FOR WOMEN ONLY
If any men read this and say, “me too”, I’d like to hear their stories. I have more than one friend who has worked all their lives. Raised their children on ‘women’s wages’ which we all know are much lower than men’s.
When they reach social security age, they are single and must depend on what they have earned in social security, or take a early amount off an ex-husband, or a mountain of other reasons. One, I’ll call Abby draws $450 a month in social security.
She saved a bit of money, all between the time her three children were grown and the time when they needed mom’s help again. However Abby is one of the lucky ones, sort of. She lives in a very nice church owned apartment building for women. Since this is a place where women stay until they die, the younger tenants (age 65 to no longer able) can work by checking on other tenants making sure they are still alive and calling ambulances in the middle of the night..
Lots of women were hard working waitresses. They probably didn’t declare all their tips, which wouldn’t have made much difference, but did help feed their kids.
Others, like one I’ll call Betty, even rose to management of places like drug stores, in the end their life long earnings didn’t give them enough social security plus pension to live on.
Today many pensions are savings where the employee and employer put in equal shares. When you’re earning a third less than a man and have a hundred percent more children to support, they don’t end up with much of a pension. It isn’t unusual for a woman’s pension and social security to equal less than a thousand dollars a month.
No all women end up poor. Another friend Carol has a pension, again management at a third less than a man makes, but she also has a husband who earned an excellent salary. They were able to save a good bit of money. Life was perfect until he got sick, the list things that like MS, Parkinsons, and Alzheimers, goes on and on.
Today they are in their seventies, he’s in a wheel chair and can’t do anything for himself. She can’t lift him. Baths are sponge only. He wears diapers, which I’ll leave to your imagination.
She has enough money to pay someone to come in 4 or 5 hours a day during the week. Carol is on her own the rest of the time. Getting someone to live in (room and board added to the money would make a reasonable pay check) Finding a responsible person able bodied enough to lift the husband for what she can offer, is harder than you think.
Carol takes loving care of her husband, but is no longer able to give him the care he needs. A nursing home would take so much of what they have that there would no longer be enough money for her to live on.
This is an election year, a good time to tell all the candidates how important social security is to all of us.
Women not only need, but work as hard and are worth wages equal to men.
Playing around with pensions such as matching dollar investments are too hard for most, because there are priorities like children that keep them from investing that extra dollar. Companies need to return to a basis of how long you worked there and how much you earned.
Some candidates won’t listen. You shouldn’t vote for him. Other candidates will listen. You might think about voting for her. The two most important things are, 1.Tell the candidates what you want. 2. Vote
BABY ITS COLD OUTSIDE
The earth is heating, its been doing that since the last ice age. You know the one that killed all the dinosaurs. This is not why we have the awful weather, no, no, we did that all by ourselves. All that smoke and such we emit everywhere to create power for our nice cozy lives.
Some of us like my readers here in Florida will be underwater someday. All that ice at the north pole is melting. The south pole too. It is melting and sending all that cold artic ice and snow down to us.
If you haven’t done anything about energy conservation, lip service doesn’t count, take a look at your heating bill. That should motivate you.
I’m not going to give you a list of things you can do to help your planet. Truthfully, after you read them, would you close this blog and go do something else. I know this because its probably what I would do.
Instead search the internet on your own. Find something that appeals to you and do it. At this point in time any little thing you can do will help.
Meanwhile, if its cold outside where you are, do your internet search, see what changes you can make that will help and start now if you can. If you can’t make a bowl of chili, if you don’t have the ingredients, a can of tomato with lots of crackers, or chicken noodle will warm you up nicely. Next find a good book. Umbrella on the Floor, by me Saunnielee, would be nice if you like mystery/suspense. Available on amazon and kindle.
NEW GUN LAW
I haven’t been blogging because I haven’t had anything important to say until now. I constantly compare the US with other industrial countries for several reasons. For those of us who can take our heritage back to the colonies, for the most part came those places.
I try not to ignore the black man, who didn’t come here willingly, but also cultivated the land that this country was built on. The ones who managed to become free by one means or another, fought along side the ones from Western Europe to become an independent country.
I keep comparing how the rest of the industrialized countries take better care of it’s people not only in health, but many other areas aswell. The one thing the citizens of these countries don’t have is a gun. When Western European countries as well as many others were settled before the gun was invented.
Our ancestors had guns, they came with guns, and they made them part of our culture. I’m not proud of the way they used guns to murder the Indians who were here first, but guns were needed to move across and settle the wilderness that became the United States.
Guns is the way families were fed on land where they had to cut down trees and get land ready for planting. Not just for food, guns killed bears and a host of other animals where either they were our dinner or we would be theirs.
My father had a shot gun. Over thirty years working in a factory he only missed one day of work each year. The first day of hunting season. When he worked the night shift, leaving my mother home alone, he bought her a gun.
I’m sure he taught her how to fire the hand gun because he taught me how to use the gun when he gave it to me because my husband was working nights and we lived in a new sub-division where street lights hadn’t yet been installed.
I doubt he taught her how to clean it. He probably took care of that himself, however I learned to clean his shot gun when standing on end it was taller than me.
My husband grew up in the mountains. At his parents house he would go to the basement and make his own bullets. Wherever we lived (in the US, not the many years we were stationed in Europe) he was the local Pawn Shop’s best customer. He bought and sold guns because he loved them.
He never owned a hand gun, because his love was hunting. He never owned a rapid fire gun, if you hunted with one of them you would destroy your prey. My father taught me to preserve the meat. Shoot your prey in the head.
Twenty years in the Army the weapon assigned to my husband was a hand gun. Mine was an M-16. Tote that sucker around on a exercise.
Oh, yes my son has a safe full of guns. I don’t count him or my grandson because they are both cops.
Guns are part of our heritage. I love going to the range. The one nearest my home is inside, it also has arcade games and a 4 star restaurant. It’s entertainment for we decedents of the minute men.
Automatic weapons are not part of our culture. Criminals use automatic guns. For our protection law enforcement and soldiers need access to rapid fire weapons.
Mister Obama, stop the production and distribution of rapid fire weapons in our country. Do background checks to insure we are law abiding citizens. Do whatever is needed to keep guns away from criminals and terrorists, leave the rest of us alone.
Christmas, Bucket, & Check Lists
All my packages are wrapped. I quit sending Christmas Cards years ago. If God wanted us to send Christmas Cards he wouldn’t have made email. Yep, I’m late on my annual Christmas email to friends and family.
Bucket List. Doing okay. A very long time ago, I decided someday I wanted to sit on top of a mountain and write a book. Umbrella on the Floor has been on Amazon and Kindle for a year now. I write year around, but during the summer I write from a mountain in the Blue Ridge. Really proud of that one.
When you pass middle age and enter old age, family will likely be at the top of your bucket list, enjoying every moment with them and leave good memories behind for them.
This year I located a cousin I hadn’t seen or heard from for over 50 years. Between a find people app. and Ancestry.com, I found an address and wrote a letter with no idea how old the address was. A couple days later I received an email. Planning to see him in Ohio this summer.
Facebook Slatzer alert; the long lost cousin is a Slatzer. An item on my bucket list is the Moonshine Fest in Straightsville. Maybe we will come together and meet a lot more Slatzers there.
The list of things I have procrastinated about is long, but my Christmas message is; before there is no doubt that you have few years in front of you than are behind you, think about your dreams, shelved plans, and hopes, then go accomplish at least one. It will change you. You will smile more, and feel so good.
Merry Christmas to all.
NOTHING TO WRITE ABOUT
I don’t have anything to write about this week. There has been new, innocent people are still getting murdered for no reason other than like Hitler, ISIS wants to take over the world.
Trump is still sticking his foot in his mouth, but he’s done it so often he’s becoming old tired news.
When you have nothing to say, tell stupid jokes, but first a commercial. If you haven’t read my book Umbrella on the Floor, check it out on Amazon or Kindle. Karen Gallagher has chased lots of bad guy, but this time the bad guys are chasing her. A hit man from Miami, hired by a Miami drug lord is as good at getting his man, in this came woman, as Karen is.
My next book Poison Mushrooms is finished. I’m doing my first read, then it goes to the Beta Reader, finally to the editor. Karen is hired to prove a woman who has been arrested for murdering her husband innocent. When Karen digs into the case she finds more suspects than she can use. She has to weed them out to find out if her client did it or was it one of the others who have given her reason to suspect them.
What do state’s abbreviations tell you about them.
What state is a number? Tenn
What state is a doctor? MD
What state is in poor health? Ill
What state has things to mine? Ore
What’s the cleanest state? Wash
What state keeps their lawns mowed? MO
What state is all about itself? ME
What state saved Noah. ARK
Can you stand a couple more?
Husband: Last night I dreamed I had invented a new breakfast food. I was sampling it when—-
Wife: What happened?
Husband: I woke up and found a corner of the mattress gone.
A man was taking his grandfather clock in for repairs. Accidently he ran into a woman and knocked her packages to the ground. The up-set woman looked at him and said, ” Can’t you wear a watch like everybody else?”
Moron: Why does cream cost more than milk?
Idiot: Because it’s harder for the cows to sit on the smaller cartons.
Had enough? I have. See you next week.
I’m Going to Piss Some People Offf
This is about ‘African Americans’. We white folks don’t like having to call blacks African Americans. Of course most blacks already know that and smile when we say it.
