POST MEMORIAL DAY

It still feels like a holiday, the Senior Centre wasn't open so there was no gospel singing.   I was as lazy as I was yesterday just going to pick up a few things from the supermarket in the afternoon, then stopped for another takeout from the Golden Corrall buffet which still had some smoked brisket.   It came out at exactly $5 (you pay by the final weight of the boxes)   Is it worth cooking and getting the kitchen hot for the sake of £3?

In the news........

 .This is the story of a very brave and exceptional elementary school teacher in Mexico.  There was a drug cartel shoot out going on in the corridor outside her classroom.  She got all the children down on the floor, told them not to lift their heads up, and she was so upbeat and reassuring, she had them all singing while they were on the floor.  She took the video with her Blackberry.   The guy on the left of the picture is a psychologist who was commending her.


The President of Mexico blames the US for their gun wars, saying it's because Mexicans can go across the border and buy guns from Mom and Pop stores (small businesses).   Personally I doubt that they get the guns in the quantities they do from the Mom and Pop stores.


Do you know, people actually go to Mexico on holiday.  Can you believe that?  I'd just as soon have a holiday in Afghanistan.  It must be bad enough living on the US side of the border when the bullets are whistling across the Rio Grande from Mexico, shattering windows in El Paso,


Schwarzenegger is in trouble....again.  The husband of his housekeeper - who is the mother of his child - is suing him because    Arnold is not shown as the father on the child's birth certificate which is illegal in California, and as the chief law enforcement officer in the state at the time, Arnold should have put it right.  Apparently though he didn't know he was the father until the child was a toddler.   We haven't seen any photos of the child but by all accounts he is the spitting image of Arnold so a lot of people must have been suspicious.


There are two very high profile and controversial court cases going on at the moment.  One is the corruption trial of the former Illinois governor who tried to sell Obama's former Senate seat.  His trial is providing a great deal of entertainment as he is a character.


The other trial is that of a young mother accused of the first degree murder of her child who was missing for thirty one days before her absence was reported.  It is a very difficult case to understand because the mother - during the time the child was missing - was seen on video as out partying, and it is hard to understand where the truth lies in this story.   The punishment for first degree murder in Florida is the death penalty, which is what she will have to be sentenced to if she is found guilty.


Finally....in Oklahoma, and this is causing a lot of controversy, two armed bandits went into a pharmacy and in self defence the pharmacist shot one of them.   Unfortunately, while the guy was lying on the ground, wounded, the pharmacist got another gun and shot him a further five times, which obviously goes beyond the limits of self defence, and he has just been sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.  But I - and a lot of other people - think this sentence is way too severe.  This situation wasn't the pharmacist's fault, these low life bandits broke in, thereby causing the subsequent shooting.  An Oklahoma state senator has introduced a Bill in the state Senate to try and change the law, arguing that there has to be a better interpretation of self defence.

MEMORIAL DAY

I had a quiet Memorial Day indoors, stitching and watching tv, I just went out this evening to pick up a smoked brisket takeaway from the Golden Corrall buffet.

It is interesting how much people do for the military and veterans here.   I've been hearing of different projects.    The boy scouts go out and place a flag on every grave in the national cemeteries.

In 2000 Congress passed legislation that every soldier and veteran would be entitled to a military funeral with two military personnel in attendance, who would present the folded flag to the family and play a recording of Taps.  I think Taps is something like our Last Post.   One guy hated the idea of recorded Taps and started a campaign to have a live bugler at every funeral.   It has been very successful and he has 7500 buglers.  He is very busy because there are a lot of veterans passing away and will be doing so for the next seven years.

I was thinking of taking a little trip tomorrow, actually leaving Shawnee, to go to Guthrie which was the state capital when Oklahoma became a state in 1907.  There's a lot of historical interest there but the weather is forecasting thunderstorms, so perhaps I'll leave it for another day.

 It gets me that whenever they show the national weather temperatures it always shows those in Kansas and in Dallas, so if you live in between, in Oklahoma, you just have to figure out what it might be.

SUNDAY

The summer schedule doesn't start at Emmanuel until next week but I'm having my own summer schedule and went to the 8.30 at the Lutheran church.


I afterwards went to Emmanuel to buy some flowers for Larry's grave.  The Outreach Committee puts together sprays and wreaths and have been selling them all the week for their funds.  No one uses fresh flowers here, they wouldn't last five minutes in the heat.   I then took them out to the cemetery in Tecumseh but I'd had the wrong container, I needed one with a spike in the bottom to push in the ground so went back to change it, then took it back to the cemetery, so as you can see I was running around all the morning.

By the end of tomorrow, Monday, which is Memorial Day, I think almost all the graves in the cemetery will have flowers on them.


This afternoon while I crocheted I looked at the Memorial Service from Joplin, Missouri.  President Obama was there and it was very moving.

Obama is big on hugs.   The priest on the right of the picture was saved by taking refuge in a very strong bath tub when the tornado hit.

