. Now, of course, there is Facebook which probably does the same thing only with the side effect of having your personal information sold to scammers and for commercial deals.

Anyhow, I have at least an hour before the meeting. More later..
They had moved her Wednesday deadline up to today because of the holiday so she missed our meeting. I called her and she had me come up to her office where we visited about the de funked Alliance for about an hour. She is also interested in the 150th anniversary of the community which will be in 2019. Her ad manager is covering that news.

I wasted a lot of the morning doing this but I had nothing else going today anyhow. It is a cold day so except for that trip downtown, I have stayed home today. It's nearly 5:00PM now.

More even later...

I watched Amazon Prime all evening and finally took my bath and went to bed at 9:00PM

Thursday, December 27, 2018

Thursday and Breakfast Out

I slept well again last night. I got up a little after 5:00AM.

I dressed and got ready for the day, as usual. I put a small load of laundry in too...mostly towels and underwear. That's in the dryer now.

I texted Bob A. to see if he was interested in breakfast at Eggberts. He was. I told him I would pick him up at 7:00AM. We had a good filling breakfast and I got home about 9:00AM. Then I attempted to watch the CBS news when it came on but the wind was blowing again so the images were peculating. I left it on just in case it would clear up. That hasn't happened yet.

Kelly texted me looking for the number of the guys that moved me into this apartment. Luckily, I had kept the number and was able to text him back with the name and the cell number to reach them. If I recall correctly, he was the nephew of Fred Wittwer and also his nephew's son who helped him. I recall they did an excellent job...wrapped everything well and nothing was damaged in the least.

Kelly and Melissa are preparing to move into their new house in a couple of weeks. Their other house was very nice but it burned to the ground over a year ago. A spark from the fireplace caught the sofa on fire and luckily Kelly awoke smelling smoke and got the family awake and out safely. I learned then...never burn hedge. All but one dog that was in a cage got out and Kelly was unable to get to that one. He did get two others out though. They were just sick about the dog they couldn't get to. They hoped the smoke got it before the fire did.  It had spread so fast that most of them had to get out of a window. They lost everything, the house, furniture, two vehicles and two nearly new Harley Davidson motorcycles. ...everything. They got out in their night clothes. A tragedy! Luckily they had a small apartment above the new barn nearby. So they have lived there all this time.

The librarian cancelled the Book Club meeting this evening. The librarian is ill. We were able to post our thoughts about the book online on the library's Facebook page though. I did that. And as I was finishing that, Keith called. We talked quite awhile. He told me all about his dental ordeal. He has an abscessed tooth that they are doing a root canal on and a crown...to try to save the tooth. They got into the root canal procedure and he was in so much pain that they put him on percocet and a steroid to control the pain. They will finish the root canal tomorrow and his regular dentist will do the crown prep next week and he will get a crown eventually after the lab makes it up.

More later...

My landlady called me about signing a lease. I told her I had had Missy put down she said she had rescued a cat that looks just like Missy and had her spayed and planned to offer her to me if anything happened to Missy. She says she is an indoor cat and she (Betty) has other cats that Mia (her cat) doesn't like.  She said she would bring her by to meet me and I could make up my mind then. Also, if it didn't work out, I could give her back. I am mulling it over and checking that out with Leslie. Leslie seems to think that meeting this cat would be a good idea.  They are just so much company.

About 6:00PM or so, I took my bath and got into my PJs. Emmet came by and brought me Betty's rental contract  and later he came back to pick it up. I made one modification to it. The rental contract said we would be responsible for all the utilities and also the mowing of the yard.  Betty has several houses that are rentals too. She didn't specifically indicate that the duplexes and apartments were not responsible for the mowing and were only responsible for the electric bill so I made a notation on the contract to that effect and that these four plexus were not responsible for the mowing either.

Then I signed that contract.

After all that, I turned on the TV and tried to watch the news. The wind made that rather difficult with the antenna. So I turned on Amazon Prime, which is dependent on my router. I watched a couple of episodes of that and then got my bed ready to go to bed.  I will go on to bed in twenty minutes.


Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Day After Christmas

It's raining today and I guess we needed rain. I think it's supposed to rain all day. If so, I will stay in. Maybe this will give me the opportunity to clean out my closets and get ready to take stuff  I no longer wear or need to the Presbyterian church for their ongoing sale. I can use the closet space.

My TV is tearing again...probably because of the rain.  I will leave it on in hopes of it straightening out before the CBS news.

More later...

This is the neat little turtle Leslie gave me for Christmas to add to my turtle collection. She bought that while we were in Arizona in November.

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I never suspected a thing. It's the prettiest one I have.

More later...

Bob A. came over for a little while this morning to visit. Before he left I gave him some of my fruit salad that I had brought home from Christmas dinner yesterday. I also gave him some of my corn casserole and enough Sloppy Joe meat and two buns that he could warm up for a lunch. Counting today, I have had Sloppy Joes twice. That's all I really wanted. Joanne will be  on a very limited diet until after her tests on Friday. He would have had to have just have a sandwich or something like that until after that test. I was glad to share with him. I had plenty.

I had a sloppy Joe with grated sharp cheddar cheese on it and a glass of peach tea for my lunch today. I also had that piece of pecan pie I brought home from Leslie's yesterday. I will have the pumpkin pie with my leftover ham and corn casserole tomorrow.

I think I will lie down for awhile and watch some Amazon Prime TV. I went to bed quite late last night and then worried awhile about Rick and Carmen before finally getting to sleep. I also had quite a lot of drainage and finally got up and took a Benadryl. That helped me sleep.

More even later....

I went over to Dollar General after my lunch  and bought a few things I needed...envelopes, oatmeal, contact cleaner, and some more hangers. It began raining again while I was  there so I came on home and put things away.  I did watch more Nova on Amazon Prime but did not take a nap.

About halfway through the afternoon I came in here to the desktop computer. One of my classmates couldn't open his attachment of the class newsletter so I told him I would send him a hard copy. I got that ready and out on the mailbox for the mailman to pick up tomorrow afternoon. The mail had already come...such as it was...two newspapers.

I played some solitaire and after having some yogurt, I watched some more TV and finally took my bath and got myself ready for bed.

I sure miss Missy. She was so much company.

I will go on to bed at 9:00PM again.

Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Christmas Day at Last!

I slept wonderfully last night and only woke up once and even then, got right back to sleep. I finally got up at 5:00AM, my usual time to get up. I have made the bed, dressed and eaten my oatmeal and drunk my juice and watched the Tulsa news and will start my corn casserole at 9:00AM. It's only 7:00AM now so I have awhile to  work on the blog etc. I may put my salad back in the mixing bowl and add the miniature marshmallows. I forgot to put them in yesterday. I'll mull that over.

I opened the gift from Scott and Ginger and it was a lovely candle. I will enjoy using it to make my apartment smell great. I have texted them my "thank you" but they must be sleeping in. I haven't heard a word from them yet.

I am looking forward to Christmas dinner. I ended up eating not much of anything but breakfast yesterday. I was just too busy. I had a breakfast bar in the evening while I watched "A Christmas Carol".

So, more later....

I did add the miniature marshmallows to the salad.  Then I baked the corn casserole which turned out to be very good. I was ready to leave for John and Leslie's at 9:30AM, pie, corn casserole and Waldorf salad in hand.  I also took Jeff and Cyndi's gifts.

John and Leslie gave me a really neat turtle for my turtle collection.  My kids used to give me turtles for that collection but after several years, they stopped. This one is really neat! Leslie picked it up on our trip to Arizona in November.

Our meal was really good. Jeromy gave us the ham that the refinery gave him and it was excellent, Leslie fixed that and some really special scalloped potatoes, crescent rolls and a really good pumpkin pie...which we had to wait until after the game time to eat. Cyndi brought a really tasty green bean dish and Jeff fixed some water chestnuts wrapped in bacon..yum! I donated the salad, corn casserole and pecan pie which I had bought at the Tyro store and was baked by an Amish woman over at Parsons. It too was scrumptious. Leslie made a special hot tea with something scrumptious in it. She also made slush made with eggnog and it had real rum nog in it. I didn't know that and ended up drinking/eating three glasses of it. They were concerned about my driving home.😉

After dinner we five played Tractoroply. I won. That's Cyndi on the left, John in the middle, then Leslie leaning in and finally on the near right...that's me.  Jeff took the photo!

