Saturday and Vacuuming

I slept fairly well last night although my arm was very sore. Every time I rolled over the pain was excruciating and woke me up. It's just something I have to live with.

I have got myself ready for the day and had my coffee and oatmeal. Two cats were waiting for me to open the door. There was scruffy gray and one of the yellow cats, Big Yellow Tom. They have eaten their fill and are gone now.

I will finish the vacuuming today. All I lack is the dining room and den so that won't take long. I will wait until after the news is over before I begin.  I will also need to dust. That too is not a big deal. After all, this is only five rooms.

I see the other two smaller yellow cats are out there now eating.  I may need to refill those bowls.

I see it's supposed to rain tonight and Thursday and Friday this next week. That will make it a wet week. I will need to have the yard mowed on Wednesday afternoon next week. That is also the day I get my hair colored and cut at Toni's shop in Coffeyville at 9:30AM.

More later....I want to watch the CBS news.

I see Big Yellow Tom is back. I had taken the food in because the birds were getting into it. There was one piece of food the birds had left on the cement there and he was eating that. I took a bowl of food out to him and he ate his fill and left. Now I need to go bring that bowl of food back in before the birds come back..

Well, I did that and then went out front and trimmed the hedge. Pablo had trimmed his so mine looked really shaggy. That made a mess so I cleaned that up and now I am very tired. I will get a cup of hot chocolate and sit down and rest. So more later...I still haven't vacuumed  those two rooms but it's only 10:00AM so I have plenty of time..

It's time now to vacuum so I will get back to this later....

I got the den vacuumed and then watched John Hamer's Tuesday program . It was all about major  pandemics over the ages..especially the Black Death from the 13th century. It was very interesting.

One of the gray cats came for dinner and I gave him/her some fresh food. He/she ate until she/he was full and then I took the food in to keep it away from the birds.

Now I have been watching Heavy Rescue 401 on the weather channel.  It's after 5:00PM so I probably better eat my banana. That's my regular supper. Then at 7:00PM, I will take my bath and watch some more of these until bedtime at 9:00PM.

Friday and Grocery Shopping

I slept fairly well last night and got up shortly after 5:00AM and by the time I dressed and ate my breakfast the yellow cats were waiting for theirs. I haven't seen any gray ones yet.

I will clean the apartment today and then go to Independence to shop for my groceries for the week. On Monday Kansas will be opening for business. It will be interesting to see what that will entail. The governor says each county will decide for themselves. Their emergency managers will help make that decision. I hope opening early, before the bulk of the pandemic is over, like Georgia, won't be a mistake.

After finishing the book "The Great Influenza" I wrote a story for the Coffeyville Journal about the similarities of that pandemic and the one we are having right now. Whether they will use it or not depends on the owners of the newspaper. Jennifer, the editor, wants to use it. In the 1918 pandemic, the newspapers were warned against printing anything about that one to prevent general panic...any worse then there was already was.  I look for a second wave later in the fall. That was the way of the great influenza in 1918-1920. I hope I am wrong.

More later...

I got both floors mopped and the hall, bedroom and living room  vacuumed. Tomorrow I will vacuum the den and dining room. I use my left arm to run the vacuum and just hold the cord with my sore right arm, Still I am dividing the vacuuming between two days anymore.  I have plenty of time  and no one but myself to please.

I had better bring in the cat food. The birds are having a feast. Three or four cats have already been here anyhow. If another one or two come, I can always put it out there again.

More later...

It's a good thing  I didn't get the cat food in yet. One of the gray cats came to eat while I was vacuuming.  He/she is finished now and went across the street to the house without an outside door on their utility room. That's where they stay when they aren't over here eating.

So, more later...the CBS news is on now.

My daughter just called and asked me if I would like to drop by Big Cheese in Independence after I get my grocery shopping done and pick up a pizza. They deliver to the curb. Then I could bring it out to their house and have lunch with them and visit. I am delighted to do that. She is so busy... with not only her job but also her church responsibilities. She has a huge responsibility as our Mission Center financial officer... besides being our congregation's primary pastor and also financial officer. And her husband has his own business and she does the billing and book work for that too.  She is very well organized so that is a blessing. Then, of course, they breed and sell Corgi pups too. John, her husband, told me they have a new Corgi female.

After the news is over at 10:00AM I will go get my groceries and then pick up the pizza and drop by their place to share it.

So more later....

