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Our Daily Thread 6-3-14

Good Morning!

On this day in 1784 the U.S. Congress formally created the United States Army to replace the disbanded Continental Army.

In 1805 a peace treaty between the U.S. and Tripoli was completed in the captain’s cabin on board the USS Constitution. 

In 1932 Lou Gehrig set a major league baseball record when he hit four consecutive home runs. 

In 1959 the US Air Force Academy graduated it’s first class.

And in 1965 Edward White became the first American astronaut to do a “space walk” when he left the Gemini 4 capsule. 

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Quote of the Day

“All we ask is to be let alone.”

Jefferson Davis

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Today is Too Slim’s birthday.

And it’s also Billy Powell’s.

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Anyone have a QoD?

46 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 6-3-14”

  2. Congratulations Ann. I could have been first.
    Only I went over an posted something on the Politics thread.
    Happy Tuesday everyone!

    Too Slim is likely one of the Riders who has a PhD. all of those guys have technical backgrounds and several have doctorates. Their humor is always highbrow.

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  3. Just read the thread from 6/2. Thanks for all the advice regarding L. and church. Her dad and I disagree on this, and so far, we’ve done it his way, forcing her to go. She generally puts up a fit about once a month, not every week. I think it has more to do with junior high drama with some of the other girls than with her faith waning. I so appreciate everyone’s wise counsel, but still don’t think it wise to force someone to attend church– perhaps that’s just the rebel in me. I resented it so much as a teen… And, I blocked out every sermon by daydreaming about Saturday night’s festivities… But, as long as Scott and I are married (which hopefully will be forever), L. will attend church!

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  5. Morning, Annms and Chas and Lurkers if there are any. Maybe if we have lurkers out there you could raise your hands so we can virtually see you,
    LOL. ❤

    Good evening, Jo.

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  6. Cactus garden! Sweet but causes drama when people get too close. Not a good house plant with a kitten/cat nicknamed Nosy Rosy. In addition to her nice black mustache and white whiskers she would have attachments from her explorations in the cactus garden. And there would be double drama from both of us!

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  7. Oh, come now, AJ. As any good mother knows, when a toddler gets quiet and wants to be left alone, you’ve got to monitor them far more closely–they might be doing some dangerous! [joke]

    Woke up this morning and I think, finally, I’ve got my thesis. No time to write, though, for another six hours, but at least I got it scribbled down! 🙂

    Got to dance!

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  8. I’m back! Did anyone miss me?

    We went to a family reunion in NC for a few days. All seven of us (me and my siblings) were there, plus nearly all the next generation with spouses of those who have them (my four California nephews didn’t come, though their sister did), and five of six of my parents’ great-grandchildren were even there (the sixth is one of those Californians). In all, including spouses but not including a boyfriend or a friend, we had 32 of us.

    One of my favorite aspects was that our girls chose to go (not being biologically related to anyone present except my husband, and being young adults, it was their choice whether to go), and they had a really good time. Every one of my nieces was there; though I have a lot more nephews than nieces, the absence of five nephews (and two nephews showing up just briefly) made the ratio look a lot more even. Also, two of my twenty-something nephews who were there were there with their wives, and the husband of my oldest niece had to work so he wasn’t there. So we had a good number of women from early twenties to early thirties who hung around together and clearly had a very good time. The young men hung out with them as well, so in large groups they went into town, walked to the tennis courts and played tennis, played board games, played volleyball (some of the older generation joined in . . . and some of the older generation suffered injuries or lingering soreness afterward), and more.

    My husband finally met the last of my siblings (two weren’t able to attend our wedding); it was the first time all seven of us had been together since our mother’s funeral (October 2003), and we really never know when it will be “the last” such opportunity, since we don’t have them all that often.

    In preparation for the reunion, I made books of family photos–generations before us, including our parents’ courtship and wedding, and our generation, with a few photos of the next two generations too. Until I was putting together the books, we didn’t even know the names of my paternal grandparents, nor what either set of grandparents looked like. (Most of them died before any of us was born; only Dad’s mother lived into our lifetimes, and that only overlapping the lives of the two or three oldest.) The book included our grandparents’ photos and the family tree a few generations back, photos of all of us as babies and young children, and so forth, 100 pages of photos and a couple of pages of text. My siblings loved them. (I also included a flash drive with the photos, some additional photos, and a PDF of the book.)

