What is important to you? And did you make a list?

 

What is important to you? And did you make a list?

In these days of fires.. and evacuations. My mind went to.. what do you take with you? 

I have a grab and run bag in my file cabinet..  It is our birth certificates   our marriage license and our vehicle titles..  that is off the top of my head.. but thinking about that .. right now. There is paper in there I should check and see if it is any good..  and are there some papers I should have in there..     I am thinking I should have a second grab and run bag..  things that might not be as important, but they are to me..  

I know what Ken would be grabbing.. his guns..  his father’s sword.  I would add to that..  his mother bible.  As there is so many dates in that book..   we just used it today… to find out what was the year of her granddaughter birth..   that our sister in law wanted..   So, maybe I should put it in the grab and run bag now…   there are other things..   

The other thing.. I do realize sometimes..  especially if some one started fire in your neighborhood, you don’t have a lot of time..   I think the list up above is an ABSOLUTELY MUST BE READY AT ALL TIMES…  but there is some thing you have time.. if you hear  there is a fire up in the woods with in 10 miles of your house..    you might be put on the  level 2… that is get things ready…    that you should have packed in your vehicles…  that day .. that you hear about it..   so when they give you the level 3..  which is GO…   You can get in the vehicle and leave..     There is just some things that can break your heart to leave behind..  especially if it is large..    but don’t fool around.. if there is a fire.  Get ready..  in the meantime..  make yourself a grab and run bag NOW.

So make a list of different grab and run bags..    #1 like I already listed  and then a #2. Bag. And a #3 bag..   if you have time. And space.. #4 and etc.. but definitely have #1 and 2.

the more things change…. The more they stay the same..

 

Some things change. And a lot doesn’t.,

Every year it is the same thing..   first we have the June to Sept…     Then you have the November  to February .  one of the worse is two days before Thanksgiving.  And same with Christmas and New years..  

So what am I talking about..  well, let’s take the closest one….first..    June to September.  We all love enjoying the summer weather..  Camping, cook outs and all that goes with it.. Vacationing across the states and etc..     That is the good part..   but what also happens every year during that time..  on a steady bases..     SMOKE…  FOREST  FIRES…    losing homes,  even towns .some times even lives…..  they happens EVERY SINGLE YEAR..   and yet we act shocked..  It is a sad thing.. it is horrible .. yes..  but we don’t seem to have an answer.. And one of the deepest causes is the weather.. You can’t blame lightening…  as a commercial says..    LIGHTENING DOESN’T CARE…     AND blaming another country is ridiculous…   NO, it is assine.. 

Then we have flooding..  actually that starts in the Spring and last until fall    as many towns that have flooded over and over.. you would think the towns,  counties would have a plan..  Some kind of drainage system… near the rivers and lakes that overflow..  But yet there they are… houses collapsing.   Cars floating down the rivers..  along with other buildings,,  year after year.   It is like they think,, well we made it thru that one..  but we won’t get anymore,  and yet the next year or two…  and a lot of insurances won’t cover you any more.,

Then we have the winters..   EVERY YEAR what do we see on television but people in airports, sleeping on the floor until the air line can clean up the landing strips and remove snow., and some times it is DAYS before the plane will leave…  What part of this don’t you understand?    You think you got the magic, that it won’t happen to you>   Come on people,,  you see it on television EVERY YEAR…  people stuck in New York, Chicago…   and then it backs up the other airports as no one is coming in from there,.. and no planes are leaving for there..  

What is the saying about the description of insanity?   Expecting things to change > insanity  defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.   Yep that is human nature..     the more things change…. The more they stay the same.. 

Pictures....

 Couple of days ago.  was going thru the picture albums..  to get some pictures of a family that we had reconnected with..  haven't see them for about 30 years or so..   the teens are grown adults with kids of their own. and etc..   

But as I was going thru to get them..  I saw several other families that I have not seen for almost as long.  And thought I should copy them for myself and send the originals to the family .. if I can find them.  It did take me about 5 years and with my daughters help..  to track down a dear friend who moved away.. and then passed away..  50 years ago we were friends..   and luckily my daughter found one to connect with and we sent the pictures.. they were SOOOOOOOOOOOOO THRILLED   as they did not have hardly any pictures of their parents.. and of themselves at that age.. 

So maybe that is something we should think about.. that is if you can find them...  we all move on and lose connection...  but even if you know where they are..  and if the parents have passed..    maybe you could make a book with copies of the pictures to your friends kids..    

Not all that looks like is the same..

 

10% against 80%

 

Everyone is so amazed at the reaction of the sports people and fans around the nation. And their reaction to our country..  lots of pictures and stories…  Like Boston running out of beer due to the Scot’s team and fans drinking all they had.     Parading thru towns celebrating all to gether.   No arrest , just happy…  Even my own daughter is amazed.

Which that amazes me.,  See I believe in AMERICA..  I know that AMERICA is a great country. What I have trouble with is our government.  And the hate they seem to promote.

