Then anniversary and good bye..

 

March 6, 2025

Then anniversary and good bye.. 

 

It is funny how 20 years ago, I wrote this.. and things aren’t any different today..

Gas is of the conversation..  it is going up higher again after have prices lower for about

3 years…  Yet with Trump coming back in.. and promising $2 a gallon prices, as  he takes over..   He has been there a month and 17 days.. and it is higher than it has been since he was in there last time….

 

 

Sunday, March 06, 2005

Gas Prices

Am I the only one who is blown away with the jumping of the gas prices?
They say they are going to raise 25 cents this week.
Heck I remember when gas was 19 cents and they raise it TO 25 cents!
And we all said we were going to walk and only drive one day a week. ha ha
of course we lived in a very small town so that wasn't a big deal.
But we thought we would teach them a lesson... some lesson... they are
charging $2.00 more now.

Posted by Word Tosser at 11:02 PM 

 

 

And so there it is…  the last of the first..  as the world goes around things don’t seem to change…

As I approach my birthday next month…  it will be number 85.  After not having much of a birthday at the age of 80 that I was so looking forward to..  cancelled in all fashions.. meaning no party.. no dinner at a restaurant..  just standing outside of our fav restaurant with the waitress, handing out a BAG of our food…  and going home with the King and sitting by ourselves… during covid close down….. I just can’t get excited about this one.  I truly don’t want to celebrate with a party..  The day before is the King’s birthday…  we use to celebrate by ourselves.. with dinner for his day and breakfast for mine.   That sounds just fine for me this year. Now if I can just get my family to agree.

 

So my dear friends who are reading this one last time…  Thank you for reading this old gal with a SIMPLE MIND, babble. It has been fun.  The ups and down of life recorded so to speak for my family if they ever decide to read it years later in their search of ancestry.

And if blogspot keeps it up..  but I did put it on external drive for the family… in case the on line one disappears as things do on internet.

Hoping they see I had humor as well as well as standing on the soap box complaining about how unfair I thought life was at times.  I bid you a farewell… HAVE A GREAT LIFE AND THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES..

Cis…the WORDTOSSER… fading away to great things with my family and lots of yard work in my future..   

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THE SUMMATIONS OF “FROM A SIMPLE MIND”…

THE SUMMATIONS OF “FROM A SIMPLE MIND”…

Saturday, March 05, 2005

From a Simple Mind

Going to try this out... I am just a word tosser... but a lazy one... don't know if I have enough in my mind to do a daily blog. So don't expect much...

Posted by Word Tosser at 10:39 PM 

 

This was the beginning… the set up.. of FROM A SIMPLE MIND.  

 

 

Hopefully I can give you the 4 W and 1 H..  WHO, WHAT, WHY AND WHERE.. AND HOW of the blog in a page of how it came about.. and what happen thru the years.  The joys as well as the sorrows and the humor of it.

As you can see it was late at night as I ventured the words to set it up the page..   I had read Marianne Love’s Slight Detour..  about her life in general on her farm, about local stuff and more..  up in the right hand corner was an ad from Blogspot..  Start your own Blog .. it is as easy as 1-2-3… I thought.. can I do this?  I did hang out at DFO’s blog on the Spokane Review.. called Huckleberries.. or HBO.. And I would add comments from time to time.  Could I?  Well, we will see how easy is… 1-2-3.. Well, sure enough it was easy alright.. but then I had to come up with a name.  Hummmmmmmmmm…  somehow FROM A SIMPLE MIND came to mind, as I had use that wording with DFO.. when we emailed  and he told me I should start my own blog.. that I had some good thoughts.. he thought I would do well..  and I replied with this simple mind?  And he said yes.. I said, but I am just a wordtosser… he said yes… So there I was.. with a blog and a name.  NOW WHAT?  What can I say? How do I start this out..  well the above is what I started with… and the next day.. I actually started to blog..  that one you will read tomorrow..

My purpose was to have a soap box to stand on for some of my opinions.  And if you have your own blog.. people don’t seem to grand slam you…  like they do on Facebook nowdays.  Also I wrote for  humor..

