by

Our Daily Thread 5-2-15

Good Morning!

Welcome to the weekend! 🙂

Here’s a few more of those birds……..

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5-1-15 0625-1-15 037

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On this day in 1797 a mutiny in the British navy spread from Spithead to the rest of the fleet.

In 1865 President Andrew Johnson offered $100,000 reward for the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

In 1890 the Oklahoma Territory was organized.

In 1946 prisoners revolted at California’s Alcatraz prison.

And in 1970 student anti-war protesters at Ohio’s Kent State University burned down the campus ROTC building. The National Guard then took control of the campus.

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Quote of the Day

“A friend should be one in whose understanding and virtue we can equally confide, and whose opinion we can value at once for its justness and its sincerity.”

Robert Hall

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 Today is Louis Andrew Grammatico’s (aka Lou Gramm’s) birthday. So yeah, these are loud. 🙂

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Anyone have a QoD?

101 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 5-2-15”

  2. Morning, Chas, AJ. Nice to have warm enough temperatures to sleep with the windows open, but the birds sure wake me up earlier. I enjoy my sleep, but love the sounds of springtime even more, so it’s OK.

    Time to listen to some Foreigner. One of my favorite rock groups.

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  6. While reading a column in the Times-News this morning, I came across the answer to something I wondered about. i.e. What does a person mean when he says, “I am SPIRITUAL but not RELIGIOUS”? What can that mean?.

    This guy says “I think I’m not a religious person, but I am a very spiritual person. For me, religion is about answers and spirituality is about questions.”
    He says the questions “Who am I”” and “What is reality?” are the questions and “you are willing to follow the question wherever it takes you.”

    I think this is all nonsense and I could shoot it down in a face to face confrontation.
    But it seems that a lot of people adhere to this philosophy.

    The title of the article is, “The climb matters more than the summit.”

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  7. I have been a busy little bee this morning. Since the last check in all the wooden furniture in the living room and dining room has been cleaned with Murphy’s Oil Soap and then polished with Old English Furniture Oil. I also went through Mr. P'(ignpen)”s assortment and stacks of paper next to his chair and culled, organized, and put away.
    Next up is the kitchen and baths. I can’t vacuum because my vacuum is still in the shop. I can pick it up at 10 and come home to vacuum. Yesterday morning I was inspired by reading this article.
    http://rvanews.com/news/a-true-account-of-the-life-changing-magic-of-tidying-up/124633

    I used to be a big follower of Flylady.net and I am guessing the Konmari method is probably along the lines of “nothing new under the sun”, but I did get me motivated. I do know this about myself: I am happiest when my nest is feathered and I am surrounded by things I love, that have meaning to me. I will post something I wrote about 5 years ago in a minute or two.
    I posted the above article on my FB page yesterday with a warning to Mr. P. With him fishing today, he may think he stumbled into the wrong house when he gets home. 😉

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  8. Chas, my take on “Spiritual not religious” is this:
    1. It’s a cop out.
    2, They recognize that there is a Higher Power at work in the universe. They want to believe in something and some are even willing to call it the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Many of those aren’t believers in Jesus though. Of the ones left they aren’t sure what to call the Higher Power.
    3. There are also those who believe in God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. They may have even grown up in the church but have been hurt by it. Rather than heal and move on they nurse that wound and some were it at as badge of honor. They pride themselves on not being part of a church, but they still know deeply implanted in their hearts that there is a God and there will be a day of reckoning.

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  9. Kim, I just read the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and I loved most of it. There’s some New Age-y stuff in it you can ignore, but I liked the idea of sorting through things by type, rather than proceeding room by room. Doing all your clothes first, then books (maybe — I don’t remember), etc. Neat book, and a quick read. I finished it in only a couple days.

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  10. My take on the people who say they are “spiritual” but not religious is that they seem to be searching deep within themselves for “truth”, rather than in the pages of Scripture for actual Truth. Their experiences and feelings constitute “truth” to them. Therefore, “my truth” might be different than “your truth” and that’s OK, as long as it doesn’t infringe on my right of self-expression.

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  11. Home is where I am right now. I do not own this house. The builder does and there is a for sale sign in the front yard. I have put weed and feed on the lawn and I have worked in the flower beds and added plants. He and I have discussed him owner financing the house at some point and making me a good deal on it. I treat it as if I owned it.

