53 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 12-7-15

  1. Sixty one years ago today!
    “A day that will live in infamy”.

    this place has a king size bed.. 😦
    Why would anyone want a bed that big.
    I hate it.

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  2. Well Chas you have to have a king sized bed if you have a 10 pound Shi-Poo that sleeps with you. Otherwise there would be no room for the humans.

    I wondered if anyone else would remember what day it is. I understand there is going to be a memorial service at Pearl today. Wes Strauley was our local Pear survivor. He died a few years ago. One of the last times I saw him he was decked out in full Marine uniform.

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  3. It is also the day my father died in 1988 while I was pregnant with his only grandchild. I don’t ever forget this date.

    I got our very full garbage can and three cans full of yard debris out to the street. Looks like it will be another beautiful day.

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  4. Good Morning! I’m so glad it’s Monday….this weekend was crazy busy and I need to relax…except I have to work today…then attend our Christmas dinner tonight…this time of year wears me out!
    Yesterday our daughter and her family, along with three other families, with small children, all came over to our property to take their family Christmas photos….they wanted snow in the picture and we have plenty of it….After their photo sessions, they all came in for hot cider and snacks…15 children, 8 parents….and they all had a grand time…they want to make it an annual event… 😎

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  5. Last night, Karen O posted: On Facebook, a friend asked for “date ideas”. I replied, “January 13.”

    I like that date. My son (first child) was born on Friday, January 13, 1984. He likes to say it was 13/13/83.

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  6. The header is part of my mother-in-law’s Christmas gift (packed up in a card box with a clear lid, tied with a gold elastic bow–the same company that sells the cards sells the boxes, and so I bought three of them, for her and for our girls).

    Except for two photos, all were taken in my mother-in-law’s yard. In the left column, the daffodils/narcissus were taken in our yard, and the poppies in my sister-in-law’s. (The poppies were too good not to include, so I added one from our garden as well, and labeled it with my gardener daughter’s name.) Mom has already seen the photo at the top right, since I made her birthday card with it last year, printing it out on a card stock that made it look like a painting, since to me the photo looks like an oil painting. The goldfinch was just getting its summer colors back, and so to me it went perfectly with the rusting feeder. The photos at lower right are repeats of two other ones, because they are post cards, two of each of them to complete the gift set. And of course there are envelopes with the cards, though I stuffed so many cards into the box that I’m only including four envelopes in the box, but also attaching a plastic-wrapped package of 10 more.

    My best camera is out for repair, so the photo of the cards wasn’t taken with it, but with my older one. Hopefully they’re clear anyway. The animals other than the goldfinch could be considered “pest” species (the other bird is a yellow-bellied sapsucker), but she might appreciate the chipmunk that seems to be trying unsuccessfully to hide its face, and they are photos of some of the species that come to her yard. I tried to justify including a cardinal shot, too, but I really just didn’t have any from her yard that were good enough, so the “color” is all in the flower shots. Each has a hand-written inscription on the lower back, but they’re blank inside. The girls are each getting a set, too, although I only used one goldfinch photo in each of theirs, and for Mom I lined the dark cards with white liner sheets made for that purpose, and with the girls I left the cards dark inside so they can use colored pens. (I marked the backs of the black cards with a white pen, and the others with whatever color worked.)

    Anyway, she is known all over town for her garden, so hopefully she will enjoy having cards made from some photos of it!

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  7. This is also the day Elvera’s mother died. Same day.

    Elvera just said. said, “The organist wasn’t there yesterday. The pianist was……. I think she had the same dress she wore last time.” 😯
    Last time for us was in March.
    She remembers things like that. She doesn’t remember what she wore last Sunday 😆

    😦 It’s really raining at Myrtle Beach. If this were a traditional trip, her sisters would be coming and I would be on I-20 by now..

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  8. Well it is my own fault for trusting. I am supposed to get a bonus each time Guy closes a deal, He closed one Friday where his commission was $30K. I requested my two hundred dollar bonus this morning and was told he had credit for his next three deals because he gave me an extra $600 back in October. I thought that was balancing everything out so that I would make what he had promised me back in February. Two of these deals weren’t even in the works back then.

