FRIDAY Royal Wedding Day

I woke up too late for the Royal Wedding at 4 am from Fox News, so from 8 o'clock until 10 I was watching a re-run on one of the rubbish networks here with my finger poised over the mute.  How I missed the professional, dignified commentary we get from the BBC.  The commentary I was getting was coming from some silly, giggly, over excited women who didn't know much.


When I got married here I told Fr Clark that American films of weddings always show the minister saying at the end "You may kiss the bride" and I asked if they REALLY say that.  He said that yes, they REALLY do (but he left it out of our wedding).  Anyway, the Americans here thought Rowan had just forgotten to say it.


In the evening I saw a repeat of the Fox News coverage and that was much better.


I went to the hospital mid morning and after Pattisue and I had done our rounds we went to lunch.  I was saying the other day that they are big on appreciation here, and today was Appreciation Day for the catering staff.

Everything had a Hawaiin theme, I asked what the connection was with the Appreciation Day, but it was just chosen as a party theme.

The Hawaiin theme isn't so evident in this picture but the staff were wearing grass skirts (over normal clothes) and hibiscus behind their ears.


My friend Sandra is retiring from the Music Dept at OBU and there was a little Reception there for her this afternoon.  Pattisue - knowing she is a friend of mine - asked if I'd like to go to it with her, so we went on there from the hospital.  I was a bit hesitant at going to what was essentially an OBU event, but Pattisue said lots of outside people attended when she retired, it would be fine.  And it was.

Sandra.


After that (and it seems to have been all go today) I went to the travel agent and made a firm booking for my flight on the 13th July, arriving in the morning of the 14th.


Then I just had time to go home and change my tee shirt to go to a wedding (there's not a lot of 'dressing up'  here, a change of tee shirt is fine).  The bride was Larry's - the hospital chaplain's - daughter, held at his New Beginnings church, which is non denominational.

Larry and the bride.  I'm not sure I liked the black wedding dress.

The wedding ceremony.  There wasn't any music.  The two little girls on the left, Symphony and Harmony (!) are the bride's daughters, Larry's grandchildren.  It is the younger one, Harmony, who has cancer but she is between treatments at the moment.  She's lost all her hair but was wearing a pretty little hat.

It's the custom here to have his and her wedding cakes, but in this case I don't know which is which.  Larry did tell us in the chaplaincy office the other day what the symbolism was, but I've forgotten.


I didn't hang around for the Reception, I went home to see re-runs of the Royal Wedding.

THURSDAY

I didn't get to Kiwanis this morning, I don't know if my alarm went off or not, but I felt it was too late to try and get there.  When I am picking up the donuts next month I'll make sure the alarm works.


I went to Emmanuel for Communion at noon, then four of us with Fr Gary went to lunch.  We went to a sandwich restaurant - I hadn't been there before but the others had - the sandwiches are nice and so are the popular apple salads one can have with them.  However they didn't do hot tea so I asked for some boiling water - I always have tea bags and individual creamers in my handbag - but they couldn't do that either.  So they plummeted in my estimation.  I mean, how difficult is it to produce boiling water????   My friend Nancy took pity on me and asked them to heat some water in a microwave for me.


I then went to the travel agents and got details of a flight to England. 
Bruce and Rosalyn have got different agendas - different from each other - Bruce wants to take a tour of Britain, Rosalyn just wants to see  where I used to live then spend the rest of the time with her grandchildren. But I'm getting nervous that while they are trying to accommodate each other the fares could be going up, so I said I'd book my flight and see them when we get there.  I can organise Rosalyn's trip to Sussex when I arrive. 


In the news......everything here has been eclipsed by the worst tornadoes they have had, that have just swept through the southern states of AL, MS, GA, TN.   The far eastern part of Oklahoma caught a bit of it.  Oklahoma is known as tornado alley, but in actual fact the tornadoes are worse when they hit the southern states.  And I don't think they are prepared for them there, with shelters and sirens like they have in OK, so there is more loss of life.  One always gets 10/15 minutes warning of a tornado which here is long enough to take cover.


Now Obama has produced his birth certificate Donald Trump can't have him impeached for not being born in the US, but he's not leaving him alone, he's challenging his educational record, demanding transcripts.  Trying to discredit him.

WEDNESDAY 27th April

I got to the hospital mid morning and did my chaplaincy round before lunch.   The usual Thursday service in chapel was moved to today but I didn't go, I needed to get off to the Senior Centre for a little volunteer appreciation 'do' .  They are big on 'appreciation' here - as well as 'I love you' people often say to each other 'I appreciate you'.  I'm not sure, but I think all the 'goodbyes, I love you' I overhear when people are talking on their cell phones stems from 9/11.  Anyway, back at the Senior Centre, I got a little gift - a very heavy keyring that incorporates a tiny photo frame, a bit like a locket.

Wednesday evening at Emmanuel.

The meal tonight was made by the Fibre Team.   Hence the baked potatoes with choice of vegetable toppings, beans or brocolli and cheese, or salads.  I made the mistake of having some salad forgetting there would be lots of chilli in it, I had one mouthful and it was hot,and the taste just got hotter and hotter, I cooled it down with sour cream.  I suppose they have been brought up on it but everyone here can stand really hot chillis.


The Fibre Team formed itself after Rosalyn's nutrition class.  The other teams make lasagne, vegetarian chilli or bring in pizzas.


Last Wednesday, in Holy Week, the meal was cancelled but no one thought to inform Sharon and I, and Sharon had gone to a lot of trouble to make some really nice little Easter cakes.  I e-mailed the person who failed to inform us and told him Sharon was owed an apology.  He was very guilt stricken but Sharon has decided to have a rest from making desserts on Wednesday evenings.  It was my turn this evening anyway and I took some grapes and cut up some watermelon.  The watermelon, which is usually $4.99 was $1.99,  I tend to look for the deals on occasions like this. The grapes were on offer too.


