Saturday and The Independence Museum

I slept pretty well last night. I only woke up once and took my meds at that time. I got back to sleep and later was up at 5:15AM and made my bed and got myself ready for the day. I am having my breakfast here in the den. I believe I will go to the Independence Museum today and see what they have there for the holiday. Maybe I can get Leslie to go too.We usually have done that in December at the holiday period. I will text her later and see. It's only 6:00 AM now. After I finish my oatmeal I will go check on the cats and "the weather on the 8's".

While I am in Independence I also need to shop for those two children we are helping by buying gifts for them for Christmas.

Both cats were out their waiting for their breakfasts. They are eating heartily now. When they are finished and gone, I will go sweep the leaves away from the front door,  Blondie is gone now but Scruff is drinking some water. They are both gone now. I will go sweep away the leaves from my front door.  

Now I got that done...

I am now waiting for "the weather on the 8's". It's 6:28AM now. But it doesn't look like it's going to run at this time.

..Maybe 6:48AM

The weather finally came on at 6:48AM

Today should be 42 degrees and partly cloudy, tomorrow should be 47 degrees and  cloudy, Monday should be 54 degrees and cloudy,  Tuesday will be 49 degrees and cloudy, Wednesday is to be 53 degrees and showers, Thursday should be 50 degrees and showers, Friday should be 50 degrees and mostly cloudy. That's the week..we will hope those showers develop. We need the rain.

Leslie has a Zoom meeting at 10:00AM and it might last an hour. I tried Sally but it may be too early to contact her. I will try again later if I don't hear from her in an hour.  I would like to go at 11:00AM or so. We could have lunch at Big Cheese afterward.

More later... 

I tried to reach Sally three different times and she must sleep in, I was never able to reach her. So I went alone....not near as much fun.

I went to Walmart first and bought toys for the children we are buying Christmas for this year.  They charged me $14.95 for a $5.50 sale price. I went to the service desk and they checked it out and refunded me $12.02 with a gift card. They couldn't give me a cash refund. I bought a couple of boxes of coffee to use most of it. It left $3.00 and something on the gift card.  I guess I can handle that but it was very disappointing to be over charged that way.

More later... 

I have been wrapping Christmas gifts. I have no tree to set them under but I simply put them in front of the curio cabinet there on the floor.  I have Marlene's and Leslie's and they are wrapped...I still have to get the rest after the 14th of the month. I have John and Jeromy and the girls yet to buy and get wrapped I finally went into the new Family Dollar. I was looking for Christmas colored bows for the gifts I was wrapping and Dollar General didn't have any so I went to Family Dollar. They had a very nice store and were very helpful.

I went down to US Cellular in Bartlesville to get some of the bugs out of my phone. They helped a lot! 

When I got home I found the mail had come and one of my classmates and her husband had sent me $100 check to help with the expense of the newsletter. They told me if there was anything left of it, after I paid for everything, I should buy myself a gift for continuing to write the newsletter.  I sent them a thank you note for their contribution. That should buy the stamps and then some. A roll of stamps will be $70 they told me at the post office.

More Later... 

I took my bath at 6:00PM and put my pajamas and robe on. Then I began watching the new program on the weather channel. This group rebuilds houses destroyed by fire, tornadoes  floods or hurricanes...free of charge. They have to do their renovations in 5 days so they work hard and fast but when they are finished, the places are beautiful..and the work is free. It is funded by donations. 

It is 8:45PM now and I will soon go to bed..usually at 9:00PM. It's 9:22PM now. I'm a little late.

Friday and My Birthday

I slept very well last night...only woke up once, took my meds and went right back to sleep. Then I slept until 5:30AM. I am having my breakfast here in the den this morning  and it's 6:20 now. I will bet the cats are out there....hungry. They can wait awhile while I eat my breakfast.

I see it's 47 degrees out there this morning. ...not terribly cold.

Sure enough...both cats were there waiting for me to bring them their breakfast.They are eating  hungrily now. They haven't eaten here since yesterday morning. Maybe they have eaten somewhere else but I doubt it.  I took them out their food and evidently missed "the weather on the 8's" or it could be that it didn't run at the last "8" at 6:28. 

It doesn't come on after every "8". After the cats leave I will bring in their food and cover it and go out and sweep off all the leaves by the front door....not that it will do any good since when it's windy, they just blow right back up at the front door. I will be so glad when they are all fallen and I can rake them into piles and bag them up.

