Friday 28th September

The Mysticism class on Friday mornings has been declining in numbers, last week there were only three people and Fr Bill, and there does need to be a fair sized group to stimulate discussion, so I decided this morning I would go to the gospel singing at the Senior Centre and I enjoyed it.   But I know that liking old Baptist hymns puts me outside the Pale at Emmanuel.

I was also pleased to see my friend Fay there.  Her grandson got a scholarship to Downing College, Cambridge and has just arrived there.  His father, Wayne, a member of Kiwanis, was telling me yesterday that they were Skyping and his son was carrying the webcam round the room to show them.  I thought "Bless". It is wonderful though how we can communicate nowadays with modern technology.

In the afternoon I went to the hospital, did a little shopping, then watched three hours of Wife Swap, which I know is terribly time wasting, but there aren't many reality programmes I like.

When the Fire Chief came to Kiwanis yesterday he said it was the time of year to think of changing the batteries on our smoke alarms and they would do that for us, so I asked if they would do mine, and two guys called this evening.  They kindly also provide the batteries but I think I should have got some, I was a little embarrassed, I hadn't realised I had five smoke alarms - two at the front of the house and three at the back.   I am glad I don't have one actually in the kitchen, because the slightest bit of cooking often sets it off, it did in Seaford.  If a fire did start in the kitchen though it would very soon set off the alarms at the front of the house.

This is one of the things I like about small town America, I can't imagine firemen in Seaford running round town changing batteries in smoke alarms for little old ladies.   Or maybe they do?

This dog - photographed at the Senior Centre - was running around downtown Shawnee the other day unaccompanied, so Sharon put a leash on it and took it home.  I wondered how many of us have spare dog leashes in our cars to pick up lost dogs in danger of being run over.

It has now been reunited with its owner because Sharon gave the Animal Control Centre a description of it and the owner went there looking for it.   It got lost because it jumps over fences, it had jumped over Sharon's in the short time he was there and the owner is thinking of electrifying his fence.