Ponderay Days Lawn Mower races...

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More unsung heroes

There are heroes and there are heroes..

Top of the list is our troops….every single one of them.

They stand up in front of us… and for us…

Then there are the firemen, who go where most don’t

want to go… who else wants to run in a burning building.

to rescues children, elderly, and you and I.

To the private citizen, who will step up to the plate, be it

run into the building to call out to all .. that the building

is on fire. Who rescues said people.  Or comes along a

car accident, before police and emergency crew get there,

and jump in to help.  

The police officer, who has to go into a building, a home

where there is domestic problems, stops a car not knowing

who is behind the wheel, and do they have a gun.. As far as

I know.. no one…no one at all, calls the police station, or flags down a police car, just to say everything is ok, life is good… just thought I would let you know and thank you…

They are cussed at, spit at, and shot at.

The Vet who still stands strong for what is right, who ride motorcycles to escort a funeral even thought they don’t know who is in the casket. Because they got tired of deceased soldiers being disrespected.

These are the heroes that we forget from time to time.. These are the men and women who step up to the plate.

On the lesser level, we have community volunteers, who run groups to help others…

And then you have people who step up to help run a small town. The bigger towns are run by people who run for the office. Some with great gusto and money.  But the little towns, while also are elected by the people, some times are not. Why is that? Because someone has left the council, for what ever reason.. moved away, health or what ever.  Then they depend on volunteers who will step up to the plate to fill in the rest of the term. While there, they see what running the city/town is like. And a lot of them run for

the office, because they believe in the town and want to help. It sure isn’t for the pay.. because that is super low.  When my husband was asked to help out about 8 years ago, and ran one term… the pay was $25 a month. A most of time, no one runs against them, because no one else wants the job. We are a town of over 400 people,

yet most of the time, only 34 vote. Because they figure they trust the ones who are there already.  Maybe you all think that isn’t bad money for an hour or so, talking about how to run the city/town. But there is more.. there are

committees, other meetings to go to, for interest for the town/city. Like transportation, other local city’s gatherings.  And then from time to time, there is things like the city of Kootenai has been working on. Updating the ordinances

With Kootenai, it was updating to state code/policies and to overhaul it, as it hadn’t been done in so many years.  The council and the Mayors have been working on this one for 2 years or more… Maggie Mejelde, the former Mayor was at the start, and then the incoming Mayor Mike Keough.

2 years, twice a month is the average… Jim, Dave Sunquist,

Nancy Lewis, Crystal Clossom, with city clerk, Mary Luzmoor…they have gone over word for word.. over 100 pages. Making sure they were up with the state as well, as making it safe and protecting their citizens they represent.  With the consultant, Lisa Keyes and now

the city’s new planner, Lisa (different one) guidance, and the city’s lawyer, making sure it was legal.  And now after all this time, they have the final draft.  But it still isn’t done. There is the read thru. Next will be the public input.  They will be invited to come and sit and read. To make comments on it . And then… it will be in the Public Notices…and it will be the law. The law to guide the council thru decisions they have to make and the council’s to come...

And I got to go along for the ride… and they generously let me have some imput.  My self made sign was… “Cis, the Public”.

So to all of the small town councils and Mayors that no one pays attention to… thank you…from most of the citizens. Thank you for hanging in there  at basely thankless job… you are the unsung heroes. 

By the way, do you live in a small town? Do you go to their

council meetings?  You should, you really should... it isn't as easy as it looks.  

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How to spruce up your yard and clean your house quickly...

Need to do some projects in your yard?  How about some updating on inside of your house?

Can’t get the ambition to do it? Well, I have the sure fire way to get it done.

Invite out of town friends or family to your house for at least a weekend stay. A week, even better.  Or throw a big party in your back yard.. 

Yep, you will find the ambition to get it done… because you look around and see where you have “stuff” cramped here, or there.. or there is a project you wanted to get done in an area or in the yard.. Got to have it done before

company comes..

See your everyday friends, see you house or yard on a regular basis…so if it is a mess one day, they see it isn’t on another day…but out of town people, only see it once a year.. and you can’t have them believe you have it this messy all the time.  And if you throw a party and people from

work come… well you can’t have them going back and tell what a lousy housekeeper you are.. 

So you do a super job of cleaning, or you plant new plants in that planter, that some of the flowers have died…you clean up the catch all spot.

It works every time for me. 

Ok, crafty is not my forte.....

Or maybe I should title this.. I saw it on Facebook…

My granddaughter had share on her page… of multiple

footprints made at with stones.. I thought to myself…

I can do that!!!..

