papers, papers,papers....everywhere

I worked last week for 3 days. To fill in for a friend
so she could be with her mom thru eye surgery.
So I ended up not getting some of the small things
done. Among them is papers, not just newspapers,
but mail excess, and some others.

Then came the beautiful days, almost 3 in a row.
I was outside all day each day, doing yard work.
So I look at the dining room table and the little table
next to my chair, and I see scattered papers of all
kinds. Parts of newspaper, that I figured I would look
at later. Mail that wasn’t that important but now there is
8 or more. And warranty’s registrations to fill out…
Paper work, paper work, when will it stop… lol..

How can just a couple days throw me off so quickly.
So now I have the small table clear out, and the dining
room table (which became a catch all so fast) is next.
Thank goodness for a raining day tomorrow. Lol

Buying local...& By the way...

For the last couple of weeks we have been purchasing
different items for the house, and yard. And we have been
keeping in mind the economy from our side as well as our
local businessperson.

So we have been doing research around town to find the best
deal for us. And being the economy is bad, the businesses have
been doing a better job to help out. As we got several breaks
on different products.

All of this has made us pretty happy, for several reasons. The price, of
course, is one of the main reason’s but also because we have some one
local who will back their items. And actually it made us feel good that we
could do local and help out our town’s businesses as well.
By the way, as we get saturated with the coming wedding of William and
Kate, why is there also a constant reminder of his mother’s funeral and
her wedding. A passing mention of Diane’s wedding along with the Queens and Princess Anne, and such is not a bad thing.. but a many times of it?
And Elton John’s singing the song of Diane’s funeral is a little over the top?
After all this is William’s and KATE’S wedding.
And the constant reporting of the wedding for a month before and everywhere ( with every American reporter in England) the week before is also a bit much.

There must be little to report on thru out the world or do we need the feel
good reporting to help us not be so stressed out? Or is it me?

The Tea Party will impress me when....

I see the Tea Party telling us all that they are doing this for
all American’s. That those who are running, and some winning,
are just like you and me… but I don’t thinks so. Some of them are
just as bad as the Republican’s by being so far right, I think they fell
off the plate except you can still hear them yelling. And some of them
are, well, for lack of better words or to be kind, are extremely different.

But I know it was started out to be a group, or party, depending on
what they call themselves…to do good for the American public. Some
where a lot of them fell off the track.

But I will be impressed by the Tea Party and those who did get in,
when they do several things.

1. is when they put up a bill to help us all, to put up one where all
Congress person’s wages will be cut 10% like the rest of the country.
Never ever has there been a cut. Nor has there ever been a stay in
their wages. No, they get an automatic raise, no matter if they were
good or bad, how much they were absent from voting. Never.
So get a bill AND pass it that their wages will be firm for 10 years
at least. Never raised. (personally, I think they should only meet
for 2 months a year. It wasn’t to be a career)

2. Next that they have to pay for their own health insurance that they find
for themselves…. Like a lot of a lot of employees have had to do because
the employers can’t afford to pay for it all and some can’t at all.

3. Next they have a bill that passes, that there will not be any more
lobbyist. Period. None…

4.Next pass a bill that there will not be any more tag along laws on any
laws or policies, unless it is directly to do with the bill in the first place.

5.Next give the people their rights back. The right to vote on term limits
on Congress person… or pass a law that they can only be a Congress
person for the total of 12 years. I use to think we could do that by our
votes, but we are stuck with Congress person for years and years from
other states that we can’t vote out. But we are stuck with their voting.

When they do these things, not talk about it....
THEN maybe I will be impressed with the Tea Party, otherwise they are
just a nuisance like the other two parties.

I,the still unfinished clay, believe

I read in a book called Ashes to Fire (edited by Merrit J.Nielson)some wise words.

“We share a common temptation to quickly connect injustice and sin. We often live with a self-imposed scar that whatever injustices we suffer, we supposedly deserve them. We quickly convince ourselves when thing so wrong that we are somehow being punished for our actions. We try to muster up belief within ourselves that injustice must be fair, that our wrongs must deserve God’s punishment in this way. Life isn’t always fair. Our actions will always have consequences, but not all consequences are equal to the actions. Kindness is not always returned with gratitude. And sometimes our wrongs go unpunished. (like not getting a ticket for the times you did run a stop sign, and rolled thru it) Our injustices in life are not always about God running some sort of cause and effect system of justice.”

