Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Downsizing…. Again…

Downsizing…. Again…

 

Working on my junk.. or good stuff, depending which day you catch me.  Today it was stuff… not good nor bad.. just too much stuff.  Reminding me of George Carlin’s routine..

 

So today it was the book case AND my sock drawer.. My sock drawer got it, as I was having trouble closing it..  and I asked myself, just how many socks do you need?  So dumped it out on the bed.. and 97% went back in, but the drawer closes better.  Still I think as I look at it.. how many do I really need?

 

Next up was the book shelf. I have had soooooooooooo many books,  I use to have a 6 foot wide, 8 and half foot tall, 12 shelf book case.  Over the years I down sized a lot of it.. gave the book case away years ago… I use to have 4 or 5 shelves of just cook books, got rid of them last year.. down to about 8. … then I still had two shelves of health books.  Some tech from my nursing aide classes and etc.  Today 6 more are going to be hitting the road to Goodwill.  Also got rid of about 4 how to fix stuff.. from washers and dryers to anything else you have in your house… I also have gotten rid of about 7 garden books.  Those are going to a friend first.

 

See the health books were over 30 years old.  The garden books are at least 20 if not more..  And the how to fix everything books are over 20 years old….   And you can go on line and look up anything. The how to fix it even has videos of how to do it.  You have to be careful of what you read on line health wise.. but there are several good ones..  And gardening there are thousands of sites for those… 

 

Kind felt bad letting the books go, I have been huge on books.. Nothing like opening a real book and reading.. put it down for a bit and open it again..  But I am reading less… I do have a small book case of favorite books that I can’t let go.. like my Patrick McManus and several others.  Then I have a taller one but that has bibles and photograph albums…  I know I know.. I could put them on a stick or what ever on the computer, but computers crash and albums never do.  I have shared a lot of my photos with the kids..

 

So anyway, there is that area downsized.. I have many areas to go, and the worse one is my file cabinet..  I should have done that years ago.. did attempt it once.. But I hate that..

 

 

Monday, January 25, 2021

Watching the in coming..

Watching the  in coming.. 

 

It is always interesting and some times scary to watch the new

Administration coming in… One of the parts that I watch closely is the cabinet. As they are the quiet policies makers. You rarely hear who they are or what they are doing. They are suppose to be the advisors to the President.

The other part and kind of connected to that area is the President’s new policies.  So when I see that the cabinet is being filled up with the old personal of the previous same party of the President one step aside..  I am not crazy about that.  As I want to see new blood in.. New ideas.. and people who know about the dept.  Biden’s is half and half.  

Same thing with his policies… Very similar to Obama.  Not that Obama was that bad, just I want to see new ideas because the country is not what it was 5 years ago.  We have whacko’s protesting and still destroying… we have the virus that is alive and well and has brought over it’s sibling from England..  We need new ideas how to handle all of this..

 

So I sit here waiting to see what we get… So far I not impressed, especially when I hear the ca=chine of the taxes raises that is going to go with all of this… say nothing of another simulates package.

This government of ours .. acts like the old lady who says.. well, of course I have money in the bank… I have a lot of checks left over.

 

So we wait…

 

 

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Government changes according to Cis …

Government changes according to Cis ….

(little long but hang in there and read it to the bottom)

You know what drives me crazy… is how the people are fighting each other over a  man who is in the White House for 4 or 8 years.. 4 or 8 years…  While giving a pass to Congress that YOU ALL VOTED FOR YEAR AFTER YEAR… for 10, 20 and even over 30 years.  Time after time.. year after year..  so I want you to get a piece of paper, and list on that paper, all the bills that YOUR congress person started and maybe even passed for YOU… you would be hard pushed to come up with 10… I am betting. Yet if you were to take a piece of paper and write down your Congress person’s name and list all the Corp. and Lobbyist  promoted bills and got them passed, you would have so many pages you could call it a book.  YOUR CONGRESS PERSON could care less about you.  

Yet you vote that person in AGAIN. AND I do not hear any words of anger about YOUR congress person..  Sure the rest of us hate Peliso, McConnell, Boxer and such.. but we aren’t from Cal. Or Kentucky.  Why aren’t you up in arms about Congress?  Why aren’t you changing them?   Term limits you say.. HA HA… the only one who can make term limits is Congress…  and if you think they are going to cut their own throats.. good luck with that.  You would have to get ALL 50 states to agree to make term limits for your Congress person.. state by state..  AND YOU KNOW THAT ISN’T GOING TO HAPPEN.