This is one of the churches devastated in the tornado.  You can see the damage it does.  8000 homes have been destroyed.


I bumped into Rosalyn as I was coming and going from Emmanuel, she was anxious because her daughter is going to England on Wednesday to visit her brother, Rosalyn' son.  She was arriving 6.30am and he wasn't meeting her at the airport (thank you Tim for meeting me at 6.30am, I appreciate you).   Part of Rosalyn's anxiety was the fact that there isn't time now  to get some English currency, and she was hoping her daughter would be able to change some money at the airport.  I went home and rustled up about £50 hoping that would at least alleviate a little anxiety, and I gave her some small change for a phone if necessary.  I'll never forget waiting nearly two hours at Pittsburgh Airport for James and Kelly to meet me, and wishing more than anything that I had some change for a phone so I could call Kelly's mother, I thought they'd had an accident on the way to the airport.


This evening I went out to dinner with Pattisue to the China Buffet which always has a very good array of Chinese food, seafood, and desserts.

SATURDAY

This is Memorial Day weekend which is a really BIG DEAL holiday, it's the first day of summer on Monday and it ends on Labour Day in September.  Everyone is getting out their bbq's, and their smokers.  Smoked food is the latest fad, they even smoke macaroni cheese.

It is very hot outside but when Terry did the brakes on my car he put some more freon in the air conditioning so the car now gets really cold very quickly.

I was out and about from the late morning.  I went to the Farmer's Market but was disappointed that there still were not many stall holders there.   People are not only growing less but are not canning and baking like they were.


Went on to the Cracker Barrel for an all day breakfast but without the grits and gravy.  I'm not sure I know what the grits are like but gravy over breakfast!!!!  I don't think so.


I went from the Cracker Barrel to Midwest City, to Hobby Lobby.  It's a huge, huge store, the biggest craft emporium I've ever seen.   I pulled into Pink Swirls on the way back through Shawnee, had a frozen yoghourt and a little read, and that has been my day.

THURSDAY

I was off early to Tecumseh for the donuts for Kiwanis.  People have asked why I don't get them from Shawnee but they are donated by a relative of Cecil and Louise.


The speaker this morning at Kiwanis was the marketing director of the local hospital and she was talking about the new buildings that are going up around the hospital, mostly specialty clinics which are at the moment in other parts of the town.


I went to our small discussion group at Emmanuel then five of us went to lunch at Benedict Street Deli which was very pleasant.


In the news.........It is said that ten people died in the tornadoes in Oklahoma.   There are such sad stories.   One pregnant mother was sheltering in her bath with her children and the tornado sucked them out.  The mother and one child are in hospital, the youngest child was snatched out of her arms and died at the time, and all day yesterday rescuers were looking for another of her children, a missing three year old, I think everyone was tuned into this search and were sad to learn this morning that his body had been recovered.  He had been thrown into a lake, then the currents in the lake took his body to the shoreline.   The father of the family was out of town at the time and is obviously heartbreakingly distraught.


In the same area the fire chief's house was hit, but he had taken his family down to the storm cellar underneath the house and they all survived, although the house was shredded and so were his vehicles.


A truck was hit on the interstate near Shawnee, mercifully the driver was thrown out of the passenger window and survived with cuts and bruises.  The truck was completely blown apart.

TUESDAY May 24th

We've had a tornado pass over northern Pottawatomie county and Shawnee.  It touched down in Oklahoma City and so far 5 have died.  I didn't know the weather was that bad but when I heard the sirens go off here I switched tv channels to the local weather, which was tracking it, and threw my duvets, pillows and other necessities like toys and thermos into my tornado shelter in the inside bathroom and I rang Sharon to alert the emergency services to dig me out if my neighbourhood was hit.  

The plume is the tornado

My tornado shelter.

This notice board is in the Senior Centre and I photographed it this morning.


Since typing the above Bruce alerted me to the fact that the water tower in Shawnee was hit and we'd be without water for about 12 hours while it was being repaired.  I hastily filled some pots and had a shallow bath.

There's always hail stones with tornadoes and look at the size of them.  Another weird thing is that the trees are completely stripped of their bark, so when they are standing they are completely white with every shred of bark stripped off.

Before the tornado......I went to the gospel singing this morning at the Senior Centre, it was very good, all my favourites.  I gave a little contribution which I will reprint at the end if I get back to my desktop.  I'm doing this on my laptop while watching tv, I'm looking at Fox News' interview with Netanyahu but they keep interrupting to see what is happening in Oklahoma.

Afterwards I took the car to Terry for the brakes to be done.  It will be ready tomorrow, and I was glad it was safely in his garage tonight, I'd have worried about the hailstones bombarding it and breaking the glass.


Following is the story I read at the Gospel Singing - I said at the end that I thought there was more than one message in it.  I told them I remembered Fr Clark once saying that one of the saddest things he deals with in his ministry is estranged relationships when someone dies and it is too late to put things right.

Is packaging important?

