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Our Daily Thread 8-22-13

Good Morning!

On this day in 1762 Ann Franklin became the first female editor of an American newspaper, The Mercury, of Newport, RI.

In 1775 the American colonies were declared to be in a state of open rebellion by King George III.

In 1846 the US annexed New Mexico.

In 1902 in Hartford, CT., President Theodore Roosevelt became the first president to ever ride in an automobile.

In 1938 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers appeared on the cover of Life magazine.

And in 1984 the last Volkswagen Rabbit rolled off the assembly line in New Stanton, PA. 

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Quote of the Day

“When placed in command, take charge.”

H. Norman Schwarzkopf

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It’s Paul Colman’s birthday, so here he is with help from his daughters. 🙂

It’s also the birthday of Josef Strauss.

And it’s John Lee Hooker’s as well. So here he is with another guitar great.

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Anyone have a QoD?

57 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 8-22-13”

  1. Morning, but really evening, all. Tomorrow is Sports Day at the Primary school. For some of the kids this is their favorite day of the year. Hmm… I may not get to post first as the power just went out and I have to wait for it to come back on and for the internet to reconnect. Good thing that my battery was charged. Power still off, it usually comes on very quickly as we have generators that come on. This is funny, the only light that I can see is my computer monitor, so I may as well type! Just found 4 new pictures of little Ginger on Facebook. I guess my daughter posted them two days ago, but they didn’t appear on my page. So cute to see her being held by her sisters. The littlest looks like she is holding the most perfect doll.

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  2. First?
    This morning riding in to work I was behind a little truck that said geesepoliceMD.com on the back. Curiosity got the best of me so I looked it up when I got in. It is actually a company that “controls” Canadian geese. They use border collies to do it.

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  6. We have geese around here. They are wild. I can’t imaging a dog controlling geese. I suspect a goose would fly away. That’s what I would do. I would fly to the top of a house, look down on the border collie and go “honk, honk”.
    😆
    Good evening Jo. I suspect she is ready to rack out since the power is off and it’s late anyhow.
    🙂 Neither Kim nor I have to go to court again. In Henderson County, we are free for two years. They can’t call me again until 2015.
    Our judge didn’t call it “jury duty”, he says “jury service”.
    They will send me a check for $32.00, $12 for the first day, $20 for the second.
    When I worked for DMA, they would pay me my regular pay, but I had to turn the money for jury duty over to them.
    A lower grade employee who needed the money might take annual leave and keep the money.

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  7. 🙂 HRW’s link about a dog adopting a kitten, Sometimes you hear of a baby of some different, maybe preditory, species adopting they abandoned young of another.

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  8. 😦 It sure is slow around here.
    🙂 The Hendersonville Times-News has a 10 page insert about the high school football teams, with pictures and stories about the guys.
    I don’t much care about local football, but I think it’s a great thing. That’s what a local paper is for.
    I never read an article about Egypt or Syria in the Times-News.

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  9. 1. Our Clerk of the Circuit Court said that your employer had to pay you and could NOT take the money the court paid you. She said every session an employer argues about this. Just have them call her and she would explain.
    2, Hubbikins wants a “man’s dog”. I have explained that Amos is a male and is a dog, but that doesn’t seem to suit. He has several different arguments as to why this is a good time to get a puppy. According to Hubbikins, Amos is a foo-foo dog. He looked at Border Collies last night. I told him they had to be entertained. I would consider a Golden Retriever but there is the hair issue. I do not want a Labrador. We discussed a Weimerammer (sp) and there were some rescue German Shepherd mix puppies that were awfully cute, but having a German Shepherd limits where you can live and is a HUGE liability on home owner’s insurance. There are lots of Bull Dog mixes for adoption but it is the same situation as a Shepherd and I am as afraid of them as I am of a Doberman. I asked about adopting a Greyhound, but they take a tremendous amount of exercise….
    in the end it is looking like Amos is the perfect dog for our lifestyle with the added bonus that George will Amos-sit anytime I need him to.

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  11. Good morning!

    Elder daughter was asked by a friend to participate in Macy’s back to school fashion show this weekend. She is ecstatic! They will have their make-up and hair done professionally and will be modeling clothes by Miss Me. The two girls were giddily discussing how exciting it would be if they were to be “discovered” during their modeling debut. It’s so cute how 13 year olds think. My eldest is all of about 5′, so I seriously doubt she has much of a future in modeling, but I’m enjoying her excitement. Hubby and I will be in Corpus Christi for the wedding of one of my cousins, so friend’s mom will be driving/supervising them. I hope it’s as much fun as she’s anticipating.