This makes sense to me… it is one of the belief’s that I have always had and
probably one of the reasons why I have some trouble with some churches over the years. I have always believed that I am just as close to God and Jesus in my yard surrounded by his grass, his sky, his trees, his air and etc. than I was in a church, if not more so. So many churches preach the hell and damnation. The fear of God. I don’t fear God, I believe in him, I worship him, and I try not to screw up because I respect him. So I have a hard time with mankind’s thoughts and preaching from time to time. Many times. But I do go to church
to learn, to hear what the Pastor has to say. Once in a while you find a good
one. Who does not judge you, he lets God do that.

I believe that God and Jesus are loving Gods, who get disgusted with us
Humans down here from time to time…and smile at our antics and even smile at our kindness. I believe sometimes we have to deal with tragedy in our lives so that we learn a lesson from it .If we have perfection 100% of the time, how do we know that.. with the bad times, we learn about how wonderful the good times are. We may not know that lesson for quite some time. Most of all, we need to stop beating ourselves up and letting others beating us, for our sins. We did it… it is over.. we learn from it.. God already forgave us. Get over it…God has many more things for us to see. And I believe that all things are possible through God. And everything in God’s time table, not ours.

OH, COME ON, MOTHER NATURE

Where I come from, there is a saying about the weather…
If you don’t like what you see, then wait a half hour, it will
change. Which really seems to be the deal with our Idaho
weather this week.

The past two days in particular, really has brought that out.
First we start out with some frost, followed by snow big flakes,
followed by small flakes, turn to sunshine, all snow that did
stick (as most didn’t) was melted. Only to have the cycle start
again. With a little bit of rain throw in there for good measure.

Now most of us are so ready for Spring. There is seeds popping
up dancing in our heads. Visions of plants to put out, around the house.
Some inside, some outside… Flowers you see as you enter Home
Depot, giving you the yearning to buy, buy, buy so you can go
home and plant, plant, plant. So come on, Mother Nature, stop
your joking around and give us warm weather to start our mission
for the summer.

Losing a friend

If you have ever lost a friend, suddenly by an accident
You know how devastating it is. It is so unbelievable.
After all, you just talked to that person, hours or a day ago.
How can this be? Why did it happen? Could you have changed
anything to prevent it? And the answer is no, you could not.
What is… is. As harsh as that sounds, it is the truth.

But it doesn’t take away the hurting feeling you have. The
numbness, you feel, almost like you feel that person is just
going to come around the corner and it was all a horrible
nightmare…but you know in your heart it is true.

How do you handle this sudden tragedy, this freak accident.
You feel this only happens on television shows, not in your life.
Yet, here you are. Your heart aches for the family and other
friends. You are in good company as you grieve. But that does
not help. Even after the funeral, you have this heavy heart.

I had it happened to me, when a friend was hit by a train and
killed shortly after she and I had ended a conversation of an hour.
Ended with, see you at work. Only to be told hours later that,
that person was gone. It took a long time to place it in a place in
my heart, where the time had faded the hurt.

This past weekend, the same thing happen to another set of
friends, and family. A missing friend, a search for days by
friends, only to end in a pond on a country road. Unbelieving
friends and family, and closure they did not want. A family who
came to town to help look for this missing son/brother…A company who
sends out employees and planes to search. Then one person,
see something strange on the road, and the search ends in
the pond below. The hurt starts with some the healing coming,
as there is closure. Why some ask… the answer to that will never
be. As with so many times it never is. Friends and a Company,
try to understand with the family.

God Bless…. May you have peace in heaven… Dennis Hopper.
Dying way too young.

Are you a good neighbor?

