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Our Daily Thread 7-31-13

Good Morning!

Today is my daughter’s birthday. 🙂

So… Happy Birthday Elizabeth! 🙂

🙂 🙂 🙂

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On this day in 1790 the first U.S. patent was issued to Samuel Hopkins for his process for making potash and pearl ashes, which was used in fertilizer.

In 1792 the cornerstone of the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, PA, was laid. It was the first building to be used only as a U.S. government building.

In 1928 MGM’s Leo the lion roared for the first time.

In 1955 Marilyn Bell of Toronto, Canada, at age 17, became the youngest person to swim the English Channel.

In 1961 the first tie in All-Star Game major league baseball history was recorded when it was stopped in the 9th inning due to rain at Boston’s Fenway Park.

In 1971 men rode in a vehicle on the moon for the first time in a lunar rover vehicle (LRV).

And in 1981 the seven-week baseball players’ strike came to an end.

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Quote of the Day

“Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.”

Milton Friedman

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This one is a request from the birthday girl.

And this song was released today in 1976.

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Anyone have a QoD for us?

48 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 7-31-13”

  1. So Happy end of her birthday to Miss Elizabeth. Trivia: my sons birthday is the day before mine, but when i am in PNG our birthdays are on the same day 🙂

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  3. okay, I checked out the link. What a fun place to visit. I decided I would like to get some amish dolls for my grandchildren. I was surprised there were no quilts in the gift shop.

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  6. Happy Birthday Elizabeth. My middle GD is named Mary Elizabeth.
    By the time you get a small portion of everything you want, you have lots of food on your plate.
    Granted, the Amish have good food too.

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  10. I guess if your dad is the blog master you get a good shout out. Happy Birthday Elizabeth. I have always thought that was a very pretty name.
    Shady Maple sounds fun too.

    I don’t have much to say today. I do think I made a career decision yesterday. We shall see.

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  13. Linda, I don’t know. I had never seen that before. I am personally SCANDALIZED that the service will be this afternoon at 5 pm. The funeral home will serve refreshments afterwards and then the family plans to all go to a restaurant!!!!!

    I have never heard of such thing and in going to a restaurant there will be no hash brown casserole, baked ham, green bean casserole, field peas, speckled butterbeans, no cakes, pies, and other desserts, none of the good fattening Southern Funeral Dishes.

    I am warning all of you. Write out your plans for your funeral and post it on your refrigerator in case the unthinkable happens and your two strong willed sisters over ride any and everything you have ever said you wanted.

    He wanted to be quietly cremated and his ashes spread in the Bay. He wanted something very small and what he has gotten is a three ring circus. There will be a “viewing” from 3:00 to 3:30 at one funeral home. At 5pm we are to be at a different funeral home for the service. He will later be cremated and his ashes will be put in an urn at placed at the Cremation Garden.

    1. By not going to the first funeral home I can avoid having to look at him.
    2. A Cremation Garden????? You’ve got to be kidding right????

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  15. Aj: Happy Birthday to your daughter! How old is she? I love celebrating birthdays!
    I hope you have a wonderful day with your family.

    I went to see Wicked last night with my oldest daughter. People liked it so much they gave it a standing ovation. I have seen plays I enjoyed much more, but had fun spending time with eldest daughter alone. I was such a mess at her age–it’s so cool that she’s not. She’ll turn 14 in September and yet she displays very little teenage angst, if any. I feel so blessed to call her daughter. God is so good!

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  16. Since I got my Smart Phone, I signed up for Words With Friends and have played a few games that the game administration assigned as opponents. A gal I work with thinks it is not safe to play a game with an unknown person. There is no personal info exchanged. What do you know or think about this? I have been trying to get my son to sign up to play but he hasn’t found the time for it yet.

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  18. I rather enjoy playing the game as only an anonymous screen name because it takes the pain out of winning or losing against a relative or friend. Q of the day:Do yoj enjoy competition or iz it a rather painful and distasteful activity?

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  19. I compete with people all the time (except they don’t know it), and it never turns out good for me. I should just quit that, doncha think? 😉

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  20. This is what I have:

