Saturday and a Great Night's Sleep

I woke up at 2:00AM with my sinus draining down my throat and my throat felt raw. I got up and this time I took an allergy pill.Within minutes I fell asleep. I slept until almost 7:00AM..unheard of for me. 

When I finally woke up and realized the time, I got up, made my bed and got dressed and even started my laundry. I was out of underwear and my towels needed washing too. 

When I opened the front door both cats were out there waiting for that door to open! I took them some food and realized their water was completely frozen too. So I took it in and put the bowl in the sink to thaw and then I took them out a bowl of fresh water. After they finally finished their breakfast, Blondie left but Scruff drank some of that water before she left. She ate a lot. She hadn't been here in several days because of the snow. 

I also saw the "weather on the 8's" and got the forecast for the next week.

Today will be 26 degrees and sunny, tomorrow will be 32 degrees and mostly sunny, Monday will be 33 degrees and partly cloudy. Tuesday will be 41 degrees and partly cloudy, Wednesday will be 55 degrees and mostly cloudy, Thursday will be 63 degrees and cloudy, Friday will be 59 degrees and showers. That's it for the weather this next week.

More later....

I got the laundry dry, folded and put away. I also have the church's towels and I will take them back next week. The snow is still out there but I am hoping it will be gone by January 1st...when we have our next church service. Many of our people will either be out of town tomorrow or having Christmas company for Christmas dinner. 

I had put a couple of Christmas cards in the mail box yesterday with the flag up so that the mailman would pick them up for me.  He ignored it and left them in there. Hopefully he will get them today. I don't want to try to drive to the mailbox in this snow.

We are taking Nancy out for dinner tomorrow with us. Hopefully, she will be up and dressed and in the lobby when we go to pick her up. I will go in and check on her when we go to get her if she is not in the lobby waiting for us. 

Gina, her cousin Dale's wife, texted me this morning to ask which day we would be taking her with us. I told her we were picking her up for Christmas dinner tomorrow. She seemed satisfied.

More later... .

I went to the Market and got a few things I needed. Then I came home and shoveled most of the snow off our driveways. I will finish that job when I get the groceries put away and rest awhile. It is turning out to be a beautiful sunny day. I see it has warmed up to 17 degrees. Not bad.. considering it was one degree below zero earlier. 

I love to shovel snow..and as long as I don't over do it I think the exercise is good  for me. 

More later...I think I will read for awhile. 

I finished cleaning the snow off our driveways. Then I couldn't figure out what to have for lunch. So I was going to go to Eggbert's but they were closed so I went to Sonic and had a  hamburger and french fries and a small coke. That's something I hadn't had for a long time. 

I then tried to balance my checkbook  and was not successful in that. I got off somewhere and could not find where.I am tired now.I will try again to find the error Monday. Tomorrow will be busy and I won't work on it then. It's 4:46 PM now and I have had a busy day.I will go check my mail.I haven't done that since I took those two cards out of it and mailed them myself.

More later...

 

 

Friday and The Class Newsletter

I slept poorly last night after 2:00AM. I was concerned that there might not be a way to attach the 2023 Class Newsletter to an e-mail. I tried to figure it out but nothing I did worked. I may just have to print 54 more envelopes and buy more stamps. After awhile I will call Cox Complete Care again and see if they can walk me through it. Yesterday they were able to get several problems solved...although the first thing this morning Microsoft wanted my password to even use either computer and luckily, I had written it down. Otherwise I would not have been able to get the desktop or the laptop to work. Just another hassle...ever since they deleted Outlook, my mail program, I have been in the dark about my e-mail, Just ordinary e-mail works fine but I can't figure out how to send the class newsletter as an attachment with web mail, (the program they used to replace Outlook), to those 54 classmates that are online. 

After awhile I will call Cox Complete Care and see how or if that is possible.

It's 5:40AM now and my stomach is telling me that peanut butter and jelly sandwich I had for dinner yesterday evening was not sufficient for today. And I haven't had breakfast yet. I should fix that now.