-- Author Unknown

A young man was getting ready to graduate from college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer's showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all he wanted.

As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car. Finally, on the morning of his graduation, his father called him into his study.  He handed his son a beautifully wrapped gift box. Curious, but somewhat disappointed, the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible, with  his name embossed in gold. Angrily, he raised his voice to his father and said, "With all your money you give me a Bible?" He then stormed out of the house, leaving the Bible.

Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had a beautiful home and a wonderful family, but realizing his father was very old, he thought perhaps he should go to see him. He had not seen him since that graduation day. Before he could make the arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed away, and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take care of things.

When he arrived at his father's house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart. He began to search through his father's important papers and saw the still new Bible, just as he had left it years ago.

With tears, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages. As he was reading, a car key dropped from the back of the Bible. It had a tag with the dealer's name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation, and the words... "PAID IN FULL".

How many times do we miss blessings because they are not packaged as we expected?

MONDAY

I was out early this morning doing my errands round town, I had to drop into the Hospice for my ID badge.  I went to Colonial Nursing Home where Larry was and went to see the residents on the list the Hospice gave me, but I think I need a little more guidance on what is expected of me, it really isn't the same as visiting patients in hospital.


Bruce and Rosalyn still haven't booked their flight, I think they are still deciding what to do after the Christening.  I thought it might help them out if I put together a few suggestions - they want to see Seaford and the surrounding area.   Rosalyn also expressed an interest in the Cotswolds, so I printed off Google driving directions that had the mileages, and it struck me how NEAR places are to each other.    I don't have them now because I printed them off, but everywhere is less than a hundred miles from each other.  Oxford to Barnes, Barnes to Seaford; Seaford to Stow-on-the-Wold; Stow on the Wold back to Barnes.   


And in the Cotswolds it is no distance at all to the two or three places I suggested seeing - Gloucester Cathedral, I'm sure Rosalyn, who I think you know is our church organist, would like to attend a Choral Evensong there.  And Blenheim Palace is only twenty minutes.   And Fairford.


From Shawnee it is nearly 500 miles to the border with New Mexico,  and 150 in the other direction to the border with Arkansas. 


In the news......The DNA tests have come back on Strauss-Kahn and his semen was all over the maid's shirt.   His ex-wife is running round New York trying to find a new permanent/temporary place for him to live that will accommodate his security guards and video cameras and the media press.  I think they should have just sent him back to prison.  Better still, why didn't he just go out and pick someone up in Times Square, or phone an agency for a prostitute.  There are lots of people like me who are having a problem getting their heads round this.

SUNDAY

I went to the 10.30 at Emmanuel.  Fr Gary announced that for the summer there would just be one Sunday service at 9.30.  I was expecting it to be so anyway, but understand that it was put to Fr Gary that he would have to decide, and he made a big thing about the heart searching he did, telling us that it would be good for the 8.00 and 10.30 congregations - who normally never see each other - to get together.


I wanted to go on to Hobby Lobby in Midwest City but thought it best to go home and have lunch and a nap, so I won't feel like leaving the interstate for a snooze.   However when I did get to Hobby Lobby there was a notice on the door saying they are closed on Sundays so that their employees could spend time with their families and in worship.  I didn't know they were that religious, all the stores in Shawnee are open.    Midwest City is the site of the Tinker Air Force Base, the largest military base in the world, I wondered if it had crossed the minds of terrorists to bomb it.


Driving there though made me realise that I have got to ring Terry for a brake service.  I was thinking, driving round Shawnee, they needed attention, but driving at speed confirmed my suspicions.


I have spent the rest of the time doing odd jobs round the house and haven't really seen the news.   A lot of it is all about the Republicans choosing their candidates for the 2012 Election, yawn, yawn.  It's a shame Donald Trump dropped out, I hoped he would run for the entertainment value.   The other big story you have probably heard about is Arnold Schwarzenegger's philanderings.  It started with one child by his housekeeper and now all the other mistresses are crawling out of the woodwork. 

SATURDAY

I spent most of the day with Sharon from 9 - 4 at a course at the police station, it was about preparing for disasters and dealing with them when they happen.


To best explain it I will quote a couple of paragraphs from their very thick manual


"If available, emergency services personnel are the best trained and equipped to handle emergencies.  Following a catastrophic disaster however, you and the community may be on your own for a period of time because of the size of the area affected, lost communications, and impassable roads.


CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) Basic Training is designed to prepare you to help yourself and others in the event of a catastrophic disaster.  Because emergency services personnel will not be able to help everyone immediately, you can make a difference by using your CERT training to save lives and protect property".


Today was all theory, on another Saturday we will be doing the practical.


I thought I was prepared for tornadoes, or whatever, but there are some things missing from my disaster kit I need to get.  


