No new snow here. We had ~4″ Wednesday. It’s still here. At least is was the soft, powdery kind which is much easier to shovel. I even swept the walkway with a broom the snow was so light.
I like looking at snow, but I don’t envy those now getting the blizzard. It’s going to be around until Spring with that much snow.
I am praying with each tremendous gust of wind that Jesus, who rules over the winds and the waves, will redirect the wind away from our fragile house. He seems to be giving us weather mercies so far. I am calling on Him and praising Him through the storm.♡
I just checked the temp on local weather report and it is 28 degrees but feels like 13 degrees. Pretty cold for Atlanta, but no where near as cold as that dog park in LA!
We are in that area south of AJ that he mentioned last night. We are predicted for 2 – 3 feet. Son and family are still stuck in the hotel at the airport. Knowing my DIL, she will have all the kids organized and playing together and have made a ton of new friends by now.
Oh, my. This goes to the heart of why so many are disenfranchised from Jesus.
Another whopper from Pastor Paul.
Here’s one of many gems in a short piece:
“Legalism says, “Believe and you can belong.” Jesus says, “Belong so you can believe.” He received Zacchaeus, giving him grace so he would open to truth.
“By making people believe first, we withhold grace until they have bought truth. This attitude can keep people out of the club.
“Jesus wanted Zacchaeus in. The people wanted a reason to keep him out. Jesus announced, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham” (Lk. 19:9). In other words, he belongs.”
Good morning.
It’s 34 in Houston, with a high of 56 today… Sorry to all experiencing winter storms. I pray you don’t lose power.
Lindsey went to the barn to help out with lessons/tacking up horses for the younger riders/anything they need done, really. Scott and Becca went to pick up donuts.
I have a question, serious question, for you southern guys. Northerners wouldn’t know.
There is a tree that produces a fruit. We don’t raise them, we find them in the woods.
If you pick the fruit up off the ground and it’s almost rotten, it’s delicious. If it’s even a little bit green, it turn’s your mouth “inside out”.
What is the name of that tree? I keep thinking “muscidine” but don’t rightly think so.
Mayo works great for eggs in cornbread except next time I would reduce oil a bit since mayo has oil in it. Three tablespoons per egg. The dressing was great using poultry seasoning.
Nineteen and seventeen made it safely to Boise, driving the girls’ old car down to eighteen year old. She had despised it until she realized walking and biking were not as easy as she thought, and her landlords were not interested in transporting her after she lied to them. My brother had fixed up the car after nineteen crashed it and it runs as well as before, just a few more dents.
Eighteen year old did learn that Nigerians had been browsing through her computer for a while now. Hopefully, she did not lose anything important and will have learned something.
Good Saturday morning….oh that you all could have seen our sunrise….starts your day with a smile that lasts all day long! To behold His awesome artistry and His Glory!
We are to have a high of 50 today in the forest….so it will be warmer in town….we have had snow on the ground since October….I don’t see it melting away anytime soon….tomorrow we are now supposed to get 1-3 inches of new stuff 🙂
My mother in law was here years ago, when we first moved here and were down in the bottom of the canyons along the river. She was out walking and told us she had found a persimmon tree. She brought along a piece of fruit but since I did not know a persimmon, I could not tell you if that was what it was. But she knew plants and had spent a lot of time down South, so it is possible.
Well after chas yelled at me to go back to bed and then AJ hypnotized me, I got a good few extra hours of sleep.
And I just took a hot shower which felt wonderful — the plumber had to put some calking around the drain as there were cracks that occurred in the liner when he replaced that part a few days ago. It had to dry for 24 hours. We rigged up a trash bag to catch any random drips — but it really never worked, the area still was getting dripped on despite my trying to adjust our catch-basin system.
Anyway, I just bought some of my own calking at Home Depot last night so I can redo it if it looks like the cracks are showing. But I really just needed to begin taking showers. And this calking only requires 2 hours to “dry.”
I haven’t read the links here yet, but I’ve always understood that regeneration — God’s moving on a person’s heart — comes first in the order of salvation. Thus, belief naturally (and irresistibly) springs from that, the rest then follows.
While our faith can and does grow weak at times, the person whom God has regenerated never loses that belief. It’s not something we have to conjure up or “try” at (although during weak times there are things we need to be doing to strengthen our faith).
I’m thinking they blew the call on the update as well. 😦
There’s 20 out there already and we still have 10 or so hours to go. I’ve been out twice to keep up with the walks, but I’m done ’til tomorrow now. I’m hurtin’. 😦
Elizabeth was quite amused when I came back in with icicles hanging from my beard. 🙂
Chas, skip this. Read no further. I am making chicken soup for dinner. Lots of onions, celery, carrots, wild rice, and lentils along with the chicken and seasoning. Should be good.
😦 Mumsee warned me. But read it anyhow.
She knew I would. It really was a trick.
I prepared the SS lesson for tomorrow, but we aren’t having SS. The snow, you know.
They’ll hear it next week. It’s an important lesson.
Matt. 7:13f. The most important verse for understanding the rest of the book is Matt.7:28-29. “And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine; For he taught them as one having authority, not as the scribes.
Mmm mmm, that was good. Yet another Costco chicken. Eaten as dinner (usually two dinners for about six people each) and then finished as soup for several for two days. A pretty good buy.
Some people do not heed warnings.
Thankfully not here. Our power is holding up so far. Praying that continues too. 🙂
They have officially moved the blizzard zone to include us now too. The snow did that hours ago. Everyone knew that, before the weatherman even said that was the case. All you had to do was look outside. 🙄 Late to the party yet again.
We got about 5″ last night – made for a fun ride for my sinus CT scan this morning – not a single back road or highway was ploughed! But we made it and are home again.
Chas, I guessed persimmon before I saw Janice’s answer 🙂 They do not grow anywhere near here
🙂 I’m very glad that this time we didn’t get invited to the party.
😦 Way too many story threads in my head right now, meaning that life is just too complicated. Very little of it is for me personally, but add in people I know and love, and life is pretty complicated at the moment.
🙂 But we have peace within our family, and we have some “getaway” plans for my husband and me.
🙂 More importantly (by far), God is still sovereign and He still loves us, and the end of the story is a good one.
The wind keeps gusting and I keep praying. The small amount of snow seems almost gone.
I’ve tasted persimmons when ripe and not. The unripe ones will turn your mouth inside out to get away from them!
Now I am wanting to make chicken soup with the bones, skin, and scraps I saved from the chicken I cooked two days ago. I just wish that Art liked all those good ingredients you put in your soup, Mumsee. He does like onions and celery, and a little dab of carrots, but if he hears of a lentil he won’t have anything to do with it.
It is a long time since I’ve seen a persimmon tree.
There is also a tree called a Chinaberry Tree that used to be in front of the house we.lived in when I joined the AF. It had small “Chinaberries”. The only one I remember.
We used to throw the berries at each other. They couldn’t hurt you.
