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Our Daily Thread 11-15-14

Good Morning!

It’s Saturday!!!

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On this day in 1777 the Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation.

In 1806 explorer Zebulon Pike spotted the mountaintop that became known as Pikes Peak. 

In 1901 Miller Reese patented an electrical hearing aid. 

And in 1920 The League of Nations met for the first time in Geneva, Switzerland. 

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Quote of the Day

“Don’t fight a battle if you don’t gain anything by winning.”

Erwin Rommel

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 Today is David Carr’s birthday. So first up is a Rich Mullins tribute from Third Day, with, and from brandonheath

And it’s Miguel DeJesus’ too, so next it’s Smalltown Poets.

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Anyone have a QoD?

71 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 11-15-14”

  1. Does Jo know what it’s like to be 19.3 degrees?
    Does Donna?
    That’s kinda cold. I tell Elvera when I go out to get the paper so that if I’m not back in a minute, to look for me.
    Kare, Peter and most of the rest of you must be chilly about now.

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  3. Good morning, Chas. It’s 43 this morning in Houston, Texas, which I think is cold!
    Becca -boo is still in her feetie-pajamas–she looks so cute in them! She’s feeling much better–it’s amazing how quickly the right antibiotic works! At first, the doctor was going to put her on Amoxicillin, but I reminded her that Becca always has to take a second round of antibiotics when we start with it, so she gave her Augmentin instead. Her ear is no longer causing her any pain and she was able to sleep through the night last night without hurting.
    I kept her home from school yesterday as there are a lot of illnesses going around the school right now and I was afraid she’d catch something else, since her immunity is down. They only attend until noon on Fridays, anyway, so she didn’t miss much. We worked on her makeup work yesterday from 8:30 to 11:30 and got the majority of it completed. Then, we went to the downtown aquarium for lunch and enjoyed looking at the exhibits with very few other people around. We had a lot of fun! I’m sorry she’s been sick, but it was nice to share some special time together.

    Scott and the girls are headed to our property in Centerville today around nine. I’m staying home because I’m going to the ranch Sunday through Tuesday with my sister and have some things I must get done first. I’m really looking forward to the time with my sister. It’s extremely rare for us to have time alone to talk. Last year, we met at a hotel in San Antonio for two nights and had the best time. I think the ranch will be even more relaxing than a hotel (and much cheaper as it’s already paid for…) because we’ll have room to spread out. Linda is six years older than me and was very motherly towards me during childhood. She’s the one who fixed my hair, took me shopping for my first bra, made my lunch, drove me to school and dance lessons and was my confidant. She’s also who I went to for comfort whenever I had a nightmare or needed advice. I’m proud of her for the work she’s been doing in Rwanda, but it’s hard to have her so far away. Knowing they’re returning in January for a five year commitment makes our time together even more special.

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  5. Aj: Today’s quote reminds me of parenting. I try not to engage my children in battles over things that do not matter. Becca has chosen her clothes since age three–which resulted in some interesting combinations in preschool and kindergarten. My MIL was bothered by it, but I never thought it mattered. She wore red patent Mary Janes with everything for almost a year…and her color combinations were quite eclectic.

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  7. Janice: Isn’t it interesting how people are so different? I hate layering–I always feel so stifled. And I can’t wear turtlenecks or even a regular tshirt–it has to have a scoop or V-neck –or else I feel like I’m choking. I can’t wear wool–I’m allergic. I much prefer summer clothing. Guess it’s a good thing I live where you can wear shorts nine months out of the year!

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  8. Thanks, Janice. Becca has been strong-willed since birth. She was in the NICU for 14 days when she was born and had a feeding tube. They put socks on her hands and she still managed to pull out the feeding tube every single day. She’d flap her hands until the socks came off and then pull it out.
    She is a very creative soul as well, with a wonderful imagination.

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  10. ann- Your daughter’s outfits remind me of a recent ad on TV (can’t remember what product it was) where a girl picks out a fairy dress for school pictures but her dad nixes it. They get to school and the girl is sad, so dad relents and lets her wear what she wants. I have often wondered why parents force their children into clothing on picture day they wouldn’t otherwise wear to school.

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  11. I get to stand out in the cold (and possibly snow) for two hours taking money from people who want to see a high school football playoff game. It is the first time our school has hosted a state quarter final, and they are anticipating a large crowd, even though it will be 30° with an 80% chance of snow. I’ll be at the extra parking lot they set up in the grass behind the gymnasium, where there is no shelter except my car. So, I bought some used insulated coveralls at a thrift store, as well as something to put in my shoes and gloves that keeps hands and feet warm.

