Today was Bruce's 75th birthday and they kindly invited me to lunch with them.  It was a place called Cake Appeal which specialises in buffet style light lunches of soups, salads and baked potatoes, and wonderful array of pastries for dessert (but I took mine to go).  Rosalyn had organised the day carefully.  While we were having lunch - unknown to Bruce - her help came in and cleared all round his computer where he had stacks and stacks of files and papers.  Then he went off to have a massage - which was a present from her.  And while he was having
his massage the computer company down the road from me went in to sort out his computer, so he could use it instead of using her Apple (which he professes not to like).  The only think making Rosalyn nervous was the fact that he doesn't like anyone touching his papers, and I have yet to hear how that went down but the lunch was nice, and he was happy when he set off for his massage.

Because he likes unusual combinations of flavours I gave him some unusual bars of chocolate.  They were all dark chocolate, one was with toasted Panko breadcrumbs and sea salt; coffee and anise; 
chipotle, salt and popping candy, and the final one was infused with pasilla chile, cayenne pepper and cinnamon. 

The news.....There were two things dominating the news today....There have been reports throughout the day from the Extreme Weather Centre tracking hurricane Earl, which is a category 4 hurricane and could cause immense devastation if it hits land. It already has caused severe damage in the Caribbean. There has been a mandatory evacuation of an island off the coast of North Carolina and there might be other evacuations ordered during the night.   I might be looking at the Severe Weather Centre tracking the hurricane during the night.  And we have some severe thunderstorms expected in Oklahoma.



The other item of news is that the war in Iraq has ended. The President addressed the Nation from the Oval Office.   The combat troops have been withdrawn, there are 50,000 support troops left to help the Iraqis establish a stable government.  They will be there until next year.

I think Rosalyn's cat, Persimmon, was breathing her last today.  Rosalyn is about to consult a psychic to see if she should be put down.  She is a good friend, and I love her very dearly, but I had to refrain from suggesting she consult a vet, I am so not into her Californian New Age philosophies (although she was raised in Tennessee).   While I was there she blended some tuna into a thin cream which Persimmon lapped up, but then we noticed that she kept moving her head around afterwards, as if she was having difficulty swallowing.  A landscaping contractor came in yesterday and has prepared her burial place in the garden, and planted a cape myrtle which will grow over and shade it.   I said I hoped Bubbles outlives me, I'm not sure I could be doing all this.

Monday

You know you are living in a hot place when 83 degrees feels cool. That is what it was early this morning when I decided to go out before 'it got too hot'.   Took my laptop and new camera to the Radio Shack and told them I didn't know if I was in the right place, but had to start somewhere.  They were very helpful and the fault was obviously with the old card reader I had.  I said I didn't understand why the new film card was exactly the same size as the one I had been using but didn't operate on the old card reader.   I was told the manufacturer often puts a code on it, so you have to buy the new card reader.   All this built-in obsolescence annoys me.

Anyway, here are my photos from yesterday.

 Rosalyn setting up her keyboard at the Communion/Parish Picnic.

Mel, who runs the Altar Guild, setting up.

Fr Clark officiating.  When we received we formed two lines on either side of the firepit there.

Me, looking exactly like my grandmother. Not that there was anything wrong with her, just that she was old and round and had white hair. I stare at this photo and wonder where the young, pretty, slim me went to.  If I'd known I would look like my grandmother I would have eaten less, kept my arms toned and my hair dyed.  I thought I would grow old like Vanessa Redgrave who has never had any plastic surgery but who radiates character from her lined face and grey hair, and is slim and elegant and warm.


My Alzheimers doesn't get better.  I pulled into a filling station, went inside and paid for my gas (you have to pay in advance here) then I climbed back in the car and drove off (I didn't go very far though before I turned back).  I have to say my attention was caught by a notice on the door that said

No checks

No shirts

No shoes

No ID

No Service

No Exceptions

I climbed back in the car bemused.  No shirts.  No shoes.  Hell, you're a filling station, not a four star restaurant.

And on the subject of notices. I saw someone putting something on the door of the Senior Centre,advertising a Rock Gospel Concert (!!)

The tickets were $10, which for this place is a lot of money, so I asked if they included a buffet.  Was told there would be peanut butter sandwiches.  Thinks.......oh, yummy, yummy.

Sunday

It was a good day.   The service this morning was held at St Crispan's Conference and Retreat Centre, which is in a lovely setting and belongs to the Episcopal Church, it is about half an hour away, and it was followed by the annual church picnic.   Emmanuel provided the entree and drinks for the picnic and everyone brought a side dish or dessert.  It was an early start, I went with Rosalyn and she needed to be there early to set up her keyboard. 

I took some photos but can't post them yet.  I had to buy a new camera yesterday, a part broke off on my old one, and I bought a similar make, a Nikon Coolpix, but being a later version it is not exactly the same, the batteries are different.  The film card looks the same but I can't get the new card to operate in the Universal Card Reader.   At the moment I am not sure whether to seek help from the camera shop, or a computer technician.  I think I might start with the camera shop in the morning.

Rosalyn's cat, Persimmon, who is very elderly is fading away.  She has been critical for the last fortnight, she has taken to her bed (in the spare room) and is monitored on a daily basis by her homeopathic vet  (on the phone, the vet is in California as you might expect, they don't go in for such things here on the Plains).  She manages to drag herself off her bed to go to her litter box, then goes back to bed where everything is brought to her, her homeopathic treatments etc. to make her comfortable.  I keep telling Rosalyn she is never going to die, she knows Kitty Heaven doesn't get better than this.

I hope tomorrow I will be able to put up some photos with the new camera.

Friday 27 August

I went to the hospital about noon, had lunch with Keith and Pattisue, then went round the 2nd floor.  There were only about a dozen patients, I think they try to send them home at the weekend.  Keith was having to go to OK City in the afternoon and a bad road accident came in so he asked Pattisue to go down to the ER.  I said I was glad it was her rather her than me, I'm not sure I'd be up to dealing with distraught relatives in ER. She said you just wing it and pray for the right things to say, or to know when to keep quiet.

