THESE HANDS

I as I was washing my hands last night, I noticed,
so many sores and scratches and just tired looking hands
that look so rough... It brought to my mind, Hank Snow's
song about hands. I
can't remember all of the words.. only
a few here and there... it went something like this.....
These hands are
calloused and old
If these hands filled
their task then what more could one ask
For these fingers
have worked to the bone
While these hands
brought me happiness
Now I'm tired and I'm
old and I ain't got much gold
Take a look at these
hard working hands
So true of my hands... they have served me well for these
72 years. And while I don't feel that
old, I look down at these
old hands batter and rough, and they
have brought me
happiness. As I have held my babies who
have grown to
adults, and grandchildren and even
great grandchildren.
They have held the elderly as I took
care of them over the
years of being an aide. And they have
let me hold on so
tightly as life has given me a roller
coaster ride.
Some times it makes me sad, as I
realize all that they have
been thru... these hard working hands.
And I have taken them
for granted up until recently, as I
feel how they don't grip as well,
as they use to. The jars are harder,
the zip bags are harder.
But as old and callous as they are,
they still work well...
Looking at these hard working hands...

This dang primary...election..

Well, today, I have to walk
into a building.. and it angers me that I am
forced to say I am something
I am not. For it I don't, I don't get to vote.

I have taken pride over the
years of voting for whom I thought would
try to do the best job.
Never having to claim any party.. yet because I
live in a flaming red state,
that made it a law last year.. I have to proclaim,
I am something that I am
not. A Republican. I am not... a
Democrat either.
I am not there to lopside
the election for November. I am there to see if I
can lend a hand to have some
good voting choices.

In the old days, there was a
Democrat and a Republican ticket. Well, there
was a few other ones but
those scare me. Heck, now they all
scare me.
But I never went to vote to
make it easier for the other party ... I just want
some what I deem to be good
honest people to run and not some radical
who says they belong to the
Republican party.

See in Idaho we have about 4
or 5 different kinds of Republicans.
There is the good old ones.. and there is the Reagan Republican, the
right wing conservative Republicans, and then there is the mid Republicans and
lastly but far from last.. the TEA party Republicans. What the heck is the
difference I don't know.. I wonder if they do. But they are so paranoid, they
have outlawed us, who have no party, so we can't vote. UNLESS we admit we are
Republican (thankfully we don't have to say which one).

So I will head down today,
and sign a paper claiming to be a Republican.
I want
to write ... only for
today... but was told that is illegal...
So I figure I would go in,
and lie, just so I can vote. And then
after I leave the building, I will be a Catholic while I am at it... and say.
FORGIVE ME FATHER, FOR I HAVE SINNED... and then tell my self I have to do 10
Hail Mary's. Just
to get the taste out of my
mind.

Short and Sweet..and story of Terror

With my achy body, I will return to the yard this morning..
Just as I have for the past couple of days.

We have been hauling rock ..river pebbles for the walk way.
Cement for the straightening out of the leaning fence.
Sand and brick tiles for extending our patio area.

Oh, because the weather can't make up it's mind, I have hauled my

30 some odd hanging baskets and planters in to the shed, out to the

lawn edge (where I am watching for half to get strong enough to be placed)

and to their hanging place... and then back to the shed again, and back

out and back in.. well, you get the idea.. As we have had freezing am's.

Finally I have said the heck with it.. they are out...they will survive.. or die..

those who die will be garbage,

I am tired of this merry-go-around.

So I leave you with this picture.. I saw it on Facebook.
It reminded me of days gone past.. way, way, back.. lol
To my young years of helping mom do the wash. It was
a Maytag in our household. And I hated that machine.
It was a chore that I wasn't crazy about because I am not
graceful. As I fed the mighty roller, I would be reaching
for the next item, as I watched the last one go thru. But
for some reason as I fed the second one, some how.. some
how..... I would get my fingers stuck in the dang roller.
Sometimes reaching mid palm by the time I was able to
hit the release to pop the rollers apart.

God, I... hated... that... dang... machine.

Then Mom got an automatic.. it was a miracle of miracles.
But then terror struck my heart as Dad rolled the old one
around
the corner in the basement.. and he told me.....(I called it
a threat.)
"I am saving this for you, so when you get your own
place."
I fooled him, I moved across the country... don't know what
ever happen to that dang machine.

MARRIAGE: the defining of it....

Maybe the definition of marriage should be ...

A unit between a man and a woman joined by a religious type
of ceremony. Meaning
if you get married in a church, Synagogue
or any religious building of your choice...by a Pastor,
Priest, Rabbi,
or another cleric type... . it is called a Marriage.

But if you were not joined in a church or any religion
building
it should be defined as a civil union. Those of us who got married
(opps, joined) in your back yard, in the forest, in the
park, on the
beach, in the ocean, in the air, flying thru the air, and
etc...it is called
a Civil Union.. you do not have a marriage...

