Walking around this blog site

I suppose those would say, that I am phoning this one it..
in a way, I guess that is true...with all the snow removal
we have been doing on our own place as well as a neighbor,
there just hasn't been much time for coming up with new
stuff.

So I thought I would do a walk around the blog site..

Last year, Toni from The Big Piney Woods helped me
out for a new face for the site. And it seems to work.
I like the Maxine in the corner... Sums up most winter
mornings.

Stebbijo's husband Bob, gave me the coffee cup with
my name on it. It kind of sums me up too...as I am
worth less before my first cup of coffee in the morning.

Then I have the clock.. that way when you are reading
the blog, you can tell if it is time to get the heck out of
here... you have spent too much time... lol.


Then I have my site meter to keep an idea of how many
people come to read. Which has been amazing lately.
Must be a lot of bored winter people. Also it is amazing
where these people are from. I don't know who they are
but some are from Spain, some places I never heard
of, some I have and across the good old USA...

Then I borrowed/stole from Oregon Dave, the Match
Up game. I use to play it over at his blog, and so
I decided I would help educate some of my readers,
along with me.

Above the Site Meter is Links. I recently took some
off and put on some new ones. Don't know if anyone
pays attention to them. Some have been there for
years. Of course Huckleberries and Slight Detour
being the parents of this blog, they are there the
longest. Each one of those in the link, have great
blogs. Ones that I go to off and on. Some of them
daily. My Gal Cindy is one of the new ones. She
is a gal I knew from when she was about 8. Now
all grown up, was a Judge in Alaska and now is
in Seattle while her daughter goes to school there.
So it is her adventures in the big city after being
a gal from a small town in Alaska. One is a name
change. Idle Thoughts, a friend of 30 some odd
years, who is running the gambit of trying to
keep ahead of her grandsons who are now teens,
and she and her husband have been raising them
since they were 2 and 3. Marmite toasty is from
England and always has me laughing my head
off. A Family runs through it, always amazes me
of what a cool stay at home dad he is...Heck, he
is just a cool dad..period. You have the zany
Oregon Dave, the thoughts of a sweet and sour
guy in Bay Views. Cat Lovers is The Piney Woods
gals... the beautiful pictures of cats and the area
they live in. Kelloggbloggin is a great guy who
finds 3 beautiful things in life each day, and does
double duty of Kellogg where he was raised,
and Oregon college life where he works. The
R.I.er is where I am from... and he runs a wonderful
site for those who want to know what R.I. is like
or bring back memories for those who lived there.

I tried to cut the list down some.. as it was getting long
and I was afraid that those who look at it, would think
it took too long to check them out. So that is my group
for now. In case you like to check them out.
Huckleberries gives you Cda and Spokane infor
and conversations that peak others interest.
Slight Detour is about Sandpoint from a
native.

So that is the walk around the blog. And
the rest is wild thoughts of my simple mind,
or pictures of what is going on around our
lives. I do this Monday thru Friday.
Once in a while the pictures for the weekend...
and I take off holidays too. And so far, I have
survived almost 3 years.

Thanks for coming...

The Seesaw keeps on going....

Well, we sure have a seesaw of politics...

Florida... isn't this the state that fouled up so badly
that we got stuck with Bush?

And Rudy Giuliani really thought they would love him so,
that he would get the state? Why would he put all his
eggs in one basket? To not run in any of the others...
maybe what he is running for, is Vice President. So he figures
if he can carry Florida.. He can be a good one for Vice
President. Well, he is running a bad third place so far.
So good bye Mr. Giuliani ... As far as I was concern,
this is good news. The New Yorkers didn't like him before
9-11 and not too many liked him after.

McCain is running ahead in Florida and Mitt is a close
second....so the question at the convention will be...
Will it be McCain & Romney or Romney & McCain?

And if it is, can they beat the Democrat power train
candidates? Because if it is Hillary or Obama ...doesn't
really matter which, it is going to be a heck of a power
train.

And Obama does NOT need Hillary for a Vice President.
Who would want to have Bill in the background looking
over your shoulder? Would Obama and Edwards make
a good team? I don't know...

But the seesaw keeps going....

