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~