    What makes it home, and I sat here for several minutes pondering this question, it that Baby Girl and I are together and safe here. I looked around from my seat in the living room. My life and my memories are here. My mother’s French Provincial china cabinet is in the dining room with the dining room table that George’s aunt gave us. My bedroom furniture is a huge rice bed that was my fathers and the matching dresser and high boy. The chair and ottoman in my bedroom is the first piece of furniture George ever let me buy (all of our other furniture had been previously loved). Baby Girl’s bed is the bed my mother bought with her first husband in 1960. It is the bed frame I slept in all of my life. Her chest of drawers Papa bought for her nursery before she was born. (some of my furniture is farmed out to friends and relatives). There is a huge gold framed mirror over the fireplace. My father bought it in his early retirement spending spree. On the mantle is a set of figurines that my mother bought when I was in second grade. She had wanted them for months and had saved and saved to buy them. It stands out in my mind that they were $80 and that was a lot of money when I was in second grade. They are a matched pair. A boy and a girl, each holding a jug and each having a goose beside them.
    I am sitting in my living room with the green chenille sofa and brown leather chair and ottoman that George let me buy when we bought our “dream house”. The wooden drop leaf table next to me that holds my coffee is the first piece of furniture my parents bought together when they got married. I can look out into the back yard and there is a wrought iron glider that my father talked the garden manager at Wal-Mart into selling him for next to nothing. He was always so proud when he could get something for less than asking price. Looking at the glider reminds me of the time when I was a child and we were at a flea market and Daddy talked the man down to $2.00 for a cast iron skillet and then had to pay him with a twenty dollar bill. Also out in my back yard is the wrought iron table and four chairs that belonged to my grandparents that my dad brought home when they cleaned out my grandparents home after my grandmother died.
    In my kitchen is a real round wooden chopping block on three legs. I grew up watching my father cut meat on it. There is also a pub height table and chairs in the breakfast room along with a book case that I bought when I had my first big commission check from selling real estate. My cookware is a set of SaladMaster that my dad bought me when I graduated from college. (I really wanted a tanzanite ring…still haven’t gotten it) and my everyday dishes are the ones I registered when George and I got married.
    Yep, this is home. Right down to the peace lily plant in my bathroom that is from my father in laws funeral in 2003 to the tall corn plant in the dining room that is looking worse for wear that my employer sent to my father’s funeral in 2008.
    Home is the memories I have associated with each of the items I listed. The green chenille sofa? Oh I was so proud of that sofa, I could hardly sit on it, it was so pretty. Now? Puppy Dog Boy spends his days up high on one of the cushions. From there he has the perfect view of the street out front and can bark at anyone who is walking down his street and the perfect view of the alley street in the back where everyone jogs. He really doesn’t like it when someone jogs with their own dog down his alley and has to climb down off his throne to bark. The corners on the back have a few strings showing where the Calico Cat has thought to sharpen her claws.
    The House is a different thing. It is four walls that surround my HOME.

    May 2015 Update
    The green chenille sofa is in storage. The living room sofa is an L shaped tan one that came with Hubs. The two club chairs and ottomans now sit side by side with a table that belonged to Hubs parents. We bought a new (antique) dining room table and it blends well with his mother’s china cabinet. The rice bed and a lot of other furniture and “stuff” is in storage. Amos sits and sleeps wherever he wants to. The leather ottoman is covered with a blanket so that Brown Dog can get as close to her human as possible. The Calico Cat went to live at the farm, and BG went to live with her Dad and Nana.

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  12. Kim talking about her dad getting a skillet for $2.00 reminded me to say:
    Elvera is off to Belk in the mall.
    She has a certificate that gets her $5.00 off a purchase. She ahs to spend it before 10:00 (10 minutes from now!). It’s about seven miles to the mall, and she will likely go to McDonalds for lunch, while I scrounge.
    All of this for a $5.00 off certificate.

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  13. I don’t mind. It’s her nature, and the closest thing to a sport for her.
    I’ve said a hundred times before. We couldn’t have made it through the first seven years without that kind of money management.

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  14. Money management. I just rolled $37 in silver coins to take to the bank and put in savings. It amazes me how much money we let slip through our fingers. With moving and everything else I lost track of an account I had at another bank. I had honestly thought I closed the account. Yesterday I found an envelope and it showed I had $26 in the account. When I closed it they gave me $18. When the woman looked back in the system it was a refund that had reopened the account with a $150 in January, 2014. I let $132 slip through my fingers while that account sat there and racked up fees. I can’t really blame the bank. I can only blame me.

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  15. An old friend of mine lives in Pacific Palisades, CA overlooking the ocean. It was once a middle class community and now is very expensive, her husband used to give her twenty 1 dollar bills every Saturday morning and she could stay out at garage sales until those bills were gone.

    That satisfied her shopping fun and her finds were nothing short of astonishing.

    I still get that sort of shopping urge myself–second hand things for cheap–but have no need of anything, so I stifle it, instead.

    It’s the fellowship and thrill of a bargain, Chas. I hate to shop, myself.

    BTW, Kim, I opened my closet last night and all the hanging clothes were in a pile on the floor. I stood there thinking, did I decide to try Kim’s article’s suggestion to pile up all the clothes for sorting?

    How could I have forgotten that and why would I do it right before attending a wedding reception?

    Then I realized the curtain rod had collapsed.