In the news......The tornadoes in the south have been absolutely devastating.  In Alabama at least 71 people have been killed. On the scale that measures these things they have been 4, and 5 is the highest.   

Water levels are rising dangerously in the Midwest, and there has been severe flooding where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers meet, and have burst their banks.  The Governor of Missouri has had to call out the National Guard.  Here it has just been chilly and quiet.


You may have heard about the controversy over Obama's birth certificate, it is said the news was worldwide.  Donald Trump is strutting around, patting himself on the back and saying he is proud that he made Obama produce it.   I used to like Donald Trump - but you can go off someone.   I didn't think Obama should have had to produce it, his word should have been good enough.


In the case of the missing mother whose car was found idling in a parking lot with her 14 month old baby inside, sadly her body has been found near a lake a quarter of a mile away.

And in Tennessee the weather has brought a temporary stop to the search for the missing 20 year old.

This evening I was watching Piers Morgan reporting for CNN on the Royal Wedding.

The boxes on the right are for the foreign press, is that so?  They look quite a distance from the Palace.  Presumably they have cameras with zoom lens nearer the Palace, and then report from the monitors?
Piers Morgan was also at one point, from inside a box, interviewing a chef, Marco Pierre White,  and asking what the meal was likely to be.
MPW said the first course might be gulls eggs, served simply with mayonnaise and salt, gulls eggs being seasonal at the moment and picked off cliff tops.  YUK!!  I thought gulls eggs were what people ate when they were starving, I never thought of them as a delicacy for Royal Weddings.  I know they were eaten in the Middle Ages on the south coast, which was heavily forested at that time and nothing could be grown, so people were starving.

TUESDAY 26th April

I don't know what happened to my blog yesterday.  I was going from the desktop PC to the laptop, trying to upload a photo and the card reader wasn't co-operating on either, and I discovered this morning that I hadn't even mentioned my birthday.  So many thanks to all those who sent cards and birthday wishes.


I celebrated it with lunch at an Italian restaurant with Rosalyn and Bruce then we went to Pink Swirls for a frozen yoghourt dessert.  I tried a smoothie but didn't like it.  One puts in the yoghourt, fruit etc then an assistant puts ice in it and makes it smooth.  I don't like ice diluting anything, certainly not concoctions with yoghourt and fruit, making them watery.  Who thought that was a good idea?


Today Sharon took me to lunch at Jimmy's Egg, which was very nice.
Afterwards I met Rosalyn and Bruce in a travel agents downtown to buy my ticket to England for the middle of July, the 13th or 14th.  Rosalyn's grandchildren are being baptised in Barnes, SW13 on the 17th July. At first just the two of us were going to travel together but Rosalyn's son visited Shawnee a couple or so weeks ago, and he invited/persuaded Bruce to come as well.   This made the travel arrangements a little more complex as Bruce would like to incorporate a little sightseeing and tour of Britain into the visit; the travel agent had earlier given them a brochure of tours round Britain.


Rosalyn is willing to accommodate Bruce but doesn't like sightseeing or doing 'tourist' things.  She said she is more interested in people and would like to see the south coast and  places I am familiar with.  I said I would be happy to take her up on Seaford Head and along the Cuckmere where Roy and I used to walk, and show her Seaford and Eastbourne etc.  I also suggested Drusillas, there are so many attractions there now, saying her son might like to come down for a day with his family - he is on six months paternity leave from work 


Anyway, they are sorting that out tonight and when they have decided on the day of departure we'll go back to the travel agent and I'll book my flight.


In the late afternoon I went to the downtown cinema and saw 'Gnomeo and Juliet' again, this time with Pattisue and afterwards to the diner on Main Street where I had a fried apple pie, which sounds bizarre but is actually very nice.


The latest whodunnits.......I don't mean to sound flippant about this, I genuinely feel sorry for the victims and their families and pray there might be a happy outcome for them, but in the case of the missing young woman in Tennessee I think the police and family are running out of hope that she will be safely returned, but I think the perpetrator will be caught.  


The latest whodunnit concerns a young mother whose car was found in a parking lot, with the engine running, the door slightly ajar, blood inside the car, and an unharmed 14 month old baby sitting in the back.  What strikes me as particularly odd is that this was 6.30 in the morning, and one wonders why she was in the parking lot at that time of the morning with her baby.   I will keep you posted on both mysteries.

MONDAY

The weather has quietened down, a bit chilly and grey, about 65, but at least the thunder isn't crashing around, and hailstones pounding the metal roof.   There was still a tornado warning in the far south east of the state but it was moving north east, across Arkansas where it has been very bad, and there have been a lot of houses shredded.
This is the forecast for the week ahead

In the news.....I had another photo I wanteed to post but the card reader is being temperamental.  A mountain lion was captured strolling the streets in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Goodness knows where he came from.  There are often bears rummaging through back yards and hanging out by the Jersey turnpike, but a mountain lion in |OK took everyone by surprise.

I mentioned a few days ago that a young woman was abducted from her home in Tennessee.  She lived in a house in a wooded area and her brother - who was the last one to see her alive - called the police and said she was being led away by a guy in camaflouge.  She hasn't been found but the TN FBI have found some evidence of 'significance' so hopefully they are getting close to solving the mystery.  The police dogs failed to pick up her scent along the tree line of the path she was supposed to have been led along, so it is looking a bit suspicious for the brother.   They are keen on lie detector tests here but no one will confirm if the brother has taken the test.  I think they should just keep on and on questioning him.  If someone is telling a lie their story will eventually change, but the truth never changes.    Maybe that is why our enlightened police force don't have lie detector tests - at least I don't think they do.

