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Our Daily Thread 2-16-15

Good Morning!

And Happy President’s Day!

Today’s header photo is from Cheryl.

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On this day in 1741 Benjamin Franklin published America’s second magazine, “The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle”.

In 1804 a raid was led by Lt. Stephen Decatur to burn the U.S. Navy frigate Philadelphia. The ship had been taken by pirates. 

In 1862 about 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Fort Donelson, TN. 

In 1923 Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen.

In 1959 Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba after the overthrow of President Fulgencio Batista.

And in 1960 the U.S.S. Triton began the first circumnavigation of the globe under water. The trip ended on May 10. 

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Quote of the Day

“Politics are a very unsatisfactory game.”

Henry Adams

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 This seems appropriate… 🙂 From The United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own” 

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Anyone have a QoD?

53 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 2-16-15”

  1. Good morning. I’m super behind on all the threads. Hubby and I had a great Valentine’s weekend at the ranch. It was the first Valentine’s Day in sixteen years of marriage that we didn’t see my MIL, as her birthday is February 14. She’s visiting her best friend in Florida.

    My sister and her family are back in Rwanda.

    Becca-boo has the day off from school, but our public school is in session. It’s amazing to me that they have off for MLK day, but not President’s Day…

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  2. Good morning!
    Good to see you , Annms! Glad you had a good V day.

    It’s cold outside and overcast, but it seems we are missing the storm except for the northern counties of GA. I am thankful for missing the storm. It’s not a good thing for the tax business.

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  3. Good Monday morning.
    Janice says she’s missing it.
    Paul Sparanza, our local weatherman says we’re in for a rough week. Winter storm warning this afternoon. Then it will get cold Wednesday and stay cold all week.
    The groundhog told us this would happen.

    We had an interesting lecture/discussion, not sermon, on Jewish culture last evening.
    The key was “tradition”.
    This didn’t come up, but we Americans lost our traditions in the sixties. Not a good thing.

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  4. Chas, I am interested in your comment that we lost our traditions in the 1960’s. Would you please explain that more? What traditions did we have before? Why did we lose them in the 60’s? How?
    I have always known there was a cultural shift in that decade but have never fully grasped the whole picture of it or what the root cause was.

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  5. Sad, sad…to lose good traditions that are helpful to keep society intact and orderly. I don’t believe in being a slave to tradition, but breaking from the traditions of our Christian heritage has been devastating.

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  8. Kim, I think Chas is referring to the “free love” movement along with the escalation of drug culture, out of wedlock parenting as fully acceptable, and a general lessening of all standards regarding being responsible. Some would also add, “the age of entitlement.”

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  9. The header is a pine siskin. You really don’t just see one pine siskin. We usually have six or eight of them when they come, though they can come in flocks of a hundred, I’ve heard.

    We may have had them at the tree before this year, I’m not sure. But for sure I haven’t seen them to identify them until this winter. They’re a delight to watch, since they hold onto the feeder in acrobatic ways at times, and they’re also constantly squabbling for the best spot on the feeder. You would think that one of the characteristics of a bird that travels in flocks would be that it gets along with its flock-mates, but when these birds come to the feeders, there are constant flashes of yellow as they argue with each other. (Some of them have more yellow than others do. One of my sources says males have more yellow, and one says they can’t be sexed visually.) Goldfinches often feed among them (this time of year goldfinches aren’t very bright yellow, either, and the two species are about the same size) and sometimes a house finch or two (which are larger, with red instead of yellow on the males). Notice it has a much thinner beak than those two finches, which would indicate it feeds on seeds a bit differently, though I haven’t researched yet what exactly it does in the wild in terms of getting food. My hunch is the smaller beak is better for prying seeds, but it can’t be as good for cracking tough ones. But they like both thistle and sunflower seeds at the feeder.

