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Our Daily Thread 11-20-14

Good Morning!

On this day in 1789 New Jersey became the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights. 

In 1901 the second Hay-Pauncefoot Treaty provided for construction of the Panama Canal by the U.S.

In 1947 Britain’s Princess Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh in Westminster Abbey.   

And in 1993 the U.S. Senate passed the Brady Bill and legislation implementing NAFTA.   

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Quote of the Day

“Music is the soundtrack of your life.”

Dick Clark

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 Today is the birthday of two of the 70’s best rock guitarists.

First up, Duane Allman.

Then it’s Joe Walsh.

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Anyone have a QoD?

42 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 11-20-14”

  1. First Again! I can’t imagine, twice in a row. And I’ve been up an hour.
    Get to it guys.!

    I was taking out trash this morning and saw an interesting sight. (To me, anyhow.) Though it’s common everywhere. It was mostly dark, just enough twilight to see where I was going. Clear sky, not a cloud anywhere. I looked up and saw an airplane headed north. It was leaving a bright red contrail from the sun. It was a pretty sight.
    Big plane, full of people taking them from someplace, Miami, Orlando, Charleston, south to someplace, Detroit, Chicago, north. Everyone with a purpose go get up north.
    I’ve thought of that several times sitting in an airport in Atlanta. Seems like everyone in the world has to get someplace for his own special reason. Some good, some bad.

    This long post has likely killed my chance of being first.

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  2. The paper hasn’t come yet, so I’ll tell you this.
    I went over to the library yesterday afternoon to an exhibition the local Land records agency was having. It was on GIS (geographic Information Systems) I saw the ad about it in the paper and took them some maps and material that I have from my days of lunar mapping. I had some pictures and maps of the Surveyor III landing site and the Apollo 12 mission where they retrieved the camera from the Surveyor. Also some other stuff. I went and explained the technique of Lunar mapping. The guy said that it would have been better had I been there in the morning when the children came through. It would have been educational for them.
    I suspect so. Though they are jaded by having GPS on their smart phones.
    Nobody thinks of that anymore, just as they don’t think about a plane load of people. traveling from Barbados to St. Paul.

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  3. It sure is lonesome in this place.
    😦 I got an e-mail warning me that my Pay Pal account has been suspended and that I need to go to their website to update it.
    I don’t have Pay Pal.

    😆

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  5. Good morning, Chas. I woke up late today–6:00–but Becca was already up, so we had snuggle time while I drank my coffee. As Thanksgiving swiftly approaches, I wanted to link a music video to a post, to sum up how I feel about going home, but I can’t figure out how to do it. I’ve tried emailing it to myself so that I could copy the link, but it keeps telling me to enter a valid email address (I know the email is valid, b/c it’s mine!). Anyway–perhaps someone who’s more computer savvy could do it for me (or walk me through it?). I’m trying to link David Wilcox’s song Covert War–it’s an apt description of my feelings toward my family-of-origin.

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  6. Good morning! I have applied for my one month of insurance coverage (for Dec.) I hope I will get approved by the end of the month. Then I have to find insurance for 2015. Is anyone else here going through this, too? Any thoughts? I received an email from a conservative group saying that they will soon have a listing of plans that that include abortion dollars in what customers pay. I will try to wait for that info. But then I might lose my doctor. What a mess our country is in on healthcare.

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  7. My favorite appliance is probably the refrigerator. I have a friend without a refrigerator who has to get going out to buy ice. I also appreciate the microwave for a quick meal.

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  8. Deleted: (Is that you, Michelle?): My favorite (and only) staff is Connie. I’m not sure how I would’ve survived these last nine years without her. She has become more like my personal assistant than my maid or nanny. She’ll run errands for me, pick up the kids in a pinch or do whatever else I need help with. Additionally, she’s become my surrogate mother and dear friend. She works for me two days a week and I look forward to seeing her on those days. She is a wise soul who loves me and the kids ferociously–as we do her. I hope she never chooses to return to El Salvador.

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  9. As far as appliances go, I like all of them! The dishwasher, microwave, refrigerator, extra freezer, etc. And air-conditioning ranks right up at the top of the list. I simply cannot fathom living in Houston without air-conditioning.

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  12. Chas,
    I use the county GIS mapping system all the time. Would you have ever guessed years ago that a real estate agent would have use of that?

    Regarding the mapping items you have, please contact a local elementary school and let them know. I think it is 3rd or 4th grade curriculem that studies the solar system. Perhaps they could record you talking about it. To have first hand knowledge of how the moon was mapped and men landed on it would be priceless.