So over the years, there were stories of humor which most of the time was about my trying to do my own projects. Most were done while the King was gone for class down south of our state for his job.  Doing things I had asked him to do for a long time.. so I would just go ahead and do them myself.. I AM NOT A CRAFT PERSON.. and BARELY hold my own on projects.  If you read my blog you saw what I mean.  And if it could go wrong it did..

Over the years, I took my readers with me..  on my soap box as the government or just life in general was going awry. I took them to events in our local area..  the Lost in the 50’s  parade and downtown show..  to the 4^th July parade.. altering between Sandpoint and Clark Fork (a very small but proud town north east of us).. some times if there was something going on. These came about with the King coming home and saying GRAB YOUR CAMERA..  and off we would go for pictures of something..  like the time the plane went thru the fence after it hit a deer on the runway…

There has been sorrow, as we lost people.. I lost my uncle and then my aunt who was like a mother to me..  I lost my brother.  We lost friends..  we lost brothers of the King’s.. and his sister, who taught us how to recover from a family member, who commits suicide leaving a note of LOVE IS NOT ENOUGH, yet celebrate her life.  We lost our oldest daughter who pass with no warning, from a major heart attack on her lawn.. these ripping our hearts out and we learn how to keep going.  We have lost some long time friends.. Helped their families with their lost. Helping the sisters of one, clean out his house,

There has been Joy.. when I started the blog, I believe I had about 16 or 17 grandchildren.. we have 20 now..   I started out the blog with about 2 or 3 great grandchildren..   we have 37 at last total..  AND NOW in June.. we will celebrate the coming of our GREAT GREAT grandchild.. our first.  Hopefully God will be kind and let me live long enough to met her, and have a 5 generation picture taken..   And not pass as kindred spirits on our coming and going. 

So  much that has happen since I started the blog. A man saw my blog and asked me about one of the things I did.. with my children. So I wrote that up and sent it to him for him to do for a paper in college.   There were stories of the past.  How I use to smash vehicles with my deceased husband in the 1970’s. How I did one of the loads myself. While I waited for his return from a job search that did not pan out..  I told about how we traveled across the country from Washington to R.I.  and then  4 years later traveled back to Idaho.  And why we did it.  I wrote about being a nurses aide.. with the 3 part..  SO YOU WANT TO BECOME A NURSE AIDE.. blog stories.  There is so much history of our family in there..  which makes me wonder.. how long will these stories stay up on the internet. Will my great grandchildren or even great great grandchildren be able to go back and read what I wrote when they search for their ancestry in the 2060”s?  Who knows.  It might be gone by 2026..   who knows..  I have kept copies of my blog on external drives.  So maybe.. if the family doesn’t throw it away.. 

It was been fun.. it has been sad.. it has been a blast, it has been maddening..  My post have been .. not bad..  boring..   phone in… and informational.. and some actually were pretty good.   As I went back to find a couple to fill in.. as I looked back over my blog.. I was surprised at how well I wrote a story, how some were actually out loud funny..  but I guess it is me..   So for all my readers..  those (only a few who stuck it out for the 20 years)  and for those who dropped by and dropped out.. some who just came in the past year..   THANK YOU for stopping by.  Hope you found it worthy.   By the way,  I think one or two of my kids actually read a post or two.. but definitely not followers.  Even one of my daughter in laws read my blog… I guess to find out what kind of family did she marry into..  but the good news after reading it..  she likes me..  lol.  So that is good.

There are a lot of bloggers I have met over the years.   DFO use to have BLOGFEST a couple of times.. and I went to a few. There is some friendships I gained thru the blog, one of which we still are good friends, sadly we don’t get to gether often enough. BUT THE GOOD NEWS IS.. she is now a author of children books.  She has 4 I think out for the public to buy.. you can find them on Amazon..Mari Meehan…  look for them. it is about a dog called Slobbers.. 