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  10. It is pleasant outside. Still not warm enough for me but it isn’t too cold that I can’t stand it. Someone posted a picture on FB that said “I love hearing those three little words….it’s almost summer!
    I have another frou-frou event to attend today, the Queen’s Luncheon. I shall don a pretty hat and a dress that is the same color as the shirt I had on in the photo of Ann and me. Tomorrow I will not participate in any festivities. I will drive 4 long lonely hours to Meridian, MS to meet BG and bring her back from her weekend with her bestie who now lives in Corinth, MS. I am hoping the weather will be good because I intend to let BG drive us home. .She needs the experience.
    Of course you know that Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. I believe it was Donna who recently made the comment that the date was no longer noted on calendars. It will begin the time of Lent as we prepare for Easter. A time for giving up or taking on something. I know I ask every year but what do you plan to do during this time of reflections, penance, etc?
    ONe of the things I intend to do is transform my eating habits to something a lot healthier. Said blue dress above is in a nice I never thought I would have to buy. It might be vain to do something like change your eating habits because of weight and size, but it has to be done one way or the other and I think Lent will be as good a time as any. I also plan to join everyone on the 10.000 steps per day kick. Yesterday Lulabelle and I got in 2800. I could have walked more, but was worn out from wresting her on the lease. She was going off to doggy boot camp, but the main trainer was in a car accident and all classes have been cancelled.
    I hope you enjoyed my disjointed ramblings….

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  11. I was barely around in the sixties, not being born until 1967 . . . but one of the vast cultural changes that has been made is that tradition used to hold that “father knows best” and know if it is more “don’t crush junior’s spirit by telling him no.” That can be seen daily on any shopping trip, that few parents have any idea how to be the one who has authority, if they even believe in such a thing. The youth-centered culture is a profound shift, and a bad one for everyone.

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  12. I think I probably have mentioned here before how when I was in my twenties an older employee who was at retirement age asked if I felt entitled to a vacation each year. My thought was, of course, because when you work all year and you are told at the beginning that you will get two weeks of annual vacation, it seems like you are entitled to get your time. I guess it was based on my having invested in the timeshare and wanting a particular week each year. I did feel like that if the work schedule was not pressing that I should be able to take a specific time off. But then again, a person must factor in whether or not they have a nice or mean boss. 🙂 😦

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  13. Kim, a detailed answer to that question would take some thought. But Janice hit on it.
    Men never used to curse in front of women. Now women curse like men. The first time I heard a woman say the f— word was at Purdue in 1972. It meant nothing to her.
    Let me think about it.

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  14. It’s cold. Like single digits. Overnight with the wind chill, minus numbers. Alllll week…. 😦
    Oh, and snow. Again…. 😦

    Southern storms and Canadian air do not mix well.

    Oh well, off to get haircuts for the ladies. One of their Valentines Day gifts.

    I also took them to DSW last week. Cheryl got 2 nice pair of boots. 🙂

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  15. Kim- I think the loss of tradition started in the early 60s when Madeline Murray O’Hare got the Supreme Court to bow to the minority of atheists, by declaring that God had no place in schools. Now, the entire public square is off limits to the free expression of Christianity. You can proclaim just about any other religion in public, but about the only mention of Jesus you can get away with is using his name as a curse word. I believe that SCOTUS decision opened the door to all the evil that followed.

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  16. Peter mentioned another important one.

    In the discussion Sunday evening, Pastor Steve talked about traditions. Specifically, Jewish traditions, after viewing a clip from “Fiddler on the Roof”. They were/are governed by tradition. Briefly, some traditions are good, neutral and bad.
    Good: Family gets together every Christmas, family reunions, father knows best, etc.
    Neutral traditions: Coat and tie on Sunday, Hoppin John on New Years Day. Groundhog, etc.
    Bad traditions: Not accepting certain races/cultures into your group. (Dr. Jones says that before the Civil War, they didn’t have black and white churches.) Insisting that certain practices (makeup for women, drinking a beer, etcf.) exclude you from the church. Etc. (He didn’t mention these, he went to the scripture to talk about Jesus and the Pharisees. I’m talking today’s culture.)
    There were certain traditions that we used to have, which are no longer observed. Janice mentioned, briefly, the attitudes on sex. The pill has changed everything, for good and bad. Men no longer treat women with respect because they are women. By that, I mean they will curse and otherwise act as if they weren’t there. There was talk about “war on women” during the last election. If there is a war, the women started it.
    When I got my security clearance in 1963, I would have been denied it if I had been homosexual. I understand that by 1980, they were not allowed to ask.
    So many things I could think of it I continued this.