Here’s a business question/ comments for anyone who wants to weigh in. First, I’ve long wondered why more businesses don’t have free shipping (price of shipping incorporated into the price of product) or one-price shipping (where you aren’t penalized for ordering more product). I’ve had more than one occasion in my shopping days when I take one item out of the shopping cart to get back to a lower shipping cost. Do other people do that?
In trying to put together thoughts for an Etsy site (selling photo-based items like cards, framed prints, magnets, and post cards): first, their pricing makes it impractical to sell anything for less than about $10 (since in addition to some percentage-based fees they also have two per-transaction fees), so the only option for smaller items is to bundle them in packages. I’m currently figuring out pricing structures that make sense.
Well, I took a package of product to our small-town post office a couple of weeks ago to see if the clerk would humor me and let me price different quantities for mailing. I found that the larger package (more than most people would order) was quite a bit over the first-class cutoff and cost about $12 to ship. The smaller one (probably an average order) was only about $4.50 to ship. I was looking to see if a set price of $5 to $6 would work, but that $12 one was a little more than I expected.
Here’s what I’m considering, and I want to know how you (any of you) would respond as a potential customer. I’m considering having a set shipping price of $6.95. Now, that means that a $10 order is suddenly nearly doubled in price, but truth is I don’t see shipping fees much under $10 very often these days, and perhaps that would encourage someone to go ahead and place a larger order. It would also make a smaller order worth my while. (I also added a couple dollars to the largest item, figuring it would be the one that would end up costing me extra to ship. Now, financially that isn’t the wisest course, since the fee on the shipping cost is a little less than the fee on product cost, but if it works psychologically it’s still a good business move.)
If you were to see a set shipping price of $6.95, would you see that as too high for the cheaper items and thus “never mind,” or would you be inclined to say, “Well, if it’s the same price for any order, I can just ignore shipping and buy what I want?” Or would you reason in some other way? Is that a reasonable shipping fee? I admit that I’m one of those people who will spend an hour trying to find just one more item to add to my amazon shopping cart to get to the $35 for free shipping, but then, I also freely buy used books through them, and they cost $4 each for shipping.
Chas, my neighbors in Phoenix had a chinaberry tree, only one I’ve ever seen in my life as far as I know. I can’t speak for them in other places, but that tree smelled something awful when the berries were rotting on the tree, or on the ground.
I guessed persimmon too – something I read in a children’s book about how sour the fruit is unless it is ripe has remained with me over the years. They don’t grow here either, and I don’t think I’ve ever tasted one (my father occasionally brings home unusual fruit he finds in the grocery store).
I don’t much care for lentils either, although I eat them without complaint. My mother never consulted our tastes when we were growing up and we learned to eat things without murmuring and complaining – or go hungry, and since we had appetites like our father (who used to be able to eat everyone else under the table and never gain a pound), we ate. Unless something makes me sick, I’ll eat it.
Speaking of eating and fruit, I was preparing my Sunday School lesson today on the Fall. I just use the Bible verses to tell the story, using a simple translation, along with illustrations, as Little Niece loves to have stories read to her. As I’ve been going over the well-known stories, I cannot helping marveling at the depth and significance of those first three chapters of Genesis. They are certainly more real to me now than when I heard them as a child. The prophetic curse about the seed of the woman bruising the serpent’s head has become part of a wondrous pattern of God’s love and grace.
Saw Carol, she’s much better, should be going ‘home’ early next week. She told me she thought of just asking to stay full time at the nursing home, I said no way, that’s kind of the last step and you’re not ready for that just yet! 🙂 She finally has been assigned a doctor and they’re getting her meds and diagnoses chart all printed up for her to take with her.
On the drive home I saw a few Bernie bumper stickers and one guy, hat turned upside down as he walked along the line of our stopped cars near downtown LA, asking for money. He staggered a bit and was wearing a “Democrats” T-shirt with a donkey picture on it. 🙂
We sat out in the patio for our visit & were interrupted a couple times by another resident who loudly asked Carol if she was on Prozac. “Yes,” Carol said. “It doesn’t work for me,” the woman shouted back. Carol told her it worked for her. 🙂
The woman told us she was getting married in a ceremony on Olvera Street on Valentine’s Day. Her Latino beau, she said, was picking up outfits today at the monthly clothes giveaway over at Hollywood Presbyterian.
How come so many people are on the roads when they know this big storm is coming? Do they want to be able to say they were stuck in the storm? Bizarre. I could understand my husband and boys might do that though.
Mumsee, I’m guessing that some don’t really have any choice–nurses have to work even in bad weather, for example. Or some might be trying hard to get home or keep a scheduled trip. I know someone who is traveling this weekend because someone who is dying wants to see him one last time and sent him a plane ticket. Others have to go get their bread and milk.
But undoubtedly some are just young and/or foolish and don’t know any better. Like the last category above.
Third son works over there in Virginia. He is in charge of security and has a lot of people working under him. He arranged for them all to sleep and eat on site so they would be available yet be able to rest and eat. I am certain he told them to make certain their families were taken care of first. But they did have lots of warning. Enough for him to arrange for a hundred people. But there are many people who think it does not apply to them. We did not see that in typhoon land but did hear of the occasional death by being out challenging the elements.
We finished with totals in the area of between 28-31 inches. This for a storm they told us yesterday was for 6-10 inches. They just missed it by a couple feet….. 🙄
I have no idea how I’m gonna get the car dug out, or where we’re gonna put the snow……
As far as I am concerned, the roads are for the snowplow drivers until they have them cleared. Fewer cars out there means they can do their jobs quicker and the roads can reopen.
AJ, I forget where you live. (As in, are you in a warm enough region that it will melt anytime soon?) I’ve only seen that much snow one time in my life, and hope never again.
I was in Chicago for the second largest snowfall in city history, if I recall correctly. It was about two feet piled on top of several inches from a couple days before. It was the first weekend of the new year, so a lot of people were stranded in their holiday locations. And my workplace didn’t cancel work on Monday! I took public transportation for a very long, slow ride, and got to work where only one in three of us or so showed up. Later in the week they said that anyone who “couldn’t make it to work Monday” could mark it as emergency time (and get paid) and I thought wait a minute! I would have stayed home if I’d known they were going to do that! I had to walk close to a mile in very deep snow, deal with an extremely slow commute, and do it on the other end again at the end of the day. They should have just cancelled work.
I really was worried, though, about being there through the melting of that mess. But I went to visit my sister (who was living in S.C.) for a week or two (that might have been the February when her second son was born, and if so I was there for two weeks) . . . and when I returned it was all gone, much to my relief.
But seriously, I lived through it that time, and couldn’t wait to get out of the Midwest so I’d never have to see it again. I don’t envy you. (I am back in the Midwest now, of course, but we were spared this one.)
Let’s see, I wrote this but couldn’t find the screen where I wrote it, so I reopened the blog in another tab. So I think I’ll have a note that posts before this one. But let’s see if I’m back to back with myself.
