With the wildly fluctuating temperatures in this state it is hard to know what to wear, it was cold first thing and I spent two hours before leaving for church stepping outside, then dragging different outfits from the closet. As I was standing up the front reading the prayers I wanted to look co-ordinated. And I didn't want to be too hot or too cold. About lunchtime the temperature reached 78 and I was stripping off this morning's wardrobe for a short sleeved tee shirt.
What can I say about the Service, it was the usual high Anglo Catholic service one would expect on Easter Sunday. Clergy dressed to the nines in their fanciest vestments; incense everywhere; banners and streamers waving.
Afterwards though there was the Spring Egg Hunt. It used to be called Easter Egg Hunt, but that is now politically incorrect, don't you know. We have to have Spring Eggs, Spring Bunnies, Happy Spring....We've had the war on Christmas, now we are into the war on Easter.
It used to be held outside in the garden, and it was fine enough, but for some reason today it was held in the parish room, and they didn't have to hunt very far, the eggs were all spread out on the tables, which certainly made it easier for them than diving in the bushes, and actually looking for them.
They are hollow plastic eggs filled with small sweets like M&Ms, which I think is probably a better idea than the chocolate ones (at least I approve of something).
The children lining up waiting for the Spring Bunny to say "Go".
I thought this little lad had quite a few.....
....until I saw this kid's.
The Spring Bunny.
This is Olivia. She's a lovely child, always immaculately turned out, with different hairstyles and the fanciest hair accessories from Claire's. (We have Claire's here too in the Shawnee Mall). Olivia's mixed parentage is Mexican and African American.
When I was in a shop this afternoon the cashier asked if I taught at St Gregory's. I felt immensely swollen headed to think I might be mistaken for a university professor, but I know Oklahomans are unsophisticated, no one in Britain would make that mistake. Perhaps it is the hairstyle suddenly makes me look professional!!!!
Have just been getting on top of the housekeeping today. I got out the bag containing my stash of silk flowers, which I've collected over time, pulled out the spring ones, and re-arranged the vases, which gives the room a slightly different look.
I haven't been out at all. When I was thinking of going out for a little shopping there was an interruption to the tv programme I was looking at, announcing a severe thunderstorm in the area, so I thought I'd better stay in. But I think it must have passed over downtown Shawnee. The only weather we had here was a 60 second hailstorm, with hailstones the size of ping pong balls, but they quickly disappeared.
Tomorrow looks warm, and next weekend, but a bit chilly in the middle of the week.
The news is all north Korea. The only other item - and this was national news - was in Oklahoma. A dentist in Tulsa was found to have dirty instruments, a patient who was tested had hepatitis B, so all the patients of the practice are having to be tested for HIV and hepatitis B. The testing was free and the lines of people were stretching round the block.
Went to the hospital for my chaplaincy round, I spoke to a few patients and relatives but a lot of them were asleep, I then went off to the Presbyterian Church for the last Lenten lunch.
I picked up a lunch 'to go' from the cafeteria thinking that as I was having lunch out I would eat it tonight, which is what I did, but first of all I tried to make it more interesting.
The packet of beer bread was on offer at 98cents, and I had a bottle of beer at the bottom of my pantry someone gave me, and I wondered what to do with it. So that is mixed up and baking in the oven as I type, but is unrelated to the meal to go.
I added a little milk and cream to the vegetables, processed them and made a soup. The chicken breast I also processed, then added finely chopped celery and a little apple, butter and mayonnaise, and it made a sandwich spread - which I will spread over the bread if it turns out successfully. The dessert, with the pot of granola in the top which I will discard, is a blueberry parfait, and it is lovely, it doesn't need anything doing to it.
So, how did it turn out.
I'd intended to put the chopped parsley into the sandwich spread, but dropped it into the soup by mistake. Never mind, the soup will still taste fine, but my failing mental faculties do concern me some times.
