Happy to you

Happy Halloween......

This was in 1990. It was my day off, so I had the King take me down to my place of work. He refused unless I took off the pumpkin head. He wasn't going to have people looking at him weird while he drove. lol... Then he dropped me off a block away. Only 2 or 3 knew me..by my laugh and body language.
So Happy Halloween.... All Saints Day...

Now Where Was That?

When you get to be my age, and
you have lived as many places as
I have, sometimes you try to remember
just where were you, when a past memory
comes up.


Like I use to go to this little tiny
building on the corner.
Best hamburgers. They were a
quarter a piece. Which was
unheard of in my home town.
It was White Castle and it had
to be Miami Beach, Florida.

Another hamburger place in a
tiny building. Down by Horton's
Plaza on First Avenue. Had to run
down 12 blocks from 13th Ave. on
a half hour lunch from a suit factory
called Ratner's. There was a bar
called Beanies on Broadway, with
dime size sequins that made the name.
My galpal at the time and I were always
going to go there for our first beer. But
we got married and had kids, so never did.
It had to be San Diego, California.

It was the Ocean Drive, and two gal pals and
I were drinking beer, making stops every so
often to open another beer to share... or a
pee break... we were underage. It had to be
Newport, R.I.

Riding on the back of a snowmobile, on
railroad tracks, doing 95 mph. Leaving
one tavern to head to the next town to
have a beer (this time legal) and play pool
at the Old #3 Tavern. It had to be Roslyn,
heading to Ronald, Washington.

Ah, youth, fleeing youth.....

Winding down of Fall 2006

Week with Misty

Life is running with the stick and you know you are winning.



I got it... if you pull on one end the rest has to come.....



Laugh at me... and I will make sure she puts it on you next......

The cat thinks she is winning...but I am hanging in there......

A Must Read

With Elections a week from Tuesday, this is a must read.

I am going to take a liberty that I hope is not illegal.
I have included all the names and etc. that I have,
that is connected to this article that I recieved about
a year ago. It was sent out as an email to tell women
about a HBO show that was coming on. It is long,
but should be read by every woman.

Here it is: Iron Jawed Angels
by Kathryn Edwards, Professor of Biology,
Kenyon College
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The women were innocent and defenseless. And by
the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty
prison guards wielding clubs and with their warden's
blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women
wrongly convicted of "obstructing sidewalk traffic."

They beat Lucy Burn, chained her hands to the cell
bars above her head and left her hanging, for the night,
bleeding and gasping for air. They hurled Dora Lewis
into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron
bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu,
thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.

Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing,
dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching,
twisting and kicking the women. Thus unfolded the
"Night of Terror" on November 15, 1917 (a mere 89 years
ago), when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse
in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to
the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared
to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the
right to vote.For weeks, the women's only water came
from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless
slop--was infested with worms. When one of the
leaders, AlicePaul, embarked on a hunger strike,
they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat
and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She
was tortured like this for weeks until word was
smuggled out to the press. So, refresh my memory.
Some women won't vote this year because--why,
exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get
to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?

This year, I went to a sparsely attended screening
of HBO's new movie.
It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women
waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling
booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed
the reminder. All these years later, voter registration
is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had
become less personal for me. Frankly, voting often
felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes
it was inconvenient. My friend Wendy, who is my age
and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too.
When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she
looked angry. She was----with herself."One thought
kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,"
she said."What would those women think of the way
I use--or don't use--my right to vote? All of us take it
for granted now, not just younger women, but those
of us who did seek to learn. "The right to vote" she
said, had become valuable to her all over again. HBO
will be releasing the movie on video and DVD.

I wish all history, social studies and government
teachers would include the movie in their curriculum.
We are not voting in the numbers that we should
be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.It is
jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies
try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul
insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized.
And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul
was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her
crazy. The doctor admonished the men: "Courage
in women is often mistaken for insanity."Please pass
this on to all the women you know. We need to get out
and vote and use this right that was fought so hard
for by these very courageous women.

_____________________________________________________________________Karen Karen Bertroch, Community Resource Director
at the Wahkiakum County
Community Foundation in Cathlamet,
Washington and Senior Consultant at Faith
Leadership Consulting at www.faith
leadership.com. Phones: Cathlamet
office is (360)795-8805 and cell phone
is (206) 510-6632.

For the love of your country...VOTE!!
go here for more...http://www.hbo.com/films/ironjawedangels/

New Blogger....

