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Our Daily Thread 8-1-14

Good Morning!

It’s Friday, and August has begun. 🙂

On this day in 1774 oxygen was isolated from air successfully by chemist Carl Wilhelm and scientist Joseph Priestly. 

In 1790 the first U.S. census was completed with a total population of 3,929,214 recorded. The areas included were the present states of Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia.

In 1876 Colorado became the 38th state to join the United States. 

In 1907 the U.S. Army established an aeronautical division that later became the U.S. Air Force. 

And in 1953 the first aluminum-faced building was completed. It was the first of this type in America. 

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Quote of the Day

“He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it.”

Herman Melville

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 Today is Jason Wesson’s birthday.

And it’s Mark Harris’.

Today is also Robert Cray’s birthday, so “Smokin’ Gun” it is. From RobertCrayVEVO

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Anyone have a QoD?

66 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 8-1-14”

  2. Good morning, all. I, again, slept fitfully last night. I decided to get up around 4:45–so, even though it’s only 6:24, I’m wide awake!

    Jo: How was school today?

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  3. Good morning, Ann and AJ!

    Moving day for 2nd Arrow. I have a request on the prayer thread.

    Another music day for me, along with activities with 5th and 6th Arrows.

    You all have a great day!

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  4. Good day at school.
    It is my granddaughter Ginger’s first birthday today. since I am missing her, I went to play with the quints! They all wanted to be held. I can carry two, but not if one of them is Will. He weighs much more than the others. So, a special day with children.

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  5. Good morning everyone.
    It’s Friday! You know what that means?
    There are five Fridays in August, five Saturdays and five Sundays.
    Now ain’t that something?

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  9. Good Morning all. We closed out a great month yesterday so I will be busy today getting everything loaded into the accounting system.
    Somehow my subconscious knew I forgot to set my alarm last night. I had a very fitful dream about losing my cell phone and my father. I don’t know if he was mad at me or if it was someone else in the dream that angered him. I know he and I were together and had made several stops and divinity candy was involved…anyway I awoke from the dream at 6:01 My alarm is usually set for 6:00am

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  10. That header photo is great. The orange netting is so effective with the gray tones. Where was the photo taken? That grasshopper or whatever it is looks big enough to share between the three of them. Besides parents feeding their young, do birds ever share their personal catch with others?

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  12. Janice, some birds do courtship feeding: the female squawks and flaps her wings like a baby bird, and her mate feeds her. Cardinals and goldfinches do it (and I’ve seen it in both species), but I’m not sure what other birds do.

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  13. I’ve seen male cardinals feeding their mates numerous times, but I’ve never seen goldfinches do that, which is surprising, as we’ve had goldfinches around for many years.

    Speaking of cardinals, yesterday I saw two juvenile cardinals hopping around on our driveway, eating I’m not sure what that was in amongst the gravel. At first I thought the birds were mama cardinals, but then I noticed they did not have beaks that had turned orange yet. Cheryl, do you know how long it is until juvenile cardinals’ beaks turn from brown to orange? I’m not sure.

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  14. Interesting article on the use of essential oils (and a little bit on other alternative medicine practices), and especially its marketing, from a Christian perspective.

    http://www.solasisters.com/2014/07/the-christian-and-essential-oils-few.html?m=1

    our primary concerns are as follows:
    (1) We are concerned when essential oils (or other alternative treatments) are marketed as having spiritual benefits that should only be ascribed to God;
    (2) We desire to give clear warnings that the alternative treatment industry, on the whole, is almost entirely unregulated, and to educate others about what the implications of this are; and
    (3) We are concerned when Christians choose to partner with, promote and sell products in tandem with companies that are undergirded with New Age/New Thought beliefs (i.e., being “unequally yoked”).

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  15. 6 Arrows, I don’t know the beak question. I do know that we had a young cardinal in our yard within the past week that is getting red feathers among the juvenile ones, so he obviously is a young male. Likewise, we had a bird that I thought was a female rose-breasted grosbeak, but it was stretching its wings and I saw a red lining–it’s a young male. And a hummingbird that looks like a female except for a smattering of darker feathers on its chest. So basically as early as July they are making the transformation to adult coloration, and my hunch is sometime in the next couple of months for the beaks . . . but I don’t know.

    I’ve only seen the goldfinches do courtship feeding once, and we have a fair number of them that come to our feeders. I don’t think they do it nearly as often as cardinals do. The goldfinches nest later in the year, though, and they’re more discreet about it. We rarely see young; when we had young last week, I only knew about them because I was outside and I heard them. They were so high in the tree I could only see glimpses of the young; I mostly could only hear them.

