121 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 12-26-15”

  1. Good day after Christmas to everyone from Atlanta! We are truly soggy to add to the groggy. We had a nice Christmas Day with my brother. We got to watch a DVD he had, Alone but Not Alone. It is a good film, Christian, about the days of the French and Indian War and the captive children.

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  2. Good Morning! We had a very sweet relaxing Christmas celebration and now I’m heading into town to face the after Christmas bargain shoppers! As we closed at 2 on Christmas Eve, I had 6 people knocking on our door asking to be let in as they only needed to purchase a Pandora bead….we finally got to head home a half hour later…last minute shoppers..sheesh 🙂
    We have a fresh inch of white fluffy snow this morning and it is stinkin’ cold….9….with a high of…11….gonna be putting on my long undies today!

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  4. I received 2 Pandora beads from Mr P. One is a turtle and one is a drop that is engraved with Mimi on it.
    I still can’t get my Kindle to accept the wireless code, so this morning as all sleep I am reading the last story on A Log Cabin Christmas.

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  6. Have you ever had to explain to someone why you cannot accept or do not want a gift?
    How do you tactfully explain the reason without hurting the other person?
    My dilemma is that Mr. P gave me 3 cast iron frying pans that are painted on the outside. One has a rooster, on has a log cabin, and the other I can’t remember. I know why he thought I would like them. I have a rooster lamp and a rooster print hanging in a corner of the breakfast room.
    The reason I can’t stand them beyond them simply not being my taste is the emotion that looking at them beings to the surface. They remind me of the breakfast room in the house where I was a teenager. They are my mother’s taste. She would have loved them. Which is the reason I can’t stand them. Looking at them yesterday morning I felt my stomach drop. I was back in that breakfast room with my drunk mother sitting at the round oak pedestal table (which was the first thing I gave away when my father died—I despised that table), with her berating me and telling me how everything going on was my fault.

    The two Pandora beads? The sentiment in those belong to both of us. I am Mimi to his two grandchildren. When we were dating we went on several turtle nest watches. They mean something to ME. It wouldn’t have mattered if they were Pandora or the $2.99 bracelet that the receptionist at work ordered for me when she got hers. I maxed out on it with little medallions with an R, J, K, C, S, and E for his 3 boys, my girl, and the 2 grands.

    Back to my book now while I multitask on figuring this out.

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  7. Is it “Pandora” bread or “Panera”? We have Panera Bread stores here – restaurants, really – that serve great food and have the best bakery items that are not donuts.

    And for your day-after reading enjoyment, here are the weekly political cartoons, usually referred to as “the Friday Funnies”, only a day late.

    As for shopping, Saturday is the usual grocery shopping here since Mrs L doesn’t drive and we’re 20 miles from the big stores. But I told her that we could wait until Monday since I have no school. I refuse to go to Walmart on the day after Christmas. It gives a whole new meaning to “Boxing Day”.

    Speaking of which, for those in British countires: Happy Boxing Day! (Is that celebrated in Canada?)

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  8. Kim- if you explain to Mr P what you posted here, he will understand. And he puts up a fuss, use the frying pans on him! (Not really. I don’t want to promote domestic abuse.)

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  9. I was up early to get the trash and recyclables out to the curb, it was really windy last night.

    And Cowboy apparently has found a new way out of the backyard. A couple times last evening he seemed to “vanish,” but then reappeared at the doggie door … and this morning when I let everyone out first thing I was heading out the front door with the trash when who should greet me in the neighbor’s driveway but Cowboy. So I need to figure out where his escape route is today and fix that.

    Maybe there’s an after-christmas sale on those metal stakes that seemed to work for the back escape route a few years ago.

    Always something …

    Kim, I’m sure he’ll understand if you explain it the way you did here.

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  10. It is Panera Bread and Pandora Jewelry….or it could be Pandora radio :0)
    Kim you should just be honest with him…he is a kind and gentle soul….he will understand….then he can strip the paintings off of the skillets and you can cook him a nice meal with them!