In the news......The Strauss-Kahn saga goes on.  A condition of his bail was to be under house arrest, and he was expecting to go to his ex-wife's luxurious apartment in Manhattan where he would be monitored by a private security firm (at a cost of $220,000 a month, this has got to be the most expensive bail in history) however the other residents of said luxurious apartment block objected.  They probably thought an alleged rapist under house arrest lowered the tone of the place, so his attorneys have been scrambling to find him new digs.   The French continue to protest at his appearance in handcuffs - apparently it is the law in France that one can only be viewed by the public in handcuffs if they are convicted.  Someone laughingly asked a French reporter if they were going to sue the US.


His defence attorney seems to be clutching at straws.  Strauss-Kahn alleges that the encounter with the hotel maid was consentual but there is video evidence that she propped the door open before she went into the room.   I think kidnapping is one of the seven charges against him.   So now the defence attorney is saying that it was all set up by the US to discredit him as a candidate for the French presidency.  Which is causing mirth and hilarity among the news men.

FRIDAY 20th May

We certainly had the rain that was needed, there was a thunderstorm last night which was panicking Bubbles.   And it rained I think all night, then this morning it came down like a monsoon.  I was nervous at setting out for the hospital, because the last time rain was running like a river through the streets I got water in my transmission, and the car was practically written off.  Against all advice I got a new transmission.  So now I am wary at setting off in very heavy rain, but waited until it was not too bad in the road outside, then I kept to the middle of a main  route through town to the hospital.   Had lunch with Pattisue when I got there, she had already been round practically one floor, and I did the other after lunch.

The spider lightning we had last night.

Weather for the week ahead.

When they announced Debbie Reynolds I was expecting a little old lady, not someone who looks forty years younger than me!  She's got to be older than me, I'm sure I was a teenager reading about her and Eddie Fisher.   Perhaps I need a makeover.  A good haircut, and colour.  A facial.  Eyebrows trimmed.  Botox perhaps.  In my dreams.


ps She is older than me, I've just looked her up.   She was born in April 1932.   She's practically 80!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THURSDAY

The Kiwanis speaker this morning was a deputy Sheriff who runs the Sex Offender's Unit.  It was very interesting.  This is a sex offender's driving licence.

It says Sex Offender on it 3 times, and on an actual driving licence that appears in very bright red.

Each pin on this board represents a sex offender in Pottawatomie County and it is strategically placed so that when offender reports he is directly facing it, and the Sherrif goes over to it, picks out his address and asks if that is him, which is all intended to intimidate.


Law enforcement here is tough.  The French are outraged, and protesting vehemently because the IMF Chief, who allegedly raped a hotel maid,  is walked handcuffed through the crowd.  The US told them that all wealthy, powerful people are treated like that so that the rest of America will see that they are not getting special privileges.  I think they then added something to the effect of  "Get used to it".


Said Chief has been indicted on seven felony counts, if he is found guilty he will be in his nasty prison for ever.   He is in it tonight but tomorrow he will be released on bail of  $1million in cash, $5million in bonds, placed under house arrest in a relative's flat in NY, have to wear an ankle bracelet, and kept under 24 hour surveillance by a private security firm - which he pays for himself.   The Prosecution argued against bail saying he was a flight risk and the US doesn't have an Extradition Treaty with France.  I don't think France will ever be forgiven for harbouring Roman Polanski, and neither should they be, he was a juvenile sex offender.     It was as well that the maid reported it immediately because he left more or less straight away for the airport, the hotel management contacted NYPD and they got him off the plane just before it was about to take off. 


The victim in this is reportedly terrified.  She comes from a culture where rich, powerful people will take revenge on someone poor, so to reassure her she has been taken to a safe place and under 24 hour protection.


The rest of the day.......I went to the discussion group at Emmanuel, there was just six of us but there may be more join us, and discussion flowed freely, mainly on what our beliefs are.   Afterwards we went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Tecumseh, which was nice.


This evening I went to a Reception (wine and cheese and dips and cookies and fruit - the usual buffet fare at things like this) and a Lecture on Rembrandt given by an Associate Professor of Art History at Oklahoma University.  She illustrated her talk with slides of his paintings and it was very interesting.  I didn't know he painted more self portraits than any other painter, then he told his students to copy his self portraits as a project, consequently there are so many self portraits of Rembrandt floating around that there is a lot of debate as to what are actually genuine Rembrandt, and which are his students copies.   He also had a printing press, which I didn't know, and she showed a few slides of his prints.

TUESDAY 17TH MAY

Last night, Monday, I went to the movies with Pattisue and saw 'Bridesmaids' , I thought it would be light hearted, amusing.  I need to look more closely not only at the reviews, but the ratings.  I didn't realise it but this was rated R-Restricted which means 'adult themes'; 'hard language;' 'sexually oriented nudity.'   And it had all them.  I mean, when did sex become a spectator sport, or activity? 


When I got home I looked up the Motion Picture Association of America so now I know what the ratings mean, and in future I'll look at them.   Pattisue is very sweet and good natured and didn't make a big deal of it, but I'll be more careful in the films I suggest and look up the ratings first.  Restricted is only a category above NC-17, which means positively no one under 17 is allowed in, goodness knows what they have in them.