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  17. I told you this before. In elementary school in Charleston we stood beside our desk and prayed for the “boys” on Guadalcanal. When the Supreme Court ruling against prayer in school came down, I said that I couldn’t imagine someone telling Miss (they were all “Miss” somebody) Pringle she couldn’t pray. She would discipline us by making us hit our hands with a ruler. Another tradition that is not allowed. We didn’t have many discipline problems in school in those days.

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  18. I’ve been enjoying a rather leisurely morning. Connie stayed with the kids this weekend, so my house is clean and there’s no laundry… Becca has a friend coming over a little later, a sweet girl in her class, with whom she’s become very good friends. I’m hoping the friend’s mom and I can become better acquainted–she seems extremely nice and I could use a few more girlfriends….I have wonderful old friends, but they live all over. I am pretty picky about friends–so it’s partially my fault that I’m in need of companions–but I really think this woman and I could be good friends and am considering inviting her to coffee sometime soon.

    So, I just finished reading the weekend thread about how everyone met their sweetheart. I can’t remember if I’ve shared our story before, but thought I’d write it again in case I hadn’t. Scott and I met at work when I was 22 and he was 27. He’d been working for five years and already owned a home. I was still in sorority-girl mode and pretty immature. But, I sure thought he was cute. I’d get so nervous whenever we were at the copier at the same time, blushing for absolutely no reason. He had his eye on me, too, but didn’t believe in dating someone he worked with. Well, almost two years later, I decided to go back to graduate school. I was leaving the company in two weeks, and finally decided to ask him out. All day I concocted a story with the help of girlfriends. Around four, I stopped by his office, which was right next to the lounge. He was friendly and we talked about our shared alma mater, UT, for a few minutes. Then, I said, “I’m so bummed. I was supposed to meet a friend for margaritas after work, but she can’t now. My taste buds were all set! Would you like to join me for a margarita later?” You have to remember, I wasn’t a Christian at this point. I was so nervous, I paused only about 10 seconds (but seemed an interminable silence), and spurted out, “But, it’s okay if you can’t. I mean, I can find someone else to join me.” He smiled and said, “Sure, I’d love to join you for a margarita after work. I can leave around six. Does that work for you?” I was so excited. I spent the next two hours alternately primping in the ladies’ room and talking to friends on the phone. We went to a Mexican restaurant close to our office and talked and laughed for two hours. Then, we went across the street to this fabulous Italian restaurant and had dinner. He followed me home, which was an apartment about five minutes away, and said he’d call. Which he did the very next day. We dated casually for a couple of months, but were never explicitly exclusive (I later learned he wasn’t dating anyone else–but I was!). Anyway…since things were never defined, when I moved back to Austin I began dating my five year on-again, off-again boyfriend, David, again and peremptorily dumped Scott. Well–we had lunch a few times during the two years I was in grad school when I’d come to Houston to visit Monica (my lifelong BFF). After grad school, I’d been working in Houston for about six months when he ran into my Dad and asked after me, who told him I was living in Houston. He tracked me down and called me at work. We talked for about forty-five minutes and he asked me to join him for dinner Thursday night. I agreed. This time, I was much more grown-up and recognized him for the gem he is. We had a five hour date and were engaged six months later in January. We married March 6, 1999.

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  19. And, although we were 28 and 33 when we married, I was the only woman he’d ever said, “I love you” to. I’m pretty sure the first time he told me he loved me was two months into dating. I was so happy as I knew I loved him, too.

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  22. Aw, nice story ann.