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  16. Yes, Chas, it’s Friday!

    Also, concerning the five weekends in August- it really isn’t that rare. March 2013 and May 2015 also have that combination. It happens once every year. If you get the chain letter that claims it only happens every 823 years, ignore it. 2025 will be the same calendar as this year meaning that August will have five weekends again. (source: http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/errata/ss/5-Fridays-5-Saturdays-5-Sundays.htm)

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  17. The Real, I missed your daughter birthday yesterday, so a belated Bonne Anniversaire to her. The cat songs made me think of my favorite song about cats:

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  18. Cheryl, the cardinals I saw yesterday also had a few red feathers among the brown, and, at one point, they had a little altercation, flying at one another before one flew off, so I’m thinking they were males. 😉

    I haven’t seen young goldfinches at our feeders that I know of. However, several years ago, probably around ten years now, my husband found an injured goldfinch along the side of the road when he was out running one time. He brought it home, we nursed it back to health, and released him a couple weeks later. I suspect that was a young one because he did not have much fear of us. I held him in my hand once, not long before we released him, and he hopped up my arm to my shoulder. Melted my heart, but I had to get him off my shoulder, as I’m very ticklish. 🙂

    After we let him go, he returned frequently to our feeders. Though we hadn’t banded him, we could tell from his markings and his behavior that it was him. We had a thistle feeder near our kitchen window, and any inside movement near that window when the light was on would cause all the goldfinches except that one to scatter.

    I read that the average life span of a goldfinch is 3-4 years, and about 3 1/2 years after we’d released him, I saw him sitting at a sunflower seed feeder near our bathroom window, not eating (though it was winter), just being there, almost immobile. He returned a few more times, then I didn’t see him for a while and wondered if he had died.

    He came back one time after that, maybe a week or two later, and I knew he was nearing the end of his life. It was hard not to bring him back in the house to let him die there, but I knew he wasn’t “our” bird, though we had named him when he was with us. He belonged in the wild, and that is where we let him be.

    My children who weren’t born yet like to look at pictures of “Goldy” and hear the story of his time with us. And I love to tell it, misty-eyed and all. 😉

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  19. Janice, I love that Weird Al parody! I really like the music video’s kinetic typography too. Kinetic typography is really popular right now, as YouTube enables anyone who can do the animated script to be able to publish it. Weird Al may have been around for years, but he captures current trends very well and his comments on those trends are both hilarious and thought provoking. As usual, his parody is much better than the original song. [The original song, by another artist, and its music video is downright twisted – Do not watch it.]

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  20. Chickens do the feeding thing. Toss a piece of edible out to the rooster and he will examine it, then call his harem over so they can fight over it. He won’t take a bite. He might pick it up and set it down in front of them.

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  21. Janice, I saw that “Word Crimes” video the other day (Weird Al’s) and thought it was hilarious! It also mentioned the Oxford comma, which we had just been talking about not that long ago here. I see it didn’t help prevent me from writing this above, though: “…we could tell from his markings and his behavior that it was him.” Nominative case; should say, “it was he“. 😉

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  22. 6arrows, thanks for that link. I deal with that stuff every day that I’m at work. And now the new massage therapist won’t shut up about that kind of stuff, even though I’ve told her I am NOT interested.

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  25. I was just watching the cute cat video, Roscuro, and son heard the music from another room and asked about it. I told him I had forwarded it to him. He also said earlier it was strange to wake up to Weird Al doing Word Crimes. He, too, had heard it before and expects it soon to be an item of conversation where he works. I got it from a Word Weaver’s newsletter.

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  26. One of my very best friends whom I KNOW to be a devote Christian is so immersed in the Young Life Essential Oils and Maximized Living that she borders on being a Kook. I worry about her not seeking needed medical attention for herself or her child.
    I went to a Young Life meeting once and was so shocked and repulsed that I wanted nothing to do with it. People are spending THOUSANDS of dollars they don’t have on this junk.
    If you want to use essential oils, be my guest. I have not problem with that, but find a reputable local store and buy it cheaper.

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  27. That banner photo needs a cat in it.

    I had a very late night last night working so I’m beat — luckily I have another late shift today (and one that I can work entirely from home) so I’m sitting here trying to wake myself up after hauling the trash & recycles out. Lucky (again) for me the trash trucks seem to be running late this morning so I still had time after getting up at 8 a.m.

