Tom Cruise is in his element ….thoroughly enjoyed this movie…..fun and true!   one of my faves this year.

After being told over and over..she still showed up…just great!  She went door to door and got real huffy when she was ignored or made fun of.  The blowheart …… never paying attention to anyone or anything..just making more misery because she had to have it her way.  Noo…she would not stay out to sea.  Noo..she did not go round and round in circles like her cousin Jose…she had to cause pain.  Now she is gone and her memory will not be one of love, or respect.   She did open eyes when it came to being prepared.  These gal storms who think they are ‘wonders’.  Be ready, be safe, help your friends and especially strangers who will become your friends.  Put some money away for these unwanted visitsors so you can be long gone when  they knock on your door.  Buy that flood insurance regardless of what the locals say…this year might be #500!  Better missing a few movies or dinners out and having insurance to keep you and yours insured than to endure without a safety net.   Be safe…thank your city, your state, your country, and especially your POTUS.  I am ashamed of the things I read and hear about men and women doing their best….If they give $100….naysayers say it should have been $101!    My President is my President and I will repect him as I did those who led before, regardless of the party……       be careful out there…get that tetanus shot…..

Irma is coming to my house….don’t know her and didn’t invite her, but she is rather rude and barging in sometime tomorrow…she’s been knocking on a lot of doors asking to exchange her stuff for my stuff, inside and out.  kind of re-arranging each neighborhood she stops at.  no one likes her and I don’t care for her either. she’s coming anyway.  Funny thing is…I’m not at home!  Evidently she doesn’t care, no, not one bit.  There are people who decide they will stay at home and let her visit….not me!

our friends and neighbors are, for the most part, togther on this.  We aren’t moving aside, just because she wants to be pushy about the whole thing.  We’ll go home after she has knocked long enough, and decided we did not want to entertain her kind.

I’ll remember this gal, and I am sure she will remember us …for awhile, that is, until she knocks on enough doors, Then, she will  just slip away into nothing.  be careful out there.

Not just another day here at my house or at the houses of many friends in Florida. After the sorrow of Houston and south Texas, we are finding Irma in our own back yard. Since we are 1000 miles away, we are unable to put our arms around the area we live in…like we think if we went there we could make things better…versus staying where we are.

We don’t want anything to happen to our homes and towns, but we don’t want Irma to go to another area either.  Mother Nature has certain rules that we always don’t agree with, however, she rules with her rules doesn’t she. It is best if we find to live closely with her instead of ignoring her.   The beautiful country we live in can be dotted with nature’s problems in moments.

I think one of the best decisions one can make is to purchase flood insurance no matter where you live.   We have seen floods occur in states and areas where engineers said the chances were every 500 years, or more.  Many are obligated to have flood insurance when they have a mortgage, but drop the coverage when the loan is paid.  If everyone had flood insurance the cost would drop dramatically and coverage would be much better and more fair.

I am not against rebuilding in flooding areas…such as the coastline or near a dam, however people don’t think of the small rivers or streams down the road, or the Colorado
Rockies causing such unforgiving damage in a few hours.  I would think that the $500 for an average flood policy  would be reduced to about $100 or even less, if every household had to pay. Losses would not cause tax money to be used to the extent it is now and a nice pot would be able to take care of tragedy covering all types of housing and businesses occurring in areas that we discount as ‘safe’ places.

While we are on the subject, I have also learned through experience that flood insurance varies by insurance company, not so much by area….That is wrong as far as I am concerned and probably is another reason why people have second thoughts in buying it.

Well, Irma will come and go…we will survive, it will take a long time and some of us will never be the same. Tragedy will always rear its ugly head in life, but we can learn to prepare and make it just a little more bearable when it does come our way.Flood  insurance is just one of them.    Be careful out there!

Rockies,

White supremacists..and any other group who do not care for anyone not being their particular color….

Try out 23&Me or go through Ancestry.com and get your own personal DNA Report confirming just how white  you are.

You and your family history will  burst with the color of many generations!  What a wonderful moment that will be!

I heard a wonderful speech about God some months ago…What is God…was the main question regarding His feeling towards all….human,, non human, just everything everywhere…..The decision was made early on that God Is Love, no more, no less.  If one assumes that, and I do because  I have never felt He was mean and judgemental, then the next step becomes even more interesting.

If, in fact, you try to agree, even a little, then your mind, heart, and soul will have to do a little adjusting, mostly because religion, to this day, tends to keep us in line with fear and rules to make it to Heaven,  or the good place where we think we may go after we leave earth.

If you want to think about this, as I do often, please do.  Old habits die slowly and I am no different. It is easier to go by rules than to assume that God Is Love, nothing more, nothing less….   Why?  Because it puts the whole responsibility back on our shoulders.  When there are no rules except God Is Love….what about all those other rules?

I am going to skip this disussion…cause it should take a while, even a lifetime for some, to even begin to think his way.  Are there questions about hate, and hell…sure, and you (we) can begin testing this with little stuff or big stuff.  Of course there are lots of questions that are not able to be answered….faith comes in to play here…but faith exists when we are happy that God Is Love and we see we can’t say that anyone or anything else, except others that feel the same way.

