Happy Halloween Day

Halloween 1990

HAPPY HALLOWEEN....

This picture is of 1990. I
had the King drive me to
my work place. But he
refused to take me, if I
wore the head. He dropped
me off a block away so
no one would see me
put the head on. In that
short walk, I had more
people waving and beeping
their horns, and laughing.

I had cut the pumpkin
from the bottom instead
of the top. This took
quite a bit of thinking,
because I had to have
a pumpkin big enough
not only to fit my head.
But also big enough
I could cut the hole
in the bottom for my
head to fit thru. I have
a large head. And not
have the pumpkin break.

The rest of it was fairly easy
after I got it cleaned out,
as it was just like dealing
with any other pumpkin.
Except I had to remember
the mouth went near
where the hole was.
And the eyes near the
other end.

I had borrowed the King's
gloves, boots and his
Carharts coveralls.

It was so cool.Almost no one
knew who I was.. I danced
down the halls, waving to
everyone one. But twice
I was guessed. One was
a resident, who called me
by the name she called me
all the time...Helen. I must
have reminder her of a Helen.
The aides who were
near by, they couldn't figure
out who Helen was.

The other was my boss,Nani.
She didn't catch on until I laugh.
She said that was a dead give away.

It is weird the different takes
on Halloween. Some think it
is a great time for the kids. I
do. Love their costumes, when
they come to the door.

Others think of Satan, and
all evil things. Which brings
to me the stories I had learn
as a teen. I don't recall
who told me it, was it my
Pastor? But anyway, it
was a celebration. It was
started in Europe when they
would go to the cemetery
on that night, and bring
treats to eat as they visited
the deceased relatives. And
this would ward off the evil
spirits. So I was taught it
was a festive thing. A
celebration. Not the horrible
evils, that some like.
But I don't know how the
costumes came to be with
that. To ward off the evil
spirits maybe?

Anyway,
HAPPY HALLOWEEN
everyone

Halloween is Coming

Monday is Halloween... Trick or Treat
I have been thinking about it lately
because, of course we have to get
candy for the 6 to 11 kids that show up.
We try to buy candy we don't like, so
we don't eat it before the day comes.
But this year, I bought the kind we like,
and so far we have been pretty good.


We are lucky our neighborhood isn't
prime area, so the kids go to town
to the areas that have lots of candy.

We were talking about the costumes
that we used as kids. And for the life
of me, I don't recall one. I am sure
Mom must have made costumes
for us. She was very creative and
she was a master seamstress.

All I can recall of Halloween is
the grange. We use to go to
the grange and play games
like musical chairs, and bob
for apples. And being I loved
to swim, bobbing for apples
was easy for me, as I really
like swimming underwater.

I can barely remember my
brother going the door to door
route. He is 4 years younger
than I am. But can remember
him bringing home, what I
think was a pillow case
full of candy. And Mom eating
some of it. Dad too.

By that time I was into basement
parties at friends.
We didn't get to do the fun
things that our country
friends did. Turn over the
outhouse. We didn't have
them in our town. Or chase
the cows to the far end field.
Farmers got so they barn
their livestock during that time.

I am amazed at the teens,
older teens that show up at
our door. And more parents
are showing up with their
kids now. I am glad.

We always greet the callers,
as we love seeing the different
costumes. The little ones
are the most fun. But even if
it is a teen, who is dressed up
we are glad to see them.
It is the lazy ones who just show
up with the "just give me the candy
attitude" we don't like to see.

Will be looking forward to seeing
the bloggers post their little ones
in their costume on their blogs.

By the way, it use to be that the
Christmas stuff would be coming
out after Halloween, and as we
all know, it is already out. But
when I was at Wally World
yesterday, I saw........ a shirt
with a Shamrock on it...yes,
Happy St. Patrick's Day...
I could not believe it. It even
skipped Valentine's Day, surely
it must have been one of the clerks
April Fool's jokes... you know these
holidays are getting out of hand.

Spam E-mail

I am use to getting spam messages,
and a lot of them in the form of male
enhancement, with my email address
starting with a male name. It just happens..

But now I am down right insulted...
I got one on Wednesday for, get this!!!
Diaper Supply. I can get a years
worth of diapers today!!....

Now I am way pass having kids....
and I am sorry, but I am not to the
other end of the diaper stage yet either.

