Saturday and Another Busy Day

I slept really well last night and got up around 5:00AM. I dressed, fed myself and started drinking my coffee before checking the outside.

There I found mama kitty and all five newborns. They went through three bowls of cat food before finally settling down. This may turn out to be a fairly expensive piece of charity. They still scatter when I come out with the cat food bag and mama hisses and spits at me. She is protective of her brood.



I never did get around to vacuuming yesterday. I will try to get it done today. I want to make up my potato salad too for tomorrow's cookout after church. I would like to mow this morning while it's only in the 70's but it would probably ruin my hair. I will mull it over and decide. Maybe I could at least get the front done.

I called the police station last night to see when Caney is allowed to start shooting off fireworks.  My neighbors to the south were shooting them off last night at 9:00PM. The dispatcher called me back after checking with the authorities. They are allowed to start on June 28th through July 4th. What a mess! That's way too long for the fourth of July. It's a week. It will be a noisy week.

More later...

It was 75 degrees at 7:00AM and I decided to try to get at least the front finished before it got up into the 90's  today.



Here it is! Nice and neat! I will try to get the back and side done after church tomorrow or before 8:00AM on Monday. I have to pick a time when it is a little cooler then the 90's.

I see my new neighbors stayed all night last night. There are two additional vehicles there this morning and they were there yesterday evening too.

More later...

I vacuumed the apartment  before I started my potato salad.

I then got busy and peeled my potatoes and boiled my eggs and got all the ingredients out for my potato salad for tomorrow's cookout after church. I hope to be able to buy a pie at the little Amish store in Tyro tomorrow.  If not, I will just take my potato salad.

Nancy came by while I was doing that. She was very upset. David, her son, is coming tonight and she is afraid he is going to insist on putting her in a nursing home...again.  I sat down and visited with her about it and she after awhile she left. I made up the potato salad and then went over to her house to spend some time with her. We went downtown to Joyce's little store and looked around and finally bought ourselves some huge delicious milk shakes.  They were great! Then I took her home.

I came back to the apartment and read the newspapers and did the crossword puzzle in the Reporter. It is nearly 4:00PM now and I will play some solitaire for awhile until the news comes on.  Then I will watch the news.  I believe I will try to mow the back in the morning before it gets hot and before I get ready for church...probably about 7:00AM again. Then early Monday I will try to mow the side yard in the same time frame I can do it at 72 degrees.I just can't do it at 92 degrees...like it is now.

More later...

I've watched a couple of programs I recorded and have had my bath and now am just playing solitaire again. There's nothing on TV I am interested in except Amazon Prime. I have been watching a science program abut Einstein's discoveries and the physics of light. That is interesting.

I will see if the solitaire will work. I have had a lot of trouble with it freezing the desktop computer. It's an old 2007 computer that Esther gave me when she got a tablet and Keith has worked it over a couple of times. But it still occasionally has issues.

My little solar kitty has been out in the sunshine again,



In another hour and a half I will go to bed. I was up at 5:00AM this morning and have been busy most of the day.

Friday and Cleaning the Apartment

I slept fine and was up at 5:00AM. I have dressed and fed the kitties and myself I am now having my Chai.

I contacted Bob this morning and he asked me if our Blue Cross/Blue Shield came out of our banks. I checked and it did. $289.00 a month for a person who only sees a doctor twice a year. What a racket! But we have to have a supplement in case of a medical emergency. The supplement picks up the 20% that Medicare doesn't pay. At 83, I can't afford to take a chance.  But it sure takes a chunk out of my social security and at the end of the month too. I don't get my social security until the second Wednesday of the month.

Today, I will clean. I didn't get it done yesterday after taking the day to get my car serviced in Bartlesville and having lunch there with Bob.


This is the entrance to the hotel my son is staying at in Abu Dhabi.

 

Beautiful, isn't it?

Mama cat and four kittens all ate cat food and then the kittens nursed too. Now all are full and exhausted and asleep.


So cute!.

More later....


Nancy came over about 9:30AM and just got out of the beauty shop. She wanted to go to Brunch and I agreed if she would let me pay this time. She paid last time. We stayed until noon visiting. He son is coming this next week and she is apprehensive about that. The last time he came he wanted to put her in a nursing home and she refused.  That irritated him and he has seldom called her since. She is afraid he is going to make another try to get that done. She would rather get a woman she knows to come and stay with her instead of going to a nursing home.  It will be interesting to see how this works out. I don't blame her one bit.

