And I still miss someone….

And I still miss someone….

  

To borrow some words sung by Johnny Cash ,  but not exactly in order….  

“At my door the leaves are falling
A cold wild wind has come
And I still miss someone…..”

See it is a year since you left us….

Your family misses you more than you can believe.. Your wife carries you around in her heart as well as some ashes in a necklace..

See for just a California kids, who transplanted to Idaho,

You left a mark… You probably be surprised.

And I want to let know..  I miss you.. I miss the cute little boy grin, and your fun times. 

Your enjoyment of friends and family.

Your cookouts of good food, good times, games played and great music.   Your prep work for Halloween parties…

The love of life, be it fishing or riding your Harley. 

I really miss the fact I could count on you, to watch over

My daughter, to love her and keep her safe…

And a little upset that you are gone and I am here.

See I was counting on you watching over her when I left.

And a little peeved that God decided you would go first.

WE ALL STILL MISS SOME ONE..  We all miss you, Tim

Well, that didn’t work….

Well, that didn’t work….

I figured if I would go thru all my summer stuff and get rid of some of it and pack the rest away…   Then get my winter stuff out…the temps would climb again..

Then I watch the night news to learn.. this weekend they think there is a good chance of frost…. And  even that 4 letter cuss word..   SNOW in the mountain..

What kind of deal is that???

Good bye Summer, hello Fall….

Good bye Summer, hello Fall….

I hung with my fingers as tight as I could. I wore a sweater while wearing shorts.. I looked my summer drawers of shorts and tank tops.. saying no, not yet.. Yet, I found a pair of winter pj’s and put them on, last night.. The nights are getting colder..

I don’t give up summer very well.. it isn’t that Fall is so bad, just it is followed by WINTER… Winter to me is shoving snow, driving on ice, shoving snow… helping pull snow off the roof..  We also watch over our neighbor’s house as they sit by the pool in Arizona or Nevada. Heard it is Texas this year. We do this willingly as they are good neighbors. Also the husband is our walking partner. All the time wishing for Spring…

As I was watching television, I saw a story about swimming in the water.. some was rivers and some were the ocean. One is, of course sharks.. but the other is a new disease that is flesh eating… especially of the mind..  OH MY GOD…

As a person who has swam in the ocean all of her life.. born and raised in R.I. ..lived in Miami Beach and San Diego…I love the beach… life sure can take the fun out of life…

Well, got to go dump out my summer clothes on the bed.. get my winter mittens and scarves and hats, out  dang dang… I don’t wanta  … I don’t wanta..

Country Music

Country Music

Have been watching since Sunday night.. Ken Burn’s  series on Country Music.

It started with the 1920 and 30’s .. then 1935 to 1945. and then Tuesday night 1945 to 1953.

Tuesday’s ending with the death of Hank Williams. Mentions of the country music I started to like when I was 16. When all my friends were yelling for rock and roll.. I was watching Johnny Cash on Ed Sullivan show. 

While watching about the rise and fall of Hank Williams, it reminded me that my mother, who hated country music.. did like Hank Williams.

It has really been interesting, as I watch the show. I know how a lot of the music started, and recognize the names who hardly anyone knows now… Didn’t know the Carters got a divorce, and interesting how they started and where all they went to sing. It was interesting to find out that one of the main broadcasters of country music was in Mexico, just across the border.  Because a quack doctor got run out of the USA… that he built huge antennas with the power to broadcast all over the United States.  So he was able to still sell the quack products, using the different country music stars for a draw to listen to his station, thus he could sell his products. And because he did so well, he could pay the stars well. Making 10 times the money they made in the USA.

Tuesday, starts with mid 40s and early 50’s. And the stars that I loved. Ernest Tubb, Hank Thompson, Faron Young, and Kitty Wells.. mentions of Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn.

There are  is Hank Williams Jr.. and also Hank Sr. granddaughter. June Carter Cash’s daughter, talking about Mother Maybelle and her daughters.  John Carter Cash, talking about his mom and dad.

And some of the stars who look old. Lol

And when I thought twice about Bill Anderson and Tom T Hall and how old they looked, it dawn on me.. I am old. Lol.