The journey continues, the questions continue, the faith grows. The road is smooth and bumpy and the sights along the way are breathtaking and obscenely mean, bit that does not change that God Is Love.

Now, for a little test of feelings….opinions…openess…and the always ‘live and let live’… Take whatever statement you want and sit it beside the God Is Love statement..It cannnot interfere with that one line…If you believe that God Is Love, will your statement of what you believe fit…  Do not put in “sometimes” or “almost always’ or ‘if you do this’…with those three words.

I see and read of many shopping malls across the country becoming less and less a gathering place for all ages.  shopping is moving to local centers and back to town squares.  Some are even open-air again, even in colder climates….My proposal…have beliefs of all shapes and sizes move their, congregations to these malls.  Each church will continue to have their own place of worship but all will be united together in growth possibilities and especially outreach….

Think of the opportunities….meeting places, gatherings for learning more about one another,  meal preparation, shops, and even temporary lodging for the needy…in a united way.  What a way to grow in the knowledge that God Is Love and to accept that we can praise differently but we praise the same entity.    Just say’in….on earth as it is in heaven.  later……

NO PENCIL SHARPENER?….A potato peeler works quite well as a pencil sharpener

NO SPLATTER GUARD?…A metal colander placed over a frying pan, rim down, will allow steam to escape while eliminating splatters

EXTEND YOUR RESULTS…The next time you are boiling veggies or pasta, pop in a few eggs and let them hard-boil along with the contents. This way you will always have hard-boiled eggs for salads, sandwiches, etc.

KITCHENWARE ODORS…Eliminate odors in plastic containers by placing ordinary newspaper, crumpled to a ball, inside the container before securing the lid. Odors should be gone overnight!

REMOVE ENAMEL BATHTUB STAINS!…Remove old yellow water stains by rubbing with a mixture of salt and turpentine.

INSTANT TOWEL RACK!…Make use of that old wine rack in the bathroom.  Roll up towels and place in bottle slots for a creative and decorative touch.

ODORS!..To remove odors from old boxes or trunks, take a slice of bread, soak it in vinegar and place it in the container for about 12 hours.

HOW TO RAISE CANE!…Tighten up sagging cane seats by sponging both sides with hot soapy water to which you have added a few spoonfuls of salt. Rinse with a clean wet cloth and allow to dry in the sun. When almost dry, cover caning with a towel and run a hot iron over it.

THE FINAL SHINE!…Keep a lamb’s-wool mop pad in your cleaning basket to be used for giving glass a final buffing.

CLEANING SCREENS!…Use a soft paintbrush to dust screens before cleaning and/or dip paintbrush in kerosene and brush both sides or the screen.  Dry with a clean cloth.

I am going to begin a series of blogs that have to do with December 1941…..These pages will bring back memories for some and surprises for others.  One will realize quickly….things change sometimes, but sometimes they remain the same.

NOW PLAYING……

THE BIG HOUSES

Astor…Broadway at 45th……..The. Chocolate Soldier with Rise Stevens and Nelson Eddy

Palace…Broadway at 47th…Weekend in Havana with Alice Faye, John Payne, Carmen Miranda

Radio City Musical Hall…6th Ave. at 50…The Men in Her Life with LorettaYoung and Conrad Veidt

GIFT IDEAS…….

Alfred Dunhill of London…Fifth Avenue at Fiftieth

“Thumbs Up” for Gloves and Handbags from England…Britain delivers the goods. Dunhill exclusives are traditionally superior.  Ladies’ gloves from $3.50; handbags from $5.00 and in calf $15.00, $32.00 in alligator.   Men’s gloves from 4.00

Bayberry Mist. A cologne refreshing as sun and wind across the dunes…gay and fragrant.  One half pint…Christmas packaged..$1.65 tax included at Personal Appearance, Inc., Provincetown, Cape Cod, Mass.

Chateau Frontenac, A Canadian Pacific Hotel in friendly old Quebec….6 day Christmas Weekend  12/23 to 29    $76.00   Price includes round trip rail fare, lower berth. hotel room, and meals.

7th Park Avenue…Housekeeping apartments…south exposure apartments …1 & 3 rooms, kitchen, and bath.  Hotel services available.  $810–$1150   Regent 4-6600

WAR!!!!!!

War came to us with the ball in Brooklyn’s possession, on the Giant’s 45 yard line. “Japanese bombs have fallen Hawaii and the Philippine Islands”, a hurried voice broke in to announce. “Keep tuned to this station for further details.  We now return you to the Polo Grounds”.   No more than that.  Twisting the dial, we got other voices:  Jingle Bells for example.