There was a story not long ago about a black man wanting to track his roots. He took a DNA test. (Ancestry charges $99).With some strange results he had his mother do one. Guess what, she wasn’t African American, she didn’t carry the genes of any African.
There are lots shades in the world. Some native Australians are as black as Africans. The Indian on Big Bang Theory, in this case meaning a person from India, is much browner than a of blacks.
Many people who don’t have African ancestors are darker than the ones that do. So if you want to be called an African American, prove it.
I’m not jealous that you think you know where you came from. I could call myself, German, Irish, or British-American. Even native American, but I don’t feel I have enough in my DNA to claim a kinship with the people who were here a thousand years before the rest of us.
If you are an American, as in ‘born in the USA’ be proud of it. If you want to be something else, go there, but don’t expect an African country to offer you citizenship simply because of the color of your skin.
After three tours in Germany, I’ve found that Europeans can spot an American a mile away, black or white. They put us all in the same class, Americans. Black and white doesn’t change anything about who we are to the rest of the world. We’re Americans.
Love it or leave it, but if your ancestors have been here for a couple hundred years don’t expect another country to welcome you with open arms.
HILLARY AND ME
A couple weeks ago when I began my new season of blogs, I sent an invitation to all my email address. Most of them belong to family and friends who I regularly forward jokes and other important information.
The rest belong to casual acquaintances like my car insurance agent. A couple of these non regulars replied asking me to use a blind address the next time I include them in an email addressed to numerous people. Sorry folks I didn’t know there was such a thing.
I’m a little older than Hillary Clinton. She’s a baby boomer. I was born in 1944, over a year before WWII ended and all the soldiers came home to their wives or to find a wife, and settle down. Hillary and I aren’t far apart in age.
I will vote for her. I’ve only caught her in one lie and I truly believe advisors told her to lie. When she was ask about using her government server for personal mail, she lied. The truth would have been “What’s a server?”
During this weeks poker game at the local VFW, another player said he was tired of professional politics. That sounds good, let’s get rid of professional doctors, that way medial care will cost less. Maybe professional teachers, too. Professional lawyers. Oops, that last one might be a good idea.
Hillary has already had eight years experience in how to and how not to do things in the White House. Bill Clinton began his Presidency planning for her to do a national care plan. We desperately needed a good program like the rest of the world’s industrial counties.
Her plan didn’t make it through Congress because of the powerful insurance companies. Hillary got her first up close experience on how bills are handled in Congress. That first turn down was a great lesson, Bill figured out how to get things done. He balanced the budget. Under a Clinton administration life was good for all of us. The citizens he represented.
Hillary was elected to Congress on her own. Next she became Madam Secretary.
She’s no wimp, she will get things done. Should Trump get elected. Ugh, sorry, even the thought of it makes me shiver with fear for our country. Trump would spend his entire time in office bad-mouthing the Congress who will keep him from doing all the things he bragged he could do.
Hillary has had a front row seat. She knows how to get Congress to get what the country needs done.
It is no mistake that I capitalized Congress each time I used the word in this blog. Perhaps we should take a break from Hillary, Trump, and the doctor and have a closer look at all those people we send to Congress.
In Correct Immagration
Last week I spoke about our need for a young generation. I was focusing on people from American, North American (Mexico), Central America, and South America. People who we can verify their identities and do a background check on. Such a process should take months not years.
We don’t need Syrians or any other group of people that ISIS can infiltrate. We’re going to get some. It is going to happen. Most states are saying they won’t accept them, but they will get them.
Use some logic. Put some effort into keeping ourselves safe.
Widows with children will cost more, but it is children we need. No man means no ISIS. Sure there are ISIS women. A quick fix would be a DNA test to prove the woman claiming to be the mother is the biological mother. With small children in a strange country it isn’t likely a mother would put her children in peril. Mom could be ISIS, but the odds are only slightly above pigs flying.
If we must take men I’d like for them to be under 10 or extremely old. Not going to happen. The first step should be the DNA test to be sure the male is related to the children. A father, grandfather, or brother any biological link will go help keep infiltrators out.
Be careful where we settle them. Estimate the risk of different kinds of family units. A widow with children should be a lesser risk than a household with man. Statics will help narrow down how young and how old males must to be a lesser threat.
Except for the safest don’t settle families in large cities or tourist attractions like Florida. Determine the risk of helping ISIS cross our borders. Don’t settle any near those borders, could be Canada, Mexico or by water from near by countries.
I noticed that neither West Virginia nor Virginia have said they won’t accept the Syrians. Except for D.C. the rest of Virginia is mountains and small towns. South Dakota might be another good choice.
For ISIS to carry out terror they need to get in touch with other ISIS. If one is going to blow themselves up they still need a target that will do lots of harm and make the news.
Trump had another idea last week. He wanted to throw all the Muslims out of the country. Many Muslims were born and raised here. He backed off that one.
His new plan is to monitor them, bugging their phone lines, checking their bank accounts. I know other people who have had good results that way. Maybe you’ve heard of some, like Stalin and Hitler.
Dear Readers, next week I will stop picking on Trump, unless he comes up with something else so stupid that I can’t resist.
Illegal Immigrants or What Trumps, Trump’s Wall
A book by Patrick Buchanan, another Republican who has absolutely nothing in common with this Yeller Dog Democrat, the title of the book is The Death of the West. Buchanan gives facts and figures about white people of Western European decent vanishing.
My ancestors have been Americans for over 300 years, however beyond that and I find British, Irish, and German ancestors. What did we do? We stopped having babies. For decades Americans have stopped having enough children to replace the current working population.
Today I live nicely on a pension and social security, but in the next 30 years there won’t be enough Americans working to pay the taxes and social security needed to support those benefits. I’m retired military so taxes pay my pension. If you retire from a factory or any business that can be done in another country, it will be forced to move to one with workers. What’s going to happen to those pensions?
No matter what you do for a living in the USA, social security will die because there won’t be enough people working to support the retired.
What to do? On TV a short while back, thousands of refugees were fleeing the near east to Western Europe. Countries were blocking their entry, many not allowing them to cross their borders on their way to another country.
A news report, I never thought I’d hear, said Germany was allowing thousands in. That’s not the nature of the German people. Why would they open their country to foreigners, while every one else was keeping them out. Because they know how many people they will need to sustain their aging population.
We need people to do the same in the USA. Even if American women quit working and began breeding like rabbits, it would still be too late. No sane woman is going to do that anyway.
Washington needs to put people to work figuring out how many people we need to sustain ourselves. Set new, higher, immigration limits. We need doctors, farmers, truck drivers, and every kind of work needed to run a country.
Illegals already here should be found. Ones with questionable backgrounds go back. Others with clean records stay and go through the procedures to become citizens. Don’t forget grandma, strong family units built this country. Mom, dad, six kids, and grandma is still a plus.
Put a cut off date on illegals. After that date, entering illegally means deportation. With larger quotas it will make sense for people to apply, and enter the U.S. legally.
No more anchor babies. If the parents are found to be unwanted, they can take the child or leave it with legal relatives or friends. The child can return when there is someone to care for him/her or when they reach adulthood.
We don’t need a wall, we need people. Criminals will still attempt to sneak in, but most are good people who will be happy to get in line, if the quota is large enough and waiting period is reasonable. Months not years.
My retirement I believe is safe, for my children now in their fifties, it’s shaky. My grandchildren now employed, paying social security, and raising families aren’t going to have the American dream if we don’t do something. White people are a dying breed. As for me all I want is for myself, my children, grand children, and great grand children is to spend our final years enjoying what we worked for.
I welcome comments to my web page, face book, and email. If you haven’t read my mystery/suspense book Umbrella on the Floor, the second book in the series, Poison Mushrooms will be out soon. (Available on Amazon and Kindle)
Thank you SaunnieLee
Slatzer alert see you all in May
Hey folks, I’m coming back to Blog, got a friend Tristan on the phone who knows what he is doing
Black and White America
The young blacks who riot don’t know the history of relations between blacks and whites. Whites don’t know either. We recently had riots the same as we’ve had every decade since the 1960’s.
The 60’s was the first decade when nearly everyone had a TV. Prior to that news of up-risings of any kind only spread as far as the local newspaper’s distribution. Radio news never had the punch of seeing it in your living room.
Someone wrote the Andy Griffith Show and ask how could Mayberry be a small southern town when there were no blacks.
The answer is that Andy Griffith modeled Mayberry after his hometown of Mount Airy, North Carolina. He even changed Pilot Mountain, a few miles from Mount Airy, to Mount Pilot in his show. If you have never been to Andy’s hometown, it’s about ten minutes from the Virginia state line, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. There lies the answer to why no blacks.
Before the Civil War if a slave accidentally ended up in the Blue Ridge, he was a long way from the underground railroad. The people who lived in the Blue Ridge had small farms, they didn’t have slaves, the majority never saw a black person.
In the summer months I live about thirty minutes north, west of Mount Airy, in the Virginia town ow Galax, which is an hour south of the West Virginia state line. The north western part of Virginian split off an became West Virginia, because the people there were dirt poor farmers. There were no plantations, the people living there had a hard enough feeding their children, a slave would have been just one more mouth to feed.
The mountain people of south western Virginia remained loyal to the south, even though they never had a slave.
Someone is going to jump up and yell, yes there were slaves in those places. Yep, I checked out census records on Ancestry.com. Those who owned slaves had one to three and their masters were what we would call today white collar people. Merchants, doctors, lawyers, etc.