It's 6:38 now. I don't know if the weather forecast will come on this time or not.... I doubt it.

No weather yet ...

I will probably take  my walk this morning. It is a little windy so I will play it by ear. It's not even light yet. 

The weather was on at 6:48.

Today is to be 62 degrees and cloudy and windy, Saturday will be 43 degrees and  partly cloudy, Sunday is to be 48 degrees and cloudy,  Monday is to be 59 degrees and cloudy, Tuesday is to be 48 degrees and mostly cloudy,Wednesday is to be 50 degrees and PM rain, Thursday is to be 46 degrees and showers. It looks like we might get a couple of days of much needed rain.

More later...

I had a text from Scott this morning wishing me a Happy Birthday. I turned 87 at midnight :).

I also got a text from Leslie wishing me a Happy Birthday. I have the  most thoughtful kids!

More even later... 

It's 8:45AM and I am going to try to take my walk now. 

I didn't get back home until 9:48AM. I picked up an entire grocery bag of trash along the south side of 4th Avenue  where the parade was held last evening. I visited briefly with a woman who was walking her dog. I think the woman's name was Zoie. Her dog's name was Macy. I remember that because I had a classmate named Macy who was one of my dearest friends.

It's 51 degrees now. The cold wasn't the problem but the wind was. However, I enjoyed the walk anyhow.

More later... 

Leslie came about 11:00AM and we went to Bartlesville and had lunch at Dink's Bar B Q. As usual it was special. It was even more special because when they learned it was my birthday, they gave us some peach cobble and ice cream. Of course I split it with Leslie because after that great Bar B Q, there was no way I could eat all that cobber and ice cream. 

Then to top it off, she took me to Kim's Pedicure and bought herself and me a pedicure.  Talk about luxury! It was the deluxe pedicure with a hot wax soak. She stopped at Dewey and bought gas at a Phillips' station and then we came on back home.    

More Later...

It's 6:05PM now and I have been messing with my phone for an hour trying to get it to accept some people's names and phone numbers. It is strange when I go to Contacts and attempt to find some people,they are no longer in there.I didn't delete them but evidently, the phone did. The only way I could get them back in my contacts was to go to directory assistance and then edit out the words, "directory assistance". Weird! 

More later..

It's almost 7:00PM and I just took my bath and put my pajamas on and my robe. It's been a very nice day for a birthday and I had a very good time with Leslie.

It's 9:24PM now and time for me to go to bed.

 

Thursday and Apartment Cleaning

I slept better last night and was up at my usual 5:00AM, dressed, made my bed and got myself ready for the day. I will clean the apartment this morning. I will fix my breakfast in a little while. It's 5:40AM now.

Tomorrow is my 87th birthday and Leslie is going to take me to lunch and to Bartlesville for a pedicure for my birthday tomorrow. Suzanne was going to do lunch too but then I told her about Leslie's plans, so now Suzanne will take me Tuesday. She knows I go to visit Nancy on Mondays. The few friends I do have here are very good caring friends.

I started this blog on the laptop but it is now frozen. Now it just unfroze itself. Weird! 

I guess I'd better use the desktop computer. It's a lot newer and runs windows 10. The laptop runs Windows 7 so you know how old it has to be. It's the one that used to be Scott's and Keith redid it for Bob Avery after his computer died altogether.  Scott had bought an Apple and just had kept the laptop in his closet and when I was down there several years ago he gave it to me. And after Bob gave it up because of the cost of Cox internet, Keith redid again for me. I have used it for years.

It's 6:00AM now and I will go make my breakfast and then move the laptop into the living room so I can blog there.

So, more later... The laptop just crashed. It had an unexplained error. It is back up now and trying to decide what caused the crash. It appears to be working now again. It wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't those updates that downloaded yesterday. I think it's too old to handle all those updates.

Blondie was out front waiting for me to see him and bring him his breakfast so I took it out to him and in just a few minutes Scruff joined him. They ate a little while and then she left. He ate a while longer and then he left too. He drank some of the water in the little bowl I leave out there for fresh water for them. Now he is gone now too.

As soon as the weather forecast comes on the TV, I will get a photo of it and post it here on the blog....(if I can keep  it from crashing again).

Friday's forecast calls for 63 degrees and cloudy and windy, Saturday is to be 44 degrees and partly cloudy, Sunday 's rain has been taken out of the forecast and now is 58 degrees and cloudy, Monday is to be 61 degrees and mostly cloudy, Tuesday is to be 48 degrees and partly cloudy, and Wednesday is to be 45 degrees and cloudy.   

