Raising Children is not Easy

Yes, raising children is darn hard work,
but worth the journey.

Raising children has many multi-phases.
Some do it the correct way... marriage and two
parents. Some decide they want children and
not a husband. Some adopt. And some just
have children, without a plan.

There are lots of books on raising children,
but mostly none of them are correct.
You can try to raise your children like
your parents did with you. If they were good
parents.

But the bottom line is, every child is different.
They are different than other peoples children,
and they are different from their own siblings.
So trying to raise them like all other children,
is frustrating for you as well as the child.

If you are raising your children with your spouse,
or alone, or with a divorce parent, it isn't going
to be easy. And I am afraid the news of
your children can be raised as your best friend,
really just doesn't work. There is discipline that is
needed to guide them thru life. And they will
not appreciate that, well for 12 years they won't.

There are going to be lots of times you will not
be popular with your kids. And you will get ...
"well, Fred's mom let's him"... and the standard
answer is..Well, I am not Fred's mom, and I am
doing the best I can.

I told my kids, I have to look at myself at the end of
the day, and I am the one who will decide for now,
if I did it right. I will allow things I know you will be
safe at. I will not let you go where I don't know
you will be safe. There was chores and home work
that came before play. There were no allowances,
but if we had money, and there was a movie.. as a
treat, not as an entitlement.

Was I the best Mom? Well, you would have to ask
my kids...but I was the best Mom, that I could be.
I had lots of fun with the kids, we camped, we had
water fights in the house, we went fishing, swimming.
My job was to raise these kids up safe, and hope they
were happy most of the time. They learn how to do
a job right. Learning to do it right the first time gave
them time for play.

I tried to each them good work ethics. I taught them
to be honest. I taught them to do no harm to others.
And most of all to know how to laugh and love...
I laid down the foundation, and the kids took off and
built on that..

I hope I did it right. It looks like I did.

My Heart still pounds with pride...

From...
O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,

to

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Those words sung, make my heart swells with
pride of my country. For all we have been thru
since that poem was written and made into a song,
to what we have yet to go thru.

So when I saw the opening of NASCAR this Sunday,
it sadden my heart to see only one in ten who put their
hand over their heart, as the flag blew in the wind.

I saw men lined up on top of a building just behind the
bleachers where the flag was flying.. Only one had his
hand on his chest. Even the drivers themselves and
their pit crew, there were only a handfull of them. And
the audience? It was hard to pick out the ones who
had their hand on their chest.

This was NASCAR..which according to those who
watch, is RED, WHITE and BLUE.. All American.

I find it sad, that this seems to becoming a lost
tradition.

email of the week

from time to time, I am going to put in the funniest
email of the week... when there is one..
I have gotten this one before..and this week
I got it 4 more times.. still funny ... so here you
are..this week's funniest email.....

Judas Asparagus
If you need a laugh today, then this should do it!
A child was asked to write a book report on the entire Bible.
This is amazing and brought tears of laughter to my eyes.
I wonder how often we take for granted that children
understand what we are teaching???
Through the eyes of a child:

The Children's Bible in a Nutshell

In the beginning, which occurred near the start,
there was nothing but God, darkness, and some gas.
The Bible says,'The Lord thy God is one, but I think
He must be a lot older than that.

Anyway, God said, 'Give me a light!' and someone did.

Then God made the world.
He split the Adam and made Eve.
Adam and Eve were naked,but they weren't embarrassed
because mirrors hadn't been invented yet.

Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating one bad apple,
so they were driven from the Garden of Eden.....Not sure
what they were driven in though, because they didn't have cars.
Adam and Eve had a son, Cain, who hated his brother
as long as he was Abel.

Pretty soon all of the early people died off, except for
Methuselah, who lived to be like a million or something.

One of the next important people was Noah, who was a
good guy, but one of his kids was kind of a Ham. Noah
built a large boat and put his family and some animals
on it. He asked some other people to join him, but they
said they would have to take a rain check.

