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Our Daily Thread 4+10=14

Good Morning!

Todays header photo is a big, slobbery fella we met at the park yesterday. 🙂

On this day in 1814 Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Toulouse by the British and the Spanish.

In 1849 Walter Hunt patented the safety pin.

In 1912 the Titanic set sail from Southampton, England. 

In 1930 the first synthetic rubber was produced. 

And in 1963 129 people died when the nuclear-powered submarine USS Thresher failed to surface off Cape Cod, MA. 

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Quote of the Day

“I can never get rid of “The Rifleman,” and I don’t want to. It’s a good image.”

Chuck (Kevin Joseph) Connors

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Today is Lesley Garrett’s birthday. From, and accompanied by,  PeterboroughMVChoir

And it’s Brian Setzer’s too. You know I love that. 🙂

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Anyone have a QoD for us today?

45 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 4+10=14”

  1. Morning all. More rain today just as school was dismissed. The drains were able to handle it though as it wasn’t quite torrential. One of our maintance fellows spent the whole day clearing mud off the basketball court and still isn’t done.

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  2. Hi Jo. ‘Bout time for you to be racking out now.
    It has come to the point that I open the blog in the mornings wondering what the picture will be.
    Does that affect any of you that way? Aj has us trained now that we anticipate the picture??

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  5. Good Morning Everyone. Just my daily check in. I wondered who the handsome fella was. I love having a photo of the day. It has been really nice to see what you have shared.

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  6. Good morning!

    I had a terrible migraine yesterday, so Becca had an unexpected day off. Connie,(our nanny for nine years), had mercy on me and came and got her for the entire day, so I was able to lie in bed. When I tried to pay her for her time, she refused, saying she really just wanted to help me out. She is planning on returning to El Salvador in about a year; I will miss her terribly, as will Becca.

    Well, my sister missed her flight and isn’t coming after all 😞. She was coming to attend a mother/daughter weekend at her eldest’s college, but can’t get here in time now. So, I guess I’ll be headed to Belton tomorrow to fill in for her.

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  8. From yesterday’s thread: I have a black thumb. Fortunately, Hubby is better with plants, so we have lots of flowers outside.

    And, regarding dreams when you have to go: when I was about nine, I had a dream three nights in a row that I was sitting on a toilet. It was so real, I went, awakening to a soiled nightgown and mattress. After three days, it never happened again. But I remember being terrified that I’d wet the bed during a sleepover. My mom was very kind to me about my accidents.

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  9. Janice from yesterday: “Shall We Gather At The River” is one of my favorite songs. I first became familiar with that in my first year of teaching in public school. I had an 8th grade student in my choir, a young man, who had the clearest, most beautiful voice I’d ever heard. He had done a Class C song for Solos and Ensembles the previous year, and had sung so well, his vocal instructor that year encouraged him to skip the Class B level and jump up to Class A, the most challenging.

    So when I heard that he had been told that, I looked over the music that the school already had that was on the Class A Boys Unchanged or Changing Voices list, and “Shall We Gather” was the one we chose.

    He went to the local contest, singing that song, got the highest rating possible, which qualified him for State, and went on to get the highest rating there, too.

    Every time I hear that song, I think of him and hear that gorgeous voice in my mind.

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  10. Busy day ahead, and I think I might be done feeling sick, as I have been off and on for about the last week. I’m behind on several fronts, so I’m trying to do a little catch-up today.

    Blessings on your day.

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  11. My husband has been tutoring a first grader, Raul, in reading since Christmas. On Monday, he took a copy of Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the bed by Eileen Christelow.

    Raul was so excited, he couldn’t sit still–jumping up like the characters in the book, but R reminded him they had to finish their work before he could read the book.

    He loved it, of course, and R came home beaming. We made plans to find more books by Christelow from the library.

    Yesterday, the program director called R to tell him Raul had died.

    We have no details, know nothing, but we’ve all been sobering thinking of a six-year-old who had one exciting morning with a book, in a life lived far too short.

    Pray with us for the family. Hold your kids close. Read them terrific stories that make them squirm with joy.

    I’ll write about the Thresher later. That event, of course, changed my life before I even knew anything about submarines.

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  12. Linda,

    Sent you a message on Facebook about our trip to your area later this month. You can message me back, or you can email me. I left my email in the message.

