Wednesday, June 11

Up at 6 a.m. to get ready for water aerobics. Cool for the walk to the gym this morning, but it felt good. The pool was cooler than Monday, too, but it was nice.

Our regular leader was not present. She had gone to a town about two hours east yesterday and was there when a torrential rain cropped up. Her family didn't want her traveling home in it, so she stayed overnight. So a substitute led us today. She is not our favorite, because she doesn't follow a routine, but seems to just make stuff up as she goes along. We all bumbled our way through it, though.

I was back home by 9 a.m. Had a cup of coffee, and then headed upstairs to get ready for the day. I usually linger over a couple of cups of coffee after aerobics, but today I wanted to go ahead and shower and dress, so we could go to a town about 30 minutes away to shop for on-sale scrapbook supplies at the WDCS there.

The trip was prompted by a phone call last night from one of our scrapbook club members who had discovered the bargains when she shopped there yesterday. The store is closing out these items, so I wanted to go see what we could use before the items sold out.

Today was the only day I could take the time, because I need to spend the next several days preparing for a family gathering in honor of Hubbie's birthday and Father's Day Sunday.

While I got ready, Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house. Back downstairs, I noticed that Mother was sulking in the rocking chair. Seems she was put out that she hadn't been warned of a trip, so she could dress appropriately.

I asked what clothes she wanted, and then I went to her house to fetch them. While she was in the bathroom changing, Hubbie said that when he went to Mother's house, he told her we would be making the trip, and that I was in the shower and it would be a while before I was ready to go, so she had plenty of time to change if she wanted to. She decided she'd just come to our house without changing. I think she sometimes forgets from minute-to-minute what she wants to do.

Later, Hubbie also commented that when he went to Mother's house this morning, he noticed the heat was on, and the temperature was about 85 degrees. He asked if she wanted the heat on. She did not. So he set it for air, and programmed it for 74 degrees. I'm thinking she's going to have no better luck operating this new thermostat than she did the old one. I suggested to Hubbie that when he goes over there in the mornings, he should check the thermostat and adjust it, if needed.

We were ready to head to the other town around 10 a.m. It was a nice, partly sunny day for a drive. At the other town, we spent about 30 minutes shopping. Found a lot of neat things marked down to fifty cents or a dollar. Got rubber stamps, stickers, jewels, pads of patterned card stock, adhesive ribbon, blank cards, etc.

It was 11:30 by the time we were back in the van, so we went to a buffet pizza restaurant for lunch. It's been years since I've eaten at a pizza restaurant. Don't want to make a habit of that. But it was good today.

Macaroni and cheese was on the buffet, which delighted Mother. We were there in time for fresh, hot pizzas to be brought out, which was good. We enjoyed the bread sticks with marinara sauce, too, and the Caesar salad. Mother and I loved the chocolate covered sweet breads, too. Hubbie preferred the cinnamon ones.

We were back home around 1 p.m. Mother had enjoyed the trip immensely, so she was in good spirits, and in a mood to work on her jigsaw puzzle.

We expected the cable guy sometime between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., and he arrived around 3 p.m. The reason we called him was because the menu on the TV kept saying "to be announced." Even when we unplugged the unit for a while to try to reset it, it kept giving us that message.

I figured we probably needed a new box, and I was right. I was hoping the old one could be fixed, because when a box is changed, all the shows on the DVR go away. But there was no other way.

The cable guy was a very young man, new to his job, so he had to call his supervisor a couple of times to get the job done. But he was a very nice guy. He's been married four years, he said, to a woman from Washington State. This will be her first time to experience our summer weather. She's in for a shock, I'm afraid.

She is a lady who is accustomed to enjoying the occasional glass of wine with her meals, and she was surprised to find that she cannot purchase it at our grocery stores, because we are a dry county.

This fact prompted a conversation about an attempt in our county to get a wet/dry issue on an upcoming ballot. There is a strong faction among the churches to discourage folks from signing the petition, but our feeling is that no matter which side of the issue you fall on, our country was founded on the belief that we all have a right to speak...and one of our ways of speaking is to vote.

While we waited to see if the new cable box was going to load correctly, the young man mentioned that his next visit was to collect on an overdue cable bill at a home, or turn off their service. We didn't know this was a responsibility of cable service guys.

Do people get testy when threatened with getting their service cut? Oh, yes, he said. There are some homes where he refuses to try to collect..he simply cuts the service to keep from getting into a conflict.

He was surprised when, at an elderly woman's home, he noticed "plants" growing in another room. The policy of his company is that if he sees drugs at a home, he is to promptly leave, and report what he sees to the authorities. He does promptly leave, but what he does about reporting I don't know.

There are certain neighborhoods that he simply refuses to visit after dark, and I don't blame him. We are a relatively safe town, but there are still one or two neighborhoods that are pretty rough.

After the cable guy left, Mother was ready to go home, so Hubbie accompanied her. Later, I went over there to put drops in her eyes. I got a postcard reminding me that Mother is to go back to the ophthamologist to be tested for glaucoma again. I'll make an appointment in the day or two to get her in maybe sometime next week.

Since there is nothing in the DVR now, Hubbie and I went in search of a couple of movies to watch tonight. We got "The Monument Men," and "Nebraska."

Based on a true story, "The Monument Men" is about a group of men who rescue masterpieces from Nazi thieves and return them to their owners. This is a really good movie, starring George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, and Cate Blanchett.

"Nebraska" stars Bruce Dern as an elderly, befuddled, alcoholic man who thinks he has won a million dollars through a mega marketing sweepstakes. He is determined to go from Montana to Nebraska to claim his prize. His sons cannot dissuade him, so one of them agrees to take him.