After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob
was more famous than his brother, Esau, because Esau
sold Jacob his birthmark in exchange for some pot roast.
Jacob had a son named Joseph who wore a really loud sports coat.

Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name
was Charlton Heston. Moses led the Israel Lights out of
Egypt and away from the evil Pharaoh after God sent
ten plagues on Pharaoh's people. These plagues included
frogs, mice, lice, bowels, and no cable.

God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti.
Then he gave them His Top Ten Commandments.
These include: don't lie, cheat, smoke, dance, or covet
your neighbor's stuff.
Oh, yeah, I just thought of one more: Humor thy father
and thy mother.

One of Moses' best helpers was Joshua who was the first
Bible guy to use spies. Joshua fought the battle of Geritol
and the fence fell over on the town.

After Joshua came David. He got to be king by killing a
giant with a slingshot. He had a son named Solomon who
had about 300 wives and 500 porcupines. My teacher says
he was wise, but that doesn't sound very wise to me.

After Solomon there were a bunch of major league prophets.
One of these was Jonah, who was swallowed by a big whale
and then barfed up on the shore.

There were also some minor league prophets, but I guess
we don't have to worry about them.
After the Old Testament came the New Testament.
Jesus is the star of The New. He was born in Bethlehem
in a barn. (I wish I had been born in a barn too, because my
mom is always saying to me, 'Close the door! Were you born
in a barn?' It would be nice to say, 'As a matter of fact, I was.')

During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like
the Pharisees and the Democrats.
Jesus also had twelve opossums.
The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that
they named a terrible vegetable after him.

Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even
preached to some Germans on the Mount.

But the Democrats and all those guys put Jesus on trial before
Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn't stick up for Jesus. He just
washed his hands instead.

Anyways, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again.
He went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum.
His return is foretold in the book of Revolution.

So I leave you laughing.

The Blame game and Henchmen

As you could read by my post the other day
I am not happy with the AIG bonuses as much
as the next guy.

But I think grandstanders have gone over
board. No, the public does not need the names
of the employees. None of them have done any
thing criminal. We might think it is morally wrong.
But criminal. NO. And 90% or more taxes on the
bonus... oh, please get real. That is asinine.

And then you have the disgusting people who are
threatening the employees. Now that is criminal.
Even threatening their families. This is way over
the limit of sanity. Where do they come off being
the henchmen of society? Who appointed them?
I hope the law looks into these and prosecute them.

And the ones who are shouting the loudest are
just as much the blame. Maybe they should look
in the mirror themselves.

I was watching one of the magazine television shows
the other night. They had 3 women who were in fore
closure mode. I had some feeling for the teacher who
refinanced to keep her kids in college, and didn't read
the fine print. She just skipped over it and not noticed
the variable interest that has ended up putting her out
of her house. Hopefully she can get a redo on the
interest. But she should have read the fine print. We
all should.

The other two, I just can't believe these women. It is
where you want to say, here is your sign, saying FOOL.

One wanted a condo so bad, that she was willing to
sign a paper for a loan, stating she would make $2000
a month payments. She earned only $1500 a month.
They boosted her income, and told her to make the
payment for a year and refinance to a lower interest.
Now how do you make payments on $2000 a month,
with a $1500 income. And what was she going to
pay utilities with, and food. And then she made a foolish
remark. She felt when she went to sign the papers, she
shouldn't do it, but felt it was too late to back out. You
have right up the the last second to change your mind.
Guess math wasn't her best class.

Then there was the entitlement woman, who was kicked
out of a house for not paying her rent, who did her
income tax stating a minus in income profit. And lost
another house. And yet, she got a loan. Knowing full
well, she could not afford the payments. AND SHE
DIDN'T FEEL IT WAS HER FAULT!!

The last two, when it comes to fault better look in the
mirror.

You have come a long way, baby....????

