53 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 12-9-15”

  2. I am up early as I have to take Mr. P to Pascagoula for another steroid shot in his back. Ouch!
    Court started at 4pm yesterday. We were home by 8pm.
    When we got there one of the policemen recognized G. He asked why we were there and when he found out he asked who our attorney was. We didn’t have one. “Oh, man! Let me see what I can do for you.”. If it hadn’t been for that friendship things would have gone a lot worse. This policeman did what he could to help us, but G apologized to me for not hiring an attorney. This man called in a favor with a fellow officer and got the city attorney to agree to Youthful Offender. When BG went before the judge G and I walked up and stood behind her. Unfortunately she inherited some of my nervous habits – She smiled at the judge. That angered him. He looked at everything that happened, asked her if she could pass a drug test and promised her things would not go as she expected if she had lied to him. She didn’t pass. I knew it the minute she walked back in the courtroom, but she didn’t come sit by us. The drug officer went to her defense saying that as much as she had been smoking and her size it would still be in her system. She got Youthful Offender (12 or 24 will have to clarify today) months probation, and drug education classes. Oh and 180 days in jail, but that was suspended. The judge told her that if she couldn’t keep herself out of trouble he could–he could lock her up.
    All in all I am relieved and pleased with the way things went. I cannot thank all of you enough for supporting me and praying for us during this time. It isn’t over yet, but one step is behind us.

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  3. ***Peter**** The electrical cord on the right bothers me too, but I may have to wait until after Christmas to buy some lighted topiaries to go on each side of the door next year. Or I think Janice posted a photo link last night I might try. Mr. P wants a camellia planted in the back.

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  5. Musical Advent Calendar – Day 9: This beloved Christmas carol dates from the 1700s. Its popularity no doubt had a boost from being mentioned in Charles Dickens’s ‘A Christmas Carol’: “…at the first sound of ‘God bless you, merry gentlemen! May nothing you dismay!’, Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost.”

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  7. I just put some more decorations on the bar berry bush at our mailbox. I found two packs do red bows and three containers of small plastic ornaments that may withstand the weather. That is our tree this year, but I might try to find a little tree for inside that Miss Bosley can enjoy with some bits of yarn tied around catnip or such (thanks, Jo, for the idea).

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  9. Kim, I have a friend who went through the same thing with her daughter. She also was fortunate to be treated as a Young Offender (I understand that means it won’t stay on her record). This girl didn’t smarten up right away – she smoked pot on the sly for a while afterwards – but she is acting like a responsible adult now. Her big change came when she broke up with her deadbeat boyfriend (it’s always the boyfriend, isn’t it?) and then had a car accident. Her parents were missionaries and couldn’t be there, but the people of their church helped her out – even though she had turned her back on them. I don’t know if she is a Christian now, but I do know her relationship with her parents is healed. Give yourself and BG time and space. I’m praying with you.

    The Real, I didn’t see the news of the latest monkey wrench right away. I’m sorry, and I’m praying.

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  10. So, why should you have hired a lawyer? I would think she would have been given the public defender is she needed one. Sounds like just her, the judge, and the drug officer coming to an agreement. Sounds like a slap on the hand and she will not pay attention. Bragging rights with her “friends”.

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  12. To get a public defender is based on ability to pay. We have the ability to pay. It would have also delayed everything until February 16 2016. She is have to ta k e drug education courses concealing and random drug teats. If she is positive she will go to jail for 180 days.

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  18. Right, I am trying to figure out what my legal responsibility is. Our children are covered by our insurance, but I thought they were responsible for their actions. If our eighteen year old beats up an underage boy, would we be held responsible? Or is it just financially?

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  21. Anyway, nine year old in glasses fixed himself a nice salad for breakfast. He uses a big salad bowl. Filled it today with lettuce, spinach, carrots, pepper, and celery before splashing on some Greek vinaigrette. He had a piece of toast with it. And finished with a dish of brother’s peanut butter cheesecake. He is fascinated with salad again. Ever since dad took him to the store and he saw a popeye label on the spinach. Dad bought it, he makes it.

