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Our Daily Thread 12-10-13

Good Morning!

15 Days Until Christmas!

On this day in 1520 Martin Luther publicly burned the Papal Bull (“Exurge Domine”). The papacy demanded that he recant or face excommunication.  Luther refused and was formally expelled from the church in January 1521.

In 1830 Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, MA. Only seven of her works were published while she was alive. 

In 1851 American librarian Melvil Dewey was born. He created the “Dewey Decimal Classification” system.

In 1901 the first Nobel prizes were awarded.

In 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for helping mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War.

And in 1964 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the youngest person to receive the award. 

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Quote of the Day

“It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen.”

George MacDonald

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Since today is Susan Dey’s birthday, we’ll start with the Partridge Family.

This one’s a request.

And Manheim Steamroller.

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Anyone have a QoD for us?

42 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 12-10-13”

  3. If I were working in Washington today, I could stay home and watch it snow.
    Surprisingly, I didn’t like that. Snow was more trouble than it was worth in Virginia.

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  5. I just got here. I was moving slow this morning. I am working on getting more and better sleep.
    I need to go into the office today for the Mega Meeting. Then another agent and I have to go finalize plans for the company Christmas party.
    My contacts in Pittsburgh and Richmond tell me there isn’t much to worry about snow wise. Ot os wet and cool here today. Makes for a nasty day.

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  6. It’s comin’ down pretty good now. Things have shifted a little north so we’re looking at the high end of predicted amounts. As they say, let it snow. 🙂

    My daughter is quite pleased because her teacher called a snow day. 🙂

    Cheryl’s home too, and dinner is about to go in the crockpot.

    Life is pretty good, and I’m thankful for it.

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  7. We’re getting our first real snow of the season (previously we’d only gotten a couple dustings), & Forrest is over-the-moon happy & excited about it. So grateful to be able to have a part in my little guy’s everyday life, & to see things through his eyes. 🙂

    AJ – Have a wonderful snow day with your ladies.

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  8. I feel compelled to share this with all of you. I have passed him and waived but did not know his full story. I also graduated from high school with the woman who is organizing this. I am sharing it here rather than the prayer thread but I would ask you to pray for this man. He had become one of our “local fixtures”

    Sometimes you see people and on a regular basis and say high or wave. You don’t know their name, their story but it’s familiar and comfortable. I remember the first time I saw this young man on the sidewalk. I initial thought when I saw him in a wheelchair outside a nursing home was how young he was. I assumed he was going through physical therapy of some sort. But over the years, I’d always wave and he’d always wave back. I wondered what he did with his day.

    I had a friend who worked there and asked him one day about the young man. He said he was a great guy, that I should stop one day and talk to him. That was over a year ago. I continued to pass him, wave and go on with my life. I started seeing him in different locations other than outside the nursing home recently. He’d make his way down Church Street and park his chair outside of construction sites. He was always covered up with blankets. I started of thinking about what I’d do if I couldn’t walk and spent most of my time alone. How would I feel? He never looked like he was down. He had come to terms with his condition and was making the best of the hand he was dealt.

    My sister called me last week and asked if I’d seen the man who was always out in his wheelchair and of course I told her yes, almost every day. She wouldn’t have the opportunity to pass him on her way to work but she often times rode her bike by him and he always waived. She said, “I want to do something for him.” I immediately said, “I do too!” She said that she just ran into Pam Hardison who has befriended him and gave us some details about what he had gone through and what he enjoys. His name is Charles White and he just turned 40 years old. His stepfather shot him in the back about 5 years ago and left him a paraplegic. This happened in Mobile but Charles is from VA and this is where his family lives.

    He wears blankets because he didn’t own a coat. Someone donated him a coat recently which made him cry. This broke my heart because I could have done this and more years ago if only I knew! Someone also donated a wheelchair to him fairly recently which has enabled him to travel around a few blocks to the construction sites. He enjoys spending time there because this is what he did for a living before he was shot. I have learned that the chair is on its last leg and he is in need of a good replacement, one that reclines and also allows him to stretch out his legs. We’d like to raise $5,000 before Christmas to not only raise money for a nice used chair, but to also pay for some incidentals.
    We also know that his rehabilitation has been discontinued. Without physical therapy his body will become week and stiff. He need PT, how to go about this I do not know but this is why we’re setting up this FB to open up his story to friends and family and get ideas.

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  9. I am not sharing this to ask you to make a donation or anything. I am sharing his story for you to pray for him and to also give you a little insight into a small, Southern town. 😉

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  12. I see its a north vs. south fight that michelle has now started …

    54 inside the house this morning when I got up. And the air is so dry my hands are chapped.

    I take Cowboy in this morning for his annual checkup, but am going to ask the vet to keep it simple (with regard to any blood work) since he looks & seems to feel good, is eating well and there are no obvious concerns. But I do want to ask about his weight, people at the dog park think he “feels” too thin (he has long hair but you can feel his ribs — which you’re supposed to be able to do on a dog — if you pet him).

    Interesting story about the young man in your town, Kim. I take it he has a place to live? Any family, close friends around him who provide something of a social network?

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  13. The homeless.

    Our church/Sunday School has taken an interest in the local homeless population. A couple of weeks ago a pair of homeschooled sisters prevailed upon their parents to make 41 sack lunches and hand them out to some of our local homeless. It seems like a good idea.

    Now, one of our adult Sunday School classes (mine) has talked about this for 2 weeks. We are still talking. Should we just do something? Peanut butter and jam is relatively cheap. Add a piece of fruit and a drink (hot?), still not very much money.