So then I came up with the idea… I could make stone steps

with them.. and as it would have it.. lo and behold, there was

a foot shape big stone, and toe ones near by in my path way.

So tonight I ran …well, drove over to Wally world and got the flour and salt, as I still had the play dough recipe from the days when my kids were young.

And that is when things started down hill…

It seem to me, if I were to put the flour, salt and water and coloring in to a ziplock bag, it would mix really well and fast… NOT.

It was starting to remind me of cutting bangs…. You know when you cut your kids bangs.. one side looks a little long, so you cut it to match and it ends up shorter, so you cut the other side.. until the kid has ¼ inch bangs.  

Well, the color wasn't quite co-operating. It was suppose to be red. It was pink (I don’t do pink) so put in yellow and figured I would end up with orange.

It wasn't.. and it wasn't mixing well… So added all the red I had.. took a lot to get that to mix… and ended up with peach. Kind of. Also, it was too wet… so put in more flour… then too dry, so put in a bit of water.

It was too sticky.. so a smidge more of flour.. bag pops…

Found some rubber gloves, and took it out of the bag and put in the bowl. Sticks to fingers of gloves…so pulled dough off fingers, put in bag Finally was able to manage it better… was smooth… but NOT RED….

Found a old pie tin, put the dough in that.. got the stones and pressed them in place….. and then put in the oven… at a low temp. for an hour. Almost but not quite hard, but looked on line and it says it will dry out on its

own from there. It faded.. now pastel peach… not exactly what I wanted.. BUT…  I have one stone step… with foot print…

While messy, I did succeed … amazing. But can’t talk to soon, after all… I don’t have it out of the pie tin yet… got to wait until it cools before I know if it will..

So there it sits on the stove, drying, and cooling… The King will wonder what the heck… he hates it when I do a project while he sleeps.. he never knows what he will wake up to.  Being it is on the stove top, maybe I better put a

sign on it.. THIS IS NOT YOUR BREAKFAST.. do not eat… you never know.

Got to go wash peach dough off camera switch… 

 turning pink, so threw in some yellow for orange.. came out different..... so added more red...

 then the bag blew up.... before mixing all the way...

 came out peach... better than pink.. but NOT RED.. like I wanted.

 looks red..but it isn't....

 back to the peach color.... it looks better in real life....

Be careful of what you wish for....

The President can’t win… I don’t say this about Obama, but

every President…

I guess it comes with the old adage… you can’t please all the people, all the time.. but it would be nice to please some of the people some of the time.

We ply that to our daily lives and seem comfortable with it. Until politics gets in the mix…

I really get a kick out of so much being blamed on Obama.. Just as I did when it was blamed on Bush.  For some reason, the oppose party people.. meaning the voters, seem to think that the things that go on right now.. is the right now President’s fault.

I guess they never worked for the government, even civil service. As any civil service will tell you… any idea that comes up.. takes at least 8 weeks to get started. Then the higher ups decide if this is a good idea or not.. then it starts in the process when can take up to a year to get going… then it goes into committees, and who knows how long

that takes. That is at the lower level as well as up in Congress.

So when things happen in Bushes time… it was started actually in Clinton’s time…. Same for Obama… things started in Bushes time. Even if it was 8 years each had in the office.  So when you all vote in a new guy or gal in 2016.. well, you can blame that person for what Obama started.

Oh, by the way, the President may start it.. but it comes down to Government 101… Congress… they make or break it.. So when something like the Health Care Act, that was nicknamed Obama Care… it was Congress who did it.. how come you aren’t blaming your Congress person.. who like most of them.. didn’t even read it….. I won’t yell about your Congressperson.. if you won’t yell about mine.. because we seem to be stuck with each other’s lazy Congress

Person… We will never ever get term limits because it has to be voted in……by Congress.. fat chance of that.  

Now Obama is talking about desensitizing country secrets.. he said he was heavy against it….until he got to be President… then he understood… so his new idea is to let the public in on it, so we won’t be so sacred of it.. and against it… …be careful for what you wish for.. be very careful… But it will take about 8 years before it will come about.. after all it will have to go to some Committee… somewhere..

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MRS. T.... (in the best Jimmy Durante imitation) 
where ever you are.

Children not allowed.

There is a restaurant in New York that has a 7-7 rule.

At the risk of being called anti-children…I agree with them.

The 7-7 rule is no children under the age of 7 after the hour of 7 p.m.

When they started separating people in restaurant by having a smoking side/room and a non-smoking side/room, I thought they should have had a children and non-children side.  Family room for those with children. And a regular side for the non children side.

When people called me a child hater… I reminded them that I had 8 children of my own.  And I will tell you, none of my children saw the inside of a restaurant until they were in their teens.  They thought all restaurants were outside seating. 

