Celtic Woman - A Christmas Celebration - Full album

Creative Challenge #280 ~Flowing~

Time like a river flowing,
Wandering aimlessly
Or rushing on forward
With a destination in mind,
Will end in the same place.
~tee~

Creative Challenge 279 ~Small~

It’s a small thing
To give a smile,
It’s a small thing
To stop a while,
It’s a small thing

That you've done,

It’s a Huge thing
To the lonely one.

~tee~

Creative Challenge 278 ~Every Picture Tells a Story~ Grandmother~

I wish I had known her then
Years passed, outside beauty doesn't last
The inner beauty stays forever.
~tee~

Creative Challenge #277 ~Thinking~

Thinking Winter, all pretty with white
Thinking Christmas What a glittery sight
Thinking family , always a joy to behold
Thinking what fun for both young and old.
Thinking of the seasons in  all the years past
Thinking how can all of this happiness last.
~tee~

Thanks to those that serve

When I was born this day was still called Armistice Day honoring the end of WW1. It was a memorable day in my young life; I was 17 days old when the great Armistice Day blizzard hit Minnesota and the surrounding states. I grew up with the horror stories of what happened that day. So for Minnesotans and the rest of the upper Midwest it was a day of terror and sadness.
It started out with being a beautiful warm last of fall day for the five or six states, this warm day caught travelers, hunters, everyone by surprise, Minnesota got 27 inches of snow with up to 80 MPH winds, in the states affected 145 people died.
It is amazing how we think in terms of ourselves and what affects us. To my mother this day was remembered because of the blizzard and the fact that I was a newborn. She must have been frightened out of her mind for her family to put the blizzard on the forefront of the day of remembrance.
The first fourteen years of my life this day was Armistice Day then in 1954 it became Veterans Day. In order to honor all the veterans of WW1 and WW2. To my mother it never changed. Very year I would hear the story of the blizzard.
When did I realize the importance of Veterans Day? I would say it was gradual, I knew men that served in Korea, and then Viet Nam. And I do think that the way the Viet Nam vets were treated  so poorly by too many of this country,  that led to my joining and belonging a group that honored the vets became important to me. I joined the American Legion through my brother that fought in WW2 and proudly marched in the parades, to help support veterans, the visits to the VA hospital, Sending them packages of the things they needed but could not afford, to stand as honor guards to vets as they left the church when they were finally laid to rest.
I wonder who is going to do this when we are gone. How many young people are taught to honor those people who serve and have served?  We have a new generation of vets, and thankfully  less soldiers died than in earlier  military action, but we have more Veterans that need our help and prayers. The challenges these men face everyday is another battle for them to fight. They need our prayers and anything else we can do for them.
As a nation we have forgotten to teach our young, for them to learn the sacrifices so many have given.  Too many people give lip service to being patriotic and then move on to change what these men and women fought and fight for. Is a puzzle to me, you simply can not have it both ways, You either give in to the apathy that is so pervasive in this country or you stand  up for what the United states of America means. So on this day I give thanks to all that have served, that serve now and will serve in the future. You all are our heroes.

Can we talk the truth now?

The nation is taking a breath of relief over the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. It started with a lot of hoopla and fanfare only to find that it is the laugh of the century. Or at least it would be if it was not as serious for our country as a people. The only good thing about the fiasco is that now people can make jokes about it. They can make fun of something that the President calls his signature legislation.

The sad fact is no one in the media, or anyone else could ever say a negative about the President because they would be called a racist. This President has pushed his heritage of being a fellow African American. So all of the racist police like Al sharp ton and Jesse Jackson and their cohorts would jump all over anyone daring to mention Obama in a negative light. So ACA has opened the door to what people are really feeling, like I said , a breath of fresh air in this country.
First of all lets think about this,
1. President Obama is not an African American as we as a people understand the painful history of real African Americans. Those people that have a history of slavery, of the violence, all of the negativity of what being a slave means. All real African Americans should be proud of their history and the potential of their future since their people gained their freedom so many years ago.
2.President Obama’s family history did not have anyone live through ,beatings , killings lynching being made to free less that they should by segregation. Today’s African Americans allowed President Obama to borrow their history, their heritage of each passing year that they worked for equality.
President Obama is American Kenyan; he is also an adopted  and became Barry Soltero by his step father Indonesian. He is half Caucasian from his mother. But what he is not is African American.  He is not African American as far as I can see, I do see this as dishonesty, I  also wonder when he  legally changed his  name back to Barack Obama. 
3.Where is his  pride of what he is, he is educated, well traveled, comes from a very diversified family, with many step mothers and many different siblings, only one sister is ever mentioned, If his  writing are correct he had only seen his father once after his dad moved on to another life. Is he ashamed of his real background, I hope not for it is what made him what he is. The borrowed background had nothing to do with what he has become.
I hope  that "the never say anything about how the President is doing", that has permeated the five years of his office. He should like every other President take the bad with the good, Tell us the truth about all of the scandals that have happened over and over without any responsibility taken for any of it. This is not what a president should be like. One of the Presidents I do admire greatly is H.S. Truman; the man had to make a decision right or wrong to end the Second World War. And he full well knew what history would say and as usual he said “the buck stops here”. Now that is what a President does. The media should not be afraid of him or his  race police, the American people should not be fighting over whether or not this man acts like a President, We  should be able to do as I am doing, say the truth.

Who Is The Liar And Why Is Everyone Calling It Something Else

I listened to the President, saying from day one,

1. That if you like your health insurance you can keep it.
2.If you like your doctor you can keep them.

Over and over  for over  three years. Now it is coming out that he knew for three years that it was a big fat lie.

Now he is saying,
1. It is the insurance companies fault that you are losing your insurance
2. It is your fault you have substandard insurance coverage

How did the President get a pass on telling a big fat lie and now blaming the very people he lied to? I do not get it.
1.Are we really that gullible?
2. Are we that stupid?
3. Are we that afraid to call him a liar?

I used to be a Democrat, I remember Democrat Presidents that stood by  their decisions and took responsibility for them if they were wrong. FDR, Truman, Kennedy,I even like Carter mostly because he was a nice guy, not sure if he stood by anything. Clinton  got impeached for saying one little lie,(I did not have sex with that woman), now that lie had nothing to do with the citizens of our country. he apologized for what he said and did.

