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Our Daily Thread 10-15-13

Good Morning!

On this day in 1815 Napoleon Bonaparte began his exile on the remote island of St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1860 Grace Bedell, 11 years old, wrote a letter to presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln. The letter stated that Lincoln would look better if he would grow a beard.

In 1937 “To Have and Have Not” by Ernest Hemingway was published for the first time.

In 1951 “I Love Lucy” premiered on CBS-TV.

And in 1962 the Cuban Missile Crisis began. It was on this day that U.S. intelligence personnel analyzing data discovered Soviet medium-range missile sites in Cuba. On October 22 U.S. President John F. Kennedy announced that he had ordered the naval “quarantine” of Cuba.

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Quote of the Day

“Life becomes inspiring, not in spite of the problems and the hard hits, but because of them.”

Joni Eareckson Tada

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Today is Barry McGuire’s birthday.

It’s also Jaci Velasquez’s as well.

And here’s some Lucy, with “The William Tell Overture” as background music.

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Anyone have a QoD?

46 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 10-15-13”

  1. Good Morning! The month is about half over. The cooler weather is welcome. I am getting in the mood for baking again. Pumpkin bread sounds good and will bless us with a lovely fragrance in addition to its taste.

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  2. Welcome to the end of Tuesday. Another inspiring evening of worship and message. We sang together the hymn “God will Take Care of You” Very sweet. I wanted to share how I have also found that he takes care of my children and grandchildren while I am far away.

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  6. I love Lucy too. The bit about the spaghetti reminded me about Saturday when we had dinner at Red Lobster in Spartanburg. I ordered a shrimp plate with shrimp cooked three ways, fried, boiled in some concoction, and mixed in spaghetti. My spaghetti experience was similar. Only I bit it off with my teeth. Indelicate but effective. There is no delicate way to eat spaghetti.

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  7. I loved Lucy. She came on in the afternoon when I was a child. It was in color with her children and Gale Gordon. Later I discovered the I Love Lucy show on late night TV. I had a cat named Lucy. I even bought a Scholastic book about her. She had fillings in her teeth that picked up radio signals at some point. I want to say she helped catch a spy, but that is an old memory.
    I also discovered Burns and Allen on late night tv. He said she made him look good.
    Good, clean shows that have stood the test of time. I doubt anyone in 50 years will be watching re-runs of Keeping up with the KarTRASHians.

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  10. Just learned this…

    If you think that telemarking calls have increased despite being on the Do Not Call list, it’s not your imagination. Apparently they are ignoring the Do Not Call list. The FTC reports that complaints have risen 54% this year.

    A pox on these “businesses” and the people who work for them. I rank ’em right down there with hackers, spammers, and scum who write virus programs.

    I’ve been answering the phone all this morning, and the telemarketers are driving me batty.

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  11. Someone on Facebook posted the following saying in relation to parenting: The days are long but the years are short. I find this to be so true. My eldest will be in high school next fall and I find myself wondering where the time has gone. But, oh those long days in the first three years of life–I do not miss them! I’ve never been a woman who goes gaga over babies–I really enjoy my children more now than when they were tiny. But, it is hard to realize I only have four more birthdays with L. at home. I’m feeling a bit nostalgic this morning…probably due to my lack of sleep last night…I’m always more emotional when I’m tired.

    I loved Lucy, too! She was hilarious! Prime time today has become so filthy that we still restrict what my 14 year old watches. She has never seen a prime time television show. We gave her more freedom to choose what she watches when she turned 14 in September, but she has chosen not to watch them after reading the reviews and warnings about content. This makes me very happy, as I feel it is a wise choice.

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  12. makeitman: We’ve been inundated by telemarketers recently and supposedly we are on the Do Not Call List. It’s maddening, especially in the evening when I’m trying to get Becca to bed or do homework or otherwise engage with my family. I will not give money to any organization that calls me at home, as I don’t want to encourage the behavior. I especially hate the computerized calls. I get quite a few from some Christian movie making organization that wants me to buy their products. It’s a computer that pretends to be a real person. It makes me mad.

