The House

I live in Helena, Montana.  We pronounce it hell-eh-na not he-lee-na.
Gold, discovered here in 1865 made it an overnight boom town, while
a civil war was raging in the East. It's a very small town with the city
limits boasting 25,000 people.

The town is unique and I fell in love with it
 over 40 years ago. The gardens and the old
houses beckoned to me. Many miners did strike
it rich and expensive mansions popped up
throughout the city with each house vying
to be different. 

I can go out my back door, walk 2 steep blocks and I'm at the base
of a mountain that provides many walking paths. There is one house
located just before the sharp incline where the mountain begins.  Some
how, this old house reaches out to me and every time I actually
stop and take in all the house's magnetism.  Cody dog would always
look at me as if to ask, "why are we stopping?" Even if she could
talk, I'd never have an answer, I just had to stop for a while  and
afterward, "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" always entered my mind. lol

Joanie, a shirt tail relative, grew up in Helena and knew of every
family who lived on the West end. One day we were walking  up
to the mountain and talking about history, a favorite subject to
both of us. I was saying that I had read most of Stephen Ambrose
books because he was my favorite historian. 

Joanie said, "He used to live right up here."  I got so excited and
wanted to see his family house. Well, of course, it was the house
where Cody and I always stopped.  I was speechless but not
surprised as things like that often happen to me.

I don't know what one would call it, a
vibration, a ghost beckoning, an apparition
conundrum, or just enthralled with an old
house?
Anything like that ever happen to you?

Rerun Time

Women are at it again. They want to be heard (I guess)
so they brought in the big guns or old guns, namely
Gloria Steinem, age 82, in..... back to the 60's.

Are things better and are women happy?  I guess not because I hear the same ole
complaints. It's like a re-run for me and I didn't fall for it the first time.

I'm going to try to make this brief, but don't believe me, look it up
yourself.

In the 60's, Gloria Steinem worked for the CIA and her mission was
to promote feminism, break up the American families and get women
yearning after mundane jobs while all the time she was embroiled in a romance

with Henry Kissinger, then Sec. of State under Nixon.  Of course that was
the part the media tried to keep under the rose.

Kissinger was strongly blamed for taking an active part in the bombing
and killing of the innocent Cambodians.

Here's the plan as I could see it and it takes quite a few years to put
it all together.

Tear apart the family structure, introduce 
cocaine to the kids, emphasizing abortion and one-
parent families. All this makes for lonely kids who
can become easily duped and heading for trouble.

Wheeee.....Look at us go

Lately I'm hearing words floating around me, such as, "health care,
affordable health and other words with the word "health" attached.
As I see it, it's mostly said by people who are sick, in fact, dying
so why do they attach the word health to it?

So I say to myself, "Dummy-self, it's Western medicine.  Get It?"
Yeah now I do. It's the high-priced poison they entered into the
Merck Manual when they removed all the natural remedies that
we already had in our cupboards or growing wild in our
backyards.  Oh yeah, right.  Finish big conversation with myself.

I'm not a real hard-nose about all Western medicine, in fact  a
western medical doctor recently put a cast on my broken arm.
It's a wonderful thing for acute medical needs; for accidents and
sudden life-threatening rips and tears to a body.

My arm was giving me pain at night and I couldn't sleep. The
medical people were ready with Rx pad and pen in hand, ready to
write out something for me to take to the pharmacy. I asked if
they would OK a medical cannabis card for me.  After much
hemming and hawing and "we'll get back to you, I never heard
from them BUT a small jar of the oil suddenly appeared beside
my bed and it worked like a miracle charm. Thank you Fairy
Godmother, and with the relief of pain, I could get a good night's
sleep.

So you are asking what I do when I'm sick. (maybe) I'm really
never sick..... hardly ever in my life. Yes, there's the usual wear
and tear on the organs because they've been busy quite a number
of years. I use mostl Eastern medicine and quite a lot of medical
mushrooms. (that is not the psychedelic ones).  It just kinda keeps
me healthy.