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  12. Kim, here’s another thought, a different approach. You seem to find your identity in being an ADOA and continue to focus on past hurts. Might you be able to use this gift to help you get passed that? Could you accept it as a gift from someone who loves you and let that fact give new meaning to the image? Each time you look at them, they could be a reminder of the new grown-up you who has a new identity and wonderful people in your lives that make up for a hurtful past?

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  13. Kim, I had a time I didn’t have to explain; the person giving it to me could tell I didn’t like it, and she got mad and grabbed it away from me. 🙂

    I was moving away from Chicago and going freelance. In Chicago I wore dresses six days a week. (My workplace had just recently instituted “casual Friday” dress, but I owned so many dresses from years of them being required that I mostly just wore dresses anyway.) In Chicago I attended several Christmas parties each year. So I’d told this friend that I was going through my dresses and throwing a lot of them away, especially the dressier ones that I wouldn’t be likely to wear again. She’d even claimed one of the dressiest of them for a play dress for her niece.

    I was moving the end of April. At Christmas, four months before my move, I opened a dress from this friend that was a velvet top attached to a patterned cotton skirt. I looked at it, and it wasn’t even close to “my style.” (All velvet, sure, but I don’t like random patterns, and to me a dress should be a dress and not two different parts.) Furthermore, it wouldn’t work in any season. If I’m wearing velvet, it’s too cold to wear a light cotton skirt. And I wouldn’t have any place to wear it–I’d kept a couple of fancy dresses, but I didn’t need any new ones. And I’d already told this friend I was weeding out my dresses, and why.

    So I looked at the dress and tried to figure out something to say that was both polite and true. (For example, what a lovely texture that top is! something along that line.) But she was a person who could always think of something to say instantly (even if it was rude), and thus a person who had no patience with me sometimes taking two or three seconds before thinking of something to say.

    In that two or three seconds of looking at it, trying to figure out how to politely compliment the dress without admitting I hated it and could never wear it, she said, “You don’t like it” and she grabbed it away. I tried to say something quickly, but she said, “No, you don’t like it. I’ll take it back or give it to someone else.” If I’d kept the dress, I probably would have found a skirt to wear over the bottom part, and made it work that way, but since I was “required” by that friend to show immediate exuberant enthusiasm over any gift (which isn’t usually my style, even if I truly love a gift), I failed gift-receiving 101.

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  14. Kim, theTSWITW straightened me out years ago.
    We don’t get each other presents now.
    It works well for us.
    I got a shirt for Christmas.
    We got up an left Greensboro at 5:30 this morning.
    Great driving. Not much traffic until we got to Hickory for breakfast.

    364 days ’till Christmas!

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  15. There were 14 of us over at Jennifer’s for dinner after the candlelight service Christmas Eve night.
    I was sitting there observing the commotion and thought:
    All of this because two of us got careless one winter night in 1958. And look what happened!
    Or maybe God and some angels got together and devised a scheme to get Caden Muller or Graham Harris into the world about this time.
    We never know the real reason for many things.

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  17. Linda, No. First, it isn’t my taste. It is “Country Living Arts and Crafts” it would look great if we had a log cabin in the woods as a second home, but we don’t. Second, we have no wall space to hang anything in the kitchen. The kitchen flows into the breakfast room, it is an open floor plan, the kitchen cabinets take up all of the wall space in the kitchen and the space between the cabinets and counter tops is tiled. Cast iron weighs a ton so they would have to be anchored well to keep from falling and damaging the dry wall or cracking the tile floors. In the breakfast room there is only one wall to hang anything on and it already has 3 framed prints over there. The one side opens to the kitchen, the other has French doors leading outside, and the 4th wall is a double opening to the sun room. Everyone wants an “open” floor plan until they realize they don’t have anywhere to hang anything.
    Mr. P loves clutter and thinks everything we have needs to be displayed, out, whatever. He thinks I don’t like any of “his” stuff. I explained that I don’t really like any of “my stuff” anymore either. I can’t stand clutter. I also am not artsy/ craftsy in style. I would rather us pick out things for the. house together so that it is “ours”. He really does mean well, and I appreciate his thoughtfulness. All I really asked him to get for me for Christmas was the market umbrella and the two adirondack chairs—OK and the Kindle Paperwhite so I could sit in the chair and read outside. I am sure he thought he was getting something I would like, and I am sure he likes them or he wouldn’t have bought them.