That's the week's forecast now. But this is Kansas and anything is possible.

It's 8:42AM and I just finished mopping the floors and they are drying now. I will vacuum the bedroom, hall, den, and the dining room now and wait for the floors to dry before finishing with the living room. It's the biggest job. I have to move out those heavy dining room chairs and then after vacuuming the dining room ...move them back around the table.. I will dust later today. I have nothing planned for Saturday either. I could do it then.

I have everything but the living room vacuumed and now I will rest before tackling that last job.  I got the living room vacuumed and then put away the sweeper.

I got those four heavy chairs back in the dining room around the table. It's 9:16AM now.

 More even later...

It's 10:51AM now and I tried to download a book on Kindle.. They now want me to buy the books and I am not going to do that because for the past couple of years I have been able to read them for free on my Kindle. I am going to try to find out what is going on with Amazon now.

I learned there are still free books available on Amazon. You have to go to their site and find those that are free for Kindle users. I will check that out!

I think I will attend the Caney Christmas parade this evening. If I do, I will have to dress warmly because  there will be wind and it's already 49 degrees and it's still light. As it gets dark it will get even colder. And it's 4:45PM now.

More later...

I went to the parade about 5:30PM and they called the numbers off for the drawing for the tickets I had received at the Caney Market. One of my tickets was just two numbers off. I didn't expect to win but you never know if you don't check. 

The parade was mostly area fire trucks and police officers and sheriffs. I think there were only three actual floats there. There was only the Caney band too but they sounded pretty good! It was very cold and windy. I was glad I had worn my jacket and gloves. I found a parking place on State street just a few cars off 4th street. 

It started at 6:30PM with the calling off the numbers for the "Caney Cash". They got ten at 6:30PM and called the rest off the other ten as soon as the parade was finished at 8:00PM. Each winner won $150.00 of "Caney Cash" to be spent in Caney. I bought a hot chocolate and cookie for a total of $1.00. That went down pretty good. I got back home at 8:30PM and immediately took a nice warm bath. It's 8:42PM now and I may just go right to bed. A nice warm bed sounds pretty good! It's 9:00PM now and time for bed!

Wednesday and a Hair Appointment

I slept pretty well last night but woke up at 3:30AM and just couldn't get back to sleep. I kept wondering how I would attach the class newsletter to an e-mail with this Cox mail. I didn't see the paper clip that usually does that. I may have to just have all the newsletters printed and put in envelopes. I hope not. I already have 49 envelopes printed with addresses for those who do not have e-mail. The Bartlesville Print Shop will be printing those off for the envelopes I have already printed.

It's too early to get up and have breakfast It's just 4:00AM now.

I have my hair appointment this morning at 9:00AM. I will probably go a little earlier because Toni is usually there early and gets me in well before 9:00AM.  That gives her a little extra time for anyone that also comes early or time to rest or organize her schedule.

It's 4:11AM now.

I lost my internet connection a little while ago and had to run the trouble shooter. Luckily it worked and I am connected again. But I hope this is not going to be a problem again.

I guess I will get dressed and now and have my breakfast.

More later...I made my bed and dressed and got myself ready for the day. I also had my breakfast in here in the living room.

The weather just came on. Today is forecast to be 45 degrees and sunny. Tomorrow is to be 53 degrees and mostly sunny, Friday is to be 64 degrees and partly cloudy and windy, Saturday is to be 43 degrees and mostly cloudy, Sunday is to be 50 degrees and AM showers, Monday is to be 63 degrees and partly cloudy, Tuesday is to be 44 degrees and partly cloudy. That's the week with showers on Sunday. 

I will check on the cats now. It is 5:26AM now.

Both cats were out there waiting for their breakfast and I took it out to them.They are still eating out there. It's 24 degrees this morning. I doubt I will take my walk today. It's 5:41AM now. But I will play it by ear.

The cats have eaten and are gone now. I will get the cat food back in the garage and cover it.

More even later...

Toni texted me last evening while the WiFi was down and asked me if I could come to my hair appointment at 8:30AM. When the WiFi server was back up this morning I got her text and told her I could make it at 8:30AM and immediately left for Coffeyville. I got there only three minutes late..which was not a problem. She gave me a birthday gift of some body lotion and a fancy candle. I was very surprised but delighted.

