I went to the 10.30 at Emmanuel this morning, was reading the Prayers.
This afternoon Bruce and Rosalyn took me to the City to celebrate my birthday, we went to a concert which was lovely. It was held in a HUGE Presbyterian Church, we have got cathedrals which are smaller.
I am used to a nave and sanctuary in churches (and they did have those as well, it was where the concert was held) but I've never seen a church with a Visitor's Centre and Information Desk.
Another view of the church lobby.
After the concert we had dinner at this nice restaurant.
The restaurant specialised in wood smoked food and I had a Blackened Shrimp Salad, with mixed greens, caramelised onions, caramelised walnuts and blue cheese, with balsamic vinaigrette.
It was all very nice
I have drawn up a bucket list of places to visit in Oklahoma before I die, and I started today with the Museum of the Seminole Nation. Seminole is the next county to Pottawatomie, so it didn't take long to get there.
I photographed this in the Museum from an Indian cookbook. I knew I didn't like Native American food, this makes the wild onion dinner almost delicious.
The Seminoles are also connected to the Muskogee Creek Indians and were originally from Florida. They are known as the people who never surrendered, but - to cut a long story very short - all the Indian people under President Andrew Jackson were forced to leave their homes and move west of the Mississippi to the place designated for them, known as the Indian Nation, which later became Oklahoma.
This evening I went to the Volunteers Family Promise Banquet.
I just put the smoked brisket on my plate, which I like, with potato salad and baked beans. Beef and beans are a popular staple here.
When I got home I found Kevin had cut my grass. He obviously didn't want to go to the dinner, but he does so much for Family Promise with all the heavy lifting, moving beds etc. he should be up there with the volunteers
The weather has been hot here, I think it got into the 90s during the day and I put the air conditioning on for a little while.
Spent a good part of the day feeling lethargic and lazy then decided in the late afternoon to go out for some fresh air. I filled a thermos and went to the Thunderbird National Park, which is on the way to the dentist in Norman, so I knew the way.
Glad you told me.
There were a few people on the beach.
There is a stables there and camping facilities for RVs and tents.
You have probably heard of the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma. The dust storms were the result of drought and land that had been over used. The Southern Plains were originally covered in grasses that held the fine soil in place, and when settlers came with their traditional farming techniques they ploughed the land too deeply. Added to that, the top soil was already damaged by the overgrazing of cattle.
To counteract the effects of the Dust Bowl lakes were created. I think there are more lakes in Oklahoma than any other state, and they are all man made.
The Dust Bowl lasted about a decade and contributed to the length of the Great Depression of the 1930s.
I rang the invalids this morning. Phyllis is still gritting her teeth and determined to be walking by next week. I usually see Pattisue on Wednesdays when she goes to the hospital for her tests, but rang yesterday to tell her I wouldn't be there. She was waiting for the result of the bone marrow test and when I called her this morning she said the result was rather disappointing, but the blood test was not too bad.
And the last picture of the tree cutting.................
These two trees coming down have made an enormous difference, I can see straight down to the end of the road.
The tree surgeons hadn't finished last night after all, they were hard at work when I looked out at 8am.
Sorry if I am boring you with these pictures but I haven't been anywhere, done anything, so in the absence of anything else..........
I wondered how trees were cut down before hydraulic lifts, power saws, and something to reduce the tree to a mulch when it was down.
This is the last photograph I took but the tree is now totally cut down.
I had some nice surprises today on my birthday, unexpected phone calls and e-mails. Phyllis woke me at 7.30 but I didn't mind. Janie, Larry's cousin's wife rang and we had a nice chat. Bruce and Rosalyn rang and sang Happy Birthday down the phone. The concert they are taking me to on Sunday is English songs and music which will be nice.
I just went out this evening to the Adult Interest Group and supper at Emmanuel, I took bananas for dessert - the supermarket had a good deal on them. I cut them in half and melted chocolate morsels to dip them in, and make them more interesting.