I don't have very much to twitter about this evening, I've been a little less than happy today.  My computer problems are not resolving very quickly, the technicians are having difficulty tracking down a new motherboard, and I think there is a problem with the processor but I can't get to the bottom of that.

I am also suffering from back pains, the Ibuprofen I've been taking doesn't seem to make much difference, I'm having to resort to a hot water bottle to relieve them but with the temperatures in the high 90s, it is a bit hot for a hot water bottle, even in a cool house.  But feeling a bit hot and sticky is a lesser evil than back pain.  So on that miserable note I'll hope for a better day tomorrow.

Thursday 26 August

It is cooler in the mornings, I don't have to go out and open all four doors and crank up the air conditioning in the car before I get going.  It climbs up though, the heat, during the day.

Off out early to pick up the donuts, but someone else has stepped up to the plate next month so it is the last time for a while.

Fr Clark was talking at the meal last night about a lady in the UK who dumped a cat in a dustbin.  He was outraged, as we all were.  Then, golly me, someone in Kiwanis this morning raised the matter, saying how ridiculous it was to report something so trivial.  Then Fr Clark raised the matter again just before Communion and in an e-mail to me.   I said I am finding it hard to get my head round the fact that both our economies are in deep recession; top secret documents endangering the lives of US and Coalition forces have been leaked; a mosque is being built on Ground Zero; more Africans are dying from climate change than malaria and Aids, and here we are HOTLY debating a cat in a dustbin.  There has to be a message, or a sermon, in there somewhere.  

Glad things are getting back to the normal schedule at Emmanuel.  
 The Thursday morning study group, Communion and lunch started again this morning.   8 of us had lunch at a Mexican restaurant.  I don't make it to the study group.  Between my early start, Kiwanis and meals on wheels I need a half hour at home before Communion.


This evening I went to the movies at the Mall with Rosalyn and her daughter.  It was 'Eat, Pray, Love' with Julia Roberts and was very good.

Tuesday

Woke up this morning to a thunderstorm and rain gushing out of the sky.   It had cleared up by mid morning and the rest of the day was fine.   As I don't have any commitments on Tuesdays I decided to spend the day indoors and finished crocheting a small afghan, one to just pull up while watching television, when it is just a little chilly but not chilly enough to turn off the air conditioning.

In the news......There is a town on the Arizona/Mexico border where children catch a school bus which takes them 38 miles to a school in AZ (that's some school trip - unless you live in Sussex it would take you practically into the next county, never mind the next school district) Anyway, children have now got to produce evidence to the bus driver that they live in AZ, like a utility bill with their address on, because Mexican children were crossing the border and catching this bus, and it was becoming too expensive to educate all these Mexican children.   It is alright for illegal immigrants' living in AZ to catch this bus but not Mexicans living in Mexico (!!)

Monday 24 Aug

Apart from going out for the meals on wheels I really haven't done anything today to tweeter about.

So, in the news.....A fat lady goes into a nail salon in Georgia.  Has her nails and her toes all prettied up, then when she pays her bill finds a $5 surcharge has been added because she is fat.  The proprietor's defence was that the chairs cost $2500 and fat people are going to wear them out quicker, and they will need replacing sooner.  She was also told not to go there again (as if she would).  I'd have liked to have seen just how fat she was (not that that makes any difference) but the camera only focused on her head and shoulders.

A point I noticed - because every nail salon proprietor in Oklahoma is Chinese - was the fact that even in Georgia this proprietor was Chinese.  There must, somewhere in China, be a place where all these manicurists are taught, then they come to America and seek their fortune.  In future, when I am walking across a strip Mall where these salons are situated I will look in and see if they have any obese customers.  Although 9 out of 10 people in Shawnee are obese anyway, so they'd go out of business for charging them for being too fat.  People must be slimmer in Georgia.And yes, I know, I know, I send you photos and I am way too overweight myself, just believe me, I am not as fat as some.

A new school has just been built in the Los Angeles school district which costs over 1/2 billion dollars.  It is magnificent (as well it might be) the Taj Mahal of schools (and this school district has a $640million budget deficit)  It has soft dance floors, atriums, a state of the art swimming pool, food courts, pizza ovens, artistic murals on the walls, manicured gardens.   Wow, I can't even begin to compare it with the school I went to.  What most people are having a problem getting their heads round, apart from the cost and its lavishness, is the fact that in that school district the drop out rate is 50%, and 90% don't go to college, and the money would be better spent on teachers. 

The violence on the border doesn't get any better.  The Mexican drug cartels are getting more desperate.  There was a violent shoot out in Ciudad Juarez - which has become known as the most dangerous place on the planet, and bullets flew across the Rio Grande into El Paso in Texas, hitting the University of Texas in El Paso.  I think quite a few Mexicans were killed but so far no stray bullets have hit any Americans.   There's going to be merry hell when they do though.

Sunday

Went to the 9.30 service at Emmanuel, which is the last in the summer season.  Next week it goes back to 10.30 and it will be held at St Crispins, a retreat centre out of town a bit where we are combining the service with a picnic.

A few days ago I gave Rosalyn the music of "I have decided to follow Jesus" a hymn I particularly like at the moment and she played it softly during Communion, it was lovely.

I picked up lunch at the Golden Corral buffet and ate it while watching one of the Sunday talk show hosts interview the disgraced governor of Illinois, who was loudly protesting his innocence - as usual.   His retrial, and his defence, will cost the cash strapped American taxpayers millions, a point he keeps labouring.  And it will be held during the mid term elections in November which will not be good for the Democrats.   But it will be entertaining.  He was at an event today that features comic cut heroes and was selling his autograph for $50, and a photoshoot with him at $80.  He was asked by the talk show host if there was nothing he wouldn't do for a buck.
He pleaded poverty and said he needed to feed his wife and little girls.  I'm sure that tugged at the nation's heartstrings.