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  14. I got the anniversary books, and for all the glitches with making them, they look nearly perfect! (One background cover photo should have been a little bit lighter, some photos could have been cropped a little differently, small stuff like that.) Tears came into my eyes as I looked through them. Making them was basically a full-time job for three weeks, and that is after I’d already spent months compiling the text and editing it in in Word! But they’re beautiful, and I hope my husband loves them as much as I do. I also ordered a small book of photos of Misten to check their color printing, and it’s very nice too. (I want to make photo books for a family reunion next year, and wanted to see if the “cheap” books will work for that purpose; they will! There were several photos of people in the book, so I figured it would be a decent test book, and it was less than ten bucks for a 50-page book; I was already paying for shipping, so it seemed like a good add-on.)

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  15. I suppose it’s the one advantage of cable & the proliferation of stations that we’re not “stuck” with prime time shows per se anymore. I don’t even know what the shows are (although I do watch NCIS & NCIS LA on Tuesdays, the only “regular” prime time programs I see). I remember I Love Lucy and all other black-and-white rerun shows (anyone remember “I Married Joan”?) being on weekday mornings and watching them when I stayed home sick from school.

    As for telemarketers, caller ID takes care of most of that (and they never leave messages). But I’m surprised on weekdays when I’m home for some reason at how often the old landline rings with what are mostly those kinds of calls (friends now use my cell).

    The relative who’s doing genealogy, meanwhile, is becoming a bit of a pest, emailing me the other day after calling — and then calling AGAIN this morning. !

    Glad I didn’t give him my cell number, which I almost did.

    I see Harry Reid is talking right now about the shutdown and how horrible Republicans are, but my TV is on mute. 🙂 I do love the mute button.

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  16. Caller ID vis a vis telemarketers works against me. My cell phone (my only phone) is provided by my employer so when I call people, the company name shows up on their caller ID. No one ever answers.

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  17. Re. robo calls. When I pick up the phone and say “Hello” I wait about three seconds then hang up. Anyone who wants to talk to me usually speaks up immediately. If it takes longer than three seconds, he is looking for the name he is connected to.

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  18. I’ll have to see what some of the conservative Catholic bloggers I follow are saying more recently (they’ve pretty staunchly defended the new pope so far), but this article indicates some traditionalists are beginning to raise some questions about the comments of Pope Francis:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/conservative-catholics-question-pope-franciss-approach/2013/10/12/21d7f484-2cf4-11e3-8ade-a1f23cda135e_story.html

    “’When [abortion rights group] NARAL sends you a thank-you note, it’s clear something got miscommunicated,’ said Robert Royal, president of the D.C. think tank Faith & Reason.

    “Francis is ‘a remarkable man, no one would deny that,’ Royal said. ‘But I’m not sure if he cares about being accurate. … ‘”

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  19. Chas, yes, there is a brief delay (not sure they’re looking anything up, but I think the connection somehow automatically pauses when it’s a robo call like that). Then you know it’s one of “them.”

    If I’m faked out and answer the phone (despite caller ID — sometimes it’ll say ‘private caller’ which is how some of my older friends show up, too), I hang up, too, when I notice that dead space of a pause.

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  20. I believe you fall off the Do Not Call list every so many years. As luck would have it, I just received one and am holding to tell them to take me off their list.
    Unfortunately when they did this they included real estate agents as telemarketers

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  22. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to ensure that those debts are cancelled. I’ve got a friend who has been battling one for years. It looks like the only way to fix the problem is just to pay it off.

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  23. Cautionary tale about pop stardom from Breakpoint today …

    http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/23572

    “Someone who understands this all too well is Billy Ray Cyrus, Miley’s dad. Five years ago, he believed his family’s Christian faith would protect them from the temptations of celebrity. Well, it didn’t turn out that way. And so in 2011, he told GQ magazine that he deeply regrets the decision to let his daughter became a child celebrity. He says that the decision ‘destroyed [his] family,’ and if he could, he’d ‘take it back in a second.’