I will say that President Obama was the reason I did not vote for a Democrat, When I first heard him, my brain said  liar, snake oil salesman. and my brain has been right on every fiasco that has happened since his election. All of the scandals that are swept under the rug.I  have to ask why this is happening, even though there is proof of each scandal

1. Why has he always been surrounded by  women that will do his dirty work, Valarie Jarrett, Lois Lerner, Hillary Clinton, Kathleen Sibelius,Susan Rice? Why wasn't advice from his wife good enough for him that he needed a harem.

2. Why is the mainstream media willing to sweep his disasters under the rug?

3. How can he honestly say that he finds these things out the same day and the same way we the people do. Is he really out of the loop on what is happening in this country or is he that good of a liar?

I ask myself could anyone run a family that way? Could anyone run a company that way? How can someone run a country that way?

Differences

1. Not all Muslims are violent

2. Not all people think for themselves

3. Not all whites are religious

4. Not all atheists are mean spirited

5. Not all people of different colors carry weapons and hurt each other

6. Not all mentally ill are white

7. Not all brave men and women in the military are Democrats

8. Not all men and women in the military are Republicans

9. Not all of the people care about another's sexuality

10. Not all people drive new cars

11. Not all of the people have a home

12. Not all people go to bed hungry

13. Not all people cry themselves to sleep

14. Not all people care about their neighbors

15. Not all people just walk by when help is needed.

16.Not all people hate

Memories of getting lost in St Paul

What do we store in the back of our minds through out our life? I seem to be pulling some strange memories out. I can see where old people do remember the past, when the world has changed so much that the past is more comfortable for them.
Last night I had fallen asleep and something happened that shocked me awake, without any forewarning suddenly two women dressed in 1940s coats came  into my house it stopped right there, I woke up totally awake. I was so shocked to realize where they belonged in my memories. Crazy as it is.
Back in the day during WW2, we moved to ST. Paul, my dad did not qualify for the military but he did qualify to work for the Dept of Navy. They were building an airport (which is still in operation today) called Wold Chamberlain Airport. Now that is not pertinent to my story just that is why we were living in an apartment in the city.
I guess I was about three or four and the youngest. I was also a mommas baby, I had just over come a bout of the measles and chicken pox which for some reason I do not remember,  I do remember looking out of the window and  watching  my brothers playing. And for some reason I remember one of the brothers crawling up on an old icebox and one brother crawling under it and the brother on top drops something, I think a rock on the head of the other brother. Did it happen? I do not know, but it did happen in my memories.
Now getting back to my dream, one day my mother said she was going to the store, now I wanted to go with her but she said no. And someone was supposed to watch me but evidently they did not. This part I do remember vividly. I followed her to the store, I remember my legs were tired but I kept going. When I finally got to the store I saw this shining thing that people walked up to and it turned and let them through., of course it was just a turnstile, but to me it was huge and scary.

Well I was too small or it frightened me I do not remember which, but a lady in a brown coat came up to me and ask if I needed  help, I said I want my mommy and she left, I guess to go find management. I started crying and went out side and sat on the curb (now remember this was in the city) and as I sat there crying, a lady in a purple coat and fur collar came and sat by me. Evidently the police was called because the next memory I have is them driving me in their car and eating an ice cream cone while they said, is this where you live, over and over and then I remember pointing and saying there is my house on the big hill. It wasn’t a house on a hill; it was an apartment building with quite a few steps in front. And so I was found. Did I get a spanking or a scolding I am sure I did not, but through my life I would think of  the lady in the purple coat every so often.

A Small Summer Story

When you are raising a large family you do not have a lot of extra money but one summer my kids lucked out. At that time I only had 7 children and when the then youngest started first grade I went to work filling shelves at the new Woolworth store in the local mall. We were lucky that year, no one got sick or hurt, so all the doctor bills were caught up.

The kids had been over at the neighbors playing and came home pretty broken hearted. The neighbor kids were going camping, their mom and dad had bought a pop up camper, and  of course my children wanted one too. After explaining that we just could not afford one and that we could have fun staying home, the kids with their long faces just shrugged and walked away.
When I went to work the next day the store manager came up to me and asked  if would be interested in a  permanent job, and I said no because had to be home nights and week ends for my children. Well he kept coming and asking me, so I finally said well if I could be the freight receiver I would consider it. To my surprise he said yes. And I found myself with an 8 to 5 five days a week no nights, no weekends. And I had a nice raise. When the week of the store opening happened it was just in time for the Fourth of July weekend. And what do you know, but that they had sleeping bags on special, and with my store discount I could afford to buy each one of the children one. Then I thought what good was sleeping bags without something to sleep in, and on lunch break I mentioned it to a friend and he said, well our local sporting good store rented out some of their tents,

After work I stopped in the store and sure enough they had a 12 foot by 15 foot tent for rent, and I do not know if the guy was just being nice but he said a special on the rental for 25.00 for the entire weekend. I quickly figured out that I could rent the tent and buy the sleeping bags without spending needed money for other payments.
So there I am with a tent and sleeping bags and not much else, On the way home I passed a rummage sale and I noticed a large cooler, so I stopped and sure enough the cooler was huge and in good shape and they wanted a few dollars for it, So now I had the tent, the sleeping bags and the cooler. When I told my husband what I did he threw a fit, said damned if he was going camping. After he cooled down and thought about it, he said. He would go camping but the kids would have to have all their work done, then he would go.

To my surprise he came home with a Coleman lantern and a small camp stove.
So early the next morning it was off to the county park that was some 20 miles away.
I had packed that cooler with containers of ice and frozen meat, layering it as I would use it and with ice on top and a heavy quilt over it I figured it would do. The funny thing is when it was time to go home, that cooler turned out to be a blessing for the neighbors that needed to keep some of their food cold, so after four days that old cooler was still cold. All it needed was ice and an old quilt to keep it out of the sun.
Things sometimes are just meant to be, and that was one time it came together. Because when I returned that tent, the manager of the store asked me, if I would consider buying that used tent and he made an offer I jumped at. And we spent many summer weekends out at that lake in that tent.. I did not keep the job at Woolworths after that summer, I needed to be home for the kids, they came first. When we are all together on Holidays, I will  hear the  now grown up children telling stories about camping.  They like  to tell the one about snipe hunting or when the storm came and blew the tent down and we all ended up squeezed  in the neighbors pop up camper with 12 children and four adults in it, all laughing our heads off.

Just asking

I see that KS has learned to dance around the questions without answering them , but she is steadfast in her "I don't give a shit what the people want or need" attitude. What do they do botox her face to stay expressionless?
Now I am not Einstein but tell me how this saves the average person or family money and have better health care. Your insurance drops you because you do not  have maternity coverage , or pediatric coverage, or birth control coverage. And you have had a vasectomy and your wife has  her tubes tied. Okay So now the new policy is twice as expensive and a double or triple deductible that was suppose to go into your retirement. Please tell me how are you saving money on this? then add the fact that your nurse practitioner is now almost a hundred miles away because the doctor that lives down the street is not on your policy.
I just love puzzles!