After I brought her back here  to get her car, I went out to the Dollar General Store and bought a few things.

My daughter, Leslie, contacted me and invited me to come to her cookout birthday party on Monday and bring my swim suit. I have no idea what I will look like in a swim suit but I will take mine.  I am supposed to bring brownies. I will go back out to the dollar store and get a mix. I don't have one here. She is going to make homemade ice cream. yum!

More even later...

I watched some prime TV last night until 9:00PM. It was on  science. Very interesting!

I went on to bed at 9:00PM and tried to sleep through the fireworks noise.

Thursday and A Trip to Bartlesville

I slept well again last night although I was up shortly before 5:00AM. I have dressed, fed myself and the cats and am now waiting for 7:30AM when Brad will come to put that new breaker in the box.

He called me back at 9:00PM last night to confirm the time. I was in bed although not asleep yet. 

Other then that, I don't have a problem with the day. Tomorrow I go to Bartlesville at 10:00AM to have the oil changed in my car.  I would like to go to Tate Boys and get my tires rotated too and make a day of it. The tire rotation there would be free since I bought my tires there last year.

I need to wash my floors and vacuum sometime today.

More later...

I got an appointment with Tate Boys Tires to rotate my tires and also got the wheels aligned. ...both front and back  That was past due. Then I rescheduled my oil change at Honda for today too. I won't have to go back tomorrow now. I also had the transmission oil changed. Gary, my Coffeyville mechanic, said that after 100,000 miles, I should have that done. I have a little over 100,000 miles on my Honda now. It is a 2008 so that has taken awhile. After all, it is 11 years old.

Then I met Bob down there for lunch. He had taken my advice and bought two new tires there for the front of his car and had the front and back aligned too. The tires he had on the front were out of alignment and had caused grooves in his fairly new tires. They gave him $20.00 for each tire they replaced. That had caused a vibration that nearly drove him crazy. He has six months to pay for all that at no interest. That will make it easier for him to handle with his budget.

Then I came on back home.

More later...

I got Leslie's birthday card off in the mail this afternoon and will take her gift to church on Sunday. Monday is her birthday. Bless her heart, she is a jewel.

I didn't get my floors done today but I got a lot of other stuff done. Maybe I can catch up tomorrow.

Right now I am going to go get my yogurt and watch the news.   More later...

I had my yogurt and finished my latest free book on my Kindle. It was a horror story. I am amazed it didn't impact my sleep. I went to bed shortly after 9:00PM and slept fine.

Wednesday and a Huge Surprise

I slept well again last night. That's always a good thing for feeling good the next day. I have dressed and had my oatmeal and am having my coffee now.

But I did have a huge surprise this morning. I opened the door to check the cat dish and there was the little gray mother cat and five baby kitties. Four are gray like the mother cat and one is yellow like the large yellow cat that has fed here a couple of times.  Of course, they all ran off when I opened the door. I filled the cat dish and went in the kitchen to fix my  oatmeal and coffee and they all came back to eat. I knew I would scare them off again if I sat in the living room and watched the weather so I came in the den to blog while they eat. How cute! Too bad they can't tolerate me or I would go pet them. It's probably just as well. I would have to leave them outside anyhow.

I will go over to Coffeyville and have breakfast with Bob this morning at Eggberts. He asked me about it a couple of days ago. I have a 9:00AM hair appointment, I want to drop by the bank and also go out to Walmart while I am there. Bob is ready to be picked up so I will get back to this later.

I got Bob picked up about 7:00AM and we had breakfast. After I took him back home, I went to Walmart to get the few things I needed.  Then I got to my hair appointment and got my hair done. Then I stopped at the bank and then came on back home. I refilled the cat dish...again. Then I unloaded my groceries and put them away and went to the post office for stamps. I went to the car wash and washed my car. Every week I try to wash it and keep it clean.

After that I came on back home. I will eat a little something for my lunch The breakfast really filled me up.

I hope Brad comes this afternoon and puts in the new breakers.

It's after 2:00PM now and Brad has not come so I imagine he will come tomorrow.