    What I am about to say isn’t about me. It is about Beverly. Unfortunately I can only paint the picture of the man through my eyes.
    This really is completely out of character for me, but I want to talk about him. He and daddy taught me to dance to an extensive collection of 45′s. This is the reason I always have to find the tallest man in the room to dance with. The dancing sessions often ended with Let the Little Girl Dance. He taught me to love all the music from the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s.
    He loved music.
    He was fascinated by the fact that Angel Second Class Clarence was reading Tom Sawyer when he jumped in the river to save George Bailey. Mark Twain was an agnostic/atheist/anti-religion and Frank Capra was later credited with saying that “ It’s A Wonderful Life” was a movie he made to combat atheism.
    He loved literature.
    I want to mention how much he loved children and how he could keep them (me) spellbound for hours with the adventures of a squirrel that he couldn’t even remember telling me about. He did this as he painted my parents’ house one summer to keep me from getting in the paint.
    He was a master story teller.
    He adored his wife of 35 years and was devastated by her death. I remember at her funeral thinking, God, I want to find a man who will love me that much. Maria, I believe that because he loved her so much he was able to open his heart and love you that much too.
    He was a good husband.
    I want you to remember that he was an excellent History teacher in an all-black underprivileged high school back in the 70′s when Mobile was under mandatory desegregation and riots were happening in the schools. Lord, he had some stories about that!
    He loved History.
    He and Daddy talked almost every day. Sometimes they would talk for hours. Like my daddy, he loved a good meal. I am thankful he spent the last two Christmases and a couple of Easters letting me cook a fantastic meal for him. I am glad I splurged on the good bourbon. I he was the first food connoisseur in my life.
    Lord! That man loved to eat.
    I have a vision of him sitting at my kitchen table having appetizers and saying, “Berley, break out that good stuff for one more drink”. Then he analyzed why it was the better bourbon. Isaiah ( verse) talks about the feast there will be in heaven when someone dies. Sometime this past week there has been a feast in heaven. I hope he and daddy had a great reunion and I hope they broke out the good stuff.

    Now THAT would be something!
    If I broke out a small bottle and had everyone drink a toast to him. Virginia wouldn’t let me.

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  21. OK, that’s not really what you were asking, Janice. 😉 I did use to enjoy playing informal sports with the neighborhood kids when I was growing up — volleyball, football, softball. My family of origin also liked to play board games, card games, etc. too, and that was fun.

    My husband was never really into any of that, so we don’t do much in the way of competitive anything now in our family. A little, I guess, but it’s mostly the older kids who have done that.

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  24. You all have a good day now. I’m at the library and the computer told me I will be logged off in 5 minutes, and I won’t be online after I get home today.

    Blessings.

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  26. Good Morning and Happy Birthday Elizabeth!!
    Kim, that was lovely….and honoring to a man who captured your heart and never let it go….with a smile, a dance and a story…. 🙂
    Lots to do around here today…have a blessed day everyone….

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  27. Happy Birthday to Elizabeth, it looks like it’ll be a fun day. Take an Amish buggy ride if they offer them. 🙂

    Kim, very nice tribute. What a great uncle he must have been. 🙂

    Competition is something I tend to avoid for some reason, it makes me freeze up. I’ve toyed with the idea of working harder with Tess so we could enter a novice obedience ring, but I think I’d probably not enjoy it so much. But who knows.

    Annie’s on Day One of house arrest and is not a happy camper. I’ve locked the dogs in the kitchen (so they’re not all that happy either) with access to the doggie door and backyard (but which means they miss their morning nap on my bed after I leave for work).

    The cat stares wistfully out the window and hovers any time a door to the outside looks like it’s going to be opened … But her sutures look good and she doesn’t have to wear a cone, which cuts down on the recovery misery level.

    And so far I’ve been able to squirt the medicine she needs into her mouth (they’re both liquid with droppers).

    Off to work — finished a big project yesterday that ran today.

    Today I’m working on a story on West Nile. We’re getting higher-than-usual levels in our local areas this summer and a family contacted me yesterday whose 78-year-old dad is in very grave condition in the hospital for what doctors now say is West Nile. 😦

    Vector control is going door to door today in an effort to warn people and tell them how to better protect themselves.

    DEET.

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  28. Happy Birthday to Elizabeth!

    Elizabeth is my middle name, & I’ve always thought it prettier than my first name.

    Kim – Well done! Beautifully written! That’s going to elicit some tears & sniffling.

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  29. Emily is bound & determined to take the training program to become a practical nurse (LPN), on her way to eventually being a lactation consultant. The program starts up again in January, for 10 months. That will be a seven-hours per day of classes, five days a week. With travel, that will mean for me eight & a half to nine hours of babysitting Forrest five days a week – a full-time job.

    These days I have Chrissy helping me, but she is thinking of taking some courses at a community college a few towns over. I don’t know how I’m going to babysit this very active little guy all by myself for all that time. I love my little grandtoddler to the moon & back, but he can be a tough one to babysit.

    I have tried on more than one occasion to tell Emily that I wish she would put this off for another year, to let Forrest grow a little more mature (for his sake – he is quite attached to his mommy, as he should be – & for my sake). But she thinks I’m trying to quash her dreams & plans when I say that.

    Between now & January, we are going to work on getting Forrest used to more of a routine, which can help the days go more smoothly, hopefully. But I am still hoping that God gets through to her – by changing her heart or by changing circumstances – to put off this program for another year, even two. I know she’s impatient to just get it done & start moving on with her career, but her son is still little, & he needs her.