I think I am… I know the King is. Heck, he knows all the neighbors. Where a lot of them could pass me in the store and I wouldn’t recognize them. Like my neighbor who lives across the alley from us. I have talked to him once or twice. And I have join the King in talking to her twice. Their son join the reserves and I wrote several letters and sent pictures of what was going on and telling him what was going on in the town while he was away at boot camp. But recognize him… sorry, but the honest answer is no. The neighbor to the north of us, is one of the King’s best friends. And I have talked to him across the fence many times. And yes, I would recognize him at the store. Yet we have lived here for 12 years, and the first time I was in his house was just 2 weeks ago. The neighbor to the south of us, is a woman about my age. The land that she put her modular home on, use to be her dad’s. Now, she and I have more of a friendship. She has been fighting Cancer for about 5 years. So the King has mowed her lawn and removed her snow for her for the past 3 years. I have done several yard projects for her. Now that she is in remission, she plans on doing more of her outside work. When she was the sickest, we would pick up her mail at the post office, and the King drove her to Cda, for one of her treatments once. So I would say we are good neighbors on that side. Our neighbor to the west is a company and we did call the police once when we saw something who was acting weird over there. which they appreciated. And they are a good neighbor as they and their crew are pretty quiet for a busy company. Now on our block there are, 8 houses. I know 4 of the neighbors. The King knows them all. Guess I am just a quiet neighbor. So what kind of neighbor are you?

We are ready, early

The count down time for the carpet is ticking away but not fast enough for us.. Because we decided to jump ahead. We spend all day Saturday, moving the final furniture except to 2 large ones. And cutting and pulling up the old carpet. We were shocked at how much dirt was under it all. You could see the heavy traffic areas. And we found out that Kirby vacuum doesn’t clean any deeper than the other vacuums. As a sales person showed up a month ago and said it would clean our carpet better than others AND deeper… But it didn’t. I am not saying that Kirby isn’t a good vacuum, I am saying that no vacuum can get the dirt below the pad. The young man said his did.. Not. So here we sit with a bare floor, one chair, one couch with the television in the dining room facing the living room. Which is now packed with furniture and room for the other Two pieces. And we have a week and half to go. Oh, well. we are ready…

Some times I wonder....

I mention before that the State of Idaho has an advertisement for the Idaho colleges. The main message is that high school isn’t not enough. Which in this day and age that is true… But I have to wonder.. maybe if they took the money they used to advertise and use it for the students to be able to afford college, maybe the kids could afford to go. After all the amount of $5,000 a quarter and up is a little stiff for the average family. I wonder does anyone else think on the date of their deceased parent and wonder how old they would be on that date? My mother would have been 95 yesterday.

Well, Good bye Dolly

Upon opening my paper on Saturday I saw the obits. And to my surprise, was a woman who I was acquainted with. Meaning I didn’t know her well, yet I knew the face in the picture right away. Dolly, as she is called by friends… and she said I was a friend. I earn that right, by being at her stand in the summer time at the Sagle Flea Market very often. She was the lady who had the chimes, and they would ring at her stand… that is what drew me there. Over the years I bought a few of them.. Always drooling over the really big one with the deep tones… Then Dolly started with windmills of all sorts of shapes,and she had my full attention. Birds, tractors, airplanes (I was there 4 weekends in a row drooling over the airplane and saved up to get it. I don’t know who was happier, me or Dolly when I finally had enough to buy one of the big planes. A WWI type bomber. I have many of Dolly’s windmills. So thru these visits I got to know that she knew my husband, my friend’s son, and even her ex-.. and a few others of the Vay area where I use to live. She was kind of a character, could have rough edges, if someone was fooling around her things. But a heart of gold to help anyone who came to see what she had. Even to the point of find a box or card board to wrap a windmill, so some of my visitors from California could take it home with out damaging it. She did it with such care. Her’s ran about $20 less than other places. Dolly is the kind of woman I really admire. The ones who did things that were not as cool for women to do at the time when they were younger… Wishing I had the guts. I had the desire but not the guts to go out and do like they did. Dolly was a roller derby gal, a member of the L.A. Thunderbird, she did so many things. At 21, she managed a 10 story retirement home in Long Beach, she was an real estate agent. Sadly lost 3 husbands to cancer each time. Turns out she and I are the same age. She packed so much more into hers… and I surely will miss her.. The Sagle Flea Market just won’t be the same.

No room at the Inn

We have decided to replace our carpet in our house.

