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Where we live in our town is just a bunch of homes. A block away is the county jail, soon to be moved. The fire station and E.M.S. are four or five blocks away. We hear sirens every day and quite a lot at night. I often wonder what’s happened and where. I wonder if the sirens are for the police, fire or ambulance. The funny thing is; we don’t hear on the local news about the reasons for the sirens in our town. We hear about things happening in towns 30 miles away and 60 miles away; but, not in our town. Sometimes I wonder—what gives?

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I have to admit my favorite food can be a lot of different items, but my most favorite is cheesecake. YUM!

Where I grew up Mom used to go to this one particular baker and get a cheesecake or a gooey butter cake. Since then, I’ve not been able to find a cheesecake just as good as that one. The closest I’ve yet come to that is a Sara Lee Original cheesecake. Too may cheesecakes are super sweet, but cheesecake should also have a bit of a twang, too. Bland and sweet do not take care of the yearn for cheesecake. I have yet to find a substitute in any way for a gooey butter cake.

As for a meat dish, true original beef stroganoff has no substitute. The idea of tender juicy pieces of beef with chunks of mushrooms oozing around in a sour cream gravy, served over tender egg noodles….YUM!

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Ever stubbed your toe and lost your breath? We’ve all been there like it or not. As much as everybody dislikes it, pain has a use. It tells you that there is something wrong. The thing that is wrong could be something very temporary, small or insignificant. OR–it could be something very important. The worst physical pain I’ve felt caused me to scream and cry every time I had to stand. I took aspirin, Tylenol, ibuprophen and Aleve. All of these at the same time. I timed them so if one was due to be taken, the others were still working. Believe it or not, it didn’t help my pain all that much. I’d gotten a skin infection in my leg. I still have the scar that was left–to this day. The doctor told me that I came close to losing that leg. I didn’t, thank God.

At the time I thought that was the worst; but, I’ve since learned differently. I could ease the pain by elevating that leg, until I had to walk, of course. The worst physical pain isn’t necessarily the most intense; but, a constant dull ache that will not leave! The unending character of that ache can drive a person to the brink of falling apart.

The absence of pain is something that is taken for granted by many people. Until pain, or ache present themselves, they are not thought of in any serious way by most people.

The absence of pain is—WONDERFUL!

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I’ll tell you no lies. I’ve heard that before. Like the catalogs that say–ONE SIZE FITS MOST. Which most are those catalogs talking about? Most Americans don’t fit into size 5 or 6, unless they are 5 or 6 years of age. What about feet? Yeah, them things that people walk on or trip over. Why is it so hard to find items that will fit most people? Have manufacturers change the definition of sizes; or, have most Americans grown.

Beds, for example. What is the basic dimension of a bed? Average Americans are no longer just 5ft. 4in. The men are 6 ft. and taller. The women are also taller. I can understand losing weight to fit into some clothes. What do you do about feet? You can’t just chop off toes in order to fit smaller shoes. If you’re too tall you can’t just chop off your legs to fit into short clothes or small cars. Maybe the designer of clothes, shoes, beds, cars and other things meed to rethink–ONE SIZE FITS MOST–HA! As if!

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Reading is fundamental. Sort of. At least everyone used to be told that interesting idea. There used to be a big push to make sure that American people would be able to read, write and basically be able to communicate with the written word.

Have you ever sat and studied a newspaper (supposedly done by professionals) and looked at the errors in printing? I’ve seen misspellings, errors in usage and errors with grammar. These used to be things taught in school. Even an ordinary paperback may have loads of easily found basic English errors. Why? It makes no sense. An education is available to the poorest civilian. The grade schools of this country used to teach basic communication skills. Have they stopped teaching this? Or, have people stopped caring?

I hope there are people who still care; and, schools that still teach. If they don’t exist our country will shortly become one filled with uneducated non communicative people.