It's pitch black out there this morning so I can't tell if even more snow had fallen last night then yesterday during the day. The cats never came at all yesterday so they are probably very hungry today if they are even able to get out in this snow at all.

I plan to dust today since I never got to it yesterday.  

I went out and scraped the snow off the sidewalk. It's one degree below zero and that is cold!  So I didn't do the driveway. Again, the cats were not out there. They haven't eaten here in two days. 

I did catch "the weather on the 8's" Today will be 17 degrees and mostly sunny, tomorrow will be 28 degrees and mostly sunny, Sunday will be 34 degrees and mostly sunny, Monday will be 36 degrees and partly cloudy, Tuesday will be 40 degrees and mostly sunny, Wednesday will be 54 degrees and partly cloudy and windy, Thursday will be 61 degrees and mostly cloudy.That's the forecast for the week.

More later.... 

I opened the front door again and there was Blondie.....waiting for some food. I had scraped the snow off the walk and in front of the front door so even though it's one degree below zero, he was very hungry and toughed it out to eat, Scruff didn't make it this time. I hope she is alright but as cold as it is there's no way to know.  Blondie is still eating out there that's longer then he usually stays to eat. Maybe he knows it may be awhile before he gets another meal. He just now left. He must be very cold. I will go bring in the food...

I brought the food in and put it in the garage and covered it. He didn't come back and Scruffy never made it at all. She must be very hungry by now.

Keith downloaded on my computer with Teamviewer and helped me by reactivating Outlook.  We got all my classmates e-mailed with an attachment for the newsletter, except the ones with no e-mail. I will have to get another ink cartridge to print off one to take to Bartlesville after Christmas to a print shop downtown to have it copied for the other 52 classmates. I will need to get another print cartridge to even copy off the one he will need to duplicate.

I got all the online classmates e-mail addresses in a folder called "Classmates". Then we sent them off to all the classmates who had e-mail.

I called Cox Complete Care to get rid of the full page commercial that kept me from being able to get to my e-mail. It took awhile. He was determined to download Chrome for a browser. I have always used Firefox. It has all my favorites on it already. I tried to be patient with him but it was a challenge.

 

Thursday and Cleaning

I slept through the night last night without waking up once. I got up at 5:00AM and dressed and made my bed and got myself ready for the day. I took my meds before I dressed and made up my face. It's 5:38AM now and with the wind I can hear, I doubt the cats will even dare to come out this morning.It's pitch dark so I can't tell if it is snowing or not. I know it was forecast for today. I can sure hear the wind out there.

I am eating my breakfast here in the den while I blog. I am finished now except for my coffee and Chai Latte. I  will take my coffee in the living room while I turn on the TV and check out the weather.

So more later ...

The wind is really blowing out there. It had blown the big fancy wreath Cyndi had made me right off the side of the house by the door and I think it is blowing the trash cans around from the noise I hear from over there. I brought that beautiful wreath in the house. I checked and the cats are nowhere to be found. It's 12 degrees out there now. I figure they are under that vacant house across the street on the corner of State and 8th.There is crawl space under that house. It won't do a lot about the cold but it would give them protection from that brutal wind.

After I work up the courage, I will go check out the trash containers. Maybe I can get them into the garage so I won't find them down the street. You can bet I won't be taking my walk this morning.  

More later... 

I checked on the trash containers and Stephen's was half way down the drive. I pulled it back next to the garage. I don't know how long it will stay there with this wind.  I will keep an eye on both of them. It is snowing a bit but I sure don't expect the cats to come to eat.

The weather is on. I will get back to this later...l got up just in time to catch the forecast.

It is 13 degrees now with AM snow and wind. It will be minus 1 degree tonight. Tomorrow it will 18 degrees and sunny, Saturday will be 25 degrees and partly cloudy, Sunday will be 31 degrees and mostly sunny, Monday will be 43 degrees and partly cloudy, Tuesday will be 42 degrees and partly cloudy, Wednesday will be 56 degrees and cloudy and windy. That's the week...we will see what really happens. It appears it will "warm up" as the week progresses.

More later...