As you can see, I have a new blog listed.
It is called Kellogg Bloggin. Runs under the
name of Raymond Pert, which is the author's
father's name. It is a tribute to his father.

The writings are wonderful. When he talks
about sitting at the kitchen table with his lap
top, writing his blog and hearing music. Well,
you feel like you are there sitting across from
him, you can hear the music and listen to him
tell you the stories of ago.

This man is in a league of his own. The rest
of us are just players. This man writes the
stories of his soul. And the soul of his fellow
towns people.

He lives in Eugene, Oregon and works as a teacher.
But he was raised in Kellogg, Idaho. And Kellogg,
her people, still have his soul. The writings get dark
sometimes. But the times and lives were dark. It
is a mining town. People die there. If not in the mine
itself, then the dust or other fumes.

But he also brings in the good times, the raunchy times.
The times to drink and cuss, to enjoy the soul fullness
of good friends. Who have been lucky enough to
survive this dark mining town. Showing that even
in the darkest of time, friends and family live their
lives like the rest of us...just harder.

There is laughter, and times that he makes you
smile. But most of it is, just telling it like it is.
So hope you will check in with him. Read several
stories. Go down at least 5 or 6 stories. You will
be glad you did.

Like I said, the rest of us are just players... he
is the real deal. A daily book chapter, that you
can't put down.
http://kelloggbloggin.blogspot.com/index.html
Raymond Pert

Ladies and Gentlemen...

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN....
STEP RIGHT UP HERE AND
COME SEE......

Remember the old barkers at
the carnivals and circuses?
Calling for you to come see all
the oddities for the land?

Well, this is what I am reminded
of, as I watch thru the media of all
types.

You have seen the old days of
Harry Truman and his family waving
off the back side of a train with the
flag draped across.

You had the debates of Kennedy and
Nixon on TV. And all those since.

But boy, is this year a doozy.
You see Mary Jane looking out at you,
(names change to protect us all). Telling
you this is her campaign message and she
approves of it all. Well, heck ya... after all,
it is her and others talking about all the great
things she has done. Nothing about the
opponent. Now when you get the negative ads,
there is really fine print telling you who paid for it.
But it sure isn't the candidate saying , I approve of
this message.

We have gone from the announcer telling us at
5 p.m. who won the race in the nationals on the East
Coast. To reading the returns just a hour after election
doors close, for
your local races.

We have gone to blogs telling who they think
should win, what a louse a certain candidate is.
(who they never even met). To the candidates,
themselves having blogs and sites. To now...
Youtube.com putting on minute spots. Some
times with the message, but mostly to make
fun of the candidate.

Makes you wonder how Bush would have
done if he was running this year. Blogs were
just starting when he ran.

And this is just the mid-years..not even a
Presidential year. No wonder no one is throwing
their hats in the ring seriously so far.

Talk about a circus... and hopefully this circus
will be over next Wed. morning with correct
results and hopefully no one calling foul, to
drag out the counting for months later.

SO, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN....
HANG ON TO YOUR HATS, THIS
IS GOING TO BE A HECK OF A
RIDE!!!

What did I do to.....

In the 1970's or 80's there was a
movie with the Blues Brothers. I
forgot the actual name of the movie.
But it was the older Blues Brother's
With John B. and Dan A.

There was a song in there they sang,
which seem to fit my life at the time.
And yesterday, was another day like that.

The name of the song was.....
"What did I do to piss you off?"

It was how I felt as the appliance
Gods attacked.

It started off a good morning. I was
all gung-ho to start some of my cleaning
up the house. To try to get rid of stuff.
Only trouble there was so much just
plain junk, from the weekend, I had to
get that out of the way first. So I put in
a load of wash.

I went about half hour later to switch the
clothes from the washer to the dryer so I
could put the next load in. I lifted up a couple
things, and I thought, these seem a little
heavy. The next one was a sweatshirt. And
sure enough.. It was wet. Solid wet. What the
heck, came to mind. So I put the clothes
back in, and put on spin. Nothing. Waited.
Still nothing. And it let me open the lid. And
you know, the lock monster does NOT let
you lift the lid for at least 5 minutes after the
load stops. Surely never when it is in the spin
area. I went thru this 5 times. Check the
load to see if it would wash. No. Water goes in.
Water comes out when it is suppose to. No
agitation. Aggravation, yes. But no movement
at all. No spin. Being I am not keen on taking things
apart, before I give the King a chance. I decided to
wait until he came home.