 

So I came up with a plan… We need to redo what the founding fathers knew in 1776. One of the things they didn’t know is how quick we can get information around this earth.  In their wisdom of setting up the government.. they had no clue that men (as they were the only ones for many years) would make this job of being a congress person.. a full time job. They set it up to be a part time job. A month a year type of position.

Somewhere the powers that be at the time, and we stupidity didn’t know about it, as we the citizens thought we could trust the people who were in DC.  We voted for them to go to DC to have our best interest at heart.. WHAT A LAUGH …

 

Anyway, I think we should get rid of the Congress we have.  Send the congress men and women back to their states.. Thank you for your service… have a happy life. Oh, no  pensions because they have made good enough salaries while there, and if they did not put away money in the bank for that.. oh, well.  As they did not put any money away for Social Security. Which was their choice.

 

So now what?   Well, the concerns of the citizens, the farmers, the small business people and the big business of the state, should be the concern of the State congress. They should be the ones who should be concern if their people are taken care of.  They should be concern if there is a health care for their citizens.  They should be the ones who collect the taxes for each and every concerns.. not the Federal.. Oh, the States can send some money to DC… for country concerns.. Military and such.  Only personal left in DC should be the Justice system… the Treasurer, and the President… But he should be just the one we send to all government concerns…like the meeting of the heads of state.

 

Then twice a year.. we can send to DC the Governor.  The Governor of each state should know his states concerns inside out. If there is any country concerns, they should know how their state will handle such concerns.   

 

 

We can get our own state rep to take care of our concerns.  There should be 3 representatives per county.. None of this cutting up the districts to voting districts… slicing up different counties.  We don’t need one county to have more representatives than another just because of their size…  3 because they need to get out and find out what their county needs are.  One to stay at home and run the office, the other two to be at the capital to learn what is needed and how it effects their own counties.   And to work on state wide concerns.  Like minimum wages, health insurance, car insurance and other that are the needs of their citizens back in their county. To have a joint state problems taken care by county representatives ,  

 

This group would meet for 6 months of the year… divided up in half.. Meet in Feb. and October for one month each.   The other months is working at home with their citizens. Finding out exactly how the laws and policies have effected the citizens and business.

 

And the Governor will be the one who will be the head of these meetings.. They will be very active in their knowledge of what is going on in their state. The Representatives will make sure they have all the information the Governor needs so when he heads to DC… he will have all the information he needs to meet how to take care of state business with the Federal meetings.  He can have secretaries to go with him.. One for big  business information, one for citizen information… and one for small business and farms information.  The 4, when they head to DC should know everything they need to know about their state.   It should be up to the county reps to makes sure these people have full information.   OH…. AND  NO LOBBIEST… AND terms are 12 years long with voting every 3 years.  With a 1,000 campaign limit, and 30 days only.

 

Well, there you go.. government according to Cis.  lol

Monday, January 18, 2021

Tuning in my hippie side…..

Tuning in my hippie side…..

 

When there was the hippie movement… in the 1960’s and etc. I couldn’t join in..  in fact for a while I didn’t even know there was a hippie movement..  See I was too busy, changing diapers.. So the news and etc. wasn’t high on my priority list.

 

My days tend to amount to .. rise up early, help my husband get ready for work, and if I was lucky the kids slept in, until he left at 0 zero hour…  maybe because it was dark .. at least in the winter, they would sleep later.

But at the crack of dawn, they would be up and running. I would be having children every 2 years (some slightly less), so it was a constant run of diapers for about 10 years.  With having 8 children in those 10 years.  Finally having kind of a break by 1973, when the last one was finally potty broke, and older ones in school.. I had a slow down. Still at full bore, as there were husbands to get off work, with kids to get off to the bus stop… then a lull and all back at a full run in 6 hours later.  Throwing in housework, and entertainment for smaller kids.

 

So if I got a chance to see the news…which was usually dinner time. And we didn’t do tv at dinner time… I got to see the flower children, placing flowers in the barrels of guns and etc. 

I wasn’t complete in the dark, as I did have the radio on, listen to music as I did housework, when the announcement of Nov 1963 killing of Kennedy, and turning on the tv to watch in horror. The Kent shootings and etc..  But reality threw those under the bus, with a yelling or fighting kid.

 

So a couple of months ago, I saw a ad of interest.. As it spike my interest,  and I saw that a friend of mine’s mother got one.  Saw the ad again.. with a video.. and the sound of it all…. I thought… I really know I need this..  I don’t want it… I need it.. So I ordered it. 