The beer bread which took all of 2 minutes to make. I just put the bottle of beer into the packet mix, stirred it in, poured the mixture into the loaf tin and then poured 3 tblespns of melted butter over the top. C'est une doddle. I've still got some more beer on my pantry floor, I might go back to the supermarket for some more 98cent bread mixes.
In the news....the murder trial of Jodi Arias who shot her boyfriend, stabbed him 27 times, then cut his throat from ear to ear - but can't remember anything about it because she is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder - still drags on, and is likely to for at least another month. And it is not even a whodunit, or how did it happen, they know who did it and how it happened. One defence witness, a forensic psychiatrist, was on the stand for six days while a sceptical jury asked him over a 100 questions. Is it any wonder it is taking so long.
It has been quite hot today, in the 70s, but that is going to change and tomorrow and Saturday are going to be cold and wet again.
Thursday is always the longest day of the week, so much so that by the end of the day I'm almost sure it is Friday. I think it is because I am up and out so early, at 8 o'clock, for Kiwanis.
I had been looking forward to today's guest, it was Jimmy Gibson, the retired Shawnee Fire Chief who brought his guitar and sang Bluegrass. He and the editor/owner of the local Shawnee paper have formed a Bluegrass band, they are performing in Oklahoma City on Saturday, and he said he was practicing on us today. He also said it is the first time anyone would be paying to hear him, and he was nervous. I would love to go to his concert in the City, but just can't drive out of Shawnee in the dark. The evenings are lighter now the clocks have gone forward but it is still dark by 8 o'clock.
He breeds alpacas, and we were asking him about them. He has recently had a new one, he said they are always born between 10.00am and 4 in the afternoon, and he never quite knows when they are coming, because gestation can be any time between 11 months and just over a year.
There wasn't a Lenten lunch today, it is tomorrow instead, so I went along to the hospital for Larry's Thursday service, which today was Communion.
Before the service. He wasn't ringing God, he was just calling someone he was expecting.
I didn't go to Emmanuel this evening, I had planned to go water resistance walking this evening, when the jets of water over the walkway are turned off, but I got involved instead in a very long phone call, and it was too late when I'd finished.
FINALLY, I found a hairdresser who did my hair to my satisfaction.
I took along an old photograph taken at my graduation and said that was how I wanted it to be. So I have made an appointment for a perm next week. It needs a colour too, but I'll have that done in Seaford.
It is so cold in the mornings it is difficult to know what to wear. Today I put on a long sleeve tee shirt, a long sleeve dress, and a cardigan. Driving through town about 4 o'clock I saw it was 71 degrees....thought "no wonder I feel hot".
This evening's service at Emmanuel was Tenebrae, which is Latin for shadows, it consists - at least here it does - of scripture readings. But whatever the form of the service it always starts in candlelight and ends in darkness, very abruptly, everyone scatters in the darkness. In England Tenebrae is on Maundy Thursday and seems more appropriate for the night before Good Friday, there is Communion and symbolic footwashing before the scattering in the darkness.
This is just going to be a short post tonight, I might be able to write more tomorrow.
There is a service every night this week at Emmanuel. I went yesterday, Monday, which was a Healing service with Communion, and was very moving. This evening was going to be Communion but I went instead to the movies with Rosalyn and her daughter, and we saw a very good film.
It was 'Quartet' about retirees in a residential home for retired musicians. The leading parts were played by Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly and Pauline Collins, and all of them were brilliant in their portrayal of old people with the issues that a lot of old people have. Billy Connolly played the part of someone who had had a mild stroke which affected the frontal lobe of the brain that controls the ability to censor ourselves, so they act very inappropriately. I recognised another character who had a small part, I think his name is Trevor Peacock, and he plays the man who stutters in the Vicar of Dibley.
The rest of the week, or last two days, I have just been running round town doing my errands. I was at the Senior Centre this afternoon but it was very quiet there, nothing remotely dramatic. I enjoyed the country music though wafting down the corridor, they're only there though for an hour and a half, I wish they played a bit longer.
