CONTEST DREAM

I woke from a dream where husband I were visiting a desert country. He was invited to participate in a contest The first contest was where a grid of men seven by . He was in the second row, sixth position. The object of the contest was to toss the block of wood so that it landed on its end. The wood was about one foot tall by four inches by four inches. Husband did not progress. The second game involved catching frogs. Husband made sure his missed his frog. The third contest involved a herd of sheep. The object was to pull as much fleece off as possible with one hand. The biggest handful of fleece won. Husband grabbed fleece from the head and was surprised when the whole head of fleece came off in his hand. The fleece was a white as cotton and very fluffy. CONTEST: The need to prove value of onself. WHITE: Purity, perfection. SEVEN: Mental perfection (except for the petit mal and general forgetfull ness.

Red devil Texas, Nice name for small town in TEXAS

Red, the Devil and Texas. I was somewhere someone was offering to turn a marble column in to red marble. This I dreamed that my house was being infestd by the devil. All of my clothes were being washed and squeezed into the bathtub by way of the overspill spout. I did wonder if this would be a daily occurrence. I was then looking at a Texas shaped cookie and wondering why the devil caused so much mischief. It suddenly occurred to me with shocking clarity that the Great Secret of Satan was that he could not actually kill anyone. Certainly did not stop him from manipulating the situation to cause many deaths. I then gave the cookie to someone and asked them to put it in their mouth. Then I asked to have the cookie returned to me. The person had eaten the cookie. It was the only Texas shaped cookie. RED: Means energy, force, passion. DEVIL: Means fear, negative aspects of self. TEXAS: Think big.

FINANCIAL DREAMS

FINANCIAL DREAM: I dreamed that I was a new hire at a very large financial firm. My job was in analysis. The man next to me was in acquisitions and mergers. I was looking at a very large spread sheet and I had highlighted stocks in blue and yellow for the previous day opening value, closing value. I was about to total them when my supervisor called me. She said that the calculation was very expensive about three hundred and three dollars. I figured I would pass the cost along to the client. But that should only cost mere pennies. The man next to me was talking to his friend. He was contemplating purchasing a building. His girlfriend was the agent for the deal. He wondered if his girlfriend was playing him. His friend exclaimed, “Where did you take your training?” I wondered how gossip would effect the sales of such a deal. I them wondered just what exalty did my job consiste of and did I really want to continue? YELLOW: Intellec, wisdom, tranquility. BLUE: Truth, harmony. NUMBERS: You are watching over material gains, possessions and are keeping track of things.

NEVER HAVE I EVER

NEVER HAVE I EVER...had this dream before I woke from a dream this morning. It involved Susan Sarandon and Harrison Ford. They were a pair of contestants. They had a luxury suite with one bedroom, bath, living room, kitchen with a deck. They were in the bedroom. Susan was wearing a white silk bra and panties. She dashed into the kitchen. Harrison followed. She grabbed a bagel, cut it in half and spread cream cheese on it. She took a bite. Then Harrison grabbed the bagel and chewed and swallowed. He wiped his hand on her white bra. Then he kisser with a deep passionate kiss. Woo Woo. The first contest was a cooking contest. The ingredients were a nice thick steak, some appropriate veggies and caramel to be made into some type of dessert. Slusan warned that the best caramel to choose was the hardest. The only ones I could find were all soft. Doom, doom I tell you. All of the officers were housed on the blue ship. Every morning the dived into the ocean and swam to the various white ships. They rotated to serve on each ship every day. Who ever won the contest did not win anything but fame. CELEBRITIES: However one feels about him and her. WHITE: perfection, cleanliness, new beginnings. BLUE: Truth, wisdom, tranquility. CARAMEL: Sweet situation that could turn into a sticky situation. If something sounds to good to be true, then it is probably not true.

COOKING

COOKING: I like cooking but I absolutely love and truly appreciate is being cooked for, especially with family or at a nice restaurant for a special meal. I my attempt at cooking was at Parkview Junior High in a Home Economics class. My other option was Latin. I rather think I should have taken Latin as I have a propensity for language...who knew? The one and only thing we ever cooked was Milk Toast. Ugh. This is a food made for invalids, it consists of heating milk in a pan and adding pieces of white bread then adding sugar and taking it off the heat immediately before any one can escape the room. Ugh! I never cooked anything until I was on my own, living in a house with my first roommate. My Uncle Carl was giving me free flying lessons to me and my roommate. One day I left a pot of eggs in water boiling away on top of the stove. We got home about three hours later. There was smoke coming out of the door. The water for the eggs had boiled away and the eggs were black and had exploded. Stinky! It took a few days to air out the house. Yeesh. The next food adventure was during the time Charlie and I lived at Grandma LaVann's ranch. I decided to make a german dish using venison rather than beef. The recipe called for marinating the meat in vinegar for two days. It looked truly disgusting, all gray and falling apart. Had to throw it out and anytime I mentioned using vinegar in any recipe was met with derisive laughter. Grandma LaVann gave me a pie crust recipe that called for a tablespoon of vinegar, which makes a very sturdy pie crust that can be handled for a fairly long time. Unless you roll it out for about 30 minutes, then it makes an excellent inedible Frisbee. Careful of rocks. User name will not be mentioned. My favorite seafood is Abalone. Delish Slice it thin, pound it until thinner. Fry lightly in butter. Yeesh it is good. My first attept at pumpkin pie was when I was staying at Grandma Horn's trailer at the farm. She had taken a train to go visit Aunt Wilma in Colorado. I had access to a small pumpkin which is cleaned, cut up and boiled in a pot of water until tender. Mashed that up. I then decided to combine two recipes for pumpkin pie. I doubled the amount of spices and it was gruesomely spiced. I did not know how to make pie crust so I simply poured the pumpkin into a pie plate and baked it until done. It was powerful strong but I ate it anyway. I have followed recipes for the most part ever since Once when Charlie and I were living in Monte Vista Trailer Park, I decided to make banana bread. I did not any flour. So I rumbled through the cupboard and decided to use Cream of Wheat. There was actually a recipe for banana something. The cookies came out rather strange. The were solid but rubbery. They actually bounced when dropped on the counter. We ate them anyway. Happy accident: When we lived on the ranch, I wanted to make a sandwich for Charlie. I had no bread. So I decided to make a bacon, tomato, lettuce taco. I fried the bacon, fried the flour torilla in the bacon grease. Put Mayo on the taco, put on the sliced tomato and added the lettuce. It was delicious and I have made it several times since then. Very handy. Lastly, the year after Charlie was born, I begged my parents to let me have the girls for the summer. We had a good time, the girls watched Charlie for me when I worked. We ran around like crazy whenever I had time off. We went everywhere. My favorite place was Golden Gate Park. One time I decided to cook rice with chicken gizzards and cream. That was not well received. I should have boiled the gizzards in Coca Cola which would have softened them nicely. I was teased mercilessly from then on any time chicken gizzards were mentioned. That is about it, I don't remember any other cooking disasters, I am sure someone will remind me.

NUMBERS AND I

NUMBERS AND I: My first encounter with numbers was in the first grade. Kindergarten was unknown unless you lived where there was a Montesori. Nope, not in 1950 Boise, Idaho. And Mom did not teach me to write my numbers, strange she was very progressive when it came to education. I remember my first grade class being asked to write number one through ten. I turned to a next desk classmate and whispered, “How to I make a six?” The next episode was in third grade at American Falls. I was tasked to put answer the clock hands and to write down the time. I got them exactly backwards. Even when I was told the correct answers, I was not convinced that they had the correct answer. Junior High at Parkview, I failed general math and had to take it again. If I had asked mom to tutor me I think I would have run away from home. The only time I was happy with math was in Algebra I. Somehow using letters as numbers helped me to turn the whole problem into a story that I could comprehend. The next class was Geometry. The teacher was a tiny Filipina named Miss Primativa Perez. She wore very high heels. She was not impressed with the big stupid Americans in her class. She told us that we all too lazy. The only thing that saved me was that she required that we write the theorems and describe the triangles. I took a lot of pride in typing the theorems, using red for numbers. I managed to get a C in that class. My next number difficulty was my first bank account. I wrote a check for rent and it bounced. I told the land lady that I had money in my account. It bounced two more times. I went to the bank and they explained that the monthly service charge was subracted from the account before the amount of the check. I went there to add enough to my account to clear all the charges, then I closed my account and opened an account at a Savings and Loan with a much better understanding of how a checking account worked. Oy!

THE REST OF THE STORY

THE REST OF THE STORY: I called Aunt Wanda a couple of days ago. I asked her if she had any out of state visitors. Yes, Jim came one day and Ellen the next. She and the cousins , husbands, a few kids and Aunt Wanda went out to breakfast at Big Bear. Then I asked if she wanted to hear another story about barrow. She chose the Ricky The Red Headed Hitchhiker. Then I asked her if she had ever heard the story of when Dad went AWOL and how got away with it. No, I rattled that off for her. She laughed and exclaimed that dad was a scoundrel. Yup. I asked her if she knew the story of when he ran away from home at thirteen. Yes, she knew a few more details than I had ever heard. Apparently Dad ran away without a word to his parents. He peddled his bike to Ontario, sold it for enough to purchase a railroad ride to Minnesotta. The other grandfather called Grandpa Berglund to let them know that Shorty was in Minnesotta. Grandpa B asked that they buy a train ticket and send him home. No, he spent the summer there working the harvest and probably used the railroad ticket to ride to New Orleans. He was picked up there for vagrancy. The judge decided to keep him at his house for a couple of weeks. I did not ask Dad how he got home. Aunt Wanda told me that he became a stow-a-way on a freighter which went through the Panama Canal. Pretty sure he was discovered and worked his way to San Francisco or where ever the freighter came discharge the cargo. That could have gone horribly wrong at any step along the way. But Dad was very charming and could talk himself into and out of the darndest situations. We also discussed gambling. Dad liked to play poker and lose then play craps and won, which allowed him to play all night long. Aunt Wanda told me that one time Dad gambled away his whole pay check. Mom had written checks which then bounced. She was completely humiliated. Aunt Wanda told me in her own words that mom humbled herself and came to them to borrow money to cover the bounced checks. Not a good situation. I then told her that the smartest thing Dad ever did was to leave home for about six weeks. This was in the early 80's. I was visiting at the house. Dad decided to get into a poker game in a room in the back of the Cherry Blossom Cafe. Unfortunately they didn't have a craps table and Dad lost one thousand dollars. He took out a loan and told Mom. I remember Mom telling that he was taking food out of the mouths of their children. He packed up the fifth wheel to a silver something. I am sure my siblings will remind me of the year, make and model of that car. He went to work in Redmond, Oregon for six weeks. That was just long enough for Mom to cool down and decide against ripping up the sheets. I kept my mouth shut.