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  19. While at my sister-in-law’s on Christmas, we watched a movie her husband likes called The Fourth Wise Man starring Martin Sheen as the title character. He spends most of his life searching for the “King of kings”, always just missing Jesus. Has anyone ever heard of it? It was a TV movie made in 1985. It also has several other Sheen/Estevez relatives in minor roles. It is a good movie teaching a good truth from Scripture: “Whatever you did to the least of these you did unto” Jesus. The only major problem I had with it is that it makes it sound like good works will get you into favor with God. Comments? (Click on the title above for the imdb.com description.)

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  20. Kim,

    When I moved into this house, I inherited the decorating taste of another woman . . . but couldn’t just tear everything down and start over, not because my husband would car (he wouldn’t), but because the girls mostly grew up in this house and it was their home.

    I put up a few of my own things, took down a tiny percentage of stuff that was here. The reality is that a decent percentage of the decorating is stuff that I like. I love the decorative front door, for instance, which was custom-ordered by her but not put up until after her death. But the kitchen was a wince a minute. And the cows and chickens on the shelf just had to go–I’m not a country kitchen sort. The rest of it I can live with (I hope eventually to have enough of my husband’s art that we can take down bad framed prints), but those creatures were so “not me.” But I waited about two years before taking them down. We’d take them down each year for Christmas and put Christmas stuff up, and two years ago I decided the girls had known me long enough that I could keep the cows and chickens and pigs down and put something else up without hurting anyone’s feelings.

    And this year I got one compromise on the Christmas tree (getting rid of the angel and replacing it with a star) and my husband decreed (after we found out that three of the four of us didn’t like nativity sets, especially cutesy ones like Precious Moments) that we weren’t putting up the two nativity sets this year. And the Christmas rabbit didn’t get put up since we did the decorations when the one who puts it up wasn’t here–and next year she’s free to take it and put it up in her own home if she wishes, or not. We have some lovely needlework done by their mother that I’m happy to keep up, but some items are just so “not me” that I’ve had to be quite patient in transitioning away from them. But we’re mostly there.

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  23. In Mumsee’s defense December Birthdays are hard. She knows he was born in 86 and it is about to be 2016 so that’s 30 years. I had the same problem figuring out my nephew’s age this year.

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  24. I have had two questions that I have been thinking about during this season. Perhaps someone here will have some good input on them.

    Were swaddling cloths indeed for both birth and death? Only for one or another? I have read they were only for a death and the other more popular stance.

    What were the exceptions for the public to go somewhere so far away to be registered in a census? Surely there were many infirmed citizens who could not comply. Was Mary really compelled to go with Joseph or could there be another reason she went with him, in spite of the difficulty?

    I would appreciate any input. Thanks.

    Kim, I think honesty is the best policy. I would make a point of appreciating the thought, of course. Although, I have to in all honesty say I have not always followed that advice myself, but it was not with something that I honestly could not stand to have to see everyday.

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  25. I teach them to read, the rest is on them. They do tend to test out of the public school testing by tenth grade. Except the truly special needs. Learning to read includes learning to read and follow directions.

    With the absence of the older boys and their distraction, I am trying to give fourteen year old boy a chance to succeed. He is out building the new turkey run. I told him where and how. He just pounded in eight fence posts and came in for confirmation. He had put the fence posts in such a way that the turkeys would have a two foot wide run rather than the twenty foot wide run they are used to. And no house. He is out pulling his fence posts and trying again. But he did have a big grin on his face when he realized the error of his thinking. I love this age.

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  27. Interestingly, Greece still has such a census and everybody is required to return to their birthplace at the census time. I don’t remember if that includes the infirm.

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  29. Kitchen tastes are pretty specific — it would be hard to feel obligated to hang something up for display that clashed with your personal style and preferences — and with the rest of what’s there (my impression is that Kim is a lot more formal than rooster pans? 🙂 )

    My mom had rooster plates that she loved. Roosters were big back in the day, kind of Americana mid-century, maybe they’re making a comeback as I hear that era is now very popular for its furniture and other styles.