Leslie is going to take me to Bartlesville for lunch and a pedicure for my birthday on Friday.  Suzanne called me a little bit ago to ask me to go to lunch Friday for my birthday but when she learned Leslie was doing that Friday she changed her plan to next Tuesday. That was very sweet of her.We will do that. Everyone is celebrating my birthday,,,all but me..although Dean, my classmate that began our class newsletter, sent me $100 for lunches. I took myself to Copan Restaurant today for their small combination salad and blew myself to a piece of German chocolate pie today.  I had her cut it in half and ate one half at the restaurant and took the other half home in a box.

I had seven classmates send me news for the newsletter today. I just copied and pasted it into the newsletter. I am up to four pages already. It may be finished earlier then usual. We will see.

More later ....It finally warmed up enough by 4:00PM for me to take my mile walk. All along the way, I picked up trash from the street and put it in the nearest trash container.

I had five kleenex, two pop cans, several napkins, a paper Coke cup and straw and a newspaper, all just thrown in the street. Why do people do that? The street is lined with trash receptacles that they could toss that stuff in. But they obviously just throw them out of their cars and into the street.  It's disgusting...and it happens every time I take my walk.  I should take a plastic bag to collect that stuff in and then just toss the paper bag with all the trash in it just once.

Disgusting! 

I read until 7:00PM  and then took my bath and got myself ready for bed...put on my pajamas and robe and watched the recorded CBS news until 9:00PM when I went on to bed.

I had not had a busy day except for working on the newsletter.

Tuesday and a Visit From A Cox Tech

I didn't sleep much at all last night and was awake about every hour on the hour stewing about being blocked out of my e-mail by Cox. They say my e-mail account had been hacked and that's why it was blocked. I talked to four different people at Cox most of whom had a thick Spanish accent and I couldn't understand a word they said. The tech I dealt with the longest had me download a camera to take a photo of my driver's license. I got that done twice but the Tech couldn't get it from my phone so their suggestion was that I drive over to Pittsburg, Kansas, and show them my driver's license.  That's 91.1 miles and would take me over an hour to get there even if I knew where the Cox office in Pittsburg, Kansas, was located... I would be over there lost. At 87 years old, I have no business driving 91 miles to show them my driver's license. That is ridiculous. Then they suggested I drive over to Coffeyville  to do it. The Coffeyville office has been closed for several years.  Finally they scheduled a tech to come here to my home between 8:00AM and 10:00AM this morning to check it out. Hopefully he can get my e-mail going again.

Cox has been just one nightmare after another ever since I have lived here in Caney. First it was the TV with a picture that tore constantly. They got that fixed by changing out something at the pole....two different times. Then a couple of weeks ago the entire area internet was down. Even when they got that fixed, I had no internet. They finally decided the problem was the router they installed three years ago when I moved here. So they had a tech bring me a new router and get it working. That was a week without internet at all. Cox has been a nightmare all three years I have lived here. It's just one thing after another. It's not my TV. It's only three years old.

And on top of all that, several times they have raised my rate in the past three years.  I have the very basic TV....their starter package. Nothing much on TV interests me anymore..way too much sex and violence. I watch the weather and the evening news and Lucky Dog and Ohio State and Chiefs football games and 60 Minutes that's about it. I called them and told them about my limited income and the rent and utilities take over half of that and they dropped my rate to a basic rate. Now I understand they are going to raise my rate again. I got a letter about that last week. It's another Cox nightmare.

I did get the weather right away when I turned on the TV. Tuesday will be 63 degrees and sunny and windy, Wednesday will be 46 degrees and sunny, Thursday is to be 52 degrees mostly sunny, Friday is to be 64 degrees and partly cloudy and windy, Saturday is to be 46 degrees and mostly cloudy, Sunday is to be 58 degrees and showers, Monday is to be 61 degrees and PM showers.So there's a possibility of showers Sunday and Monday, 

The tech came and  removed Outlook and will use their own e-mail program.

Cox Quit using Outlook so they are using their own e-mail program and I am having to learn it. I spent the morning putting all the classmates e-mail addresses in it. I will try to send the newsletter to them as an attachment to e-mail like I always have. But I have no actual address book in this Cox program.

Now I have to get something to eat for lunch. I have some week old soup I made to use last week on Monday. I guess It's still good. It's been in the frig all week.