    Poor kare, dragging herself to the clinic on a holiday — hope they have some medicine that can help knock whatever it is you have out for good. No fun being sick.

    We have our morning fog back today — hooray! — so our temperatures are finally headed back down. That was quite a string of 80-something days, too hot for February.

    I knew an anthropology professor (and Christian) who said the cultural shift really began in the 1950s — the challenges to cultural norms flourished (but still mostly on the fringes) in the 1960s but it wasn’t really until the 1970s and 1980s that practices such as living together outside of marriage were normalized for most of the middle-class culture.

    I still go back to the post WWII years as being something of the genesis of all this — I suspect American was quite comfortable during that time, enjoying a new status and prosperity at home.

    Then a gazillion kids were born and raised in a rather short period of time, enjoying that prosperity in a nation that was at the top of the world. The country had “arrived.”

    And, as they say, the rest, pretty or not, is history — and, interestingly, it has been a pattern not unlike the ultimate downfalls of other successful nations of earlier eras.

    Hopefully we won’t experience the final fall, but I suspect as a secular nation America, in some way, will go by the wayside by being broken up or otherwise radically changed (maybe with some kind of new or revised constitution?) in fairly short order.

    Most of us probably won’t be around to witness it first-hand, although if that is the ultimate end to the U.S. we surely are seeing the beginnings of it.

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  25. After lunch, I told Elvera that today is a holiday, no letter today.
    That, of course, made me think of the song. And that made me think of Hank Snow and Anita Carter. I just love her voice.

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  26. “Equality” for women. In the early ’70s women got the same rights as men in the house buying markets. Before-1/4 of a man’s yearly wages was the most a bank would allow for a house loan. After- a woman’s paycheck had to be counted in. The prices of new houses in Cerritos, CA went from $29,000 to $40,000 in one year. Result? now women have to work so a family can buy a house. Mothers have to work, latch-key kids, the rise of cheap Japanese cars (women need a car to get to work)… Were the coming costs of “equality” of women counted?

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  28. Bob- I agree that a woman has “to work so a family can buy a house” in an area like LA, or some other large city. But in a rural area like where I live, f one doesn’t feel the need to live in the best/newest neighborhoods, than a single income can buy a decent house. We live in a smal town near a mid-sized city. Our house is a 3 bdrm, ~1700 sq. ft. with 2 full bathrooms. Our payment is less than $500 per month. We have always had one income and are doing fine. Granted, I moonlight for extra income, but my wife has never had to work so our children always had her home.

    But I agree that a lot of the reason for the higher cost of living is due to the trend to two incomes.

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  29. For those of you on Twitter, author Ann Voskamp has set up a hashtag — #Pray703 — for those wanting to connect in prayer for persecuted Christians worldwide

    Bob: Perhaps one of those unintended (and unforseen at the time) consequences

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  31. Oh good. That should help And add in a grilled cheese sandwich. 🙂

    I discovered that while there was no real cure for the flu, a grilled cheese sandwich (once my appetite returned) and codeine-laced cough syrup came mighty close.

    More on that online payer gathering from World Magazine:

    http://www.worldmag.com/2015/02/globe_trot_ann_voskamp_launches_prayer_campaign_for_persecuted_christians

    Author and speaker Ann Voskamp has turned her #Pray703 campaign, launched at this month’s IF: Gathering in Austin, Texas, to focus on the Copts and other persecuted Christians with postings on Instagram and Twitter. It’s a movement attracting thousands who have perhaps viewed persecution as far off, with daily prayer in this coming season of Lent focused on 1 Samuel 7:03 and 2 Chronicles 7:14 (praying between 7:03 a.m. and 7:14 a.m. each morning).

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  32. Fast food- when women work cooking can be a step too far. Restaurants in the 50s? Not so much! I will bet the rise in fast food and the prepared food from the super market directly shadow women working.

    Kids (latchkey) needs to be in the house was made easier by the video game. Likewise “Childhood obesity.” How many of our children and grand children are glued to the Disney Channel, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon? (Not to say anything about adults watching them.)