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  13. Favorite appliance? Come on ladies! Haven’t you read any historical fiction? It HAS to be the washing machine! How would you like to be in the middle of summer, lighting a fire, dragging buckets of water to a huge iron wash pot and scrubbing your clothes with lye soap?

    (confession–I have recently been reading Debra Holland’s Sweetwater Springs, Montana series)

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  14. Re: Janice’s post about health insurance
    Our companies just had open enrollment this month and, as always, we compared to see which was the better deal. We’ve stuck with mine for the last several years. This year, mine is going up to $190 a month. His would be over $500 per pay and he gets paid every two weeks. There is a footnote that the company may be subsidizing that somewhat but no promise and no indication of how much. That is insane.

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  15. I was going to go with the same thing Kim did – the washing machine. But I surely wouldn’t want to live without a stove (and oven), either.

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  16. Linda: My husband works for a fairly small company (less than 100 employees). We pay $1200.00 per month for our medical insurance (no vision/dental), with a $5,000.00 deductible annually. Since I don’t work, we have to go through his company. It’s insane. For the kids dental work, I go to a pediatric dentist who is the mother of one of Becca’s friends from preschool. She gives us a 50% cash discount, so even though her office is kind of far away, we have been using her for about six years (she’s good, too!). And, since I have two doctors in my family, let me just say that the extreme costs are not b/c doctors are greedy–it’s b/c of all the government regulations and their incredibly expensive (required) malpractice insurance. My brother is an anesthesiologist and he pays about $200,000.00 annually for his (and, no, he’s never had a claim).

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  18. I don’t own a dishwasher and could willingly live without a microwave and TV. I can live without air conditioning in the Midwest (I did so for most of my years in Chicago). I couldn’t work from home without the computer, but it isn’t as basic as some of those other things.

    So how about a four-way tie: electric lights, fridge, heat, and stove or toaster oven. But really, I think the biggest one may be one we all take for granted: the ability to buy ready-made clothes and not have to spin and dye our own yarn and knit and sew everything from socks to coats.

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  20. annmsw – I neglected to mention that both plans I mentioned are high-deductible. Mine is $5,000 and I think his was slightly lower – maybe $4,000. While I agree with you that malpractice insurance is a factor in the high prices, the latest big culprits are 1) they now must include coverage we don’t need; 2) we are paying for every Tom, Dick, and Harry who “can’t” pay for it themselves; and 3) they now must pick up folks with (expensive) pre-existing conditions. I realize that there were issues with the previous system but don’t think ACA was a good solution.

    BTW, I put “can’t” in quotes because I seriously wonder how many people really can’t afford coverage. It’s all about priorities and if you can get someone else to pay for it, it is no longer a priority for you.

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  21. I love everyone of my time and labor saving devices. I have lived for a few weeks without a stove and oven, but did have an electric frying pan. We have heated with wood. No fun. A nice fireplace fire is totally different. I appreciate hot and cold running water, indoor plumbing and all the rest.

    My mom talks about when she had two dresses. Her family was not poor. Dresses were mandatory on Sundays and mostly worn for everything. People simply did not have the amount of clothes that is normal in most homes today. I agree that people would go back to less clothes if we had to wash them by hand.

    Since I bake a lot and do most of my cooking from scratch and because I did not have a dishwasher until my youngest was almost gone, I do love, love, love my dishwasher. I especially like it when I am dead tired after doing a whole lot of cooking or baking and know almost everything will be washed with almost no effort from me.

    Kudos to inventor, innovators and those who invest in bringing us labor and time saving devices! It is another sign that we are created in the image of God who was the first to create. He did it out of nothing. We do it with his gifts and the wisdom he gives.

    Ann–I understand and am praying for you and your family.

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  23. Good hunting to you, drives!

    Interesting list of books, 6 arrows. I would like to read the Neil Armstrong bio. Also, the Thirteen Soldiers, 1000 mile walk and I would check out the quilt book. I might check out the cookbook, as well. I am like a kid in a candy shop in a library.

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  24. Not sure how we get out of the medical insurance mess we’re now in. I doubt we can overthrow the ACA altogether at this point (though I wish). But maybe there are ways to *fix* some of it. Or not. I suspect it’s too late now that all the insurance companies have moved heaven and earth to comply and restructure to meet all the requirements.

