Happy Day of Easter,

 The long day of the past is just that past. I used to wake up early in the morning to hide eggs and lovingly put baskets out for my daughter. Now I don't see her and she is a teen I haven't been so lucky to experience the Easter thing lately but what a great time we had. When I was little my mom and neighbor lady Gma Vi and occasionally my real Grandmother Edna would start with the egg dying on the day before Easter using the little box of dyes or i tubes to make all the eggs a rainbow of colors. I would try to make them as creative as I could, we would use soap to put names on a few eggs, the special ones. Then wax to make the contrast lines in the eggs. We would laugh as the small kitchen would fill with steam from the boiling egg water. Many a years the Easter season would fall on a time where the nights were brisk to freezing a few years the bright eggs and baskets would be hidden in light snow or in the torrent of wind and spring rains. My mom was creative she could cut hair, draw and paint she would spend time crocheting. When she hid eggs she was definitely creative, There would be eggs in the trees, on bushes, in cans and on window sills. Her baskets oh her baskets I will always be thankful for the baskets. She made them personal, putting in things that she new I liked or would appreciate, some years they were abundant other leaner years they contained more handmade things. They would have candy and peeps because we all know peeps are a food group not candy. The baskets would be wrapped in material not cellophane like baskets today. Once the baskets and eggs were collected we would head off to church, St.Pauls where the lady's would all be dressed in their finest and HATS, Oh goodness the hats they would be big and small, gaudy with feathers, birds, fruit you name it and many just pill box hats with the mesh that the older women wore. Always pinching cheeks and wanting to give the cute little boy a peck with red lipstick that would not come off. My mom was and outcast, not married and with a child, Sickly and on welfare. Many of the lady's were sooo nice on the outside till doughnuts and coffee was served in the church basement, then the little did you see or did you hears would be whispered. Funny as an adult and think back I know it is just words and just said because at one time my mother was a business owner and did all the ladys from the churches hair,as well as many of the "society" in the Tri Cities, My great grandfather a large contractor, was the main contributor and builder of St.Pauls episcopal church building the church for free, why because that was the type of man he was. 

I tried to follow in her  footsteps, my moms, I would go from bus stop to store to store to bus stop and find the personal things that would make up her basket and wrap it like my mom in material found at St.Vincents or Goodwill all pretty. One year I found a fishing pole, "Scooby Doo" for my daughter her favorite cartoon, she liked it at the time but I didn't have the money for it. So by the time Easter came around I had done enough odd jobs to get it. Her eyes were so bright when she found it hidden in the swing chair on the porch. She immediately wanted to go fishe' being a sunday I had no way to take her. The folks I was staying with Louise and Bob were more than happy to take us down to the kid's pond off of the Columbia it just so happened to be opening day,The pond full of trout raised and released for the hook of young anglers and seniors we fit both descriptions. We loaded uncle Bob and his wheel chair into the family truckster with my daugher and Louise at the wheel. They had made a nice ramp for wheel chair access and Bob a gifted fisherman set the hook his first cast. My daugher and I sitting down the bank were watching the bobber with fever, humming and singing the easter tune here fissy fissy..... The bobber went down, the pole was gripped and my childs eyes and face looked like they would explode she was so excited as the fish broke water and the real on trusty Scooby doo came off and fell in the water. I gave it a mad dash and saved the pole and in came the first fish my baby girl caught. I was so proud of her so young and so excited. Those memories live in my memory, in the past as if it was today, now 

The Mule Cart of internet speed:

 The head mulesstres determined that she needed faster internet and more Wi-Fi out to her woman cave. Her woman cave can easily be discribed as the hording cave. the piles and piles of STUFF is outrageous. There is as much stuff in the once mobile office as some smaller dollar stores. The internet choice for router is a Cisco, the thing is a piece of junk made in the factory of some Asian country by a child who couldn't put together legos, It wont stay logged on to the wireless unit supplied by Clear, thats a new improved name for Clear Wire that operated on cell towers throughout the area. The Clear unit is sketchy at best with the spring sun bouncing off of the tower. I haven't had a real connection to a fast internet since college many ears ago when the fastest computers were 1. gig. I spend a lot of time on the internet, I do a few simple classes but most are video classes and when the internet is sketchy it's like a skip video, Nothing is simple in the world of electronics here at the tribe you must keep up with the hoes on the street. Lets hope that the problem will sort itself out and soon.  