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  12. Peter, that reminds me of the time I stood in the cold rain ringing the bell for the Salvation Army kittle. Two hours. That was about ten years ago. I couldn’t handle that now.
    Strangely people seemed more generous under those conditions.

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  13. Long and poignant–a German soldier’s memory of Armistice:

    For the soldiers on both sides of the trenches, the sudden peace provoked many emotions – stupor, relief, bitterness, joy. Feldwebel Georg Bucher was waiting in a dug out with a young soldier – the Americans had fired gas at them earlier: “The minutes seemed an eternity. I raised my head and listened, though I could feel far more distinctly than my ears could tell me that the shellfire was decreasing like rain easing off. The din became less and less violent, then it ceased – ceased altogether over our sector, though we could still hear it in the distance.

    “I took off the youngster’s gas mask and silently held my wristwatch before his eyes. Then I pressed my helmet firmly on my head, pulled out my pistol, grabbed the bag of grenades and leaped out into the trench. Every man who could hold a rifle or throw a grenade was standing ready. Were the enemy going to attack us? We were taking no chances, but as we stood there waiting, hope and determination flashed in every eye.

    “The company commander, with his usual smile and shock-troop air, made his way arrogantly along the trench, making sure that every man had his rifle and grenades ready. There were still 10 minutes to go. He gave me an order; I nodded. Then he moved on and we stood there waiting and hoping. The minutes went slowly by. Then there was a great silence. We stood motionless, gazing at the shell smoke which drifted sluggishly across no man’s land. Those minutes seemed to last for ever. I glanced at my watch – I felt that my staring eyes were glued to it. The hour had come. I turned round: ‘Armistice!’

    “Then I went back to the youngster. I couldn’t bear to go on staring at no man’s land and at the faces of the men. We had lived through an experience which no one would ever understand who had not shared in it.

    ‘Armistice, Walter! It’s all over!’”

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  14. Emily started picking out outfits to wear when she was only two. Amazingly, she could mix & match her outfits very well!

    Ann, I’m glad Becca-Boo is feeling better. 🙂 Is Becca short for Rebecca? My SIL’s name is Rebecca. Her parents called her Becca, but everyone else called (& still calls) her Becky.

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  15. Re: Antibiotics for ear infections. Chrissy had a tendency to get an ear infection every time she got a cold, & sometimes just out of the blue. We always would go to the doctor & be given a prescription for antibiotics. (But not for amoxicillin, as she once had an allergic reaction to it.)

    I’d read that ear infections would most likely eventually go away without antibiotics, & knew a lady who never had her daughter’s ear infections treated that way, but couldn’t bring myself to just let it go away on its own, especially since Chrissy would be in such pain. Also, I’d read about people losing their hearing due to untreated ear infections.

    As an adult, Chrissy has followed Emily’s advice, & not gone to the doctor for the few ear infections (three, I think) she’s had over the past few years. Emily recommends mincing garlic & letting it sit in oil, then pouring some of that garlic-infused oil into the affected ear. I don’t know if that really works, or if the infection would have gone away anyway, but that’s what Chrissy did.

    The last one hung on a very, very long time, & she gave up treating it at all, but it did eventually go away. (I was concerned about that, & relieved when it was gone.)

    To prevent getting an ear infection in the first place, Chrissy has learned to try to treat a cold with cold & cough medicine, which keeps the mucous secretions thinner, & to chew gum while having a cold, which kind of opens those middle ear passages that are prone to infection.

    After she was already grown up, & we were learning that she most probably has Asperger’s Syndrome, I learned that frequent ear infections are common in children with Asperger’s.

    Donna mentioned not too long ago that bronchitis is not treated with antibiotics, & yet it is pretty common to treat it that way here. Now that I know it doesn’t need antibiotics, I won’t be so concerned about it if I develop a case of it this winter.

    Anyone else here use natural remedies for these kinds of ailments?

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  16. Ha, “dr.” donna doesn’t seem to remember saying that about bronchitis. But maybe I wasn’t far off, I did see this article when I googled the issue just now:

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/20/antibiotics-bronchitis-study/9323165/

    I wore a fringed jacket I got for Christmas for probably 3 years straight in elementary school, you could NOT get me out of it. I wore it over dresses to school and with bluejeans & T-shirts when I was not in school. I wore it in winter and spring and summer. I loved that jacket.

    I don’t know if I’ve been in 19 degree weather or not. I spent a Christmas in northern Idaho when I was in college and another Christmas in upstate NY maybe 10 years ago, along with other late winters there as well in earlier years … It was cold — very cold in Idaho — but I liked it. 🙂

    Our Girl Scout snow camps here in the California mountains were regular stops as well growing up, but I don’t think it was that super cold. We usually did have snow, though.