CHORIZO AND MUSHROOMS

CHORIZO AND MUSHROOMS: This past Thursday, I purchased ingredients for spaghetti as well as garlic bread in a package. The kind you put in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or so. I bought one package of spaghetti sauce mix, small can of sliced olives, one pound of chorizo. It was not the traditional Basque dried though. I already had two cans of chopped tomatoes at home. Then I picked up three leeks and some button mushrooms in a box. Also got some shredded Parmesan Yay!!! On Saturday I dragged out the ingredients. I cut of the green ends of the three leeks, sliced them in half and then sliced them across into rings. I tossed them into my favorite frying pan in butter. Then I took the chorizo out of the casing and, since it was very soft, I put in the pan and mashed it up. Then I added 2 ½ cups of water, then the spaghetti sauce mix. Then I opened two cans of diced tomatoes added two tablespoons of smashed garlic. Also added some of the Parmesan. Simmer, simmer. At the same time, I had a stock pot of hot water on the boil and dropped in the buckwheat spaghetti. I also had the garlic bread baking at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Drained the spahgetti and dropped that into spaghetti. Mixed well and added the rest of the Parm. Plated the spaghetti and sliced the garlic bread. Delicious. Review: Very disappointed in the Chorizo, it disappeared in the dish and contributed nothing to the flavor. The next morning I decided to have sliced canned potatoes, bacon. I noticed the box of mushrooms, which I completely ignored yesterday. Crap! So I made the bacon into lardon, got them frying and cut about five mushrooms in half and grilled them all together for ten minutes in butter. I turned them over turned off the heat and them coast for five minutes. Tim ate one mushroom and said, yummy. After breakfast I then cut the rest of the mushrooms in half and fried them for ten minutes in butter. Turned off heat to cool and then stored them in a Ziplock to be added to the spaghetti later..or not. I facebooked Auntie Gale and begged her to go find some Chorizo, the kind that Mom hated. Can't find them here other than wimpy stuff. Yesterday I was watching a southern lady cooking onion casserole. Well, she used two large onions. Cut off both ends, peeled and sliced in half inch segments. Separated in a bowl and sauted until clear. Then she put them in a casserole dish and beat three eggs, poured that on top, cut up five spring onions, put one cup of grated sharp cheddar and baked 350 for 20 to 30 minutes. That looked pretty good. I would suggest using Greyare it is my favorite but I never see that cheese sold in large enough quantities. I will definitely try this some time. Also had a hospital dream. I was in a waiting room for some kind of procedure. When it was over, I went back into the waiting room, I called someone to pick me up. The atmosphere was much more cheerful. Another little segment I was there to escort a man in a bed, with a blue blanket. He insisted in remaining in the bed So I took him to an elevator and we got off at admitting to check out. Gonna have to look up hospital, blue and elevator. Pretty sure hospital is equivalent of nurturing, blue means boldness, creativity, elevator just a guess but maybe mood?

LOST DREAM

LOST DREAM: I vowed not to repeat dreams that are very familiar to me such as; lost, house, travel, flying. However this one was unusual in that not only was it in color it was also in sound, I heard and spoke to people in this dream. AT first I was driving a large city on a new multi-lane roads, it was day time. I think it was in Detroit. I was then on foot and was looking for a certain address. I looked down a broad alley paved in red bricks. There were children playing there. I decided to go back up and encountered a black door. As I reached for the handle, it opened and women stepped out land asked, “What does the law say?” I replied, “Look first?” I then decided to call family to come pick me up. The outer lobby was covered in grafitti. I think I was in Philadelphia. LOST: Still adjusting to new situation. RED; Passion. Energy. BRICKS: Indivual thoughts. BLACK: Unknown or mysterious.

SPACE DREAM

SPACE DREAM: I woke early this morning and documented a space dream. There was a problem with the re-entry vehicle. Oxygen was leaking. The vehicle was half way into the descent and there was not enough fuel to return to the ISS. Suggestion made that as much stuff as possible be jettisoned. That was not a good idea because no matter how careful the jettison went there was still air leakage. NASA ran all sorts of possibilities. It was then suggested that any or all ground vehicles load a lot of oxygen tanks for a mid orbit rendevouz to add O2 to the descending rocket. It was hoped that if O2 ran out that the astronauts could parachute. Problem, no parachetes. The tailing parachute could not be modified in time. Time is a factor. OXYGEN: Represnts renewal. SURVIVAL: Means you will prevail over current problems.

TV SHOW DREAM

I woke from what I think could be a plot twist for a television show. In a very large hospital, the patients were dying at a statisically higher rate tha average. One of the hospital lab technicians was suspicious. She held back a urine sample from one the dead patients. She was thinking about how she would get this sample from hospital A to Forensic Lab B. She did not want to die of suddden death by killer and/or cop. There was probably corruption involved somewhere along the line of investigation and she could not trust anyone. The hospital had a pneumatic tube system for delivering small items. Also within the system were small intelligant robots. She felt she could put the urine sample inside the robot and the robot would navigate the sewer system to the forensic laboratory. She put the sample inside the robot and put on a radioactive danger label on the bot so that when it popped up in a toilet at the lab so that it would not be immediately discarded. She did wonder if the hospital sewer system had a trap to stop larger objects from floating into the main. So she had lunch with an acquintance who was knowledgable about the hospital sewer system. No, the system did not have a trap. So she flushed the robot down in the puplic bathroom. I wonder if I need an agent? Writers for Hollywood are admittedly desperate for original ideas, even though it is from a silly dream. URINE: To dream of urine is about feelings you have rejected or maybe you have a “pissy” attitude. Yeah, the last one for sure. AND lastly, I dreamed of a mother and daughter who had uncomable hair syndrome. The mom's hair was white, long and curved in Marcel waves. The daughter had light blue hair the grew out like a sweater. Ooh, nice and warm.

temple, coins, purple and feet

COURT CASES, COINS AND A TEMPLE (DREAMS) My first dream was about a court case; Chat Rooms V Owners. Foul language was being used excessively in a chat room. The second case regarded a Science Chat Room: Science V Owners. The third case was about reparation of Native Land. Navaho V BLM. The argument was that a very thin strip of land at the rim of the Grand Canyon needed to preseved at Tribal land because it was sacred. The court ruled in favor of the tribe who then painted a area of about 3 to 24 inches wide by 4 to 6 feet long. This satisfied all parties. COURT CASES: Indicates that you feel you are being judged. GARMENTS, COINS AND FOUR POSTER BED: I dreamed that I was working in a house of antique clothing. The patriarch's night gown was huge and made of a very luxurious purple velvet. The gown was extremely heavy. There was also a room where boxes of coines were neatly stacked. There was also a partially assembled four poster bed frame. PURPLE GARMENT: devotion, healing ability and kindness. COINS: Missed opportunity, dominance and energy. BED: intimate self and sexuality. INDIAN RELIGION: I was visiting a very large building that consisted of a Temple, a home and several businesses. At the front of each home, business as well as the Temple was a shallow basin inset into the floor, into which flowed a stream of water with which to wash ones feet. There was also a towel to dry. All of the outside walkways were covered as it rained almost constantly. I seemed to do everything wrong but the folks very kindly showed me how to things correctly. TEMPLE: Inspiration, spiritual thinking, meditation, and perhaps you need to pamper yourself. FEET: means foundation, dependability, sense of understanding and independence.

CANADIAN COAST GUARD CUTTER

CANADIAN COAST GUARD: One lovely day, the Canadian Coast Guard hove to in Barrow, Alaska. That summer, one of the doctor's wives was working billing. One of the RN's, Dennis, was a short wave radio afficiando. He kept in touch with all of the people on the ocean. He chatted with the Coast Guard cutter and the Captain invited all of the folks working at the hospital to come on board for a tour. The day I went was with Amy, and Dennis and enough other people to fill the rubber boat thingy. We climbed a fairly sturdy ladder to get on board. Dennis wanted a picture of him in the hypothermia chamber, so I was elected camera holder. The chamber was on deck, Dennis stripped down to his swimming trunks and said “Cheese”. Yep right there in the lovely, warm, bubbling hot tub. Well they had to call it something appropriate for the government to approve and fund. Tee hee. The rest of the tour consisted of a walk to the engine room. Incredibly noisy, they said when they were going through ice pack that noise actually drowned out the sound of the engines. The only other thing down there was a small stores where you could purchase soft drinks, candybars etc. I asked if I could exchange a dollar bill for a looney. Yeah, I still have it somewhere amongst my possessions. Then we went to the bridge and met the Captain and crew. One pretty young lady was from either Quebec or Montreal, she spoke French only. All Canadian Coast Guard cutters are named after Prime Ministers. The one we were on was not the Martha Black. I have a picture somewhere in my several notebooks. I am sure that by now there is one named the Justin Treadeu. Wonder where she has been posted.

AMERICA'S GOT TALENT

AMERICA'S GOT TALENT: I have been imagining being on AGT as a story teller. My interview video would consist of talking about the stories I have witnessed in my family, in Barrow, Alaska and with Grandma LaVann. At the audition I would introduce myself and tell the judges that they could have their choice of stories between the Mystery of Aunt Mary or Grandma LaVann and the priest. If I got four yeses my next piece would be for the audience to choose. I would list the story not chosen by the judges and Ricky the Redheaded Hitchhiker. The remainder of the stories would be The Time Dad Got Away with AWOL. Porcupine Liver. Playing Pranks. On Tour with the Gabor Sisters Losing My Virginity. Visiting the Laundry The Case of The Canary Strangler Murderer The Ninja Warrior Transgender Kidnapper Patrick Pendleton's Recipe for Hamburger Dildo. I will also make up a purely fictitious story and challenge the audience to guess which story is false. So many possibilities. Suggestions anyone?

