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Our Daily Thread 10-11-13

Good Morning!

It’s finally Friday! 🙂

On this day in 1776, during the American Revolution, the first naval battle of Lake Champlain was fought. The forces under Gen. Benedict Arnold suffered heavy losses.

In 1881 David Henderson Houston patented the first roll film for cameras.

In 1890 the Daughters of the American Revolution was founded in Washington, DC.

In 1929 JCPenney opened a store in Milford, DE, making it a nationwide company with stores in all 48 states.

And in 1983 the last hand-cranked telephones in the U.S. went out of service. The 440 telephone customers of Bryant Pond, ME, were switched to direct-dial service.

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Quote of the Day

“The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.”

George  Washington

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Today is Tramaine Hawkins’ birthday.

It’s also Cynthia Clawson’s.

On this day in 1727 this song was first performed at Westminster Abbey.

And it’s Daryl Hall’s birthday too.

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Anyone have a QoD?

60 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 10-11-13”

  3. I hear they are getting hammered with snow in the high country….for us on the front range it is wind wind wind…and for those of us who live in the Forest …. a bit of rain with that wind…next week…snow for us..yippee…we need it!!

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  4. Oh, nancyjill, that sounds so cold. This home has no heat, but I imagine yours does.
    Anyone have any ideas for me – tiny ants are trying to build a floating nest in my water filter. I found them a week and a half ago, took everything out, cleaned it, and then moved it to a new place. tonight I found that they are back at it again! aargh…

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  5. Jo I am so thankful we have heat, and a gas fireplace to warm the family room in a hurry! (I do miss the sights and smell of a wood burning fireplace though!)
    I wonder if you have available to you food grade diatomaceous earth to sprinkle around the suspected path of the ants Jo….if you don’t, ants hate mint…and cucumber…and coffee…have you noticed any trailing?

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  8. Good morning from Chucktown or Chastown or Charleston. It was a very special evening with the World Mag folks. The dinner cruise was blessed with the best of weather. This city is beautiful and even gave us an opportunity to use the talking GPS on this Smart Phone to get us back to our hotel. If anyone has a chance to go to one of these events that World puts on, it is worth the drive and effort. You will be finely dined, entertained in an intelligent manner and meet some like minded people.

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  10. Wow, did the video of the Handel Coronation Anthem ever bring back memories. I haven’t played or sung that particular work, but in this video, the first chair first violinist and the first chair cellist looked VERY much like friends of mine from college (both violinists) who were husband and wife and played in the university symphony, and in the string quartet I was a part of. AMAZING resemblance! I had to look this video up on YouTube to see if it might have actually been them playing in it, as the concertmaster looked just like my friend, who also was concertmaster in our symphony, and his wife, though she played violin in symphony, also plays cello.

    I see the video was uploaded April 18, 2011, which would have been about eight months before the death of my (male) friend. But I don’t think it was them, as I looked for where this was made, geographically, and I don’t think they would have had ties to the area I think it originated.

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  11. Borax works as well. I put it in my house to kill fleas and I haven’t had any bugs in well over a year. You sprinkle it around, let it sit for 8 hours then vacuum it up.

    I have nothing of interest to say, but lots to get done.

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  13. Surprise! It’s raining here. I believed the weatherman and didn’t bring a raincoat! The concierge, however, told me I could borrow one of their’s to see the Abbey.

    I bought a Burberry raincoat in London 29 years ago and thought, “I’m going to have to wear it 20 years to justify the cost!”

    My husband is volunteering to buy me a new one!

    I wonder if I’ll get 29 years out of it? Weird to think this is probably the last raincoat I’ll ever buy.

    But I’m going to need it on Monday when we visit the trenches . . . .

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  14. michelle, sounds like you’re having a grand trip — and the photos on fb were so much fun. Scotland! Castles! Ah.

    This week flew by for me — lots of stories to write (and 3 more again today) and I had a short day yesterday due to my dental cleaning and checkup.