When Stephen was here yesterday, I should have given him their can of peanut clusters but I forgot to do it. Maybe he will check on me again today or tomorrow and I can give them to him then. I know he will not be staying at the apartment while it's this cold and windy.

I will give John and Leslie theirs when they pick me up on Christmas Day for our Christmas lunch in Bartlesville. If Suzanne comes to bring me papers (I doubt she will in this cold) I will give hers and Steve's to her then. 

I was on the phone for another hour with Cox Complete Care dealing with Google wanting me to change my password for this blog.Why..I don't have a clue. They need to just leave me and my passwords alone. Google is more trouble then they're worth.

I need to begin working on my cleaning now. It's almost 9:00AM and I haven't even begun.

More later...

I got all the bare floors mopped and the throw rugs in the dryer on "fresh air". When they are dry I will vacuum.I will do the bedroom and hall and den first and later..I will do the dining room and living room after I rest awhile.

It is snowing harder now. We are definitely going to have accumulation from this.

I hug the wreath back out on the hook outside the front door. I hope it doesn't blow down again. If it does, I will just bring it back in. It's 9:20AM now.

I will go watch the news on "Good Morning America." if it's still on..

The wreath blew down again so I brought it back in the kitchen and laid it on the counter to dry. I won't take it out again while the storm is blowing snow and wind. I don't want it torn up. It's too pretty to leave out there in this storm.

I have everything vacuumed except the living room and I am going to have to rest before I do it. Then I will empty the canister. Moving those heavy dining room chairs is exhausting. I am not supposed to lift anything heavier then 15 pounds and I am quite sure they are well over 15 pounds. Usually I drag them so I don't have to lift them but sometimes I just bite the bullet and do it anyhow.

More later... It is still snowing very hard out there! And the wind must be very hard too because it blew that nice wreath down again.

More even later...

I got the living room vacuumed too and put away the sweeper after I emptied it. I am finished for another week. I may do some dusting again but I just did that the first of the week and I don't see any dust yet. I had a peanut and jelly and butter sandwich for my lunch. It was plenty. I read most of the afternoon and finished my book.

I took my bath at 7:15PM and put my night socks, my pajamas and robe on afterward. 

Then I came in here to finish my blog. I don't know whether Keith has a had a chance to fix his blog or not. Neither of my computers can access it today. I will check it out after I finish here.

Stephen came back this afternoon before he went home to Owasso. He had a Christmas gift for me. I was happy he came back because that gave me another chance  to give him the gift I fixed for them...some of my peanut clusters in a Christmas tin. He gave me a winter flag for my little seasonal flag pole and some of his wife's homemade candy too. I munched on some of it this afternoon while I read. It was very good! After Christmas I will put out their winter flag and put away my Christmas one.

It's a little past 8:00PM now. I will work on the computer for awhile. I will need to get another print cartridge before I can print off the class newsletter.  

I will start another book on my Kindle and go to bed at 9:00PM

 

Wednesday and My Hair appointment

I have slept fitfully tonight and am up at 4:00AM after tossing and turning since 2:00AM. I heard from Cox last night that they are trying to charge me an extra $8.75 a month...raising my cost again. I have the very basic starter package and the internet. That's all. I discussed my situation with them several months ago and they lowered my rate to $122.72...now they are trying to raise that again. I went through my checkbooks last night to see how many changes they have made in my rate over the years. When they got it up to $146.37 and even later to  to $156.41 in the past three years, I called them about it and talked to billing and they lowered it to $122.72 and it has been that cost over this past three years. $122.72 should be the cost for such basic service. Earlier this year, they dropped ABC from my starter package and I called them about that and they finally got it restored to my package. Twice I have had problems with the picture tearing and had to call them about that. Someone had to climb the pole in the alley and change out some connection out there to get it back to a picture I could watch without all that tearing. And when I moved here to Caney in 2019, the rate was $109.44 for the same basic service..the starter package.

I lease their router and they installed it when I moved here a little over two years ago. Well it died in November and they brought me another one and installed it. Then they wanted to raise the cost on that. I told them a two year old router should not have died and they owed me one that worked....especially longer then two years. It has been a hassle dealing with Cox. 