See in the media..   tv, radio, computer news or just the internet itself.. has so many stories.. about the horrors of America..    Immigrants? All of them are rapist and murders and etc.. well, at least if you watch anything on the media and our government telling us so.

But that is what is shown. So that is what is believed, and promoted… even worse. 

I think of it as the 10% of America..   As I remember  the 80%.... that we have so many doctors, nurses, and nurses aides from all kinds of countries..   especially India… Philippines, and etc.  There are researchers of medical as well as other things that we worry  about … for the health of our citizens,,   We got a lot of them from Germany after WWII..   they said we stole their doctors and especially their researchers in the medical field…  The inventors as well.  There are workers all thru America..  they build your cars… especially in Michigan   FOR YEARS..   they build your homes,  they work the farms…  there is so much that immigrants have covered over the years.  Yet this administration has us thinking horrible things about them.   ICE seems to think any one with a foreign name is a suspect.  I don’t care if it is India, Mexico, Salvadore, Japan, Germany, England (although they seem to get a pass)..   but all of these are good people.. be they are laborers or office workers, business owners or what ever.. They just want to have a home for their families.. be able to put food on the table.. and pay their bills, like the rest of us..

Now I get there are a lot who have snuck into our country.. and yes, they have had criminals come in as well.. and they should be dealt with..  but in a humane way..  Transporting them back to their country is one way..   do promotions in other countries, that America is not open borders..   Eisenhower was able to tighten up the borders with out walls..  how did he do it.. there has to be answers..  but we don’t throw them all in a big barrel..  those who came over with visa’s..  and etc.. should have been checked up on.. when it was getting closer to expiration..   mandatory change of addresses.. or you lose your visa…  I don’t know all the answers but we don’t lump them all together.  

 

When I was kid, I was raised around a lot of Portuguese people who came to our country.. the rule was..  1. You had to have a sponsor,  2. You had to have a job lined up. 3. And a home to be living in..

But anyway..  AMERICA  is a good country..  because 80% of the country people care about others..  that is why there are fund raisers at restaurants and  fairgrounds.    Go fund programs.. or even just the person who pays for groceries at the cashier counter for those we see struggling..   The farmers who get together to plow the fields of a farmer who has cancer or been in a accident..  there is so much good out there, that the media rarely reports, on.. and it is daily.. not just in a while.. 

Try to keep that in mind next time the media tries to run a hateful story..    Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water.

are we are the last living witnesses of a world that no longer exists?

I saw this... looked at the long story.. and then the picture.. what made me stop at the picture was it was WOODSTOCK.. You probably have to be our age to understand what an amazing event it was ... yes there were drugs, yes there were drinking and sex... but also .. NO FIGHTING.. NO ONE DIED.. NO ONE STABBED... AND ETC.. in this day and age that is AMAZING.. SO then I decided to read the long story.. and it says how I have felt for about a year.. and especially the pass couple of months.. the 3 ring circus on the lawn of the White House... the destroying of the Rose Garden and tearing down the building to build a gawdy building.. to me.. and my generation.. we have a loyalty to our buildings across the land.. especially the White House and the Capital.. and it seems every where.. there is a rare person who has the same feelings about these buildings and what was proper and not proper for our government... we have been almost 250 years with great men who wrote the Constitution ... the flag.. all the things our guys went over seas and fought WITH our allies , to listen to the guy stand up there in France over the weekend and his speech.. instead of honor for all those men of all countries who died there.. or came back in pieces.. We feel so dishonored.. the younger generation.. younger than us, anyway.. who say that is the old ways.. we need to change.. well this kind of says how we . of the 1940's and 1950 and even the 1960 to consider: we are the last living witnesses of a world that no longer exists.

Any way you can check it out.... or not.. to see if you agree: are we are the last living witnesses of a world that no longer exists?

Like I said it is long... and yes I got it from Facebook... for those over 60.

If you look closely, you might notice gray hair, slower steps, or the quiet patience that time alone can teach. But if you truly listen to our stories, you will discover something far more extraordinary. We are not simply older people moving through the final chapters of life.

We are the survivors of one of the most breathtaking transformations in human history — a generation that walked from the slow, deliberate rhythm of an analog world into the dazzling speed of a digital one without ever losing our sense of humanity along the way.

Our journey began in a very different place.

Many of us were born in the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s, when the scars of World War II were still fresh across Europe and Asia and the world was slowly learning how to hope again. Cities rose from rubble. Families rebuilt lives after years of uncertainty. Childhood unfolded in ways that would feel almost unrecognizable to younger generations today.

Our toys were simple: marbles played in dusty yards, hopscotch drawn on cracked sidewalks, checkers and cards gathered around kitchen tables while the smell of dinner filled the house. When the streetlights flickered on in the evening, it was the universal signal that childhood adventures were over for the day and it was time to go home.

There were no smartphones, no streaming videos, no endless scroll of digital distractions. Instead, we built our memories in the real world — with scraped knees, laughter echoing down neighborhood streets, and friendships that formed face to face, without the mediation of screens.

Music became one of the defining soundtracks of our youth. The 1960s and 1970s arrived like a wave of color and rebellion. We watched culture shift around us, carried by electric guitars and voices that dared to question the world.

