Let Your Smile be Your Umbrella

I am a born and raised farm gal.
So I know how important it is
to have rain. Many of Spring
time I have smiled as it rain.
Others growling, but I enjoy
the rain. It freshens the air.
And I really love the warm
rain in the summer.

But I got to ask you. Are we
having fun yet? Because I am
just about smiled out.

I have been trying to get
my outside Christmas
lights down and put away.
But between the rainy
days and the sunny
freezing days, I haven't
got them down yet.

I started this last night
with the idea of fleshing
it out this morning. Well,
it is fleshed out alright..
to the tune of 2 inches of
SNOW. Guess that is
what I get for asking..
"what snow" when
another area close by
got snow on Saturday.

Keep warm and dry.
And try to remember
this in late July, when
it is hotter than Hades

Curious

I am curious to why people are
saying they are happy for Brad
Pitts and Jolie with the news of
their new baby. He is adopting
her other two children.

All the talk shows are saying it.
The only concern they have is for
Brad's ex. They are concern
of how she feels. That is the
only negative thing I have
heard said.

Am I missing something here?
Am I the only one who noticed
that there is no word about
marriage. The people are
screaming about gays marrying
and no one says anything about
these two, in their glee of parenting,
with no marriage.

Is gay marriage worse than no
marriage at all? Is that going to
be the new trend? I don't get it.
They seem more worried about
how Aniston is going to take this.
She has already said... I am so
over this... I am not a victim...
And the people only seem to care
about her feelings. Yet, have Ellen
or Rosie O. Elton John, talk about
getting married and everyone is in
a panic.

It isn't an issue of whether
gays marry, or even those who
chose not to marry, but do
we go ga ga over some one who
just skips over the marriage part?
Is marriage out now? We don't
mention it because they are famous?

When it involves small children, it makes
me sad, that marriage is not important.

But guess that just makes me old
fashion... not with the times.
which I am glad.

T. C. B. and other headaches

T.taking C. care of B business
and other headaches of this day.
This is the 3rd time I have tried
to blog. And if this time I get
dumped off, then I will wait
until tomorrow. My server
dumped me two times
when I hit publish.

Heck I don't know if I
can remember what I
blogged the last two
times. But at least it
was short.

As you can see I am
running late. Way late.
Just been one of those
days. When you wonder
what life will throw at
you. Lousey start is a
good ending they say.

I think I will just quit
today while I am ahead.
Go look at my Tomato
catalog. They have 100's
of different kinds. Yellow,
white, plum color. Now
if I can just get the little
seeds to grow. My average
was not good at all last year.
10%.

Maybe I will stay out of
trouble if I just sit and look
at the catalog.

40 days and 40 nights

Every year at this time of the year,
it seems like it rains 40 days and 40
nights. Use to be snow, but the past
couple years it has been rain.

Yesterday the King and I went to the
store. And then to the post office.
What an eye opener.

Now, the town of Kootenai is well
known for being wet ground. And
any rain leaves the ditches running.
But I was surprised to see the ditches
not only running. But running full blast.
Some of them overflowing.

Even on our street, the water was
boiling up in the ditches. We figured
it was a broken water pipe the way
it was going. So we called the sewer
dept. (it is in their ditch) and they
could tell if it was a broken water
main or just too much flow.

But they have their hands so full,
it went thru the night. Haven't
seen any one show up yet. But
they could have showed up during
the night.

Even the yards are about a foot or
more high. And there are lakes.
Near the car dealership on 200,
they had a large field full of water.

Water, water, everywhere.
Wonder when this will all
start going down.

Trying to Get Back on Track

I have been trying to get back on track.
Walking... gave it up in Nov. for the
long track, and gave up the post office
run in Dec.

Didn't think I would like a broken leg
at this stage of my life. And I did fall
one time on the way to the Post Office.
Only thing that got hurt was my pride.

Now we have a treadmill, and it is almost
like starting over again. I have the same
pace, but not the longivity of it. Best I
have been able to get out is 30 minutes.

So have decided to get my eating in
range again. And step up the minutes
per day by 5 until I can reach an hour.
I have been watching tv as I go, as it
is boring to just do the treadmill itself.

Maybe I could find the Village People
and play that, to get more into my
gait.

Well, it is time to get on the treadmill
of life. And for life.

They Say....

They say..No sense in complaining
about the weather. Nothing can
be done about it. Well, that takes
a lot out of this blog today then. ha

I know I am getting a bit of cabin fever.
I see things outside I could be doing. But
getting soaked is not one of them. Just
a run to the neighbor's house entitled me
to a pretty soaked shoulders of my
jacket.