I was taken by surprise after supper. I went into the kitchen for a few minutes and when I came out everyone was turned towards me and sang Happy Birthday. No one seemed to know it was my birthday before I went into the kitchen, I wondered how they suddenly found out. Thinking about it afterwards I remembered seeing Rosalyn arriving for choir practice as I went into the kitchen, and thought perhaps she said something on her way through the parish hall.
Elizabeth invited me for an ice cream so we went to the newest ice cream parlour and that was nice.
Well, I guess I am on a kind of sick leave from the voluntary work I do. With a respiratory infection I didn't think I should be around vulnerable patients and seniors. I rang Larry first and he thinks I will be alright to do my chaplaincy round by Friday. Then I called Kate at the Senior Centre and she agreed it would be better if I didn't go and man the desk this afternoon.
So I entertained myself today watching the tree surgeons cut down the trees next door, and not before time.
I used to wonder how the person next door could stand having that tree right over his front porch like that. No one seems to live there though, someone just comes and goes and cuts the grass. That red vehicle mulches up all the branches, even the thick ones went in there.
All done. I wondered why they didn't cut down the branches overhanging the garden, then I figured that perhaps the City is only responsible for trees and branches that overhang the road. If the guy next door wants the rest of the tree cut down he will probably have to hire the tree surgeons himself.
With the weather we get here the City has to be very safety conscious. There's a $100 fine if you don't cut your grass because of the wildfire danger.
I can't get over how quiet the neighbourhood is now the dogs have stopped barking. I don't know why I put up with it for so long. I had to call the police out twice to the guy over the road, so I think he must have been fined. I think the dogs next door must have been moved somewhere, I haven't heard them at all today, and she has been letting them bark a little bit during the day. Probably to let me know she is not intimidated by this new, self appointed sheriff on the block who knows her way round the City ordinances.
I went to the doctor this morning and I have got a respiratory infection; I came out with three prescriptions; one was an antibiotic for the infection, another an anti inflammatory, and the third dries up the mucus that was draining down my throat making me cough. I started feeling better when I stopped coughing because it was making my throat sore.
Just spent the rest of the day dozing, reading. I will write up a bit more tomorrow.
I have not felt too well lately, have had a bad cough for weeks, which seemed much worse today. Most Oklahomans, to some extent or another, suffer from allergies and I think they are just kicking in for me. I asked a pharmacist this morning if it was possible that my cough was due to an allergy, and she said it probably was, the causes have been particularly bad this year. She gave me some cough syrup and an allergy treatment.
I have been toying with the idea of taking a road trip. I know I didn't do well on the last one, but perhaps that is all the more reason for getting back in the saddle.
The state I would most like to visit is Tennessee, specifically the Smoky Mountains National Park. And it should not be too difficult to navigate. The east-west interstate, I-40, goes straight through from Shawnee, all 850 odd miles of it. If you are interested, Google directions from Shawnee OK to Sevierville TN, Dolly Parton's home town, or Gatlinburg at the entrance of the National Park. I thought I'd also like to see Dolly Parton's theme park at Pigeon Forge.
I might just stay in front of the computer and day dream about it, but like I say, I am toying with the idea.
I know this couple, they come to our Kiwani group. There is something awesome about a couple married for 74 years. They have been married longer than I have been alive.
He is a big, burly cattle man, well known among the ranchers, and his name is Fay. Wasn't there a popular song "A Boy named Sue?" I wonder why his parents called him Fay. I met another man, a patient, the other day called Claire. I look to see what the sex of the patient is before going in, there's no telling from the name.
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It has been a lovely warm day today. One of our church members who grows irises opened his garden today for us.
Later this afternoon I visited my friend Phyllis. Earlier in the week she was mowing her garden on a ride-on mower and came off while it was still in gear, and dragged her all round the garden. Nothing is broken but all her muscles and tendons are stretched and torn, she can barely move and is in an awful lot of pain, but with typical Cockney stoicism she is determined to be up and about and back to normal by next week. Bless her, I think it is going to take longer than that.
