Our Daily Thread 12-11-14

Good Morning!

Only 2 weeks left!

If anyone would like to send in some Christmas themed pics so I don’t have to post more big, scary bird pics, feel free to do so. 🙂

Until then, I’ve dug out some of last year’s “decorations.”

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On this day in 1769 Edward Beran of London patented venetian blinds. 

In 1882 Boston’s Bijou Theater had its first performance. It was the first American playhouse lit exclusively by electricity. 

In 1930 The Bank of the United States in New York failed. 

And in 1941 Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The U.S in turn declared war on the two countries. 

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Quote of the Day

Christmas is a season for kindling the fire for hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.”

Washington Irving

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 Love this version. From Air1

And you know I love Ricky. From Opry 

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Anyone have a QoD?

57 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 12-11-14

  1. Good morning, Chas.

    Becca got an email and phone call from Santa this morning, thanks to a company called “Sealed by Santa.” She was thrilled! It was such fun to see her reaction! She still wholeheartedly believes…even though she’ll be ten in March… Do any of y’all do Elf on the Shelf? We’ve had our elf for four years–Becca named her Elfie-Friend–and talks to Elfie every day. It’s adorable.

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  2. Morning all….the tree and perfectly wrapped presents must be Kim’s…am I right?…..what a beauty and the snow falling adds the perfect touch….much better than being sqwaaaaked at by a huge black bird first thing in the morning!!
    No elf on the shelf…I had never heard of such until last year….and Janice has gremlins instead of elves this morning!! 😛

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  3. I love the Elf on a Shelf idea, BUT…and now there is a but.
    Last night we had a special event at church with Gertrude Mueller Nelson, the author of To Dance With God. We had about 125 people for her talk and then for dinner afterwards. We have a pavillion at church and the tables were set with dishes, glasses, flatware and centerpieces–I was not involved in that part. I did what I do-show up at the last minute and do everything everyone else is too tired to do.
    The children came into church barefooted carrying hay to put in the manger. While she was speaking St. Nicholas left an orange and a gingerbread cookie in everyone’s shoes.
    She spoke about the birth of Jesus, the celebration of darkness into light, the advent season and about the real St. Nicholas. She later spoke to the adults only about merchants deciding that St. Nicholas and angels didn’t sell toys so St Nick became Santa Claus and the angels became elves.
    We (me) become so wrapped up in making holidays perfect that we lose sight of what they are really about. Who cares if Aunt Dorothy gives you another brown sweater. Who cares about the perfect gift. She even spoke of St. Francis and the Crusades and that you don’t have to go to The Holy Land to stand on holy ground. God is with us. Right here on the land we are standing on.
    I won’t bore you will more, but encourage you to google her, perhaps read her book or watch the video I found on Youtube where she spoke at a church in New Jersey. I will brag and say that she told us she had never been to a church like ours.

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  4. I certainly am not one to want to start a kerfluffle, especially this close to Christmas. But I have anxiously been awaiting the results of the football deal and am baffled at their nonappearance. Now, it could be I missed them, but it seems the boys are not willing to post them, which would possibly indicate that the girls won. Just wondering…

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  5. Yes, rain! I’m thinking it would be fun to jump around in a puddle a la Gene Kelly (in my favorite movie), but my boots are too “precious” for such a mundane task. I’m printing up my Christmas letter and plan to write all day–either on cards or over here–unless I lounge around reading one of the four great library books I have to choose from.

    Did I mention I love days like this–particularly when I know all my loved ones are safe and warm. They’ve canceled school out here . . . 🙂

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  6. Yep, flooding, trees down, the Russian River will crest, possibly later this afternoon, at 5+ feet above flood stage. I have a little pool out in my back yard right now . . .

    I’m a little take aback they’re closing schools in San Francisco–which is built on hills and everything flows down–but the rain is coming down very hard and we’re just not built for weather in California.

    This is the worst weather my grandchildren have seen in their entire lives.

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  7. Kim sent this interesting link to a PBS program about Admiral Rickover, the father of the nuclear Navy, particularly the submarine community. My husband was interviewed by him and met him years later, again, on the USS Michigan shake down cruise. It’s interesting and we plan to watch the full program tonight: http://www.pbs.org/program/rickover-birth-nuclear-power/

    I’ve written about him on my blog, of course, but one of the more poignant stories was about his wife Eleanore, who is a Christian and was a friend of a friend. This is the story about her:

    The Care of Navy Wives in Life and Death

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  8. Musical Advent Calendar – Day 11: Well, it isn’t quite as last as “Past Three O’clock”, but here is the carol, with traditional chorus and verse lyrics by George Ratcliffe Woodward, set to the tune ‘London Waits’.

    Past three a clock,
    And a cold frosty morning,
    Past three a clock;
    Good morrow, masters all!

    Born is a Baby,
    Gentle as may be,
    Son of the eternal
    Father supernal.

    Seraph quire singeth,
    Angel bell ringeth;
    Hark how they rime it,
    Time it and chime it.

    Mid earth rejoices
    Hearing such voices
    e’ertofore so well
    Carolling Nowell.

    Hinds o’er the pearly,
    Dewy lawn early
    Seek the high Stranger
    Laid in the manger.

