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Our Daily Thread 3-6-13

Good Morning!

We’re supposed to get some snow later today! 🙂

Some of you a little to the south are gonna get a lot of snow today. 😯

Quote of the Day

“They throw the ball, I hit it. They hit the ball, I catch it.”

Willie  Mays

Today we have some music I haven’t heard since I was a kid. My Gram and Pop used to watched this, so we did too when we spent the night.

____________________________________________________

Hee. 🙂

Who has a QoD for us?

68 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 3-6-13”

  4. I am having a problem with negativity and self-doubt this morning. Along about 4 am I had worried and prayed about it as long as I could without much of a solution accept there was nothing I could do about it at that time of morning anyway. As always, it is easier to solve someone elses problems rather than your own, so I turned to Karen’s dilemma with her niece who is planning to marry a trans-gender woman.

    The answer is so deceptively simple that it is any wonder none of us saw the solution. Ettiquette and manners exist for a reason. Either to force someone to behave in a social situation, to make others comfortable in a social situation, or to allow you to escape a situation you do not want to be in in the first place.

    With today’s lavish social events and our very mobile society brides and their long suffering mothers have been FORCED to send out “Save the Date” cards. It takes upwards of a YEAR to plan a spectacular wedding these days and if you are having a sit down dinner afterwards…well you can see, what’s a poor bride to do but send out “save the date” cards because EVERYONE knows that you don’t send out the actual wedding invitation until 6 weeks before and heaven only knows what could get in the way.

    Karen’s niece and sister in law are confused about this new “tradition” and are saving the printing and postage expense by asking directly or through Facebook for Karen to “save the date”. The answer is that of course Karen will save the date, but who knows what can happen. Lee could decide to take the whole family on an Alaskan cruise or to Europe and the ONLY possible week that fits everyone’s busy schedules is what do you know? The same exact week as the wedding!

    This buys Karen and her family extra time to decide what to do. So Karen, you just very sweetly have to ask your Darling Niece or SIL if that is the question. “Are you asking me to save the date?”

    Now I am back to trying to solve my own issues. Everyone have a great day.

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  6. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
    * * * * * * * * SNOW DAY!!!!!!! * * * * * * * * *
    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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  7. I know AJ, I have a Hee Haw Gospel Quartet CD and finally looked it up.
    We saw Roy Clark at Wolf Trap once. But Elvera didn’t care for them. She fell in love with Hank Thompson who had the first part of the show.
    I thought for a while that I was going to lose her.
    Sometimes Merle Travis would sing and play with them.

    We have a snow day too. But nothing on the ground where I live.
    Enjoy it Klasko, it will be the last one this season.
    Springtime starts tomorrow, even if the calendar says it’s two weeks away.

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  8. I’ve forgotten her name now, but I was in love with the cute girl who always ended the show. All the other women had bosoms and legs, but she always showed up in overalls and long shirt. She was the cutest one anyhow.
    It’s been so long.

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  9. Yep, we have a snow day here too.

    Last night the back step had a drift as tall as Misten–the most snow she has ever seen. She asked to go out, and needed to go out, but the moment she stepped outside she just stood there, and I knew she’d stand there and change her mind, and then pace inside the house some more, if I didn’t encourage her to go on out. So I said, “Go on, you can do it” several times. If she hadn’t experienced snow, it would have been hopeless–all she could see was a wall of white. But she knows something about snow, and her mistress was telling her to go ahead, so finally she just walked into it, and as soon as she did she broke through.

    And a few seconds later she barked one time (her signal she’s ready to come in). She did so several times, every minute or two, for the next ten minutes. I ignored her, figuring she’d simply forgotten why she needed to go out in the first place, and that eventually she’d remember. And she did. And then I let her in.

    So now my Southern-bred dog has encountered a half foot of snow, in drifts much deeper. It’s the deepest I’ve seen myself in more than a decade. (I left Chicaog just under ten years ago, at the end of the mildest winter I’d seen there.)