I went to the gospel singing this morning, and gave a little contribution.  One of the leaders had asked me a little while ago if I knew Billy Bray, an 18th century Cornish tin miner and evangelist.   I didn't, but I looked him up and threw in a bit of 18th century church history to put him into the context of his time.  I saw the leader was taking notes of my asides - like Cornwall was the cradle of English Methodism.  I don't know though if he was interested in Cornwall or Methodism.  I did also run off a copy of the Lord's Prayer in the Cornish language to make my point that they were, in a sense, culturally different from the rest of Britain.


Straight after the gospel singing I scooted along to the monthly meeting and pot luck lunch, of the Hospice which meets in Larry's church, I'd made a pear and chocolate trifle to take to the pot luck.
So far I haven't done any volunteering yet for them and I arranged to call at the Hospice office tomorrow to discuss what I can do to help. 


The dogs in Shawnee are all so thrilled with their new dog park they are writing letters to the editor of the Shawnee News Star.  One chihuahua ran around for an hour and half there and slept like a rock that night, and was very proud to introduce his doggy cousins from Kansas to the dog park - presumably dog parks in Kansas are as rare as they are in Oklahoma.


In the news......

The Mississippi flood waters are about to crest at 63 feet.  This is the Spillway which is diverting the river so that it will flood 3 million acres of farmland and save the city of Baton Rouge and other small towns in Louisiana, and the Louisiana State University.  It is a terribly sad situation for the thousands of people losing their homes.  There will also be severe economic repercussions from the flooding of the farmlands.


Another news item which I know is big over there too, is the IMF Chairman, and French Presidential candidate, who allegedly attacked a chamber maid at his hotel, and who is at the moment locked up without bail, because it is believed he will skip the country if he is given bail - when Roman Polanski skipped bail here on juvenile sex charges and went to France the French refused to hand him back, so I think there's a bit of revenge going on here.    The guy is locked up in Riker's Island, the most notorious jail in the country and the news media are all relishing his 'new reality'.  We've been given a tour of the jail, pointing out his cell and the toilet bowl where everyone walking past can see what he is doing.  And given a description of his lunch - one slice of white bread with either a slice of cheese or sausage on it, and a glass of warm tap water to drink.  No wonder he is on suicide watch.  He will be there at least until Friday when he is indicted.  The Prosecution seem very confident of their case, the most crucial point being the speed with which it was reported, the victim told the hotel management immediately afterwards and contacted her brother.

This is the "not pretty" house opposite me that I am trying to persuade the City to demolish.

Bubbles.   When she climbs in my lap I am trying to crochet with my work tucked under my chin and trying desperately not to get any cat hairs on it.

SUNDAY,

I went to the Lutheran Church this morning for a change, it was a lot more Protestant than the Anglo Catholic Emmanuel, but I can't think of leaving Emmanuel, I'll just visit from time to time.   No one seems to know at the moment if Emmanuel is going to revert to its summer schedule and just have one Service at 9.30 but summer officially starts here on Memorial Day on the 31st, so I guess we'll know by then.


Afterwards I used the remaining Red Lobster gift card David and Janie sent for my birthday and invited Rosalyn and Bruce to lunch.  I think it has the best food in Shawnee, their specialty at the moment is wood grilled seafood; I had shrimp and bacon wrapped scallops with a bourbon sauce......mmm...mmm....mmm.   We chatted about our forthcoming trip to the UK, they haven't booked their flight yet, they are still agonising over coach tours  - Rosalyn doesn't like them and they are both afraid they will be too fast paced.  Rosalyn is  keen on seeing Seaford and the surrounding area (and afternoon tea with cucumber sandwiches, I don't know what books she's been reading but I said I was sure that was possible).  I said I'd hire a car to take them, perhaps after the Christening.


In the news.....Over here on car licence plates - besides the licence number - there are all sorts of emblems and things, and one guy in Florida (who claims that 'you are what you drive') has provoked outrage by having a Confederate flag on his licence plate, there's a court case raging, African Americans are deeply offended.  He maintains he is exercising his First Amendment right to free speech.   I don't know why they don't just stick to the licence number.


There are three stories on the front page of the Shawnee News Star today.   The biggest headline is RIBBON CUTTING    Official Opening of Shawnee's First Ever Dog Park.   This is such a big deal that for days everyone in town, wherever I've gone, has been talking about it, they are so excited that their dogs 'will be able to run and socialise with other dogs'.   What do dogs in Britain do for a social life?   I don't remember seeing special dog parks, do we have them?


A second item on the front page is a Shawnee High School girl who is competing in the International Youth Rodeo which is held in Shawnee in July.


The third item is City orders additional six houses to be demolished, bringing the total number of dilapidated houses to be removed to the target number of 25.   The house opposite me is empty, dilapidated and scruffy and I have been pestering the City's Action Centre to condemn it, but they tell me it is not dilapidated enough and they know it's not pretty; at which point I argue it is a lot more than 'not pretty' it's a total eyesore, but to no avail.  They have though made the owner clear away a lot of rubbish that was left lying around, so it looks marginally better.