AJ- StY inside until the snow plows get your street. When had our blizzard 5 years ago, we stayed in for 2 days, except to shovel the snow off a flat porch roof.
Trees – The farm where our house church meets has a persimmon tree. I’ve never tried the fruit.
And a neighbor in Tucson where I grew up had a chinaberry tree. We used to have battles with them, but I don’t remember the smell Cheryl mentioned.
It’s a sunny but cool morning here. Hope the worst of that blizzard is over with for all of you, but I suppose the prospect of digging out from it all is almost worse.
Poor cheryl’s cute little red car 😦
I have a friend (from hs and girl scout days) who now owns & manages a marina with her husband on the NJ coast, wonder how they’re faring through all the flooding …
The memorial service for the week old baby girl is being held in FL. The pastor who preached today is a long time family friend. He talked so sweetly of how all the family gathered around that little baby for a week and surrounded her with love before she passed away.
We had a nice service with communion. The pastor who preached is with the North American Mission Board/Send Atlanta and he did an excellent sermon. I am so glad I was feeling well and able to be there this week unlike last week when I got ready to go, but started not feeling well with an intestinal upset.
Wow you have all been busy while I was away. We saw Revenant yesterday. I must be stupid because I didn’t get it. It was mostly Man Vs Nature. Mr P seemed to enjoy it and we were together so…
I have lots of chinaberry trees behind the back fence. They repel fleas.
In other words I got a new 65 piece set of stainless flatware today. I had been using the other set for the past 25 years and because I was missing very few pieces I never could justify buying new although I was tired of it. I saw this set at Tuesday Morning today. I came home, told Mr. P about it. He asked if I had money in my account and wanted it why didn’t I get it. So I went back and got it. I packed the old up in case we need it. I doubt we will, but it is the first step to getting rid of it.
I also bought some of those thin velvet hangers. Wow. I cannot believe how much room it created in my closet.
I have a question for all of you with experience in the world of publishing, do you have any tips for writing a book synopsis? No, I’m not trying to get published, the question is on behalf of a budding author.
Cheryl, on your shipping charge question, I’m also the type which will make an effort to get over $25 (that’s the charge on Amazon’s Canadian site) for free shipping. I think your fixed price is reasonable. I was trying to see if I could order some Bible teaching materials from the States, but the shipping charge was almost the same as the price of the materials and there was no way I could afford the double charge.
The chinaberries on the tree in my great grandmother’s yard would just dry up on the seed. They were fun to throw at one another when a child.
Seems like yall a storm like we did at Christmas. We still have patches of snow and mud despite the wind. We worked outside in shirt sleeves until about 3:30 yesterday. It was nice this morning early before the wind began.
We had our annual business meeting after church today — not my favorite thing to attend, but they need 1/3 to get a quorum so it’s important for members to try to stay; and it is possible to slip out early. 😉 Lots of budget talk and my eyes kind of glaze over after a while.
I hung in there for 90 minutes and then just couldn’t do it anymore. 🙂 I’m sure it went on for at least another 30 minutes after that.
Heartening to see our membership growing every year in the stats they presented, though — it’s been steady through a number of years now.
And we’re hosting another debate (or two) in the coming year (videos of ones we’ve done have gotten lots of online views), one with a very high-profile atheist — this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Shermer
The 2nd debate, but that maybe be in early ’17, is on eschatology (with other Christians) which we’ve also done before.
Well, Chas, it is what my children need. They have been busy typing but because the ribbon is so dried out, they have had to resort to carbon paper to be able to see their work. I know….”what is carbon paper”….
Donna, next time you need to get a real collie. (Cheryl ducks.) Among other things in the rough collie’s favor, it doesn’t eat your food, drink your drinks, get into your trash. I’d think it was just Misten, but other collie owners I’ve talked to say the same things–they’re inclined to take what is given to them and accept that as theirs, but not cheat and take more.
(Now, that doesn’t mean they won’t watch you attentively if they see that you have something they regard as “theirs.” Misten thinks I order from Taco Bell just so that she can have some cheese, for example, and yesterday my husband actually caught Misten drooling before he could give her the potato chip she wanted. But she understands such concepts as “you get one chip and that’s all” and she has never stolen food. She is also polite about asking; the most she will do is stare, and if you tell her to lie down, then she recognizes that even staring is too much. She isn’t allowed to stare at people who are at the kitchen table, for example.)
She does have enough of a streak of mischief to be a real dog, though. Since she got out over the fence three times in the snowfalls of two years ago, she now prowls the fence line after a good snow. She can pretend she didn’t hear you if you tell her to do something and she’d rather not (like come in at night when she is out barking at some critter behind the back fence). And sometimes she does bark too much. But overall, she’s a mostly cooperative girl, and I’d get another collie without hesitation. (But I wouldn’t get one, actually, if I were going to be gone all day, at least not without a second dog to keep it company. They aren’t at all clingy, but they are social.)
Nineteen year old likes to amaze her friends by telling them her mom made her learn to type on a typewriter. She thinks it has helped her to be a faster typer, having learned on a manual.
Here’s a news story that shows how ridiculously far we will go not to be offended. A high school puts kids in T-shirts, each shirt with a different letter (spaces represented by asterisks), to spell out “BEST*YOU’VE*EVER*SEEN*CLASS*OF*2016” for a photo. Six of the girls spell out the N-word for their own photo . . . sort of. As you can see, there are no g’s in the slogan above, so two “asterisks” are in the photo. They might well be spelling a different word. They’re kids, and they’re being stupid.
Now, I get it that the N-word is really and truly offensive. But SO offensive that five days of suspension for not even spelling it isn’t enough? (Personally I think even one day of suspension is probably unnecessary unless there’s evidence that they were deliberately trying to hurt other people.) If they’d had the right letters to hint at the F-word without actually spelling it out, they likely would have done so . . . kids do that sort of thing, and it doesn’t prove they’re set up for a life of crime or KKK membership. But to call for all six kids to be expelled and the principal fired is ridiculous. (Um, what exactly did the principal do?!)
So my husband and I spent some time figuring out what the girls were actually trying to spell, and speculating how sad it is that these are probably liberals who are enraged and they are probably against the death penalty, which is clearly what these girls really deserve.
I have seen persimmons in the store, but never knew for sure what they were. I have no idea how they taste. Nice to see the picture.
Glad we do not have all that snow. Sorry for all those who got such an overdose. It is fun to see the children, including my grandson, having fun in it.
Thank you for the link, Michelle. It seems to be quite helpful, though I can already tell I would be one of those authors that hate writing a synopsis 🙂
Ha, even I know what carbon paper and typewriter ribbon is. My mother used carbon paper to make up worksheets for her children when she taught school, and she still had some around when she taught us. I’ve done school work with a few carbon copies 🙂 My father still has a couple of operable typewriters hanging around, as repairing them was once part of his job. Having occasionally used them, I can state that typists needed very strong fingers and it is a wonder that they didn’t get more carpal tunnel problems. I can type pretty well on a computer keyboard, but I find it much more difficult on a manual typewriter.
