Saturday, June 28, 2014

Cucumbers

Here are the cucumbers harvested today from my garden. The cup gives some perspective to the vegetables.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Daily routine

I thought I might say something about my daily routine in this post.

I usually get up between 6:00 am and 9:30 am. I sleep fairly well at night, usually going to bed around midnight.

One of the first things I do in the morning is take my synthroid pill. This pill (synthetic throid) supplements my thyroid glands which do not produce a sufficient amount of thyroid for my body.

Next I go to the kitchen to find something to eat. This morning I had a cup of hot chocolate and a fiber bar. I also ate a cup of yogurt. Some mornings I drink orange juice instead of hot chocolate. Occasionally, I have scrambled eggs and sausage, but more often than not, I just eat a fiber bar.

Next I read the newspaper if it's a Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Those are the only days we get the Tulsa World. If the mail has arrived, I will go through the mail.

At some point in the morning, I usually go to the Salvation Army to walk. I usually walk an hour. During the summer the SA serves as a day care for kids. The time for walking is noon to one while school is out of session.

I enjoy working two puzzles on my tablet. At some time in the day I can be found working to solve "7 Little Words" and "Bonza." Both are word puzzles in which you take word fragments and put them together to form words. I also enjoy playing "Montezuma Blitz."

Lunch is usually a sandwich or leftovers from supper the previous day. We watch the "News on 6" while eating.

In the afternoon, reading (currently reading Human Destiny is to Eliminate Death), playing piano (currently working on "Endless Love," "Ashokan Farewell," "Last Date," "Gabriel's Oboe," and "Planxty"), or napping (ZZZZZZ) is what you will find me doing. At 5:30 pm I always try to watch the NBC "Nightly News." I take my evening meds at this time.

I go out back to check my garden following the news. I have some tomato plants and some cucumbers growing out there.

At 8:00 pm I try to watch "The Rachel Maddow Show." At 10 pm I watch one of the local news programs, usually channel 8.

This is pretty much my daily routine, except for Sundays. On Sundays, church activities consume most of my mornings.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Back from trip around Missouri

On Tuesday of last week, we left for an eight-day trip to Missouri.

First, we went to Springfield. My Dad had some doctor appointments. He also has macular degeneration and his eyesight is poor. We drove him to the doctor. We left Springfield for Sedalia on Thursday. It was raining heavily as we left. We had reservations at the Comfort Inn in Sedalia for that evening and the next. We checked in that evening. The occasion for the visit to Sedalia was the annual Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival. The festival started on Wednesday and ran thru Saturday. Friday was the only day we attended.

There are five venues around town at which ragtime music is performed constantly from 9 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon. These are all free. In the evenings there are ticketed concerts ($30 per ticket) at various venues.

For our evening meal on Friday we went to a nearby Applebee's. We placed a to go order. I wanted to get back to the motel to see the evening news. While waiting for our order, I recognized the location as being one where a geocache was hidden. Although I did not have my GPS receiver with me, I decided to look for the cache anyway. After about 10 minutes of searching I happened upon it.

After eating our ribs from Applebee's, we went to the evening concert. The concert that evening was devoted to the music of James P. Johnson. James P. Johnson was a famous stride pianist in his day. (Another famous musician around that time with a similar name was James Weldon Johnson, who wrote God's Trombones.)

Several well-known (at least to ragtime enthusiasts) performers played piano at the festival. Two who performed Friday night were Stephanie Trick and Jeff Barnwell.

Saturday morning we left for Troy, about 40 miles northwest of St. Louis. The rain was coming down in torrents. The weather on Friday had been fine, though. As we got closer to Troy, the weather started clearing up. We stopped at a McDonald's in Warrenton for a bite to eat and to repack the car. (Leaving the motel, we had just thrown things in the backseat.)

We went to Kay and Jim's farm a few miles north of Troy. Jim gave me a tour of the farm, showing me his sheep and large garden. We also went to the hen house where Jim goes everyday to gather up six dozen eggs. Jim likes to experiment with new seeds to grow exotic plants.

We spent the night in a motel in Troy and next morning ate at Denny's. We were joined by Rick, another brother of J.

Then we hit the road again, bypassing St. Louis on our way south to Cape Girardeau, where yet another brother of J's lives. We arrived that afternoon. We briefly searched for a geocache but didn't find it. We went with Kenny and Donna to Delmonico's Restaurant. They have a fabulous buffet to which we helped ourselves. We spent the night in the Pear Tree Inn.

The next day (Monday) we drove back to Springfield. We were going to have lunch at Hillbilly Junction, a semi-famous landmark in those parts, but we discovered that they had gone out of business. We suspect that new road construction left them too isolated to attract business. It's too bad, for they had some really good food there in the past.

We spent the night in Springfield at my parents' apartment. The next morning, we returned to Sand Springs.

Monday, June 02, 2014

Catching up

I checked to see when I last updated this blog. It was May 12, and today is June 2. So I have a couple of weeks to catch up on.

On May 17, I had to miss the HAT meeting. We were on the road coming back from Springfield, MO.

On May 18, a Sunday, we held our monthly discussion based on Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States . We take a chapter a month. The chapter we discussed was 17. Much of the time period was in the 20th century -- times that I lived thru. The next chapter is on the war in Vietman.

On Wednesday the 21st we went to a meeting of OK Votes. This is an effort to turn out the vote organized by Democrats. The meeting was held in the historic Campbell Hotel along Route 66 in Tulsa. Inside the Campbell Hotel is Maxxwell's Restaurant. That is where we dined that evening.

On Saturday the 24th we had our monthly Food and Fellowship gathering. This month we met at Cardigan's on S. Lewis. Most everyone had the crabcakes.

The next day was Sunday. At church we had the dedication of the canvas labyrinth. It is about 20 feet in diameter. We have the objective of building a permanent labyrinth on the church lawn. Rev. Debra Garfinkel is leading the effort to get the labyrinth built. I have been walking labyrinths for 15 years or so.

Also at Church of the Restoration, we have switched to having breakfast instead of lunch on Sundays. Last Sunday Gail and I played "Gladiolas Rag" by Scott Joplin. Marilyn Clarke was the speaker. She spoke about the Tulsa Sponsoring Committee.

Next month Gail and I plan to play "America," from West Side Story.