46 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 8-19-15”

  3. Mornin’ Jo.

    Her pain has lessened some, but she still has quite a bit of it. The ankle/leg swelling inside the cast is her biggest pain source now. 😦

    As for my care giving skills……. well, let’s just say I hope they’re improving. 🙂

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  6. Today’s photos: Top is a red-tailed hawk. I’d probably gone out to get photos of turkeys, but instead got a fascinating, though puzzling, look at what this hawk was doing. It flew to the top of the tree, and while its mate screamed continually somewhere out of sight in another tree, it perched on the very top of the tree and flapped its wings. Time stamps on the photos show that it did so for about two minutes; I would have guessed it was longer. And the photos show that in most photos it has its tail turned up (as though to keep it out of reach of something within the tree), it is looking down into the tree in many photos, and in a couple of them it is stabbing out with one claw. So there is something beneath it that we cannot see. Prey? An enemy?

    Second row, left: male indigo bunting. Before I moved here, I’d only seen the species once. It’s one of my husband’s very favorites, so I wanted a photo for him; he’d seen it here and there, but never regularly, either. This spring we saw it several times, and I finally got some photos. This one is practically outside our front door; it’s down the street a couple of houses, but not far. I was walking by, saw a dark bird across the street the right size and shape, and zoomed in and saw blue. I like its messed-up hairdo.

    Second row, right: a group of wild turkey toms. This was probably from the group of eight. The ones in the background are doing what turkeys usually do, eating. But one has his head up, and the light catches him nicely.

    Bottom row, I love these: This sunflower and a few others sprouted underneath our bird feeders, and this is the biggest and the nearest to the house. I’ve always loved sunflowers, and I was hoping this and the other ones would draw birds, but I wasn’t expecting this male goldfinch to land, and find something to eat (pollen?) while the sunflower was still in full bloom. When he landed, fortunately I was photographing something else and the camera was already on, because I only had a few seconds and he was gone. The right one I cropped as a vertical, but I sent AJ the uncropped form because this site does better with horizontal.

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  8. Good morning! I am at the office this a.m.

    Those pictures look great on this big screen, Cheryl. Your photos capture not only the beauty of the birds, but I also have a peaceful feeling when viewing them.

    I woke up at 5 a.m. but went back to sleep for a bit. I should have gotten up at 5 a.m. when I was wide awake. Now I just feel groggy. I did not have time to get coffee so I am drinking a Coke for its caffeine. My husband never drinks coffee, but during the holidays he will get a mint mocha from Starbucks if you can call that coffee.

    Sorry to hear that Cheryl J. is having the swelling in the cast. I guess that means you are trying to keep her pretty cool because heat increases swelling. I know tea is a diuretic, so perhaps some iced sweet tea would help? Being from the south, it is a good remedy. I can remember when young that if I was sick my mother would give me some warm sweet tea and it helped me to feel better.

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  9. Cheryl, I just read your last comment from last night. Not all Baptists think that having an alcoholic drink is a sin. My pastor says that as the Bible indicates that it is a sin to get drunk. He chooses to not drink himself as do many in the congregation. I have been out with a Basptist ladies group where one woman chose to have wine with her meal. Her dad was known to be an alcoholic. So I don’t know what to think about her choice. I did not see her drink more than that. The person I dated many years (but did not marry) was from a Southern Baptist family. His mother did not drink until she got stomach cancer and it seemed to ease her pain. I think her dad was an alcoholic. The guy I dated seemed to be heading down the road of drinking too much. He became a bartender. It was around that time that I started wanting to not have alcoholic beverages so much. When you see how it can destroy lives then it makes some choose to back away from it. I went with the then boyfriend to get his car fom the impound lot.
    One late night when he drove home drunk after work he had a crash. After the bartending, some of the crew would have some drinks. I was never at that bar with him. I hated that he chose to do that to help pay for college. I just have such a different background with alcohol from what you have. My background concerning alcohol does not have anything to do with being a Southern Baptist. I just feel an edge to what you say about people being against drinking. I just ask that you give a little grace if they get it wrong from your point of view and experience.