Cheryl – $6.95 (almost $7) for shipping would drive me away. Could you reduce shipping to $4 or $5, but increase the prices a bit to offset it? Psychologically, that could be easier to swallow.
Many people have trouble writing a synopsis. Having just reviewed how my agent changed mine, I may be sliding over into that camp!. The point is to be thorough in the telling while whetting the reader’s appetite to read the story.
And if you’re submitting a mystery to an agent, you better tell them how it resolves . . .
Just back from the choir potluck. I sat next to a polite two year-old, which is about all my tired brain could manage in the conversation arena! Good night.
I am awake, Jo. I already went to sleep watching TV and got up to go to bed.
Chas was bragging on his perfect pet. It’s perfect except for one thing. It has a hard heart!
Miss Bosley was again nosing into the trash can when I was in the kitchen. When she saw Art she backed away from the can with a shameful look. She knew her mommy (I) would love her no matter if she is a closet alley cat, but I guess she was afraid her daddy (Art) would think less of her. She will also wade in water that is slow draining from the tub. This morning I imagined she could be in a sewer chasing rats since she can deal with wading in water.
I asked a question last night, but got two responses saying opposite things, so I’ll ask again.
Let’s say you were on a website selling photo prints. They’re matted and ready to hang as is for a casual environment (dorm room, apartment, den) and you decide that your daughter would just adore a set of peacock prints, so you’ll get them for her for Christmas. The price for the set is within what you were planning to spend to get her something decorative for the apartment, so you decide to get it.
You go to check out, and you see the shipping is one cost for any size order: $6.95. Would you be inclined to say “No, that’s too much?” Or would you, if you were going to place a $10 order and maybe come back another day and get something else, say, “Hmm. Any size order. Maybe I’ll go ahead and get more today?”
Would $5.95 be enough lower, psychologically, to get you to place the order if $6.95 is too much?
Realistically we have to drive into town to ship packages, and the “average size order” that I priced for mailing cost $4.50 and the large one $12 . . . so I just can’t see charging less than $6 if it’s one-price shipping.
Or am I wrong that one-price ordering might help business, because adding more to the cart and watching the shipping price go up can be a deterrent to adding more to the cart. It is for me. Do other people see it as more “fair” to pay more for more items, and thus not at all a deterrent that it might end up costing $12 or 15 or more for shipping if the order cost goes up?
I am used to paying for shipping by the price or the size/weight of an item. If it is an item I can get through many different outlets, I will look for the best price and the best shipping price. Free is always an incentive, if the website is reliable and safe.
For a unique item (either because it is an original design etc. or something difficult to get elsewhere) shipping would not be too much of an issue, unless it were completely unrealistic. If the shipping cost more than the item, it would really, really have to be something I could not get elsewhere and really wanted anyway.
One thing to consider is the desired client. Who do you want or foresee buying your prints? If it is a wealthier clientele, the shipping may not be an issue. For someone on a shoestring budget, it would be an issue, since it adds to the cost and they only have so much to spend on an unnecessary item. It is also likelier that the wealthier client would buy extra ‘pieces’ to mix or match in a room.
So fun to catch Aj right in the act of posting. Somehow makes this mystery man more real!!
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Hi Jo
Hi Aj.
It’s 25 degrees here and I have at least a foot of snow outside.
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I guess the geese are no longer happy with just taking over the waterways of America. Now they’re taking over Sam’s Clubs too. 🙂
It’s difficult to tell how much snow is out there due to drifting, but I’d guess 6-8 already and there’s 18 hours of snow to go.
🙂 and 😦 at the same time.
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My turn for some pre-dawn insomnia. It’ll pass. At least it’s Saturday.
Reading about the storm that several of you are in the middle of, stay safe and warm.
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Donna! It’s too early for you to be up.
Go back and rack oft for a couple of more hours.
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Donna,
I feel your pain sister. 😦 Insomnia is never fun.
Maybe this will help….
You’re getting sleeeeepy……… very sleepy…….. 🙂
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I’m getting sleepy. Nice to see you all this evening. Stay warm and cozy on your Saturday.
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Oh goody! 😦
The local news just told me they upped our expected totals from 8-12 to 14-20. Yay. 😦
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Just settle down and get a cup of coffee, like I did, Aj.
I just finished breakfast. Waffles.
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No new snow here. We had ~4″ Wednesday. It’s still here. At least is was the soft, powdery kind which is much easier to shovel. I even swept the walkway with a broom the snow was so light.
I like looking at snow, but I don’t envy those now getting the blizzard. It’s going to be around until Spring with that much snow.
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I am praying with each tremendous gust of wind that Jesus, who rules over the winds and the waves, will redirect the wind away from our fragile house. He seems to be giving us weather mercies so far. I am calling on Him and praising Him through the storm.♡
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I just checked the temp on local weather report and it is 28 degrees but feels like 13 degrees. Pretty cold for Atlanta, but no where near as cold as that dog park in LA!
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We are in that area south of AJ that he mentioned last night. We are predicted for 2 – 3 feet. Son and family are still stuck in the hotel at the airport. Knowing my DIL, she will have all the kids organized and playing together and have made a ton of new friends by now.
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Wow, we’re just thankful for another rainy day here in slacker northern California. We could use some of that snow in the Sierras, however.
(Now ducks the snowballs you are throwing).
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Oh, my. This goes to the heart of why so many are disenfranchised from Jesus.
Another whopper from Pastor Paul.
Here’s one of many gems in a short piece:
“Legalism says, “Believe and you can belong.” Jesus says, “Belong so you can believe.” He received Zacchaeus, giving him grace so he would open to truth.
“By making people believe first, we withhold grace until they have bought truth. This attitude can keep people out of the club.
“Jesus wanted Zacchaeus in. The people wanted a reason to keep him out. Jesus announced, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham” (Lk. 19:9). In other words, he belongs.”
http://pastorpaulanderson.com/2016/01/22/roots-and-fruits/
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Good morning.
It’s 34 in Houston, with a high of 56 today… Sorry to all experiencing winter storms. I pray you don’t lose power.
Lindsey went to the barn to help out with lessons/tacking up horses for the younger riders/anything they need done, really. Scott and Becca went to pick up donuts.
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The sun is shining here, at least for the moment 🙂
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Sun’s out here too, but still 25 degrees.
I have a question, serious question, for you southern guys. Northerners wouldn’t know.
There is a tree that produces a fruit. We don’t raise them, we find them in the woods.
If you pick the fruit up off the ground and it’s almost rotten, it’s delicious. If it’s even a little bit green, it turn’s your mouth “inside out”.
What is the name of that tree? I keep thinking “muscidine” but don’t rightly think so.
I’m thinking of an illustration for Matt. 7:20.