For many of us, gatherings like the legendary Woodstock Festival of 1969 symbolized something powerful: the belief that peace, music, and community could reshape the future. Hundreds of thousands of young people stood together in muddy fields, listening to artists who poured raw emotion into towering speakers known as the Wall of Sound. Those concerts were not merely entertainment; they were moments when strangers felt like a single generation singing the same hope under an open sky.

Education looked different then, too. Our notebooks were filled with handwritten notes carefully copied from chalkboards. Research required patience, long hours in libraries, and stacks of heavy books rather than a quick internet search. We learned to slow down and think through ideas because information did not arrive instantly. Mistakes were corrected with erasers and ink, not with the click of a delete button.

Love carried a different rhythm as well. We fell in love while vinyl records spun on turntables and cassette tapes clicked softly inside plastic players. Music became the background to first dances, long conversations, and dreams about the future. Those relationships grew into marriages, families, and lives built step by step through the 1980s and 1990s — decades that saw technology begin to reshape the world around us.

Yet nothing compares to the bridge our generation has crossed. We are the only generation to have experienced an entirely analog childhood and a fully digital adulthood.

We remember waiting days — or sometimes weeks — for handwritten letters to arrive in the mail. We remember rotary telephones and party lines where neighbors could accidentally overhear conversations. Communication required patience and anticipation. Today, we can see the face of a loved one across the ocean instantly on a screen small enough to fit in a pocket.

The world changed in ways few could have imagined. We watched humanity land on the Moon in 1969, a moment when millions of people sat in living rooms staring at black-and-white televisions as Neil Armstrong took humanity’s first steps on another world.

We saw the rise of personal computers, the birth of the internet, and eventually the arrival of smartphones that placed entire libraries of knowledge in our hands. Machines that once filled entire rooms now exist on devices lighter than a paperback book. We moved from punch cards and mechanical tools to artificial intelligence and global networks connecting billions of people instantly. And through every shift, we adapted.

Our bodies carry the marks of the times we lived through as well. We grew up during fears of polio and tuberculosis, illnesses that once terrified entire communities before vaccines helped bring them under control. We witnessed the global challenges of pandemics and health crises across decades, including the recent silence and uncertainty of COVID-19, which reminded the world that resilience is still required in every generation.

Science itself transformed before our eyes. We saw the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953, the decoding of the human genome at the turn of the century, and the early steps into gene therapy and advanced medicine. Transportation evolved from simple bicycles and steam engines to hybrid vehicles and electric cars gliding almost silently through city streets.

Few generations have witnessed such sweeping change. And yet, despite everything that evolved around us, certain things remain unchanged. We still understand the joy of a cold glass bottle of lemonade on a hot afternoon. We still remember the taste of vegetables picked straight from a garden. We still know the value of a long conversation that unfolds slowly without a keyboard or screen interrupting it.

Our memories stretch across decades. We have celebrated births, mourned losses, watched friends depart, and carried their stories forward. Those of us who remain share something rare: the experience of standing at the crossroads of history, holding memories from a world that younger generations know only through photographs and stories.

But we are not relics. We are living bridges. Our perspective reminds the modern world that progress does not have to erase wisdom. The speed of technology does not have to replace patience, kindness, or reflection. We remember what life felt like before everything moved so fast — and that memory carries quiet lessons worth sharing.

So when someone calls us “elderly,” we can smile. Because behind that word lies something extraordinary. We are the generation that crossed two centuries, witnessed eight decades of transformation, and walked from the age of handwritten letters to the era of artificial intelligence.

What a life we have lived. What a remarkable story we continue to carry. And if you belong to this generation, take a moment today to look in the mirror and recognize something powerful.

You are not simply growing older. You are living history. You are part of a generation that will always remain one of a kind. And perhaps, in the quietest and most meaningful way, you are becoming legendary."

Life has its ups and downs… don’t take it for granted..

Life has its ups and downs…     don’t take it for granted..   

We have a family who this am.. lost their sweet  20 something disable daughter.. And to show how some not only talk the talk.. but walk the walk…     the parents have donated organs ….   In the mist of grief. They thought of others,,

We take so much of life for granted..   Even if we know that there will be a time to go, we still get up every morning and think of what to do today..   what is on the list of what to do .. where are you going..  and etc..    Never thinking of the possibility you may not be here tomorrow ..     and when in grief of losing a love one.  Still able to try to help others..  THAT IS WALKING THE WALK,   NOT JUST TALKING THE TALK,,  

RIP Sweet Natalie…

time does not heal all things..

 

this picture...   is one sent to me May 25, 2017.....   it was taken by my oldest daughter....   just two hours before she passed away from a massive heart attack on her front lawn.....     

as one lives the days, months and years..  it feeling never leaves...   why?  One ask God, WHY..   even more so with me..  because of some misunderstanding..   we missed out on 20 years..  THANKFULLY.. GOD WAS KIND.. and we started talking 2 years before she passed..     She was a great lady..  think not?  Oh yeah, there was a large crowd.. at her celebration of life...standing room only.. and 90% of them were brave enough to stand and tell how she made a difference in their lives..  From adult were teens at camp with her and her husband Kevin...      friends who were close... with her and her second husband Miles..   and the great travels they had..   her grandchildren...   and granddaughter was like second skin to her..   and the grandson, she was lucky to see just a couple weeks before she passed..    