After the blue cloud settled, he told me he had
to take it outside. I told him, let me look at the
manual maybe there is an easier way. OH, no..
he knows what he is talking about, he has to
work on it from the bottom, and there isn't
any room there to do it, so he has to take it
outside to the deck. Not a pretty picture in
my mind.

Well, after all the disconnects, repairing his
dolly (the clicker fell off when I moved the
entertainment center out of the house, while
he was in Boise, this summer). We were all
set for removal.

Yea, right. He fought with it, back and forth.
I moved stuff in the kitchen so he would have
swing room when he got it out of the little room.
Blue smoke, cuss words, measuring. More words.

We did buy it, and we did install it. So it stands to
reason what goes in, can come out. So he turns it
sideways, and with 1/8 inch, it came out. Into the
kitchen, turn around and out the door. This took
about 3/4 hour.

He finds out the opening is not under it but in
front. I found this funny, but knew not to mention
this. He moved the belt, check the clutch, everything
is proving to work fine. He said well try to move the
agitator. It moves. So let's see if it works. No..can't.
It is 220, and we don't have an extension nor plug in for
that.
So back into the house. Thru the door, with me helping
lift it on to the steps into the house. In and turn around
in the house, back to the little room. Hook everything
up, run a test.. it spins... Wait 5 minutes for lock to
let us open. Put in water, it agitates for washing and
rinsing. Then the big test. Put in the wet clothes.
Spins... spins almost dry.

Now I got to ask why? Almost 2 hours wasted.
Oh, I looked at the book...it says to open in
front first to check out movement of parts. I
didn't tell him that. I think he figured that one
out on his own now.

So appliance God, What did I do to piss you
off?

What you see...and Don't see...

Don't you see it? What? You don't see it at all.... well to be honest with you..I don't see it now either...

See, when I pointed the camera straight up at the sky, it was night time..(that is why it is black) but I could see thousands and thousands of stars. Bright stars, the big dipper, as bright as you could see. It was beautiful. We were up on a hill, at the foot hill of Scotsman Peak. Waiting for daylight, so the King could see if he could find some elk. I thought,
what a beautiful sight. So I thought well, at least you could see is the stars..
But nothing... nothing at..all...... why is that? Why can't the camera pick up what I saw with my naked eye?

Saturday

After 3 hours of walking...hunter returns.....


looks like a Christmas tree for the sky... It was 50 feet tall..

Wrong animal...he was after elk... and I think the moose knew


As the sun comes up and lights up the leaves
This is at Lunch Peak....I was about a mile away... oh, thank you for zoom lens.

Watching Mother Nature

I was sitting in the dining room
last night, watching Mother
Nature's show.

It was lighting back and forth
across the sky. On the south
side of us. Looking like across
the lake. Maybe down by Bayview.

All it need was music. I tried about
12 time to take a picture. But it was
too fast for my fingers. Or camera.
But I almost could hear the Boston
Pops, playing as it jumped across
the sky.

I love a good lightening storm.

19 Days and Counting

Politicians, Politicians, Go Away..
19 more days, and decisions will
be made.

I am sure like everyone else, you
are sick of all of it. I know I am.

I don't know why they think they
are going to change our minds with
these phone calls. It seems like we
have gotten more this year than ever
before.

I read, and if possible I try to go
to meetings and debates. If it is
someone who has been in for a
while, I try to remember if there
was anything I didn't like about
the person. And being of the
Cafeteria Party, I make my choices
from both sides.

But these phone calls, if anything
backlash. I find them to be not
informative, but annoying and desperate.

In with the winter ...out with the summer

It is that time of the year.
Cleaning out the closet and
switching winter clothes for
summer clothes.

I also try to weed out some of
them. I did get to throw away
a couple and have some to give
away. Not enough.

Only thing that made me feel good
was the fact that I had left over
hangers. Which means I have less
winter clothes than summer. Some
of them, of course, double as both
seasons.

Try as I may, I still have too many clothes.
There are my favorites. And then there are
some that people bought me.

I will try again in the Spring/early
summer.

Women of Today

I get confused when I see women of
today. Some of them are doing so well.
Yet others, just can't get it together.

They depend on men. Not themselves.
They revolve their whole lives around the
man, let him lead her, make choices for
her, and fall apart when he dumps her,
because he is bored. Or worse yet, abuses
her.

We talk about how we have come a long way,
baby. As the old commerical use to say. Yet,
many have not. Which I find sad.