I watched the program Dateline that I had recorded this morning while I was gone.

I haven't seen anything of any of the cats or kittens this afternoon. I did go to the post office and buy stamps. But there was no sign of them when I got home.

More later...

They evidently came while I was online. The bowl was empty again. Now I am going to go watch the news.


I put some more cat food out and covered the dish and soon the yellow male cat came and ate from my dish too. I assume he is the father of those five kittens since one of them is yellow like he is. 

So, more even later...

Brad Sanders, the electrician, called this evening to tell me when he wanted to come tomorrow to put the new breaker in the breaker box.. Unfortunately, I did not have his number listed and I deleted and blocked his call. Luckily, he left a message. I had blocked his call so now I had to unblock it. I called and left him a message. He is probably at church this evening.

I have had my bath now and am ready to go on to bed. It is after 9:00PM.

Tuesday and Another Power Problem

I slept very well last night and got up at 5:00AM. I am dressed, fed, and ready for the day.  I have fed the little gray cat and one of her kittens. She only brought one over with her today and they took turns eating from the bowl. They are very skittery and not friendly at all. But I am still feeding them. I like to watch them eat. I have put a flat piece of cardboard from the back of a small tablet, over the bowl and then set the empty watering pitcher on top of that.  That is to keep the snails out of the cat food bowl. The cat and her kittens know to push over the pitcher and move the cardboard to get to the food. I do not want to feed snails and the place is loaded with snails in the grass.

Last evening as I was watching TV, I noticed it seemed very warm in the apartment. I looked at the thermostat and it said 81 degrees.  I had it set on 77 and it was not running. A couple of months ago, I noticed my new dryer would not start. I called Steve and he said to go to the garage and flip the breaker that said "dryer". That did not work. So, I tried flipping it again and suddenly, it worked. So I thought nothing more about it.

Then a couple of weeks ago, the air conditioner was not working. I went to the garage and flipped the breakers off and on that were marked "AC". Then the air came on.

Last evening, it happened again so I called Suzanne and told her about it and then tried that four or five times, flipping it back and forth after waiting about five minutes between each try.and finally the air came on. I slipped on a duster and walked out to the west side just to check it out. It was running. I called Suzanne back and told her I thought it was the breaker box. She is sending the AC guy out later this morning to check out the AC. I think that's a waste of their money because I am almost certain that it is the breaker box since the dryer had the same problem last spring.  She is still sending him out and if it checks out OK, she is calling the electrician to repair the breaker box. After about 20 minutes, my room was down to 77 degrees. It is still working fine.

That's the only problem I have had here. But in 90 degree weather, that is a concern.

More later...

Paul, the air conditioning man, came  this morning and checked out both the air conditioner and the thermostat and found nothing wrong with either of them. So it has to be the breaker box. Brad Sanders, the electrician, is coming right away to see what breakers he needs to order.

So more later...

Brad came and looked at the breaker box and will be back tomorrow afternoon to put the new breakers in.

I downloaded my free Amazon Prime book for June on my Kindle and began reading it. It is a murder mystery and I may be sorry I chose it. It is pretty gory...something like :"Silence of the Lambs".  Anyhow, I got started on it. It is called "Trance" by Adam Southward.

I will tune on the TV in a little bit and watch the news, Right now I will play some solitaire on the computer.

More later...

I watched the news and also  some Amazon Prime on the nature of the universe. It was very interesting.

Now I will play some more Solitaire until time to go to bed. It is 8:15PM now and I plan to go on to bed at 9:00PM

Monday and a Hope to Finish Mowing.

I slept well as long as I slept last night but I woke up shortly after 3:30AM after a nightmare of some sort. I don't even remember it now but it did wake me up and then I could not get back to sleep.

It is supposed to be a little cooler today...if you can call 88 degrees cooler. I hope to be able to finish mowing the west side yard today when it gets dry. It's supposed to rain again tonight and perhaps tomorrow.  We certainly do not need any more rain.

I noticed the cat's dish was empty this morning and so I refilled it and put the cardboard over it and set the little pitcher on top of that. That keeps the snails out of the cat food. The kittens and their mother know how to move that pitcher and the cardboard off in order to eat.