I am still trying to figure the new blog website. It has graphs and stats and all sorts. There is a graph for pageview. I am not sure what that is, if it is the number of people looking at it. If it is then 13 people looked at it on the 20th; 4 on the 19th; 14 on the 17th; 3 on the 15th; 9 on the 14th.
Do you see all that, or just the blog?
I clicked on my blog to write this up and the website has completely changed, I hate change anyway, it always seems to mean that it is going to be more complicated. So I hope you are able to open and read it alright.
I seem to have just been running around this morning. I went to the hospital. Since I broke my toes I have just been going round one floor, Kevin has come in and done the other, but I suppose I can do both floors now, my toes are certainly a lot better. Friday is Larry's day off, and there isn't another chaplain comes in on Fridays.
This evening I had been invited by Democrat friends to a fund raiser at the home of one of them, where they were going to meet the candidate who is hoping to unseat the Republican who represents this Congressional district in Washington (fat chance). I'd intended going, but when it was time to get ready and go out I was too comfortable. I felt I could duck out because this is not something I am actually involved in.
I telephoned Pattisue earlier to ask if she was going - she is very active in the local Democrats - and I was rather concerned to learn that she was driving her grandson to Oklahoma City. She is just ticking over with blood transfusions and injections, she really needs to be taking things easy. I will ring in the morning to see how she is.
The Bucking Horse and Rider is the trademark of the state of Wyoming, and the licence plates have included the image since 1936, constituting the longest-running licence plate motif in the world.
Wyoming is known as the Cowboy State, which puzzles me somewhat as I had always thought the cowboys and Indians were all mixed up together, but the Indians are all in Oklahoma, which is about four states south of Wyoming.
I photographed this notice in the Post Office. It just never ceases to amaze me that this is necessary in what I had always imagined was a wealthy country. I think it is very good of the mailmen to collect the donations from beside the mailbox.
There was a news item yesterday about a little lad, six years old, who was running a lemonade stand in his front garden to raise money for his father's cancer treatment. This is the alternative to being an 'entitlement' (spat out like it's a dirty word) nation like us, which has a health care system, and social welfare benefits.
A heartwarming postscript to this story is that the local community, when they learned about it, raised $10,000 for the dad's cancer treatment.
Kiwanis this morning was about Skills USA, which is a national championship in which young college and high school students compete in a choice of fields to demonstrate their skills. Several young people came this morning with their instructors, and three teams gave a short presentation each of their entries in the competition.
When Cecil was waylaid a few weeks ago and interviewed for a local tv station on his voluntary work, he jokingly referred to his wheelchair as his Porsche. A member of the Porsche club in Oklahoma City saw the interview and came down to Shawnee to give Cecil two Porsche stickers for his chair. They were left at the Senior Centre, and Thixie, who is in charge of the volunteers presented them to him this morning.
I then went round one floor of the hospital. Afterwards I went to see the new mural downtown of Gordon Cooper the astronaut. The picture I posted yesterday of the Emmanuel young people in front of it, I took from the church Facebook page, so I hadn't actually seen it myself.
A lot of places in Shawnee are named after him. One of the major highways, the Aviation Centre by the airport, the College of Technology.
Brad Pit also came from Shawnee but has yet to have anything named after him.
The Adult Interest Group didn't get together on Wednesday, instead we were invited to the dress rehearsal of the latest production about to open at the Shawnee Little Theatre this evening. It was a very serious play Down the Rabbit Hole, about a young couple whose young son was killed chasing his dog who ran into the road.
"Becca and Howie Corbett have everything a family could want, until a life-shattering accident turns their world upside down and leaves the couple drifting perilously apart. RABBIT HOLE charts their bittersweet search for comfort in the darkest of places and for a path that will lead them back into the light of day".
It was very good, quite a few of us went. Afterwards the cast stayed on the stage and chatted to us about it, they wanted to know what we thought of it, and shared their feelings of it.
I just got home before a thunderstorm with a lot of lightning, and very heavy rain, came down. Bubbles took herself off to her storm shelter in the closet.