That's what I did. I left here shortly before10:00AM and went to the Walmart store in Independence. I bought my groceries and  then went up to Big Cheese to pick up the pizza. Then I took it out to the kids' house. There I saw their new Corgi puppy. They needed one in order to continue to raise Corgis. They will have to breed her to another male Corgi because Hoover is her grandfather. They can't use him.  The neighbor they bought the puppy from has a male that is not related to the puppy. They can use him when she is old enough.

I will post a photo of the new Corgi puppy. Her nickname is Kiki.

 

Isn't she cute?

I found a PBS Program about the 1918 Influenza pandemic and I watched it on Amazon Prime. It was very interesting.

More later...

Suzanne brought me three large bags of food this afternoon and I took what I could use and shared the rest of it with Pablo and Kylie, my next door neighbors. Pablo was happy to get it. Kylie is still at work. She works in Bartlesville for Hospice.

That will save me a trip to Coffeyville. 

I am watching the Channel 6 news now. At 5:30PM, the CBS news comes on and I will watch that before taking my bath at 7:00PM. Then I will probably go on to bed at 9:00PM.

Thursday and Cleaning

I slept fairly well last night. My arm ached some and I woke up a couple of times to go to the bathroom but primarily I slept o.k.

I got up about 5:00AM and got myself dressed and had my usual breakfast. Then I fed three or four cats. I dried the cat food that got wet in that rain this week  by laying it out on paper towels. I didn't know if they would eat it or not since it was softer after it had been wet but they appeared not to care. So that cat food did not go to waste.  Thank goodness!

I will try to finish my book today but my first priority is to do my regular Thursday cleaning.

I think for lunch today I will go out to Sonic and get that kids meal of two chicken strips, tater tots and a small coke. I get tired of frozen meals. I will be glad when the restaurants open again. That gives me another option.   I still want to stay out of Oklahoma. I don't consider them safe.

I understand Kansas will be opening for business again on Friday. It is one of the states with fewer cases of the cononavirus. Kansas now has had 3738 cases as of Wednesday.  I see in the Chronicle that we are opening the state county by county on Friday. Each county will make that decision as they are comfortable with that decision. Montgomery County has very few cases. The last I saw was 16 cases and 2 deaths.

One woman attended a church conference in Kansas City and contacted it and then brought it home and infected her husband and they both died.. Two others attended it too and contracted it but they both survived.

Our church is keeping all of our churches closed through May. We can attend online. It's not an ideal substitute but better then taking a chance attending church in person. That is way too much togetherness.

More later...

I read most of the afternoon and also read Facebook. The 14 year old mower came and mowed the yard. 

So, more later...

Wednesday and Sunshine

I had the best sleep I have had in months last night. My arm did not hurt much and I was very sleepy when I went to bed. I had read most of the day..off and on . I texted Bob at 7:00AM and he too had slept well.

When I finally got to the kitchen and opened the front door all three cats were waiting for me to come out with food. I had to go out through the garage. The cat food there on the paper towels was drying but I took out fresh food this time. They were all three very hungry and determined to fight over the food until they saw that all three of them had their own bowl.  By the time I had my own breakfast they had eaten and left. I left the food out there for awhile because there are at least two or three more of them that have not eaten.

It looks like it will be a sunny day today.  I hope the yard is dry by Thursday or Friday so I can have it mowed. It needs it today but is way too wet after yesterday's storm. I hope my flowerbed survived. I took the hanging plant in the garage during a lull yesterday. Too much wind and way too much rain. It looks fine this morning so I hung it back out.. I will check out the flowerbed in the back and see how it made it. The above ground  box flowerbed was full of water the only time I checked yesterday afternoon during the rain. I hope the flowers survived.

Hey! They look pretty good...all perked up and not badly damaged at all! I saw a hummingbird out there looking for food so I mixed up some food and hung the feeder out there. I hope the hummingbird finds it and eats it. I had hummingbirds over on Morgan at Coffeyville but didn't see any here last year. Hopefully they will find that feeder.

I want to get hold of my mower's mother today and see if one of her girls can mow for me on Friday. Surely by then the yard will be dry. I have texted her. I have been watching the weather channel and it looks like the rest of the week will be fine. Now I am going to watch the CBS news.

More later....

The mower's mother texted me back, One of her daughters will plan to mow for me on Friday. That's good! It will really need it by then since it needs it right now but is soaked out there.

More even later....