It has been great hearing the stories, and hearing some of the music.. but also sadness, as so many have passed. It is like part of my past has passed away..

I think there are two more shows left.. If you get a chance, watch them.. They are starting with some of the people you might know..

Hank Williams sure wrote some heart wrenching songs.. I am so lonesome I could cry… sure hits the heart strings and bares your soul, even after all this time.

Fighting the old weigh thing…

I have decided to not fight it anymore..

I am going to be 80 next April…

And I figure it out… trying to lose weight

Is like wishing you were younger…

I am not going to be 130 anymore.. any more

than I am going to be 30 years old.. So why

keep trying?

This does not mean I am going to eat everything

I want.. when I want it.. hell bent for election.

But I am going to settle in with the idea 185 is

who I am.. I float back and forth between 186

And 184… It is what it is… and I just flat out don’t care.

I have been on just about any diet you can name.

The grapefruit diet, the cabbage soup diet, The only

one I can think of that dropped off 18 pounds in 3 weeks

was stop drinking coca cola… use to drink a 4 bottles a

day… I quit and it left … all that sugar.. lol.. 

The difference thing they have had . pills, drops and etc.

I did lost 60 pounds 8 year ago, on the HCG diet. But the

Government did something and GNC stop selling it.. I found a couple of places that sold it by that name.. but it was not the same.  The great part of it, was you didn’t have to exercise. And it took it off the hard parts first.. like butt and stomach..  But the new HCG, just doesn’t do anything.

Exercise .. oh, holy cow.. the different machines I have own over the years.  Better known as clothes hangers.. as that is what they become.  I use to walk a mile down to get my mail each day.. and did a cassette excerise  for 40 minutes each day.  Lost about 30 pounds and I was younger.. had more energy .. but boy did I HATE that cassette exercise. From the first day I started it to the last day I used it, which was a year.   Came across it about 2 years ago.. I tried it.. gave up 10 minutes after it started.. Guess 30 years later I just didn’t have the energy.

So anyway.. I am done.. Done with the whole thing. I will continue to watch what I eat.. I will continue to eat healthy.

I will continue to be active..  But I am done with beating myself up because I don’t see 150 on the scale screen.

IT IS… WHAT IT IS..

The story behind the pictures….

The story behind the pictures….

She was 60 and I was 55

The sisters who did know each other... 

later in life..

Folly Beach, S. C.

  

These pictures are pictures of my sister over the years.

She passed away last week… at the age of 84.

The sad thing is…. I didn’t get to meet her until I was 55 and she was 60.   She is my father’s daughter from his first marriage.. I am the product of my father’s second marriage.

The divorce did not end well… and that is because of my mother. I don’t want to go into many details of how or why.

Just that the end results was that we knew of each other (I found out about her when I was 13, when my mother was telling a friend and I over heard it) but were to never talk to each other for 55 years.

And that was after my father died.  I thought maybe Dad would loosen up some after Mom died.. but  he didn’t.  He was quite adamant about it.   

I went to South Carolina where she lived and spend 4 days with her, a year after Dad died. To see what she was like, after a long phone call. I was still in the work force, so got a 4 day weekend and was able to fly there.  Which didn’t help my relationship with my full brother.  As he was in the line as my father.

Several years later, she came out and spend 4 or 5 days with me.  So once again we tried to cram a lifetime in 4 days of getting to know each other.   But we kept in constant touch with each other thru telephone calls.. and when we got internet.. thru the emails…   

Several years ago… she came down with dementia.  And she went to live in a health home.  Her daughter, became her caretaker… looking after everything for her Mom.. Even giving up her home in R.I. and moving to SC to be closer. Her daughter was very active in her care. She was my sister Sandra’s champion.. Researching her illness, fighting the powers that be over her finances and health care. 

As any one who has had a love one in a health care center (use to be called nursing home) knows, you really have to be very active in watching over your love ones care.  As a person who worked in one for over 17 years.. I too, know. And sometimes I could tell her daughter what buttons to push and what the center could not get away with.. But it was Sandra’s daughter who did all the work. Even staying the night near the end.. when it didn’t looked good back a couple months ago.. She and her daughter (Sandra’s granddaughter) stayed.

