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Our Daily Thread 4-19-13

Good Morning!

It’s finally Friday! 🙂

And on this day in 1770 Captain James Cook discovered New South Wales, Australia.

In 1775 the American Revolution began as fighting broke out at Lexington, MA.

In 1892 the Duryea gasoline buggy was introduced in the U.S. by Charles and Frank Duryea.

In 1897 the first annual Boston Marathon was held.

In 1943 the Warsaw Ghetto uprising against Nazi rule began.

In 1951 General Douglas MacArthur gave his “Old Soldiers” speech before the U.S. Congress. It included the quote “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”

In 1958 the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers played the first major league baseball game on the West Coast.

And in 1982 NASA named Sally Ride to be first woman astronaut.

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Quote of the Day

“My definition of an intellectual is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger.”

Billy Connolly

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Now let’s see you get that outta your head. 🙂

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Anyone have a QoD for us this morning?

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33 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 4-19-13”

  5. 3 a.m., actually. 😦

    And I have Friday off — but I’m supposed to go to the pet expo with a friend.

    It’s just my hard-wiring, I’m a news junkie when it comes to these breaking stories.

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  6. As another watching journalist said on Twitter just a little while ago: “Whole country is going to be very, very tired, today.”

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  7. I was up earlier than usual because my wife is going to NYC for work. I figured I’d catch a little more sleep after she left. That’s not happening now I guess. But I still got more than Donna did. Or will I guess I should say. 🙂

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  8. A lot of dramatic events happening in your neck of the woods.
    The fertilizer explosion was terrible. The potassium and nitrogen in that stuff is very volatile – a fire in such a factory is a nightmare come true. The firefighters who died trying to contain it remind me of the firefighters who entered the munitions ship, Mont Blanc as it lay burning in Halifax harbour in 1917, never to be seen again (the resulting explosion flattened most of the city and the neighbouring town of Dartmouth, killing over 2,000 people).

    It also reminded me of a local event in my hometown. As children, my siblings and I used to play in a deep pit in the woods – we thought it was a natural part of the landscape, perhaps an old sinkhole. I only heard of its origin a few years ago. A couple of old bachelor brothers who used to farm in the area, sometime back in the 30s or 40s. They grazed cattle in a patch of land next to a swamp. The brothers figured that if they made a deep hole in the grazing land, the water from the swamp would flow into it and make a permanent watering hole for the cattle. So they packed a hole in the ground with gasoline and fertilizer and then lit it. Well, when they finally picked themselves up, they knew they were in big trouble for causing such a huge explosion and ran for it. It was a long time before they came back to that area. Thankfully, there were no houses nearby at the time. I met the brothers when they were respectable elderly gentlemen, but they still had the twinkle of mischief in their eyes.

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  9. Trouble with fertilizer. And I guess that’s actually what Timothy McVeigh used in Oklahoma.

    I’m really going to try to go to sleep now.

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  11. Lots going on today.
    But it’s Friday, you know what that means.
    I posted earlier this morning, but when I hit “Post Comment”, it said “web page not available”. I don’t know if that happens to anyon else. It does to me occasionally.

    😦 Elvera’s oldest (86) sister died last night. They were planning to go down to Greenwood to see her today. Trip’s off. Funeral Sunday.
    Lions today and I’m behind schedule because of the commotion.

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  14. Yes, Chas, it’s Friday! But is it winter or spring? We had snow flurries this morning! And I had to take a detour because my usual route was flooded. The mighty Mississippi is living up to its name. Last night the news said we are seeing a rare flash-flood on the river. The usual floods give us a few days to get ready, but the river rose 10 feet yesterday alone.

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  16. Annie pssed out a year ago, was sent to the hospital and then to hospice. She lived a year longer than expected. I’m sure she was ready to go.
    There were nine children in the family. Three girls left. Polly (76) is the youngest.

    We went to Rutherford last night to hear a Southern Gospel quartet. Nice time. We went on the Mud Creek BC bus. There were 15 on the bus. Three men. That’s about par for the course. Our SS department is about that way too. The men in Elvera’s family died several years ago. Only Elvera & Polly still have their men.