Creative Challenge 276 ~ Eye to Eye

I love my present its kind of cool.
And after a few hours I feel like a fool,
I am asking for help, please hear my plea
This new computer is smarter than me.
All the passwords and apps, I really do try
But this gift and I do not  see eye to eye
~tee~                                          

A Wee Bedtime Story

Once upon a time in the town of Gullible. There lived many hard working people. Of course in this town there were some poor people, they were too old to work or did not get around very well. There also was a band of people that begged for their supper. In fact they begged for everything.
The hard working people just kept on going to work no matter how hard the work was, They tilled the land and raised food for everyone, some of them ran stores so people could buy food and clothes and many other things needed in their daily lives.
When they got home they took care of their children and the feeble old people, made sure they were fed and warm. All the while the band of  beggars sat around trying to figure out how to get what the hard working people had.
Then one day a man came to town, He was a stranger but everyone welcomed him to the town. Everyone was interested in him and  when he started to talk, he made everyone feel good, all except a few of the hard working people, they stood back and listened. They knew all of the things that the stranger talked was impossible. After all if everyone gave him all of the money that the people in town had, and he shared it with everyone so there would be no beggars and no one would have to take care of the old people. And then everyone would be happy.
All of the hard workers went back to their jobs farming and businesses and then one day the stranger gathered all the people together and said We have to share more money, so the hard  workers had to give up their hard earned money so the stranger could give it to the others. Some of the hard workers said,  the  heck on working , I will just stay home and I will still get money anyway, and So they did.
Now there were only a few hard workers putting longer hours, taking a second job to make more money to feed their families. And still the stranger came and said, I need to take more money.  Now there are more people to take care of.
So the day came when the last of the hard workers said enough.  And they went home and did not go to work. Then the stranger said, you have to work we need the money and the hard workers said that is too bad, now we want our share of the money and the stranger said there is no more.all of the people  needed food and there was none, they needed clothes and there was no one to make them, They looked at  each other and said now what do we do they asked the stranger but the stranger did not answer as he packed his bags and went on down the road to find another town so he could help more old people and beggars.

Okay this is a paragraph for the college writing class I am taking. I need someone to do a pre peer asessment for me.

I have always had an interest in different ethnic foods, I love reading recipes and trying out new and different ones, one recipe i learned to make and enjoy serving is Golabkis. I first  heard of them when I married my husband who was Polish..The area he was raised in had many Polish immigrants, and social gatherings are an important part of their life, this includes church dinners,even town celebrations  where  there will always be Golabkis included in the menu. To say it is an easy dish to  prepare is not quite true, Its not hard but time consuming. The first  step, you have to  brown the hamburger, then the onions, then I precook the rice  to half done. When the rice is ready, you have to mix tall the ingredients together making sure you season with salt and pepper. The next step is to put on a large pot of water to boil, then when it is ready you carefully add the entire head of cabbage and let it cook for a few minutes. You then turn off the heat, and  every carefully remove the cabbage from the water. When the cabbage is cooled enough to touch you have to carefully remove the leaves one at a time. it is important to not tear the leaves while removing them. When that  is done you take the hamburger, onion and rice mixture and put some in a cabbage leave and roll it up. You will continue  doing this until you have a lightly greased baking dish filled,  making sure it is only one layer deep. Making the sauce to pour over the now stuffed cabbage is not difficult to do, it takes one can of tomato soup and one small can of tomato sauce, add one fourth cup of water  and pout mixture over the cabbages. the last step in the procedure is to  put the baking dish in the preheated oven set at 350 degrees, and bake for one hour. Remove  from  oven and  allow  the dish to set for 10 minutes  before serving, this allows the juices to not all run out of  the stuffed cabbages. It is always well received at what ever gathering it is served at. Ethnic dishes like this one gives each of us a feeling of belonging, a feeling that we have brought our history along with us as we immigrated. Even  if  the families have been  in this country for generations, these recipes passed on give everyone a feeling of continuity and there fore is an important part of  life for all. It is interesting when you find yourself surrounded by the older women when getting together to make  Golabkis for  what ever celebration is happening. These  women do not just  make the recipe, you will hear stories of the past. there will be advice handed out to the new wife or the new mother.Cooking with a group is about much more than the food itself.

Creative Challenge 275~Rare~

A rare look at what used to be

Creative Challenge 274 ~Strange Things happening at My House Is an understatement~

Looking carefully around each corner is what I am doing for the last few days. First there was the whistle on the 16th,and then the hair tugging, which I finally said about the hair tugging, You have to stop this, you are upsetting me and I do not feel good", the hair tugging stopped after two days of it and stayed that way until I started writing this blog and now someone thinks they are funny.
What I really felt bad about was after the whistling episode and the start of the hair tugging, I realized that for the first time I had forgot the anniversary of my Marce's dying it was 18 years since I lost my best friend. My excuse is that I had been ill for over a week and was still miserable but I guess in the spirit world that does not count. I do think this is what started the onslaught of strangeness.
Of course I would find things where I did not put them and once in while a fragrance would come wafting by. I am used to some of this. For some reason since the 16th I feel like my house is busy with spirits, sometimes  I have one, sometimes two, sometimes it feels like a whole crew of them. A quick shadow drifting by. sounds clanking and banging that  did not used to be here.
I do have to say someone out did themselves  during the night Friday, which I wondered was it because  it was my birthday and they wanted me to know  they were here?I do not know, all I do know is I woke up to my bedroom television being turned on and off. click, click,click, click, on and on until was totally awake and irritated. When I got out of bed and went over to it and  turned it off and on once.  I noticed my satellite was not working right, the receiver was stuck on trying to find signal. So grumbling I went over to the reciever and to my surprise the door to where the smart card is, was open and the smart card not inserted properly. I redid that and then I said, " you guys are not funny anymore". So now I am crossing my fingers that they will only be playing with my hair instead of trying to drive me bananas.