Not looking too bad considering what they went through yesterday.

Suzanne came mid afternoon and collected the rent and  my Coffeyville Journals. Then we went out to Sonic and had a cherry limeade slush. We had no t been together for any time at all in weeks. It was good to visit with her.

I have been reading the book, "The Great Influenza" by John Barry.   In many ways this pandemic is very much like the one we are going through in the world right now. It begins by explaining just how inadequate medicine was before 1900. Most diseases and medical emergencies were treated by bleeding the victim. It was not until a genius doctor, William Welch, noticed that the Germans were approaching disease more with science and education then America. America did not even require a doctor to have a college education and certainly no medical school education at that point.

Then American doctors who also wanted to use education and science and laboratory science to diagnose and cure disease, started to go to Germany for their education and training. This was noticed by other gifted doctors who were interested in setting up their own education and science departments. Many of those doctors also went to Germany to be trained.

This changed the way doctors were trained and led eventually to actual treatments for the worst diseases. For instance a Cholera  treatment was discovered by using  science and lab work and that was just the beginning of the transition to a modern medicine. Eventually Johns Hopkins led the way to a doctor's education finally changed into a science.

The thing that really struck me in reading this book was the similarity of the way the influenza virus and the coronavirus seem to work. The virus's both change over time and go from one bad pandemic to an even worse one in a second round. until most of the world in that day suffered horrible losses.

The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe pandemic in recent history. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian (bird) origin. Although there is not universal consensus regarding where the virus originated, it was believed to have originated in the army base at Ft. Riley in Kansas and spread worldwide during 1918-1919 during the First World War.  In the United States, it was first identified in military personnel in spring 1918.

It is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States. Mortality was high in people younger than 5 years old, 20-40 years old, and 65 years and older. The high mortality in healthy people, including those in the 20-40 year age group, was a unique feature of this pandemic.

While the 1919 HINI virus has been synthesized and evaluated the properties that made it so devastating are not well understood. With no vaccine to protect against influenza infection and no antibiotics to treat secondary bacterial infections that can be associated with influenza infections, control efforts worldwide were limited to non -pharmaceutical  interventions  such as isolation, quarantine, good personal hygiene, use of disinfectants, and limitations of public gatherings, which were applied unevenly.

The scariest thing I have noticed is that after a fairly "mild" first round, a second round that was absolutely devastating and not expected was what caused it to cause the death of millions worldwide. This all occurred during our participation in the First World War when men were packed into small barracks and crowded together.

I really recommend that everyone read this book since the similarities are amazing and scary. It will cause us to isolate ourselves even more and protect ourselves even more in public.

I read until 7:00PM when I stopped long enough to take my bath . Then I went back to the book until shortly after 9:00PM when I went on to bed.

Tuesday and Storms Forecast

I slept fairly well last night. My arm hurt off and on and kept me from being able to sleep and I finally took two melatonin tablets and did somewhat better.

I got up around five and dressed and got myself ready for the day. I ate my oatmeal and had both drinks..coffee and Chai Latte.

The scruffy gray cat was waiting for me to open the door this morning. He/she was soon joined by one of the smaller yellow cats, I put all three bowls out and they ate their fill and left. The birds began eating the cat food so I brought it in. Then Big Yellow Tom came and I took it back out and he/she ate and left. I have not seen Mama cat  yet. She has been waiting until a little later so she won't run onto Big Yellow Tom. That may be her now. Or it may be Scruffy. I have trouble telling them apart since she was attacked. She's a little scruffy now too.

More later...

Big Yellow Tom is back eating some more now.

I won't be going anywhere today since we are forecast for storms and possibly hail too. I protect my car whenever possible. It has to last me the rest of my life......if possible.

I have two books on my Kindle to read. I am reading about the 1918 Flu pandemic now. I pre-ordered another book that arrived this morning. It's called "The End of October" . At least I have reading material now.

I will fix some hot chocolate now. Be back soon.....

o.k. I am ready now for the CBS news that comes on at 8:00AM here.  It's only 7:20 now.  Be back later...

It's 9:00AM now and the CBS news has another hour before it is done for the morning.

Most of the cats have been here and eaten and I have brought in the food again to keep the birds away from it.

So more later...

So I will get back to it later...

I have read in my latest Kindle book all afternoon. About thirty minutes ago I went out to Dollar General and bought the few things I needed in groceries this week. It still is not raining and it is after 3:00PM now. The sun is still shining

More later.....