Helping the neighbor

I am married to the best of guys.... Here is the King on the neighbor's roof... it had over 2 and half feet of snow and ice. The neighor's grandson came up to help. He works nights... so with 3 hours sleep... and it took them 3 hours to do it all... then the King snowblowed ours and the neighbors driveway and walk ways... We just feel it is the right thing to do for your neighbor.. up here in Idaho... And we are blessed with several good neighbors.



Starting at the back... the King gets a hole going.... he did the whole back side...
as the grandson digs a path to the front...
This is the front of the place.....

Gone shoveling snow, see you
Tomorrow

Good Morning Idaho

Another day in Idaho.....see what the snow fairy left us over night...


This car was bare..yesterday





Yes, this is our deck.... it was bare yesterday except for a foot size bar that fell off of the roof...

This is our gazebo....see the lower picture.... that was before... and this is before the King snow blows today....if he can... the snow is so heavy. I had to shovel deck off away from the back door..as the snow blower is having trouble eating thru it.

This is a scene from north of Sandpoint area.....

You all stay warm now.....

Looking thru the Past

These last two or three days, I
have been going thru the past.

I bought a box each for my children...
and envelopes for relatives.
In these boxes will be, and I have
sorted 90% of the stuff already. ...
pictures and letters and cards that
they have sent over the years.

Some of these letters were written
while I had to go back East to take
care of my mother for 5 weeks. So
the kids were young. And they wrote.

Some are when they left home before
they met their spouses, and some
were with spouse #1 and now they are
with #2. And so there is a mixture.

I hope they will look thru these and
read the cards and letters. As it is
a journal of many parts about their
lives at the time. Some joys as their
children came along. Some sadness
when marriages didn't work out.

Pictures of 30 years or more of their lives.
Some of them now in their 40's and some
are in their 30's. Some of them are parents
to teens, and finding out life isn't quite as
simple as they thought it was from the
child's point of view, now that they are in
the parents seat. I smile...

I am doing this, so if I should go, I won't
leave a mess for the kids to go thru and
figure out what is who's. I think they will
be amazed that I have saved their stuff.
I gave them all some of the stuff I had years
ago,as they started to be parents. All the stuff
that was in my file cabinet that is. Like
report cards (groan) and hand prints and etc.

But the rest I kept. And these past days,
have been ....well.. interesting on how we
managed the bumpy times. And the joys
of the coming times. And the cards that
are plenty, that have the words....
Happy Mother's day, I know when I was
growing up, I gave you a hard time, but
now I............ well, you fill it in... we have
all at one time or another after we became
adults, felt guilty about what we put our
parents thru.

It is nice to be on the receiving
end of how it wasn't an easy job, but
they now appreciate it. Nothing opens your
adult children's eyes, like your grandchildren.

Well, it seem like a good idea at the time

Well, it seem like a good idea at the time.

Have you seen the ad for the shower cleaner?
On the ad, they show about 6 cleaning ladies
jump in the tub and clean the whole area.
With shower curtain, of course. Saying that
the cleaner is like 6 cleaning ladies.

While at the store, near where they were sold,
a man chimed in and said, "my wife loves those.
We have one and it does a terrific job." That is
all the King had to hear. As he has wanted one.

We brought it home, installed it in the shower.
We have one of those corner showers, with the
glass walls.It hangs from your shower head.
So the King takes a shower, steps out, pushes
the button and beep, beep, beep,beep, beep,
15 times.... and then swish .... swish back and
forth it goes about 3 times. I will admit it does
a dandy job... for about 4 feet of the shower in
the middle. The top of the walls get nothing. And
the bottom gets the middle's left over drain downs.

It does clean it... it does keep it from fogging up.
Although I like that. I think one needs 3 of them.
One for the top, one for the middle and one for the
bottom. Or at least top and middle.

We have found that we need to only do it once
a day, not after every shower, otherwise the bottle
empties out fast. It last about 2 weeks. I have tried
to use some other type of liquid. Mr. Clean, came
to mind. But it kind of drooled over the holder. And
after trying it about 3 times... it just left soap on the
walls. Not a good thing. You had to rinse each time.

So there I am in the shower, I decide to take the bottle
out and run water in it and clean it out and turn it on.
While in the shower..... like the title said.. it seem like
a good idea at the time.