Wednesday, when I am in Coffeyville, I will go out to Walmart there and get some groceries. I need to buy some potatoes and eggs and an onion and some other stuff. I have made a list. I want to make potato salad for the cookout at church on Sunday after church. I would also like to pick up a pie at Tyro's little Amish store.  The Amish make great pies.

More later...

I went to get gas for the mower since I am hoping to be able to mow today and finish the west yard. On the way home I was thinking about those kids who are moving in next door. I don't know whether they have  a mower of not but I am thinking about making them a deal if they would mow my yard every week. I would furnish the mower and the gasoline if he would mow for me in July and August. Steve hasn't yet got back with me about a price for mowing for me those two months and if I can work out a deal with the new young man next door, that would save me some money and save him having to buy a mower or pay someone to mow for them.

I also contacted Leslie yesterday about having the church take my offering out at the World Church level.  I texted her about that again this morning and she got right back with me with answers to my questions and she suggested the very same thing! Great minds...I guess. I had put a note on the windshield of their truck, asking them to ring my doorbell when they get up and around. I want to discuss that with them. It's nearly 10:00AM now. Maybe they will begin stirring soon.

More later...

Well, I finally got the west yard mowed this morning. It's only 72 degrees and this is the time to get it mowed.

 
 And I went ahead and re-did the front. After all that rain, I couldn't even tell I had done it. It's 10:40AM and I still haven't heard anything out of my neighbors. They must really be sleeping in this morning, They had a big weekend moving in. I am glad I got mine mowed.  I will have to re-mow that back before the end of the week. It's supposed to rain again tonight and tomorrow morning.



More even later...

Suzanne called before noon and asked me to go with her to Sonic to have a cherry limeade. Boy was that good! We rode around Caney and looked the town over. It really needs a beautification alright. They have a new program here to  try to enforce the ordinance but, as usual, no one is enforcing it. The same has been true in Coffeyville and Independence. There is no point in having ordinances on the books if they are not enforced.

She brought me home about 4:30PM and I am still eating the ice from that drink. We had a real good visit too. I have always thought Suzanne was a great friend and now she is a great landlady!. 

Sunday and Storm Warnings

I got up at my usual 5:00AM and it was storming. We were under severe storm warnings all morning...first until 7:15AM and then later at 7:30AM. I decided not to bake my coffeecake since in all probability not many people will be there.

Coffeyville's electricity has been off and on according to Bob. He has put his car in Joanne's garage to protect it in case of hail. I offered to go get him and take him by to pick it up but he didn't want me to do that. He said he wasn't even dressed yet. I told him under storm warnings he should be dressed...just in case. He said I had a point there. Bob said he would try to make it by 10:00AM. I probably will not make coffee since there may not be anyone there to drink it anyhow.

Anyhow, about 8:30AM I am going out to check on the church and then I will text or call Leslie to tell her if we have electricity there.

Karan is to speak today. I hope we have a congregation. Storm warnings are off at 7:30AM according to the weather station. It isn't raining here now. I am 15 miles due west of Coffeyville.

More later...

We had a fair sized congregation even with the weather problems. Karan and Gretchen and Phyllis and I went to "Just Us" for lunch afterward. After I took Phyllis back to the church, I came on back home and did my newsletters. The little girls were disappointed I didn't have the coffeecake. I should have baked it.

I got the newsletters  out. There was only one to go out in the snail mail. It was Chris. Chris hasn't attended for several weeks. I hate that. He was a regular for quite awhile. The other young couple, the Abbots, weren't there either. Gene was however.

The rain has stopped.  Now I will go watch some TV that I have recorded.

More later...
 

It appears I am now feeding three gray cats.... One mother cat and two small kittens. I knew that little gray cat was gaining weight but I just thought I was fattening her up. Little did I know!

Actually, after the mother cat and the two little kittens went across the street, I saw three or four more small kittens. One of them was yellow but the others were gray like the mother.  Wow!

Well, it appears my new young neighbors are beginning to move in next door. They have several trucks and cars over there with many young people carrying in boxes.  I don't exactly know what to expect. They are expecting a baby in nine weeks...a little girl, they told me.  I don't know how much I will be able to hear. But I imagine I will find out.

Here's another photo of the three that were over here eating.  I managed to get a little closer for this one.
 

I have had my bath and am ready to go to bed in about an hour. It is 8:00PM now.