Squirrel cage of life....

Well, as I roam around in my squirrel cage of life, I have decided,
I have had enough of rain, rain, rain.. so I am heading out of dodge.
Actually going to go see the out-laws and friends…

Every other year or so, we get together, as we are the April bunch..
Our friend Susan, is the 3rd, the King’s is the 4th and mine being the 5th.
So we gather with about 30 of Susan’s friends and enjoy each other,
as we eat Susan’s great food. She is a caterer as well…So the food is the
die for..

Susan is a kick in the pants kind of a gal… She is a Kathryn
Hepburn kind of a gal.. Says what is on her mind, has a wonderful laugh,
Yet a kind and sweet heart. Even her house is as complexed and mixed
as she is. Who else can have a Christmas tree in their house year around,
a piece of Vietnam, a NASA car door, dentist chair, and many other things in her
house, because they please her. Yes, Susan is a special person for sure.
Her bucket list has included jumping out of a plane and parchuting down to the earth after she turn 70… and this year is turkey hunting on the agenda.

So I look forward to visiting with and celebrating with Susan… and it is always
great to visit with the outlaws.. My favorite sister in law and I usually find something to do.. while the guys do their thing of checking out the latest toys at the Hole in the Wall, and other such things. If it is summer time, it is yard sales for us girls.

Painting...artist?

I am not a painter.. In so many ways I am not. I am not a house painter, wall painter, or an artist type painter…

Yet, somewhere, probably in some big garbage dump or in the sea, as San Diego dumps their garbage in the sea..(disgusting) or has been burnt at the county dump… there has been pictures painted by me.

Not great pictures, but pictures that are at least lookable. If I did it free handed, they wouldn’t be. But in the 1960’s and 70’s I did paint in the evening. It was my down time, so I did many over the years, as the kids were in bed.

So if I was so horrible at painting, how did I get away with so so? I am sure there are a lot of you out there who are over the age of 50, who know how.. It was the rage in the 1950’s and 60’s.. I wonder if they still sell them… It was paint by numbers… So if you could stay in between the lines, you could paint. I did mostly horses and dogs.. some cats.. and some scenes. They came out like that artist that you have to stand across the room to see the picture.. because if you were up close you could see I didn’t fare much better at the age of 20’s and 30’s than I did in kindergarden for staying in the lines..

What I did like about it, is .. if I didn’t like the color the artist chose for the numbers, I would change the color or where the blaze was on the face of the horse. There was something calming about doing them…

Paint by numbers is now 60 years old … dreamt up by an artist called Dan Robbins. Thank you, Mr. Robbins, for giving so many of us the enjoyment of being an artist, for those of us who clearly were not.

Blue Monday

Well, Monday was a day of grey actually, not blue.. or maybe the mood was blue.
I had canceled one of the papers which does print on Monday, so that left me with no paper. Actually they delivered the paper, but I left it in the box.. which has been upside down since Saturady. Being Friday was what I thought was the final day. I called and for some reason my cancellation didn’t go thru.. I don’t know why, as I wrote it across my quarterly bill last month when I got it. Well, it is cancelled now.

Anyway, with no paper, so I checked in on the internet after I got some wash going. NO INTERNET… I could see that Schwietzer was fogged in with snow clouds, but I usually can get my internet anyway. So a call after an hour of no connection.. turns out that Schweitzer is having some problems of their own. That there is an outage of power up there. And at 1pm I was still without.

Which wasn’t as bad as I would have envision. I got a lot of things done that I don’t like to do, like filing and decluttering some tables, besides the usual Monday morning chores of wash and etc. Etc. covering my prep cook duties. I use that time to cut up onions, peppers, and etc. to use in salads all week long.

But come 2pm and I was bored.. So decided to try to get rid of a book that I have been trying to read for over 2 months. As Senfield said.. blah, blah, yada yada yada… Where I want to get to the points of the book. I usually do skimp reading but my skimp reading isn’t as good as it use to be. But I have come to the conclusion, that I could really get more reading done without internet and newspaper.

But what I am really waiting for is, late Spring, early summer weather. My thoughts go to the table and chairs in the garage. To changing out winter clothes for summer.. so much I want to do.. but too early.