I hit the button and turn the water into the holder at the
same time. Figuring it would get the soap out of the
nozzle. It seem like a good idea.... at the time......
Well, the nozzle started to spin, out came the combo
of soap and water.... and .............and.......... I am
just the right height, to get it in the face. Luckily I
had my mouth shut.

Here is my sign........

Are you cold?

Actually it was quite warm until 2 days ago.
But compared to other years, it is still warmer.
Like when the big freeze came thru in 1988...
with the wind-chill factor it was 80 BELOW...

I was working at that time when it came in, and
went out on every break to start up my car to
let it run for 20 minutes or more. When I got
out of work at 3 p.m. it started... I drove home
to Vay, and turn it off... It didn't start for 3 days.
Luckily I had two of those off. The King had a
little car that we called bondo because it had
lots of bondo under the paint. We put a lamp
with a bare light bulb in the engine, and a blanket
on top of the hood and had it in the garage. It ran.
So he took me to work.

Then there is the winter of 1968-69 and just
before New Years, it was -20 as we had drove
thru this area on our way to a funeral in Minnesota.
It was -25 without the windchill factor. It was -45
back there.

And it was still going on when we drove back.
The road was black ice all the way thru Idaho
and as we pass thru Spokane on Highway 90,
we saw a trooper slide pass a car that he had
stop to check. When it warmed up to -7 we thought
it was a heat wave.

So it can be worse...

and the winter goes on....

Well, I didn't run the poker run that I had in
Friday's blog... although it sure would have
been interesting to have it on Saturday night.

With white out, it sure would have made the
potholes hard to find. And the card dealers
would have ran home too. And it would have
been hard to judge the time, as you
couldn't see the cars go by...heck, you wouldn't
be able to see your watch..

But since we have had the snow, the road
has smoothed out some what. The pot holes
filling up with ice and snow. It sure has helped
the traffic, as the cars have gotten back up
to 40 mph again. (it is posted 15) but the kids
on the end of the block don't care about that.
I think I saw one of them hit his head on his
truck headliner.

Now we have the deep freeze coming. So
I guess we will have to hold off on the poker
run. But the rules are on Friday's post if you
want to give it a try. And you got to watch
out for those Litehouse semi's, they will
slow down your time. I notice even they
have cut their speed with the holes. Maybe
they can't shake the milk up..

I got to get over this cabin fever, and get
out side in the sunshine..

Just like the good old days

The Blizzard

Will probably talk about this one for a while.... Like do you remember the blizzared of 2008

First Annual Kootenai Poker Run Race

While bumping my head on the roof of my
vehicle as I was driving down my road, heading
for home, I thought what a way to have a
diversion for this Cabin Fever.

As we all know, the streets are falling
apart, especially the dirt roads such as
mine, so this isn't against anyone town

One is to go down to the end of the street,
(it is a dead end ) turn around and come
back to the beginning.

At the top of the road you will be handed
2 playing cards. Upon the return you get
2 more playing cards.

>For each pot hole you hit, you
get points. Some are worth more than
others, depending on depth.

>Speed, also adds points, who can go
the fastest is extra point.

So your total will be the combo of speed,
points for pot holes hit, and your poker hand.
So far winner gets bragging rights, as we are
too poor to have prizes. This might be the
only year we can have one here on our street,
as they are paving the road this coming summer.


Here is the starting line with the 5 points holes they are only one inch deep


Here is a 2 inch hole worth 10 points....

And the 25 point hole for this 3 incher...
Here you are up to the middle of the course, with some more 5 pointers... keep going....


AND for those who took me seriously, I am only
having fun with you to break the Cabin Fever that
is setting in.

Foreign is buying and America is selling

Banks have been in trouble along with
Wall Street for a long time. Everyone
knows about the crash of 29. People
jumping out of 7 story buildings because
they lost all the money in the stock market.

Then in the 1980's we had the Saving & Loan
scandal.

The French have a heavy hand in our bank
mortgages. When some of the banks got
into trouble with people being foreclosed,
the French became very concern. How did
the French get their hands on our mortgages?
Only bankers can tell you that.