EASTER SUNDAY

This has to be the wettest Easter Sunday I have ever known.  I just don't know how the rain can come gushing out of the sky for hours and hours, falling like stair rods.  We are now under a severe weather warning of thunderstorms and tornadoes.  I've got the tv tuned to the Weather Channel at the moment, and every minute there is an annoying beeping sound - like a heavy vehicle reversing - warning us of thunderstorms.  Someone said there is grapefruit size hailstones, I think somewhere near Abilene which I believe is north of here.  Hearing that I did take the precaution of moving the car so that it is alongside the house - as opposed to stuck out in the open - in the probable naive belief that the house might give it some protection from grapefruit sized hailstones, even golf ball size hailstones sound big enough.


Apparently, if we want to go to sleep without staying up all night to listen for tornado warnings we can get the Weather Channel to ring and wake us up.  I don't think I'll bother, I think the severe weather is moving north east over to Arkansas and Missouri.  I am sure anyway that the warning sirens in the streets will wake me up.


Bubbles isn't too keen on this weather, she has figured out her own tornado shelter and taken cover in my closet, which was fine when she was lying on the floor but that obviously wasn't comfortable enough for the poor dear, she snuggled down on a pile of casual clothes I keep in a basket.   No doubt shedding hair all over them.


Did you hear in your news of the tornado which had a direct hit on the airport of St Louis in Missouri?  I think they have got flights going again tonight but it will be a while before it is all completely repaired.  At least that should keep the air traffic controllers awake at night.


We had a good Easter Sunday service.

The Cross is partially decorated with flowers pushed through chicken wire, then the children finish it off.

The little girls were all wearing pretty new dresses for Easter.


These were taken before they went off to their Sunday school classes.


Pattisue and I had planned to go to the China Buffet this evening for dinner but the weather put paid to that.  And I didn't get to wear my new Easter outfit, it's pale and light and floaty, and totally unsuitable for the weather we were having.   So all in all the weather has had a dampening effect on Easter here.


I hope you all had a good Easter, I understand your weather was a lot better than ours.

Holy Saturday

I spent most of the day pottering around and reading.   When I bought my new outfit, the day before yesterday, I also bought a skirt which had a faulty zip so in the late afternoon I went to the Mall to take it back, and look for another with an elastic waist band.  There is only one half decent department store in Shawnee, and it is difficult locating skirts as 90% of women here wear slacks, even the clinically obese, who really shouldn't.   I got to thinking that as well as roast lamb this Easter I am also pining for an M & S.

In the evening I went to the Easter Vigil.   The Service begins in darkness - everyone has to grope their way to a pew - it represents all the meanings of darkness; devoid of light, evil thoughts, all that is hidden and secret.  In this darkness the priest blesses the Fire (which is lit at the back of the church) symbolising the radiance of the Risen Christ dispelling the darkness of sin and death.  The Paschal candle is then blessed and lit and placed in front of the nave where it is lit for every Eucharist throughout the fifty days of Easter, the clergy process down the aisle lighting our little candles as they go.  The Service then proceeds with the Liturgy of the Word - a lot of readings, the Renewal of our Baptismal Vows and finally Communion.   The lights are gradually turned up and our candles extinguished, by the time we get to Communion the lights are full on.

  

Good Friday

Emmanuel hosted a community Good Friday service and lunch.  I realised a bit too late that I should have offered to help with the lunch, I don't know what I was thinking, I apologised to those who did it.  It was a good service, and a nice lunch.

I went straight on to do my chaplaincy round at the hospital after lunch, I had a cup of tea with Pattisue while she had her lunch, but most of the patients seemed to have been sent home for the weekend, and we did one floor between us.

There was a Good Friday service in the evening as well at Emmanuel, but it was the Stations of the Cross, which I don't do.  

In the news......An item which staggered me is about a convicted rapist, serving several years in prison, who needs a heart transplant at a cost of $800,000 (and medical care is obviously free in prisons)  Poor people who also need heart transplants and can't afford them are outraged at this.  Those in favour say that the prisoner didn't wake up one day needing a heart transplant, he must have been having heart problems all the time he was in hospital.

 

Holy Thursday

Kiwanis speaker was someone I knew, but then in small town America almost everyone knows everyone else.  She is the Director of Infection Prevention and Control at the hospital, and that was the subject of her talk.  The local current President of Kiwanis is also in charge of volunteer services at the Senior Centre and she appealed to everyone to contact their legislators because the Oklahoma Legislature is considering defunding them, and meals on wheels will be cut.  Everything is being cut and I know it is just as bad in Britain.


This afternoon I went to the Mall and shopped for an outfit for Easter.  Thinking of Easter I wondered how far I would have to travel to have roast lamb for lunch.  No good going down to Texas, that is all cattle country too.  I'd probably have to go right over to the east coast, or up north somewhere before I saw a sheep.


I went to the service this evening at Emmanuel, commemorating the Last Supper and washing the disciples feet.  Some people (probably with impeccably clean feet, having scrubbed them beforehand) volunteered to have them symbolically washed by the clergy.  Then the altar was stripped and washed down and everything taken to the Lady chapel at the back.    Then the Vigil began, two people sitting for an hour at a time throughout the night, remembering Jesus saying to the disciples in Gethsemane "could you not stay awake with me for one hour".  I went from 1 - 2am.


In the news......heads are continuing to roll in air traffic control towers across the nation, including those of seven supervisors.  The controller in Knoxville, Tennessee went so far as to make himself a cosy bed in the tower, with pillows and blankets.  No wonder he didn't hear the pilot trying to contact him.  The outraged Head of the Aviation Authority was almost apoplectic talking about it.