    This reunion has been planned for two or three years now, and it seemed far in the future when it was first mentioned (my husband thinks we might not even have been married yet when he first heard of it, so that would make it three years ago), but I’ve been really looking forward to it, and really hoping the girls would go. The girls both expressed how much fun it was to see me with my siblings (there are a lot of us and we’re a nutty bunch), and for me it was wonderful to go with a family and not as a single woman.

    The most recent reunion was 15 years ago–the young people at this one were teens at the most, but most were young children or not yet born. We’ve also had several deaths (mother and stepfather–our father was already with the Lord–and two of my siblings’ spouses) and a bunch of marriages. We’ve tried other reunions several times, but at locations that didn’t work for half the family and so they never happened. And one of my brothers didn’t make it to the one 15 years ago. So to have all seven of us together and most of the extended family members was a huge blessing.

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  9. Nice picture of cactus. Of course, in the desert they don’t usually grow that close together, as their roots spread out over a wide area to get all the moisture they can. Unless their is a natural water source close to the surface, like ground water or a spring, then the roots stay closer to the plant.

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  10. Cheryl: Glad you’re back! Sounds like a wonderful time was had by all at your long-overdue reunion! There are five of us in my family-of-origin and it is hard to find a time when we can all get together, too. We had one family reunion at my parent’s ranch about eight years ago, but none since, and considering our family dynamics, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, imo. Hubby’s family (he has a sister, who is married w/ two young boys and a brother, who is single, but has brought his long-term girlfriend to family events for last six years or so) get together a few times a year–usually Christmas, Easter and a week-long summer vacation. They all get along really well and enjoy spending time together. We’ve been to Martha’s Vineyard, Jamaica, the beaches of South Carolina, Port Aransas (here in Texas, three months after Becca was born), and various other places with his family. His mom very generously pays for everything other than airfare, which means we are able to still take our own separate vacation as a family. Scott has worked for the same company for 25+ years, so he gets about five weeks of vacation a year, which he’s never able to use because he works primarily on commission and can’t afford to be out of the office that much, but it’s nice to know it’s there if the need arises. This year, we’re not going on a family vacay with his family b/c BIL has a new job and doesn’t have vacation days yet, but we will all be gathering at my MIL’s home for four days over the Fourth of July. MIL lives about an hour from us on Lake Conroe and she’s rented a boat, which is always enjoyable. She lives in a beautiful development, complete with multiple golf courses, tennis courts, swimming pools and a lovely country club, so it’s like staying at a nice resort. The neighborhood also has villas for rent and MIL graciously rented one for our family to stay in so we don’t have to drive back and forth during the holiday weekend (traffic to the lake can be bad over the Fourth). My girls really enjoy seeing their cousins (two adorable boys, ages five and three) during these events, as well as their aunt and uncle, who live in Chicago and San Francisco.

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  11. Ann- I agree that L should go to church until she is an adult and can decide on her own. We have not had that problem, as our children never put up a fuss about attending. But I believe that as long as the children are under the parents’ authority, they should do as the parents wish. Even our adult children living at home are expected to follow the few rules we have. It’s not a “my-way-or-the-highway” thing, but more of a “if you’re going to use the house we provide for you, and all the utilities and provisions that go with it, we ask that you do what we wish.”

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  12. Welcome back Cheryl, sounds like everyone had a fun time. The books were a very thoughtful touch and I’m sure will be treasured and passed down for who knows how many years to come. 🙂

    Our poor mutilated pelican that was picked up a month or more ago has had several intricate surgeries to repair its sliced pouch and is now ready to go back out there. The bird rehab center in town is doing the released today just after noon on one of our rocky beaches, so we’ll be there.

    Meanwhile, the AF is doing a practice run tomorrow for their upcoming change-of-command ceremony later this month and asked the paper to run a warning that there will be “cannon fire” heard — they didn’t want anyone to be overly alarmed.