I took a photo of him from the tv so you can see what the idiot looks like.   Another point about him is that he loves Elvis, and even more loves doing Elvis impersonations.  His hair is always being mocked.

I went out to the local pharmacy this evening, although it is no cooler here in the evenings than during the day, it's not like at home, or the Mediterranean where one needs a light cardigan in the evening.  Anyway, they were displaying a sign advertising gift cards for flu shots.  Flu shots.  Memo to my loved ones.  I would not thank you for a gift card for a flu shot.

 

Saturday

Usually on Saturday I am even  more lazy than usual at getting going in the morning, but today I had to be up and out.  The post office had tried to deliver something from Amazon when I was out yesterday, and they are only open on Saturdays from 8 to 10.

Afterwards I did a little shopping in one of the the dollar stores, I think I've said before they are like our pound shops but better set out.   I was going to the monthly meeting of the AARP - the American Association of Retired Persons - which was held in the cafeteria of one of the large Baptist churches and whenever two or three are gathered together there are door prizes (a cross between a raffle and childrens party bags, but you don't buy a ticket, when you sign in there's a number beside your name, and these decides the winners) so I went to the dollar store for items for a party bag/door prize. And these are what I got.  The first photo is the party bag items and the second a few things I picked up for myself.

They're not bad are they?  All for a dollar each.  Apart from the mixed nuts in the party bag, which I already had, they came to a grand total of a little under $11, with the state tax.   They occasionally have worthwhile bargains in books at a $1.  The one I bought is one of those handbooks on making yourself over.  How to have a healthier, fitter, better, more organised life.  In my case of course it is too late, but at least it tells me where I went wrong.

After this little shopping spree I went to said monthly meeting, they had the business part first - they support various charitable projects in Shawnee - then we had lunch, and after wards an entertainment and the draw for the party bags.  I sat with some Kiwanis who are members, and enjoyed it.

Later on, as I was driving through the town, there were some young people cleaning cars in one of the strip malls, they were from a school north of Shawnee who were raising money to take seniors on a trip abroad, they were going either to the Ukraine or Israel. And my car needed to be done, and I hate the other car washes in Shawnee.

 The second photo is me waiting for the car to be done.

It is now 9.15pm, I am low on fuel in the car so am going to the filling station at the Tribal area, near here.  If I have an adventure between now and coming back I will write it up, otherwise say goodnight.

So much for the weather getting cooler, the roadside thermometers I passed going through town were 103.

The desktop PC needs a new motherboard, fortunately the last one they put in not so long ago is still under warranty.  It is going to be next week before they get it in.

I was tidying up some cupboards this morning and found I had 7 rolls of aluminium foil, 5 boxes of trash bags, 3 bottles of stuff to clean the ceramic cooker (and they are not cheap).  I'm thinking I must be in 1st stage Alzeimer's.   Isn't that what people do when they start getting Alzeimer's.  I know it can't be diagnosed until the 2nd stage and the individual needs treatment, and the third stage is when they are really bad.


I did my hospital chaplaincy round today, got to the hospital about noon, had lunch with Keith and Pattisue, then saw about 16 patients.  

Computer Woes - Thursday

I was going to do this last night, Thursday, but was a bit too tired.

When I turned on the computer this morning, Thursday, nothing happened on the monitor.  Called in at usual computer shop in Main Street, and when no one had turned up by the middle of the afternoon I rang again and the boss guy fortunately answered (he has political aspirations and that is normally what he is doing at the moment)and he called someone up who was out on the road who came straight out to the house.  There has been a big turnround of staff there, which is a shame when people have got to know me and my computer's idiosyncrasies, and the fact that as it was Larry's they know I don't want to replace it, but I know the boss guy will always look after me, so for the moment am not changing.   The laptop wasn't working either, it was full of infections and  viruses and it spent the day at a Computer Hospital, but fortunately I could bring it home last night.  Was disconcerted though to find I could not get an internet connection, so rang the cable company's support line and they talked me through connecting it to the wireless router so I got online.  But there is a problem with the wireless router which I will get the main computer company to look at when they come.

Kiwanis speaker was from the YMCA which has changed its name to The Y, because 'that's what everyone was calling it'. Although I wasn't. It  seems to have changed its objectives over the years.  Now, in Shawnee at least, its purpose is youth and community development and social outreach.  There is a YWCA (but not in Shawnee) whose purpose is helping women deal with domestic violence.  The pool which has been closed now for over a year expects to reopen in the middle of September.  I always loved the jacuzzi in the pool, and the water walking exercise.


I'd arranged to meet Sharon last night at the popular restaurant/deli where the monthly Poetry crowd were meeting.  I nearly put her off, being so stressed out with my computers, but was glad I didn't.  There were quite a few folk there I knew who were participating, Fr Clark being one of them.  Shawnee is actually a very arty/cultural sort of place.


In the news.....Bonnie and Clyde have been captured.  They were on a campsite in Arizona, still driving round in the car they stole in New Mexico, which was backed into some trees as if the owners were trying to conceal it, which aroused suspicion.  Adding to the suspicion was the fact that it still had its New Mexico plates on.  The guy was asleep in the tent.  The fiancee/cousin pulled a gun from the small of her back but dropped it when she saw the police were about to shoot her.  They seem to me to have been very careless. If I'd been dodging the cops I'd have headed off to the wilds of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and picked up a car with Kentucky plates on.


Heads have certainly been rolling at the prison.  The alarm system was known to be faulty.  There was a 15 minute time slot when the shifts were changing and no one was watching the prisoners.  All the high security prisoners have been moved somewhere that is high security.

Wednesday

It's hot again.  The air conditioning is back on.  Turned right up, or down, at 60 anyway.