That was the saying when I was in my 30's.
It was part cigarette saying and the by word
of women. The call, so to speak, that we
could do anything. That men were nice, but
we did not have to have them to survive.

The times of Anne Murray and I, am Woman.
Or Althea Franklin's R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Yes, you
have come a long way, Baby... Or so we thought.

In the news of the past few days and weeks, it
has shown us that the young women, the teens
have not learn this lesson what so ever.

Once again, we see women being beat by men,
even the music singers. We see that teen girls
are taking pictures of themselves in the nude to
impress some boy, and texting them to boys.
And of course, they end up on the web. So
little respect for themselves.

Why can't they believe in themselves. Have pride
that they have much to offer, and it has nothing to
do with sex. I find it hard to believe that these
young ladies dream to become porno stars, yet
they are leaving themselves open to such a life.
Where do they think those pictures are going to
end up.

Makes my "you come a long way, baby, fighting
heart cry. Did we women of the 1950's, 60's and some
in the 70's, stand tall for this? Is this what our battle
cry was for? Did we fight for respect, in careers,
marriages and life in general for this?

Sad.. real sad...

Spring cleaning???

I am late blogging today, as we have
been spring cleaning. Well, I don't know,
it is Spring and we are cleaning and going
thru stuff.

We have the room I call the " SOME DAY
SOON ROOM"..."some day soon I will clean out
this room and get rid of the junk and keep the
good stuff." is the sign I have on the door.
Which is all in good, except it has
been 4 years, and I have gone thru the stuff,
several times. And still the room is full.

This is our what others would call, our other
bedroom. But when we bought the house 11
years ago, we decide not to have a permanent
bed in there. We have had a roll away, but we
don't have guest very often, so no need for a bed.
Besides we use to have a hid-a-bed couch. But
we got rid of it.

We bought a new mattress, so we decided to put
the old mattress/bed in the "some day soon room"
4 extra large garbage bags to the Goodwill, 2 to
the garbage. And shuffling of the other.. it still a
mess in there.

I figure maybe by this weekend we can get it done.
And be ready, but still going to be close quarters as
the King still has his fly tying desk there, and I still
have my office there.

So if I don't show up here, that is where I am at..
trying to figure out, how much to let go, and how
much to keep.

changes,do they change who we are?

my lips are too small,
my nose is too big...
my breast are too small
my chest isn't bulgy enough
my eyes are droopy...
my hair is the wrong color...

We have been there from time to time,
with one of these... yet I got to ask,
why aren't we satisfied with what God
has given us.

It takes a while sometimes, like the
hair. God gave me auburn. Looking
more brown in the winter and red tones
and almost blonde tones in the summer.
Yet, I changed it to lighter, or darker.
but now it is in its natural stage of 3 shades
of grey and white.
I have silver, white, light grey, dark grey,
and a tad of brown/grey.

We all have a look that is our own, minus
being a identical twin, that is.
By changing what was given us at birth, that
truly makes us.... us... one of a kind..doesn't
that change who we are...or are we still the
same, because of our inter self?

I look in the mirror and see me.. for better or
worse..and finally comfortable with that.

Bare Feet

Maybe it is looking at life thru rose color glasses,
or seeing the glass half full, with more to come…
And some of it is not good at all. I try to be prepared
for what may come down the road. As there is always
bumps, and holes in life. I just chose not to dwell there…

We see so much of crime and back alleys of cities that
would scare the calmest of people. There enough bad
out there, be it New York, Miami, Chicago, or Los Angeles.
And we all know of things that happen in even our own little
towns of USA. And the media surely does put it out there
in display, for us, less we forget.

But it is the 20% or even 30% of the story of the USA.
There are the small towns that strive to give their citizens
something to be proud of. There are so many places in
the USA, that are breath taking beauty. If you have
ever watched on Sunday mornings on CBS, the show
that at the very end… ends with a picture of beauty.
This past weekend it was a waterfall in Oregon, with
the beauty of the water, the flowers that were near by
and sounds of the birds whistling back and forth.