    Last time I drove up to the local mountains to get a snow fix — maybe 2-3 years ago with the dogs in tow — it was actually quite warm and sunny. But lots of snow still on the ground. It spooked the dogs, they didn’t want to walk on it. 🙂

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  17. I’ve experienced windchills of -65 and temperatures up to 122 (twice). I’ve also “lived through” a snowfall of more than 20 inches, walked to church the next day and took the bus to work on Monday.

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  19. Husband and I camped out at Yellowstone when it was 17 degrees. Hot apple cider out of a tin cup in the morning never tasted better. That was the year we married. No could do now, except for the cider.

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  20. The socks on the hands story reminded me of my son at his nine months old doctor visit. I believe they wanted to draw blood from his foot. The doctor told me, “Take his socks off.” Son screamed, “Noooooo!” His first word was spoken. I thought it is not a good sign when baby’s first and only word they can say is No.

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  21. 19 degrees at half-time during the 1975 Liberty Bowl in Memphis Tennessee: UCLA vs Alabama. (I will never forget that screaming “Roll, Tide, roll!” I still scream it whenever I hear “Bama!” and I was rooting for the opposite team)

    All us poor UCLA band members had to march on the field in our flimsy uniforms. One of the tuba players actually was able to stuff a down jacket under his uniform. As I recall, I wore tights, a leotard, thermal underwear, a turtleneck, a sweater and then my uniform jacket. Two pair of wool socks were not enough.

    Worse, the “golden girl,” had to twirl her baton wearing, basically, a one piece sequined bathing suit. She wore four pair of nylons and they twirled a flaming baton. When she ran off the field, they enveloped her in a heated fur coat. We didn’t see her again the rest of the night.

    One of the trumpeters let out his spit valve and claimed it froze immediately into an icicle. That may have been hyperbole but after halftime, we did not return to our seats high in the stands. We milled about in the tunnel trying to stay warm.

    Wind chill was -20, we were completely unprepared.

    Oh, and the Tide rolled right over our football team. 😦

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  22. Karen: Yes, Becca is short for Rebecca. She hates being called Rebecca, so I just put Becca as her name on school forms, etc. (not government forms, but just about everything else). No one calls her Becky, which makes me glad as my mortal enemy in high school was named Becky and I don’t like it! Funny what a difference the last letter makes to me.

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  24. Survived the adorable grandchildren who did beautifully. I’d forgotten we have a little neighborhood library box at the top of the hill, but remembering at the last minute before we started up the flashlights, grabbed a book I don’t like and we walked up there. They loved walking with flashlights!

    “I’m going to find an owl,” the four year old girl declared. Fortunately our neighbor has an owl light in her yard, so the granddaughter was not disappointed.

    They were perplexed by the tiny library (two shelves), but chose a book we read upon our return. Their father picked them up at nine and I’ve spent the last two hours trying to reorganized the house!

    It’s a day of rewriting Poppy and I’m looking forward to it. Ciao.

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  25. Regarding antibiotics and ear infections/bronchitis. I had many middle (and swimmer’s) ear infections growing up. My eardrum burst numerous times. I have damaged hearing in one ear because of all the scar tissue that developed. I am pretty certain I would’ve died without antibiotics as an infant, as I had pneumonia before I turned one. I am very grateful my doctors treated the infections with antibiotics and believe it would have been worse without them. Any time I get bronchitis and do not use antibiotics I just get sicker and sicker; my doctor now always prescribes antibiotics when I have it and I feel better within 48 hours of my first dose. I know they don’t work on viral infections, but if it’s bacterial, I think it’s best to take an antibiotic.

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  26. On our trip to Montana/Yellowstone back in 1985, husband and I bought sleeping bags for camping in the cold. We had to pack them for the plane trip home which meant we were triple – layered with clothes and jackets on top of that, too, for the trip home. We were not prepared for stepping off the plane and encountering seventy degree Atlanta weather. We still laugh about that.

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  27. I learned all about California manzanitas, coyote bush, California field sedge, mountain mahogany, coral bells, flannel bush ….

    Interesting workshop and basic primer on green gardening to use less water.

    I’m still in the information collecting stage, though — but I did find out how to tell what kind of soil I have (which is basic to deciding what or what not to plan). It seems they have soil test kits and Home Depot that you can buy. I never knew that.

    Off to pick up my friend in Montebello which is a bit of a drive. Would rather not do this, but she’s become rather needy for Saturday visits. I’m going to try to make it a brief one this time as there are a few other things I was really hoping to accomplish today.

    At least gas is cheap.

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  28. Loved your story Michelle That means you spent time in the presence of the Bear. I have always rolled my eyes at the worship Bear Bryant was given in this state. Recently I have read a few books about him. He was flawed like all of us but was a good man I think he genuinely cared for his players.