Now my delemnia.. do I email back
and tell these young punks, that I
don't use diapers... how dare they
presume I do... And therefore letting
them know I am a live address so
they can spam the crap out of me...
or do I delete it...ticked off..
.
I think I will tell the King it was for
him... after all it is his name that
leads our email address... lol.....
let him get ticked off... lol... But
knowing him, he will just tell me
it is my hobby, not his, so he takes
no responsibility here.Meaning
working on the computer.

My server has spam block so why
don't they catch these spams?
I notice that at the bottom they will
say that you asked for it... but I
don't sign on for any of that stuff.
If I order something, I make sure
I off click those check marks on
everything.

Oh, well, it takes a second to
delete and block. But that
one blew me away.

Doctor Appointment Notice

As I look at the notice for a future
appointment for the doctor to be
made, I think about my childhood
and how different it was as oppose
to this notice...

You see, the notice of a need for an
appointment, wasn't for the King
or I. It was for Rokon, our cat.

Many years ago, our farm had
many animals pass thru its gates.
We had dogs, cats, chickens,
guinea pigs, geese, and horses.
We were mainly a horse farm.
Show horses. My mother's hobby
of her life.

The vet came into play with mainly
the horses. Dr. Ball. He and Mom
had a good relationship going, and
as in a lot of cases, the owner called
with the symptoms and the Vet told
what to do. The owner did it. If it was
meds, then the owner went to the
Vet's office and got them. My mother
could give her own animals shots.
So taking the animal to the Vets
was not a normal thing.

The cats, chickens, guinea pigs,
geese were low on the Vet chain.
Our cats were 99% barn cats.
I think only 4 cats made it in the
house over the 50 some years.
So when any of them got sick,
well.. they just died.

The dogs were different. We
started out with Boston Terriers
from my birth time, and switched
to Dalmatians about when I was 5
or 6. Buddy, who lived forever, or
at least it seem to be. And the routine
was, as each dog got to be 10, a puppy
was bought to take over after the
other died a natural death. Mom could
never bring herself to putting a dog
down. She did breed the dogs for a
couple of years, but quit when prices
went down. The dogs were treated by
Mom with Dr. Ball's advisory. These
dogs were the privilege. They lived
inside the house. They were allowed
outside, but mostly when she was
with them.

The horses over the years where
the ones who actually saw the Vet.
And the Vet made house calls. She
ran the gamut of American Saddle
Bred, 5 Gaited Saddle horses, to
Jumpers. And in their senior years,
Hackney ponies and one Hackney
horse that they drove/showed in their
buggies. Showing horses up in to
their 60's. They have always had
anywhere from 3 to 20 horses.

When my mother got cancer, they
were down to 7. It was my job with
my brother and father, and Cy Allen's
(the Vet) to put down 6 of them.
While my mother was in the hospital.
All in one day. Something I hope
I never have to go thru again.

But what a change in animals lives.
Now they have to go to the doctor on
a regular basis. As I read in one blog,
where the bloggers dog had higher
prescription bill than they did.

While losing a pet never is easy.
But it seems the older we get,
the more endearing them become
in our lives.

Media of our Time

"Oh, Cisco…..Oh, Poncho….".
"Hi Ho Silver, (who is that
mask man)"
"Happy Trails to you….
Until we meet again…".
"Back in the Saddle again ,
back where I came from"

The sound of machine guns,
from Gangbusters and G-men,
Boston Blacky (don’t know if that
was on the west coast as well)
Buck Rogers…Sgt. Preston of the
Yukon, Tom Mix, Lone Ranger,
and other westerns…All sounds of
our childhood…While some of these
made it to television…most of these
were from the main source of the
media as we knew it.. Newspapers
were for the adults…. But this media
was for young and old alike….

RADIO…..I can remember being
upstairs in bed,as my folks listened
to the radio. Scared out of my wits with ….
Inner Sanctum EEEEEEEEEEEE
(as the door creaked open ."Who knows
what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The
Shadow knows...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"...
The Green Hornet…Orson Wells …
End of the World, was before my time,
but that sure scared a lot of people.

Laughed with Bob Hope and Eddie Cantor…
Jack Benny, Grace Allen & George Burns,
Amos and Andy, Baby Snooks, Our Miss
Brooks, Bergen & McCarthy, Arthur
Godfrey's Talent Scouts, Fibber McGee
& Molly and Ozzie & Harriet with David
and Ricky.

And all was well, when Kate Smith sang,
When the moon comes over the Mountain,
and tears bring to your eyes, as she sang…
God Bless America…

And for the baby boomers...which was
on at the beginning of T.V. What time is it?…
It is Howdy Doody Time, it is Howdy Doody
Time,with Buffalo Bob, Clarabelle, and
Princess, Summerfall, WinterSpring, &
Phineas T. Bluster.