After the war black people either stayed on the plantation and worked as share croppers or they headed north where there was work. There was no work in the mountains. nor any land available because the people there had roots going back nearly 200 years in 1865. I know this because their decedents are still here. A hundred and fifty years later many have left, while a very few have moved to this part of the country.
Now you know that in Andy Griffith’s time there were many southern towns without blacks. No prejudice either because prejudice must be learned and when the black population of a school is one-percent or less, they’re accepted not rejected.
Finally if you are in the mountains and see a Confederate flag in the back window of a pick-up truck or the front of a house, it simply means they are proud to be a southerner. Their ancestors never owned a slave and there were maybe two blacks in their high school graduation class. Their flag has nothing to do with race.
The moral is if you ask anyone of the rioters they will tell you that the Confederate Flag is about hating blacks and that everyone below the Mason Dixon line (and trust me they don’t know where that line is) had ancestors who were Simon Legree and after the war all white southerners were wearing sheets as they ran around hanging blacks.
America Under Siege
Part One: Gun control, ha, ha. Why do we have a problem that the rest of the industrialized countries don’t?
Call it what it is, the rest of the world doesn’t have our problem.
Call it what it is, the rest of the world doesn’t have our problem.
The answer is simple, when these other countries were settled guns weren’t invented yet. I’m talking about when they were settled by people that stayed and raised families. The name of countries, who ran them, and it’s borders have likely changed over time, but the people remained generation to generation.
When we settled America, there were guns, which stood between our ancestors and starvation. As our country was settled, our ancestors got it in their heads that Indians were on our land before we discovered it.
Guns, get over it, they are so ingrained in our history that they will never go away. What happens next is our children will continue to get daddy’s gun and take it to school to shoot everyone.
Part Two; ISIS has infiltrated our children. They plan to kill us all, but they have no plan to invade us. It is easier and more fruitful to use our own children against us.
When I write a blog, I suggest a cure, but this time I don’t know what to do. The only thing we can do is be alert, but how? Anyone can put a bomb in our shopping center. The kid next door can come over and kill your family.
Things are only going to get worse. Trying to take the guns is beating a dead horse. Teaching our children to be good citizens while ISIS is offering excitement, spying, combat, covert operations.
More and more innocent people are going to be murdered, until we figure out how to combat it. It will continue to grow even if we find a way to stop it, because ISIS will work to make it continue and they have the experience.
Does TV Impact You
I’m not talking about the news or boring reality TV. I haven’t rushed home to catch a TV show since the fugitive caught the one armed man in 1968.
Dr. Phil, who had a lady that had sent over $200,000 to a catfish. She even sold her house and now lives with friends. My mind was thinking ‘dummy.’ Then her reply to a question about being totally broke she said, “I’m seventy-one, I won’t live much longer.”
Since I’ll turn seventy-one, in August, it stopped me in my tracks. It was a two part show and I missed the second. I did try to get home to see it.
This woman must be terribly depressed. Dr. Phil tip-toed around the truth, while giving his audience lots of proof that this was a catfish. She needed to believe the man was real and intended to marry her.
How many people out there are ready to die once they hit their seventies. It was obvious to me this woman had the ‘I can’t live along syndrome.’ She buried two husbands so now she had to have another one. It seemed to be the only goal in her life.
This isn’t just an old people problem. I have a twenty-four year old granddaughter who screamed at me, “I can’t live alone.” I have a fifty year old ex-daughter-in-law who’s life is fighting with her third husband because both of them think they are too old to find someone else. They chose to stay together and be miserable rather than live alone.
So sad that someone’s life depends on having a person of the opposite sex under their roof. Many gay’s I’m sure have the same problem except a pardner for them would be the same sex.
Boredom is another problem or perhaps it’s the cause of the alone problem. If you are raising children or getting older, make sure you teach or learn to keep yourself company. Find something to like about yourself. Learn how to entertain yourself. Find social activities you like. Think out of the box. Your retirement years should be the best of your life, you can do what you want when you want. Don’t spoil it by the idea that you need someone else to make you happy. Make yourself happy.
I Died Last Night
That’s the title of one of the books I’m writing. I’ve been doing a lot of research, but how much can you do on what happens after you die. I just finished reading a book about people who had encounters with loved one who have passed, but all the people met their dead loved ones in dreams. Where’s the proof in that.
Here’s my story. At seventeen I married a wonderful Air Force Airman. He knew I had a bit of Sarah Burnhart in me, which I did because I was still a kid.
Fast forward seven years and the four of us are living in the Panama Canal Zone. Him, me, and two beautiful children. My father was dying of lung cancer in Ohio. I had been with him, until the doctor came to me and said, “You need to go home to your children, because he could hold on a day, a week, or a month.”
I returned to Panama, my family and my job at the Navy base. I remember walking to the front of the work room where the telephone was. I called my husband, I have only a vague memory of calling him, from that point on I have no idea what happened until my husband was standing in my office next to me.
He must have flown across that bridge to where I was. I hung up the phone, yes I must have been holding it all that time. I have no idea if I was still talking or not. I looked up at the clock, it was 3:00. I looked at my husband and said, “It’s over.” He ask what was over, to which I replied, “I don’t know, but it’s over.”
I turned to go back to work, but Mike made me leave my car and ride home with him. At home he gave me a pill and put me to bed. I woke up sometime after dark because the phone was ringing. It was my aunt telling us my father had died at 3 P.M. that afternoon. (The Central American country of Panama is on eastern standard time the same as Ohio)
I was pretty much back to myself, the kids were in bed, so I ask my husband what happened. He said I was talking about death and dying on the phone. He told me I wasn’t making any sense, but he was actually afraid I was going to try and kill myself.
We found out later that my father chocked to death during the same period of time I was talking wild. As close as we could piece things together, I was repeating what my father was thinking as he died.
This is only half the story. Return to fast forward, about twenty-five years. Mike and I divorced soon after my father’s death. He went to California and remarried. He spent the rest of his military career in Asia and California where he also retired.
I joined the army and except for three years in Texas, the rest of my career was east of the Mississippi and in Europe. The kids spent one summer with their father. I only got pieces from my daughter, to this day my son hasn’t told me anything, but they didn’t like it and had no desire to ever return. Mike and his wife came to our son’s wedding in 1988. We never spoke. My husband said that Mike introduced himself outside and they talked for a few minutes.
In the nineties, I was in our apartment in Frankfurt, Germany, recovering from surgery. I thought I could wash the few dishes in the sink. That’s what I was doing when suddenly I heard a sound like a hurricane speed gust of wind. I found myself a couple feet back from where I was standing with no idea how I got there.
Next I went to the phone and tried to reach my children, finely I got a hold of my daughter-in-law. When she answered, I said, “Mike’s dead.” She said, “Yes, Steve is already out there and Michele is on her way.” My daughter-in-law had previous encounters with me where I knew things there was no way I could possibly know.
You see Mike wanted to know if he could come back once he crossed over. Because of what had happened with my father so many years ago, he decided his best chance to get through to someone who would recognize that it was him, was to try to get through to me.
So now you know what I meant by proof. Mike was there to see what happened with my father, although he’s been gone for over twenty years now, my daughter-in-law is here to tell about my call to tell her Mike died and came to me.
(I am not psychic because I have no control over when this and other things happen to me. I do know there is something after death. When my book comes out the end of this year I’ll tell you all about it.)
An Open Letter to Hillary Clinton
I was playing Texas Holdem at the VFW. Seven men, four women, (eight of us were veterans the remaining three women were wives of veterans)
Conversation topic one; You, Mrs. Clinton, are going to take our guns away. The players wouldn’t have any of that. By the time I said I was okay with rapid fire weapons, you’d have thought I started world war three. (Rapid fire to seniors means machine guns.) You aren’t going to shoot one at a burglar in your home, because you’d tear you house apart. If you only have one tiny brain in your head, you know better than to shoot one at a deer.
Hillary, they won’t give up their guns and won’t register them, even though they are all law biding citizens. Even when I mentioned most of us have permits to carry concealed meaning we had registered our gun, they weren’t listening. The subject has taken on a life of it’s own and each man was fearlessly protecting it.
If any part of this is true and you actually plan to go up against the NRA, then you really don’t want to get elected. I am a senior citizen who lives almost alone, I have a big dog and a 38 revolver. I go to the range several times a year to make sure I can still hit what I’m aiming at. I want very much to vote for you, but not if you want my gun.
Conversation topic two; You and those cell phone records. Our local TV station has a truth-o-meter type commentary, which said you turned over, I think it was 5,500 cell phone records. They listed your last four predecessors, who didn’t turn over any of their records and they gave the reasons why they didn’t.
I believe it was Ms Albright who said she didn’t have a phone.One of them didn’t know how to text. while someone else only used it to stay in contact with family.
There is only one way to get through to the public about this and to stop further rumors. Only one way to get to everyone and make them believe you. Contact SNL a.k.a. Saturday Night Live. That’s where the reasons for not turning over their records belong.
If Loren Michaels doesn’t know what to do with this, have him text me. Even I could write this skit. Actually it’s right there on the Bright House Network in Central Florida.
The network’s fact or fiction isn’t suppose to be funny, but when I heard it, I scared the dog because I was laughing so hard.
Leave the guns alone and do something decisive to get off the roomer mill. If you do, I hope to see you in the White House.
Another Election Year
In November we go to the polls, maybe stay up to hear the results, after that we totally forget all about it.