MAFIA DREAM

MAFIA DREAM: First dream was about a railroad train carrying a circus. There was a very dangerous spot on the track where it turned to go down and the angle of the track was 75 degrees. This looked impossible the engineer said it was possible as the train was long enough to keep each car from slipping off due to the weight on both endsele. The engineer said they would put tow ropes on each end to steady the train as it passed. MAFIA DREAM: Started with a young man riding a purple motorcycle. He rammed into a driver side of a car. The driver had fallen asleep. He woke up startled and wrecked the car. A tow truck came to get the car and also took the motorcycle. While the driver was busy with the car, The boy took the motorcycle and rode home. He lived in a fairly tall b ere playing noisily when suddenly the mafioso started shooting at the kids. They ran from there to the front yard where the young boy lived. Most of the mafioso were killed by each other and the boy and his friends finished them off. Next day there was a huge funeral at the Catholic Church. Everyone was marching to the church. Among them was one lone mafioso. He was very tall , long ear lobs, looking grim and vengeful. He was going to cause trouble. When they got to the church, it was obvious that they were not going to get inside. The bottom wall had collapsed. No funeral that day. PURPLE: loving, kindness and compassion. MAFIA: Experiencing inner conflict and turmoil. I do not usually write about dreams, only ones that I have never had before.

STRANGE DREAM

STRANGE DREAM I dreamed that all of us were visiting with Mom and Dad at the double wide they owed in Monte Vista. For some reason Mom was cleaning out a room of all sorts of junk, lost of radios, electronic things, clothes, shoes. There were several large boxes that I kept filling. One of Phillips friends had stayed over night ( time is rather fluid in dreams). She could not stand the kid and mostly because they slept together in the bottom bunk. I told her to not worry about it, I would drop him off when I took the junk to the dump. I began wondering what I would use to do that particular task. Meanwhile Dad had several cars outside. He had one old rusty truck on a trailer. Then there was a beautifully restored Chevy about 1939 in lovely thick orange. There was also an older blue four door Ford without a license or insurance or registration. We got in the car and drove about the field. It went very well. I went back inside to look at the remodeling. I decided that one room would do nicely as a studio for Mom. If we moved one wall it would make the master bedroom larger and very spacious. PARENTS: Represent power, shelter and love. REMODELING: Examination of values, change to belief system. ORANGE: Hope, friendlinss, courtesy, out going nature. GUEST: New challenge and interest. Ready for an adventure.

CAMP LAVANN

CAMP LAVANN: I have been worrying about the future of Grandma LaVann's ranch. I am hoping that cousin Dennis is considering establishing a trusteeship to manage the place well into the future. I would love to see the place used as a summer camp for all children but in particular, foster kids,inner city kids, handicapped kids, abused kids, orphans. Also if Wounded Warriors was involved that would be good for both the kids and veterans. I would have the barn rebuilt so that there was a roomy loft and capable of beds for 20 or 30 kids. There would also be building set aside for handicap accessibility. There could be a small herd of sheep which would be sheared. The wool washed, carded, spun and woven or knitted into garments. Appropriate individuals to teach the skills for those who wish to learn. There could be fishing, hiking, orienteering, exploring, berry picking, wood chopping, gardening and other crafts on offer such as pottery, painting etc. In the bottom of the barn would be ten stalls for horses. There should be a cowboy and others who want to train riders. The cowboy should be skilled in horseshoeing as well as blacksmithing for shoes and hammering iron. There should be a covered pool for swimming. There should be an evening get together and taps for bedtime. The kids could also do good deeds such as pick up trash, or chop wood for people who need the help. There should be help for mental health and counseling for everyone who needs such. Any other ideas?

HOSPITAL DREAM:

I woke from a hospital dream. I was in a very large patient room. The entire surrounding was filled with gorgeous plants. I chatted with the patient and she told me that the plants were thirteen years old. I told her that she was lucky that she had not been transferred to Bay Area Hospital. Their rooms are very nice but nothing like this. There were mostly black people working in the hospital who were very friendly and helpful. I was shown to my room but I have no idea why I was admitted. Later, I was outside and I watched a casket escape and roll down the road. I saw one room in the Emergency room. There was the usual sized bed and right next to the bed was a toilet. Very handy and not the usual configuration in most ER's. I was walking around and looked into a room where gloves were stacked about three feet high, apparently for recycling. I wandered into a larger auditorium space where men were brining in cardboard boxes of can and bottles. HOSPITAL: Represents your fear of loss of control. BLACK: Unknown, the mysterious. THIRTEEN: Keeping close track of things. RECYCLING: Means you are sorting out aspects of your life. Alternately means you are reliving the past. Yep, I do that a lot.

LONG ODDS

LONG ODDS: I like to watch horse racing on channe 602 on Direct TV. Everyonce in a while the announcers chat about racing history. One day the subject was long odds. The longest odds in the history of the Kentucky Derby was Donerail in 1913 at 97 to 1. The next horse they talked about was not long odds in numbers but the long odds of even getting to the Kentucky Derby. Canonero II was born in 1968. He was born with a crooked leg and had a crabwalk gait. He was a . chestnut with a blaze of a white dot. He sold at a very low price to Pedro Batista. The owner had to borrow the fifty thousand dollar enrollment for the derby. There several flight delays. By the time they got to Miami and after a four day quarantine they had two days to get to Louiseville. The owner could not afford to fly him there. He decided to drive the one thousand miles to Kentucky. The race was the next day. The odds were 8.7 to 1. He started in 18th place and won the Kentucky Derby. He also won the Preakness for a combined total of a little over three hundred thousand dollars. Canonero II was retiredin 1972 and died in 1981. I wonder if he had decendents who were winners. I think this story would make a wonderful movie. C'mon Hollywood, give it a try. Please.

Getting caught up with dreams

GETTING CAUGHT UP ON DREAMS: MUSEUM: A contest was being held in a museum where two objects must be found; one must be dusty and the an object of your choice. Museum means nontraditional path to success will make you stand out. TWO represent balance, diversity, partnerhip, ying and yang. Xxxxxx I was sent to infiltrate a group of Native Americans. I met a man named David who looked like the Yuupp guy on Storage Wars. I met a group of young ladie and I got to hold the baby. After a period of time that they were not a threat and decided not to add them to my report. NATIVE AMERICAN means instinctual uninhibited aspect. Zzzzzzz I was in the military for part of the training. The group I was with was using a washing machine. We marched into a large auditorium we were the last batch of 20 people. We were given variou props, mine was a squeeze box. Since I do not play that instrument, I decided to use it to puncture a joke, like a rim shot. I sat in a special chair that indicated I was last to be cast. I was thinking that I would tell stories from Barrow. I was marching on the stage when my alarm went off. MILITARY: rigid authority, emotional suppression.: STAND UP COMIC: Need to be more carefree. XXXXX I was watching some sort of equestrian event in Japan. The costumes were very important. The rider and horse with the most point was white. While this color must be natural they are usually albino. The contest consisted of ground work inside as well as out doors. HORSE; equals strength and power. JAPAN: Realization and enlightment. WHITE: Purity, perfection and peace. ZZZZZ I dreamt that a young man, very snappily dressed was looking the window, he kept saying, “No, no, no”. He was looking ata the numerous houses. The porch was coated in ice and looked like it would collapse. NO standing up for what you believe in. ICE Lack of fow and thought. XXXXX I dreamed about how money was invented. The Royals were having money trouble. They were using round measures of meat as a standard measure. Most things were sold by various sizes of meat. Someone decided to divide the meat into one pound size. I saw a meeting where miniature dresse were designed. I saw two woman planting a very steep garden. I told of my dream and they told me the solution. MONEY: Success and prosperity within your reach. ONE: Individuality, TWO: Balance, yin and yang. ZZZZZ I was on a rescue mission. I was moving some stuff for some who had hired me for the move. I mom to come and get me but she did not want to come get me So I was looking for a mile marker to determine my location. I crossed the highway and walked to a place where I could call a taxi to get the number for Yellow Cab. YELLOW: intellect, happiness. MOVING: Desire for change. MOM: Nurturing aspect in yourself. XXXXX I was living one a space station that had huge windows. I was doing training on how to seal leaks. This involved unrolling large sheets of plastic and then carefully patting it into place.. He did not like using the leak protocol and ignored the alarm. Someone pointed out the increase of green growng which meant oxygen enriched areas was actually mold which was a good thing on oxygen starved area. VACUUM: emptiness GREEN: Positive change, good health, serenity. REPAIRING LEAK: loss of disappointment. ZZZZZ