Facebook education:

1. If you can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license, but not for being in the country illegally,… you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

2. If you have to get your parents permission to go on a field trip or take an aspirin in school, but not to get an abortion,… you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

3. If you have to show identification to board an airplane, cash a check, buy liquor, or check out a library book, but not to vote, … you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

4. If the government wants to ban stable, law-abiding citizens from owning gun magazines with more than ten rounds, but gives 20 F-16 fighter jets to the crazy new leaders in Egypt, you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

5. If, in our largest city, you can buy "two" 16-ounce sodas, but not a 24-ounce soda because 24-ounces of a sugary drink might make you fat,… you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

6. If an 80-year-old woman and 3 yr old child can be stripped searched by the TSA, but a woman in a hijab is only subject to having her neck and head searched,… you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

7. If your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions of dollars of debt is to spend trillions more,… you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

8. If a seven year old boy can be thrown out of school for saying his teacher is cute, but hosting a sexual exploration or diversity class in grade school is perfectly acceptable, … you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

9. If children are forcibly removed from parents who discipline them with spankings while children of addicts are left in filth and drug infested homes…, you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

10. If hard work and success are met with higher taxes and more government intrusion, while not working is rewarded with EBT cards, WIC checks, Medicaid, subsidized housing, and free cell phones,… you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

11. If you pay your mortgage faithfully, denying yourself the newest big screen TV while your neighbor buys iPhones, TVs and new cars, and the government forgives his debt when he defaults on his mortgage,… you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

12. If being stripped of the ability to defend yourself makes you more safe according to the government,… you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

Slant Eyeded Suomi Today:

 I look like I was prison raped, my eyes are as puffy and filled in as you can get almost to the point that I cannot see, would be so nice to take something that works to clear it up. Looks like the allergy's are kicking in from adding in the new heat  pump and furnace to keep up with the Joneses. One of the tribes buddy's had their heat pump go up in smoke and boom they had a new one installed for about 6 grand, So the head of house asked the tribes son in-law who happens to be in that business and la la la a new heat pump was procured and installed half assedly for you guessed it less, bragging rites all around. There wasn't anything really wrong with the other heat pump but it was older and not as pretty, it also will be more efficient with a new one. Funny thing about efficiency the tribal pill box hat lady had the son in-law put in a new thermostat a few months previously it was a big bells and whistles type that would allow the HP to come on when folks were home, off when no one was about and keep the unit more efficient. Well the first electric bill boom and mind you it hadn't been HOT but warm the bill was a whopping 250 bucks. now while they were away vacationing I turned the pump off which took 3 weeks of HP electricity off the bill and popped it down to a respectable 75 bucks. So when the bill came and the son in-law found out how to lock the thermostat so little pill box could no longer turn down the AC to sub arctic temperatures the bill became manageable. As a Hanford worker aka government funded slush budget, pill box was used to sitting in her little trailer in the desert and hogging the AC  in the arctic temps while it raged in the 100's outside. Granted that is hot but it carried over into the real life house where money isn't infinite and the cost of electricity is going up 3+ percent yearly I will not feel sorry for her going from 100 grand a year for checking in one to three water trucks a day, working upwards to and hour and a half in a eight hour day. For the sequester is hitting soon and she will be furloughed unable to find another job and quit the gravy she is making until recalled back to work. I will say pill box is just smart enough or has friends who have been able to find a way to scam her way out of it. She earlier had her ears checked and put on a show of how she couldn't hear funny that she can hear normal conversation 30 feet away if she want to with the TV, computer and ambient noise but if there is a partial disability she was able to qualify for she took it and the money L&I gave her 15 grand. Funny she doesn't wear the hearing aids she was given, topping a bill of 4 grand for the fancy ones with free battery's for life paid for by the State. Recently she tried to pull a heart problem, causing shortness of breath, she was sent to a large hospital in a major city for surgery to correct it and poof she didn't have any problem like she was indicating when put under stressful lab conditions, After 4 hours of trying to repeat the problem on the operating table she was diagnosed healthy  In the last month she went in and told them her shoulder hurt, gee if your nearing 55 and you have a weight problem, don't exercise and drink pop like it is running out of a faucet you might have some health problems adding in diabetics from sweets and the pop. months before when she was being asked to work,  meaning she had to load a bag of laundry, one bag up to 25 lbs. into her truck once a week with coveralls to keep you clean in a dusty environment semi radio active area and hang them up when you got there, put the full laundry basket back in the truck and bring it back to the office when you come back so it can be picked up by the laundry company. Humm...seems she was injured and needed physical therapy to help her injury. she was given exercises to recover and with the union insurance,her insurance, her husbands insurance they didn't see it as work related. Now months later she heard of the unpaid furlough that was going to be implemented and her should er hurt so bad she surely must need surgery. Surgery was scheduled, so she went into HR to set up he L&I for another partial disability and on the job injury and poof she hadn't filed from the onset of the injury so no L&I. But of course there are resources to help get the L&I clam filed once the surgery was done. Surgery is done, she came home with a little bursitis and little shoulder calcium deposit, she was given this slick mechanical chair that moves your arm and shoulder joint automatically, like I said slick, do you think she used it? well yes she did almost 60 minutes out of her 18 hours that was recommended by the physical therapist, How do I know well the little gizmo that set's repetitions  time, arm, movements marked on her it keeps record of how and how long she actually used it, indicated by the tech that brought out the chair. she was up for 3 hours of chair use each day dispersed evenly in 30 minute time frames. She FAILED. so now she is still timing it so she may be able to get the L&I money while she isn't getting paid by her job courtesy of the suggestion by Obama to cut the budget. Funny how this Hanford project has been on the forefront of a big money pit but after staying with someone who is a lifer out there I now know why the cost's are so high, Easily we can all figure it out if 20% of the union employees go threw all the trouble to get a disability, I mean shoot when I was working out there you wouldn't be hired unless you could lift 100 lbs. and work a full shift, Now if it's over 25 lbs you need two people to move something or call in a laborer, In the past you needed to go threw a background check were they even asked if you had any injury's, they asked your neighbors if you had been injured as a child,if you were a malcontent or drunkard. Here I have kidney cancer, I have taken to a natural treatment, I was born with a congenital heard defect. But yet I was in the hot spots as a young man and I cannot for the life of me claim it came from the job I had for a few short months out in the Hanford area. I signed a statement that I knew the risks, I don't have insurance, never had. Others must have the free ride syndrome and in the end all of us will pay for it. 

