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Our Daily Thread 8-13-13

Good Morning!

I had no idea, but today is Left-Hander’s Day. 🙂

And on this day in 1521 present day Mexico City was captured by Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez from the Aztec Indians.

In 1784 the United States Legislature met for the final time in Annapolis, MD.

In 1889 a patent for a coin-operated telephone was issued to William Gray.

In 1931 the first community hospital in the U.S. was dedicated in Elk City, OK.

In 1935 the first roller derby match was held at the Coliseum in Chicago, IL.

And in 1942 Walt Disney’s “Bambi” opened at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, NY.

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Quote of the Day

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

Abraham Lincoln

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Around here we like Bambi, so here’s a clip from the original trailer.

The original version of this song was released today in 1952. The closest I could find was 1965.

And someone from this band has a birthday today. Danny, my least favorite.

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Anyone have a QoD for us today?

45 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 8-13-13”

  1. Good morning everyone.
    What’s a coin operated telephone?
    🙂

    It did outlast the telephone operator. I used to know a telephone operator.
    Some of Jack Benny’s funniest routines concerned the telephone operators.
    Benny was the comedian, but usually he was the straight man for someone elses jokes. This was especially true with Rochester.
    And Mel Blanc.

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  2. I scanned through the stuff about weaning yesterday.
    Don’t know nothing about that. I do think Chuck weaned himself after he learned that it was more efficient to eat form a spoon. More viriety too.
    😆

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  3. Well now as well as being your Resident Southern Belle/White Trash I can be your “token” lefty. Feel free to pander to me all day.

    Thanks to Nickolodean I had the only 4 year old in her age group with a crush on Keith Partridge which caused me to buy the CD which caused me to buy the book which caused me to learn that David Cassidy probably isn’t someone I would want to know. Most of what I remember is that he had acne so the dermatologist had him on antibiotics which kept him from catching a lot of diseases. “If you remember the ’70’s you weren’t there”.

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  5. I had forgotten all about “short sheeting”. We used to short sheet a guys bunk in the AF. Harmless fun. I have been short sheeted. You immediately know what it is and it takes less than a minute to correct. But the guys get a laugh.
    I never experienced a phone equipment problem when we had the old carbon phones. It was the high that caused the problems.
    In those days, all phones were black. Then they came out with a “priness phone”. That’s when everything started to change.

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  6. My. Husband is a lefty so maybe I should bake him a cake or something? He’d like that and so would anyone else fortunate enough to get a piece of it. 🙂

    When I was teaching my son to spell I told him that there is a piece of pie in the word piece to help him remember how to spell it (not spell the word “it”, but the word “piece”, LOL.

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  9. Good morning, everyone! Y’all were busy on here yesterday. I was busy with kids, so I didn’t read the blog until late last night, around 1:00 am. I’m still struggling with insomnia. I guess eventually I’ll get so tired that I sleep, but it’s so frustrating at the time.

    My best friend’s daughter is staying with us for a few days as she had to go back to work (she’s a teacher) and daughter doesn’t start school for two weeks. It’s a lot of fun to have her here. When Monica and I were little girls we’d dream about being mommies and how our children would be friends. Now, the dream has come true and it brings me much happiness to see how well our girls get along. Monica’s daughter is 11–3 years younger than my oldest and 3 years older than Becca. It’s great b/c she gets along with both of my girls. They’ve all known each other since birth, so they’re quite close. Yesterday we spent quite a bit of time at the stables. It feels like it’s becoming my second home. I found out that she can go to the stables alone when she’s fourteen, which happens September 12. I’ll still go with her when she’s actually riding, but she can tack up and cool down the horse without supervision, which will save me about an hour each day. Yay!!!

    Spoke to my sister yesterday and she said there was lots of drama at the family compound after I left. I’m dreading explaining why I won’t be coming home for the holidays. My mom’s already asked about Thanksgiving. There is a song by David Wilcox called Covert War that pretty much sums up why I won’t be going home. It goes like this: (I am embarrassed to admit I don’t know how to provide a link).

    “Dear Mom and Dad, Here’s why I can’t come home.
    I can talk to either one of you just fine, when it’s either one alone.
    But the Thanksgiving table is going to be pulled out bigger
    And if we talk at all, one of you will pull the trigger.

    I used to run those battle lines
    Trying to smooth over what got said
    Trying to get a medal
    Trying to get some shrapnel in my head
    Thought it was my duty to plead and to implore
    But I caught too much crossfire in your covert war.

    Holy days they bring us all together
    After so much left unsaid.
    You taught us well not to kick under the table
    Kick under your breath instead.

    Of course there was the anger where the love is strong
    It spilled like gasoline
    It’s crude but it’s a power we can draw upon
    To fuel the right machine

    I love you and I’d never want to see you bleed
    When comments cut like steel.
    So to hold your fire I’d block the shot and take the hit for you
    As if I could not feel.