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  10. Good morning! Today is our 14th wedding anniversary. We’re not doing anything special tonight , but Friday we have plans for a romantic dinner and will spend the night at a fancy hotel. I’m really looking forward to it. I got a beautiful new dress and have a hair appointment scheduled for Friday morning.

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  12. We lost about 1/3 of a Bradford Pear tree someting in the night. So we’ll have to have the rest of it taken down. We had lost about another 1/3 of it during the drecho last summer. Mr. Klasko wanted to keep it. Now it’s dangerous and has to go. I never liked that trrr anyway. We have two more like it that I’d like to get rid of. Mr. Klasko is planning to replace it with a maple tree. I think I’ll like that better.

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  14. Klasko, don’t replace it with a water maple. I don’t like Bradford pears. They split far too easily, and to me they look like the trees five-year-olds draw–no “personality” to them, just a big blob on top of a trunk. They have pretty leaves in fall, but that’s about it.

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  15. It’s my ‘early’ day today, but our early shifts now are later. My boss said yesterday I could get there by 8:30 and that would be good enough.

    The rest of the crew will be in probably later than usual today after working into the wee hours for elections.

    Since I got out of that one, Tess and I headed back to training class last night. It’s a very big class. And we have a very cute, very lively 2-year-old bearded collie in the mix.

    No snow, but we’re getting rain over the next few days. 🙂 Happy anniversary annms!

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  16. If I remember correctly, a Maple tree has shallow roots that make it hard to mow around. If you cover them, they will come up again. They do have pretty leaves in the fall. Lots of them.

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  17. Good morning! Happy anniversary to Ann and husband! 14 is a good number. 🙂

    The quote of the day reminds me of what my brother said one time when we were playing softball at home and he dropped the ball: “I would have caught it, but it hit my hand.” 😆

    AJ: I used to enjoy watching Hee Haw at my grandparents’ house, too. They lived next door, and I remember them watching it when it was on — was it Saturday nights? I don’t recall now, but anything “Hee Haw” reminds me of them.

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  18. My thoughtful 3rd Arrow took 6th Arrow into the kitchen yesterday, and together they baked a batch of peanut butter cookies, gluten-free so I could eat them. 🙂 How delicious they were!

    And then, within not too many minutes of eating just one cookie, my heart started racing and thumping, and I thought, “Oh, man, something else I can’t eat now.” 😦 Looks like peanuts are now on my list of can’t-haves. Discouraging how that list keeps growing.

    I can be thankful for sweet bonds between siblings, though, and good will and kind gestures toward the family. Life is still good. 🙂

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  21. Oh, hello Linda! Maybe I wasn’t talking to myself after all. 😉 Hope you can get to that Vienna Boys Choir concert tonight. That sounds awesome!

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  22. Third straight morning I’ve awakened before 4:30. I’ve decided God wants me to pray since he can get my attention at that hour. Saturday, of course, I woke up at 2:30.

    Dragging, but getting stuff done . . .

    Job, from a couple days ago. Why did Job go through so much?

    The reader knows it’s because God and Satan were involved, but Job never learned that. As far as he knew, something happened, he suffered, and once he fell on his face and admitted God was in control and nothing Job could do would make a difference, God restored him with double. (And ten kids on earth and ten in heaven IS double–because heaven is our real home, right?)

    God turned on the friends and demanded to know what they were thinking when they put words into God’s mouth. They were ordered to repent and then to ask Job to pray for them.

    Which, apparently, they did.

    So, why did Job go through such agony?

    For us the reader, for people universal but also, possibly, for his friends. You don’t think they learned a thing or two about God in that exchange?

    Which is why I posed my question–is it possible that Job endured all that soul scrubbing for himself (of course), but also for the people round about who watched him suffer?

    Not just the pompous, well-meaning friends, but the relatives and others in the town. They all came back after God had his way with Job. Do you believe Job didn’t mention what had happened to him or his personal encounter with the most living God?