    I suspect those plates are packed away somewhere here, maybe in the garage.

    But they’re not something I’d use, I prefer plain and artisan-rustic (but not cutesy). For now anyway. I’ve watched my own tastes in decor change somewhat (though not drastically) over the years, which is interesting.

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  32. Kathaleena, I have always associated swaddling with babies and shrouds with death. Newborns are swaddled in blankets and now some wise person has gone back to making fool proof swaddling blankets that really do work with keeping an infant swaddled and secure.
    Shrouds are used to wrap the deceased.

    The other question I cannot answer

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  33. Peter, we do indeed celebrate Boxing Day here in Canada, complete with Boxing Day sales. It is a statutory holiday. Since it occurs on a Saturday, most people will get Monday off (if both Christmas and Boxing Day occur on a weekend, both Friday and Monday are holidays).

    Kathleena, I’ve only ever heard of swathing bands in connections with birth. Dickens, in his non-fiction account of his Italian tour, Pictures from Italy, writes about the custom:

    It is not unusual to see, lying on the edge of the tank at these time, or on another flat stone, an unfortunate baby, tightly swathed up, arms and legs and all, in an enormous quantity of wrapper, so that it is unable to move a toe or finger. This custom (which we often see represented in old picture) is universal among the common people. A child is left anywhere, without the possibility of crawling away, or is accidentally knocked off a shelf, or tumbled out of bed, or is hung up to a hook now and then, and left dangling like a doll at an English rag-shop, without the least inconvenience to anybody.

    I was sitting, one Sunday, soon after my arrival, in the little country church of San Martino, a couple of miles from the city, while a baptism took place. I saw the priest, and an attendant with a large taper, and a man, and a woman, and some others; but I had no more idea, until the ceremony was all over, that it was a baptism, or that the curious little stiff instrument, that was passed from one to another, in the course of the ceremony, by the handle – like a short poker – was a child, that I had that it was my own christening. I borrowed the child afterward, for a minute or two (it was lying across the font then), and found it very red in the face but perfectly quiet, and not to be bent on any terms. The number of cripples in the streets, soon ceased to surprise me.

    I suppose an analogy could be drawn between the stiffness of swathing bands and the stiffness of grave clothes – I remember hearing or reading about how the expensive ointment, purchased by Nicodemus (John 19:39-40), for burial clothes would basically seal the bands of cloth together in a stiff covering – but they are not the same thing. I did read, in an old book, about an interesting theory. As you have probably read or heard, Jewish history record that the flocks around Bethlehem were not like other flocks, but were flocks kept by Levites for the temple sacrifices. That much is indicated by Bible prophecy as well: “And you, O tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come, the former dominion shall come, kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.” (Micah 4:8); the “tower of the flock” refers to that special herd of sheep. Now I read that it was a custom to wrap the legs of the male lambs of this flock carefully, in order to preserve them without blemish for the sacrifice. There was supposed to be birthing stalls, where these special lambs would be born, and the theory was that Christ may have been born in such a stall. Whether we should go so far in the interpretation is a matter for caution, although the special purpose of the Bethlehem flocks is pretty well established.

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  34. One of my foster children years ago, arrived with her baby brother (well, he was actually her baby but her mom was adopting him) and the mom insisted he be wrapped in swaddling clothes. It did calm him. But I had to think of the other children I had had over the years who had ligament damage from not being allowed to move for hours and hours. So he was only swaddled when he got fussy which was not very often.

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  35. Now. I have a question.
    We inherited – that is, not as a present, we were just given:
    A jar of Jiff Hazelnut Chocolate, and
    A jar of Jiff Hazelnut Mocha Cappuccino.

    The question. What do we do with these?
    Is it just a form of chocolate you mix with milk, or something else?

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  37. Testing 1 2 3. I’m trying this on my new Kindle Fire. I am impressed by the WiFi. My old one wouldn’t stay connected and was slow. This one is almost as fast as the PC we have, which isn’t saying much. And it has cool emoticons! 😊

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  38. This is the old book reference, from The Life and Times of Jesus, the Messiah (1883) by Alfred Edershiem: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/edersheim/lifetimes.vii.vi.html.

