Good Morning!
On this day in 1761 in Philadelphia, the first life insurance policy was issued in the U.S.
In 1849 Abraham Lincoln was granted a patent for the floating dry dock.
In 1868 near Marshfield, IN, The “Great Train Robbery” occurred. Seven members of the Reno gang were responsible.
In 1872 The Amnesty Act restored civil rights to Southerners.
In 1891 the first public motion picture was shown in Thomas Edison’s lab.
In 1892 A British dentist named Dr. Sheffield invented the toothpaste tube.
In 1900 the Associated Press was incorporated in NY.
In 1955 a scheduled dance, headlined by Fats Domino, was canceled by police in Bridgeport, Conn. because “rock and roll dances might be featured.” 🙂
In 1967 “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” premiered on PBS.
And in 1992 Johnny Carson hosted NBC’s “Tonight Show” for the last time after a 30 year run.
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Quote of the Day
“Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”
“To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”
“The dog did nothing in the night-time.”
“That was the curious incident,” remarked Sherlock Holmes.”
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1893) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
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Remember kids…
No rock and roll dancin’!
And yeah, that was from “55. 🙂
Next up, let’s have another one of them rock and roll dancer’s. Or should I say THE rock and roll dancer…
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Who has a QoD?
Wandering Views 
Good morning AJ.
And everyone else.
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Mornin’ Chas. 🙂
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Good morning, Chas and AJ. Hope you’re having yourselves a good day so far.
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Good morning! Computer is up at least for a moment.
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Today is the day to wear khaki and white in support of the Scouts.
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I luv me some Fats Domino. I like Walkin’ to New Orleans. Of course you also have to love the fun song of “Zat You, Santee Claus.
I had a good day yesterday after an ugh start. I ended up having lunch with one of our agents who works up on this side of the county. Most of the time I want to wring his neck, but I got to know him on a different level yesterday. He is a Gideon lay minister. He has a good heart and I think wants to do what is best, but sometimes he just isn’t sure which way to go. I told him he had changed the most since I started working there and I appreciated his efforts in doing so. I understand change is hard for someone like him.
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Wow – that is an interesting quote from Doyle – “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.” I am assuming that is the source of the title of the book by Mark Haddon but I had no idea that is where it came from. Very cool!
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Funny, vulgar book, but I read it before and after outpatient surgery . . .
Fun day for me yesterday. Major connection on the genealogy front (Husband: “I thought you were done with all that.” Never!), strides on (finally) getting the Civil War organized, big steps on the question, “should we just build the house we want on the challenging but pretty Loy?(only one left in the area, and five loads of laundry.
Now to dance and work–company coming tomorrow for the great birthday of our latest one year-old, who is so proud she can walk, she never sits down!
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Lot
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Last night, watching too much tornado coverage had me feeling sad and uneasy. My question of the Day, In this age of constant world wide coverage how are Christians suppose to deal with knowing almost every tragedy in the world. Just dealing with the needs in your immediate sphere of influence is more that most of us can handle.
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QoD: Do you have any big summer project planned?
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Oops, looks like KBells and I cross-posted. It’s a good question, KBells. I’ll have to think about it.
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I don’t know if any knew this or not but James Garner is from Moore Oklahoma.
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KBells’ QoD: I sometimes have a hard time pulling myself away from media coverage of the many tragedies occurring around the world. I do better just trying to take in a small amount and praying about the details I’m aware of, reminding myself that it is in God’s hands, and my sitting and trying to absorb every detail (and forgetting to pray about it) serves no one.
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KBells, there is a saying that “no news is good news”. I do think we are all o disaster overload. It has almost desensitized us. We hear of how many are dead in a skirmish in Kuwait, Afganistan, Palestine…and it is just another number in a far away land. When we imagine the chidren who drowned in the basement of the school in Oklahoma we are struck numb and then remind ourselves of the children who have been killed in the wars in the Middle East. What makes those children in Oklahoma more important than the “collateral damage” of the Middle East?
I can’t imagine the grief and dispair Oklahoman’s are feeling and then to read some of the cruel comments from the “other” side. To lose almost everything you have and be scurrying around for a safe place to put what little you have left before the next storm hits? I said yesterday, every area has it’s weather but I will take a hurricane over anything else. An earthquake or tornado hits with almost no warning. With a hurricane I at least get a couple of hours to grab the important things and seek shelter or a different location altogether.
THEN, some dumb reporter sticks a microphone in their face and asked “How do you feel?” My response woulld have to be, “How the heck to you think I feel?” Devastated!
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I hope I didn’t sound like I was pointing fingers at 9:29 when I said, my sitting and trying to absorb every detail…serves no one. That was me talking to myself, and wasn’t aimed at anyone here.
Thought I’d better clarify that…
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In answer to you question Kbells, I would seek counsel from your pastor or elders. Our church is local so we are available to help those in need locally. Our pastor is organizing a group of men with chainsaws to go help the people of Moore clean up the trees and debris. Your church may want to help, so I would recommend that your church leadership contact 1st Baptist Church in Moore, Oklahoma 405-793-2600, This church is coordinating with other churches to help with the relief effort. I know Chas is SBC, so the North Carolina Baptist Association could work with the Oklahoma Baptist association to help as well.
