WEDNESDAY

Pattisue was feeling well enough to have some chemotherapy today and I visited her for a while before doing my chaplaincy round. Then I went out and got her a Pink Swirl before documenting the patients I saw.   I was very pleased that she had a little bit of appetite.

This evening I was doing the dessert at the Wednesday meal and took the brownies I bought at the Kiwani bake sale.   I didn't stay though, I woke up too late to have the YMCA pool to myself this morning, so I went this evening instead.  The pool looks so much more inviting when there's only me there.



As well as going to the YMCA I also wanted to see the evening news programmes.   The possibility of the Euro imploding has been well covered, also the demonstrations outside the British Embassy in Iran.  It is said the demonstrators aren't just regular folks, the Iranian government sent people in as well.  They certainly seem to be trying to provoke a war - a Middle East confrontation.  I keep expecting to wake up to the news that Israel has struck them first.

In the rest of the news.....Michael Jackson's doctor was sentenced to the maximum prison term of four years, but he won't do that because the prisons in California are too overcrowded.  They should stop locking up 13 year olds for life.

The Shawnee news from my local paper this evening.  The headline was the very bad pecan harvest.  I wondered where all the pecans were, in past years they were usually lying around on grass verges for the picking, but the drought and intensely hot summer saw them all off.   Pecan pie is a popular delicacy round here.

And children seem to have moved on from glue sniffing.  They are doing something called 'huffing' (whatever that is) but they are tampering with the freon in refrigerators.  One child has just died, which was reported today.

And another item is that coyotes are attacking household pets.  Memo to myself - try and keep Bubbles indoors, but she does like to go out on the front porch and get a breath of fresh air.

 I took this just before going out on Thanksgiving Day.  It's the reproachful look - 'are you going out, it's Thanksgiving, when will I have my turkey'.

MONDAY 28th November

Our Christmas lights - the snowflakes - have been up for a little while now and I decided to try and photograph them this evening.
This is Main Street, downtown.  I live in a turning off the other end of Main Street so am up and down this street all the time.

I think I'm getting ambitious.  I feel I'd like a better camera.  I look at a professional blog - pioneerwoman.com - and she takes some stunning photographs.

Not done a lot today.  Just went to the post office.  And I know I said after my little cooking stint I wouldn't be running off to the Golden Corral for a while, but their latest deal - which they are advertising every five minutes - are crab cakes, which I love.  

I was going to the pool at the YMCA this evening, but couldn't find my swimming costume.  I would love to be able to get through a day without spending at least an hour of it searching for something.


Anyway, I found it eventually and will go in the morning.

1st Sunday in Advent

I was at the 10.30 service at Emmanuel this morning.  I was reading the prayers.

We are hosting Family Promise this week, starting tonight.  There is just one family on the programme at the moment.  I am staying overnight next Saturday.   At the moment no one is signed up to stay with me.  I haven't had a chance to ask Sharon as she has been in Alaska, but with her poorly dogs I am reluctant to do so anyway.  

The problem is the fact that next Saturday Oklahoma University are playing  Oklahoma State University, and college football in this country is a BIG DEAL.  Certainly everyone in the state will be watching this game except me.  I did stand up in church this morning and said I didn't mind being on my own until the ball game was over, but I don't think I can be, it is the rule that there must be two people in attendance at all times.   


There is a very big scandal rocking the nation at the moment.  The football coach at Penn State University has been found to be abusing young boys, and the scandal is on a par with that in southern Ireland a few years ago when Catholic priests were found to be abusing young boys.   The scandal has been made worse at Penn State because there was a cover up, others in the athletics department knew about it, and as the victims are coming forward heads are rolling all over the place.   College football is a business worth millions of dollars, hence the cover up.


Pattisue rang to say she expects to leave hospital this afternoon, and we had a chat.   She is going to stay at her daughter's, she is too weak to go home.   I called at the hospital after church but she was sleeping, and mindful of the chaplaincy rule that we NEVER wake a patient up, I tiptoed away.  I did speak to her again a bit later in the afternoon and she was waiting for the result of a lab test.