LIVING AT THE RANCH

LIVING AT THE RANCH: It all began because I panicked. I had quit working at Fairchild in order to spend time as Earth Mother and to be with Charlie who was about two years old. His father was working at a Chevron station. We were living a nice two bed, one bath. One day the owner stopped by to said he was raising the rent. I talked Mike and Grandma LaVann into letter Charlie and I come to stay with her for awhile. She decided that we needed a small trailer house. There was one listed in the local paper. Grandma LaVann told me to say that I had one hundred dollars to add to the price. The price was 1500 and when the negotiation began to stall, I made my offer. Yay! Grandma LaVann hired someone to move the thing to her property. It was situated just a bit south of the washhouse. She had also had a concrete poo collector on the backside of the trailer. There was a bedroom in the back. The queen bed was squeexed into where the front room went. Propane gas was sented for heat and cooking as well as water heater. We were very cozy. One weekend Mike put a fence about a small garden patch to keep out the deer. Although why they would stick around with the very loud and excitable Irish retriever is beyond me. At any rate in the midst of this fencing fury. I heard Charlie saying, “Er it goes, Daddy, Er it goes.” The roll of metal fencing was merrily rolling into the orchard. There was a fig tree in front of the trailer. Delicious! The old orchard had Quince, Apples and Pears. The apples were buggy but they ate very well. Grandma LaVann had about 25 head of sheep. Every once in a while, she would close all the gates except the one to the pasture. She would then bellow, “Come sheep!” and in abou fifteen minutes they would come trotting in. She put out a tiny flake of hay and while they were there she looked them over for injuries, infections, etc. She had three cats who followed her faithfully when shewent to look the property over. She had a one hundred pound bag of cat food. When the bad was empty she filed with can and glasses. At a big family gathering she asked Patrick to empty the bag down the well of the old Fratti house. He came back and Grandma LaVann demanded to know where the bag was Pat said he left it in the well. He had to go back and retrieve the bag. Fortunately the well was not deep and there was nothing that could hurt him. We went huckleberry picking. Being carefull to make noise because black bears love huckelberry. I processed them by rolling them down a potato sack which held all the non berry detritis. A huckleberry pie is delicious. I do caution you that the end results are black as pitch and a bit startling if you were not expecting it. We attended church and the tiny 40 seat Catholic church. Grandma LaVann was the sole member of the alter society. Her decorations were either flowers or greenery from the ranch One time we went and a Quiceriana was being held. This a celebration of the young ladies 15th birthday. They dress in white wedding gowns and the Preist holds a mass in their honor. Grandma LaVann had never seen such a thing. It was quite wonderful. During the time that we were there the Priest, Father Kevin began services. He was the nephew of some friends just up the road. He offered to give us a plastic water pool for Charlie. So later that week we jumped in the old Jimmy and she drove to a cabin perched above the Navarro river. We hollered for him and went to look down river. We waved and Father Kevin started strolling toward us. Grandma LaVann asked what kind of swimming suit he was wearing. I guessed that it was a bag and string thing. She gasped, “That's not a suit, He's naked”. She jerked me back around front. Father Kevin called up, “Do you mind if I come up naked?” She yelled back at him that she did mind. So he put on some ragged cut offs. He gave us the pool , we put it in back of the truck and laughed ourselves silly on the way back. One time she called me to the shed in back and she had her hands cupped together. I peered in as she opened her hand. There was a stunned hummingbird. It recovered very quickle and zoomed past my face. I grew a pumpkin in my little garden. It won first place at the County Fair. A whole three bucks. Yay! Mike and his great uncle Tony went abaloney hunting on a minus tide. Mike cleaned it, slice it and put it between two boards and pounded the heck out of was utter heaven. Love it! One time Mike took the chainsaw to cut up some downed wood. Charlie fell asleep and looked so sweet sleeping in the sunshine while Dad worked away. My favorite stroll was a dirt road that went from the far locked fence through some shaded brush. I always think of that when ever I meditate and silently chant my mantra. Just lovely. One time Mike, Dennis, Charlie anen yaren d I drove to a nearby fire lookout tower. We took some figs. The guy was very grateful. We ate tuna fish salad sammies. He had an old book from when his people were on one of the wagon trains. His grandmother managed to bake some chocolate chip cookies! Fascinating reading. We loved to visit greatuncle Tonys chicken yard. The chickens would scratch up arrow heads. I loved to hunt for them and once I actually knew what they looked like, it became a lot easier to find them. There was a big old white tom turkey that scared Charlie, he did not like that bird. So he stayed outside the fenced yard. No idea if Charlie remembers any of this. Tony took us to visit the lady from where they obtained the abaloney. She was a retired teacher and had books every where. I then decided that I wanted to have that many books in my home. I have about 3000 books at present. At any rate we were there so Charlie could see the raccoons which she had been feeding dog kibble. Yep, they came and nibbled. Big ones too! They always wash their food because raccoons do not have salivary glands. We actually went trout fishing with Grandma LaVann. She caught a few and we had fried trout. One time during hunting season, Mike shot a nice little buck. It was early in the morning. Grandma LaVann fried up some venison liver. Just seared it. It tasted wonderful! I am a nontaster and because I do not taste the bitter, it was lovely. Any thing tastes wonderful when you eat in fresh air. Right across the road is what used to be a place where the Hagemann's held dances, sold home made sausages. There was even a small shooting range for people interested. Margaret sat inside an old redwood stump to take tickets. Price of entrance 25 cents. She still has the printed flyers. One time I made lunch for Charlie. I wanted to make BLT and I did not have bread. Oh dear! I had some tortillas, so I fried some bacon, fried the torilla, sliced the tomato, used some lettuce and a schmear of mayo. Instant favorite. I have done that occasionally every once in a while. Phil left his little red truck with me while he and Sherry lived in Hawaii. The Book bus stopped in Philo once a week. We would go there and I would select a bunch of books. So lovely. That is about all I can remember at the moment, perhaps others remember other stuff.

DREAM LINER

DREAM LINER: I woke from a luxurious Dream Liner the likes of which Boeing NEVER hallucinated about. k I and three other friends boarded onto first class of a Dreamliner. We and four other people were the only ones there. We sat in comfortable seating. The other four were sitting at a table to play a card game. I decided to go exploring. I found a nice older hostess to ask about the location of the bathrooms. She showed me and I asked of they had menu of the amenities on board. She handed me a very thick booklet. I passed two of my friends seated wearing thick white bathrobes waiting to see a fashion show. As I went back to my seat, my fourth friend shouted to come with her. We were going upstairs to look at the coach seating. The stair case was a huge curving stair case. I was beginning to wonder if this plane could even take off!! FIRST CLASS: Means achievement of your goals. Balance, diversity, Ying and Yang. FOUR: means stability, physical limitations, hard labor, earthly things.

THE RANCH

THE RANCH: I have not written about Grandma Lavann's ranch for quite a while. A couple years ago I decided that I wanted to get in contact with Dennis H. I wrote to Grandma LaVann's address. He called me and we had a nice chat about the ranch and what not. I had asked him if the three pound can of coffee filled with old keys was still in the barn. He said he had never seen that can. I wanted it to make a really cool wind chime. He said that roof blew off the barn and he had the structure torn down. Dang. I just loved that barn. I sent Dennis an email asking if the cute little circa 1945 tear drop camper had survived the collapse of the barn. One time at a large family gatherine at the ranch, Uncle Stan and Phyllis slept in it one night. Haven't heard back from him yet. A while back he posted a couple of pictures of a big brown bear in the orchard snacking on pears. Poor bear, pears don't get ripe until they get picked. Dennis cleaned up and pruned the old orchard in case of fire. It looks like a golf green. I gave Beth a basket of pears which she canned. Next time I visited she proudly showed me the canned pears. There were beautiful but she had not peeled them. I think that would make the canned pears a little bitter but they were beautiful. The apples were always wormy and required a lot of peeling. There was also a very old apple tree growing on one of the old Italian farms. It was called Cook's Seedling. It made the best applesauce, did not require a bit of sugar, it tasted wonderful. On the north end of the orchard was a large bush of large green looking fruit that were useful for pectin for canning. I cannot remember that name and I never used them. Dennis also posted a picture of the pond he dug a hundred feet or so below where the shaggy old trailer stood. He has stocked the pond with channel catfish. I love me a good fried catfish. Yummy!! While I was staying there with Grandma LaVann she contracted with someone to log of her land. She could log seven acres without having to file an environmental impact report. She was out there every day measuring the logs before they were hauled away. She also had a small caterpillar but she did not operate it but the men may have done so. She burned slash every day. I took pictures of Charlie. One time she decided she needed a spring in the pasture on the east side of the building. She hired a water witcher who came out and strode back with two metal wands and when they crossed he drilled for water. He found a spring. It was not a lot but enough to provide a trickle of water to the pasture. She also hired a crew of shear her sheep. The wool was stuffed into a 20 foot tall wool sack and we loaded the sack into the back of her old Jimmy and she drove it to Ukiah to the sale barn. Those are lovely memories.

WKMH 80's

WKMH 80's: I attended the Idaho Hospital Association conventions three times. The first time I rode with Art and Dorothy Gratton. She was on the WKMH hospital board. Art was the jolly husband who drove. As we were driving north to McCall on the Goat trail, he was merrily drinking a glass of his choice of alcohol. I decided to tell him a story. “Art, I have read recently that the Idaho Fish and Game have been cross breeding fish stock. The first one was a Walleye and a Pike. The second was a pike and Muskey. The third one was a Muskey, Walleye and Pike. Now they have to teach the poor son of a bitch how to swim!” They laughed, Art didn't spill a drop. The next trip to attend IHA was in Sunvalley. We drove there by way of Garden Valley and Redfish Lake, beautiful drive. We stayed at the main Sunvalley lodge. Charlie went with. I told him he could check out a bike and charge it to the room. A bunch of us went out to lunch. Everyone was crowded into the booth. I laughed and said, “This reminds me of the time the class was getting class pictures at Parkview Jr. High. The group picture was on stage. I was on the end in the middle row. I yelped, “Teacher, I don't have any place to sit!”. The teacher calmly repled, “Of course you do, you simply don't have any where to put it.” Dinner was fabulous. The main course was a beautiful roulade of beef with marrow on top. Delicious. Also ate farm elk with blackberry sauce. Yummy! On the way back from one of those trip, Mr. States felt the journey would not be complete without stopping for him to toss some good sided rocks into the river. Another trip to somewhere in Oregon, I went with Newton and Esther States. We stopped in Baker for lunch. We were squashed into a booth with a very large table. Fortunately I was short enough to avoid belly pinching. At any rate at some point, Esther spilled her milkshake. I teased her and said, “Oh, Esther, was just can't take you anywhere!” Newton commented, “Yes, she is a sweet mess, but she is my mess.” Esther babysat small children and potty trained them. She did a good job, they sat there until they were done. The hospital now has a new name, Valiant. Erk.

WORKIN 9 TO 5:07

WORKIN 9 TO 5:07 I was at work and I was missing my notebook used for statistics. I found a pink notebook from another facility. I was in admissions where. patient signature was no longer required for Medicare patients. TIME means fear of not being able to cope with everyday life. PINK: Means love, joy, sweetness, happiness

SILLILNESS AWARD

SILLINESS AWARD: Yesterday evening, husband went out to fire up the buggy so we could go to his meeting at the Episcopal church (1889). He came and said the car would not start. So he called a friend to let him know that he might be late and started walking. I stayed home. He called ten minutes later to say he was at the outside door When he got home we were debating calling either the tire store or AAA. He went to the basement to plug in the charging unit so you jump start the car in the morning. I went to bed. He woke me about 7:30 am to say, “Guess what!? The car started right up. All this after dragging up charger, hood up, gloves on ect. It turns out that some how the shifter was not quite in park, so no engine start! Phew! I was having nightmares about comments Les Schwab or AAA could have made. So, Husband suggested we go to Cozy Kitchen for breakfast. I am never going to refuse the opportunity to have husband drive me somewhere for food! We got there and our usual waitress seated us and I told her that we were celebrating because the car started. I told her the rest of story and she laughed loud and long. Husband ordered his usual chicken fried steak with gravy, extra hashbrowns, no toast, scrambled eggs, OJ. Here is a good tip, tell your waitperson a funny story and get extra hashbrowns. I'm just sayiing.

THREE APARTMENTS

THREE APARTMENTS: I was living in the middle of three apartments. The apartment on my left was occupied by a woman was hated insects. She cleaned constantly to keep crumbs swept and counters clean. However she suddenly had sugar ants, a silverfish and a fly. She was horrified. I went my backdoor to step outside. I screamed in surprise. The entire parking lot was a huge new swimming pool. The neighbor on the right was a very rich man. Who had more money than sense. I yelled at him, “I hope you go broke!” Insects: Represent small obstacles to overcome. Swimming pool: Relaxation, ease, calm, luxury.