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  11. We do not see indigo buntings. Beautiful bird, as so many are.

    Two of my grandchildren started school Aug. 1. They do get more time off during the year. It is a problem for some activities that take in August, which require travel. Like the weekend coming up for our family. 😦

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  12. LA schools started this week. But they get out earlier for summer now.

    I’m starting the day half asleep after last night’s long meeting and tech failure with the computer eating my story. Grrrr.

    But it gives me a chance to do a better story today, one that has more context and maybe looks ahead a bit, provided I can stay awake.

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  13. I have been up since 3:30. I had a really bizarre dream where I kept slipping and falling. Once I was glad I didn’t break my arm the way I landed. Oh and I was on a concrete floor covered in grease in a chicken processing plant that for some strange reason didn’t stink. Like I said. Very weird.

    So what happened next? I meant to close the button on my computer that was prompting me to upgrade to Windows 10. Instead I installed Windows 10. It took about 2 hours. This morning I have been getting used to a new operating system. I can’t figure out how to save downloads to files, but at least I understand it. I never could figure out Windows 8

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  14. Good morning, all. Lots to do yesterday, and though I read some here, I didn’t take time to comment.

    I’ve been doing a “Video of the Week” series since I started teaching piano again last year, and yesterday I decided I would discontinue that and start a new “Composer of the Month” series instead. I had generally sent out one video per week of a shorter work by a different composer each week (one whose birthday was coming up soon). Now I will send one video per month, featuring a longer work of several movements, or a collection of pieces (like Edward MacDowell’s Woodland Sketches) that can be listened to/watched over the course of the month.

    It took only a few hours to put this program together, rather than the many total hours it’s taken to find good videos since starting the original, weekly series last November, and now I’m all set all the way through May of next year. A very good feeling.

    For those who enjoy classical music, these are the composers and works I’m sending to my students in the next nine months:

    September: J.S. Bach French Suite No. 5
    October: Edward MacDowell Woodland Sketches
    November: Josef Haydn Piano Sonata Hob. XVI 35
    December: Ludwig van Beethoven Moonlight Sonata
    January: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Sonata K. 545
    February: Claude Debussy Suite Bergamasque (features Clair de lune)
    March: Frederic Chopin Preludes Op. 28
    April: Sergei Rachmaninov Fantasy Pieces Op. 3
    May: Johannes Brahms Ten Hungarian Dances

    I like having Woodland Sketches in October because one of the pieces is entitled In Autumn. The whole collection contains some really neat titles, starting with probably the most famous of the pieces, To A Wild Rose, and continuing with Will o’ the Wisp; At an Old Trysting Place; In Autumn; From an Indian Lodge; To a Water Lily; From Uncle Remus; A Deserted Farm; By a Meadow Brook; and, Told at Sunset.

    A lovely group of pieces (the MacDowell) that I haven’t played in a long while, but which are quite enjoyable.

    I might just have to dig out all the music on the list above and play them for myself during the featured month. Except I don’t have most of the Hungarian Dances, but I can remedy that. 😉 All the rest of the music above I own. Good to go through parts of it periodically so it doesn’t sit on the shelf while I’m busy focusing on only one or a few pieces.

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  16. Hey, I was up then, we could have played cards!

    At midnight, I gave up tossing and turning and made myself a cup of Sleepy Time tea. I then picked up a regency novel figuring that would knock me out.

    I finished the book and didn’t dare look at the clock.

    Went to bed and prayed my prayer, “please provide the sleep I’ll need for tomorrow, whether I feel like it or not,” or something like that.

    Someone was snoring.

    Cat yowled–why not, someone was out of bed. She’s yowling right now.

    Finally fell asleep, wearing a sleeping mask. 3? 4?

    Up by 7.

    So I went to Zumba, where I ended up in two conversations that needed to happen

    Curious about that.

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  17. Here’s a nice version of the first of those Woodland Sketches: (To A Wild Rose).