The American Family ~By Tee~

Lets talk about our American family, Lets say the head of household (Daddy) is the president. Congress is aunts and uncles, the children are the citizens of America. Now that is not a bad looking family.  We have had our ups and downs and lately there has been some changes that are not so good.
Now every family I know has squabbles, children, now as in any large family not everyone will get along. We will hear “Daddy Bobby from New York said you aren’t a good daddy“. Or Mary from Minnesota is crying because she thinks Manny from New Jersey looked at her wrong. The listed is endless. What is a daddy to do, with all of those children and now most of the kids have joined gangs, these gangs have names they are the Liberals and the Conservatives.As the days go by there is more and more fighting, so daddy called the family together and gave them a good talking to.
After having a few of these talks he lost his temper with the Gang of conservatives because they did not listen to him and follow his instructions as he wished they would, they were not like his good gang of liberals.To everyone’s surprise he started scolding the  gang of conservatives and then part of that gang got frightened and went and sat by the gang of Liberals, pretending they were listening to Daddy. Actually there were a few of the chiiildren from each gang that wanted to start their own gang, they called themselves Independentss , the problem with the new gang no one listened to them, not the Liberal gang,nor the conservative gang, and specially not Daddy. and they were sad.Now there was a smaller gang of conservatives  than before standing there saying sorry daddy but we want to do things different.
Well as one could expect Daddy lost this temper, now instead of scolding the gang of unrepentant conservatives, he started yelling and saying that they were terrible children, that they were blackmailers, and extortionists, law breakers, and that they wanted to hurt the rest of all of the children. He said all of these bad things to anyone that would listen to him, Like the Saudis, The Syrians, The Iranians and so on. All of these people were laughing at Daddy behind his back because he did not know how to control his children, they all thought, just shoot a bunch of them or maybe use poison gas and that would teach them, but they did not say anything, they just snickered. Well Daddy did try to control these children, he wanted them to go to their rooms and shut up. thinking that they would rethink  what they believed in and stop  saying that their daddy was wrong. fiinally  getting reallu tired of  this gang of conservatives he said I am not talking to you anymore and that is that, you will listen to me!
To the surprise of the gang of liberals the pretend liberals and much to the surprise of the gang of conservatives some of the uncles and aunts From the Senate side of the family started taking sides. A few of the senate side and the House sides of the family agreed with the gang of conservatives saying times have change and we the aunts, uncles and even Daddy should stop and think about what these kids are saying. So Daddy and the rest of the aunts and uncles joined together to treat these loving aunts and uncles like  they were treating the children in the conservative gang.They were called terrorists, domestic abusers, arsonists (even though no on started a fire) of course that was a crazy aunt that many of the family laughed at and just shook their heads when she started talking,
The fighting among the children along with the aunts and uncles that agreed with them, kept getting worse and worse and of course Daddy's good little children that followed his instructions to the letter, followed his example and started saying mean things to the gang of conservatives too. Well it must be alright for them to say awful things because their Daddy would not do anything wrong, would he? Of course Daddy was pretending to like his loyal children and promised them more and more goodies for being loyal, even though he was chuckling on the inside because these children were so easily convinced that he was right. What they did not know was that daddy was planning on taking their allowance (free money) away, as soon as he could.
Things got worse and worse everyday and finally a lot of the function of the daily household happening came to a halt. No one could go to the park and play, they could not take walks on the family’s park with all of their ancestors and family heroes had statues that were there so the children wouldn’t forget their history. It got so bad that none of the children could go and visit their home, the White house  unless they were invited  to visit by Daddy and this made so many of the children and their children sad.
Now the gang of conservatives kept trying to get Daddy to pay attention to them and maybe lift their grounding so they could go play with others, but Daddy and the aunts and uncles did not listen, In fact scary uncle Harry told them that no matter what good ideas they came up with, he was not going to let the rest of the aunts and uncles in the Senate side of the family even listen to their ideas. And things got worse, Because of all the nasty names and being grounded and not listened to, some more of the gang of conservatives pretended they learned their lesson and went over and sat by daddy’s favorite children.  Now there were fewer children in the gang of conservatives but those few that were left were still insisting they wanted to do things different.
Something had to change, things were getting out of hand, there were no maids to clean, and there was no one to take out the garbage. What should daddy do? Should he gather the unrepentant children and talk to them in a gentle voice and tell them he would listen to them and think about what they said. Or should he get all of the aunts and uncles and the rest of the children that listened to him or pretended to and all stand together and tell them that all of the gang of conservatives are not playing nice and are no longer part of Daddy's family. Daddy then said, "too bad that you naughty stubborn children and the aunts and uncles that do not want to be in my favorite circle. You are not like us, always disrupting us with your ideas , so you have to go away we do not want to listen to you. Then daddy and all of the mean  uncles and aunts rejoiced, they laughed and the children that  listened to every word of Daddy’s, kept pointing fingers and calling those unwanted members of their family nasty names
The gang of conservative listened to the aunts and uncles that the others thought were defeated when they said, with their heads held high, that they would be back in a couple of months to up stand for the family so it could live long and survive. That a  family that worked together with less useless rules  and careful spending was a healthy one and that it was too bad that some of the aunts and uncles and Daddy just wanted things the way they wanted them,, But when the gang of conservatives did not join in the name calling and making fun of the others, maybe things would change for a better future and then maybe everyone could work where they wanted,  pray where they wanted and go to schools that actually taught children, that there was unlimited potential for family  growth.

Creative Challenge #273 ~Smile~

 

I smile when someone says there is no God
They do not know what I know.
Each day is a blessing, I‘m thankful for  

I wish everyone would feel like I do

It makes no difference the woes that come
Just knowing that miracles happen
Will bring me through the hurting times
Like the warming rays of a morning sun 
I smile at the beauty in life as it is meant to be

                    ~tee~

Looking Back

Looking back to when there were only seven children, five were boys and of course the two girls, the first six born within 6 years. Good thing I was too young to know the difference about what was coming, my life was hectic to say the least. There was the laundry every day, there was the cooking, the constant  cleaning, there was also a lot of worrying, Money was tight even though their dad worked hard at a tough physically wearing job. We were always robbing Peter to pay Paul.
There was always a hum of noise once they got off the school bus, there was time for quiet, the rules were, change your clothes, do your home work, get ready for supper. Then it was whose turn is it for dishes? Strange it was always someone else’s turn not theirs. I thought "someone else" actually lived in my house because it was always his turn to do whatever. Then it was “Is your homework done“? Or “Its bed time kids“. How settling down to sleep could be a noisy happening was beyond me, but it was. I heard “Mom he stole my covers“, “Mom she threw clothes on my side of the floor“. Finally quiet, ah blessed quiet but hold your breath and see if it lasts. There was always one that forgot to go to the bath room, one that needed a drink, one that was hungry, one too hot, one too cold. So holding my breath, yes it was finally quiet.