    Covered the Zamperini celebration of life last night which went very well, the stadium’s home bleachers were packed (so more than 2,000 people, it holds 2500). I finally met his son in person, had only talked on the phone with him before. Didn’t get a chance to say hi to the producer, though — the guy who once yelled at me when I called at the wrong time apparently. 🙂 He was nice the next time we talked though.

    Biggest challenges for me were logistical. It’s the first time I’ve had to write a story on deadline (a first draft was needed only about 45 minutes after the program ended) while sitting on a folding chair on a running track at sunset, balancing a laptop & notes on my lap with a mobile “My”-fi gadget dangling from a cord wrapped around my neck so I could get an internet connection.

    Some high school kids in charge kept wanting to take my chair as they were cleaning up afterwards.

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  28. Donna, nice word/mind picture of you sitting and wired in the chair in your mobile outdoor office space. 🙂
    Flexible contortionist!

    I am reading a helpful book on prayer and healing, Deep Relief Now, by Dennis & Dr. Jen Clark. It’s a book I received for review. I think it is helping to fill in some gaps in my knowledge about prayer.

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  30. Those “my-fi” gizmos are great. I forgot to mention that it also flashes continually. So I was beaming off-and-on as I sat their frantically working, my pen in my mouth. 🙂

    Today I’m off to cover the opening workshop for a weekend-long quilt show (people are asked to bring their own sewing machines, though they’ll have a few at the venue for general use); later I will be going to the harbor plaza for a feature on the growing popularity of the outdoor movie nights. Do your areas sponsor them also? My editor says they’re sort of like the new drive-ins — except you bring a lawn chair and sit out under the stars with everyone else.

    The most popular movies making the rounds here this summer for outdoor showings seem to be “Frozen” and “The Sandlot.” Tonight’s feature is “Big,” I’ll just go for a couple hours before the film when they’ll have family activities (including a reptile show) and will probably leave as the movie starts at 8. I won’t have to write it until later, and may try to attend one other event in the next week or so.

    I recently ordered a book by JC Ryle on prayer, I think it’s arriving today — looking forward to it.

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  31. Donna, I went to one of those movie nights quite a few years ago. I don’t remember who I went with or what city it was in, but it was while I lived in Chicago, so it was at least a dozen years ago.

    In Nashville one time my then-future husband had come to visit me. He stayed with friends of mine, and he and I walked around their subdivision. In a park-like area they were getting ready to show Secretariat. I hadn’t seen the movie and wanted to, but it seemed like a lot to say, “Hey, let’s drop everything and watch this” when he’d only been planning on a walk. (We did see the movie later.) An ice cream truck was pulled up, and he asked if I wanted anything. I said sure, and we placed our orders. When he started to pay, the man said, “Put your wallet away, sir.” As we walked away, I thought the ice cream was probably actually intended for dues-paying members of the subdivision, but we weren’t asked if we lived there and we were guests. (And the couple he was staying with didn’t come down for the movie and ice cream.) We were both a little nonplussed by the ice cream being free, though.

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  32. Interesting that when I went to Amazon and was going to type in “Deep Relief Now”, after I’d typed the first two words, the product “Deep Relief Essential Oil Young Living” came up in the list of suggestions. 😦

    I haven’t read that book you mentioned, Janice, so maybe I’m misjudging, but I’m very skeptical of claims that any humans can come up with techniques, strategies, etc. that can bring themselves or others “deep relief now.” Certainly God hears the prayers of His people, but He is the One Who brings relief, and it is in His timing. It does not always happen now, and sometimes that deep relief we so desire does not even occur on this side of eternity.

    It does remind me a little of what was mentioned in that essential oils article I linked to above, in that Christians must be careful to not ascribe to human interventions what only God can do. Maybe I’m misunderstanding what that prayer book is really about, but the title sends up red flags for me.

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  33. We used to go to drive-in movies when I was young. We’d all pile in the van and head to town to watch the movies. I think they were on Friday nights, but they might have been Saturdays or Sundays. I don’t remember which movies we actually went to on those nights, but I know it was a fun treat to do that the few times we did.

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  36. I remember going to drive-ins as a kid, both in California & Iowa. I remember sitting/sleeping in the backseat when my parents went to see that Andy Griffith movie, No Time for Sergeants? And I saw one of the beach bingo movies in the 1960s with some kids when we were in Iowa one summer.

    The set up tonight should be kind of cool as the screen will be on a floating barge in the harbor, with the people sitting dockside in the plaza.