When I got up I was - unusually for me - busy cooking.  I cooked some mixed vegetables and made a cheese sauce which I will heat up tonight and take to Emmanuel for the pre-confirmation class meal.  Also diced some watermelon for a watermelon and arugula salad, and prepared the dressing for it.  I hadn't heard of arugula before I came here, I think you might call it rocket.  It's very popular with my healthy eating pals.  They definitely don't like iceberg lettuce.

Went round with my meals on wheels.  On to the hospital chaplaincy.  Larry, the head Chaplain was in the office when I got there.  Somehow we got on to the subject of wrong choices and I told him it was the story of my life and the emotional pain from wrong choices I made years ago is still with me.  He swivelled round in his chair and went into counselling mode.  I sat down.  Pattisue came in and sat down.  Keith came in and sat down.  Although we were all in a circle they didn't add to the conversation, they simply listened.  Then we all went to lunch.   Afterwards I visited 16 patients on the second floor.

I was home in the middle of the afternoon, I had time to take a breath before going out again to Emmanuel, there weren't as many for the meal as there will be when the summer schedule ends and normal programming resumes, they were mostly Fr Clark's confirmation class.

After the meal it was such a lovely summer evening I didn't feel quite like going home and drove down to the Lakes, which is a lovely drive out of town.

There were quite a few people cooling off in the Lake, but it is difficult to take photos of the Lake at that time because of the angle of the sun.

Someone in downtown Shawnee is working on a new mural, and I took a photograph of that, although it is still a work in progress.

In the news.......I thought there was an interesting sideline to yesterday's story of the hung jury in the trial of the Governor of Illinois.   One of the jurors was interviewed on a Fox News programme.  He was a young college graduate, the grown ups were probably glad to be back at work.  I think I mentioned yesterday that the only unanimous vote out of the 24 counts was lying to the FBI (which carries a 7 year prison sentence, if he is found guilty on all counts in the re-trial it will add up to 400 years).   The 11 to 1 vote was over trying to sell Obama's Senate seat, I think the one person holding out was someone who obviously liked him and refused to go along with a guilty vote - in spite of the fact that the FBI had tapped the phone call, and it was all replayed in court.  Apparently votes on the other counts were all over the place and the young juror said the Prosecution's case was very confusing, so one hopes that in the re-trial they will make a better job of it.  Although it is a very complex and confusing case.

Tuesday

Definitely getting cooler, turned the air conditioning down this evening so the house was less fridge like, then when I needed a sweat shirt I decided to turn it off.   Had a heavy shower this morning.

I went to the Senior Centre this morning; at the gospel singing I told the story behind the hymn of "I'd Rather have Jesus".  

I didn't do much else, I have been feeling very very tired lately.   Probably old age.

In the news........The nation has been entertained the last few months by the trial of the former governor of Illinois - Rod Blagovech, known as Blago to the tv anchor men who mock him - who was charged on 24 counts of - among other things - wire fraud, corruption, lying to the FBI, and trying to sell President Obama's Senate seat when he became President.      He is a 'character' which is why his trial has been entertaining everyone, people either love or hate him,   After 14 days of deliberation it was announced today that there was a hung jury and there is going to have to be another trial.  Later this evening it emerged that the jury were 11 to 1 in finding him guilty.  The 1 obviously falls in the category of loving him.  When the FBI became suspicious of him they tapped his phones, and over and over again on the news, over the last weeks, they've replayed the tape of him trying to sell Obama's Senate seat.  The 11 jurors must have got very exasperated with the 1 who was holding out.

The war on the Mexican border isn't letting up.  Ciudad Juarez is a town on the border and there has so far this year, been 1700 violent deaths in that one town.  It is said to be more dangerous than Baghdad or the Swat Valley in Afghanistan, and although Americans have stopped visiting Mexico tourism from other places has increased.  Don't they look at the news.

Monday 16th August

It was cooler today, about 83.  

To my chagrin my internet connection has kept dropping since Friday, I went to the cable company on Friday but no one came, so I went again this morning.   I also called in at the office of another service provider to make enquiries, but I didn't get very far.  They wanted some Oklahoma ID like a driving licence (I'll tell you the saga of the driving licence in a minute); they also required a social security number, which I haven't got (but Rosalyn has told me where to go to get one, so that is on my 'to do' list for tomorrow).   Anyway, a very competent guy from the cable company came out in the early afternoon and he replaced the equipment, the modem etc. He said the guy last month should have done that when he replaced the melted cable.   So, for a little while, I am happy with my internet connection.

I thought I had photographed all the painted horses in Shawnee, but was driving in an area I hadn't been before and found this one.

This was in front of the office of OG&E, the Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company.

I told one or two of you about trying to obtain an Oklahoma driving licence a couple of weeks ago. I was telling Rosalyn tonight in an e-mail, she thought I should blog it so this is the unabridged version. And I wonder if my description of driving tests in England will strike a chord with anyone?


In England, getting a driver's license is a BIG DEAL. You send in your application and the appointment comes in the post. You present yourself at the appointed time, all very nervous, with your driver/supervisor (one can't drive unaccompanied without a full licence). You have to be able to read a number plate at 25 yards, so you memorise the number plates of all the parked cars outside the test centre. Then you go in, sit down (by which time the nervousness has reached a crescendo) and you wait for your examiner to come out and sweep you off, hoping and hoping it is not one you have been warned about.

Here, I went into the licence place to make my preliminary enquiries, expecting to be given a form so that they can send me an appointment in the post. BUT NO. You take a ticket, like you're at a deli counter!!! and just sit down, and unless you go at the end of the day - like I did - you're tested there and then!!!! And I was told I would have to drive as well as take a written test.

Like I said, it was the end of the day, almost. There was only me in there and the two people running the place ushered me to a desk and said they could do the preliminaries. Test my eyesight. Shock!! horror!! I was not expecting this and had left my glasses in the car. But they sat me down at one of those thingies opticians have (no memorising number plates outside). Then they took my photo. Then tried to take my fingerprints. That's when the hilarity began. She thought if she pressed hard enough on my finger she would be able to produce one. When I finished laughing I advised her to just give up, everyone else has had to.