    Our insurance through work essentially stabilized this year (thankfully, and thankfully they still offered it, I fully expected they’d yank all the options & they’d send us to fend for ourselves with Obama care since our papers now up for sale).

    But there are still more (and a growing amount of) out-of-pocket expenses associated with our company-offered plans that can be hard for many to pay.

    I love all my “staff” appliances and would be hard pressed to do without them. Refrigerator, washer/dryer, oven, microwave … I suppose the dishwasher is the most optional, but oh, how I love that thing. 🙂 I guess once you get used to the convenience of something it’s hard to imagine getting along without it.

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  25. Hello JoeB. We’ve missed you.

    Kim,@ 9:19
    I hadn’t thought of that. And I really don’t know how much children would be interested in it now. To them, it would be like a discussion of WW I. Several years ago, I did go to Greensboro to tell some children about mapping technology. It was the school class of one of Chuck’s friends. The children all sent me a thank you note.

    When I first arrived in Hendersonville, the teacher of Elvera’s SS class learned that I was involved in Lunar mapping and asked me to make a presentation to the Lions. I told him that I would if I could find my stuff. I never did find it, and never made a talk.

    The ‘stuff” is color slides that I used in briefings. I never did find them. It isn’t something I would throw away, but I don’t have them. Today, they use power point. I have used power point and don’t know how to. But I suspect I could catch onto it if nesicerry.

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  26. Good morning, all! Kathaleena, libraries are like candy to me, too. I actually had more than those 14 books I listed yesterday, but thought I was going overboard, and couldn’t carry them all, so I left behind about 6 or 8 I had pulled off the shelf. Should have brought a bigger bag than the one I did. 😉

    I posted at the end of yesterday’s thread that I discovered that the book about the trek around the Great Lakes is actually the second book the author, Loreen Niewenhuis, has written about her adventures, the first being about her trek along the perimeter of Lake Michigan. More details on yesterday’s thread, for anyone interested.

    Ann, you have my prayers as Thanksgiving approaches.

    QoD: I can get along without a dishwasher, as we got rid of ours many years ago to make more cabinet space in our kitchen, and I haven’t missed it. I could do without microwaves, too. Everything else, like refrigerator, stove/oven, washing machine and clothes dryer (we have very little breeze where we live, so clotheslines are mostly a waste of time) are very important to me.

    Of course, my best staff is my arrows. 😉 Third Arrow and I sat down the other day and planned our whole morning routine for Thanksgiving Day, to coordinate the timing of all the dishes we plan to make for our family gathering. Daughter made a chart in half-hour increments (some boxes split in half) to record what we will start when. We’ve planned which burners will be in use for which dishes, what will go in the oven when the turkey comes out and has sit time/carving time, etc.

    She also drew a diagram of our countertops, with notations for where the various food items we are serving and others are bringing will be placed.

    I’m not very good at planning out things like this, so to have her help (both in the planning stages and on the day itself) is a priceless blessing.

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  27. I may have told you this before:

    We used to have TEM’s (Technicall Exchange Meetings), where we would go to St. Louis or Melbourne, Fl. to discuss progress and issues. (The also came to DMA, the host had to supply refreshments for break time. The contractor at Melbourne had money to provide such, but we had to pay for ours. There was no such provision in the budget for that.) Anyhow, at one of the meetings, Don L. was going through his slides, talking to them but looking at the audience. When suddenly, a picture of a naked woman showed up. The guys laughed, but Don didn’t catch on immediately because he was looking at them. (The picture was not pornographic, nothing private showed but a bosom.) One of the guys had gone down to the Graphic Arts Dept. and got a picture he inserted into the slides. A couple of seconds, and Don noticed and advanced the slide. Another couple of seconds, he caught onto the trick played on him and went back. “This was my most interesting project.” It was a good break. TEM’s can be deathly boring.
    Getting the slide from Graphic Arts is another story.

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  29. Ann,
    I understand about the Holidays. I am adrift. The way things have turned out I seriously doubt my own child will come home to me for the holidays. I think she will continue to go to her nana’s and to her aunt’s. All I ever wanted was a loving family but now I don’t have it.

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  30. The holidays can be such a mixed time of year. A few of you probably have the Norman Rockwell experience (surrounded by multiple generations of believing relatives).

