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.