I then asked when I had to present myself for this test. She said within ten days of becoming a permanent resident (gulp) I said I needed another six months to study the driving manual/highway code and where would I get one. Told I could buy one from the Tag Agency for $5 or download it free from the internet, and she gave me the website (which I have yet still to look at) I am practising first, driving carefully round Shawnee and taking note of signposts so that when I get to the driving manual it might be half way familiar to me.   When I tried to pin her down on how long I had before I had to take this test she just said she wasn't a law enforcement officer.

Weekend 14/15 August

Heard today that the weather is going to be cooler next week, that will be nice.  Some rain will be nice.

Was not out very much over the weekend.  Went to the 9.30 Service at Emmanuel this morning.  Picked up a chilli takeout for lunch when I was filling up with petrol.   I went out this evening to visit the friendly folk at the Baptist Church.    Watched two very good Food Network competitions this evening.

In the news this weekend…..Three young lads, 15, 13 and 11 took a flight, without their parents knowledge, from Florida to Tennessee. They wanted to go to Dolly Parton’s Theme Park, and had saved the money – or one of them did – from baby sitting. They paid about $80 for the cab to the airport, $600 for the tickets, and when they got there they had $40 left, and were very disappointed to find that Dollywood was not next to the airport, so had to ring their parents, who were not pleased.   Bless them. I hope Dolly Parton heard about it and treated them.

Bonnie and Clyde are still on the run.   A warden and security official at the prison have resigned.  As well they might.  One wonders where the guards were when the wire cutters were being chucked over the fence.  And these inmates were in there for second degree murder, one would have thought the security would have been much tighter.  Authorities say that the wire cutting accomplice, the cousin/fiancee of one of the prisoners was acting as a drug mule for a white supremacy group weeks before she helped him escape from prison.  While she was visiting her fiance/cousin at the prison in June, a random search of her and her vehicle turned up marijuana, heroin and drug paraphernalia, She told investigators she was being paid by members or associates of supremacists to smuggle heroin into the prison, which she had successfully done three times before.   I'd have thought she would have been locked up then, not left to run around organising a prison breakout.  There were actually four of them originally escaped.  One was caught singing hymns in a Wyoming church - which sounds as good a place as any to blend into the background, except that one member of the congregation was a bit too sharp eyed and recognised him from the police description.

Oklahoma City is the unhealthiest city in the country, as measured by the American College of Sports Medicine's annual fitness index. The index looks at 30 fitness indicators, including obesity and exercise rates, death rate from cardiovascular disease, acres of park land, number of primary care physicians per capita and percentage of residents who bicycle or walk to work.   Oklahoma City received a score of 24.3, making it the most sluggish city in the U.S. The obesity rate is 30.2%, four points above average. It has an exercise rate of 71% and has half as many baseball diamonds, recreation centers and dog parks as most cities. Detroit and Las Vegas also performed poorly on the fitness index.    This does not surprise me in the least.  As I have said on numerous occasions in the past, the obesity here is jaw dropping.   Shawnee though has got a lot of parks, I think there are 19.


Taken at Emmanuel this morning.  The children with the youth leader, before going off to their Sunday school.

Bears having a picnic, one got his face caught in a bottle, but someone pulled it off.....

and they went off....none the worse for it.

Friday

Still brutally hot here, I think the temperature was 103, I don't know what the heat index was - the feel like temperature -  but it must it must have been way up.  I keep the house as cold as a fridge and when I start feeling chilly I step outside for a few moments to remind myself why it is so cold indoors.

Went to the gospel singing at the Senior Centre this morning, then straight on to the hospital.  I met up with the others first in the cafeteria, then went round one of the floors.

I lost my internet connection this morning, to my irritation, and entailed another trip to the cable company.    Bruce and Rosalyn use the same cable company and have just changed their internet provider because they got fed up at the internet connection always going down.  They are happy today, it is finally working, but the last few days have been fraught for them, which makes me nervous at changing.

I went to the movies tonight with Rosalyn to see 'Karate Kid', it was very good although the violence made me cringe.  It had a good story line and it was all shot in China.  

Thursday 12th August

Up early fetching the donuts.  The Kiwanis speaker was a school counsellor who talked about Summer Camps, which keep American children occupied during the summer school holidays.   They are obviously very popular, he showed slides of them and their activities.  They spent some time down at the Twin Lakes, just outside town.  And they went to the Water World in Oklahoma City, a big theme park with lots of water rides.

I had an hour at home before setting off with my meals on wheels.  Then another short interlude at home before going to the Chapel Service at the hospital.   It was the 92nd birthday of one of the volunteers and the head chaplain made a big deal of it which was very nice, with card, present, birthday cake, kind words and tributes.   People here  seem to live longer - and more actively - than they do at home, there are loads of 90+ year olds around town being busy and useful.

I'm a member of the Friends of the local art gallery and museum, on the campus of St Gregory's University,  and they had their member's annual social event this evening with pie and ice cream.  There was entertainment, and a local poet - a professor at Oklahoma Baptist University - read from his latest book.  I went by myself, I knew there would be people I knew when I got there, and there were in fact several from Emmanuel, and someone from Kiwanis.  Rosalyn and Bruce were members, it was they who introduced me to the museum, but they have since let their membership lapse.

In the news.....Bonnie and Clyde are still giving law enforcement agencies the run around.  They might be in Montana, or they could be in western Arkansas (western Arkansas is immediately east of Oklahoma, Montana is on the Canadian border).   They might be driving a semi truck.  Or they could be in a Nissan Sentra, which might be grey, or it could be gold or tan.  She might have dark hair, or she might have dyed it blonde.  Police are obviously hot on the trail.

