Saturday, March 30, 2019

Saturday and More Rain

I slept well last night and only woke up once but got back to sleep until 5:00AM when I got up.

I will go to the library when it opens and take my books back and get some more. When it rains, that's about all I can do....read. I got the apartment cleaned, dusted and the laundry all caught up.

Other then that, I don't know what I will do today. I have quite a little list of needs from Walmart but I am not going in the rain. Maybe it will stop today. I had hoped to go to Bartlesville's or Independence's Walmart. They are larger stores and are closer.

Well until that happens, more later.

After the rain stopped, I did go on to Bartlesville to try to find a spring purse that would not fall apart in the inside like the last two have done. I tried Dillards, TJ Max , Goodys, and Kohls .I even looked at their Walmart store. None of them had anything I liked. I did go by their Walmart to get a few things I needed including some red "bricks" I can set against the fence in the backyard to stop up the hole next to the gate so, if and when, I get Raven to keep while the kids deliver puppies., she will not be able to get out of the back yard.

I came on back home and because it is cold today, I will open and heat up some tomato bisque soup for my lunch. That sounds good.

So, more later....after lunch.

Well, I've had my lunch and now I have my cake in the oven. I will bake it today, ice it later today after it cools and take it to church to put it in the freezer there. Bob will be taking cakes to Independence this next week and he can stop by the church and pick mine up from the freezer.

Tomorrow I will bake my coffeecake and hopefully more of it will be eaten this week. There will be no church the following week since that is the World Conference of the church and several will be going up there that Sunday for the special Sunday service. I am leaving a post taped on the inside of the front door window about that.

Scott and Ginger's new home is coming right along.

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They have had a lot of rain so it is slow going at this time of year. More later...

This is my daughter and son-in-laws Corgi, Mini.



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This is John's dog, Octavia's, cowboy corgi pups. They're still coming too. So far, only three.

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It's 7:00PM and time for my bath so I will get back to this in the morning. I will be going to bed at 9:00PM. I will go watch the news after my bath.

Friday, March 29, 2019

Friday and Laundry Day

I slept completely through the night! I don't know how long it's been since I have done that but I really feel good this morning. I have done a load of laundry...even stripped my bed and washed the sheets and towels. I have had my oatmeal and coffee and am working on my Chai latte now.

The desktop computer was down this morning.  I tried to boot it up but it just kept doing the little circles and wouldn't come up. When it finally did come up it wouldn't connect to my router.  So I did a hard reboot again and this time it did just fine. I don't know how long I will be able to baby it along but it's the only one attached to the printer so I really need it. I took down the little xp computer yesterday evening. The Quicken that I used to check my checkbook on all these years, finally died.That little computer was never able to access the internet after I moved here.  I still have the Dell laptop that Bob gave me back after he got offline. That's the one Scott gave me a couple of years ago. He has an Apple. In fact both my boys have Apples. I use that Dell it in the evenings. Then I am nursing along the desktop that Esther gave me several years ago. It is online through a USB wireless adapter that I had to buy at Walmart to even connect to the internet. The desktop was never able to access the router that Cox made me lease from them when I moved over here to Caney.

I got deposits from both boys today so I will have no trouble making my rent next Monday. The kids are all so good to me. Leslie and John take care of my immediate needs and the boys do help a lot with my financial needs. They are all such a blessing to me. I certainly realize how blessed I am.

I guess I have rambled on enough. I will go watch the weather on TV now and put the laundry in the dryer. This time next week I will be packed for World Conference. We will leave at 9:00AM next Friday and be gone a week. I intend to take my laptop with me and use it to connect to the internet if I can access the Auditorium's WiFi.

More later...

I have the laundry dried and put away.  And I have dusted the apartment. It is raining today or I would have mowed again. My yard is full of henbit. Spring! I'm not complaining. I just need to get it sprayed.

I have also downloaded and printed off the draft copy of the next quarter's preaching schedule. We are exempting Johnna. She is struggling after the death of her mom two weeks ago. Sue was in a car that was hit head on and three eighty year olds were killed outright. Her mom was one of them. A terrible tragedy.

More even later. John says he will come when this storm passes. He has several buckets of dirt for my flowerbed.

 More later...