, but
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Persimmon, Chas. We had one in our backyard when I was a child, about five miles from where I live now. 🙂
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Mayo works great for eggs in cornbread except next time I would reduce oil a bit since mayo has oil in it. Three tablespoons per egg. The dressing was great using poultry seasoning.
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Nineteen and seventeen made it safely to Boise, driving the girls’ old car down to eighteen year old. She had despised it until she realized walking and biking were not as easy as she thought, and her landlords were not interested in transporting her after she lied to them. My brother had fixed up the car after nineteen crashed it and it runs as well as before, just a few more dents.
Eighteen year old did learn that Nigerians had been browsing through her computer for a while now. Hopefully, she did not lose anything important and will have learned something.
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Thanks Janice. Persimmon it is.
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Good Saturday morning….oh that you all could have seen our sunrise….starts your day with a smile that lasts all day long! To behold His awesome artistry and His Glory!
We are to have a high of 50 today in the forest….so it will be warmer in town….we have had snow on the ground since October….I don’t see it melting away anytime soon….tomorrow we are now supposed to get 1-3 inches of new stuff 🙂
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Michelle, I liked this one better: http://pastorpaulanderson.com/2015/04/19/people-like-me-say-the-dumbest-things-2/
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I was thinking of wild plums but read Janice s post about persimmons and had to change my mind. I do not care for persimmons
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My mother in law was here years ago, when we first moved here and were down in the bottom of the canyons along the river. She was out walking and told us she had found a persimmon tree. She brought along a piece of fruit but since I did not know a persimmon, I could not tell you if that was what it was. But she knew plants and had spent a lot of time down South, so it is possible.
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Well after chas yelled at me to go back to bed and then AJ hypnotized me, I got a good few extra hours of sleep.
And I just took a hot shower which felt wonderful — the plumber had to put some calking around the drain as there were cracks that occurred in the liner when he replaced that part a few days ago. It had to dry for 24 hours. We rigged up a trash bag to catch any random drips — but it really never worked, the area still was getting dripped on despite my trying to adjust our catch-basin system.
Anyway, I just bought some of my own calking at Home Depot last night so I can redo it if it looks like the cracks are showing. But I really just needed to begin taking showers. And this calking only requires 2 hours to “dry.”
I haven’t read the links here yet, but I’ve always understood that regeneration — God’s moving on a person’s heart — comes first in the order of salvation. Thus, belief naturally (and irresistibly) springs from that, the rest then follows.
While our faith can and does grow weak at times, the person whom God has regenerated never loses that belief. It’s not something we have to conjure up or “try” at (although during weak times there are things we need to be doing to strengthen our faith).
It’s just there. Always.
No rain here, despite earlier predictions. Sigh.
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OK, read the links, thanks for posting them. 🙂
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I’m thinking they blew the call on the update as well. 😦
There’s 20 out there already and we still have 10 or so hours to go. I’ve been out twice to keep up with the walks, but I’m done ’til tomorrow now. I’m hurtin’. 😦
Elizabeth was quite amused when I came back in with icicles hanging from my beard. 🙂
Maybe a hot shower will help some.
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We’re bound to reach 100 this weekend with all of you folks being snowed in for the duration.
Unless you lose your power, of course. 😦
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Chas, skip this. Read no further. I am making chicken soup for dinner. Lots of onions, celery, carrots, wild rice, and lentils along with the chicken and seasoning. Should be good.
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😦 Mumsee warned me. But read it anyhow.
She knew I would. It really was a trick.
I prepared the SS lesson for tomorrow, but we aren’t having SS. The snow, you know.
They’ll hear it next week. It’s an important lesson.
Matt. 7:13f. The most important verse for understanding the rest of the book is Matt.7:28-29. “And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine; For he taught them as one having authority, not as the scribes.
He made lots on enemies that day.
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Mmm mmm, that was good. Yet another Costco chicken. Eaten as dinner (usually two dinners for about six people each) and then finished as soup for several for two days. A pretty good buy.
Some people do not heed warnings.
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Well, has the East Coast lost power?
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Thankfully not here. Our power is holding up so far. Praying that continues too. 🙂
They have officially moved the blizzard zone to include us now too. The snow did that hours ago. Everyone knew that, before the weatherman even said that was the case. All you had to do was look outside. 🙄 Late to the party yet again.
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We got about 5″ last night – made for a fun ride for my sinus CT scan this morning – not a single back road or highway was ploughed! But we made it and are home again.
Chas, I guessed persimmon before I saw Janice’s answer 🙂 They do not grow anywhere near here
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🙂 I’m very glad that this time we didn’t get invited to the party.
😦 Way too many story threads in my head right now, meaning that life is just too complicated. Very little of it is for me personally, but add in people I know and love, and life is pretty complicated at the moment.
🙂 But we have peace within our family, and we have some “getaway” plans for my husband and me.
🙂 More importantly (by far), God is still sovereign and He still loves us, and the end of the story is a good one.
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The wind keeps gusting and I keep praying. The small amount of snow seems almost gone.
I’ve tasted persimmons when ripe and not. The unripe ones will turn your mouth inside out to get away from them!
Now I am wanting to make chicken soup with the bones, skin, and scraps I saved from the chicken I cooked two days ago. I just wish that Art liked all those good ingredients you put in your soup, Mumsee. He does like onions and celery, and a little dab of carrots, but if he hears of a lentil he won’t have anything to do with it.
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It is a long time since I’ve seen a persimmon tree.
There is also a tree called a Chinaberry Tree that used to be in front of the house we.lived in when I joined the AF. It had small “Chinaberries”. The only one I remember.
We used to throw the berries at each other. They couldn’t hurt you.
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Here’s a business question/ comments for anyone who wants to weigh in. First, I’ve long wondered why more businesses don’t have free shipping (price of shipping incorporated into the price of product) or one-price shipping (where you aren’t penalized for ordering more product). I’ve had more than one occasion in my shopping days when I take one item out of the shopping cart to get back to a lower shipping cost. Do other people do that?
In trying to put together thoughts for an Etsy site (selling photo-based items like cards, framed prints, magnets, and post cards): first, their pricing makes it impractical to sell anything for less than about $10 (since in addition to some percentage-based fees they also have two per-transaction fees), so the only option for smaller items is to bundle them in packages. I’m currently figuring out pricing structures that make sense.
Well, I took a package of product to our small-town post office a couple of weeks ago to see if the clerk would humor me and let me price different quantities for mailing. I found that the larger package (more than most people would order) was quite a bit over the first-class cutoff and cost about $12 to ship. The smaller one (probably an average order) was only about $4.50 to ship. I was looking to see if a set price of $5 to $6 would work, but that $12 one was a little more than I expected.