252 out of 254 counties in Texas are affected by wildfires.


Talk of the Royal Wedding is heating up.  Goodness knows what it is like over there.  Because of the time difference it all starts here at 4 am, or what the newscasters refer to as "the ungodly hour of 4 am".
We were shown the new Royal Wedding stamps, and going from the sublime to the gor blimey we were also shown a Kate Middleton garden gnome.

Tuesday 19th April

I was up and out early - 8 o'clock, early for me - to the Conference Centre at the Hospital for a morning on 'End of Life Care'.  Chaplains and hospice staff need to know how to help at the end of life, when the body is ready to die but the soul isn't.  I just wish I'd learned this - and applied it, so I could have been more help to them - when Roy and Larry were ready to die.


I went immediately from there to the monthly meeting of the Hospice and was welcomed as a new volunteer.   I have yet to do some volunteering though, I think they are sorting out my credentials.  It was a bring and share lunch, I bought something to take, I didn't get round to making anything.


It wasn't a very exciting lunch, I did better this evening at a fund raising dinner for one of the homeless charities, where volunteers build homes for them (they have the land for it here).  The food was Mexican which is usually quite good as long as it isn't spicy, and this wasn't.

I went to the dinner with Sharon and afterwards we went to the movies downtown and saw Gnomeo and Juliet, which we enjoyed.  I really like these animated films, I never thought I would, but they are nothing like animated films used to be.  As the title suggests it was the story of two garden gnomes,  who fell in love, but their owners, who were neighbours feuded.


In the news......An item which staggered me was the story of a 6 year old kindergarten child who took a loaded gun to school in Texas (where else) and it fell out of his pocket in the cafeteria at lunchtime and discharged, injuring the boy himself and two others.  I've got used to shootings at schools and college campuses - but in a KINDERGARTEN!!!!   They are in hospital but fortunately their injuries were not too serious.  The parents aren't saying anything,  at least nothing that has been reported yet.

Palm Sunday

 Blessing the palms and palm crosses in the parish room prior to processing into the church.  I went to the 8 o'clock service then the adult Sunday school but otherwise had a quiet day at home.

The weather here today has been a warm, sunny 75 degrees but it has been brutal in North Carolina where tornadoes killed 21 people.  I can't think of any part of this country where one can be guaranteed safety from the weather.   The wildfires in Texas are now so bad the Governor has asked Obama to declare it a Major Disaster, which I think qualifies them for more federal aid than if the Governor declared a State of Emergency.


In the news.......   More bodies are being discovered in Long Island, New York. It seems to me that the more they look the more they find, goodness knows how many they will find before they call it a day.


Steps are being taken to reassure Americans that they are safe flying around the country, slumbering air traffic controllers are being dealt with, but not quickly enough for some news anchors.  One controller who was asleep in the tower twice in April was caught again this week but has not yet been dismissed, there has to be an 'investigation' and 'due diligence'.  

Safety officials are now flying round the country, starting on Monday in Atlanta - the busiest airport in the nation - interviewing control tower staff.  And they have brought in some new regulations with effect immediately.

 Some are saying, and I agree with them, that the controllers should be allowed to take a nap during their breaks. Sometimes a little nap is all it takes to get going again, and if it is their break time and someone else is in control in the tower I can't see the objection.

There is another major news story which has been going on since Wednesday.   A young student nurse in Tennessee was snatched out of her home, which seems to be in a wooded area and is a mile from the nearest neighbour, and hundreds of people have turned out to look for her.  A bizarre aspect is the fact that her brother and boyfriend witnessed it and called 911.  At first they were cleared of any suspicion but now the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are saying they are keeping all their options open.  I think it is generally believed at the moment that it wasn't a random crime, she knew the person who snatched her.  I think there will be more on this so I will keep you informed.

Fr Clark sent me the following e-mail.  He often sends something from the UK press he thinks will interest me, but I see that as well as reading all the US, British and Canadian press he reads Paris Match as well.
 
On Sun, Apr 17, 2011 at 1:46 PM, CLARK SHACKELFORD  wrote:

I just read an article on ParisMatch online about the genealogical information surfacing about Kate Middleton.  Interestingly, she and her husband-to-be Prince William are cousins, in the 14th degree, from Edward I.  She is also related to:  George Washington, Katrina Darling (sexy British entertainer), Guy Ritchie, and Ellen DeGeneres.  Genetic roulette!

C

Saturday 16th April

Went to the monthly AARP meeting.   The business part of the meeting is often about legislation and seniors which doesn't really affect me. I did stay for lunch today though which was surprisingly quite nice, but then I just had the fried chicken, and cheesecake. The meeting and lunch is held in the cafeteria of one of the large Baptist churches and cafeteria meals are generally not good here.


My cockney friend Phyllis chairs the meeting and asked if it was anyone's birthday this month.  I piped up and said it was mine on the 25th, and with a deadpan face said I will be 85. An air of uncertainty hung over the room while they wondered if I was serious.   The fact that I can pass as 85 is indication enough, I think, of how much I've aged since being here.


The speaker after lunch was a doctor who also practices acupuncture which was very interesting.  I saw it in China where I was being shown round a hospital, and taken into a room where a stark naked guy was lying on his stomach with acupuncture needles sticking out all over him.  Any mention of acupuncture brings back that memory.


However, the talk as I said was interesting.  The doctor said that there isn't anything in western medicine that can help whiplash injury but acupuncture can.  And her husband, also a doctor, was very sceptical about it, but he had tennis elbow and finally - because he was playing in a golf tournament - he let her put her acupuncture needles in him which gave him 70% relief.  Talking about how old acupuncture is, how long the Chinese have been practicing it, she said tennis elbow is a trapped radial nerve which is where she put the needles and she expressed surprise that the Chinese knew where the radial nerve was 1000 years ago.  She also said it doesn't hurt because the needles are very fine.  A needle that is used to draw blood is a size 20 and acupuncture needles are nearly 40 - the higher the number the finer the needle.