They say that the Saudi's could buy
General Motors with only 3 days profit
from their oil. And 20% of Wall Street
stock, buy out companies one by one, with
a year's worth of oil profits.

I believe that. When you see pictures of a
whole town winter resort, ski mountains,
lodges and etc.. and it is all inside of a
huge building in the middle of the desert.
The saying that they have more money
than they know what to do with, is very
true for them.

Are we the Americans, using the foreign
money sources like the low income use
Pay Day Loans? Going back time after
time?
What happen to responsible loans?
Collateral for those loans?

If the banks weren't giving $500,000 and
up loans for houses... then Contractors wouldn't
be asking $500,000+ homes. And suppliers would
not be charging outrageous prices for building
supplies. Just because they can.

I guess you would call it the reverse trickle
down system.

I know there will be some who will say, well that
is the way it works... my question would be.. why?
And would any of our people running for President
try to turn that around... that would be an interesting
question to ask.

Getting ready for Taxes

It is that time of the year.
Gathering all your paper
work for taxes.

I have a folder on my desk
that is just for tax information.
And as the year goes by I put
what I will need in there.

But there always seem to
be something else new that
we need prove of. And of course
with banks not giving your checks
back, you have to find someway
to get the information. Luckily,
my bank does allow photocopies
of my checks each month. So
I just find the month that has
that. And hope that the places
I send those checks to, do not
go to electronic check receiving.
As some do. And all you see is
a check # on the statement itself.
So, nothing saying where it went to.

But that kind of bothers me
because there is other info on
those bank statements. Not
that I have anything to hide.
Heck, I am too poor to have
anything to hide.

So it is making a list, checking
it twice..maybe 3 times to make
sure when we go down to our
tax gal in Feb. we have our
stuff in order.

Signs to check for....

Would you know if your spouse or parent
was having a stroke? Not all strokes are
what the common person thinks of.

Not all strokes have your limb go limp
right away. Not all have immediate slur.

These are just a few things to do, if you
are in doubt.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE
here is something to remember
the "3" steps, STRoke Read and Learn!

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke
are difficult to identify. Unfortunately,
the lack of awareness spells disaster.

The stroke victim may suffer severe brain
damage when people nearby fail to
recognize the symptoms of a stroke.

Now doctors say a bystander can
recognize a stroke by asking three
simple questions:
S * Ask the individual to SMILE.
T * Ask the person to TALK and
SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE
(Coherently) (I.e. It is sunny out today)
R * Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

If he or she has trouble with ANY
ONE of these tasks, call 911
immediately and describe the symptoms
to the dispatcher.

NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this:
Ask the person to 'stick' out his tongue..
If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one
side or the other, that is also an indication
of a stroke.


Remember if you can get the person to the
hospital in less than an hour.. that person can
get a shot, that might reverse it, or at least lessen it.

Mankind's best friend...

First the disclaimer... I love cats.
They are soft and fuzzy, and warm.
Well, at least their coats are. And
they can be too. But we are the cat's
staff.

Dogs are ok, in my book. They are
cool, as they accept us as we are.
For all the endurance of our indifferent
from time to time, yet they still act
like we are the only one in their lives.

Dogs you can hug and they don't care.
You can cry on their shoulder and they
look at you, like they understand. You
can also have them live outside and it
is no problem to them, as long as they
are fed, and have warm housing. And
you show up from time to time during
the day to pet them or hug them. Dogs,
it is mostly an unconditional love. Most
dogs that is. Some are like humans,
and probably brought on by an insensitive
human, but are vicious.

Dogs are also trained to help mankind.
We all know of the duck retriever and
you might have even heard of the drug
smelling dog. Then there are the ones
who have saved peoples lives in fires.
St. Bernard dogs in the alps who find
people lost in the snow...

And now we have dogs who can be
trained but some do it on their own..
they can smell cancer on you. If you
are a non believer in this... you should
ask the woman whose dog kept smelling
a mole on her leg.. so much so, she went
to the doctor and found out she had the
very early start of melanoma. Or the man
who was in a test for cancer smelling dogs.
He was suppose to be the clean one, as
he had been screened a week before the
test. All of the dogs came to him and their
behavior was that he had cancer. They thought
the test had failed. But the dogs were
persisting. So they had him go for additional
test. And it was found he had a tumor in his
kidney. When it comes to melanomas the dogs are
99% right. Saving many people.