    My take-away is, sometimes we know why events happen to us–sometimes we get to see the results of our “sacrifice.” But for the most part, I think we walk through the life God has given us blindly. Trusting him, following his apparent lead and praying we’ll serve him well.

    We cling to the reminder he does not leave us or forsake us, even when the circumstances look pretty grim. But his promises are there in Scripture and we must claim them.

    Think how much you’ve learned from watching another person’s struggle. Think how you’ve been encouraged by the resillience of a believer who refuses to curse God and die. You don’t think they may have been feeling a little like Job from their side of the story?

    We’re called to love the Lord and serve him with all of our soul. Sometimes that will be a bed of roses, sometimes it will be a slug through the mud. We can’t chose the circumstances we find ourselves in, other than trusting that the God who formed the universe, all planned the course for your life.

    Your circumstances, your situation, your health, your children, your finances, your nation–are not a surprise to God. He put you in this time, this place, this family, these circumstance for HIS purposes–not ours.

    So, rejoice in the life you’ve been given, look to Jesus for your answer and thank God you were not Job.

    End of sermon.

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  24. We had Cleveland Pear trees…they are also too dense and split easily. They’re just bigger than Bradfords. Lost 3 to an ice storm about 8 years ago…silver lining, spent a lot of time cutting the wood for the wood stove…ended up with an enormous supply of clean burning, excellent firewood. 😀

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  25. Cheryl – we have a lovely fire maple in the side yard. We planted that to replace another Bradford Pear that was lost in Hurricane Isobel before we bought the house. I think that’s that Mr. Klasko wants to put in its place in the back yard. (2 more ugly BP trees to go – and not soom enough, I say). Mr. Klasko likes the trees where they are because they are mature and add to the curb appeal when we try to sell (in less than 2 years).

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  26. 6 Arrows – I think I’m dating myself, but we used to watch Lawrence Welk at my grandparents’ house. And then it would be time to drive the 2 hour drive home.

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  29. Thanks for all the anniversary wishes. It’s been a nice day so far. Hubby worked from home until about ten minutes ago. He had a few things he had to take care of first thing this morning, but then he joined me in the living room and we talked and reminisced about the last fourteen years for over an hour! Unfortunately, he had a meeting to get to, but I sure enjoyed that hour of uninterrupted conversation.

    Michelle: I thoroughly enjoyed your post.

    Klasko: My moniker, annms, is just my first name, ann, and my middle and last initials. So, it’s Mr. S, I suppose.

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  30. KLasko, depends on who wants to buy whether they add to the curb appeal. 🙂 For me, when I bought a house I was buying for the long-term (though that ended up being only eight years), and I would have been more interested in half-grown but lovely trees than in mature ones that would need to be removed within the next five to ten years! I know I’m not “typical,” but that would be my take.

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  32. I just found out my next-door neighbor from Nashville (the wife) died in late January. I used to walk with them, went with them to Radnor Lake a few times (I introduced them to it). I knew she had been diagnosed with cancer and was terminal, but just now found out she died.

    The wife of the neighbors here also died recently of cancer, late last year, so that’s two next-door neighbors within two or three months. Only I’m not sure I ever met the one here; she had had cancer for a while and was an invalid. My husband knew her, but I didn’t.

    The one we lost in Nashville was a good neighbor and also a friend. I never expected to see her again after we cleaned out the house last February (I didn’t know she had cancer–she didn’t know it herself–but I didn’t expect to have any reason to go back to that street again), and we’d only talked by phone once (she wasn’t really a telephone person, as far as personal calls were concerned), but I miss her.

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  33. I agree, Cheryl, but you have to choose your battles. Personally, there are, besides that one BP that now h*has* to come down, 2 more plus a gum tree I want to get rid of. One of those BP’s is the mirror of the one that was lost in the hurricane on the other side of the house. I have had to have it professionally pruned off our house and the neighbor’s house twice now and since I manage the finances, I am going to show Mr. Klasko what it has already cost us to have to get it pruned every 2-3 years and make a good case for just spending that same $$ to just chop it down and replace it with another beautiful fire maple which will not grow so wide, especially between the 2 houses. I thnk I can make a good case that will sway him when he sees the long term cost of keeping them around. I have griped every time we have had to spend the money, but now he can see the long term cost.