Wednesday

Running round this morning doing my errands and meals on wheels.   On to the Hospital Chaplaincy, had lunch with Keith and Pattisue then went round ICU.  The patients there are so much more ill, or unconscious, I tend to talk to their visitors who are holding a vigil at their bedside.

Had a nap this afternoon.   Fr Clark is holding the first of his confirmation classes this evening, although we are still operating on the summer schedule he needs to start now to have them finished by the time the Bishop comes in October.   He hadn't realised that the Wednesday suppers hadn't started yet and advertised food before the class so he ended up providing pizzas, I took a tomato salad,  and a sweet corn salad, Rosalyn brought a green salad.  It was nice sitting down to supper with them.   Afterwards they all settled down to their class, I said I was only there for the food and waved them goodbye.

I had intended to go and see 'Karate Kid' at the downtown movies, mainly because it was all shot in China, but when I got to the box office it was way too crowded, masses of children, and I have got used to having the cinema practically empty, so I turned away.

Monday/Tuesday

Monday
When I first came here I heard someone saying in the hot summer weather that she was tired of it, and was looking forward to the Fall.   Me, unused to long, hot summer days, I thought it was a shame that she was wishing away the summer instead of enjoying it.  I think I am now on the same page.  I too, am looking forward to autumn, to cooler, damper days instead of frying in triple digits.   I went out to Walmart this evening at 9 o'clock because even a 25 yard walk across the parking lot during the day is killing.  At 9 o'clock it is only in the mid 90s.

In the news........
I wrote yesterday about two dangerous escaped convicts, I think they were in a prison in the desert in Arizona, and the cousin/girl friend of one of them tossed some wire cutters over the fence to them (!!!) so the three of them hightailed off to the Yellowstone National Park, stopping first at mama's house (the mother of one of them) who gave them what they needed (said mama has been taken into custody, charged with being an accessory and she faces several years jail time).   When they got to Yellowstone they split up and the one on his own was captured, taken into custody, and has waived his right to fight extradition back to Arizona.  Bonnie and Clyde however are still on the run possibly in the Glacier National Park area where there are small roads across the Canadian border, but there are helicopters out looking for them on the border.

A flight attendant freaked out on board a Jet Blue plane after a run in with an obnoxious passenger.  The plane was on the ground, flight attendant grabbed a beer from the chiller cabinet, opened the emergency door, slid down the chute and ran off to his car.  His career, obviously, is over, and he could theoretically face 7 years in prison.  The obnoxious passenger though was breaking Federal law causing a disturbance on the plane, and if the flight attendant had just let events run their course he would still have a career and the passenger would be facing prosecution instead.

Tuesday
I went to the Gospel Singing this morning at the Senior Centre.  This evening I went with Sharon to a lesson in Camp Fire Cooking.  We thought it would be a big open fire outside and had a few misgivings about the heat, but it was actually Dutch oven cooking.   We did all the prepping inside then sat around outside while it cooked in the ovens. 

There were 21 of us, divided into 7 teams of 3, and we made cheeseburger chowder; broccoli and cream cheese medley; cheesy potatoes; beef enchilladas; Mexican corn bread; pineapple upside down cake and apple cobbler.  I was on team  broccoli.   When it was cooked I think everybody had a little bit of everything and it was really good.

As you can see the food is cooked in the Dutch ovens, with charcoal bricks underneath and on top.

Broccoli and cream cheese.

Pineapple upside down cake.

Apple Cobbler (although we might call it Crumble)

 

Sunday 8th August

Went to the 9.30 this morning at Emmanuel.  I love Emmanuel, and Fr Clark, I do sigh though sometimes at its very high Anglo Catholic practices.  There wasn't any incense this morning but on the major Holy Days the church is saturated with it and I had to suppress a laugh when reading the first lesson from Isaiah in which it said that "incense shall be an abomination", and I thought "if only it were".   Rosalyn didn't think the laugh was very suppressed, she thought it was 'hysterical'.  I've e-mailed Fr Clark and asked if he picked up on it.

I had lunch with Rosalyn and Bruce at a seafood restaurant.  I've been here two years and didn't know this before, I don't usually have alcohol with lunch and they never do, but today I was studying a menu of long, cold, alcoholic drinks which all looked very nice until the waiter interruped my reverie by saying they can't serve alchohol on Sundays in Oklahoma.   I thought of all the people I know at home, or have known, who wouldn't think of Sunday lunch without a bottle of something.  What a crazy law.

The lunch was very nice though.  I opted for two starters instead of an entree, and had bacon wrapped scallops with Bourbon sauce (someone commented that I was getting my alcohol) Caesar salad and hot, freshly baked biscuits (a sort of scone).  The second starter - crab cakes and remoulade sauce - I couldn't eat and brought them home to have tomorrow.  The waiter gave me some more biscuits in a special bag to microwave them.

In the news.......  The big story is two dangerous prisoners who escaped from jail and are on the run, at the moment they are believed to be in Yellowstone National Park.   If I ever think of camping in Yellowstone Park remind me that I don't want to.  It sounds extremely dangerous; if you are not eaten by bears in your tent you could run into dangerous escaped prisoners.

It was Obama's 49th birthday which he spent playing basketball then having a BBQ on the White House Lawn, while Michelle and youngest daughter were on a lavish holiday in Spain, which brought forth a storm of criticism and you can be sure everyone was adding up the costs and adding their two cents to the criticism along the lines of.....   In these hard economic times....flying round on Airforce One, what carbon footprint is that.....that's as bad, or as tactless, as Tony Haywood wanting his life back.

Being a Supreme Court Justice is almost as big a deal as becoming President.

Rosalyn took a nicer photo of me on her camera, more spontaneous, of me stroking her cat Persimmon, but I thought this wasn't bad.