I am sure she is up there keeping tabs on us.. protecting her family...    she just has a way like that.  Don't get me wrong..  I use to refer to her over the years...  she was LUCY  from Charle Brown days..   the organizer... run the show.. just ask her siblings..   but loved by all...   MISS YA... KID..    Time does not heal all things..   just gets to be more endurable.. most of the time..

FIRST ADMENDMENT … LIKE IT OR NOT..

FIRST ADMENDMENT … LIKE IT OR NOT..

The founding fathers gave us several amendments. The first two were the most important to them..  Freedom of speech was listed as #1. Freedom to own a gun is #2.. (well, freedom to bare arms.. I think is the words..)

With the Jimmy Kimmel … like him or hate him … makes no different, why he said it.. it had to do with Trump’s age difference from his wife.. He had no clue what was going to happen 3 days LATER.. at that dinner. . So unless you believe he is a prophet, you have to believe what he meant. He said it 3 DAYS BEFORE the big dinner. What he said, granted,  was crude and rude.

But the court is really in your home.. who controls your t.v. set?  Who reads the paper or another media?  YOU DO.. No one forced you. So if you  hate the likes of Jimmy Kimmel and other who are comedians.. DON’T   WATCH IT..  DON’T READ IT. That is your fault.      There are now hundreds of different channels .  you can scroll by facebook or internet pages.

In the name of comedy, anything can be said..  doesn’t have to be true.. it can be warped, bent and etc..  and truth went to the way side since Nixon’s days..  to even go to court to sue for slander or definite of character is hard to do.

And if they say…  IN MY OPINION… well that erases truth as you might know it..   as it is their OPINION and they are entitled to that.. just like you are..

And for those who want to break the 1^st Amendment   … remember the next one down..  could fall with it as well.. if not before.

It is going to be a long 2 years.. and may the system hold tight…     AND VOTE.. this is mid term voting.. it is the start of what to look at in 2028.    And if you don’t vote.. keep your mouth shut.. you didn’t care enough to make changes.

HOW MANY BBQ'S ARE ENOUGH

 My husband the King..  has a huge smoker type bbq.(he loves cooking his brisket in that) ..                      he has a pellet stove...   and he thew away his Webber away as it rusted out last year..   And TODAY...  we went to Home Depot... just to see what regular BBQ  are running..   I hate the phase...  "lets go look.. just looking"   

Because today..  we came home with a two burner Webber (his favorite) ... for cooking just for us... 

By the way when we have family over for dinner last week.. he cooked with his pellet... BUT he forgot to add more pellets...  needless to say..  dinner was late.. and our son will pass the story on to the other boys..  lol...   And that was one of the selling points...  You see the pellet stove takes too long to get to the heat you need to cook..  (well... pellets  in the hopper.. help..lol) 

 So once again.. we have 3 BBQ...   so how many does your husband have? 

IT ISN'T ABOUT DYING... IT IS ABOUT LIVING..

 It isn’t about dying… it is about living…. 

You can chose to live or die the rest of your life… You have the choice to live until you die.. or sit and wait to die.. not much fun in that… but sure is when you chose to live until you die..

When I was a cna many years ago..  we had a lady come to our place..  turn out to be one of my co worker’s sister. She had just lost her husband a few weeks before..  she had been sick and getting weak.. so she came to us. Health care Center..  better known as a nursing home in the old days..    She was grieving as she had taken care of her husband in ill health for 5 years.. and now he was gone..   One day she seem to be pretty low..    I was asked to take her to the dining room.   She could walk, transfer herself.  But was weak, as she wasn’t eating well.    I was putting on her socks and shoes before she got up into the chair.  She was telling me that she was going to die.. she knew it.. I’m  next. I asked why she thought that..  she didn’t have an answer…  So being the blunt person that I am..   I told her, you know.. you have a choice.. You can live until you die or you can chose to sit and wait to die..  it is up to you..  she said, yes, I suppose so….   I asked how old was her mother when she passed..  she said in the upper 80’s..  She was 63… so I told her.. you know..  you might have a long wait if you sit in your chair and wait to die.. … she looked at me, like I was crazy.. And we went off to the dining room..

I went on vacation the next day… for week..  I came back and walked by her room and saw it was empty..  I asked her sister.. where is she..  she said she is gone..  I told her … I guess she was sicker than I thought.  So sorry for your lost.. The sister laughed..  and said no…  she isn’t dead.. she went home yesterday..  I said oh, good.. good for her..   Then the sister told me the message her sister told her to give me..  “Tell, Cis .. I am going home to live until I die.. and for starters.. I am going to do some travelling that I have wanted to do for years..”   The sister told me thank you .. for what ever you said to her.. by the way.. the sister passed. But the patient one lived for 8 more years..