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  22. mumsee, that’s the only reason I ate spinach as a kid — Popeye. 🙂 It worked on me for years and I acquired the taste for it. (I was a picky eater, still am.)

    Kim, glad for some relief at the holidays. Praying that SOMEONE gets through to her in the drug education classes, maybe she’ll connect with one of the leaders there who will have a positive influence. I’d worry that it’s not just marijuana (because it usually isn’t ‘just’ one). They don’t call it a gateway drug for nothing.

    Cute, cute bird today!! Bad hair day, though.

    I had a long meeting to cover last night, another one tonight. And I got up to find a gigantic puddle of poop in the kitchen, courtesy of one of the dogs, which wasn’t too pleasant. But at least it’s on easy-to-clean linoleum and not on the wood floors. Ugh. Drenched the floor with pine sol.

    Houses in our neighborhood are looking so pretty. I miss decorating. 😦 Maybe get some done inside next week though.

    Someone at the dog park has strung lights all over their car, I could go that way and just decorate the Jeep I suppose.

    I was stopped at a light the other day on my way to the dog park when the Christmasy-decorated waterfront open-air trolley stopped right next to us. Pretty soon I heard all the kids chattering and squealing away — my dogs were looking out the open back window of the Jeep right below them and they were delighted by the “doggies!” 🙂 Kind of scared the dogs getting all that attention, but it was very cute.

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  23. Donna – I still think you should put up the lights & decorations on your house anyway. A sad-looking house with lights is prettier than a sad-looking house without lights. They’ll probably perk up the look of the house, too. And at night, people only notice the lights, anyway.

    Plus, it might brighten your own mood, & infuse you with more holiday spirit, if you need a boost.

    Our white front door is pretty dirty, & needs to be painted something other than white. But I put a nice door decoration thingie (not a wreath, but large, gold-sprinkled pine cones hanging from some fake greenery & a fake poinsettia bloom) on it anyway, & it looks nicer.

    I tried washing the door, but as it is not painted with a glossy paint, some of the dirt just smeared. It needs a power wash, which Lee wants to do but hasn’t had the time to do it.

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  24. I may put a few lights out, Karen. As you said, at night no will notice — and the strings during the day shouldn’t show up all that much anyway (I can only imagine people saying “What is she thinking??”).

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  25. I’m with Donna, the only reason I ate spinach was Popeye–“strong to the finish ‘cuz I eat my spinach” is a much better endorsement for kids than “eat it. It’s good for you.”

    I’m encouraged by those drug tests–we’ll pray the threat of jail helps.

    We’re with you, Mama, we’ve invested a lot in this young’en ourselves by now! 🙂

    Just walked an hour in the sprinkles and now MUST go Christmas shopping. I’m wearing my power boots so when I stride through the stores I’ll feel confident I can find something to purchase for my family.

    Last night, at my brother’s suggestion, I bought the following books for my menfolk who loved the book “Salt.” This year they’re getting “Bananas, Cod,” and something about the south pole.

    And Frankl’s book out of the concentration camp for my would-be doc, who likes mind-bending ethics like that.

    I think I’ll get my daughter-in-law the athlete an electronic skeet shooting kit.

    10 more chapters to read in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, to catch up with the readings I did 15 years ago. We then have to turn these tapes into CDs and that’s the adorables’ Christmas gift.

    When they ask me what I want, I have my usual request: “Peace on Earth.”

    They never get it for me, but they try . . .

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  26. I like the kingfisher photo. Random facts: the belted kingfisher (that species) is the only bird species I know of of in which the female is more colorful than the male! That one is a male. He is only blue and white; the female has a second stripe, chestnut in color, below the blue breast stripe. I love watching them dive for fish. When they fly over a stream, their call sounds like a machine gun. They nest in the bank of a stream (underground).

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  28. Chas needs to come back and tell me how to use Family Mapping–Guess who we will be mapping????? It was a condition of getting her phone back, but we only gave her the phone back so we could map her. Chicken and egg sort of thinking. BG got out of jail ($530) for Christmas. A portion of that was credited towards her fines and court costs last night. Another $464. She she goes for her Evaluation and Drug Test the end of this month with the court system it will cost her another $95. She has been told that we have paid our last dime on her escapades and everything from now on will be on her dime.
    If she fails a drug test it is 180 in jail and there is nothing Mommy nor Daddy can do then.