Thursday/Friday

Thursday
Out early to Tecumseh for the donuts.    The speaker at Kiwanis was the Operations Manager of the Expo Centre in Shawnee where they hold horse shows, rodeos, homes and gardens shows (I went to a homes and garden show, and it was ages ago, and someone rang me up this afternoon to say I had entered a draw for a Mustang and was a finalist in the draw.  ha, ha.  me and a thousand others) and conferences and the like.  It was very interesting, he was saying they have 6 horse sales a year and people come from all over the world.  Germans bring their own x-ray machines to make sure there is nothing wrong with the horses they are buying.   There was an international youth rodeo there a couple of weeks ago.  I thought of going but never got round to it, I think it was too hot, but he said they had 800 competitors.

Friday
Went to the hospital chaplaincy this morning.  There was just Pattisue and I there, Keith is on holiday and Larry, the head chaplain was taking a funeral.  We did a floor each, and because I am quicker I went round ICU as well.   Larry looked in as I was entering the data on the computer and seemed pleased that we had done it all.  

Bear story......This bear apparently was breaking in to houses, looking for pizzas (they should come next door, my neighbour works delivering pizzas and puts the left over ones on her front porch for all her cats and dogs, and visiting racoons).  Campers are taking over more and more of bear territory, that is why they are wandering round urban areas, breaking into cars and looking for pizzas.  Incidentally, I didn't mention that after a bear killed someone in their tent and was euthanazed her three cubs who were taken to a zoo were DNA tested to be sure they belonged to the mama grizzly who was put down.

Emmanuel is having a garage sale in the morning, starting at 7am (I am so glad I haven't anything to do with the organising of it).   I turned out some CDs I didn't want, mainly Larry's, to donate to it and took them there this afternoon.  I let myself in and was amazed that the Parish Room, which isn't small, was absolutely jam packed with stuff.  I think every member of the church must have turned out their attic.

In the news.....The biggest news item today is that unemployment has reached 9% and Fox News are labouring the fact that when Obama brought in his stimulus package he promised it would not exceed 8%.   Personally I can't see what difference 1% makes but apparently it does, two of his economic advisers have resigned.

What is also impacting on the economy is the fact that 78million Baby Boomers are retiring this year.

It is Obama's 49th birthday and tickets to his Party in Chicago this weekend are going for $30,000 a throw.   I think this is fund raising for the November elections.

The Department of Homeland Security are seriously worried because the WikiLeaks owner is talking about publishing a lot more of the stolen documents.  I don't know why he can't be stopped, he might be anti American and anti war but this is threatening the lives of British and other NATO forces in Afghanistan, as well as Americans and Afghans.  And if the War isn't won British as well as American cities are going to be targeted by Al Qaeda terrorists.   The new Al Qaeda leader, replacing Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, is a naturalised American citizen who lived here for 15 years which is causing grave concern because he has intimate knowledge of likely terrorist targets.

Wednesday 4th August

Went round with my meals on wheels then on to the hospital chaplaincy, I visited about 18 patients on the second floor.  Had a very leisurely lunch with Larry, Pattisue and a couple of others.  Someone expressed amazement that in England our police don't carry firearms, asked if the bad guys had weapons (here they are armed to the teeth all the time, and I think that is the case in every state) .  I said they are issued with firearms if they are going to raid a property, they don't break a door down and rush in unarmed.

Got home in time to go to the driving licence place before they shut, and this time - so close to closing - I didn't have to wait.   They said it was too late this afternoon for the test  - I said I wasn't expecting  to walk in and take it, I was just enquiring, but they tested my eyes, set everything up, took my photo, tried to take my fingerprints (hollow laugh, I told them the FBI tried five times and only gave up when my attorney said ENOUGH, but she still naively thought if she applied enough pressure to my finger it would produce a print).   I hoped I'd just have to take a written test, I think people with licences from other states just take a written test, but they want to see me drive as well.  So I need to study their version of the Highway Code (which I was told was online) and present myself, preferably in the not too distant future as one is supposed to have an Oklahoma licence within ten days of becoming a resident.    I said I needed six months to study the Highway Code, or Driving Manual.  She said she wasn't a law enforcement officer.

I went to the movies again tonight to see 'Letters to Juliet' for the third time, and I loved it just as much as the previous two.   Rosalyn rang and said she was going to the late performance at 9.30.  Bruce wasn't too keen but became mildly interested when she told him I'd already seen it but want to go again.  I think he decided to go when I spoke to him and said I had actually seen it twice already and this would be the third time.   And they both loved it as much as I do.

Tuesday 3rd August

It's the first Tuesday, Kiwanis Bake Sale in the Senior Centre, and I completely forgot.  I'm sure I am in the early stages of Alzheimers, I just remembered when I got up at 8 o'clock and it was too late then to make anything.   I bought some cakes though but with my new dieting/healthy eating regime I am not sure when I'll eat them.  Maybe put them in the freezer.

Went on to the gospel singing which was good.   I was thinking of taking a trip, about 40 miles away, to Wewoka, the capital of the Seminole Indian Nation, to see their museum.  Ran off the directions and everything but when it came to it, it was too hot.   Temperatures all over the south and midwest are in triple digits.  Mississippi is the worst, the heat index there is a staggering 119 degrees, and that is even a record for them.  So I stayed indoors in the cool.   And I discovered You Tube!!!!   I discovered I could play a video recording of any hymn or gospel singing I fancied.   I know most people probably already know all about You Tube and what you can find on it, but I didn't.

In the news.......There has been ANOTHER workplace shooting.  It beggars belief the number of workplace shootings there are here.  A guy was caught stealing from a beer distribution warehouse, he was shown the video evidence and given the option of resigning or being fired, he agreed to resign then went on a shooting rampage, killed eight people and injured two, then shot himself.

72 million adults in the US are obese, the most - to my surprise - are in Mississippi.  I thought they would be in Oklahoma, every second person in Walmart is obese, most of them riding round in the store's buggies.  I sometimes look a little wistfully at these buggies, especially when I have schlepped across the parking lot and about to collapse from heat exhaustion, but then tell myself that I should be glad I can walk around.