As soon as the rain passed, John came and brought the dirt for my flowerbed, He even brought a small plow contraption and dug up the area before he added the dirt. He intended to trim the trees but they were in full bloom and wet from the rain so he decided to come back after the blooms fell off. He worked so hard on the flowerbed, I asked him to go to Eggberts with me and have lunch..I wanted to buy his lunch. He was a little hesitant about it but did agree to meet me there. We had a nice visit while we ate. He told me about their recent fishing trip.

He left after lunch..but later in the afternoon he brought by my 8 inch square dish that I make my coffeecake in. I had taken them the rest of the apple brown betty from the previous Sunday evening Living the Questions group meeting here. Only four of that group could come so I had plenty left.

I had read most of the day. I finished my second book of this trip to the library. I may take these books back tomorrow. I did get the dusting done.

About 6:30PM, I took my bath and put my pajamas on and watched an episode of Dateline that I had recorded earlier in the day. About 9:00PM, I decided to go on to bed.

Thursday, March 28, 2019

Thursday and Cleaning Day

I slept fitfully again last night after having talked to Nancy's cousin, Dale.  There's not much I can do about their total disregard for her basic health care. Anyone in their eighties needs to be under the care of a doctor. We never know when a medical emergency will occur and we will need a doctor or to go to the emergency room. I only go to the doctor twice a year myself, Once a year they take my blood and check my thyroid. That is a necessary thing at our age. Also, we need an annual flu shot and a pneumonia shot as well.  That's about the extent of my doctoring. I am basically pretty healthy.

Nancy does have mild dementia but I certainly do not think it's Alzheimer's Disease. My sister died of that and it is much worse then anything Nancy shows. She does have a mild memory loss....don't we all.  We got to the Shelter Insurance Company yesterday and she had forgotten to bring her car and home insurance policies. She wanted to get a quote there because she thought her present company was way too high.  Luckily, Heather was able to look it up online.  She got the quotes. Nancy will compare them and give Heather an answer later today. Her cousin, Dale, says she has a dental appointment in Bartlesville today that he is taking her to today.

Since it's Thursday, I will clean the apartment today.  I had intended to strip my bed but that was way too much activity for one day. I will do that tomorrow.

Right now I will go watch the news. Back later...

I contacted Cox Complete Care about my desktop computer. It was using 100% of it's capacity.  The woman that helped me took all the Apple stuff off of it because it needed that capacity and I didn't use it anyhow. It is working faster now and also my e-mail is downloading everything now and faster.

However, it is 2:00PM now and the only thing I got done all day is the vacuuming. I still need to dust and do the laundry tomorrow.

More later...

 I had got my Worx trimmer and almost never figured out how to put it together. The kids were both too busy to deal with it and I finally figured it out  and even charged the lithium battery. I put it in the garage when I finally got that charged too. When the weather dries up I need to mow again and now I can trim too.

John texted me that if it didn't rain, he had some pasture dirt to bring me for my flowerbed. That will be so good for my flowers when I plant them the last of April. 

 About 4:00PM I took the Journal over to Nancy's. She wanted to read the bio I had been asked to write by the editor and send the Journal. They printed it all. It was just about my early life and a little about our family.  I stayed an hour or so and when the subject came up, I told her about her cousin's call to me last evening.  After we talked for an hour or so, I came on back home and read some more in my latest book from the library. About 6:00PM or so, the Schwan's man came and brought my frozen dinners. After he left, I took my bath and went back to my book until 9:00PM or so when I went to bed.

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Wednesday and Nancy's Doctor Appointment

I slept fitfully again last night and woke up several times and finally just got up close to 4:00AM.

My sinus are draining and that plugs up my nose. I took a Benadryl but so far at least, nothing is improved.  I booted up this desktop computer this morning and so far, so good. I never know quite what to expect out of it anymore.

I will fix my oatmeal and my coffee and see if things improve.

At 9:00AM I will call Nancy to be sure she is up. I hope she is not sick to her stomach this morning or having diarrhea.  She has both those symptoms a lot...usually one or the other. If she is well, I will pick her up at 9:30 to take her to Coffeyville to see  Dr. Christensen and see if he can figure out what is wrong. After that, we plan to attend the Lenten luncheon at the First Baptist Church.  And then at 1:30PM, she has an appointment with Heather Hodges, the Shelter Insurance Agent to get a quote. .

The July 24th tour with "Gone for Awhile" tours is the dinner theater at Overland Park. I plan to attend, if possible.

But for now, I'd better get something to eat and some coffee...more later....