    And yet Jewish tradition may here prove both illustrative and helpful. That the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, was a settled conviction. Equally so was the belief, that He was to be revealed from Migdal Eder, ‘the tower of the flock.’ This Migdal Eder was not the watchtower for the ordinary flocks which pastured on the barren sheepground beyond Bethlehem, but lay close to the town, on the road to Jerusalem. A passage in the Mishnah leads to the conclusion, that the flocks, which pastured there, were destined for Temple-sacrifices, and, accordingly, that the shepherds, who watched over them, were not ordinary shepherds. The latter were under the ban of Rabbinism, on account of their necessary isolation from religious ordinances, and their manner of life, which rendered strict legal observance unlikely, if not absolutely impossible. The same Mishnic passage also leads us to infer, that these flocks lay out all the year round, since they are spoken of as in the fields thirty days before the Passover – that is, in the month of February, when in Palestine the average rainfall is nearly greatest. Thus, Jewish tradition in some dim manner apprehended the first revelation of the Messiah from that Migdal Eder, where shepherds watched the Temple-flocks all the year round. Of the deep symbolic significance of such a coincidence, it is needless to speak.

    This is the Mishnah reference mentioned: http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/t02/shk11.htm

    Cattle found all the way from Jerusalem to Migdal Eder, and in the same vicinity in all directions, are considered, if male, as whole-offerings, and if female as peace-offerings. R. Jehudah says: “If they are fit for Passover-offerings they may be used for such purpose, providing Passover is not more than thirty days off.

    Interesting traditions to be sure. As another interesting Biblical aside, the tower of the flock is mentioned in Genesis 35:21.

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  40. I recently read (or heard?) that swaddling cloths were those used for burial and that the reference to them as cloths used to bind a baby (as we do now) was a mistake carried on through the years. Thus, my question of whether or not this is true. I have no problem knowing the modern custom of swaddling a baby. I cannot remember why they would have had such cloths on hand when traveling.

    Interesting about Greece. With modern transportation, I would imagine it isn’t a big sacrifice unless you were out of country for some reason.

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  41. I know there is a spread, Chas. Is one a spread and one a powder or are both a powder? If a spread it will look like chocolate peanut butter. If a powder it would be mixed in hot water for a drink.

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  43. Daughter, who was visiting for Christmas, told me her Iphone said it was 28 in my guest room. I told her her Iphone was wrong. She said it couldn’t be. I said it was not cold enough to freeze things in her room so it was not 28. I then reached down and turned on the space heater she could have been using and it said the current temp was forty seven. So much for Iphones. Lest you feel sorry for her, she keeps her bedroom window open at my dad’s house. He wants one window open and is glad she has hers that way. She also had plenty of blankets and down comforters. She was not complaining, though, just mentioning.

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  46. I think the iPhone temps are only outdoor temperatures, but I may be wrong. I don’t know of an app to get an actual real-time read on an indoor (or wherever one is) temperature, only what the weather says it is at that time (using gps & your city/state location).

    Otherwise, we could chart the dramatic temperature drops actually experienced at the dog park.

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  47. Did you like it kbells? There were long lines to see it on Christmas Eve in Hollywood, it was featured in a couple different theaters along the boulevard.

    I’ve never been a Star Wars “fan” — I saw the earlier movies (the first and 2nd ones anyway not sure of the 3rd), enjoyed them, a lot actually, but I can’t say they impacted me like they did others for some reason. I’m an agnostic when it comes to Star Wars, I guess. 🙂

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  49. I only liked the first three Star Wars, not the fake stuff they threw out later. Would I like this one? Four of the sons and husband have gone to see it. I never heard a report on it.

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  50. iPhone temperatures are the official temperature of the location. My iPhone has no thermometer capability.

    I haven’t opened those two jars. And they don’t have directions.

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  53. Most people don’t care much for the first spoonful, but then many find themselves compelled to go back for more. Others never touch it again. I don’t allow it in the house as I am compelled….