Watching Judge Judy, with the King, always
amazes me how these women will hand over
a lot of money. From hundreds to thousands.
And of course the standard excuse from the
man is ..."she gave it to me as a gift". Yea,
right. Maybe I am too close with my money.
But there is no way on earth I would give
a man I wasn't married to, that kind of money.

Some of these women did give the money with
the idea they would get something back. Besides
the money. What fools. And some of them only
know the guy for a week!! Or it was for bail money.
Now girl, where is your sign. Fools... Fools....

Don't get me wrong. Not all men are like that.
Not all women get fooled like that. But enough
to make you wonder. When I was working in a
nursing home and payday would come by, I was
flabbergasted to see how many young women in
their 20's, who would give their checks to their
"man". My question is why wasn't he at work.
And the other thing was, he left the kids with
her mother. What is with it? Some of them
came in the next day, with shiners. My heart
went out to them for making the wrong choices.

And fools don't listen to the older generation,
because several of my fellow workers tried to
explain to them, they didn't have to go thru
this anymore. There are good men out there.
There are places to go. Yet we see them
repeat it the following payday.

I truly hope women find ways to empower
themselves. They can share time with a man,
without having him own her. And she doesn't
have to buy him either.

I always applaud women who follow their dreams.
Be they small or large. And yes, being over 50
does seem to empower us. Especially those of
us who are over 50 now. Those of us who were
born and bred to be mothers first and foremost.

And a job was just something you did as you
were waiting for the white knight and your children.
A lot of women have gone on, without the white knight...
finding out there were a lot more frogs than white knights.
Some have done the nest thing and then went on to find new
roads to travel with and without our white knights.

Some of us slow down and smell the roses, and find another
white knight. So it is empowering to learn at 50+ to know we
can have options, and we can do it with out removing our nesting
part too, if we so chose. Which makes me wonder some times,
what will it be like in 30 years when the 20 something's now,
who seem to do it all... will they feel empowered or will it be just
another day.

Tolerance, Compromise, Anger Management

Tolerance, Compromise, Anger management...
all buzz words of our society... but I think they
should turn them into classes...

Maybe..just maybe we won't have children
shooting people at school...

Maybe...just maybe we won't have spousal
abuse...

Maybe...just maybe we won't have child abuse.

Maybe..just maybe we won't have road rage.

We seem to have a lot of that, even in the early
ages of our children. After all, see what they see...
angry adults...

There is an open door, open window of ideas
that maybe solved with classes in these 3 subjects.

We should start children at the level of second
grade. First with subtle hints thru out the class.
Then in fifth grade, working with more ideas and
examples.
Then in freshman high school, heavier classes.
Talking out problems the students see and feel.
Then a refresher course as a senior.

Who knows if we were to have this world wide,
maybe... just maybe we may not have wars. Just
discussions about differences. Tolerance,
Compromises, and less anger.

But then again, I have been accused of looking
at the world thru rose colored glasses.

New Household Member

Hunter Shots...0 Camera Shots...22

The King went hunting this morning. Being I
wasn't keen on him being by himself, I went
along.... with my camera... Title says it all..
Got some neat old cabin pictures. The other is
looking down the throat of Bayview.

Meeting Bloggers

Going with Dogwalking Musing and Stebbijo,
2 weeks ago, was a really nice experience.

In the days of isolating ourselves... and
even thru computers, it seems nice to open
that door and go back to standards of meeting
people. Doing things with people, you kind of
know mentally (thru their words on computers)
and having a lot of fun.

Blogging opens a whole wide world of friends.
Some local, some national and now it is international.
I know several blogger who writes to several
from Europe. How grand is that.

But as bloggers, we are kind of isolated until
we take the leap of faith. Some times meeting
thru a blogfest, and in our case, it was meeting
together for a walk. Yes, we met face to face at
a blogfest. But some times blogfest are a fast
and furious conversation, so don't really get
to know the person. But a approxiatement
2 hour, 3 mile walk, you get to know the person
better. Why did we take 2 hours to do 3 miles..lol..
Well, you get 3 gals together who like to talk..
and like to talk to other walkers...
and seeing the beautiful scenery, that we
stop and took pictures... 3 miles stretches out
over 2 hours. Say nothing about the 3 of us out
of shape.

But what a wonderful experience we had.
What laughs we had..

Watch the ladders and black cats today.

