Squirrel cage of life....

Well, as I roam around in my squirrel cage of life, I have decided,
I have had enough of rain, rain, rain.. so I am heading out of dodge.
Actually going to go see the out-laws and friends…

Every other year or so, we get together, as we are the April bunch..
Our friend Susan, is the 3rd, the King’s is the 4th and mine being the 5th.
So we gather with about 30 of Susan’s friends and enjoy each other,
as we eat Susan’s great food. She is a caterer as well…So the food is the
die for..

Susan is a kick in the pants kind of a gal… She is a Kathryn
Hepburn kind of a gal.. Says what is on her mind, has a wonderful laugh,
Yet a kind and sweet heart. Even her house is as complexed and mixed
as she is. Who else can have a Christmas tree in their house year around,
a piece of Vietnam, a NASA car door, dentist chair, and many other things in her
house, because they please her. Yes, Susan is a special person for sure.
Her bucket list has included jumping out of a plane and parchuting down to the earth after she turn 70… and this year is turkey hunting on the agenda.

So I look forward to visiting with and celebrating with Susan… and it is always
great to visit with the outlaws.. My favorite sister in law and I usually find something to do.. while the guys do their thing of checking out the latest toys at the Hole in the Wall, and other such things. If it is summer time, it is yard sales for us girls.

Painting...artist?

I am not a painter.. In so many ways I am not. I am not a house painter, wall painter, or an artist type painter…

Yet, somewhere, probably in some big garbage dump or in the sea, as San Diego dumps their garbage in the sea..(disgusting) or has been burnt at the county dump… there has been pictures painted by me.

Not great pictures, but pictures that are at least lookable. If I did it free handed, they wouldn’t be. But in the 1960’s and 70’s I did paint in the evening. It was my down time, so I did many over the years, as the kids were in bed.

So if I was so horrible at painting, how did I get away with so so? I am sure there are a lot of you out there who are over the age of 50, who know how.. It was the rage in the 1950’s and 60’s.. I wonder if they still sell them… It was paint by numbers… So if you could stay in between the lines, you could paint. I did mostly horses and dogs.. some cats.. and some scenes. They came out like that artist that you have to stand across the room to see the picture.. because if you were up close you could see I didn’t fare much better at the age of 20’s and 30’s than I did in kindergarden for staying in the lines..

What I did like about it, is .. if I didn’t like the color the artist chose for the numbers, I would change the color or where the blaze was on the face of the horse. There was something calming about doing them…

Paint by numbers is now 60 years old … dreamt up by an artist called Dan Robbins. Thank you, Mr. Robbins, for giving so many of us the enjoyment of being an artist, for those of us who clearly were not.

Blue Monday

Well, Monday was a day of grey actually, not blue.. or maybe the mood was blue.
I had canceled one of the papers which does print on Monday, so that left me with no paper. Actually they delivered the paper, but I left it in the box.. which has been upside down since Saturady. Being Friday was what I thought was the final day. I called and for some reason my cancellation didn’t go thru.. I don’t know why, as I wrote it across my quarterly bill last month when I got it. Well, it is cancelled now.

Anyway, with no paper, so I checked in on the internet after I got some wash going. NO INTERNET… I could see that Schwietzer was fogged in with snow clouds, but I usually can get my internet anyway. So a call after an hour of no connection.. turns out that Schweitzer is having some problems of their own. That there is an outage of power up there. And at 1pm I was still without.

Which wasn’t as bad as I would have envision. I got a lot of things done that I don’t like to do, like filing and decluttering some tables, besides the usual Monday morning chores of wash and etc. Etc. covering my prep cook duties. I use that time to cut up onions, peppers, and etc. to use in salads all week long.

But come 2pm and I was bored.. So decided to try to get rid of a book that I have been trying to read for over 2 months. As Senfield said.. blah, blah, yada yada yada… Where I want to get to the points of the book. I usually do skimp reading but my skimp reading isn’t as good as it use to be. But I have come to the conclusion, that I could really get more reading done without internet and newspaper.

But what I am really waiting for is, late Spring, early summer weather. My thoughts go to the table and chairs in the garage. To changing out winter clothes for summer.. so much I want to do.. but too early.

So it is wind and rain this week… and maybe I will clean out my file cabinet. So much to do, that I don’t want to do..