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  30. Karen: Emily is a grown-up and needs to make arrangements for her own child if she needs day care. That does not need to automatically be your responsibility. You are a dear sister, so I say this gently – you let people walk all over you and they will continue to do so until YOU stop them. She has made decisions that SHE should now take responsibility for and she won’t as long as you are always there to shore her up.

    Kim: I don’t share your sentiment. I think the funeral, et al, are for the living and they should get to pick how it goes. When I’m dead, I am not going to care.

    Drives: A friend recently sent me a poem he’d written and I didn’t “get” it. I quoted the one you posted and told him that was more my speed.

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  32. Karen O: I can’t imagine what it would be like to have such a supportive Grandma! It is very kind of you to agree to watch Forrest that much so she can pursue her dreams. I don’t blame you for wishing he were a little older — little kids can be quite time-(and energy-)consuming.

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  33. Karen O: Elizabeth is my middle name, too! Always preferred it to Ann, but no one calls me that. As a matter of fact, I dropped it when I married and switched my last name to my middle one.

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  34. Kim: Sweet tribute. Thanks for calling me today. It was generous of you to spend time talking with me on such a difficult day. It really helped!

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  37. Karen O, I guess I have a different viewpoint than others have expressed. I think it is a great opportunity to continue to help Emily and Forrest. If you can locate a good half day church preschool program or else get together with a small group of Christian’s who want to do it preschool homeschool group then you could manage to incorporate a good routine along with giving yourself some time off each week. I think Emily is right about needing to go ahead and get what see needs to be marketable for a career. If anything happened to you and your husband she needs to be able to be the breadwinner. Check out church preschool and homeschool groups in your area for options. I know you know to pray hard, too.

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  40. We had a nice day. I’m still stuffed. 🙂

    Elizabeth Rose is named after her grandma’s. And she’s 11 today. 🙂

    And yes, like most her age, she already knows everything. 🙄

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  42. Linda – I really do understand what you’re saying. And in almost any other area of her life, I’d agree. But my taking care of Forrest is more for him than for her. Emily says she can get state aid to help pay for daycare, so I know she’d find a place for him if she had to.

    But I was a stay-at-home mom with my girls, & I want a similar upbringing for my sweet little guy. Forrest & I have a special relationship, because I have babysat him since he was 2 months old. He used to nap in my arms, which I miss. 🙂

    One daycare she mentioned is our next-door neighbor’s home daycare. That sent a panic through me, because our neighbor is a witch – literally, not merely figuratively. I knew I couldn’t use that fact as a reason against that idea, because Emily would think that was just silly, religious prejudice.

    I eventually dissuaded her from this idea a few days later, by pointing out two things – This lady is a very negative person, which must affect the kids in some way, & also Forrest would know that right next door is his room, & his backyard, & his Mimi. Emily agreed that wasn’t a good idea, & said, “Yeah, he’d probably try to come home every time they went outside.”

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  45. I am a competitor such that I make up competitions that don’t exist- like counting different colored cars as I drive to see which has the most on that trip.

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  46. It went very well. One of his step daughters sang. Another read THE passage from Eccleciastes. She also talked about how much he meant to their family and what a good grandfather he was to their children. My aunt did the eulogy. An uncle talked about the verse in the 23rd Psalm where you pass through death. Another uncle by marriage did the closing prayer.

    I spoke after the step daughter and asked her to stand there with me. I held her hand and at one point put my arm around her. I was nervous and she gave me support. I told her family that I was glad that even though he never had children of his own I was glad he got to know the joy of children and grandchildren through all of them and that even though I my feelings were hurt this past Easter when he didn’t come to my house I was ok with it when I found out he was spending it with them.

    I told Maria (the ex wife/future wife) that he was devastated by the loss of his first wife and with her medical condition I was glad he didn’t have to go through the agony of losing her too, but I was sorry that she was having to go through losing him. It made her cry and hug me closer.

    My family tried to take the lead and sit ahead of Maria. When we processed out I was on the aisle of the Black Family side in the second row. After the first row walked out, I crossed the aisle and took Maria’s hand and had her walk out with me. Another aunt came up beside us and took her other hand and the three of us walked out together.

    I got a chance to speak with each of the step daughters and tell them how glad I was that they were in his life.

    What the step daughters and the one uncle by marriage said about him, I have a more peaceful feeling that he is in heaven.

    I took the opportunity to tell my two surviving uncles that they better behave so that I will say something nice about them when they die. I threatened my dad’s older brother that he better not die anytime soon or I would say bad things about him. I held him close and hugged him lots. He is who I talk to when I want to hear my father.

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