Timber Land

I read in the paper a couple weeks ago,
where there was a company who owns
lots of land that people hunt on, that is
going to start charging a land use fee.

I think the amount was $50 a year,
to hunt, fish, hike or what ever. Which
really is a good deal if you do those things
often. I don't know if that is for family or per
person. If it is per person, well, you would
have to use it a LOT to get your money's
worth.

I guess the deal is, with the timber
industry not in good shape, the owners feel
that they could recoup some of their loses,
by charging the people who use the land.

Kind of the free ride is over for unconditional
land use. There are a lot of acres that are
own by companies in Idaho.

While single ownership people do put up
no traspassing signs on their fences,
timber company's have let anyone come
and go as they please. For about 100 years
or more. And it is hard to blame them if
they want some kind of profit line.

I hate the thought, but can understand
and when you consider the other options...
are closed area, sells to housing, and etc.
Maybe if they find a profit in it, that is no longer
timber.... they will keep it woods. For our use.

My next question is ...when is Idaho going
to start the same. We already have parks, and
campsites that are charging a fee. But hunters
have been walking the woods for hundreds of
years. For free, except the charge of a hunting
license and tags. Will Idaho follow the companies?

Future of Idaho...part two

When I visited downtown San Diego,
my mind went to the thought of future
Coeur d' Alene. I guess it could
happen to Sandpoint too, but further
down the road.

When I left San Diego in 1965, the
tallest building was the El Cortez Hotel.
It had a glass elevator on the outside,
and was thought to be the most up
to date in buildings. By standards, it
is now a very small building lost in
the shadows of the others.

These pictures will show just 10% of
what I was looking at in downtown
San Diego. As I looked at them, and
took the pictures.. my thoughts were
is this where Cda. is going? Especially
after my hike with the gals almost 2
weeks ago on Tubbs Hill, where you
get a bird's eye view of the building and
cranes that are erecting more tall buildings.

What do you think?

The Future of Idaho.... part one

While in San Diego, there were things
that made me wonder if this is the future
of Idaho coming.

Today, will be about the houses, tomorrow
the bigger buildings.

This house is old time San Diego home...there
are many around still.

This is the average new San Diego home....

And this is how some of the old San Diego
homes become a NEW San Diego home.
It seems if you keep part of the old house,
you can do a "remodeling job" for less
money or permits. So they take off the
back side, (some times the front side,or
side itself) and build a whole new house
itself attached to the old house. Then
a few years later, they will "remodel
again, and then take the old house part
away, and add a new to go with the other.
Second picture has the better view of
the old house.

I don't know if you can see this picture well
enough to see the bars on the windows and
the doors. They are mostly rod iron. Most in
black, some in white. Most have a nice design.
This is to keep the people out. Sad to have to
come to that kind of living. Which makes me
feel great about living in Idaho. Hopefully, we
never have to take such measures.

I'm Back

The trip is great... got some stuff to
blog about...

The picture is a tree branch that
was coming out of the yard and
it looks like a snake.

AND GAS IS CHEAPER IN
SAN DIEGO than here!!!
$2.39 it was ...most was $2.44.

But most of all... it is good to be home.

I vote the Cafeteria Party

I am going to start calling myself
something else. I get asked from
time to time if I belong to the
Republican party or do I belong
to the Democrat party. I usually
answer that I am an Independent.

Which is true. But there really is
an Independent Party. Some times
nice people like Periot and Anderson,
of past have ran on the Independent
Party. Even Teddy Roosevelt ran as
an Independent. But I don't belong to them either.

So I am starting a new party. I am
calling it ...............................
THE CAFETERIA PARTY...

We, of the Cafeteria Party vote for
who ever we want. From all the
names that are offered, we can
pick and chose who we like and
will vote for.

Just like you go to the cafeteria to
eat, and the choosing of the meal
is cafetertia style. You don't just get
one entree to pick from, but a vast
amount of selections. Same with
voting. This guy here, this gal there,
who cares what party they are from.
They all look a like when they are
turn upside down, which is the usual
stance they have.

So disgusted with YOUR party??
Come join ours.. no dues, no rallies,
all you have to do is vote.

THE CAFETERIA PARTY... PARTY OF
THE PEOPLE!!

I will have to try that one out next time I
am at the polling place, or county courthouse.
What party are you, Wordtosser? Why the
Cafeteria Party, ma'am.

now I really am leaving... see you next week.

Gone

I leave you with the flowers of fall.......... will continue to ramble on and toss words next week...





........BE GOOD.....