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Have you ever noticed how quickly a cold can be passed within a family? I have found other things that are almost as contagious. A wide grin on a face can quickly spread through a crowd. If you drop something and then start looking on the ground, soon others will be looking too. The same thing seems to happen if you stand outside in a crowd, do nothing but look up, soon others around you will be looking up. Guess how many will ask you what you’re looking for in the sky?

Something else I’ve noticed that is catching, very catching. A yawn is extremely catching. If you stand in a crowd and yawn, soon you will see the yawn spreading out like ripples on a pool. You don’t have to cough or sneeze and yet you have spread something contagious. If fact, I’ve just seen a yawn on the TV! Now I’m yawning–time to go to bed. GRIN, oh yeah and yawn!

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Maybe, it’s paranoia. Have you ever been going down the street and had a police officer pull up behind you? I have and it’s a nerve racking experience. I’ve done nothing wrong; but, I keep wondering what I did wrong. I like to stay under the speed limit. I’ve had cars that didn’t have working speedometers after all. Meanwhile, I’ve still got this cop behind me and it’s got my nerves twitching. I can’t see his face in the mirror, so I don’t know if I’ve seen him before or not. Next thing I know he’s turning off the road and going into a burger place. Thank God, he’s hungry!!

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What’s up with the advertising today? Its snotty, snide, insulting, downright nasty. How can being nasty be good advertising? Every time I hear the nastiness it makes me avoid that product. If the commercial goes out of its way to be nasty, it makes me wonder about the business ethics of those who run the business.

Some commercials are cute or fun. There’s one advertising car insurance and it shows two presidential lookalikes racing limos–funny! Improbable, but funny. The gecko is okay, so is the chihuahua. What I don’t dig are nasty little brats who get goodies by acting nasty. People being put down and criticized just do not give happy feelings. Okay, how about the food ads (much shorter than commercials, right?) that feature either the two morons or the bickering married couple? The way they gripe with one another makes me wonder why they hang out together. Not a very good way to advertise good tasting food. Show the food more, forget the grouchiness! People spend more money when they feel good. Grouchiness or nastiness AIN’T gonna do it for me. That’s my grouchiness talking here.

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I know at least two ladies going through something I can’t imagine. Actually, I know three, four and more. One lady has a daughter with Leigh’s Disease. The daughter is only five years old. She may never live to see twelve. Her mother gives her love and tries to find things to make her daughter smile. This little girl is surrounded by love. Her sisters try to pamper her. They’re not 10 yet themselves. Her grandmother and grandfather take time off from work to drive her to specialists to get her as much help as possible. Life goes on.

Lady number two has Fibromyalgia. That means she is in constant pain. Her nerves don’t stop sending messages of pain. Her hands and feet sometimes swell and cause additional pain. The medications she takes don’t stop the messages of pain. Her present doctor appears to be too much in a hurry to listen to what she has to say, or to answer her questions. He husband seems more concerned with helping a homeless 28 year old man than helping his wife. She still takes care of her own apartment while her husband lives on his farm. She runs her friend into the doctor to check if her friend’s cancer has come back. She still finds time to laugh, to sing.

Lady number three is in her 30s. She has already had numerous operations to remove cancer in her insides. Recently, she went through another operation to remove more cancer from her colon. A week ago, she buried her grandfather. No one else in her family could handle the details. Her mother fell apart at the death of the man who raised her. Lady number three took care of all the arrangements for the funeral and burial. Right now she is in the hospital after having her 9th operation. This operation removed many parts from her insides. When I’ve talked to her, she has still been able to laugh. Her widowed grandmother visits with her each day. They keep each other company.

Lady number four recently had to fight to keep supposed family members from stealing her house, her money; and they locked her up in her own home for a while. Many of her pets were killed. She was only able to save a few. She’s had a colostomy bag for a while and was supposed to be checked by her doctor to see if she can return to a normal life. Her last visit with her doctor showed some new changes in her body. The operation to remove the colostomy bag has now been delayed—-no explanation. She still goes on with her daily life.

How do YOU define COURAGE?

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