    I thought they’d pass right through me
    That I had no scars to hide.
    But now I open up and try to love
    And find they’re still inside.

    I used to run those battle lines trying to plead and to implore
    Please won’t you hold the cease-fire out a little longer
    Before your next uproar?

    I took it all in childhood, But I can’t take it no more.
    ’cause I caught too much crossfire, in your covert war.

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  10. Wow, Annms, powerful song. I will pray for you.

    We got phone books dropped on our front door step yesterday. Phone books! My 16 year-old daughter asked what they were.

    Sorry I have not been on here much. Book deadlines. Not quite sure how Michelle does it.

    Both my parents were left-handed and had five right-handed kids.

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  11. Nicely worded song, Annms. It does grieve a heart to know of the pains some families go through. Children are idealistic in thinking they have power to change things. You are realistic now. Only a work of God has that redeeming power. Sounds like they are a couple ripe for the Love Dare journal or some similar program.

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  12. Out of 12 kids my dad should have been left handed but got switched. He wrote horribly but played ball and golf left handed. I have an aunt who is left handed…they didn’t try to switch her. No one tried to switch me either. For a long time I was ambidextrous and the last time I wrote on a chalk board I could still do it. I cannot hold a pen and write with my right hand. I play ball and golf right handed.
    I get confused sometimes ironing and will get the cord all twisted up and sometimes when I sweep with a broom it is awkward. I figure it is that old self fulfilling prophesy. My mother was a perfectionist and I couldn’t sweep to suit her. She told me I couldn’t sweep because I was left handed. I solved my problem by buying a battery operated sweeper like you see in restaurants to sweep up crumbs.

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  14. Hubby is home for a couple of days after over a month in San Diego. Since he’s been saying he misses Southern cooking, last night I fixed, (that’s right, you don’t cook or prepare Southern food. You fix it) pork chops, green beans, okra, Mac and cheese and cornbread for dinner, The okra was from frozen and the mac and cheese from a box but the green beans were fresh and the cornbread homemade.

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  16. KBells, I love greens and green beans and butter beans cooked southern style. That is, cooked to death with ham hocks in it. I have to make myself eat the stuff out of cans.

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  18. Not too long ago we were discussing passwords and security and the multitude of passwords we all have. Recently in a technology discussion it was stated that a lot of passwords now have to have a capitol letter a number and perhaps a symbol. Most people put the capitol letter on the end of the word and put the numbers at the end if my password was Babygirl1234 that would be easy for a hacker to figure out but if I make the password babyG1rl234 it isn’t as easy. Please don’t try to hack me that is the one password I have never used.

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  20. Chas – Forrest is a good eater. When he was a baby, Emily chose to give him real food rather than baby food, & he likes a wide variety of healthy foods. And of course, he likes not-so-healthy food, too. 🙂

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  21. Powerful song and words.

    The way I hit my deadlines when I have short writing schedules is to drop everything but the essentials and just write. I like to finish a month early if possible to give me time to tweak and change things. So, I start early, work like a madwoman, and behave in an anti-social behavior.

    Or at least that’s what I did last year when I wrote three projects for publication.

    None this year, so it’s been easier, though I have self-imposed deadlines–all of which I am NOT meeting. 😦

    Going to the old house to pack more today. Furniture is moved on Thursday and I get to go through all my possessions yet again.

    I need someone ruthless to help me throw away memories, er, possessions! 🙂

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  22. Yesterday was a stressful, difficult day, but by the end of the evening, Forrest was home & playing happily, Emily & I were getting along well, & we all were relieved that the day was drawing to a close.

    A few of you mentioned consulting an attorney. From what we already know, an attorney would just tell us to have Emily go through the process that is already set up in the courts for custody arrangements. And he’d charge us a lot to tell us that.

    I understand why Emily doesn’t want to do that. It is a long, somewhat-complicated process, & then there’s that matter of having to let R have Forrest more often & for every other weekend. (The two of them did recently amicably agree to try having Forrest spend one overnight visit at R’s place.)

    Prayers for wisdom for Emily in this will be appreciated.

    As grandparents, we have no legal standing.

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  25. Karen, a GOOD attorney will protect Emily and most especially Forest. Better you should have something in place legally before someone gets to R and has him be proactive.

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  26. I love southern food! I had an adopted grandma who was the best cook. She used to make the best cornbread and black-eyed peas. It was delicious!!!

    Karen: Glad things worked out last night, but I agree with Kim that an attorney sounds like a good idea at this point. Of course, that would have to be Emily’s decision.

    Kim: Thanks for the link to the Wilcox song. I used to really enjoy his music, but then he became quite political and my enjoyment of his music waned considerably.

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  27. You’ve all heard about the brouhaha caused when The Oprah said she was dissed in a Switzerland store because she was black. The woman at the store said it didn’t happen.
    That should be easy to settle. Any store that has $38,000 handbags has to have video monitoring. All they need to do is look at the tapes (or whatever they use).