So it is wind and rain this week… and maybe I will clean out my file cabinet. So much to do, that I don’t want to do..

You show me yours and THEN, I will show you mine...

The latest thing in employment is the fact that your future employer
will be asking not only for your facebook and password, but also your email.
and password… What I don’t’ get.. while it is bad enough to ask for your Facebook page, but why do they need your password.
No job is worth selling out your soul..

Luckily I am not in the job market anymore. But I am here to tell you, it wouldn’t be pretty if they asked me.. I would tell the interviewer..that I would like a copy of the key to their house.. And that I would be over to see what their house is like and I would be doing it when their children were home.

What? You think their answer would be no way??? Well, that is what they are asking of you and if I was working, me… When you give up your Facebook page and password, it gives them access of not only your words and pictures, but also
your children, friends and friends children. All of which is not any of their business and has nothing to do with the job you are getting. Unless you are going to be getting a government security job.

I would have a hard enough time going to the computer and opening my Facebook for them to look at. It would be the principal of it. It surely isn’t because of me hiding anything. Those who know me on Facebook, know that 90% of my
Facebook is where I have shared different signs and sayings and some issues that I believe in. Such as Gay rights, God, and animial rights. Anti- Child abuse, and for that matter anti- any kind of abuse. So I guess if that job meant a lot to me, I would go to the computer and let them see my page. They would be bored stiff. But I am here to tell you… the password to anything I have.. Facebook, email, bank, credit card, debit card… forget it MR. EMPLOYER.. never going to happen.

How would that same employer feel if we asked for a financial statement and tax papers.. After all we want to know if THEY will stay in business and will their pay checks be any good. Also want to know if they are pushing a 401 sign up. Or any kind of retirement. Want to know what charity’s do they give to. How much of a bonus does the CEO get? And any surpervisor, how much do they get..
If the employer wants to get personal… let’s get personal on their side as well.
What we might be terrorist.. how do we know the CEO isn’t? Or the supervisor isn’t..

I am ready

I am ready, these plants are ready, and the robins are ready…
So Spring where art thou?

Actually I guess I should be thankful we do have bare ground once
in a while. After all we have had a light winter this year. And in the
past we have had snow until the end of April, more often than not…

I guess because we have had some warm weather in between the occasional
snow storms…. Just far enough apart to give us hope that maybe an early
Spring is in sight. So our hopes get raised. And when we see our plants
trying to pop thru.. it gives us more hope.

But with off and on Spring, off and on temps.. we get the other side effect.
COLDS… in our hurry to see what we can do outside.. we wear sweaters

instead of coats. Forget hats and gloves… and bang… we have colds.. hacking cough.

Dang Spring, as it tempts us, like a moth to the flame. Buying those plants at

the door ways of Home Depot and groceries stores. Plants that we don’t have

enough window space to keep alive, and those of us without green houses know

that they will end up dying. Wasting our money, for a glimmer of Spring.

But I am ready… only two more months to go in Idaho… And those who have

flowers in their gardens blooming down south… all I can say to you is.. HUMBUG!

As the Pendulum swings

The pendulum swing far and wide.. from far right to far left…but
rarely swings in the middle where common sense lives. We seem
to swing it hard and high, when the subject is disagreed on heavily.
Be it religion, politics, or guns.

In the news we have shooting after shooting. And lately it is children
on the receiving end. When it is two adults, acting stupid, it is one thing.
But when it involves children.. that is another.

I know people who have guns. I know a few who have concealed gun
permits. One of which is my husband. These are all people who were
raised with and around guns. I personally, don’t have a concealed gun
because I don’t believe those who don’t have enough education or desire
to shot something, should not have a gun…period. But I do understand
those who do.

We have on one side, those who want to melt down every gun on earth.
Think no one should ever have a gun. Only trouble with that is, then the
only one who will have a gun will be criminals. The criminals always have things
that are illegal.. be it drugs or guns. Which seem to go hand and hand.