But I did it with an online ad, not a Amazon ad.  I seem to have some feeling of protection ordering from Amazon.. But I was bummed when I got the confirm notice and then the shipping notice, that it was coming from …….CHINA….. I tend to shy away from such ordering. With Trump and his fight with China, and the fact it is coming from over seas,  means it will take forever. So when they gave me the tracking number.. I saw it was from China.. my heart sank.  But all ended up well.  As after a month and almost a half.. IT ARRIVED…  YEA!!!




While tuning into my inner self of a hippie, it dawn on me… THIS GIRL IS TONE DEAF… AND HAS NO RYTHYME.. lol..  BUT … I am having fun with it.. I almost.. I said,  ALMOST, made a little tune of it the other day.. ALMOST..  but I do love the tone of it… it is a calming and soothing sound. 

 

Who knows, maybe I would have made a good hippie after all. Lol.. but need to get a long skirt and grow my hair back… lol..

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

Sharpening up my skills or be more alert, stupid

Sharpening up my skills or be more alert, stupid

 

Like a lot of people, we have ordered online different items, in Dec. especially.  I try to always be alert to all of the ad.. I normally don’t buy unless it is on Amazon. I feel somewhat protected there.

Also if I can pay by Paypal.. I feel somewhat secured.

But in December I broke those rules and got stung. I had looked the ad over really well.. yet some how somewhere there is something that slipped by.  I had ended up ordering something for the pain in my hip. Suppose to have many reviews of how good it worked..AND  (and really this is my first red flag I did not pay attention enough to)

I looked that site over and over..  to see if it was one of those scams of buy one bottle and they put you on the list for ever with your credit card you used.. It was not there. In fact it was advertised as a sample FOR FREE..  ( I know.. I should have ran like a rabbit out of there.. second red flag)  Well, I decided if it did not have a recurring monthly sending and charging.. it should be ok. After all .. all I had to agree to was to pay the $6.95 for shipping.  It did come.. and I did try it.. it did not work.. tried for 3 days. NOTHING.. so gave it to my grandson to try..  he got nothing, so he tossed it in the garbage at my request.  WELL…. SURPRISE SURPRISE…. I got my credit card and found charges on my card for $118.88 .. and then there was another one for $85. two different names.. two different states and neither of these names were the names of the pills company that I ordered from. So I had sent them emails and asked WHO THE HELL ARE YOU.. you charged my credit card… I don’t know who you are and why..but refund my money…  AND that I was contacting the credit card for a fraud alert.  Which I did.. The credit card people were great.  And closed the account for me.. and are sending me a new one.

The next day I get a email from the company I originally knew and telling me that there was a little thing on the site.. seems when I click on to pay the $6.95 for shipping. I was agreeing to pay $118.88 unless I sent it back to them in 17 days.  And somewhere there was another charge for the $85.  According to them, they sent oil.. (that was the 118.88 ) and pills… for the $85.  I never got the oil.. told the guy that.. I was pissed … and I let him know what a sham it was.. There was no oil and only pills and THEY WERE SUPPOSE TO BE FREE…. FREE SAMPLES… He said he was closing the account so I would not be charge anymore.. DUH, DO YOU THINK?  But nothing about refunds..  So I called the credit union, who once again were great. They said they would challenge the oil charge.. and also they were going after the pill charge as well, as they had falsely stated it in the ad.  So we shall see.

 

Then I go get my mail today.. and there was a bag.. from them!!! I told the postmistress to send back to sender.. asap..  like NOW.. that it was a scam.  So she did .. marked it return to sender and sent the scanner over it as refused.

 

The phase .. no fool like an old fool came across my mind.  Oh, there is one more.. but this one was pretty much ok, just not what I expected.   I ordered one of those metal drums..  it makes really cool sounds… soft bass like sounds with higher pitch too.  It is soothing to the soul..  Maybe bring out the hippie in me, that I didn’t get to do as a 20 year old…  Like I said.. I am happy with it, just not what I thought it would be..  So when I opened it.. I started to laugh… I ordered the drum, thinking it was dinner plate size.. You should have  seen the look on my face as I open the box.. It is plate size alright.. lol… SALAD PLATE SIZE…  BUT… I like it.. It is a cool feeling to play it.. and play it I do.. not well. But  that is going to take work.. a lot of work, as this girl has no rhyme at all. Lol  Even the King like to play around with it, after he got finish laughing at me..

 

So the word to the wise is.. if you order on line.. Make sure you know the company… read as much review you can.. look at everything you agree to.. right up to the point of where you hit place order.. because somewhere there could be a sleigh of the hand. I thought I did.. but I sure missed something;

 

Monday, January 11, 2021

WHAT CAN I SAY…??