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I only share this because it is where I work
Dear Keller Williams Family,
We are grateful for the outpouring of support for our friends and family in Oklahoma. We know of at least six Keller Williams associates and family members who lost their homes as a result of Monday’s devastating tornadoes. Ten others suffered significant property damage. This morning, we started delivering emergency funds to KW family members affected by the storms and are continuing to assess their needs.
We have received many inquiries into ways you can support our brothers and sisters in Oklahoma. If you would like to make a direct donation, please click here and specify “Oklahoma Tornadoes” in the “This is a donation” section.
Thank you for your generosity, kindheartedness and prayers. The KW Family always stands ready to help our associates and their loved ones in need.
Yours in gratitude,
KW Cares
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My big project for the summer — after finishing one of the two big projects I’m currently working on; I’ll be done with that in about one month — is decluttering my basement. I did the whole upstairs two or three years ago, and that could probably use more, but I never made much more than a half-hearted attempt at the basement.
Kim, I need you to cheer me on, or kick me into gear, or do something to ensure the job gets done and done well. 🙂
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The irony, that here I sit with so much stuff I don’t really need, when others have lost everything, including loved ones. 😦
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driversguy, they probably already have. There is a group who does that in our church. They still have projects going on in Haiti.
Kim, I think we tend to identify with Oklahoma more than the Middle East. My child is unlikely to be killed by a bomb, but he is in school during a tornado warning several times a year.
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Summer project: we are building a back deck.
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I realize events like the tornado, etc. are way too big for me to grasp, let alone process so, like Kim, I hand them over to the Lord over and over again. Way too big.
It’s a little helpful to remember the Lord determines the days of our lives and will not give us more than we can handle. I think that every time my daughter drives off for 6 hours trips back to college, or any one else in my family does something dangerous like go to work . . .
Big events? I was supposed to write a book, or two, but that’s looking dubious since I’m apparently moving. Ask me at the end of the summer! 🙂
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The tornado coverage has been hard to watch. And, yeah, sometimes reporters ask really dumb questions but I have to feel for those in broadcast who have to think on the fly, live, in the face of horrible circumstances, trying to be sensitive yet clear-headed and professional while interviewing people who have been crushed. Their job isn’t easy. 😦
I’ve asked a dumb question or two in my day (and I think at the time, “arrrgh! what a dumb question!”). Sometimes they just pop out. But sometimes, too, they elicit some revealing answers.
My mom loved James Garner.
And I loved Johnny Carson, I was sad when he stepped down in 1992, although I probably hadn’t watched him in years.
But he was something of a cultural institution. I grew up with Johnny Carson, when I was a teen-ager my friends and I would watch him late at night during summer vacation sleepovers. We saw the show filmed in the studio a couple times, the tickets weren’t too hard to get (and free, I think, or at least very inexpensive), but you had to stand in line for a long time to get in (though that gave you a chance to see some “stars” drive by into the studio backlot, too).
michelle, I was sorry to see that was just a typo in your post about building a custom house. I didn’t know what “The Loy” was, but it sounded like a lovely spot on which to build.
My next story, it appears, will be on a women’s roller derby team moving to our town where they’ll put on games for the public in an old port warehouse. Anyone know about contemporary roller derby? I just remember it being sort of in the category of wrestling, always over-the-top and kind of crass. I doubt it’s changed too much?
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6 Arrows, since I cannot personally coach you and kick you in the seat of the pants I will refer you to Flylady.net. Follow her advice for decluttering and almost everything else.
I can’t tell you how much stuff I have hauled to Good Will, Ecumenical Ministries, and the dump…and I still have too much stuff.
Now if I could get Mr. P on board. I now have scuba gear in my dining room because it can’t be left to the elements. It needs to be inside. Don’t tell anyone, but he has a serious paper clutter issue. 😉
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Summer Project: Moving Cindi from Ohio to Oklahoma. Oh and getting a storm shelter.
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drivesguy, yay.
And, yeah, definitely get that storm cellar.
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Get a storm shelter Joe.
You can’t absorb all the tragedies that are going on in the world. I doubt that we were meant to. You can relate to someone losing a child.
That’s why it’s good to read about trials people are going through in the world. As I was reading Captive in Iran, it reminded me to pray for some of those people still in prison, including a pastor who is a US citizen. Escape from Camp 14 reminds us of the situation in N. Korea. Those are not history books, they are real time. And it’s easier to pray for Holly and Joanne than “all the missionaries in Gambia”. I have never had much faith in prayers for “all the missionaries, wherever they might be.” God is able to sort out each person in China; but I can’t.
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Summer Project?
Can’t that wait ’til Summer?
I’m going on vacation first. 🙂 A whole week of fishing, with 7 lakes and a reservoir to choose from. 🙂
But then yeah, some concrete work to do and lot’s of painting. 😦
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My take on the “watching the news” question: I no longer try to “keep up” with the news. Generally I hear about big stories (like the storms), but no, there is no moral obligation to know (or do something about) every earthquake in the world. I think that the closer we are to an event, the more we are “responsible” to help. That is, I have more responsibility to help others in my family, church, denomination, or local community. I have less responsibility (or none) to help in places where I have no connections. But as a person with “more” than much of the world, it’s good to reach out and help beyond my immediate circle, as well, and thus I have a child I sponsor through Compassion, I have filled shoeboxes for Samaritan’s Purse a few years, and I have supported Habitat for Humanity.
