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Our Daily Thread 5-2-13

Good Morning!

On this day in 1519 Leonardo da Vinci died.

In 1776 France and Spain agreed to donate arms to American rebels fighting the British.

In 1865 U.S. President Andrew Johnson offered $100,000 reward for the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

In 1890 the Oklahoma Territory was organized.

In 1939 Lou Gehrig set a new major league baseball record when he played in his 2,130th game.

In 1946 prisoners revolted at California’s Alcatraz prison.

And in 1970 student anti-war protesters at Ohio’s Kent State University burned down the campus ROTC building. The National Guard took control of the campus.

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Quote of the Day

“Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of liberty.”

Henry Martyn Robert

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Today is Manfred von Richthofen’s birthday.

Who’s he right?

This guy. No, not the dog…. 🙂

It’s also Lesley Gore’s…

And Lou Gramm’s too. So yeah, some Foreigner. 

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Anyone have a QoD for us today?

55 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 5-2-13”

  1. It is a rainy, nasty day here in the Sunny South. Puppy Dog Boy wanted out about 4 this morning. After he came in and got dried off he wanted back in the bed. He scooted up under the pillows and as close to Mr P. as he could get. Really funny. Big Man-Little Dog. They slept. I listened to the rain.
    Two things from AJ’s post.
    Jefferson Davis lived out his years on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in a home called Beauvoir. It was heavily damaged during Katrina and I am sure lost a lot of it’s history, but it is interesting.
    I grew up hearing about Kent State (my mother worked for a local university) but I have never really given it enough thought to find out what really happened.

    Guess I will go find out who won—Snoopy or the Red Baron….

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  2. Nobody wins. Snoopy always escapes to face the Red Baron another time.
    Snoopy will get the Red Baron when Charlie Brown wins a game, or gets to kick the football.

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  4. Let me know. It isn’t that far from me. I might buy you a cup of coffee at Beau Rivage but any gambling you will have to do on your own.

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  6. Good morning all, It is supposed to be a fine summer day here in SoCal.

    How about this for a Southern QoD: What do you think of the petition to have the monument on Georgia’s Stone Mountain replaced?

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  7. My thought is that it is a dunder-headed idea. Whatever one thinks of the Civil War/War of Northern Aggression, history is history. And Davis, Lee and Jackson were never taken lightly in the North. Lee particularly was difficult for the North to handle. He did not own slaves and his states-rights conviction was unimpeachable.

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  8. Good morning, y’all. I can’t answer the QoD as I’ve no knowledge about it! We’re supposed to have a cold front move through this afternoon. It’s supposed to be in the mid-40’s when we wake up tomorrow. Hard to imagine it being that cold in May in Texas!

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  12. Seems the money would be better spent to feed the poor than to redo faces on a mountain. Dems the priorities of our government, no doubt, LOL. Celebrity seems to be the priority, in reality. Forget the hungry. Forget the needy. Gotta have that photo op and what better than to have one’s face on the mountain?

    Any idea whose faces they would put up there instead? Maybe Obama, Pelosi, Reid, etc? Oh, I know! They’d probably put Cynthia McKinney’s face up there along with Hank Johnson since that would depict some local history.

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  14. We are in from the morning activities. I did not go for my walk this morning. Instead, as I was not feeling well, limited it to bringing in a load of firewood, weeding a couple of raised beds, working with the children on the strawberry beds and rhubarb sections. A beautiful morning, frost will be gone in half an hour.

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  17. Good Morning! The sunshine has returned and it hopefully will begin melting the 9 inches of snow on our property! It is Spring yet? Have a most blessed day everyone…I’m off to to have “field day” at the elementary school…in the snow…this should be interesting 🙂

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  18. I say leave it be. Ignoring history doesn’t change it.

    I did learn a few things though. Some interesting bits on the men in the carving. And so far the petition at Change.org has only 136 signatures as of yesterday. The response has been overwhelmingly negative to his petition.

    http://www.chattanoogan.com/2013/5/1/250270/Keep-Stone-Mountain-Carving-A.aspx

    “Take the time to learn about the South’s President Jefferson Davis, Gen. Robert E. Lee and Gen. Stonewall Jackson who died 150 years ago on May 10, 1863 and share with your family.