Thursday/Friday

The Kiwanis speaker on Thursday morning was very interesting; a Professor and Director of the Science Education Center at Oklahoma University in Norman, a city not far away.  The rather long title of his talk was 'Intellectual Development Occurs in Spite of Common Schools, not because of Schools' and he told us how children developed intellectually.  He demonstrated some simple scientific tests which are given to children to measure their intellectual capacity.

It was the last Thursday Communion, I think some people were hoping Fr Gary would carry on with it but he was expecting to have  the summer off.   The study/discussion group which has been meeting before Communion intends to carry on with different people choosing a subject and leading it.  I was asked to join them as I am not doing the meals on wheels any more and I think I probably will.

After Communion six of us went to lunch at a Steak House, they do very good steaks, I had a New York strip, and it was all very pleasant.

In the evening I went to a dinner laid on by the Hospice, held at the nearby town of Meeker, which was a rare trip outside Shawnee.  I didn't eat much though, I was still full up from lunch. My new friend Phyllis was looking out for me and had kept a seat beside her.

Today, Friday I was at the hospital as usual.  There were more patients than there have been and Pattisue and I did the two floors between us.  There seems to be a lot of patients with pneumonia, there's a lot of it going about.

Wednesday 11th May

I got to the hospital mid morning, a lot of patients had been, or were in process of being, discharged so it did not take long for Pattisue and I to do a floor each.  Afterwards we had lunch with Larry.


Emmanuel is winding down for the summer.  This evening was going to be the last Wednesday evening meal until the schools go back in August and there was going to be an end of year party in Kevin's lovely garden, however the weather was not only very wet but there were thunderstorms forecast as well so it was decided to postpone it for a fortnight.


We can't complain about the rain, we need it in Oklahoma.   The severe flooding along the Mississippi and Ohio valleys,  as I think I've mentioned, is very serious.  The worst affected at the moment is in the state of Mississippi, it will then go through Louisiana and out into the Gulf and when it does, it will either flood the capital of Baton Rouge and the campus of the LA State University, or it will be diverted and flood hundreds of thousands of acres of crops with dire economic consequences.  Officials at the moment are trying to decide what to do.  What a choice.

I am having a problem at the moment transferring photos, I hope I can sort it soon.  My laptop has just come back from the computer store, and I have installed something on the desktop to improve its performance but I am not sure it has.

Tuesday 10th May

Although I said yesterday I didn't need the therapist, and I didn't, I made an appointment this afternoon anyway because it is so good and deeply relaxing.  She puts her fingers on pressure points on my body and it does something to the sympathetic nervous system.


This morning I went to the gospel singing at the Senior Centre and took along a little contribution I found on the internet.  It was called ' Give Me the Simple Life' and it was a story of Satan calling a convention of evil angels, in which he told them that they can't keep Christians from going to church, reading the Bible and knowing the truth; what they had to do was prevent us from forming an abiding experience in Christ because when we have that their evil power over us is broken.   It then went on at length on all the things we do, the distractions we have, the things which jam our minds and prevent us from hearing the still small voice.   I delivered it rather dramatically and overheard someone murmur as I sat down, "she'd be a good preacher".   I'll copy and paste it at the end of this post if anyone is interested.


When I was at the Senior Centre I strolled into the office area to ask for a photocopy of something and saw my Cockney friend Phyllis in one of the offices.  I sat down and we hung out, she said my visit made her day, it made mine too.  Chatted about things like rising fuel prices, and we can't complain, look at what they are at home.    They have been steadily rising every day and are now about $3.96 a gallon, but I think they are set to start going down.


The rest of the news you have probably heard - the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio rivers which flow into each other and are flooding, seriously flooding.  It is going to contribute to a nationwide rise in food prices, it is a big wheat and cotton growing area.   


Driving in a part of Shawnee I don't often go I passed the Electricity Company, I don't think I have photographed their painted horse.

When I was at the Early Childhood Centre yesterday I wished I'd had my camera - I'm not often without it - it is the loveliest, and biggest, school I have ever seen.  My Dad built a school in Hailsham and would have loved to have had the land to build an elementary school that size.   I am still struck at the acres and acres of land there is to build on.  You can see round the Electricity Company here how much spare land is round it.


Finally, a picture of Bubbles in her latest place to curl up.  Although at the moment we are sharing a footstool under the computer desk.