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  9. Musical Advent Calendar – Day 7: Of the Father’s Heart Begotten, also known as Of the Father’s Love Begotten, is a translation of the Latin poem, “Corde natus”, written by the Roman poet Aurelius Prudentius in the 300’s. The poem is set to a plainsong chant, Divinum Mysterium.

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  10. What a beautiful, unique & thoughtful gift, cheryl, she’ll love that. 🙂 And you’ll have fun giving it to her.

    We’re back to our warm weather for a couple days from the looks of it.

    No rain.

    But until I have a new roof, that’s OK. 😉

    And I’m back to work this week. 😦 😦 But I got a lot done around here and I get another week off next week.

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  11. Chas, years ago my sister sold furniture, including beds. She commented that a full-size bed is generally too small for a married couple, a queen is a nicer size, and a king is too big–you can be too far apart. But she said a California king seems perfect, though a less common size–it’s longer than a queen, more leg room, but I think the width is the same as a queen or just slightly more. Anyway, my 6’3″ husband needs a long bed, and we have a California king. When we get a hotel room, we ask for king; if none is available, we settle for a queen. But it’s really hard for the two of us to fit in a full-sized bed, so we prefer not to have that size. (To fit in it and leave room for me, he has to sleep on his side, curled up, and there’s not much room for me anyway. I have learned always to take a sleeping pill the first night in a full-sized bed or I won’t sleep at all, since generally I turn over a lot before I go to sleep, and in a full-size there is hardly room for me to move with him beside me.)

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  12. Oh, it looks like a California queen is the same width as a queen (60″) but four inches longer (84″). I didn’t know there was such a bed. The Caliornia king is longer than a king and not so wide, but a foot wider than a queen. I like the queen size, but my husband does appreciate that extra length, and I can imagine why–a full-size bed always felt almost too short for me, and I’m nine inches shorter than he is.

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  13. Donna, if it had been 64 years ago, I would have been 21 and would have been in WW Ii, wouldn’t I?

    We have a regular full size bed at home. We still snuggle when we get to bed. In this, she is too far away and I have to move almost the next county to snuggle.

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  14. :blush: I held my finger on the button a full 30 seconds before I clicked post.
    We are mid eighties. All we do is snuggle, but snuggle we do.

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  15. Chas, we snuggle when we go to bed, too. But in a full-size bed, we can’t move without hitting each other since he’s so tall and he has to either sleep angled across from one corner to another (which doesn’t work with someone else in the bed) or curled and taking up more space side-to-side. So we need the extra length and/or width, one or the other, and we happen to have both.

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  16. Something I wrote on Facebook. . .

    Okay, I am now going to tackle the “Merry Christmas” vs. “Happy Holidays” sort-of-debate. Hold on to your hats. (Just kidding. 🙂 )

    There are *some* (I believe & hope they are a small, albeit vocal, minority) who get a little belligerent about insisting on saying “Merry Christmas”. They are annoyed by the term “Happy Holidays”, & feel people who say that are taking Christ out of Christmas.

    What is Christlike about being belligerent about this? Haughtily proclaiming “Merry Christmas” does not exact exude the love of Jesus. (Again, I believe this is a small minority who do this, but if any of them are reading, I wanted to make this point.) Also, keep in mind that clerks in stores are often under orders to say “Happy Holidays”, so don’t take it out on them.

    And really, what is so wrong with “Happy Holidays”? When someone expresses this to you, they are still being nice & wishing you happiness. (You might want to keep in mind that the word “holiday” comes from “holy day”. 😉 )

    There are others who insist that “Happy Holidays” is more inclusive, because there are other holidays this time of year besides Christmas. Those people can sometimes come off as being a little haughty about that.

    It’s all well & good that “Happy Holidays” is an inclusive & warm expression, wishing happiness to whomever is celebrating whatever. But is it really that offensive for a non-Christian to be wished a “Merry Christmas”? Is it so offensive for a Christian to be wished a “Happy Hanukkah”? Can’t we all just wish others a Happy/Merry Whatever We Celebrate, & have it taken as well-meaning?

    For instance, I’ve read of, & known, Jewish people who did not mind being wished a Merry Christmas.