SENSITIVITY TRAINING

SENSITIVITY TRAINING Woke from an odd dream this morning. I was working a large grocery store. I was seated at a small table one half of the table had large polished stone marbles that were a blond stone with swirls. My side of the table held pepper in colors of red, green, yellow and orange. I decided to sort them by color. I noticed a young girl who was taking product off of the shelves and moving the items to another shelf. I asked her name. I told her to follow me. I took her to one of the supervisors office. I wanted her to apologize. Then I got a bag of corn ships and a can of baked beans. I put them in a gallon ziplock bag and gently crushed the chips. I made delicious nachos! MARBLES: Observation, perception, interest. RED: Raw energy. GREEN: Positive change. YELLOW: Intellect, energy, happiness. ORANGE: Hope, friendliness. APOLOGY: Forgiveness. NACHOS: A need for more leisurely pursuits.

LITTLE GRANDMA

LITTLE GRANDMA: Nora Beatrice Lattimer was born November 1888. I used to beg her to tell me stories about when she was young. She told me that when went to school she wrote on a slate, sat on wooden benches and probably read out of McGuffey's Reader. When she was older she caught Scarlet Fever, now known as rheumatic fever. There was not much treatment. She had her hair cut off because of the fever. She never grew it back. If there was aspirin she might have gotten that. If she was very lucky she was not given Laudenum which is opium and alcohol. I am certain one of her heart valves was effected as well. One of the side effects of the fever was that of softening of the joints. It was not known then that the fingers must be bound and kept straight. As soon as she was well enough to went back to work and her fingers became a crooked zig zag. Those were very talented fingers and I loved her hands. She met Riley when she was working in a store in Missouri. She was always a little embarrased that that she was about three years older than he. She was 27 and nearly an old maid. They married and lived in Missouri for a few years. While there all of her children were born, the first baby died shortly after birth from a broken neck, mostly likely face first. A second son died at age two and is buried in Missouri. Clayton, Ralph, Paul, Wilma and Virginia were born there as well. Riley decided to move the family to eastern Colorado and do dry farming. That means you plant seeds and pray for rain. They lived there through the dust bowl years. A family friend had moved to Emmett and wrote back to them raving about the crop yields. Riley decided after a very good crop to sell out and moved to Emmett, Idaho. They lived on a couple of different farms. They settled on the slope down the valley a few miles. The farm was small and they kept a dairy herd and planted corn. I loved the smell of the molasses poured on the feed that the cows ate while in the stall being milked. The earliest memory I have of Grandma Horn was her prompting me to jump so she could hold me on her lap. I loved her food, especially pies. She made a cherry pie one time and I kept begging to eat more and more. She asked me if I had enough. I kept eating cherry pie until I vomited. Never did like cherry pie much after that. She fried chicken in an electric skillet. Took about thirty minutes and it was just the best fried chicken. She had a gooseberry bush that grew on top of the fruit cellar. I would beg her to make me a pie. She would agree but shuddered when I ate it. Yum! I was well grown before I ever learned that Gooseberries could get ripe and were pretty delicious. She taught me how to emboider; a French knot and how to make daisies. If I was lucky I could emboider a printed pattern on a hoop. She taught me to divide the skein of thread into sets of two and three depending on what you wanted to emboider. I emboided a free style dish towel one time and it was ugly, she gave it back to me when I got older. She would occasionally take me to church with her. We attended the First Christian Church in Emmett. It is gone now that site is now occupied with a drive through bank station. Back to church. One time we were sitting in church it was communion Sunday. The elders passed the collection basket and later on they passed the communion tray. The tray was all shiny silver looking with doily's in the middle that held the Host wafers. There were two circles of little glasses that went around the edge of the tray filled with wine. The little glassed jiggled merrily as the tray was passed. Grandma took a sip of the wine. I asked if I could have some and she said no. The church baptismal was behind the alter hidden by a blue cloth. When open the baptismal was a large cement basin that held a couple hundred gallons of water. Above the baptismal hung a large wooden cross with light bulbs on it. It did worry about that cross falling in to the water at a critical moment. I was attending an evening service and the preacher called for sinner to come forward and be saved. I was having my period at the time and decided that the timing was just not right. Grandma always worse dresses and a little black hat. After Riley died, she moved into town by one of the canals. I would go stay with her every once in a while. One Christmas I decided to make doll blankets for my three sisters This was also a Home Economics project so I got credit. I would come over after school, back in front of her electric wall heater. The get up and sew for a while. She taught me how to use er Singer sewing machine. I loved using the rocker plate and pushing the wheel. It was a lovely thing. Grandma helped with the chicken. I would go with her to the coop where she was change the water in metal feeders. She would let me scatter chicken feed out in the yard. I always wanted to play in the coop but she said that there were mites and I could not play there. She churned butter when she was younger. She gave me her five gallon butter churn with paddle. She told me that she always felt like she was marking time when she churned. At the farm in the 50's she used a stand mixer to churn the butter, squeeze out the buttermilk and use a paddle to form one pound pats. So she had chicken and egg money. They would take the butter and eggs each week to sell to Albertsons store. I learned early on not to beg for anything. They would purchase two kinds of candy; horehound candy and chicken legs. The latter was a bit like Baby Ruth only smaller. The horehound candy tasted like cough drops and I did not care for them. Most of the milk went intp 25 gallon cans which were wheeled out to a cement tank by the road for the dairy truck to pick up. A couple of gallons of milk were brought in for the house. I remember Grandma Horn using her crooked finger to skim the cream off until the milk was nearly blue. She made bread. It smelled wonderful. My special job was to use a brush to pain the tops of the loaves with bacon grease. When the loaves had cooled, I would sometimes get an end piece. Heaven! She made pies and her pie crusts were so tender and flaky. I loved her pumpkin pie the best. Her recipe was from the last new wood stove she received while living in Colorado. A small recipe book came with the stove. Carla has the cookbook. There are other nice recipes in the booklet as well. She also made green tomato pickles. This is a sweet pickle and very crisp. Her favorite way of serving it was to fry up hamburgery patties, grill the bun in the frying pan, a smear of mayo, put on the burger and a couple of slices of pickle. Yummy! I have made many batches of green tomato pickles since. I have jars from last years batch. My neighbor across the street obtained seven pounds for me , which is exactly what the recipe calls for, so delicious. I moved back to Emmett to go to college and get a short degree in Medical Records. I worked at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in the medical records department doing transcription. While there Grandma Horn was admitted with ascending cholangitis. She was in ICU for a few days and died at age 93. Her funeral was held in the First Chrisitian Church in Emmett. It was a nice service. At the viewing I was a little dismayed. Someone at the funeral home had given her pink lipstick. She never wore makeup of any kind while alive. A few weeks later I was working medical records at St. Al's sorting reports. Among these reports was Grandma Horn's autopsy report. Well Hippa did not exist then, so I read the report. Her great vessels were clean and slick as a whistle. No organ damage anywhere. I prayed, “Please God let me have Grandma Horn's heart and vessels.” She had eaten bacon and pork and made pie crust out of lard all of her life. I was fairly certain that my cholesterol was perfect and it was. Yeah! Thank you genetics!