You show me yours and THEN, I will show you mine...

The latest thing in employment is the fact that your future employer
will be asking not only for your facebook and password, but also your email.
and password… What I don’t’ get.. while it is bad enough to ask for your Facebook page, but why do they need your password.
No job is worth selling out your soul..

Luckily I am not in the job market anymore. But I am here to tell you, it wouldn’t be pretty if they asked me.. I would tell the interviewer..that I would like a copy of the key to their house.. And that I would be over to see what their house is like and I would be doing it when their children were home.

What? You think their answer would be no way??? Well, that is what they are asking of you and if I was working, me… When you give up your Facebook page and password, it gives them access of not only your words and pictures, but also
your children, friends and friends children. All of which is not any of their business and has nothing to do with the job you are getting. Unless you are going to be getting a government security job.

I would have a hard enough time going to the computer and opening my Facebook for them to look at. It would be the principal of it. It surely isn’t because of me hiding anything. Those who know me on Facebook, know that 90% of my
Facebook is where I have shared different signs and sayings and some issues that I believe in. Such as Gay rights, God, and animial rights. Anti- Child abuse, and for that matter anti- any kind of abuse. So I guess if that job meant a lot to me, I would go to the computer and let them see my page. They would be bored stiff. But I am here to tell you… the password to anything I have.. Facebook, email, bank, credit card, debit card… forget it MR. EMPLOYER.. never going to happen.

How would that same employer feel if we asked for a financial statement and tax papers.. After all we want to know if THEY will stay in business and will their pay checks be any good. Also want to know if they are pushing a 401 sign up. Or any kind of retirement. Want to know what charity’s do they give to. How much of a bonus does the CEO get? And any surpervisor, how much do they get..
If the employer wants to get personal… let’s get personal on their side as well.
What we might be terrorist.. how do we know the CEO isn’t? Or the supervisor isn’t..

I am ready

I am ready, these plants are ready, and the robins are ready…
So Spring where art thou?

Actually I guess I should be thankful we do have bare ground once
in a while. After all we have had a light winter this year. And in the
past we have had snow until the end of April, more often than not…

I guess because we have had some warm weather in between the occasional
snow storms…. Just far enough apart to give us hope that maybe an early
Spring is in sight. So our hopes get raised. And when we see our plants
trying to pop thru.. it gives us more hope.

But with off and on Spring, off and on temps.. we get the other side effect.
COLDS… in our hurry to see what we can do outside.. we wear sweaters

instead of coats. Forget hats and gloves… and bang… we have colds.. hacking cough.

Dang Spring, as it tempts us, like a moth to the flame. Buying those plants at

the door ways of Home Depot and groceries stores. Plants that we don’t have

enough window space to keep alive, and those of us without green houses know

that they will end up dying. Wasting our money, for a glimmer of Spring.

But I am ready… only two more months to go in Idaho… And those who have

flowers in their gardens blooming down south… all I can say to you is.. HUMBUG!

As the Pendulum swings

The pendulum swing far and wide.. from far right to far left…but
rarely swings in the middle where common sense lives. We seem
to swing it hard and high, when the subject is disagreed on heavily.
Be it religion, politics, or guns.

In the news we have shooting after shooting. And lately it is children
on the receiving end. When it is two adults, acting stupid, it is one thing.
But when it involves children.. that is another.

I know people who have guns. I know a few who have concealed gun
permits. One of which is my husband. These are all people who were
raised with and around guns. I personally, don’t have a concealed gun
because I don’t believe those who don’t have enough education or desire
to shot something, should not have a gun…period. But I do understand
those who do.

We have on one side, those who want to melt down every gun on earth.
Think no one should ever have a gun. Only trouble with that is, then the
only one who will have a gun will be criminals. The criminals always have things
that are illegal.. be it drugs or guns. Which seem to go hand and hand.

The other side, have a paranoid that if you get rid of one kind of gun, the
Government will be hot on your trail to get all guns. And I understand why
hunters want to keep theirs. They should be able to do it. But to run scared,
that when hunting rules are changed that those paranoid think that is the
government’s way to get rid of all guns.. seems a little bit farfetched, don’t
you think.

But surely there is a middle, a common sense of what to do about
people, especially kids getting killed. The adults here have to be more
responsible. Every time a child gets shot because a child got a hold of a gun,
I blame the adults. A glove box is not good enough, a shoe box is not good enough.
Come on, people..