SATURDAY

Been a bit lethargic today.  I think I suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder.  I've been researching it.  Oh how useful is the internet.

I visited Pattisue who was taken into hospital yesterday.  She was feeling very weak and her family took her to the ER, then they admitted her for blood transfusions.  She expects to be discharged in the morning.  She said Larry had been to see her.

Afterwards I stopped by my friend, Fay to see if she knows when she is having her hip replacement and she said she is having the surgery on the 6th.  There's no going on a waiting list for months.  And the insurance companies don't let them hang about for long in hospital.  She will only be in for three days, then she is going for a fortnight's rehabilitation.

Every so often, reading through the local paper, I come across something which boggles my mind.   The hunting laws in Oklahoma have recently been changed and now no child under the age of ten can go big game hunting unless accompanied by an adult.   Ten.   I can't imagine, even on estates like Balmoral or Sandringham, or those belonging to the landed gentry on the Yorkshire moors, there would be ten year olds running around with loaded shotguns.


And what is their definition of 'big game hunting' I ask myself.   I thought that was chasing wildebeest across the South African veldt.  I know I don't get out much beyond Shawnee, but I am sure I would have heard if there was big game out there.   I think the biggest game there is roaming over the prairies are deer and buffalo.   And they are plenty big enough for a ten year old. 


Like I said, life in Oklahoma boggles my mind sometimes.
 

Friday 25 November

Thought I'd clear out my 'fridge this morning.  I dragged out the contents and surveyed them.  Wondered what I could make out of these odds and ends.

 So what have we got.  There's some cheese and bacon, which are standard items in my fridge.  A few mushrooms. some sweetcorn. 
some cooked carrots languishing in chicken broth. They had been at the bottom of my slow cooker while I cooked a chicken. I brought the broth to a fast boil for several minutes to kill any bacteria that might be in it.  a few slices of peaches.  I had opened a big tin because I like some fruit on my morning oatmeal.  Half a dozen little cakes which were actually in the freezer. Some crusts of bread left over from the appetisers yesterday.  there was a few slices of cinnamon raisin bread.  a tin of condensed cream of mushroom soup. 

So what did we do.

 The crusts of bread were processed into crumbs and made cheese sausages (bread crumbs, cheese, onion, parsley, bound with an egg).

The sweet corn, mushrooms and condensed soup were added to a tin of green beans to make a green bean casserole, topped with crispy onions.  That's a popular dish round here, someone always brings it to a pot luck supper.

The bacon and cheese made a macaroni cheese.  Except that I couldn't find any macaroni, I used noodles.  My pasta store has been diminishing without realising it. Need to stock up on some macaroni.

The peaches and little cakes became a trifle.

The slices of raisin cinnamon loaf were made into a bread pudding. 

The carrots in the broth were sauteed with onion and a little chilli, then pureed into a soup.


So how do you think I did?   At least for the next few days I won't be running off to the Golden Corral for a takeout.

THANKGIVING

Not a lot to write about today.  I joined Cecil and Louise and their extended family for Thanksgiving.  I gave Louise the big ham I was given by the hospital and was glad it was put to good use.  I also made some smoked salmon appetisers, like I used to do on feast days at home.  The smoked salmon isn't as good though, it comes in chunks, not the lovely thin slices we have.

Afterwards I went home and read and dozed, and watched the Food Network channel.  I have learned more about food and cooking since I have been here than it all the rest of my life put together, it is just a shame it is too late to put it to any good use.  I like the competitions where chefs have to make something out of wildly disparate ingredients.

I rang Janie to see if they had a good Thanksgiving, which they did.  David is taking her away somewhere this morning, Friday, but she doesn't know where. 


Looking at the news here one gets the impression we are all teetering on the edge of Armageddon.  Israel is threatening Iran, North Korea is threatening the south; the global economy is on the edge of meltdown.   Is it all going to get better I wonder.