Here’s what I’m considering, and I want to know how you (any of you) would respond as a potential customer. I’m considering having a set shipping price of $6.95. Now, that means that a $10 order is suddenly nearly doubled in price, but truth is I don’t see shipping fees much under $10 very often these days, and perhaps that would encourage someone to go ahead and place a larger order. It would also make a smaller order worth my while. (I also added a couple dollars to the largest item, figuring it would be the one that would end up costing me extra to ship. Now, financially that isn’t the wisest course, since the fee on the shipping cost is a little less than the fee on product cost, but if it works psychologically it’s still a good business move.)
If you were to see a set shipping price of $6.95, would you see that as too high for the cheaper items and thus “never mind,” or would you be inclined to say, “Well, if it’s the same price for any order, I can just ignore shipping and buy what I want?” Or would you reason in some other way? Is that a reasonable shipping fee? I admit that I’m one of those people who will spend an hour trying to find just one more item to add to my amazon shopping cart to get to the $35 for free shipping, but then, I also freely buy used books through them, and they cost $4 each for shipping.
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Chas, my neighbors in Phoenix had a chinaberry tree, only one I’ve ever seen in my life as far as I know. I can’t speak for them in other places, but that tree smelled something awful when the berries were rotting on the tree, or on the ground.
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I guessed persimmon too – something I read in a children’s book about how sour the fruit is unless it is ripe has remained with me over the years. They don’t grow here either, and I don’t think I’ve ever tasted one (my father occasionally brings home unusual fruit he finds in the grocery store).
I don’t much care for lentils either, although I eat them without complaint. My mother never consulted our tastes when we were growing up and we learned to eat things without murmuring and complaining – or go hungry, and since we had appetites like our father (who used to be able to eat everyone else under the table and never gain a pound), we ate. Unless something makes me sick, I’ll eat it.
Speaking of eating and fruit, I was preparing my Sunday School lesson today on the Fall. I just use the Bible verses to tell the story, using a simple translation, along with illustrations, as Little Niece loves to have stories read to her. As I’ve been going over the well-known stories, I cannot helping marveling at the depth and significance of those first three chapters of Genesis. They are certainly more real to me now than when I heard them as a child. The prophetic curse about the seed of the woman bruising the serpent’s head has become part of a wondrous pattern of God’s love and grace.
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I think that persimmon cookies are my favorite. So moist and flavorful.
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Persimmon Cookies!
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Saw Carol, she’s much better, should be going ‘home’ early next week. She told me she thought of just asking to stay full time at the nursing home, I said no way, that’s kind of the last step and you’re not ready for that just yet! 🙂 She finally has been assigned a doctor and they’re getting her meds and diagnoses chart all printed up for her to take with her.
On the drive home I saw a few Bernie bumper stickers and one guy, hat turned upside down as he walked along the line of our stopped cars near downtown LA, asking for money. He staggered a bit and was wearing a “Democrats” T-shirt with a donkey picture on it. 🙂
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We sat out in the patio for our visit & were interrupted a couple times by another resident who loudly asked Carol if she was on Prozac. “Yes,” Carol said. “It doesn’t work for me,” the woman shouted back. Carol told her it worked for her. 🙂
The woman told us she was getting married in a ceremony on Olvera Street on Valentine’s Day. Her Latino beau, she said, was picking up outfits today at the monthly clothes giveaway over at Hollywood Presbyterian.
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How come so many people are on the roads when they know this big storm is coming? Do they want to be able to say they were stuck in the storm? Bizarre. I could understand my husband and boys might do that though.
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Oh, and some of the girls as well. You know the type. They like to go out in lightning storms.
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Mumsee, I’m guessing that some don’t really have any choice–nurses have to work even in bad weather, for example. Or some might be trying hard to get home or keep a scheduled trip. I know someone who is traveling this weekend because someone who is dying wants to see him one last time and sent him a plane ticket. Others have to go get their bread and milk.
But undoubtedly some are just young and/or foolish and don’t know any better. Like the last category above.
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Third son works over there in Virginia. He is in charge of security and has a lot of people working under him. He arranged for them all to sleep and eat on site so they would be available yet be able to rest and eat. I am certain he told them to make certain their families were taken care of first. But they did have lots of warning. Enough for him to arrange for a hundred people. But there are many people who think it does not apply to them. We did not see that in typhoon land but did hear of the occasional death by being out challenging the elements.
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Cheryl, don’t forget your poor reporters.
I’m all ready for my standup at the dog park, parka and scarf and hat and gloves set to go.
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The snow has ended! 🙂
We finished with totals in the area of between 28-31 inches. This for a storm they told us yesterday was for 6-10 inches. They just missed it by a couple feet….. 🙄
I have no idea how I’m gonna get the car dug out, or where we’re gonna put the snow……
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As far as I am concerned, the roads are for the snowplow drivers until they have them cleared. Fewer cars out there means they can do their jobs quicker and the roads can reopen.
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Don’t forget your shovel, Donna, and not for the snow….
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That little red car is Cheryl’s. That’s the one I need to dig out. 😦
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AJ, I forget where you live. (As in, are you in a warm enough region that it will melt anytime soon?) I’ve only seen that much snow one time in my life, and hope never again.
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So what are you saying, mumsee?
Wow, those photos so reflect the *cold* at the L.A. dog park.
Brrrrrr.
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Cheryl,
I’m in north eastern PA. I don’t think it’s going away anytime soon. 😦
The forecast for this week has highs between 30 and 35 during the day and teens at night.
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Yikes, AJ.
I was in Chicago for the second largest snowfall in city history, if I recall correctly. It was about two feet piled on top of several inches from a couple days before. It was the first weekend of the new year, so a lot of people were stranded in their holiday locations. And my workplace didn’t cancel work on Monday! I took public transportation for a very long, slow ride, and got to work where only one in three of us or so showed up. Later in the week they said that anyone who “couldn’t make it to work Monday” could mark it as emergency time (and get paid) and I thought wait a minute! I would have stayed home if I’d known they were going to do that! I had to walk close to a mile in very deep snow, deal with an extremely slow commute, and do it on the other end again at the end of the day. They should have just cancelled work.
I really was worried, though, about being there through the melting of that mess. But I went to visit my sister (who was living in S.C.) for a week or two (that might have been the February when her second son was born, and if so I was there for two weeks) . . . and when I returned it was all gone, much to my relief.
But seriously, I lived through it that time, and couldn’t wait to get out of the Midwest so I’d never have to see it again. I don’t envy you. (I am back in the Midwest now, of course, but we were spared this one.)
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Donna, this looks like a fun story someone got to cover from my old stomping grounds: http://www.tennessean.com/story/life/2016/01/22/white-wedding-couple-marries-bridge-during-nashville-snowstorm/79195012/
Let’s see, I wrote this but couldn’t find the screen where I wrote it, so I reopened the blog in another tab. So I think I’ll have a note that posts before this one. But let’s see if I’m back to back with myself.
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Just stay inside Aj, just stay inside.
Though I do appreciate that you took the pictures for all of us.
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Our former (as of just a few
momths ago) editor now runs the Tennessean
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I am also sheltering in place with my dogs
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AJ- StY inside until the snow plows get your street. When had our blizzard 5 years ago, we stayed in for 2 days, except to shovel the snow off a flat porch roof.