    “Well sadly, he can’t. But his honesty can serve as a warning to other Christian parents whose children dream of being celebrities. You may think you’re the exception and that somehow being a celebrity will ‘glorify’ God.

    “Don’t fool yourself. It could hardly be otherwise. What Jesus said about the dangers of wealth is just as true about celebrity in our postmodern age, and for most of the same reasons: It distorts our sense of self, both in relationship to others and to God.

    :”And that’s before we take into account the hyper-sexualized nature of most of pop culture…. “

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  24. I ruled out a Catholic school yesterday. It just seemed too legalistic for my taste. And, to be honest, I couldn’t get over all the prayers to Mary on the wall. I don’t think it would be a good fit for my Becca. I’m visiting two schools tomorrow and one on Thursday. Hopefully, one of them will be a good fit, as I’m running out of options. The two tomorrow look really good on their websites and come highly recommended. One is Lutheran and the other is a smaller, non-denominational school. Both look like they’d be very loving, nurturing environments.

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  25. Good article, Donna. It’s so sad what has happened with Miley. My oldest daughter watched Hannah Montana and has been saddened by the new, post-Disney version of Miley.

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  26. Pastor Roy, you have a solid idea for your blog and have chosen wisely on the supporting Bible verses. I am able to understand your posting because I am familiar with your writing, however, others who are new to the site need some explanation about your challenges of getting things keyed in properly or else you need a good editor to help you with it. Many of the people on AJ’s blog have very full lives and may not have time to add another blog site to their routine, so I think you will have to make your site newbie friendly. So hopefully you can locate an editor or at the least, you need that explanation up front before your daily post is seen. I hope my thoughts are helpful, and I do wish success for you on this new endeavor.

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  28. Telemarketers: we’ve tried different things. Caller ID to screen calls works sometimes. But you have to go over to the phone to see who’s calling, and that can be a pain when the telemarketing calls are frequent.

    There was a time several years ago where we were getting tons of those calls, so whenever one came, if there was a live person at the other end, I would grab my viola, which was already out of its case, with the bow hairs tightened, and I would lay down the phone nearby and pull the bow across the strings, beginning-string-player style (read: BAD SCRATCHING NOISE). 😯 I don’t know if it deterred them from calling me again, but it was pretty entertaining for me! 😉

    Other times, when my husband answered, if 5th Arrow was in the vicinity, he would hand the phone to young son, who, in his younger days, would talk a blue streak about whatever was presently on his mind. We’d hear the poor, confused person on the other end of the line trying to get answers to his/her questions, and we’d all sit and laugh in the background, and hang up the phone for 5th Arrow when we heard the phone-off-the-hook signal. 🙂

    My dad has asked telemarketers where they’re calling from, and when they say, he’ll say, “OH! Say, do you know Joe Smith? He lives on Main Street. Oh, he’s quite a guy! Did you hear about the time he…” He usually didn’t have to go much further before they hung up on him!

    One more: friends of ours with a spunky daughter has answered the phone in her cheery voice “[Their family name] Telemarketers!”

    Hope that helps. 😉

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  30. I just got off the phone earlier this afternoon with a gentleman from India who informed me that a review of my medical records shows I had a blood clot that I got as a result of taking birth control pills. 🙄

    But you know me, I played along for a while, before I finally asked him if I really sounded like a woman on the phone?

    He said “Oh no Sir.”

    To which I replied, “Then why on earth would I be taking birth control pills?” 🙂

    That’s a shame too, as it turns out I’d be entitled to a huge cash award according to their records. I could’ve certainly used it.

    It would have allowed me to have enough cash to send to this Nairobian prince who sent me an email. He guarantees me a 400% return on my money. And it must be true because it’s the internet, and everyone knows if it’s on the internet it must be true. 🙄

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  31. Chas,

    No, some are just trying to make a legitimate dime, but a lot are just plain criminals.

    There’s another one from India who calls and asks for the person in charge of the computer. They say they are from Windows tech support and must be allowed remote access to the computer in order to fix a security issue that could put me at risk of identity theft. They then have you log onto a website and they steal your identity from computer records they download from your PC. That’s criminal.

