We Bought Ourselves a Bunch of Work

The carpet came off the walls in the rooms in the other two photos. It's orginial color was avocado green. So far the only progress has been the removal of paneling and ceiling tiles by yours truly in the bedroom off the living room, the carpet removal, and the fillling in of the cistern in the back yard. I plan on working on the ceiling in bedroom (removing staples from the ceiling so we can drywall) tomorrow.

Farm Grandma

Last week Kent's sister Nancy flew into see Farm Grandma and Grandpa. She found FGM in great abdominal pain. She took her to the ER. After tests it was determined that she had a perforated bowel. She underwent surgery and has been in critical condition until yesterday. She is out of the ICU now and on a regular ward. Kent went up the night before last and was caught up on details yesterday. It turns out that the reason for a bowel resection and colostomy is that she has colon cancer. They did a biopsy and found 13 out of 15 lymph glands to have cancer cells in them. Please pray for her, Ellen Nettnay. They don't know what type if any further treatment will be pursued yet. So I would pray for guidance and unselfishness.

On the other hand, Max (FGP) is doing much better. He has settled into the home and is one of the favorite patients.

IN MY LIFETIME

With all the articles and opinion columns being written about the election results I have found myself thinking about what has happened in my lifetime. I was born the year after the Brown vs. the Board of Education ruling that overturned educational segregation. We lived in Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota until I was 5, then we moved to Morrilton Arkansas. Our school was segregated, something I was aware of but had no inkling what it meant. I can remember another child telling me that this school was new and the black children went to the old school. Time passed and my sister was born. She had severe birth defects and only came home for one weekend in her entire 6 months of life. We had moved to MacAlister Oklahoma that spring. When she died that summer. Our car was not deemed road worthy so we rode the Greyhound bus to Cheyenne. We stopped (to change buses probably) in a big city, probably Oklahoma City, and got off the bus to use the bathroom. I can remember standing in this huge room looking for the loo and seeing a "Women's Restroom" sign. We entered and after we were using the facilities, Mom said, "I think we 're in the wrong restroom." I didn't understand why she would say that but I was impressed with the cockroaches and the dirtiness. We were walking back to the bus when we saw a room labeled, "Ladies." We went in and compared to the "Women's" this was the Taj Mahal. Clean, a chaise lounge to lay back on, and very pretty. Mom explained to me why this one was so nice, "this one is for whites, the other is for Negroes."

Fast forward to 1989 in New Orleans. I have driven over with Alix to attend an ALPA sponsored crawdad boil. Kent has reserved a room at the layover hotel for us. I am checking in when a very nicely dressed black couple enter the lobby and ask for a room. The manager says that he has none and that they will probably have to go as far as Baton Rouge to find one. The Jazz festival is going on and all the hotels are full. After they left he says to me, "I did have a room, but I wasn't going to rent it to them." I was so repulsed that I thought about not staying there. But in the days before cell phones you couldn't just change your plans as you had no way of communicating this to your other half.

Fast forward to the winter of 2007 and the 41st Super Bowl. History is being made as for the first time, not only is a team with a black coach competing but actually both coaches are black. It seems like such a footnote now. Now we have a black President Elect. I would rather have had someone like Colin Powell or Condelisa Rice, but I do understand what all the fuss is about. I am glad that this has happened in my lifetime. And I hope that before I die that we elect our first female President.

In My Lifetime

With all the articles and opinion columens being written about the election results I have found myself thinking about what has happened in my lifetime. I was born the year after the Brown vs. the Board of Education ruling that overturned educational segregation. We lived in Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota until I was 5, then we moved to Morrilton Arkansas. Our school was segregated, something I was aware of but had no inkling what it meant. I can remember another child telling me that this school was new and the black children went to the old school. Time passed and my sister was born. She had severe birth defects and only came home for one weekend in her entire 6 months of life. We had moved to MacAlister Oklahoma that spring. When she died that summer. Our car was not deemed road worthy so we rode the Greyhound bus to Cheyenne. We stopped (to change buses probably) in a big city, probably Oklahoma City, and got off the bus to use the bathroom. I can remember standing in this huge room looking for the loo and seeing a "Women's Restroom" sign. We entered and after we were using the facilities, Mom said, "I think we 're in the wrong restroom." I didn't understand why she would say that but I was impressed with the cochroaches and the dirtiness. We were walking back to the bus when we saw a room labeled, "Ladies." We went in and compared to the "Women's" this was the Taj Mahal. Clean, a chaise lounge to lay back on, and very pretty. Mom explained to me why this one was so nice, "this one is for whites, the other is for negroes."

Fast forward to 1989 in New Orleans. I have driven over with A to attend an ALPA sponsored crab boil. Kent has reserved a room at the layover hotel for us. I am checking in when a very nicely dressed black couple enter the lobby and ask for a room. The manager says that he has none and that they will probably have to go as far as Baton Rouge to find one. The Jazz festival is going on and all the hotels are full. After they left he says to me, "I did have a room, but I wasn't going to rent it to them." I was so repulsed that I thought about not staying there. But in the days before cell phones you didn't you couldn't just change your plans as you had no way of communicating this to your other half.

Fast forward to the winter of 2007 and the 41st Super Bowl. History is being made as for the first time, not only is a team with a black coach competing but actually both coaches are black. It seems like such a footnote now.

Now we have a black President Elect. I would rather have had someone like Colin Powell or Condelisa Rice, but I do understand what all the fuss is about. I am glad that this has happened in my lifetime. And I hope that before I die that we elect our first female President.