Marianne Love is still writing her SLIGHT DETOUR.. so check her out.   Sadly there are a lot of them who have past.   Even family members gave it a shot. My oldest who passed wrote, her son in law has..  and our nephew Travis did before he passed away from a car accident injuries.  Now there is a guy I sooooooo totally miss. Travis was an unusual guy, he had such a great grip on life. Common sense, and he could see beyond the face value.  I give anything to sit with him and ask him what he thinks about politics since he left us. The Obama President time line…  and definitely would love to sit there and hear what he has to say about Trump.   There are many who we use to write back and forth about our blogging.. who have passed. 

While life has been up and down for these 20 years..  I would not miss it for anything.  Am I glad that,  that late night I decided to give it a try..  OH HELL YES..   I have had as low as 6 readers, I average 8 to 12 readers.. and I have hit some great peaks of 80 to 120…  

My post about the parades always got good numbers as they knew I had a lot of pictures of the  parade.  And in the hay day of HBO with DFO..  he would highlight some of my post..   but 8 or 100 it was still worth it.   Some came years after I posed it..  guess the internet pick it up for   with a catch word..  and then they would come to be on the list of wanted notification of when I posted.. there were many many names I never heard of.  So that was cool.. that they read it and wanted to come back..

Well, I hope I answered the W’s and the H.. of the series. 

Here is to one more day..     Don’t know if I will write more. Or just put the words up..  BYE..  so nice to know you..

Heading down the stretch….

Heading down the stretch….

Because this is the end of the blog this week.. I am doing 4.. 

Two regular post..  if I can think of what to say..  Oh, there is a lot to say..but do I, is the question.  And two good bye ones.

Funny as they ask at the Dr. Office paper work. ARE YOU DEPRESSED? DOES LIFE UPSET YOU??  what questions in this day an age..    Luckily I don’t go until July .. that is if I am still here.. for my wellness check up..  So if the question is there..  I am tempted to say.. HELL YES, THE WAY THE GOVERNMENT IS RUNNING THIS COUNTRY.. WHO ISN’T DEPRESSED AND LIFE IN THE USA  IS UPSETTING.  But with my luck I would have the men in white coats at my door..  with their HOME  health people..  judging me and then what??  Oh, well.  Who knows if we will still have a country by July..    But as I have said before..   I am putting my family and friends along with us..  in the hands of God.

In all my 80+ years, I have not seen this country as divided as it is now..  It is more so than in the 1960’s and 70’s during the Vietnam War..  Where generations were divided.  The young protesting..  and the older generation who went thru WWI and WWII and the Korean war… stayed with what the country did before.  This time we have friend against friend..  … family members against family members..  Women seeing their rights being whittled down.. return to the 1950’s for women.   My generation who fought hard to get rights for women..  When I was first married.. I could not get a credit card..  had to have my husband get one  and maybe get to get dependant card…  A single woman was not allowed to get a card .. oh, you could try.. but they turn you down.. Even if you had a good job.  And we are now sitting here to see just how bad all these changes are going to go.  Will the poor once again be homesless?  Will children once again be denied health care, dental care, that is soooooooo expensive that one can’t do it by themselves anymore.  Will women still be lower and lower in the cash flow?

As Bob Dylan says…   THE TIMES.. THEM TIMES ARE CHANGING.. 

AND it does not appear to be to the good.   Once again the rich white men are gaining control over the country.  Something I never thought I was see, because there are sooooo many good men out there.. who walked beside us in life..  Not ahead, not behind.. but along side us… Together..

If only I could change my Facebook newsfeed

f only I could change my  Facebook  newsfeed

I wish Facebook would have a choice of newsfeed..  meaning  to have a option of having YOUR OWN family and Friends that you want to have on Facebook..  And then have another option of if you want news feeds or special pages.. like your hometown page.   There are times when I want to just wipe out my whole page.. But the reason why I signed up for Facebook in the first place was family. It keeps me up to date with my busy family..  and they get to see pictures and etc. of ours and we get to see theirs..   That is what I really want.  Not the ads, not the ones I never heard of .. as there is so many that come to my feed now…. That did not use.. I heard they pay for the placement of their page, or company or what ever.. on to the news feed of all.  Yes you can get rid of them..  by clicking the 3 dots and scroll down to block whoever or what ever..  but that is like picking fleas off of your dogs back

Back when I originally joined about 11 years ago. I thought that was all that was in my newsfeed…  who and what I chose to be there.   Every year it gets worse.