    Cheese from the dairy
    Bring they for Mary
    And, not for money,
    Butter and honey.

    Light out of star-land
    Leadeth from far land
    Princes, to meet him,
    Worship and greet him.

    Myrrh from full coffer,
    Incense they offer;
    Nor is the golden
    Nugget withholden.

    Thus they: I pray you,
    Up, sirs, nor stay you
    Till ye confess him
    Likewise and bless him.

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  9. We’re getting flash flood warnings on our cell phones. I’m writing a blog post about Joseph–a righteous man who knew God. 🙂

    Well, at least the trash trucks are getting through. 🙂

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  10. Michelle, I think it was the first year my blonde 22-year-old roommate and I lived on a street that was otherwise all black (we also had a Puerto Rican landlady who lived upstairs, but we were the only non-black household on the street). My roommate came home embarrassed one day. A few days before we had had a rainstorm and she had gone around splashing in all the puddles she could find.

    One of our neighbors, a sixty-ish man, had just told her how much fun it was to watch this young woman jubilantly dancing in the rain. She didn’t know she had an audience. 🙂 She and that man became good friends over the next two years.

    How much rain have you had this month?

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  11. The the Kerfuffler- The partial results are posted on the pigskin thread, with Kbells, Janice and 6 Arrows tied with 5 (kbells is ahead based on her tiebreaker score). The final results won’t be known until after the Army-Navy game this Saturday.

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  12. Chas, “rowdy”? Well, let’s just say that you might be surprised how appropriate that term would be in many of the stories I’ve done on this community & the port over the years. 🙂

    This was a pretty good meeting this morning, 25 speakers, 3 hours, 6 pages of typewritten notes (taking what was my very last piece of printer paper), and pretty passionate at times — but it was not the rowdiest I’ve witnessed.

    Good thing today is that I get to work from home as I have ANOTHER meeting I have to go to at 5 p.m. — which could go late, much of it waiting through a closed session at a local high school. Ugh. And I’ll have to actually get dressed and go to that one. This morning’s meeting was *enjoyed* in the comfort of my sweats & well-worn sheepskin moccasins on my sofa as they live-stream their meetings now on the Internet.

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  13. Just got an email from the editor, he says our entire area is apparently supposed to be (finally) swept entirely into the sea tomorrow and they need reporters to cover the breaking weather news. 🙂

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  14. Chas, I found out this morning that fruit flies are dumber than I thought.

    It turns out that it wasn’t fruit in the trash that was attracting them to the laundry room and giving them a chance to breed. It was a rotten onion.

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  15. Fruit flies don’ think.
    They all voted for Obama.

    I just got this from “Inside the Beltway”, a column in The Washington Times
    “a 30-second TV spot in the upcoming Super Bowl cost $4.5 million. Which works out to $150.000 a second”

    😯

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  16. It works.
    Last time I tried it, it said I needed to add an e-mail address.
    But I had one and it didn’t work.
    I backed out and came back.
    It works.

    Same source as before: I see where GQ magazine has Obama as # 11 in the list of most influential men.
    🙂

    Lest you take this seriously, the Furgerson protestors are #1.
    Pope Francis and Putin rightly lead Obama

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  17. How’s michelle?

    SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco Bay Area residents, bedeviled by water restrictions and arid farmland after three consecutive years of drought, had a different problem Thursday as a major rainstorm pushed across Northern California, flooding roads and towns, toppling trees and knocking out power to tens of thousands of houses and businesses.

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  18. Go Navy!

    Always, but particularly today. Still raining, though not quite a monsoon at the moment.

    [She pauses to look out the window.]

    On second thought, it’s raining pretty hard still . . . No recent warnings to the phone about overflowing creeks. We’ve been confused as to why they’ve been coming to us–perhaps the phone company knowing our location?

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  19. When our son was young we had a picnic with another couple and their two young children under a shelter at a park. A big rain storm came and I let my son play in the puddles, but the other mom would not let her children get out from under the shelter. Two different parenting styles. Any thoughts?

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  20. Do you know how to swim? Better learn quick, Jim. Those who don’t know how to swim, better sing to Him….better get ready to tie up your boat in Idaho.

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  21. Janice, there might be any number of reasons a mom might not let her children play in the rain, including knowledge that their health can’t deal with it (if they get sick easily or have asthma that is triggered by wet things), they aren’t dressed for it, they have to go somewhere else afterward, they come unglued and become unmanageable, or she simply cannot afford to let them ruin these clothes since she can’t buy more.

    Or she could be all prim and proper and not think such foolishness is a good use of time.

    All else being equal, I think I’d be inclined to let the children play in the rain. But then, I’d also be inclined to let children blow off steam by playing on a playground, and I had foster children who simply could not handle doing so. If they played on a playground, they got wild and didn’t want to obey me when it was time to go home, and then they’d have a meltdown in the car and be super emotional the rest of the evening. They simply could not deal with it. If I’d had them in my home longer, I might have gotten them past that . . . but different children (and different parents) can handle different things.

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  22. I’m stuck at a school board meeting with the members all in closed session (for 90 minutes now, so far). I’m typing on the laptop (can’t write any more of the story until they come out of closed session), trying to avoid one of the parents who talks my ear off — someone’s singing the song to Frozen as we mill around and wait. And wait. And wait .

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