Now in checking my checking account, I see my new supplement, United American,  has charged me $63.00 already for their premium. I told them not to start their supplement until January1st. I have already paid the $147.25 for Lumico's supplement premium this month and I am covered by them until January 1st.

Always some kind of incompetence!

More Later...I may as well get dressed.

I did catch "the weather on the 8's" early.Today will be 45 degrees and cloudy,  Thursday(tomorrow) is to be 15 degrees and AM snow and wind, Friday is to be 15 degrees and sunny, Saturday is to be 23 degrees and partly cloudy, Sunday(Christmas Day) will be 34 degrees and  mostly sunny, Monday will be 36 degrees and partly cloudy, and Tuesday will be 40 degrees and sunny.Snow is still on the forecast for Thursday. We will see...

First only Scruffy came from breakfast but later Blondie came too and Scruffy came back for more. Blondie also drank some water from their bowl. They are both gone nowso I took their bowl back in the garage and covered it.

I left for Coffeyville at 8:30AM and went to Woodshed first to get gas after I had driven there and back from Chanute and even to Humboldt to find that candy store.

After I got gas I went to the beauty shop and had my hair done. I took Toni some of my peanut clusters and she gave me a large bag of candy. She is very thoughtful!

When I got home and called Cox and talked to three different people about the raise in the cost of my Cox Cable...again. I don't know that it did any good. I still have to pay an extra $8.53 a month. I talked to a Nichole this time. My bill will be $131. a month now. Instead of $122.72.  They now have me on record as being an unsatisfied customer for sure.

More later...

I also talked to my car insurance agent. The car insurance is going to be even more then Lexie thought. Instead of $304.73 a half, it will be $333.63 a half. Always something!! It's not due until January 17th  so I have awhile to come up with a solution if there is one.  She suggested I lower my liability insurance to compensate for the difference. She says she seldom suggests something like that but that would be a solution. We will see. I have some time on that. 

After that, I ate the rest of Leslie's white chili with crackers. It was very good and now it is all gone. 

More later...

I went up to the Caney Drug Store this afternoon and arranged to have both my prescriptions ready for them to fill for me in 90 days. They  are very nice. They know Stephen, my landlord, really well. The pharmacist here's wife works with Stephen when Stephen works there at Wal-Mart every other Saturday and they work together. The pharmacist here used to be the manager of the Coffeyville Wal-Mart. He is very impressed with Stephen. (as am I).

More even later... 

Stephen came by to tell me that because of the coming snow storm, he was going home to Owasso and would not be staying next door tonight. He brought me some ice melt just in case I need it tomorrow. Then he left.

I took my bath and put my pajamas on and my robe and read awhile About 8:30, though I decided to finish the blog and go to bed, I had been up way too many hours.

I will put this blog on Keith's before I go to bed at 9:00PM.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get into his blog on either computer. He worked it over today and evidently did something to the address so that I can't get into it on either computer.

 

Tuesday and A Trip to Chanute

I slept fairly well last night and woke up once to take my meds and got right back to sleep afterwards. I made my bed and woke up wide awake at 4:45AM so I just got up and dressed and got myself ready for the day. I have fixed my breakfast and am eating it here in the den. I see it's 36 degrees this morning and, of course, still dark outside. It's 5:56AM now. 

I see by the news on my phone that California had an earthquake last night. I will need to turn on the news to get the entire picture of how bad it was. It was a 6.5 quake. Not a lot of news about it yet.

More Later... 

I got the weather forecast right away.Today will be 37 degrees and AM  clouds and PM sun, Wednesday will be 45 degrees and cloudy, Thursday will be 13 degrees and AM snow and wind, Friday is to be 13 degrees as well but mostly sunny, Saturday will be 23 degrees and partly cloudy,  Sunday is to be 33 degrees and partly cloudy, Monday is to be 37degrees and partly cloudy. It looks like the snow and wind is forecast for Thursday now.