If it wasn’t for family..  I would just shut it down and keep in touch with my friends thru emails.  But I love the pictures that everyone sends.. We are all busy..but we can post pictures when we have the time.. and those can see them.. when they have time.  Oh, well.. I will see how long I can stay in there..

Well, that is scary….

Well, that is scary….

I don’t know if I should have used that title.. or maybe closer would be.. all things that I thought I knew..  I don’t..

Did you happen to watch CBS 60 MINUTES… on Sunday night? The section about the Justice Dept. and the Dept that protects the customer?      If that doesn’t scare you, I guess nothing will.. 

I was taught in school 60+ years ago.. we had 3 sections of Government.. Presidential, Congress and Justice Dept..  that one has not control over the other. Accept Congress can ok who ever the President wants on the Supreme Court.

Well, I guess I was taught wrong.  I guess I don’t know anything..   Since when does the President have the right to clean out the Justice Dept.?  To force them to do things that are not legal nor Constitutional?  If you watched the program, you will know what I am talking about.  A lot of resigned rather than do something that is illegal..   One of which was to drop the charges that New York City has against their Mayor, who had taken bribes among other things.. Reason for the dropping of charges.. because he has agreed with Trump to help get rid of the illegals in the city.

Also I thought if Congress made a Dept..  it was Congress that closes down that Dept.  That too, is not true, from what I got from the show.  Not only it isn’t being done that way..  but in the hunt for misuse of funds..  that a non American can bring in his own crew, and go thru every citizen’s private information. That crew now has possession of every citizens private information.   They know your credit information, they have your SS number… your work information. Anything that you have put on a credit approval papers, is now in their hands..  They have fired the people in the Dept.  and close the doors with only the Musk crew allowed in there..    With ALL OF OUR INFORMATION AT THEIR DISPOSABLE.

IF THAT DOESN’T SCARE THE HELL OUT OF YOU..   I am going to guess that you are ok with that, because Trump ok’d that..    But it SURE THE HELL SCARES THE HELL OUT OF ME.

In the count down of the blog.. this is day 4..  meaning there is 3 more coming before I stop posting…  Haven’t decided if I will ever post anything again.. but I won’t be doing a weekly for sure.   I face this with some sadness.. yet am of the mind set.. 20 years is enough time..

 

As time goes by….

As time goes by….

We are over half way thru February already… But at least we finally got some snow.  So I have been shoveling the deck while the King has been plowing our driveway as well as one of our neighbors.  Better than sitting around doing nothing.  We have only been getting an inch and half or so.

We have stepped it up in life… tv wise .. that is .. over the weekend.. our daughter and her other half came over and installed our new tv..  Have I said before that I HATE ELECTRONICS..   still fighting it out  trying to figure how to operate the dang thing.. This one has no numbers on it. So you have to go to the guide. Which that isn’t bad. But the antenna part is a .. pard my French..  A BITCH.. I have got the channels down loaded.. took a while. But I got it done..  And got about 34 channels..  some are repeats. We have air antenna..  But finding the damn antenna guide has drove me nuts..  And my Guru is busy so can’t get her to show me a step by step  way to get there from the regular guide.   Sunday night I accidentally.. got it..  but couldn’t get back to it after I had hit the wrong button.

So I tried Monday afternoon.. and after fighting for an hour.  Turning it off in frustration.. and then going back and once again..   I ACCIDENTALLY again.  Got it..  this time I didn’t hit any other buttons..   Got to figure out what to do to find it again.. in case the King goes to the other guide..  I HATE ELECTRONICS.. I guess I already said that..  But any way we went from a 45 inch to a 85 inch. Got a heck of a buy ..

But the King LOVES IT.. came with a free something other..  that gave him the ULIMATE WESTERN CHANNEL.. He is in hog heave with that one and the other which is OUTLAW CHANNEL..    Oh well, he watches more television than I do. I have a short attention span, as I can think of other things I could be doing.. 