There are laws on the books but they aren’t follow thru.
Making more laws, doesn’t seem to be working.
Especially if they are not using the ones on the books now.
And those gun owners who are yelling the loudest, where are their guns?
In a safe, ok.. you get a pass…but a lot of them have them out where a
child can get them. Let’s at least work on that for starters…
A common ground.

And as long as the criminals have guns,
then the home owner needs to have a gun to protect themselves.
And the likelihood of criminals not having guns isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

Fighting Machines...

The USA government takes young men who volunteer to protect their
home lands and makes them killing machines. We have been doing this
for hundreds of years.

Look at the movie Patriot, the father who did not want his son to go, yet the
young man felt it was the manly thing to do… just what men do..protect.

World War I brought us the same.

The 40’s brought us into World War II, where again, young men went off
to war and women were the support system.. be it nurses or offices workers.
Vietnam brought more young men to the training, because their fathers, uncles
either lost their lives in WWII or were vets who talked about the war. And it was the main thing to do. Even though there were a lot of protesters against the draft.

The thing that made a lot of this hard was… these wars were 20 years apart or
more. When young men were raised in a family situation.. and not to be doing
harm to anyone. Each time they were taken into service.. as a matter of duty and
the draft said it to be true.. you will be trained to fight. During non war times,
these turn out to be war games.. games.. practice, no dead bodies, no blown up
ships… And when war really did come, they were shipped out fast and furious.
Dying, being replaced just as fast and furious. Those young men came home over the years, as damaged souls. Especially when we got to the point that we tried to make sure our boys weren’t bullies in civilian life. Mine own were taught to never start a fight, but finish it if someone else started it.

Now we have volunteer troops, all of them, decided on their own to go down and
see the recruiter. Be it they were at rallys at school or seeing a soldier at the high
school, and it looked cool to be in a uniform.. Which they found out that real life
it wasn’t quite so cool.. or maybe they paid dearly to be looking cool, to their friends and family while home on leave. Some of them… a great deal of the reserves went In to get extra money to support themselves and families. We weren’t at war at the time they joined. And after we went to war, it was almost impossible to get out. While signing up for the reserves years ago, and some going to desert storm, it was a short term to be overseas.. this war brought those reservist to full time serving overseas. No more practice on weekends and 2 weeks a year.. this was real war. Buddies being killed in front of you. Your Humvee being blown to bits and if you were lucky you (?) got to fight again another day. And when they came home… when they came home…
Well, home wasn’t quite like they thought. Home was trivial stuff, the people don’t
understand. The good news is no one spits on them, and yells baby killers …like the Nam guys had in the 1970’s. But still, it isn’t the same, life at home.. nothing is the same. They aren’t the same. And it is hard for them to fit in.
So does the government do anything for them? Not much. Unless their fellow service man has been over there and saw what happen, the therapist here doesn’t have a clue. Regular therapy doesn’t work here. Besides, some come back, the Reservist , and try to get back to their old life, old job and etc. Rarely is the job still there, because he has been gone for a year or two. So it is look for a new job in a bad economy. And after months or a year of trying to find a job, he finally gets hired… only 3 months later, he gets word that he has to go back over again. Destroying everything he tries to make life normal… what ever that is…

And we wonder..why things go wrong. So desperately wrong as in Sgt. Bales. Why did they send him back? Surely there was other jobs in the service he could have done. After all he had brain damage from before. Yes, they said he was in good enough shape to go back to the service to serve. Why not be a trainer.. why send him back? Not once, not twice, but 3 times.

Is that an excuse to kill small children? Babies? Women? NO, should he be punished Yes.
But to what extent? That is the question I can’t answer. I wasn’t there. I don’t know all the facts. I haven’t walked in Sgt. Bales’s boots. I would imagine by now he has felt the full extent of the damage he has done. To the poor people he killed. To his family, will his children learn to hold their heads high later? Or will they have to change their names? Or be thought of “those kids, whose father went off the deep end and killed babies”?
And if there comes a day, when Sgt. Bale’s gets to go home… if he does .. will he trust himself to be near his children. Or will the nightmare of that night, come back to take his mind again and do bodily harm to those he loves. We have had that already here in the states. Wives beating, I don’t know about their children.. Some have killed their spouses and themselves. Those who are tortured killing machine souls…

Why doesn’t the government have at least a 6 month stay at a base, with visitation rights to their families on the base to desensitize them? To reverse brain wash them? There has to be an answer. And there has to be an answer to how many times we send the same men and women back there.. and how much time between returns. Don’t have enough troops?
Guess we will have to find a way to solve that problem as well.