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  14. Crescent City is in a humid but cool/cold area of CA. Here is our weather for the next couple of days.

    http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=41.826275581991354&lon=-124.14894104003906#.UqdM1KUw2qR

    It will stay very moist for the foreseeable future. If you are homeless you will not get much of a chance to get/stay dry. There are reports of 2 deaths from exposure so far.

    If you go to the green square on the map and magnify it on the satellite setting you can even seen our house.

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  16. Donna, he is living in a local nursing home. His mother is in West Virginia and unable to travel. I don’t know about a social network. I just know I see him in various places around town siting in his wheel chair. We used to have an old guy who sat in one of the rocking chairs up at the hardware store. He died a few years back. They have moved one of the rocking chairs at the hardware store and have made room for his wheelchair

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  17. Balmy weather there at Mumsee’s. 😉 Wow, eighteen degrees before eight in the morning? We’re at twelve degrees this afternoon. It was below zero when I went to bed last night.

    That’s still warm compared to one week I remember from my college years, when the daytime temperatures hardly got above minus twenty for around a week or slightly more. When the temperature finally got to zero and the single digits above, it felt like shorts and tee shirts weather!

    Okay, slight exaggeration, but it was nice to leave the negative numbers behind. 🙂

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  23. Donna, your “green house” comment reminded me of one time, way back when in grade school, when we were learning about parts of speech. Our teacher asked us what part of speech “greenhouse” was. One classmate answered, “A verb.”

    The teacher then asked the student if he would come up to the front of the class and “greenhouse” for us. 🙂

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  24. …no one in northern California knows how to drive when the roads aren’t safe.

    Those of us from other places who have driven in California think the roads are never safe in. Once while visiting my college brother in San Diego there was a thick fog. My dad commented how crazy the drivers on I-8 were driving at 70 mph in the fog. Now my dad wasn’t the safest driver. He learned in New York City and still has some of the old habits.

    Another time I was in New York for my grandmother’s funeral. I was riding into the city with my Uncle, who was (and still is) living in San Diego (NYC-Tucson-SD transplant). While sitting in a typical traffic jam, moving about 2 mph, I jokingly asked him what the difference between a NY and Calif traffic jam. He said, “In New York it’s bumper-to-bumper at 5 mph. In California it’s bumper-to-bumper at 70.”

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  26. I’m an ISFP and am most like John Tavener. I’ve never heard of him. My favorite composer is either Mozart, Bach or Handl, all of whom fall into the extrovert category. I guess I’ll have to investigate this Tavener guy. Off to Amazon I go.

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  29. Donna, wow, those weather reports make us cold just watching them. (OK, really they make us all laugh at you guys, but you knew that.) We have a little bit of snow on the ground, quite a wind, and even a certain rough collie is barking rather urgent “ready to come in now” barks after about five minutes outside.

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  31. I laugh at all of you and your cold! It’s been -29F or colder here for the last 2 weeks or so, with at least another week still to go. 🙂 I really don’t know what Californians would do up here. Even the winter tires feel square some mornings, but you plug in your vehicle, start it 15 minutes before you actually start driving (that’s for safety – wouldn’t want to hit the ditch and be cold right at the start), carry a down sleeping bag, food, water, candles, matches, extra winter outerwear, a shovel and blankets, wear long underwear and down filled coats with hats, scarves and mitts. I did enjoy watching that clip though! I think we Saskatchewanians are proud of our ability to live through this cold!

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  35. I’m INFJ married to ISFJ.

    You have to understand this to know what I mean by the little tale below.
    I like going to MB. I have some things that I like to do there. It takes me about three days and I’m full of it and want to go home. That’s the reason that, on our spring jaunts to the beach, We go down on Friday. I go home on Monday and Elvera’s sisters come down to join her for the rest of the week.
    We got to the beach Friday. We did the things we like to do together.
    Here it is Tuesday. We are sitting at Chick-fil-a having a sandwich, and salad. It is a little after noon. I asked Elvera what she wanted to do now. It is cold and rainy. She said, “I have no idea.” I said, “If we leave by two, we can get home about seven, not allowing for stopping for dinner, etc.
    She said, “OK”, So We left at 1:50 and, stopping for dinner, etc., we rolled into our driveway exactly at eight.
    So here we are. She is happy to be in her Lazy Boy, watching her Tuesday evening program..

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  36. Mumsee, I went back to Phoenix once during a winter month, possibly December. And I noticed something I had never noticed while I lived there: some trees had leaves, some trees were leafless, some were in the process of losing their leaves, and some were in the process of regrowing their leaves. In other words, there is probably no single week in Phoenix (or other warm climates) where all the deciduous trees are leafless. They lose their leaves for a month or two to take a nap, but they nap at different times.

    So when I moved to Chicago, where about every other yard has a tree and where trees are leafless a full six months (!) out of every year, I found it amusing when people asked how I could stand living in Phoenix without any trees. We had an eighth of an acre lot with my childhood home, and it had three trees in the front yard (including a huge male mulberry) and usually four in the backyard (over the course of the 15 years we lived there, the backyard trees varied a bit, but we had up to three mulberries–two in later years–and an orange tree when I was little and later a willow tree). That’s seven trees in an eighth of an acre, or 56 trees per acre, and some of them had leaves year-round (willow, orange, cedar), and the mulberries had leaves for at least ten months of the year. In Chicago, a house I lived in for eight years had one evergreen in the front yard initially (later chopped down) and one very scrawny peach tree in the backyard. Nashville is greener than Phoenix, I’ll grant that, but Chicago isn’t!

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  42. Well, if you are tired of the extemes and God is calling you to the mission field, we have lots of room and work here. And don’t think you can say no because of age. An 80 year old fellow just came and served for 3 months. Think spring and fall with no winter or summer. Of course, if you go to the coast you will be plenty hot.

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