STORIES I COULD HAVE TOLD AT MOM'S FUNERAL

STORIES I COULD HAVE TOLD AT MOM'S FUNERAL: Mom died shortly before Christmas. She had turned 83 and was in gradual decline. She was on oxygen, receiving Home Care. Gale called to say she was in the hospital dying. She called later that night to confirm her death. I left the next day. Tim and I drove to Emmett. We decided to have the funeral on the Saturday after Christmas. Since that same day was Jim's birthday we threw a party at Gale's house. It got a little loud and a little drunk out. We had assembled the previous day to divide up her belongings. The only thing I took was her birthday ring. I have it in my jewelery box made by Charlie in his shop class. C harlie wanted the angel that hung in the kitchen so I took that for him. Ellen had fallen in love with some of Mom's glassware and she took that. I don't remember what Carla took. Phil took the Neeci-Elna sewing machine and later gave it to a family who needed one. There was a small problem with her hand written will, it needed two witness signatures. So we decided to have Richard take care of that. Ellen was in charge of Mom's Money Certificates and she got that divided up. She had written several check to us for Christmas, I cashed mine. She did not sign some of them, so that had to be figured out. Richard took the electric bike thing to sell. It was not worth much. Phil loaded up some of her furniture. The funeral was a lot more jolly that Dad's. Gales then man friend read a childhood history when Mom grew up in Colorado. She met the King and Queen of Denmark who came to visit a Danish hospital. I told my story about her signing an excuse slip with Mrs. Baseball and about how when she was a young suburban housewife and took me to Brownie Scout day camp for singing and crafts. It was fun. Then the rest of the audience chimed and told other stories. Had I thought about it a bit more carefully I would have said that Mom worked very hard. She kept us washed, fed and clothed. Cooking, she told me as a young bride she experimented with food coloring. She put blue in the mashed potatoes. Dad gave her his best stink eye and that was the last of the food coloring. Mom's cooking was basic, nothing fancy but all pretty good. All of us kids have the list of Childhood Torture foods. Mine was fried brains, fried oysters, liver and onion any any form of aubergine. Ugh. I have read of aubergine parmesan and I would give that a try. I think the secret to successful egg plant was to soak it in milk. SEWING: Mom talked Dad into letting her purchase a sewing machine when I was not in my teens yet. The sales pitch included free sewing lessons and wouldn't that be nice to teach a me? Um, never happened. Mom would not let anyone touch that machine. She sewed approximatley ten thousand miles of stitches on that thing. The only thing she did not make was blue jeans. She made my school dresses out of Dan River cotton. This was a cotton that washed well, did not fade and ironed like a dream. The pattern of plaid usually had little tufts of cotton here and there. These dresses wore like iron. The pattern was a simple shirtwaist that buttoned from the skirt to the neck, collar and short sleeves. If the material she bought was on the cheap side she always washed it then had me hang onto one end while she held to the other end and tugged it to stretch the material. Fortunately I left home before the advent of polyester. She made lots of very unappreciated dresses for the girls. They did not need ironing and lasted way too long. She made several quilts out of the left over material. I gave mine to Gale. It needed new backing but the front was still in pretty good shape. When I was in Junior Highschool at Parkview, I was enrolled in Home Economics. The only thing we learned to cook was milk toast. Which is pretty disgusting. We also had a sewing project. We used a pattern to cut out material and sew a dress. I used Mom's shirtwaist pattern for my project and she purchased a nice dark blue cotton. It took several weeks and at the end there was going to be an inclass fashion show. I took my dress home and showed it to Mom. She shrieked in horror, got out the seam ripper, tore it apart and put it back together with properly spaced margins and seams that would actually hold up to washing. She sewed my eight grade graduation dress of white cotton with black dots, It was beautiful. The skirt flared a bit, short sleeves with a square back. She put in some black strips to hold it snug so it would not slide down my shoulders. I wish I could still fit in that dress I loved it. No idea what ever happened to it, obviously grew out of it, Dang. IRONING: Mom taught me how to properly iron. The clothig had been sprinkled with water from a pop bottle with a top with holes in it, rolled and placed in a basket. My chore was to iron down to a certain colored towel. She taught me to iron a shirt; first do the collar back side first,then the top. Next the back yoke by folding the yoke over until that was all that was showing on the ironing board. Then cuffs if there were any, then each sleeve. If there were buttons turn the shirt inside out and iron the button placket from the inside then the outside then the other half of the shirt front. Then iron each side on the front then the ba ck. Pay special attention to the hems, iron them straight so they would not curl. Hang finished piece on a hanger. OTHER CHORES: Mom had me clean the bathroom and wash the dishes. I knew how to get out of washing dishes. The longer I played around in the kitchen the better. She would get impatient with me and ask if I was done yet and I said no. Get out of there, I can do it faster myself. Yup, that worked. I could get back to whatever book I was reading. I was the built in babysitter. I didn't care my little sisters were self entertaining. She taught me to wash blood out of clothing when I got my period and how to put the Kotex pad on the little belt. It was kind of tricky. She took me to a ladies house in Emmett near the highschool. She sold underwear. Mom took me there to get my first brassier. She told dad that my cup runneth over. Mom sewed my wedding dress for July 3, 1970. It was a simple satin sheath with a lacy over dress, no sleeves. My first roomie loaned me her veil. It was very hot in Novato that day. Fun was had by most of us. No idea what happened to that dress either. WASHING: Early on Mom would use Grandma Horns wringer washer. I found that fascinating. Hot water was in the first tube where the soap was put and the clothes were agitated. She clothes then went throught the wringer where most of the water was squeezed out. The second tub was where the clothing was rinsed, I think this was agitated as well. The wring was swung over to the third tub where the clothing was put through the wringer after rinsing and allowed to fall into a tub. The clothes were then brought home to be hung up to dry. The winter we stayed at the Bishops house near Letha, Mom hung up some wash, mostly cloth diapers. She told me after school to go bring in the clothes from the line. They were all freeze dried. I brought them in to thaw by the wood stove. Then they were folded. I learned early on how to fold diapers. Start with a square, fold one side into a triangle, fold the other side over the triangle. Fold the top flap down. Fold the bottom up two times. Then fold in half for storage, Voila, diapers!. Later on God invented Laudromats. We would go to the one by Albertson's. They had a centrifuge machine that you could put the wash load in and it spun the water out of the clothing. Mom would take it home and hang it on the line. Very efficient. Christmas decorations. Consisted of a small allumium tree silver colored and a few balls. That was it. Mom had migraine headaches when I was younger. If we came home from school and the curtains were closed, and she was lying down. We knew that we had to be quiet or else. That stopped after a few years. When I was much older and would come home to visit, I would take Mom out to lunch to Boise somew'shere. She had active passenger road rage. I would tell that her that while we might be having an adventure it might not necessarily be much fun. She liked to go to a certain place that had free pie for seniors on Wednesday, so away we would go. I did not know for a long time that she did not like Chinese food. During the 80's I lived in Emmett. We traveled together for one of the Cousin's re-union. We drove through to the Yellowstone park. We were walking toward some of the springs and it was real sulfur smelling. I turned to her and said, “Guess what? We can fart all we want and no one will ever know. “ We picked up Ellen in Caspar and drove until we hit Best Westerns then we would stop for the night. We stopped at the Wind Caves and walked around in the dark. Mom hurt foot and actually had fractured her toe. We drove on to view the Presidents carved in granite. Stopped here and there, went to Kansas City to pick up Carla who flew in from Seattle. Then eventually we went to northern Missouri for the re-union. When I lived for a year in Dillingham, Ellen to Mom on a cruise through the NorthWest passage. Then flew from Anchorage and stayed with me for a few days. She decided she needed to have her ingrown toenail removed. So they came in, signed up and she was seen by a young doctor. He went to inject some pain killer but she kicked him like a mule and got a needle stick out of it. Mom came to visit a couple time after we moved to Coquille. We went to the County fair in Myrtle Point and looked at all the fun stuff in the barns. The dahlias were as large as dinner plates. The last time she came was to can fresh caught tuna. She gave me one tiny jar but it was delicious. If anyone else remembers anything please post in Facebook.

THINGS I WISH I HAD SAID AT MY FATHER'S FUNERAL

THINGS I WISH I SAID AT MY FATHER'S FUNERAL: When Dad died in 1995, he had cancer of the prostate. If I remember correctly he refused chemotherapy and hormone therapy. I do not know if he had surgery but he did have radiology treatment when it went to his back and it worked pretty well. All of us kids came home to be there. He was in the Boise VA hospital. The nurses were very kind and moved a bed that did not work so we could have a private room. It was pretty crowded as it was. He was pretty heavily sedated when we first visited. I walked in and his hand was on the raised rail. I leaned over to kiss his hand and said, “I love you, Daddy.” The nurses got an order to back off the sedation and he perked up and we played a decent game of Pinochle. In a couple of days he was moved to a step down unit for palliative care. My brother asked what palliative care meant. I told him it meant they were keeping him comfortable until he died. The funeral was held at Potter's. The officiant was a man from the Boise Veteran's who knew nothing about dad He gave a short speech about Brother Berglund's service and that was about it. Gale gave a reading, she was utterly heartbroken. I was simply numb. I think some else spoke but I do not remember. Among the music chosen, Mom selected “Wind Beneath My Wings”. Great another song I can hate forever. If I had not been shaken I would have liked to tell all sorts of stories that Dad told me. He ran away from home when he was 13. He rode his bike to Ontario, sold it for 10 or 15 dollars and took the train to Minnesotta. He worked the summer on relatives' farms during the harvest, mostly hay. He then wandered south to New Orleans where he was picked up for vagrancy. The judge decided to keep him for a while. I do not know when or how he got home. I wish I had asked. He told me about how he went AWOL in WWII and got away with it by having a buddy answer “Berglund” each morning when roll call was taken. He told me about the time he and his older brother got in trouble with a next door neighbor. It was cold they were cleaning trash out of the ditches and set some hay on fire to warm up and burned down the farmer's hay stack. Grandpa Berglund made them do some chores for the farmer. Then they decided they would get some revenge. One evening the farmer and family were gone somewhere. The boys sneaked over to the farmer's place. They decided the gentle bull needed a better view of the place. They stacked some baled hay and led the bull to the top of one of the barns. Then they sneaked off. The farmer got home and found the bull on top of the barn the next morning and he was furious. He was absolutely convinced that the Berglund boys had done it. He called the Sheriff. He called Grandpa Berglund but the boys denied having anything do with it. They stayed clear of the farmer as well as the sheriff for quite some time after that. Dad also told me about having a Chickeree. That is when a bunch of young people get hungry and decide they want fried chicken. A bunch of them drove to one of the kid's homes that had chickens. They caught three of four chickens, butchered, defeathered, cut up and fried the chicken. All without permission of the parents. Hope they cleaned up their mess. This is a story more about my Uncle Clayton than Dad but it is funny. In the summer Tater and Fern and the cousins would move to the Cow Camp. It was a two story concrete block house with no plumbing, water or electricity. There was an out house. The beds were upstairs with thundermugs beneath them. After peering into a used one, I never viewed canned tomales quite the same after that. One day Dad and Tater went hunting. Clayton was the marksman. He shot a deer just a teensy weensy bit out of season. Since there was a good eight or nine blabbermouth kids available to tell interesting tales, they decided on a bit of deception. They dressed the deer in the barn and wouldn't let us in to watch. We were wildly curious, Tater brought out a lodge pole pine just studed with porcupine quills saying they had killed one. They brought in the organ mean in a white tin bowl and for years after that, my show and tell at school was, “Do you know how big a porcupine liver is? It's almost a big as the porcupine!”. Years later I was home visiting retelling the tale including the bit of how big a porcupine liver was. My folks started laughing. The told me that it was not a porcupine liver but a deer liver. Well that was a little embarassing. Dad taught us how to approach a strange dog. Hold out the back of the hand, let the dog sniff. Tail would wag. He would take us fishing at a kid's water hole where any trout the kids caught were free. Our bait on the hook was a piece of hot dog. It worked just fine. I did not like to put worms on the hook. Dad taught us that a man could always find work. He was discharged from the Army as a mechanic and it did well for him. He and Mom loved to dance. We learned to dance at home and at Country dances at Montour. It was a family affair. Everyone went. If Mom made a raisen spice cake we knew we were going. I leaned to two step, waltz and I mostly watched the Schottish. It was lovely. There was usually a three piece band consisting of piano, violin and drums. They I remember that someone brought caviar on crackers. I ate some, it was salty. They held the supper at midnight and then passed the hat to pay for the musicians. If anyone brought liquor they had to leave it out in the vehicle and then go out for a nip or two. Richard told me he knew where to get free liquor when he was a little older. The only time Dad ever cooked was when Mom was in the hospital having a baby. He would bake a cake. He was a meat, potatoes and dessert man. He liked to make a quick dessert by tearing up bits bread in a glass, pour milk and sugar over it and eat it right up. I never cared for it all that much. I asked Dad what he used to eat for breakfast as kid. He told me, “We were so poor we couldn't afford cereal. We had to eat steak!” Does anyone else remember anything? We would love to hear it.