    The engineer will fix that today and I may just sort my clothes!

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  17. Based on yesterday’s discussion of church meeting times, it seems there must be an unwritten commandment somewhere that says “Thy church shall meet at 10:00AM.”

    Our little church has a fellowship meal every week. There used to have a family that could only stay for the meal every other Sunday because of work, and a younger couple that worked through the night on Sunday, so they had to leave after the meeting and not stay for the meal. So we started having meetings on Saturday afternoons once in a while so the two families could be together (there were only 6 other people in the church besides these families.) It got to the point where I started referring to our church as 7th Day Convenientists” in a tongue in cheek manner. Now the “every other Sunday” family is gone, and the young couple have daytime jobs, so we can meet every Sunday and have all of us for the meal.

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  19. Nobody challenged me on my 8:29 statement about his philosophy being nonsense.V. But I will take a swing at it anyhow.
    .“Religion is about answers, Spirituality is about questions. “Who am I?” and “What is reality?”
    These are, indeed, serious questions. And they must have answers. The title of the discussed article says “The climb is mor important than the summit”. Nonsense. The climb presumes a summit. There has to be a goal or you may just be going around the mountain, not up.
    This is true of many people. Hiking around the muntain, not trying for the peak.
    (Though some might rightly say, “I’ll start back up the muntain as soon as I get out of this mire I’m stuck in.”)

    But to the questions: “Who am I?” Good question.
    You are many things that you choose to be: Spouse, parent, employee, boss, member of a civic club, friend, teacher, student, et. cetra. It goes on. You are also things you didn’t choose to be. Citizen, child, your gender, member of a race or culture. This list is limited, but some things were thrust upon you. Yet, they have to be dealt with according to your choice.
    One thing was thrust upon you. You didn’t choose it, but having received it, you pursued with vigor.
    You are a created being, made in the likeness of God. (Gen. 1:26) As a child might say, “I didn’t choose to be born.” But you were. You may not believe the “likness of God, bit”, but it’s a fact and you have to deal with it. Someday you will whether you choose to or not.
    As a created being with an eternal soul, you also have a responsibility to your Creator. That is to live the life he has chosen for you. But you failed. “For all have sinned” (Romans 3:23) That means that, among other things, you are a fallen creature who is responsible to God for that failure. In doing so, you have gone through life storing up wrath to be tallied at the day of judgment. (Romans 2:5).

    That is essentially who you are. You now need an answer. That is the religion part.
    Most people choose not to deal with that. But it is on the agenda and can’t be ignored.

    .

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  20. Kim needs to stop working NOW so as not to heap any more guilt on the rest of us.

    I had a closet rod collapse once in the house I rented before I moved here. Happened in the middle of the night and it woke me up, the strangest sound — Not to mention a big mess to deal with.

    The Apostle Paul tells us that every man knows there is a God. My take on the ‘spiritual’ is that it is almost a one-upsmanship, it sounds lofty and open minded and deep and mysterious and yoga-cool and definitely superior — to those pedestrian “religious” types who are all about the “rules” and a book (their take, not mine of course). 🙂

    Essentially, though, it is “me” centered, not God-centered (since, to many of those of a ‘spiritualized’ bent, “God” is ultimately unknowable anyway).

    I’m going to be doing a story in the coming weeks on a new ‘church’ that’s meeting on a vacant lot in downtown that they’ve beautified & planted with an edible garden. The Garden Church, it’s called, and the pastor is a beautiful young woman, with long blond hair and sunglasses; she wears a black-and-white clerical-collar shirt that’s sleeveless.

    I suspect these are very, very spiritual people. 🙂

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  21. What I’ve seen when people say they are “spiritual but not religious” is that they feel superior to those who are “religious”. They view religion (often Christianity in particular) as merely a set of rules that people mindlessly obey, thus making their own mushy spirituality more enlightened, & superior.

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  23. That’s also my take, Karen — it makes people sound “deeper” and more thoughtful, more nuanced (your “enlightened” is a good word they like), more truly in-tune with the real universal spirit.

    Christians also have fallen into the trap at times.

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  25. I a pulled out some things to take to Goodwill. Clothes I won’t wear and a bedding set I never liked.’ I am off to measure a 280000sf showroom and sketch out the floor plan and to measure the two warehouses that come with it. I meant to get it done yesterday but ran out of time.

    I will leave this with you, QUESTION

    How do you feel about business people who wear their Christianity on their sleeve, spouting Bible verses, and being very pious?
    Many of you probably can guess how I feel about it, but I am wondering if I am being too critical. I have started deleting emails from this person without even reading them.

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  26. Donna at 11:06 said exactly what I wanted to say about “spirituality.” That is why she is a writer, and I am not. 🙂

    Birds and beer in downtown LA sounds kind of interesting. I’m thinking I won’t be getting to that, though. 😉

    Kim, I don’t know is my answer to your question. I haven’t been around anyone like that, mainly because I haven’t worked in business much. If I had to guess what my reaction would be, I would probably consider that everyone expresses himself differently than others, and would not be too bothered by it.