Now it was get everyone’s clothes ready for tomorrow, check the homework, make sure everything was ready for breakfast, set the alarm and go to bed. During the school year it was the same routine. It was a slow time that went by all too quickly. Now these wonderful individuals that I was raising, were as varied ad a group could be, My oldest daughter , better known as “Miss Mess" hated any kind of housework, she was a social butterfly from day one, it is a fact that she has not changed one bit. I understand it now that I have my mommy’s blinkers off, but at the time I wondered what I did wrong, and the fact that she felt overworked when she had to do dishes with her brother. Then the second child, with his need to be noticed all the time, (strange but he still does) with his exquisite ability for anything art, drawing, singing wanting to learn music but did not want lessons, go figure.
Oldest son Jim also was a stinker, when he and sister Kirsty did dishes, I heard, "Mom he called me fish face", or something as bad, when I would scold him he would stop calling her that, but then I heard, “mom he is making faces at me”. I went to look and there was my Jim, with hands on each side of his mouth pretending to be a fish“. It was hard to not laugh. But then it was hard to not laugh at a lot of their Shenanigans.
Third child, not understanding him but now looking back he was that child that did not want to be seen. So brilliant but not thinking learning was important. In first grade when the report cards came, I ooohed and aaahed over the older two’s good marks and then I looked at Lee’s, and he had all Ds. Kind of shocked, I just said, “Lee these are all Ds”. He looked at me and said, “Mom they are not Fs”, and that was his philosophy and nothing ever changed it. He was the peace maker in the family; He would take the blame for all misdoing of the others. At the time I wondered how such a quiet child could get into so much mischief.

Then as the years passed the rest of the children became what each of them would pretty much be in their futures, Mitch, disappearing from his chores to go clean barns at the stockyard, his love of working hands on is still with him. Steve to invent things  and at age three decided to run away from home instead of going to bed, So with his winter cap on , his snow boots, his jacket on upside down, a pair of mittens and no pants, he was ready to go to Texas. He was so cute and so serious that I bribed him with a cookie to stay until morning. He is still trying to find his place in this world.
Then there was Mary, better known as: Mouse: so tiny, so able to wrap her brothers around her finger and bossy, whinny, tiny bundle of, “mom he looked at me”, “Mom he touched my hair”. “Mom he said he touched my food“, on and on and on. She controlled all of those boys with money when she got old enough to go out and baby sit, she saved her money and then would borrow it out to the boys with interest and kept their stuff for collateral. Sometimes she had car keys, eight tracks, walk mans what ever the boys had she would take and keep in her room until they paid her.
The then baby Brother Tom was my hyper child, he walked at six months, had no fear of anything, and (still does not). This child had more trips to the ER than all the rest put together. But he was a happy child, how many times I thought he would not survive, proved he was one tough child when he cut his arm and with it nerves and arteries and veins. We rushed him to Rochester to mayo Clinic, where they said he would most likely lose the arm, but we said tries to save it. And they did, He and I worked everyday to bring feeling back to his useless strapped to his side arm. His goal was to get better so he could play football and after five long years of stimulating and exercising his arm, the doctors said go for it. And he did. He also ruined his knees doing it and had a school record for concussions. But he made it to his goal and to this day that is his attitude, just do it.

Defining Humanity the way I see it

Another child is dead at the hands of the mother’s boy friend. Isn’t it the parent’s responsibility to make sure that the people in a child’s life are not a monster? The fact that the child was two years old, too young to do anything that horrible that they needed to be beaten. And even if he had who would lay a hand on a two year old.

Then I started thinking, how is aborting a baby any different? It is done daily all over our country and it is legal. The reason a woman’s right to kill an unwanted pregnancy. Using the excuse that it is her body. Of course its her body, it the body she had careless sex with, The one she did not care if she got pregnant, caught an STD,  maybe passed it on to the next person she had sex with. Then find out she is pregnant, so just kill it, it’s not human it’s a fetus. FYI a fetus is a BABY, and it is going to die because the mom has a right to kill.

My heart breaks thinking of all of the potential lost because of the casual ending of an innocent life. What talent will the world be missing, what scientist will never grow up and discover the answer to cancer and other horrible conditions that humans have. I shutter thinking of the people that think this is all good. And then go demonstrate to end war. These same people are against the death sentence. I do not get it, how is killing a baby better than killing a monster?
 
Then when this discussion is brought up, I hear, well would you rather have women go into an alley with a clothes hanger and then get infection and die. Well after thinking about it, if they are that dumb in the day and age of the morning after pill, birth control methods, condoms, well I guess that would be their choice. And over 53,000,000 lives would be saved.

What makes a group of people think that this is okay? The problem as I see it, it is also these people that think euthanasia is a good thing, End of life for the elderly, the ill, and the handicapped. To me this sounds a lot like Hitler’s vision of the world without everyone being Aryan.  There is no future for this kind of thinking, as soon as this group of people succeeds in getting their envisioned  utopia of their dreams, they will find more and more reasons to eliminate others and then who is left and for what reason.

 Once you start down this slippery slope of false beliefs in what is good for humanity, you lose your humanity and you all become the monster. Eliminating conscience from our world is the end of our world. I have lived a long time and I see the good in man slipping a way, the anything goes lifestyle of too many people is a good example.

Take away the good and replace it with a sterile meaningless environment is not what we are about. In order to exist we need a conscience, we need compassion, we need caring, and we need the monsters to go away. Maybe this is too simple, too idealistic, but this is my view of what are our now and our future if things keep going the way they are.

What Does It Take To Beat A Child To Death

What could this child have done to deserve being beat to death by a grown man. Two years, and it sounds like he was a happy child, did he laugh too loud, did ask for a drink? did he do something so horrible that the mom's boy friend beat him so severely that he later died. What a waste of life.

What are we as a people that our children are not protected from monsters.  Schools stop children from playing games like tag, or dodge ball or anything fun because they might get hurt and then they send them home so some crazy fool can hurt. Why is it so easy to have a one night stand and get a woman pregnant and be allowed to raise that child among monsters. Well I hope Mr Peterson realizes there is more to making the innocents than a few minutes of fun,there is being a daddy and knowing who is in that child' life.

KSFY Sioux Falls SD

By Tess Hedrick, Reporter - ABC-News

News of this tragic event has people all over the nation thinking about the toddler and his family. 

Friday afternoon Adrian Peterson addressed the media asking for everyone to respect his privacy in such a devastating time.

"Just staying prayed up. You know, one thing I always bounce back to is the good Lord -- never give you more than you can beat that you can handle so I'm built tough," said Peterseon.