 

I can’t believe I did that… The Chicken killer

I can’t believe I did that…

The Chicken killer 

As I was laying there thinking..  as I do from time to time.. when I should be sleeping.. something from the past came up to mind.  It was how I learn how to kill chickens..  to eat that is..  not for fun.

My first chicken I was involved with killing was at the age of about 5 or 6.  I was down at my grandfather’s house, down the road from us.  He and I got along great..  He used to hold me up so I could get grapes from his arbor… he had a huge wooden frame, as you came out of the back door.  On it was grapes.. the grapes themselves hung down thru the slates. While the vines were mostly above the slates.  So Grandpa use to hold me up, so I could get a handful.. Don’t know what he and Gladys did with the grapes.  Don’t remember him making wine.. maybe she made jam.  But this is getting away from the story of the lesson on how to kill a chicken for dinner. 

See he took me out to the chicken pen.. He picked out a rooster.  Then we went to the side yard.. he had a small piece of wood there.. and he leaned the roosters neck across it. But first he drew a line in the dirt on the other side of the stick.  He said.. now watch this.. so you will know how to do this when you are older.  As he drew the line, and laid the rooster neck over the stick and his beak in the dirt line…  the rooster calmed down and did not move.  Grandpa picked up the hatchet and came down on the neck.  Dead chicken..  And the shocking part is.. at the age of 5 or 6, I was not horrified by that.. It was just getting a chicken for dinner.. Wow.. and the other shocking part is ..  I remember this my whole life.. and used it when I was married and raising chickens 35 years later.

My next conquest of chicken killing was when I was about 10. Mom use to order baby chicks.. The post office would call the day before..  So that Mom would be ready the next day..  Down in our basement..  Dad had built a metal round hoop, that was about 10 feet and about a foot or two high.. it was filled up with wood shavings.  There was a hood with a light bulb in the center.. that went over about 3 feet to this hoop.  When the postman drove up.. he would hand mom a box about 3 foot square and about 6 inches tall..  that you could hear the baby chick chirping.  I would run ahead of her to the back door,  opening doors as we went in the house, and down the stairs to the basement…  and over to the hoop.  I would hold the hood out of the way..  (it was hanging from the rafters with baling wire.  Mom would put the box down on the shavings, and open it.. and out flowed about 40 or so yellow baby chicks.  She always got leghorns.   It was my brothers and mine job to put feed it the feeder and water in the water jars that automatically flowed for them to drink… After about 3 or 4 weeks, they would be big enough to take out side to the chicken house.  Then several weeks later.. it was K day..  killing the chickens..  Dad would get a fire going in a pit he would build out of dirt and rocks. With wood inside. After the fire was going well, he would put a huge pot of water on it..  When the water was close to boil, he would round up the chickens that we were going to kill.  We killed about 20 of them at a time.. Usually twice in one month.. keeping the others for laying hens.  The routine was.. Dad would chop off the head.. and let them run around until they stopped.  Then my brother would grab the chicken and bring it back to my dad, who held on to the chicken by its legs.. and then dunk it in to the water..   after a little bit, he would pull it out and give it to my brother who brought it in to the shed where my mother and I were .. we had thin rope hanging down from the rafters..  He would hand it to my mother or me, which ever one of us was ready..  and we would tie the chicken up by its legs.. with the rope, and then start rubbing off the feathers that came off easy with the water still hot on them..  Then the hard part.. the tiny pinfeathers..  One after another.. as soon as one of use was getting close to being done.. we would yell out.. OK.. and Dad would do another one.. Until we were done with 20 chickens..  Our part was to get all the feathers off of it..  split the body down from neck to butt..  pull out the guts and throw them in the pot near by..  Mom would boil them in the pot after we were done and made dog and cat food from them.  Then we take them into the kitchen and finish clean up of them.. taking the feet off and etc.   We did this for years…  so when I had a family .. I knew what to do.