Then came Dorian the hurricane… and Sandra was declining… they evacuated her to another center many miles inland.  And her daughter and granddaughter went there too. After just a day and half.. Sandra passed peacefully with her two love ones by her side.  

I know my sister is at peace… but what I have taken away from all of this… is the fact.. it is a selfish act.. that parents do to their children.. when they forbade one family members to have contact with the other family members.  It was bad enough we didn’t get to know each other while growing up.

But to forbid such adult children from contacting each other with threats of abandonment… is almost unforgiving.. A very selfish act on my mother’s part over the years, to be continued by my father…

So if you are a parent, and you have children by a previous spouse.. I pray to God that you will let all the children be friends from both families.  God Bless, Sandra.. may you be in peace.

Happy Birthday… BCG

He returns and there are pictures…

He returns and there are pictures…

Those who read this, knew that the King went off for an

adventure of his own… With two great wonderful, fun loving

long time friends.  They went to Alaska to do some fishing.

And fishing they did… The place takes care of the fish for you.. they clean them and filet them, and freeze them for shipping. So Yesterday they arrived in Spokane and his friends picked up the package.

It was a wonderful trip,  several ferries worth, a short trip on the plane and a long trip in the car across part of Canada.

They started out in Bellingham, Washington, and went for a 2 day ferry ride to Ketchikan, Alaska.. He loved it. .He got to see some whales…   Then they left the car in Ketchikan in a lot, and took another ferry to Hollis, Alaska.  Then the people who rented their apartment to them, came and got them. For 4 days of fishing in the river and the ocean.. limiting out each day.. Lin Cod, Sea Bass, and Salmon… The Halibut they said were weaning out, due to the China and Japanese fishing boats and gill nets.. So no Halibut.. But we will have enough fish to last a bit, even with giving family fish.. lol..

They flew out of Hollis (the people gave them a ride to the airport) to Ketchikan so they could pick up their car. Another ferry ride the next day to Prince Rupert, Canada.  And the start of the long ride home.. Thru the glazier area and etc.

One of the things that the King noticed right way about Canada was how clean it was.. all the streets and etc. They have garbage cans every so many miles for one thing. AND maybe a USA, law should go in like theirs.. See there is an over a thousand dollar fine for littering.   That sure is a deterrent for keeping your streets and area clean. 

Another thing he learn was about getting gas. First theirs is liters… second.. they have you punch in the number of dollars you want of gas.  If you want $40 worth, you punch the $40 button…  but you have to be careful.. because if you were to punch in the .. say $50 button and it only took $44.00 worth… you don’t get a refund….. you just donated $6 to the gas station .. lol.. Also may of the restaurants have a $10 automatic tip added to your bill…be it for an egg and coffee, or a full size lunch.. doesn’t matter.  All learning lessons of traveling.  Lol.. 

But he had a great time..  so now.. for the pictures..

Bellingham... the start... 

 good friends... go fishing together

 the bunk he had on the ferry going to Ketchikan 

the place they stayed at.. the two windows at the top is the apt. they rented.. 

 the view out the back deck

 river fish

 an active church 

 scenery on the way home.. thru Canada

Oh, almost forgot the sea fishing.. one day catch for the 3 of them. 

Summer, you were short….

Summer, you were short….

As the calendar goes.. Summer is June 21^st to September 21^st.

But we all know it starts on Memorial Day to Labor Day. Each

having a 3 days weekend..                                   

The first bar-b-que is on Memorial Day .. officially.. there are those who have…. weather permitting.. earlier.. but the real

big day is Memorial Day weekend..  

And the last one is Labor Day…  bar-b-ques, swimming, last minute vacations… all come to an end on Labor Day…  yes, there

are some who do each one after.. but the really big one is the first weekend of September. 

Even horse shows pretty much run the same time .. but Fairs seem to start end of July thru August.