    The other BP tree will be a harder sell, but I’m OK with that for now. It is in a plkace where there will not be much damage if it comes down in bad weather.

    The gum tree is right next to the driveway and it also competes with a beautiful oak tree in the front yard. We have had the canopy on the oak raised and pruned out the dead wood and it is another beautiful tree. The gum tree just keeps dropping those nasty spikey balls all over the place. I don’t know why he’s so attatched to this one, but he is. He manages the outside and I manage the inside.

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  35. Note to Peter L. regarding The Mentalist – I thnk Red John is Jane. They are both master manipulators of people. I’ll be netflixing this season when it comes out on DVD because I have pretty much missed the whole thing. When the series is finally finished and we finally find out who Red John is, I’ll rewatch the whole series to pick up the clues we missed.

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  36. Happy Anniversary to the S’s! 🙂
    And may you enjoy many more.

    No trees. Don’t care for ’em. All that raking and trimming and pickin’ up sticks….

    No thank you. Flat level grass and clean lines of sight for me thank you.

    Klasko,

    Just saw some video on the Weather Channel and you guys are getting hammered down there. Stay safe and inside til it’s over.

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  37. Thanks AJ We’re all snug as a bug down here. Being from MI (Mr. Klasko) and upstate NY(me) originally we stay in when the Virginians with 4 wheel drive who think they can drive in the snow are out. They are far more dangerous than the weather. And I only bought what we needed for a few days at the grocery store yesterday, I don’t understand the snowstorm panic around here. We’re staying put. 🙂

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  38. Klasko: I’ve heard that theory before about the Mentalist. But does that mean Jane killed his own wife?

    I watched the show for the first year or two, but somehow lost interest after that. I do look forward to hearing the answer to that one big question, though…

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  39. Kevin – my theory is that Jane has multiple personality disorder and Red John is the dominant personality. Jane is not aware of RJ’s personality, but RJ is aware of Jane’s, and even controls and manipulates Jane’s personality. So, yes, I think Jane (as RJ) killed Jane’s wife and daughter. Jane still thinks he’s dealing with a separate entity, and so do the others. I think the one big boss (who wound up dead) was onto Jane/RJ. Just my theory.

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  40. I love trees and have several HUGE ones in my backyard. But trimming them is quite expensive. I am thinking of cutting one of them down, a ficus that is right next to my patio and the back of my house. It’s pretty invasive.

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  41. I just finished reading The Cross in the Shadow of the Crescent by Erwin W. Lutzer and Steve Miller. Lutzer is pastor of Moody Church in Chicago.
    It’s a good book. I can’t say that I learned much because I have already read many books on the subject. He often quotes from Stealth Jihad which I have read.
    He gives interesting testimonies at the end of each chapter. It’s well worth reading if you haven’t studied the subject much. Lots of testimonials by Christian leaders.
    The book cost me $9.99 including handling from Christian Books.

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  42. Happy Anniversary to Mr & Mrs S!

    I am having “fun” today, trying to type with just my left hand. I had surgery on my right hand this morning and can’t do much with it until Saturday. Yes, I can type one handed. It just takes longer. Good thing I have long fingers to reach the shift key and the letters.

    Klasko- It couldn’t Jane himself or Lorelei (Red John’s assistant) would have recognized him. In the episode called “The Red Barn” there is a member of Visualize (the mind cult) who is probably Red John. But that episode is no longer available for streaming at CBS.com.

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  45. Peter Remember that Jane is a hypnotist. If my theory holds true, then so is RJ. RJ could have suggested to a hypnotized subject that the subject not recognized Jane as RJ. I think the cult leader knows both RJ and Jane and can recognize which one he is dealing with at any given time. Again, this is all just my theory.