The Living room and hall way that is.. After much

deciding on what we wanted… the King went and

picked out what he thought we wanted (he did a good

job of color) ordered it and put down the deposit as a

surprise for my birthday. That was the easy part.

Now we have about 2 weeks to clear out our living room.

And my hall closet, if there is any left over, they said they

would do that too. This is a linen closet, blankets, sheets

and etc. Not too bad, but boy did I have stuff crammed in

there that I forgot, in the back.

THEN there is the living room. Now I don’t know what your

living room looks like, but mine is wall to wall around the room

with the middle open. But you can figure about 4 feet along

the walls, is something. And I wish it was all furniture like

chairs.. but no.. we have, let me see and count.. 3 cabinet

like tables, plus a coffee table my son built over 25 years ago.

Which has little cabinet cupboard in the middle and two

openings, one on each side. This unit weighs a ton. Sliders

are the only thing that will move it.. (Sliders are the greatest

invention I know of) We also have 3 bookcases. All full to the gills.

I have emptied the bookcases and removed them to the

garage.. We have 4 totes full of books. Which we moved

by a dolly, as those babies were heavy. I am amazed at

how much stuff we have collected. And we had a yard sale

before we moved in here. And two since..does this stuff breed?

Anyway, I have to go get some more totes… and my

back bedroom is full. The bed is covered from foot to

headboard.

So we have no room at the Inn… hopefully no one

decides to surprise us.

Who do we have fighting for us?

You have all gotten that email that tells you the average soldier is 19 years old and etc… Which I wrote back to those who forward it to me, that the average soldier now is 33 and is often a woman as well as a man.. That our troops have changed over the years. I think mainly this has to do with pulling so many from the Reserves and the National Guard. Which I still can’t get over, as I was growing up, it was my understanding that the National Guard were the ones who took care of things here within the USA. And regular troops and Reserves were the ones who went overseas. So who do we have in our troops? We don’t have the draft anymore, so we have young men and women who sign up to join the service. Being these young men and women sign up, volunteer to join, we should be even more grateful that they do. Yet our government treats them like second hand citizens. First to cut the budget, sends what is the lowest bidder for the equipment they use. (I know there is a lot of waste as well for equipment that never makes it over there, but that is another discussion). Then you take the generation we have over there. This generation has been taught, not to hit people, not to hit women, not to be a bully in the school yard. They don’t learn the pecking order as one teacher mention which I hated. But they still join, go in to learn how to fight. How to shoot. We for all sense and purpose, train them to be fighting and killing machines. We thought after Vietnam we were going to be a tech fighting troops. Meaning very little on ground hand to hand battles. Yet we have become more on the ground than in the air. After all we are afraid we might hit someone else besides the offending troops. Which brings us to the troops on the other side. Who were raised to kill, they kill their own, other tribes and etc. Who do not use uniforms as in previous wars. So how do you know if the person approaching you is foe or friend. How do you win a war that is over 5000 years old. So after being raised with the no bully, do not hit society, turn into a killing machine, and then expect them to return home to their families as if they could turn it off with a switch. While they do have some help, it isn’t enough. Too many are coming home that end up killing themselves and their families as well. We need to do more. There are stories of how some families lose their homes, some that slip thru the tracks, that come home with so much body injuries, say nothing of the mental.. that the Army deserts them. It takes lawyers and such to get what they need and the family needs. Letters to the congress person does little. They deserve better. When they do complain which is rare, as they are trained not to make waves.. they are told.. well, you signed up for this. All the more reason they deserve the respect. They did sign up to help, to protect our Country. All I can say is … finally we citizens are standing up and telling them thank you, shaking their hands… and some even go further to raise money, goods to send to the troops, and help the ones who are home. Too bad our government doesn’t treat our troops as well as we do our Congresspersons. With the same benefits. We really need to bring our troops back. We are fighting/policing a war that is not wanted by anyone, including the country men of the country we are in. War has changed… countries have changed some what. We need to act only with the United Nations, and not feel like we are the caretakers of the earth. Defend our own home land, and help out the United Nations. And for those who will say that United Nations is weak, I agree..but it needs to be changed, to be stronger. Charity starts at home, we should not be depleting our own finances to finance a war that no one wants us there. Thank you troops, families… mothers and fathers, wives and children. You are all in my prayers.