In California $100 million of counterfeit goods have been seized.  And it is said that it is a business which is seriously undermining the American economy.  Although the economy is in a pretty parlous state anyway.  7% of all goods sold are counterfeit.  80% of them are coming from China, 20% from India.  Shoes and handbags are the biggest knock offs.  It is a crime to sell them but not to buy them.  

Election fever in Shawnee.  The Primaries in Oklahoma were last week.  For the first time ever two women are standing as Governor in the November elections.  Both of them are Republicans.  Democrats don't get a look-in at all here.

Yes, I know what you are thinking about pots and kettles.  I looked at this photo and thought I have absolutely got to do something about my weight.

It was taken at Cecil's 90th birthday.

Bubbles.   Isn't she sweet.

Bears are often in the news.  This one got into an unlocked car and knocked the gear shift into neutral.  After he crashed it he then trashed the inside. 

In another bear story a grizzly momma bear attacked and killed a sleeping camper in his tent.  He was caught and 'euthanased' (a euphemism for killed).    Officials also caught the bear's three cubs who were found to be malnourished and it is believed the mama bear was looking for food for them.  They have been taken into a zoo.

Monday 2nd August

The weather has gone from the high 90s to over 100.  It is a good thing I don't have to shop in a town centre like Seaford, just going from the parking lot into a supermarket or The Mall, is killing.

I didn't do a lot over the weekend.   I went to the movies on Saturday with Sharon and her friend.  Although we had already seen 'Letters to Juliet' we loved it so much we didn't mind seeing it again, and it was just as good the second time around.  If it is on in England I highly recommend it.

On Sunday I went to the 9.30 service at Emmanuel.   Fr Clark is retiring at the end of the year.....sigh.  He will be missed, he is much loved by the congregation.   In the evening I went to Keith's church near me.

Today, Monday, I have been catching up on odd jobs.  Shopped in Walmart this afternoon, I'd go in the evening but it isn't much cooler in the evening.  On the way back I stopped at the Golden Corrall for a takeout; their special dish for the evening was shrimp (even Jumbo prawns here are called shrimp) cooked in different ways.   The takeaways are sold by the weight so I just filled a boxful, even then as they are not heavy it was only just over $3.  Food is so cheap here.

In the news........Obama announced that the combat mission in Iraq will end 31st August, ('as promised and on time'  this was a bit of an election speech) A transitional force of 50,000 support troops will remain until the end of next year to help the Iraqi forces.

Troops are due to leave Afghanistan in 2011, but there seems to be less certainty about that.  It is a war the US and NATO forces have to win, they have to stop the Taliban and Al Qaeda from carrying out terrorist attacks like 9/11.   The war has been going on so long, it is the longest war in US history, and in case anyone is wondering what the US are doing in Afghanistan the Secretary for Defence recently reminded people that the US are there because it was from Afghanistan that they were attacked.   I don't think I really appreciated that myself until I came here.

The new Arizona Immigration Law is now in force, although there was an injunction last week to stop it, and parts of it were amended, but that is only until the dispute between Arizona and the Federal Government comes to trial.    The Sheriff in one of the worst affected areas of drug smuggling apparentlty aggresively hunts down illegal immigrants, and the Drug Cartel in Mexico have put a $1million bounty on his head.  And $1000 for every one of his deputies that is taken down.

Friday 30th July

Did my hospital chaplaincy round this morning, and had lunch at the hospital with Keith and Pattisue. On Wednesdays and Fridays I do one floor and Pattisue does the other, and Keith is on call in case an emergency comes in, and goes round ICU.

Afterwards stopped at the driving licence place. Now I am an Oklahoma resident I have to have an Oklahoma driving licence. I went in and my jaw dropped….there were at least fifty people sitting in the waiting room. I asked if they were all waiting to be seen and was told yes, I need to take a ticket. I’ll go on Monday. If I have to wait a long time I need a book and my thermos of tea.

I was pulled over yesterday by a traffic cop, which underlined my need for an Oklahoma licence. Normally I hand over my UK licence and they go back to their vehicle and look up my immigration status (I don’t know what all riots are about in Arizona over checking immigration status, they do it to me all the time) but I can’t do that any longer, they’d see I’d been issued with a residence permit. Anyway, I was stopped for being in the middle of the road. I was trying to decide whether to go home, in which case I needed to move further over in the right hand lane, or have the car cleaned, and move further over to the left.    I’m always ever so humble and apologetic to traffic cops pulling me over, and she let me off after I’d given her my licence and residence permit and she checked my immigration status.

In the news…..The Governor of New Mexico is considering a pardon for Billy the Kid who was shot in 1881 by a frontier lawman, Pat Garrett. Billy the Kid escaped from Lincoln County Jail, in a shoot out that left two deputies dead. But there is a long running dispute over whether Garrett shot the real Kid or someone else and then lied about it. Some say he didn’t die in the shoot out with Garrett but went to Texas and died of a heart attack at the age of 90, in 1950. The grandchildren of Pat Garrett are up in arms about it, saying that pardoning Billy the Kid would be an inexcusable defamation of their grandfather’s character.

I would have thought myself that these state governors – especially those embroiled in the border’s Drug War – have more than enough to do dealing with 21st century problems without worrying about pardoning 19th century bandits.

Tomorrow the former first daughter, Chelsea Clinton, is getting married. If it wasn’t for the fact that all the arrangements are top secret it would be like a Royal Wedding, it’s the big do of the summer. She’s supposedly getting married in a small town in upstate New York and the towns folk are all very excited. It was suggested that the venue might be a ruse, everyone will think it is being held there, but it is actually going to take place somewhere else, away from media attention. But Bill Clinton was seen walking round the town, so now everyone believes it will be held there.

Me, myself, I personally, think it could still be a ruse and Bill Clinton strolling round the town is just to give more credibility to the story. We shall see.