Even in the dirty snow across the street, the mud of
my driveway, the brown grass of my lawn that is finally
coming thru all the snow that has hid it for months…
All of this too shall pass. And Spring will bring flowers
in the flower beds, the lawn will need mowing in a
month from now.

All this makes the daily barrage of doom and gloom
that the media throws at us,
do able.

For those of us who grew up, with just the bare necessaries,
remember what it was like. Somewhat confining, but
we lived. The living wasn’t easy, but we had food in our
bellies,( it wasn’t steak, but roast that lasted 3 meals,
because meat wasn't the main plate filler), a roof over our
heads (belonged to others,it may not been big or pretty,
but we were warm and dry).

We have friends, and family, and if we are really lucky
we have pretty good health. All of which a lot of people
don't have.

I cried because I had no shoes,
Until I met a man with no feet. (Mod Squad 1968)

Storing your adult kids stuff....

How many of you, still have your adult
children's things stored at your house?
College kids don't count unless they have
been in college 8 or more years.

My kids have been gone for about 20 years
or more. Yet, I still find something that I still
have of my adult children. I have a small stool
that belongs to one child. And a living room
table, that another built in high school. He
has been out of high school since 1986.

I have offered these many times. But for one
reason or another, I still have them. They
brought a car (too small to take them). I
have too much stuff in the vehicle to take
it. And even us, with, we brought the car,
so couldn't bring it down. We live 8 hours
away, so it isn't an easy task to do.

I have finally, a few years ago, went thru
pictures, and made up albums for them,
of their childhood. Pictures of themselves,
and also included their siblings in each
of their books. Gave their birth certificates
after they got settle or married. Only sent
copies up until then, when they needed the
proof.

Just when I think I have all their stuff with
them... I find something else, as I have gone
thru boxes I have stored in the garage or some
closet.

So how are you doing? Does your adult child
have all their stuff out of your house?

BONUS

We all love them. Those who get them,
anyway. In the past, if you got a bonus,
it was because you did excellent work.

Yet, now days, we got to wonder what
bonus's mean to corporates. After all,
we hear that AIG is giving the promised
bonus to their people. Even thought they
took Billions of OUR money. You and I
as taxpayers money. How can that be?

First of all, like I said at the top, bonus are
a pay for excellent work. How can they feel
like they should be entitled? After all the
company is in the toilet. So shouldn't they
be fired? You and I, as we worked so hard,
wouldn't we be fired if we fail to do our job?
If the company ran into problems because we
didn't do it right?

They said that AIG has to pay because it was in
a contract with these people. But excuse me,
how does that contract hold water now... the
company would and could have been in the toilet.
How do they pay bonus to employees if there were
no company? How do they get money because of
a contract, when the money wasn't profits... it is
a TAXPAYERS/FEDERAL bailout. So all bets off.

And then you have the employees themselves.
Could you step up and cash a bonus check knowing
full well the money came from the taxpayers. Knowing
that you are part of the reason the company is having so
much trouble, because of some choices you made. I
know I couldn't. Heck if they were to return or refuse
the bonus's, say for a year or even two... it better than
no job, like a lot of others.

Ah, you say, well, if they don't get those bonus, they will
go else where... just where would that be, when so many
are losing their jobs? Isn't a job with out bonus better than
no job at all?

NEWSPAPERS...a dying breed?

America has woke up to the morning
paper since the first settlers came to
be.

We,modern day American have woke to
enjoy our coffee and newspaper as
routine as breathing.

In the past 5 years or so, some have come
to read it on line. The internet opens the
doors to most papers in the nation.

Because of the internet, papers are starting
to fall. Some have been scared for years.

But losing the paper type of news is
a lot more scary to me. It isn't just the
routine breaker of the morning. It is the
fact that so many people will be without
the news.

How many people in the backwoods have
computers? How many elderly know how
to work a computer. How many poor do not
have computers.