Waiting, Waiting.... waiting..... waiting...

I hate waiting… I am not a patience waiter either. I don’t care what time you tell me when you are going to be here…but be here when you say… I can deal with an open time, like between 1 and 2… but come 2 and you are not here? I get antsy, and if it is more than 15 minutes later than 2…. well, I am not in a good mood. You are wasting my time. If you tell me a day and can’t pin it down to within an hour or so I will probably not agree to be here.... and I am not crazy about …”well, sometime in the morning” or “sometime in the afternoon”. Surely you can pin it down to within the hour… after all I will tell you when I will be there… some times I will arrive 5 to 15 minutes early… because I don’t want to waste your time. So dealing with servicemen, delivery personal, and etc. is far from my favorite thing… And then it depends on how badly I want what is coming. Lately I have had to wait. Some weren’t bad as they did come within the hour they gave me. Or 5 minutes later. But one who wanted a favor, stood me up completely…. Guess what… never will agree to that person again… There are not only phones but cell phones… it is rude to not call, if you aren’t coming or going to be way late. And don’t even get me started on dinner guest who show up an hour late. They will get a pass, if they call and it will be not too bad.. But I am not going to wait, and surely not going to have the other guest who were polite enough to come on time, wait for you either. Had a family member who could be from an hour to 4 hours late. After the first time, I told that family member … we are eating a this hour… we will wait 10 minutes… if you aren’t here… we will start without you and you can have left overs warmed up. I am sure over the years the word that starts with a B, was an adjective to use when talking about me.. but I think it is out and out rude to be that late… I wouldn’t ask anyone else to wait for me.. and I sure would call, if something unknown came up.

You wonder what went wrong and when....

I was looking at a recent picture of Joseph Edward Duncan (I didn’t know he was the 3rd) and it didn’t scare the willies out of me like it did before.. Well, scared me and made my skin crawl. For those who don’t know who he is… he is a child murder. And has viciously killed them… In Montana, Idaho, California and allegedly in Washington. I am not getting soft on him. But I have to wonder… what went wrong and when? This was a child at one time… named after two men in a session. His father and grandfather, if he is the 3rd/III. Some one’s baby, young son, how did he grow up to be a monster by our standards? I find it very sad… that someone who had parents who when he was a baby, was the dream of great things.. Not notoriety. Not to become Infamous. To be caged like an animal, or to be put to death for these horrible deeds. And in his plea in the past to just admit guilt, even when the death penalty was part of the deal… I got to figure maybe he wants to get this over with too.. Maybe it is even more than he can understand of the horrors he has committed. You got to wonder… what went wrong..

National Holiday

Well, maybe not.... but it is a holiday for us... April 4th and April 5 is... Remember when we were working and we got President's Day off? Then some companies stopped that and gave their employee's their birthday off instead??? Well, I got mine and so did the King... So yesterday and today is a holiday...

IT'S SPRING...this I know...

Because my daughter came by on her motorcyle and show me so.... off she goes..

The King was not to be outdone... so he got his birthday present out..

(his birthday is tomorrow)

If it looks like he is a stuff shirt.... look below..

and you will see he has a passenger... do they make tiny helmets?

What a beautiful sunny day...... isn't it...

but I turn around and looked... see what is coming over the mountain towards us..

looks like snow coming to the mountain... means rain for us... maybe it will go northwest of us.

Changing the form of the Hand...

Did you hear that they are thinking of wrapping babies hands so that only the thumb and first finger will grown naturally? Kind of like the Japanese use to do the feet of wealth baby girls… So they would be carried all their lives. I think that is what they said. Anyway, by wrapping the hands with the last 3 fingers wrapped under they can have them stay small. They figure that we only need the first finger and the thumb. We will still be able to grasp anything we need to. And with everyone using their thumbs for texting and twittering, it is only a matter of time before computers will have small keyboards to be used with thumbs like the I-phone, I-pads and etc. After all we won’t be using pens or pencils much longer. wonder if that means both hands? After all how do you hold a beer or glass of wine..unless you are in on this joke called april fool… and have figure it out that it was all hogwash … wishing you a fun day too…