    BTW, most, if not all, the non-Christians I know, including atheists, celebrate Christmas. Christmas these days is a highly secular holiday. As for me, I enjoy the religious aspects of it, but I also enjoy the secular aspects of it.

    So let’s all give each other the benefit of the doubt. consider the well wishes of others as well-meaning & kind, & just enjoy the beauty of the season, whatever we may celebrate.

    God bless, & may you have a Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

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  17. You reminded me of the Jewish couple in a small, rural, Alabama town who always held the neighborhood Christmas party. They said they didn’t have a whole lot going on this time of year and had the time to have the party. (They were former next door neighbors to my former next door neighbors)

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  18. Because I felt sorry for myself earlier today I had to find some humor somewhere.
    Guy is looking for a personal home. They want to sell or rent the one they have. Last week I was able to get them into 2 using my friend L but I can’t always have her at the ready. This morning he sent another to me that he wanted to see.
    I looked up the listing agent. She is an elderly lady who has “been in real estate since Methuselah was a boy”. I spoke with her “team member”. He asked who the client was that Guy was showing to “because the clients are quite prominent and have a vested interest in who sees the home”. Puh-leeze. I looked up the owner on the tax record and the only thing I can think of about prominence is that the male owner’s first name is also the name of a certain type of lettuce.
    So the question is…does pretentiousness bother you or am I the only one?

    Liked by 1 person

  19. Kim, I don’t really like pretentiousness, either. If you like a certain kind of home and can afford to live in it, do so. If you like lakefront property because you like the view, and you can afford it, then buy it. But don’t think you’ll impress me that you live on a lake–you won’t. Now, if you tell me that the creek that meanders through your backyard sometimes draws egrets and herons, that will interest me. But “lakefront” meaning that you’re rich and I should be impressed, no. And if you have 12 children and need four thousand square feet, may your home be blessed. But if you need five sitting rooms for just you and your spouse, you’ll find that I pity you rather than envying you–I’d get lost in all that space, it wouldn’t feel cozy to me, and I wouldn’t want to have to dust it!

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  20. Beautiful header photo, Cheryl. That will make a lovely gift.

    Kim, in response to pretentiousness, my husband says (not to the face of a person acting in that manner), “Well, la. dee. dah.” Not impressed whatsoever. Neither am I, frankly. It mostly just makes me roll my eyes.

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  21. Speaking of eyes (from my 2:08), it’s time for me to get going on what to do about my glasses situation. These (relatively) new progressive lenses are still not doing the trick for me on my distance vision. Intermediate- (for piano and computer distance) and close-range reading are working well, but I don’t like them at all for distance. I planned on waiting until my recent music performances were done to switch the glasses out for something different (or a different combination of lens types). Now I have to decide what that’s going to be.

    Another funny thing that happened yesterday at the piano show, relevant to this glasses bit, is that I was wearing my old single-vision glasses for the first half of the show, because I didn’t perform at all in that half, and it was easier to use my old glasses (though they’re not quite the right prescription anymore) for seeing the stage from where I was seated in the audience.

    After the first half, there was an intermission, and I continued wearing my old glasses for that, as well.

    By the end of the intermission, I had forgotten which glasses I was wearing, and when I went back to the performance area, I set my purse down in the waiting area backstage, waiting for my cue to go onstage with my duet partner. (We were first after the intermission.)

    So we walk onstage. I sit down at the piano, our page turner sits on the chair to the left of the piano bench, and my partner stands at the front of the stage and addresses the audience, telling about the various duets leading off the second half, all from The Nutcracker Suite.

    And as she’s talking, I look ahead at the open music score on the piano rack and realize it’s quite blurry.

    I still have my old glasses on!

    Sheesh. I could slide them way down my nose (except I’ve got probably the shortest nose of any adult on the planet) and sort of be able to see, but all I’m thinking is, I want those new glasses that I can read music through!

    I know they’re in my purse, I’m thinking, because I checked to make sure I had them before I left home yesterday, but I don’t want to just get up and walk offstage while our piece is being introduced!