WHAT CAN I SAY…??

 

So many things, yet.. nothing..  I guess one thing I can say is that, I am glad it didn’t happen on New Years Day.. as when I was 18, I was told there is a story of … what ever you do on New Year’s Day, is what you will be doing the rest of the year.   And watching a  bunch of crazies, smash our Federal Government building is not what I am signing up for.

 

I guess the other thing I can say is.. January 6, 2021, sadden my heart.  To have a few   as oppose to all millions of people in the USA… decide to vandalize our UNITED STATES CAPITAL.

So few that could do so much damage. And 5 people ended up dead because of their actions…  And to think it was a man that is suppose to be trusted …. Who encourage such action.  The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

 

I once was told that Common Sense died. It was killed by the people.  I guess civility also was killed along side of it.  How is it.. we can’t talk to each other with out people  getting out of control and burn and destroy?  Where in anyone’s true mind does it make sense to destroy property to get a point across?

 

I truly hope they figure out which one of the people killed the guard. I truly hope there are criminal charges that are followed thru to show others that it is not ok, to go and trash property.. I don’t care who it belongs to.  There has to be consequences for actions. Too long we have slapped the hands and let people go.  This has been coming for quite some time.  Trump has been pounding the drum for a month or more.. The Senators and Representative who decide to protest by denying a count on the election.. fueled the fire.  They should be held accountable as well.  As well as who ever was in charge to protect the Capital.  With all the burning and destroying of buildings for over a year..  The DC people should have been prepared. Trump’s drum pounding has been loud. Those who have been yelling at his rallys, have been loud and proud.  The police should have been prepared. There is no excuse for it. They, too, should be held accountable.

 

May they all be ready January 20th. They have 10 days to get their act together.  The FBI, should have their act together, knowing who the trouble makers are.

 

Personally, I would forgo the outside ceremony. I would do it in the middle of the Capital.  For so many reasons..  One, safer to protect everyone… Also it symbolizes the Capital is still strong part of our government.  The house of the people.

 

There are those who say, it was not the protestors who did the damage. Well, if that were to be true… I did not see the “protestors” running out of the Capital when they started to break windows and doors.  I did not see the protestors stay outside as the terrorist ran up the stairs and broke in the doors.  There were protestors side by side with the terrorist.  They ran in like fools with everyone… There were those who wore the Red cats of Trumps, side by side as they did the damage.  So .. I am sorry, no excuses.. … what is the saying.. birds of a feather, flock together?

 

Tuesday, January 05, 2021

And so it begins….

And so it begins….

 

Today was the day of sorting thru papers. Receipts that I have kept for the year.  Going thru old Yoke’s, and Walmart recipts. Also others. The others were to see if it was for an item I might have to prove when I bought.

 

The rest was for… TA DA…….. TAXES…  Income taxes.

Finding all the medical ones.  Pharmacy and etc.

Finding all the rest of the stuff that I have to prove I paid.

Plus I have to pay quarterly taxes to the IRS… so need that paper work to prove I did in fact pay.

 

And after it is all said and done.. I have a box of papers to have to shred. Which there is another hour or so to kill.

 

Then there is the waiting for all the paper work to come in of income over the year.  OH THE FUN…  not.. 

Monday, January 04, 2021

MEET ME AT BEANIES….

MEET ME AT BEANIES…..

 

Or maybe I should have titled it, the things we do when we are young. I am kind of surprised I didn’t write about this before. As I have told the story many times…to friends and family. As I always thought our adventure was funny.

 

This goes back to 1959, I was working with a gal name Judy at a place in San Diego, called Ratner’s Manufacture. Both of us were single.  We worked in the payroll dept. Our job was to total up daily and then weekly tabs from the workers in the factory that sewed the suits that Ratner’s made.  The tabs kept count of the pieces they did.

 

That is where I found out, how silly it is for a person who buys at Sears or Montgomery Ward, or J. C. Penny’s to argue that their suits were better made than the other companies. Because we made men’s suits and sports jackets for all 3 companies.   The only difference was the label… with their name on it. The suit itself was the same.

 

Anyway.. Once a month, it was Judy and my job to work on a Saturday. We were to strip the front page off of all the sheets with the tabs on them. The front sheet had the total of the weeks labor plus the wage for it, and total for that person wages for the week. The rest went into a barrel to be thrown away or burnt, not sure which. And the front pages were stapled together.