    Becca has a fun day in store as her favorite friend invited her to the community pool (which has some really fun water features). I’m dropping her off around 10:00 and she’ll return home about 2:00. Eldest has another riding lesson today. It’s hot and super humid here–around 80% and 95 degrees. I’m looking forward to fall, though I’ll have to wait awhile, as we don’t usually see cooler temperatures until late October.

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  12. Kim: We’ve had a lab for nine years who was found wandering the neighborhood without a collar. He was about 1 1/2 at the time we found him. We put up signs all over the neighborhood, but no one ever claimed him. He hadn’t been microchipped. We didn’t have a dog at the time and decided to keep him. He is the most fabulous dog I could imagine. He is very laid-back and calm, not at all like a “normal” lab. My only complaint about him is that he sheds terribly and we have dark hardwood floors throughout downstairs that show his white fur. He doesn’t have any bad habits and is super gentle, especially with kids. He has low thyroid (which we treat with thyroid medication), but I wonder if that is why he’s so lazy. Of course, now he’s ten years old and slowing down a bit, but he’s never been hyper. He is completely content to sleep most of the day in the living room, surrounded by his family, and looks forward to his walk every evening. I never thought I’d like a lab, but he is outstanding!

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  13. Aagh. Pet peeve time. They are NOT Canadian geese. They are Canada geese. They don’t really have a nationality! 🙂

    Off to work again today after several weeks of company and a bad, still lingering, cold.

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  14. More on dogs as pets: I had a collie as a kid. I got him as a puppy when I was nine years old. He lived until I was 21 and waited to die until I was home for the weekend and then passed in my arms. He was the world’s greatest dog. He was super smart and very loving. He met me at the bus stop every afternoon and was my constant companion. When Buddy dies, I’m hoping to get another collie. They are beautiful dogs with good temperaments.

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  16. Kim, greyhounds do not require a lot of exercise. Yes, they’re racing dogs and they run fast, but they can retire and be couch potatoes. I personally wouldn’t want one–they are just not very “pettable” because they have such short, harsh fur and nothing on their body is soft–but they are supposed to be excellent pets.

    And I give a second vote for a collie. If you don’t want all the fur maintenance (which isn’t nearly as bad as I expected, actually), then get a “smooth” collie (same dog as the rough collie, except a short coat; some litters can have both varieties). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWiWXdy3DWw In my mind they are nowhere near as pretty as the rough collie, and remind me more of German shepherds than collies, but they are the same breed as Misten. And I will tell you that collies have a lot of fur but you make up for the brushing by not having to bathe them often at all (Misten has not been bathed in two years, and she has no doggie smell–occasionally when she has been outside for several hours she comes in smelling like weeds, but she stays out of mud and puddles if she possibly can, and even if she does get dirt on her it falls off. She does track in leaves and stuff, though, and probably a smooth collie doesn’t do that, because it gets stuck in her long fur.) But a male smooth collie would definitely qualify as a man’s dog–it looks a bit like a tough dog, but it’s a big teddy bear.

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  19. I was going to say what Cheryl said about greyhounds — they’re actually known as good “apartment dogs” because they are very laid back and don’t require lots of exercise, ironically. Some smaller breeds, like Jack Russells, require a lot more activity.

    I had a colleague who adopted retired greyhounds — I think they had 2 of them who have both now died — and he’d take them for a run in the morning but otherwise they were as mellow as could be.

    I like German shepherds, my mom had one and she was a sweetheart.

    Also, if you work with a breed specific rescue group they often can find a dog with the traits you’re looking for. My friend who does the border collie rescue, for example, worked with me when I was looking to adopt a BC on the more mellow side. So while each breed does come with particular traits, there’s a range within those traits that you can find in any dog.

    We have 2 geese (maybe more now) at a park nearby where I sometimes take the dogs for a walk. They’re very territorial and will advance toward you if you’re coming their way, so we usually turn around and try to avoid them. I’ve seen people out there in the mornings hand feeding them, though.

    Liked the geese control link. And, of course, border collies actually are quite brilliant. 😉

    But my dream dog as a kid was a rough collie, one that wold meet me on the way home from school like annms’ dog. Sigh. But we didn’t get our first family dog (he was a stray we kept) until I was 16 or so — Amos reminds me of him a little bit. In other words, not Lassie. But a cutie pie dog who was very well loved by us. 🙂

    On jury duty — excuse me, “service” — our company also deducts the jury pay from our checks. I guess they figure since they’re paying us to serve (and we’re not working), they should get something for it.

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  20. Happy birthday to the 6 year old! And annms, the fashion show sounds like it’ll be great fun for the girls. I remember being in a homegrown fashion show (sponsored by our Girl Scout troop when we were all about 14, our last year in scouts) and we had a blast.