    Now I will just pretend the O’s didn’t take 2 of 3. 🙂

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  14. michelle, that is so sad. 😦

    Feeling overwhelmed with things I need to do today, I have a 1 p.m. interview/photo assignment that’s been tricky to set up followed by my 6-mo. dental cleaning. I also need to drop the property tax payment in the mail this morning to make sure it’s postmarked today. It’s financial crunch time for me in April every year with that and other annual expenses due.

    And I just received a msg from someone about our mutual friend who has Parkinson’s, asking me what I’ve heard lately (she’s been out of town) — which set of a round of guilt because I’ve not been in touch with him as I should have been.

    Nice dog pic, AJ. And cat antics — Annie was tearing around here last night, flying up onto the top of her cat tree (I thought it was going to tip over).

    We’re socked in with fog this morning, the fog horns in the harbor have been moaning for hours and someone posted a pic from out at the cliffs this morning, there’s a gray wall where the ocean usually is. But that’s good, it will bring our temperatures down a bit (we’ve been in the 80s for several days now, a bit too warm for my tastes).

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  15. Oh, Michelle, what a sad thing to hear! Praying for your husband and Raul’s family.

    Some wonderful answers to prayer on here.

    I once had a dog just like that one grab my forearm with his teeth. I was walking along a sidewalk leading to the door into a home where I was going to babysit some children. My arm stopped swinging, when I felt those teeth and looked at that dog. Fortunately, the mother was standing in the doorway waiting for me. She called out to the dog and he dropped my arm. I believe he was only being protective.

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  18. As I mentioned on here once, I think, I’m putting together a book of bird photos. It’s going to be 240 pages, with several different sections (flying, eating, courting, etc.) and then a bunch of pages focusing on individual birds, with text and photos about specific species. Anyway, this morning I saw what looked like an excellent chance to get photos for the courtship section, so I grabbed my camera.

    Two flickers were on the ground very close together; I’m not sure I’ve ever seen two at one time before, but there they were. I couldn’t tell which one was the male (males have a “mustache”), but I didn’t worry about it, figuring I’d be able to figure that out once I got the photos on my screen. They’d face each other for several seconds, then one would do a little dance and so would the other. I thought they’d end up mating, but then one flew off and the other did too. And to my surprise, when I pulled up the pictures on my computer, both were indeed females. It seems (according to what I found online) that flickers are quite territorial, and either sex will perform that dance with another of its sex, and either one will eventually fly off or they’ll fight. So I guess the photos are going in “conflict” instead of “courtship.” But they’re girl birds! I’ve seen male birds get all territorial, and if they had been two males I wouldn’t have been surprised. But it just didn’t occur to me they might both be females.

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  19. Michelle, that is SO sad. A boy in my son’s kindergarten class died and none of us parents were ever feeling as secure after that young death. The boy was a spitting image of his dad and we had all been together at school for a gathering right before Thanksgiving. Over break Alex died. I wrote my feelings down in a poem. You and your husband may want to do that.

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  21. Michelle: that is so sad. Reminds us all how fragile life really is. We say “I love you” multiple times to each other throughout the day, but I can’t imagine losing one of my kids…
    I don’t know how I’d keep going. I will pray for the family and for y’all.

    The other day, y’all were discussing female vanities. Maybe it’s the South, but everyone I know wears makeup and 75% color their hair (me included!). I also get my eyebrows and lips waxed every two weeks. I only wear makeup for church and dates and special occasions. I don’t like the way it feels and Hubby doesn’t like much anyway. He does like me to “get dressed” before he comes home (in something cute–not sweatpants!). I know that sounds very 1950-ish, but it works for us. Some days, of course, I’m in sweatpants.

    I’ve also had Botox, both for migraines and aesthetics. It didn’t help the migraines, but my forehead hadn’t looked that good since 25!!! I also get the occasional massage… Pretty indulgent, I know…But, they feel magical!

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  22. Good Morning everyone….that is a sweet looking slobbery mess of a dog AJ 🙂
    Michelle that is truly heartbreaking…I will keep you all in my heart and prayers…so thankful your husband was blessed to touch the heart and life of one of His little ones…I am certain those times will be treasured deep within your hearts
    And I’m off to enjoy this beautiful Spring day…Ps. 145:3 Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom……

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  23. And because I appear to be the blue bird of happiness today, I’ll now tell you the story of the USS Thresher (SSN-593). (And thanks for the writing prompt, AJ, I’ll write about it in my blog tomorrow).