What brought all this on? The crossword puzzle
question, "What was Cisco Kid's horse's name...
Diablo ..of course...

Oh, you kids really did miss out…
nothing adds to the imagination like radio did….

Trouble in Blogspot Land

Well, good morning again...

You may or may not see my posting
below. You may or may not see
it posted twice... different titles.

I posted it early this morning when
I couldn't sleep. Then I hit publish,
and that is where the trouble started.

It came up that it disappeared but,
I could hit recovery and it would
continue to publish. It didn't.
So I republished it, giving it a new
name. Luckily, I had saved it in
my word folder where I was working
on it.

It published and came to new
window. To my horror, there
were two entries. So I went back
and hit delete for one of them.
It went thru the deal for that,
and then gave me the new
window. To see that I still
had two entries. I go back
to the dashboard, and back
to edit... and it tells me I only
have one entry.

Turn everything off... started
all over again... says I have
only one entry... go check
it out. TWO!. So gave it up,
and went back to bed.

This morning, I looked at it.
Still two. So I went back in and
deleted the other one, with
the idea that I would delete
the other one as well, and start
over.

So there I am.. with two deletes,
that didn't work. I am here now
just explaining I am not nuts,
that Blogspot is. And for now
I give up.

I will check back to see if they
correct it. If not, just skip the
second one and have a nice day.
And if the one called Media of my
Time is gone... well, I just may
wait until tomorrow to post it.
after all this is long now.
After all maybe this one isn't
here... who knows...

Stormy clouds at sunset 

sunset 2 

Sunset ....10-23-05 

Old Toys

Toys of the past, and or how to
drive your parents nuts.

Lincoln logs, Erector sets…
tinker toys, trains….wood craving
set…wood burning sets, paper dolls,
Raggedy Ann and Andy, teddy bears,
wind up toys, banks that had actions
to put the coin in the slot…and sail
boats, tug boats… Popeye, and
Olive Oly dolls. Dick Tracy, toys that
came in cereals. Magic rings and
secret words in the shredded wheat…
Kewpie dolls And Betty Boop dolls.
And lunch boxes with Hopalong
Cassidy, Roy Rogers, and Gene Autry.
Sky King, Red Ryder. Ovaltine…

I remember a lot of the toys... I had
a doll called Sparkle Plenty after
Dick Tracy's daughter. Or was it
B.O.’s daughter.. I cut off all of her
long blonde hair...I was in big trouble......
had a farm set, metal barn with
little tabs that you bend over to put it
together.... twice I took it apart...
never saw it again. Guess Mom got
tired to putting it together... no wonder
she didn't like kids. lol....

After writing this, I decided to
Google Sparkle Plenty. There were
a couple. One was down right ugly…
but there was another on E-Bay,
seems these dolls are hard to come
by, but I had to laugh when I read
the description of this one… It said,
"She has hardly any hair on the
back of her head" … I know it isn’t
mine, as I cut it off all the way around.

But I guess I wasn’t the only one
to cut Sparkle's hair.

SPARKLE PLENTY

P. J.'s in the Schools

First, I want to say, I like pajamas.
I have wore pajamas all my life.
AT home. At night time. And even
on a lazy, rainy day, I have been
known to be still in my pajamas up
to 11am. Too lazy to change. But if
anyone comes to the house, I shoot
into the bedroom and throw on jeans
or what ever.

But now we hear in the news that children
are wearing them in SCHOOL.

In Ogden, Utah they are letting them
wear pj's to school. One of the kids was
quoted as saying "Some days you don't
want to get dressed up for school, like
when it is raining and cold. And the
school's administrators feels because
the pj have been modest, it isn't a problem.
Remarks like a kid could wear worse
things to school. Or we learn to pick our
battles. Luckily, a lot of the kids don't think
it is so great and I hope they win out.

There are parents who think nothing of
letting their kids stay home from school.
Any excuse works, from I don't want to go
today because I don't feel well. We use
to refer to it as school bus sickness...
as soon as the school bus went by, the kid
was feeling better. Go hunting, was up late,
Mom wants the older kid to baby sit the
younger ones... What does this teach the
kids. And I understand that company do
look at the attendance records of future
employees.

