Time for the Iowa Caucus’s to begin finding out which candidates to “weed out” and to endorse a candidate for the next U.S. President. You have a place to go to the Republican Caucus and cannot pick and choose which place suits you. Check out where it is. Former President Trump will make his appearance in Iowa just before the January 15 meeting. You can get tickets to hear and see him found on his website.
I had an experience following Bernie Dixon’s funeral. We were sitting in the back pew of the church and at 11:30 a.m., I checked the time on my wrist watch on my right arm. After the funeral, I went home (about 1:00 p.m.), took my coat off and then my silky sweater where the watch was on that sleeve. It was after 11:30 p.m. when I went to change my “funeral” clothes to my pajamas. I found my watch was gone! Thinking it came off the silky sleeve when I took off my jacket, I went downstairs to look where it could have “flown off” too. I couldn’t find it anywhere.
I called Melinda and left a message if she would ask if anyone had seen this watch. No one had. I told her it had no monetary value but sentimental value. Floyd gave it to me for Mother’s Day just before Zachary was born (1979). Maybe he didn’t think I was going to make it! How well I remember that night when he took Jeffrey, myself, and another man friend to the Golden Pheasant for dinner. He felt sorry for the man as his wife had just left him so he invited him along on this special Mother’s Day dinner!
Now, I am still looking for this watch. Maybe Teddy, the kitten/cat that has been very expensive with some of his doings, could have it and it is someplace where I cannot see it. It really hadn’t been working very well and when Tete Hogue was alive, I went to his house to see if he could get it running. When I left, he said, “I won’t guarantee this will work past my doorway!” Well, it did continue to work until now where it is lost.
Monday night there will be three City Council people installed as well as the Mayor at their 5 o’clock meeting. Two members are new to their elected job.
I checked out at an out-of-town store and the “cents” part of the purchase was 16 cents. I put some change on the counter and pulled 2 dimes and one penny aside for him to take. He reached over to get a quarter. I told him that what I had laid out was enough and I would get 5 cents back. He put the quarter back, gave me my 5 cents and receipt and had already started to check out the next person in line as well as putting their purchases in bags next to mine. Usually the checker puts your bags in the cart or else doesn’t start the next person’s check out until your bags are gone. I think he was “miffed” off by telling him that I only needed a nickel back. At least he didn’t have to go to his calculator and try and figure this out!
Did you hear about the eating place on 4th Street in Sioux City that you could eat at and enjoy a cat as well? I often wondered how this would be having a cat around when you are eating. Where were the liter box/boxes when there was food being made here? Well, it was announced that his place “decided” to not have any cat/cats there anymore. I think a health inspector did the deciding. They informed they were still open and that they had found places for 112 CATS! Good grief, I didn’t know they had that many cats! Where would you have litter boxes for that many! Maybe they had to take them to the Humane Society for $65 a cat which she can’t afford to do.
If you don’t think prayers are answered even if it has been a constant prayer for many years, you are wrong. I have had one that was answered this past week that I am very thankful for.
I was looking at Little House on the Prairie the other early morning when a similar situation came up. This woman who had a lot of money was back in the rural setting with her husband to spend the summer months. She visited the Oleson Mercantile Store riding on a horse. Harriet complained after her purchase that she thought someone with all that money would dress in a dress and forget about horseback riding. (The woman in question was probably in her late 50’s.) This caused an argument with Nels, Harriet’s husband who literally told her to mind her own business!
This woman went to the local fishing spot and found a little boy about 9 years old that was fishing. He had an old pole while she had the best of the best. But, he was catching fish while she wasn’t! She had no children and quickly found this boy to be a very good friend. They met at the fishing spot several times. One time he told her he was trying to get some money to buy his mother a special birthday gift. The woman told him she would hire him to help her husband take repairs up to the house roof rather than have the husband keep going up and down—that is if he thought he could help. Yes, he could!
When it was close to his mother’s birthday, the lady asked him if he would like to give his mother something special that she had no use for anymore. He said he would pay for it and asked if $5 was the going price. She agreed even if she really didn’t want the money but knew the little boy wanted to have had to work for it. The night of the birthday, his older brother came with a big present as well as his father’s present. Then it was his turn and he handed his mother a very small gift that contained a small box with a cameo in it. (A cameo is a gem carved with a figure of a silhouette of a woman raised. It was an expensive piece of jewelry worn only by women who could afford it.) His mother questioned where he had gotten this expensive gift. He told her he had worked for it but the mother refused to take it. The little boy was saddened but his mother wouldn’t listen to him. The next day she took the gift back to the rich lady. The lady tried to explain that the little boy had worked for it and as she had no use for it, she wanted him to have it and give it to his mother. The mother left in a huff—without the cameo.
Days later, the lady went to the town doctor who told her she had one month to live. She knew all along that this was going to be their last visit to the rural town, but had not told her husband about her health. She didn’t know he was in a room off the doctor’s room and heard the conversation. Now he knew why she wanted the roof fixed as well as “adopting” this little boy. He went to the boy’s mother and explained the situation and asked her kindly if she would accept his wife’s cameo. He had given this cameo to his wife and really wanted the little boy’s mother to accept it.
She did change her mind and went back to the rich lady (without saying what she now knew) and said she had changed her mind and would take the cameo. The lady was delighted! As the last month went by too quickly, the lady was again at the fishing hole with the little boy (who knew nothing about her dying). She wanted to give him something special—it was her fishing equipment that she had in an expensive wood box. The little boy wanted to pay for it but she insisted it was a gift from her for making her so happy that summer (her last). When he took it home, he explained to his mother that this lady wanted him to have it. He thought all along that his mother would object once again to a gift from the rich lady—but this time she didn’t.
His mother explained to him that she had been wrong all along and that there are times when a gift is just that—a gift with no strings attached. She was glad that he had accepted the expensive fishing equipment in the wood box as well as the fishing pole and said that she was sure the lady was happy to give it to him. He asked his mother why she had said she didn’t need it anymore. His mother told him that where the lady was going, that the one thing that really made her happy was that her cameo and fishing equipment was going to be something the people receiving these gifts would remember her by. So, if you are given a gift that you wonder “why”, don’t question it. Accept it and know that the giver was happy to let you have it.
Remember in your thoughts and prayers those who have lost family/friends to death and have had their lives changed, have health problems some of which are terminal; are trying to make a living even though they have a job; help those who desire “wants” are more important than “needs”, that prestige isn’t everything and be with those who are still struggling to shorten the distance between family/friends to build a bridge instead of a wall. Count your blessings!
I will leave you with this quote: “Opportunity merely knocks: temptation kicks the door in.”