Before I start spouting my feelings about the election, let me tell you that I’m a yeller dog Democrat.
For those of you not living in the south, or haven’t lived here long enough, it means I’d vote for a yellow dog before I’d vote for a Republican.
For those of you not living in the south, or haven’t lived here long enough, it means I’d vote for a yellow dog before I’d vote for a Republican.
You don’t have to be from the south to be a Democrat, my grandfather fought for a union for the mine worker, and later my father and uncle were factory workers. When my father had his first heart-attack he would have been out of a job if it hadn’t been for the AFL-CIO. That’s all I going to say about unions and Democrats, since unions have a bad rap today.
Rand Paul was the first to throw his hat into the ring. His father was a senator, however Rand is an optometrist, or something to do with glasses. He isn’t even a CEO of a big company and he wants to run a nation.
President of the United States of America is a very specialized job. The CEO of General Mills might become CEO of Chrysler Corp. or perhaps Disney. The products are very different, but the idea is the same, they make a product, then they sell it. Makes no difference if it’s corn flakes, cars, or entertainment.
Politics is a totally different business. Training ground for the office is getting elected to smaller offices. Senator is probably the best. We’ve elected governors and watched them struggle. Carter struggled through his time in office. He gave away the Canal Zone, having lived there myself, that’s a blog in itself.
Even Clinton had a shaky start, but he got the hang of it and balanced the budget. Of course he had a very smart wife. Her training for President was getting elected to Congress for hands on experience. (I’m sure when her husband was in office she had a lot of hands in). She also did her time as Secretary of State.
Notice how I snuck into that. Now you know who I want to vote for. The Republicans are going to throw a herd of candidates into the ring. They are going to promise you things that when it comes down to it, you really don’t care much about them.
There will be several Democrats going after the brass ring at first, because whoever wins the office will be there eight years, if they’re any good. Lets hope they are good.
Each party has to get down to one. Please look for the one that can protect our county financially and personally. It’s been a long time since personal safety has been an issue, but 9-11 and the Boston Marathon have changed that.
Don’t get tied up in things like abortion, they don’t belong on the platform and only muck up the waters of what we really need. If you care about such things help get a bill sponsored. We need a President taking care of our place in the world not frivolous causes.
Senior’s Holiday Life
Children and grandchildren of seniors this is for you too. Those of you who are lucky enough to enjoy your senior years with a spouse you shared you young years don’t need this today.
One of you is likely to go first leaving the survivor to make a life they never planned. My daughter talked me into moving close to her and my youngest grandchild. I loved every minute with my sweet little girl, but she got old enough to go to school. My daughter worked. Even before all this my granddaughter went to bed at eight.
The moral is if you move close to the kids, what will your life really be like?
What if you move to Florida and the kids are up north somewhere?
How do you balance it all? Take a look at yourself and learn to live the way you planned your retirement, even though you now have to do it alone. If you are a widow or divorcee you know the percentage of women your age goes up every year because men usually die first. That’s only the first reason not to look for a replacement mate.
I’m lucky I live in the same state as my children. Better news I’m an hour away from one and a bit over two hours from the others. This means I am with my family for holidays, but my happiness doesn’t depend on whether or not they have time for me.
If you don’t already know, I’m a writer. Check out the first book in my mystery series ‘Umbrella on the Floor,’ on Amazon and Kindle. Naturally, I belong to writers clubs, do writer stuff and enjoy the company of writer friends.
I belong to a singles club. Seventy years old and I belong to a singles club. You got it, there are people of all ages in the club which makes it fun, although for the most part I hang out with the other seventy year olds. Look around if there isn’t one in your area check out the senior centers in your area. Don’t settle for the first one you go to, find one that suits you.
If your are a church goer, but all your friends are married and you are now single, check out some other churches, find someplace that fits you as a single person.
Do you enjoy something that nobody you know does? Do it before you get any older. I like going to the range. None of my other little old lady friends own a gun. It’s fun and now with these new ranges that have food, shops, etc., some of my contemporaries may soon be joining me.
I also like Texas Hold-em Poker. For this I had to try out lots of different places, until I found one where I really enjoyed the people and the place. It will be different for everyone, so whatever appeals to you, go do it and don’t be afraid to walk into new places alone, in your quest to find the place where you look forward to going every week, to visit with the other regular players and have fun.
Gotta go, it’s an hour drive to where my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will be for a traditional Easter celebration. Monday they will return to their work and school lives while I return to my busy senior citizen life. Our next get together will be in May to celebrate a couple May birthdays)
Kids and grandkids, encourage your senior loved ones to make their own life. Keep them close, but not at your beck and call, they will want to be there for you, so it’s up to you to help them spread their wings. Remember one day hopefully you will be in their situation, because the alternatives aren’t nearly as good.
Addicted to a Newwork
If the word TV doesn’t apply to you replace it in your mind with cell phone, computer, or video games. If you aren’t addicted to one of these things stop and think about it for a good sixty-seconds. If you didn’t have an ah-ha moment, we still aren’t done yet.
Congradulate yourself, now move on to your spouse, children, and grand-children. Those related or in you sphere of influence.
This morning my big old TV made that noise we all recognize as the death of something that feeds off a satellite. No you won’t see your beloved to again in heaven. Hell won’t take it either. It’s trash, and even you don’t mourn it, you break all speed records driving to Walmart to replace it.
It doesn’t take long to get addicted. I was six when we got our first TV. The neighbors had the first one in the neighborhood. I was at their door every time I could get away. Even a couple years later when I had what was called the German measles or the old fashion measles, there were several names which unless you are a senior citizen you probably never heard of. You may not even know what measles means.
Getting away from the history lesson, these measles also effect your eyes. When I was finally allowed out of my dark bedroom with all the shades pulled and lights turned off, my mother did her best to darken the downstairs and allow me to listen to the TV, she taped a newspaper over the little round screen. I believe even back then having that TV on was like an alcoholic finally making it to the bar.
Still with me? I was willing to risk my eyesight to have a TV. Everytime I see someone with a cell phone I wonder if they drive while mesmerized by that little screen. Cell phones are risky because both kids and many adults, have them in their face every waking second. A young man doesn’t have to get onto one knee to propose, the girl wouldn’t notice anyway. Today he can text the question and she will text back. I am talking about two people standing in front of each other.
Games, we older folks don’t talk about our game playing, because it’s a kind of senior citizen taboo. A lady was visiting relatives who lived next door to me. I stopped by and saw lady at the dining room table playing games on her laptop. Since she was caught we talked about games. That’s when I found out old ladies all play pretty much the same games.
These games have no age boundaries, there are games that appeal to every age. The problem is when no one is watching the children because they’re playing a game. People who lose track of time and sit up all night playing games.
We are becoming an I society. Never mind the dangers of texting and driving, more are going to pop up because we can’t leave our TV, cell phone, or computer long enough to interact in person with those around us.
If you enjoyed reading this blog, email or text me.
Prejudice
My favorite quote came from Will Rodgers, “I only know what I read in the papers.” To update “I only know what I see on TV.”
I love Sunday morning TV, ‘Meet the Press’, Face the Nation’, and such. This morning someone said that ninety percent of Republicans are white, while less that two-thirds of Democrats are white. I took away that race is a big deal is this country. The regular news told what ISIS is up to, so race as well as religion is a big deal in this world.
My mother was born in 1906 to an upper middle class family. My description of her is she was so prejudice that she wasn’t prejudice because she didn’t like any person who was even slightly different from her so she dis-liked everyone equally.
All of her ancestors on both sides of her family came from the British Isles, England, Scotland, and Wales. All her ancestors got to our shores in the 1600’s or before. It was the before that was never mentioned, but her father looked like he just came off the reservation and my mother looked exactly like him. Driving through Oklahoma on vacation when I was a child, my dad and I kept kidding that we were going to drop my mother off on the reservation. She got so mad. I thought it was kind of neat.
Be careful who you hate, life has a way of fowling you up. Mother was Protestant so naturally she was prejudice against Catholics. In her eighties she became legally blind, meaning she had some side vision and saw shadows. No longer able to live alone she had to live with me.
My husband and I were both on active duty with the Army. We lived in Elizabethtown Kentucky. Mother was very alone and desperate to meet people. There was a Baptist church behind our house. All she had to do was walk out the back gate, and didn’t have to go near any streets.
Naturally she was prejudice against Southern Baptist. Her family was Episcopalian. Methodist and Lutheran were also okay. I walked her to the church door and back home after services.
She came home feeling worse because no one would talk to her. She felt even more alone and isolated. She was so desperate when I said I would go to church with her but it had to be my church. You see I converted to Catholicism several years earlier. Something that couldn’t be talked about in the family.
Desperation made her agree. When we arrived there was coffee and donuts before services, where everyone greeted us. When they found out about my mother’s disability, they told her there were people in the church who would see to it that she got to all services and socials. She wasn’t alone anymore.
A few years later when my mother was dying in the Army hospital in Frankfurt, Germany, I ask her if she wanted a preacher or a priest. She ask for a priest.
Since I didn’t mention black and white, I’ll say a few words now. If you are white and drowning and a black person saved you. How would you feel about blacks then. If you are black and a white person saves you from drowning, how would you feel about whites then.
Be careful who you are prejudice against because life is full of strange twists and turns.
CANCER THE BIG C
It seems to me that cancer has hit epidemic proportions. Last summer a step-sister of two of my grandchildren, caught cancer (if we are talking epidemic caught is as correct as got cancer, or they found cancer. She was a mother still in her twenties. I heard about it around July. By October she was dead.