The two-year-old boy died from injuries sustained on Wednesday. The assault reportedly happened at the Platinum Valley Apartment Complex.

Patterson's neighbors told us that there was a lot of commotion Wednesday night and that's when several police cars and ambulances arrived at the complex.

One neighbor said she saw the little boy just hours before.

"He was cute. He seemed really happy and nice. He came over and petted my dog and he just seemed happy," said Katarina Wells, neighbor.

27 year old Joseph Patterson made his first appearance in the Lincoln County Courthouse Friday morning.

He's in custody on $750,000 bond facing charges of aggravated battery of an infant and domestic aggravated assault.

If convicted, he could face up to 40 years in the South Dakota State Penitentiary.

Now that the two-year-old has died, there will likely  be new charges coming.

Learning about Friendship

I have written before about moving a lot as a child, new schools every year, never having much in the way of friends.Maybe I knew that it did not pay to become attached, or maybe it took more time than a few months to start a friendship. Or maybe I just did not know how.
When I was 14 we moved to Winthrop and there, I got my "new" name, actually a nickname. And there I started to feel like I had a few friends.Not close friends but actual friends. So just before school started we moved again and again I was a stranger. 

The small Town where we moved to had  friendly people and I became friends with a small group. There was Larry, Steve, Arlene and Barb, we hung around not doing much, usually watching the older guys work on their stock race cars, the high light of the week was when we got to go watch the races. It was a comfortable feeling to feel a connection with others. I remember all of those care free days, Letting myself be open to friendship after my dad promised we would not move again. I did not realize it at the time but it was me growing stronger from that always waiting for the other shoe to drop feeling.

The the second year just before school started a new family moved to town. on the first day of school I met Penny, I will say that Larry also met Penny but that is another story.Penny and I became first class mates and then friends. I never figured it out,why we were good friends, but we were. Penny always so neat, so studious, quiet and reserved and here I was, not neat, hardly ever studied, and no one could ever say I was quiet. I was and still am a talker. I do not remember ever disagreeing on anything, we just got along.

There was a world of difference in our families also, her's were safe secure steady people, and mine, well I guess my dad flew by the seat of his pants and my mom and us children simply followed. Maybe it was the steadiness of Penny and  maybe it was the fact that I also flew by the seat of my pants and  that fact fascinated her. I know I gained in bravery and interest in different things. There was always a quiet strength that I got from her.

We never spoke of our friendship, so I have no idea if she felt the same friendship I did.Then there was the growing  relationship between Penny and Larry, and the fact that Larry was a good male friend mine , I remember sitting and talking about life and the future with Larry and slowly there was more and more mention of Penny in our conversations and soon it was clear that they were a pair. So some how my friendship with Penny and with Larry became a bonding of the two of them and me. It became an almost family feeling to me. 

They married young and started a family and a year or so later I did too. Over the years we kind of lost touch, but in the background they were my friends Luckily they are also good friends to my older brother and his wife Sue.Whenever I would see them, they never seemed to age. Now we are older and stay in contact with each other. In my minds eye they are still those young friends of mine that showed me how love grows. Now through the years, I guess I talk more to Larry then Penny, but it feels like I am speaking to both of them.They are the most together people I know, so that is the story of my friend Penny, ( and of course Larry).

Well the Washington Waltz is almost over

Added: Thursday, October 10th 2013 at 4:34pm by tesstruhartz1

Listening to The Five today and then the news afterward, it sounds like the dance is in intermission, with both sides getting tired of stepping on each others toes. The mud slinging name game did nothing positive so now they have chatted and will "talk" to their people. Why the President has to talk to his people is beyond me. He should just put on his President pants and be the decider.
All of this is just a bunch of spoiled brats earning too much money and is required to do little in the way of work and  get the voters all riled up, as we can see on the posts on blogster. all the while these imbeciles keep on playing games with American, Well Mr. Boehner as you said"This ain't no damn game"! It is about time for you and Harry Reid and Pelosi , McConnell to go home, retire on all the money you made screwing America.
Bob Beckel The lone Democrat on the five asked if people that believe different can be friends. I do not know why not, I do not define myself by any group. I see good and bad inn all of them as whole  but most of the individuals are nice. of course there are jerks in every crowd and we do see them here and there.
Well soon the dance will be over and in spite of scary Harry puffing that he will not bring any agreement to the floor of the Senate. He is such a dud, makes you question Nevada voters doesn't it. The Prez will get his debt ceiling for a few weeks or months and the house will get a couple of things passed like the medical device tax, and maybe even an extension of A.C.A. that way the Prez does not have to admit it is a piece of crap..then in a few weeks or a month or two they can go at it again, I do not know about the rest of you but their continual dance is getting awful tiresome.

Working Together

Let us start today
To try and find a way
To work together
And still find a way
Finding what is best
For our world today
It is time for those we elect
To take the time to hear
 What we the people
 All have to say

The noise we hear
 And some people believe
Makes me wonder
What is really up your sleeve
People feel pain each day
Of the mistakes you make
For your party’s sake.
Your party  did not elect you
It is plain for all to see
Next election time
The house and senate
Is not where you will be
 ~tee~

Mr President when will you start speaking to me?

Added: Tuesday, October 8th 2013 at 3:20pm by tesstruhartz1

5 / 1 rating 

 

Edit This Post

Now I know President Obama is not going to read this blog. I am a lot smarter than that, but maybe at least one of his blind followers will read it and say,well she has a point.
He does not speak to Independents,
He does not speak to people in the Tea Party
He does not speak to Republicans conservative or moderate
He does not speak to Libertarians
He speaks to liberals
 He speaks to special interest groups
He speaks to unions.
He speaks to the gimme people.
He has not never spoke to me
He causes division in our country
He tells the gimme people what they want to hear and they actually believe him
He goes behind our backs to big business and we get lies
He is trying to take away our liberties and so far  he is succeeding
He is playing games with our constitution and is loving doing it
He does not respect any of us, our way of life or our country.
He will not destroy us as a country,we are too strong for that.
He will never speak to me or for me, and that reassures me that I am smarter that.