I checked for the cats earlier but they were not out there. I will check again now. 

I checked again and they were both out there waiting for me to discover them and feed them. I took their food out there and they dug right into it and ate hungrily for awhile but the cold eventually got to them and they left to find shelter somewhere.They are gone now so I brought their food dish back in the garage and covered it. It's 7:09AM now.

More even later....

I called my friend, Gay,who lives in Chanute to see if she would like to have lunch with me if I drove up there. She did want to do that. So I left about 9:30 to drive up there. It was cold but not snowing. I got there about 11:10AM and looked around in one of their thrift shops while I waited for Gay to come to town. Then we had a good lunch. She bought mine too.

We visited all afternoon and had a great visit and  started back about 2:30PM.

I am not hungry but later I will eat the soup Leslie sent home with me. It is white chili...made with chicken instead of beef. I have never had that before but I am looking forward to it. It's only 4:00PM now. I will wait until about 5:00PM or 5:30 PM to eat.

My new stocking cap and scarf were in the mail. That should keep me warm on my walks.

More Later.....

I made my peanut clusters and put them in tin Christmas decorated tins. I will give them to various friends and John and Leslie too.I haven't seen my landlord, Stephen, in some time but I want to give him and his wife, Dee Anna, some too.

I am very tired this evening.Not only did I drive to Chanute this morning but Gay asked  me to take her to Humboldt to find a candy store there that she wants to buy some candy in for a friend.

Then after that, I drove home and after I ate some of  Leslie's white chili for supper, I made my peanut clusters. So, it's been a big day for me. I am very tired.  It's 7:08PM now and I just took my bath and put my pajamas on.  I am going to try to stay up until at least 9:00PM. I sleep better when I don't go to bed too early.

I have heard from Cox again today.They have raised my very basic service $8.75. I have been over this constant raising of my rate in the past and I have the very basic TV..the starter package and the internet. That's all.They lowered my rate months ago to $122.72 and I have paid it every month and on time. Now they are trying to raise it again. I have argued with them over it over and over, From time to time, the picture tears and I cannot even watch it. I call them and they try to increase the signal but that seldom works. They end up sending a man out here to climb the pole and replace some part of the connection there. That has happened several times since I have lived in Caney the past couple of years. They provided me with a rental modem when I moved here and that went bad this year and they had to bring me a different one. Now they are trying to raise the rent on that one.

When I get back home tomorrow after my appointment, I will call billing and hash it out with them again. I get so sick of Cox's service. The only good thing about it is what I pay for for those "in home" calls. I carry Cox Complete Care and if I didn't have that, they would charge me $100 each time they send a man out here to try to get everything going again. When I moved here there were 4 dishes on the roof. Now I understand why.

More later tomorrow..

 

Monday and a Hearing Test

I slept well again last night and was up at my usual 5:00AM. I made my bed and got myself ready for the day.  I have a 9:00AM appointment in Bartlesville at Hearing Life in the strip mall just north of the Washington Park Mall. Leslie will be going there too because they asked me to bring someone with me. She will take her own vehicle because I will be going to visit Nancy afterward. 

Now I will check out my "weather on the 8's" and  see about the cats.

Both cats were there for breakfast this morning and I took it out to them. They are eating hungrily now.

They may have eaten hungrily but they ate fast and then left. It's very cold for them. I will need to take them out some more water. They are drinking what I left for  them yesterday and it is nearly gone..   

The weather forecast has not come on yet although it is 6:18AM now and it may be next after the commercials.

And it was...

Today is to be 47 degrees and  AM light rain. Tomorrow is to be 39 degrees and partly cloudy, Wednesday is to be 46 degrees and cloudy, Thursday is to be 34 degrees and snow and wind, Friday is to be 12 degrees and mostly sunny, Saturday is to be 20 degrees and mostly sunny, Sunday is to be 30 degrees and mostly sunny. So we are to get snow and wind on Thursday and just colder weather the rest of the week.

More Later... 

