Saturday and Reading

I tried something different last night. My arm has not hurt in weeks and so I tried to sleep without the brace. It worked out pretty well but I think I will wear the brace....just to be sure. I don't want it to start to hurt again.

When I opened the door this morning Scruffie was waiting for her breakfast. I put out three bowls again. The double bowl I always put out and the two blue bowls...it's a good thing I did. Just as she started to eat, the kittens came running across the street.   They ate two to a bowl and Scruffie abandoned her bowl and left it to three kittens to share and she went to the double bowl to eat. Then some of them joined her there too. She seems to be finished now but at least two kittens are still eating.  What a crew!!

I have had my oatmeal and a breakfast bar too. I am working on my coffee now.

All the cats are gone now. I don't think any of the larger yellow cats have eaten yet so I will leave the bowls out there for awhile for them.

I am getting quite a list of groceries now. I will probably just go out to Dollar General to see if I can get everything on the list.

I have been making headway on that large book. I think I just have 100 pages left to read.  That's good since I downloaded another free book from Amazon on my Kindle last evening.

Speaking of last night, a strange thing happened while I was watching Amazon Prime last night. Suddenly Tivo rebooted and I had to wait several minutes while it downloaded and connected again. I texted Keith to see if he ever had anything like that happen with his Tivo and he said "more often then I like". I have had my Tivo for a couple of years and that was a first.  But it did let me reconnect to my show and evidently nothing was lost. That was scary though. I would sure hate to lose my Tivo. About the only thing I watch on regular TV is the news, "Bull", (which is doing reruns now) Lucky Dog (same thing) and a couple of shows on Sunday morning about animals. There just aren't any other shows on regular TV that I care anything about. They are either too violent or too silly.

Well, Scruffie and the black kitten and the yellow kitten are back for another course of cat food. Now even the gray kitten has joined them That one looks like Scruffie.

CBS news is on so I will get back to this later...

I had just brought in the cat bowls and was about to sit back down when I looked out and two of the larger yellow cats were looking for their food. So, I filled the dishes again and took them out for them. This must be cat heaven for them.

Back to the news....

Thunder started and soon it was pouring down rain I guess I will leave the flowers out there. The rain will probably be good for then. I will watch them and see how they do. If they start getting beat down I will brave the elements and go out and get them and bring them in..

More later...It's 7:53AM now.

After lunch I will go out to Dollar General and get my groceries.

I had my lunch at lunchtime and then went back to my book "Epidemics and Society" . Finally in the middle of the afternoon, I finished it. This book was written in 2018, right after the Ebola epidemic in Africa.

In conclusion, the lessons he brings forth from his experience in medicine and dealing with epidemics are three:

First: is the need of establishment of functioning health care systems everywhere.

Second: it is essential to ensure direction and coordination from an internationalist  perspective  through a well funded competently staffed, and ever vigilant World Health Organization.

Lastly:  the relationship between the global international system and public health cannot be ignored. An economic system that neglects what economists euphemistically call "negative externalities" will ultimately exact a heavy cost in terms of public health.

We are a global economy in cases like epidemics. As we have seen once again, treating these epidemics so loosely just causes them to become pandemics. There seems to be no organized coordination between countries. This is the third book I have read on these epidemics and pandemics and after each one I realize how uncoordinated and political they become.

One thing the author says that certainly makes sense is this "Under the administration of Donald Trump, the federal government has also declined to provide leadership, to devise strategies to confront the problems, and to fund existing programs that tackle pandemics".

It's 4:45PM now and I will play a game fro awhile and then at 5:30PM, I will watch the CBS news.then at 7:00PM, I will take my bath and plan to go to bed at 9:00PM

Friday and Perhaps Lunch with Nancy

I slept well again last night. It is so a relief that I don't have to deal with a painful shoulder any more since I started using the brace.. Thanks so much for Leslie, who took a chance on this rotator cuff brace. I didn't know such a thing existed.

I got up around 5:00AM  and dressed, made my bed and have had my breakfast, When I opened the front door, Scruffie and Big Yellow Tom and one of the yellow adolescent cats were just waiting for their breakfast. I took out the double bowl and both blue bowls. Only the adolescent cat is still out there. The others ate fast and left. I haven't seen any of the kittens this morning. Evidently Scruffie went back to their home in my neighbor's garage and is nursing those kittens. As much as she eats, she is still very skinny.

I watched the weather channel until the "weather on the 8s" came on and then turned to channel 6 news.