    The Thresher was going through overhaul at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. I don’t remember how long she’d been there (I was only seven when this happened and obviously not paying attention). She went out on her sea trials, in which ships accompany her, lots of extra Shipyard experts rode her and the initial trials were monitored by people on the surface–listening and in constant communication with the crew.

    They took her down slowly, ensuring there were no problems, but when she got to “test depth,” (Whatever that is, my in-house submariner only says, “submarines can go lower than 400 feet.”), problems arose. They spoke of “blowing” the boat (which means emptying all the ballast tanks and flying up out of the water: see the movie The Hunt for Red October.), followed by one more garbled message and that was it.

    The people on the surface, according to the stories I’ve heard (though Wikipedia doesn’t report it), heard the boat breaking up.

    It was the first submarine the US Navy lost and sent shock waves through the fleet. The good that came of it was many, many refinements and corrections in safety were made to the nuclear boats. My husband joined the fleet 15 years later, and spoke often about “sub-safe” requirements.

    The Thresher accident’s aftermath also touched me. The CACO (Casualty Assistance Calls Officer)–the man who visited all the now-widowed Navy wives–never got over the experience and he spoke to my husband’s class and their wives. He got us twenty-something mostly newly wed women into a room during our visit to submarine officer school, and lectured us about submarine life. His first words?

    “The best way to become a good Navy wife is to learn how to be a widow.”

    We all gasped, and he went to explain how horrified he was to meet all those Thresher wives who didn’t know anything about taking care of themselves. They didn’t know anything about insurance, managing money, etc.

    Being the ridiculous researcher that I am, I followed directions and did a study on how to be a good widow. I read books about widowhood and what to prepare for ahead of time. We made a plan of what I would do if my husband died.

    Fortunately, I never had to execute the plan, but this is what has stayed with me all these years: “do nothing the first year. Your objective is to survive. Make no major decisions. Do not sell your house or car unless you absolutely have to. Get trusted advisors and listen to them. After a year, take a trip away from where you live and think about what you want to do with your life. Then make your plan and move forward.”

    I’ve passed this information on for years. I’m glad I have it but am even more thankful I’ve never had to use it–thanks to the USS Thresher.

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  25. Michelle, after my dad died, my mom came to me one day. I was 17. She said, “The experts say not to make any major decision within the first year after a death. But your dad and I were already talking about moving. Do you think it would be wiser to wait till the end of a year to make that decision?” I said something like, “No, Dad was the only one who liked it here, and we don’t really have many friends here. I would think it would make more sense to move.” My dad never liked it in Phoenix, so Mom and Dad were “compromising”; rather than move back to Phoenix, they were looking at small towns, a town for Mom and so that we kids would have places to find jobs, but a small town since Dad didn’t want a big city. After Dad died, there was no further need to “compromise,” so we moved to the Phoenix suburbs. Mom did probably make one mistake, though–she thought she’d lose too much money trying to sell the mobile home on the lot, so she paid to have it moved. Later she said it would have probably made more sense to have taken the financial loss up front than to pay to have it moved 175 miles or so, including through some mountains.

    When my brother-in-law died suddenly, leaving my sister with five children under 15, all of us counseled her to get rid of the untrustworthy van that it was OK for her husband to drive, or OK for her to drive when she had a husband who could come get her if she broke down, but that was not OK for a single mother of five dependent children to have as her main transportation. On his income they couldn’t afford to replace it; with his life insurance, they could, and it was important to do so.

    Overall, the counsel is sound. But sometimes some of these decisions make sense, too.

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  26. Peter, and yesterday would have been my mom’s 93rd birthday.

    Missing her still, even though she’s been gone now for 24 years.

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  28. Good advice, Michelle. Being divorced I had to deal with a lot. I took care of all the finances, so that was no problem, just how to safeguard them. God enabled me to stay in the same home which really helped the two kids left.