So for the news to get to all people, it
will be thru television and computers, if
the paper type of news falls. Believe it or
not, there are people out there who have
neither. Maybe as much as a third of the
general population. Which by most part,
the other 1/3 could care less. I find that
disturbing. Only 1/3 do care.

And if the worse of things that happen, the
government decide to take over newspapers,
can television be far behind. And that would
be the scariest of all. We all know what happens
when the government takes over a paper. We
have seen it happen time after time in 3rd
world countries. I don't fear this Administration,
but there will be others, that won't be as trust
worthy.

I am hoping that the paper news hangs in
there until I die. As I know most of my
children don't read newspapers, but do
watch television news sometimes. My
grandchildren rarely read any kind of news.
Maybe it is a generation type of thing. So by
the time news becomes important to them,
they will do so by computers or what ever is
the new tech on the arising.

Maybe the paper news will stay alive for a while
in the small towns. And in the big towns, maybe
there will pop up neighborhood newspapers like
in the 1800's. I don't know what the answers will
be... and hopefully I won't live to see the end of
the newspaper... at least locally.

WATCH WHAT YOU SAY...it can come back and bite you...

The following is from this site. http://zerotoleranceinairtravel.com/
I was going thru some sites and came across this...

POOR BAGGAGE SECURITY POLICY
Routinely dealing with risk management issues within a
hospital and medical practice, Dr. Goodrich questioned
the airline policy. Analyzing the security issues with a bag
involved in a TSA security identification failure being allowed
to remain on a plane, and that bag not belonging to any
passenger on that flight, Dr. Goodrich thought that this was
a poor airline security policy.
As the airline ticket agent assisted him in acquiring a boarding
pass for the next flight, Dr. Goodrich made a passing comment
to the agent that it seemed to be a “poor policy to leave a bag
on the plane that does not belong to any passenger on the plane”
and a “bag involved in a security failure especially if you are
concerned about terrorism, bombs and explosives.” The agent
responded saying, “ Why did you have to say that, you have just
taken things to a whole new level”. The agent reported to her
supervisor, Dr. Goodrich was led to the employee lounge and within
an hour was interrogated by FBI officials, charged with terrorism,
hand-cuffed, transported to and jailed in the Atlanta Detention
Center overnight. His bags were searched and no explosives,
weapons or other banned items were found.

TERRORIST HOAX – FIRST CASE IN U.S. HISTORY
On June 27, 2005 Dr. Goodrich was indicted for terrorism by a
federal judge, bond set at $25,000 and released on his own
recognizance. On November 7, 2005 the charges were changed
to a charge of False Information and Hoaxes ( a violation of 18
U.S.C. § 1038), in connection with a “false bomb threat” at
Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Dr. Goodrich became the first person in U. S. history to be indicted
under this new 2005 federal “terrorist hoax law ”.
As with any federal indictment, Dr. Goodrich was assigned a
parole officer whom he had to report to on a weekly basis; his home
was inspected by the parole officer; two TSA air marshals were
assigned to accompany Dr. Goodrich whenever he traveled on an
airlines, and his phones, travel, computer activity, and financial
transactions were closely monitored.
You will have to go to http://zerotoleranceinairtravel.com/ to read
how the rest of it came out.


Then I heard about this one.....
The second one is about two teens in a class. As as teens will do, they were texting.
The girl sends a picture by text to the young man. Of a male body part. The boy
was upset by that and texts were exchanged, to the point the boy texted.......
"and if you do that, I will kick your butt". The sweet young lady, who is afraid she
might get into trouble... erases the picture off of the cell phone, and goes to the
Principal's office and complains to him about the boys words on the text. Of which
the boy is kicked out of school for a threat. Nothing is done so far to the sweet young
lady...Remember she started this text...and no she was not a friend of his.

Now I got to ask you? In all your years, how many times have you said to someone,
I will kick your butt? Some times in humor (meaning beating in a game) sometimes because
upset... But how many times has the receiver been scared? Would you go to the police if
some one texted that to you, or said that to you? I am serious.. would you go to the authorities?