    Being invited to be in a “real” one would be a thrill for a girl that age. 🙂

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  21. QoD: Since it is the beginning of the school year, how about this: Who was/were your favorite teacher9s) and why?

    Mine were Sister Kathleen (8th grade) and Sister (can’t remember her name), my 4th grade teacher. They both were gentle and understanding, unlike my 5th grade teacher- a nun who was not supposed to be teaching but was brought to the convent as a gardener. She was ancient and hated boys, or at least strongly disliked us. Anyway, our 8th grade was rebellious and tried Sr. K’s patience. We were so bad that we infected the other 8th grade class which drove their elderly nun to a nervous breakdown. My 4th grade teacher helped me when I was being verbally bullied. Well, at least she let me leave the room for a good cry and talked to the other boys.

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  23. The link I posted referred to them as Canada goose. I thought that was odd, since the ones around here clearly come from Canada. You can tell by the accent. The ones that say Eh! instead of honking are definitely Canadian. 🙂

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  24. Around here the state allows hunting Canada geese while they are migrating. I think it is because there is an abundance of them and the Canadian government doesn’t like them destroying the tundra. Funny, I thought it was only man destroying the environment and not the animal kingdom doing it.

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  25. QoD: My favorite teacher was my tenth grade English teacher, Ms. W. She had wonderful control of her classroom b/c almost everyone respected her. She was strict but fair. And you could tell she really enjoyed both her students and her job. I learned later that she is an atheist and a lesbian who has lived with her significant other for 30+ yrs. She wrote me a wonderful letter of recommendation for admission to a girls private high school. I loved her. I kept in touch with her sporadically until about 5 years ago. I wonder if she is on Facebook. I should look her up.

    Now, my favorite school personnel was our school nurse, Mrs. R. She was the nurse for all grades, K-12, so I knew her from 3rd through 10th grades. I was sick often and she always treated me with tender loving care. She is an outstanding Christian woman, beloved by her entire community. She attends every significant function that happens in Bandera. People say that if Nurse R. wasn’t there, it must not have been very important! She came to my wedding and my dad’s recent birthday celebration. She’s getting pretty old, around 80, and is beginning to have some health issues. I’m sure that when she dies, there will be hundreds of mourners at her funeral. She touched my heart in many ways over the years by her loving kindness. I feel honored to hold a special place in her heart.

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  26. donna j: I live in Houston and am familiar with Osteen. He and his wife are quite a pair. It’s so sad to me that so many are deluded by his message. It’s tragic, really. I don’t know as much about Meyer, except to stay away from her. I think I once picked up a book by her and even I, one who is pretty dense theologically, could tell she missed the mark. Any time someone is off-the-charts-popular, I am a little skeptical.

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  27. Miss White was my HS English teacher. She was the only person in my life who ever thought I would amount to anything.
    She was wrong, of course. But I always appreciated her confidence in me.
    When she retired, I contributed ot a fund to send her on a cruise.
    I hope she liked the cruise. I can’t imagine enjoying a cruse, myself.

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  28. And, speaking of pets, as all of you are, I have to put in the obligatory plug for a rock. No trouble at all.

    When I talk with people who have been on cruises, and they tell what they did. I’m always happy that I wasn’t there.
    It usually concerned eating and drinking.
    My middle GD and her husband went on a snorkeling cruise for their honeymoon.
    I’m sure they found things to do.

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  29. I am embarrassed to admit I still haven’t showered today, so this will be my last post for awhile as I’ll be busy from here on out. But, I have one more story to tell about my beloved Collie, Theodore Von Tedd (he was registered). I called him Teddy and in addition to meeting me at the bus every day, he also once saved my life. True story: When I was nine years old, I was floating down the river behind our house on an inner tube. I got in front of my dad and everyone else. The river was running high and moving much faster than normal. Somehow, the rubber band on my ponytail became caught in a low-lying tree branch and my tube went out from under me. I was stuck and bobbing in and out of the water, with rapids washing over my head. I was having a lot of trouble breathing. Teddy was on the banks and saw me struggling. He jumped in the water and swam over to me, turned around and pushed his rear end close to me. I held on to him and managed to get my hair loose from the rubber band. At this point, I was exhausted. I grabbed hold of his tail and Teddy pulled me across the river to the step ladder. By the time my dad caught up to me, I was sitting safely on the riverbank, arms thrown tightly around Teddy, crying into his wet fur. We should have named him Lassie. He was that good. I was incredibly blessed to be his owner. He was my dog–not the family dog (we had one of those already when my parents let me get Teddy as a puppy), and we shared a really special bond. I’ve never felt about a dog (or any other animal) the way I felt about him.