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  30. AnnMS: you asked about Voddie Baucham the other day. Today I saw an announcement for a Christian homeschool convention entitled Teach Them Diligently. VB is one of the speakers. The convention is in several places around the country, including in Dallas in June. Not sure if you’ve heard of that, or registered, but here is some information if you’re interested.

    http://teachthemdiligently.net/index.php

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  31. I’m thankful to have parents who are still living, at ages 73 and 84. My in-laws are also with us — at ages 78 and 85 — a real blessing.

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  32. How I love the smell of fresh air in the house…opened up all the windows and let the breezes blow through!
    Lost my dear father in law 21 years ago…what a blessing he was…his is sorely missed…mom in law died 2 years ago…one month before my Daddy passed away..
    My sweetest dearest brother in law died 9 months before my mother in law…he had fallen from a ladder as he attempted to clean out the gutters…it was sudden and a shock to us…he was 63…that made it for a rough year that year….oh what a day it will be when all get together once again! 🙂

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  33. Back home from the dentist — I did better this time (flossing-wise). 🙂 Took X-rays last time, so I was able to get in and out within an hour, the cleaning went fairly quick (and was accompanied by a nun joke — by hygienist is a long-time volunteer at the local Little Sisters of the Poor home).

    I was sorry to hear that their ‘mother’ was no longer able to keep the border collies she had there for so many years (and were the subject of one a Christmas story I did once upon a time). Regulations have caught up with them. 😦

    I still remember the first time I saw her at the dog park — here she came striding in, in full-length white habit, with two black-and-white border collies at her side. I thought, “I’ve gotta talk to this person.”

    Before the dentist I met up with some former Navy housing ‘kids’ who grew up in the complex that’s about to be demolished to make way for a for-sale housing development. The kids now are mostly 30s-40s age range. The developers were somewhat skittish about the whole meet-up as the homes are being prepared for demo and the place looks more than sad. But they finally loosened up and we got some great photos & video footage of them peering into one of the people’s former homes (and two of them got the address plaques from their former homes, at first the developer said “no way” can they do that, but they relented and it made people so happy. 🙂 )

    Going over my notes here at the end of the day at home, will have to write it all up tomorrow (I’ve also interviewed a couple of the people who now are out of state, so a lot of notes).

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  36. Hey, I missed that, too!

    St. Bernards: My mom’s friend from work had one named Buddy who started off as a nice dog but became easily provoked. One day they were all at a company softball game when they spotted a woman with a long ponytail running in front of the stands — with Buddy clamped on to her hair.

    They went one way and then crossed by going in the opposite direction, the pony tail still in Buddy’s jaws, before the two were separated by Buddy’s owner.

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  37. Wow! What a story, Donna!

    6arrows: Thanks for the link–I might try to go to the one in Dallas. I hadn’t heard about it until you mentioned it!

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  38. He was a nice dog, but there’s one thing that really bothers me about them. No it’s not their appetite either.

    I’ll show you what I mean. Be right back, I’m changing the pic. 🙂

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  40. St Bernard puppies are cute (I assume that was a puppy, as it has that puppy look), but there are actually a lot of things I don’t like about them. Yes, the slobber that they actually shake off their face onto everything in sight–gross. Their enormous size (my petite collie takes up enough room) and appetite. And giant dogs take such special care–don’t exercise them too hard as puppies, for example. But I think one of the very worst things has to be that their lives are so short. I mean, for big dogs you have two years that they’re puppies, and then you have at least one year that they’re old, and if they only live seven years (I think seven to nine is what they say for giant breeds), then you only have maybe four years of a dog in its prime. Misten is nine already, but still vibrantly healthy, and it’s hard to imagine she’s already nine. In giant-dog years, that’s dead already. No thanks.

    It is funny, though, that the Nashville dog park I visited most often had three different heights of water fountains, and then a doggie water cooler (it filled a dish, but the dish continually emptied out the bottom so that it wouldn’t get stagnant). I never saw a human use the human-height water fountains; it just seemed too gross, I guess, to use water fountains that were constantly peed on and having muddy water shaken all over them. But the giant dog were tall enough to drink from them, and sometimes their owners watered them that way. Nothing like seeing a dog stand on its four legs nearly as tall as a human standing on two legs.

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  41. Re the date as given above, earlier today I looked at my computer to see the date, as this blog was loading. I saw 4-10-14 and thought “Oh, 4+10=14,” and then the blog loaded and I saw that I wasn’t the first person to think of that. 🙂

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