TWO MORE

TWO MORE: I was looking for work. I walked into a nursery. The head gardener was showing the students how to weed, trim and transplant Coleus. I said that I would love to learn how to do that. The instructor brought out a trailing vine and said that he was going to transplant it to the tall multi-armed stand. I indicated that I wished to do that. GARDNER: indicates tranquility, contentment, love and domestic bliss. A need to be more nurturing. TRAVEL: Tim and I had traveled to India with his sister and her guest. We had checked into a very cheap motel that had very large hallways. The host was preparing a meal for us. I was seated on the floor and Tim sat in a chair. The host had prepared a dish that looked like deep fried bugs cut in half. These were on a plate. He made glutinous rice which looked gray. He poured this into a wooden bowl. I picked up the small plastic spoon and asked Tim if he wanted to take a bite. He made a face. Then we learned that a young woman living there had died. A large truck pulled up outside with a delivery of very ugly mid century modern furniture. The driver wanted to know where the funiture went, it went to the young woman who had just died. The landlord told the driver that he could not accept the furniture because it was radioactive. I turned to Tim and explained that I was miserable and was ready to go home even if it was early. He said we would have to talk to his sister. TRAVEL, INDIA: represents the path toward your life goals. If travel has ended you have reached your life goals. India represents the need to rise above your present status. RADIOACTIVE: Represents suppressed emotions that may spill over into your daily life.

FOUR DIFFERENT DREAMS

FOUR DIFFERENT DREAMS: 1. I was lost in a huge airport. I was trying to get outside to the parking lot where I had left my car. There was a huge military presence, some kind of welcome home ceremony. 2. I was working on a project to bring water to the ocean. The canal was a large metal trough which meandered in gentle curves. The kids at the ocean were waiting to surf. There was one large plastic conduit that needed all sorts of wires and lines. An engineer was working on replacing the contact cement in a large multi shaped thing and he needed to replace it with concrete.in order to configure the correct spacing. 3. I walked down a steep path to visit a grandparent, the forest overshadowed the pathway and it was cool and very green. There were also large boulders that gently slid into the path after I had passed. 4. I was working in a phsysics lab to find the fifth dimension. The experiment produced nothing but frost with a zero centigrade temperature. One the lab people decided to blow the lab into smithereens. A young man knelt before the killer and asked that he not set off the explosion. We evacuated the building. Lost in airport indicates need to adjust to a new direction. Canal means a need for restraint or constricted emotions, Unyielding on think or beliefs. Road, Boulders. Major obstacle or problem in some part of your life. Physics Lab, experiment. Need to take a chance, be more daring.

STOLEN CAR

STOLEN CAR: A little background regarding my dreaming. I had two terrifying dreams as a kid. One of a volcano (hot springs are just above Black Canyon dam and an earthquake. Has happened in central Idaho in the mid 80's. I decided that I should at least wear pajamas to bed. When I lived in Barrow during the 90's, I had very vivid colorful dreams. I can remember one that involved a large blue cube from which water flowed and one from Boise in the canal district (nope). While there I visited a large house where a beautiful library had the most elegant carvings of acantha leaves and walnuts. Outside black swans paddled about the canal. My most common dreams are travel or lost and flying. I am flying a small plane on take off trying to decide to fly over or under the power lines at the end of the runway. I woke up from a dream. I had driven to downtown Boise to a shop where my favorite author sold stuff. Today the collection consisted of Christmas ornaments mostly red ceramic ones. I was looking for a red Swedish horse. She did not have any of those. I asked when her next book was coming out and she replied September. I walked back to where I parked. I had parked in a rundown section near an empty store on the corner. I had a flat tire and thought that I would take care of it when I got back. I walked past the store front before realizing that my car was gone. Who on earth would steal a 21 year old car with a flat tire? I called 911. I wondered how I would get home and how would I get to work? I woke up relieved that it was only a dream. Phew! STOLEN; Means identity crisis or some loss. Yeah, my sticky bun and my macadamia nuts!! RED: Indicates new energy, vigor, intense passion. Alternatively means a lack of energy or lethargy.

WEIRDEST DREAM YET

WEIRDEST DREAM YET: I was in London. I was in a bed being interviewed by two men. I explained to them that I was an imerssive diagnostician. My medical degree was from Harvard Medical in Boston. I explained that I usually went into a trance while diagnosing. I treat the whole family. I am also a carpenter, electrician, painter as well as a designer. The ceiling was suspended from criss crossing steel I-beams. There was a gap of about six inches that went all the way around the ceiling letting in light and circulation. Then a young woman took me to see a young boy. He was about seven years old, blond crewcut and looked very sad. I asked him what happened and he said. “wull...” He sounded Scottish. I asked him if he wanted a hug. He said yes and we hugged. Physician: meansyou have some problem that you need patching up. Consoling indicates that you need to be more sympathetic to others. True dad. I read a book once by Linda Goodman about sun signs. Mine is Virgo and she wrote that virgos would throw a rope to a drowing person but might not hang onto the end of the rope. Yup.

AFRICA ETC

AFRICA ETC I dreamed that I was working in a crowded office. My desk was outside. A man walked up and gave me a letter. It was a small brown envelope with a cut out for the address. It had nothing on the inside. Grandma LaVann had written on the back. She was having a wonderful time. If she lived until next year she was going back. The postage consisted of coins taped the front. AFRICA: Means a desire to return to your roots. GRANDPARENT: Means protecion, nurturing, unconditional love. BROWN; The the color of wordliness, prestige and domestic bliss. Also comfort and conservatism. Brown also represents ground and earth.

FIREMAN

FIREMAN: I was acquainted with the men who were in the department. I was a member as well. The Captain was planning on destroying the entire department by blowing everything to smithereens. I stopped him. However a young fire fighter knelt in front of him and bowed his head so that the Captain could kill him. The Captain said, “You win.” FIREMAN: Means higher self, a period of cleansing and purification. Also represents hero and hope. CONFRONTATION: Conflict, if you have the same dream tell your enemy that you are not afraid.

TAXES ETC

COMPLICATED TAXES AND TWO BIRTHCERTIFICATES: I was to prepare very complicated taxes. Among the documents were two birthcertificates. The original only had the baby's name and a few other details. The amended birthcertificate was complete. There was a baby picture. The baby was translucent and missing the right eye. There was an older picture of the grown man. He had gray hair, he was no longer translucent and his right eye had been replaced with a periwinkle looking organism. The only sigh of surgery was a faded suture line in the middle of the lower lid. I was a trying to put it all in order. There were also documents about the ownership of a Japanese beer company. I was told that the original team were not qualified to prepare the taxes. I don't think Turbotax is either. Taxes represent the price you are willing to pay for the way you live. Birthcertificate: Means seeking validity, truth of some situation. You want recognition for your efforts. A metaphor for something that is physically or mentally taxing.

SUMO

, SUMO: I have been watching Grand Sumo Highlights on channel 322 of Direct TV. This is the Japanese channel. The English is perfect, there are no commercials and the topics include lovely cultural reports. Some of my favorites are the Japan Railway, the art. So many enjoyable topics. I became fascinated with Sumo recently. These men range in height from 135 cm tall to 185 cm and weigh between 135 kg to 200 kg, which is a whopping 440 pounds. I like the smaller men who train with a lot of weight lifting, it gives shape and firmness to their pectorals. The larger men have flabby looking breasts. Not pretty. There some mongols participating. The only way I can tell one of them from the Japanese is the fact that his eyebrows are very round and he is very hairy on his shoulders. There is a lot of ceremony before during and after. The men all assemble on the clay ring and parade around wearing very eleborate frabric in front which displays their home town. They clap and walk around the ring. Then they are paired up for each bout. They wear a large belt called a mowashi. It consistes of a very long strip of silk. It takes quite a while to get it wound around them. The belt is about one inch thick and is usually colored blue, red, but no print. They also wear an array of sticks that are tucked into the front of the mowashi. I do not know the significance of these sticks. The referee wears a a beautiful kimona and at the end of the bout hands the winner a packet with about 400 yen. I think this is about 700 US. Sometimes the winner does not take the packet. Maybe it is a tip to the ref? There around six seasons each year and the end goal is to win the Empress Trophy. The current leader is a man named Terunofuji. He is 12-1 because on Friday his bout was disqualified because he pulled on his opponents top knot. That is a big no no. Another Sumo wrestler was ejected from the competition because he broke Covid protocol by going to a party. Oopsie! I enjoy this very much. You probably want seats at least five rows back from the clay ring. This big guys fling each other out of the ring all of the time. The bouts are very quick. Lasting a half a second or as long as two minutes. Check out channel 322.

PRESIDENT DREAM

PRESIDENT DREAM: I dreamed that I attended a very large rally with President Obama and Michelle Obama. On the way there traffic was held up by a deer and her fawn who were trying to cross the street to a park. The deer was wearing a large tracking collar in the color of yellow. They safely got to the park and we resumed the drive. We were seated in the front. Michelle asked me if I had my tokens. I could visualize them in two large boxes. When I opened my hands I was holding a lot of gray painted fake finger nails. The seats in back of us were filling up with tired Inupiat oil field workers from Dead Horse. They were wearing parkas. There was a balcony in front of us labeled Friends of Michelle. She went up to speak to the people who were seated. I sat down and Mr. Obama put his hand on my knee. Uh oh … what does this mean? PRESIDENT: Means authority, power and control. GREY:; Means fear, depression or self individualism. Yep, thats me. YELLOW: If it is a pleasant dream means intellect, energy, agility (not so much these days), happiness, harmony and wisdom.

WHAT HAVE I BEEN EATING?

WHAT HAVE I BEEN EATING? I dreamed that all hospitals were stripping walls of paint, then repainting. Travel to Australia: I was on a boat. We were departing down a very steep set of stairs. At the bottom of the stairs I found someone's passport. We walked to a rocky beach and went into some over handing rocks. Eventually we walked to a grassy area. Got on a bus. We passed a whole row of log trailer houses, all empty. Then past many houses which were empty. I dreamed that a man attacked another man and sliced him enough so that the first guy could smear blood all over himself. The other man finally had enough with this guy, took out a katana and sliced off his head. He asked the waitress for a drink. When a policeman showed up he asked the waitress to get the cop a beer. I was in a crowded bar filled mostly with women who were wearing white helmets. Some were selected to walk a run way wearing some sort of fashion. Hospital means a need to heal or improve physical or mental health. Travel means path towards life goals or a wish to escape. Whoo! Blood means life, love and passion as well as disappointment or an emotional cry for help. (unlikely). Bar, a desire to escape to where pleasures abound. Sounds good!