Cabin fever, is something I do get
each year. I don't do well with
rain and etc. This is tea and
magazine reading time for me.
Feel like I am taking the
easy way out. Not doing much.
I love and soak in sunshine.
I live for sunshine. But not the
90 degree type. 65 to 80 is
just fine.

I like rain too. Warm rain,
what I call farmer's rain.
I think I love it more just after
the rain. The clean smell of
the air. Or maybe it isn't
the rain so much but the
clouds and fog that come
with it. I love walking
in the rain in the warm
summer time.

But this doom and gloom
doesn't do much for me.

Building a House

Building a house these days is
so wound up in permits and
regulations, it is unbelieveable.

In 1976, my deceased husband,
Marvin and I built, actually, on a
house in Ellensburg. We had
bought a 3 room cabin with no
water, or bathroom. Just the outhouse.
We added on 3 bedrooms and sewing
room (actually a catch all room) and a
bathroom. We brought water in from
the pump house. We did most of the
work ourselves. Those who help, traded
work for work. Marv was a mechanic.
So he did work on their cars, and they
help with times we had problems.

We did need a permit ($25) to add on.
We did have a house inspection for
wiring. And to check stucture. They
both came out one time, when we
were finished.

In 1982, we bought a mobile home
(ok, a 3 bedroom trailer with a pull
out in the living room.) and then set
it up on 10 acres in Vay. The
electric company came out and
installed a the meter stand. We
had a friend put in the septic tank
and field. The rest Marv did himself.
The electic inspector, health
dept. came out and checked their
sections. It cost $125 for permits.
Electric and building. We put in our
own road. No permits for that. No
inspections for that. We put in a well,
and I don't recall an inspection for that.
We might have had to take in a sample.

But last night I went to a town
council special meeting.
There are two contractors who are
putting in two nice areas just outside
of Kootenai (which they annexed
in to the town). The sewer people,
engineers, contractors, developers,
and the guy who keeps an eye on
water drainage for the town. The
meeting was to help the contractors.
To see if they were all on the same
page, as they get all the i's dotted
and t's crossed.

Through all the meetings I have
gone to watch, it amazes me how
many permits there are. How many
papers they have to have just be able to
get a permit. There are so many loops
and hoops to jump thru before they
even get to step across the ditch to
start digging a foundation. There are
culverts to place. Ditches to be leveled
and angled just right. Placement of the
utilites that are coming into the property.
And if you are putting in several houses,
well, you have to have LOTS of
patiences, time for paper work, money,
and did I mention patience.

Because you have to have sidewalks,
street lights, roads set just right, ditches
and the water drainage is a BIG thing.
After all this, hopefully you have all your
ducks in a row... and then you can start
building houses. And you know the
permits for that. Building, electric, sewer,
plumbing, and the list keeps going.
Money, Money money....

So when you see your contractor? Tell
him thank you... you have no idea what
the headaches he has, just to build you
new house. And no wonder they cost so
much anymore.

Not Quite What You Expect

Jo Monaghan….Cowboy Joe. Was a little
person thought to be a tenderfoot, when
first arriving in Ruby City, Idaho. Riding
a well-groomed mare. This boy, wearing
baggy clothes, not much more than 5 foot.
Earn the name of Little Joe, due his stature.

Little Joe, came during the gold rush. Digging
until his hand bled working his claim. But only
earn a small wage. So he took odd jobs, working
in a mill, breaking horse. A job that he earn a
reputation of being the best. But he was always
a loner. Sleeping out under the stars in a bed roll,
rather than in the bunkhouse. Was even in the
movies and Wild West shows, because of the
shooting and horsemanship ability. Then gave
it all up to run his own ranch near Rockville.

So what is so unusual about all of this, about
a little cowboy called Little Joe? Well, it seems
when Joe died and they went to dress him for
the funeral, they found out it wasn’t a Joe,
but a JO Managhan. A woman, who came
from the East.

Next is Angel of the Coeur d’ Alenes.
Louise Siuwheem. I would suppose that
the locals know who she is. She was a
young Indian woman from the Coeur
d’ Alenes. A strong woman, who was
so strong that she scared the Spokane
tribe away when they came to attack the
Coeur d’ Alenes, by holding a large cross up
in the air above her head. Who also
discouraged the Nez Perce Indian tribe
from coming across the lake to fight with
the Coeur d’ Alenes by telling them that
the Coeur d’ Alenes were Christians and
not warriors, but if they come across the
lake, the Coeur d’ Alenes will kill them, but
if they stay on their own side, they will
live.

Well, that is the way the legend
reads anyway. But the true fact is,
she was the granddaughter of Chief
Circling Raven who predicted the
Long black robes angels would come
and teach his tribe about the Great
Spirit. Which is when the Priest came
to the area shortly after and taught
the Indians about God and built two
Missions.