GIVE ME THE SIMPLE LIFE
Satan called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his evil angels, he said, "We can't keep the Christians from going to church.
We can't keep then from reading their Bibles & knowing the truth. We can't even keep them from conservative values. But we can do something else. We can keep them from forming an intimate, abiding experience in Christ.
If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So let them go to church, let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they can't gain that experience in Jesus Christ. This is what I want you to do, angels. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior & maintaining that vital connection throughout their day."
"How shall we do this?", shouted his angels.
"Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life & invent unnumbered schemes to occupy their minds," he answered.
"Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, then, borrow, borrow, borrow. Convince the wives to go to work & the husbands to work 6 or 7 days a week,10-12 hrs. a day, so they can afford their lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family fragments, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work."
"Overstimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still small voice. Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive, to keep the TV, the VCR, & their CD's going constantly in their homes.
And see to it that every store & restaurant in the world plays music constantly. This will jam their minds & break that union with Christ."
"Fill their coffee tables with magazines & newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hrs. a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, sweepstakes, mail order catalogues, & every kind of newsletter & promotional offering, free products, services, & false hopes."
"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted, disquieted & unprepared for the coming week. Don't let them go out in nature. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts & movies instead. And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip & small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences & unsettled emotion."
"Let them be involved in soul-winning. But crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Christ. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health & family unity for the good of the cause."
It was quite a convention in the end. And the evil angels went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get busy, busy, busy & rush here & there.
Has the devil been successful at his scheme? You be the judge.

Monday 9th May

I didn't feel too good when I went to bed last night, and I wasn't a lot better when I woke up, although I had got rid of my backache and didn't need the therapist after all.


Last night I'd taken some Ibuprofen for my aching back, and as it hadn't had any effect after a few hours I took two prescription pain killers.  perhaps I should have just taken one.  I went to bed feeling faint and very nauseous, and woke up not much better.   I made myself eat about mid morning and after that started to feel better.  I even made it to the Early Childhood Learning Center in the afternoon to read to the children, and I thought that was going to be out of the question when I first woke up.


I spent the rest of the afternoon going through the list of things on my to-do list.  One of which was to collect my migraine medication from the pharmacy.  I think the system here is better.  One is registered with a pharmacist, and if necessary he contacts the doctor for the prescription, or it can just be 'refilled'; in any case one is not waiting for more than 24 hours at the most.      In Seaford one puts in a prescription request to the doctor's surgery, is told to come back and collect it a fortnight next Thursday, and then we have to take it to the chemist and wait for it to be dispensed. 


I saw a big poster in the pharmacy advising people to take poison ivy prevention treatment, I think it was about $16.99.   I must ask someone about that, because I would have thought that the best way to avoid mishaps with poison ivy is keep well away from it.  I have some in my garden and give it a very wide berth.

Mother's Day

The last couple of days I have been having the back pain I get from time to time, Ibuprofen hasn't been relieving it very much and I have been lying on a hot water bottle, which helps but is non too comfortable when  the temperatures are up in the 90s, so I've had the air conditioning turned well up and ceiling fans going.  In the morning I will ring the therapist who massages and usually manages to unknot  whatever is causing it.  I hope she can fit me in tomorrow.   She does all sorts of Californian-style therapies but I just go for a massage and it works.  She is a trained nurse as well.  It's a bit like going to the Health Centre Treatment Room in Hailsham, except that I pay, and it's a lot more relaxing with soft lights and music, and it is really not overly expensive.


I went to the 10.30 Service at Emmanuel, I had to as I was reading the prayers.  I was very fidgety in the pew though and left as soon as I had done them.


I took a few photos the last couple of days.

On Saturday morning I paid my first visit of the year, to the Farmer's Market, which runs from May to October.  There weren't many stall holders there though.  I went for some home made bread but the weather and recession has pushed prices right up, and I thought $5.75 a loaf was too much.  Decided I could knock up some Irish soda bread instead, which is very quick and easy.


I'll finish this tomorrow, I need to lie down.

Bin Laden had this photo taken which was going to be released with his latest video.  He was very conscious of his image, you see here that his beard has been dyed black and trimmed to make him look young.  The photo underneath is the real him, with the straggly grey beard, looking scruffy, and Fox News keeps flashing it on the screen every chance they get.

It is said the intelligence the Navy Seals seized is the equivalent of a small college library.

The weather for the week ahead.

CINCO DE MAYO

Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for "fifth of May") is celebrated nationwide in the US and regionally in Mexico, primarily in the state of Puebla.  It is celebrated in the US as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride (perhaps not so much in Arizona and California which is a bit anti Mexican) In Puebla it commemorates the Mexican army's victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on 5 May 1862.


This morning, Thursday, I was out early picking up the donuts for Kiwanis.   The speaker was the Shawnee City Manager, telling us what the state taxes had been spent on.  There seems to be far more effort here to keep citizens informed, I never knew what was going on at local government level in Seaford - but maybe that was my fault.


I didn't go to Communion or lunch today, I went instead to the Thursday chapel service at the hospital.  It is also a National Day of Prayer which was the theme of the Service.  I went primarily because the Shawnee Fire Chief was going to be there, and when he is not doing his day job he sings and plays the guitar and I am a fan.  He didn't sing today though and when I spoke to him briefly in the foyer I told him he must come soon to Kiwanis. 