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  17. Chas, I remember you mentioning Elvera has a sister named Polly. What is the name of her other living sister? Do you two get to see her often?

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  18. Still awake! It finally got too late to go back to bed — so I got the trash hauled out at 5 a.m., then took a long shower to try to perk myself up. I don’t feel too good, but don’t want to cancel my plans. On the plus side, I got extra sleep the night before. And I may lie down on the sofa for a bit, I have about 2 more hours before I have to start getting ready. But sometimes a short nap only makes me feel worse, it’s easier to just push through.

    But I don’t think I’ve been up all night like that since the one night before Easter a few years ago when we were going to a sunrise service and I was afraid I’d oversleep. So I decided to make a pot roast in the wee hours of the morning.

    I just got through battling the insurance people who switched me over to a mail-order service for my prescription. Except I didn’t know that so the pharmacy wouldn’t fill it when I stopped by there yesterday. Ugh.

    So they said to call in the prescription again to get this month filled (and I’d be switched to the mail order starting next month). But now the pharmacy’s automated service doesn’t recognize the prescription number. So I have to wait until they open (an hour from now) to try to talk to a pharmacist.

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  19. I know all of you are glued to the manhunt in Boston but I heard this on the radio this morning and it just about sums up growing up a Southern “Lady”…today is a big day in BG’s and my life. This made me laugh and if I can laugh I will survive another day.

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  21. Elvera has a sister named Argeree (84), now the oldest. That is the reason we are in Hendersonville. My family is in Greensboro. (I have a sister in Md., but I never visited her when I lived in Va.) But family is important to Elvera. She had three sisters and two brothers when we moved here in 2001. Now, it’s the two left. Polly lives here and instigated our move. Argeree is losing her memory now. She has family nearby.
    Elvera and Polly made trips to Greenwood often. I never went. It’s a girl thing.

    Donna is doing the wise thing by staying up. Go to bed a bit early tonight, but don’t mess up the schedule.
    Everyone is calling Elvera today. Chuck called, he and I talked about five minutes. Then, to Elvera, they talked about 20. She talks more than I do.
    Oldest GD, Becky just called, she and Elvera are still talking. 😆

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  23. Kim, that woman must have been a spoiled brat. How did she get such a big house and keep it so clean at such a young age. Did you notice how clean that house is?
    That’s not real world.

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  24. Becca is sick today. I think she has the flu, but we’ll go to the doctor this afternoon to rule out strep as her throat is quite sore.

    Chas, Condolences on the loss of Elvera’s sister. Sorry for your loss.

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  27. I’d hate to break AJ’s heart by not sticking to my script.

    Australia was not “discovered” by Europeans any more than America was. There were people living in these places and they knew where they were. In Australia, Christian missionairies stole aboriginal children from their parents and placed them in boarding schools so they could be indoctrinated with Christianity.

    Sorry if that offends Christians reading this, but I would admire you more if you were honest about the unsavory parts of your tradition. Oh, well, I am being ignored. I think Christianity has had a good run, but it’s on the decline. I don’t know if that’s an improvement, but I vote on the side of truth. The truth is there is no God, we die, and that’s the end of it.

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  28. Got a busy weekend coming up. Lots of things to do around home tomorrow. A good friend’s daughter’s confirmation Sunday. Then 1st Arrow’s birthday on Monday and 3rd Arrow’s birthday Tuesday. Son turns 23, daughter 16.

    Blessings to all of you. See you Wednesday. 🙂

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  29. “I think Christianity has had a good run, but it’s on the decline.”
    You’re not the first to say that and you probably won’t be the last.

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  31. Christianity is actually beginning to grow again out here in the hostile-to-the-gospel northeast.

    Chas – My condolences to you & your lovely Elvera.

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  32. Chas, speaking as someone who has been involved in the shooting of music videos, the producer got a great opportunity to shoot in this really cool house but they had to promise not to make a mess.

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