Everything here at home is caught up now...the laundry and the cleaning. I will need to dust the apartment and that's it.

If Nancy is feeling well enough today we will go to lunch. She was feeling well yesterday but had a doctor's appointment in Bartlesville with her neurologist in the afternoon so we made an appointment for lunch today. We will see.....

More later. I'd better get those bowls back in the apartment before the ants or birds find them. I feed plenty of cats but the birds and the ants can fend for themselves.

Scruffie came back and sat by the door waiting for the food dish so I put it back out. She ate a few mouthfuls and then stopped and looked across the street. In a short while her little yellow kitten came over and began eating and Scruffie left.  Now the little kitten has finished and I had better get that dish back in again before the ants or the birds find it.

Strange how she tries to take care of those kittens.

More later...

I had just barely got the food dish back in and used the cat water to water my plant and then put out fresh water for them ...then Scruffie  came back to eat some more. So I put the cat food back out. She ate a few mouthfuls and then left again.  One of her kittens is sitting across the street looking this direction. It may come to eat so I will wait awhile again before taking the food back in.

It's only 7:55AM right now. The CBS news comes on at 8:00AM so I will watch that before I begin my dusting.

More even later...

The CBS News just went off and I called Nancy. She seems to be doing well today and has even had her hair done. I told her if she was still feeling well by 11:30AM, I would be by to take her to lunch today. She was delighted. She said she was dying to get out of the house. I told her to let me know if she wasn't still well by 11:30AM. That's an hour and a half away. We might go up to Independence to Big Cheese. I will ask her which she would like. We talked about Copan Truck Stop but there are options. Even our Eggberts here in Caney is open.

More later...

I picked up Nancy at 12:00PM. I was there at 11:30AM as planned but her cousins wife was there so we didn't get away until 12:00PM. Then we decided to go to Independence to Big Cheese. It was a lovely day and Nancy seemed to really enjoy getting out and seeing some scenery besides her house. We had a good visit.

When we got back to her house she wanted me to come in for a visit. I had no particular plans so I did. Soon her cousin's wife came back and as we were visiting, her other cousin's widow came in too. I stayed a while later and then came on home. I told Nancy as long as she was staying well, we would go to eat out at least once a week, She was pleased about that.

Scruffie was waiting for me for her dinner when I got home.

It is 5:34PM now and I will watch the CBS news. Afterward I will take my bath about 7:00PM and try to stay up until 9:00PM when I plan to go to bed.

Thursday and Laundry

I slept well again last night and was up at 5:00AM. I had my breakfast and fed a bunch of cats. There were three yellow cats, Scruffie and all four of her kittens. I put out the double dish, both blue bowls and a square plastic dish all with cat food.

Scruffie stays close to her kittens to make sure none of the yellow cats come back and run them off and eats their food.  There are plenty of bowls of food but they are very possessive of their food.

I will do laundry today and also vacuum the den and dining room. I will wash my new pjs in lukewarm water and hang them in the shower to dry. If I put them in the dryer, they might shrink. It's 6:05AM right now but I will wait another twenty minutes before I text Bob to see if he is up.

The cats are all finished and gone now so I will get those bowls back in the apartment.

The cats just keep coming. All  the kittens and Scruffie came back with them to make sure none of the yellow cats ran them off this time. After they left the adolescent yellow cat came to eat. Now I believe the one bowl is now empty so I will bring it in.

Our county, Montgomery County, Kansas,  now has 31 cases of the virus and 8 of those are active. People are just not being careful enough. I bought stamps in Coffeyville yesterday and we were required to wear face masks to enter the post office. Then I dropped by the library and we were required to wear face masks there too. I think that is fine. At least we are attempting to protect others.

More later...I had better get the laundry going.

I have the laundry nearly done. I put a few things back in the dryer to get even dryer. As soon as the CBS news is off I will vacuum the den and dining room. It's only a few minutes until then.

 So more even later....

I got the vacuuming done and watched some Amazon Prime TV...and during one program I fell asleep in the chair and when I woke up I decided to play a game on the laptop in the den. Anything to stay awake. About 11:30AM the mailman came and then I fixed and ate a Schwans frozen chicken pot pie for my lunch.

Earlier I went back out in the back yard and finished the trimming. Then I watered the plants again and fed Scruffie again too.That cat is still nursing those kittens too and so she eats off and on all day.