What you might not know is that Siuwheen
and later baptized to the name of Louise,
was the force behind the building of the
Mission we call Cataldo Mission.

These interesting facts come from a
book I was lucky enough to borrow
from a friend. The name of the book is.
More Than Petticoats
Remarkable Idaho Women
By L.E. Bragg

Very interesting book. I have met,
Sacajawea, Eliza Hart Spalding,
Jane Timothy Silcott, Polly Bemis,
Kitty C. Wilkins and May Arkwright
Hutton. And the two ladies above.
And I am only half way thru.
What I told you about the women
is only 10% of the story, so guess
you will have to find the book to
get what Paul Harvey says....the
rest of the stories.

Which reminds me of Laurel
Thatcher Ulrich saying..
"Well behaved women rarely make
History."

Auger of Life's Information Trail

I have been caught up in the auger of life’s
computer information.

We all know that someone can take a piece
of information about us and bring up all kinds
of information about us on the computer.

We know that insurance companies, can bring
up medical information on us. Insurance
companies can bring up our driving records.
What I didn’t know was that insurance
companies, at will, without informing us,
can bring up our credit report AND judge our
insurance rates on that.

I was naive enough to think that car insurance
rates would be judged on our driving record and if
we pay our premium on time. That their quotes
would go up or down because of how we drove,
and also if we insure more than one vehicle. Also,
if you insure your home, or even life insurance would
gain you cheaper rates.

Imagine my horror as when we got our renewal
and was informed that our rates were up because
of what was on our credit report. Credit Report?
Why would our car insurance have anything to do
with credit report? And of course I shot
off a letter to the reporting credit report. After
all, we hear of credit report mistakes, even
Id theft, that goes under the radar if we don’t
do a credit report check ourselves.

I got my report back. Had to ask for a separate
one for the King as they don’t do couples, even
though, all of my credit report is showing joint
accounts. After getting both of them, I
saw just what I thought I would see. All correct,
no arrears at all. No late payments. Clear and good
report. (no numeral rating because you have to
pay $$ for that). So asked my insurance company
why the marks against our insurance. Wait until
you hear this one…

There are 14 things you have to meet to have
perfect report. We met 10 of them. We passed
all the bad ones, we got the rating of Best in this
Category. So what did we fail?

Our failure was,
1. Our credit cards were only 5
years old, they require 12 years, to be best.
2. We are using 30 -39% of the available credit
of all of our cards. The fact that we chose to
have low ceilings, and 2 of the 4 of the cards are paid
monthly. Means nothing to them. As they want
to see 10%.
3. It has been almost a year since I made a
request of credit, they prefer 18 months or none.
4, in that request I made, one request, in 24
months and they prefer none in 24 months.
I don’t understand the difference of 3 and 4, but
it makes 2 marks against us.

So if you decide to be financially responsible.
To combine your cards, to get rid of high
percentage ones. That is a mark against you.
If you decided to get an extreme low ceiling
card to use on internet. That is a mark
against you.

I am not going to say we are pure in the
insurance world. We did file one claim.
The King backed out of a parking spot
and his bumper hitch scratched deeply
into another bumper this summer.
Costing the insurance company $430.
Our only claim with this company that
we have had for 12 years. I have never
(knock on wood) had to file a claim in
my 48 years of driving. The King has only
one, 25 years ago, in his 39 years of driving.

Had they said the rates went up for this
minor fraction, we would have understood,
not happy over such a minor incident, but
understood. But to check our credit report?
We had nothing to hide, it was the principal
of the thing.

Now I got to ask, what the heck does our
credit report have to do with insuring my car?
There is a few states that this isn’t allowed.
Idaho is not one of them.
update
for those who find this hard to believe
here is a link to read. From the state
insurance department.
http://www.doi.state.id.us/consumer/credit_questions.aspx

Resolutions

I don’t do resolutions. Learn years
ago, that they don’t work. I guess,
like most people, I am weak and
can’t keep the strong will to finish
up an idea that starts at the first
of each year.

I do try to have modest goals.
Simple ones, like to put more
time into my gardening. That
was last year's goal, and I did.

I do have a motto of sorts. Some
thing that guides me thru life,
that I try my best to do. That
would be a yearly goal…
To do no harm…

While that seems simple enough.
It actually can be hard some times.

To do no harm, by not gossiping
To do no harm, by not thinking
the worse about others.
To do no harm, by judging all sides
of things and people, before I make
up my mind how I feel about it or them.

Well, you get the idea. I guess it
is softer than my old motto which
still applies when needed…. And that
being …..
Illegitimi non carborudum .