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  15. Cheryl,

    Welcome back.

    That sounds like a pretty cool book you put together. I might attend more of my own family’s functions if they provided “door prizes” like that. 🙂

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  17. Hi, Cheryl. 🙂 That sounds like it was a great reunion!

    Good news for 2nd Arrow, our Vet Tech daughter. She finishes her internship this week (at a major veterinary hospital in the Midwest, the one she was most hoping to get into for an internship so she could get her foot in the door for a possible post-internship paid position).

    She did it! Her internship is done on Friday, and her new job as a Vet Tech in the Critical Care unit starts Monday!

    The critical care part of her internship was her favorite part, too. It is very fast-paced, which she loves. (She currently spends 40 hours per week on her internship, and 40 hours in her job at a home-maintenance store, so fast-paced is her life.) 🙂

    The week she had the critical care focus, her supervisor pulled her aside and told her how well she was doing, and that the recent opening in that department (resulting from an employee moving from full-time to part-time) would have to be posted, but if my daughter wanted the job, it would be hers. Well, yes she did, and now it’s hers!

    I thought it was great how my daughter was given very specific feedback on how she performed in that part of the rotation. Her supervisor told her that she was impressed with how she didn’t bombard the staff with a ton of questions, which get in the way of staff’s ability to deal with the emergencies in front of them, but the few questions she did ask were well-timed and pertinent. She also praised her that she had good instincts about when and how to step in to assist, and when to stay in the background, when there were situations that she did not yet have the skills to deal with.

    My daughter had told me that that was the hardest thing to do, to stay back when an animal needed something she wasn’t able to provide. She wanted so much to step in and assist those who were working so hard to save an animal, but knew she’d only be in the way, or could make things worse.

    So that was good she got that feedback that she was doing the right thing in those instances.

    She also handles animals very well when she IS working with them. The Vet Tech program in which she was enrolled before her internship was quite hands-on, and she got a lot of experience working with a variety of small animals, including fractious animals. My daughter has no fear, and her internship supervisors were impressed with her confidence and ability in working with any small animal of any disposition. Her critical care supervisor said that, of all the internship students she’d worked with over the years (there were many, as she’s been at this veterinary teaching hospital for quite some time), there were only two that she would have hired, and my daughter was one.

    I’ll put away the brag book for now, but we are very proud of our Vet Tech. 😉

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  19. Cheryl, That reminds me of a mini-reunion we had recently when my [favorite] cousin said, “Wow, it’s really nice to get together without a dead body in the room.”

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  21. Thank you, Cheryl and Kathaleena. Yes, we do savor this, and are pleased with what a great fit this job is, regarding her skills and her love for this line of work. She’s known for many years now that she wanted to do this, and we’re so happy that her education reinforced her desire to be a Vet Tech (rather than showed her after a lot of time and money spent that the field really is not for her, which sometimes happens). She’s been working for veterinarians for three years now, and this environment she’s in for her internship, and for her upcoming job, has been the most positive of all her experiences.

    God has really blessed her in this venture, and we are so grateful.

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  22. Oops, I said 2nd Arrow has been working for vets 3 years, but I should have said 4. She started when she was 17, and I subtracted that from age 20, when in actuality she turned 21 last month.

    Good grief — I can’t even remember her age just weeks after she had a birthday! Groan. 😉

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  25. Hope so too, Peter.

    Peter and Cheryl, how does one pronounce cholla? I was enjoying the cacti picture and cannot remember how it should be pronounced.

    6 arrows – wonderful for your daughter!

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  26. The sign went in the yard yesterday and the house was put in MLS. There has been a request for two showings tomorrow. I told the agent to deal with Mr. P. He is the one that is home all day, not me.
    I really wish he would reconsider buying it.

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  28. Cheryl’s pronunciation is accurate. I’ll add that the stress is on the first syllable.

    Showing went well. Buyer is absent, but his parents and brother looked for him. He’s retiring from the Air Force and will be around in a couple of weeks to look.

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  29. Just checking in. I arrived home one week ago tonight after a 30 plus hour trip with layovers. I was tired, but not as bad off as I expected. Good thing. After spending a few days recovering at my sister’s house, I moved into my dad’s (now my house).