This doesn't mean that I lump all the
kids in one group. 95% or more of the
kids in school, try their best to do their
school work, to attend school each day,
and dress properly. I know there are fads,
my kids had fads. And the less you pay
attention to the fad, the faster it disappeared.
But in our household, those fads did not go
to school if it was something that was
disruptive. And my kids will tell you to this
day, no one got out of going to school. You
had to pass a ridged test to get to stay home.
Fever, was the first one. One of my children
jokes about how I would have sent them to
school with intravenous feeding tube, if I
had to. It wasn't that bad, but they did have
to stay in bed all day. No books, no tv...
if you are sick... you are sick. And because
of this all my kids have great attendance
records at their jobs. And I lead by example.
I went 5 years straight without calling in. And
5 in 17+years of work. Two of them because
of snow.

I am beginning to feel like the old lady.
Am I becoming my parents? my
grandparents?

And when did the children become in
charge? Surely a parent didn't send
off their child to school in p.j.'s . In my
kids day's (my own school days would
never have allowed this) if there was a
child who came to school in such a matter,
it was a signal that there was something
wrong at home. Drug, or alcohol was
involved. The child dress themselves.
And a teen would not have wore such
clothes. Teens in my kids day, were clothes
horses, the best of brands and etc.

No, I hope this another fad that goes
back home... I want all the kids to learn
that there is work ethnic, and only if you
work in a pj factory and it is a pj day to
break the winter cabin fever... then MAYBE.

I am sure there are people who will fight
for the rights of the children to wear their
pj's to school. And if they do, and they
succeed, I will be sad. Not for me, but for
the child and the world. What work ethnic
will they be learning? And what other
traditions for work will go down?

"I Shaved my Legs for This?"

As the song goes......
"I shaved my legs for this?"

I had a doctor's appointment
for this morning. They even called
me yesterday, to remind me to
show up on time.

I show up and they looked surprised
to see me. The Dr. is in surgery, she
said with a quizzable look on her face.
Then she said, oh, well Brian is going
to be looking thru these charts, maybe
he can do something. Who the heck is
Brian and do I want him looking at my
chart?

As she looks for mine to give him
(he is with another patient) she says,
"oh, I can take care of this for you."
She tells me the results for my test.
End of story. Oh, yea, with the add of
you will need to come back and have
your test done again. I said, EXCUSE
ME??? In 3 years, she says and smiles
My question, but the phone rang and
she dismissed me, is why the heck
couldn't she tell me yesterday? I went
all thru this for what? I sure hope I
don't see a office call on that bill.

So on the way home,
the song came to mind....
I shaved my legs for this?

Mother and Kids...

When raising my kids, there were
times that were frustrating… Like
fighting. After the first one that
came home from school and got
into trouble for fighting. We had
the talk about how not to fight.
That it isn’t good to fight. God
doesn’t like fighting. (Got to instill
the guilt card).

We talk about how MY kid better
NEVER EVER start a fight. Never
start one. No pushing, shoving,
punching, or verbal start of a fight.
They could finish a fight. Meaning
that if someone else started one,
threw the first punch, shoved, or push,
then they could protect themselves
by hitting back. I didn’t want them
to become someone’s punching bag.

So the rule was NO STARTING FIGHTS..
Not MY KID. Right?…Right, mom.
Not your kid. Well, that works at school.

But not at home. As mom the referee,
you have to decide who started the fight.
It is always …he did it… not me, mom…
or she did it, Mom, not me. So I came
up with this deal. I sat the two offenders
down at the table. Went the route of …
how MY KID doesn’t start fights.
Right? Right, Mom…So being MY KID
doesn’t start fights, I want to know…
which one of you guys, isn’t my kid…

They looked at each other and then
pointed to the other one. He isn’t, Mom..

Reading the Sunday paper

Reading the Spokesman Review
yesterday was interesting..

See, on the front page of the comic's
was OPUS which tells the story as we
know it here local in Sandpoint, and
others know it across the nation. We
seem to think it is just here.

I wondered where the OPUS cartoonist
lived that he thought the housing market
was so wild. For those who don't get
the SR, it was a cartoon of selling a
house, a battle over selling a house,
that wasn't for sale, and then when
they finally sold it against their
better judgment, they wonder
how they were going to replace the
house. The long and short of it, as the
cartoon was ending, the house was
one of those that you see in people's
back yards that little girls have.

I have Dish so I get the New York
stations, (local wasn't available at
the time) and one of the ads is
about how their mayor is running
for re-election, was trying to get
low cost homes for the new owners.
And the kicker line was, housing
low enough for New Yorkers to
stay New Yorkers. Sound familiar
where you are at?

Also in the Region section on page
2 was a map of Earthquakes in Idaho,
I had to laugh. Now for all you
Californians, this is tongue in cheek.