    Both Baby Girl and I have had out fair share if ear infections. I have had warm olive oil poured in my ears. My father said he would have come out better if he could have bought pink penicillin in a 55 gallon drum. 🙂

    I found putting salt in a sock and heating it up in the microwave gave BG relief. We sat up many a night rocking while I kept her ear pressed to a warm salt sock.

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  30. Donna, in Georgia the state extension service use to offer free soil testing for residents. You might want to see if CA offers that. It may be that it got cut from the state budgets by now. But that could have been through some Federal grant program so it could still be around.

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  32. Kim (and anyone else who would like to reply) I am planning a baby shower for a beautiful baby girl. I’m thinking black & white theme with hits of pink. Since it will be so close to Christmas, I’m hoping that using Christmas decorations that are pink might work for the bits of pink scattered throughout the rooms. What do you think? I’m not sure about the pink – it’s so baby girl common – I could use a deep purple… so many choices…

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  33. It may just be the Southern in me but no black for babies. I am not opposed to brown although I think babies should have lighter colors. Since it is close to Christmas go with that. Red is just a darker shade of pink so you could go with burgundy. I think pink and burgundy mix well and instead of stark white go with off white/cream/beige. I gave a baby shower once where I asked the grandmothers for any baby clothes they had saved from the soon to be parents. I hung those all over the room. If you know for sure the baby is a girl and if you know her name you can do little triangles with the letters spelling out her name. I love,love,love toile. Do you know how the nursery will be decorated? I also tied pink ribbons to all the serving utensils. You could suggest to the guests that instead of a bow on their gift packages they put a Christmas ornament so that Baby Girl with enter this world with a start on ornaments for her own tree one day.
    I have many more ideas but am in the middle of getting ready for the first ball of the season. I will gather ideas and post them on facebook.
    Why fight Christmas for a baby shower when after all the very first Christmas present was a baby boy who was sent to save us all…..

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  35. Oh, and instead of a cake have petit fours with the baby’s initials on them. Stack cake plates and stack the petit fours. People will put them on their plate when they won’t come back for cake. I am liking Welches sparkling grape juice — you can make a great punch with ginger ale and pink sherbet

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  37. Found a cute snowman diaper cake on pinterest. Also lots of silver snowflakes and you can use irredescent snowflakes scattered on the tables amongst the appetizers.

    Too bad I can’t fly up there and do this for you.

    We are on baby countdown here.

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  38. Kim, we would have so much fun doing this together. I have many rubbermaid bins of decor stuff in my shop – lots of tulle – any ideas for that? Maybe wrapped around pink mini lights? I was thinking of pink cupcakes and pink candies in a crystal/glass/silver display. I don’t want to purchase too much new stuff, but if you keep throwing ideas my way, I can probably adapt them to work with the stuff I already have 🙂

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  39. Love tulle. Will you have your tree up by the time of the shower? If so work the tulle into the tree. Scrunch it up on the tables and wrap around the serving dishes. Cupcakes work. Love the idea of the pink candies spread through out the room in various serving dishes. If you buy the cloth diapers and make the snowman “cake” you can wrap it in the tulle. Tulle makes pretty bows. You could wrap just about anything in the tulle.
    If you have limited space on the table use some blocks of wood or something in varying heights to lift the platters up so that you can tuck some table level under those that are on risers. You can cover the risers with the tulle.

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  55. Good morning, Chas!

    I am all alone in the house this morning. It feels strange. I fell asleep really early — about nine–and slept all the way through til 5:45! I feel so rested! It’s wonderful!!!

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  63. My work here is fun.

    I Mardi Grased last night. It is a couples society. We have been asked if we would like to join. Since it isn’t a parading one the coat would be very minimal and I could have a costume !

    Now I am headed in to thanksgiving

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  64. I understood the decorating thread but would not have been capable of doing it. Just in from the neighbors who are demolishing a kitchen to rebuild for sale. Too bad it’s so expensive, the house would have been perfect for two of the adorable granddaughters–and their parents, of course.

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  66. Read The Dogtrot Christmas yesterday. Thoroughly enjoyed it! I will read it again today. Your research was so well done. Love that the dialogue was authentic, made me read more carefully. And, of course, the best was your family tie to the time and the place.

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  68. It is so difficult having a cat that so much wants my attention when I wash dishes. Now which would you choose? Would you prefer to pat a purring cat or wash dishes? I know, it all depends on if you like cats.

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  71. It ain’t Saturday no more!
    The wind chill map on Drudge had it down to 49 degrees in Brownsville. That’s cold for there.
    But 77 in Miami.
    The outside temp is 42.3 in Hendersonville, with much rain.
    I wish I could send it to Donna. I really do.

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