A Letter to the Editor

I did it. I broke down and wrote another letter to the editor. It was on the subject of gun control. I will post it here. I posted it on my church's web board and there has been quite a bit of interesting discussion over it.

Dear Editor,

I have been following this "gun rights" debate for several months.

I challenge your readers to actually read the second amendment to the constitution.

As passed by the Congress:

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

In the 1700's when this amendment was written, and even in 1800's frontier America, there were no police forces or national standing armies. Every state and even some communities raised their own militias to protect themselves against Indians and lawless marauders. These militias sometimes even had uniforms but they were common citizens that were a part of a state or community militia.

That was necessary in that day. Now we have standing armies, national guards and police forces to keep the peace. Citizens no longer have any need to bear arms for their own protection. Sure hunters need rifles. But who, in this day and age, needs an assault weapon? Those were designed for the military for war.

The culture has changed and become more violent than at any time since the 1700s. Since the tragedy at Newtown in December over 3500 people have been killed by guns.

How many states now have a militia? How many communities?

How many more people will be killed before people actually read the background of the second amendment and use some common sense?

Someone answered that we still needed militias and the federal government had no power over police forces. This was my answer to him.

We have the national guard and the army. Remember the national guard? They were called up in the south during the 60s after communities turned fire hoses and police dogs loose on children.

Monday Again

Another Monday morning. My Living the Questions group was very successful and we had a very good discussion after watching some more of Marilyn's DVD. Bob didn't come. He wasn't feeling well. But he's going to come over this morning for biscuits and coffee.

I will clean house this morning. My forearms are better and I got a good night's sleep for a change.

My younger son called last night and visited with me quite awhile. He is doing much better. Hawaii has probably helped to cure his depression. It's so beautiful over there. It was raining there yesterday when he called but he was still enjoying his apartment. He is on the 19th floor of an apartment building overlooking Waikiki Beach. He has a terrace that he sits out on and drinks his coffee in the morning.

Later today I will bake and ice my two cakes for tomorrow's dinner at the First Christian Church in Independence. I have a hair appointment after that tomorrow and then will come back home to meet Myra and we will visit awhile and then go to lunch.

More later....

I have my lunch over with and have my two cakes in the oven. When they come out, I'll have some cupcakes to put in. Then I will have a walk. It looks beautiful out there. While it lasts, I want to get in a walk.

Busy Sunday Again

I will go to church early this morning because we are going to be cooking breakfast for the community of people at 9:00. So Bob and I will go out at 8:00. We have no idea how many to plan for. We invited most everyone at the rummage sale to come back for breakfast.

It's not quite 5:30 this morning now. We will have church at 11:00 and the communion service but skip Church School today. My friend, Bill, will not be there. He and Carol are going to Chanute for a couple of weeks, probably to babysit the grandchildren. His birthday is tomorrow and I had his gift to take to him but now I will just have to keep it until they come back.

After church I will come home and do my letters and then make my dessert for tonight's Living the Questions group. The group will come at 7:00. I will need to remember to bring home my card table and the folding chairs that go with it from church otherwise I will not have enough seating.

I see Missy is up in one of my velvet chairs. I will have to clean cat hair out of it. She's shedding badly. Tomorrow I will clean house again and then bake my two cakes for Tuesday. I will need to get that remaining tire out of my trunk if I am going to take the cakes to Independence on Tuesday. I should have left it at Dollar Tire store but I thought it would make a better spare. I didn't think about having to have a wheel for it too. I have no place to store it so I will give it to them.

I slept fairly well last night. My arm did not hurt much. I still woke up at 4:30 and just got up then. No sense trying to go back to sleep.

More later....

The services this morning were very good. We didn't have many come for breakfast but a few made it. We also had a guest at church. I hope he comes back and brings his wife with him.

I did some cleaning this afternoon since I have Living the Questions group this evening. I also made a desert...one of my favorites. It's called Cherry Pie Cake. I serve it every once in awhile. I will get some ice cream to put on top of it. I also need to get some crushed ice at Brahms.

The Big Rummage Sale

For a month now the congregation of our church has planned a big congregation wide rummage sale. It's raining today...wouldn't you know? I really didn't think this was a good idea to begin with because our church is in the country. The cross road it's located on is in the midst of being resurfaced and has been closed for a month to through traffic. It won't be reopened until June 1st...if then. The work is going slowly.

Then the same group has planned a breakfast tomorrow morning for the community. That means somehow we will have to clean up the all purpose room for that. There are tables all over the place....even the foyer....and all are loaded down with rummage.....some of it mine...from the move. I will be glad when the weekend is over.

Just before seven I will go out to church to be sure someone is there when the doors open at 8;00. It's still raining so I don't know what to expect.

Monday I will clean house. It has been a week now. Myra is coming to see me and the apartment on Tuesday and then we will have lunch. It's been awhile since I've seen her.

More later...