In the news......Pakistan is threatening the US.  "Do not ever fly into our country uninvited again - or else....."   I'd expect the US to say "or else what, shall we stop the billions of aid we send you?"   But I think that is just me, I haven't heard anyone else say that.   


They are getting their revenge though, the Pakistanis are, they have Bin Laden's wife - the favourite wife with whom he has continuously spent the last five years - who has obviously got all this intelligence the CIA is dying to get it's hands on and Pakistan is flatly refusing to allow the US to interrogate her, and when they have finished interrogating her they are going to take her back to her home in Yemen.  


When the SEALS shot Bin Laden she was in front of him and was shot in the leg to move her out of the way.   She's apparently being very chatty to her Pakistani interrogators.   The US does however have an enormous amount of intelligence in all they stuff they seized from the compound.  You have probably heard an attack was being planned for 9/11 on the trains in Washington DC, Chicago and New York.


I think "Did you see the Wedding?" has replaced "Do you have afternoon tea?"  as the question I'm most asked.

TUESDAY

It was the Kiwanis monthly bake sale at the Senior Centre this morning and I was up early so I could help Louise and Cecil carry things in and set up.  It amazes me how much they do as a couple, Cecil is over 90 and although Louise is in her 70s she seems to be very stiff and is noticeably moving slower.   She makes lots and lots of cakes though.   I bought my usual 40 chocolate brownies for the dessert tomorrow night.  I think Pauline bakes my 40, then a few extra.  One reason I don't bake much for them is that it costs more to make them than they charge.  The brownies are 4 for a $1, and other cakes made in small loaf tins are $1.  Louise says it is also providing a service, but I still can't get past the economics.


After I helped them set up I went home to make some egg sandwiches for a buffet lunch after the gospel singing.  Once a month they celebrate all the birthdays in the month with a bring and share lunch.


For my reading at the gospel singing I found a patriotic poem on the internet, which I thought would be appropriate after the events of the last few days.  I said that although I wasn't American I can appreciate how proud they must feel to be American, the Commando Raid was breathtaking.  At the end I also said that although not an American I appreciate the service and sacrifice of their military which makes all the world safer.  


I was at an event last week and talking to someone who knits woolen helmets for the troops in Afghanistan for the winter, which is very cold, and in a rash moment I offered to make one, and she had left the wool and pattern at the Senior Centre desk.  They are made on a circular needle which I haven't used before, but I should be able to get the hang of it.  The wool has to be 100% wool, it can't have any acrylic in it because it would melt if it caught fire.


In the news.... Although Obama - quite rightly - is being praised for giving the go ahead on the Commando Raid, The White House is taking a lot of heat for the aid it gives to Pakistan and there are widespread demands to freeze it.  Bin Laden's compound was in a military area, all the houses in the neighbourhood belong to generals and high ranking officers, nobody here is buying the Pakistani President's assertion that he didn't know Bin Laden was there.  Those against freezing the aid say that Pakistan has been in the front line of the War on Terror and their people have suffered.  And it has to be factored in that Pakistan has nuclear weapons.

MONDAY

My sleepover at Emmanuel with the Family Promise guests was uneventful, Bubbles missed me though.  I really didn't do anything today and every chance she had she climbed on to my lap.  


As you might expect Osama bin Laden was the sole topic on all the news programmes.   The US is very hacked off that he was living comfortably in a suburb of Islamabad, 100 yards from a military base.   They don't believe that the Pakistani leadership didn't know he was there and it rankles that they are getting billions in aid.   The advantage of him being where he was though is that the helicopters could fly in without arousing suspicion because the people in the compound were used to hearing helicopters overhead.   I wondered at first why they hadn't done a Commando raid on Gaddafi's compound instead of bombing it, but those in the compound would have been alerted before the helicopters landed.


One has to marvel at modern satellite technology that enabled Obama and his team in the White House to watch the Raid streaming live on video.   

SATURDAY/SUNDAY

The weather is very wet, but at least we haven't got flooding which is very bad in the Ohio river.  Flooding doesn't seem to be an issue here, not in Shawnee anyway.

Last night, Saturday, Bruce and Rosalyn took me to Shawnee Little Theatre to see a one act play about a spelling bee, which I enjoyed.

This morning I went to the 8 o'clock at Emmanuel, then the Sunday school, which is a video/discussion on a series called 'Living the Questions'.    An interesting thought I took away from it was that our failings are the foundation of our ongoing spiritual growth, we grow spiritually more by doing it wrong, than by doing it right.

David and Janie in Texas sent me two gift cards for the Red Lobster restaurant for my birthday, and I used one of them today to invite Pattisue to lunch.   I appreciated their kindness in remembering my birthday, what really touched me most though was the fact that I'd mentioned some time that the Red Lobster was my favourite restaurant here and Janie made a mental note of it at the time.

I am staying the night tonight at Emmanuel, we are hosting the Family Promise guests this week.  It is surprising how quickly the ten weeks comes round.  At the moment there are just ten churches in the town participating in the programme.