    If you let the video continue, next will come a video (by a different pianist) of the entire Woodland Sketches. Many beautiful images (though one or two I could have done without) and lovely playing. If you start to listen to the second video, you’ll hear that that pianist plays To A Wild Rose differently (faster and heavier) than the first pianist. I like the slower version better myself, but hearing the whole collection in its entirety is nice, and I think those of you who enjoy classical solo piano music will enjoy both videos.

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  19. 🙂

    I forgot the music doesn’t roll from one video to the next on here like it does on YouTube. If you’re interested in hearing the full collection of Woodland Sketches, just click on the image in the lower left of the screen when the above video finishes.

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  21. Nine year old in glasses is outside working with dad at prepping gardens for next spring. They are also harvesting grapes for juicing and starting new vines. Wrong time of year but it needs to be done. Meanwhile, in the house, five turkey poults have hatched this morning with another pipping. Thirteen year old turns fourteen today and seven year old is working on her cursive and math.

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  22. Janice, I was a Baptist until well into my thirties; I know that not all Baptists refuse to drink. I was answering the question of whether it was appropriate to “report” the person who has children sign vows that they will never drink. My answer was that the people hiring him are in agreement with his stance (even though not all Baptists are), and thus there isn’t anything to report.

    I’m pretty sure I have said on here several times that I have no problem with people choosing not to drink. I understand that there are good reasons that some make that choice–there are also bad reasons people make that choice, but it is an individual’s choice to make, and I’ve never tried to talk anyone into drinking alcohol.

    My “problem” is with those who not only choose not to drink, but who also determine that other people are in sin if they drink. Biblically, that isn’t a choice you can make for someone else, since it isn’t a sin to drink. I think that this person is wrong in trying to get children to make a lifelong decision not to do something that the Bible never calls sin. He isn’t wrong to make the choice for himself and his own household. (His reasons are wrong, but I think he has a “right” to make the wrong choice. His reason for not drinking is that he believes it is a sin to drink, and for theological reasons I’d like to see him see his error in that, though I don’t care whether he ever chooses to drink. I think it would be better if he acknowledged the same right to those who choose to drink–I don’t think he is sinning by not drinking, and it would be nice to be allowed the same acknowledgment that I am not in sin for occasionally drinking a glass of wine.)

    BTW, my in-laws used to believe it’s a sin to drink, and they have modified that. They no longer believe it is a sin, but they choose not to partake. My husband and I both honor that, and would never offer them alcohol and never suggest they try it.

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  23. Janice @ 9:37, what did you mean by this?: I have been out with a Basptist ladies group where one woman chose to have wine with her meal. Her dad was known to be an alcoholic. So I don’t know what to think about her choice.

    I guess I don’t see why you would need to think anything of her choice in the matter. If she had gotten drunk, yes, that should be a concern to everyone who was with her, because drunkenness is clearly sinful. But since she did not get drunk (I take your statement, “I did not see her drink more than that” to mean she drank in moderation), then she is within Biblical bounds. There is no Biblical restriction on the freedom of an adult child of an alcoholic to consume alcohol in moderation, anymore than there is for anyone else.

    As Cheryl points out, some may choose not to partake, and there can be very important reasons to decide that, but others may choose to drink in moderation, and we need not be concerned by that. A Christian is led by the Spirit, and though their choices may look different than ones we would make if we were in their circumstances, I don’t think it’s anything we need to be worried about.

    Hope that makes sense.

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  25. Janice, I hope I didn’t sound like I was beating up on you at 3:33. That’s the last thing I would want to do.

    I got beat up in a conversation one time with someone who believes all alcohol drinking is sin. She told me, “You obviously love wine more than truth.”

    It’s nice to see a civil discussion on the matter between two people coming from different perspectives, as you and Cheryl are, without attacks on a person like I received.

    I can’t abide people labeling something sin that is not, and am glad to see you are not calling it that.

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  26. 6 Arrows, I guess I meant that I pondered it for a moment and left it at that without making a judgement. Or maybe I wondered why when out with friends and no one else had a drink that she would want to indulge. Typically when I have been out with groups either most, except for one or two for personal reasons, would be having drinks or no one in the group would be drinking. I was not thinking she was sinning with the drink, but just realizing that many times alcoholism tends to run in families. We had prayed about her father’s alcoholism. Then we all go out and she is the only one to have alcohol in the group. It just felt a little odd.