Trees – The farm where our house church meets has a persimmon tree. I’ve never tried the fruit.
And a neighbor in Tucson where I grew up had a chinaberry tree. We used to have battles with them, but I don’t remember the smell Cheryl mentioned.
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I looked up persimmon cookies and found this recipe that looks good. Also the link includes a picture of persimmons for anyone who has never seen one.
http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/persimmon-cookies/?m
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Finally, I am not hearing any wind tonight.
Wow! What a lotta snow on your street and those cars AJ. It appears God wants to keep people off the streets for awhile. He has His reasons.
I don’t guess anyone still makes snow ice cream because of pollution concerns.
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It’s a great time to stay inside and play games and do a jigsaw puzzle while baking up some persimmon cookies.
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Back to sleep now! It’s second snore time
🙂
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Janice, I trust you will not bake persimmon cookies in the middle of the night, though they are yummy.
Get some sleep sweetie.
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Will persimmon cookies turn you mouth inside out?
Most Sundays this time I would be putting on my tie and shoes.
Not going anywhere today.
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It’s a sunny but cool morning here. Hope the worst of that blizzard is over with for all of you, but I suppose the prospect of digging out from it all is almost worse.
Poor cheryl’s cute little red car 😦
I have a friend (from hs and girl scout days) who now owns & manages a marina with her husband on the NJ coast, wonder how they’re faring through all the flooding …
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Well it took 4 and a half hours, but the car is dug out and the walks are done. 🙂
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Got some place to go? Isn’t it fun to play in the snow. Though I am getting to the point where I prefer to watch.
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The memorial service for the week old baby girl is being held in FL. The pastor who preached today is a long time family friend. He talked so sweetly of how all the family gathered around that little baby for a week and surrounded her with love before she passed away.
We had a nice service with communion. The pastor who preached is with the North American Mission Board/Send Atlanta and he did an excellent sermon. I am so glad I was feeling well and able to be there this week unlike last week when I got ready to go, but started not feeling well with an intestinal upset.
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Yet again, I missed church. This time because I have the cold.
So, we will be having curried chicken and veggies (yes, there is an onion) on rice porridge or naan.
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Wow you have all been busy while I was away. We saw Revenant yesterday. I must be stupid because I didn’t get it. It was mostly Man Vs Nature. Mr P seemed to enjoy it and we were together so…
I have lots of chinaberry trees behind the back fence. They repel fleas.
In other words I got a new 65 piece set of stainless flatware today. I had been using the other set for the past 25 years and because I was missing very few pieces I never could justify buying new although I was tired of it. I saw this set at Tuesday Morning today. I came home, told Mr. P about it. He asked if I had money in my account and wanted it why didn’t I get it. So I went back and got it. I packed the old up in case we need it. I doubt we will, but it is the first step to getting rid of it.
I also bought some of those thin velvet hangers. Wow. I cannot believe how much room it created in my closet.
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I have a question for all of you with experience in the world of publishing, do you have any tips for writing a book synopsis? No, I’m not trying to get published, the question is on behalf of a budding author.
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Cheryl, on your shipping charge question, I’m also the type which will make an effort to get over $25 (that’s the charge on Amazon’s Canadian site) for free shipping. I think your fixed price is reasonable. I was trying to see if I could order some Bible teaching materials from the States, but the shipping charge was almost the same as the price of the materials and there was no way I could afford the double charge.
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The chinaberries on the tree in my great grandmother’s yard would just dry up on the seed. They were fun to throw at one another when a child.
Seems like yall a storm like we did at Christmas. We still have patches of snow and mud despite the wind. We worked outside in shirt sleeves until about 3:30 yesterday. It was nice this morning early before the wind began.
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Where does one buy typewriter ribbon?
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found it. Went to the amazon.
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Amazon has everything.
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We had our annual business meeting after church today — not my favorite thing to attend, but they need 1/3 to get a quorum so it’s important for members to try to stay; and it is possible to slip out early. 😉 Lots of budget talk and my eyes kind of glaze over after a while.
I hung in there for 90 minutes and then just couldn’t do it anymore. 🙂 I’m sure it went on for at least another 30 minutes after that.
Heartening to see our membership growing every year in the stats they presented, though — it’s been steady through a number of years now.
And we’re hosting another debate (or two) in the coming year (videos of ones we’ve done have gotten lots of online views), one with a very high-profile atheist — this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Shermer
The 2nd debate, but that maybe be in early ’17, is on eschatology (with other Christians) which we’ve also done before.
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The link takes you to our literary agency’s blog that has a number of articles about writing synopses.
http://www.booksandsuch.com/?s=synopsis
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What’s a typewriter ribbon?;-)
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I love banking online. I just paid all my bills in (I think) just under 2 minutes. No stamps, no envelopes to find, no checks to write out …
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Well, Chas, it is what my children need. They have been busy typing but because the ribbon is so dried out, they have had to resort to carbon paper to be able to see their work. I know….”what is carbon paper”….
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I remember my dad bringing home some carbon paper once, I was amazed, it was like magic.
Tess finished off my coffee this morning, i see.
Caffeine + border collie = not a good thing.
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I know Mumsee.
I’m surprised that you can find that stuff.
It’s so last century.
But I have a slide rule, if you need one.
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Donna, next time you need to get a real collie. (Cheryl ducks.) Among other things in the rough collie’s favor, it doesn’t eat your food, drink your drinks, get into your trash. I’d think it was just Misten, but other collie owners I’ve talked to say the same things–they’re inclined to take what is given to them and accept that as theirs, but not cheat and take more.
(Now, that doesn’t mean they won’t watch you attentively if they see that you have something they regard as “theirs.” Misten thinks I order from Taco Bell just so that she can have some cheese, for example, and yesterday my husband actually caught Misten drooling before he could give her the potato chip she wanted. But she understands such concepts as “you get one chip and that’s all” and she has never stolen food. She is also polite about asking; the most she will do is stare, and if you tell her to lie down, then she recognizes that even staring is too much. She isn’t allowed to stare at people who are at the kitchen table, for example.)
She does have enough of a streak of mischief to be a real dog, though. Since she got out over the fence three times in the snowfalls of two years ago, she now prowls the fence line after a good snow. She can pretend she didn’t hear you if you tell her to do something and she’d rather not (like come in at night when she is out barking at some critter behind the back fence). And sometimes she does bark too much. But overall, she’s a mostly cooperative girl, and I’d get another collie without hesitation. (But I wouldn’t get one, actually, if I were going to be gone all day, at least not without a second dog to keep it company. They aren’t at all clingy, but they are social.)
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Thanks, Roscuro.
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I started out wit good intentions for dinner but since neither us us is hungry. We will have it tomorrow night
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Nineteen year old likes to amaze her friends by telling them her mom made her learn to type on a typewriter. She thinks it has helped her to be a faster typer, having learned on a manual.