I am actually writing this up on Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year.  The shops this year have opened earlier, like 10 o'clock on Thanksgiving night - not without some protest from the employees who don't want to turn out to work at that time, on a holiday.   Others have set up tents on the pavements outside for the big  bargains they want, cut price televisions etc.  One shopper actually sprayed her fellow shoppers with pepper spray to make sure she got the bargain she was after.  Surprisingly she wasn't stopped in the store, there was too much mayhem going on, but it is thought she will be soon picked up as she was caught of the store's video.


The YMCA doesn't open this morning until 10, so I will go out then, and I might afterwards see what is going on in the Mall.

WEDNESDAY

Why did the salmon cross the road?

 Because it is flooded in Washington state.

I have just been running round town today doing my errands.  I went to the speciality deli just north of town, and it was looking very autumnal.

Memo to my loved ones......

 If you have to publish a picture of me with my obituary I want one of me looking young and pretty (I did look young and pretty once, ransack the photo albums).   I don't want one of me when I'm 92, or even 72.

Licence Plates spotted round town this morning...

 The Seminole came originally from the swamp lands of Florida.  They are the only nation never to have signed a peace treaty.

MONDAY

Well, I presented myself at the Driving Test Centre but it didn't feel anything like it did when I was 17 and turned up with my BSM instructor and a provisional licence, and a driver to take me home if I failed.   

The 15 year olds had to turn up with a parent to give consent, they were then referred to you as 'your child' or 'children'.  Is it just me or is that way too young to be driving?  I know I am digressing a bit here but what is even more bizarre is that no one under 21 can drink alcohol; it is illegal to even be at a party under 21 where it is  present, the party hosts will be prosecuted.  But they can drive at 15...and a half.  But if they are caught under 21 driving with even a smidgeon of alcohol in their blood streams they are looking at 6 months jail time.   

However, back to poor me dealing with the loss of my UK licence and residence permit, hoping to get an Oklahoma licence so I can go to my husband's cousins in Texas for Thanksgiving.

The test center opened at 8 but there were already 10 people in front of me when I got there 2 minutes past.   I waited in line then presented myself with every possible document I thought they might want....but didn't have the essential one I had to have to get an Oklahoma licence....my residence permit.


So I came home dejected and fed up and rang Janie to say I couldn't make it.  I just haven't got the nerve to drive in another state without a licence.  My UK licence would have been fine, a licence from another state is fine, but no licence at all....I couldn't run that past a state trooper.


I spent the rest of the morning - and believe me it takes hours - on the computer, on the Homeland Security's website, ordering myself a replacement residence permit.


The day got better though when Pattisue rang at 5.30 to ask if I'd like to go to the local choral group's concert.  I've been to almost all their concerts since I been here, Rosalyn used to sing with them, and this was was also very good.  I was glad that Pattisue was up to it, she really is battling her cancer.  She wasn't up to a Pink Swirl afterwards though.

The concert was held at the very modern Wesleyan Methodist church which was very pretty and I don't know why I didn't have my camera on me to take a picture.

SUNDAY

This is the last Sunday of the church year, the Sunday of Christ the King, next week is Advent.   At Emmanuel there would be bells, incense, waving banners, holy water sprinkled over the congregation....I went to the small Methodist church which Louise and Cecil attend and Carla pastors (Louise, Cecil and Carla are all Kiwanians) and it was a lovely service, more suited to my personality than Emmanuel.

 St Mark's Methodist.  Carla is on the right of the picture.

There's been a change in the weather, overcast during the day and very heavy rain and crashing thunder this evening.  Poor Bubbles rushes round looking for cover.

The deer hunting season starts this weekend as the bucks and does are all ready to mate.  They cause quite a bit of mayhem on the roads and every motorist who hits one seems to say it totals their car, so I'll be creeping round even more carefully.   

According to the road kill laws in Oklahoma the deer belongs to the motorist who killed it - not just anyone who was in the car, but the actual driver of the car that hit it.  The game warden has to be called, and he issues the paperwork so the deer can be processed, cut into joints of venison or whatever.   I've cleared out my freezer and got the game warden on speed dial.