So you see, we do have some control over how we live …. Or die…  So it isn’t about dying.. it is about how you live..

WILL THE 1st AMENDMENT SURVIVE?

Will the 1st Amendment survive? we have counted on it for almost 250 years... Last I understood, the only rule against that was yelling in a crowd room... FIRE FIRE.. everything else is given a free range.. Use to say.. stick and stones will break your bones... but words will never hurt me.. as time goes by.. I lose more and more faith in the human race.. and maybe that is why God took Jesus home.... he saw that the human race doesn't care.. more and more.. people are using weapons to talk instead of words.. Sad state of affairs. I live in a family of gun owners.. (not raised but live among family who hunt) Our Vietnam vet was talking about the 2nd amendment and defending it.. I told him and my husband, it won't be gun owners per say.. it will be those who can't have a conversation.. it was going to be those who shoot first.. that was going to take the guns away from the hunters... and those who are in their homes, defending their families.. and if they take guns away.. it will still happen.. because then only the evil will have guns... do I have the answer.. nope and especial in this day and age.. kindness still lives.. those who respect others and their views.. still live... but one has to wonder for how long... with evil having the media working for them.

Both comedian and the press release person.. made remarks days and hours before... the White House Press dinner.. They state their words were not of how it was taken... neither had malice in their intent... just life took the words and upset people... life does that to all of us at one time or another...

 

EARTH DAY

 56 YEARS AGO... the first EARTH DAY...  how do I know this?  because I had my last sweet kid on that day..    she says that makes her older or as old as dirt...    So we get to celebrate EARTH DAY and Happy Birthday sweet kid...

The weather is starting to get nice..  although tomorrow is a promise of pour down ran..   well, I guess the earth needs that... it has been droughts all across our nation...    So I have been doing maintence yard work... I have one bush, though.  I just can't get a handle on it.. It is about 4 feet high..  has tiny yellow flowers that bloom at the end of May to the end of summer...  which is its saving grace..  as the rest of the time, it looks like a dead bush..    I went out two days ago... to see if I could trim it.. maybe have it in a shape of a ball..  But it is so full of dead branches that I was trying to get lobbed off.. and the rest has tiny green leaves..  As I got done and step back to see my work..  I thought.... OH MY GOD, IT LOOKS LIKE ME WHEN I CUT MY BANGS... lol.   which is not a good look..  So this morning I went back out to see if I could correct it and pick up all the cut branches..   Still not good..   so got the weed whacker and cut the 18 inches of grass around the bottom.....  it isn't much better, but a little bit cleaner at the bottom.. So going to have to wait for Ken to see if he can do it better. 

So I am heading outside while it is still nice..  Promise of thunderstorm at 8pm... I am going to work on what we call the Memorial garden.. there is some yard art and some small bushes in there..  from times we lost some one.   We have a huge... I do mean a huge Burning bush in the front yard.. that some one gave us when Ken's mom pass..  that was about 24 years ago..  it needs to be trimmed as well..  and the memorial garden needs to be weeded.. EVERY YEAR..  I lay down papers and on top of that wood chips and mulch...   and every year those dang weeds make it thru..  only good part of this..  while there are about 100 weeds.. they pull up fairly easy, because of the previous years stuff...  and i can do it on my hands and knees. which I have found at 86 is easier than standing and pulling.. 

So enjoy the day..  even pulling weeds is worthy and ALMOST enjoyable in the sun and only a slight breeze..   

I am back... lol.. AND can you explain to me.. how this is happening?

Doing better...  about 90% better...   Starting to get some of the yard work done...   brain is working better... well at least up to par for an 86 year old broad...  lol...   I still have the pain off and on in my elbow area....  but the cold/flu or what ever the hell that was...   is gone.....   THANK GOD FOR THAT. 

So guess that means I should get busy...  and the weather is better so ..... yard work..  but came in and figure I was done for the day....   it was only 11am..  oh, well,  at least I got a lot done..   tied up rose branches..    lopped off dead branches on roses and some of the other plants..     there is yard art, I got to go thru.. and get rid of it...  I have glued and repaint them enough...   GONE GONE it will be.. 

So how is this Spring doing for you all?  Hopefully giving you cheer after the winter...  and definitely need it with all this insanity of the government...  it just blows my mind daily...   everything.. and I do mean everything... that I knew to be true...  about the laws of how this government has served us for all most 250 years..  has been thrown in the trash... I keep praying to God to help this poor government that is going more and more indebt...  and it isn't for the citizens who pay for it...   And Congress... what the hell?  I have NEVER  EVER seen such a worthless bunch... more than ever in history...  and since when does the House Speaker get to run the show...   NONE OF US.... well, maybe the state he comes from did..  but NONE OF.US VOTED THIS GUY IN....  and the rest of the bunch don't seem to have enough of a back bone..  to get rid of him...    I am pretty sure that Congress has got rid of other speakers for less than this little mouse, who does anything Trump says...  WHY ARE THINGS STILL HAPPEN , WHEN CONGRESS/GOVERNMENT IS SHUT DOWN..   and yet...  the things the American citizen's  needs can't be   voted on..     EXPLAIN  that to me..     Trump demands more money for the war... how can that happen when Congress is shut down?