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  46. Today is the 177th anniversary of the battle for Texas independence. Those patriots of the Alamo, and then Goliad and San Jacinto bravely fought for freedom. I wonder what they would think if they could see what is happening in our country today…

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  47. I remember sitting in on a few Bible studies that John Lennox led for leaders of our organization in the late 1980’s in Vienna. Absolutely wonderful!

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  48. Klasko, I also remember Lawrence Welk on at my grandparents’, so I’m dating myself, too. 😉 They also liked to watch Billy Graham on TV.

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  49. My grandmother LOVED Lawrence Welk, whenever she’d come out from Iowa to stay the winter (she rotated among her 4 kids’ homes), that was a staple.

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  51. Sen. Rand Paul is right now using a good ol’ fashion filibuster on the Brennan nomination. He wants answers on the drone program, and will filibuster until he gets them, or he can’t speak any more. Other Republicans have joined him. I put a link up on the news thread to CSPAN 2’s live feed if you’re interested. It’s actually quite good and has allowed him and others to point out a lot of facts that wouldn’t normally be mentioned during time limited remarks. Good stuff.

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  53. Elvera still watches Lawrence Welk on Saturday nights on NCPBS, right after “Songs of the Mountains”.

    I watched the Dr. Lennox video up through the second question.

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  54. Chas and I each finished a book today. The one I read was entitled Bad Animals: A Father’s Accidental Education in Autism, by Joel Yanofsky.

    What a book! More foul language than I cared for, but overall a very powerful (true) story of a year in the life of the author’s son (his 5th grade year, mainly, but also including flashbacks to the early years before and after the boy’s autism diagnosis), and the author’s struggle to come to grips with his son’s condition.

    I’ve had this book checked out of the library for almost 12 weeks now — and no, it’s not overdue yet. 😉 Checkout period is 3 weeks, and you can renew as many as 3 times (for 3 weeks each) as long as no one has reserved it. This was the book I struggled greatly to pick up after I’d put it down, not because it was dull; quite the opposite. It was so intense at times, that after I’d finish reading a chapter, I’d have to stop, and sometimes that book would sit on my living room table for many days (or a week or more sometimes) before I could get myself to pick it up again.

    Well, I finally have gotten through it, three days before the final due date, and am so glad I read it, in a way that’s hard for me to describe. Let’s just say it touched me, and I’ll leave it at that. One of those books I’m glad I saw through to the end.

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  55. Chas, Erwin Lutzer is one of my favorite radio preachers. I listen to him on the way to work.

    Tychicus, My modern-day Texan neighbors are restless. Since I no longer watch any news except sports, I am happy except on those rare occasions when the Thunder lose. See you in the playoffs.

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  56. I had an aunt who loved to watch Lawrence Welk, but she would mess up and call him Lawrence Welch so I was always thinking of grape juice when she would do that. It went right along with when she would mess up my brother’s nickname of Bubber and call him Bubbles. Still wondering if those were intentional.

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  57. I was hoping for some Methodist jokes to steal. Not being a Methodist, I don’t know what is funny about Methodists. So I picked one at random from the Internet. Perhaps it is funny, perhaps it is unintentionally offensive. One of my granddaughter’s grandparents is a Methodist minister who marched with Martin Luther King in his radical youth. He surprised me last Thanksgiving by telling me that he is an agnostic. What’s up with that? However, my granddaughter has been in his church service. Apparently, my daughter she was bored. Does this help get her closer to salvation? Anyway, here is a Methodist joke. I am not sure I get it. (I do have pesky squirrels, though, who do want to get into our house.)

    ===================================================

    There were four country churches in a small Arkansas town:

    The Presbyterian Church, the Baptist Church, the Methodist Church and the Catholic Church. Each church was overrun with pesky squirrels.

    One day, the Presbyterian Church called a meeting to decide what to do about the squirrels. After much prayer and consideration they determined that the squirrels were predestined to be there and they shouldn’t interfere with God’s divine will.