I had my oatmeal and coffee and Chai and read until time to go pick up Nancy. She was ready and not sick..for a change. We got to her doctor's appointment in good time and he ordered blood work and a urinalysis and then he had her get another appointment in two weeks.

 Then afterward we drove around Coffeyville to see the places where Bob and I had lived.

Then we went on to the Lenten luncheon at the First Baptist Church. The crowd was not as big as last week but Nancy saw people there she knew and seemed to enjoy it. The food was good. It was pasta this week. The sermon by the Methodist Minister was very good!

Then we went out to Shelter and saw heather and Nancy got a quote from her. She forget her insurance papers but Heather was able to find the information online so she got the quote. She will compare the rate with Newkirk Dennis and Buckles'. Heather will come by Nancy's tomorrow and see if Nancy wants her to write it up. If she does, Heather will want to see her house and check the roof.

On the way out of town we stopped at Brahms for my yogurt. Nancy wanted to come in and have a cup of ice cream. So we did that too. We saw one of the ladies that was on the tour yesterday and we visited with her. Then I took Nancy home and also came on home myself.

I will read the rest of my book and then watch the program I recorded today before I take my bath at 7:00PM and go to bed at 9:00PM.

About 9:00PM, last night while I was taking my bath, Nancy's cousin, Dale, called me. His call went to voicemail. He had evidently been talking to Nancy and she told him she and I had been over to Coffeyville for a doctor's appointment. I called him back and he told me he did not want Nancy going to a doctor. He said she had been to 4 different doctors and two of those were in Bartlesville. I told him that Nancy, and anyone in their middle eighties, needed to have a doctor established because we never knew when there would be a medical emergency and have to go to a hospital. Coffeyville is much closer then Parsons, where Melissa is on staff.

He said he was her only local caregiver. Her son, David lives on the East Coast and is seriously ill with Parkinson Disease. I intend to keep Nancy going to my doctor at least twice a year.  She needs the flu shot and the pneumonia shot each year too. Dale is afraid my doctor will want to change her meds and he is dead set against that. She only takes a thyroid pill and a blood pressure pill. She also takes a pill for her memory.  At our age, if we get the flu we could die from it. Nancy's appointment to check out the tests they took yesterday is while I am at Independence, Missouri, at church conference. I was counting on Sandy, the widow of Dale's brother, to take her to that one. Nancy no longer drives out of Caney.

After our conversation, I went on to bed. By then, it was after 9:00PM  There's more to this story then I want to put on my blog but needless to say, I feel very sorry for Nancy. She is my dear friend.

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Tuesday and a Tour Trip

I slept fitfully last night and finally just got up at 4:00AM. I have dressed, had my breakfast and watched the weather. At 7:00AM I will leave for Independence at the west ICC building...where K-Mart used to be located before they closed. The college uses that building now. We will meet there to load into the bus. We will be going to Ponca City, Oklahoma for this tour.

We will visit the Poncan Theater and see a film about the city and it's development. Then we will go to the grand home of E.W. Marland, the founder of Marland Oil, which later became Conoco and also the Marland Mansion, a 55 room 44,000 sq. foot castle.   A catered lunch will be served in the grand ballroom of this mansion.

It will be a full day and we will be back in Independence at 5:30PM.

More later...

It was a huge day! A wonderful lunch, lots of walking and climbing steps but very interesting. Ponca City is a lovely town of about 25,000. It is clean as a whistle. They had redone their theater and it looked very much like Coffeyville's Midland and was just beautiful!  The city has workers that continually clean up trash. I saw no trash on the streets and the buildings were generally charming. The Mansion was huge and beautifully done and the city of Ponca City had bought it and kept it from being razed and restored it to it's earlier beauty.  The tour was very interesting. It was well worth the trip. Phyllis and I both enjoyed it a lot.

I washed my car when I got back home. 

I am very tired though. I will get back to this tomorrow sometime after I have had a chance to rest up.

I will take my bath and put my PJs on and go to bed about 9:00PM.


Monday, March 25, 2019

Monday and a Mystery

I slept well last night but it was because I had taken a melatonin tablet and also a Benedryl tablet. I slept until after 6:00AM.