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  62. I think that spread is good on graham crackers etc. I think of it more as a ‘treat’ thing than a ‘meal’ thing. Of course, I am in a minority. I am not tempted by it, but would be if I had no other sweets around. 🙂

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  63. I was just about to warn Donna that the year is almost over, and New Year’s resolutions are renewable but if not renewed periodically, they actually run out.

    But I see Mumsee has already thought through the same concept.

    (Mumsee, it’s almost time to renew your vows.)

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  67. Daughter gave me a batch of Cowgirl Chocolates from Moscow. They are the best ever. Get some today. Unless you don’t like chocolate. With a powerful zip.

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  69. K, all the evidence is that swaddling predates the events of Luke 2. They have found votive offerings to Greek deities depicting swaddled infants. Ezekiel 16:4 gives a pretty detailed description of the practice: “And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths.” [ESV]

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  71. It has been a busy day here, can’t wait for school to start again so things can slow down. Today I got to play Aggravation, Twister, and Fastrack. Whew. Everybody is in bed and I am soon to follow.

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  74. Well, Cowboy got out again, Tess & I just spent almost an hour slowly cruising the neighborhood. Eventually I made a pit stop at home (my second) to see if by chance he’d come home on his own and, sure enough, I opened the door and there was Cowboy and Annie Oakley. Sheesh.

    Had me worried sick.

    So I guess my jerry-rigged barricade didn’t work … or it was the wrong spot. Only chaperoned backyard outings until I can get that figured out and fixed.

    Just glad he is OK and home safe.

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  78. The pastor of Stoney Mountain BC is called Chief Silverheels.
    They say he used to be the Lone Ranger’s Tonto.
    Don’t know if it was movies, radio, or what. Just that he was Tonto.
    I don’t know how the people address their pastor. Maybe just “Chief”?

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  82. Ah, success.

    I confirmed the spot where Cowboy’s getting out (the fence gapes at the bottom right there).

    I let him out a little while ago and then “hid” off to the side in the kitchen to watch (seriously, the dog is so smart, he keeps looking back inside to see if I’m there and watching — if I am, he doesn’t go near the fence; he’s sneaky, but I’m sneakier).

    So sure enough, once he’s sure I’m not looking, he slips into that overgrown area that I thought I’d barricaded.

    After church it’s off to Home Depot to get some more rebar poles (which is what worked at the back fence line a few years ago) and some chicken wire (if nothing else I slip the still-rolled up wire under the space where he’s getting out.

    Maybe my gardener will be able to do something to better secure it later.

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  83. I’m roasting a turkey breast today to refrigerate in cut-up portions and take for my lunch salads for work this week.

    Picked up all the veggies last night, all set for Monday (sort of). Sadly, it’s the last of our “short” weeks, though. But still, nice to have yet another long weekend ahead! Sweet.

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  84. Thanks Donna, I didn’t think to Google Chief Silverheels. I just told you what I heard on the radio. He has been ther several times. I assumed he had the pastorate of Stoney Mountain.

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  85. My only claim to fame is #77 and Mumsee shoots me down. 😥

    Next Sunday (Jan 3) Pastor Steve is going to preach a sermon he’s calling “”What to do if you had a bad year in 2015”. I don’t know what his text is. He’s preaching through I Corinthians.
    I thought about that and when I got home, I searched my files.

    On December 28, 1958, I preached a sermon I called “A New Year, or just another?” All these year, I thought I had preached on 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. …” But I didn’t. The text for my sermon was Isaiah 60:1-4 “Arise, shine: for your light has come…”

    Funny how you can mis-remember things. That was 57 years ago. Chuck was a tiny baby and some of you weren’t born then.

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  86. That was at Mayfield, BC in Fort Worth. In 1959, I preached the same sermon on Dec. 27 at Calvary, BC, Marble Falls, Tx. That was 215 miles from Fort Worth. I remember, they gave me $35.00. I thought that was an awful lot. but I had a year-old boy and the money was welcome.
    It was also a long way home in that beat up ’50 Chevvy..