In the news.....and I laughed out loud at this. We were informed that Prince Harry is visiting New Jersey. I'm sure you heard of his naked shenannigans when he was last here in Las Vegas. Anyway, the Governor of NJ, Chris Christie, is the most blunt, down-to-earth-stand-no-nonsense guy there is, and we were told he has assured Her Majesty that her grandson is going to be fine with him. I can believe it. I am sure he will be kept on a very short leash.
This makes a change. It was on the door of my pharmacist.
Every few weeks or so, as you know, I go along to Carla's little Methodist church and I went this morning, and there was Communion as well. I thought this would be a good Sunday to go because I knew the children and young people at Emmanuel would be putting on their little play they've been rehearsing, and much as I love the little dears I thought I'd have a child-free Sunday for a change.
I didn't know they were going to have a meal after the service but they invited me to join them, which was nice.
Carla handing out the palms. I know the church looks very empty, there were actually 16 in the congregation. I wish she could have a bigger congregation, but there are dozens and dozens of churches in Shawnee, one on practically every street corner, and there are two other very big Methodist churches.
Also in the picture is Cecil; Louise's daughter with the donut shop in Tecumseh, and the guy in the front row is a train and railway enthusiast. He was telling me he had a computer programme of trains and railway lines, and decided to update to a new one, and when it came it was English, which took him by surprise but he seems very pleased with it.
Anyway, I was telling him about our preserved railways and mentioned the Bluebell Line which he promptly looked up on his smart phone, and said it goes to East Grinstead which was a surprise to me. I looked it up when I got home and the extension to East Grinstead actually opened yesterday, the 23rd.
The unseasonal winter weather is the major news story at the moment. I have probably said this before but we didn't have a winter last year in Oklahoma, it just went straight from autumn to spring, so the cold weather at the moment is more noticeable.
It is sweeping across Kansas and Missouri, north of Oklahoma; the north of the state, and the Panhandle has had some snow, but central OK has missed it. Although cold it was quite bright and sunny today.
Looking better for the end of the week. Even Wednesday, at 59 isn't bad.
The weather continues cold. I shall be thinking of it nostalgically when it's summer and gets into triple digits.
These current temperatures are 10.30 this evening...
It doesn't look too bad tomorrow, Shawnee is between OKC and Seminole.
I was planning on being at the pool early this morning but didn't wake up until 9.15 which is unusual for me, so I missed it for today. Spent some time at the hospital; as well as going round the floor I needed to be briefed on the new computer system for data entering, and spent some time hanging out in the office with Kevin, Larry's assistant, and one of the other chaplains. I had lunch there with Mary, a Kiwanis friend who volunteers in the hospital shop once a month. Spent rest of the day indoors with a needlework project.
While I was out yesterday Mark came by and fitted a couple of safety fixtures to the front door, one of those peephole thingies where you can see who is standing outside. And a kind of latch inside, to secure the door at night which I suppose is extra protection if someone is trying a home invasion. I wasn't sure what prompted him, this might not be the best neighbourhood but I have always felt safe enough here. However I rang him up and thanked him.
It does seem to me that the gun violence in this country is certainly escalating lately. In Oklahoma a young mother pushing her 13 month old in his stroller was mugged by two 14 year old teenagers who demanded money. She said she didn't have any, and they turned a gun on the baby, killing him, and shot her in the leg.
The murder trial continues, and is expected to do so for another month. A defence witness, a forensic psychologist, tried to say the defendant suffered from post traumatic stress disorder, and that's why she didn't remember stabbing the victim 27 times. A sceptical jury asked over 100 questions, which is why it is taking so long.
Someone is forecasting a hung jury when it comes to a verdict. It is thought that there might be some sympathy by a couple of the jurors for the defendant, who don't want her to have the death penalty.