I've been preparing for my driving test tomorrow.   It's a lot easier to drive here than in England, so the driving part isn't worrying me, I hope I can answer the questions.   More to the point, I hope I've got the relevant paper work that's needed to take the test.   

There's one thing the police are very hot on, so I guess the test examiner will be too.  At a four way intersection a car has to stop, absolutely stop, not creep over if you see the road is clear, the wheels have got to stop turning at the stop line.  This was drilled into me when I got here so I've been careful about it ever since.  So much so that in England on deserted roads, with not a car in sight, I was stopping at mini roundabouts so that I wouldn't get out of the habit.

I'll let you know how I got on.   I might even wake up in the morning and freak out.

Licence Plates...

I took this from the car at a traffic light.  Licensed by the Kickapoo Indians.  The Kickapoo came originally from Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois but moved south.   Whereas the Cherokee tried to assimilate into European culture, and the Apache fought them tooth and nail, the Kickapoo tried to get away from them, some of them are as far south as Mexico.

Saturday 19th November

It is officially autumn but it's like summer in England, blue skies, sunshine, 75 degrees.

Pattisue made it to IHOP for breakfast and was very pleased to be out.  She just had half a blueberry pancake though, which doesn't sound much but they are served in stacks.  I had a breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausages and hash browns.  A pancake was also part of the deal but I took that to go, the Eggnog, and had it for tea.

Pattisue is still smiling but said she has been feeling depressed, mostly because she can't do the things she likes to do; her chaplaincy round, handbells at her church.  She dropped out of the handbells because she missed two practices.  Her church, University Baptist, has just hosted the Family Promise guests and she didn't get to help with that either.  

Licence Plates.....

 I can't quite figure this licence plate.  It's licensed by the Absentee Shawnee tribe but I don't know if it is from New York, or the owner is a dead keen Yankees fan but lives in Shawnee.  The Yankees are a big NY baseball team.

 

FRIDAY 18TH NOVEMBER

Did my hospital round this morning.  My fingers are better, it was easier to knock on doors.

Pattisue had a blood transfusion yesterday and was feeling quite bright when I rang, I asked if she would like to go out and eat and she thought she would this evening, but when it got to nearly 6 o'clock she didn't feel up to it.   She thought she might like to go to IHOP in the morning for breakfast, if she is well enough, so we will see how she is. 

As I have lost my driving licence (literally lost, not as in 'indicted for an offence') I can't rent a car to go to Texas next week, and I initially thought I'd just go in my own car.  I am sure the car would be alright but I have now got misgivings at driving in another state without a licence.   Driving round Shawnee where the police know I have lost my licence is one thing, trying to explain it to a Texan state trooper is something else altogether.   So I am cramming for the driving test, testing myself online, then I'll present myself at the Test Centre on Monday and see how I get on.


I telephone Janie to let her know what was happening and to warn her that I might not make it and I'd let her know on Monday.   Talking to her though made me desperately want to go so I will keep cramming this weekend. 


Another look at licence plates

 This is the bog standard Oklahoma licence plate that most people are driving round with.

This is someone who wanted a variation on the bog standard.

When a plate has a date like this it means that is the date the owner purchased the vehicle, and he/she has 30 days from then to licence
 it.

- WEDNESDAY

Went to the hospital this morning.  Pattisue joined Larry and I for lunch which was nice, as she had a little bit of appetite, but she is very unwell.  She has been seeing doctors in the City who are trying alleviate her symptoms.


The hospital give us either a ham or a turkey for Thanksgiving - we get to choose - and I chose a ham.  I spent some time debating who I could give it to, as it is huge and I couldn't see me eating it all, it was frozen solid and I didn't feel like cooking it.  But when I got it home I saw it was fully cooked and spiral cut, so would be very easy to slice, and it came with a glaze to put on and warm  up in the oven.  So I decided it might be quite nice and am keeping it.  I would have taken it to David and Janie's but they are going away straight after Thanksgiving.