Gradually, all the voices—in reality one voice, the placid, rather foolish voice of America on a Sunday afternoon—took up the incredible story from the Pacific.  It came in slowly, disjointed, fragmentary, contradicting itself now and then.  A man in a private plane over Diamond Head, just flying for fun, shot down by two planes coming in from the sea, with the rising sun on their wings.  Japanese parachute troops dropping on the beach at Waikiki; three hundred and fifty men killed by a direct hit on the barracks at Hickam Field, and a ship capsized and burning in Pearl Harbor; a transport loaded with lumber torpedoed and sunk a thousand miles west of San Francisco; an unidentified ship, probably an aircraft carrier,shelling the forts at Honolulu; fifty, a hundred, a hundred and fifty planes bombing Oahu; and all over this country, in Washington, New York, San Francisco, and Dallas, the commentators talking rapidly but evasively, not yet knowing what to say about a catastrophe as sudden and preposterous as something contrived by Orson Welles, not yet able to believe that war had at last made the full circle of the world in Sunday morning.

We write this still not fully understanding anything very clearly ourself.

(from the New Yorker  12/13/41)

Yesterday began the week of festivities in a town I moved to when I was 7.  I had returned off and on for 40 years to visit my parents and my brother and his family.

I was part  of the July 4th committee many years ago and so I knew some of the activities being planned.

Sunday was the beginning of the July 4th celebration and it started with Worship In The Park.  This town has a beautiful park with wonderful areas of relaxing and sports.  We all came to the bandstand about 10:15AM and the sounds of music were everywhere.  People of all ages came with their chairs and blankets to enjoy the service and a pitch-in lunch afterwards.

Two churches…the Central Christian and First Presbyterian joined together 9 years ago to create this service and it continues to grow each year.

The weather was perfect and the air was morning cool. Both ministers, ladies, how wonderful, took turns leading the service. There was music we all knew and voices gained a little more ‘spirit’ as the worship progressed.

The sermon touched on being united…as  when God created all of all…thereby showing  us nothing would  being able to survive and flourish without the other.    Seeds needed dirt, sunshine, water, day and night, warm and cold to do what was asked by the creator….  All things matter, no more, no less.

We are to remember that as humans, we cannot survive and flourish without one another, in spite of our foolish thinking that each of us is an island.

We live in a house united, in a town united, in a county united, in a state united, in a country united..and…some day, with Gods plan in mind, a world united.

Our communion was a gentle reminder of how Jesus brought His friends together before He died, and offered them the first opportunity to come together in His name, as we do now, regardless of the pathway we presently choose to believe.

I know towns all over this great country have plans for celebration this week….It is unity that brought us this far….and unity that will help us reach our goal of heaven on earth.

I think children should be sold with all new gadgets….including TV remotes, most computers, cell phones, cameras for every thing except taking pictures of family (like the old days), and hotspots.  AND, using the combos of Hulu, Apple TV, etc, etc.

I never have been one to get in line for the ‘first’ model of something, however, I do understand how new stuff can be fun, entertaining, useful, and even lifesaving. I am at a loss as to why these wonderful inventions do not work all the time….and more importantly…the fact that very few people care!

When I buy a frig, I expect it to work each and every day, whether I am there or not. When I buy an air conditioner, a furnace, a toaster, a light bulb, a weed eater, and my favorite, a car…I expect them to run, move, dance, vibrate, sing, freeze, warm, and cool. For the most part, probably 97% of the time, give or take, these do and I am a happy girl.

Items listed in the first paragraph, and many more, I’m sure, are not in that category.  If they work, goody, if they don’t, dang…there is an 800 number somewhere. What I am more amazed about….is that many of us never ‘thought’ of making an item that only worked most of the time…..and that many consumers would stand in line to buy them, fully accepting that fact!

If that isn’t hard to believe, those consumers, knowing full well they were purchasing a ‘maybe all the time…well probably most of the time’ item can hardly wait for the new version to come on the market….with the same ‘well mostly’ guarantee!

Maybe it is because it is now ‘fun’ to ‘fix’…..I am not part of that crowd.   I am old school….when I buy something that does something, I expect it to do the something it is supposed to do.  The more I pay for it, the more I expect  that something to really work!  A car for me, is a good example….If my car acted like my computer, hotspot, or printer…. the air would be blue all around me.  Imagine a new car working most of the time…then you call an 800 number.  My hotspot would not turn on…800 #……my direct tv only works when the sun shines. If it stormy and I need the info….sorry…get the antenna!…oh yes and the 800 #. Customer service knows that the first thing to do is ‘find the reset button’ and reset…that is, of course, after the 800#, the hold, the sales pitch, the request for name, zip code, and secret password, and on and on.  If everyone gives out all the info…what is the point….never mind.

I know new stuff is cool.  It saves lives, offers us a more comfortable way to work and play, and gives us (Hubble) pictures of God’s backyard like we have never seen before. For that I am thankful and in awe.

I guess I am smarting about not being smart enough to invent I phones or pads, or spots. Who would have thunk that inventing, manufacturing, and marketing items that only work ‘the majority of the time’ would be such a hit!

I also love the decision to no longer include a manual with the big ticket items….It is online now….and available 24/7.  That works how, when your computer is down?

I need a drink……