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  30. Ann, collies have gotten the award as dog heroes multiple times, I think more than any other breed, because they are observant and sweet like that. The breeder from whom I got Misten said she used to do foster care, and she had a collie that would keep her eye on the kids. She soon learned that two barks meant, “Come quick! The children are doing something dangerous!” Collies have saved the lives of many children. They also tend to be gentle with other animals (like baby rabbits found in the backyard). I noticed long ago that Misten will go very slowly and carefully around young children and the elderly. Even when she hasn’t gotten enough exercise, she just instinctively knows to move with care around people who get hurt easily.

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  33. Thoughts? It’s kind of an in-house Catholic discussion ongoing right now, but as a single working woman — who believes in male leadership within the home & church — I’ve noticed the struggle between the Little House on the Prairie vision (only) for women in the church and the other extreme which we’re all, of course, familiar with (and not enamored with) that’s pushed in the liberal secular culture.

    I was once in a church that began to drift into a direction in which single women were (in my view) essentially put into the same category as the children. I transferred out eventually to a better-balanced church within the same denomination. The leadership is male, families are still a primary focus. But perhaps because the congregation is bigger and much more diverse, there’s not that sense that single women are somehow sidelined, though I think that demographic poses something of a growing challenge for all conservative churches, especially in metropolitan areas.

    http://www.patheos.com/blogs/simchafisher/2013/08/22/at-the-register-we-need-the-courage-to-christianize-feminism/

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  35. My above link, btw, would also apply to married women and moms who work outside the home, many (if not most) by necessity. Society is changing, for better or worse (probably for worse, but here we are) — two incomes are simply necessary for many families, at least where I live.

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  36. Rocks can too chase away burglars and geese! Ever see the exit velocity of one of them when it leaves a sling?

    I heard tell of a man who put down a giant with his pet rock…

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  38. Favorite Teacher? Miss Vaughn in 3rd grade. I was the teacher’s pet.
    Mrs. Younce in 8th grade. No one else liked her.
    Mrs. Underwood in 12th grade. She educated me that there was a world well beyond the Bible Belt and not everyone thought the same as I did. She secured a scholarship for me and as I wasn’t allowed to go on the Senior Trip she took her AP students to in New York, she brought back a bracelet for me that I still have.

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  39. If you are a no kill animal shelter should your voice mail first say “If this is an animal control issue please hang up and call 251-555-5555”? Also should your voice mail have as it’s FIFTH option the ability to speak with someone about adopting a pet?
    Options 1-4 were all about how to make a donation to the shelter.

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  43. Donna, several years ago I briefly researched family-integrated churches. I wasn’t planning to leave my church, but I was intrigued by the idea, and had in mind, “If I ever move, is this an idea I support?”

    In principle, it is. I don’t think the church is supposed to be broken up into individual groups; we should worship together.

    But I had the very strong sense that as a single woman I’d feel extremely out of place.

    Talking to someone who attended such a church confirmed my concern. She said they’d see it as their job to protect me and care for me, and all in all I got the sense it would be like adding lots and lots of big brothers to the four I already have. Only these would be telling me how I can or can’t spend my money.

    I think that it’s good–necessary–when the church cares for its singles, especially its single women. But there’s a fine line between caring for someone and demanding that they come under your authority in places where you don’t actually have authority; and once I get the sense that someone thinks a single woman is not allowed to make her own decisions, I run. Because the Bible just doesn’t say that. Seeking counsel, yes. Being required to obey, no.

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  44. My compliments to the blog owner on the wonderfully varied music selections today. 😉 Gorgeous scenery in the Strauss video, but I wouldn’t want to get too close to the edge in some of those places. 🙂

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  45. Whew…we just a humdinger of a storm roll through…lightening and thunder like I haven’t seen in quite a while! Trying to settle Babe down now that it’s over…poor dog!
    Qod….Mrs. Gooss….she encouraged my love of reading (she let me take books home and we weren’t supposed to do so, but, she knew my parents didn’t read to me and reading was not really a priority at my house…watching TV was!)… she was my first grade teacher….I have been in love with good books my entire life…

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  46. Tammy posted the following on FB a little while ago; excellent questions to pose–or give the article–to the twenty-somethings in your life. They’re good for all of us!

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  48. Michelle, those are good questions, no doubt. However, in my twenties, I doubt that I could have answered any of them intelligently. I had long range goals, but I was just trying to get through the next thing.
    And none of the long renge goals I had in my twenties worked out.

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  49. Chas, most of the long-range goals I had by eight, ten, or fifteen worked out.

    (I wanted to write and publish at least one book, have daughters, have a collie, and be an editor. I haven’t made any goals that big since fifteen, but I’ve met all but my trivial goals. The last two years brought the last three unmet ones into my life: marriage, children, and my own home library.)

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