Would dry leaves help or hinder a game in the woods?

It was a wonderfully sunny day when we decided to play our new and improved game of hide-and-seek. The pink, purple and blue leaves of the purpa trees had finally all fallen as the weather on Turda had grown colder. My friends and I were excited about our game. We had been talking about it since the spring. Our new game had only one rule. Hide in the leaves. One person would count and the others would hide in the leaves. We were lucky that there had been so many leaves on the trees and no wind. It meant that we had five feet of leaves to play in. I was going to be the first one to count. I decided to count to 100 to make sure that everybody would have a chance to hide. We had not even gone into the leaves, so we were not sure how it would be to go walking or running through them. We had been saving them until they were perfect. My friends ran into the leaves laughing as they tried to find a place to hide. I thought I would listen carefully to see if I could figure out where everybody hid. I counted to 100 and decided to go into the leaves. I knew that I would have to walk carefully, because I did not want to run into anybody and I was unsure how I would be able to see. The suns’ light shining through the pink, purple and blue leaves were beautiful. I could see through the lighter colored leaves and that helped me to see where I was walking. As I pushed the leaves away I could see that they did not close behind me. I knew then all I had to do was to find the paths that my three friends had made and go find them. I decided to wander around the in the leaves looking at the different shades of colors until I found a path. The first path I found was beginning to fill in again, so I knew I had to work quickly. I ran quickly to see who would be hiding at the end of the path. It was Georgie!! The two of us then quickly found Xristy and Marky. The four of us decided that this was the best fun that we had ever had playing in the leaves and we would play our new game tomorrow. We just hoped the wind wouldn’t blow away our leaves.

Three different areas to spend $500 million

If I had exactly 500 million dollars to spend and I could only spend it in three different areas, I would first give 200 million dollars to the very poor in the areas of the United States that need it the most. I would give it to different churches, food banks and shelters. I would make sure that it would be given to organizations that are very reputable and have the means of reaching the people who need it the most. I think that using the pay-it-forward system would work well. If I made the condition that if I help those then they would help the next person they felt needed help, perhaps then we could really help those around the world. I feel people are so wrapped up in worrying about people in the rest of the world they forget about the many homeless and those people who just need a little bit of help here in the States. I believe in helping the people at home first. If we can help our citizens to be stronger, then more people will be able to help those in the rest of the world. And I am sure in this current stage of economic slow down there could be many people in our own communities that could use the help.

I would then buy land in the critical winter ranges of the Rocky Mountain Elk. I would spend 200 million dollars to procure land in Wyoming, Montana, or Colorado. I know this may not buy much land, but I would look for land in the greatest danger for development. I would put as much of the land as I could into a conservation easement with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. I will use some of the land to raise cattle and possibly begin to have the dude ranches that I have wanted for a long time. I would be constantly looking for ways to improve the ranches and make them better for those who use them in the future.

I would take the last 100 million dollars and invest it in rental properties. Rental properties would be good in this economy as so many people are downsizing. The prices of my rental properties would be most reasonable as there are so many people in need of good housing all over the United States. I would keep working for a living so I can pay for my children’s college. It is always beneficial to start a career with no debt.

I would always make sure my money was working for me in the best way to help others. I am sure there are many other ways to help people with this amount of money and if other people have ideas I would love to have them. I just wish that I had that much money so that I could help people in the way that I desire, I need to remember that there are many small ways of helping people with little or no money.

what I thought of President Bush's campaign stop in 2004

I had written to this prompt four years ago and I thought that since the presidential elections are soon this one would be a good to post.

It was earlier this week that I saw on TV that President Bush was coming to town and there were tickets available. I thought of mentioning it to my husband, but by the time he woke up, I had forgotten it. It was a couple of days later that he asked me if I wanted to go to the rally. I told him, “sure if you would like to.” I had never been to something like that before. I thought about it each day until this Friday, September 3. I had seen parts of rallies before on TV but they really don’t show what a rally is really like. They capture some of the atmosphere and of course the words the candidate say, but they never show the before and after.
We would drive to the old grocery store parking lot and then walk the short way to the park. It seemed like a good idea until I heard that there were going to be bus rides there too. I thought it might be a good idea to ride the bus over instead of walking all that way. My husband kind of shrugged that idea away. I was like o.k. I really thought it was a good idea when we saw that we couldn’t walk straight to the entrance. We had to walk two to three blocks around, because of a security blockade. There were protestors close to the entrance. I was quite nervous since this was my first rally. I wanted the protestors to be peaceful. I have seen a lot on TV, which became violent. The police did arrest two teachers. I never did catch exactly why. They could only stand on the sidewalk and they may have been trespassing on someone’s lawn.
There were city dump trucks, garbage trucks, and water trucks parked inches apart, which I thought was for the trash. My husband said it was for security. They were the blockade against the protestors.
Getting through security was easy. All we did was show our ticket and id several times. I don’t think they even looked that closely. Getting through the metal detectors was easy too. In the airport, my shoes would have set the alarm off. Here they did not. I thought it was odd that security was a bit tighter.
We got through the gates at about 4:15 and then we found a place to stand/sit. We still had to wait until ~5:30. It took a long time too. We got some water to drink; because with the warm muggy weather I was very thirsty by the time we got done walking. I spent some time playing with our son. He had fun with the grass and the plastic drinking cups. My husband held him some too. There were some different politicians speaking and there was a band playing. I never did catch the name of the band. There was also a lady on the stage that was signing everything. That was the first time I had really seen a person doing that.
At certain times the crowd moved closer so we were able to stand a lot closer than we originally were. When the president first got there I couldn’t see anything. That was because I am short and people were waving their signs. It was nice once everybody put their signs down. In some spots where I was standing I was able to see the president pretty well. The speech lasted about 45 minutes. He said what people wanted to hear. I thought it was very good. He did make references to John Kerry and John Edwards. From what I could tell, it was factual. He focused on the idea that he was in our state. He made us seem like we were the most important people to him. I thought that was a very good tactic.
After the speech was done we waited for him to leave and then we walked back to the car. This time we didn’t have to take the detour. It was very nice. Some of the blockade trucks smelled terrible.
All in all I thought the opportunity to see the president was very interesting. It would be interesting to go to a campaign rally of John Kerry’s just to see what and how he talks about things.

Welcome

These postings are going to be writing prompts that I have thought of and then I will write 500-1000 words about them. I welcome all thoughts that people have to give me. If you would like to give me writing prompts I would enjoy that. I would not like to have any ideas that may hurt other people. Thank you. And I hope that everybody enjoys reading Rayray's writings.