Sharon and I were going to a play this evening at St Gregory's University, in their theatre - they teach performing arts - it had been postponed from last weekend, and it had either been postponed again, or cancelled, but it wasn't on when we got there.  I'll find out on Monday unless I see someone from St Gregory's tomorrow.


Instead I watched a Premiere on the Hallmark movie channel - a "Premiere" instead of an old film, that's a BIG DEAL.  It was quite good, and by one of my current favourite authors who writes about the Amish.


In the news they are still looking for more bodies on the Long Island shoreline.  I think someone has been taken into custody, but police don't think he is responsible for all of them.  In all the states police are opening up unresolved serial killings. 


Control tower operatives are still sleeping on the job and 27 airports are putting extra staff in at night, which is causing controversy in these hard economic times, people are saying that isn't the answer, they earn about $165,000 a year and the FAA needs to address the problem of their fatigue, not enlist more staff.   


In Arizona property prices have dropped so low that estate agents are now concentrating on selling second homes to Canadians who are snapping them up.  I think next to California Arizona is the state I'd least like to live in, it's too hot.  The temperature here sometimes gets up to triple digits but in AZ it is in triple digits all the summer.  

Friday

I went to the hospital this afternoon.   I was riveted to the television this morning, I like to watch things that are actually happening, like car chases, but this was a bear who was stuck in a tree (this is the time of year they come out of hibernation) if it was in Montana it would be no big deal but this was by the New Jersey turnpike, a very busy road with eight lanes of traffic.

 The bear was sedated, then someone climbed into the tree and got a harness on him and they lowered him into the cherry picker.   There were ten people standing underneath with a net to catch him, should he fall.  Apparently bears have very poor eyesight so they were worried about him wandering on to the turnpike and not seeing the traffic.


There was no one at the chaplaincy when I got there.  Pattisue has gone to a High School reunion in Texas, Friday is Larry's day off.  Someone was in earlier and went round the 2nd floor and ICU.  I did the third floor.


The weather has been so cold.  I can't believe I had the air conditioning on at the beginning of the week and this morning had to turn the heating on. I just don't know how it goes from the 90s to freezing in the space of a week.  There have been tornadoes in the eastern half of Oklahoma and Arkansas, two people died in OK, and 7 in AR.  A school in Oklahoma was completely demolished.

Thursday

Kiwanis speaker's talk was entitled 'Something to Think About' and he covered Health Care; Social Security; Early Childhood Education; the Wars and  the National Debt and 'how tomorrow moves with gas selling at $4 a gallon'  I said that in Britain they would love gas to be that expensive, it is $8 a gallon.  He said that if it ever became $8 a gallon here the US would have a wonderful rail system like we have in Britain (wonderful - really!!!! I thought Dr Beeching had closed down our railways)  I suppose though he was referring to our main lines.  I think they have main lines here in civilised places like California and the East Coast, there just aren't any down here.


The final Lenten service and lunch was as St Benedict's Catholic church, the service was the Stations of the Cross and the lunch was very nice.   I hurried off though to the Hospital Chapel Service at 1, one of the volunteer chaplains was asked to speak and I said I would go and there were so few there today I was glad I did.


I spent the afternoon reading and listening and watching the much needed rain come down.  It never just rains though, there was a thunderstorm which sent Bubbles running under the bed.  Then the hailstones came down, and although they weren't quite golf ball size they were bigger than we have at home and sounded deafening crashing down on the metal roof.  That panicked her, she rushed out from under the bed and disappeared for hours.  I think she must have squeezed behind the sofa in the computer room, I looked in every other corner of the house.


In the news.......The fallout from the slumbering air traffic controllers keeps coming.  The Air Traffic Chief has resigned.  An angry guy came on Fox News and said the whole control system is a mess.  A lot more controllers have been found to be sleeping on the job, and not only were they tired and nodding off but one of them took a blanket into the control tower intending to sleep.


I think I mentioned the serial killer in the Long Island, New York area.  So far ten bodies have been found and high-tech air equipment has been brought in to look for more.


A woman is suing the dating agency Match.com because they introduced her to someone who was a sex offender.  After she invited him to her home and he sexually assaulted her she looked him up on the internet and saw he was a sex offender, and now says Match.com should have screened him first.  But why couldn't she?  Almost everyone is on the internet somewhere, look hard enough and you will find them.

Tuesday/Wednesday

I went to the Gospel Singing this morning at the Senior Centre and following is the little story I told them which I found on the internet, my usual source.

A Story from the 2006 Olympics

 In China back in the 1970’s most of the people were isolated from the world with no outside TV or news.  China decided to enter ice dancing in the Olympics and called upon a boy named Yoew Bin who grew up skating. 

The Chinese started training couples for the skating competition.  Because of the isolation of China, their only information were some imported newspaper clippings and what their inexperienced coaches knew. 

Even though they were rusty the couples left China for the first time to enter the World Championships.  There was not enough money for the coaches to go as well so they went alone, not knowing anything about the world outside China and only speaking Chinese.  Their skating was terrible in competition and they fell many times.  The crowd laughed at them as they left the ice.  Yeow Bin left the ice dejected but determined. 

Over the next 30 years he became a coach, and with great determination he developed the Chinese ice skaters into world-class competitors. Shen and Zhao were his skaters that he trained in China and entered in the 2006 Olympics.

But the male skater had an accident and cut his Achilles tendon in two.  He had surgery to repair his tendon but many people doubted he would skate again.   But he trained as best he could with his foot in a cast.  He had to get a special shoe to support his repaired heel and the couple entered the 2006 Olympics. They won the Bronze medal.