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  29. Kim, just be aware that she could give the phone to someone else and you will only think you know where she is. I bet you already thought of that, but calling her phone occasionally on Friday nights would be a great idea. (In fact, calling her ten minutes after a phone call . . . when she might think, “Good, they checked in and now I’m safe for a few hours” wouldn’t be a terribly bad idea.

    Ultimately, though, she is the one who has to make the choice. If she wants to circumvent your authority and the court’s authority, she will find a way to do it.

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  31. We have told her if any of the 3 of us call her she is to answer. If she doesn’t answer there will be a text message sent asking a question that only she will know and not one she will be prepared for and able to tell a friend. As I told the court representative this morning, I am fully aware that she lies, is manipulative, and thinks she is smart. Mama did a few things she shouldn’t have in the past too and her daddy will tell you he did a whole lot he shouldn’t have done. Unfortunately he is the big ol’ softie who wants to believe her and can’t believe his darling baby girl would even dream of lying to him.

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  33. That bird was/is black and white. I’ve gotten plenty of the blue and white before, but this one isn’t. I figured it was female because I knew the blue and white were males.

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  34. I did something really dumb. I walked away from the computer screen to call my husband about an email I got, but left the screen open. Sixth Arrow came along while I was on the phone, out of the room, and read the open email. There’s bad news in it, and my daughter broke down crying over it.

    That wasn’t the way she should have found out. 😦 😦

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  35. We ran out of something to do in Myrtle Beach and came home three days early.
    Kim, Chas is a cartographer. But he knows nothing about family mapping.

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  37. So sorry, 6. Good thinking, Kim.

    Survived shopping, though this is the first time I’ve ever bought a cigar (for a dying friend). I saw an elder at the Redwood Gospel Mission thrift store when we both were dropping off items, “What are you doing way over here, Michelle?” (7 miles from home but feels like another county), and my work colleague at a toy store. Funny, but I’ve made some good progress and now will enjoy four hours home with the rain coming down and only the Advent dinner (already made!) and playing at the service. We love the music.

    I’m 10 people away from 800 for my newsletter, so I’m going to manually add some relatives and then the newsletter finally goes out. Christmas cards finished last night and now I’m feeling better about the holidays.

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  38. The Anonymous AJ, most “blue” birds (and butterflies) look black in some lights, blue in others. That’s definitely true of the indigo bunting, for one. In fact, scientists will say of several species “It has no blue pigment in its feathers, but it reflects blue light and thus it is considered to be blue, but it really isn’t blue at all.” Well, in my opinion, however God made an individual blue to work, whether through pigment or another means, if He made the creature to appear blue to our eyes, then we can safely call it “blue.” Or we can explain it the way I describe the bib of a male ruby-throated hummingbird, as appearing black in some lights and red in others.

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  42. Today I stayed home because my tummy has a problem. Art is at the office. He offered to stop by the store and get something if I need it. This seems somehow backwards to me. But I know he wants to pick up a carton of colas for himself.

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  44. Thanks, I’m happy to include you–particularly now that Mailchimp announced that since I hadn’t sent an email in the last six months, everyone who signed up before then is suspect and I’m a possible spammer.

    Yikes, it’s just a little newsletter.

    So, we’re working on the list again, which looks to me to shrink to about 760–those who signed up prior to June, except for the people I know signed up on purpose (like Jo, say).

    But now I can add two more! Oh, the joy!

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  46. The email my daughter saw was not addressed to anyone in particular, and I’m not sure, if it was, that the eight-year-old would have stopped reading after seeing someone else’s name at the top.

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  49. I think I’m on Michelle’s list, but maybe not. But I get a lot of SPAM on that email, and the email provider updated so now none of the SPAM gets filtered.

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  52. Covered another redundant (mostly) meeting tonight on what to do about homelessness. Sigh.

    And juggling so many requests for coverage of other stories that I just can’t get to, at least right now. When I mentioned one of the demands (for coverage of a live event on Saturday) to a colleague today, she said: “Yeah, well they want ice water in hell, too.”

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