A tenant of mine has been trying to help her sixty-one year old mother. They found cancer and conquered it, but like the sneaky little devil it is, it returned. In the fall she was having chemo. At first she didn’t file for disability because she was sure she was going back to work. As of yesterday her kidney’s have shut down and she is on morphine plus two other pain controllers. The family is waiting for her to die, and she is no longer here, there is a body on a bed with so many pain killers that she is no longer with us, but she still has a heartbeat so she can’t be pronounced dead.
Notice I used the word chemo, I’m sure you know it stands for chemotherapy, but it has become so common everyone understands when you say chemo. Epidemic.
My motive for writing this blog is I had a mammogram a week or so ago. I’d missed a couple, but I have been told at my age I don’t need pap smears. So I wasn’t as strict with the annual boob check up.
You got it. That paper you fill out so they can mail you the results which say you’re fine, arrived only this time it didn’t say that. To prove it wasn’t a mistake there was another letter explaining I had seven something in my right or maybe it said left breast. Whichever the other one was fine. Nice of them to let me know. Their a set if one has to go so does the other. I wear a 38D bra, if only one is lobed off the other would keep making me fall without anything to balance it.
There was a third letter with two appointment for this Thursday. One is to do another mammogram, the other is for a closer look at my breast.
I had a malignant melanoma in 1980. They took it out and I was good. Maybe I had a little chip on my shoulder that said,”It’s like chicken pox you only get it once after that you’re safe.” Wrong, take it from me just because you survived cancer decades ago, it doesn’t mean a thing, no points for getting through it once.
I was with my father when he died of lung cancer. No one should have to go the way he did. Being turned into a zombie like my neighbors mother ties with the way my father went.
Cancer is talked about all the time. We donate to it, sometimes we walk for it. Nearly all women have something pink with them as a reminder. Men aren’t drowned in the message about cancer, like women are. To stop this epidemic everyone must have regular check-ups. About the people I mentioned, my father was dead in less than a month after his cancer was found. The other two had less than a year to live from the time their cancer was found.
Take a couple hours out of you life once a year to make sure you’ll still be there next year.
I’m Back, finally
There were no computers when senior citizens were born. It will get better, us old folks will die and the next generation of seniors will be as familiar computers as my generation was with dial telephones. Don’t let me get started on these new fangled things they call phones no-a-days.
The first point to my story is I haven’t blogged in three weeks because my computer crashed. I took it to a great new fix computers store I found in my neighborhood, but that was only the beginning of the problem. The blog button I pushed on my web site to write these rantings of mine, wasn’t there anymore.
I knew I could figure it out myself. Get real! That took up the first week. On the second I called my editor, she is the person who set up my web site. She didn’t have it committed to memory so she told me to go to dashboard and I would be able to figure it out. Are you kidding, she was talking to me like I was her age.
At last, I went back to the computer fix place, they got it back in about thirty minutes.
Somewhere there must be a be a kid, (kids are people under sixty) who gets the idea to give classes to seniors who already know how to get to their email and face book, but want to know more.
On a serious note if you live in Brevard County, this Saturday March 14th is my pancake breakfast for Maria Rossi, I’m sorry to say that she may not make it until Saturday, but hopefully some of the bills that had to be left behind will be paid.
It’s $10 a plate, and will be help between 9:30 to 11:30 at the VFW on US 1, a little north of Post Road and 2.2 miles south of the Pineda Causeway. (4130 N. Hwy US 1, Melbourne)
RELIGION
I’m about a quarter of the way through writing a book about heaven. Not one that ends with someone going to heaven, not about someone who goes and comes back. It’s the story of a woman who goes to heaven and she is still there at the end of the book.
Current world troubles are being caused by people who want everyone to convert to their religion all who do not are infidels. They aren’t the only ones who think their religion is the only one. I have a close friend who loves going to church. We have traveled together on several occasions which is how I know she reads the bible every night.
My friend told me that only Christians go to heaven. “What about all the other religions in the world?” I ask. She replied that Christian missionaries have been all over the world, and if people didn’t convert then they couldn’t go to heaven.
The Islamic State isn’t sending missionaries their strategy is to murder everyone who doesn’t convert. History tells us how this will play out. Hitler, (who had absolutely nothing to do with religion) wanted to take over the world, which is what radicals in the middle east want. Hitler made it across Europe by first taking the German speaking countries like Austria, then he took on the weaker countries like Poland.
Having done that Hitler was faced with going after stronger countries. This forced those still out of his control to draw a line in the sand. Hitler committed suicide, so my advice to ISIS, al-Qaeda, and all the rest, when your only way out is to kill yourselves, I’m sorry to inform you that you may make it to heaven, but there are no 13 virgins waiting for you.
The tale of Christianity tells how one religion works. There was a time when all Christians were Catholic, then people popped up who didn’t think the pope was doing it right, so some like Martin Luther made a new Christian religion. Henry the VIII was mad at the pope because he wouldn’t allow him to divorce and Henry was having a midlife crisis, so he made a new Christian religion. It’s still happening the Mormon religion was born in the US.
Like most of my writing the reader gets a little history lesson along with the message. This is because looking back teaches us about human nature, and human nature dictates how things play out in the world.
Hungry Children in the USA
Children are hungry for several reasons. A lot of people immediately think the parents are no good and use their money for drugs or alcohol. I’m not stupid, I know that’s part of the problem. But people need to realize that unemployment is playing a big part too. There are those who are chronically unemployed, but there are also so many who have and are truly trying to make enough money to house and feed their families. Single parenting is another problem, whether it’s because of divorce, a missing parent or death, the struggle to survive has to be very difficult. Galax Backpack Buddies is serving 192 children right now and that’s not nearly all the kids who need the program in the Galax City school system. It really doesn’t matter why the children are hungry, they are and if we can help we should. I wish more Americans would help wipe out hunger in the U. S. There are a lot of interesting ways to find out more about hunger in the U.S. online. Just type in childhood hunger to find some and also the census bureaus give a lot of info.
My Sunday blog is a day late because I didn’t think to get an address if someone wanted to send a donation to Galax Backpack Buddies. This is a depressed area in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s so sad that such a beautiful place has so much misery.
If you can make a donation send it to Backpack Buddies, P.O. Box 541, Galax, VA. 24333. Since this goes out to many of my Galax friends, if you can’t donate, even if you do, go down and give them a hand.
If you are not in the area, a donation would be appreciated, but also look around your own area, if a Backpack program has started, take a couple hours a week out of your life and help the children. If there is no program start one.
My blog goes to friends and family in many states, besides Virginia, there is a concentration in Ohio and Florida. Ohio is part of the ‘Rust Belt” there are children who need help. People migrate to Florida looking for work. The economy is on an up-swing, but new comers may find that not only the grass isn’t greener, but they left the support of extended family behind.
It’s hard to believe that in our land of plenty we have hungry children. This is not the American way. Everyone needs to help.
Little Old Ladies All Look Alike
Earlier this week I met some girlfriends at a local bar for drinks and the crab races. (To my knowledge the crab races are only held on the east coast of Florida, if you really want to know more about them, email me.)
One of the girls brought a birthday cake for the one we’ll call the kid. She turned seventy.
Since we baby boomer have aged the neighborhood bar has changed. Women no longer have a problem going to a bar and we no longer get drunk and talk about men, unless it’s to brag about one of our great grandsons. We never get so drunk that a fight breaks out just because two gals see the same cute guy, with the walker, at the same time.
The subject of this blog is how we look. All of the ladies who met at the bar, including me had short hair, because we all know that long hair on an older woman makes her look older.
Older ladies like getting together because we’ve all gained weight. We put ourselves down and yell at that image in our bathroom mirror, but when we all go out, we are all large size. It’s easier to relax when we all look alike.
We were all wearing sweaters or jackets we were wearing. One lady had on a turtle neck sweater with a long sleeve jacket over it. She still complained that she was cold. The loose covering we older ladies wear is not to cover our figures, we are cold. The older we get the colder we get.
One of the good things about getting old, besides the obvious, is all of our inhibitions vanish when we get together because we all look alike.
Have you met that someone who makes your heart go pitty pat
Twice this week someone has ask me that question. If you check out my picture it’s easy to see I’m, well, 70. Perhaps a senior gentleman I met years ago, when I was a hostess at the Holiday Inn in Laredo, Texas, can tell it best.
He came every evening alone, looking very sad. I began seating him near my counter so I could try and cheer him up. Turns out he and his wife were from Pennsylvania and now lived in Mexico, his wife was ill so they came to Laredo to a U.S. hospital.
“We moved to Mexico,” he said, “so we could both retire. Men retire, but women still cook and clean. In Mexico we can afford help so my wife could also retire.”
Besides there being more women than men, we still out-live men, and now you know the third reason why there are so many single women. If you are a woman with a decent pension and children and grand-children close by, then enjoy being retired and pursuing the things they didn’t have time to do when they were raising a family.
Men, on the other hand, if you were married a long time, and now single through death or divorce, your tendency will be to date, fall in love, and marry again. At this point I think its self explanatory.
I do miss holding hands while watching a sunset, and there are spectacular sunsets here in Florida. I miss trips with someone else to do the driving. I don’t think about sex except to remember I couldn’t get enough in my younger days.