 In the evening I went to the meal at Emmanuel, Sharon did the desserts.  She is going away on Monday to Alaska for her grandson's wedding.

Thursday 

The Senior Centre have new US and Oklahoma flags and two very experienced persons were running them up the flagpoles when I got there this morning.

There was the little monthly ceremony this morning awarding certificates and trophies to the students and teacher of the month at the Early Learning Centre.  I was pleased for the childrens' sake to see a good turnout of parents, grandparents, great grandparents and siblings.  It is always a shame when there isn't anyone there to see a child get its little award.  Someone said once they are always given to a child who might not otherwise ever get any recognition for anything. They don't give them to children who have private ballet lessons.

 

tThis is the Shawnee Fire Chief, and is my favourite Kiwani speaker.  I told Louise she wasn't to book him up while I was away. He has got a lovely voice and after the mandatory pep talk on fire safety he gets his guitar out and sings a little country and western and gospel songs.  He also breeds alpacas and one was about to give birth just as he was leaving home; his wife was texting him on the progress of the delivery and he was very pleased to announce it was a girl.

 This is the little write up Louise did on my slide show and talk last week.

Just when I thought all I had to worry about was racoons and possums.   Now black bears have taken to running round peoples' gardens.

TUESDAY 15th November

I would love to think of a witty caption for this.  Goodness knows what Bubbles was telling the little kitten next door but I am sure it wasn't friendly.  She doesn't do hospitable or friendly.  

I e-mailed it to Rosalyn who tried to talk me into giving the kitten a good home.  I said it might look sweet and adorable but I would have a very jealous Bubbles, and I would be filling up my shopping cart with twice as much fancy feasts, litter etc.  not to mention double the shots and vets bills.

Did you know by the way, that cats never meow to each other, only to humans.  I'm hanging over the porch rail shouting "Bubbles" and there's a tiny meow  from the front door, like "I'm here".


I took my poor burnt fingers to the doctor today, I've got second degree burns and a secondary infection.  He gave me a prescription for antibiotics.

He asked how my shoulder was and I said I was going to ask for some more Celebrex.  He had a look but didn't have any more free ones, so gave me a prescription for an alternative which cost $4 at Walmart's pharmacy (he knows I'm uninsured).  He said the Celebrex costs $140 for 30 tablets.  I am convinced the drug and insurance companies are running a racket, I can't think of any other explanation for their disproportionate charges.   A visit to an Emergency Room costs literally hundreds of dollars, so does an ambulance from anywhere in Shawnee to the hospital.  But my consultation with the doctor was $42.

The best bit of the doctor's visit though is sitting in the waiting room while the hospitality aide cruises up to me and offers me a coffee.  It's even better than the banks - or dentists - where we have to pour it out for ourselves.  I give him a radiant smile and say thank you, I'd love one with two creamers and a sugar.


Yesterday I went to the dentist in Norman for a fitting for my dentures.  I never knew dentures were so high tech.  He was having to fit the framework, then it goes back to the lab for the teeth.


It was a lovely drive to Norman - the weather at the moment is bright and sunny and in the 70s, the road all the way from Tecumseh is tree lined so the autumn foliage was very pretty.  I was asking myself though why I was going to a dentist in Norman.  It's 40 miles, which is slightly further than Seaford to Chichester.   Rosalyn recommended him though, and she was guided to him by a psychic.  I suspect the 'psychic' uses tarot cards but she wouldn't tell me that.  And if the road was anything like the A27 to Chichester I would certainly find one nearer home.


On the subject of licence plates this is one I spotted in a parking lot
on the front of a car (I said they can have anything or nothing on the front, it's the back that matters)

I'm dead jealous of that one.


The Indian nations are allowed to licence their own vehicles, and this vehicle belongs to someone in the Seminole nation.