    I told the dentist about Cowboy’s root canal from about a year ago (pulling the big canine teeth is actually a more complicated surgery & just about as expensive as repairing the tooth), we had a good eye-roll and laugh over just the idea of something like that. Root canals for dogs? Who knew? But doggie dentistry is a booming field in veterinarian medicine right now. They probably make more money than my people dentist does.

    And my hygienist regaled me with tales about their recent European trip which was fun (if there’s such thing as “fun” in a dentist chair while someone scrapes your teeth with a metal pick). Her husband, the chief pharmacist at our local CVS for years, finally retired a year or two ago, I think they’re in their early 70s now but very perky.

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  19. I asked the QoD yesterday, and since there isn’t a QoD yet for today that I can see, I guess I’ll just go ahead and be the QoD-asker again. That’s not illegal during the government shutdown, is it? 😉

    QoD in two parts: Do you make to-do lists? If so, how often do you get everything done on your list without having to transfer things to the next day’s (or week’s, or whenever’s) list?

    I have sort of a rhythm to the day, a general schedule that is written but isn’t usually followed in an exact manner. If I have several things to do that aren’t generally a part of the usual routine, I’ll make a list and try to get them checked off. I usually underestimate the time it takes to get it all done, though, so most of the time, I don’t get it all checked off for the day.

    I have a to-do list in my head right now for this day, so off I go. I’ll have to add one more thing to my list: remember to come back and see what your answers are. 😉

    Have a good day, everyone.

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  20. It’s Friday, everyone. And I get a three day weekend.

    I like the first cartoon (at this time) with the three main players in the shutdown fiasco wearing t-shirts saying it’s the other guy’s fault and a red arrow pointing towards the one they think is at fault. Boehner is in the middle with an arrow point both ways at Obama and Reid.

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  23. I always have a ‘to do’ list in my head. I have on my computer one for before we leave on a vacation and also one for what to bring. I will write one out, if I think it is necessary. I love crossing things off, however I am not a slave to one.

    My husband always thinks it is strange when I ask him his opinion of what we should do for dinner when it is breakfast time. The concept of having to plan ahead so that what you have is on hand, thawed etc. seems to escape him. Not sure if this is gender related or not.

    Retirement is a time for adjustment and schedules are one thing that may need to change or be more flexible I find. What does not get done, will at some point. At least I think it will. 😉

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  25. And there was much rejoicing!

    Tim from Athens Micro PC has solved the problem with my TigerStop software. Evidently, the software won’t copy files correctlysfrom a remote PC to the TigerServer PC unless the “PAI TigerServer” service is running under a user account rather than a system account. Now if TigerStop Techs would only take note and document this when users have trouble… Surprise

    I had this same issue when running this program under WinXP. You’d think I’d learn. You’d think even more that TigerStop Techs would learn…

    Anywho, I am much relieved! I feel like a ton of bricks has been lifted off my shoulders…

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  27. Evensong was lovely. Because I was alone (husband is still typing away on his trip report), they put me in the front row.

    Soaring voices boys choir in red robes with white ruffled collars. Reading from Job, “I know that my redeemer lives.”

    Thrilling to worship God, Jesus and Holy Spirit at a site where such worship has gone for over 1000 years.

    Stepped on Lloyd-George and Atlee’s graves on way out. Churchill’s is marked and more respected.

    I’ve visited Westminster Abbey five different times, but this was the first service. Sitting in a chair near the checker board floor, my eyes went up and up and up until my head touched the nape. The roof is very far away, even for me. What did people think 600 years ago?

    Lots of stained glass windows, saints staring down, monuments to famous people on the pillars, gorgeous choir stalls but Jesus, alas, seemed far away. It must be hard to attend a cathedral for worship.

    Last time I was here we went to St Paul’s on Sunday morning. Not a big crowd, great music, excellent sermon. When asked, someone said the real Christian life is not lived in the cathedral.

    Which makes sense.

    I think we’ll visit Notre Dame Sunday afternoon. I’ve never been there when Mass was not mobbed. Interesting.

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  28. Howdy. I see that the matter of my friends/neighbors/tenants came up yesterday, but I hadn’t caught up with comments.