Yeow’s other skating team was Zhang Hao and Zhang Dan.  They were a dynamic couple with very good jumps.   They decided to try what had never been done in Olympic history:  a quadruple salchow, where he threw Zhang Dan into the air.  She landed wrong and crashed to the ice damaging her left knee.  She was helped off the ice and after a few minutes they decided to try and finish their performance and pickup where they left off.  They finished flawlessly to the standing ovation of the whole coliseum. Even with the fall, they won second place. They received the Silver medal

And then there was the Russian Couple Totmiyanina and Marinin. They had an accident a year previously when during a hand lift maneuver his skate caught an edge.  Marinin fell to the ice and lost consciousness. After a few days she regained consciousness in hospital but her partner was devastated and lost all confidence, but  gradually they skated simple moves and advanced back to jumps and lifts.    At the Olympics they skated their best and won Gold.

There is a Chinese saying:

 The strong and beautiful tree of success
grows from the seedling of failure and struggle.  

In the evening I went to the movies downtown with Pattisue and we saw 'Unknown' with Liam Neeson.  A psychological thriller.  At first I was congratulating myself on being able to follow it, but then as it got nearer the end it all turned on its head, and both of us came out equally baffled and trying to figure it out.  But I quite liked it.

 Wednesday

Was out early(ish) this morning to a Chaplain's Conference at the hospital on compassion fatigue, and the difference between a social and a pastoral visit.  The speaker was excellent, a senior hospital chaplain responsible for training other chaplains.  And he engaged his audience very well, without any written notes.  I tend to 'tune out' when a talk or sermon is just read out from a script.  

As soon as I got home I made some cupcakes for the Wednesday meal and took the brownies I'd bought at the Kiwanis bake sale.

I should have made more cupcakes.  No one looked as if they'd gone without but there were more children than cupcakes.


I rang Larry's cousin's wife, Janie, in Texas because the wildfires there seem to be very bad - over thousands of acres - and I wondered if they had been affected.  She said it was all right at the moment where they are, and they had an inch of rain last night which helped.  We had a good chat.


It is still hot and dry in Oklahoma, it is difficult to know what to put on in the morning.  The temperature  can go from freezing to 90 in half an hour.

In the news.....Yet another air traffic controller, this time in Reno, fell asleep in the control tower and a medical flight had to come in unaided.  I think falling asleep like this in daytime is called narcolepsy, and it seems to be reaching epidemic proportions here.

Monday 11th

The only thing on my calendar today was reading at the Early Childhood Centre.  The book I had was about a huge, huge, dog - Clifford - a popular childhood character here, there is even a Saturday morning cartoon programme about him, so everyone except me, who'd never heard of him, knew all about Clifford.  A Kiwanis friend filled me in while we were waiting in the school foyer.  I said to the children as I sat down that I thought they knew all about Clifford.  Nods all round.  This was at least a straightforward story, no hidden meanings or moral messages in it, just a dog who went from the country to the city to visit his brothers and sisters who were all normal size.  On the back of the book were thumbnail pictures of all the other Clifford books, so when I finished all the children clustered round me and were pointing out which Clifford books they had.


This time I didn't get any children telling me my voice sounded weird but the teacher told them I sounded different because I came from a long way away, and asked where I came from (there are very, very few people who recognise an English accent).   She had a big map of the world on the wall so I pointed to England.


I can't believe it was only yesterday I was going on about the increase in fuel prices, saying the average round Shawnee was $3.56 a gallon.  Overnight it escalated to $3.69.  There was quite a bit about it in the news. In California it is $5.05 a gallon, the most expensive in the country.   But everyone was told how much worse it could be - and a guy was being interviewed in Britain where it is the equivalent of $8 a gallon and it costs $90 to fill up a Mini Cooper.  I can't imagine paying $8 a gallon.  Are the roads looking more empty?

These are hailstones.  In severe weather they say sometimes that hailstones are golf ball size, but I've never seen any that big.


A tornado in Iowa flattened 100 homes, but no one was badly injured. The worst injury was a broken leg.  It happened during daytime and people had 5 - 10 minutes to get to a shelter or cellar.


In Texas there are serious wildfires covering nearly 400 square miles.


There is serious flooding in North Dakota.  Oklahoma is just battling  a drought.  There is going to be a hosepipe ban.  People can only water their gardens alternate days (!!)  When it gets REALLY bad they will be restricted to once a week.  

5th in Lent

Went to the 8 o'clock and then the adult Sunday school.  There are actually three classes running - an Enquirers class for those thinking of Confirmation; another group is looking at the Gospel message for the day; and the third one which I go to is a power point presentation of theological issues, given by various theologians.


Afterwards went to fill the car up.  It has been a big issue on the news that fuel prices have risen even more in the last few days.  Around Shawnee the average price is $3.57 (£2.18 a gallon) I don't think it was even £1 a gallon when I left England, and I know it is even more expensive over there than here.   In states with a higher cost of living, like California and New Jersey, it is well over $4 a gallon.  People are asking why it is going up so, the US takes less than 5% of oil from Libya.  Most of it goes to Europe, particularly France - which is probably why the buck for military action was being passed to Sarkozy. 


Have been working on my latest project from Hobby Lobby.  I was thinking today it is going to take a long time, am I going to live long enough to finish it, it's very fine and detailed, like 22 stitches to the inch.


This evening Pattisue was preaching at University Baptist so I went along to that, and she was very good indeed.   Afterwards we went to Cracker Barrel for a meal.  I'd eaten a bit earlier in the day and just had a kid's meal.  Then we went to Pink Swirls for a dessert of frozen yoghourt.