Oh, by the way, the picture the sweet young lady sent... the boy had deleted it because it
was disgusting to him... so no proof. And no it isn't porno... because... she is a minor, and
the picture was NOT a minor..(I wonder how they know that?)
So be careful out there... be careful what you say.

So you think you are private...

Most of us go thru day to day, and
think our world just surrounds our
immediate area.

We get the privacy notice from all the
companies we deal with..and our
doctors and etc. Opting out at each
corner. Hoping to keep ourselves
private.

WRONG.

Just how much do you think the world
knows about you? Yes, the world, because
with internet, it has opened us up to the world.

If you now wonder... go to
www.pipl.com type in your name,
but I am warning you,
this is not for the lighthearted... it is
down right scary. And what you don't
see, is for sale there by title.
For sale for as cheap as $35.

Blogging..how many years is enough?

I finished up 4 years of blogging last week on Thursday.
As each year comes and goes, I wonder, how
much longer will I be doing this?

There are times I think I have nothing to say,
and even wrote the word, nothing ,years ago,
because that is all I had... Nothing.

I try not to get burnt out, by not doing
holidays, and weekends, unless I have a
picture to post.

But next year is going to be 5 years. And I
think 5 years is really enough. I don't know
what the average time of a blog is. I know a
lot of them drop out in the first year or two.
But there are others who have been going
for a lot longer than mine.

So I guess, I will see when next March 5th
comes rolling by, to see where I am at mentally.
Will it still be fun? Will people still come to read?
I don't have much of a following, about an average
of 25. And they change from time to time. None
of my children read this. I have a few friends, who
check in from time to time, as they have told me,
it is their way of see how I am doing.

We will see...

Looking out the window of life...

Looking out the window of life....

As I sit here in the afternoon with the sun shining,
thinking about life, and its wonderment of it all.

There is snow as you can see.. And the icicles
are dripping, and the temps have finally gotten up
to 35, on this sunshine day. Far from the 3 of this
morning.

Here in Idaho, we wonder each time in March is
this the last of the snow or will we be still be having
it until Easter in April.

The stores are tempting us with flowers by the door
way asking to be planted. A cruelty to those of us with
out greenhouses. As we know if we buy them, and put
them in the window, they will surely die before the dirt
is ready for them.

So with catalogs to look thru for that flower of the
summer, or special tomato plant you want to try,
or the Backyard magazine with tempting plans for
the yard, we wait for the unknown time when the dirt
is ready. As the heart and hands are surely ready now.

Class Action Suits

Have you gotten letters of legal class action suits?

Over the years I have gotten several. A couple of them
I didn't even know the companies until I read deeper into
the paper work and found out the company being sued was
a parent company of the defaulting company.

One time I just signed the papers and sent them in,
even though I had no desire to sue this company.
But thought maybe some where there was one who
thought a class suit would needed. And I did collect
with all the rest. I received a check for 58 cents. I held
it and laughed... I don't think I even cashed it. As it seem
absurd. It cost more for the secretary to make up the
checks and not to mention the postage, although
it was about 12 cents about then. So now I just shred
the paper. The ones I have seen have been for nonsense.
I had no problem with the company of the past, so why
even sign up for it. If anything I would have wrote something
to that effect for the company.

The other one is the ones advertising on television.
The ambulance chasing type of lawyers who want
to suit the 4 wheelers makers and etc.. Listing all the
different types of injuries that one might have gotten.
What about the people who were riding those 4 wheelers?
What were they doing just before the accident. Where is their
accountability?

Who gets the money? I would say the class action
lawyers would be the winners there.

These are the weirdest of times...

I remember reading a few years ago, that
some one came up with the claim that movies
are the opposite of the time. This research went
back to the days of WWII.