Someone want to explain that to me?     And his wanted and getting angry at NATO for not stepping up to help..  He started this mess.....     he did not tell NATO what he had planned..   HE DID NOT TELL NATO.... I  am bombing Iran tomorrow.....   NATO found just like the rest of us..   AFTER THE FACT..  so why should they help at all....     I thought that was started to help nations... IF SOMEONE ATTACKED THEM.  NOT FOR US TO GO ATTACK OTHERS..    but I could be wrong..   Does someone want to explain that to me..

STILL ALIVE... but not doing 55... lot slower

Well, the good news is that I lost 10 pounds...  so got to look at the sunny side of things..   On Tuesday I get to finally after 3 months ....get to see the dr..  at least they say she will be there...  but that was over a month ago since I have heard from them.. other than the email of confirmation...   felt like answering it saying YEA, I WILL BE THERE.. BUT WILL SHE? 

My husband does not go to the dr with me... but he insisted this time he is..,,   not sure if he is going with me to back me up....  or to keep me out of jail..

By the way. I use bag balm..  do any of you?   reason why I asked... is when one of the desk jockeys heard me say I had been putting bag balm on my shingles to help ....  she ask me..  what ever possessed me to put bag balm on...   told her BECAUSE I AM A LONG TIME FARM GIRL... as we put bag balm on EVERYTHING...  cow, dog, cat, horses,  and us..    she said.. she never heard of that..   and I told her.. guess you are NOT A FARM girl... and we left it at that.  

so I will let you know if this 85 (almost   86)  still know the best about how to take care of herself.    and if I don't get back to you before...  have a NICE EASTER....  with your family..    it is also my birthday that day...  

MEANWHILE..... trying to get my life back...

 

Meanwhile….

Meanwhile my life seems to be spirally out of control..  last least how I control it.   I take pride in controlling… not others…   have no  interest in people.  Just keeping control of my own life is hard enough.

Last week, I went to prayer meeting like I do each Wed.. about 5  to7 of us read off prayer request for any one and who ever asked us to pray for those of needs.   

I got up Thursday about 8 as usual.  And barely made it to the bathroom while my stomach decided what exit was the contents in side using for a exit.   Finally deciding rear over toilet..  mouth In side grocery bag.  I came out and Ken said he wasn’t feeling too well either.   I told him I was going to lay down for a while.   Now remember by body is still fighting my nerves with shingles .. this is not good..    I woke up later and sat on the coach.. I looked at the clock and said . wow.. daylight time is sure stay light for a longer time..   he gave me a quizzal look…he said.. you know that is 9:10 in the morning, right?  And I asked what day..  Friday morning..  some where between Thursday and Friday..  I lost  track…  AND my gait wasn’t doing too well, like I was drunk even though I don’t drink..  Then I had make a call that I was suppose to do the night before..  I apologized thru mess of words..   he said no problem as he was sick…too.  I slept a good part of Sat.  and today is Sunday and not doing that great either. But least I can put  sentence together and make sense..    went outside to feel the warmth of the sun and breathe fresh air..      Ken is holding his own.  He has made a couple of runs to the store ..  I have slept with the dog as she felt sorry for me..  

What I want to know.. where did I go wrong..  Have not been this sick for years and even then kept my sense.. what little I have left.

So if you are getting this or can stay away from those  stay away.. it is hell…  

They say that a bad start if a good ending..  well, Jan to March has been truly hell    and hoping to see June show up..  take good care of yourself..

 

WHAT WOULD YOU DO??

 

What would you do?  

We have …most of us..  at one time or another heard the host, John Quinones,   ask the question..  which is the name of his show..    WHAT WOULD YOU ? He puts them into situations… and watches to see how they would handle it..  so I am going to set a scene… for you to see.. and then I will ask you the question…..

Here is the little small town, mixed with a few others.. and a larger one..  Everyone gets along pretty good.  There are some bits and pieces of disagreements.. but still, everyone has everyone’s back.. so to speak..    These towns and neighbors are pretty tight when the chips are down..  be it weather..  for fires, just different things in life.  Health.. deaths…

50 years later, a man from the big city sees a large farm as an investment…   he buys, puts up fences and widens out the road…  and then puts down pavement..

Then he starts to rag on the other farmers for not paying for what he decides is their fair share.    The smaller farms where happy with their dirt road…  and were not too happy about being put down for not doing more.  Paying more..  mor taxes…..Althought the smaller towns and farms helped with plowing the snow, redoing the dirt roads over the years..    all the thru the years..  the big business man would harp about how lazy and cheap the rest were.