    Unless…

    it became a frequent topic of discussion to the exclusion of almost anything else. It would probably then become wearying to me, especially if the attitude seemed to be one of “look at me and what I do to be a good Christian,” or something like that.

    That would get old.

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  27. Wow, Kim, that is a lot of furniture. I have given most away, but still have the family diningroom chairs and a dining room table. Friends are keeping a love seat. I don’t even own a bed here.

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  28. Kim is inspiring me to continue with what I learned from the KonMari method. I went through all my clothes after I finished the book a couple weeks ago, but couldn’t decide if I should then do all the rest of the family’s clothes, or just stick to doing my own things.

    I skipped the clothes business for everyone else, and just went on to the second category — books. But only my own personal books, not books I use for homeschooling, which is a daunting array.

    That done (not a big job, as I tend to read library books much more than I buy books for myself), I never did get on with the next category. I hope to soon.

    But today, I have decided to surprise my husband, who is gone for the day with the four youngest children, by going through his clothes and sorting them by category so he can easily see what he has and where it is. It’s a huge job, and one he keeps saying he’s gotta do, but never finds the time. So I will be the little engine that could and just keep chugging along today, and hopefully will be finished before they get home this evening.

    Wish me luck. 🙂

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  29. Kim- A lot would depend on the context of said person’s use of scripture and spiritual references. If he is doing so to sound pious, that’s one thing I couldn’t take. But if he is using scripture to point people to the Lord, I would’t mind. I know one of the second kind, and would not even begin to doubt his motives.

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  30. Donna – I hadn’t seen your comment on “spiritual vs. religious” until I came back to catch up on the comments. You said what I was trying to say. 🙂

    Kim – I agree with what Peter said. It depends on the person’s attitude & demeanor.

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  31. Found among my husband’s clothes, which I’m organizing: a T-shirt, tags still on, with a picture of Abe Lincoln and this quote, “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.” –Abe Lincoln

    🙂

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  32. I don’t have a problem with once a week sending out something religious and or inspirational, but everyday is over kill and it is starting to show. It is losing it’s effectiveness.

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  35. Suggest he turn his emails into tweets–you can get away with doing that every day, even several times a day. 🙂

    Inspired by Kim, I’ve cleared out four boxes, finally found the tapes I made 16 years ago as I read through all The Chronicles of Narnia and will have my daughter turn them into CDs for the adorable grandchildren next time she’s home. I just have to read the first 17 chapters of Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe into the computer to complete the set. (I didn’t decide to tape me reading them until halfway through the first book).

    I’d originally planned to give the tapes to my nieces, but by the time I got around to maybe being organized, they weren’t interested in listening to tapes as they fell asleep at night.

    So now, the adorables get them–and they will listen.

    Christmas is coming! LOL

    I also rehung all the clothes into my closet, throwing away a 28 year old bathrobe I adored and made a chocolate mousse pie. I have to get the clothes off the line, make a salad and then we’re done–headed to former home to have a ham dinner with the family. We’re all here except Stargazer.

    I love Saturdays like this.

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  36. I wasn’t inspired by Kim. So, I did nothing.
    But I have a two foot high stack of LP’s downstairs, plus a bunch of cassette tapes and a couple of reel-to-reel tapes. One of them contains a recording of my brother singing “Wreck of the Old 97” on it. I need to do something with that someday.

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  37. They called to say they’re on their way home. I can’t believe it’s been over six hours since I started my project (see my 12:54), and I’m still not finished! My neck and shoulders, and a little bit my back, ache, but I’m close to done, and the transformation is definitely noticeable! I’ve tossed torn items, washed two loads of white socks — mostly hubby’s, and we have a large-capacity washer! — and found homes for non-clothing items that were in the dresser drawers and on top and around the dresser. I’ll have to have him figure out which shirts and pants he wants to keep. They do not anywhere near fit in the drawers!

    Back to see if I can get my part completely done before they arrive home!

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  39. My priority today was to sit outside in the sunshine. I crave the sun and when spring comes and it’s nice out – you know where you can find me. I even re-read several stories from the Log Cabin Christmas.

    I also did a bunch of laundry – several loads that should have been done months ago but somehow hubby just shoved the clothes in the closet downstairs and I just found them when I was looking for something else. 🙂 (They were work clothes which were covered in wood chips, mud etc)

    We also hung a line in our dining/family room so we could hang a wall of sheets to test if we want to build a wall to create a porch. Since we usually use the room just for the dining part, it makes no difference if we knock 7 feet off the end and build a foyer where we can have much more storage. I think it’s going to work well! Yay, storage for shoes and coats and boots and gear!