See the top two areas were in the
south east corner of Idaho and
what appears to be Hayden,
and Bonner County area. See,
we knew we had too many Ca.
people move here. They not only
brought their high price housing
but they brought their earthquakes
too!

Kootenai School and Colors on the side 

Turning with the wind  

Colors in Kootenai, Idaho 

Life's Future Work

Attitude test….I took one of those test
when I was a freshman in high school.
It was suppose to give you an idea, of
what line of work you were suppose
to go into. Maybe it was suppose to
give you a better idea of what classes
you were to take the rest of high school.

Mine came out with a combo of mechanic
/ journalist? I remember (funny the dumb
unimportant things your remember when
you are older) thinking what does that
mean, I was going to be a writer for
Popular Mechanic's? Is that magazine
still around? Anyway, I could have been
a contender…lol…

But my mother decided that I would
end up a secretary, (why does secretary
have the word secret in it) which I hated…
I worked for the civil service, and talk
about office politics...wow...
I worked for a clothing company, in
the payroll dept. in San Diego. But
I would look out at the shipping and
think, I wish I was out there, as sitting
at the desk, with fingers flying over the
adding machine was boring..I didn't
change as I had got married and
pregnant.

I, later after marriage,became a waitress,
which I didn’t like that very well either…
Then, a short cook for a mom and pop, fast food
and ice cream shop…. Didn’t like that either.
Got sick of my very favorite ice cream really
fast. Lol.

Later I became a dispatcher for a very small
town, Roslyn. Now that was a blast. But then
after 2 years I moved.

Nurses aide… which I enjoy the work and
hated administration at the end. Use to
look forward to working, until the company
became about them and not the residents…

So here I am retired... and finally, have
answered the call, of journalist. Well, as
close as I will ever get to it... which is just
fine with me. I am always amazed that
someone thinks I am worth reading...
Oh, the closest I got to the mechanic part,
was my deceased husband's mechanic shop,
I use to clean the heads with brushes, clean
up parts, and was a darn good parts go -for...
I was told that by the parts dealers. I knew
everything about that car/truck. They even
try to trip me up with, well, what side of the
car is the gas tank. Those guys were a blast
to talk with.
Maybe that is where I got my gift of gab.lol

Alphabet Soup

I got my telephone bill yesterday.
Verizon N. W. I should just look
at the bottom line and make out
the check and save myself stress
time. As you have to be part
lawyer and part CPA to under
stand it. Besides it is a monopoly,
you really don't have a heck
of a lot of choice.

I look at each month anyway.
There is an Alphabet soup of
letters there. There is USBI,
FUSF,and USF which they tell me
is going to change in charges
(of course it is up, but they don't
tell me how much more) and
they informed me that the
FCRA would also turn me
in, if I didn't pay my bill promptly.

Which kind of irritates me, because
so far, I have paid my bill
as soon as it gets here. The money
goes out the next day. So I don't
like being threaten. Bad enough that
they give you less than a week to get
the money to them. Well, it is 10
days, but they want you to pay it
at least 5 days before the due date,
because it has to be in their office
in that 10 days. And they could
care less if your pay day doesn't
come within that time. You just better
know how much it is and save it
from your last payday.

So I play, I can guess what the
bill is... so I save out that much
plus 5 dollars more. And if I gamble
well, I will have enough money.
If not, well, folks there goes the
grocery money.

But having a computer helps give
you better odds, because you can
go to their site and find out 4 days
earlier what the amount is. Oh, they
will send out a computer advance
notice for you if you like. But so far
that has showed up the night before
I get the bill. Big deal.

Anyway, this month I got some
more letters. ZPDI which bills
for AGM. I thought they had to
be kidding. Then I read down the
bill to find out... and did you know,
that Verizon does not handle their
own collection calls? I was surprised.
I called the toll free number to find
out what was the deal. To be told
that ZPDI who handles it for AGM,
handles this for Verizon. Which irritates
me because, why do I need 3 companies
(Verizon is kind enough to collect the
money for these companies) over just
one call. Which the King accepted.

And the deck is stacked. One charge is
Idaho Bill Statement Fee.. $1.45 and
then there is the Operator Assisted Call
which that was $1.91 a minute. Lucky for
us it was only one minute.Then there is
the usually Fed. tax and etc.

See I don't accept collect calls.
Did once it cost us $6.75!!! for a
minute and half. So I hang up
and by some miracle the person calls me
back. Also I have caller Id so I could call
back if it is someone I want to talk to.