When Marv and I lived in Ellensburg.. we added rabbits to that bunch..  that was not my idea..  But Marv figured it was another meat for us.. besides chicken and deer.   Marv did the slaughter part on them..  I did pull the hide off.. and I process it by washing them in an old wringer wash machine.. I would put rock salt rub on the inside of the hide and let it dry in the sun.. the plan was to make gloves out of them..   We had some Siamese rabbits that look like the color of a cat..  and they came out nice. Don’t know why I never did anything with them..  I saw a way to do them in a book series that I owned call Foxfire.. it was a book series that some school teacher had his students interview their parents and grandparents in the Ozarks.  I do remember one of my son’s taking over the slaughter part…  I just couldn’t do that..   We had a couple that were pets, they hung out with the cats..  even coming into the house and sleeping with the cats.. and when the cats went outside to go to the bathroom the two rabbits did too.   Rarely ever messing in the house.  I did not tan the hides while we lived in Vay..  Don’t know why. Guess because I never used the other ones.  Gave them away to someone else who was going to do gloves.

But looking back at that..   it is hard to believe.. that I did that..  Just you do things you had to do, had to get it done….  Never figured out that I had any other choice..  I think part of the rabbit deal fell thru when my youngest daughter figured out it wasn’t chicken she was eating..and wanted to see the wings first before she ate any. Lol..

 

 

HOLY COW, ........IT IS COLD….

HOLY COW IT IS COLD…. 

The rest of the nation has been cold all winter.. and to be honest.. we usually have it cold as well.  But we have been getting away with fair temps..  Meaning mostly mid 30’s.. even a couple low 40’s..  And usually about the 2^nd week of January we have a deep freeze.  But this year..  we have little snow to go with the mild temps.

But while January went out like a lamb.. February has made up for it.. We have had snow several times..  up to a foot (while that too is not much for us) and now we are going to the 0  and hit to below 0 for a couple of days..  I even found my longjohns..  Haven’t wore those for years..  in fact I kind of wondered if they were going to fit.  So it is opening up the cupboards below the sinks..  turn the faucets on to a mild drip..   And snuggling another blanket, please.  I think even the dog will be under the covers tonight. 

Another day being just me…

 

Another day being just me…

 I looked in the mirror to see, and  what do I see?

I see an old lady who is me..

My father once said as he left his bathroom..  I am so tired of that old man who keeps hogging the mirror.  I can’t see me any more. As he takes over the whole mirror. Will I ever get to see me anymore?  And we laughed.   Dad was 82 at the time.(1994)   And I will be 85 this year.  And now I see what he meant as I, too, have another person hogging my mirror. 

As I looked at the old lady, I told her … I don’t recognize you anymore.   No wonder I don’t look in the mirror  anymore…

I whisk in and out..   brushing my teeth…. Wash my face and look up to see for sure I got it all washed.   Paying little attention to that old lady called me..

But today.  I stopped and really looked.  I could not believe how old  I looked …who was looking at the me of now.

As I looked I could see the real me..  I told God, I didn’t know what his plan was.. but  I sure would like to see my 5^th generation, that is arriving this summer..  before I met up with him.  But what ever his plan is.. is ok with  me.

I told him a few other things on my mind.. that is just between he and I.. and thanked him for another day…  just to be me.

Hang on to your hats …

Hang on to your hats ….

We are due some heavy winds today.. and also some more snow.. then add drop of temps for us..  add that phase I don’t care for..

WIND CHILL FACTOR.. making it -0…    See WIND CHILL FACTOR translate to me….as… DAMN COLD.. 

Guess Mother Nature is running late this year. As we usually have a big snow storms in January.  And we had little to nothing.. a few inches here and there..  and then warm up and rain.. and back to brown grass again.. 

Seems the rest of the country especially down South..  it was been winter since Christmas..  In fact there were places that had a foot of snow … who had not seen snow for years..  10 to 20 years… Now they are going to get 70 to 80 degrees..  California who had the huge fire..  actually still have the fire.. and now warming up, raining..  do we hear mud slides? 

Talk about a messed up year for weather..  Don’t know if that is the climate change they are talking about..  or what we older ones call the 20 year sessions..  That is where a horrible weather condition shows up every 20 years.. 

So those of you in this weather pattern..  HANG ON TO YOUR HAT..

Guess that could be said about our government with the changes that are said then taken back .. temporary.. or what ever..