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  40. The header is obviously a warbler, but without my bird book in front of me I can’t remember what kind: yellow-rumped (I’ve only seen them in fall, and I know their spring plumage is different and this may be it), magnolia, or Tennessee or Nashville. I’m not an expert (or even close) on warblers.

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  41. Sounds good, Kare, especially with the weather you get.
    Just spent several hours in the sunshine watching my grandson play Little league. he looked so hot afterwards that I had to pour part of the contents of my water bottle over his head.
    Just to help him cool off!

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  42. Some of you who are technically savvy explain something to me. The content of the commercial is not an issue, it’s a commercial, after all.
    There’s a commercial in which a game is advertised. A woman is having men build a fortress before the hordes can attack. In the end, she says, “Will you help me build an empire that will last forever. Will you be my hero?’/””
    Then the commercial says it’s a game, you can play free.
    They spend lots of money creating and advertising this free game.
    Can somebody explain to me what it’s about?.
    Serious question. Not important, but I’ve been curious from the beginning.

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  43. I did no house work today — but I did pick up Carol and took her to the Walmart in downtown LA, then to the Dollar Store, then somewhere else but I forget …. Oh, right, the phone store, she needed to pay her bill for the coming month

    We drove around and stopped to eat. I’m getting re-aquainted with Hollywood, where I once worked and visited frequently through my teens (who didn’t?) and 20s. Carol’s new place is almost directly under the Hollywood sign & Griffith Park observatory where the LA Zoo, Greek Theatre and Gene Autry museum are as well

    Carol may try out the Hollywood 1st Pres Church since it’s literally 2 blocks from where she lives (it was Zamperini’s church & sounds like some Hollywood types go there, including Roma Downey & her husband; Loyd Ogilvie used to be the pastor in the 1980s, some of us remember listening to him on the radio).

    Gorgeous old brick building, too, I’m jealous.

    Other sites we passed:

    * A very ornate Russian orthodox church

    * Hundreds of tourists congregating in front of the old Grauman’s chinese theatre with their cameras and hats. And lots of tour buses on the road, those open-topped ones

    * McArthur Park which was teeming with people & sail boats

    * Across the street there was a sidewalk vendor sale going on with all kinds of festive crafts, including big Aztec feather headdresses (you know you want one)

    * Long line of folks waiting to get in to see “Motown” at the Pantages Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard

    * My old bank is still on the corner of Hollywood and Highland — it’s not a bank anymore, but the wonderful ornate building is still intact

    * “Ask Jesus for Mercy” — handwritten sign hanging from one of the overpasses

    * Lots of Scientology buildings (it’s where it all began, after all). One of Carol’s very close neighbors (1/2 block away) is the Scientology Celebrity Center, a remarkable old building that I’d love to see — and they were advertising an Open House today. If I thought we could tour it without getting hassled, I would have suggested we take a spin through … Take a look at these photos:

    https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x80c2bf46c4586f7d:0xf01e13c081804f65!2m5!2m2!1i80!2i80!3m1!2i100!3m1!7e1!4shttps://plus.google.com/106983971485563816435/photos?hl%3Den%26socfid%3Dweb:lu:kp:placepageimage%26socpid%3D1!5sscientology+and+franklin+ave+-+Google+Search&sa=X&ei=zGpFVe2WBYScgwSngIHwBA&sqi=2&ved=0CIQBEKIqMAo

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  44. I still have to clean the bathrooms and the kitchen. I also went to pick up my Rainbow vacuum cleaner. It is 15 years old this month. It needed an overhall. I can’t wait to vacuum tomorrow! Tomorrow I am going to sit outside in the sun. As you have heard me say I can take prozac or sit in the sun. It makes me happy. I have saved a book to read when I am outside.
    Today I went to measure the buildings and will have to draw them out tomorrow. I took something back to Dillard’s and got a Spring/Summer Lipstick and a set of sheets for the guest bedroom. Then I went to my friend’s for the Kentucky Derby. For her birthday the last couple of years I gave her julep cups with her monogram so we each had a mint julep as we watched the derby. Now Master Amos and I are ready for bed and hanging out.
    Who can take movies from tape to DVD? I have small, probably 2×4 inch tapes of BG from birth to about 5. I would love to watch them. I want to see my 6’6″ father on the floor of my living room teaching her how to crawl. I haven’t been able to look at them for over 10 years.

    Just got a text from the Hubs. He is back from fishing, safe and sound. He is still going to spend the night rather than drive back. Probably best. I am sure riding in the boat wore him out.

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  47. Chas – I don’t play those games, but I understand that there are extras that people actually pay real money for. IOW, the free play allows them a certain amount of “stuff” (whatever weapons or possessions used in a particular game), but people can buy extras that give them more power or prestige or whatever it is they want to achieve in a particular game.

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  48. Kim, I have made VCR cassette to DVD. I’m not sure that I remember how. But I have done it. If you are serious, I could see if I still remember.