The Kiwani's speaker this morning was very interesting indeed, he handles the Planning and Economic Development for the Citizen Pottawatomie Nation. He has also just been appointed Chief of the Tribal Police. I would have thought he would be Indian himself, but I asked Cecil because he looked as Anglo Saxon as me, and he said he wasn't Indian, but he is very smart (which is American for clever). I wondered then if Indians are just not smart enough, or educated enough, to fill those posts.
He talked quite a lot about the water supply which is the most critical issue in the state at the moment. There is also a bit of an issue with the Water Authority in North Texas because they get their supply from a lake on the Red River which borders OK and TX. I know Oklahomans are accusing the north Texans of taking their water, and that is an ongoing issue. There are more people living in five counties in north Texas than in the entire state of Oklahoma.
He also talked about the Citizen Pottawotamie Nation and another couple of facts he threw out (but unrelated to water) I found very interesting was that casinos in Las Vegas and New Jersey are owned by private businesses - hence the mobs - but all the casinos in Oklahoma are owned by the Tribes, and the revenue funds all their needs, like a government. I was also astonished that the Chicasa Nation's budget is larger than that for the entire state of Oklahoma.
Afterwards I went on to the YMCA pool to water walk. Being Spring Break there were children playing, but the jets of water over the walkway were turned off.
I didn't go to the Lenten lunch because it was held at the Catholic church and I suspected they would be doing the Stations of the Cross. I don't even do that at Emmanuel. I went shopping in Walmart instead, then had a hair appointment.
I wondered when this would be coming. I was expecting them to try and spin it that Camilla had poisoned her, but maybe that was a prospective libel suit too far. Also Romney and Obama wouldn't be bad mouthing each other, they are both very decent, ethical guys. Romney might not agree with Obama's politics but he wouldn't launch a personal attack.
The Queen is looking very wrinkled. Memo to myself. Start using moisturiser.
I find it laughable that it is the first day of spring when it was in the 80s last week.
It was what they call a pretty day here today, nice and sunny. I was up and about early as I had an appointment with Michelle, the hygienist in Norman. I was telling her how much I regret neglecting my dental appointments in the past, thus losing the teeth I did. If any of you dear readers haven't seen a dentist lately make an appointment now.
I had been looking forward to going to Barnes & Noble, the bookshop in Norman, but halfway there I remembered my GPS I'd left at home. Michelle said Barnes & Noble wasn't far, she could give me directions, but the problem was getting back to Shawnee on Highway 9, I know I would end up having to get on the interstate. I might go at the weekend. And I think I'll keep the GPS in the car.
A father, who is a firearms instructor, posted this rather nice picture of his little 11 year old lad on Facebook, and the home was raided and searched, and the parents were told the lad would be taken into the custody of social services, but fortunately it didn't get that far. Sometimes I wonder what kind of world I'm living in.
And on the subject of guns, about which everyone is paranoiac at the moment, there is a scarcity of ammunition, everyone is buying it up, shelves are bare....
The weather is not going to be bad tomorrow....
In the 60s in central Oklahoma, just east of OKC, but Friday and the weekend it is going to be winter again. Never mind that it was in the 80s last week, and it is the first day of Spring.
It is Spring Break at the moment, schools are out, no youth activities or meal at Emmanuel so I didn't need to do anything for dessert this evening.
Everybody has been celebrating St Patrick's Day this past weekend, it is such a big deal here. Actually it is St Patrick's Day day today, because according to the Book of Common Prayer if a saint's day falls on a Sunday, Sunday takes precedence. I am not sure there are many people know that.
But to turn to my exciting life. What has kept me engaged most of the day has been the laying of the gas lines along the street. They were a bit too close to the house for Bubbles comfort though, the noise made her nervous.
They were very busy outside the house next door where there is a deep hole in the road, and water gushing up. They seem to keep hitting the water pipes. That happened on the other side of me, but there wasn't a deep hole like that in front of her house.
I took this picture in the afternoon, I was able to get out this morning when I needed to, and that big truck moved just in time for me to go to the YMCA pool this evening.