I also talked to Nancy on the phone this morning.. She seems better today. Her cousin and his wife are taking her to Bartlesville to see the Neurologist this afternoon  They seem to have convinced her she has dementia...she may have some... but it certainly isn't Alzheimer's Disease. My sister died of that and what Nancy has is nothing like Alzheimer's..I will call her tomorrow noon and see if she is up to having lunch.

I read awhile in my large book and then watered the plant on the patio and deadheaded it. I water those plants outside twice a day to keep them blooming.

I also played a game on the laptop computer for awhile. It is 4:15PM now and I am watching the 4:00PM Channel 6 news.. At 5:30PM I will watch the CBS News and then read awhile on my book. I took my bath around 7:00PM and will read awhile more then go play a game of Freecell on the laptop computer.until time to go to bed.

So more later...

It's nearly bedtime now so I guess I will eat some popcorn and then later go on to bed. I had my nightly banana earlier this evening.

Wednesday and Game Day

I slept very well again last night. I got up at 5:00AM as usual. I have had my oatmeal and even fed the cats... at  least Big Yellow Tom and Scruffy and their adolescent yellow cat came. All the kittens came too but the yellow adolescent ran them off...all but the yellow one. It persisted. The others all ran back across the street.

When Bob is up I will ask him if he wants to go to breakfast. Today is game day at the senior center and I will stay over the lunch hour and attend. Before then, I want to check their Dollar General store to see if the have my bubble bath. The last time I checked, they did not have it. I have checked our Dollar General twice and neither time did they have the bubble bath. Walmart is carrying a watered down version of theirs nowadays.

My hair appointment is at 9:30AM this morning. It is so short I could have done it myself. I enjoy having Toni do it though.

More later..Bob still hasn't answered me.

Yes, he wanted to have breakfast. I got over there a little early so I went by and got my car washed.

Then I picked him up and we had breakfast. Afterward I went to the library and got a book and then to the senior center to leave my treat. I went to my hair appointment and really liked my hair this time. She put a little back combing in it this time.

I am watching the CBS news now.

The TV says the nation has had a huge number jump in cases of the Coronavirus.  Trump is denying any problem and is going on to New Jersey anyhow. The man is simply ignorant.

I spent the afternoon at the senior center playing games with three others. We were all very careful. I got home about 5:00PM. I read my mail and took the results up to the mailbox. I fed Scruffie and she was the only one that came this evening...at least so far.

More later....

I watched the news until 6:30PM and then took my bath. I plan to go to bed at 9:00PM. It has been a big day.

Tuesday and Yard Mowing

I slept well again and was up at 5:00AM as usual. I worked on my "classmates" list... bringing it up to date... until 9:30PM last night when I went on to bed.

I did finally call Dean last evening and sure enough, Gay was right, his computer was down. Rod was working on it as we spoke. They were well... which was what I wanted to know. They live in Topeka and that is a large city with lots of cases.

This morning I have had my breakfast and have fed three cats. Scruffie, as usual was waiting for her breakfast when I opened the front door this morning. Two yellow cats came as soon as they saw me putting out food. Scruffie has finished her breakfast and is just lying on my front entrance walk enjoying the nice morning. It appears the two yellow cats have eaten and just left. None of the kittens have come this morning. They may be sleeping in. :) Scruffie is back for a drink of water now. She is hanging around.

Krystal and one of her daughters will be here this afternoon to mow if the yard is dry by then. I think we had a little rain last night in the middle of the night.

We have food pantry today but I don't need a thing. If Suzanne asks me if I want her to pick up food for me I will tell her I have plenty of food on hand.

Last night I was checking  the case load of the coronavirus in our county and discovered we had another new case. I texted Leslie about it and she sent out a text to the congregation cancelling church for another three weeks. I am so sick of no church.  I prepared letters for those who do not have smart phones and will get them in the mail today. Also, at Chetopa, over in adjoining Labette county, the nursing home has 24 cases. Nursing homes are just breeding grounds for the pandemic.

More later....

I read most of the afternoon and stopped when Krystal and her daughter came to mow. After they got the yard mowed, and left, I started trimming. I got about a third of it done when the battery ran down so I took it out and put it on the charger. It may be tomorrow evening before I get to it if it doesn't get charged in time to do it this evening.

So I went back to working on the list of my classmates....numbering them according to whether they are alive, deceased or lost.

After I finished that, I went back to reading my book. I am now on page 367 out of 505. I may finish it on Thursday.