I did that for two reasons. One for my own sanity… kids can be messy.

The other is I felt the people in a restaurant who paid big bucks, as oppose to those of us who did mom and pop fast food, (this was before McDonald’s) which is cheaper…. deserved to enjoy their quiet meal.

Actually most of the time it is the parents who don’t control their kids. When you are trying to eat your meal with your sweetheart, or a good friend, to visit as you eat… and some child is running amuck thru the building, or sitting there screaming at the top of their lungs and no one can say anything.. well…. You get the picture and probably

have been a victim of such a scene yourself.  And good grief, if you happen to sit in a booth, and that said child is in the next one…kicking the back of your booth side..or leaning over and asking for bites, like I said.. you get the picture…

So restaurants… bring on the 7-7 rule.. or separate rooms.. There are a lot of us senior who will eat at 4 or 5 to get in and out before the noise happens.    If it is McDonalds? Well, all bets off,  you know what you are in for.. after all that is kid's territory . 

Spell check

Spell check is a lousy proof reader.

I can’t blame it on others.. as I have been caught up

in the whirlwind of quick typing and with no red coming

up on a word, so thought all was well.

And when in a hurry, didn’t go back to check it myself.

And every time I have lazed out (is that a word?) I have

been caught red-handed.

So I have become less critical of others when I see a miss

word. Nothing like a stumble to make you humble. Ha ha

So if you see one here at good old From a Simple Mind, it

means I did not reread my own work… or I speed read it,

and didn’t catch it…

Some times the news is funny.....

Sometimes the news is funny, especially if it is about politics. 

I heard that the Republican party is upset because there are

two Hilary Clinton shows coming on ABC and NBC… I think

those are the two network.  So much that they have threaten ABC and NBC with a boycott, when it comes time for the President Elections and its conventions..

First of all.. it is 2 and quarter years from now.. So much will

happen between now and then.  Also there are a lot of us who hope they do make good on their boycott.. because that means we will have some decent programs  on to watch while they hold their silly conventions anyway.  After all if you remember the last one, it wasn’t anything to write home about.

What makes it even more funny to me, is… don’t they realize

that only the dieheart Hilary fans will be the only ones watching the show? After all, between Bill running for President two years, and Hilary for one.. don’t you think we already know more than what we want to know about her?

Yep, Will Rogers was right, nothing Is funnier than politics.. and the Republican party sure has gave us a lot to laugh about for about 10 years now. Or is it more.  Some of it is enough to make us cry.  And we are burnt out on Presidential elections from last time.

Republican party should take a page from Lincoln’s saying… you know..” it is better to be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt”. 

Half order, not half price....

                                                                                                                                                                                            We were heading to home on Sunday afternoon, and decided to stop for a lunch/dinner..

Being I was munching on chips as we were traveling

home, I wasn't real hungry. But knew the King needed

to eat.

I looked down the menu and didn't seem much that

interested me. The King picked out fish and chips.

Then I saw this berry salad.. and it looked good.

I knew I wasn't going to be able to eat a big one. and

this would be a big one, as it was $11.95. They offered

a half order, which I ordered..but was disappointed as

the price was $10.45.  Why is it, when you order half, the

price is not half.  Why not say smaller size.. at least you

wouldn't feel so cheated.

This isn't the first time this has happen. In fact the last time,

I ordered the very same thing that the King ordered, except

mine was a half order...  Looking at it .. it was more of a 1/3

less, than half. But the difference was a $1.  Now his had

3 more pieces of fish than mine did.. the rest was more than

mine.. only the lettuce looked like it was near his.

I just think if they say half.. then it should be half.. in price.

Same thing.. ever look at the difference of ordering one egg

or two eggs for breakfast? Practically the same  price. maybe a quarter less.  Just doesn't make sense. Or seem fair. 

August is a busy month

A few people come and go, and maybe you make a quick trip during June and July..

But there is something about August that everyone decides this is the time to go visit.. some of it is fast trip..

This August has 5 weekends and we have something to do or to go to, on 4 of them.  We are going on one.. others are coming on another, and 2 more are just places to go for the day.

Is it because August is the last month of summer, so it dawns on us that we got to get things done quickly before it is over? Seems that way.. We are just as bad as others.

We have two 50^th birthdays this month.. I have a friend coming from France. And want to combine her visit with me, at the same time my son’s are here. She hasn’t seen them since they graduated from high school about 25 years ago. And I think it might be the same for her with my daughter.

So I am taking an extra day next week, so see you Tuesday.

Have a great August.. and get busy doing your things.. after all, you only have 5 weekends left of this summer.