A lot of the Chinese formulas include herbs that restore color to
hair. He Shou Wu is one such herb that is used in many formulas.
I used to put a brown henna on my hair but haven't in over a year.  I
kept noticing in the mirror that my hair was looking darker and the new
growth of hair coming in around my forehead was black. Get this,
my hair, all over my head, is dark, dark.... almost black.  I feel
enbarrassed now, as I know people are saying, "Look at that old
broad, dying her hair so witchy black." No kidding, it's for real.

I've probably been overdoing it (but for my liver and not hair) as I
was going for a teaspoon but just did a guess chug-a-lug.

I do sincerely  hope all you users of western medicine can get your
health ins, at a reasonable price and I drink to your good health.
(I'm sipping an eastern tea) and I'm not making fun of western
medicine. I use it myself when there's an acute need.

Birth of the CIA

Are intelligence agencies in the habit of 
election interventions? We'll see.

After the two world wars, Americans were ready to have the
country return to normalcy,  meaning back to their isolation
again. Truman saw no need for peacetime espionage and
information gathering so in 1945 he disbanded the OSS (Office of
Strategic Service).

New and faster modes of travel made the world a little smaller
and it was soon apparent that America DID need an intelligence
service so the CIA was born in 1948.  At that time I was in
psychiatric nurses training and we were using the plant Scopolamine
( Devils Breath), at a time when the CIA was using it for mind
control in covert operations.

At the same time, a Communist coup was taking place in
Czechoslovakia and it was indicated that Italy would be
Communist by popular vote in their current election. America
struck panic mode that Britain, W. Germany and France could
follow suit.

The Russian Communists were generously filling the coffers of the
Italian Communists as the CIA was also contributing to the
Italian Western Christian  Democrats.  A big win for the Democrats
and a win for the CIA's first journey into covert operations.

Congress passed the Central Intelligence 
Agency Act in 1949.   (Same year I got married)

Truman had later lamented that he was afraid of the CIA going
rogue with so much power. Here we go.  The CIA came out a
huge winner from the government with unlimited funds and
exempt from  all federal laws that required any disclosure of
the agency.  An example of their budget in 2013 was 14.7 billion.
And what are they doing with the money?  Who knows.
The CIA mostly works over-seas while the FBI federally
assists in local law enforcement.

Shucks pardner, so there you have a few more tid-bits of recent history.  Feel
free to jump in with more tid-bits.

As History Takes Place in My Lifetime

Way, way back, when I was a wee one, most countries were in
isolation and didn't mess in each other's politics. The reason
was just sheer distance. Lindbergh's flight to Paris in 1927
(3 years before I was born) was a scary trip made in 33 1/2 hrs.

We all know how flying has changed in the past century.  If
one stands at the edge of Florida, Cuba can almost be seen
but during the years prohibiting travel to Cuba, I know of
people who flew up to Canada and then were able to fly to
Cuba. Take the long way, baby.

Even in 1950, it took me a week to travel to Spain by boat.
Air flight was beginning to be popular but most people
"took to the sea. "  And these were mostly people travelling
for business or for a specific reason,  not the "vacation
cruise" that is popular now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I started schooI, it was at a time when we felt safe with
an army of 185,000 men and without any American made
boots on foreign soil.

The Dulles brothers were alive and most likely playing with
their little tin soldiers, planning their adult sordid strategies
but at that time in history, the CIA was not yet in existence
but the OSS was the main intelligence information gatherer.

I find the Dulles boys to be the most evil influence to our
country during my lifetime. When I was in high
school, they had not yet begun grabbing foreign countries for
it's resources, deposing the governments and setting up their
own puppets. Yup, they became masters at it and set the stage
for today's foreign-soil grabs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We are all living in history. Your grandkids will be reading
about the events that are now taking place during your life
time. I find it hard to understand why so many people are closing
their eyes and ears to what is giving shape to our world right now.

So far, I've lived through 87 years of history and we didn't aways
have this exciting electronic media that gives us instant news.
But we now have dilligent and accurate historians who provide
great sources to help clarify the memory.

I will be prodding my memory for historical events taking
place during my lifetime.

I invite you to join me on this 1st day of 2017