I don’t have the answers, but sweeping it under the rug, until the next time.. isn’t the answer.

Water, water, water, everywhere

We live in Kootenai....

Kootenai neighborhoods floods every year.. that is just Kootenai.

But this year seems a little more than usual.

I think it is because the weather has been mild... and what little

snow we have gotten compared to other years.. and then the early

warm days and then the wind.. everything melted fast...

So we have water... water, water, water, everywhere.

Our ditches are flowing and some places overflowing.

But within a month things should be better, and drier..

just not right away.. with snow forecasts for tonight and tomorrow....

And I am NOT complaining... after all, all of our homes are still on their

foundations, the town is all standing.. And this is just a minor irritation.

After all we do live in Kootenai...

Another Sandpoint Icon closes?

The parking lot is empty..... but that is normal for this time of the year... but during the summer the parking lot is full from side to side... and even some out back...

You have travelled by it on your way to and from Sandpoint..... some daily, some during the summer...

The trailers wait for their owners to open up and have them busy from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon during the summer.

But as you can see, there is a FOR SALE sign next the the name of this area...

And the Daily Bee reports that it has been sold... and the new owner probably won't

open it up for business that has come out of here for over 30 years.. that I know of.

For those of us, with out much cash in our pockets, we come to see what products are

being sold this weekend... maybe that item you need, but don't have the bucks for a new

one.

There was a little bit of something for everyone... some times guns, all kinds of knives,

old books, records, tools, even some antiques, games, plants, sunglasses and all of us remember

the place that use to be here... and is now across the street... Sam's Produce.

For some it was a routine for a Saturday morning... breakfast and then a cup of coffee,

in hand, as you strolled down the aisles to see the wares of those who put down $15 (was

3 years ago) each stall.... to sell what they no longer wanted, or what they thought would

earn them some money. Sometimes there were trades. Always things of interest.

Some vendors who showed up year after year.. selling kitchen towels, wood signs and

furniture, plants, and other things...

I don't know what the King is going to do for his Saturday morning ritual...

As the FLEA MARKET is reportedly CLOSED for business...

Do your children know?

I was visiting a friend and her daughter this past weekend.
We go back about 40 years.

As we were sitting around the table, the daughter said,
“do you know my kids don’t know what a Encyclopedia is?”
They are in low teens. My friend and I looked at her, and
said wow… but I guess you are right… after all their
Generation looks up everything on the internet.

I know myself, I have maybe 10 cook books, of which there is
about 4 hardback, and the rest are soft cover from different
organizations I bought them from (school district, nursing home,
churches and alike) I keep out of sentimental reasons.
I use to have a book case from floor to ceiling,
6 feet wide, 18” deep. Full of cook books. One count was 276 of
them. And I don’t buy anymore, because all I have to do is google
a recipe and I will come up with thousands of them. Some sites
even have where you type in 3 ingredients and give you a dozen
recipes.

There were a few other things we thought of.. Edsel cars, Nash,
clip on roller skates, stick ball, wringer washers, Howdy Doody,
telegrams, and other things of our days.

So what is it that you have said or mention and your kids look at
you not having a clue of what you are talking about and laugh when
you try to explain it.

If it wasn't so sad, it would be funny....

Another week with the Republicans, of back biting, why don’t you
quit Newt, fake Southern talk and the numbers are in for this week..

Don’t know what Hawaii numbers are, as it will be
past my bed time before they come in. And their numbers aren’t
quite as important as Mississippi and Alabama.

But Santorum left Rommey in the dust with Newt coming in second.
Surely coming in third could not make the Romney crew very happy.
Guess all that fake You’all this past week didn’t fool the Southern voters.

So as they all head back to the blackboard, all the Democrats have to
be laughing, and a lot of Republicans are shaking their hung heads.
Kind of looks as if it is a Northern and Southern type of thing.

You know from the view of an independent thinking voter.. this all would
be funny, but we are talking about the prospects of a candidate to vote
for in the fall… and the pickings are sure slim.