    Suddenly, hardly any time after the thought came into my head, I hear myself asking the page turner if she would go backstage and get my glasses out of my purse.

    Quick as a wink, she’s gone, and after a little while that seemed like it might be forever, she hurries back on stage and hands me my bright red glasses case.

    Christmasy, you know. 🙂

    Right as I’m switching my glasses, my duet partner finishes the introduction, sits down on the bench, and starts laughing about the whole musicians-and-bifocals mess.

    So (if you read my report yesterday on the funny business in our duet performance) the humor was beginning even before we started playing. 🙂

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  22. Cheryl, did you get the book I sent you? They gave me information to track it, but I didn’t even think to follow it until well after the delivery date they promised, so I didn’t bother to check if there was a record anymore on whether it had actually been delivered.

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  23. I’ve been reading it, too, Jo, and am amazed at how it all comes back. I could see the shelves in those vexing grocery stores and remembered the parking spots! I’ll need to rewrite someday and add the photos properly–it’s hard, sometimes, to go back and see all the mistakes! My brain starts rearranging the words, sigh.

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  24. 6 Arrows, I probably should check my “drafts” folder to see if there is an e-mail to you there . . . or it might be just my memory, because I surely meant to sit down and right “Thank you (I think)” but that was a super crazy busy week, so I might have just been a bad girl. But yes, I got it!

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  25. Michelle, we have a lot of the same groceries here, so it was nothing new. I will be with people who live there who can answer all my questions, so that should be fun.
    Please pray as my tickets say that one flight is unconfirmed. My son is trying to figure it out.

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  26. I know this is a political type question so pardon me, but I have not kept up with recent news. In speaking with my friend who gets her news from mainline media, she told me all the videos about Planned Parenthood were fake and that P.P.H. does not sell body parts. Have I missed something? She thinks it will be horrible for women if Planned Parenthood did not exist. Either she or I have been fully brainwashed. We can’t both be right on this. Have I missed something in my preoccupation with Art’s health?

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  27. I know it’s late in the day, but Tracy Higley’s Awakening is free on Amazon today. Here is the review I wrote for it:

    Okay, so I am not one to read romance novels. But this one was a free read if I left an honest review. So, honestly, I have never read a book like it. Mrs. Higley weaves a tale that is both modern and ancient, intertwining the two throughout. There are wonderful descriptions of places many of us only dream of visiting. Overall it is well worth the time.

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  28. At the same time they released “the highlights,” they also released the unedited footage. They’ve been confirmed real by someone. There are something like three times as many government health clinics across the US that can do not only what PP does, but more and for less. Someone who claims women will be denied access is being disingenuous at best.

    In addition, many PP clinics are located in poor and racially divided neighborhoods–targeting the most needy. They also will only take cash or a credit card if you need an abortion, all the while taking lots of money from the federal government allegedly to help them cover the costs for poor women.

    They do not, and they never have, perform mammograms.

    PP professionals on camera joked about selling body parts.

    You can only see truth when you are willing to consider your bias as a potential blinder. :-(.

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  29. Janice – Even the group that PP paid to go through the full-length videos reported that the videos were not manipulated or heavily edited, & another group found that as well.

    As for the selling baby parts aspect, it sure sounded like that was what they were doing, but they insist they were only asking reimbursement for costs. It seems that people believe whichever version aligns with their views.

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  30. Michelle – Along those lines, here is part of one of my Facebook posts today: “Be careful, folks. There is a lot of misinformation out there. Misinformation is often hard to recognize because it may be something we want to believe, & it already aligns with & bolsters our views.”

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  31. I wound up covering a shooting on my first day back at work — cop reporter was in court covering a trial.

    So glad I have next week off again. Woo-hoo. This time of year I tend to mentally “check out” reporter-wise 🙂 Would so much rather be home going through “stuff,” getting the house back in order, mixed in with a little shopping & wrapping …

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  32. Hi, Jo. I slept through the night probably because I made the chili with ground turkey. Turkey has that nice sleep inducing chemical in case any one is having insomnia, just eat some turkey!

    I hope your children are not too rambunctious in class these days. Once I told a parent their child was rambunctious when I meant to say exuberant. Oops! But truth be told…

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