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  28. Thanks for clarifying, Janice. Not knowing her, I guess I wouldn’t know why she had a drink when no one else in your group was. Maybe she’s less shy than I would be, doing something no one else in my company was doing? 🙂

    Perhaps she’s heard of some of the health benefits conferred by moderate alcohol consumption and partakes for that reason? For example, I’ve heard that dementia is far more prevalent among teetotalers than with moderate drinkers. If she’s got a family history of that, or other disorders that can be helped by moderate drinking, then it would be a matter of weighing the risk/benefit ratio with regards to the family history of alcoholism vs. the family history of whatever else.

    Just a thought.

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  30. Kim, did you send me an e-mai?l
    I got something that said it was from you in my spam filter. I opened it because I thought it was yours. But I didn’t understand the content.
    I replied in “respond”.
    It came back and said it can’t be delivered.
    I’m beginning to suspect something isn’t right here.

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  32. I guess I wasn’t giving much grace when I said, “I can’t abide people labeling something sin that is not…”

    We all have our blind spots, and I know there have been things I’ve formerly believed were wrong that I know now are not wrong in every circumstance.

    Anyway, a better way to say it would have been that I don’t like when people stubbornly cling to beliefs in the face of much (Biblical) evidence to the contrary, refusing to at the very least think (or say) something like, “Hmmm, that’s not what I’ve been taught, but I’m willing to do further Scripture study on the subject.”

    Humility, and conveying a sense of “I could be wrong — I need to look into this more” goes a long ways.

    Or, if one is well-studied on a subject and is firmly convinced of the Scriptural validity of one’s argument, then calmly showing from Scripture how it is a correct position to hold is important.

    The woman I mentioned above, who declared all drinking to be sin, was given applicable Scripture from several people, but she could not explain how all drinking was sin. She was only interested in attacking two of us for our beliefs.

    This was an online discussion, and she got so obnoxious she got herself blocked. Yikes. I’ve never seen a professing Christian rip other sisters in Christ so brazenly.

    Anyway… I will move on to another topic now…

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  33. Tomorrow I’m going to the annual music teacher’s workshop held in our area — where supplementary piano music for students will be reviewed. (Music that has come out in the last year.) I love this tradition, and am once again looking forward to that workshop. 🙂

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  34. Chas, no I did not send an email. If you have an anti virus you may want to run a scan.

    I am quite open about the fact that I am the Adult Child of an Alcoholic. I am at an even bigger disadvantaged because I am ACOA of a mother who was an alcoholic.
    I make no secret that I enjoy a glass of wine. Sometimes depending on the situation and the heat I will drink a Michalobe Ultra. I know my history and I know the signs to look for. I do not think that it is a sin to drink alcohol. After all the first Miracle that began the ministry of Jesus was the Wedding in Canaa where He turned the water into GOOD wine.
    To me gluttony is a sin. While others are chowing down at the snorgasborg or eating one pound bags of M and M’s, I will sip on my glass o wine, count the 200 calories in the glass and not judge their fat butts.

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  37. I’m curious what you all think of this post which a co-worker put on FB:

    http://www.faithit.com/9-sins-the-church-is-okay-with/

    This is a person who rarely says what she thinks and was raised Christian Science (but no longer goes to church). I’ve invited her to our church (she came once) and have softly tried to share Christ here and there through the years, so I was a little surprised (and took it personally, I guess) when she posted this (which, again, is uncharacteristic of her so it makes me think she must really, really feel strongly about what it says).

    It also mirrors typical posts from another friend, a very liberal Christian, who often links to a liberal (‘red letter’) *christian* blogger whose sole schtik seems to be to rant about the things he thinks are wrong with Christians (of, more specifically, wrong with the more orthodox or conservative brethren). It just strikes me that I’m seeing a lot of these “what’s wrong with Christians” posts allegedly written by Christians (I never post “what’s wrong with atheists”). Odd, kind of hostile in my mind.