It's over...it's finally over. I thought no one would show up but everyone showed up at the church. It rained and ours was inside and all the others were either in yards or garages and ours was warm. It was huge! It took us until 4:00 to get it cleaned up. Thursday we will take the boxes to the thrift stores and give them to them. We gave four county mental health all the shoes and clothing. We had several hundred dollars. I had three hundred forty five dollars in my cash box and I'm sure the others had that much in theirs too.

I'm exhausted though. One event down and the other one yet to go. Tomorrow is the breakfast. it's at 9:00 and we are serving sausage, pancakes, bacon, juice, and coffee. It's a free breakfast for our community.

Then over the Memorial Day holiday I have our class reunion this month. In June I have the Juneteenth celebration and in July I have the church reunion....that's a family camp. After that, I am free.

Another Better Night's Sleep

Again I slept better last night. I awoke at 11:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. I finally got up and took a melatonin. After about thirty minutes longer, I was finally able to sleep. I slept until quarter till five and then just got up and got around.

I have a hair appointment at 7:00 in Independence. Then I will pick up Bob at 11:00 or thereabouts and we will go to Chanute for lunch with Tony and Gay. It's been awhile since we've met them for lunch. The snow we got last night did not stick. That was strange for May 2nd.

I heard from Myra yesterday afternoon. It had been awhile. She had been to see her kids. They live in Montana and Iowa. She suggested we meet for lunch and I gave her some dates for next week. I haven't heard from her yet.

The doctor is supposed to call me back today about my blood tests. I don't believe he would have bothered if I hadn't called his office. Obviously, I am not impressed with him. But I have no idea who else I would to here and at my age I need a local doctor of some kind.

More later..

I went to exercise class this morning and just tried to avoid using my right arm. It's the one that hurts the worst most of the time.

Bob and I left for Chanute to have lunch with Gay and Tony and had a good visit. Later, on our way home, we heard a strange flapping noise and I pulled off the road onto the shoulder just in time. I had a flat. Luckily it didn't blow out. The entire inside of the tire came apart. I called for a tire repair and after about 45 minutes the man came to change the tire. He put the donut on but not before he noticed the trunk of my car had rusted out. The donut was rusted on and he had to force it off. He then followed me into town to the Dollar Tire store where I spent a little over $200 for a couple of new tires. The tire change itself probably cost me $100 so it was an expensive lunch. Not as expensive as it could have been though because I had been driving 69 miles per hour before hearing the noise.

I stopped by Gary's Automotive on the way home and learned I was almost ready for a brake job. I went ahead and scheduled it for the 20th of May. This will be an expensive month but not as expensive as work on the house would have been.

A Better Night's Sleep

Last night was better as far as sleep is concerned. I took extra strength Tylenol before I went to bed and did better. I awoke at 11:30 and cleaned up Missy's litter box and let her out and then went back to sleep for a couple of hours before I let her back in. It was considerably colder so she was glad to get back in. I slept until nearly 6:00.

I will make hamburger pie today and have Bob over for lunch/dinner. I will need to get a salad. He is doing better now. I checked on him yesterday evening when I saw him sitting out in his porch swing. He didn't eat much yesterday except the rest of his oatmeal. He said he had no appetite.

I worked on the class reunion material yesterday. We have 36 registered thus far. I expect another twenty or so before the 10th, which is the deadline. Since we had that mini reunion last year, this may be a smaller one. We had over 100 last year.

More later as the day progresses.

That hamburger pie went over well. It was a new recipe and it was good. I served it with salad. Then we each had a couple of cookies for dessert. We were both too full. It was the first meal I had cooked in some time. We have been eating out.

It has been cold all day. I wrote a couple of letters so I got out to go to the post office to get stamps. Now I am back home and reading my book again in the warm house. The book is volume two of the history of our church.

We had another two registrations for the class reunion and are now up to 38. I expect several more before the 10th. That's the deadline.

Another Bad Night

I had another bad night last night. My right arm ached terribly. It still does. I awoke at 12:00 and was up in the recliner for an hour or so before going back to bed. I didn't have Tylenol, which the doctor wanted me to take with that anti-inflammatory so I took a couple of baby aspirins and that helped. At least eventually I got back to sleep and slept until after 6:00. I will get some Tylenol this morning. I would like to avoid the kind of nights I've had lately.

I called Bob this morning and he had not done well last night at all. He was unable to sleep so he took another pain pill at 4:00 with just a cracker. He has had the dry heaves ever since. I offered to make him some oatmeal to take with his next pill but he just wants to lie in the recliner and rest. He has had an exhausting night. His hand is sore but not terribly painful. I had that experience with my bunion surgeries. I was never able to take anything but aspirin. Pain medication made me terribly sick. He needed to eat something substantial like oatmeal when he took that medicine. A cracker just doesn't do it.

The rent is due today. I will get down to the landlord's later this morning. I already have my check made out.

More later....

I got my rent paid and paid Bob's too. He had made out the check before his surgery. I had some potato soup for lunch. Bob still had no appetite so I didn't make the hamburger pie. I will make it tomorrow.

I read my book yesterday and finished the first volume. I took it to Karan. She wanted to read it.