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Excuse me, but my dogs are very polite.
They only steal food or drink that I carelessly leave within reach and when I’m not home.
My dogs are almost perfect.
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Chili simmering on the stove.
Seeing all that blizzard-y snow back east made me crave some hot comfort food.
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My pet doesn’t eat my food, drink my drink, nor get into my trash.
Not only that, he doesn’t bark nor mess up the floor.
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Here’s a news story that shows how ridiculously far we will go not to be offended. A high school puts kids in T-shirts, each shirt with a different letter (spaces represented by asterisks), to spell out “BEST*YOU’VE*EVER*SEEN*CLASS*OF*2016” for a photo. Six of the girls spell out the N-word for their own photo . . . sort of. As you can see, there are no g’s in the slogan above, so two “asterisks” are in the photo. They might well be spelling a different word. They’re kids, and they’re being stupid.
But five days of suspension for each of them isn’t enough. (“It’s like it’s a harmless prank!” Um, since when do harmless pranks get five days of suspension? And, come to think of it, is it really that much worse than “a harmless prank”?) http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/01/24/arizona-students-principal-under-fire-over-picture-t-shirts-spelling-out-racial-slur.html?intcmp=trending
Now, I get it that the N-word is really and truly offensive. But SO offensive that five days of suspension for not even spelling it isn’t enough? (Personally I think even one day of suspension is probably unnecessary unless there’s evidence that they were deliberately trying to hurt other people.) If they’d had the right letters to hint at the F-word without actually spelling it out, they likely would have done so . . . kids do that sort of thing, and it doesn’t prove they’re set up for a life of crime or KKK membership. But to call for all six kids to be expelled and the principal fired is ridiculous. (Um, what exactly did the principal do?!)
So my husband and I spent some time figuring out what the girls were actually trying to spell, and speculating how sad it is that these are probably liberals who are enraged and they are probably against the death penalty, which is clearly what these girls really deserve.
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Extra onion & garlic and red & green peppers ….
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Only one week until the Iowa caucus kicks off what will be the crazy season. Even crazier than what we’ve already seen.
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100!
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My dogs don’t do those things either. Nor do they bite people who come to the door.
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The turkeys, on the other hand, have been known to snag food off of guest’s plates or forks and bite people.
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I have seen persimmons in the store, but never knew for sure what they were. I have no idea how they taste. Nice to see the picture.
Glad we do not have all that snow. Sorry for all those who got such an overdose. It is fun to see the children, including my grandson, having fun in it.
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I don’t follow pro football. But I hope the Panthers win.
But I won’t lose sleep if they don’t .
They’re ahead 17-0 in the second quarter. Not enough.
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Broncos are going to the Super Bowl….looks like they are going to play the Panthers…on no!!
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Thank you for the link, Michelle. It seems to be quite helpful, though I can already tell I would be one of those authors that hate writing a synopsis 🙂
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Ha, even I know what carbon paper and typewriter ribbon is. My mother used carbon paper to make up worksheets for her children when she taught school, and she still had some around when she taught us. I’ve done school work with a few carbon copies 🙂 My father still has a couple of operable typewriters hanging around, as repairing them was once part of his job. Having occasionally used them, I can state that typists needed very strong fingers and it is a wonder that they didn’t get more carpal tunnel problems. I can type pretty well on a computer keyboard, but I find it much more difficult on a manual typewriter.
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Cheryl – $6.95 (almost $7) for shipping would drive me away. Could you reduce shipping to $4 or $5, but increase the prices a bit to offset it? Psychologically, that could be easier to swallow.
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Oh, rooting for Denver, for sure.
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Tess will herd you into a corner.
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I am sick. I don’t want to be sick. I don’t like to be sick. Being sick makes me sick.
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Many people have trouble writing a synopsis. Having just reviewed how my agent changed mine, I may be sliding over into that camp!. The point is to be thorough in the telling while whetting the reader’s appetite to read the story.
And if you’re submitting a mystery to an agent, you better tell them how it resolves . . .
Just back from the choir potluck. I sat next to a polite two year-old, which is about all my tired brain could manage in the conversation arena! Good night.
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I suppose that you are all asleep….
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I am awake, Jo. I already went to sleep watching TV and got up to go to bed.
Chas was bragging on his perfect pet. It’s perfect except for one thing. It has a hard heart!
Miss Bosley was again nosing into the trash can when I was in the kitchen. When she saw Art she backed away from the can with a shameful look. She knew her mommy (I) would love her no matter if she is a closet alley cat, but I guess she was afraid her daddy (Art) would think less of her. She will also wade in water that is slow draining from the tub. This morning I imagined she could be in a sewer chasing rats since she can deal with wading in water.
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Worse than that Janice. It has no heart at all.
good evening Jo.
We”re still hunkered down here. No Y today because we can’t get out.
Get well Mumsee. When momma gets sick, the whole family suffers.
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Glad you are wise enough to hunker down Chas. you can always spend your day sharing your wisdom with all of us. 🙂
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I asked a question last night, but got two responses saying opposite things, so I’ll ask again.
Let’s say you were on a website selling photo prints. They’re matted and ready to hang as is for a casual environment (dorm room, apartment, den) and you decide that your daughter would just adore a set of peacock prints, so you’ll get them for her for Christmas. The price for the set is within what you were planning to spend to get her something decorative for the apartment, so you decide to get it.
You go to check out, and you see the shipping is one cost for any size order: $6.95. Would you be inclined to say “No, that’s too much?” Or would you, if you were going to place a $10 order and maybe come back another day and get something else, say, “Hmm. Any size order. Maybe I’ll go ahead and get more today?”
Would $5.95 be enough lower, psychologically, to get you to place the order if $6.95 is too much?
Realistically we have to drive into town to ship packages, and the “average size order” that I priced for mailing cost $4.50 and the large one $12 . . . so I just can’t see charging less than $6 if it’s one-price shipping.
Or am I wrong that one-price ordering might help business, because adding more to the cart and watching the shipping price go up can be a deterrent to adding more to the cart. It is for me. Do other people see it as more “fair” to pay more for more items, and thus not at all a deterrent that it might end up costing $12 or 15 or more for shipping if the order cost goes up?
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I am used to paying for shipping by the price or the size/weight of an item. If it is an item I can get through many different outlets, I will look for the best price and the best shipping price. Free is always an incentive, if the website is reliable and safe.
For a unique item (either because it is an original design etc. or something difficult to get elsewhere) shipping would not be too much of an issue, unless it were completely unrealistic. If the shipping cost more than the item, it would really, really have to be something I could not get elsewhere and really wanted anyway.
One thing to consider is the desired client. Who do you want or foresee buying your prints? If it is a wealthier clientele, the shipping may not be an issue. For someone on a shoestring budget, it would be an issue, since it adds to the cost and they only have so much to spend on an unnecessary item. It is also likelier that the wealthier client would buy extra ‘pieces’ to mix or match in a room.
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