The big business man found out there was a big mall going in down the road from the maga farm.  He was not happy,  as he figure being his farm was closest…  they would try to take over some of his land..   He calls a meeting with all the towns people and farmers..   He was not happy with them as they were not bothered so they were not interested.. again putting them down for not helping him..     so .. he took it on himself..  to plow up the road to the mall… putting in pits next to his side of the road that was being built.   The mall fought back with a lawsuit..  and he called on the rest of the farms to help him..   help pay for the lawyer..  and what ever else…   So here is my question…. WHAT WOULD YOU DO?     Remember this maga farmer sees a profit only place..   who was constantly putting them down.. calling them cheap and lazy..  and not pulling their weight….      WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

Maybe you might understand why the countries of NATO… are not jumping on the wagon….. 

sayings that make you think.....

 saw on the black board..... 

WHILE LISTENING ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION TO THE SPEAKER.... 

0R ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO SAY FOR A REPLY???.... 

similar one was....  BEFORE WE SPEAK,  ARE WE ALREADY THINKING  OF WHAT IS NEXT TO SAY?  

Got to admit, I have been guilty of that...  but not so much anymore...    now I am trying to remember what I was going to say in the answer...   as sometime the speaker as they are talking directly to you......go on and on,,   to the point you forget what you were going to say...    Now that I am older...   I figure what the hell,  it if isn't important to remember, then it isn't important enough to say..  and walk away..   lol....

IT IS A PUZZLEMENT...

Over the weekend..   Trump decided to bomb Iran..     I couldn't believe it..   WHY..  First he had already bomb it …. what last year?   While they have been busy trying to repair things..  they were no where near getting ready to bomb as ..  as Trump and his stooges are trying to make us believe..  Next they have nothing to travel that far with a bomb..  to get to us..    an hour after the first bombs hit.. we hear that Israel was with us as we bomb them..    so again..  I ask..  WHY ARE WE BATTLING FOR ISRAEL?   THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT…  Israel has the most to gain..   then we hear that Trump and his stooges hear that Israel was actually going to do that soon..    WHY DID TRUMP think we should???..

And my other question,   especially after Iran bomb OUR base in Quatar?   How is that going down with the Saudi  ‘s?     I thought!!  Saudi’s were Trump new best friends..  you know the Saudi’s who told TRUMP… NOT TO HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH IRAN!!

THIS DEFINITELY A PUZZLEMENT…      and then the congress voted .. the REPUBLICAN  vote to not put any brakes on Trump in this..   what the HELL.??

I miss the days....

 I miss the days……..   

The days when people were more relaxed..  instead of looking for hate.  No matter which side…   now days..  there is hate every where.. of anything..  seems like the Ugly American they talked about in the 1950’s..  is back alive a not well..   All the of the ones who were looked down at,  when they would spew  nastiness..    words to destroy.. most of us looked at them with disgust.     Enough so that they would not say it unless they were around their own..  they were the 5 %...   I think a lot of us thought it was the bottom of the barrel of the South..  maybe because that is where we thought of the KKK group who tried their best to promote hate… prejudices… mostly there were of the blacks.. 

But for a short time..   in maybe the 80’s heading into the  ..1990’s the blacks were starting to get respect…   that people were starting to see there were good and bad black people .. just like the whites…    so they were enjoying actors, and actresses,   singers, and etc..  Lawyers, and bankers and then Senators and Representatives .    Even gays started to live without having to look over their  shoulders..   Finding out that they  too, were fine people,  singers, actors, or just the guy down the road who has a flower shop…  the lawyer who steps up and shows they too know the laws and can win a case of many…     People were finally look at them all as if they are just another human being.    But some where .. around the beginning of 2000…  things started to fall apart..  and by 2016.. the hate was back in vengeance … bring it to focus was Mr. Trump..  he showed them that prejudices were alive and well.    And the under current came up and the ones where 1. Didn’t know what to do,  didn’t know how stand up for those who were now targets again..      I don’t understand..  I have been .. around and had and have friends of these  groups…  NOT ONE GAY PERSON..  asked me to be gay…  they treated me like I was me…  NOT ONE BLACK person tried to change me…   when they saw respect..  I got respect back.     And the one that really throws me is the hatred that is back from the 1920’s.   the hatred of the Jewish people..   See I was raised around a lot of Jewish people..  my parents had a lot of Jewish friends..   never heard my parents say anything negative about Jewish people..    Our town has the oldest Synagogue in the USA.

I babysat for a Jewish family..   I also worked for a produce man..  who taught me a LOT..   there were never any negative words said…  I just don’t understand.   After I was a full blown adult, that I had read of prejudices in New Jersey…  I was shock.   I went to school  with Jewish…   I don’t get it..

AND WHY IS THIS UGLY BACK?   WHY?     We have always had some kind of prejudices..  We had Catholics not wanting their kids to date and or marry Greece.. or Protestants… or Jewish not wanting their kids to date and marry out of their religious group..      but none  of hate about color,  and about feelings.. and etc..      They just wanted to stay in their own religion…

OH, HOW I WISH I COULD TURN BACK THE CLOCK ON HATE…  Just when we were starting to accept each other for who they were..    they weren’t trying to change you to who they were…   they just want to be themselves..  and for you to be yourself…  

Guess, my ex was right…  I wear rose color glasses..  