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  32. Pastor Roy, your blog looks good. I would second Janice’s suggestion of an editor to help you with spelling, grammar, and other challenges. You are handling such important subject matter, the Word of God, which deserves a clear, distraction-free presentation for the reader. Numerous linguistic errors in your posts would be a distraction to many readers, making it harder to focus on the message you wish to impart. I do think more readers would be able to get to the meat of your posts if you had some assistance with grammar and other related details.

    Blessings to you with your blogging venture. You are doing an important thing.

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  36. This is a late rant that could have gone on Rants & Raves this past weekend. The other night when Second Arrow (20-year-old daughter) was stranded alongside the interstate after she blew a tire, you know Hubby and 5th Arrow went to assist. After they got home that night, Hubby told me that 2nd Arrow had said that at one point, a cop stopped to see if she needed help. She told him that help was coming. So he left.

    Hubby was mad that the cop didn’t stay until the help arrived. It was either dark or almost dark while she waited, and hubby (and I, too) believe he shouldn’t have left an unattended young woman there to wait under those circumstances.

    Maybe I’m just old-fashioned, or perhaps that cop had somewhere else he had to be (though I doubt it, or he probably wouldn’t have stopped), but it seems like the idea of men protecting women who may be in a vulnerable situation is getting to be a lost concept. 😦

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  37. I may have said this before, but sometimes I don’t like sharing the weight room with the guys. Then I realized that every guy in there would do whatever it took to protect me. Reassuring

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  38. 6 Arrows, I am thinking that the police officer would not be able to justify staying unless he was specifically asked. It could possibly appear that he was staying with her against her wishes if she did not ask. Was it a single officer or were there two in the car? That might make a difference, too.

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  39. Janice, I don’t know any other details aside of what I shared, so I’m not sure how many officers there were. But aren’t squad cars equipped with cameras, that if a person along the highway falsely accused an officer of something, there would be visual documentation that that was not so? What would be the harm of an officer in a case like the one with my daughter simply waiting in his car, with camera on, until it could be correctly verified that the help had come, and the young woman was left in safe hands?

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  40. Anyway…I didn’t mean to kill the thread…

    In happier news, 6th Arrow has been my right-hand helper today. She decided that she wanted to be responsible for getting everyone’s breakfast this morning. I had eaten earlier, but she took the orders for the others that were here, prepared their requests to the best of her ability, and served it to them. She did very well. I’m proud of the little homemaker this delightful six-year-old daughter of mine is becoming. 🙂

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  41. ANN DANGER DANGER DANGER Having attended a school that got lost on it’s doctrine I would steer clear of the non denominational school. At least with a Lutheran or even Catholic school you know what their theology is and you can either agree or or de-program your child. With a non-denominational you have now idea what they are teaching and the damage they could do to your child. I don’t wear it on my sleeve but I carry a lot of damage from attending an Independent Methodist Church School. If at all possible go with the Lutheran. Their beliefs are posted all over the internet. You cannot tell what kind of whack job is in charge of the other school.

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  45. Ann, well, I haven’t taught her a whole lot in the food-preparation department. The breakfasts she got together were pretty much cold cereal and heating up some of last night’s leftovers 😉 I was pleased with her heart for serving most of all. She gets ideas and wants to follow through all by herself, and that is a good thing.

    The rest of the story is that when everyone had eaten (and we don’t all eat breakfast at the same time, generally, which is something I’d like to change, but we haven’t been very good about that) and people had dispersed, 6th Arrow was standing in the living room, and the thought occurred to me that she might not have eaten! So I asked her, and sure enough, she’d been so busy filling other people’s requests, she herself never took the time to eat. Kind of like a busy mom who gets wrapped up in the others and forgets about herself now and then 😉 Anyway, 3rd Arrow heard her say she hadn’t eaten, so she offered to serve 6th Arrow her breakfast. Good deeds spurring on more good deeds. Life at its best. 🙂

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  46. Here’s quite a lovely nocturne (night song) to end the day. Not all of you will see this post at night, but it’s a beautiful piece whenever you listen to it!

    Good night, all.

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