    In the Baptist Church the squirrels had taken up habitation in the baptistery. The deacons met and decided to put a large plywood cover on the baptistery and flood it. The squirrels escaped somehow and there were twice as many there the next week.

    The Catholic group got together and decided that they were not in a position to harm any of God’s creation. So, they humanely trapped the squirrels and set them free a few miles outside of town. Three days later, the squirrels were back.

    But — the Methodist Church came up with the best and most effective solution. They baptized the squirrels and registered them as members of the church. Now they only see them on Christmas and Easter.

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  60. Stephen,

    You said, “He surprised me last Thanksgiving by telling me that he is an agnostic.” This provides a clue to the joke you say you don’t get.

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  61. Random- As the SIL of Methodists, I laugh every time I read that joke. And I cringe when I remember how the church got started: John Wesley preaching for hours to whomever would listen, often standing on a tombstone since he was told he couldn’t preach his evangelical message inside the local Anglican church.

    The reason the joke hits home is because the modern Methodist church doesn’t have a message anymore. It’s “believe what you will” to all too many of them. My pastor/friend said the church is as dead as Wesley. That is why so many members only show up twice a year, because they have no relationship with God and the church doesn’t offer any spiritual food; only feel good messages. Of course, there are too many Baptists like that as well. Sad, but I believe they will get a harsher judgement from God than a heathen in the jungle who never heard the gospel.

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  63. Re: Lutzer- We heard him at Moody Church years ago and really liked him. I also read his book on Hitler and liked it. Eye opening.

    And my dad used to watch Lawrence Welk when I was young. If I wanted to, I would watch on PBS Saturday nights, but those 70’s hair and clothing styles bring back bad memories.

    This one-handed typing is fun, though frustrating. Glad Chrome has spell check!

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  65. Random, my sainted Grandmother was Methodist and I am highly offended and… just kidding, that was funny.
    The only Methodist joke I know is the one about the small town where a drought got so bad that the Baptist started sprinkling and the Methodist started using a damp cloth.

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  66. Hey! I was baptized in a Methodist church. As a new believer in an unbelieving family, I started attending the church denomination my grandmother had attended. Until I saw that the youth group leader kept Playboy magazines on his coffee table during youth group meetings….then I went to the Presbyterian. God was looking after me.

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  67. My goodness, look how much I am learning. When I was a child, my confused parents occasionally took me to a Unitarian Universalist Church. When my wife and I decided to get married, her mother (not very church-going) wanted a “church wedding.” I said, “The Unitarians are the leas church-like church I know,” So we (and later my brother were married in a UU church in Los Angeles.)

    Which makes me wonder. Is there any difference between the UUs and the Methodists? Apparently, people have wondered this for a long time.

    From a 1883 Boston Herald:

    The Methodist and the Unitarian

    Two ministers were very intimate friends, one a Unitarian and the other a Methodist. The latter came to spend a week with his Unitarian brother and saw the whole method of operations for that space of time in the Unitarian parish. When he was ready to depart he said, calling his brother by his Christian name: “Well, Brother B —–, I think I understand the difference between us. We Methodists have more religion outside than inside and you Unitarians have much more inside than you show on the surface.”

    Is this old and funny, old and perceptive, or just too old to be of any interest whatsoever?

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  68. Well, many Unitarians have essentially jettisoned God altogether — which probably isn’t as far as most Methodists would go. 😉 I knew a woman who left the Unitarian church for still-somewhat liberal Christian denomination, telling me that the Unitarians simply never acknowledged or talked about God. And she was feeling the void in that, hungering for something with more depth.

    I didn’t know her well and don’t know where her journey took her, but it seemed like she was truly searching for a church that could give her more substance.

    (Unitarians also are extremely political — generally it strikes me that it’s a fellowship of like-minded liberals, not a church — certainly not a Christian church, even an unorthodox one — in any real sense.)

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