    So here’s the deal. The husband (A, age approx. 56 or 57) works for a small business & thus does not make a lot of money. Wife (M, same age as A) used to be a waitress years ago, but the restaurant closed down, & after they moved here, she had trouble finding work. Then she didn’t have time to work because she was taking care of her ill mother, as well as helping a couple other elderly women throughout the week. Now she has recently gotten a part-time job at a local place, but only works a few hours each week until they open their addition, which is being worked on.

    Younger Daughter (YD, age 19) is in college, but also has a couple part-time jobs. (No, I don’t know how she is paying for college, but it is at a community college, so it’s not as expensive as a four-year college.) Older Daughter (OD, age 26) is the one we wonder about. She graduated from college about three years ago, with a degree in psychology, & hasn’t been able to find any job since then. I don’t know if she is being picky or if employers think she is “over-qualified” or what.

    Also, they always seem to have car problems, with the resultant big repair bills.

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  29. As for why they have so many pets while they have little income (which was brought up a while back)…They got their oldest cat about 14 years ago from a friend. Two years later, a man in their apartment building kicked out his pregnant cat, & she gave birth to a litter of five kittens in the yard of the apt. building. M & her daughters rescued the kittens before someone was due to mow the lawn, & kept them in the building’s basement. They were able to find homes for most of the kitties (our Peanut is one), & they let the girls keep one.

    A couple years after that, they bought a kitten for her sister (who’d recently lost her own beloved cat) for Christmas – but only with her sister’s & brother-in-law’s permission. Well, the brother-in-law is known as being sometimes unreasonable, & he changed his mind when Christmas rolled around. By that time, they had all fallen in love with the kitten, so they kept him. (He seems more like a dog in a cat suit. He loves attention, & he’s pretty big. 🙂 )

    Then when they moved here, we allowed them to have a dog, because they had all yearned for one for many years.

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  31. Home again, home again, jigedy-jog!We are back after about six hours. The weather was perfect both days. Yesterday not a cloud in the sky and today the little puffs of white clouds dotted the blue sky like an echo of the many fields of bursting cotton bolls we saw along Hwy. 78 and 278 in SC. I asked my husband if heaven was on a cloud would he choose to be on one of the larger ones which might be crowded or would he pick one of the smaller ones. There were so many to choose from. I know heaven is not on a cloud, BTW 🙂 It was just fun to consider. More productive thinking than thoughts about the government shutdown.

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  32. Karen, your tenants sound like very loving people. I can understand why you feel giving and tenderhearted toward them.. It has taken my brother almost two years of constant pursuit to land another job in his field. Times are really .tough for some people. It sounds as if most of them are doing the best they can given these times. Maybe all those who are believers in both of your families need to get together and have a time of seeking God’s guidance. I keep having the feeling that there is a solution that He has that is good for all but for whatever reason it has not yet been made known.

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  33. Janice – I feel that way, too.

    Someone else (6 Arrows, I think) asked if they would consider moving out of state. One issue with that would be the husband trying to find a job in his late 50s. The other issue is that M has her three sisters & their families here, & they are all very close. With one of them terminally ill, & another somewhat emotionally unstable, they don’t want to move out of state.

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  34. Karen, I probably should not have responded to your prayer request on October 8 with advice that you didn’t ask for. But I did, and there is just one follow-up detail related to something I said in my initial reply that I want to make clear. Then I will walk away from this conversation about your situation with your tenants. You are no doubt under a lot of stress right now, and I don’t want to pile on. This is spoken in love, as always, though you may hear some firmness in my tone.

    I spoke of how tension that is allowed to continue in a relationship can lead to the destruction of that relationship. I know that firsthand. I am usually a pretty patient person when it comes to dealing with family, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, etc. But there have been times when adverse situations involving some of these people went on for far too long, and I started losing my patience. However, I kept my impatience to myself as much as I could, rationalizing the situation in ways very similar to what you are saying: they’re having a rough time right now, due to [you name it] — finances, health, emotional attachments, difficult family relationships, the list could go on and on. I would continually squelch my growing feelings of frustration and try to ignore the problems that were mounting for my own family by being too afraid to be assertive for their sake and end the encroachment on our family life.