Yes, dog is surely mankind's best friend.

The fun of snow

After you snowblow the driveway, and then the paths.... and as the weather warms and snow falls off the roof...... well, sometimes you have to help it a little... Snow raking

FREE SNOW!!!!!

This one is the snowblowing of the deck after the snow fell off the roof... with help...

Walking with Diabetes

Several years ago, the King was
told he had diabetes. What the common
person calls border line diabetes. But
diabetes is like being pregnant. You can't
be just a little bit pregnant. You, either are
or not.

But his has been controlled by diet and
exercise. And a half pill. And he has done
well for all these years. But retirement has
brought the ugly head of the disease back
up to full surface.

During the summer he was doing well.
Even with his knee knocking him out of
service of things, he kept active enough
to keep it at bay. And in the summer,
he is busy enough, that food was not high
priority. When it is hot, the two of us eat
less.

Come winter, retirement, and holiday
food, and he was back in trouble again.
So it is back to what he knows has to
be done. No carbs, no pasta, potatoes,
rice and all the things he likes.

It is back to the salads, and watching
calories as well carbs. AND exercise,
which was his biggest downfall. As in
the winter he likes to watch TV and thinks
that walking behind the snowblower is
enough exercise.

So it is back to walking ....walking
with diabetes. And hopefully getting
the numbers back to the normal range.
And try to get 100 pounds off.

Spring Thinking....

65 days to Spring....
15 more snow days...
35 days of rain
15 days of sunshine
50 days of under 40 degrees
5 days of below 20 degrees
10 days over 40 degrees

And how do I know all this?
Because I got two seed catalogs in the mail
today... and my mother told me when you get
your seed catalogs, then Spring is just
around the corner... and Mom wouldn't lie,
would she?

Getting Interesting..

Now that we are having some of
the voting on these people who
have been debating, for what seems
like forever, it is getting interesting.

It is interesting how some vote,
how the polls are so wrong. Or
they changes peoples mind,
because no one wants to be told
how they are going to vote.

Like being told that Clinton is done
for. So they went out to show the
poll taking people, that the show is
far from over.

As we know, it isn't over until
the fat lady sings. And there is
not a fat lady in sight.

Only thing that worries me is
when people vote for reasons
other than the issues. To vote
for Clinton because she got
emotional is not good voting.

After all, when you are dealing
with the foreign state heads,
you can't let them see you
blink or sweat. So emotional
are to be left behind closed doors.
Be it men or women leaders.

So how is your exercise going?

The King bought this bike last summer at a huge yard sale. He promised

he would use it as it is not the first one we have ever had. It is nicer, but

not the first.

As you can see his promise isn't working. BUT in his defense I have to

tell you he is doing a lot better on the treadmill. See he found out he

had an old health problem come back on him. So changing his diet,

again, no sugar, no starch, and etc. And while he is keeping busy with

the snow blowing, it isn't enough. So we have him walking on the

treadmill and he has been doing pretty well with it. And it is showing

up on his weight and etc. He has a long way to go... but at least he has

started and been doing well with that and his change of foods.

So how is your exercise going this winter?

The Californian

Are you a Californian
Or have you ever been a Californian...

(kind of sounds like the days of the 50's
and the McCarthy trials)

But seriously. California is like
a dirty word up here in Idaho.
Anything, and I do mean anything,
that goes wrong, it is blamed on
the Californians.

Too much traffic? California's.
Too high prices for house...California's
crime rises up, drugs on the rise?
High fluttening rich people? Gated communities?
Californian's, Californians' and of course
California's.

Too much change? Bigger police and fire
departments needed? Bigger library's?
tree huggers? No trespassing signs?
No hunting sign's? Woods are going down
and houses going up? Or RV parks going
up... Californian's... you know that is the
answer.

But is it really? I would be willing to bet,
if one had access to the Driver's license
Bureau and the Vehicle Registration
records, you would be surprise to learn
that it isn't quite as true as you think.
That California's, if they are in fact still the
biggest transplants, they are by a
small margin. Well, if not there, then
where are all these people coming from?