Marriage is strictly a religious term from now on.. Another
one of those
politically correct terms.
Oh, the Marriage group, can't have the word
married.. because that is a verb meaning joining...not only
in wedding bliss
but in welding two different objects and etc...

Hey, attention all crooks and Terrorist...

This is how you do it, or how we check you...

Might as well, have a public announcement, the way the media
broadcast the fact the police tried this and that.. when something
happens...We caught them because we did this and that.. (well, crooks
you will have to try something else, because they know about that one.

Or the government and the airlines don't have the tech
abilities yet for checking you out to see if you have bomb next to
your kidney.

What the heck? I have stressed before... LOOSE LIPS SINK
SHIPS..
And the remark by the government official who was on CNN on
Tuesday, telling how we don't have the tech abilities of
some search, seems to fall under that. What the heck is wrong with
bluffing? Is there any rule or policy that states one can not lie to
the crooks?

The police and the government has done their fair share of
lying to us in the past.. So why not for safety reasons. Heck if
anything we should lie about should be for the safety of the nation.

Won't let us profile people? Like the email states, if it
walks like a duck, quacks like a duck... it is 99.9% a duck. And if I
have my choice I would error on the 99.9.

So many times we see some big official explaining how we do
things, what we can do and can't do. Be it the airlines checks or
the troops and planes. The less they know the better. What they don't
thinkthat terrorist have computers and television?
The need to know is crap to me..

I sure wouldn't want to be President...

As we start the race, even tho they haven't gone thru the conventions
yet..we all ready have the grand slams..

And as we all know that there is truth, lies, spins and twist. And of course, the biggest
one of all.. TELL THEM ANYTHING THEY WANT TO HEAR. we can do
as we please later game... They all do it.. no matter what party you are talking about.

But here we are 3 years later, and we are slightly better off than we were before.
Companies are recovering.. BUY AMERICAN is helping out a lot of companies.
Which gives jobs. Some people can insure their kids
still on their health policies. And not so many houses are going into foreclosures.

But we have a long way to go yet. There are some people who are getting jobs,
but still we are standing at 8.5. Stock market is till a roller coaster thanks, to foreign
countries. Interest rates are still in the toilet. I mean, part of 1 per cent, really? Loans are hard to get.

So of the two, who do you think is really going to turn this whole mess around
and have the 500,000 a month jobs as Mr. Romney seems to think is the going rate..
didn't hear how he propose to do that, and for that matter, he didn't say he would..
he just raised the bar that high. And if he gets in.. the American people who believe
in him.. will expect him to do it.. and do it in 2 months.
After all they were calling for Obama's head 2 months after he got in, because
he had not taken care of the countries ills by that time.

But of either one of them.. who is really going to do something great? I know even
if I had the best of the best in each division... I know I couldn't get it done. There are
to many variables involved. And as we know, they aren't all here in America.
So unless we start making EVERY thing here in America... and not only sell here, but
overseas as well... and don't buy overseas.. then .. and only then, we might
come flying out of this hole. But I sure hope you aren't holding your breath.

Nope, I wouldn't want to be President in 2013.
It will be like the old English days, of OFF WITH HIS HEAD... when they
find out who ever wins, has feet of clay.
And I am telling you by the end of 2013.. I will be totally shocked if
we are out of this mess that Bush and his cronies made. And yes, I do blame it
on Bush. He had 8 full years to throw us to the wolves.. and did greatly.
My little pithy stock was worth twice what it is now, just a month before Mr. Bush
came in to office. A year later... sliced in half.. and that is before anyone even
knew who Obama was.

Yep, this will be interesting.. and as I said before Obama was voted in, I don't put much
stock into who is President.. it is the cabinet and the congress people who
worry me. And of course we have little to no control over that.

No Server

Nothing strikes terror in a bloggers heart, than those two little words..
This post was suppose to be called.. WHY I LOVE LIVING IN IDAHO...

So this is what I did on the weekend... got the cover over the raised garden,

got the plants put back out (freezing mornings here) and got a few more up.

I am not looking forward to.....

I am not looking forward to
emails of this summer.. and fall.
They have already started...
had a few of them.. but now they
are getting to be more and
more...

When I said something about
not being a Democrat or Republican..
I was told that they were
sending them along to keep me informed.
And God forbid, if I say I
do my own... as they start in on what ever media
I read or watch.. no matter
what it is.. unless it is FOX, of course. Telling
me the site, media of my
choice is all liberal and out of whack. Surely
I would NOT believe what is
written or said.. Which kind of brings it to me, my feeling about them watching
FOX or one of their radical right wing sites.
But I am a little more
polite than they are.. and don't say that. But then again
maybe I don't because....quite
frankly, I don't want to fight.