The Duality of politics has always been there

Added: Wednesday, October 9th 2013 at 4:28am by tesstruhartz1

The word duality was my creative challenge this week., which I will post later. I started thinking about the duality of politics after a post by a liberal Obama fan posted some contentious  remarks trying to make me the villain in his conversation.  So I started thinking what do each of  the people either Democrat /Republican believe. and on the bottom I will try to explain where I stand with all of the different arguments as a former Democrat turned from being stifled by someone else's party line to thinking for myself.
What do Republicans  want.                                             
They are  pro life
They want tighter restrictions for SS disability
They want unemployment insurance at 26 weeks
They want health insurance  across state lines
They want to defund A.C.A. and start over
They want self responsibility for birth control
They  want a strong military
They want to get rid of the dept of Education
They want to Limit the EPA
They want the Keystone  pipeline
They to Remove the excess limits on coal specially in WVA
They want illegals to have to go home and ask to come here,( well this is open for discussion)
They want tax reformthey want the government to stop being the PC police
They want  the government to stop attacking freedom of religion.

What do Democrats want
They want Abortion at will even at  full term
They want to Stop the pipeline
They Like A.C.A. no matter what
They want illegals to  be able to vote
They want less Military
They want more laws
They want  Higher taxes for the 53 % that  work hard for a living
Now I realize this might be off a bit on both sides. but it is hard to discern  exactly what liberals want because  throwing stick and stones happens more than discussion.
 For myself I vote for who makes the most sense to me, without wanting a nanny state to take care of me. I am on a limited budget, I do not expect anyone to pay more taxes so my life can be easier. I want someone who, when I write them they respond. If they don't, They lose my vote. the Political parties and their "people" mean nothing to me. The fact that a junior senator from Illinois  with no experience can be elected president, and in my opinion only because he was the best looking candidate is just crazy.
So when you come to my page, you are welcome, but state the why of your comments , not angry rhetoric that gets us nowhere.And if you have specific things that your  party stands for, please list them. And if you are against some of the party platform say that  also.

Creative Challenge # 272 ~ Duality~

The strange beauty of the duality  of

The physical and the spiritual worlds

The believers and the nonbelievers

The outlooks, so close yet so far apart

The fact is, we all end up in the same place .

~tee~

Creative Challenge~ #271 ~ Perception ~

 As we go through each day
Our perception is different
for each thing we encounter.

Creative Challenge #270 ~Steps~

Sometimes those steps take longer than others

Whats In A Name

Growing up My name was the bane of my life, was it a bad name? Now looking back it wasn't but when I walked into a new school  and a new class room for the first time and the teacher said, Okay class lets welcome our new student, and then would have me to say my name. I would stand there with all of those stranger eyes waiting, feeling like throwing up and I would say my name and for some reason I thought I would see disappointment in their eyes.To this day I can not stand in front of a group without getting sick to my stomach
Eighth grade was a turning point for me when the Phy ed teacher shorten my name and I felt like a new person, that old name was gone while I was in school. Ninth grade was was fun when I went to that new school and got to slip into a desk before the teacher asked me my name and each class room they did, but I would say my name strong and unafraid. I wasn't that old frightened little girl with that hated name. Luckily I never had to go to a new school and I shed the old past and became a social butterfly. That cute name was what I thought had opened the door to being popular.
I had a boy friend, and after dating for a couple of years we got married, and a quick thought was that now I had really changed my name. But I was in for a surprise, My new husband did not like my cute nickname and insisted I went by my real name, I felt a twinge when ever people used  my name, but at least it wasn't used together with the dreaded last name from grade school. the years went by and I was too busy to think of silly things, raising a large family and survival was on the top of the list.
As years passed  I did not realize that my life had changed so much from what my dreams were and that not using my nickname was just the beginning of being different from that  happy teenager, I gradually forgot who she was , let alone think of now unimportant a name was in the scheme of things. I became a wife and a mother and lost that girl. Years when on and unhappy was a part of my life that I hid until one day, someone at  work said to me, Tee how did you get so smart, What? me smart, me a Tee? Wow a new name one that belong to a smart woman. That started me on the trail of finding that young girl again that had dreams.
When we finally divorced, my daughter wanted me to take back  my maiden name and I thought oh no and visions of those schools came back.Six years of learning to like me again, to see the potential that was there all this time. I got married to a great guy with long last name and I was happy, When new hubby said my name it was a caress not a sad thing and I  was happy. After he died, I struggled and proved I was as strong as he thought I was.How smart I was. Now comes the time that my children asked when my time comes where will I be buried and what do I want on  my headstone. How did I get that old I wondered and of course I just had to look in the mirror to realize the time  that had passed.
Now I do genealogy and the where I would be buried and what names would be was important for future generations to find me.All of a sudden names became important again. My daughter wants me to change my name back,not to her dad' s but to my maiden name and that they would list my children's names on the headstone for the future. Now it is important  that I decide  and make peace with that long ago dreaded name or keep the one I have now.

Creative Challenge #269 ~Neglect~

When you see neglect do something,
When you hear neglect say something,
When neglect happens change it,
When neglect stops, the world smiles.

~tee~

Creative Challenge #268 ~Summer~

Summer’s end, his light will be leaving soon,
Taking with him all the loving light
That brightened your life from that first day,
His memory will follow you to the end of your days,
He and you had the spring and the summer of life,
The gifts of family that you gave each other
Will hold you tight, until you are strong enough
 To stand alone,with his strong spirit beside you.
 

~tee~ 2013

 In honor of friend Mendy's husband, who will soon be in God's presence

Creative Challenge #267 ~Corner~

Corners are a mystery until you make the turn
And hopefully the surprise is a good one. 

~tee~

Creative Challenge # 266 ~Humble~

I am humble said the bumble bee, I can fly I am free
I am humble said the rose I have beauty, come see me
I am humble said the babbling brook, as it flows by
I am humble said the meadow lark, as it flew high
I am humble as I see, all this beauty that God gave me.

~tee~

Creative Challenge #265 ~Colorful~

The shades of life make a colorful display
 Of joy or sorrow, of love and laughter
All  blending into a glorious picture of time.
~tee~

Creative Challeng #264 ~Hanging in the balance ~

The time between grief and happiness

When our emotions are hanging in the balance,
Do we move on or stay in that gray world
Of tears and laughter, of sadness and joy,
To take that step into constant sorrow
Or sweet memories, is our choice of course.

~tee~

Creative Challenge ~263~ The Culprit~

The culprit isn't the dawn.

But the soft beauty of the coming storm.

~tee~

This Sunday.... Things I know.....