 

 

                .. 

I wish I had taken notes....

I WISH I HAD TAKEN NOTES…. 

Or even better,  kept a journal..  as there is things I remember from over the years. But as I write them down in a book like one of my granddaughters had be do…   it just doesn’t seem to come out right.

When some one brings up a subject..  like what did you do for work?   In my days, most women were either secretaries, or store clerks, .or teachers, or..  and then there were nurse aides..  until they got married..   Some of them did it after they got married..  especially if they were divorced..   Better jobs came along later,  as strong women and society figured out that woman could do just about any job a man could.   Some companies hired those women because the pay for them was about a 1/3 less than if they hired a man.  And women were so happy to finally be looked upon as good workers..  Not knowing until much later that they were getting paid a lot less.   Then women started striking or taking it to court..  Winning some, but not as much as men.     Society found out that woman could do the same work as men during WWII… when the men went to war.. yet planes, tanks and etc had to be built..   Women did it..   of course as soon as the war was over, the women were let go. Even the women pilots were told they were no longer needed..   And it took until the 1990’s before there was the recognition of woman workers during the war.   Now you see occasionally a statute of a woman pilot.   War brought on women workers..  Women following the troops during the Civil war and taking care of the men who were shot.. was some what a start of nurses..     Except they were called..  camp followers..  and were not treated very well,  and  let go after the war was over.  

It is in the old history books..  if you can find one..  don’t know what the internet did with the information. 

I went the gambit..  Babysitting, clerk in office, waitress, ran a mom and pop ice creams shop.  He was in the Navy and she was a navy wife with a lot of friends.. and when he was at sea, she was partying..  so I open the place up..   and she closed it.   Then several years later..   I was a helper in a car smashing business with my husband..   burning cars to get the copper out of it..  standing on top of a load, so I could line up the finally car on top.   Even smashed a load one time.   As my husband had thoughts of over the road driving again.  Only to find out they wanted to sell him a semi and not use his old truck.   So I helped his partner smash a load of cars while my husband was returning home.    After I took classes in becoming a nurses aide..  and did that for up to 18 years.    So you see ..  women have been filling in for years..   Now some are heads of companies…  but there are  still some that are fighting the system of lower wages and sexual harassment.    So you see, I have done a few things..    but some how that becomes blah blah blah..  when some one ask..  what did you do for work Nana…

And there really is more to that..  the cold mornings of dragging cars to the place we smashed them..    drinking coffee to warm up..   Kids up on the top of old coal piles in the summer…  when they were not school age yet.      The jealousy of another metal smashing company..    how the mill where we dumped off a load and a bit later some explosive blew up in the grinder..  and the police grilling my husband to find out where his truck had been after he finished but before he drove over the mt. to the grinder company near Seattle.

The chief of police making a deal to smash cars left in the woods… finding titles or paper work so we could…     How I had a side job.. thru that chief.. of being their operator of the phones for the city from Friday night to Monday morning at 8am.

See more to the story of ..   well I was …..  

 

ARE YOU OLD ENOUGH…. WERE YOU POOR ENOUGH…

In the 1960’s.. there were something called commodities..  On the packages was marked.. MADE FOR US GOVERNMENT.   Which meant it was totally only… made for the US GOVERNMENT. 

My sister in law and I went down once a month to a building…..got a shopping basket and went down a roll .. there were about 3 rolls if I recall right.    I had a 3 on my cart and she had 8 on hers.. it was how many was in your household. 

Now Commodities were for those who did not make much money.  Bill had just got out of the Navy.. and being their wasn’t a big call for boat drivers, which is what he did in the Navy..  driving the officers from land to ships..  and also LDT landing- something the other - transportation..    So he sold encyclopedia  books which didn’t pay much.. about 50 cents an hour and commission on how many sets you sold..  you didn’t sell any?  No commission.

My sister in law Willie showed me the ropes..  both in getting the food, plus how to cook with it..   See this was NOT food stamps..  Food stamps where you went and bought what you wanted (with in their guidelines… like no bath soap, no clothes soap, no toilet paper and etc)   What we got was boxes of flour.. 5 lbs size,   sugar 5 lbs size,  18 inch long 4x4 tins of meat,  of cheese and peanut butter.    Which by the way..  was the best ever cheese and peanut butter…  which you could not find any where else..   as the manufacturer did not make the product under their own company name.    Willie got two of everything and I got one..  because of the size of our families.  There was powdered milk, which did make some pretty good milk.. nothing like the commercial ones in the stores that tasted like paste water.

The other part was you had to know how to cook with these items.. as there was NO premade food..  it was all up to you to know how to make pancakes, bread, and etc..  even pasta..  I got pretty good at making noodles..   rolling them out and cutting them with a knife and then boiling them.    Thanks to Willie showing me how.  

Bill learned how to weld from his older brothers and went to work in the ship yards.. where he got to work on the Navy ships he served on..   which he made too much money for us to get any more.

 

So are you old enough to remember?   And were you poor enough ?