WOO....WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....

Nothing sounds so lonely as a old train whistle…
And the sound of a steam engine just sounds so fine.
The chaka chaka of the wheels.. and that whistle of the
steam engine. I love it.

About 9 years ago, there was a steam engine that went thru
our town, going to Montana. It stopped in Ponderay to load
some of the people who made reservations. It think the lady
said it cost $499 for a round trip.

If I had that kind of money,I sure would have loved to gone..
It went to Montana, I want to say Helena, and you stayed over
at the hotel, and it headed back 2 days later.

I was at the gas station in Kootenai, when I heard the whistle
blowing for the Whiskey Jack Road, so I grabbed my camera
from the car and waited. Sure enough, she went down the
tracks heading for Ponderay, looking so fine, with the steam
clouds following behind…

WOO… WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO .. WOO… WOOOOOOOOOO
Just love it.

Daylight Saving Time

I do not like the changing of the clocks..

Actually it isn’t the changes of the clocks themselves. That
Is no big deal. I do it the night before..

But it is the changing of my body clock. And if I can pick
one, I want the daylight savings time. As I love to wake to
sunlight. Well, when it is sunny out that is.. But waking to
daylight.. you know what I mean.

I wake about 7am. now. Use to do 5 am in the summer and 6 am
In the winter, but the past year, has worked out an hour later. So
It is 6am summer and 7 winter. Maybe when it gets to be warm
and I can do more outside, I will be more ambitious about getting
up.

I hate getting up and it is still dark, and by dinner time it is dark. So
looking forward to daylight at 9pm. Which just took another hour to
catch up to, with this pushing forward business.

Also it changes how we call Hawaii, because now we are 3 hours
away. Guess they don’t believe in daylight savings time. There are
several others who don’t either. Wonder why we haven’t all got on
the same page. After all they played around with changing the days
we change the hour.. Use to be the last week of April and Oct.
Now it is March and November.
Oh, well, hopefully my body clock catches up soon.

Did someone ring the dinner bell?

OPPS, I got busy...

It is Spring time, this I know… for my catalogs tell me so.

I have been getting the tomato seed catalog, and several
others. And then yesterday, went to a free class of how to
make sure you seeds actually do grow.. How to start the
and when it best.. Next week is house plants..but the following
week is raised garden beds. Which we are really interested in.
As we put in raised garden about 3 years ago. Sure is so nice
not to get on our knees to weed.

I was up early, I seem to be a sun riser. When the sun comes in thru
the window, I am up and ready … but on cloudy days, I drag my
butt out of bed. And only a cup of coffee gets me doing.

I even have half of my paper sitting on the table, unread. I have
been around the yard, as I can now, with the snow gone in over
half of it. Now is how much water will be there. With the melting
snow, and this is Kootenai.. land of a thousand wet lands. The
King gets anxious for fishing ,but can’t get the boat out of the shed
near the alley, due to flooding alleys. I checked the buds on the
bushes and roses and they are still there. After all, at the end of
January, they were coming out like crazy, and the February snow
storms came.

The stores are trying to tell us it is Spring too… they have their
killer plants in, to tempt us. Or maybe I should call them the sacrifice
plants. Those are the beautiful pansies, and etc. that the grocery
stores and Home Depot puts at the entry of the store, looking so
beautiful, and tempting… calling to us with gardens in our souls…
only to be taken home and die. Because unless you have a good
size greenhouse, there is not enough windows in your house to
keep them going until June. So they sacrifice their little souls for
those who think they can have summer come faster if purchased
in March.

Well, got to go do something, this sunlight is too great to waste.
And tomorrow is promise of more and even Saturday we might
break 50 degrees.. Sunshine recharges my soul’s batteries.

Don’t forget to put your clocks forward on Sunday morning.
Or if you are like me, Saturday night before you go to bed.
Don’t know why we can’t be on daylight savings time 12 months
of the year.

You have come a long way, NOT..

After having an antenna television for 6 years, and enjoying it, the
reception has been lousy lately, so we bit the bullet and got Direct TV.

Now I don’t waste time watching shows like Bachelor or Bachelette.
To me it isn’t any better than a pimp show. The host gets 25 dumb
women (or men if it is Bachelette) and the play survivor over the
weeks.. These people who are so desperate they will go on television,
And are snarly to each other, all to be able to win the opposite gender.
Biggest waste of time of watching. To watch human’s in their lowest of
behavior.