I Don't read Chineseee....

 I have been pouring over aaalll...the information available in Blogger and Google help. Yea, help just isn't what it appears to be. I cannot seem to find a way to add an RSS feed or any other link to my blog to allow others to subscribe? I have gone to RSS and other sight's to find a link to add into the basic HTML this blog template is made up of. Not as if I know what I am doing but I was giving it a shot in the dark. I haven't been able to add to the format with the simple links they have suggested the DOES NOT COMPLY came up on more than one occasion. Threw due diligence I  might be able to find the third shooter in the grassy Knowles and add it. I could add the Google + into the blog that would be the easiest but it changes the who picture of who I am and what my blog was meant to be. About me but also the area I live who the hell really want's to know any more about me..   Like I said in a previous post I just add the URl to a reader or in this case with reader soon to be discontinued the subscription on Blogger. It is a pain and takes up time to go to so many hoops to add it boils down to is it worth it. I felt it did but I have time, my busy schedule isn't busy.

Any way here is a nice view of the valley on a nice overcast day.

  

No longer a cherry:

 I finally have had visitors to my blog thank you for the comments and plugs, Wow, I have been following many blogs but didn't subscribe to them, with the quick availability of Google reader but with the soon to be deleted offering I finally figured out how to subscribe to the Blogs I read DUH, Previously I just added and added. I enjoy reading, I enjoy other peoples opinion and view on the world as we live in it. I want to thank those who have dropped by, I am not very diligent in posting but try to fit in a quip or two. 
 I have been on a quest for new dig's the stress of living on a couch, not feeling comfortable and the entrapment with the lack of transportation is causing tourettes to rage in my head. I am not a smart man....but I do know what I have been doing to make myself well, to heal from major illness and without much help for the medical community, If I had the assets to run to the doctor like some in the tribe with  sniffle or a crossed bowel movement I still wouldn't be that dependent on doctors. 
 I know there is a tint of jealousy in my heart for the ones who have those mean's but not for some tribe members who work for government agency that couldn't get a ticket to ride the short bus. They have their union protected job based on gender not skill or qualification, yet they spend months on end looking for a way to injure themselves to get on disability. If I made 120 G a year and worked most of the day playing Facebook games on my Iphone I don't think I would be so hesitant to leave the plate of biscuits and gravy my job provided. That and the I know more about nothing than you do. Life is a learning experience every day, these day's the examples I have seen I can now say I know why many children in our area have cancer as well as many in my 40 something age group simply from the clock punchers that work in the Hanford works project. 
 Enough rant, thank you all who have read my blog as trivial as it is and to those who have commented. 

What a great obit it seams to represent the man. 

Harry Weathersby Stamps

December 19, 1932 -- March 9, 2013

Long Beach

Harry Weathersby Stamps, ladies' man, foodie, natty dresser, and accomplished traveler, died on Saturday, March 9, 2013.

Harry was locally sourcing his food years before chefs in California starting using cilantro and arugula (both of which he hated). For his signature bacon and tomato sandwich, he procured 100% all white Bunny Bread from Georgia, Blue Plate mayonnaise from New Orleans, Sauer's black pepper from Virginia, home grown tomatoes from outside Oxford, and Tennessee's Benton bacon from his bacon-of-the-month subscription. As a point of pride, he purported to remember every meal he had eaten in his 80 years of life. 

