Just Another Day

Today's high temperature was: 77 degrees

Today's humidity was 44%.

Sunny with a real nice breeze.

===========================

We had one heck of a storm early this morning--I guess.  You know, I am scared of storms, but when they come during the night and I am sleeping, if I wake up, I'm so groggy that I put the pillow over my head and go back to sleep--which is what I did this morning.  Then, when I woke up, I hear about the 65 mph winds we got, 15,000 in this country with no power, limbs down, some trees uprooted and building damage.

If I had got up and turned on the TV, this is what I would have seen and probably freaked.  Better to stay in bed.

It was kind of a bad day today.  

The phone rang at 9:00--it was Pearl.  "I'm up at the office.  I can't get the key to start the car.  Can you come get me?"

"Sure, Honey, I'll be right there."

She had gone up to the office to pay her rent.  When she got back in the car, the key wouldn't turn.  I got in her car to see if I could figure it out.

"What do you think you are...a mechanic?"   She sounded real grouchy.

"This happened to me once (lie) and I thought maybe I could figure it out."

"You can't get the key out of the slot!"

I pulled the key out and put it back in.  Then I wiggled the shift back and forth and stomped on the brake a couple of times and then tried to wiggle the steering wheel--which seemed kind of stuck.  So I yanked the wheel back and forth really hard and turned the key and the car started.  She had pulled in and cranked the wheels way over to the left and had locked up the steering wheel.

I hopped out and said, "There ya go."  

She was really mad at me!  "Oh, you just think you know how to do everything!" and she got in her car and drove on home--nearly hitting two mail boxes along the way.  

Whatever, I came home.

I didn't do too much today, but it seemed I was busy.

Pearl walked down around 6:30, came in, groaning about her arthritis and sat down.

"Merle fell asleep watching the news, so I decided to walk on down.  I have something to ask you."

"Sure."

"Explain this Hobby Lobby thing to me.  I don't understand it."

"Well, yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled that Hobby Lobby didn't have to pay their employees health insurance for certain contraceptives."

"Hobby Lobby is just a small craft store.  What business is it what kind of contraceptives their employees want to use.  Sex is private!  They can use what ever kind of birth control they want to!"

<okay, this is not going to go well>

Simplify.  K.I.S.S.

"No...it's not about that.  All businesses had to enroll in the Obama Care insurance or they have to pay a fine."

"Yes--I know."

"Included in that insurance is contraceptives of all kinds.  IUD's, birth control pills, probably diaphragms, if women still use them AND...the morning after pill."

"What's a morning after pill?"

"That's a pill you can take if you had unprotected sex and think you might be pregnant.  If you are pregnant, it stops the egg from attaching to the uterus.  I think."

"So--what business is it of the insurance company what kind of birth control you use?  Just go and buy the kind you want!"

"It's not the insurance's business, but...Hobby Lobby is owned by a family who doesn't believe in abortion and they view an IUD or the morning after pill to be like....like a mini abortion."

"And?"

"And, they didn't want to have to pay insurance for that kind of contraceptive.  They still will pay insurance for birth control pills and other contraceptives, but not those two."

 Well--what business is that of the Supreme Court?  The government has no right to tell us what kind of birth control we can use!"

"No...it's...they don't care....Ah--Hobby Lobby had to sue and bring it to the highest court in the land to see if they have a constitutional right NOT to pay for that kind of insurance that covers those kinds of contraceptives.."

"I still don't get it.  Hobby Lobby is just a little craft store...with four or five employees.  What's the big deal?  Why would they spend all that time and money--just think what it cost us to have the Supreme Court rule on this!"

"Hobby Lobby has a lot of stores."

"No it doesn't!  I've been in one.  They are local and only hire about four or five people."

"No...Hobby Lobby has almost six hundred stores........"

"Oh, they do not!  I don't want to talk about it anymore.  You made my head hurt."

Then she mumbled something else and I said, "What?"

"Boy--your hearing has really gone.  You need hearing aids.  I keep telling you that!"

"No--you had your face turned away and kind of mumbled and I didn't hear what you said."

"I don't mumble!  Merle tells me that all the time.  He can't hear either.  You both need hearing aids!"

Then, we talked about the cats and the weather and our gardens  and she got up to leave.  I always walk her out, to make sure she doesn't fall and makes it home all right--she doesn't realize that I watch until she gets to her house.

"Boy--you need to water your planters."

"Gosh, with all the rain we got, I thought they got enough water."

"Well--that's not enough.  You need to water them everyday!"

"Okay...I'll do it in the morning."

"You need to do it right now!"

and off she toddled.

Troubles me.  She is really getting more and more cantankerous.  She gets that clipped tone to her voice and sounds petulant.  I think the memory problems are becoming worse and she is also having cognitive issues.  Merle told me last week that sometimes he thinks she's had a mild stroke while he was at work.

 It is certainly possible that she is having T.I.A.'s--her Mother had a stroke.

I am getting so I hate it when she asks me to explain something because she starts arguing about it.  I had to bit my tongue the other day when she wanted an explanation about a Bible verse she didn't understand.  She didn't know anything about it, but argued with my explanation.  "Why do you ask me to explain these things when you already know the answer?"  but, of course, I didn't say that.  

Sigh