I left to go down to Bartlesville for the hearing test  about 8:15AM and went by the Okie car wash to see if it was open...it wasn't. So I just went on the the hearing aid place and sat in the car until Leslie came and soon one of the people who worked there arrived and we went on in. I had to fill out some paperwork and then she took us back for the test. It turned out I had moderate hearing loss. She tried a couple of hearing aids on me and demonstrated some more testing. She suggested a couple of hearing aids that cost a total of $5,000.I knew I couldn't buy those, They were way out of my budget. I sure didn't want to go into debt for them. 

After that I went to get Nancy so I could take her to lunch.We met Sally there and she sat with us and all three of us visited. 

I took Nancy home to the assisted living at 2:30PM and then I came on back home.

When I got home I called Charles and he told me I made too much money for Medicaid. I am not at all surprised but it was worth looking into. 

I took my bath at 6:00PM and will read until 9:00PM when I plan to go to bed.

Sunday and the Congregation's Christmas Dinner

I slept pretty well last night again. I got up once in the night and took my meds and got right back to sleep.

I am sleeping better it seems. If my sinus's weren't constantly draining, I would sleep even better. When I wake up I find my nose is completely stopped up with the drainage. That's life, I guess...with allergies. Any medicine I've ever taken just makes me drowsy all the time. I sure don't want to deal with that. If it isn't one thing, it's another. Getting old is not for sissies.

I was up at my usual 5:00AM. I am having my breakfast here in the den now. 

I will go turn on the TV and watch for the weather and the cats. It's 6:04AM now and they may be out there.  I will take the laptop computer in there to blog too.

More later... 

The only cat that showed up for breakfast was Scruff. She ate quickly and then left. It is very cold out there. I will wait awhile to see if  Blondie will show up for his breakfast. If he doesn't come pretty soon, I will bring the cat food back in the garage and cover it. He may be in some sort of shelter from the cold like under that house kitty cornered across the street. It's empty and a complete wreck. But there is open crawl space under it for shelter from the cold..

It is 19 degrees out there so I won't be taking my walk today.

I caught the weather forecast and it is also a bear on Monday and Thursday. Today will be 47 degrees and mostly sunny, Monday will be 43 degrees and AM rain and snow showers. Tuesday is to be 36 degrees and cloudy, Wednesday is to be 40 degrees and cloudy, Thursday is to be 28 degrees and snow and wind, Friday will be 10 degrees and mostly sunny and Saturday will be 20 degrees and mostly cloudy. I am not looking forward to the snow and the extreme cold. Winter is here. 

More Even Later...

I have been watching "Good Morning America" on TV. It is 9:02AM now and our church won't start until 11:00AM today and we won't have our usual breakfast but I will go over a little early to go to the bank and get some money and then out to Walmart there and get a couple of things I can't get here. I will then go out to our church about 10:30AM and take my Waldorf salad into the kitchen and get the things out we will need for our dinner and brew the coffee for those who want coffee. I will be happy with iced tea. I have had my coffee with my breakfast this morning.

More Later ..

I went to the and first and withdrew $50.00 for the week.  Then I went to buy gas and last of all went to their Wal-Mart to get the two things I couldn't get here at Caney.

Then I went out to church.We had a good service and a great Christmas dinner afterward. Phyllis and I did the dishes while the others wrote Christmas cards for those at the nursing home in Coffeyville. It used to be Windsor Place but Medicalodges bought them out.

We will not have church next Sunday. It will be Christmas Day and many of us will be with family for Christmas dinner and time with family. We will have our Christmas service on New Year's Day.

More Later... 

I wrote letters to those not at church today and included a bulletin so they would have the announcements and the prayer list. I will put them in them in the mail tomorrow.  I need to buy stamps again.

More even later... 

I watched the Mission Center service on Zoom. Leslie was the speaker and she did a good job.

Tomorrow I have an appointment at 9:00AM in Bartlesville to have my hearing tested for perhaps another hearing aid for my left ear. I will see if Medicaid will pay for it. If they will, I will check into it. I will leave here at 8:00AM so I won't be late for the appointment.

I took my bath awhile ago and I will read until 9:00PM when I plan to go to bed.