About 4:00PM the  storm hit. I watched the weather channel for awhile and realized that although we were under the storm warning, it was going east and south of us. Nothing was on the three Tulsa stations except the Tulsa area weather so I turned off the TV and took out my Kindle and read my book.

I put the cat's food out for them and noticed it had water in it during the storm. My overhang didn't protect it. I brought it in and took out two large paper towels and dumped it on them to dry. Then after the storm passed, I set out fresh cat food and all three of them came and ate before I went to bed.

I took my bath at 7:00PM as usual and read the book until 9:00PM when I went on to bed.

Monday and Reading

I slept fairly well last night...nothing I would write home about. I finally got up about 4:00AM...no sense just lying there tossing and turning. I made my bed, dressed and made my breakfast. I had turned on the weather and see that tomorrow we are to have rain and possible hail. Obviously, I will be staying in and keeping my car in the garage.

Both yellow cats were ready for their breakfast this morning. Big Yellow Tom was waiting for me to open the door. He ate a bit and then left. Soon the young yellow cat came and ate his/her fill too. So far I haven't seen any of the gray cats. I have left the food out there...just in case. I see the Big Yellow Tom Cat is back eating again.

I will just read this morning and try to finish the book in the Kindle. I read all morning and Finished the book entitled, "Little Fires Everywhere." It was interesting.

Now I have downloaded another called "The Great Influenza"  It's by John Barry and it's about the 1918 Flu Pandemic. My grandmother's infant sister died in that flu epidemic. Then I saw this book on Amazon and thought I would read it. I read all afternoon. It is interesting because it also starts with the history of medicine in America. Until the 1900's the practice of medicine had not changed much in 1000 years.  They still bled people to treat them with nearly anything and did not cut bodies open for autopsies. Then Germany became the standard for modern medicine. In America, doctors didn't even need a college degree and definitely..no medical school. Any doctor who wanted to be on the leading edge of medicine, went to Germany to study. It has been interesting so far.

Time for the 4:00PM news. It's now 4:30PM.

More later....

I read until the news came on and then after that I read until 9:00PM, when I went on to bed.

Sunday and Church Online

I slept poorly last night. In order to sleep at all, I have to sleep on my left side and then my ear gets sore. Then I turn over to my right side and put my arm on a small pillow and soon my right ear gets sore. If I sleep on my back my sinus drain and I feel like I am drowning in my own juices. :)

So I got up about 4:30AM and close to 5:00AM, I washed my hair in the shower. and blew it dry. Then I went in to the kitchen and fixed my oatmeal and coffee. Now I am working on my Chai Latte.

When I opened the front door I found the small yellow cat waiting for his/her breakfast. So I took all three bowls out. I don't want any more fights over food. Soon one of the gray cats came too. Now I believe they are both full and gone. Maybe more will come later. It's just now 6:00AM.

I heard from our Mission Center president last night that they are planning another 7:00PM worship service online this evening. I will try to use Zoom to watch it.  My camera is quite old so my picture is cloudy. I have ordered a new combination camera and microphone but it won't be here until sometime after the middle of May. This morning at 11:00AM, I will watch the service from Toronto, Canada.  I know the pastor there and he is a Seventy in our church. Their service is done very professionally. They have done it for several years. That provides a service for those who are isolated from a congregation.

I worked hard yesterday and was very tired when I went to bed last night. Still I woke up several times in the night. I don't have a plan for anything but church today. I am glad I got my hair washed this morning.

More later...

I was just watching George Stephanopoulos' interview of two governors this morning and at one point he asked them both about the president's remarks that we might try using Clorox or other disinfectants to kill the bacteria inside those who develop the virus or to prevent it. They both said their poison control people had been overwhelmed with calls from people who tried that.  It's amazing about folks' lack of common sense. ..including the president. He tried to say he was using sarcasm to the press but when they played his original remarks back, it was obvious he was serious. He was not addressing the press.

Amazing!!

Long after I took the cat food in, I looked out and Scruffy gray cat came and meowed at me through the door.  He/she was hungry and was sure letting me know about it. I took the bowl out and he/she ate some but soon left.

Now I will have to take it in again or the birds will eat it.

More later....

At 7:00PM  I watched the service from our Springfield church which was streamed. Ted and Robert did a good job.

I turned off the TV and read my latest book on Kindle until after 10:00PM. Then I went on to bed.