So there you are Alphabet Soup.
FCRA = Fair Credit Reporting Act
FUSF = Federal Universal Service Fund
USF = Idaho Universal Service Fund
IUSBI=no words for these letters but
I bet the U stands for Universal. And
isn't it contradicting to have Idaho
and Universal?
And now ZPDI
and AGM no words for them
either. .(althought I thought
of a few)

I really should just pay the bill.

ISOLATION...

As I walked today around the town,
(they are still doing construction on
Hwy 200) I noticed there are a lot of
vehicles with the darken windows.
In fact one person waved at me, and
I didn't know it until they were along
side of me. And, of course, because we
were moving in opposite directions...
I didn't see them until it was too late.
And they probably think I am a blind
or snubbed them.

I don't know why people have full
darken windows. Mine has the one
strip of tint across the top of the
windshield which keeps the glare down.
But these are fully dark windows on
the sides and tinted on the front. Is it
to keep strangers from seeing you? That
is ok, if that is what you want, but you
also keep your friends from seeing you
too. And unless you have done something
to your vehicle to make it stand out, then
you look like every other vehicle that is on
the road like yours. So hopefully, you don't
get upset when your friends don't wave back.

Even houses, as I walk around town.
The yards and the windows.. The older
houses have knick knacks in the windows.
Some times it is just one kind. Lighthouses,
roosters, ducks, mules, windmills and
etc.The newer ones have blinds of some
sort. Some times these follow into the yards.
But I notices a lot of the newer houses,
have very little personal like yards. They
have the usual flower beds, maybe a tree
or bush in the yard. But nothing unusual,
nothing that says this person... as
opposed to the neighbor. The rare
exception is family houses. Meaning kids
toys, the kids make it home, where the
others are houses.

Neighborhoods aren't like they were
when I was a kid. Kids don't get to be kids
like I did or even my kids did. We have to
keep the kids guarded from society, and
that is sad, as these kids will ever know
what freedom is. They will live in guarded
neighborhoods, or apartments as adults.

Where did we go wrong? I don't know
really. They said it was going to be comic
books when I was a kid. They said it was
going to be television and when they were
teens it was the music, when my kids
were kids. (mine were always outside
playing, so maybe that is why mine did so
well) and now they say it is the music and
video games. Maybe it is all of them...
maybe it is none of them.

But it seems the more isolation we have,
the least involved we are, and the other
side of the coin, is the less we have to rely
on. We rather write out a check for strangers
in another state or country, then mow a
lawn for a neighbor who has become disabled.
So while they are in their houses, will anyone
know that something is wrong, will they know
that you need help?
Maybe, but probably not...

Even blogging we hid behind the
screen..

Lost Weekend and Mind Game

I, for all sense and purposes, blew off
this past weekend... I had a 3 day
weekend because the King went
out of town early Friday.

Friday, I recouped from the tests
of Thursday. I did walk on Friday,
but other than that I can't say I
accomplished much. Read magazines,
the paper, and that kind of stuff.

On Saturday, I slept in until 8am.
I thought I should do something.
But with not much in the pocket for
money, I should do something
around the house. So I stripped the
bed and washed sheets. Put the
season sheets on. Flannel. The King
had requested them on Wednesday.
(what is he going to do when it gets cold?)

I went out to the garage and dragged
in the two huge suitcase like things
I have my winter clothes in. After
about an hour and half, I had switched
my summer clothes into the cases,
and my winter clothes were in place.
It dawn on me two things. 1.. 80% of
my clothes are year around. 2. I have
way too much clothes.

I have clothes that pleases me,
I have clothes that people gave me...
I have clothes that I have to keep
because I might go some where nice
and you have to have nice clothes.
So that means 3% of my clothes only
get worn once a year at best and mostly
once every 3 years. Maybe I should get
one of those under the bed boxes and
put them in there.

I can remember as a child I had
probably 3 sweaters. Maybe 4...
two that were button up and two that
where pull over. I had about 3 skirts
(one being the required black) and
about 5 blouses and 3 dresses, and
the required underclothes. And of
course my favorite ..shirts and jeans.
Jeans were for every day around the
house and barn.

Couldn't wear them to school.
Couldn't wear pants of any style to
school. They came out with Bermuda
skirts and shorts. But if you wore them
with the socks that came up to your knees,
to school, you got sent home. Everything
had to be below your knee. And of course,
shorts were out. There were some daring
girls who wore the Bermuda skirts to school
with the knee high socks and loafers.
Kick out...sent home... All you could see
was their knees.