The other side, have a paranoid that if you get rid of one kind of gun, the
Government will be hot on your trail to get all guns. And I understand why
hunters want to keep theirs. They should be able to do it. But to run scared,
that when hunting rules are changed that those paranoid think that is the
government’s way to get rid of all guns.. seems a little bit farfetched, don’t
you think.

But surely there is a middle, a common sense of what to do about
people, especially kids getting killed. The adults here have to be more
responsible. Every time a child gets shot because a child got a hold of a gun,
I blame the adults. A glove box is not good enough, a shoe box is not good enough.
Come on, people..

There are laws on the books but they aren’t follow thru.
Making more laws, doesn’t seem to be working.
Especially if they are not using the ones on the books now.
And those gun owners who are yelling the loudest, where are their guns?
In a safe, ok.. you get a pass…but a lot of them have them out where a
child can get them. Let’s at least work on that for starters…
A common ground.

And as long as the criminals have guns,
then the home owner needs to have a gun to protect themselves.
And the likelihood of criminals not having guns isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

Fighting Machines...

The USA government takes young men who volunteer to protect their
home lands and makes them killing machines. We have been doing this
for hundreds of years.

Look at the movie Patriot, the father who did not want his son to go, yet the
young man felt it was the manly thing to do… just what men do..protect.

World War I brought us the same.

The 40’s brought us into World War II, where again, young men went off
to war and women were the support system.. be it nurses or offices workers.
Vietnam brought more young men to the training, because their fathers, uncles
either lost their lives in WWII or were vets who talked about the war. And it was the main thing to do. Even though there were a lot of protesters against the draft.

The thing that made a lot of this hard was… these wars were 20 years apart or
more. When young men were raised in a family situation.. and not to be doing
harm to anyone. Each time they were taken into service.. as a matter of duty and
the draft said it to be true.. you will be trained to fight. During non war times,
these turn out to be war games.. games.. practice, no dead bodies, no blown up
ships… And when war really did come, they were shipped out fast and furious.
Dying, being replaced just as fast and furious. Those young men came home over the years, as damaged souls. Especially when we got to the point that we tried to make sure our boys weren’t bullies in civilian life. Mine own were taught to never start a fight, but finish it if someone else started it.

Now we have volunteer troops, all of them, decided on their own to go down and
see the recruiter. Be it they were at rallys at school or seeing a soldier at the high
school, and it looked cool to be in a uniform.. Which they found out that real life
it wasn’t quite so cool.. or maybe they paid dearly to be looking cool, to their friends and family while home on leave. Some of them… a great deal of the reserves went In to get extra money to support themselves and families. We weren’t at war at the time they joined. And after we went to war, it was almost impossible to get out. While signing up for the reserves years ago, and some going to desert storm, it was a short term to be overseas.. this war brought those reservist to full time serving overseas. No more practice on weekends and 2 weeks a year.. this was real war. Buddies being killed in front of you. Your Humvee being blown to bits and if you were lucky you (?) got to fight again another day. And when they came home… when they came home…
Well, home wasn’t quite like they thought. Home was trivial stuff, the people don’t
understand. The good news is no one spits on them, and yells baby killers …like the Nam guys had in the 1970’s. But still, it isn’t the same, life at home.. nothing is the same. They aren’t the same. And it is hard for them to fit in.
So does the government do anything for them? Not much. Unless their fellow service man has been over there and saw what happen, the therapist here doesn’t have a clue. Regular therapy doesn’t work here. Besides, some come back, the Reservist , and try to get back to their old life, old job and etc. Rarely is the job still there, because he has been gone for a year or two. So it is look for a new job in a bad economy. And after months or a year of trying to find a job, he finally gets hired… only 3 months later, he gets word that he has to go back over again. Destroying everything he tries to make life normal… what ever that is…

And we wonder..why things go wrong. So desperately wrong as in Sgt. Bales. Why did they send him back? Surely there was other jobs in the service he could have done. After all he had brain damage from before. Yes, they said he was in good enough shape to go back to the service to serve. Why not be a trainer.. why send him back? Not once, not twice, but 3 times.