But Direct TV has open the door to some ever far worse than that.
Real housewives.. now granted I have only seen about 5 minutes of
these different ones( that is all I could stand) There is the Mob wives, and etc. Real housewives of different cities. All I can say is, I am so glad I don’t know
people like that.. At least not in my circle of friends.

Then there is a show called Hoarders. Now that one I only lasted one minute.
It made my skin crawl.. My God!! I know, this is a sickness. And very sad. And
I have known over the years a couple like these.. But I am sorry my gag reflex
isn’t good with these shows.

Now the King has found his own share of wonderful shows..
There is one where it is in the South.. they dive for logs. There is a father, son
combo, who fight worse than the two motorcycle family. Well, at least as much.
And I got to say, I know a lot of Southern people.. but none like these. This is
dueling banjo type people. And then there are the Axe Men.. loggers of Oregon,
Washington and Alaska. I have a son who was and still does some logging. I
tell you, it scares the daylights to see some of these guys work. It is one dangerous job. Their coping skills aren’t much better. Then there is Gold Rush, and Storage Wars, Star Pawn, and Pickers. Some of those are interesting ..but they are on, one after the other, meaning you could sit there for 3 hours watching the same show but different ones. The King is wild with the remote as he runs thru them, back and forth, hitting the hunting, fishing channels as well.. I just shake my head as I walk thru. Some times stopping to watch a few minutes. I have been reading a lot of books lately. Lol..

The thing that amazes me.. is …. These programs are sent all over the
Earth. I am so surprised that people from other countries want to come here.
If that was a sample of what America is about, I am not so sure I would want
to come. But I do live here, and know that what you see on television is not
what we are about. Thank God.
One thing I have learned, is ...never work for your father.... every father/son
combo, fight like cats and dogs.

Presidential ..contacts..

Monday at Noon, RON PAUL arrived at our fairgrounds.

I went because, how often does a Presidential candidate show up in Bonner County? This is my first one anyway.. heck we are luck if we get a state candidate to show up here.. So when Ron Paul decided to show up here and let the Bonner County voters have a look at what he is made up of.. well, be it you
vote for him or not, it is worth a look.. So I went.
There was a full house crowd… I would say at least 1000+, which is quite
a bit for Bonner County. Voters rarely get that excited about anything
to do with voting.. Unless it is a school levy. Something that will effect
their pockets.
The crowd was what is said about a Ron Paul crowd.. I would say the
average age was 30’s… There were a lot of families with small children.
I left probably about half way thru or 2/3 way thru.. as I didn’t want to
get caught up in the traffic mess. I was parked on the outside fringe, and was able to get my car out and had free roads.. As I can imagine what it was like when that place let loose.




My other encounter with a Presidential person, was with a actual President.
It was President Eisenhower. He came to spend a week at the Navy base in Newport, Rhode Island. I happen to work at the Naval Exchange on that base.
So I got to see him hitting golf balls out on the lawn there, when I walked to work at that time. That was before security was a big thing, so we were able to do that.
He waved, and I waved back. His security guys were there. But that was it.
That is before we started trying to kill our Presidents. (well, not for a hundred
years or so)

In fact, when he arrived, he causes a walk out in our office. The first of any protest groups that I ever heard of. Our main office had sent a menu out, that no one was to leave the building to go see the President arrive. So we decided, that
we would all take our lunch half hour, at the time of the arrival of the President. We were told we could not do that and if we went, we would be written up and it would be in our employment record. The buzz went thru the office in no time.
Who ever wanted to go, we would go.. and if we all went, how could he write up the whole office. So at the time he was suppose to arrive, we all grabbed our coats and ran for the area he was suppose to go by. And sure enough he did. I had a wonder picture of…………….the little flag on the front of the bumper of the car. Lol.. little nervous, I guess. We all headed back to the office.. went back to
our desk and worked thru what was suppose to be our lunch time. No one got written up. We learn later, that the Office Manager, figured if he couldn’t beat us, he would join us, and head down too.

The other President who came often to Newport, was President Kennedy, as
Jackie’s mother own a mansion there. But I had moved away a few years before.