Anyway, so how did I end up from just
a few things to half a closet of clothes.
(King has the other half. Not counting
his closet full of hunting clothes in the
other room) How do we get attached
to these clothes? I wear 20% of them on
a regular basis. Rest are ones that I like
occasionally. At least 50% of them, were
for a quarter or half a buck. I, yard sale.
And most of them are my favorites.

The rest of the day, and Sunday, I did
nothing. And did it quite well. Read,
drank tea, nothing on the television,
visited my favorite blogs. Started a bit
on my own blog.. Yes, I did go to church
on Sunday morning. And then at 3,
the King was home.

Yesterday, I got a call from my brother.
After we had talked a bit... he said he
read my Hurricane Carol blog. And he
said, "I couldn't believe you forgot the
ice cream. How could you forget the ice
cream?" My mother use to crank up the
freezer during hurricane watch (I do
remember that) in case we lost electricity.
And during Carol we did lose the electric.
We lived across the street from the
First National Store, which at that time
was a big brand of stores. And because
they also lost electric, in their freezers,
they had melting ice cream. Of which
they were giving away. My brother never
one to give up on free ice cream, I guess
we got more ice cream than the mind can
imagine. Of course, Mom's freezer was
cranked. So they slipped it in quickly.
And he said we had ice cream until we
couldn't hardly look at it anymore. Now
usually, I am the one who remembers
things in the past. But he remembered that
like it was yesterday. And I have no memory
of it at all. Guess that must be one of those
guy things.

One of the things I did do over the
weekend, as I commented on blogs,
was seeing the verification spot, you have
letters to copy.... and the mind wanders...
and you see words... not necessarily words
that go to gether... so here were the ones
I choose. And now I am off to work...

ipgsma
I pigs man

isgfzoca
Is golf zone california?

atfkxqc
at flake extra quick

iebwx
ie b wax

ascjmq
as c jam q

njljgbby
no jill jig baby

zlsaphr
zeal sap hour

gtojzvd
gto jazz void

okghvhw
ok go hive how

vvmxqhg
women extra quahog
for those who are not from the East
Coast, quahog is a large clam...
and taste great in clam cakes in the shell

Trying to Bounce Back

The King left town early Friday morning...
I wasn't feeling up to speed yet, so he
went alone.

So I rambled around the house. Got
out and walked to the Post Office
with my walking friend. Made the
trip ok, but still not up to par...

Beginning to feel a little better,
but also feeling a little silly that
this got to me. After all it isn't
that big of a deal. But I think
the part that bothered me the
most is the thought process
was not in tune. Even writing
my blog, I had to keep correcting
my words.

Emails were ok as you have
spell check. But comments on
different blogs, left me out
on left field. Putting words
like socks when it should
have been sox. Built instead
of building. Leaves you
a little off, like you have
dementia starting. And
that scares all of us.

But at the end of the day
I looked forward to having
the remote control to
myself.... Ah, ha...I sat
down to enjoy my choices.
CHOICES??? What choices?
There was nothing on to watch.
What a revolting development
that was.

Not Much Humor in This...

Trying to put a humorous spin
on yesterday. Which is kind of
hard when my back still hurts.
Don't know what that had to do
with yesterday.
And my tail end, is not my friend
today.

This misery, starts the day before.
Your last meal was the night before.
No solid foods today. Just liquids.
"If you can see thru it, you can drink
it"..is what they told me. No reds...

They give you this sweet, yucky tasting
water? And the feel of it in your
mouth isn't much to brag about it.

Then the love affair starts with the
toilet... for about 6 hours. Then
you get to drink some liquid until
the Cinderella hour of Midnight.

Up early in the morning and the
King takes me down to BGH.
Never has the Wordtosser been
so quiet. Every one was great.
A kiss from the King and off I go.

I woke up to my name, and the
King sitting next to me. And a
view of down town Sandpoint.

I am thinking, when can I go home
which must have come out of my
mouth, as the nurse answer with
a great punch line... "When you
can walk and fart, we let you go"

I wasn't feeling too bad actually as
I was wheeled out in a wheelchair.
Don't you just love that. Wheeling
you out...it is like..nope, you aren't
falling down on our shift.

I slept all afternoon, and most of
the night. But the meds. wore off,
and then I knew exactly what they
did. Because it started to hurt.

So what did I have a test for?
well, let's put it this way, I love
taking pictures, but that is not
where I wanted my picture taken.
And sitting is a luxury today.

Colonscopy.