SUNDAY

Went to the 10.30 service at Emmanuel this morning.  Crossing the parking lot I noticed a car with a New Mexico plate.  One doesn't often see an out of state licence plate so I whipped my camera out.  I will in future keep a look out, licence plates can be interesting - or at least, I think so.

 I meant to photograph my Oklahoma plate and forgot.  I'll do it tomorrow.   Or maybe I will find one on a nicer car and photograph that.

Over here licence plates are only required on the back.  On the front one can have anything.   And there can be variations on them.  Like the Confederate flag.    Ooooooh.   That can have one marked down as a rascist; a white supremacist, practically a member of the KKK.

Does anyone my age remember Henry Winkler, the Fonz, Happy Days which was on television back in the early 70s?   I remember him.  He was young and dark haired and energetic.  He was born in 1945 so he is practically - almost - my age.  Why do I get such a shock when I see people my age looking old?

There he is, or was, this evening judging a competition on the Food Network channel.

SATURDAY

After I left the YMCA this morning I went to the Korean restaurant for a citrus Korean tea and a couple or three donut holes;  however I was combing my hair in the parking lot when two HUGELY obese women got out of the car next to me and waddled inside.   So I just had the tea.  Never mind weight watchers, just observe the local population.

The tree surgeons seem to be out in force,  I saw three trucks cutting down trees on Main Street yesterday, and two very big trees in the front garden next door to me have red crosses on them, so I think they must be due to come down.

The top two pictures are the same tree.  One half completely overhangs the road, and the other half is almost at the front door.  I shall be glad to see them come down.  In the very high winds we have here sometimes I've been anxious that they will bring the power lines down and block the road, so they are not coming down before time.

As you can see the weather is nice.  A bit chilly in the mornings but then bright and sunny and about 70.

VETERANS DAY (STILL)

 

It was a nice service this morning, I was a bit late and missed the singing though, which was probably the best bit.   I had to walk to the Senior Centre as Terry was putting a new starter in my car (I have not had a good week).  I allowed twenty minutes for the walk and got there at 11 but they started early.

 The US flag is folded 13 times and ends up as a triangle. The person at the podium was giving the meaning of each fold.

At military funerals it is then presented to the widow or parents of the deceased.

Cecil and Louise gave me a lift back from the Senior Centre.  When they pulled in my drive  Mark was waiting to see Donna and we had a chat for a while which was nice.

As I didn't have my car I didn't get to the hospital.  If Pattisue had been well she would have picked me up but she is getting weaker.  The cancer has spread now to her bones.  She was going to have some chemo the other day but her white blood count was too low.  She was given some injections to try and perk her up.  She said today she had a little appetite and was going to eat something.

I will give her a ring tomorrow and see if she is up to a meal at the Korean restaurant.

I was telling Terry's Dad when I left the car with them and he was driving me home (they are so good in the service they give me) about my lost driving licence, and the fact that I won't now be able to hire a car to go to Texas.  I asked if he thought I could get there in mine and he said he didn't see why not, they would go over it thoroughly, make sure it is alright.

 

Veterans Day

My fingers are a bit sore but better than they were.  I'm getting old though, my shoulder hurts, I've got arthritis in my hands, and although I am reluctant to take pain relief on a regular basis as there are side effects, I think I will have to.   And all this of course makes me feel a bit down.

Another blow was to lose my purse containing my UK driving licence, I'll  apply for a replacement but won't get it in time to hire a car to go to David and Janie's at Thanksgiving.  I'm thinking of working on getting an OK licence.  It is fairly easy to drive here, the hard part is the multiple choice questions on their highway code.  I'm hoping to practise that on the computer.


I haven't done a lot lately.  Bruce and Rosalyn invited me to OBU to see 'Brigadoon' which was very nice.   Last night I went with Sharon and her friend Cathy to a cookery demonstration in Tecumseh.   It wasn't as good as the ones we usually go to where we all participate.  This was a demonstration of Thanksgiving side dishes, and laid on by someone selling products.  We got to eat the finished dishes, and Sharon was very pleased with something she bought, so it wasn't bad.