    Jefferson and wife Varina Davis adopted a Black child, Jim Limber Davis, in February 1864 and…

    Booker T. Washington, America’s great Black-American Educator wrote in 1910, ‘The first white people in America, certainly the first in the South to exhibit their interest in the reaching of the Negro and saving his soul through the medium of the Sunday-school were Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.”

    Let’s not erase history!”

    And it seems that Georgia already has a law prohibiting what the petition wants to do. That’s from the video in this piece.

    http://www.11alive.com/news/article/290674/1/Petition-wants-Stone-Mt-Confederate-carving-removed

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  19. Soon, mumsee, maybe soon.

    Pray for my attitude at work today — I spent some time repenting from about 4-5 a.m. this morning, before falling back asleep. My mind and attitude just seem to be unraveling of late.

    Thankfully, I have a busy day ahead which should mostly keep me out of joining in with the grumbling and discouragement — a port meeting to watch live online with a story to write after that … and I’m finishing up a coyote story as well. At least a pair of them hanging out in one of our canyons but coming up to run through some backyards & around an elementary school now as well.

    Is this the time of year coyotes have pups? I need to try to reach LA’s wildlife guy today for an interview with him. Looking back on coyote sighting stories we’ve done in the past they all seem to be written around this time of year, April-June.

    But basically the city has a hands-off policy. They say this was their territory so people just need to learn to live with them. They’re rarely a menace to people, but can be a real danger for small pets, of course.

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  23. I had the Foreigner 4 album (might still have it around here somewhere, in fact). One of my favorites from my rock-music-listening days.

    Today it’s 50 degrees colder than it was 2 days ago. Sigh. Someday spring will be here and stay (and then about 2 weeks later it will be the hot hot summer). Why is my favorite season the shortest?

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  24. “It’s My Party.” Ha. That’s a blast from the ancient past. She had another song that was better, but I don’t remember what it was. Or maybe it was another girl singer who was popular when I was just becoming aware of teen music.

    We’re supposed to get a real spike in temperatures today through Saturday, like close to 90 in the city (a bit cooler where we are near the ocean). But then I saw a forecast that said there’s a chance of rain and temps in the 60s again by Sunday-Monday.

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  25. In the house where I grew up we had a large mirror over the fireplace in the living room. In the early days before things got so grown up, if you looked in the mirror you could see some of Stone Mountain in it. I guess that means you could see it otherwise, too, but I just remember the reflection part. We lived near what is now Peachtree Dekalb Airport but it use to be the old Naval Air Station. My dad was in the Navy and worked there for awhile. Sometimes on the 4th of July my family (husband, son and I) have been over to that small airport and viewed fireworks from all directions around Atlanta and of course that means fireworks from Stone Mt.

    Sometimes I am so out of touch with what is going on. I came on here to find out what is happening in my neck of the woods that I did not know!

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  26. It is pretty chilly here in the Atlanta area today. I am layering my clothes lately because the weather is so up and down.

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  28. They cancelled field day…they cannot find the field under the snow! I get to stay home!…now I’m off to shovel the deck and part of the drive…the Forest is beautiful this morning!! 🙂

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  30. I just shared a picture of three little girls in swimsuits with their boots on playing on the ice on a lake. I was a little more south that day at my daughter’s and it was a beautiful,l sunny day in the high seventies. We sat on her deck and helped put up a badminton net. Today the net was rescued from heavy snow and the deck has well over a foot of snow. We, however, missed that last snow, although some is predicted for today.

    We will go to the National Day of Prayer, which as usual will be outdoors in the freezing cold. We will hope for no snow during that time.

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  31. Things I’d never know if I didn’t go to the barber shop:

    A raindrop hits a mosquito with the force of a bus, and it falls 20 body lengths. But it shakes off the effect and recovers quickly.

    The U2 is such a difficult plane to fly that only 920 pilots have been checked out in its 57 year history. It has a chase car to direct the pilot on landing.

    I never understood why they retired the SR-71 but kept the U-2.

    Since it is rainy and generally a yucky day, the barbers were busy and I read the entire Sept 12 edition of Popular Mechanics
    Now you know everything I learned.
    🙂

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  34. If they are going to deface the carvings on Stone Mountain, let them tear down the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial. All five men led a rebellion of states that sanctioned slavery against a nation that (after the war started) encouraged servile insurrection and promised freedom to the slaves of the rebels.