Tuesday I was up early to go to the Conference on the Second Half of Life, held in an Episcopal Church in OK City and run by John and Alma, members of our church. John is a deacon and Seniors are their area of ministry. We went in the church van and left Emmanuel at 7.30.
There were some very good speakers and I found it all very interesting. There was a choice of workshops and I chose to go to 'Making Healthy Choices' on nutrition. 'Crime and Older People' given by two police officers, and mainly about avoiding scams. 'Fall Prevention', something I am very conscious about. And 'Medication Safety Tips for Seniors', given by a Professor of Pharmacy at Oklahoma University.
I was amazed to learn that the accidental overdose of prescription meds is the leading cause of death in the US, exceeding automobile accidents. That took some sinking in. Also, Benadryl, which is an anti histamine used to treat allergies, causes major problems for seniors, making them confused and dizzy.
We had a very nice lunch, catered by a local Mediterranean restaurant.
I got home at 4.30 and the three dogs next door to me and the three opposite my next door neighbour's were all barking, I put up with it for two hours then rang the Police. A patrol car pulled up outside within 5 minutes. The guy opposite was out until quite late in the evening and perhaps Donna next door was supposed to be keeping an eye on them. I didn't go out at all to speak to the police, and when I next looked out Donna was crossing the road holding her dachshund, who runs around the front garden barking at everything that moves, which was what it was doing when the patrol car pulled up. She must have moved the dogs opposite, the police moved off and there hasn't been a woof since, from any of them.
This is the second time in about a month I called the police about the dogs opposite, last time they were barking for hours in the middle of the night. I don't know if the police issued a citation yesterday, or what the fine is if they did. But for the time being it is nice and quiet in the neighbourhood.
This evening I went to the Wednesday meal at Emmanuel prepared by the Tex Mex team. Sharon made the dessert.
The Emmanuel young people with Tim Sean. After the meal they all walked from the church to the place downtown where an artist is painting a mural of Gordon Cooper, who was a famous astronaut who came from Shawnee.
This Animal Friendly Licence Plate was created when the Oklahoma Legislature enacted the Pet Overpopulation Fund in 2004. Thousands of unwanted pets and strays are destroyed annually because there are not enough homes for them. $20 from the sale of each licence plate goes into the Fund which is designed to help low income families have their pets spayed or neutered.
My stint at Emmanuel last night on the Family Promise programme was uneventful, but I have come to the conclusion that I am too old to be roughing it in a sleeping bag in the church.
I did not sleep well, the guests are picked up in the morning at 6am, so I had to set the alarm for 5.30 to wake them. I got home just after 6, filled a hot water bottle, went to bed and was sound asleep when the phone rang with the unwelcome reminder that I had a dental appointment this afternoon.
I saw a lot of tornado damage and people working in the streets near my dentist, but his surgery was not hit.
I know I have said this before but I would be interested to know if dentistry has advanced in Britain while I have been away, because the treatment I have here is unlike anything I have ever had at home. It took an hour and a half to do two fillings, I get a lot of anaesthetic - gas as well as local injections - so it is virtually pain free. And he puts something comfortable in my mouth to hold it open while he is working. I always found it trying, having to hold my mouth open for a long period while the dentist worked.
I told him the saga of my sleepless night, how tired I was, how disinclined to be there this afternoon, and he rang this evening to see if I had got home safely. Wasn't that kind.
Harking back to last night at Emmanuel - one little lad asked me if we had a pool table. Another asked if we had any more pillows. Actually we were full to capacity, with one couple and five children, and two single mothers with a child each, so there weren't any spare pillows. I could see Sharon becoming rather tight lipped at our perceived lack of facilities and her irritation did not improve when they went outside to smoke. She has a bee in her bonnet about poor people who smoke, she thinks if they are down on their luck and need help they should give it up.
The International Peace Garden is situated on the border of the US and Canada. It was opened in 1932 and has the longest unguarded border in the world. More than 150,000 visitors come every year to see the floral displays, and most are changed each year.
I heard today that lightning took out the sirens in Woodward County, Oklahoma so there was no warning of the tornado's approach. That is why there were casualties and fatalities.