A grisly item in the news is the discovery of about 8 bodies of prostitutes on the Long Island shoreline, who all advertised on Craig's List.  Whoever was responsible knew how to avoid detection so a police officer is suspected.

Saturday

Weather has been up in the high 80s all the week, and it is so dry Oklahoma desperately needs rain, and is under a state of emergency from wildfires.   The only BBQs that can be lit have to be gas and on stone patios or decks, with 5 feet of space all round them.


I have got a very good book and have been reading for most of the day.  Rosalyn and Bruce invited me to lunch at a Mexican restaurant to meet her son and two year old grandson, who live in London, in Barnes, and are visiting her.   He works for Vodaphone and is on six months leave, part of which is paternity leave; his wife and the new baby stayed at home and Rosalyn was very excited because he set up Skype on her computer, and she could see them.  I could identify with that, nothing makes my day more than seeing my grand daughters on Skype.


It was a very pleasant lunch and I really enjoyed meeting them.  He was telling me they had gone to see the boat race, which I understand Oxford won.

FRIDAY

The news today has been focused entirely on the imminent shut down of Government, but an hour before midnight an agreement - of sorts - was reached and shutdown was averted, but it is all far from over, the shouting still goes on.  Republicans want more than the $38.5billion cuts that were agreed on.  They want Planned Parenthood defunded (they are the main provider of abortions) that was the biggest issue at the end.  Abortions are a BIG BIG political issue here, Republicans are pro life and Democrats are pro choice, and it is all political.  Pattisue was very surprised when I told her that it is the one thing our MP's vote on according to their consciences - if there is a Bill before Parliament changing the time limits of abortions, for example.  And anyone wanting an abortion without a sound medical reason has to pay for it.


The abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency is another thing the Republicans are screaming about.  They are all anti green.  They shout that government shouldn't be about climate control, God controls the climate.


In the news yesterday there was a reminder that the border war still goes on.  In the course of 96 hours 41 people were murdered in Ciudad Juarez, the most dangerous city on the planet.  


There was a big thing in the news a while ago when an air traffic controller fell asleep and two aircraft flew into Washington without any air traffic control.   At Tennessee an air traffic controller went to sleep intentionally. There were two of them on duty, one was supposed to watch visually and the other looking at the radar, but the only one awake was having to run up and down stairs doing both.


Now they are looking at pilot fatigue, and 1 in 5 pilots admit to falling asleep.  Makes one really confident about flying doesn't it.


This morning I did my hospital chaplaincy round.  Pattisue was having a stressful day ferrying her teenage grandchildren around.  I suggested she ring me when she finished driving them about this afternoon and she could unwind over a frozen yoghourt at Pink Swirls (drinks and pubs just don't feature here).   When she rang she hadn't eaten, and I hadn't either, so we went to a diner on Main Street.

THURSDAY 7th April

I had an extra hour in bed this morning, someone else is picking up the donuts this month.


Kiwanis speaker was a local bookbinder, which was very interesting.  He said there are only about ten people left in the country who are binding books by hand.  When his wife suggested putting their business online he was sceptical about it, but now most of his business comes from the internet.  A lot of the books he gets to bind seem to be Family Bibles, or Study Bibles with a lot of handwritten notations in the margins.  Before records were kept, families wrote all the births, marriages and deaths in the family bibles and these now have the status of legal documents.   He also mentioned there was a lot of work to do for example, after Hurricane Katrina binding legal documents.


He explained how modern books are bound on a machine where the pages are just glued together, which is a far cry from binding them by hand.


I didn't go to the Lenten lunch today.  I set off again for Midwest City and Hobby Lobby, but this time I stayed focused on the interstate, I didn't wander off taking naps.  It was an interesting trip because it is a huge, huge store, but I didn't find what I was looking for to finish my needlework project.  I don't think Americans do needlepoint with wool and canvas, there wasn't any there.  I think I'll have to see if I can find the wool I need online.  I did buy one or two other things though.


Although I spent a little while browsing round the store I didn't hang about Midwest City, I sped back to Shawnee.


There still isn't agreement on the Budget Bill, it's increasingly likely that the Government is going to shut down on Friday midnight.

WEDNESDAY 6th April

Kiwanis - not just our small group but the larger organisation - held a Pancake Day today in Shawnee from early morning until the evening. So I went along.  I intended taking my lemons and sugar with me but left the house without them, so I took the pancakes to go and had them at home.  Surprisingly I didn't see anyone I knew there when I went.

They've got bottles of maple syrup on the table to pour over them.  But they also eat them here with sausage and gravy, and those who know my aversion to sausage and gravy will understand the necessity of taking my own lemon juice and sugar, or eating them at home.


Afterwards went on to the hospital.  There are a lot more patients than last week and both floors were practically full.  Pattisue and I had lunch with Larry and did a floor each.


I'm feeling a bit crocheted out.  I've made an afghan each for Lisa, Davina, and Miranda as well as a few smaller ones.  So am finishing off some needlework I brought out with me.  I have however run out of tapestry wool to finish something, so reluctantly decided (because I hate driving further than Tecumseh which is five miles out of Shawnee) that I would have to take a trip to Hobby Lobby in Midwest City, which is a suburb of OK City.  


I set off on the interstate but after a few miles I felt very tired so decided to pull off at an exit and close my eyes for a few minutes.  Now some exits are perfectly straightforward, one can pull off and see the way back on to the interstate quite clearly, but others are a lot more complicated, they twist and turn and loop around, and I'd unfortunately picked one of the latter, and instead of getting back on the interstate I took a wrong turning, and was driving hither and yon all over the Prairies passing nothing but farms and ranches and no idea of even which direction I was going.   But eventually I came to the interstate and faced with the option of west to OK City or east back to Shawnee I took the road home.  I'll try again, perhaps tomorrow.   On my way back through Shawnee I did pull into the Pink Swirls for a frozen yoghourt and a read.