    Donna, I used to listen to Charles Fuller’s “Old Fashioned Revival Hour” our of Long Beach. That’s right next door, as you know. It’s a long story, but he influenced my life.

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  49. Karen, I hear you saying that I could play the game free, but if I want to win and be her hero, it’s going to cost me??
    There’s a saying in the internet world, “If you ain’t the customer, you’re the product”..

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  50. Who’s watching the boxing match? I guess it costs $100 just to see it on pay-per-view. Ministerial staffer from our church posted a video with Pacquiao talking so humbly and authentically about his Christian faith … “The most important thing …”

    Class act, as our staffer said. Indeed.

    Chas, Fuller would have predated me — but Harold Camping I think, also was based in Long Beach.

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  52. Looooong day……worked until 6….met the family at our local French restaurant to celebrate our youngest’s 21st birthday…what a blessing she is…..I’m exhausted….and blessed 🙂

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  53. I took movies to Costco and they turned them into DVDs. I also unearthed baby movie footage today on a now obsolete form of taping. We need to view all 25 cassettes, put them in some sort of order and then take them to Costco to turn into DVDs. A project for another day, though tonight’s dinner party will be at our house tomorrow night, so maybe I can have them view them for me!

    It’s their childhood, after all. 🙂

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  54. So I’m off to Idaho, huh? I would enjoy that. 🙂

    We’ll have to get our home movies transferred from VHS to DVD sometime. There is no Costco around here, though. But there are several Walgreen’s in the area, and I think they offer that service.

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  58. Hey Donna, if you have a free afternoon sometime, I could fly down to the Long Beach airport and fly back the same day. Just to meet you. Perhaps I also need to see the famous dog park. Is that close to you?

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  60. Good Morning. Amos and I are up early. Coffee is made and he is checking things out around the house. I think I can knock the rest of my cleaning out this morning before church. I desperately want to spend the afternoon outside. Friday and yesterday were gorgeous days.
    Wouldn’t it be nice if we could have everything close due to the weather on days like that?

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  63. Kim – that would be awesome – I wouldn’t have to work most of the summer, but boy would I have to work hard in winter 🙂

    And so the busy season begins: going to church alone today as Tim has training and then his busy season starts with odd shifts. My busy season has started, but my busy, busy season doesn’t start until the first week in July – then I get to work 6 days a week – not quite sure how I’ll handle that yet, but at least the sun will be shining most days.

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  65. We’re all such jet-setters, who knew? 🙂

    I realized this morning what I’ll appreciate when we go to a 3 p.m. Sunday church service for 10 weeks — sleeping in later on Sundays. 🙂

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  66. I got an email this morning from the organizer of the piano show I was just in. She is retiring from piano teaching next month and asked if it would be okay if she put me on her list of teachers to recommend to her students.

    Yes, that is most definitely okay! Those are big shoes to fill, as she has done a wonderful job teaching over the years, but I am praising God for the opportunity to possibly teach some of her students.

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  67. I was looking at a map of Jerusalem last night. I noticed at the southwest corner, just outside the city limits, is a “John F. Kennedy memorial”. I was surprised, still am.
    I can’t think of anything JFK did, specifically, for Israel.
    OTOH, in 1947, it was Harry Truman who, disregarding all the advice of his State Dept. and the U.N. Ambassador, demanded that the US support the establishment of the State of Israel.
    Without HST, there would be no Israel.
    Strange.

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  70. Good Sunday afternoon! I hope everyone enjoyed their church service whatever time it was.

    The weather has been pleasant so I got out and pulled some honeysuckle vines off the azalea bushes yesterday. I also did some laundry and washed some dishes. I never get as much done as needs to be done inside or outside. I tried to get husband to look through his clothes to see if there is anything he can part with since I have gotten more together to donate. I don’t think husband paid much attention about my question. I don’t know if I should go ahead and sort through his things and guess or just wait. I have a lot of cookbooks to donate. I use them less and less.

    As for Kim’s question, I don’t think a business person should be overbearing with their faith and religious discussion. People can make known if it is welcome or not if someone is sensitive to the needs of clients. Some businesses would be of a nature that there would be more assumed sharing and others less. One group that husband does a lot of business with, a service provider for husband’s business always sends out Christian Easter and Christmas cards. That is appreciated. When I was at the office, I had some books in the waiting room that were Christian related as an alternative to the other magazines in case someone wanted something edifying. I am the only one in the office group who would put something out like that at the office. Do you have feelings about that, Kim?

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  71. No Janice. My optometrist is Catholic and there are always pamphlets about how to pray a rosary and Guideposts, and a Bible in the lobby along with other reading material. It just is. What I am describing almost feels fake to me.