These emails? If you haven't
gather it yet.. is the politically ones. Especially those of the Republican
persuasion. They seem to be so vicious
of nature. And sometimes, it is hard to hear it from people I call
friends. Now, my Democrats friends can
be a little forcible.. but so far none of them have been the jugular comments
of the direct right. In fact, they seem to be happy. I don't know why, as
neither party is doing well.

So here I sit.. do I say
something, or just keep my mouth shut.. I am tired of researching their emails
to see if any of it is even true... as they don't seem to care if it is true or
not, and pass it thru anyway. I hate it when I get lazy and don't research it
and find out it was a lie.. fake, or hoax.. don't like passing any of that on. So I guess I will read the subject line, if
it seems like the political kind.. the delete button will be used a lot.

How are those numbers again?

They are really pushing the new light bulb. The new and improved.
Which those words alone strike terror in our hearts. As those old enough
have seen our favorites go down the tube, with the new and improved.
I have the old feeling of, if it isn't broke, don't fix it.

That was true many years ago when I used a soap deterrent called ALL. It
was the best. It got grease and oil out of my husband's work clothes. It got
all the wonderful things that kids can get into their clothes, out and clean.
And then they came out with a new and improved ALL... which was not. The
oil and grease failed to come out and the kids stains stayed. I even wrote to
the company complaining...to deaf ears.. after all they were making more
money with this new and improved.. but not from me.. I switched.

I was reading the article on the new light bulb that will cost $60!!
$60 flaming dollars (flaming because it was burning up my money).
It was said that this new and improved light bulb
will be cost efficient as it won't used as much electricity. Which I think that
might be true because they are talking 10 watts.. that must be a misprint. But
do know that the suggested of 60 watts of late has made reading
harder for me.. Thought I
was losing my sight, until I was reading something in my friends kitchen with
bright lights and saw I could read quite well.
But if you take the $60 and
divide by the 20 years... that is $3.00 a year. How does that match up against
the regular bulb that I can buy 3 for $3.99 at home depot? That last for years
for me.. Some have lasted over the 14 years we have been in this house.

Then you have the cars that
are getting 39 to 41 miles per gallon. Some of them use electric. But if you
take an average of the $20,000 to $35,000 that they cost about (27,500) and
divide that by 8 which they say is the average amount of years the average
family keeps a car... makes it $3,437.50
a year. That buys a lot of gas for the average family that doesn't
travel much. So why get into the payments, plus interest? Say nothing about the
electric ones and how much it will cost to recharge those batteries. Right now
they act like that is free. But it isn't. I
am sure the household bill
goes up and those charging stations aren't going to be free either. And some of
the only get 30 to 40 miles to the charge. That is ok around town, but you
don't travel, at that rate it will take days to get where you want because of
the hour or more to charge the batteries.
Plus the average battery that is used, is about $4,000 to $7,000 and
only last about 2 years.

So how much is it going to
save us.. doesn't seem like much. Surely not enough to go into debt. I realize
some day.. probably not in my life time.. the vehicles will all be electric or
such. But like I said.. not in my life time.. so I am not going to go into debt
for one.. nor worry about it. All my
vehicles are paid for. Not new.. but serviceable... gets me from point A to
point B.. and look at all the money I am saving without those payments.

Are you better off than you were 3 years before?

I have heard this question asked many times over the years. Back as
far as Reagan days... Even Bush Sr. used it, I believe. And once again
it is being used in this election.

When it was used during the Bush Sr. years, the answer was no. I was
not better off than I was 4 years ago. During the Clinton years it was
slightly better. During the Bush Jr. it was no. That was
mostly do to the small stocks which I had gotten by heritage, couple years
before.. had dropped in Feb. 2001. And then the year of 2002 was worse as my
wages got frozen until just before I retired
December 2003.

But when it was asked this
time around... I have to say the answer is yes.
I know there are those out there who will think I am crazy.
But we seem to be better now than we have been
for years. But next to a lot of them, I have lower expectations.
I have a roof over my head.. and it is paid for. I do have to still pay
for taxes, and insurance. But for better or worse..it is ours.
It isn't one of those hundred of thousand dollar houses. But we
like it.

We have food in our freezer. Thankfully because my husband is a hunter.
Which helps a great deal. We also changed our way of eating.
Which not only help us lose a great deal of weight
and we are healthier... but it also saved on the high prices of food.

My husband has a year around job. So we can pay our bills, which
we downsized during the last few years.. so we are in a good place.

By anyone else's standards we are still low income... but to us, we are
doing ok. Our needs are small.
Yes, we love to travel, we love to have a new car, and all the American way of
life, that they say we should do.... but we are happy.

Am I bragging? No, just stating we are ok.. our needs are small,
our expectations are low. When you are use to going without, you don't
mind, not having what the Jones have. And we have the important things.
And we do feel like we are better off than we were last year.
Maybe it is just an attitude adjustment.

And when you count in our family, and friends..
well, we are very rich and blessed..