    In place of those monuments, they can build monuments to abortion rights, homosexuality and atheism, three things to which the modern Democratic Party is absolutely committed.

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  35. I was just reading the last of yesterday’s thread, re May birthdays. I have a brother with a May 14 birthday, and another with a May 14 anniversary. Growing up, including my parents we had nine people in our family, and no birthdays earlier than April. So we kinda had to cram into the rest of the months, and that meant two in May (1 and 14) and two in October (1 and 14). None in September or November.

    Come to think of it, with all my nieces and nephews and sisters- and brother-in-law, I’m not sure we have any September birthdays yet! I might be wrong; surely one of the 45 of us was born in September, but I can’t think of any September birthdays.

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  36. I’m going to post here because I haven’t heard back from my daughter yet and until I can speak to her, I need to do nothing. But she doesn’t read this blog, so here it is.

    I took my gorgeous 13 year-old Gordon Setter Suzie on a walk around the lake this morning with my prayer partner–who was her first “mother.” Suzie’s breathing became very labored by the time we got back to the car, so bad I drove straight to the vet.

    She was frothing and had defecated all over the back of the CRV by the time we got there. Dr. Ross came out with his stethoscope and said, “This doesn’t look good Michelle, are you prepared?”

    I called my husband while Dr. Ross did the x-ray: multiple carcinomas in her chest.

    I was scratching her ears telling her what a good dog she was and how much we loved her, sobbing away, when they put in the needle.

    I thought about how I’d watched Suzie give birth: how the puppies had come out in wet wobbling sacs. She tore them open with her teeth and pink tongue, the puppies took their first breaths and you saw life go into them.

    This morning I watched life go out of her. Her tongue was gray, her blind eyes already dim. She laid back on the table and was gone.

    I’m probably not going to get any work done today. I’m very, very sad.

    Thanks.

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  37. Michelle, I am so sorry to hear about beloved Suzie. Prayers for your comfort and for all your grieving family members.

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  41. Birthdays: in our family of eight, there are only four months with birthdays, two in each month February, April, May and September. When we were a family of seven, I was the only one with a September birthday, and I was really hoping that someday I would have a baby in September so I could have a birth-month partner like everyone else did. 😉

    Well, I was ecstatic when I got pregnant with 6th Arrow and learned that my due date with her was in September! However, up to that point, I’d gone overdue with every one of my babies — a total of 38 days over in 5 pregnancies, so with an average of a little over 7.5 days past the date, and since my due date with her was September 23, I figured it was reasonable that I might have her either September 30 or October 1. Oh, I really wanted it to be September! (Not badly enough, though, that I would be willing to induce labor before September was over.) 🙂

    Imagine my surprise when I woke up late at night on September 19 and realized that my water had broken while I was sleeping!

    She wasn’t born until the 21st, but I didn’t have to wonder anymore after the 19th whether I would deliver in September. 🙂

    The silly things moms concern themselves with sometimes! 😉

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  42. AJ, I heard two of the songs, don’t recognize them. She has a fifties hair style, but I don’t know her songs. I wasn’t listning to much of anything on the radio or TV those days. The McCarthy hearings, Elvis, everything passed my by. But I’ve never liked anything where a drum was the primary instrument.

    Michelle, you may be surprised that I understand. I had similar experiences twice when I was a kid. I didn’t know what a vet was in those days, but when Rex and later, Pal died I was all broken up. And when I heard the song, “Old Shep”, I would cry.
    I’ve never attached myself to a dog since then. But I’ve had a pet rock for three decades now. My parents always had a dog, even when it got too much for them.

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  46. A Dog’s Prayer

    Treat me kindly, my beloved master, for no heart in all the world is more grateful for kindness than the loving heart of me.

    Do not break my spirit with a stick, for though I should lick your hand between the blows, your patience and understanding will more quickly teach me the things you would have me do.

    Speak to me often, for your voice is the world’s sweetest music, as you must know by the fierce wagging of my tail when your footstep falls upon my waiting ear.

    When it is cold and wet, please take me inside… for I am now a domesticated animal, no longer used to bitter elements… and I ask no greater glory than the privilege of sitting at your feet beside the hearth… though had you no home, I would rather follow you through ice and snow than rest upon the softest pillow in the warmest home in all the land… for you are my god… and I am your devoted worshiper.