The women in his life were numerous. He particularly fancied smart women. He loved his mom Wilma Hartzog (deceased), who with the help of her sisters and cousins in New Hebron reared Harry after his father Walter's death when Harry was 12. He worshipped his older sister Lynn Stamps Garner (deceased), a character in her own right, and her daughter Lynda Lightsey of Hattiesburg. He married his main squeeze Ann Moore, a home economics teacher, almost 50 years ago, with whom they had two girls Amanda Lewis of Dallas, and Alison of Starkville. He taught them to fish, to select a quality hammer, to love nature, and to just be thankful. He took great pride in stocking their tool boxes. One of his regrets was not seeing his girl, Hillary Clinton, elected President.

He had a life-long love affair with deviled eggs, Lane cakes, boiled peanuts, Vienna [Vi-e-na] sausages on saltines, his homemade canned fig preserves, pork chops, turnip greens, and buttermilk served in martini glasses garnished with cornbread. 

He excelled at growing camellias, rebuilding houses after hurricanes, rocking, eradicating mole crickets from his front yard, composting pine needles, living within his means, outsmarting squirrels, never losing a game of competitive sickness, and reading any history book he could get his hands on. He loved to use his oversized "old man" remote control, which thankfully survived Hurricane Katrina, to flip between watching The Barefoot Contessa and anything on The History Channel. He took extreme pride in his two grandchildren Harper Lewis (8) and William Stamps Lewis (6) of Dallas for whom he would crow like a rooster on their phone calls. As a former government and sociology professor for Gulf Coast Community College, Harry was thoroughly interested in politics and religion and enjoyed watching politicians act like preachers and preachers act like politicians. He was fond of saying a phrase he coined "I am not running for political office or trying to get married" when he was "speaking the truth." He also took pride in his service during the Korean conflict, serving the rank of corporal--just like Napolean, as he would say.

Harry took fashion cues from no one. His signature every day look was all his: a plain pocketed T-shirt designed by the fashion house Fruit of the Loom, his black-label elastic waist shorts worn above the navel and sold exclusively at the Sam's on Highway 49, and a pair of old school Wallabees (who can even remember where he got those?) that were always paired with a grass-stained MSU baseball cap. 

Harry traveled extensively. He only stayed in the finest quality AAA-rated campgrounds, his favorite being Indian Creek outside Cherokee, North Carolina. He always spent the extra money to upgrade to a creek view for his tent. Many years later he purchased a used pop-up camper for his family to travel in style, which spoiled his daughters for life. 

He despised phonies, his 1969 Volvo (which he also loved), know-it-all Yankees, Southerners who used the words "veranda" and "porte cochere" to put on airs, eating grape leaves, Law and Order (all franchises), cats, and Martha Stewart. In reverse order. He particularly hated Day Light Saving Time, which he referred to as The Devil's Time. It is not lost on his family that he died the very day that he would have had to spring his clock forward. This can only be viewed as his final protest. 

Because of his irrational fear that his family would throw him a golf-themed funeral despite his hatred for the sport, his family will hold a private, family only service free of any type of "theme." Visitation will be held at Bradford-O'Keefe Funeral Home, 15th Street, Gulfport on Monday, March 11, 2013 from 6-8 p.m. 

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you make a donation to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College (Jeff Davis Campus) for their library. Harry retired as Dean there and was very proud of his friends and the faculty. He taught thousands and thousands of Mississippians during his life. The family would also like to thank the Gulfport Railroad Center dialysis staff who took great care of him and his caretaker Jameka Stribling. 

Finally, the family asks that in honor of Harry that you write your Congressman and ask for the repeal of Day Light Saving Time. Harry wanted everyone to get back on the Lord's Time. 

View & sign register book @ www.bradfordokeefe.com

Read more here: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sunherald/obituary.aspx?n=harry-stamps&pid=163538353&fhid=4025#.UUEBL3XtQTc.facebook#storylink=cpy

Long before Juan de Fuca passed through the straits in 1592, there were dozens of Indian tribes who pursued their livelihood by fishing, gathering roots and berries, harvesting shellfish and hunting in the area which was to become Washington State. The Yakama Tribes occupied nearly 17,000 square miles of this area. Their land extended from the summits of the Cascades on the west to the Palouse area of the Columbia Basin on the east. The northern border extended into British Columbia, and the southern border into Northern Oregon. Within this area there were many small tribes and bands of Indians possessing a similar way of life.

In the summer of 1855, a Treaty Council was convened at Walla Walla, and the Yakama Tribes were pressured to cede 16,900 square miles for a reservation of 1,875 square miles and reserved rights and guarantees.

In 1988, Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act establishing a legal basis for the right to conduct gaming on reservation land.