Pennsylvania, New York, Arizona, Nevada,
and Colorado are just some of the names of
states I have heard a lot about lately. Lots of
them. It would be interesting to have some
one from one of those departments to give us
a run down of where the transplants are actually
coming from. Even the California's are getting
sick of being condemn for those other people.

Oh, by the way, New Hampshire, has been
complaining about it for almost a century ....
about Bostonian's who have moved into their
areas, wanting bigger libraries, more police, and
fire departments, higher priced houses, newer bigger
stores... and they, too, put gates on their
places and large fences... don't know who they are
keeping out. But the New Hampshire's people
are glad to see them... hoping it keeps those
Bostonians locked up in those communities

Storm brewing on Sunday

And for the lighter side of things... Misty finding out she can run on top of the snow

The neighbor's front yard with trees covered in snow... somewhere is there is Christmas lights as well...

Howdy Neighbor

What kind of a relationship do
you have with your neighbor?

Best friends?
Occasional coffee break?
Over for dinner?
Talks across the fence each time
you both are outside?
A wave or nod as you are doing
yard work? Or taking the garbage
to the curb?

Have you ever been in your neighbors
house? While they owned it?
Do you know who to call for them if
they have health problems? If they are
single. Do you house sit for them?
Do you loan them tools and etc?

Do you know the name of the neighbor
on the other side of the one closest to
you? If the UPS man comes to your
door and ask you which of your neighbors
is the one with the name he gives you..
Do know who it is? Do you know the
neighbor on both sides? Behind you?

The King is the more social of the two
of us. So he has a visiting relationship
with 3 neighbor wide of our house on
all sides. I, on the other hand, have a
wave to most. Over the fence on one
side and coffee/tea occasional on the other.
And we know by gender mostly. King knows
all of the men by first name. I know a few of
the women by first name.

The King is the friendliest with the neighbor
next to us on both sides. He hunts and so
does the neighbor on one side. The other is a
single woman who had health issues for over
a year, but better now. So we have been
guardian angels for her. I have helped her,
had tea with her. And the King snow blows
her walk and driveway, as well as the path
to our house and the garbage site for pick
up...

We live in a town of 442 people. We know less
than 20. We have had two additions, so there
are now more than the 442. We don't have
a door to door postal service. Post Office only,
in the middle of town. So we see neighbors and
towns people there. Some we nod to, some we
talk to.

So what type of neighbor are you?

Unfortunately it is just the beginning...

Today is just the beginning of the
elections. Yes, I know we have been
held captive with all the hoopla of the
Iowa election and the rest since
last Spring or maybe longer.

I even hear last night one of the
news media saying ...well, tomorrow
Iowa will be electing our new President.
EXCUSE ME???? did my ears hear right?
But the last I heard... WE... THE WHOLE
50 STATES HAVE A SAY SO IN THIS. Not
just Iowa. Nor New Hampshire. Or any other
state by itself.

Who knows, it isn't too late for a dark
horse (meaning someone who hasn't said
anything yet, not the color of ones skin) just
might step up to the plate. After all, we are
still way too early in the game. Just because
Iowa decided to be the first of the year state,
doesn't mean the time is running out. It just
means a bunch of clowns dressed like politicians
revved up the motors of the election machine early.

ONE STATE DOES NOT MAKE A ELECTION
for the country...

Bullheaded

Are you bull headed?

Do you do things knowing full well
that you should get help? Or do things
even though things can happen?

Example, I decided New Years Day
to take down the string of Christmas
cards that we received this year. The
King was fixing dinner.

I got the short ladder out and started to
remove the tacks that I had that held
the ribbon to the wall. Of which the cards
were attached. As I did one side, I swung
the ribbon over the picture that was below.
Then I went to the other side. Doing the same.

Except...when I swung the ribbon, CRASH!!.
down went my very tall vase, broke in 20 or
so pieces.... clear marbles all over the place.
Broken glass... Of which the King said... you
know ... if you had waited just a little bit
or if you had asked .. I would have
helped you.

I don't know why I am so bullheaded but
I do it all the time.. and 60% of the time
it turns out like this... and you would think
I would know better.

How bull headed are you?

To You All

from the WORDTOSSER