    Most of the time, when I started to get like that, feeling frustrated but not taking steps that I could have taken to remedy the situation sooner, God brought a resolution to the problem, and I never did let on to the people involved about how close I was to the snapping point.

    But there were two times in my life that I recall where I TOTALLY lost it around those with whom my frustration had built to anger. And in one of those cases, I destroyed relationships. And it was entirely preventable…if only I would have simply said the thing I practically screamed when I had come to the end of my rope. I won’t go into details about that time, but I assure you it was not pretty.

    That happened almost 15 years ago now. I was well into adulthood, and I never thought my frustration could build to such a level, when I’d gotten so good at pushing down my feelings and avoiding confrontation because I thought someone else had it worse.

    That is why I mentioned tension and its destructive effect on relationships, Karen. You and your entire family are under tension with this living arrangement. How long can you continue having your tenants living in your home before you reach the snapping point?

    You. don’t. know.

    And if you get to the bursting point and unleash months of frustration in a single moment (and don’t think it can’t happen, even if it never has), you could very well have a much longer and infinitely more distressing period of turmoil in the aftermath than you ever had in the build-up to the blow-up.

    Can you afford to lose a friendship that way? Can you afford to have a big family explosion over the tension? It is very easy to let our guard down around our family, and they frequently wind up taking the brunt of our stresses before outsiders who are actually the ones responsible for the stress do. It’s not the socially acceptable thing to do, to lose it with people who are not family.

    Too often, it’s the family that loses when we get to the point with others where we’ve absolutely had it.

    Please don’t let it get to that point, Karen. I understand your compassion and your loving heart. But I also hear your lament at how difficult this situation has gotten for your family. You have given and given and given. Please understand my perspective. You have ministered to these people in numerous and meaningful ways. Look at Jesus’ example. He came to minister. Yet He took breaks. It was not a failure of compassion on His part when He walked away from the needy crowds to be alone with His heavenly Father and to be refreshed by Him. And it is not wrong for you to call an end to your ministering to this family. Their situation will never be perfect, and it could get a whole lot worse if the end of your landlord/tenant relationship comes in abrupt haste and anger.

    That is all I will say. I will commit to prayer only, with no further comment on the subject. Blessings to you and your family, Karen.

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  36. Thank you for your loving concern, 6 Arrows.

    I think I will somehow gently let them know that we, too, would like them to move by the end of the year, if not sooner. Of course, I would like it to be sooner, but I think we could hang on until the end of the year, especially since the “wondering when” would be over. I think a large part of the current frustration is the not knowing “when”.

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  37. That was very well said, 6 Arrows.

    We all love you Karen, and want you and your family to survive this. Yes, you can make it a few more months. Knowing there is an end in sight makes a huge difference. Know that various of us are praying for you to be strong and to be patient.

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  39. Karen, thanks for filling us in on the back story. Circumstances (and people) sure look a lot different when we understand more about them, don’t they? Prayers for a good and timely resolution, you’ve done a good thing for them. 🙂 Blessings to you sister.

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  45. I love how we can share our thoughts and ideas with one another and know that what is said is said in love. Am praying and waiting to see what will happen with Karen’s situation. It’s so nice to see.
    I have one family member home, and hubby is on his way, should be here soon. Son comes tomorrow.
    And our windows arrived, so son can help us put them in!

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  51. Oh, you are all going away and it is only 2 in the afternoon. Who wants to talk?
    Good job, Aj. I don’t drink soda, though the ginger beer (soft drink) here is really good. But I have been trying to cut back. But then the store got all my favorite things.
    Hey, you took 49 and that’s the year I was born!
    oh, well, halfway to 100 🙂

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  60. Seriously, I don’t drink a lot of soda, 1 bottle spread out every two days at work, none (usually) on weekends. Good to know we have some soda police around here, though. That way we won’t get too out of line. 🙄

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