Today, I belong to a singles club, with lots of activities, two writers clubs, and more hobbies than you want to hear about. As for travels, one of my favorites was a cruise up the coast from New York to the Canadian islands. Someone else did the driving, or floated the boat if you prefer, we got off every day to sightsee in a different place. There was no one to hold hands with, but three girlfriends were along to laugh and share the experience.
Ladies if you are old enough for social security and alone, don’t hunt for a man, enjoy life and find out who you are. If you are a man under the guise of love, looking for someone to cook and clean, if the pool gets smaller because of my blog, then I’ve done my job.
Are We Being Scammed Again
It’s looking more and more like George Zimmerman got away with murder. To be fair to the jury it was one of those ‘you had to be there cases.’ Of course we remember trials like Casey Anthony and O.J. Simpson where the jurors had to have been on drugs.
Is our stupidity being used against us by outside enemies? I received an email picture of protesters carrying signs claiming the police are targeting blacks. The sender ask “Are some of these people being paid to protest?”
If you want to divide Americans, play the race card. My reply to the sender was a black vs. white reply, because I was also being stupid. The sender emailed me back and said, “No, no, terrorist, people who want to divide and destroy us.”
Oops, we’ve proved we can be stupid, so why shouldn’t our enemy’s use it. Is that what is happening? Race is a wound easily opened in this country, there are too many Americans black and white who can’t wait for the next excuse to scream race.
Americans get over it. African Americans, were you born in Africa? Get real call yourselves Black Americans, or here’s a unique idea refer to yourselves as Americans. If you are a descendant of slaves, regardless of how it came about, your ancestors cleared the land and built an economy that created the greatest country on earth. Try taking pride in being Americans and perhaps the percentage of blacks in prison and poverty might finally begin to decrease.
Whites were the first settlers here, they came from Western Europe. I can trace all my ancestors back to the 1600 and 1700’s in American. I have also lived over ten years in Europe. Western Europeans are not prejudice against blacks. Matter of fact when it comes to black and white Americans they view us all as simply Americans. We’re all alike in their eyes. One more thing the whites have in common with the blacks is, they need to Get Over It.
If we don’t shore up our weakness, our enemies will use it to destroy it. Did ISIS pay unsuspecting Americans to carry signs to inflame us against each other?
To Old People and People who Plan to Be Old Before They Die
Last night might have been better than sex. My book Umbrella on the Floor is selling well on Amazon and Kindle, but last night I went to the monthly meeting of my singles club. A couple of the board members mentioned my book then during the meeting announced that I had a book published.
Well, I sold my first books from my hand to theirs. My book has sold on Amazon, however this was the first time it happened in person. Someone bought something I created and I was there to see it.
If you are over thirty you already know you have no control over your life. As soon as there is another person in your bed you have to begin making concessions. A baby ends all of your freedom because every waking moment is taken up by caring for and supporting this little person.
Parents find out quickly that this little creation of theirs, a mirror of who they are soon goes off into the world to Kindergarten, where they start and continue to become their own person. Your creative part in the process is no longer relevant.
Jobs or a career whichever you have in life has rules and regulations. I’ve been a Realtor, Banker, and Soldier, endeavors that run the gamut between volumes of regulations to being considered a free agent, none of which offer freedom. There is always a boss, rules, and laws.
Are you getting it yet? My book went from my mind to paper. The only rules were grammar and punctuation which if I wanted to show the reader an accent or make some other point I could ignore the rules in order to convey an image.
Please, as soon as you get to that place in your life, usually called retirement, take some time out to do something you completely control. If you paint, then paint, make jewelry or quilts. Maybe you also write.
If you have no talent get one. Buy a book and read the instructions or tear something apart and turn it into something different. You will learn so much. Give it a working title of final life lessons. You will find that nothing is easy, but you are finally be old enough to hang in there and endure the frustration. At some point you will realize that you are doing something for yourself, perhaps for the first time in your life. Yeah!
The goal may not be obvious, but you achieve it when someone gives you money for your work, celebrates you in the newspaper, or somehow showcases that thing which could only come from you. At birth your job is becoming a valuable adult, from that point on your life is about other people. So when the nest is empty and the social security check comes every month do something only you can do. Find out who you are. Surprise yourself, because I know each and everyone of you have greatness inside that is uniquely you. .
Please Don’t Murder my Child or His Brothers
I had planned a cheerful holiday blog, but the news is still full of police killing people and people killing police. Where is our moral compass? What is happening to our country, soon it won’t be safe for little old ladies to go outside their house. No one will be safe because there won’t be any law.
When my son was little he wanted to be a pilot, but his passion was the water. He fished and swam before he was old enough for school. In his teens he got his PADI license making him a qualified diver. He never expressed any interest in being a policeman or fireman the way so many little boys do. My son didn’t care about anything on solid ground unless it was a runway.
When he got out of the Army he had a wife and baby. He needed a job. Give up your pre-conceived ideas about the kind of people who grow up to be cops.
My grandson, my son’s son, was a happy little boy who loved his dad. Again his passion was the water, until he was ready for college. His uncle who is in security for a large chain of stores, got him a part-time job in security. He liked the work and decided to follow in his father’s footsteps. Speaking of college, more and more police forces are looking for college grads. I doubt any of your ideas about law enforcement fit into that slot.
The guy in Sanford who shot Trey wasn’t a policeman, he was a want-a-be. Why kill two police who are doing their job and minding their own business. How did that equal any kind of justice. The next time someone kills a minority should the sympathizers kill that little old lady I spoke of as she steps out of her house to get the mail.
If a minority is killed in California is it justice to murder someone in Maine? This can get out of hand quickly. Doing the math by percentage more black people are in prison or ex-convicts than any other race. Something should be done about this, but corrections need to be done in the home, in congress, in the schools, and any number of places, but not the police, it’s not their job.
In closing someone sent me a joke that said “Black mother’s shouldn’t have to worry every time their sons go out to rob a store.” 99% of the time this would be in bad taste, but this is the 1% where we need all the help we can get to stop police killing. If this behavior continues there will be more people unjustly murdered, and remember the police carry guns.
My quote to black mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters is, “Stop marching against the police before you start reaping what you are sowing.”
Christmas Gift for the Slatzer Family
Instead of a blog about current affairs, I want to see if I can find out how all of the Slatzers are related. In an attempt to keep this simple I am only going to give male names assuming all female Slatzers had children and married under their married names. If you can make a connection please email me at saunnielee.com so I can do more reasearch. Be sure and put it on facebook as well so other Slatzers can see the information.
Allen Slatzer was my great-great-grandfather and if you are a Slatzer with your roots in Ohio he is also you grandfather, you will have to figure out how many greats.
His male children were; Christopher (my great-grandfather) James K. 1844, Henry, and Jasper. (Christopher & James were 31st Ohio Inf. during the Civil War)
Christopher’s sons by his 1st wife Mary were William (my grandfather) Henry, Robert (if you are related to the Robert who was briefly married to Marilyn Monroe this Robert was either his father or grandfather, I haven’t worked out which yet, and Thomas. His sons by his 2nd wife Elizabeth aka Lizzie Ann were Christopher 1890-1965, Samuel probably died in El Paso TX. , and Wesley.
James K. 1849 brother to Christoper, his sons were Porter 1886 (probably Pud who make moonshine with his cousins who where Christopher’s grandsons by his son William their names were Earl, Rolland, & Floyd they are not listed because Floyd was my father and I am the only survivor of that line) The rest of James’ sons were Henry W. 1869, Charles 1883, James, Jacob 1870, Thomas Jefferson, and Samuel.
Christopher & James had another brother Henry, don’t know anything because there are so many Henry’s no info if he married or had children
Christopher, James, and Henry had a4th brother Jasper who married and had at least one daughter, No other info.
Any info about where you fit in on the line or any stories you have about the Slatzer family I would appreciate them, please email them to saunnielee@gmail.com. Allen Slatzer was either an only child or only surviving child. He was born in Virginia near the Pennsylvania line (There was no West VA back then) and moved to Perry County Ohio when Ohio was still a territory.
I have hit a dead end, by the places in PA & VA where Slatzers lived and the fact that I have taken the Slatzers born in America back to the 1700’s, I am now researching the PA German immigration records, it is very slow going because I have to go through the passenger list on each ship. My only hint is that I know Christopher Slatzer was a devout Lutheran, since Lutheran came into being in Germany it seems logical that it was handed down to him from the old country. Some ships that brought German immigrants to the colonies carried only Lutherans, while others were a mix of people.
Hope to hear from some of you soon. Have a Merry Christmas and I hope something here will will help the ones who are also interested in their family tree.
If you are not looking into your line, I hope to write a book someday, the Slatzer family history has love, hate, murder, war, death, rape, crime, rebellion. This family has every element of the story of the people of our great country.
Do you know the story of the fire that burned under Perry County for at least 50 years. Unions were new, when the workers tried their first strike, the coal company brought in strike breakers to work the mines. Christopher Slatzer and his brothers and sons set a coal car on fire late one night and pushed it down into the mine.
The fire burned underground and would come to the surface from time to time. I saw it once as a child and grew up with my father’s story of how the fire came up and burned down the school house one Sunday morning. (Thank goodness it was a Sunday and no one was there)
Next time I’ll tell you about the time one of Christopher’s boys killed a man in a bar fight and what the family did about it.
American’s Don’t Do That
Under the Bush administration, i.e. over six years ago, the C.I.A. waterboarded and tortured prisoners. Their pals and maybe some of them, if we were stupid enough to release any, are cutting the throats and/or the heads off of our people and our allies.