    But then I also think I must not be a very good representative of the faith to my co-worker if this is what she (really) *thinks* about Christians, so that’s where the weird ‘hurt’ comes in.

    (And I’m not saying there aren’t valid — though minor — points in there, but overall it’s written from a rather unblibical viewpoint, from someone who clearly doesn’t understand or know sound doctrine. There’s plenty to criticize the practice of Christianity for, but when it’s done from an unbiblical position as these are, it’s just an exercise in ranting, a way to get some anger out it seems to me.)

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  38. OK, I read it more carefully, it’s not as anti- Christian as I first thought … And valid points (though I still would say some of it misunderstands good theology, but that’s another issue).

    Anyway, maybe I should see it as an opportunity, at least she’s posting about the faith which is very new and interesting to me personally.

    Unfortunately, the whole CS framework can really twist one’s understanding of and approach to the things of God. It becomes all about seeking the love, comfort and reassurance without grasping the spiritual battle against sin (our own and the world’s) that we all need to also wage to get there.

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  39. Oooh. Just got a personal solicitation from a website that needs freelance writers who can write about herding dogs for money (not much, I’m sure).

    The Guild of Shepherds and Collies. They’re trying to relaunch the site and need content.

    I think that’s the first time someone’s actually sent me anything like that 🙂

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  41. There is an indigo bunting pair that lives in the woods near the cave. We occasionally see them. They are indeed a very beautiful bird.

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  42. Kim – There are too many alcoholics in my family, as well as Lee’s (& he was one himself), so I choose not to drink. There are times when I am especially stressed, & can find myself wishing I could have a drink, & that makes me wonder if I could have become an alcoholic if I let myself drink. (That doesn’t happen a lot, but it does make me think.)

    It also concerns me that, with their family history (alcoholics on both sides of the family) my daughters drink. Emily often likes to have some wine of an evening, but I don’t know how much she actually drinks. She says she doesn’t drink too much, & I want to believe her.

    One of the insidious things about alcoholism is the ability to rationalize it away, & lie to oneself & others.

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  43. When husband got home from choir practice he told me there was excitement at the office. Around 5:00 p.m. lightning struck a tree right beside the office. It sounded like a bomb went off and it blew up a big poplar tree. Husband said the amazing thing was that it did not fall on the office but went the unexpected way according to its lean. He said that the other thing was that the office did not shake. Husband was there alone. There is one little bent place on the gutter where a limb hit it. Just yesterday evening I was out by the car with husband where he was taking a break. I saw lightning in the distance and told him we should go inside because lightning is attracted to people who have been hit before as he was when a boy. Lightning struck a car and bounced over to him and knocked him out. So he was very blessed today.

    We only had three at prayer/Bible study at church because of tremendous rain. Pastor, another lady and I prayed. I did pray for rain in CA and other parts of the world that need what we are getting. ♡

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  44. Glad your husband was OK, Janice.

    Cool, Guess Who (9:17)!! 🙂

    My mom’s dad was an alcoholic, the only one I know of in my family. I know my mom used to consume alcohol many years ago, responsibly as far as I can tell, but she mentioned a few years ago that she does not drink anymore. I’m not sure what prompted her decision in that direction — maybe she recognized something in herself that might be a warning sign.

    So I am aware of that possibility in myself, too, but so far haven’t had any problems wanting to drink more than a small amount. And I went about two dozen years without any alcohol during the years I was pregnant and nursing and beyond, up until maybe a year ago, when I started drinking a few ounces of wine with dinner (when I would remember, which lot of times I didn’t, because I wasn’t in the habit).

    I only buy one bottle of wine at a time, take several weeks to finish it, then get another on my next shopping day after I’ve run out.

    Except I’ve been out of wine for probably a month now, and haven’t bought any more since then. Haven’t missed it.

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  45. Depends on the person with drinking. My first husband died of complications of chronic alcoholism at age 45.

    Busy day in the ER.

    Special prayers today for Kim, Karen O, and Mumsee.

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