Is that an excuse to kill small children? Babies? Women? NO, should he be punished Yes.
But to what extent? That is the question I can’t answer. I wasn’t there. I don’t know all the facts. I haven’t walked in Sgt. Bales’s boots. I would imagine by now he has felt the full extent of the damage he has done. To the poor people he killed. To his family, will his children learn to hold their heads high later? Or will they have to change their names? Or be thought of “those kids, whose father went off the deep end and killed babies”?
And if there comes a day, when Sgt. Bale’s gets to go home… if he does .. will he trust himself to be near his children. Or will the nightmare of that night, come back to take his mind again and do bodily harm to those he loves. We have had that already here in the states. Wives beating, I don’t know about their children.. Some have killed their spouses and themselves. Those who are tortured killing machine souls…

Why doesn’t the government have at least a 6 month stay at a base, with visitation rights to their families on the base to desensitize them? To reverse brain wash them? There has to be an answer. And there has to be an answer to how many times we send the same men and women back there.. and how much time between returns. Don’t have enough troops?
Guess we will have to find a way to solve that problem as well.

I don’t have the answers, but sweeping it under the rug, until the next time.. isn’t the answer.

Water, water, water, everywhere

We live in Kootenai....

Kootenai neighborhoods floods every year.. that is just Kootenai.

But this year seems a little more than usual.

I think it is because the weather has been mild... and what little

snow we have gotten compared to other years.. and then the early

warm days and then the wind.. everything melted fast...

So we have water... water, water, water, everywhere.

Our ditches are flowing and some places overflowing.

But within a month things should be better, and drier..

just not right away.. with snow forecasts for tonight and tomorrow....

And I am NOT complaining... after all, all of our homes are still on their

foundations, the town is all standing.. And this is just a minor irritation.

After all we do live in Kootenai...

Another Sandpoint Icon closes?

The parking lot is empty..... but that is normal for this time of the year... but during the summer the parking lot is full from side to side... and even some out back...

You have travelled by it on your way to and from Sandpoint..... some daily, some during the summer...

The trailers wait for their owners to open up and have them busy from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon during the summer.

But as you can see, there is a FOR SALE sign next the the name of this area...

And the Daily Bee reports that it has been sold... and the new owner probably won't

open it up for business that has come out of here for over 30 years.. that I know of.

For those of us, with out much cash in our pockets, we come to see what products are

being sold this weekend... maybe that item you need, but don't have the bucks for a new

one.

There was a little bit of something for everyone... some times guns, all kinds of knives,

old books, records, tools, even some antiques, games, plants, sunglasses and all of us remember

the place that use to be here... and is now across the street... Sam's Produce.

For some it was a routine for a Saturday morning... breakfast and then a cup of coffee,

in hand, as you strolled down the aisles to see the wares of those who put down $15 (was

3 years ago) each stall.... to sell what they no longer wanted, or what they thought would

earn them some money. Sometimes there were trades. Always things of interest.

Some vendors who showed up year after year.. selling kitchen towels, wood signs and

furniture, plants, and other things...

I don't know what the King is going to do for his Saturday morning ritual...

As the FLEA MARKET is reportedly CLOSED for business...

Do your children know?

I was visiting a friend and her daughter this past weekend.
We go back about 40 years.

As we were sitting around the table, the daughter said,
“do you know my kids don’t know what a Encyclopedia is?”
They are in low teens. My friend and I looked at her, and
said wow… but I guess you are right… after all their
Generation looks up everything on the internet.

I know myself, I have maybe 10 cook books, of which there is
about 4 hardback, and the rest are soft cover from different
organizations I bought them from (school district, nursing home,
churches and alike) I keep out of sentimental reasons.
I use to have a book case from floor to ceiling,
6 feet wide, 18” deep. Full of cook books. One count was 276 of
them. And I don’t buy anymore, because all I have to do is google
a recipe and I will come up with thousands of them. Some sites
even have where you type in 3 ingredients and give you a dozen
recipes.

There were a few other things we thought of.. Edsel cars, Nash,
clip on roller skates, stick ball, wringer washers, Howdy Doody,
telegrams, and other things of our days.

So what is it that you have said or mention and your kids look at
you not having a clue of what you are talking about and laugh when
you try to explain it.