    I put all of hubs clothes in one closet, picked up all the dirty clothes clothes off of the closet floor and washed, dried, and hung them up. I am hoping that when he sees 10 feet of rods holding all of his clothes he will be inspired to cull his closet of the Magnum PI polyester Hawaiian shirt, the 1980′ Member’s Only Jacket, the 1984 cowboy boots and a number of other things including his Maryland winter clothes. This project required moving all of my clothes to the spare bedroom closet. We shall see. I took a laundry basket full of things to the Yellow Cottage, a thrift store that benefits a drug treatment facility, yesterday. I threw two bags of junk away today. I just don’t have that much left to purge.

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  72. Nothing says the 1980s like a Members Only jacket. I bought my boyfriend one for a birthday or Christmas maybe, can’t remember which …

    Our pastor joked today about our upcoming change in service time — “I wonder how many of you I’m going to have to hunt down?”

    6 arrows, great news about the added teaching opportunities. You’ll be training our future maestros

    I stocked up on dog food today, a 25-pound bag of dry food with 30+ cans & 2 bags of chews … got it all hauled in through the patio & the back door by parking the Jeep in the driveway — so I didn’t have to traipse it all up the front steps in what would have been multiple trips.

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  73. Interesting, I’d posted something about Sproul on FB last night — should have targeted it for my Christian (and seekers) friends group only, but it went out to all my ‘friends’ which is a real mix.

    Got a very nasty comment (calling sproul, whom I’m sure this guy knows nothing about) a huckster who is out to mislead — stupid was the implied modifier — people).

    He’s a retired public high school school teacher (I think michelle said she had him) who’s pretty virulently atheistic in his outlook & very far left politically (what a surprise). But it’s intriguing to me how so many of these guys, old enough to be wise & to know better and, presumably, well educated, are so filled with anger and lash out so often with personal attacks, eager to perpetuate unthinking stereotypes … they strike me as singularly unthoughtful, which is not a good attribute for a school teacher.

    Debating whether to kill the post altogether … Or just let it hang out there a while. 🙂

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  74. I would leave the post donna. It’s what yo I felt at the time. I wouldn’t make any mor e comments on it but just let your “friends” comment to each other. You may be surprised at what happens.

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  75. That’s kind of my thought, too. Several (of you mostly) ‘liked’ it … the atheist school teacher so far is unchallenged (and his comment makes him sound something like a nut & hot head, to be honest, I half expected him to remove his own comment once he thought better of it). 🙂

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  76. Learned today that the mainline Presbyterian church near us is contemplating leaving the PCUSA to join a more conservative Presbyterian denomination/body (congregations are leaving the mainline in droves, in case you hadn’t heard). Our pastor was once the youth minister there, back in the day, and it’s always had an evangelical bent that ran a bit contrary to the denomination as a whole which now is solidly entrenched in crazy-liberal territory. 🙂

    It would be awesome if they joined the same denomination we’re in … They have a large church building w/a complex of SS rooms right on Pacific Coast Highway with an ocean view, very close to where we currently lease space in an office complex. Merge?

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  78. Donna, I’m looking forward to the challenge of teaching some of her students, if any do come to me. Two of my former students began studying with her after I resigned eleven years ago, and I know at least one of them went on to the state piano competition, and the other is a graduate-level music student now and is considering pursuing a PhD.

    I’m hoping no one gets scared off by my fee. (I shouldn’t worry, though, as I don’t know exactly how much she charges for lessons.) She lives in a more rural area than I do, and rates tend to be lower north of me, where she is, than in my area and south, which is what I consulted when determining my fees.

    However, I figured the average rate of four different studios in the area, and set a fee of $10 less per month than the average, so perhaps my rates are not that much different from hers. And she could certainly be charging higher than the going rate for her area, for all her skill and teaching experience.

    Perhaps I should quit analyzing things to death, huh? 😉

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  79. I’m bushed. Last night was prom and I’m a class sponsor. Late night. Today was a cookout at church. I went for a walk after that which meant a steep hill. I’m bushed.

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  81. I just realized today’s date is 5-3-15. Or to make it mathematically correct, if this were a new post day, AJ would put 5 x 3 = 15.

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  82. I don’t know if the bird in the header needed an ID, but if he did, it was my first guess, a yellow-rumped warbler. (Also called butter-butt.) In winter it only has yellow on its rump, not the wing patches, so my guess was based on having seen its photo in books, not from my own observations (which have, unfortunately, only been in winter, though I’ve seen them at least three times).

    My husband and I just got back from Michigan. We got to see Lake Huron . . . but we were there on business and didn’t really get to choose our schedule, and the time of day we visited the lake was not at all the best time of day for photos. But we did see several species of birds (some new varieties) and I got a few shots. On the way home this afternoon, we also stopped by a state park, and there I got a few photos of rose-breasted grosbeaks (my second time seeing the species) and orioles. And as we left, we saw a fox (though I only got one photo, and not a great one).