    And Chas mentioned that we have 5 Fridays this month — it’s been long circled on all my calendars because that’s one of 2 times in 2014 that we will actually get an extra 3rd paycheck in a month. Yay. That’s our version of a “bonus,” it happens twice every year.

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  37. BTW, Janice, I appreciate how you mention the names of different books you’re reading/reviewing, and my criticism of that title I mentioned @2:10 is not a criticism of you or your thoughts on the book. You are in a better position to determine what is being propounded in the book by reading it than I am by simply knowing its title and not much else.

    I would love to hear what you thought of the book after you finish reading it, if you’d like to share further at that time. I do think reading books on prayer can be beneficial, and I for one desire a richer prayer life than what I feel I have now.

    Donna, I enjoy J. C. Ryle, too, and would be interested to read his thoughts on prayer, among other things he has written about.

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  40. I may not be around much this weekend. I started backing my computer up this morning at 8 am on Carbonite. I have used it throughout the day, but it just hit 10% backed up. I need to leave it hardwired to the internet for 24 to 48 hours, so that means I have to leave it at work!
    Yikes.

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  41. So I’m going through mail in another room, and I hear the little voice of 6th Arrow behind me saying, “My toes got stuck in the toaster.”

    I turn around and glance down dumbly at one bare foot — in particular, the toes on that foot — and see nothing unusual.

    Then, before I look at the other foot, I realize…

    Her toast got stuck in the toaster. 😀

    The mail can wait…kitchen activities will be monitored more closely. 😉

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  42. I didn’t see anyone identifying the bird of the day, BTW. AJ, is it a family of Eastern kingbirds? We don’t see them enough for me to be an expert on them, but that’s my guess.

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  43. Toasty toes! 🙂

    6 Arrows, I agree about the title of the book. I would not have selected to read it based on its title. I am about tthree fifths through it and it is not new age or essential oils related. It is more about how people can have head prayers to God way out there as compared to having heart prayers to our God through the Holy Spirit who indwells us. It is along the lines of the Brother Lawrence book on Practicing the Presence of God, realizing He is the God Who is always with us. When we turn immediately to Him and give over our troubles He does give deeply felt comfort. I have found this to be true in my life. The one different thing I have encountered is how the author uses scripture to support the idea that our spiritual heart is located more toward our belly than where our physical heart is located. I had never seen that discussed before. After I finish the book I will let you know more.

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  47. Janice, no, they’re not mockingbirds. They’re two-toned, with dark gray on top (like kingbirds) and the adult has a white tip to its tail (like kingbirds). But I haven’t seen kingbirds up close and haven’t been around them much, so I don’t “know” them the way I do mockingbirds. And there are a lot of birds that are a bit similar in coloring and form to kingbirds, though I don’t know if any of the others have white tail tips.

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  48. The Ryle book arrived a little while ago. Just 32 pages. No wonder it was only $2. 🙂 “A Call to Prayer” published by Banner of Truth. Looks at the blessings of prayer — and the “grave dangers” of prayerlessness.

    I survived the quilt show that’s set up in an old WWII warehouse on the port. Unfortunately, the structure turns into a sauna in the summer and there’s no real way to air-condition it (they only have giant fans, none of which was going when I was there in the early part of the afternoon).

    So I interviewed several folks, posted some things to FB and Twitter, did 2 short videos, all while sweat was dripping off the end of my nose. Classy.

    Had an email from the film producer asking why I didn’t introduce myself to him last night (by the time I figured out who he was, I was frantically on deadline). And Laura Hillenbrand posted a link to our story on her FB page, which is a bit of a thrill, I’ll confess.

    So the quilt story is written and turned in (I really do love working from home 🙂 ) and pretty soon I need to head down to the harbor for the movie night. But I won’t have to write anything out of that right away, although I will have to shoot some video and get some quotes. I was thinking of taking Cowboy, but it may be too cumbersome. Still, he’s a very good dog.

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  52. Husband just told me if he had found out about it before today we could have gone as a family to the Judy Collins concert. She is 75. I use to have one of her albums. It was the one with the whale songs.

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  54. Yep, Mumsee, western ones have yellow on them. I know because the “birds of Indiana” pamphlet used to have western kingbirds when it was supposed to have eastern ones. 🙂 My husband reported the error, and they sent us two free copies when they reprinted it. But the eastern ones don’t have any yellow.

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  66. Cool. I’ve never seen a shrike, though I have seen photos of them. I think I’m glad we don’t have them in our yard, since I think their habit of impaling meat to eat later is a bit gory.

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