    But most of us have some other version. 🙂 😮 I’ve found myself for the past five years or so, as what’s left of extended family scatters more and more, spending holidays mostly in catch-as-catch can circumstances, and this year it looks like I’ll be picking up my friend in Montebello who is at loose ends and in an unhappy roommate situation at her assisted living place. Not sure what happens after that. But I’ll figure it out sometime before next Wednesday. 🙂

    I also figure God has called me to this place and circumstance right now, like it or not (and often I’m not that keen on it) — so whatever I do, I need to do it well, all to his glory, not foot-dragging through it.

    Our family holidays growing up were fairly good, but there were always worries about *some* relatives who either drank too much or insisted on sitting in front of the TV football games or who clashed with someone else (worst-best story was when my Aunt Peggy got mad at someone, probably my dad, and took the Thanksgiving turkey with her as she stormed out of the house just as dinner was being served).

    Ah, yes, the holidays. Mostly wonderful, I still love ’em. But they do to come with challenges for most of us, that’s for sure.

    Meanwhile — Do you encounter Christophobia? I think it does exist, I run across it often where I live.

    http://www.patheos.com/blogs/blackwhiteandgray/2014/11/christianophobia-in-the-united-states-part-2/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Evangelical%2011%2020%202014%20(1)&utm_content=&spMailingID=47454499&spUserID=MTAyODc4MTUyNDI4S0&spJobID=562743921&spReportId=NTYyNzQzOTIxS0

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  32. While driving through MS a hitchhiker was along the road. My dad use to return home to Atl. from Charleston while on leave from the Navy by hitchhiking. He would pick up men in uniform until he picked up someone wearing his brother’s Army jacket in the days around Vietnam war. He did not pick up hitchhikers again.

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  33. I enjoy having a haus meri here. Especially as we are required to do deep cleaning and put all of our things away before we leave so that our places may be rented. I doubt that anyone will be here while I am gone, but I still have to leave it ready.
    Alas, she did not come yesterday, not sure why, and I had washed all the curtains ready to be ironed.

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  34. Spent hours yesterday sorting a 2000 dollar book order. I was still sorting them in my sleep! Now I need to go in early and get all the boxes to each classroom.

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  35. My favorite appliance? That would be a stove, with a freezer coming second. I can and did exist without a washing machine, vacuum, or electric mixer (my family did not possess a dryer, dishwasher, or microwave when I was growing up) in West Africa, but I would have found it a steep learning curve to cook over an open fire, never mind the effects of the smoke on my asthma. My gas fridge only kept things a little cooler than the outdoor and it would go out at the most inconvenient moments; but the solar freezer was a wonderful place to store cheese (yes, you can freeze cheese) and meat, and to kill the weevils in the flour before sifting it.

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  36. So Chas says he’s anxious for the pigskin picks, (which AJ puts up after I email it to him– sorry it was later this week) but hasn’t posted his picks yet. Hmm. Must be reminiscing about his days as a moon mapper.

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  37. Chas had to attend a funeral this afternoon, then some stuff to do. But he’s back now.
    All my friends are dying off. It happens when you reach a certain age. But she was six years younger than I am.
    😦

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  38. And I had to read a couple of chapters in the last book of the Chronicles of Narnia in yet another run through for seven year old who absolutely loves the series. It is her most requested reread. I tell her she is old enough to read them herself but she says she might not know some of the words. I think she likes being read to. That is okay as I like to read to her and especially those books.

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  39. Kim – I’m so sorry, & I am praying for God to do something special for you.

    I know my situation is not the same as yours, but I have my own ache at this time of year, due to being cut off by my brother & his family – & they are my only family outside my husband, daughters, & grandson. (I do have some somewhat distant family in the southern part of the state, but we don’t have the kind of relationship where we get together.)

    Brother & I don’t have any other siblings, & we each married an only child without cousins they were close to. But Brother & SIL have good friends that they prefer to family, & although they see their friends quite a bit, they decided it was preferable to spend holidays with them than with us. 😦

    It saddens me that my brother has only seen his grandnephew once or twice, & it has been three years since then. He doesn’t seem to care if he never sees any of us again. Niece cut off our relationship because, although I had always treated her with love & respect, she decided that I must secretly think horrible things about her, due to my “religion” & her sexual identity (bisexual), & because I wouldn’t come out & “embrace” her marriage to a transman.

    I never said anything negative or hurtful to her about any of that.

    SIL & I still occasionally exchange emails, but nothing too personal.

    I always wanted a “Waltons” kind of family. Well, I do now have a multi-generational living situation with Emily & Forrest, so I’ve got that. 🙂 I still want my Chrissy back home, though.

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