DIRTY DREAM

DIRTY DREAM . . I and a lot of other women were in a situation where there was not enough water for bathing or washing clothes. When the situation was fixed, I washed my clothes by hand. The was brown for several washes. Finally I was able to see the stripes on my towel and my shirt was blue. . Then I was in line to get hot water for tea. The high maintenance woman in front of me could not figure out how to assemble the glass pipes for the hot water. I assembled it and turned on the hot water. She filled her cup and left it still flowing. I yelled at her about wasting the water. . Washing means that I need to clean up my act and accept assistance. Dirty means anxiety and a need to pacify my mind, heart and soul. . Hmmm, I will keep my eyes open.

DUST ` ` Dust to dust comes from Eccleciastes 3:20. Think of all the dust available to create people and animals. I sometimes wonder if eight billion people actually adds to the weight of the earth. Nope. The First Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy can neither be created or destroyed, it can only be transformed. The only way that the earth can gain weight is by the deposit of meteor strikes. I have no idea how much that adds but apparently that is where most of our water came from. There must be a lot of water out there in the universe. ` Mom told us about living in the dustbowl days in Colorado. When she was a kid it was not uncommon to see tons of dust blown away. The neighbors farm moved miles worth and tons of dust. There was no keeping it out of the house. As soon as they had a decent crop they sold the place and moved to Emmett, Idaho in 1939. Two of the boys went on the train with the livestock and Grandpa drove Grandma Horn and mom and one of the remaining boys in the new car. Aunt Wilma stayed in Colorado because she had already married Lester Kast. ` I have noticed that I produce a lot of dust as I have gotten older. I am starting to resemble Pigpen from the Snoopy comic strip. No matter how much lotion I apply there is more dust. Fortunately I don't have dandruff. When I peel off my black pants, the interior takes off a lot of body dust. I would hate to see a vacuum cleaner bag full of my dust. ` I am a fan of Mythbusters. They have had an episode where Jamie tried various methods to outwit a scent hound. He tried pepper. Nope. He tried all sorts of things. Since the hounds go by scenting skin flakes, I think if Jamie prepared with a bath, layer of lotion, wear cling wrap and try that. It would be interesting to see of the hound would still find him. Also a space suit that has been sterilized. That might work. ` In the meantime, look out Pigpen, you haz company.

EASTER SUNDAY

EASTER SUNDAY: I used to attend First Christian Church with Grandma Horn. We have also attended at least one Sunrise Service. I was held in the City Park. There was a bandshell for the choir and celebrants. The Kiwanis usually served a pancake breakfast for a small fee. There were usually plenty of picnic benches and hot coffee. Very enjoyable. I was just talking with Christy one of the Davita nurses about the number of churches within in walking distance from my house; there is the Community Christian, church, a fundamental church of some kind, the New Beginnings church, a Latino church most likely Catholic and the Lutheran church which unfortunately has closed. The Methodist church by the courthouse purchased the building. The grade school is using part of it for daycare, parishioners use a room for quilting. The Baptist church is close because the pastor showed up my door one morning. The first thing out of his mouth was, “How do you feel about going to Hell?” I was surprised and could have mentioned that I did not think that was a good way to win friends for Christ. Then I thought to say that it would be okay if he was not there. But I was polite. He left convinced that I needed to be saved. I personally find Islam attractive as well as Wiccan. Occasionally we get Mormon folk out visiting. I really enjoy visiting with ladies. I am not precisely sure if there is a Mormon church in Coquille. There was a Mormon church in Barrow. I told her that this is very similar to Emmett. Lots of local churches. The Catholic church purchased the old Wardwell school block and sold bits of it to the Bank and the City Library, both worthy institutions. The Methodist and Baptist church are side by side on the north side of the bank, library. A few years ago I toured a lovely old church near the high school. Carla was looking at it as a possible future home It was gorgeous. A couple homes east of the Catholic church is the church where a co-workers mother had her funeral. One of the ladies right in back of me had the most beautiful voice. I have always held that to make a joyful noise unto the Lord is wonderful but occasionally needs devine HELP.. Easter egg hunts: When I lived in Barrow, Alaska I read about an easter egg hunt held in Anchorage. Springtime in Alaska is not always 40 below but it is still pretty cold, snowy and moosey. One hunt was held and it snowed heavily. The kids were getting lost in the deep snow. The hungry moose came to be disappointed with the plastic Easter baskets. The combination of deep snow, lost kids and hungry moose with calves was deemed too dangerous and the hunt was canceled. It took Search and Rescue three hours to find the lost child. Happy Easter! I gotta do taxes now.

WHERE;S THE BEEF?

WHERE'S THE BEEF? When I was a youngster, we lived in a trailer in Emmett. We did not have a freezer. Once a year or so, Dad would go the the sale barn and buy a steer. Which was then transported to the local butcher shop. We always got hamburger, steaks and roasts. We also got the liver and the brains. Mom fried up the brains and urged us to eat it. Nope, tasted like fried nothing. Disgusting, thereafter we youngsters had hamburgers and left the questionable delicacy to the parental units. The butcher shop rented freezer space and Mom would go there and withdraw what ever she felt like cooking for dinner. Now there may be some confusion between supper and dinner. When your people come from Missouri the meal terms are breakfast, supper (lunch) and dinner. The hamburger was made into burgers, spaghetti with meat sauce, chili, sloppy joes and meatloaf. The steaks were fried up, we had no outdoor grilling, the steaks were WELL DONE. There was no such thing as rare, medium rare, etc. The roasts went into the roasting pan and the left overs were sliced up and cooke in a frying pan with potatoes and a few onions, salt and pepper. This dish was known as Thousand Mile Stew. It was delicious. No garlic sadly. No carrots which Dad did not like. Mom learned to sneak them into a lovely bean dish later on in life. THE ORGAN MEAT consisted of liver and tongue. We never saw the heart or kidneys, not sure why. Beef heart is delilcious if cooked properly. Also the liver. I have never liked Mom's version of liver and onions because it was baked until tougher than whang leather. (No idea what this.) It smelled good. I am a non-taster and should LOVE the taste of liver. I would soak the liver slices in milk overnight, coat in bread crumbs, fry in butter until pink in the middle and set aside. I would fry the onions until translucent with garlic, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Yummy!!! The tongue only appeared once. Mom boiled it, peeled abd ground it up. It was mixed with mayo, chopped onions and made a tasty sandwich spread. I have had a delicious venison liver one hunting season on Grandma LaVann's ranch. It was sliced and cooked for breakfast, gently fried quickly in a hot skillet with bacon grease. It was fabulous!! Dad was strictly a meat, potatoes and dessert guy. I have Mom's recipe box and it is loaded with jello recipes, cake recipes, candy recipes. We never had hot dogs, or pork chops or pork roast. Grandma Berglund pressure cooked pork roast and Mom said it was too greasy. I liked it. Big Grandma also hustled about the table taking bites from peoples plates. That really disturbed my mother.

FOUR DREAMS

FOUR DREAMS: First dream: I washing clothes and sorting loads; sheets, pillow cases, towels, socks, blue jeans, shirts, blankets. A to Z says this my attempt to sort my personilty. SECOND DREAM: Travel: wide freeway with light rail elevated. One section crossed a very high bridge. At one point I got separated from the people I was with.I could not find the correct elevator. Had to overnight in a barracks of all men, mostly nekkid. I was not quite sure how to avoid seeing all of that, so I took of my glasses. Problem solved! Then I went snorkling and the fish were very pretty. A to Z says the dream represents progress in my life goals. Cool. DREAM THREE: I was sharing the house and interviewing three people. The World Government was cracking down on the homeless. In England, thos who did not take in the homeless were sentences to six months breaking rock. In Russia it took a jury of six to decide who moved in where. I had a pet moose in the back yard that stomped a snake to death. A to A says this is about generosity and sharing feelings. DREAM FOUR: Two men were discussing two horse gallstones that one of the children dug up with a fork. One was large egg shaped one about four inches in diameter. The other was cylindrical and about six inches tall, about four inches in diameter. One man touched one with his tongue abd said it was neutral in taste. They decided to slice on in half with a rock saw. The center was which with dark striations in a sparkling star pattern. Now horses do not have gallbladders, these were a solid accretion of matter that did not go through the gut for a very long time. A to Z says that to dream of the gallbladder means that I need to get rid of the negativism in my life. Since I do not have much netivity in my life, I think I may be afraid that I might actually pooop out the cholelithiasis which I do have. Yeesh!

ENTERTAINMENT, BARB AND MOI

Ba Ba Wah Wah, entertainment and moi: When I returned to Emmett as a displaced housewife, I entered BSU to earn an Associate of Science degree in Medical Records. After graduation I was offered the position of manager at the Walter Knox Memorial Hospital. I met Barbara Whelen there who was working in the office. I teased her by calling her Ba Ba Wah Wah and we were instant friends. I worked at WKMH for over twelve years. During that time Barb and I attended as many free events that we could. We went to a tiny theater on the bench in Boise to see Moliere's “The Monk”. I have sheer admiration for the actors who memorized page after page of script. We loved to go to Shakespear In The Park. I loved the comedies. We saw Twelvth Night. The overall theme was set in the Roaring Twenties, spiffy tennis outfits, slinky flapper dresses. In one part a young man is being urged to purchase the wares of a prostitute. The men replies, “Would that I could, my purse is short and I am long”. He gestures to his cock. I did not know Shakespear had sight gags. One time we went to a theater in Boise to see “The Color Purple”. We were packed in the lobby waiting. The previous show let out and a simply beautiful man came out and told us that we would love it. Barb exclaimed, “A sensitive man! Lets follow him!” The film was wonderful. One habit we got into was staying to read the credits. It gave time to clear out the theater and sometimes we watched hilarious things. Sometimes bloopers were included and we were the only ones who saw them. It was a the same theater that we won free tickets to an American Opera. Sung in English. Still could not understand the words. It would have been fabulous if sung in Italian. At any rate we sat way up high in the nose bleed section. There was a lady next to us who was showing us her pearl opera glasses. She explained that she purchased them in Vienna. We simpered as appropriate. We would often take the bus to Jackpot for the day. We got there about noon and left early the next morning. One time we actually rented a room and as we assembled in the hall the next morning, someone from another room exclaimed, “I hardly got any sleep last night from all the snoring” I piped up and said, “Wasn't it awful! Me too!” I knew that we were the guilty snoring partie. One of my favorite machines at Cactus Pete's was a trivia machine. It was only nickels and there were only two side by side. We sat there for most of day and won enough to keep playing. Other methods of entertainment were Pinochle. I had played pinocle with the folks where we traveled to a friends house, several tables were set up and we played for prizes. I was terrible because I did not have a good partner with whom I could chest Rules were much different at Barb's table. I miss her a lot.