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Our Daily Thread 2-17-15

Good Morning!

On this day in 1817 the first gaslit streetlights appeared on the streets of Baltimore, MD.

In 1865 Columbia, SC, burned. The Confederates were evacuating and the Union Forces were moving in. 

In 1933 “Newsweek” was first published. 

And in 1934 the first high school automobile driver’s education course was introduced in State College, PA. 

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Quote of the Day

“All the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think. The trouble is that men very often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because thinking is such hard work.”

Thomas J. Watson

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 Today is Arcangelo Corelli’s birthday. From Ensemble L’aura Soave – Cremona 

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Anyone have a QoD?

49 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 2-17-15”

  4. I think I told you about the tradition in Columbia; I don’t know if it’s true. That some Yankee soldiers came riding in to burn the FBC down. They asked a black guy where the church was.
    He directed them across the street where they rode and burned the Methodist Church down.
    He was a janitor at FBC.
    It could be true, but I don’t know that.

    You all know that FBC building was the location of the convention that voted for SC to secede from the union. Elvera and I were married in that church. They have a larger church on the corner now, and the original church is restored to it’s original configuration. Much smaller than it was when we went there.

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  6. We barely missed the really bad stuff with the ice although we still could have ice on the roads depending on temps. I need to check on brother who is without power and has a bad cold. Not a good combination.

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  8. I really don’t have an option of being bad. We are snowed in. If I had to be out, I could manage it. But I don’t have to and I won’t. It’s going to be a tough week in Hendersonville.

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  9. I only use two apps on my iPhone regularly. But I like both.
    I can use “find friends” to tell if all my children are where they are supposed to be. (I just checked. That’s why I thought of this.) And the weather. Always available.
    I think I told you that I found Jennifer and Jeremy in Lexington, Ky. Saturday. Jeremy is a Kentucky man. They went to the game.
    😦

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  11. The app I use the most is Kindle because it allows me to read my current book anytime, anywhere. Others that I appreciate are Key Tag (scan all the store tags from your key ring and use from your phone instead), my banks mobile app (I can even deposit checks), the Bible, and JoAnn and Hobby Lobby (for the coupons).

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  14. I’d also have to list the Kindle and Key Ring apps as ranking among my top favorites. Along with google maps/GPS, the weather, various news apps (Drudge, Politico, Fox, NBC), Facebook (including FB messenger), Twitter.

    And I have several devotional apps, including Spurgeon and Lectionary.

    Oh, and the “notes” app — I keep a lot of encrypted info on that, including hints for various passwords. I’ve also used it for quick grocery or other lists when I’m going out and think I might forget something.

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  16. With all of this talk of apps and smartphones, I am seriously considering getting one. These are the apps I will be looking for, in no particular order:
    teaching a child to read app
    reading to a child app
    hugging a child app
    rocking with a child while giggling about silly things app
    talking in the evening with young adults about stuff app
    gardening app
    planting seeds app
    pruning fruit trees app
    walking dogs app
    milking goats app
    butchering chickens app
    sitting in the sunshine app
    building a fort out of blankets app
    sailing a cardboard box app
    picnic table pirate ship app
    Presumably, they do those things for me. I have plenty of books telling me how.

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  17. Did you all know there’s also a dog park app? It’ll show you where the nearest dog park is to your current location. I don’t think it displays the dog park weather, though.

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  20. Clinging to my old flip phone, but knowing I will be pulled into a smart phone soon, whether I like it or not. Now I understand all those comments about electric lights, phones, cars etc. when they first appeared on the horizon. Right now my kindle fire substitutes for some of what the smart phone can do.

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  23. Let’s see, one daughter has a smart phone (it isn’t hers, but her work’s), but the rest of us have dumb phones. I don’t even have a flip phone. I don’t want a smart phone, but I would like a flip phone.

    I have two cameras, a cell phone that makes phone calls, and a desktop computer with a large screen (so that I can put two documents side by side when I need to while editing, or can design a spread in a book with photos). My husband has a GPS. He has a laptop and a tablet.

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  24. Yes, electricity must have really freaked people out. I remember a Thurber story about that …

    “She came naturally by her confused and groundless fears, for her own mother lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion that electricity was dripping invisibly all over the house.”

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  25. Some of our older readers who call for help are still quite adamant that no, they DO NOT have a computer — nor do they ever plan to ever get one.

    Sometimes I think these things are seen as fads that will pass — or, probably more accurately, they certainly aren’t perceived as things that will literally take over the way we do businesses (and everything else), making it very difficult to navigate the culture and business world without one.

    Probably few of us 15 years ago, even, could have envisioned how thoroughly digital technology would take over life as we know it.

    Most of our “newspaper” readers now come to us by way of social media — and many of them via mobile app.

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  26. I have a sticky note app I like that is color coded so I have one color for a listing of gifts to look for that people have mentioned that they need. I also do some prayer lists there along with to do lists.

    I like the Maps app and the Weather. These days I use the Twitter app a lot, and I routinely but not obssessively use Words With Friends (solo play) app. Another one I like is the Clock for a timer and alarm, and the Calendar with notification reminders. I use the Kindle app some, but prefer using the larger screen on the actual Paperwhite Kindle for reading.

