Week of Sunday November 19th through Saturday Nov. 25th, 2023

Sunday 11/19: Church was so good this morning. The theme of the sermon was WHEN SOMEONE DOES YOU DIRTY. I love how Pastor Craig uses "props" to get points across. He painted his shirt to emphasize his point.

Peggy and I talked about Thanksgiving after church, and agreed on two p.m. for our meal time. Which really means something between 2:30 and 3:00 p.m. In the early evening, I called Becky to tell her, but I did NOT promise that we will eat our meal at exactly two p.m.

I had leftover turkey and stuffing from the Thanksgiving meal at the Y, so I tried a new recipe for milk gravy to put on it. I think that I should have added some poultry seasoning and maybe some small pieces of turkey, which I should do the next time I make it.

MONDAY November 20th. First thing this morning, I went to the library to return a book and pick up a book. I was on the elevator going to the second floor when a woman about my age started telling me that she just moved back to Lockport after being away for forty or more years. We immediately struck up a conversation and got off the elevator together on the third floor and talked a bit and exchanged phone numbers and email information. Her name is Michaeline D. Augustino 716 225-6863 (and she graduated from LSHS in 1970 and bought a place in THE VILLAGE. I told her that my sister Gail graduated the same year. After that, I had my appointment with Dr. Kurbs (my chiropractor) this morning and made another appointment for December 4th. Then I went to WalMart to complete my Thanksgiving shopping. I picked up lunch at Arby's and ate it at home. After that I made a batch of CHEX MIX. I rested for a couple of hours and when I got up, I prepared a light supper and then watched a few videos on youtube. I am particularly interested in the Oxford Union Debates. I talked to Peggy on the phone. She is concerned because it seems that Louise may have Covid (Peggy could not get a clear answer from her) and Marsha may have been exposed to Covid, and the issue is that Marsha spends time with Marlene who I had previously invited to Thanksgiving dinner at my house, but she might call me and ask if she can come if Marsha cancels their Thanksgiving get together. I told Peg that if Marlene calls and wants to join us, I will tell her that because of sickness and Covid, I have closed my Thanksgiving invitations in order to keep myself and the others who are coming safe.

I pulled out my large fiberoptic Christmas tree (it is not really all that large) and set it up in the living room.

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2023: Today was the Ladies Life Group and the SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY for Betty's 80th birthday. I was the first to arrive at the church. Cindi had the cupcakes set up, her idea was for Betty to know about the cupcakes to celebrate her birthday BUT for the rest to be a surprise.

I took this picture when Betty came in and saw the cupcakes:

And we were successful in pulling that off. When Life Group was over, we started singing Happy Birthday and the extra invited guests came in behind Betty and joined in the signing.

Betty was so surprised and she said that this is the first time in her life that she has had a birthday party.

Wednesday November 22, 2023 In the morning, I mostly worked on stuff for Thanksgiving and set the table. I put up some Christmas decorations, including my fiber optic tree and my three ceramic trees. Around eleven a.m. I left to go to the Y. First I went to THE BUTCHER SHOP an purchased two containers of Plainville Turkey Gravy and then to _________and purchased a new bulb for my large ceramic Christmas tree. I went to the Y to meet up with Jan for DRUMS ALIVE, but she did not show up. There were about six of us in the class, and it was fun, Eugene had "turkey" music going! I picked up a five dollar meal deal at Wendy's for my lunch. After I ate, I worked a bit more on Christmas decorating before taking a nap. I put my nativity set up on my hutch in the dining room and put blue lights around it.

I made rice pudding in the evening and I vacuumed the kitchen and dining area. I called Megan to see how she is doing (she is recovering from her fifth bout of Covid. She is doing good, feeling much better, the Paxlovid has helped her a lot. I also talked to Tyler, and honestly, I think he sounds better, there seems to be more life in his voice than there was before. He said college is going good, the work is hard, and he spends a lot of time studying.

THANKSGIVING DAY 2023 I had a good nights sleep and got up a little after eight a.m. Off and on, I spent time in the kitchen working on stuff for dinner, and a little bit of decorating, and of course, some searching for items that I only use once or twice a year, like my desert plates that have a Christmas design on them. I moved the car to make room for my guests to park. I watched the Thanksgiving Day parade and was disappointed to hear the protests from the people I will call "Jew haters". I am not sure how disruptive they were. NBC seemed to block them out by returning to the video of the beginning of the parade. I hope they were all arrested and spent the holiday in jail.

ham

turkey

stuffing

mashed potatoes and gravy

squash

cranberry sauce

rolls and butter

corn pudding

banana cream pie

assorted cookies

Everything was delicious. After desert, Peggy and I watched two Amir Tsarfati videos on youtube.

I called Gail in the evening. She agreed to December 13th to take Becky out to lunch for her birthday.

FRIDAY the 24th of November: I met up with Peggy at her house and we went to the Hoover Road House and visited Carrie for about a half hour. I left a bag with some "goodies" for the staff and residents. Then we went to the East Amherst Aldi where we each purchased a few items. I spent the afternoon at home. I returned to Peg's house at 5:30 for supper. I took a package of cookies, some Chex Mix, some cranberry sauce and butternut squash. David had prepared oyster stew and we also had couscous and teriyaki salmon. After supper, we watched a couple of episodes of FRASIER. When I backed out of their driveway to go home, I got a message from my car that I have low tire pressure. UGH

November 25, 2023 (Saturday) Shortly after I got up, I started calling around to find a place to have the tire pressure checked in my car, but some shops were closed and some did not have any available time. I called David to ask him if he had any ideas of who I could call and he told me to drive over and he would check the tire pressure. So I did that, and he added air to two tires and the light went off. Peggy and I talked about the event in Medina and decided to meet up at 4:15 to go. We had a hard time finding a parking spot. After we parked and gathered up the stuff we wanted to take with us, we headed towards Main Street and Peggy called Betty to find out where she and Elaine were. We met up with them and set our chairs up. Betty and Elaine wrapped themselves up in what I think were WHITE SHEETS. Hopefully clean sheets!

We had a bit of a wait for the fireworks to start. It was a good display.

and then a longer wait for the parade to begin. Elaine and I were sitting in Betty's car. I don't know why she locked us in using her remote key, but she did, and when I opened the car door to get out, the alarm went off. It took a minute or two for Betty to figure out how to shut it off. Now she knows that when someone inside opens a locked door, the alarm goes off. Shortly after that, I walked down to Avanti's and purchased two large garlic knots. When I left Avanti's I could see that the parade had started.

The parade was GREAT!!! It was very long and we were pretty cold.