Things I have learned and Anniversary #7

A Candle maker I am not…everyone who reads my blog knows
I am not a craft person. I rarely try because I know I don’t do well.
But every so often I give it a try, in case some of my father rubbed
off on me. My mother could draw, knit, sew, cook, and etc. she
made up her mind to do, none which I inherited. My father’s talents
came out later when he retired. I have a several wood pieces he made..
but me.. well, I think I am a lost cause..

I tried candle making over the weekend. I didn’t take a picture because
It looks like a 3 year old did it.. and the more I think of it.. I think the 3
year old could have done better. One of my biggest faults, (among
many others) is no patience. And I think you might need lots of patience.
I tried doing a layer type candle.. it sounded good in theory. But waiting
for the bottom to harden up, before you put more on, isn’t as easy as
it sounds. Yea, I did try to hurry it along with cold water dips for the holder.
Any way, I might try again some day. Or maybe I will leave the crafts to the
King to do .. he does great in anything he tries.

Today, it dawns on me, is the anniversary of this Blog.. 7 years of throwing
out words, tossing them around with a few pictures.. 52,237 visits is what my
Meter says, and that is after 8 months of non meter.. so we will level it off to, what, 52,250…. Low by what ever means one uses, compared to other blogs. But that is ok as this was never a competition for me.. it was and still is a fun thing. A place where I can spout off about different things, or report about some things.. and no one can tell me I am doing it wrong. After all, my blog.. It sure isn’t an ego thing, because if it was, I would have a deflated on by now.

So those of you who have stopped by over the years, (some have come and gone, others are new) thank you for stopping by.
I hope I have made you laugh and not cry much (some were sad ones) as
to me that is what life is about.. LAUGHTER… if I had a tombstone, (I will
be having my ashes spread across the earth) I would have on it…
“I LEAVE YOU LAUGHING”… the words, I say at the end of a lot of conversations.
And the last words my Aunt heard from me before she passed away.. I leave
you laughing (as we had said many things that we were laughing about) and
I love you..

So hope this is a good day for you all.. and thanks for stopping by, to read
my tossed words.

THE WALL...

I received this in the email over the weekend.. I think it is worthy
of a post, as we should always remember, not just on Veteran Day’s.
As Paul Harvey use to say…now for the rest of the story.


The Vietnam Wall
A little history most people will never know. Interesting Veterans Statistics off the Vietnam Memorial Wall There are 58,267 names now listed on that polished black wall, including those added in 2010. The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized. It is hard to believe it is 36 years since the last casualties. The first known casualty was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth , Mass. Listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having been killed on June 8, 1956. His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on Sept. 7, 1965. There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Wall. 39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger. 8,283 were just 19 years old. The largest age group, 33,103 were 18 years old. 12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old. 5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old. One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock was 15 years old. 997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam .. 1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam .. 31 sets of brothers are on the Wall. Thirty one sets of parents lost two of their sons. 54 soldiers attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia . I wonder why so many from one school. 8 Women are on the Wall. Nursing the wounded. 244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall. Beallsville, Ohio with a population of 475 lost 6 of her sons. West Virginia had the highest casualty rate per capita in the nation. There are 711 West Virginians on the Wall. The Marines of Morenci - They led some of the scrappiest high school football and basketball teams that the little Arizona copper town of Morenci (pop. 5,058) had ever known and cheered. They enjoyed roaring beer busts. In quieter moments, they rode horses along the Coronado Trail, stalked deer in the Apache National Forest. And in the patriotic camaraderie typical of Morenci's mining families, the nine graduates of Morenci High enlisted as a group in the Marine Corps. Their service began on Independence Day, 1966. Only 3 returned home. The Buddies of Midvale - LeRoy Tafoya, Jimmy Martinez, Tom Gonzales were all boyhood friends and lived on three consecutive streets in Midvale, Utah on Fifth, Sixth and Seventh avenues. They lived only a few yards apart. They played ball at the adjacent sandlot ball field. And they all went to Vietnam. In a span of 16 dark days in late 1967, all three would be killed. LeRoy was killed on Wednesday, Nov. 22, the fourth anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Jimmy died less than 24 hours later on Thanksgiving Day. Tom was shot dead assaulting the enemy on Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. The most casualty deaths for a single day was on January 31, 1968 ~ 245 deaths. The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 - 2,415 casualties were incurred. For most Americans who read this they will only see the numbers that the Vietnam War created. To those of us who survived the war, and to the families of those who did not, we see the faces, we feel the pain that these numbers created. We are, until we too pass away, haunted with these numbers, because they were our friends, fathers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters. There are no noble wars, just noble warriors.