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  27. One other app I forgot that works great is Audible for listening to books.

    This is the only time in my life that I have had a techy thing when it was a new thing. Usually we are the very last to get the old models of whatever when they have been put on clearance.

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  28. I will remember more I like as the senior brain is slow on recall. 🙂

    An especially useful app when traveling is the voice search. You press on a little microphone icon to access it and you speak what you are looking for such as “Nearest Starbucks,” and it gives directions. It is good for the typing impaired, too.

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  29. If I had a smart phone, as opposed to a traditional phone, I would use the weather app, and maybe one or two others. I hope I never have to get one.

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  30. My weather app is to look out the window. Better yet, go walk the dogs in the morning. I usually get a pretty good idea what the weather is like, that way. If all else fails, I go to NOAA.

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  31. My husband is still not fond of his smartphone. This morning I was sending him a text to make sure he made it to work okay considering the weather. When I pushed ‘Send’ I heard a beep downstairs. His phone was here. He is not attached to it. 😦 I am attached because it is my connection to the world since we don’t have internet at home otherwise.

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  32. Late yesterday husband said the temp was 38 degrees where he was. My phone gave 32 degrees here at home, and it was raining so I told husband he needed to get moving toward home. The weather app was good for that purpose. It can give more detailed info based on specific locations.

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  34. This morning, I had to find my cell phone so I could call my brother to find out how step mom was doing. It needed to be recharged so I plugged things in, heard a loud pop, saw and smelled smoke. Guess the charger is done. Somebody took my phone to charge it somewhere else. My phone does not get much use.

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  36. Janice @ 2:57. If you use “find friends” you don’t need to text to see if he is there You can look on the phone.
    Last night, as I went into the bedroom, I told Elvera, “All your children are where they are supposed to be.”

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  38. My mom is happy she doesn’t have, nor ever owned, a computer. At this point, I am happy she did not have one either. Security is going to become interesting when dementia issues hit those who own and use computers regularly. My folks did have an iPad, which came with a car they bought. The car was so high tech, that it was a major undertaking to figure anything out. Interestingly, none of the adult children liked that car.

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  40. I am safely home and so is my Baby Girl.
    Should you ever find yourself in Bucktunna, MS there is a Chevron station that has red tile inlaid from the front door to the restroom. It is nice and clean. It is the fanciest restroom I have seen outside of a casino–what with the crown molding, tile, flocked wallpaper, etc.

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  43. It was an easy trip. 6 hours driving today 120 miles of it on a two lane highway that desperately needs to be resurfaced.
    I grew up going up and down part of that highway, so there were a lot of memories to sort through.

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  44. I have my BG, make that BGB, all cuddled up and snoozy in my arms. That is Baby Girl Bosley. She is the sweetest looking kitten/cat in this mode. But when husband gets home and the battle begins over the tv, she becomes the lady scorned, and you know what that means. How can she balance on top of the very thin flat screen tv? She could have a profession as a tightrope walking/running cat. She will need to do well to help pay for the tv she will eventually flip. 😦 We need a cage for our tv to keep her away. The fly swatter is obviously the right size for flies. Guess I need to invent a true oversize swatter for cats. She thinks the swatter is a toy to fight now. You can almost see her grinning at the challenge.

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  45. Every violinist should love the work of Arcangelo Corelli, as he developed the virtuoso techniques for playing the violin, influencing such musical giants as J.S.Bach and Handel, techniques which are still used in composition and performance today. I enjoyed playing his music when I studied for exams and every once in a while I dig out the old pieces to get my Corelli fix. His music is always bright, and has made its way into popular media, thanks to film soundtracks such as the one to Master and Commander. Thanks for the selection today, The Real.

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  47. Back from seeing the eagles! (Actually, we’ve been back for a while. But I uploaded photos, sorted them, sent a few to a friend, chatted with the girls, and then tucked my husband in.)

    We got some good sightings, maybe 50 eagles at one site and 20 at another. One was fairly close, but we had trees in the way at that spot. Several flying, with some of those fairly close. Also a great blue heron fishing, way too many Canada geese, a kingfisher, and some common goldeneyes (a new species for us). Locals were coming in for a few minutes with a camera or binoculars and then leaving, and soon another car would come along. We may be the only ones who drove a distance to see them. It was cold (low 20s, felt colder on the water), but my husband had researched to find a brand that’s better than Thermos for keeping hot drinks hot for hours (four or five hours later it’s still steaming, the next morning it is still warm if you leave it overnight), so we would go back to the car to warm up for a few minutes and then back out onto the bridge.

    I definitely got better photos than last year in terms of being “zoomed in” more (though I would have liked to get some of the action shots I got last year, but with a zoom this time), and I’ll send AJ a few once I figure out which ones to send. But I was really glad the camera “mostly” cooperated (I did need a fresh battery at an inopportune time, but I had one with me, so it was only a few minutes of being unable to photograph. They did foolishly put the opening to the battery underneath the spot where you attach a tripod, so everything had to be removed–including my husband’s gloves–in order to change the battery. But hey, I had a fresh one, so that was only a trivial inconvenience.)

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  49. All right, I narrowed down my pictures to just five (two are two shots of the same juvenile), and finally got them all to upload to send to AJ. . . .

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