I am not sure what the temperature was today, I didn't pass a street thermometer, but I guess as it was 62 in Tennessee, and 69 in New Mexico, it must have been somewhere in between. 93 in San Antonio seems hot, especially as - up north near Canada - they
winter storm warnings and blizzards.
Bubbles lying in the sun watching television. Perhaps I should put a cartoon channel on for her. It intrigues me how her hair stands up in the sun.
Perhaps tomorrow I will have something more interesting to write up.
It has been a lovely day again today, I think it was nearly 80, but that is all about to change....
going down to 50 tomorrow, then winter is coming back later in the week..
with what looks like snow in the north of the state.
I went to the monthly AARP meeting . It is held in the cafeteria of one of the Baptist churches so I had lunch there at the insanely early hour of 11 o'clock. It was good to catch up with Phyllis, she is President, but we were able to sit together over lunch. She has just come back from a trip to Israel, and brought me back some little pressies. I will make her a fruit cake tomorrow, I know she'd like one. The speaker at the meeting talked about the lunches a group of churches serve in the park on Sundays for the homeless, and the poor. She said there is a big difference in the numbers they have. It is less at the beginning of the month, but at the end when everyone has run out of food stamps and money it dramatically rises.
After the AARP meeting I went on a frustrating search for a hairdresser. I've been here nearly five years and still haven't found one I want to stay with. I've found one or two who do my hair alright, but I can't stand their lack of professionalism. Scruffily dressed in shorts and tee shirts; rock music blaring non stop, and those who aren't actually doing any hair are all tweeting - that really sets my teeth on edge. And there is no concept of customer service here. I go in, approach a desk, and someone from the other side of the room asks what I want. I tell them I am not going to shout across the room and walk out. And they all have tatty little towels which are not whipped away when they're wet, and replaced. And I've never, never, been offered a cup of tea or coffee while my hair is drying.
I always thought - before coming here - that this was a rich country, I didn't go to particularly posh hairdressers in Britain, how come I have such impossibly high standards. Anyway, there was one left after I'd marched in and out of several, and I am trying that on Thursday.
The Conservatives have just had a conference, and there is a lot of chatter about the candidates for the 2016 Election. This country is in permanent campaign mode, no sooner is one election over than they are thinking of the next. They had a straw poll at the conference and Rand Paul, the junior senator for Kentucky, and Marco Rubio, the junior senator for Florida, and a Cuban American, were in the lead. Jeb Bush, son and brother of George I and II, and a former two term governor of Florida, has said he is not ruling out the idea of running. Personally, I put my money on Marco Rubio.
It is also being said that Michelle Obama might run for the Democrats, which will be interesting. Obama will then go from President to first husband. There is also speculation that Hilary Clinton will run.
Today, Friday, the weather has been lovely. I saw it was 83 as I drove through town.
I do love the longer evenings now the clocks have gone forward, I went to the YMCA pool this evening about 7.30 for the last hour they are open, and I watched the sun setting as I went round the walkway, it was a lovely sunset. There is a little patio outside with tables and chairs, people must have been sitting out there during the day, and they had left the doors open.
Perhaps because it was the end of the day I didn't feel strong enough to push against the current, so walked round the other way, with the current. I told myself I was still walking, exercising. I was surprised at how fast I could go with the current.
Emmanuel was hosting the Lenten lunch yesterday, it was organised by the Outreach Committee, and it was certainly one of the better lunches. Maybe not quite as good as that put on by the Lutheran church, but a great deal better than one of the Baptist churches who just served up bean soup and a piece of cornbread. I know it is not supposed to be lavish, it is a Lenten lunch.
There were three different types of soup, a variety of sandwiches.
Cookies and cold tea. (I can see myself in England sitting down in a restaurant saying "may I have some HOT tea, made with boiling water, not from the hot tap").
The hall actually looked very pretty with the coloured napkins on all the tables.