Americans are up in arms this week because Americans don’t torture people. Well, a lot of other countries and middle east groups do torture and kill.
The C.I.A. is going to do what they think works anyway. We had a saying in the Army which likely originated with the C.I.A. It stated, ‘It’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to ask permission.’
The game is: They do it, then years later when the public finds out, they say they’re sorry.
There had to be something more news worthy the last couple days. As for American outrage, are we mad or are we saying, good we gave them some of their own medicine. These people won’t stop torture just because we do, it’s part of who they are, the way their society thinks, they will torture whether we do or not, so I say the next time the C.I.A. wants information from a prisoner, go ahead and give em one for the Gipper.
That’s what’s on my mind, I’d be glad to hear what’s on yours, and don’t forget to order my book ‘Umbrella on the Floor’ on Amazon or Kindle, It’s pure fiction so you won’t have to worry about how the bad guys get treated.
Riots, Race, and Cops
The first time I heard of a police officer shooting someone was in 1950. I don’t believe it was widely known because not everyone had a TV set back then. Reporters still kept things like President Roosevelt was in a wheel chair and had a mistress out of the news. Roosevelt passed away in the decade of the 40’s, but the rules of reporting were still in place during the 50’s and covered the police as well as public people.
I was only 6 years old so I didn’t and don’t know the details, but I’m sure he didn’t shoot a black man because this happened in El Paso, Texas. My guess the man he shot was of Mexican decent.
We were visiting my great Uncle Sam. Yes, I had a real Uncle Sam (for more see my facebook under Slatzer alert) It was his son who killed someone. He was young and hadn’t been on the force very long. There was a lot of worrying and talk in the family. The result was he had to leave the force.
People were back at it in the 60’s. Recently things were quiet on the riot front because we were worried about real enemies like IS IS.
I feel sorry for the mothers who’s children were killed. Riots aren’t for them, they’re an excuse to damage and steal. The latter is the big part, a chance to take things under the cover of a riot.
The damage is often done in a poor area where the dead child lived. The riot destroys business that may be owned by blacks. Perhaps destruction put a woman who was struggling to support her children out of work. This is the legacy these acts leave for the mother of the murdered child
A lot of black preachers have made their fame on the backs of these acts. On Meet the Press this morning it was obvious we are only a few months from another election because there were several congressmen both black and white, commenting on the incidents in Missouri and New York.
Now that mother may be able to say her son’s death helped get someone elected. They may turn out to be the worst representative we’ve ever elected but they got elected on the back of some mother’s dead son.
My message is; Stop It. I am sure this is be read by white people, but if you have black friends ask them to read it, or at least let them know how they are degrading their race by allowing these riots to occur.
A grand jury is just that a jury. They look at the facts, how did it happen, was the officer at fault. The jury doesn’t have anything to do with black or white. I don’t know if there are blacks on these juries, but it seems probable.
You can say I’m bias because I am the mother and the grandmother of police officers, but I am only looking at the facts. The Missouri policeman said he had no choice it was him or the man he killed. The New York officer had a choke hold and it went too far. The grand jury must of had other evidence that the victim was coming at the fist cop and that letting go of the choke hold on the second victim would have allowed him to harm the other police officers and/or get away.
If either or both of these men were high it’s a proven fact that someone on a high can demonstrate strength and decisiveness they wouldn’t otherwise have.
Regardless of the details the mothers of the slain and the people around her caused her son’s memory to be sullied by people that had their own agenda and nothing on behalf of this mother’s child. We don’t need riots which only serve to divide the races in this country.
Wrongful death charges can be brought to prove fault. It might not get the press a riot does, but it could do what the mother intended for the memory of her child, something riots will not do.
Thanksgiving
Everybody eat too much then work it off shopping? I had a nice dinner with some friends at the VFW, because our family Thanksgiving was two weeks ago. Why, well so everyone could be there and to avoid Black Friday. Most of the grandkids are old enough to have part-time jobs, which means stores who open for Black Friday.
It keeps getting worse, the early Thanksgiving was started a couple years ago, the previous couple years my son’s family had to leave our traditional Thanksgiving dinner early because of my grandchildren had to work Black Friday. This year they are starting it on Thursday, some as early as Thursday morning.
I shop Black Friday. Check out all the ads and often get some good deals, but it is getting too crazy, we need to go back to Black Friday starting as a reasonable time on Friday.
By the way there were 46 of us for Thanksgiving. Four generations. We all feel like one family although not all are related. Biologically I have a son, daughter-in-law, two grandsons, and one great-grand son at the table. My daughter-in-law’s brother got married a few years ago and his wife’s parents joined the family for our celebrations, Thanksgiving and Easter being the big one. One of the married granddaughter’s in-laws also joined the family even though they have to drive quite a distance to join us. One big happy family.
Hope everyone had a happy holiday. Please send feed-back on Black Friday is it problem or pleasure?
Seniors Don’t Need to be Alone
The front page of the Sunday, Today New Paper had pictures of people in their 80’s and 90’s telling about how alone and lonely their lives are.
I’m a kid at 70, even if you are much younger hopefully you will get old because there is only one alternative.
Here are a few tips for the old, the getting old, and their children. Being alone hurts. I have a dog and two cats which might be over-doing it a little, but there is always someone to hold, someone who loves me. I am in the midst of preparing an up-dated will and I know when I pass my pets will likely be old and no one will want them, so besides strong arming my family, my first bequeath will be to whoever agrees to take my pets. The vet helped me figure out what an old pet will cost per year. Another option would be making deals with other seniors that you will take their pet if they go first and visa versa. The survivor can then make a deal with another senior. There won’t be a lot of pets because they die the same as we humans do.
The next thing for the current group of seniors is buy a computer. Have your kids teach you how to use it. No kids, call the nearest senior center and ask them about computer classes. You don’t understand those things, well, that’s why a senior class, the rest of the students won’t understand them either. There are games to play. Once you have an email address it won’t be long until you have a long list email buddies. Start with everybody you know and find out if they have an email address. Stay with people you know or people a trusted friend or relative introduces you to. Your list will grow.
Get on the telephone. Can’t see or hear that well anymore? Call the phone company they can help you out an make suggestions. If you aren’t a church person, you may want to take a second look, many churches of all denominations have a friendly get togethers with a snack before or after the service. Call your local churches until you find one, then you will instantly have a weekly get together.
Don’t drive anymore? The church is easy while looking for a church find one that has a volunteer drivers program where someone will pick you up and take you home every week. Want to go to the store? Check with the senior centers, often they have seniors who still drive that will take you somewhere. They will charge you something for gas and maybe a little for time, but cheaper than a taxi and more comfortable because you will be riding with someone closer to your age. Someone you can talk with. Perhaps make a new friend. There are still taxi’s, if you have money, and buses if there is a stop near you.
Many of current seniors grew up riding the bus. I did, so taking the bus isn’t scary or mysterious. If you are afraid don’t let it be another brick to wall you into your house, sit near the driver and ask him questions if you have any.
Finally, why is it so important to stay alone in your home? Look into assisted living facilities. If you have a pet many of them will let you keep your pet. They will likely take most of your income, but you will have a nice place to live, and you will never eat alone again. The only time you will be alone is when you shut the door to your room or apartment because you want to.
Stay in touch. Have friends your own age. Stay busy. No one should ever be alone, there are computers, telephones, and yes, there are still mail boxes.
I am always looking for comments, but this time I would like suggestions as well. This generation has everything available to them to have an active, full filling life no matter how long they live, but unlike the next generation they don’t know how to find resources or use them. There are so many people out there who are dying a little more each day from loneliness.
HOW I GOT MY PEN NAME
It’s here!!! My book ‘Umbrella on the Floor‘ is available on Amazon. It is mystery, murder, suspense, with a touch of love and a whole bunch of smart come-backs. It should be on Kindle by the end of the week.
I write under the name SaunnieLee, which a lot of you understand for those of you who don’t, I was born Saundra Lee Slatzer, and called Saunnie until I was 12 years old. When I entered Jr. high I decided Saunnie was a baby name and began calling myself Sandy which stuck, with all except my family who still calls me Saunnie. As for my middle name, my mother had 4 sisters who gave me cousins named; Karen Lee, Sharon Lee, Rayma Lee and Leland. Leland was close to being old enough to be my father, but the three girls each of my generation hold a very special place in my heart, although Sharon is no long with us we remained in contact all of her life. Karen and Rayma are on my email list every time I send an email.
You see SaunnieLee is simply a trip back to my roots. Where I came is important to me as you can see on this facebook page where a large number of the people either are or were born or have children named Slatzer.
Holiday Time
I was embarrassed the first time someone thanked me for my service. My twenty years in the Army was my job, how I earned a living and supported my kids. I also loved the Army and wouldn’t have wanted to do anything else.
This year in a restaurant eating my free Veterans Day meal, my thoughts went back to the Vietnam era. Being military could get you hit rather than thanked. Those days will never return because when a soldier dies in a faraway land, we know from 9-11 if that soldier over there is keeping them from getting over here.
If you are a soldier or the family member of one keep in mind that General Patton clearly defined the role of the soldier seventy years ago as, ‘It is not your job to die for your country, it is your job to make the other S.O.B. die for his country.’
When I say soldier I am talking about Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force. I hope and pray for peace, however all records from scratches on caves to the written word tell us that man goes to war. Why and what for we may never be able to figure out.