    Keep my pan filled with fresh water, for although I should not reproach you were it dry, I cannot tell you when I suffer thirst. Feed me clean food, that I may stay well, to romp and play and do your bidding, to walk by your side, and stand ready, willing and able to protect you with my life, should your life be in danger.

    And, beloved master, should the Great Master see fit to deprive me of my health or sight, do not turn me away from you. Rather hold me gently in your arms as skilled hands grant me the merciful boon of eternal rest…and I will leave you knowing with the last breath I drew, my fate was ever safest in your hands.

    –Beth Norman Harris

    Remember Michelle, her fate was always safest in your hands.

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  47. And I just found this one:

    A DOG’S PRAYER

    So do not grieve for me, my friend,
    as I am with my kind…

    My collar is a rainbow’s hue
    My leash a shooting star
    My boundaries are the milky way
    Where I sparkle from afar.

    There are no pens or kennels here
    For I am not confined
    But free to roam God’s heavens
    Among my special kind.

    I nap the day on a snowy cloud
    With gentle breezes rocking me
    I dream the dreams of earthlings
    And how it used to be.

    The trees are full of liver treats
    And tennis balls abound
    And milk bones line the walking ways
    Just waiting to be found.

    There even is a ring set up
    The grass all lush and green
    And everyone who gaits around
    Becomes the “Best Of Breed”.

    For we’re all winners in this place
    We have no faults you see
    And God passes out the ribbons
    To each one–even me.

    At night I sleep in angels’ arms
    Their wings protecting me
    And moonbeams dance about us
    As stardust falls on thee.

    So when your life on earth is spent
    And you reach heaven’s gate
    Have no fear of loneliness
    For here, you know I wait.

    Author Unknown

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  48. Thank you, Kim. We’re telling ourselves now our blind dog can see and run again, her long ears flying in the breeze like they used to. You give away a piece of your heart, you can only be glad it hurts when it’s no longer there–because that proves you have a heart, right?

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  49. Aw, Michelle, I’m so sorry. Sounds like she wasn’t really sick at all, that it was a sudden growth.

    I lost a dog to lymphoma that was fairly sudden onset as well — she was almost 13 — and a FB writer friend recently lost their older dog when it was discovered the dog had tumors in the chest that were not treatable, he went within days as well.

    So hard, and it just never gets easier. In fact, it seems to get harder in my estimation.

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  50. This evening we went into town, got behind a pickup driving very erratically. It went into the left-turn lane (though the driver wasn’t turning left) and then hugged the right curb, and then the right wheels jumped the right curb. By this time my husband figured out the guy was texting, and we hoped that jumping the curb might spook him enough to wake him up. But no, he continued down the street, and his right wheels went up on the curb a little again. My husband honked at him, and we started looking for a cop.

    At the light we saw a cop going the other way (toward us through the intersection), and both of us started pointing around the corner. (The guy had turned left just ahead of us. We turned left and the officer pulled up next to us. My husband told him about the other driver (who had peeled off by then, maybe noticing what was going on). Hopefully the officer caught him and scared him a bit. He was being foolish, reckless, idiotic, and dangerous.

    It is nice to live in a place where one can actually get an officer’s attention and have him follow up. But the last few months I have been behind far too many drivers driving erratically for the exact same reason. (None quite so egregiously.) Taking a few tons of steel down the road without watching the road isn’t any less foolish than firing a gun without looking to see where you aimed it. I really don’t know why this particular stupidity has become so popular . . . and I sure don’t want to see any drunk drivers texting anytime soon.

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  51. Michelle – My heart hurts for you. You must be in a shock of grief, having this happen so unexpectedly. May God wrap you in His arms of comfort.

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  52. That is a pleasant thought Michelle. I have written before about losing Marlowe. He was 13 as well. I am sure they will all be waiting on us at the Rainbow Bridge

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  55. I’m sitting here with tears falling upon reading about Suzie…how my heart hurts for you and your family Michelle… my prayers for comfort as only our loving Father can give are whispered this evening…

    “God will prepare everything for our perfect happiness in heaven, and if it takes my dog being there, I believe he’ll be there……Rev. Billy Graham

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