On Wednesday nights we have paper napkins, and dispense with tablecloths, but for events like this I like the fact they bring out the proper napkins and tablecloths.
The murder trial defendant is back in the witness box, for the 18th day. Some video has emerged from the initial interrogation when she was arrested.
She was trying to say she didn't know anything about it, she wasn't there, she'd never kill him. The officer told her that her palm print was in the blood, on the wall, but still she carried on lying. What has really cooked her goose now - I don't know if the jury are going to see this video - she was weeping and wailing while being interrogated, then she was left in the room with the video still running, and her behaviour totally changed. She was standing on her head....
Chuckling, singing, talking to herself that she should have put some make up on. She'd actually asked an officer if she could tidy herself up before they took her away and photographed her, but was told she'd be going like she was.
The television commentators couldn't believe it, one said if he'd been arrested on a death penalty murder charge he'd be throwing up in the trash can, and crawling under the table.
The slaughtered boyfriend had actually been dead for about a week before he was discovered, while she was running around creating alibis, driving into the desert to throw away the gun. She says the gun was his and she grabbed it from his closet, but it had been reported stolen from her grandmother's house a fortnight earlier, which is pretty damning because it points to pre-meditation.
A foresic psychiatrist for the defence said she was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. I should think all the jury are suffering from ptsd by now.
In England I used to watch soap operas on television, I don't need to here, I just watch the news unfolding every day.
I was at the Shawnee Peace Fellowship meeting this morning, and heard the news of the new Pope when I got back, I would have liked to have been watching when the white smoke appeared, but I think I was home fairly soon afterwards. Everyone is very pleased about the new appointment, and he certainly seems very different from all the popes I've seen come and go in my lifetime. Everyone is talking about his humility, his simplicity, the fact that even as a cardinal he wouldn't live in the cardinal's palace but preferred a small room where he cooked for himself.
There's also a lot of talking about cleaning up the Papacy, following all the sex abuse and financial scandals. I wonder what Pope Benedict thinks when he hears all that.
The weather has been lovely, and will be even warmer tomorrow.
March is the beginning of the tornado season, I'd better be sorting out my emergency things, and tornado shelter; throwing pillows and duvets into the middle bathroom. I still feel I'd rather take my chance at home than go to a shelter. The tornadoes will start ratcheting up next month, then peak in May.
Someone has done a survey of the states with the highest obesity levels. Predictably Oklahoma is one of them but I thought it would be top of the list, not second to bottom. I suppose WV is not surprising, I think it encompasses the Appalachians which has the highest poverty rate in the nation. It can be seen that there is a definite link between obesity and poverty as the southern states are the most poor, people eat mostly fast foods which are cheaper, and there are fewer supermarkets where people can make healthy choices. Most southern food is also coated in batter and fried, contributing to the obesity epidemic. For a long time I couldn't figure out what chicken fried steak was, if it was supposed to be steak or chicken. But it is thin steak, coated with a thick batter and fried like chicken, which makes it very filling hence its popularity in places like Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma.
And the lowest obesity levels....
A postcript to yesterday's drama in the YMCA pool - the guy concerned had multiple heart problems, one wonders what he was doing in a swimming pool, and he survived the near drowning. He was taken to the local hospital but transferred to the Heart Hospital in the City.
In my mundane life anything out of the ordinary is "drama" and there was another one this afternoon in the Senior Centre when a guy who had been in the mens room all the afternoon began to cause concern. Another man was sent in to find out if he was alright, and came out saying the guy had intestinal problems. However, when the guy emerged he had paint around his beard, which he had been sniffing. I was later telling Jeremy this story of the solvent abuse user in the mens room, and he said on a note of incredulity "In the Senior Centre!!!!!" Actually he wasn't a senior, I think he came in to use the mens room. Apparently, they put the paint in a plastic bag to sniff it. What an education I am getting here.