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  33. Our local rat terrier didn’t win the agility contest (but she did get a ribbon, which isn’t bad considering she had sight-saving surgery this past year that left her with compromised vision slowing her normal time down some).

    But check out Tex, the border collie who did win:

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  34. In his sermon yesterday, Pastor Steve mentioned Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, who was burned at the stake for not saying, “Caesar is lord”. Only a gesture, you don’t have to mean it, just say it. But he wouldn’t deny Jesus.
    I said to our SS class, before the class started:

    ”When the pastor tells about Polycarb and his martyrdom, we, sitting here at Fifth and Washington, in a warm building, think he is talking history. But this is real time. Even now, people are being beheaded because they won’t say, “There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet.” Those words could save them. But they won’t deny Christ. We’re not talking history, this is happening now.”

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  35. I am back and listening to Hank Snow and Anita Carter. Thank you..
    I had a fantastic time and yes, I did join the Second Line through the ballroom where the luncheon was held. I am quite proud of Miss Mel.
    Now you have to picture the upper crust of society in all their finery and hats dancing through a ballroom waving their napkins and doing this….

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  36. I’m back from a Frozen party on an 80 degree day. Fun time had by all, but I’m going to take a nap before I tackle all the email!

    We’ve got a young tuba player (degree in Tuba from USC), digging four holes in the 4 feet x 40ft area between the sidewalk and street. He’s been at it for five hours and has done two holes, two feet deep, two feet in circumference. I doubt anything has ever been planted there before: dirt is rock hard (with a few rocks). Once the holes are done, probably tomorrow, he’ll need to plant the trees and smooth the soil two inches below the sidewalk. We’ll then fill with packable sand and place walking stones from the street to the sidewalk in front of our front door.

    We call this neighborhood improvement. It’s been delayed 15 months while we waited for water to return to California.

    After that, the back yard . . . .

    it’s so nice to feel like I have time to get my house, finally, in order. Of course there are STILL boxes to unpack in the laundry room and I’d like some color on these walls.

    Fortunately, Michael needs the work . . .

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  38. 7 provinces have Family Day in February – you’re supposed to take the day and spend it doing something fun with your family. It’s not a statutory holiday, so my husband typically does not get it off as he works for the federal government, but he just happened to have this Monday off.

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  39. We spent it running to town to see the doctor and then this afternoon priming half the kitchen and prepping for the dishwasher and sink base install!

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  46. The chipper was working today! The seven and eight year olds were bringing me sticks by the wheelbarrow from the stick pile and I got to chip the sticks. Then we took them and put the chips around the fruit trees and the blueberries. Some of them. We did not do a lot, but we had a good time. A wheelbarrow of sticks does not make a lot of chips but it should help with the moisture retention and weed suppression. I am all about minimizing work.

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  49. I haven’t watched since last year, it’s just gearing up for the mating and egg season now —

    According to my eagle expert source on Fb: “We’re on ‘egg watch’ for the Two Harbors and West End Catalina nests. Both females could lay eggs any time now. Once they do, there will be an adult on the nest full time until hatching, about 35 days later … (And in response to someone’s question about the nest): The time from December until mid- to late February, these eagles bring in sticks to form the circle or rails around the nest, then they make a bowl that they line with softer grasses, moss, etc. which is where the eggs will be laid and incubated.”

    There’s also a site for all of the California eagle “cams”:

    http://www.iws.org/interactive_nestchat_allUstream.html

    Probably the best time to watch is when the babies are hatching and in their first days/weeks. 🙂

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  50. In other words, now is probably kind of a boring time to watch — excepting the mating ritual I think I saw today 🙂 — once the babies start hatching the sites get a lot more traffic (and that’s when I’ve watched — and done stories — in the past).

    So sounds like that’ll be another month + away, probably mid to late March?

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  52. Donna, it looked like the nest was ready and people were talking about when she’d lay, and that she usually lays overnight . . . but I wondered if you were saying she had laid one.

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