At this time I would like to thank all the people who take a minute to thank the military for their service.
PERSONAL BLOG
I was going to put this into my email, but decided this would be a good time to tell a little bit about myself. First of all, let me make all of you not in Virginia a little jealous. No, it’s not the beautiful leaves since many of you live in states where the color of all is in all of nature.
No, no, here in southwestern Virginia our gas is $2.98. That’s right we’re under $3.00 a gallon. This is a good time to drop your congressman a note. If your gas is also less than $3 a gallon send him a ‘Thank you’ note. If it is over $3, well I know what I would write, but you should use your own imagination.
Now to the subject of this blog. I had a tough time when I lost my beloved Sebastian. He was 15 years old and had been diabetic for nearly 3 years. Yes dogs get a lot of things humans do. His hips were failing him so he sometimes needed help getting around. I kept a bath towel by the door, which I would put under his belly and help him walk on bad days. His old body finally had enough and my beautiful dog gave it up.
I cried until the week-end then on Saturday I sat in my chair and cried the entire day. At some point during the following week I remembered when I lost my beloved Cocoa three years ago, to honor his memory I went to the animal shelter and got my cat Mimsy.
With Sebastian gone there was no longer a dog in the house. Cats have only been in my life for the past 5 years, while I can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t have a dog. We humans can be so stupid, a cat that needs a home in the memory of a dog is fine, but my stupid mind said I would be betraying Sebastian to get another dog. We can be so stupid sometimes.
When I went to the animal shelter, there were three puppies about 3 months old who had been found in a box by the side of a road. I ask to hold the little black short haired male. He put his head over my shoulder and cuddled so close. All dogs ever want is to be loved.
October is adopt a pet month. My cuddly Micco is now a typical puppy, he is pretty good at understand what is and isn’t a chew toy. He understands what he is expected to do when we go outside, but I have to know then it’s time before he does.
A note about how my pets get their names. Should you ever go to Brevard County, Florida from the north the first town you will come to is Mims. My Mimsy is an orange and white cat. When you reach the center of the county you will be in Cocoa. Going into the southern part of the county you come to Micco and finally as you exit the county you come to Sebastian.
Those who know me may be wondering about Kissy Kat who is a female black Garfield. Kissy is short for the bedroom community next to Disney World, Kissimmee.
Time to go because Micco, the dog not the town, has to go out. If you don’t have a pet, adopt one. They will add so much to your life. If you have a pet and you have the room, adopt a playmate for your pet.
ISIS
I received an email a while ago. Don’t you read your emails. This one was from missionaries who texted family in the states that ISIS had taken over the village they have been living in. ISIS went from house to house asking the children to denounce Jesus, when the children refused ISIS murdered them.
These people were asking for our prayers for them. These people who are watching children who are to young to fully understand what they are committing to and being murdered. Have US missionaries moved to the level of ISIS. Is killing children all right with them? We say we believe in one God, but the God I believe in wouldn’t sanction the murder of children.
If it were my children I would tell them to agree to whatever keeps them alive. That no one can change what’s in you mind and in your heart.
ISIS is dangerous and unless congress and the president move quickly we are soon going to see another 9/11 on our shores. Prayer is good, but a note to your congressman would also be a good thing right now.
If our missionaries can watch babies die and ask for us to pray for them, it scares me to death. Are we becoming as crazy as ISIS and the others who want to murder people who don’t believe the way they do.
Gay Marriage
Those of you who know me know that in the summer I live in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. If you have a TV you must know that Virginia has a problem with gay marriage. Let me give you my stand. Marriage at the courthouse or anywhere else is a legal contract with your government. In a church the contract part is when you bring a license and sign you name, the other part in a church is a contract with God. You say I do to the words, the rest is between you, your new mate, and God.
We are all Christian here in the mountains with 98% protestant. If you know what a protestant is, please explain it to your children. No you don’t, you may think you do, but you don’t. When I was in the Army they would bring new trainees to me in groups and I would start by explaining what I wanted these kids to put on the papers that were just handed out to them.
I would start by telling them if you believe in Jesus Christ you are a Christian. If you are Catholic you probably know it, anything else you are still a protestant. I run the gambit of protestant sects, from Baptist to Mormon. Next I tell them if they are something other than Christian like Muslin, Buddhist, or Jewish they probably know it.
Finally I say, “If you are confused, don’t know what you are, or have any questions raise you hand now.”
The hands fly up all over the room. They say they are Methodist, Church of Christ, Lutheran, and many more. Finally I have said protestant, protestant, protestant, enough that they either get it or are smart enough to know that the sergeant with all the stripes is getting pissed and they have learned in past twenty-four hours not to get a sergeant mad at you.
All of you who are out yelling about gay marriage, abortion, and all these other things, go home and teach your kids. Don’t say you have because I know better. Do not expect a teacher to teach your children all of the things they need to prepare for life. Do not expect the Sunday school teacher to teach your children everything you want them to know about religion. This is my first point.
Gay marriage, next point, the bible was written about life two thousand years ago. Jews don’t eat pork because two thousand years ago there was no refrigeration. The meat that was most often tainted and made people sick was pork. Having Rabbis teach their people not to eat pork probably saved many, many lives. Today let me tell you bacon and ham are delicious. There is no more danger of getting sick from pork than there is from beef or chicken.
Tuesday I spent the day in Amish country in Ohio. (Ohio has more Amish than any other state) They think they are obeying God by not having electric or cars. That’s what they believe. Now, God and I would have a long talk if he wanted me to turn my TV off or leave home without my cell phone. We’re protestants you’d think we believed the same thing.
My stance on gay marriage. I am Christian, but I’m not gay, a minister with a church, and I don’t want to get married, because I’ve been there and done that more than once. My stance is if you’re gay and want to get married either go to city hall or if the minister of your church will give you a church service and that’s what you want, it’s none of my business. As for the bible pounders open it up once in a while. Not only have gays always existed, but non-gay men had sex with each other. If wasn’t liking men it was a lack of women. I can think of reasons why women probably had sex with each other back then. I don’t know the reason because women had no value back then so few were written about them.
RELIGON
waiting for my granddaughter and her friend to get here. They are going to stay with my pets while I take a short vacation. But when you gotta blog you gotta blog. CBS this morning was another story about kids can’t say ‘In God We Trust’ in school. Americans get this straight. The Mayflower got here and started the move that got this land into a county and part of the outside world. This is a free country anyone can worship as they wish, but this country was founded as a Christian country. It is our culture. If we pray in school your children don’t have to pray with ours.
You are welcome in this country if you pledge your allegiance to our flag and obey our laws. All the nations in the world have customs. Most of their customs are a thousand years older than ours, but don’t try to undermine ours because we are the new kids on the block.
To repeat myself, if we pray in school, don’t pray and don’t try to undermine our right to pray. Build your kind of churches, pray as you wish, celebrate your own customs, but leave our customs alone. The Christian religion is our country’s custom. If you are not a Christian in this country then adopt a live and let live attitude, like the Christians here are doing for you.
Ohio resident since 1643
That’s my mother’s side of the family, but both sides docked right after the Mayflower. I am going to Ohio to see a friend of over 50 years (1956). Perhaps my cousin will take me to Amish country, but that isn’t why I’m writing. To all the people on my Facebook who were born with the last name Slatzer or are a direct descendent to the Slatzers I would love to meet you. You are either my cousin or double cousin. If your great grandfather or great great grandfather was James Slatzer you are my cousin. If your great grandfather or great great grandfather was Christopher Slatzer and his 1st wife Mary you are my cousin. If your great grandfather or great great grandfather was Christopher Slatzer and his 2nd wife Elizabeth you are my double cousin.
I want so much to meet some of you. Send me a message on facebook if you would be interested in meeting me. Suggest a restaurant or I will locate on and we can set a time. I hope more than one would like to meet with me. Christopher and Mary had 5 children before she passed away. Christopher and Elizabeth had 8 children so there has to be a lot of you out there. Sadly my line has died out. My grandfather was one of Christopher and Mary’s children and my grandmother was Elizabeth’s child before she met Christopher making Christopher and Elizabeth’s 8 children my double cousins.
Excited about meeting some Slatzers,
Saundra Slatzer Leese
Saundra Slatzer Leese
Memories
Do you remember when you got your first TV set, you probably had to be born before 1950 to even know what I’m talking about. If you were born after 1980 there was probably one in almost every room of your house. If you are among the group who listened to Boston Blackie and Father Knows Best on the radio. Share your first TV story. (I didn’t make a mistake Father Knows Best was on the radio before it made the switch to TV
VA wait time
The media is a dog with a bone. They say the average wait time for an appointment in a VA facility is 34 days. If you are not a veteran how long does it take you to get an appointment with a new primary care doctor or a specialist? Probably about 34 days. The VA back-up can be fixed by veterans doing the right thing for their fellow vets. I retired after 20 years in the Army with 60% disability. My retirement gives me Tricare for life insurance, which most doctors and hospitals accept. I am over 65 so I have Medicare, the only thing I don’t have is prescription insurance, I take 9 different pills a day. Yes, I see my VA doctor once a year to go over all of my meds to make sure I’m not taking something I no longer need. My point is all I need from the VA is medication management. My civilian primary care doctor and my VA doctor communicate. If older veterans only take what they need from the VA, time will be opened up for the VA to care for young soldiers coming home from combat areas.
I welcome any comment on this or related subjects
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