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It was a quiet night, the sirens didn't wake me up. The devastation has been bad though, in one town in Oklahoma 85 houses were destroyed. Completely shredded, and five people died. I think there was a problem with the power and the sirens, the people who died could not have heard them. Obviously if you have three children you go to a shelter. If I had anyone with me I would go to a shelter, we get enough warning.
Norman, where I go to the dentist was badly hit and Rosalyn thinks the devastation was on the same street. Mary works in a nursing home next to the dentist and I rang to see if she knew anything, but she was out.
This morning I went to Carla's Methodist Church. She is a brilliant ventriloquist.
She gave a proper sermon as well. It is a shame that there isn't a bigger attendance there, only about a dozen, but there is a huge, mega, state-of-the-art, Methodist church in the town and I suppose most of the Methodists go there.
Yesterday, Saturday, I went to an Indian Wild Onion Dinner (at lunchtime) with Rosalyn. Bruce was coming too because he is part Indian but he heard just before they were leaving that his aunt had died, so was busy on the phone. It was organised by the Seminole nation for their church funds and held in the big Sac and Fox Convention Centre near me.
The cooked wild onions were about as appetising as sausage and gravy but I don't always go to things for the food, I'd never been anywhere where there was a big roomful of Indians and I am curious. I think Rosalyn and I were the only white people there.
Family Promise time has come round again and Emmanuel are hosting the homeless families this week. I never wanted to do another overnight stay but somehow got sucked into it tonight. Sharon is going to do it with me.
Tornadoes have been moving across north western Oklahoma. It is thought they might be in the Oklahoma City area in the early hours of the morning, in which case, if they move over Shawnee again I will be awakened by the sirens. I am too tired to sit up and watch them on television.
Tornadoes touching down.
A welcome change of subject.
This licence plate is intended to promote agricultural awareness, and provide a way to contribute to Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom.
Oklahoma Ag is a joint project of the Oklahoma State Department of Agriculture, Oklahoma State University and the Oklahoma State Department of Education.
It focuses on students in Kindergarten through to 6th grade, and its purpose is building agricultural literacy.
A lot of states have licence plates that help fund spaying and neutering; animal shelters or wildlife conservation programmes.
TCU is Texas Christian University and Horned Frogs is something to do with the sports teams.
Am very, very tired. Off to bed. Hopefully I won't be woken up by tornado sirens.
The weather got a bit dramatic this afternoon. I wasn't paying attention to it, thunder has been crashing around for the last two days, and I wasn't watching any local television, I was focused on Fox News and North Korea. Then about 5 o'clock the tornado sirens went off, my neighbours started pulling out of their drives (to go to the shelters) and I turned on tv to a local channel and caught up with it.
On the local tv channel they were calculating the tornado was 8 miles from Shawnee, it would reach the airport at 5.34, be over downtown Shawnee at 5.36.
I put the kettle on for a thermos of tea before I lost power, started throwing duvets into the bath; gathered up my toys and other necessities in case I got trapped in there; tried unsuccessfully to ring my sister. This is what you do when faced with the possibility of only 20 minutes left to live.
Then I went back to the television and watched as the tornado came over Shawnee. I figured I would lose power before I got hit and as soon as I did I would be in the bathroom, under the duvets, in seconds.
The meteorologists are very accurate in calculating their timings and about 5.45 announced Shawnee was no longer under a tornado warning. Phew.
When it was all over I spoke to Tim and family who are having a lovely time in New York. Rosalyn rang a little while later, said they had just been out to dinner and the restaurant was full of people glad they were alive.
Unfortunately though the tornado touched down in Norman about 30/40 miles away and caused a lot of devastation.
This is a picture of some damage in Norman.
This is what the map looks like tracking the tornado.
Bubbles ran and hid when the thunder started, I couldn't find her anywhere. She appeared about half an hour after it was all over.
I e-mailed this to Rosalyn with the caption "when you've had a scary afternoon hiding from tornadoes you just want to curl up with mamma".