More later 

I had a bowl of that soup for my lunch and it was good. I had it with crackers. Then I went down to Mr G's and had a small butter pecan flurry for dessert.

 

Monday and a Trip to See Nancy

I slept restlessly last night. I don't know why. I had been sleeping very well for days. I was up at my usual 5:00AM and have eaten my breakfast here in the living room while I watched for the weather forecast. I dressed and got myself ready for the day. And I did catch the weather forecast and now I will look to see if the cats are out there waiting for their breakfast.

Well they were! Both cats out there waiting patiently for me to open the front door. Now they are eating hungrily. 

Today will be 59 degrees and mostly sunny, Tuesday will be 65 degrees and mostly sunny and windy, Wednesday 43 degrees and sunny, Thursday will be 49 degrees and  partly cloudy, Friday will be 63 degrees and partly cloudy and windy, Saturday will be 53 degrees and partly cloudy and Sunday will be 59 degrees and mostly cloudy...that's the week.

The cats are gone now so I will get their food put away and  covered.

Later this morning I will drive down to Bartlesville to see Nancy. I missed seeing her last week because I had my son and Esther here for Thanksgiving. I did call the retirement home and asked the woman at the front desk to tell Nancy I had family company for Thanksgiving and I would see her today. Hopefully she did that.

Now I am washing my underwear and jacket. The jacket has makeup around the collar. I will also wash my pajamas again.

I got my laundry done and also took my walk about 7:53AM. It's 8:20AM now. It's 29 degrees and I had washed my jacket and it was dry and clean and I wore it and my gloves and was comfortable. It's 8:21AM now. I will wait until about 9:30AM to leave for Bartlesville.

I had put some of the coffee cake in a plastic bag for Nancy and also took some over to Stephen. He has gone on to work now. He is a pharmacist at the Coffeyville hospital during the week.

More even later.. 

I took the rest of the coffee cake to Stephen and Nancy. They were both delighted with it.

I brought Nancy back to Caney for lunch and to go see what all had been done to the Museum she had funded. Dale and his wife met us there and showed her around.

It is 5:43PM now and I have been on the phone with Cox over two hours trying to get the Cox block off my e-mail internet account. They are sending a tech out tomorrow morning between 8:00AM  and 10:00 AM to get my identity verified so I can get into my mail account. They will probably have me change my password for the e-mail.

I have had my bath and it's 7:30PM now.I will read until 9:00PM when I plan to go to bed.

 

Sunday and Church and Breakfast First

I slept well again last night. Of course, I had read and finished my latest book and gone to bed late and that helps. I was up at my usual 5:00AM and  made my bed and dressed and got myself ready for the day. I got my coffee cake mixed up and in the oven and am just waiting for it to bake and cool so I can put the glaze on it.

It's 6:09AM now and the cats may be out there waiting for their breakfasts. I have been too busy to look. 

More Later... 

Sure enough..both cats were out there for breakfast. I took their food out and they are eating now like they hadn't eaten in a week. They finished eating and left so I brought the food back in the garage and covered it up.

I finally caught the weather forecast:

Today is to be 50 degrees and partly cloudy,  tomorrow is to be 59 degrees and mostly sunny, Tuesday is to be 67 degrees and partly cloudy and windy,Wednesday is to be 43 degrees and sunny, Thursday is to be 48 degrees and partly cloudy, Friday is to be 60 degrees and partly cloudy, Saturday is to be 58 degrees and mostly cloudy. That's the week ahead.

I got the coffee cake finished and the glaze put on it. When it's completely cool I will cover it with Saran. 

More later..

I went out to church at 8:30AM and got the coffee going and the coffeecake cut into slices.  John and Leslie came soon after me. ...and soon even later Melissa and Kelly came too.We had a small but attentive congregation. John was the narrator for a playlet he and Karan and Cheyenne put on. They all did a good job. Leslie did a good job on putting together the service.  She uses the projector for the music and puts a lot of work into the service.There is to be no Mission Center evening service this evening because of the holiday.  

Afterward I sent out six letters to folks that were not there and sent them the bulletin too for the announcements and the prayer list.

We will decorate the church for Christmas this Thursday morning at 9:30AM. I plan to go help. They will probably have me decorate the Christmas tree.That's what they had me do last year when we decorated the church. 

More later...

I took my bath at around 7:00PM and will read awhile until 9:00PM. I watched 60 Minutes this evening since we had no Zoom worship service from the Mission Center.