No Blog ..10-06-05

I have to go in first thing in the
morning to BGH, for some test.
And will be there most of the
morning and not sure what
shape I will be in ....in the
afternoon. The King will
be driving me down because
they said to bring a driver.

So hopefully I will be on
the mends by Friday for
end of the week posting.

Walk to School Day

My fingers are warming up, my
nose is still cold, but it was a great
walk today.

Today is Walk to School Day and I
was one of the lucky ones to walk
with the kids. Here in Kootenai they
had 3 areas. One was the Post Office,
one was from Ponder Point (across the
highway from Kootenia), and one from
Ponderay. I was with the Ponderay group.
We had about 15 children. And the adults
were a mixer of school teachers, school
volunteers, Chief of Police of Ponderay,
2 from the Northside Fire Dept. and an
Engineer from one of the local business,
and then there was I.

At 6:35 a.m. I headed out my door and
walked over to Ponderay to the Post Office,
where we were to gather. This is about 1/3
of my normal walk, so I got there in 15
minutes.

I was just walking up when 3 children,
join me. Then the children started to
gather.. and at 7:15 a.m. the rest of the
adults started to gather as well.

We had a great group of kids, and the
adults had a blast talking to them as
we were led by the Chief of Police thru
Ponderay, crossing Highway 200
(with the traffic stopped by Ponderay's
finest and the flag people) and onward
up the path along Highway 200 to
Hope Street of Kootenai.

Turning up Hope Street the group was
slowing down, I don't know if they were
tired or maybe it was the look of having
to go to school,and the fun was getting
over. But the teacher mention there
was juice inside for all when they got
in, so the steps got faster. So I bid them
goodbye at the door and headed home.

Nothing lifts the spirit like watching
kids having fun...

The Four Letter Word

SNOW!!!!!
Sunday afternoon, we were coming
across the Long Bridge and I
asked the King...is that snow
up there at the ski lodge?
He said, it kind of looks
like it... maybe a skip of snow.

Well, this morning I got my
paper and looked up and that
is no skip now. That is outright
SNOW. That 4 letter word, that
brings thrills to some and dread
to others.

I am an inbetween person. I like
snow. First really good snow
you will find me outside
building the first snowman
of the year. My kids know
about this, as they were
victims of being dragged
out of bed at 1 am or so, as
I gleeful, wake them with the
good news of the first snow...&
let's go. They would drag out of
bed, (in their teens, they just
cover back up, doubting their
mother's sanity) and go with
me.

Well, this morning, I have
COS, that is related to COL.
for those without cats....
that is Cat on Shoulder, (the
other is Cat on Lap). Seems
Rokon is not looking forward
to the cold. And she hasn't seen
snow yet. She is a hunter. Always
bring me gifts of her kill. I think
she like to hear me scream. But 3 days
ago, I saw one of her gifts in the
driveway. A seagull came down
and got it before she could get it
to the door. Seems she puts them there
and when she sees the door open, she
grabs it and runs in.. When I saw
the seagull picking it up on the fly,
I cheered..but poor Rokon, stared
in disbelief.

Keep warm, got your snowboots out?
Me, neither... I had hoped that we
would get a chance to ease into
this.

If you see an old lady laying on
on her lawn in Kootenai... don't fear...
She is just making snow angels...
I have had a lot of practice.

Connecting the Dots....

A several weeks ago, while killing
some time, I Googled my own name
and then I happen to Google my great
grandfather's name. And up popped
a listing for a St. Louis Library. Long
and short of it, it was his obit. in the
St. Louis paper. A place where he passed
away. I emailed them about it. And
for the little sum of $1.25 I had a copy
of it several weeks later. I scanned it
and sent it out to my children.

That little moment of boredom,
brought on a series of connecting dots.
As one of my daughter's friends likes to
do research on ancestry thru the online
sites. She ended up opening a
wonderful series of dots to connect.

See my great aunt and my aunt had
researched my father's side of the family.
So there is all kinds of information there.
But on my mother's side was her parents,
and my grandfather's parents. End of story.

It is truly amazing because of this wonderful
woman, we have the tracing back thru my
grandmother's (whom I am named after)
family. Her mother and father, and going
back about 7 generations.

Also on my grandfather's side it goes
back 7 generations. Even back to a very
old family name in the town of which I
was born. And there are several family
members who fought in the American
Revolution War. Truly Amazing.

And the young lady who did all this
research is truly amazing, to go thru all
this work, just because she enjoys it.
We are truly blessed as she connected
the dots, that open the window to our
lives and let the sunshine in.