We weren’t created to hear bad news and do nothing, so I don’t choose to keep up with the news and then sit on it. If I hear of a tragedy, I try to remember to pray, and sometimes I give, especially if a collection is being taken up for a personal connection (e.g., a family in my denomination, or a church). I gave to the Red Cross after 9/11, but ended up feeling that was a mistake–they took in more than they needed, and dispersed it too generously. (I heard that their pattern is to give to the tragedy for which the donations are given, and that is noble–but they ended up giving vast sums of money away because they received such an influx, more than was actually needed by far, and many other charities were doing the same thing.) It would have been better to give more “locally” (perhaps through a church situated in the area) or to a less newsy tragedy.
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Michelle, funny you should ask. Just Sunday, I said to my hubby, “I’m sure glad we didn’t decide to build a house; I don’t think I have the energy for it.”
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Summer project….read…and read…and read some more…all while sitting in the rocker on the front porch…yep…oh…and garden…that’s it…last year was way too overwhelming with constant company..being the bed and breakfast for them all…yep…I’m in the rocker with a book on the porch and when I get up…I’ll be in the garden…that’s my summer 🙂
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Speaking of faith — and how some have ears to hear and others do not — I saw this posted by Monergism Books, book publisher, which was good (quoting their post only in small part). Bottom line: Until and unless God himself regenerates our hearts, we will never have the ability to see or hear the gospel. And remember, everyone has a master:
” … Even when a syllogism is put before them, their emotional and moral hatred for the truth triumphs over the facts. People want what their heart wants. The problem is not that people do not have enough data, it is that they WILL NOT see it. This is the sad condition mankind finds itself, of which I am a part. I am not morally superior to atheists and in fact they may have many good moral qualities I lack. The problem is that, apart from grace, man is a slave and he has Stockholm syndrome: He defends his slave master. … “
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In man’s natural and depraved state, we are blinded from seeing the facts, logic and history that are right before us. (Though as believers it is imperative that we continue to preach and share the gospel, bringing to bear, of course, the history and logic that so clearly do support it.)
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Kim, you can give me a virtual kick in the seat of the pants. 😉
I’ll follow your advice and go revisit FlyLady. I did attempt some of what I read at her site a few years ago, but so much of it seemed so “not me” that it was pretty overwhelming. But that’s the point, right?…if her tips and tricks were “me”, I wouldn’t need the information, I would already be doing it. 🙂
NancyJill, I should sit outside and read and read this summer, too…I am WAY behind reading the magazines I subscribe to. Maybe I can convince my husband his summer project will be to screen in the porch so I can read out there without getting bit up by mosquitoes. 😉
Drivesguy: “Summer Project: Moving Cindi from Ohio to Oklahoma.” Yes! That is so great…what a blessing for you both. 🙂
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Building a house will allow us to construct what we want (including a detached guest house for all these people who move in with us) and I won’t feel guilty for “stealing” a house in this good school district from a hapless family.
My engineer’s eyes are gleaming at the thought of an above ground septic system, sigh, and putting all his training to use on a challenging lot.
We’d also employ a bunch of friends from church.
I have so many other things to do this summer . . . . sigh. 🙂
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donna j — today’s roller derby is deliberately over the top. Watch Whip it directed by Drew Barrymore
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1172233/
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For the early part of this summer, we will be working on switching over the dining room to a living room, & getting the current living room/Emily’s-&-Forrest’s room turned into just Emily’s-&-Forrest’s room. We are going to go halvsies with her on buying some items from Ikea, & she’ll be painting the room.
(Although we have asked our tenants to start looking for another place, so Emily, Chrissy, & Forrest can live upstairs, we’re still making some changes in our portion of the house. We don’t know how long it will be before the other family can leave, & we don’t want to rush them, but we do need some change now.)
I’m pretty sure I’ll also be spending a lot of time outside with Forrest. (I am not one to enjoy being outside in the heat & humidity, but I’ll do it for his sake.)
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Posted this on Facebook a little while ago,,,
Funny sight earlier this evening…The neighbors’ cows running around their field with a friend’s dog. I know the dog was having fun playing, but I don’t know what those poor cows were thinking!
(There were 4 cows out there. Such a cute & funny sight!)
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I’m thinking of making more use of my patio this summer as an outdoor reading area. It’s not screened in (but we don’t have a lot of mosquitos out here). I have a table and chairs … Just need to rake out the leaves, get a couple totes moved back inside the garage, and hose things down — and it should be good to go.
HRW, thanks for the link. ‘Lobster,’ my contact, said she’d get back to me next week to set up times for interviews & photos. 🙂
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Plans for the summer: Re-side the whole house. The addition has never been sided and we’re going to do the whole house so that it all looks good. And then I’m going to do what Nancyjill is: read, read on the deck and garden.
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