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  28. I receive blog posts from a site named Ben and Me because it gives a list of some free or low cost books for Kindle sometimes. Today the post is about the top ten resources to help with ADHD in children. Not sure if any are free but anyone who needs that info might want to check it out.

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  30. Crazy day around here…4AM shots were fired in a neighboring community….4:30 AM bottle bombs set off in our community park….why are there so many crazy people in this world?! Neighbors are a bit on edge today!

    Had to order a new oven and cooktop….I knew the day was approaching, but, alas it’s here….how can those two appliances cost sooooo much!!?

    Karen….I pray you will consider the suggestion to consult an attorney….most towns have legal aid to just inquire as to where to go and what to do….If R lived here he would have absolutely no rights if he does not support his son financially….and here, grandparents do have rights….especially if they are providing for the child and his mother….I know you love your kids and I know your desire is to protect and care for them…Emily and Forrest are very blessed to have you and Lee in their lives and offering support (and prayer!)….bless you dear friend….

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  31. Thank you, Nancy. 🙂

    Kim – That’s what I’ve been trying to tell Emily – act before he does.

    She is convinced that he won’t do anything to gain custody, because he doesn’t really want to have Forrest more than the few hours he sees him each week. (Sometimes a week or two goes by without him seeing him.) She thinks he just likes to stir up trouble. She has also said that, despite some of the horrible things he has said about us, & even unbeknownst to himself, he really does trust us to take good care of Forrest. If he didn’t, she believes, he would have done something concrete about it a long time ago.

    I see her point, & understand her not wanting to have to let Forrest spend every other weekend there (as a custody agreement would state), but I still think she should pursue it. I just don’t trust R, & wouldn’t be surprised if he did decide to “strike first”.

    But again, that has to be her decision followed by her actions.

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  32. Wow, what a song that is, Ann. Really hits you.

    Janice, thanks for the link to benandme. I hadn’t heard of that site, but it looks like there are good things to be found there.

    I’m going to leave you guys early today and try to blow off some steam cleaning house a little with the younger arrows before 2nd Arrow arrives home tonight. But I won’t go without some music to leave you with, which sort of sums up my present frame of mind. It’s not a name Beethoven gave it, but it’s nicknamed The Tempest. 😉 Watch at a little before the six-minute mark as the video from above starts turning round and round for half a minute or so. Way cool.

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  33. “Nothing is easier for third party busybodies than being ‘understanding’ and ‘compassionate’ at someone else’s expense – especially if the busybodies have their own children in private education as so many public educators do.”

    Dr. Thomas Sowell, in The Washington Times

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  38. People want to get away from part of the country. Then try to make it like the place they left. Colorado is the new California.
    The motto in Hendersonville: “We don’t care how good it was up north.”
    Sometimes, even I will slip up when someone complains of the traffic on Four seasons Blvd. I say, “Try Columbia Pike”.
    We have it easy here. But the locals don’t realize that.

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  39. We are always going against the traffic on the big circle around Atlanta so I can’t complain about the horrid Atlanta traffic. The other side, going in the opposite direction is often at a standstill and makes a person consider how much gas is being used by all those idling cars. A coworker just got a new car on loan while hers was in the shop. It automatically cut off at red lights and recranked itself when she took her foot off the brake. That seems rather eerie to me, like the Twilight Zone eerie.

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  41. Twilight Zone cars … I remember my friend’s little Toyota would never start unless the passenger got into the back seat and put on the seat belt. Only then, with the car running, could the passenger jump out and get into the front passenger seat.

    We took a road trip north once, up to SF and it was a comedy of errors. We got to the 17-mile drive in Carmel only to find we had to do the switcher-roo to get the car started again. But it wouldn’t start that time so we had to call the Auto Club and we missed the 17-mile drive.

    I felt a bit like Alice in Wonderland yesterday as I saw several FB friends post fawning comments about how wonderful the idea of transgender restrooms was. “It’s about time,” several of them wrote.

    Huh?

    Really?

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  42. Donna, Something must be really wrong with their thinking on the bathroom situation. Somehow it is reminding me of when our son was pretty young and I would buy a bag of little odds and ends of toys from a thrift store. You never knew just what would be in the bsg but it was fun to sift through and find the discarded treasures from other kids. The only treasure I now distinctly remember was when our son pulled out a Halloween item and announced, “A witch’s finger. Just what I always wanted. ” Understand, please, that we did not talk much about witches but I guess they were mentuoned in a story book. We were totally surprised to hear he wanted one. He wanted something that he did not even realize what it was. I think that is how it is with those supporting the use of the girl’s bathrooms by those who are distinctly different in their needs. I really feel this is just another attack against girls and women who are in general smaller and more vulnerable to attack by any predators who will not waste any opportunities to take advantage of a law that gives them new privileges.

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