Mike (my grandson) and I went down to see it as well, when it came to Sandpoint... he was about 12... (he is 21 now) and he was very quiet.Then he asked, why are these names here on this wall.. I explained to him, that these were just a few of the men and women whodied in one war.. the Vietnam war... that there is the real wall in Washington D.C. with all of the names.. this is just a quarter of them. He quietly said, wow, so sad, and he walked down the whole wall reading all the names.. when I asked him later, he said it was the least he could do, after all they gave up their lives, so he could read them. I don't know which got to me more.. the wall which I was close to tears as it was,or Mike's concept. Who usually took things as a given, or entitlement which is normal for his age group.

Killing Fields....

March 1, 2012
Killing fields…

Now granted, I lived in R.I., the southern end. Not actually known for
hunting… And the only guns we knew of, where the kind the police had
and the Mafia guys in Providence. I would say, that the average Rhode
Islander didn’t think of guns in any form for at least the first 25 years of
their lives, and there were a major group of them in our county who
didn’t think of them for over 60 years… And did not know what one
sounded like, but only from the sound stage of radio to early television.
Which we know now was just the sound effects guy.

But the state I now live in, Idaho, has had hunting and guns on their
minds for a century or more. They lived and breathed hunting. Gun
were and still are the way of getting a meat supply for the family. So
guns came to high schools in the back window of their trucks. I am
sure they must have seem like good old boys to out-of-staters of the
East Coast. But it was a means of survival and there wasn’t any
Principal who had any thoughts of those teens with guns in their
unlocked vehicles. Mainly because said Principal probably had one
in his truck. Those who didn’t have trucks, had them in their trunks of
their cars.

How do we jump forward to the 1980’s, 1990’s and 2000’s to children
bring guns into the school and killing classmates and teachers.? How
did this happen? We, a country of 200 plus years, have schools that
have become killing fields in the past 25.

And what are we going to do about it? We have gun laws, we have
gun restrictions, but we still have children getting ahold of guns. The
teen from Ohio stole his uncle’s. I can only imagine how that poor man
feels. Then there is the small child who stole his father’s, I believe, gun
while visiting him. For some reason he had decided to run away, and took
the gun to school to have it to protect him, after he left school on his way
to running away. He plopped the backpack on the desk and the gun
discharged and shot a little girl near by. Thank Goodness, she is alive.
Not so, in Ohio… as 3 are dead out of the 5 shot.

I know the anti-gun people are going to be screaming.. but.. we have
laws in place. The gun was bought legally. I am sure the Uncle never
in his wildest of dreams thought his nephew would take it.
On the other hand we have the pro-gun people, who will shake their
heads and say well, there is nothing that can be done.. and we are
protecting our rights to own guns. I understand both sides.. but people..
Something has to be done. Do we run a metal detector as children go into
the school? I don’t really see that happening.. Guess in some of the bigger
cities that do that very thing.. but these are small cities and towns. Like the
Head of the School Dist. said.. this can happen ANYWHERE..

So instead of arguing, as before with Columbine and the rest.. let
us heard some common sense from the two sides.. Pro-gun owners,
instead of hiding behind the 2nd Amendment, come up and work with
everyone, and come up with something that will stop schools from
becoming killing fields.

It is becoming more apparent that home schools might be safer.
But not everyone can home school their kids. I know if I was a parent with
school age children.. I would be second guess the public schools.
And with school levies being turn down, and states getting out of
the finance section but keeping the rules going.. that a Principal is
hard pressed to come up with security.

I always thought that there should be classes taught from 2nd grade up,
Tolerance and Compromise would be a start. I thought that way before
there was killing in schools.

Also they seem to have so many ridiculous studies in this nation of,
How the bugs mate, How long it takes to crack an egg and put it in a
pan…. How about when did it start that children think of taking guns to school
for revenge, even started. I know my generation never thought about it.
And we had bullying all the time. There was bullying during my children’s,
school years, but no one thought of bring a gun to shoot anyone. So why
now? And what can we as citizens of the United States do about it, that is
common sense and reasonable?