Seems the theory went that the happier of
times, the more violence or sad the movies.
And during the worse of times the more
comic the movies became. They stated
that the war times brought lots of comedies
and musicals. And after the war was over,
the movies switched to war movies and
violent police movies.

If that theory held water, we would be in
laughing and singing fits of movies. During
this recession, we sure have seen a lot of
violence movies. Some of the previews on
television are enough to scare the daylights
out of you.

Also what is with the AXE commercial. It
borders on porno. The first one I saw was
the chocolate guy. I thought it was a Hershey
commercial. It is where I presume the scent
of chocolate AXE turns the man into a giant
chocolate candy, where it attracts women,
even to the point of one woman on the bus
who takes a bite out of his butt.
The next one I saw was where a young man
is treated like a car in a car wash. He is tilted,
and taken thru human scrubbers, and at one
point it is very suggestive of how his under
parts get washed, and dried.

I am sure the young ladies, and maybe the
middle age women love it. But it sure is awful
hard to explain it to your grandchildren.

Lottery

My sister-in-law and I were talking the other day about the
Lottery. We have over the years when ever we have bought
the tickets, which isn't often.... what we would do with the
money?

Pay off the bills first... of course. Maybe a 2 week vacation
to a beautiful beach... but then we always said we would
invest the rest and live off the dividends.

But in our conversation of late... we wonder when we got
to the investing part, where would we put it? Stock market
is out for sure. But where? In the bank? which one? A pot in
the ground in your yard? Your mattress? well, no, but you
sure can understand how those of the 1930's must have felt.

As the Storm rolls by....

ALRIGHT! WHO STOLE MY SPRING?

Well, at least Misty is having fun in it... This all came down in less than an hour and half.

IT IS SPRING!!!!!!!

Running thru the front yard... about 6 of them... but only caught 2 that stood still.

It is great to see the Robins back, they sure are fat little guys.... and it let's

us humans know that Spring is just around the corner...

So rejoice....SPRING IS COMING...

ps.. I see not many read all of my blog.... as only 3 caught on to the last

entry of yesterday's post...... the last few lines of it.

Emails...

We all read emails, answer them, check
different sites on the internet...

With me, it is after I finish the paper and
my Wii exercises... so when I go on and
the email is not working, it is frustrating.

Such as yesterday morning. Keep flying the
password thing in my face, which I dutifully,
filled out 8 times... Nothing... I went on the
site of my server to see if I could by-pass
it. It tells me that there is no messages..
I know better as I have two dailies that
come in early in the morning. And I have
a friend or two who will send me an email
after I have gone to bed. Or turn off the computer.
So they are waiting me in the morning.
Plus I have East Coast friends and family, so
they are up 3 hours before me.

Still nothing. So contacted my server thru my hotmail
address, as the internet itself was working, just not
my email. Left a note.

This afternoon I got a reply from them, yes they had
trouble. Everything should work now... but I got 2 messages
on my hotmail telling me that my personal email address
was returning their emails. I wonder how many more I
missed. We sure do depend on these darn things.

well, I made it this far......................................................................

1292 post, 28,561 views & 4 years ...ago

From a Simple Mind
March 5, 2005Going to try this out... I am just a word tosser... but a lazy one... don't know if I have enough in my mind to do a daily blog. So don't expect much...
Posted by Word Tosser at 10:39 PM 0 comments

Stonewalling....

One of the things I miss about the landscapes out here,
is stone walls. Where I come from, stone walls are the
property lines. It is illegal to move a stone wall.

The start of stone walls in the United States was in
New England, in the 1700 and 1800's. It served two
purposes. One was to get rid of the field stones in the
land so it could be tilled. The other was to put lines
around their property that has lasted over 200 years.

It is a dying art. A few have fallen down or have become
sunken in to the ground. But there are people who have
brought back the art. The Portuguese are fairly famous
for doing the best job of it. It is lining up the proper stone
with another. Some flat and some round. But knowing which
should go where is the main thing.