Things I know….
That you only appreciate what you earn
 Nothing in  life is really free
What goes around, comes around
When you have a hard row to hoe, it will take more than physical strength
Faith is not something you can exercise to grow, it just is.
Being  lonely is a choice
Being happy is also a choice
When life is a battle, call a truce once in a while
Wait for the dawn, for it will come.
Waiting for love is futile, love yourself  it is a beginning
Tomatoes will ripen in their own time
After the rain there is not always a rainbow.
But sometimes there is  and it is worth the wait.
~tee~

Creative Challenge # 262 `Mature~

I need to mature, my head does say
But my heart says lets go out and play,

When its the time to be the grown up me

I ’ll be serious you just wait and see,

There is time for serious days I do know
But when work is done off to play I’ll go.

Time does fly and soon it will be that day
We’ll find our days of play are going away.

That day will come sad as it is, I do forsee

When I’ll be wishing less of that serious me.
~tee~

Creative Challenge # 261 ~Clear Skies~

Seeing the clouds of the gathering storm
The  instinct of fear for what is to come
Knowing that clear skies always follow
Will Ease our soul and allow us enjoy
The stark beauty of natures symphony.

~tee~

Creative Challenge #260 ~Under The~

As the sun sets on another day, 
Under the cover of darkening shadows
 The comforting sounds of night begins again

~tee~

What the hell?

For cripes sake what the hell is the matter with people?  The media should be arrested for race baiting, for encouraging riots, it is all media driven and the disturbances are by people that would riot for any reason. Our justice system works! Now Shut the hell  up people. I feel sick after hearing Chris Coumo yesterday and  this morning Geor ge Stephanopoulos . Making it sound like the jury lied. that it was a bad decision. Who the hell do these people think they are anyway?
A young troubled man with a history of fighting, of bragging he had guns, of stealing, doing pot, these things were not allowed in court. Well court or no court these things are true.  He was sent to live  with his dad because of these things. I have said before both of these people made mistakes and one died. The fact that it was a young person is his bad luck, because in my view if it he had managed to injure Zimmerman enough to stun him  Zimmerman would have been the victim and Trayvon would have been  the accused.
Now that incident was brought to trial against law enforcement and legal advice because of the law,because of the facts. Politics stepped in and made a travesty of our  justice system. The strange prosecutor that denied Zimmerman his right of a grand jury and instead filed second degree murder against him. Then this woman fired her worker that blew the whistle on her illegal hiding of evidence.
The prosecution along with the defense picked the jury. the jury used the facts to acquit Zimmerman. Now the prosecution,( who by the way are under investigation) are whining that the jury was wrong. The jury that they help pick, the one that they hoped would decide using emotion instead of a lack of facts. Well they were wrong!
Now the shit stirrers ,the President, the DOJ, The media, The racist Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and all the other bigots that do not believe in our justice system will be happy if all hell breaks loose, in fact they are working hard to encourage it. 
I felt bad when what I thought was a bad decision for Casey Anthony happened. Now I see what I did not before, it was not proven that she murdered her baby, just that she hid the body. So should I have rioted on behalf of  that  child or all the  babies murdered? What about the over 50 million babies killed by their mothers everyday?
Why aren't the very people wrecking property, wrecking lives out there protesting all of the murdered young black people that die every day. all the while the media does  their ratings dance of joy. Where is the President, the DOJ, the media, Al Shapton, Jesse Jackson and all the other bigots that are ignoring  this tragedy, instead are calling for Zimmerman's  blood.

Shame on all of them!!!

Creative Challenge # 259 ~The Key~

Like a beautiful flower, 

The key to a happy life

 is to bloom your  very best ,
no matter your surroundings.

~tee~

Troubles Trials and Tribulations

Oh woe is me, for this I see,
How bad can things really be
Each morning when I wake
A new day for goodness sake
What can go wrong is what I think
I go make coffee and take a drink
The water was added  and the filter in
Forgetting the grounds should be a sin
Later on my  lawn needs to be mowed
Thats what happens when grass is  sowed
Where can my worker be I do declare
She said she would come, she would be there
So now the grass is almost one foot high
Its growing so fast, I want to cry
So I will find a new one that will  mow
You all can guess what  happens now
Hes half way done, I hear a big sound
No more mower, its broke I'll be bound.
So woe is me for this I see.
Having a yard is really not for me.

Creative Challenge #258 ~Memories~

Most memories are good, some are sad, some are bad.
I wish I could go back to this place for more memories to be had.

~tee~

Creative Challenge # 257 ~Fun~

Lets have fun in the sun, 

so what  if its a rainy day
Its summer and time to play.

Its soccer time for the neighbor kids,

In grass or dirt, they don't fuss

Even sandals and flip flops work for us. 

On  chilly days or in the summer heat

 We're learning  the game the very hard way

Each time we play is such a great day..

~tee~

Life On Buffalo Ridge Has Its Benefits

I know that the middle of the US has terrible storms, much worse than  the ones that we get in South Dakota /Minnesota area on Buffalo ridge. Knowing that does not make me less frightened  when I am told to take cover the storm is going to pass over where I  live. Living on Buffalo ridge can be harder than living else where but it does have its benefits. Storms when they hit are usually less harsh than 20 miles away. Why are they? Because the ridge is some kind of weather divide. I have no idea why except that 20 miles away is about 700 feet lower than where I am in either direction.
 Yesterday was no different than any other first day of summer, I looked at the radar on on line no watches , no warnings, I gave a small sigh of relief, storms no matter how small scare the  heck out of me but I pretend they don't, a left over from raising kids and being in control. A half hour after i looked on line , my son called and said, Mom the storm will hit where you are in about 15 minutes. WHAT STORM? It is a bad day when you can not believe the radar on line.
So the winds starts blowing, the rain starts spattering, the world turns dark, the street lights come on. thunder booms lightening flashes, I took my walker to my little hallway sat down on it ( it is an uncomfortable seat but anything in a storm). What to do, well I got out my phone and called my sister in law in the UP and asked her to check my weather, she did and I found that her radar on line works much better than mine. Yup, there was a storm, yep there is  another one behind it, she asked," Can you bend over quickly"? I asked why, she said," bend over and kiss your ass good bye,  the tornado is  right over you". Well the computer generated  tornado was actually over the town twenty miles away, whew!! There was none on the ground thank goodness.
So there might not be shopping malls, kids hang out around bonfires instead of shopping, the income generated is mostly farming or taking care of the largest percent of the county's population, old folks like me. But we have lakes, we have prairie flowers, we have hills, get to smell mowed hay, lilacs in he spring. Ice fishing in the winter, the sound of kids laughter playing without out worrying about being abducted , never mind the neighbors junked vehicles parked in his yard,
The first day of summer blew in like always and we on Buffalo Ridge went to bed on time, slept well, woke up and checked to see if there were any trees down, made coffee and started the second day of summer on Buffalo Ridge.