    There is so much to do. So much stuff to sort and clean. My sister and her husband came over and did some scrubbing, but there are literally piles of junk to sort through. So far I have sent 3 garbage bags to the dump and have 3 garbage bags of clothes, a suitcase, a table and chairs etc all waiting for me to have the strength to take them to the Goodwill. I wanted to go today just to get the stuff out of my way, but my strength fizzled today. Maybe tomorrow. It won’t be my only trip!

    My goal in these next few weeks is to make the place liveable. I don’t expect to finish until this winter when I will be here for several months. My sister (who lives next door) will help, so I’m not on my own. My other sister is coming in a couple weeks to help for a few days and then I’m heading to her house for a month or so. She works at the home office for my mission so I stay with her while I take care of things there. I do have work I need to do there, but I will also have plenty of time to rest. Since the piles won’t be staring me in the face I’ll probably rest better there than here.

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  31. I’m glad you checked in, Aji. I was wondering how you were doing. I know what you mean about getting rid of stuff to make the place liveable. When I was strong enough, one of the first things I did was sort through all my things and get rid of a lot of it. Living without it all for fourteen months, I was better able to judge what I did and didn’t need.

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  32. What a windy hot day we’ve had here today! I have been working outside the past couple days and I’m covered in pine pollen!
    Tomorrow taking a full load of stuff to Goodwill….then Thursday I am going to attend the lunch with Warren Cole Smith! He says we can ask him anything we want…anyone have a question you want me to ask?! 🙂

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  35. Congrats to First Arrow; the early twenties are such interesting times when the young’ens start to figure out who they are and sail. It’s wonderful she’s had such a positive experience and still loves it.

    In other youngster news, my Stargazer told me last night he’s learned Python.

    We made plenty of jokes, but apparently it’s a computer language. 🙂

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  36. Thank you, Kare and Michelle. 😉

    Michelle, I came to the end of your second paragraph and thought, “What’s Python?” Nice to have the answer right in the next line. 😉

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  37. 6 Arrows – Sounds like your daughter has a good head on her shoulders, & a heart for animals. How wonderful for her to get this great job so quickly!

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  38. Another reason I really want my Chrissy to get away from the influence of YF. YF seems to be falling deeper & deeper into a very liberal, ungodly worldview, & has exhibited a lot of anger at times. Quite frankly, I think she not only does not respect me or my views, but I think she even has contempt for me. (I’ll have to try to remember to write more about that soon.)

    Here’s the latest comment she made, on a Facebook post of hers saying that abortion should be a woman’s decision, not a politician’s. This was in reply to a young man who asked “What about with married couples?”

    (She has referred in the past to unborn & newborn babies as “fitting the description of a parasite.)

    “In an ideal perfect world I’d say that it’s a decision that shouldn’t be taken lightly and should be discussed between both parties. However the reality of abusive situations and the host body being the most likely primary care taker I feel very strongly that the ultimate decision is in the hands of the person who is physically hosting the pregnancy and the partner needs to accept the decision because ultimately their partner is their equal and also a person who deserves bodily autonomy.”

    Her use of the words “host” & “hosting” makes me feel sick. I pray God will release my daughter from the heavy influence this young woman has on her. We have also been praying for a wedge to come between Chrissy & this family (or at least between her & the daughters).

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  39. Karen, yes, my daughter does really have a heart for animals, and thinks well on her feet when working with them.

    She got another cat now (she had had two of them die in the past six months), and this one gets along quite well with the other one she has. She also mentioned she may get a dog in the future, when she doesn’t have the crazy busy hours she has now, with essentially an 80-hour work week (internship + paid employment).

    Amazing all the energy young people have. 😉

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  40. Thank you, Cheryl & Peter, that’s how I thought it would be pronounced, but second guessed myself 🙂

    I saw several great blue herons, terns fishing, a pair of loons, a couple of mallards and several tree nesting ducks today as we paddled the lake about a mile from our place. We also saw a black bear running across and open field heading for the trees as we were on our way to the lake 🙂

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