Yesterday at Kiwanis I put on my slide show of pictures  of Seaford Head, Alfriston, Lullington church, the Long Man, Michelham Priory and Oxford.  It went very well indeed thanks to the technical help I had.  Tim Sean, the youth minister, was going to do the power point thing, and he did arrange the pictures, but he had to go away on Wednesday morning.  He lent us the projector and screen and appointed Nancy, an Emmanuel friend who is very experienced at power points and I was so grateful to her.  We borrowed Carla - a Kiwani member's - laptop so Tim Sean could take his away with him, and Nancy had the three of us in the downtown coffee shop at 8 o'clock on Wednesday morning having a 'dress rehearsal' to make sure Carla's laptop connected to Tim Sean's projector.   So come Thursday it all went off seamlessly, and people said it was very good.    I babbled on with a lot of historical information about the places, and I lifted quite a lot of photographs of these places from the internet which helped.


I finished up with picture of the precious grand daughters.


I am going to a Veteran's Day service this morning at the Senior Centre, but had better crack on with the Oklahoma driving licence.

MONDAY

I scalded my fingers tonight taking something out of the microwave, I lifted the clingfilm without thinking and the steam gushed over them, it's intensely painful.

I think I had better have two or three days off from the blog.  Between  earthquakes and painful fingers I am feeling a bit under the weather and have got writer's bloc.

The earthquake aftershocks will go on for some time.  We had one this evening and things were bouncing about.  I think I'd rather have a tornado, at least we get warning with tornadoes and can take cover.

I'll be back in a few days.

SUNDAY

I haven't been out at all today.  Sleeping late is very unusual for me but I slept this morning until nearly 10.

So far today, nearly 9pm, there hasn't been another earthquake.  They are unusual in this area which is more used to tornadoes, but obviously we are on a fault line so I suppose another one can come along any time.  



I rang Sharon to see how she and her dogs had fared, she is in an area just outside the city limits which was more affected than I was.  One of her dogs has congestive heart failure, but like Bubbles they didn't seem worried by it.  Something fell on one of them, but it wasn't hurt.   She was saying St Gregory's University - which is near her - suffered some damage as part of the tower came down.  Classes have been suspended tomorrow and the affected area has been cordoned off until engineers can survey it.

Her son also lives near St Gregory's and he thought his roof was going to come off and he has got cracks in the house. 

I rang Pattisue to see how she was, she lives near me but wasn't too affected.  Her house shook as mine did, and pictures came down but otherwise she was alright.  Her chemo treatment though is making her feel very unwell.  She managed to go to church this morning, but couldn't do her handbell ringing this afternoon or go to church this evening.

SATURDAY

I don't sleep very well so I was awake last night at 2 am when we were hit by a 4.7 earthquake.  I was in bed at the time and the bed started vibrating.  I was surprised that Bubbles, who even panics at the sound of heavy rain on the roof seemed remarkably calm.  She just sat up on the bed and moved with the vibrations. 


This evening, just a little while ago, we had another one which I see was 5.8, this time things fell over and pictures fell off the walls.   


I think I'm going to bed, it was more frightening this evening when I was on my feet and felt the whole house shaking, than last night in bed.

Our clocks go back this morning.  I'll wait until I get up though to do anything about them.  I'll remember when I wake up it is an hour earlier.

FRIDAY 4th November

Not an eventful day, the ignition on my car has been a bit iffy for a while and it is getting worse, I will ask Terry to look at it next week.  I went to Tecumseh to try and find a television place that would move my DVD player and connect it to the other television, but I had a lot of difficulty when I tried to start the car coming back,  I nearly gave up and was just about to call for roadside assistance when it started, so I decided against going out this evening to a Reception and art exhibition at the Museum. I'm a friend of the Museum which is why I am notified of these events. 

I went to the hospital this morning.  Kevin did one floor and I did the other, and the documentation on the computer for both of us.  He had rang Pattisue and asked her to do the documentation - he wants her to feel she is still involved - at first she said she would, but then rang him later to say she wasn't feeling well enough.