I am watching the 4:00PM news now.  That will continue until 5:30PM when the CBS news comes on. I checked the battery about 5:45PM and it was charged enough to finish the trimming.. It looks very nice now. I didn't put the battery back on the charger. It still had plenty of charge.

When I came back in, Scruffie was waiting for her dinner and she had two yellow cats with her. So I used the last of my cat food and put it out there for them. As soon as they finish, I will go out to Dollar General and get the five things on my list....including cat food.

It's almost 6:30PM now and I will take my bath at 7:00PM and get ready for bed at 9:00PM

Monday and a Trip to Chanute

I slept well again last night. I was up at 5:00AM and eating my breakfast and having my coffee and Chai Latte..

Several cats and kittens came for their breakfast early. Some had come last night but certainly not all of them.  I fed them and then brought in the food before the ants got to it.

I will leave for Chanute at 9:30AM. It's a bit further from Caney. I am supposed to meet Gay at Opie's at 11:30AM. I may stop at their Walmart store and their Merle Norman store if I am way too early.

If it doesn't rain, I will have the yard mowed tomorrow. I put the plants back outside this morning and watered them well. They can use the sunshine.

More later...

I left for Chanute at 9:30AM and drove over 65 miles up there for my visit. We had a nice lunch and an even nicer visit.  Gay has offered to drive with me to Scott and Esther's home for a 4 or 5 day visit. I am not sure whether to take her up on that offer or not..She suggested we drive up on a Thursday or  Friday and stay over the weekend and then come back home Monday or Tuesday. I am mulling that over. It would be a two day trip down there and two days back. I would love to see the kids and their new home but am undecided whether that would be a good idea during this pandemic. I will mull it over further.

I had a very good visit with Gay. 

I had a text from Marilyn Rutledge on my way back home from Chanute. They are having game day on Wednesday afternoon at 1:00PM. I told her I intend to be there.  I will perhaps got to breakfast with Bob and then after I take him home, go to my hair appointment. I don't think I will need any groceries since I got some at Walmart in Independence yesterday. But I will go to game day at the senior center in the afternoon.

I watered both pots of flowers. It's 90 degrees out there and they have been out all day in the hot sun.

More even later....

I came in to watch the news at 4:00PM and am still watching the CBS News too. It's nearly 6:00PM now.

I did call Dean, as Gay suggested and sure enough, his computer was down. Rod was working on it as we spoke. He and Rod are still well. I was afraid the silence meant they were sick and perhaps hospitalized. Luckily that was not the case.

I discovered that the county had another case of the virus and told Leslie about it. She chose to shut down church again. We wil plan to open again on July 17th if there are no more cases in our county.

The adjoining county, Labette County, has 24 cases in the nursing home at Chetopa.

I worked on updating my class register until 9:30PM, when I finally went to bed

Sunday and Online Church

I slept well again last night. I got up about 5:00AM and had my breakfast and coffee and am going to have my Chai latte next.

I had two adult cats here for breakfast and two kittens...one gray one and the yellow one. It was Scruffie and one of the adolescent yellow ones. They have eaten now and are gone back across the street.  I should get that cat food back in the apartment soon.

I haven't heard anything from Dean, my classmate, in several weeks. I have e-mailed him two or three times to see if he and Rod, his son, are alright but have not had an answer...which is strange..he usually answers me right back. I am hoping he and Rod are o.k. They live in Topeka and the cities have large amounts of virus patients.

I was reading the New York Times online this morning and they said Trump's rally was a disappointment in numbers and that his speech was disjointed. Why am I not surprised.

Also the Bolton book is being allowed to be published  this week. I had preordered it.

It looks like the Juneteenth celebration was a big success. Tulsa's channel 6 hasn't had much to say about the Trump rally.

At 11:00AM, I will watch the  church service from Ontario Canada.

Bob says it is raining lightly in Coffeyville. Nothing here yet. But we are forecast for storms tonight.

More later....

After watching Trump's disjointed  remarks this morning , I think Joe Biden can beat him in November.

I watched the worship service from Ontario, Canada at 11:00AM this morning. As usual, it was very good. Maybe I will watch the one from Springfield Missouri this evening. It depends.... I want to watch 60 Minutes this evening too.

About halfway through the afternoon I realized I only had one frozen meal left and very little milk.  I needed gas for the mower too before Krystal and the daughter come this week to mow. So I went up to Independence to get gas and stop at Walmart there and get my frozen meals and milk and since I only had one banana left, I got bananas too.

Then I came back home. It is only 3:25PM now. I will read awhile on my book.

So, more even later....