People are paying good money to redo their walls. As they
are part of the landscape all over.

Pictures from FreeFoto

I hate electronics' and I really dislike Radio Shack.

We worked on the antenna over the weekend.
We started out a month or so ago, trying to get our
1970 St. Vincent $5 special to work with the box.
It only goes 30 miles radius. So we invested into
a $68 on that goes 60 miles. And it does a great
job in Hope.

Well, we ran around the yard with that one, a few
weeks ago. I did the blog, All the fun that we can
stand. The more we worked, the worse it got.
All I could get was the 3-4's. you know, 4.1, 4.2
and 4.3. We had it at the front of the house, the
back, up on top and down low... Nothing but the 4's.

Then when they cut the King's days from 4 days to
1 day.. we knew we had to get serious about this.
We could get 4 channels on the old style. 2,4,6,
and Fox. Nothing with the box.

So reading all the stuff on the box and booklet,
we figured we would have to have a more powerful
antenna. So off to Radio Shack, as we had read on
several sites that the Radio Shack 190 should do
it. It is 190 miles. That should hit Spokane and
maybe Moses Lake..lol..

We bought the 190, and headed home. Carefully
following the instructions, and got it together in
about 45 minutes. Up on a pole. Up on the extra
pole section. Whew... and then we tried and tried.
After an hour and half we were worse off than before.
Nothing.. not even the 4's. So the King takes the box
over to Radio Shack. Talks to the guy who tells us that
is one of the early ones that came out. (yes, we got the
card and got the box asap as, they said they would not
honor them if we didn't). Seems this box only does digital
and not analog. So therefore if the channels aren't running
digital at the time, there would be nothing. But we knew
some where running digital, so we should have something.

So the King told him he was going to go home and take
the antenna apart carefully and bring it back as it wasn't
working for us. At which time the guy says, sorry no
refunds, on antenna's... read your receipt. Then the King
came home and gave me the good news.

I had read the receipt as I was signing for it. Have to return
with in 30 days, 15% restock charge maybe... and then
skipped to bottom, words of, has to be put back in box
so it is saleable, and have to have original box and sales
slip. No problem...

Oh, yes, big problem, in the middle just above the,,, put
back in box is... no refunds for sales items, batteries,
software, computer hardware and ANTENNA'S... except
it is in small print, not the large print I just wrote. I told the
guy we only had it an hour and half... this is ridiculous.
Over $100 and hour and half... and no refund. I am ticked.
Well, actually I am more than that, but .....

So to day, we tried to make lemonade out of lemon.
We worked and worked on it. Ran down the wiring, good.
ran down the connections, good. ran down to make sure
everything is turn on, plugged in, and etc. Try again...we
get channel 7.1 and 7.2... no other channel... turn the
antenna, nope... that is when I told the King, let's go
for a drive... I can't stand this anymore. We will wait
for another day.. hopefully sunny... we have 26 more
days of cable to work this out.

HUGE SIGH..........I hate electronics!!

Bickering...

Are we mad at each other?

Sometimes I guess people can mistake
our blander. We aren't mad at each other,
just we bander back and forth in good
humor. But the outsider will wonder.

I can remember working in the barn
with my folks when they were older.
And how they would go back and forth
at each other. If I didn't know them well,
I would think they were going to duke it
out.

They never said anything bad to each other
but just what sounds like bickering back and
forth.

Well, I guess the King and I do too. I didn't
think about it one way or the other, until a
friend one time who was here for dinner, said..
if you guys are going to fight, maybe I should
go home..and she laughed.... and so did we.
But then when she came over a week later and
the remark was said again, I took it more seriously.


I told her, "you know we are joking with each
other, don't you?" And she said, well, yea, I
guess you are. I reassured her we were in fact
joking with each other, and we would never say
anything to hurt each other.

Good thing she didn't hear us putting up the
antenna this weekend. ..

Do you and your spouse, joke back and forth,
that others could take as bickering?