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  87. Chas, since I like peanut butter cookies, I would use your gift as a substitute ingredient and turn it into cookies or a pound cake. It sounds like Nutella. Look that up on the Web and see its many uses. It can probably be made into a sauce to top ice cream for a special sundae.

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  88. If anyone is interested,, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is giving away a nice prayer journal for those who commit to pray for the Decision America tour. There is a page for each state with specific needs and a facing lined page for written thoughts and prayers. I opened into mine today and love it’s format.

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  89. We went to Sunday School. Nobody was there. The church was warm, the lights were on, the technological stuff was scrolling. I suspected the Rapture had occurred and we had missed it. But then I remembered seeing a pastor friend out shoveling in front of the community center where the Baptist church meets so we walked over there and fellowshiped with them. There were only six people there besides us. It was wonderful. Nine year old even sang, he has not done that since we started attending the Christian Church. When we trudged back to the car, there were lots of cars there, so they must have just canceled Sunday School and not been raptured. The pastor at the Baptist commented that he had called everybody over there and told them no Sunday School and anybody he had forgotten to call would show up at their church. It worked.

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  90. Gloves, rebar, chicken wire, pavers … Still trying to come up with the best strategy for plugging the under-fence hole which stretches for at least 3-4 feet along the side fence line. I think I need more pavers, that probably would be the most effective barrier (standing up and stacked against each other).

    So back to Home Depot. They’re heavy but cheap and they can be wedged up under the gap. Interspersed with some chicken wire and a couple rebar poles here and there, it should work. But it’s awkward as there’s a tangle of low-hanging (and thorny) vines in there — some I’ve been able to cut away, but others are too thick for even the giant clippers I have.

    I obviously could use a new fence, but … Sigh.

    Roof comes first.

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  93. nothing, why? I think there was a solar flare about 3:25, it may have distorted my comment. I was simply saying how it is worth while to put in the repairs on the fence so the nice doggies will have a place to play.

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  97. It’s too warm here at the beach. I am sweating. So many people are out on the beach and some are in the water. At this rate they won’t be able to do the annual Polar Bear Dip on New Year’s Day. It’s too warm for the Polar bears. 😉

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  102. Yes, an invisible fence would probably work for Donna’s dogs. They are smart enough to learn if she teaches them what it means. Some dogs just blast through the pain, but smart dogs figure it out and are fine with it.

    I, on the other hand, just blew up our phone. We have had it for eighteen years and have been thinking of dropping the land line anyway. As you know, I am very electrical. Which means I am constantly shocking whoever I touch or getting shocked by whatever I touch. The phone rang, it was one of the children’s bio sister, so I attempted to answer it. But, as I had been napping, I forgot to discharge my electricity before touching the phone. As I reached for it, it reached for me with an enormous snap that I felt all the way to my shoulder. The phone works no more. Well, the receiver part, so I can’t talk to the caller.

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  103. Relaxing Sunday and I’m hoping you come up with a fix to keep Cowboy in…little stinker he is! I’ll never forget the time Babe was locked out and we didn’t know it….I sobbed and pleaded with the Lord to bring her home….and He did….we do love our dogs now don’t we….now don’t we?!! 🙂

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  106. I have to go figure out how to get a big avalanche of ice and snow out of my rain gutter. I told fourteen year old son to do it yesterday while it was melting but he forgot so it then froze, heavily. Which makes the gutter sag over the walkway which creates a very nasty ice sheet on the walkway. Maybe my electricity will do the trick.

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  107. Done.

    Cowboy just went out to inspect, he carefully checked the area then turned and looked at me (I was standing in the kitchen). Poor guy. The cat inspected it also. She can probably still slip through, but that’s OK. She’s allowed out (you can’t keep a cat inside a fence).

    So there are about 15 heavy stone pavers wedged in, some deliberately tilted & crooked to block more space. Not easy as the area just wasn’t very accessible — and while I was down on my hands and knees on the ground in that thorny backyard jungle, Tess decided to join me & lick my face aggressively, I kept pushing her away but back she’d come.

    So my face is clean, but everything else about me is pretty dirty.

    Now we’ll see if Cowboy gets out, which is the real test.

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