What's the mystery? It's the desktop computer. It shuts down by itself altogether contnually and especailly at night whenI am not using it.and freezes when I try to open a browser. I managed to open the mail this morning after I booted it up but nothing I could do would let me open Firefox. Finally I just came in the dining room and took this laptop in the living room to blog. Cox seems to think the desktop problem is a hardware problem. I don't have a clue. My mail problem will have to be when I need to print something off. The desktop is the only one connected to the printer. I managed to print off the newsletter for Chris and Billie Jo but that was the last time I was able to do that.

Also, it cannot be shut down except to just shut it off and I know that is not good for it. Always something.

I may break down and try to attach this laptop to the printer. This laptop works fine.

I will drive over to Coffeyville this morning to get my hair done. Tomorrow is the trip to Ponca City with the tour.

On Wednesday I take Nancy back to Coffeyville to the doctor...if she wakes up and is not sick. She has been sick, either vomiting or with diarrhea for months.  I have finally convinced her to let me take her to the doctor on Wednesday.  Afterward,we will go to the Lenten luncheon at the First Baptist Church. Then we want to go to the Shelter Insurance Company and see what they would charge for her home and car insurance. Newkirk, Dennis and Buckles are charging her a small fortune. I think Shelter can beat their price.

More later....

Weird! At least temporarily I was able to get back on this desktop computer. I managed to reboot correctly at last and it did some repairs while rebooting. I don't know how long this will last but perhaps I had better use the laptop for most of my work and just use the desktop when I need to print something off.

I will just play it by ear.

I cleaned off the mower this afternoon. It was very dusty after I had used it to mow.  When I hook up the hose the next time I mow, I will wash it off.

I read for awhile this afternoon and then while cleaning the kitchen I came across  the coffeecake I had saved for Nancy.  I took it over to her and stayed and visited until 7:10PM.

Then I came home and took my bath. It is nearly 8:00PM now. I plan to go to bed at 9:00PM.

Sunday, March 24, 2019

Sunday and Church

I slept well last night although I did wake up twice. The second time I took a melatonin tablet and slept fine after that.

I got myself ready for church and then baked my coffeecake while I watched the weather.

I had an e-mail this morning from one of my classmates. He will be coming in April to check on a farm he owns and rents out over at Coffeyville. He wants to take me to a nice dinner in Bartlesville while he is here. He is the classmate that began our class newsletter back right after we graduated from high school....probably while he was still in college in the late 50's. I am anxious to visit with him. He lives in Topeka. He used to come to all our class reunions except the last one. He was sick during that one and couldn't come.

I will leave about 40 minutes from now to go to the church.

I got my free kindle book this morning because I belong to Amazon Prime but it wouldn't download on my kindle. My kindle doesn't recognize my new router. It did download on my phone though so I guess I will read it from that source. Strange...it doesn't recognize my password on the kindle but it does on the phone. Of course the phone didn't need a password. It just found the signal.

This afternoon, if it isn't raining I will try to empty that bag on the mower again. John, my son in law, sent me a link to my phone to let me see how it is supposed to be done. I want to try it. It must be too full of grass and leaves to unhook easily.  When I tried to do that Friday, it spilled grass and leaves on the driveway.  When the grass is dry again (it's been raining), I will mow the west yard. It is the largest part of my yard.

I checked the bowl of food I left for the kitty last night and it was empty this morning. Either a stray dog ate it or the kitty found it overnight. Whatever..

More later....

Church was extra good today. Melissa spoke and had a very good sermon. Karan and Phyllis and I went to "Just Us" in Cherryvale for lunch. As usual, it was very good too. I took the two of them back to church afterwards to pick up their cars and then came on back to Caney to my apartment to do the newsletters. I took, Alice, my neighbor, some coffeecake. We had a small congregation today and I had leftover coffeecake. I kept some for myself and I will take some to Nancy too. I have plenty.

More even later...I want to try to empty the grass and leaves from that bag on the back of the mower.

Wonderful! I got that job done thanks to John's instructions.  I also took my bath an hour ago after watching 60 Minutes. It's almost 9:00PM now and I will go to bed at 9:00PM.  I have an 11:00AM hair appointment with Toni in the morning.  Tuesday Phyllis and I will take the Ponca City tour on the tour bus. Then Wednesday I will take Nancy to the 10:00AM doctor's appointment in Coffeyville and afterward we will go to the Lenten Luncheon at noon.  We will stop by Shelter Insurance so she can price her home and car insurance. Newkirk, Dennis and Buckles are charging her over $3,000 for that here.  I think Shelter can do better.

Well it's almost my bedtime so I have better sign off here.