Kate rang the police and told them where he was headed - any form of drug or solvent abuse is illegal in this place - so the police were going to pick him up.
And goodness knows what the rednecks were up to in the Senior Centre's tv room, where I took these photos.
Let's hope I have more success with this.
Yesterday I said the 4th Sunday in Lent here is known as all the above, but it is not Mother's Day, as in Britain, I really miss that. The little posies in church for the mothers, and most other adults as well. It is a landmark in our national calendar.
It is like the 3rd in Advent, and meant to be a midpoint in the penitential season where austerity can lessen up for a day. The clergy change their purple robes for rose pink, and flowers are allowed on the altar. In the case of Emmanuel they were lovely pink roses.
And while I am on the subject of said flowers.....I took the two vases to the hospital this morning, one of which was particularly heavy, set them down on the reception desk and asked a perfectly hale and hearty guy to carry the heavy one into the chapel for me...but did he...heck as like. No, a little 4'8" woman sitting beside him got up to carry it. I protested that if she could carry it so could I. He didn't even have the grace to look abashed. This has sparked off a new sport.....spot the rednecks. They're not just sitting around the pool room in the Senior Centre demanding coffee.
Being a special sort of Sunday, as it were, the Cathedral Choir came out to Emmanuel for Evensong, and a short concert.
And any excuse for a party......
Beth said this morning when I picked up the flowers that there are a ton of those cookies left over, so I don't need to take anything for dessert on Wednesday.
There was some drama this morning at the YMCA when I was water walking. An elderly guy seemed to collapse in the swimming pool, the lifeguard jumped straight in and lifted his head out of the water while another lifeguard came to help get him out of the pool and start CPR. The emergency services were called of course, and they continued the CPR. I thought he would be carried away in the ambulance and we would all carry on our merry way, but we were asked to leave the pool and it was closed.
Right.....fingers crossed.....I am going to try and publish this.
I typed this all out, thought I had published it, and it disappeared. I might try it again in the morning, but at the moment it keeps playing up.
It is hard to describe the rain we have had today, I think it is the heaviest I have ever known, and that is saying something. It came down literally in SHEETS. It sent Bubbles scurrying for cover in the closet.
I tried to capture a photo of it, but this doesn't really show how heavy it was.
The grass is turning green in front of my eyes.
The garden in front of the unoccupied house opposite is dug up because new gas lines have been laid down the street. Although I don't have gas a new line was put in, fortunately without any mishaps. My next door neighbour however was not so lucky, they hit her water main and she was cut off for hours.
Tomorrow, Sunday, is going to be very cold, and so is Monday. But look at the end of the week. I'll be thinking it is summer.
I took this at the YMCA this morning. Unlike the Senior Centre no one has any need of a knife here. I don't know why Oklahoma recently passed an open carry law, where people can walk around openly carrying their guns - prior to that they had to be concealed. They certainly can't walk in and out of public buildings waving them around.
Bubbles has found herself a nice cosy spot, where she can better keep her eye on me. This was before it started raining and she was cowering in the closet.
She does like a cuddle though, she snuggles. Considering I couldn't see what I was doing when taking this photograph - I was just holding the camera up with my right hand - it is not bad.
The murder trial has come to a halt for a few days, the court room is booked up for another case!! But the members of the jury were questioning her for two days, and I don't think they have finished. They've so far asked 220 questions. A lot of the questions have been about the raunchy sex life, although the general public outside the court room have been spared most of those salacious details.
She has major problems with her memory, she can't remember at all shooting her boyfriend, stabbing him 27 times, and practically beheading him, she always claims to be in a fog and unable to recollect any of that. One of the questions asked if she felt fear as she was stabbing him, and she said she didn't. That was an ahh-ha moment in the court room. The fog suddenly lifted for a minute.
The jury have also been focused in on all her lies. She changed her story three times. At first she wasn't there. Then she was there and intruders killed him. Then she killed him in self defence.
Most people are thinking the jury is going to give her the death penalty.