There is certainly a lot going on in the news at the moment.  All the shenanigans with the Presidential candidates.  The black conservative Republican allegedly sexually harassed an employee years ago, and she claims he paid her to keep quiet.  That's the leading story at the moment.  Together with the trial of Michael Jackson's doctor - the jury are still out on that.   Another big deal is a Miami cop who was speeding, doing 120 miles an hour in a patrol car, and a woman state trooper pulled him over, in spite of being told by someone senior to back off.  What is causing the biggest outrage is the fact that she held a gun to his head, made him get out of the car and handcuffed him.  Which apparently is a bit extreme for a traffic misdemeanor.  She certainly hasn't got any friends left in either the Miami or Florida police forces.

WEDNESDAY

I was at Emmanuel by 10 o'clock.  Tim Sean, the youth leader, was going to do the power point part of my Kiwani's presentation next week - of pictures in and around Seaford when I was there - unfortunately the Bishop has told him to be somewhere else, and he out ranks me.  However, Tim arranged all the photos for me into a power point presentation, that's what we were doing this morning, so I just need to find someone with a screen and a laptop and experience in presentations, and I think I can do that, it was arranging the pictures which was the big hurdle for me.

It made me late for the hospital but I got there in time to have lunch with Larry.  I set off to go round a floor after lunch, telling him I'd do the other one as well but I spent a long time in one room, with one patient who had a lot of issues and wanted to talk to me.  By the time I got back to the office Larry had gone round the other floor and left me a note to lock up.


Pattisue can't visit at all until she has finished her chemo.


Sharon was doing the dessert after the meal today, so I just got there more or less in time to eat.  I didn't go to the adult interest group beforehand, Fr Gary was giving one of his fortnightly talks which I passed up.   There was a discussion group meeting after supper which I would have joined but I hadn't been to the YMCA today so decided to go there and do a mile round the track.  Which doesn't sound much but it is 16 laps and I never said I was going to hurry across America in my virtual walk.  Someone asked me tonight how far I've got and she was rather less than impressed when I told her I was about 30 miles from Yorktown VA.  I think she thought I'd be in the next state by now.

MONDAY HALLOWEEN

Halloween has been around in the stores for weeks, but it still caught me unawares this afternoon when I was confronted on my porch by a dozen bright eyed youngsters, with their buckets (buckets!) tricking and treating.  I think they realised I was taken aback, I said I was soooo sorry, I should have got some candy and the eldest among them smiled sweetly and assured me it didn't matter, and wished me a happy Halloween.   I think my English accent forgives me most things.

I wasn't a total scumbag though.  A couple of weeks ago I bought some bags of candy for tricking and treating, which Walmart had on offer, and I gave them to Kevin.  His church was having a Halloween stall in the Mall last Saturday, and they were handing out candy to children.  I should have kept a bag.

However, I was on my way out to water resistance walking at the YMCA when they came, so I missed any others who might have knocked.  And driving to the YMCA I passed crowds and crowds of children and their parents out on the streets begging (sorry) 'tricking and treating' for their candy.

In the morning I went to the YMCA track to walk, and Millie my sports coach was there.  She advised me to get some sports shoes; the gym shoes, or plimsolls, I was wearing don't give my feet enough support apparently.  

So I went off to Dillards in the Mall where they were half price.  I had quite a conversation with the salesman, I told him about my virtual walk across America.  When I left he told me to go back and tell him when I left Virginia.   


I told Millie about my virtual walk and she is doing it too,  but at the rate she walks she will be halfway there by Christmas.


Afterwards I met Rosalyn and Bruce at the Korean restaurant for lunch, which was very pleasant.   It's the only place I don't have to take my own tea.  They have a wonderful hot Korean citrus tea.
Below - Bruce and Rosalyn's meal. The small dishes are something Koreans always serve with the meal.

  I had noodles with pork and vegetables.