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There's Jeff and me..
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Leslie took that photo.

I didn't eat another thing all day. I don't know where I would put it! After the game we finally had room for the pie. I brought a piece of the pecan pie and one of the pumpkin home with me.

And I brought home enough leftovers for the rest of the week!

I went to Marilyn's to visit for awhile after I got everything put away. Then I came back home, took my bath and got my PJs on and lay down on the sofa to watch Nova on Amazon Prime. Needless to say, I fell asleep on the sofa and finally got the bed ready for bed and came in here to finish the blog.

So, good night! I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas!

Monday, December 24, 2018

Monday and Another Big Day

I slept well last night and got up close to 6:00AM..unusual for me. I dressed and got myself ready for the day, ate my oatmeal for breakfast and had a couple of cups of Chai.

I decided to take down my tree and put away my Christmas decorations. I will be going to John and Leslie's tomorrow so will enjoy their decorations.  Then after I got everything put away, I vacuumed again.

By then it was time to go over to Tyro and pick up the pecan pie. I called first to be sure when he would be there. He suggested after lunch so that's when I went. I picked up the pie and visited with him a bit then called Leslie to see if she was home. I wanted to take that pie out to her since that would keep me from having to take it out tomorrow along with my corn casserole and the fruit salad.  She was willing and had been cleaning house in preparation for Christmas dinner tomorrow.

When I got out there and took the pie in, she needed me to stay and help her get the extra leaves in her table. She needed someone to hold one end while she tugged on the other end to open the table larger for more leaves. I did that and then we got some folding chairs from the attic and the table all set with tablecloth, Santa place mates, Christmas dishes, and tableware. It looked lovely.

Then I came back home to make up my fruit salad. It's apples, grapes, raisins, celery and pecans. All sliced up small and dressed with mayonnaise. I got that all done and covered with saran and in the frig to set overnight. Tomorrow, I will just make up my corn casserole, bake it, and get out there by 10:30. We will open gifts first and after we eat, Jeromy and his family will take off for Topeka to Marlene's family dinner that evening.

This is my grandson, Jerod and his new fiance, Stephanie.

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Nice looking couple.

In the morning I will open that gift from Scott and Ginger. I have saved it until Christmas time.

I am very tired. It has been a huge day. It's 6:00PM and I hope to stay up until 9:00PM. That may be a challenge!

I started watching a favorite Christmas story "A Christmas Carol" and managed to stay up until 10:00PM..when I finally went to bed.

Sunday, December 23, 2018

Sunday and a Church Christmas Program

I had forgotten which day it was this morning. I was thinking it was Saturday until I looked at the blog.

So this morning we will not have church school class. We will have a light breakfast at 9:30 and then the Christmas Program at 11:00. It's a holiday weekend so who knows how many will be there.  No one knows what the Christmas Program will be except Melissa. So far as I know, Johnna, who is the children's class teacher, has not been rehearsing the little girls for anything. So it will be a surprise for everyone.

More later...I need to get my breakfast. It's after 6:00AM. I slept later last night and was not up until well after 5:00AM...unusual for me.

Even though they are planning on having a light breakfast at church, I ate my little bit of oatmeal and had my juice so I could take my blood pressure pill.

I have been watching the news this morning. Not much going on at Christmastime.

I called Phyllis to make sure she is driving us this morning. Phyllis says she is driving to church this morning.  Bob says he will drive himself.  He says he will take a nap...I guess.. instead of going to lunch.  I don't know what that's all about. Most men cannot skip lunch. He says it's just old age. My philosophy is that most of "old age" is attitude.

More even later...

We had quite a change in the schedule at church. Breakfast was not served until after 10:00AM so we had an early worship service before breakfast and another one...the Christmas program after breakfast.  They were both well done.

Then because we had had such a late breakfast...actually, a brunch...we didn't go to lunch and just came straight home after church.

I did my newsletters and made another trip to Walmart for some last minutes stuff. I watched some TV and later after my bath, I watched Amazon Prime.

About 9:30PM, I went on to bed. I was very tired.