In the news......The big thing - because time is fast running out like midnight Friday - is the lack of agreement between Republicans, who hold the majority in Congress, and the Democrats, over agreement on a Budget Bill.  They just can't agree on what spending should be cut, and what entitlement programmes cannot possibly be cut.


I wonder if they have ever looked at our Chancellor of the Exchequer delivering his Budget, which regardless of whether anyone likes it or not, or agrees with it or not, is the Budget we get.


Without agreement on the Budget Bill the country runs out of money on Friday and Government closes down.   As I type, those responsible for reaching agreement - the House Majority Leader, the Democrat Minority leader - have been ordered to work through the night to come to an agreement.  Obama has said the Budget Bill is like marriage, it's all about compromise.


I'm relieved to know though that even if the Government does close down the Post Office is not going to be affected.

TUESDAY

I took this photo of Rosalyn and Bruce on Saturday when they took me to see 'Grease' at Shawnee High School, it is in the foyer of the school.  I couldn't post it before, my card reader was being temperamental.

Shawnee Wolves is the High School football team.  High School football is a big deal here in the US. It isn't the season at the moment - I think everyone is playing baseball - but the last football game was against Broken Arrow on the 5th November, and Shawnee lost 63-13, which doesn't sound very impressive.
Today, Tuesday, I went to the gospel singing and contributed a little piece.

This is  the story of the blacksmith who gave his heart to Jesus.
Though living a more Godly life, still he was not prospering materially. In fact, it seems that from the time of his conversion more trouble, affliction and loss were sustained than ever before. Everything seemed to be going wrong.
One day a friend who was not a Christian stopped by to talk to him awhile. Sympathizing with him in some of his trials, the friend said
"It seems strange to me that so much affliction should pass over you just at the time when you have become an earnest Christian. Of course, I don't want to weaken your faith in God or anything like that. But here you are, with God's help and guidance, and yet things seem to be getting steadily worse. I can't help wondering why that is."
The blacksmith did not answer immediately, and it was evident that he had thought the same question before. But finally, he said,

"You see here the raw iron which I have to make into horse's shoes. You know what I do with it? I take a piece and heat it in the fire until it is red, almost white with the heat. Then I hammer it unmercifully to shape it as I know it should be shaped. Then I plunge it into a pail of cold water to temper it. Then I heat it again and hammer it some more. And this I do until it is finished."

But sometimes I find a piece of iron that won't stand up under this treatment. The heat and the hammering and the cold water are too much for it. I don't know why it fails in the process, but I know it will never make a good horse's shoe."

He pointed to a heap of scrap iron that was near the door of his shop.
"When I get a piece that cannot take the shape and temper, I throw it out on the scrap heap. It will never be good for anything."


He went on,  "I know that God has been holding me in the fires of affliction and I have felt His hammer upon me. But I don't mind, if only He can bring me to what I should be. And so, in all these hard things my prayer is simply this:
Try me in any way you wish, Lord, only don't throw me on the scrap heap."


In the news....Bullying in schools is a big problem here.  One solution proposed is to give kids plastic surgery, so that those with sticky-out ears, for example, won't be the target of bullies.  Now, I am the first to admit that I am not the sharpest knife in the tool box but there has to be better, less expensive solutions than that.  Like coming down hard on the bullies.


The big thing in the news is the fact that the 9/11 terrorists are going to be tried in military courts rather than go through the US justice system in New York, which was going to cost millions and millions of dollars, which Congress has just defunded.  I think - for what it's worth - that they should have done that years ago. The terrorists wanted their day in the court in the US, with all the attention of the world's media on them.  I don't know why anyone thought that would be a good idea.  The Attorney General did though, and he is still protesting about it so there are loud calls for his resignation.   Trying the terrorists in a military tribunal will cost $46.95 a day, for the coffee and donuts, everyone else is paid anyway, being military employees.

4th April

The weather here is so bizarre, it has been cold, the winds have been 40mph, tonight I have a hot water bottle, but  it is going to be in the 80s tomorrow.  

I have been a bit stressed the last few days, I bought a new cell phone two or three weeks ago with $100 of minutes that would last a year if I didn't use them, and wouldn't die, or expire, on me from lack of use, but I lost it.  Finally today I decided I'd have to get another one - in a power failure, in a tornado, I wouldn't be able to use my landline.

Anyway, I took all the paperwork with me to the shop and was told that if the minutes hadn't been used (which they hadn't) they could be transferred to a new phone, so that was something which cheered me up today.  I was glad too that I'd just bought a cheap $14.99 basic phone, although I can retrieve my e-mail on it.

I think the phone fell out of my handbag, the same bag that the passport fell out of, so said handbag is on its way to a charity shop.

I went to the movies tonight with Pattisue to see The Lincoln Lawyer, it was good but I need to either read the book or see it a few more times to fully grasp it.  We went to the last show so it was too late when we came out for a frozen yoghourt at the Pink Swirls.


In the news......There have been high winds across several states.  In AZ a bouncy house (I suppose that's a smaller version of a bouncy castle) took off with two children inside, floating across several lanes of interstate.  The children had to be taken to hospital.


Obama announced today he is running for re-election in 2012.  It was also announced this evening that Donald Trump is entering the fray which should be very entertaining, he says the daftest things.  He's a brilliant business man but doesn't know anything about politics, and politicians can't run a lemonade stand.


Arizona is going to charge smokers and obese people more for health care.  It is in the south where people are more over weight.  Because they are poorer their food is all breaded and fried, served with biscuits covered in yukky gravy.