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  83. Donna – My friend Anne is quite hostile to Christianity, & religion in general, & is also liberal. She recently posted an article about a “Nonbelief Relief Fund” for atheists to donate to, to help in Nepal.

    “The Freedom From Religion Foundation has made a $10,000 donation under a new project, its Nonbelief Relief Fund, to help earthquake-ravaged Nepal. FFRF is evenly splitting the donation between the United Nations World Food Program and Doctors Without Borders, both of which rate well as secular charities. …

    “FFRF is launching Nonbelief Relief so that its members and other nonreligious donors have the opportunity to give under a secular umbrella. As the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science has long pointed out, nonbelievers are as (or more) generous as the religious, but have lacked infrastructure to give as a group under the secular name.”

    Unfortunately, the article also had to put down Christian relief ministries, saying they are only looking for opportunities to proselytize, taking advantage of people in need. 😦

    Another thing Anne shared a while back was an article by a man who wrote that the Golden Rule is actually an arrogant & selfish thing. He twisted the concept of treating others as we wish to be treated to be that we force our own likes, dislikes, & inclinations on others, rather than treating them as they wish to be treated.

    I gently pointed out that we all wish to be treated as individuals with our own personalities & preferences, & that truly applying the Golden Rule to a relationship would be to find out what the other person wants & needs, & treat them accordingly.

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  84. 100! 😆

    Why ruin a good thing ESPN?

    I’m watching the Yankees beat up on Boston 5 – 0 and they’re about to sweep ’em. 🙂

    So why ruin such great TV by bringing in James Taylor for commentary this inning? Who cares what that red soxs lovin’ hippie has to say? I’m gonna mute it until this half inning is over. 😆

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  85. I was thinking we might get to 100 this weekend. 😉

    Cheryl, you should have told those rose-breasted grosbeaks to get on over our way. I have not seen one yet this year. Usually they arrive the last week of April, or May 1st (or 2nd) at the latest. We have seen the Eastern Towhee, I think it’s called, already, though, and grosbeaks usually follow them around a week later, so hopefully the latter will be here soon.

    Then orioles show up about a week after the grosbeaks, and we haven’t had those yet, either.

    The progression sometimes runs later rather than sooner if the juncos leave later than usual, which happened one or two years recently. But the juncos didn’t linger longer here this year — they left mid-April, a typical time, so I’m kind of surprised the incoming birds are late. There must be some other factor delaying them.

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  86. Karen, from your quote: As the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science has long pointed out, nonbelievers are as (or more) generous as the religious, but have lacked infrastructure to give as a group under the secular name.

    I’ve always heard that Christians pretty significantly outgive unbelievers. That “lacked infrastructure” business in Dawkins’ statement sounds like nothing more to me than excuse-making.

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  87. I took the dogs for a walk along the cliffs today and then hit the evening class at church on the Westminster Confession of Faith (tonight: Providence and the beginnings of the Covenants section). Dogs were still with me so they stayed in the Jeep but were very ready to come home when it was all over.

    And I did get the stand-up desk I was thinking about and am using it right now — and LOVING IT. Wow, so nice not to be SITTING DOWN again, I spend way too much time sitting. ….

    This desk is the perfect height — what a great invention for us moderns who are hurting from our sedentary ways.

    Next up: (Maybe) : A treadmill. …. ???

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  88. Looked at your post. He wasn’t the principle, he was the super-cool Biology teacher 40 years ago that most of my friends had and swooned over. I didn’t take his class so I had little personal experience with him, but I can’t say I was surprised by his comment. Too bad.

    I’ve noticed it in several friendly folks suddenly becoming very hostile over what seems like an innocuous remark. Troubling. Leave it up for the world to see what happens to super cool guys when they age, I guess.

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  90. But really so fitting in reference to one of the verses that came up tonight in our evening class:

    2 Corinthians 2:15-16

    For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.

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  91. 6 arrows (7:58) seems to be doing math again (not that I can really tell as I’m clearly math-defective).

    But isn’t there some kind of a blog rule about that?

    We are almost reaching 100 this weekend … Oh, wait, that’s math again — sorry

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  97. Since we’re talking about math, maybe someone could take my 6:18 pm post yesterday and turn it into an algebra problem. The rate north of me is N. The rate south of me is S. The rate here, H. My rate, H minus 10.

    Go ahead, you math types. (Not me, despite what Donna says.) Make something of that. Just don’t ask me to solve it. 🙂

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  98. Donna claims there might be some sort of blog rule about doing math. I’ve heard nothing of the sort, so I will proceed to snag 99. And if I’m breaking a rule, well…

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  101. And 101. I like that number. It’s symmetrical the way I write it, without that little hook part at the top of the 1.

    Symmetry is mathematical, too, right?

    I sense a “Quit It Already!” from somewhere, so now I will be done. 🙂

    Good day, fellow wanderers.

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