 

One week, Judy and I were doing our stripping of the sheets. There was just the two of us and the janitor.  He was to do some work and then lock up after we left.  We decided to head to the bathroom before we left that day.  The janitor did not see us go in there, did not yell or check, Just left, figuring we were gone. And locked up.

 

Judy and I came out, headed for the door and found it locked. That was in the days that they locked with a key.. Which he had.  So what do we do now?  Before cell phones..  and we didn’t want to call the police to have them open it or find someone… so we decided to look around before we would have to do that. Found out that when he left, he did NOT flip the switch for the alarms on the windows.   So we decided to climb out the window… got up on a chair and climbed thru.. Judy first as she was the taller one. And then me, with her helping down on the other side.

 .   So we decided to climb out the window… got up on a chair and climbed thru..  Me standing on a chair and Judy boosting me thru…Judy next, as she was  taller one. I lowered myself down, then she came out..

Now you have to understand ..these windows were about 4 feet wide and about 3 foot tall. AND we were dressed in the latest fad clothes. They were toreador pants. TIGHT pants.. called spandex now days. Hers was yellow with black scribble down the sides.. and mine was white (why I ever bought white is beyond me) with the same scribble down the side.  She… Judy is 6 feet tall, and me being 5’2” .. yes the Mutt and Jeff of friends. For those not old enough… Mutt and Jeff were cartoon friends .. one really tall the other small.

 

We shut the window and headed down town.. We came up with the idea to go to the EL CORTEZ Hotel.. This hotel was pretty special and it had a restaurant at the top. We figured after all the work we did, we deserved it.  Which you got there by elevator which was glassed and on the outside of the building.  Pretty fancy in its day. (now days it is just a small hotel, as San Diego has giantly tall buildings that makes the El Cortez look really small.

We got to the hotel, and was passing a store near by when I got a glance of myself… And then I looked at Judy. And started to laugh.  I told her… that if I looked anything like what she looked like, there was no way I was going in to that hotel.  We both looked into the window and at each other and laughed.  Our white pants and yellow pants were so dirty from climbing thru the window, plus our hair was ashrew and dirty with some maybe cob webs in them.  Why we had not looked at ourselves as we were walking, I don’t have a clue.

We left the area at a very fast pace before someone recognized us.

 

Working with Judy was a hoot. We always found things to do and hung out at work as well.  After we would walk down to the Plaza and catch our buses to go home.. She lived on the beach and I lived in Claremont area.  One time we went to this fudge store.. that had excellent fudge. Judy thought I was right behind her. So  she turn and said.. “do you want to go to the nut house?”  That was the name of the fudge place. Only trouble it wasn’t me, it was an elderly lady who glared at her, horrified… and her trying to explain to her, it was a store and Judy, came over to me and glared at me.. and said..DON’T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!! I’m laughing.. asking her what…  she explain what happen..  I asked her, why that was my fault… she said because you should have kept up with me..  .

 

Near the end both of us had gotten married and were pregnant. And we would go for lunch around the corner from the factory, to a Mexican restaurant that we loved.  I grossed her out as I would have for desert… vanilla ice cream and SALSA over the top of it..

 First time I did it… I was so enjoying it.. and went to say something .. only to see Judy with a wide open mouth, saying WHAT THE HELL?

Over time we drifted away, as I had moved to Washington state. Later years, my second husband and I had gone down to visit my aunt.  I called Judy… I said to her when she answered.. Hey want to go to Beanies?   She yelled CIS!!! We didn’t get to go, but did go have coffee.  The next time I came to San Diego, Judy was busy… so we didn’t get to meet up.. But the phase, HEY YOU WANT TO MEET ME AT BEANIES? Was always remembered.

Beanies was a bar.. and we went by it every day as we headed to the bus stop.  Neither one of us was 21. She was 20 and I was 19.  So we weren’t  legal.. but we always said some day we were going to go in there just to see what it looked like.  The bar front had a large 4 foot sign  or more, with its name in sequins on the sign.. and the rest was blue, the building was blue.. and we suspected it was a dive

 

Over the years Judy and I kept in touch with Christmas cards and birthday cards… and then the birthday cards faded away.. But still kept up with Christmas cards…  Last year 2019, she lost her beloved Steve. And her daughter sent out the card explaining..  Even though Judy and I haven’t work together for 60 years.. and haven’t seen each other for at least 49 years.. I still keep in touch.   Judy was some one who was a kick in the pants funny… with the kindest heart.. and a friend who you could really depend on.   Some day, one of our daughters will have to notify the other, of the passing of one of us.. But to me Judy is top notch.