So once again.. we put another summer to bed… For me, with great sadness.   I loooooooooooooove summer…  lots of sunlight, from 5am to 10pm…..gardens, ( my body lives for sunshine) beautiful lawns (yes, lots of work with it. But) the yards are dolled  up with lots of flowers, and yard art.

And the last of the early morning coffee quietness of the neighborhood from the deck in the sunshine… with birds singing in the day… and playful squirrels complaining about an empty feeder..

Yep, end of summer…  hello Fall, you are a beauty in your own.. but you are the step child of summer, and winter follows… 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SANDEE....

HELLO SEPTEMBER and memories

HELLO SEPTEMBER..and Memories

The past week and half I have been cleaning out areas.. Areas that I normally don’t get to, and you can tell. The dust behind is embarrassing..

But I did find these two gems…  One is a telephone book that sits under my phone in the bedroom in the cubby hole on the headboard.   I say a gem, and a blow me away.. because I did not realize how long it had been there.  Especially when we bought the house in 1998… and yet this phone book is 1994-1995…  I am in it under by previous name..  So many people that I know passed are in it..  Also it is thicker than the one we use now because so many people gave up landlines and changed to cells.. which are not listed.   Also the reason why I didn’t really know how old the book was,

because it had a plastic cover over it.. and the ads from different businesses..   Which a LOT of these business are no longer here.   So that was my first surprise..  which by the way... GTE no long exist either.. 

Next up, was a piece of  folded up paper that was in a box.  I open it up to see a faded hand writing..  actually printed.. on yellow paper from age.   It is the words that my mother had wrote in answer to a song that was in a movie, starring Bob Hope.. in the 1940’s… The movie, I believe is the same as the title of the song he sang in the movie.. BUTTONS AND BOWS…  So I have here. The original words that Bob sang… and then I put the words that my mother wrote in answer to it…

First Bob’s with credit to the writers and etc…

Buttons & Bows

Bob Hope

East is east and west is west
And the wrong one I have chose
Let's go where they keep on wearin'
Those frills and flowers and buttons and bows
Rings and things and buttons and bows.

Don't bury me in this prairie
Take me where the cement grows
Let's move down to some big town
Where they love a gal by the cut o' her clothes
And you'll stand out, in buttons and bows.

I'll love you in buckskin
Or skirts that you've homespun
But I'll love ya' longer, stronger
Where yer friends don't tote a gun

My bones denounce the buckboard bounce
And the cactus hurts my toes
Let's vamoose where gals keep a-usin'
Those silks and satins and linen that shows
And I'm all yours in buttons and bows.

Gimme eastern trimmin' where women are women
In high silk hose and peek-a-boo clothes
And French perfume that rocks the room
And I'm all yours in buttons and bows.

Buttons and bows, buttons and bows

Songwriters: JAY LIVINGSTON, RAY EVANS

© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

For non-commercial use only.

Now for my mothers… words..

Button and Bows (western) 

By Mary Elizabeth Kaull Richardson

An Eastern club is just a substitute for happiness

Give me a one way, a place where someday

I’ll find a little rest.

‘CAUSE….

East is East and West is West and the wrong one I have chose!

Let’s go where you keep on wearing those

Spurs and Levis, western clothes,

Rings and things, not button and bows.

I can’t stand beans or Boston queens and dear Yale I can’t abide

Let’s move down to some small town

Where they judge a gal by the horse she can ride

And I’ll be there with you at my side.

I’ll love you in formals and heels four inches high,

But I’ ll love you longer, stronger where the traffic don’t rush by.

My bones denounce the sambra’s bounce

And the sidewalks hurt my toes

Let’s vamoose where there’s no use for

Silks and satin and linen that shows

And you’ll forget your buttons and bows.

Give me western trimming, where women are women,

With no silk hose or peek-a-boo clothes

But high tooled boots and cowboy suits

And you’re all mine, no butts and bows.

Why she never sent it to someone… I don’t know…

And the ironic part of this is….. MY MOTHER.. was a dyed in the wool East Coast person.. she had no desire to ever visit the West Coast.. even though I lived there over 25 years after I left home..   So for her to write Western words for it.. is amazing..